Chapter 378: Changes

The moment Elara and Kaela made up, they both burst deeper into the Gate.

Neither woman bothered to hold back.

Their figures became little more than streaks of crimson and violet as they tore through the unstable landscape, moving so quickly that the monsters scattered throughout the Gate barely had time to react.

A B Rank Monster noticed them.

It turned its head.

Before it could even raise a claw, the two A Ranks were already gone.

Another monster roared and lunged toward them.

It attacked nothing but empty air.

Neither Elara nor Kaela even paid attention to the creatures around them. They were moving too quickly, and neither had any interest in wasting time fighting monsters that weren’t their target.

And the monsters should be grateful that was the case.

Kaela’s hoodie, meanwhile, wasn’t exactly doing a great job of keeping her lower half covered as she ran.

Elara noticed, despite trying very hard not to notice.

"Can’t you hold that thing down?" Elara called, using Physical Augmentation to keep pace with her purple-eyed counterpart.

Kaela glanced down at the hoodie, then back at Elara.

"Don’t tell me it’s getting you excited. Your boyfriend will be jealous."

Elara didn’t even bother reacting.

Under normal circumstances, she probably would have.

Right now, however, she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh, get angry, or simply smack Kaela upside the head.

She was too distracted to do any of them.

The first thing drawing her attention wasn’t Kaela’s lack of clothing, but the strange aura surrounding her and the way she moved.

There was something different about her.

Her movements were clearer, smoother, and effortless.

It wasn’t simply that Kaela was fast.

Kaela had always been fast.

But now there was something else to her movements, almost as if she had removed a restriction she hadn’t even known was there. They were moving at speeds that most people would struggle to comprehend.

Race car speeds.

And that was without them even trying to reach their maximum.

Most Titled, even those specialising in speed, would struggle to keep up with them. Even Seraphina, the infamous Pink Speedster, would have had to give them their props.

Yet what intrigued Elara wasn’t the speed.

It was the absence of Kaela’s usual flaring violet energy.

Normally, whenever Kaela pushed herself, her violet aura became almost overwhelming. Now, there was barely anything visible around her. It was as though all that enormous energy was still there, but instead of leaking outward, it was being used more efficiently.

’Is she really immortal now?’

Elara glanced at Kaela.

’And what exactly is she a vessel for to have such a weird body?’

Those questions bounced around inside her mind.

But they were quickly replaced by the second thing that was distracting her.

Something Elara could feel.

She slowed for barely a fraction of a second.

"Can you feel that too?" she asked.

Kaela’s expression immediately became more serious.

She nodded.

"Yeah."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Especially now."

Whatever it was, it was powerful.

Very powerful.

And neither woman needed to say the obvious.

Mark was definitely involved.

Elara’s crimson aura flared, and Kaela’s violet eyes sharpened.

Then both of them accelerated again.

The landscape became a blur around them as they pushed themselves even further, their bodies moving so quickly that they were barely more than streaks of colour.

They were approaching half the speed of sound.

And somewhere ahead...

Something ominous was waiting.

-

While Elara and Kaela were having their heated exchange, during which Kaela had reached an unexpected enlightenment, and Elara had briefly thought she had accidentally killed her deranged friend, Mark hadn’t been sitting around idly.

Or, more accurately...

This monstrous form of Mark hadn’t.

Mark had already blitzed through the Gate.

His monstrous body moved across the unstable landscape with frightening speed, leaping between floating chunks of land as the terrain cracked and shifted around him.

One moment, he was running across the ground.

The next, he was launching himself onto a floating rock formation.

Then he was jumping again.

The Gate itself seemed to struggle to keep up with him.

His movements were erratic but purposeful, driven by an instinct he didn’t understand and couldn’t control.

He had one target in mind.

The Gate Core, which as usual, was in the form of a dangerous creature.

A Boss Monster.

Not that it deterred Mark.

Dozens of miles disappeared behind him in a matter of minutes.

He passed through regions inhabited by monsters that would have been considered serious threats outside this Gate.

Massive beasts with six limbs and armoured bodies crawled across the landscape. Winged predators with enormous mouths circled overhead. Four-legged creatures covered in jagged crystal growths roamed the rocky plains, their bodies saturated with dense mana.

There were C and B Rank Monsters everywhere.

Yet Mark didn’t care.

In his eyes, they were just prey, and he was something much worse.

One B Rank Monster attempted to intercept him.

Mark’s fist slammed into its chest.

BOOM!

The monster’s body flew backwards, smashing through several trees before disappearing from sight.

Mark never slowed down.

Another beast leapt from above.

His body twisted, evading its attack before catching it by the throat.

For a brief moment, the creature struggled.

Then Mark slammed it into the ground and continued running.

He wasn’t killing or hunting these creatures, but simply passing through them.

The monsters were obstacles barely worth acknowledging.

With every three beats of his heart, his body grew stronger. His movements became more efficient, his senses sharpened, and his instincts grew more refined.

Yet Mark himself wasn’t amazed by his own speed.

He wasn’t thinking about how quickly he was moving or about anything, for that matter.

There was only instinct.

He was consumed by a deep hunger and the thing that could satiate it.

And then Mark reached it.

A massive clearing stretched out before him.

At its centre stood something enormous.

The creature was so large that its body resembled a moving mountain.

Its four legs were thick enough to crush buildings, while layers of dark, armoured flesh covered its body. Huge plates overlapped across its back, each one pulsing with dense mana.

Jagged horns curved from its skull.

Its mouth was large enough to swallow a truck whole.

Two enormous eyes burned with a deep orange light, and every breath it released caused the surrounding air to tremble.

This was no ordinary Boss Monster.

Inside this unstable B-Rank Gate was an A Rank Monster.

A creature powerful enough that an entire team of Titled would normally be required to bring it down...