The transition from a predator to a corpse happened with terrifying speed.
Within a single day of mastering the third pillar and becoming a Predetator, Dreleon had become almost a ghost himself.
His royal Lion Clan physique, once lean and powerful, had withered until he was nothing but bones draped in paper-thin skin.
The Master Cells within him were too efficient; they demanded energy at a rate that far exceeded his ability to refine it from the raw ant meat he had consumed.
He lay on the cold floor of the labyrinth, unable to lift a finger, his vision blurring into a grey haze.
Ironically, as his heart slowed, Dreleon felt a sense of profound relief.
So, this is how it ends, he thought, his breath rattling in his hollow chest.
The torture, the rewriting of my soul, the Snake's sapphire eyes... it's finally over.
He welcomed the darkness, believing that death was the only way to escape the Masterpiece logic that had turned his life into a laboratory experiment.
But fate—or perhaps the very world that had become mysterious—had other plans.
From a crack in the jagged ceiling, a small creature descended.
It was an insect unlike any he had seen, its wings shimmering with a dull, metallic luster, it's body like a small transparent worm, with a green colour halo surrounding it, and its eyes completely hazy purple like small lights.
It landed on his sunken chest, its smooth body pricking his skin.
Dreleon didn't have the strength to swat it away, nor the will to care.
Then, it bit him.
A jolt of pure, concentrated energy slammed into his nervous system like a lightning strike.
Unlike just calories; it was a refined, dimensional essence.
Within a single hour, the thought impossible happened.
His skin regained its luster, his muscles surged back into existence with even greater density, and the agonizing hunger that had been eating his mind vanished.
For the next week, the caves did not hear the screams of a desperate lion, but the silent footsteps of a silent hunter.
Dreleon roamed, using his newfound stability to test the limits of his cunning and power.
He moved through the tunnels like a spatial anomaly, appearing and disappearing within the ranks of the World Erosion Ants.
He didn't just kill them; then he processed them.
By the seventh day, the once-unstoppable population of the hive had been entirely erased.
The 'Black Tide' had been devoured by a single man.
"Hiss... I am happy to see you doing so well," a sibilant voice echoed through the graveyard of ants.
Dreleon turned and saw.
Materializing from the very carcasses of the ants he had slain, the Snake appeared in her human form.
Her sapphire eyes scanned his revitalized body with a look that bordered on affection.
'But you didn't come when I was dying,' Dreleon thought, his heart cold with a resentment that no amount of training could erase.
'You watched me turn to bone and did nothing.'
"Oh?
You've found yourself a very nice pet, hiss..." she said, tilting her head toward the insect perched on his shoulder.
"I also had one, but i killed it to devour it's ability," she said with a smile impossible to put in words.
Dreleon surprised that this tiny worm have some ability that snake found useful, asked; "is this worm something special?"
"Hahaha…," she laughed then replied, "pup, that's no worm, it's a small snake and an extraordinary one," after sorting her thoughts and seeing his curious face she continued.
"It's called the Great Erosion snake.
It has nothing to do with 'World Erosion ants' in the physical sense, but it is almost found within their nests, because world erosion ants have most wasted energy so they got attracted there.
It is a biological anomaly—its body contains a pocket dimension where it stores massive amounts of refined energy.
I think it got attracted to you thinking you are of same kind, because the modification i did to your body involves some parts of these snakes.
Keep it with you all time, because; for someone like you, who has a small build but an appetite that could swallow a mountain, it is the most ideal partner in the world.
It will feed your cells so you do not have to eat every hour."
"Oh, and a reminder to you, you have to fill their energy with atleast high grade things to use for atleast a month," She said.
Then her expression shifted, a strange mix of a smile and a trace of genuine sadness.
"Hah... I have to say, our journey until here was exceptional.
You are my only disciple, Dreleon.
You must not tarnish my reputation out there."
Dreleon froze, his mind reeling.
"Am I allowed to go?
What about the other pillars?
You said there were five."
The Snake sighed, a sound that seemed to carry the weight of centuries.
"I do not want you to go.
Blame my luck for not meeting you before the King's eyes turned toward you.
Now as a pacter and guard of princess you have to follow her orders,
And a message arrived just yesterday.
You are to return to your post immediately.
It seems the Princess is preparing for a journey, and she requires her shadow."
Dreleon looked at her, searching for the lie.
'If I hadn't suffered so much at your hands, I might actually believe you care,' he thought, masking his suspicion.
"After teaching you the three pillars, the basics are down," she continued, her voice regaining its clinical edge.
"When you return—if you survive long enough to return—I will teach you the final two.
They are not for the weak."
Dreleon looked at the small, pulsing creature on his shoulder.
For a moment, his fear of the Snake was replaced by curiosity.
"I am feeling a very strange sensation of being able to read it, why?" He asked.
The Snake smiled, perhaps enjoying this last moment of being the all-knowing master.
"According to what i have heard and seen about humans, there exists a strange group of people called beast masters, they have strange bloodline of ancient beasts or blessing of some, the very first time i saw you i felt same sensetion; that's why I chose you as experi… i mean as a disciple, and i think it's same for this little snake." She answered, without holding back any knowledge.
Before Dreleon could ask how to control it, the Snake flicked her wrist.
A heavy object whistled through the air.
Dreleon caught it with a telekinetic twitch of his space element, the cold jade clicking against his palm.
On its surface, carved in deep, imperial script, were the words: Imperial Guard.
"The Palace is waiting, little Lion," she whispered, her form beginning to dissolve into a mist of sapphire scales and shadow.
"Try not to let them kill you before I can finish my expe… teaching."
She said, her words not mixed with insincerity
Dreleon stood alone in the dark, the jade token heavy in his hand and the Great Erosion snake humming on his shoulder.
He was no longer the boy who had been dragged into the swamp.
He was something new—a Master of Space, a Split Soul, and a Biological Black Hole.
He turned toward the exit of the cave, his eyes reflecting the distant, pale light of the surface.
The Princess was moving.
The world was changing.
And for the first time, Dreleon felt like he was the one who would be doing the hunting.