Chapter 180: East Anekta Crisis (19)

The sky was burning.

Three enormous heads loomed above the ruined district, their jaws opening and closing as they unleashed one devastating attack after another. Green flames swept across the buildings, purple lightning branched through the clouds, and torrents of pitch-black Essence tore through everything unfortunate enough to stand in their path.

The Hydra barely needed to move.

Its wings alone generated shockwaves capable of flattening entire streets. Every movement of its enormous body displaced enough air to shatter windows several kilometers away, while its three heads attacked independently, leaving almost no room for its opponent to escape.

And yet, somewhere between those three monstrous heads, a small figure continued moving.

Eden.

His crimson wings beat violently as he weaved between the attacks, occasionally using Burst Step to change direction at the last possible moment. His body was already covered in wounds, some of which had barely finished healing before another attack forced him to sustain new injuries.

He couldn’t afford to get hit.

Not even once.

A single direct blast would be enough to kill him. There was no point pretending otherwise. Even with Corrupted Surge and Ferocious Evolution active, the difference between his physical capabilities and the Hydra’s destructive output was simply too great.

He had never encountered anything remotely comparable in this life.

’This is absurd!’

A torrent of green flames swept across the sky.

Eden folded his wings and dropped sharply, allowing the attack to pass over him. The heat was so intense that the edges of his black scales began to crack, and the air around him distorted beneath the flames.

Before he could regain altitude, purple lightning descended from above.

He activated Burst-Step.

His body vanished and reappeared several dozen meters away, just as the lightning struck the space he had occupied.

The resulting explosion illuminated the entire district.

Eden glanced toward the Hydra.

Three independent attack patterns, each with enough destructive power to wipe out entire cities. And that’s without considering its physical strength.

The creature was a walking catastrophe.

If something of this magnitude appeared in a populated country and was left unchecked, the consequences would be unimaginable. Conventional military forces would be little more than an inconvenience. Even Awakened forces would struggle to coordinate an effective response before entire regions were reduced to rubble.

It wasn’t merely a powerful monster.

It was the kind of existence that could bring a country to its knees without breaking a sweat.

And Eden was currently the only person trying to keep it occupied.

"HAHAHAHA!"

Aphelios’ laughter echoed across the sky.

The old man stood atop the Hydra’s middle head, holding onto one of its enormous horns as the creature moved through the clouds.

"Look at you! Running around like a frightened insect!"

Eden ignored him.

He was too busy avoiding another barrage.

The left head released a stream of green flames, while the right head fired several bolts of purple lightning. The middle head followed with a concentrated beam of black Essence, sweeping it across the sky in an attempt to catch Eden between the other two attacks.

He had to change direction three times.

The first maneuver nearly tore one of his wings apart. The second forced him to use Burst-Step twice in rapid succession, while the third sent him tumbling through the air before he managed to stabilize himself.

His Essence reserves were already beginning to decline.

’At this rate...’

He couldn’t finish the thought.

A strange voice interrupted him.

[Pathetic.]

Eden’s movements faltered for the briefest instant.

He looked around instinctively, but there was nothing nearby.

[Utterly disposable.]

The voice sounded familiar.

It was his own.

Or something incredibly close to it.

Yet there was something wrong with the tone. It carried a coldness that didn’t belong to him, a contempt so absolute that it seemed to crawl beneath his skin.

A chill ran down his spine.

Eden’s expression tightened.

’What was that?’

The Hydra’s middle head turned.

Eden immediately activated Burst-Step, narrowly escaping a beam of black Essence that tore through the clouds behind him.

He didn’t have time to investigate.

Not now.

But the voice returned.

[Useless.]

Eden gritted his teeth.

’Shut up!’

He didn’t know whether he had thought those words or actually spoken them.

Another attack came.

He twisted through the air, using his wings to accelerate before narrowly slipping between two converging streams of Essence. The shockwaves struck him from opposite directions, sending him spinning.

His shoulder cracked.

Violent Vitality immediately began repairing it.

[You’re struggling against something like this?]

The voice was closer now.

Almost as though someone were whispering directly beside his ear.

[How disappointing.]

Eden’s jaw tightened.

He forced himself to focus.

Whatever that voice was, he could deal with it later.

Surviving the next few seconds was considerably more important.

Eden had already attempted to attack the Hydra once.

It had been a desperate decision, but he had briefly managed to approach one of its necks after avoiding a sequence of attacks. Seeing an opportunity, he had extended his hand and unleashed Devour.

The crimson Essence spread like a living mass, forming several enormous jaws that clamped around the creature’s scales.

For a fraction of a second, Eden thought he had succeeded.

Then the Hydra reacted.

Its body pulsed with an immense amount of Essence.

The crimson mass was blasted away.

It was violently expelled, scattering across the air as though it had never been attached to the creature in the first place.

The backlash struck Eden almost immediately.

His arm was thrown backward, and the resulting shockwave caught him in the chest. He felt several bones crack as he was sent flying away from the Hydra.

Had he not used Burst-Step at the last possible moment, the follow-up attack from the middle head would have swallowed him whole.

That had been the moment he understood.

He couldn’t Devour the Hydra.

Not like this.

The creature possessed far too much Essence, and the difference in their power was simply overwhelming. Even if Devour managed to take hold, Eden had no confidence that he could consume anything meaningful before the Hydra overwhelmed him.

Trying to fight it directly was suicide.

’Then I need another way.’

Eden narrowly avoided another blast, his wings beating so violently that several black scales broke loose and scattered through the air.

He looked toward Aphelios.

The old man was still standing on the middle head, seemingly enjoying the spectacle.

And suddenly, something became clear.

The Hydra was powerful.

Its destructive capabilities were absurd.

But Aphelios was the one controlling it.

If Eden couldn’t defeat the creature, he didn’t necessarily need to.

He only needed to defeat its master.