This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange - Chapter 863: 863: Mysterious Landlord
Chapter 863: Chapter 863: Mysterious Landlord
Heat devoured everything.
Kain’s breath came ragged and uneven inside Aegis’ metallic cocoon. The air was molten. His lungs burned with every inhale, each heartbeat pounding like a hammer against his ribs. The metal sphere groaned around them, warping under the crushing pressure from above. Red lines spiderwebbed across Aegis’ surface, molten fissures leaking in threads of light.
Serena clung to him, trembling. The air smelled of ozone and scorched metal.
“Hold—” Kain tried to speak, but the word cracked apart in his throat. He could feel Aegis’ pain echoing through their link, the golem’s consciousness straining to maintain form under the impossible heat. The temperature was rising beyond anything they’d faced. Even though the fire ball was still miles above them and had not yet touched the river, and he was covered by layers of metal, Kain’s skin blistered.
Even the hardy Aegis let out a noise under the strain that Kain had never heard before. The sound was unbearable—a deep, bone-rattling groan as the fireball’s descent pressed toward them. The river shuddered around them, bubbles of steam racing upward, water flashing into vapor.
Aegis buckled.
For a fleeting second, Kain felt the wall behind him dissolve into liquid heat. He saw Serena’s wide eyes, reflecting the glow of their approaching end. The pain blurred everything.
And then—
The water changed.
A low, resonant hum spread through the depths, vibrating through their bones and very soul. The river stirred, alive and aware, responding to the blazing intruder above. The currents began to pulse, not in panic—but in rhythm, like the steady heartbeat of a vast organism.
The instant the fireball struck the surface, the world turned inside out.
The river bent instead of breaking. The fireball slammed into it, but the surface held like thick glass. Flames burst apart into streams of light that spread outward and dimmed. The water didn’t explode or vanish—it took the fire in. Every strand of flame that tried to push deeper was swallowed by swirling vortexes that devoured any lingering flames like a starving taotie.
Gradually, the glow dimmed. The water folded over the impact, smothering the heat and turning the fire into soft, glowing light. What had been a blazing sun became a faint shimmer under the surface, red and gold light drifting through the current. Steam rose but was pushed aside, unable to get near them, kept away by a steady pressure from the water itself.
Kain’s mouth fell open as he also could feel the ambient temperature around them, far too hot for comfort, begin to drop rapidly. As the heat faded, the metallic sphere around them cooled, hardening from a molten red to dull gray. Aegis groaned once more, the sound now softer, as the metal reshaped and steadied itself before gently unfolding. The pressure eased, and a rush of cooler water surrounded them, soothing burned skin and blistered nerves.
Kain drew a sharp breath, realizing only then how close he and Serena were pressed together. Her body trembled against his, wet hair clinging to his neck. Every curve of her body was molded to his chest and arms, their soaked clothes leaving no barrier. He blinked, half dazed, debating if he should let go immediately. His hand twitched as if to move, but the warmth of her skin kept him in place.
He decided to wait for her to pull away… only she didn’t. Instead, Serena’s breathing steadied, her arms unconsciously tightening around him as if anchoring herself in the aftermath of chaos.
But before Kain could dwell on her action, or lack thereof, further, the water around them changed again.
Kain stiffened as another force brushed against his mind—a gaze so vast it dwarfed him completely. His instincts screamed to hide, to not move. He felt like a mouse caught in the gaze of a tiger.
For a breathless instant he could feel it observing him, something impossibly old and powerful, aware of every current in the water. Then, mercifully, the focus shifted away.
Through the faint glow above, Kain saw the great abyssal serpent stiffen. Its black and red form trembled as that same awareness settled on it instead. The creature’s violet-gold eyes widened, its body twisting violently. A hiss tore from its throat—so loud that even through the distance and the thick barrier of water, Kain’s ears rang with pain.
The great abyssal stiffened, hissing angrily as if to relieve the fear rippling along its massive body. For a creature of such high standing among its kind—a Noble Abyssal, only beneath the Great Mother’s direct Demigod children—such hesitation was an unthinkable shame!
The realization seemed to enrage it further, and it forced itself to move, fury swallowing fear. With a roar that shook the air, it lashed out in defiance. Its tail smashed through the air, slamming into the surface and sending up walls of boiling spray, yet the water refused to yield. Fire gushed from its mouth, a stream of molten light striking the same place again and again, but each burst only sank and vanished like a harmless ripple into the water. It reared back and struck once more, bellowing in frustration, flames twisting wildly as if the creature itself couldn’t understand why its power no longer dominated this element.
The pressure of its rage pulsed through the depths, churning the current until it began to settle again, the serpent finally drawing back with a furious hiss, the glow in its eyes flickering between gold and violet.
At least for now, it didn’t appear to have a means of getting to its prey under the water.
Serena’s lips trembled. “We’re… alive.”
Kain’s chest rose and fell with the weight of disbelief. His hands shook from exhaustion, but his voice came steady. “For now.”
Kain looked at Serena. Her eyes mirrored his uncertainty. They both knew the abyssal hadn’t left—its presence still clear like a glowing hot beacon faintly arkbove, like an ember refusing to die. But now that they were sheltered, another question loomed over them.
‘Do we stay under and drift away with the current?’ Serena’s voice brushed against his mind, Bea still keeping them connected and perhaps not wanting to speak aloud due to the presence above. ‘Or hold position and wait for it to leave? If we get carried too far, we might lose track of the Wuxing Elemental Sect.’
Kain frowned. Both choices felt wrong. The current was fast, violent—being swept too far downstream might save them for now but doom them later. Staying here risked being found if the abyssal targeted them again.
He opened his mouth to answer, but stopped.
Something changed.
The water around them grew still—unnaturally still. A strange vibration hummed through his bones. For a split second, he couldn’t tell if it was sound or feeling. The light filtering through the surface dimmed, as if the world itself had shifted.
Kain blinked. His limbs felt wrong, his senses dulled yet sharp in strange ways. Even his thoughts felt heavier, as though moving through syrup.
A sound rang in his head that hadn’t in a long time.
[System Notification: You have entered a Complete/Perfected Domain. Rules are sufficiently stable for analysis. Would you like to analyze? Cost: 10 Source Points.]
Kain froze. He hadn’t heard the System’s voice in weeks—not since silencing notifications to focus during battles and training. But more than that, the message made no sense. A complete domain? One perfect enough to analyze? That was something only those at the peak of the world could create.
He frowned. Perfectly stable? Then it wasn’t the abyssal’s since they seemed to be rejected by this world’s rules.
And what did it mean to analyze it? What would he get out of it?
He quickly pulled up his current Source Point count. Fifteen. That was all. Even after draining the life energy from that massive abyssal serpent before, he’d barely gotten ten points for it. The System always seemed to time these things perfectly—giving him just enough for a new feature, but never enough to feel comfortable spending it.
“Of course it’s ten,” Kain muttered under his breath. “You just want to clean me out again, don’t you?”
Serena gave him a questioning look, but he just sighed and spoke mentally again. ‘Doesn’t matter. I’ll take the hit. Analyze it.’
[Analysis Initiated.]
A small progress bar appeared in his vision.
1%… 2%… 3%…
Kain groaned quietly. “At this rate, I’ll grow old before it finishes.”
Still, he could feel the difference now. The domain pressed gently against his spiritual sense, a calm yet unyielding pressure that made the world feel organized—every current deliberate, every shimmer precise. Whatever being owned this domain was no ordinary creature.
He looked past Aegis’s cooled shield and froze.
Two enormous glue-green eyes glowed in the darkness beyond the barrier. Each was larger than the metal sphere he and Serena sat inside, but they radiated patience, not hunger. The light they emitted cut through the murk, revealing fragments of something colossal beneath the water.
As his eyes adjusted, he saw the rest.
A shell that looked like a mountain range lay before them, ridged and plated with crystalline moss and embedded stones that shimmered faintly with various colors—blue, green, gold, red, and white. The closer the water was to the shell, the calmer the currents became, swirling gently around the shell’s grooves. The surface was teeming with aquatic life—tiny fish darting through coral-like growths, luminous algae clinging to crevices, and even small crustaceans nesting within the ridges. It was as if the creature’s shell had become an underwater ecosystem of its own, a living refuge amid the chaos of the river. Flashes of light pulsed like rivers of energy, threading peacefully through this vibrant miniature world.
The head that extended from the shell was covered in scales thicker than building walls, and glowed with every breath it took. Each exhale stirred the current, carrying with it a feeling of deep serenity.
Kain realized he was staring at the source of the domain.
A turtle—massive beyond comprehension, eyes half-lidded as though perpetually meditating beneath the river.
He swallowed hard, whispering, “Serena… I think we just met the landlord of this river.”
Meanwhile, the analysis bar continued to crawl forward.
8%… 9%…
