Zephyr's vision was blurry, and he could barely hold himself together. The treacherous climb up the ravine had taken a toll on his body.
Zephyr looked up to examine his surroundings. It was the dawn of night, with the only sound being the rustling leaves in the forest and the hooting of the owls. Zephyr had to get somewhere safe since many dangerous beasts were prone to come out at night in Kyomora, and there wasn't a chance in hell someone would be in the middle of nowhere to help him.
Zephyr's vision still hadn't fully recovered, seeing three beasts emerge from the shadows. As Zephyr's vision adjusted, he realized it wasn't three beasts. It was one beast with three different heads.
A Cerberus? in Kyomora? I thought those only existed in the Nyxthorn Thicket. Yeah, hell no. I'm getting the hell out of here. I'm in no shape to fight it at all.
It was a waste of time trying to figure out how this beast got here, so Zephyr just booked it. The Cerberus was quick to follow, and it wouldn't be long until it caught up with him. Zephyr began to stumble, tripping over branches and rocks. There was no way he would be able to outrun such a beast, so there was no other option but to put up a fight.
"Alright, come at me, you dirty mutt!" Zephyr screamed, unconcerned about alerting the other monsters nearby.
Zephyr stopped in his tracks and raised his fists, taking a stance. Zephyr's body was weak, not only from all the climbing he'd done, but also from the fact that whoever he reincarnated into didn't train his body at all.
The Cerberus bared its teeth and lunged at Zephyr, ready to sink its teeth into his shoulder. Zephyr had barely managed to sidestep the beast with his insane reaction time he had built up and used his focused his qi into his fist, landing a good blow on the Cerberus's eye, blinding one of the heads' right eye, and it slammed into its other heads, dazing the cerberus's vision in the process.
The Cerberus got flung into a tree with that hit, but that was it. There was nothing else he could do. He had no energy, no qi, and no abilities to combat this beast. The Cerberus flung his head, and even though Zephyr saw the attack, his body couldn't react fast enough, and its head flung into Zephyr's chest, throwing Zephyr's body into a tree.
Zephyr groaned in agonizing pain as he felt his ribs fracturing with the impact.
No, it's not over yet. GET UP!
Zephyr clutched his chest, struggling to get up. The shirt, tying the stick around his leg, had become undone, and the Cerberus was getting ready to land the finishing blow. In a single breath, Zephyr clutched the tree behind him and used it to push himself to the left of the Cerberus, heading into its blind side. Limping, he quickly headed to another tree and hid right behind it to take a break as the Cerberus flung his head to the direction Zephyr went, but without one of its eyes, and without clear vision, it flung its head into the tree Zephyr was hiding behind, damaging itself even more.
Zephyr began to get up again to get Father away from it as the Cerberus screamed in rage, eager to finish the job to get its meal.
The longer this drags on, the longer I'll be at a disadvantage. The Cerberus hasn't used its nose yet since it hasn't deemed me much of a threat, but it definitely will soon if I don't find somewhere safe right now.
Zephyr began hurriedly limping away as adrenaline coursed through every fiber of his body, knowing how slim the chances were of surviving this predicament. Zephyr used his remaining qi to detect the monsters around him and find the best path to avoid them all. Because of the commotion, some of the beasts had found the Cerberus and began attacking it, thinking that they had gained the upper hand when in reality the Cerberus was much stronger than they, easily flinging them back.
Zephyr could feel his body shutting down as he slumped down against a tree, looking down at his chest. His chest looked beyond repair, the Cerberus's head slamming into Zephyr had smashed his ribs into tiny pieces, with tiny pieces of the bone stabbing different parts of his body. A shadowy figure loomed over him, and Zephyr took one last deep breath, knowing that he had met his end.
So this is the end of the line, huh. Only lasted a single day coming into this world, with so many advantages this run. This is definitely a record, Zephyr thought, chuckling to himself.
"Stop laughing at yourself, Baek, and get up!"
Zephyr looked up, and instead of expecting a beast, he was greeted by an old man.
The old man looked in the direction Zephyr came from and looked back at Zephyr.
"... you survived all that? Looks like you're tougher than you look."
The man sighed, "Whatever, just wait here for a moment, I'll take care of it."
Zephyr slowly raised his hand, trying to motion the old man to get away, assuming that there was no way that the man was stronger than that beast. The old man, confused by Zephyr's gestures, hurried to the Cerberus as he gripped the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it when the time came. Zephyr crawled over to the other side of the tree to witness the fight, knowing that his life depended on whether the man could take down the Cerberus or not.
Zephyr could barely sense any qi in the old man, but when the man got close to the Cerberus, Zephyr sensed an explosion of qi. The old man suddenly seemed to teleport right onto the back of the Cerberus, slicing the three heads right off its body. Zephyr, growing weary and unable to stay awake any longer, smiled and went to sleep, knowing he would be able to survive another day.
"Baek? Baek! Baek Wol!"
...
Zephyr woke up in a cold sweat. There were bandages all over his body, and it hurt to sit up on the bed.
First, Zephyr decided to try and figure out where he was in Kyomora. Three different sects ruled this continent: The Cult of the Withering Moon, the Scarlet Ember Sect, and the Verdant Sky Pavilion. Zephyr tried recalling what happened during the fight with the Cerberus. After he had punched the Cerberus in the eye with qi, it seemed like the Cerberus was moving much more sluggishly. There was a possibility that his inherent qi could have caused it, rather than it just being because Zephyr hit it, but there was too little information to assume that.
Zephyr then tried to recall the fight between the old man and the beast.
Someone moving that fast could not be from the Scarlet Ember Sect, so it has to be either the Pavilion or the Cult. Since there was a monster from the Nyxthorn Thicket...
The continent of Kyomora was divided into three strips of evenly divided land that were ensured to prevent territorial conflicts, with the Cult being on the far left. The only place that would make sense for beasts from the Thicket to migrate over to Kyomora would be the Cult, the place closest to the continent.
Well, that confirms it. I'm in the Cult of the Withering Moon. Being a member of a cult that gave me the most trouble in every lifetime is something, but how are these monsters getting over that massive body of water separating the continents?
In every single life, this Cult had been a huge issue for Zephyr. This expansionistic cult had an elder who was much hated by the two other cults. Trying to get this cult on Zephyr's side was a pain since they never seemed to want to cooperate. Poison techniques and energy-draining strikes were one of the most hated abilities in all of Umbraxis as well on top of all that.
Next, Zephyr wanted to try to find out who he was concerning the cult. During the battle, Zephyr barely recalled what the old man had called him after slaying the beast.
Hm, Baek? Yes, it was Baek Wol. Wait, Wol is the patriarch's last name, I must be one of the sons competing for succession.
The Patriarch's name that ruled over the cult was Jin Wol, meaning that Zephyr was one of the five sons of Jin Wol.
Throughout all of my lives, I've never been put in this cult, so I suppose that it might have been because the Goddess hated this cult for some reason. If this is true, then, as I had thought before, a third party has to be at play here.
A few moments later, the sliding wooden door in front of him opened up, revealing an old man dressed in a large black robe carrying a plate of food.
"Baek Wol, where the hell were you? I spent the entire day searching all over for you until I found you half dead, lying under a tree." The old man just sounded annoyed at the idea, but then turned serious. "There are many unknown monsters in that forest, yet you still ventured out there. You could've died trying to take on that Cerberus! Now that some mysterious monsters from an unknown land had come to take over the forest, this is not the time to be fooling around out there." The old man placed the food on Zephyr's lap and continued, "Besides, your entrance exam for Moonshadow Academy is in three days. Even with your better-than-average regenerative body, you probably won't survive, so you might as well savor this food."
I thought monsters didn't appear in Kyomora until five years had passed. Why now?
"I'm... sorry," Zephyr replied, not knowing what else to say.
The old man left, leaving Zephyr to comprehend what the old man had just told him.
The entrance exam for Moonshadow Academy, huh?
Zephyr had heard something about this in one of his past lives, although he didn't really know the specifics. However, he did know that there were three different brutal phases he had to go through to pass the exam.
One thing that was certain for Zephyr, though, was how weak his body was. Even though he had a body built for absorbing multiple types of energies, the body itself was incredibly weak. It was also evident that the old man saw no potential and even pitied Zephyr for attending the entrance exam. Usually, people would call the elder's sons "young master," but the old man just called him by his name so casually. It seemed that before Zephyr had reincarnated into Baek's body, he had no affinity for absorbing qi, essentially making him a joke.
No wonder this guy tried to kill himself.
But there was still one question left unanswered: Why was a cerberus in Kyomora? These hell-like beasts didn't appear in Kyomora, at least not in 1452.
Wait, if beasts have appeared in Kyomora...
Zephyr looked around the room, spotting a calendar in a dark corner. As he looked closely at the date, it said, July 14th, 1457.
Hah, goddammit. Now was this the work of the Goddess or some other being that has been in play for some time now?
Beasts had begun to appear in Kyomora during the year 1457 as a result of an earthquake that connected the two continents, Kyomora and the Nyxthorn Thicket, together. These beasts migrated to Kyomora in search of more food.
Now, Zephyr was stressing out. The calamity would begin in 1465, but he had just lost five years because someone thought it would be funny to reincarnate five years later than he was supposed to.
Zephyr ripped off his bandages and barged out the door. There was no time to waste, if he wanted to overcome the calamity, he would need to start getting stronger.