Outside Ebonveil, Tristan stared at the growing crowd of Awakened around him, stunned.
“…Old man?” he blurted. “You’re still alive? I thought you were dead!”
“Bullshit,” the old man snapped back. “Even if you died, I wouldn’t.”
“Where the hell have you been hiding all these years?” Tristan demanded. “I never saw you anywhere.”
“Almost everyone’s here,” another voice said calmly. “I’m here on behalf of the military and the Krythos Elder Council. This is a special mobilization.”
Jero stepped forward, Nolan, Malachi, Xavier, and Sethan following behind him.
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
“General Jero… are you planning to wipe out all the Beast Kings?”
Expressions shifted instantly.
“There are ninety-three Divine Might Realm Awakeners here,” a disheveled old man said, his words slightly slurred as he took a drink, “and six Sea Realm experts. Add you to that, General… and I can’t think of anyone else left.”
He shrugged lazily.
“If that’s the case, count out. I don’t have many years left. Don’t talk to about duty or patriotism—my family’s dead. I care about surviving.”
Though he looked drunk, not a single person present dared underestimate him.
“Mr. Horace,” Jero said flatly, “you’re partly right. But not entirely.”
Horace—a Sea Realm expert who had reached the eighth level long before the restrictions—raised an eyebrow.
“Then talk,” he said, taking another sip. “If the bait’s good enough, I might bite.”
Jero didn’t hesitate.
“Our forces will eliminate uncooperative Royal-class mutated beasts. We’ll advance from the northern walls in a cone formation, pushing deep into the far north.”
“Along the way, every Venerable-level mutated beast or higher will be exterminated.”
“Royal-class beasts willing to cooperate will be spared.”
“Those who refuse…”
“…will be executed.”
Jero raised his hand and pointed north.
“Our ultimate target is that being.”
Horace slowly lowered his bottle. Silence fell over the gathered elites.
“You…” soone began.
Jero cut them off. “If you agree, take this as an invitation.”
No one spoke again. They all understood what that ant.
“Just us?” Horace asked, wiping wine from his beard.
“Of course not,” Jero replied. “They’re almost here.”
Five powerful auras surged toward them from the distance.
When Soren, Tadeo, Kelvin, and Orson arrived together, not a single objection was raised.
“Senior,” a man exclaid eagerly—the president of the Krythos Manufacturing Guild—as he hurried toward a diminutive figure. “You ca too?”
The so-called Instrunt King rolled his eyes and stepped onto a small flying platform.
“You think I wanted to?” he snapped.
“I’ll give everyone three days to prepare,” Jero said evenly. “After that, the action plan will be sent directly to your communicators.”
“The other two Level Nine seniors of Krythos have already set off. They’ll be waiting for us further north.”
“And one more thing—any Awakened currently at the peak of the Divine Might Realm is free to attempt a breakthrough. Three days should be enough.”
The crowd began to disperse.
Tristan turned to leave with the others when Jero’s voice echoed directly in his mind.
You stay.
A few minutes later, only Tristan remained—along with his old friends William and Neville, and ten others.
Jero looked at them calmly.
“We’ll sweep north and eliminate the majority of mutated beasts at or above the Venerable level. But so will inevitably slip through.”
“Each of the five great families will leave behind a Divine Might Realm expert to maintain order. You will stay as well.”
Tristan and the others t Jero’s gaze in silence. They understood better than anyone what awaited Jero and the others beyond the walls.
“General,” Tristan finally said, “is this really worth it? Even if she awakens… even if blood washes the land again… you would survive.”
Jero smiled faintly.
“If the sky collapses and the tallest refuse to hold it up,” he said, tapping the insignia on his chest, “then this uniform ans nothing.”
“Seniors—Krythos is in your hands.”
They watched as Jero and the five figures disappeared into the distance.
Tristan and the others straightened and raised their hands in a silent military salute.
...........
High above, Nolan accelerated, riding his flying sword until he drew level with Jero.
The wind scread past them.
“General,” Nolan said quietly, “before we separate… I need to say sothing.”
Jero didn’t look at him. “I know. I sensed it years ago. Back then, you didn’t trust .”
Nolan nodded.
“You changed your mind after I entered the Starcrest family alone, didn’t you?”
Another nod.
“I know what you’ve been investigating all these years,” Jero continued calmly. “I never stopped you. I was waiting—for proof. For a reason I could act.”
“Do you have it now?”
Nolan’s body trembled slightly. “Soon. Once Axel and the others co out.”
Jero smiled faintly. “That boy is a monster of talent. But this isn’t the ti.”
Nolan lowered his head. After a long silence, he asked hoarsely, “So all those who died unjustly… they died for nothing?”
Jero placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Nolan, our positions are different. Our perspectives will never be the sa. I understand your anger—but I can’t act on a simple notion of right and wrong.”
“Wait for us to co back. If we return alive, I’ll help you get the answer you want.”
“And if we don’t…”
“…then none of it matters.”
Nolan watched Jero fly ahead, his gaze drifting toward the distant Abyss.
“I wonder,” he muttered, “whether the kid can accept that kind of ending.”
Three days later.
At night, figures stood at regular intervals along the massive city walls—from Shiverstone to Western Bridgeport, one every few dozen kiloters.
At the sa signal, they vanished simultaneously, as if they had never existed.
.....
“I’m feeling the pressure,” William admitted, standing beside Tristan.
At their level, people liked to believe ti was always abundant—that things could be handled slowly.
But now, Jero and nearly all of Krythos’s top combatants had marched north into the frozen plains.
They were the pillars holding up an entire nation.
“Any mutated beast that reaches Level Seven becos a Venerable,” Tristan said quietly. “So will slip through. And this will disrupt countless beast groups.”
“Our burden is heavier than it looks.”
......
Deep within Abyss, ti passed unnoticed.
Axel and the others remained in cultivation, unaware of the storm brewing beyond the world.
Axel’s Natal Treasure slowly took shape. Vast quantities of primal energy poured into his body, and the ancient tree within him continued to spread its verdant canopy.
His consciousness drifted through his inner vision.
The red crystal had already dissolved completely.
> Thorn Body — Third-Tier Awakened Skill
First Mode: Absorption
Once activated, for five seconds, all incoming attack energy—except ntal attacks—is absorbed and stored, then unleashed in a single strike.
Second Mode: Reflection
Lasts ten seconds. Reflects 30% of all physical damage received during that ti back at the attacker. Fatal damage cannot be absorbed or reflected.
Axel could only think one thing.
This skill is fucking insane.
Compared to Thorn Body, even the Serpent King Scale Armor felt crude.
Suppressing his excitent, Axel forced himself back into cultivation.
Days passed.
Then—after seven or eight days—the ancient tree within him shifted.
Like a sleeping giant stretching its limbs, the towering trunk—now nearly one hundred and fifty ters tall—began to awaken.
And in that instant, Axel felt it.
A terrifying pulling force surged outward from the ancient tree, sweeping across everything around him.
......
From the crimson sky above, the phantom of an ancient tree—hundreds of ters tall—slowly took shape. Its outline shimred for a heartbeat… then vanished without a trace.
At the sa instant, Axel beca the eye of a storm.
The previously calm Origin Force erupted, surging toward him as if dragged by so colossal pump. It poured violently into his Original Veins, flooding channels that had only recently stabilized.
“Fuck—this hurts…”
The pain was no less brutal than the first ti he had forcefully expanded his Original Veins—raw, tearing, bone-deep agony.
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