Chapter 404: Unstoppable Force
After we finished clearing Level 5, we finally reached the border between the Alpha Zone and the Beta Zone.
Right in front of us, the forest was split apart by a massive chasm, so wide and deep that the far side looked like it was cut out of the world itself.
A faint mist rose from below, and the air carried a strange, cold stillness.
I glanced at Cassian. "How did this happen?"
He just shrugged, his expression unreadable.
"Not sure. It’s been like this for as long as anyone remembers."
I nodded slowly, my eyes still on the darkness below. "What’s down there?"
Cassian shook his head.
"Nothing. Just endless chasms. Even abominations don’t go there."
The idea of something so empty that even monsters avoided it was surprising. But we didn’t linger.
We crossed the chasm and stepped into the Beta Zone.
The moment Lyrate and Knight stepped into the first level of the Beta Zone, the ground trembled.
The air was thick, almost solid, and a wave of screeches hit them from every direction. The land itself seemed to twist and pulse. Shapes began to move in the haze, thousands of abominations, all rushing forward.
The smell was rotten and metallic. Their bodies were broken in strange ways, too many arms, jaws split into four, eyes glowing with sick light.
"Damn, that’s disgusting. Looks like they were waiting for us."
Cassian hummed beside me.
"The moment we started in the Alpha zone, they knew we were here. I can feel the grandmaster abominations waking up too. Stay alert. From here on, anything can happen. The level boundaries are just in our heads, nothing’s stopping the stronger ones from coming here."
I nodded.
The sound grew louder.
The next moment, the ground shook again as the horde charged.
Lyrate’s hand gripped the hilt of her sword. Her eyes narrowed, and her body began to release the crimson mist. Countless threads of crimson mist wrapped around the blade.
She took a single step forward and then swung once. It was slow, but the world seemed to stretch with the motion.
Just as the motion of her sword stopped, roots burst out of the earth, thick as tree trunks, glowing faint green. Flowers bloomed along them in a heartbeat before snapping open into sharp wooden spears.
The roots tore through the charging abominations. The spears grew faster, multiplying, weaving together into a wall of thorns that expanded in every direction.
Then it exploded.
BOOM!!!
The wooden spears shot outward like a storm, tearing through flesh, piercing bone, and pinning hundreds of creatures to the ground.
The air was filled with the sound of ripping meat and snapping wood. The mist that made up part of her body swirled through the battlefield, seeping into the wounded. Wherever it touched, their bodies were sliced and minced.
In the first few seconds, hundreds were already dead.
While Lyrate was using her large scale attacks, Knight moved at the same time.
The black panther vanished from sight, leaving only a ripple in the air where he stood. His body reappeared behind the biggest abominations, towering beasts covered in armor-like skin. His claws flashed once, and their heads rolled away before their bodies even knew they were dead.
Shadows bled out from under his paws, spreading like black ink over the battlefield. Any abomination that stepped into them slowed, their movements jerky, their screams muffled. Knight’s horn glowed faint red, gathering a pulse of crimson mist.
He lowered his head and fired.
A thin beam shot out, silent at first, before erupting into a roar that split the air. The beam carved straight through a cluster of massive beasts, leaving nothing but burned holes through their bodies.
Knight kept moving. Every step was a jump through space, vanishing from one side of the battlefield to the other, killing leaders before they could command the smaller ones.
Suddenly, the trees began to tremble, and the sharp sound of wind being sliced echoed all around as a new horde of abominations emerged.
A storm of enormous crow-like abominations blotted out the light. They dove, screeching so loud it hurt the ears.
Right then a blast of wind cut through the noise.
Silver shot up from the ground like an arrow loosed from a bow, the air splitting around him with a sharp crack. His crimson wings beat once, sending a burst of wind that rattled the trees below.
His body twisted mid-flight, angling straight toward the black mass above.
He crashed into the first bird like a spear through paper, his claws tearing clean through its chest. Warm black blood sprayed in the air. Feathers the size of swords scattered in all directions. Before the body had even begun to fall, Silver spun, his wings whipping up a cyclone around him.
The wind roared to life, sucking in a few more crows at once. Their wings snapped like dry branches as they were slammed together, bones shattering under the force. The storm spat their broken bodies downward, where they smashed against the forest floor.
The rest of the flock tried to scatter, breaking apart into smaller groups, but Silver was faster. He spread his wings wide, and a storm of razor-thin wind blades exploded outward.
They cut through wings and necks like knives through silk. Heads spun away from bodies, beaks clacking even as they fell.
A massive crow dove at him from behind, its talons the length of a man’s arm. Silver sensed it before it struck. With a sudden twist, he rolled backward in the air and slashed upward. His claws raked across its belly, spilling black entrails that vanished into the swirling wind.
The air screamed around him, a sonic boom rattling the sky. Then he dove into the densest part of the horde.
Crows clawed and pecked, but every strike was met with either a slash of his claws or the edge of a wind blade.
Then he began to spin. Faster. Faster. His body became a blur, and the air around him turned into a screaming vortex.
Feathers, blood, and broken wings were ripped from the horde as the storm chewed through them. Dozens fell at once, shredded before they could even cry out.
A massive gap tore open in the center of the flock, but more came from the edges, swarming to close it. Silver’s eyes narrowed. His chest began to glow faintly, and the wind around him shifted, gathering, compressing.
With a sharp cry, he fired a beam of condensed wind and Essence from his mouth.
It punched through a line of crows, vaporizing everything in its path. Bodies exploded midair, leaving only scraps drifting in the gust.
The survivors panicked but Silver was relentless. He darted after the stragglers, firing short bursts of wind that sliced them apart.
Within a minute, the sky was no longer black but littered with falling corpses. Feathers drifted like ash, and the sound of wings had been replaced by the whisper of the wind. Silver hovered for a moment, scanning the horizon.
Not a single crow was left alive.
Below, Lyrate stepped forward. The roots under her control kept growing, wrapping around dozens of abominations at once. She raised her sword, and the plants tightened, bones cracked, bodies snapped apart.
The battlefield was chaos, mist swirling, roots tearing, shadows slicing, wind screaming. The ground was littered with broken bodies, crushed wings, shattered claws.
The Beta Zone was alive with rage, but Lyrate, Knight, and Silver tore through it like it was nothing.
Cassian and I floated above, watching the three of them dismantle the abominations, physically and emotionally, before finally setting their souls free.
"So once you rank up, are they going to rank up as well?" Cassian asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, I think so. They don’t have any quests of their own, so it all depends on me. In a way, it’ll be like we’re ranking up together."
"So we’ll be getting four new grandmasters," he mused.
I nodded again.