The seven-colored pillar punched into the sky like a flare fired from the earth itself.
Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw didn't spare it a second glance.
They stood side by side beneath the Divine Tree—still as statues, but not relaxed. Their posture wasn't admiration. It was the quiet wariness of people who'd learned the Divine Domain's favorite joke:
Rewards always come with teeth.
The light pulsed strangely—too irregular, too alive. Not like a blessing.
Like a heartbeat.
Adrian's gaze didn't move. Only the corner of his mouth twitched—more appetite than amusement.
"So it decided to pay up," he said. "Good."
Raven's combat saber was already out. The blade caught a smear of rainbow glow and turned it cold.
"We take what we earned," she said. No extra words.
The pillar collapsed.
Shrank. Thinned.
Then snapped out like a candle blown dead.
And for a single breath, the clearing looked… peaceful.
A pale green breeze slid through the trees. Leaves whispered. Dust drifted lazily across the ground.
Raven's eyes narrowed.
"Too clean," she muttered.
Then—
Whooom!
Two crescent slashes—blue-green, razor-thin—skimmed through the air at her throat.
Raven moved once.
Not big. Not dramatic.
Just enough.
Clang!
Steel met wind.
The sound was wrong. Wind shouldn't ring like metal. But it did—high and sharp, a knife against a bell.
Raven rolled her wrist and cut through the second crescent.
Both slashes shattered into glittering fragments and evaporated mid-fall.
Adrian watched the dispersing spark-dust with mild disappointment.
"Green wind again?" he said. "They really don't have hobbies."
Raven didn't answer. She kept her stance low, blade ready.
The breeze didn't stop.
It gathered.
The harmless drift thickened into a crawling stream, then a rolling tide—hugging the ground, carrying dozens of hidden crescents inside it like teeth in foam.
And this time, it curved away from Raven.
It went for Adrian.
The livestream chat detonated.
"IT'S BACK—THE GREEN WIND AGAIN!!"
"Boss Raven blocked it like nothing!"
"Eat-Stream Adrian Vale—YOUR TURN!!"
Adrian didn't step back.
He didn't even shift his feet.
He lifted his hand and cracked a knuckle—casual, almost bored.
Then—
Krrk. Krrk. Krrk.
Blood-red kagune unfolded from his back, opening in layered sheets. His Rinkaku braided thickly in front of him—dense, living, ugly, and solid enough to make the air feel heavier.
The green tide slammed into it.
Clang—Clang—Clang!
Again that impossible ringing.
Wind striking flesh like steel.
Crescents kept hitting, slicing, chewing—
and the Rinkaku simply took it.
Adrian walked forward anyway.
Straight into the storm.
Each step should've been suicide. The gale screamed and clawed like it wanted to peel him apart—
and his kagune swallowed it whole.
Rinkaku tendrils snapped outward like spears, puncturing the "structure" inside the wind—tearing seams through the flow, breaking it apart piece by piece.
The green tide buckled.
Thinned.
And bled away into harmless air.
Raven glanced at him—only a fraction of a second—then clicked her tongue.
She'd been working.
He'd been strolling.
Adrian stopped as the last scraps of wind died. He looked at her through his glasses, voice calm.
"Boss Raven," he said mildly, "you're slowing down."
Raven slid her saber back into its sheath with a clean, sharp motion.
She didn't respond.
If it was anyone else, she'd have cut them for saying that.
But the truth sat there, ugly and undeniable:
No matter how many boosts she gained, she was still fighting inside a human frame.
Adrian wasn't.
Not anymore.
The clearing quieted again—too quickly.
And that was when the air changed.
Not colder.
Not hotter.
Just… wrong.
Like something had decided it was done testing them.
Adrian's gaze lifted to the Divine Tree's trunk.
His expression stayed steady, but his eyes sharpened—faint crimson creeping at the edges.
"I was hoping this is where we collect," he said. "But something tells me…"
His voice softened.
"…it doesn't plan on letting us leave."
A presence slid over him like a mask—subtle, predatory.
Then the voice came.
Not from the air.
From inside the mind.
"You little ones…"
The words didn't echo. They bloomed—heavy and old, like a judge leaning forward on the bench.
"…you won't pass so easily."
Raven's fingers tightened on her hilt.
The voice continued.
"Accept my judgment."
The ground began to tremble.
Not random.
Rhythmic. Deliberate.
Like something huge pacing just beneath the soil.
Then the earth split—multiple fractures at once.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!
Dark shapes erupted from the breaks and landed hard, one after another—thuds you could feel in your teeth.
Not one.
Not two.
A wave.
Raven's eyes widened despite herself.
"So many…?"
Adrian's mouth finally curved into something closer to a smile.
"Now we're talking."
Will of Blue Star spoke.
[Warning! Dragon Nation competitors Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw are encountering a legendary Divine Domain creature. Analyzing…]
[Analysis complete.]
[Name: Amethyst Void Beast]
[Threat Rating: S-rank]
[Traits: An S-rank Divine Domain creature. Capable of short-range spatial traversal, with assassination-grade strike patterns that are difficult to defend against. Its outer shell is extremely dense; ordinary attacks struggle to penetrate. Fight for your lives.]
The livestream went dead silent for a heartbeat—
then exploded.
"S-RANK?! AND THERE ARE THIS MANY?!"
"I COUNTED AT LEAST FIFTEEN!"
"THIS IS A SETUP!!"
"Even Eat-Stream Adrian Vale—THIS IS TOO MUCH, RIGHT?!"
On-screen, the beasts shifted in the dust.
Their shells glimmered with an amethyst sheen—hard, faceted, almost beautiful.
And the space around them bent subtly, as if the world couldn't decide where their bodies truly were.
Raven lowered her stance, blade angled forward.
Adrian's kagune twitched behind him—eager, hungry.
The Divine Tree stood silent and radiant, like a judge who'd already decided the sentence.
Then—
The first beast vanished.
Not "moved."
Not "dashed."
It was there, and then it wasn't.
A blink—gone.
And in that same blink, the air behind Raven shivered.
Adrian's head turned slightly.
"Behind you."
Raven slashed.
CLANG!
Her saber hit something that hadn't existed a breath earlier—amethyst shell throwing sparks like struck stone.
The beast recoiled, flickered—
and then the rest of the swarm began to disappear too, one by one.
The battlefield turned into a murder game of empty air and sudden death.
Adrian stepped forward.
Calm. Certain.
Like the fight had finally become worth his time.
"Alright," he murmured. "Let's see how your 'judgment' holds up."
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