Chapter 6: The Beast Born from Void
The creature descended like a broken comet, tearing space with every beat of its black-glass wings. Its body shimmered between flame and shadow, its glowing ribcage barely containing a pulsing red core. Every breath it exhaled distorted the air, like reality itself couldn't decide what shape it was supposed to be.
The team froze.
Even Kara, usually gleeful in the face of chaos, looked stunned. "That's… not in the beast catalog."
"No beast has that kind of aura," Elysia whispered. "It feels like—"
"—a fragment of something ancient," Riven finished, eyes wide. "This isn't a wild beast. It's a remnant."
Yen pulled Vera back instinctively. "We're too low-level for this fight. This is at least Peak Nascent Sky Tier—maybe higher."
Fenrik stepped in front of them. "Don't care what tier it is. It dies if it touches any of us."
The creature screamed—a sound like reversed thunder—and surged forward.
Instinct took over.
Elysia was the first to move, drawing her sword in a flash of pure swordlight. She slashed upward, forming a crescent arc of silver qi that clashed with the creature's wing. Sparks flew. The beast was slowed—but not stopped.
Kara spun lightning around her fingertips and hurled bolts toward its eyes. The beast recoiled, smoke curling from its skull. "Hey, ugly! I'm over here!"
Yen summoned a wind barrier to shield Vera while she prepared her venomous mist technique.
And Riven…
He stood still.
But inside his soul, the five elemental trees flared awake. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Lightning. Each glowed with dangerous potential.
"Balance them," he told himself. "No wild bursts. Form the ring."
He spun his inner qi, weaving the five into a rotational cycle—Fivefold Harmonization. His body trembled, but it held.
He raised his palm—and a compressed orb of all five elements formed, swirling like a newborn star.
He hurled it forward.
The orb struck the beast in the chest.
BOOM!
The explosion cracked the cliff edge and flung the creature back into the sky—but it didn't fall.
It roared, bleeding corrupted fire and void essence, wings flaring as it dived again.
"That didn't kill it?!" Kara yelled. "What is this thing, a mini Transcendent?"
"No!" Riven shouted. "It's worse—it's a memory!"
"What?!"
"I saw it in the glyphs—this is a remnant of the world's last guardian beast. But it's broken. Corrupted. This is all that's left of it!"
"So how do we stop a memory that wants to eat us?!"
"We don't," Elysia said, eyes narrowing. "We seal it."
She turned to Riven. "You triggered it. You end it. Do you still remember the glyph patterns?"
"I… yes. I think so."
"Then combine them. We'll buy you time."
Riven nodded, sat cross-legged on the cracked stone, and closed his eyes.
While his teammates fought to hold the beast at bay, Riven focused inward. The five elemental trees swayed with urgency in his dantian space. Their roots twined slowly into a spiral.
He focused on the glyphs he had seen earlier—one etched into fire, another into stormlight. The fragments whispered:
"Five stand as one. Form the circle. Bind the void."
He didn't just hear them.
He became them.
His hands moved instinctively, drawing a formation midair—one glyph at a time. Each stroke made from elemental qi. One for fire. One for water. One for earth. One for air. One for lightning.
Each branch curved, overlapping into a radiant seal.
The Seal of the Broken Beast.
Behind him, Kara danced along the beast's shoulder, slashing at its wings with blades of charged qi. "This thing is seriously stubborn!"
Elysia landed blow after blow, but even her spirit sword techniques could only slow it down.
Fenrik threw a boulder the size of a wagon at its head. The beast shattered it with a roar.
Yen's winds redirected the beast's strikes just long enough for Vera to release her venom mist—blinding it temporarily.
But it wasn't enough.
The beast's core was surging. It was preparing a final blast—one that would wipe the entire cliff out.
Riven's eyes opened.
"Done."
He raised both hands.
The seal hovered in the sky, glowing like a second sun.
"Everyone—MOVE!"
They dove aside.
Riven slammed the seal into the air just as the beast charged forward—
FWOOOOOOM!
The seal expanded instantly, forming a golden dome that wrapped around the beast. It thrashed. Screamed. Its body crackled and distorted—then finally began to dissolve.
Its scream turned… peaceful.
And then, silence.
Only the wind and the slow crumble of the shattered battlefield remained.
Instructor Halden's voice returned over the talisman.
"…You were supposed to observe. Not wake an ancient fragment of a world guardian."
"Sorry," Riven muttered, exhausted. "It touched a memory."
There was a long pause.
Then Halden added, "Next time, try not to touch the memory back."
Far away, on a silent moon orbiting a higher world, a figure cloaked in stars opened his eyes.
"The Fivefold Core has awakened," he whispered. "And he's beginning to remember…"