Chapter: 102. The Power of Secondary Awakening
A figure engulfed in black flames darted through the shadow servants like a streak of black lightning.
The sharp bone claws wrapped in black flames cut through the air, effortlessly tearing apart several shadow servants controlled by hunters closest to it with just a flick of its claws.
In the blink of an eye—
The bodies formed from shadows could not even react before they vanished like smoke, completely evaporating in the black flames.
“…At least they were just shadow servants.”
A hunter murmured, drenched in cold sweat.
If the original body had been present, the one dying at that moment would have been a “human.”
Because every strike from this “phantasmal creature” was not in “combat,” but in “slaughter.”
Its attacks targeted the most fragile and fatal parts of the human body.
Coupled with its bone-like claws that seemed capable of slicing through anything, even those present with healing abilities would not have time to act.
But at the same time, they also realized another thing—
The beast’s attacking rhythm was not as aggressive as they had imagined; the pressure it exerted during the battle was far less overwhelming than the oppressive sensation when it had just awakened.
Instead, it left a slight gap for everyone.
“Now’s our chance—!! Suppress it!”
A hunter shouted, his voice almost echoing in the rainy night.
The hunters affiliated with the “Heavenly Academy Guild” had grown accustomed to fighting in life-and-death struggles from previous operations; through the long-established synergy, they had grasped the beast’s movement patterns within just a few skirmishes and were gradually surrounding it, forcing it into a predetermined area.
In the next moment.
The ground beneath the target suddenly distorted and cracked.
A gravity ability dozens of times more powerful than Earth’s gravity activated instantly, as if the entire world was pressing down on it.
The Star-Eclipsing Beast’s body immediately sank, and the immense pressure forced it to kneel, letting out a low growl mixed with rage and wildness.
Although its body was unusually agile, even the most extreme reaction speed would struggle to escape under such heavy pressure.
And these few seconds were enough for the hunters to launch a full-scale attack—
The mithril-ranked hunters activated their phantasmal weapons, converting their entire strength into “pure magical power,” forming dazzling beams of light that precisely struck the black flame giant beast pinned to the ground.
Before the era of elemental dominion, the most primitive magical attacks were once considered outdated, until the protagonist appeared and demonstrated to the world what true destructive power was through “elemental fusion.”
Psychic users gradually realized that the purer the magical power, the more it could ignore the complex restraints between psychic characteristics, possessing the strongest destructive capability.
Thus, major organizations today, especially those within the guild system, train a select few “pure magic outputters” specifically responsible for delivering finishing blows at critical moments.
Now was their time to shine.
In an instant, the intertwining roars of magical energy echoed across the battlefield,
Raindrops in the entire block were forcefully lifted in the explosion of the shockwave.
The downpour was torn into fragments, the air twisted violently as if it were being shredded like fabric, and even the night itself seemed briefly torn apart, revealing an intensely glaring white light.
“Did it work?”
In the crowd, someone blurted out, their voice swallowed by the continuously expanding smoke.
However, before other hunters could chastise the ominous implication of that statement, a strange sound suddenly reached their ears—
“Buzz—buzz—buzzbuzzbuzzbuzz…”
It was a sharp vibrating sound, similar to insects flapping their wings, coming from the still billowing smoke.
Not just one.
But many, even swarms of wings were simultaneously vibrating.
“Hey… what is that sound?”
“Are there new enemies? Why are there so many…”
The unexpected commotion caused the hunters’ expressions to darken gradually.
Anxiety spread among them as they maintained their formation, trying to assess the enemy situation despite their training.
But the enemy did not give them this opportunity.
In the next moment—
A jet-black beam of light shot through the smoke like a sharp arrow, targeting one of the mithril-ranked hunters who had just launched their attack.
That hunter was experienced and reacted quickly, almost leaping to avoid the incoming attack the next second.
But what shocked everyone was—
The shadow that should have followed a straight physical trajectory suddenly turned at a sharp angle mid-air, gliding smoothly like a knife, maintaining its speed without any slowdown.
“What—?”
Before it could react, the shadow pierced through the shadow servant that the hunter commanded from behind.
The hit location was the brain.
Without any excessive actions or additional destruction, just one strike completed the “execution.”
Even the mithril hunter didn’t manage to see the assailant’s appearance before being forcibly “logged out.”
However, it was precisely because of his gruesome death that other hunters finally caught a glimpse of the true form of that “shadow.”
It resembled a bizarre, nightmarishly twisted “insectoid phantasm.”
It had a body formed from various insect characteristics—crimson eyes that glowed ominously in the night, its entire body black, mouthparts sharp like razors, slender forelimbs covered in blades like enormous scythes, and thin hind limbs resembling wasps.
Most striking were the multiple pairs of transparent wings on its back, vibrating constantly and producing a chilling buzz that sent shivers down the spine of anyone who heard it.
It hovered in mid-air like a magically transformed small slaughter bee, hunting the hunters as its target.
And most terrifying was its seemingly hard black exoskeleton—
Not a real solid shell, but one condensed from black flames.
【Star-Eclipsing Beast? Bee Form】
“Could it be… it’s changing forms!?”
Though a few experienced hunters noticed the unusual situation right away and gasped, it was still too late.
In the depths of the smoke that had not yet fully dissipated, pairs of crimson eyes suddenly lit up—
So numerous they were beyond counting, dense enough to suffocate, quietly opening like a blood-red sea of stars under the night.
“Watch out—”
A hunter was about to warn everyone to be cautious of the impending attack, but before he could finish his warning, a jet-black beam suddenly shot from the smoke, piercing his forehead.
He collapsed silently, dead.
Immediately after—
The swarms of the Star-Eclipsing Beast lying in wait within the smoke launched their attack in unison.
In an instant, the air was filled with the sharp buzzing of bees and the piercing sound of cutting beams, as countless barrages formed from black flames rained down from all directions, turning the scene into a dazzling yet deadly spectacle reminiscent of a modified bullet hell game.
Every beam contained an intent to kill with precision, not just suppression or injury, but an unreserved “killing intent.”
The speed of the swarm was more than double that of the previous beast form, and their movement trajectories were unpredictable and erratic, as if their thoughts could not keep up. They even possessed the characteristic of transitioning from “complete stillness” to “maximum acceleration” in an instant.
In this relentless slaughter, nearly all shadow servants were instantly pierced and shattered, with only a few hunters—due to their defensive psychic abilities—managing to awkwardly fend off the attacks.
“…The numbers increased, speed surged, but did the attack power decrease?”
A white-haired hunter with a massive shield whispered softly, standing at the forefront of the crowd.
He had opened a spherical defensive barrier that shimmered with a metallic sheen, providing 360° coverage without dead angles, firmly protecting the few survivors behind him.
The black flame swarm crashed against the barrier like a tidal wave, producing a continuous sharp metallic grinding sound, as if it could break through the defense at any moment.
“Think of something—”
Before the hunters could discuss their next strategy, a new anomaly occurred.
Countless black flame swarms converged rapidly toward the center, spiraling and accelerating in a way that its contour changes were almost impossible to capture by the naked eye.
Accompanied by a sudden flash of crimson light, the overall structure of the swarm violently quaked, then completely reorganized as if completing some kind of evolution.
In the next moment, the swarm had transformed into a massive serpent-like phantasm.
This new form of the Star-Eclipsing Beast was entirely covered in hard scales made of black flames, with scales arranged in an orderly manner, closely interlocking, their surfaces undulating with faint flames.
Its head structure elongated, the eye sockets burning with crimson fire, its limbs having degenerated and disappeared, replaced by muscular tissues that could coil and entwine powerfully, the overall body length exceeding several meters, wrapping firmly around the defensive barrier before it with astonishing strength.
The instant the serpent form was complete, the previously stable spherical defensive barrier, which had held against the swarm’s assault, immediately showed visible cracks under the intense pressure.
【Star-Eclipsing Beast: Serpent Form】
“How is this possible…” The hunter holding the large shield turned pale, mumbling quietly.
He felt keenly that his strongest defensive method was being utterly suppressed by this newly transformed phantasm.
This was a transformation ability that precisely adjusted combat strategies according to the enemy’s characteristics; he had never heard of any phantasmal creature possessing such a capability.
The barrier shattered loudly, and the shield-wielding hunter was instantly “crushed.”
The remaining hunters seized the moment before the breach collapsed entirely, jumping out in an attempt to escape from the serpent form’s entangling attacks.
However—
As they leapt into the air, numerous black tentacles suddenly emerged from the ground.
The tentacles quickly extended from the serpent form’s tail or the residual black flames, with the tips splitting into sharp hooked structures, swiftly reaching out and precisely grabbing several hunters still in midair.
The giant serpent’s form underwent another transformation.
This time into something more malicious and bizarre.
Dozens of thick tentacles sprang up from the ground or between walls, seemingly no longer limited to a single “body,” but instead fused with the space itself.
In the central position, a new form of the Star-Eclipsing Beast emerged.
Its body no longer had a clear humanoid or beast structure, but was composed of writhing tissues and constantly splitting and reorganizing joints and limbs, with the surface covered in interlaced cracks where tentacles protruded from, each tentacle’s inner wall embedded with jagged biting organs, glowing red as if specifically evolved for ripping flesh.
【Star-Eclipsing Beast: Tentacle Form】
The hunters entangled by the tentacles barely had time to see its full form before being completely devoured by the tooth-covered inner walls of the tentacles, without even getting a complete scream for help.
With the power of the psychic ability “Secondary Awakening” fully mastered, the Star-Eclipsing Beast’s body completed its initial adaptation and development, making its combat style increasingly expansive, adaptive, and overwhelming.
In this very short time, the hunters who were initially trying to hunt it down were all indiscriminately annihilated.
After clearing all “enemies” from its sight, the Star-Eclipsing Beast’s form shrank and reorganized back into its original “beast form.”
Still engulfed in black flames, it slowly turned around, its crimson eyes gazing into the distance.
There lay the most chaotic area in Tokyo at that moment—countless magical energy waves continuously erupted from that battlefield.
That was also the direction Ayato was heading toward.
It keenly picked up the lingering scent in the air.
The magical energy released by the annihilated shadow servants was identical to the aura from the battlefield in the distance, clear and strong, like kindling the spark of its instincts.
If the Star-Eclipsing Beast, still in its rampaging state, was allowed to charge into that area where humans resided, the consequences would be unimaginable.
That indiscriminate “hunting” attack would turn Tokyo into a dead city interwoven with blood and fire.
As a “being” that had just been born into this world, it would rely on its most primitive instincts to kill all “moving targets” in its line of sight, thereby confirming its place in the food chain of this world.
Just as it bent its hind legs, preparing to leap into the next battlefield—
A gentle yet firm voice sounded from behind it.
“Sō-kun, that’s enough.”
A slender figure, like a ray of light abruptly blooming against the backdrop of the light, appeared behind it.
The Star-Eclipsing Beast halted its movement.
The burning black flames trembled slightly as if suddenly solidifying like water rippling.
That was—her voice.
