Chapter 729: Obsidian-Scaled Behemoth

Orphos was an hungry, insatiable vessel. While it had digested thousands of low-and-mid-tier human souls from the battlefield to mend its core structure, it required high-density, concentrated spiritual essence... the raw, unrefined souls of high-tier spirit beasts... to fully charge its origin force and mend the deeper, invisible fractures within its body.

Two to three months was my original estimate for passive ambient absorption, Sol thought, his crimson eyes gleaming with cold, calculating intent as his mind connected with the artifact.

But if I actively hunt Layer 3 and Layer 4 equivalent beasts in the deep sectors, I can shave weeks off that timeline. The faster Orphos is fully restored, the sooner I would be able to return. It’s already been a long time.

A sudden, subterranean vibration rattled through the soles of his shoes, snapping his focus back to the physical world.

Sol came to a dead halt atop a massive, moss-covered boulder overlooking a deep, sunken ravine.

Below him lay the Shadow-Gorged Ravine... a treacherous, sunless rift where ancient subterranean springs fed a dense, glowing jungle of spirit-fungus and iron-vines.

The air here was so thick with essence that it felt like breathing cold water, and the ground was littered with the massive, bleached ribcages of prehistoric beasts.

SNAP. CRUNCH.

The sound of shattering wood and grinding bone echoed from the depths of the ravine.

Sol peered down through the gloom, his neon-crimson eyes instantly piercing the dark mist.

Three hundred paces below, a massive, solitary creature was tearing through a grove of ancient ironwood trees, devouring the glowing, blue spirit-moss clinging to the trunks.

It was an Obsidian-Scaled Behemoth... a rare, territorial beast horror equivalent to a Peak Layer 3 or Early Layer 4 warrior.

Standing over twenty feet tall, its sprawling, reptilian frame was encased in thick, overlapping plates of midnight-black bone armor that glistened like wet slate.

Its massive, spade-shaped head bore four glowing, crimson eyes, and its heavy, spiked tail swung with enough force to obliterate a stone pillar with a single sweep.

"Now that," Sol murmured, a slow, dark grin curling his lips as he unbuckled the leather strap securing the Dreadwing blade to his hip, "is a proper meal."

Sol didn’t bother creeping down the cliff face. He stepped off the edge of the cboulder and simply allowed gravity to take him.

FWHOOSH!

He fell like a meteor, his broad shoulders cutting through the damp air, his right hand gripping the leather-wrapped hilt of the Dreadwing blade.

The Obsidian Behemoth’s four crimson eyes snapped upward, sensing the sudden, terrifying displacement of air above its head.

It let out a deafening, ground-shattering roar that shook the entire ravine, its massive jaw splitting open to reveal rows of serrated, bone-crushing teeth as it lifted its heavily armored head to swallow the falling intruder whole!

Mid-air, Sol’s crimson eyes flared with blinding, neon light.

After days of hunting, he was already fully experienced in hunting beasts like these, so he didn’t draw his blade or activate a complex martial stance.

He simply unleashed the full, unbridled physical mass of his sun core, channeling it directly into his right feet!

BOOM!

Sol’s feet slammed squarely into the center of the Behemoth’s snout like a falling mountain!

The sheer, ungodly kinetic force of the impact defied logic. The Behemoth’s twenty-foot frame was instantly hammered downward, its massive skull violently slammed into the bedrock with a sound like a thunderclap!

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

The bedrock beneath the beast shattered into a hundred jagged fragments, creating a crater twenty paces wide. The Behemoth’s thick obsidian scales cracked under the sheer pressure, dark, glowing blood spurting from its nostrils and mouth as it let out a choked, agonized screech.

Sol landed effortlessly on the beast’s crushed snout, his knees barely bending as he absorbed the recoil.

Before the dazed Behemoth could even thrash its spiked tail, Sol’s arm blurred.

SHING!

The Dreadwing blade cleared its sheath in a single, fluid arc. The sapphire-tinted edge, humming with residual slaughter and dense spiritual energy, cut through the air like a hot razor through tallow.

SWISH!

Sol drove the blade straight down through the center of the Behemoth’s skull, pinning its massive head directly to the shattered bedrock below!

The blade buried itself all the way to the hilt, severing the beast’s central nerve cluster in a single, cold stroke. The Behemoth’s colossal frame gave one final, violent spasm, its massive tail slamming uselessly against the crater wall before going completely limp.

A Peak Layer 3 apex terror, slaughtered in less than three seconds.

Sol stood atop the dead monster’s head, his hand still resting on the hilt of his blade, his breathing completely calm.

"Orphos," Sol commanded softly in his mind. "Feast."

HUMMMMM.

Without even him asking, deep within his chest, the ancient compass activated.

A visible, shadowy wisp of dense, indigo spiritual light began to seep out from the dead Behemoth’s eyes, nostrils, and wounds.

Unlike the faint, fragile soul-wisps of common beasts or low-tier humans, the soul of a Peak Layer 3 Behemoth was dense, cohesive, and brimming with wild, unrefined vitality.

The indigo soul-wisp rose into the air, coiling like a dying serpent, before being magnetically drawn toward Sol’s chest.

It sank through his leather jerkin, passing harmlessly through his flesh, and plunged straight into his spiritual sea!

RUMBLE!

Within his consciousness, the dark ocean churned.

Orphos’s central needle spun at high speed, its sapphire-tinted body grinding together with an ancient, resonant hum.

The indigo soul-wisp was sucked directly into the central aperture of the compass, where microscopic, glowing runes instantly wrapped around it, crushing, refining, and digesting the beast’s soul down to its purest origin force.

Sol felt a sudden, cool wave of spiritual feedback ripple outward from the compass, washing through his mind and soothing his meridians.

In his mental vision, one of the tiny, stubborn hairline cracks along Orphos’s outer ring dissolved completely, replaced by smooth, unblemished crystalline dark metal.

That’s it, Sol thought, a dark thrill running through his veins as he felt the artifact’s pleasure echo in his mind. High-tier souls feed the needle directly. One beast like this is worth a hundred common ones.

With a smooth, powerful yank, Sol pulled the Dreadwing blade free from the skull, wiping the black beast blood against the Behemoth’s scales before sheathing it.

He didn’t stop to carve the meat. A creature of this size was too heavy and cumbersome to drag back, and its flesh was tough and bitter. He left the massive carcass in the crater and turned his gaze deeper into the shadowy expanse of the ravine.

His enhanced senses, sharp as a hawk’s, picked up multiple powerful essence signatures vibrating through the damp earth ahead.

The Shadow-Gorged Ravine was a haven for territorial predators... creatures that had lived undisturbed for decades, feeding on the dense ambient essence of the deep wilderness.

To any other hunter or squad of Veynar veterans, stepping deeper into this ravine was a suicidal gamble.

To Sol, it was an open buffet.

He leaped off the Behemoth’s skull, stepping smoothly over the shattered rocks, and melted into the dark, mist-shrouded jungle.

Over the next two hours, the silent, sunless depths of the ravine became a stage for absolute, methodical slaughter.

Sol moved like an invisible reaper through the twilight underbrush. He didn’t use flashy techniques or waste his sun core’s energy on grand displays; he relied on sheer, overwhelming physical dominance, extreme precision, and his Free Use power to execute apex terrors before they could even sound an alarm.