Kanzaki Rei still didn’t fully understand the situation. He hadn’t grasped the true extent of this enemy’s strength.
But...
His fists tightened.
A surge of battle intent—no, sothing fiercer—rage, pure and unrestrained, welled up from the depths of his chest.
This ti, even without knowing the opponent’s combat power, even without understanding the specifics of the fight ahead... he still felt an overwhelming urge to charge forward and crush it outright.
"...Oh?"
"So you’re interested in my test subjects?"
The figure descended slowly from the sky.
The ocean beneath it seed to sink, as though the very sea was being pressed downward by its presence.
All of Lomo’s attention was fixed solely on Kumironi.
Kumironi saw it as well.
He stopped what he was doing, straightened, and looked up into the sky.
"A monster?"
The aura radiating from Lomo was unmistakably that of a monster—overwhelmingly dense.
And yet... it felt completely different.
This one possessed intelligence.
Not just a spark of awareness—but a level of clarity comparable to a human’s. It spoke. And not in broken instinctive mimicry like other awakened beasts—but with structure, coherence... refinent.
Its intelligence was unmistakably high.
"Who are you?"
Kumironi stepped forward, shielding the two slis behind him.
Unexpectedly, the creature bowed.
A perfect imitation of human etiquette.
"My na is Lomo. I co from the Aberrant Nest—Level 8 Hive. I am the Hive Master, appointed by my Lord, responsible for mutation research."
Its speech was calm. Precise.
There was no trace of hostility, no instinctive bloodlust toward humans.
A monster... conducting research?
According to all known historical records, monsters were nothing more than low-intelligence, instinct-driven creatures. Research was sothing that even among humans required rare talent.
Yet this being...
"You said research. You an... all of this was your doing?"
Kumironi glanced toward the coastal boulevard, where monsters wandered aimlessly.
Lomo’s expression lit up with delight, its tone brimming with excitent.
"That’s right. All of these are my masterpieces~"
"Aren’t they adorable?"
"I took those ordinary humans—completely ignorant of class advancent—and transford them into monsters."
"Though I must say, I was quite surprised. To think that in this world, there are still people who have never even heard of class advancent."
"But even without it, they were remarkable."
"They managed to develop their own theoretical systems purely through deconstructing matter. They even created weapons comparable to Tier 5... no, even Tier 6 magic."
"Ah... what was it called again?"
"Nuclear weapons, I believe?"
"Can you imagine? Creatures with no class abilities whatsoever... achieving sothing so extraordinary."
"If they had been allowed to continue developing, who knows how far they might have gone?"
"But unfortunately~"
"And perhaps fortunately, because of their purity... such excellent raw material is quite rare to co by."
Pff—
The humanoid, pitch-black and murky figure split open from the back.
From within, a pair of dark wings unfurled—delicate, like a butterfly’s... yet grotesque.
Kumironi’s voice hardened.
"So what exactly did you do to them?"
"...Did you not understand ? I’m speaking human language. This should be the common tongue, correct?"
"I said it already. I turned them into our kind."
"In other words... what you call monsters."
"You could say I granted these weak lifeforms—who had never even undergone class advancent—imnse power."
"But unfortunately... it seems that when humans beco monsters, they lose their spirit."
"How troubleso~"
There was no remorse.
No hesitation.
Only indulgence—like soone reminiscing over a particularly satisfying experint.
Unforgivable.
Kumironi clenched his teeth, fury blazing in his eyes as he stared up at the figure in the sky.
Life... is this sothing for you to toy with?
What do you think life is?
People may sin. They may be punished. Life may cycle through birth and death—but it all follows a natural order.
But this thing before them...
It treated life as nothing more than a plaything.
"Kanzaki Rei."
"...Your parents—I may not be able to find a way to restore them imdiately."
"But I believe... the answers we’re looking for lie within this creature."
"And... I’m truly angry now."
Kumironi raised his head as he spoke.
BOOM!
A burst of white light exploded across the sky!
Hummm—
Countless streaks of sword light interwove across the heavens, as sacred flas erupted in an instant—blazing, devouring!
BOOM!
A radiant figure descended behind Kumironi, landing firmly on the ground.
In that sa instant—
The two slis behind Kumironi vanished.
Kanzaki Rei had already stored them inside his spatial container.
A container... capable of holding living beings.
"Oh..."
"So, you’re this human woman’s attendant?"
Lomo’s four wings spread wide.
Golden sacred flas scorched across its entire body. Countless fine sword marks crisscrossed its form—and from every line, holy fire roared violently.
In that single instant just now—
Kanzaki Rei had stopped ti.
Within that frozen mont...
He had severed the creature completely.
And yet—
There was no sensation of having killed anything.
[Lomo]
"An 8th-tier monster."
"8th-tier... six tamorphoses."
The mont his blade touched it, Kanzaki Rei had already grasped its information.
[Aberrant Nest — Level 8 Hive, Hive Master]
Hive Master...
The strongest existence within an entire hive.
Just like the Myriad-Form True Soul he had encountered before.
Six tamorphoses...
Even a 6th-tier Continental-Sinking-class monster only possessed five.
To this day, Kanzaki Rei had never encountered a 6th-tier monster with six tamorphoses—sothing beyond the Continental-Sinking classification.
In Loren’s classification system... that level was called Ocean-Collapsing.
A level of power capable of destroying the entire Secret Sand Archipelago.
And now—
For the first ti—
Kanzaki Rei truly felt it.
That suffocating pressure radiating from the creature before him.
An 8th-tier monster...
Equivalent to an 8th-rank classed combatant.
Without a doubt—
This was the strongest enemy he had ever faced.
No—
More accurately, this was an opponent he should never be fighting at his current stage.
Under normal circumstances, Kanzaki Rei would have retreated imdiately.
But this ti—
The desire to kill surged within him like never before.
This ti—
He didn’t want to wait.
Didn’t want to grow stronger and seek revenge later.
He wanted it dead.
Now.
Its body had been severed. Sacred flas churned within it, tearing it apart from the inside.
And yet—
Instead of pain, Lomo’s emotions erupted into pure ecstasy.
PFF—!
Its body suddenly swelled.
Its originally slender humanoid fra expanded grotesquely—like a tumor ballooning outward, distorting into a bloated mass of flesh!
PFF—!
Then—
In the empty void of space—
Two grotesque eyes appeared out of nowhere.
Eyes with no body.
Eyes that simply... existed.
They turned—
And stared directly at Kanzaki Rei.
Hummm—
In that instant—
His mind trembled violently!
At the sa ti, his flesh began to warp—growing uncontrollably. Fangs erupted from nowhere. An additional pair of eyes split open across his face!
[Aberrant Gaze]
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