CHAPTER 45 — Sacrifice and the Saviour
The boundary did not just break; it vanished into a screaming storm of blood and fire.
For a single, agonizing breath, the valley forgot the concept of order. The air itself seemed to splinter as the golden shards of the city's protection evaporated, leaving nothing between the civilian population and the primal hunger of the forest.
The initial collision was a nightmare of visceral sound—the wet crunch of bone, the tearing of steel, and a collective roar that drowned out the frantic ringing of the emergency bells. The frontline defenders, mostly outer disciples and town guards, were swallowed in seconds, their formations collapsing like wet paper. But from the high terrace above, four streaks of light descended through the smoke like falling stars, trailing auras that cut through the gloom.
Kael led the charge. His body was wreathed in a violent, pulsating violet aura that crackled with the intensity of a dying star. He struck the ground at the very center of the breach, the shockwave of his landing liquefying the earth and shattering the skeletons of a dozen lesser beasts instantly. He didn't look for the small prey; his eyes were locked on the mountain of gold and flame surging through the smoke.
The Flaming Lion.
In that moment, Kael was no longer just a Pavilion leader or a strategic commander—he was the axis around which Stonewake's survival turned. He met the beast head-on, his fists coated in the dense, shimmering Violet Nova essence.
The first exchange sent a ripple of heat through the valley so intense it turned the nearby trees to charcoal in an instant. But as Kael's knuckles connected with the Lion's ribs, his heart sank into his stomach. The beast didn't stagger. It didn't even flinch. Instead, it let out a low, vibrating growl that felt like shifting tectonic plates beneath Kael's feet.
It had evolved.
The Lion was no longer a Level 3 beast. It had stepped into the Initial Stage of Level 4—a realm that touched the fundamental authority of the world itself. The air around it felt heavier, thicker, as if the world itself was subtly leaning in its favor, granting it the right to rule the ground it walked upon.
"Kane! Rovan! Serik!" Kael's voice echoed through the chaos, amplified by his core. "To me! Now!"
Before the call, the three had been acting as absolute killing machines on the flanks.
Kane moved like a winter god. With every sweeping swing of his Glacial Fang Halberd, the ambient moisture in the air froze into jagged, lethal spears. Beasts charging at him became instant ice statues, their eyes wide with a final, frozen terror, only to be shattered into a thousand glittering pieces by his next strike.
To the west, Rovan was a blurred Gale. His Gale Sever Blade didn't just cut; it erased. He moved through the ranks of the beast tide as if he were harvesting grain, his movements so fast that limbs and heads flew into the air in a constant, rhythmic rain of gore.
Serik's method was the most dreadful. He stood motionless amidst the slaughter, his hands dancing over his Star-Map Monolith. With every precise gesture, the internal pressure of the beasts around him would suddenly invert. They didn't just die; they ruptured. Internal organs and steaming blood sprayed into the air as their bodies folded in on themselves under the weight of his invisible, crushing formations. Even seasoned defenders averted their eyes—no one liked being reminded how fragile a living body truly was.
But at Kael's command, the systematic slaughter stopped. They converged on the Flaming Lion, forming a desperate, four-man perimeter against the apex predator.
The battle that followed was a masterclass in futility.
This was not a battle of strength or skill anymore. It was a collision between those who obeyed the laws of the world—and something the world now answered to.
Kane's freezing power, which had shattered Level 2 beasts like glass, hissed and evaporated uselessly against the Lion's hide. The beast's skin was no longer just fur; it was a hardened armor empowered by a nature-attuned flame that ignored the concept of cold. Rovan's Gale Sever Blade, capable of carving through solid stone, left only shallow, white marks on the monster's flanks.
The Lion moved with a terrifying, predatory authority. It had gained an understanding of the world's flow—a presence that made Serik's formations feel like brittle cobwebs. He managed to slow the beast's momentum, but he couldn't trap it. It was too fast, too heavy, too real for his starlight to hold.
Kael's violet flames were the only thing the Lion truly feared, causing charred patches of muscle to show through the golden mane, but it wasn't enough to kill.
"I have to end this," Kael rasped, his eyes beginning to bleed violet light as his core hit its limit. He felt a clarity as sharp as broken glass. "Hold him! I'm taking the shot!"
Kane, Rovan, and Serik didn't hesitate. They threw themselves into the path of the Level 4 monster, launching a relentless, desperate barrage of suicide-strikes just to keep the beast pinned for a second longer. They took hits that cracked their ribs, scorched their lungs, and sent them reeling, just to buy Kael the time he needed.
Kael gathered every last drop of the Violet Nova Essence into his palms. The air began to scream as the energy reached a critical mass. He prepared his final, absolute attack—a strike that would leave him crippled, but might save the city.
The Flaming Lion let out a massive, earth-shaking roar.
Kane smiled through a mask of his own blood, thinking it was the beast's final cry of fear. But as Kael launched the violet sun toward the Lion's chest, a shadow eclipsed the sky.
A Cloud-Piercer Vulture—a Peak Level 3 flying beast—dove from the smoke above. It didn't attack; it threw itself in front of the Lion with suicidal loyalty, spreading its massive wings to take the full force of Kael's strike.
The scream was earpiercing. The bird's skin charred and vaporized instantly, turning to black ash that drifted in the wind like a disintegrating sand castle. The violet flame inhaled the creature completely, erasing its body and its beast core in a matter of seconds.
When the ashes finally cleared, the Flaming Lion was revealed.
It was wounded—its skin burned and its bones visible in jagged patches—but it was still standing. Its bloody, golden gaze locked onto Kael.
Kael's will shattered. His knees hit the mud with a wet, heavy thud. His arm was fractured, his essence was drained, and the monster was still walking toward him with the slow, deliberate pace of an executioner. The world rang in his ears, sound reduced to a dull, distant roar, as if reality itself was receding.
"Run," Kael choked out, looking back at his broken friends. "Take everyone. Get to the safe zones. I'll buy you the time."
"No," Kane growled, planting his halberd firmly in the dirt to keep himself upright. "We stay."
Kael turned to the First Elder, who was leading a desperate rearguard defense nearby. "Elder! This is an order! Take the disciples and retreat now!"
The Elder hesitated, his eyes full of grief, but Kael's expression was absolute. With a final, shaking nod, the Elder began the retreat, ushering the remaining disciples toward the inner gates.
Kane, Rovan, and Serik moved to create a final opening for the others, leaving Kael alone before the approaching Lion.
Kael looked up at the beast. He didn't feel fear anymore—only a cold, final decision. He closed his eyes and reached into the center of his soul. He didn't circulate his Qi; he commanded it to collapse. He began to draw in the surrounding energy like a violent, dark magnet, preparing to detonate his own core to drag the Lion into the void with him.
"Kael, don't!" Kane screamed from the distance, sensing the suicidal surge of energy.
Kael didn't listen. The pressure inside him reached the breaking point. He was ready to die to end this nightmare once and for all.
*CRUNCH.*
The sound was sudden and sickeningly heavy—like a mountain being dropped onto a dry branch.
Kael felt a sudden, hot spray of viscous, foul-smelling liquid rain down over his face and shoulders. He flinched, eyes squeezed shut, expecting the Lion's teeth to sink into his throat.
He opened his eyes.
Standing directly in front of him was a man in a tattered, travel-worn black cloak. The hood was deep, casting the face into a complete, impenetrable shadow.
Before the man, the Flaming Lion—the Level 4 nightmare that had nearly ended the Stonewake lineage—was gone. In its place was a mangled, flattened pile of meat and shattered bone. Its organs were scattered across the dirt, crushed into the earth as if by an invisible, divine fist that had struck from above.
The "authority" of the Level 4 beast had been erased in a single heartbeat.
The man in the black hood didn't turn around. He simply stood there, his cloak snapping in the wind.
Kael looked at the man's back, his breath hitching in his scorched lungs.
"You're late," Kael whispered, the words trembling with a hope he had buried long ago.
_
Chapter End