Chapter 581: Chapter 581 – Taming the Fourth Year: Journey – Struggle Start

Luna and Liora arrived at the castle followed by the two maids and the four remaining guards, Umi, Hikari, Hana, and Kira, all looking somewhat disheveled after the “discussion” they had had in the dormitories.

The evidence of their confrontation was written across their bodies in bruises and torn clothing. Luna and Liora being dual tamers made them a major problem for their caretakers now.

Umi was still rubbing her shoulder, the joint clearly tender from whatever technique had been used against her. Hikari wore an expression caught between worry and genuine surprise; she had never seen Lady Luna angry enough to use so much power against her own guards.

“Lady Luna,” Hana murmured as they approached one of the castle walls, her voice carrying the careful tone of someone who had already lost one argument and feared losing another, “we still believe this is a mistake. Escaping from the academy, using so much force against poor us…”

“I did it because you had no choice,” Luna responded without turning around, her voice carrying the matter of fact tone of someone who had thought through the consequences. “You had orders to keep me there. If you’re not somewhat beaten up, they’re going to punish you for not fulfilling your role… Although I told you to stay there and say that we had escaped later…”

♢♢♢♢

It was too strange.

Ren and Julius had felt the same energy signature from that day, without doubt… here, below during the entire excavation. In their concentration on coordinating earth control, had the abomination escaped? Had it hidden in deeper tunnels while they worked?

No.

Suddenly they felt the signature again, stronger than before.

There was something directly beneath them.

A black claw emerged suddenly from the earth, moving with a fluidity that defied its woody appearance. Its fingers, long and curved like ancient tree branches, closed around the empty crystal sphere.

Ren recognized it immediately, though something had changed.

“The tree-shaped claw,” he murmured, instinctively backing away as recognition sent ice through his veins.

But this time it was completely different from the three previous occasions when he had come here. It wasn’t opaque like the first time, when it had simply been a useful object to mark the path. It also wasn’t covered with golden fungi like the second time… And it definitely wasn’t absent like the third time, when the entire area had been empty.

Had it moved by itself?

While Ren watched with fascinated horror, he could distinguish small lines of violet light flowing through the claw’s internal structure. They weren’t as dark as corruption marks, but they had a disturbing similarity to it and part of his own energy that made his stomach contract with revulsion.

The claw closed with devastating force and crushed the crystal sphere as if it were a clay bowl. The fragments fell between its fingers while it turned and pressed itself against the earth, using the leverage to push its body upward.

Zhao launched one of his feathers with great force, but it bounced off without effect, leaving barely a scratch on the surface that should have been vulnerable to his stronger than Gold-rank attacks.

The enormous entity kept pushing itself upward.

“Everyone back!” Julius shouted, but his voice sounded more fascinated than alarmed. Like everyone present, he was witnessing something that defied his understanding of the world, something that challenged the very categories they used to make sense of reality.

A complete arm slowly emerged from the ground. It wasn’t simply the claw Ren remembered, but a complete extremity that extended several meters in length. The surface was marked by intricate patterns that seemed to combine artificial design with organic growth, as if it had been sculpted and then grown by itself.

The enormous artifact that supposedly had been deactivated by corruption.

Ren had no way of knowing that Bloodwyn and Hagen’s group had already seen the complete form of this arm months ago, when they had been destroying the cradle in this same region. He didn’t know that since that moment, the enormous artifact had moved locations, ending up underground when the tide of corrupt beasts that deactivated it returned to their place.

What he could feel was that this ancient artifact had been activated again, but no longer belonged to the original energy it had been designed to serve. Now it served something else, something that had corrupted its fundamental purpose.

When the entirety of the arm finally emerged, Ren could see that its base didn’t end in anything recognizable. Instead, it was connected to a sphere similar to the one it had just destroyed, but this sphere was… horribly integrated.

The sphere wasn’t the end of the object this time. Now it was fused, connected with horrendous pulsating organic systems that extended like grotesque veins along what gradually revealed itself as the back of an enormous abomination.

“By all the dragons,” Zhao whispered, his wings extending automatically in preparation for combat.

Maybe the organic part could be damaged…

The creature emerging was now different from anything they had faced before. It wasn’t simply a corrupt or mutated beast. It was an impossible fusion of ancient technology, organic growth, and a corruption that defied categorization.

Its main body was the size of a four-story building, covered with plates that seemed to be both armor and skin. Sections pulsed with their own rhythm, as if powered by multiple hearts or cores beating in disturbing syncopation.

“What the hell is that?” Liu asked, his voice broken by terror.

Ren studied the creature, trying to connect what he was seeing with fragments of knowledge he had obtained during his years with his fungus and the battle with the abomination alongside Han. There was something familiar in the energy patterns of these creatures and their connections to things that weren’t part of their natural system.

“I think it’s a hybrid,” he finally murmured, the words carrying the weight of terrible understanding. “Something that was one thing, that was converted into another thing, and that has now become a completely different third thing.”

The abomination raised what could have been eyes, though they were disordered and scattered across what might have been a face. When its attention focused on the group of humans, most forgot it was time to attack.

Min instinctively backed away, his usual confidence evaporating. “Can we run?”

Julius quickly evaluated their options, noting that the creature could be the reason for the advance of the smaller ones. If this thing was coordinating the horde, then stopping it here might save thousands of lives in the city. They had to try.

“Attack together,” he responded, softlier than expected.

But before they could react, the abomination emitted a sound that wasn’t exactly a roar, but rather a deep resonance that was felt as much in the ears as in the bones.

Julius quickly looked at Ren, expecting to see him affected on the ground again as he had been during their previous encounter.

But Ren was standing with gritted teeth, unconsciously touching the letter in his pocket while feeling the new stability of his energy core. The corruption that had once made him vulnerable to such influences had been mostly purified, leaving him with defenses he hadn’t possessed before.

Jade scales began covering his body as he prepared for the fight that could help the city filled with the people he had sworn to protect.

So, to catch up today I need to publish 4 chapters… this one being the first. My own struggle starts now…

Wish me luck!

Anyway, as always…

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