Chapter 186: East Anekta Crisis (25)

The island was falling apart.

Buildings had been reduced to ruins, the coastline had been torn apart by enormous waves, and entire sections of East Anekta had disappeared beneath the advancing crimson Essence. The night sky, once illuminated by the lights of the city, was now stained a deep, unnatural red.

And at the center of it all, the Hydra was retreating.

Its enormous wings beat frantically as it attempted to maintain its distance from the spreading mass. All three heads were turned toward the crimson flood, their jaws occasionally opening to release warning roars.

Aphelios, however, was barely in a condition to appreciate the situation.

He remained atop the Hydra’s middle head, one hand gripping the creature’s scales to keep himself from falling. His breathing was ragged, and his entire body was covered in black veins that pulsed beneath his skin.

Summoning the Hydra had always been an expensive undertaking.

Even with the preparations he had made, the amount of Essence required to bring an SS-Rank Boss into the world was immense. Maintaining its existence was an entirely different matter. Every second the creature remained summoned, it consumed a portion of his already dwindling reserves.

And the battle had pushed him dangerously close to his limit.

His vision blurred.

He could feel blood running from the corners of his mouth, and his fingers had begun to tremble.

Yet he laughed.

A quiet, exhausted laugh that gradually grew louder.

"Hahaha..."

He looked toward the distant skyscraper, now almost entirely obscured by the crimson mass.

At long last.

After all the preparations, all the sacrifices, and all the trouble he had gone through to bring this creature into the world, it had finally happened.

"The insect is finally dead."

That ridiculous Awakened who had interfered with his plans, destroyed his subordinates, and nearly prevented the summoning had finally been erased.

Aphelios wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Well... that was more troublesome than expected."

He glanced down at the Hydra.

The enormous creature was unscathed, though visibly unsettled by the strange Essence spreading across the island. Aphelios clicked his tongue.

"Don’t tell me you’re frightened."

The Hydra released a low growl.

"How ridiculous. You’re an SS-Rank Boss. There isn’t anything on this island that should be able to intimidate you."

He leaned back slightly.

The battle was over.

Whatever that crimson energy was, it had consumed Eden along with everything else in its path. Even if the Awakened had somehow survived the initial attack, there was no possibility of him escaping the destruction that followed.

Aphelios closed his eyes for a moment.

Just a moment.

Aphelios felt his blood run cold when he opened them again.

The very man he just defeated, stood back up on his feet.

Aphelios blinked.

His exhausted mind struggled to process what he was seeing.

The figure stood perfectly upright. His posture was relaxed, almost indifferent, and both of his hands were tucked inside his pockets.

Aphelios stared.

’...What?’

The figure tilted his head slightly.

Then a voice reached him.

"Who’s calling who an insect?"

Aphelios stopped breathing.

There was something fundamentally wrong with the way the words had been spoken. The tone was too calm, too detached. There was no trace of the exhaustion, anger, or desperation that had characterized Eden throughout their encounter.

It sounded as though someone had borrowed his voice without bothering to imitate him.

Aphelios stared at the figure.

His heart began pounding.

’No... That’s impossible.’

’It’s just a fluke. That boy is bluffing.’

He had watched the entire skyscraper disappear beneath that crimson Essence. He had felt the resulting surge of energy, witnessed the destruction spreading across the island, and personally confirmed that the Awakened had been caught in its path.

He should have been dead.

And yet, there he stood.

Aphelios slowly straightened.

"How...?"

The figure took a step forward.

The distance between them was enormous, yet Aphelios felt as though he were standing directly in front of him.

Something was wrong with Eden’s appearance.

His skin had regained some of its color, no longer possessing the deathly pallor from before. The glowing red cracks that had covered his body were still present, but they had become significantly thinner, almost resembling faint scars.

His clothes were torn and damaged, but the wounds beneath them had seemingly healed.

His broken bones.

His torn muscles.

The injuries that should have killed him.

All gone.

But that wasn’t what frightened Aphelios the most.

Eden’s hair had grown.

What had once been relatively short now reached his back, hanging loosely around his face. It moved gently despite the absence of wind.

And his eyes...

Aphelios felt his stomach twist.

They were entirely black.

There was no visible white surrounding the pupils, no familiar silver color, nothing that resembled the eyes he had seen during their previous encounters.

Only an endless blackness, interrupted by white irises that seemed to stare through him rather than at him.

It wasn’t Eden.

Or at least, it wasn’t the Eden he knew.

Aphelios instinctively tightened his grip on the Hydra.

"What... are you?"

The figure didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he slowly glanced around the island.

The crimson Essence continued spreading, though its movement had become strangely deliberate. It no longer resembled an uncontrolled flood. It was gathering behind the skyscraper, rising into the sky in enormous streams.

Aphelios followed his gaze.

Seven colossal shapes emerged from the crimson mass.

At first, he thought they were tendrils.

Then their forms became clearer.

Long, serpentine necks rose behind the skyscraper, each ending in a monstrous demonic head. Their bodies remained concealed within the swirling Essence, but their enormous jaws alone were enough to dwarf the Hydra.

Each head was larger than the skyscraper itself.

Their mouths slowly opened, revealing rows upon rows of vicious teeth. The darkness within their throats seemed deeper than the night sky, while crimson energy poured from their jaws like an endless stream of blood.

Seven dragons.

Seven enormous, demonic heads staring down at the island.

Aphelios couldn’t move.

His mind refused to accept what he was seeing.

The Hydra, which had been the undisputed calamity of the island only moments earlier, suddenly looked small.

Insignificant.

A mere creature standing before something that existed on an entirely different level.

"What..."

Aphelios’ voice trembled.

"What is that?"

The seven heads shifted slightly.

Their movements were slow, almost lazy, but each one carried enough pressure to make the surrounding buildings tremble.

Aphelios felt the blood drain from his face.

It wasn’t just the amount of Essence.

That alone was incomprehensible. Even the combined reserves of hundreds of S-Rank Awakeneds would have been insignificant compared to what he was sensing.

No.

It was the nature of the Essence itself.

It felt ancient.

Vicious.

Evil.

There was something living within it, something that seemed to possess an existence far older than anything Aphelios had ever encountered.

It wasn’t simply an energy source.

It felt like a being.

A being whose hunger had existed long before the world as he knew it.

And whose eventual awakening could herald the end of everything.

Aphelios had felt a similar presence once before.

Beelzebub.

He remembered the overwhelming aura of the being with whom he had once formed a contract. Even now, the memory was enough to make his skin crawl.

He remembered the sensation of standing before something that could erase him without even acknowledging his existence.

But this...

This was worse.

The aura radiating from the seven heads surpassed even Beelzebub’s.

Aphelios’ legs began trembling.

"No..."

He looked at Eden again.

"What the hell are you?!"

The figure finally turned his attention toward him.

His expression was almost bored.

"That’s of no damn business to a lower being like you."

Aphelios’ pupils shrank.

A lower being?

He was an S-Rank Summoner. He had entered contracts with one of the Eight Archduke’s from the Abyss, commanded creatures capable of destroying entire cities, and summoned an SS-Rank Boss that could threaten an entire country.

And this thing was calling him a lower being?

Aphelios opened his mouth.

But before he could utter another word, the figure raised one hand.

He snapped his fingers.

One of the seven demonic heads moved.

It was almost instantaneous.

The enormous dragon opened its jaws, and a tremendous vacuum formed around the Hydra. The air, debris, and remaining structures were pulled toward its mouth.

Aphelios’ eyes widened.

"You—!"

The Hydra roared.

All three of its heads unleashed their attacks simultaneously. Green poisonous flames, purple lightning, and a massive black beam erupted toward the approaching dragon.

The attacks struck its open jaws.

And disappeared.

The dragon didn’t even flinch.

Its jaws closed around the Hydra.

The colossal creature was swallowed whole, along with Aphelios.

The dragon slowly withdrew its head, returning to its position behind the skyscraper.

Then came the shockwave.

A tremendous pulse of vicious Essence erupted across East Anekta. The entire island shook, and the ocean surrounding it was violently displaced. Buildings that had somehow survived the earlier destruction collapsed, while the remaining clouds were torn apart.

The night sky itself seemed to split.

A massive crimson fissure stretched across the heavens, extending far beyond the island’s horizon before gradually fading.