Under the shadow of the colossal dinosaur Elric had become, Drake's towering werewolf form suddenly looked...
Tiny. Pathetic. Almost adorable by comparison, like a toy poodle barking at a T-Rex.
Drake's body stiffened, his red werewolf eyes going wide with primal terror.
"Y-You... wh-what are you..."
His voice cracked and shook as he craned his neck upward until his joints popped audibly. He had to tilt his entire body back just to see Elric's head.
The massive hall had gone completely, utterly silent.
Dozens of gang members who'd swaggered in here with absolute confidence were now frozen in place, their brains unable to process what stood before them. Some of them had actually stopped breathing.
A ten-meter-tall, fifteen-meter-long dinosaur, filling the entire grand hall of the Watson Mansion like it had been born there.
Drake, still locked in his werewolf transformation, trembled violently from head to toe.
One moment he'd been full of bloodlust and rage, ready to tear someone apart.
The next, his mind was blank with pure, instinctive terror—the kind that made prey animals freeze before predators.
Then—
"ROOOOOAR!"
Elric's dinosaur form unleashed a thunderous roar that literally shook the mansion. Dust cascaded from the rafters. Windows cracked. The chandelier swayed dangerously overhead.
A massive claw—larger than Drake's entire werewolf body—swung down in a blur.
WHAM—
Drake flew like a ragdoll across the hall, his body spinning through the air before slamming into a decorative marble pillar with a sickening crunch.
Blood exploded from his torso. His breath became ragged, wheezing. His face twisted in complete disbelief as he slid down the pillar, leaving a dark smear behind him.
"Im... impossible..." he gasped out, each word clearly painful. "One hit... just one hit... and I..."
His legs buckled beneath him, werewolf strength meaningless now.
He was supposed to be a Chicago warlord. One of the three strongest ability users in the entire city. A monster that had killed dozens.
Yet he'd lasted less than a single second.
Before he could finish processing this humiliation—
BOOM.
A massive dinosaur foot came down.
Simple. Final. Absolute.
And Drake was no more.
The hall erupted into immediate chaos.
"Run!"
"Holy shit, he killed the boss!"
"Get out—get out right now!!"
Gang members scattered in every direction, abandoning all sense of loyalty or formation. Survival instinct kicked in hard.
But Elric's transformed body surged forward with terrifying speed that shouldn't have been possible for something so massive. His dinosaur form moved with surgical precision despite its size, enhanced by both his natural abilities and the Surgical Fruit powers he'd mastered.
Between his enhanced speed, none of Drake's nearly one hundred men managed to escape.
Even the dozen or so ability users among them—people who'd thought themselves powerful, untouchable—died just as easily as the normal gangsters.
Within five minutes, the grand hall had become completely silent once more.
Bodies littered the floor. The Watson family's beautiful mansion had become a tomb.
Elric shifted back to human form, standing in the center of the carnage without a drop of blood on him.
Elsa, who'd watched the entire thing while staying safely out of range, took a steadying breath. Her composure returned quickly—she was getting used to Elric's overwhelming power. She hurried to a nearby guest room and grabbed spare clothing, then approached the eight terrified Watson relatives still huddled near the walls.
"Here," she said gently, offering them the clothes to cover their injuries and torn garments.
The eight injured Watsons dressed with shaking hands, their eyes darting nervously toward Elric.
When he finally approached them in human form, their bodies trembled—not from their wounds, but from pure fear. They'd just watched him transform into a literal dinosaur and massacre an entire gang in minutes.
Elric ignored their fear completely. It didn't matter.
Emily mattered. That's all.
"I'm looking for someone," he said bluntly, his tone leaving no room for evasion. "Emily Watson. Have you seen her? Where is she? Why wasn't she here with you?"
The moment he spoke that name, all eight Watson survivors looked up at once—and surprisingly, hope flickered in their terrified eyes.
One young woman, maybe nineteen or twenty years old, stepped forward hesitantly. Her face wasn't particularly striking or memorable, but her gaze seemed sincere.
"E-Emily?" she stammered. "You know Emily?"
Elric nodded curtly. "We grew up together in the same orphanage. I'm here to take her back."
The girl swallowed hard, gathering courage.
"Emily isn't in Chicago anymore."
Elric's heart dropped like a stone.
"...What?"
The girl continued, her voice trembling from the weight of recent memories.
"Three days ago... more than a dozen helicopters came directly to this estate."
"Soldiers got out—real military soldiers, heavily armed with professional equipment."
She paused, then added with visible nervousness: "And their leader was a woman. An incredibly beautiful woman."
Elsa stiffened at that description. Elric's eyes sharpened with recognition.
The young Watson woman kept talking, watching Elric's face carefully:
"She said she came specifically to evacuate certain families. She took Emily with her when they left... and the helicopters flew east."
"Those helicopters landed right here on the Watson estate grounds," she explained carefully. "They spoke directly with our family head and Emily's adoptive father."
"They told him they were evacuating select families out of Chicago to some kind of safe zone."
Elric's jaw tightened. "But...?"
"But they said resources were extremely limited. They could only take members of the direct Watson bloodline." The girl's expression grew sad. "That's why we weren't chosen. We're just extended family, cousins and such."
"Then why did Emily go?" Elric pressed.
"Emily left with them. Even though she was adopted and not blood-related, he always treated her as his own daughter—maybe even better than his real daughters sometimes." A hint of bitterness crept into her voice. "She boarded the helicopter with him and his three biological daughters."
A wave of relief washed through Elric's entire body.
Just moments ago, he'd feared the absolute worst—that Emily had been killed, captured, or worse.
Now he knew the truth:
Emily wasn't here because she'd been evacuated with the core Watson family members to some kind of safe zone.
And the people who took her—based on this girl's description—
Multiple military-grade helicopters. Heavily armed professional soldiers. A stunningly beautiful female leader. Highly organized military-style operation.
This matched perfectly with Olivia's group. The mysterious organization Elric had encountered back at his own city, the ones who'd tried to recruit ability users and evacuate certain people.
Elric exhaled deeply, tension draining from his shoulders.
"Emily should be safe then. Olivia's group isn't hostile... at least not to the people they evacuate."
But even as relief flooded him, new questions arose.
Why were they specifically collecting elite families? What made someone "worthy" of evacuation? Why had they taken the Watsons, why had they tried to recruit people?
Most importantly—where the hell were they bringing everyone?
Elric's relief sharpened into deep suspicion and curiosity.
Elric was still working through this puzzle in his mind when the bearded man, who'd been staying silent and terrified in the corner—suddenly spoke up from behind him.
"Speaking of helicopters... actually, more helicopters came to Chicago just yesterday."
Elric turned sharply, his full attention suddenly on the man.
"What? More helicopters?"
He swallowed nervously, clearly intimidated by Elric's sudden intense focus.
"Y-yeah. Three of them this time. And more than thirty armed operatives, dressed and equipped just like that first group you mentioned." He spoke quickly, trying to be helpful. "They were moving around near Lakeview Park in the northern district."
Elric's expression shifted. "Was their leader the same beautiful woman?"
The bearded man shook his head quickly. "I was too far away to see clearly who was leading them. But they definitely weren't there for civilians or evacuations this time."
He paused meaningfully.
"They were circling around the Ability Tree."
Elric blinked. "The what?"
"The Ability Tree." he looked surprised that Elric didn't know. "You... you don't know about it?"
Seeing Elric's genuine confusion, the bearded man moved closer and lowered his voice instinctively, as if discussing something dangerous.
"Mr. Elric, do you know why there are so many ability users in Chicago? Way, way more than in other cities?"
Elric didn't answer immediately—but now that it was mentioned, he had noticed something odd.
When he'd fought Drake's gang earlier, he'd killed more than ten ability users just among the gangsters. That number was absurd. Back in his own city, ability users were relatively rare, valuable. Here they seemed almost common.
Something was definitely unnatural about Chicago's situation.
He stepped even closer, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper.
"It's because of the tree. A massive tree that sprouted about three days after the fog first rolled in."
He paused for dramatic effect.
"A tree that grows ability fruits."
Elsa's eyes went wide with shock. Even she, who'd stayed quiet most of this time, couldn't hide her reaction.
Elric's expression darkened with intense interest, his mind racing through implications.
"A tree that naturally produces ability fruits?" He locked eyes with him. "Take me there. Right now."
This changed everything.
If such a tree existed—if it was real and not some rumor or hallucination—then it could explain Chicago's unusual concentration of ability users.
It could also explain why that mysterious organization kept returning to the city.
They weren't just evacuating people.
They were after the tree itself.
There is 60 chapter Advance, in my patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
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