Cedric twisted at the waist just as the elongated arm shot toward his chest.
The black limb grazed past him, tearing through the air with unnatural silence. A thin streak of darkness brushed his shoulder guard, leaving behind a faint sar that hissed before fading.
He did not retreat.
Instead, he stepped in.
Mana surged along his blade. The steel vibrated with a low hum as he shifted his stance, abandoning the wide, flashy arcs from before and tightening his movent.
The creature's arm retracted like elastic snapping back into place.
Cedric's sword flashed again.
This ti, the strike was horizontal.
The blade cut cleanly through the faceless neck.
For a brief instant, there was resistance, as if slicing through compressed mist.
Then the head separated.
It spun once in the air and fell to the ground with a dull thud.
The body remained standing.
Unmoving.
Headless, but no blood poured out.
Cedric stepped back, chest rising slightly from exertion.
A mont passed, and the body finally fell.
Cedric slowly turned to look at Michael with expectation.
There was a trace of pride in his eyes.
He had reacted quickly and finished the enemy decisively.
He expected at least a nod or so sign of acknowledgnt.
Instead, he t a calm, unreadable face.
Michael's expression did not change.
That puzzled Cedric.
He did not feel his performance had been bad.
And in truth, it was not.
However, to Michael, it had looked flashy.
Clean but lacking essence.
It disappointed him slightly.
He knew Renn was special. Even Michael himself had not fully comprehended weapon qi yet. But he had expected at least a noble son trained for decades to show a deeper grasp of the sword.
Michael said nothing.
Instead, his gaze remained fixed on the headless body.
Arianne's voice broke the silence.
"What could it be?" she asked quietly. "Is it a monster of this realm, or
just one of the monsters in this realm?"
The question hung in the air.
For a heartbeat, nothing changed.
Then the body began to move.
The headless torso trembled.
Its surface cracked like drying clay.
Before anyone could respond to Arianne's question, the entire black
form dissolved into a thin mist of dark gas.
The severed head followed.
The gas swirled briefly in place.
Then it condensed.
Compressed.
Darkness folded inward on itself.
A deep blue orb ford where the creature had stood.
It hovered slightly above the ground.
Its surface was smooth, and it glowed faintly.
From it emanated a subtle hunger that was not directed at anyone but
was felt by those nearby.
Lucien's breathing shifted.
Alaric's pupils narrowed.
Even Cedric felt the faint pull in his chest, but no one stepped
forward to reach for it.
Michael's eyes sharpened slightly.
Now that was interesting.
Cedric swallowed.
"What do we do with it?" he asked, eyes fixed on the hovering orb.
Lucien stepped closer, though not too close. "It could be either a reward or a trap," he said thoughtfully.
Alaric folded his arms loosely, studying the blue glow. "In ruins like this, things are rarely neutral. It is either a good thing or a very bad
one."
Arianne remained atop her Fla Lion, gaze steady. "But that hunger," she murmured.
What she did not say was that she was not the only one who could feel it. Even her tad beast felt the sa, though for so reason
the hunger was less intense for it.
All of them turned toward Michael.
He still did not speak.
His green eyes glowed faintly, brighter than usual, reflecting the deep
blue light of the orb. For a brief second, sothing within his pupils seed to shift, as though layers of information were unfolding
behind them.
Yet his face remained expressionless.
No approval.
No warning.
Just silence.
Cedric's jaw tightened slightly.
He had been the one to defeat the creature. If this was a reward, then
it should rightfully be his. And if it was dangerous, then was he
supposed to simply ignore it?
The faint sense of hunger brushed against him again.
Greed flickered in his eyes.
Before anyone could stop him, Cedric stepped forward and grabbed
the orb.
The mont his fingers touched it, the blue light flared.
Energy surged into him like a torrent.
Cold and dense, yet pure.
Cedric's eyes widened as the orb dissolved into streaks of light that
poured through his arm and into his chest.
His mana swelled violently.
The crystal veins beneath their feet flickered in response.
Cedric staggered half a step, then steadied.
He inhaled sharply.
Power coursed through his ridians, filling spaces that had felt
slightly hollow before. His limbs felt lighter. His senses sharpened.
Even the grip on his sword felt more solid.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"I feel stronger," he said, disbelief and excitent mixing in his tone.
Lucien's eyes lit up imdiately.
Alaric's composure cracked for the first ti, genuine interest flashing across his features.
"So it enhances cultivation," Lucien said eagerly.
"Or at least refines it," Alaric added, his gaze sharpening.
Arianne studied Cedric carefully. "Your aura is denser," she observed
quietly.
Excitent spread through the group like a spark catching dry grass.
If every creature here produced sothing like that,
then this ruin was not rely an inheritance site.
It was a field of resources.
Only Michael did not react.
His eyes dimd back to normal, but internally, his thoughts were
anything but calm.
When Cedric had absorbed the orb, Michael's Eyes of Truth had
pierced through the blue glow and into its core.
What he saw had not been pure energy.
It had been faces.
Countless faint, overlapping faces pressed against the inner surface of
the orb. They were blurred and distorted, as if subrged in deep
water. So looked human. So did not. Their expressions were
stretched, their mouths open in silent screams he could not hear.
They had not been clear enough for him to identify.
But they had been there.
And when the orb dissolved into Cedric's body, those faces had not simply vanished.
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