Everything exploded into a symphony of chaos.
The ground trembled with each step of the colossal gorilla charging forward, wielding a tree branch thicker than a carriage axle. Its movements, surprisingly agile, tore through the air with raw power. Glenn moved like lightning, his body wrapped in tendrils of electricity that coiled around his arms and legs. Each step left a trail of sparks on the ground, and his pupils glowed a fierce gold, a sign of his absolute control over his lightning affinity.
The beast roared and spun the branch like a giant club, smashing trees, rocks, and even parts of the cliffside with monstrous force. Glenn slid across the terrain with calculated precision, avoiding the use of gravitational magic, testing his reflexes and endurance under pure pressure.
Lightning burst from Glenn's body like incandescent whips, slicing through the air in violent zigzags. Every strike that landed on the gorilla scorched its black flesh, tore away tufts of fur, and filled the air with the acrid stench of burning. But the creature, either insane or too resilient to care, kept charging forward, eyes wide and frothing with rage.
With an animalistic howl, the gorilla planted the branch in the ground and hurled it like a monstrous spear. The projectile tore through the air in a deadly straight line toward Glenn, who dodged to the side with surgical precision. What he hadn't expected was that the beast had used the throw as a distraction.
In a feral burst of speed, the gorilla appeared behind the branch, its fists suddenly hardened. The bones of its hands and forearms lengthened and burst through the skin, forming jagged bone blades. Its mouth stretched into a vicious grin, as if it could already taste victory.
But then everything changed.
A rift tore open in the air with a dry sound, like paper ripping through reality. It appeared right in front of Glenn, the branch vanishing into it only to reappear above the gorilla and strike down with devastating force. The beast's head smashed into the ground as the momentum of its charge sent its body tumbling at high speed.
Glenn leapt into the air, his eyes flaring, and unleashed two colossal bolts of lightning straight into the gorilla. The impact was so violent the creature's eyes rolled back, and its massive frame crashed into the ground, forming a crater as chunks of flesh were hurled in every direction.
Glenn didn't hesitate.
With a snap of his fingers, he concentrated a small portion of gravitational mana directly beneath the beast and waited.
The valley answered.
Gravity warped. The air turned dense. An overwhelming pressure dropped like an invisible wall, crushing the gorilla the instant it hit the ground. Bones snapped like dry branches, the ground sank beneath the brutal weight, and blood gushed from the creature's mouth, eyes, and ears.
Above, between two gnarled branches, another rift opened, and Glenn emerged from it in a burst of electricity. His hands, now clutching two blazing lightning spears, slashed through the air and pierced deep into the gorilla's back, incinerating everything in their path. The discharge struck the already broken beast and carbonized it instantly, leaving behind nothing but smoldering bones and a black scar scorched into the earth.
Silence.
The valley breathed again. And Glenn, panting, slowly descended, his body still crackling with faint sparks.
From a distance, Silas clapped slowly, leaning against a rock with a teasing smile on his face.
"Excellent. Now... can we set up camp or is another monkey going to show up?"
The answer was yes. Not just one monkey appeared, but apparently... the whole damn family.
Glenn fought for a full hour, maybe more he couldn't say for sure. It all became a blur of roars, explosions, crackling lightning, and shattered bones. The apes came in waves, each one bigger, more grotesque, and more furious than the last. They leapt through the trees with savage brutality, black ossified spikes jutting from their backs, eyes glowing red like embers, and a thirst for battle that defied reason.
The result was... interesting.
The Sleipnirs noble, proud mounts didn't move a single hoof during the chaos. Not when a branch flew past their flanks. Not when the ground trembled from the gorillas' screams. They remained unfazed, calmly grazing. Silas, meanwhile, watched everything from his seat on a rock, hands clasped behind his head like he was enjoying a concert, humming the same hypnotic tune from earlier.
The apes completely ignored the old man and the horses, as if bound by some ancient command forbidding them from attacking. All their fury was reserved for Glenn. And Glenn... was still in recovery. His soul, his body, his muscles none of it was at full strength. But there, in that forest where nature itself breathed like a wild beast, he was forced to find a new limit.
In the end, the battlefield looked like a warzone. The cave they were supposed to use as shelter had been obliterated. In place of the secure stone outcrop, a smoldering crater stretched for dozens of meters, marked with deep scorch lines, charred trees, and—most notably—a pile of gorilla corpses with black spines strewn like broken dolls.
Silas finally stood. He gave his immaculate red robe a light shake, stretched his shoulders as if waking from a refreshing nap, and walked over to Glenn.
"Come on, boy. We need to find a proper shelter before nightfall."
Glenn, on his knees, still panting like he'd run a marathon with a punctured lung, looked at the old man with pure hatred.
"You... damn old man... you didn't lift a single finger..."
Silas smiled and replied in that same infuriatingly calm tone:
"Of course not. You needed to warm up. Consider that a stretch."
Glenn cursed as he rose to his feet, his body drenched in blood his own and others' his expression screaming: 'this isn't over'.
**
As night fell, the crackling of the campfire filled the air while chunks of gorilla meat slowly roasted over the coals. Glenn and Silas sat around the fire, the starry sky stretching above them like an infinite veil. The scent of seared meat mixed with the earthy, humid aroma of the living forest around them. Glenn chewed in silence, his body covered in bruises and scratches, his muscles throbbing as if every fiber protested a full day of torture.
He could barely keep his eyes open when Silas broke the silence with a dry sentence:
"Come on, boy. Time to cultivate."
Glenn lifted his face with a defeated expression, his eyes half-lidded with exhaustion. His joints cracked just from the effort of trying to move.
"You're kidding me... How am I supposed to cultivate in this state?" he muttered. "Besides, the spatial energies here might be a little more noticeable, but they're still far from what I expected. It's like... trying to hear a flute in the middle of a storm."
Silas, for the first time that night, shook his head. And surprisingly, he did it without the usual cigarette between his lips. His eyes, hidden beneath the black band, were turned directly toward Glenn, and his tone came almost like an ancestral command.
"Your senses are dulled. You're trying to smell wine with your nose stuffed full of pepper."
Before Glenn could argue back, Silas snapped his fingers.
In an instant, the world around them changed.
Glenn blinked. It felt like something had been unplugged from his ears and chest. Like he'd spent his life submerged in the sea, and was only now breaking the surface. The wind brushing against his skin felt new. The rustling of the leaves—sharper. But what shocked him most was the world of energy around him.
His senses normally attuned to the electric currents and pulsing gravity of the world—were silenced. Now, only one thing lit up in his perception: spatial energy. Pure. Untouched. All-encompassing. Like invisible threads vibrating between the trees, like subtle seams in the very fabric of reality.
Glenn gasped as if breathing for the first time.
"This," said Silas, his voice now lower but incredibly clear, "is your first true training: learning to isolate your senses."
Glenn fell silent. The exhaustion hadn't disappeared, but now it felt secondary. A new kind of curiosity—no, reverence—filled his mind.
Because for the first time… he could feel. Truly feel.