A deafening roar split the air behind Ethan just as he was about to confront the onrushing Illusionary Qilins. The sky dimd as though the heavens themselves had collapsed into shadow.
"What foul creature dares enslave my kin?"
Blackie, who usually kept to the size of a mount when traveling in his Black Qilin form, no longer held back. He had returned to his true body, vast and thunderous, his presence swallowing the battlefield.
Micah froze. "Holy..." His voice trailed as the realization struck him. All this ti sparring, bantering, and fighting alongside the beast, it had never once revealed its full strength.
Now, with its true body unfurled—stretching thousands of feet into the sky—it blocked out the sun.
Ethan halted, eyes narrowing, when Blackie’s voice thundered again.
"Blackie... what’s going on?"
"Their souls," the qilin growled, his imnse head lowering, eyes gleaming like suns as he locked onto the ten thousand Illusionary Qilins charging through the air. "Pieces of their souls have been stolen. I’ve lived among them for over ten thousand years. I know the aura of every one. Sothing has carved into them."
"Prepare for battle," he added, voice a rumble of stone and storm, "but don’t harm them."
Ethan felt the wrongness too. The soldiers riding the qilins—the Central Dominion Guard—had vacant eyes, their movents too stiff, their aura tainted. And beneath that taint lingered a stench he recognized.
The Blood Clan.
"Damn it, boss," Micah muttered, lips twisting into a bitter smile. "You couldn’t have made this simple?"
Ethan ignored him, his thoughts racing. The Sea of Death had clearly changed in the past year. If the Blood Clan had truly revived...
Although compared to the Void Realm, the Blood Clan were little more than a nuisance. Yet their danger was insidious. A single rotten apple could poison the barrel. They did not overwhelm from the outside, but corroded from within. Their very nature was conquest—slaughter or assimilation, nothing in between.
If the Central Dominion Guard had fallen, then Beastfall City had likely fallen with them.
What of Lord Regis? Of Hank, Quinn... of Uncle Jed, whose strength had nearly reached the threshold of Saint?
The thought twisted in Ethan’s chest.
Micah broke from the standoff first. With a snarl, he flung out a runic parchnt that burst into silver light, trailing crimson across the sky as it streaked forward.
"Blackie, charge up a strike," Ethan barked, his tone sharp and absolute. "Don’t release until I give the word. Micah, give Julian a Skystride Rune—you’ll hold these soldiers back. Julian, with . We’re heading to the City Lord’s mansion."
He didn’t wait for agreent. In a streak of light, Ethan dove toward the city below, Julian following close.
"Boss..." Micah’s jaw tightened as he watched them disappear. ’One man against ten thousand Elysium-rank beasts? You really think that highly of ?’
But by the ti he thought to protest, Ethan and Julian had already pierced the city’s heart. To their surprise, no resistance t them. They landed directly inside the City Lord’s mansion.
The streets beyond were alive with workers repairing walls, scaffolds stretching against the skyline. No illusions, no sorcery—the people were real. Only the Guard had been taken.
Yet sothing was wrong. Ethan’s Soul Sense brushed over the city like a tide, touching every life, every pulse of spirit—until it struck the mansion walls. His senses slid off, as though swallowed into nothing.
He and Julian shared a look.
What’s happening here?
Then a familiar, eager voice echoed in Ethan’s mind.
"Master! Master!"
"Beastie?" Ethan frowned. The creature was rarely serious. If it called now, it mattered.
"Let out! I can restore my true form!"
"True form?" Ethan blinked.
"Yes!" The voice wavered with excitent. "Beastfall City is my true form!"
"...What?" Ethan’s steps faltered. "The city is... you?"
"No, no! Beastie doesn’t know how to explain! Just let out!"
Ethan exhaled. Beastie was simple-minded at the best of tis. Explaining wasn’t its strength. With a thought, Ethan summoned the Sigil of the Wild Legion. The earthy-yellow symbol flared in the air, its light saturating the sky.
"If I had been here all along," the voice of Beastie rang through the Sigil, heavy with sorrow, "Beastfall City would never have suffered this way."
A tremor rolled through the ground, violent enough to rattle windows and topple scaffolds. Panic spread through the streets.
"Master," Beastie urged, "I’ll restore the grand array first. Calm them down. Then... I will reawaken as Beastfall City itself."
Ethan nodded and pressed his will into the Sigil. His voice bood across the city through the ancient array lines.
"The City Lord has returned."
For a heartbeat, silence. Then shouts erupted like a flood.
"He’s back! The City Lord has returned!"
"Quick, hold on to sothing!"
Tears and laughter blended as the citizens steadied themselves. For a year they had lived in dread, their faith eroding with every day of silence. Now, hope thundered back into their hearts.
A year ago, the Sea of Death itself had convulsed. One of the twin suns had vanished. Sand dunes collapsed into rivers of molten rock, geysers split the earth, the very ground tore asunder. Yet through it all, Beastfall City stood. For three days the cataclysm shook the land, and still the city did not crumble.
When at last it ended, Lord Regis and two priests returned, wounded and grim. Ethan, their new City Lord, was gone. Panic took root.
That very night, battle erupted in the City Lord’s mansion. A blade of light a thousand miles long split the city, scarring it with a chasm that swallowed hos and towers alike. The scream of a dragon echoed beneath the earth. Then—silence.
At dawn, the Central Dominion Guard appeared again, mounted on strange beasts, stationed around the mansion. The people clung to hope, believing the Guard’s presence ant Ethan lived, though injured. They began to rebuild.
For a year they labored, even erecting a bridge across the mile-deep chasm. Through fear, through exhaustion, they endured, clinging to the belief their Lord would one day return.
Now, at last, their faith was answered.
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