BOOOOOOM!!!
An immense wave of pressure exploded from his body.
The desert beneath him instantly erupted, blasting thousands of tons of sand away from underneath him.
’’THEO?!’’ Owen shouted with wide eyes.
For a moment, he could only watch as a massive tsunami of sand surged towards him.
’’Stay still!’’ Feng’s voice echoed out behind him.
The little unicorn had long grown larger with Iris already on its back. Only a moment later, it bit down on Owen’s shirt and pulled him up into the sky.
As they shot into the sky, the massive wave of sand swallowed where they’d just stood.
’’What the fuck is going on?!’’ Owen shouted, searching for Theo amongst the chaos.
Before Feng could even respond, massive thunderclouds unfurled in the sky above.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Huge dark lightning bolts flickered between the clouds.
’Danger!’ it thought, immediately diving aside.
A split second later, a huge dark lightning bolt just barely missed them.
BOOOM!!!
It smashed into the ground.
Huge tremors ran through the earth as the bolt disintegrated the ground, leaving behind a massive crater.
But it was nowhere near over.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of thunderbolts swam through the clouds above.
Owen’s expression immediately changed.
’’Motherfucker!’’ he cursed loudly. ’’This is the last time I’m protecting your breakthroughs!!!’’
A deep emerald glow began surrounding Feng’s body.
Its body instantly accelerated, shooting through the heavy storms like a meteorite.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Several dark lightning bolts descended everywhere around them almost simultaneously.
’’Hold on!’’ Feng roared.
Iris tightened her grip without hesitation.
Owen, meanwhile, was still dangling from Feng’s mouth.
’’CAN YOU AT LEAST PUT ME ON YOUR BACK?!’’
Feng completely ignored him.
The unicorn instantly began twisting its body sharply through the air.
It spun around beams, dove under them, and even came to full stops out of nowhere.
Everything just to stay alive.
Just as Feng managed to weave through another cluster of lightning bolts, its eyes suddenly widened.
’Below?!’
The desert floor beneath parted instantly.
WHOOOOSH!!!
A colossal pillar of water erupted from beneath the sand.
It shot hundreds of yards into the air, forcing Feng to immediately change directions.
’’WHAT NOW?!’’ Owen screamed.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Hundreds more pillars erupted all throughout the desert.
The glow around Feng’s body suddenly intensified.
’’We’re leaving!’’ it said.
WHOOSH!
It flapped its wings down, bursting forward at unbelievable speeds.
Lightning chased them from above while enormous pillars of water continued erupting from below.
Feng twisted between both, constantly accelerating toward the edge of the thunderclouds.
Finally... warm rays of sunlight landed on their faces.
They’d made it out of the danger zone.
Feng gradually slowed down, its wings spreading wide as it came to a stop in the air.
Owen quickly grabbed onto Feng’s neck before finally pulling himself onto its back.
’’Holy fuck...’’ he muttered, breathing heavily.
Behind them, the chaos showed no signs of stopping.
And now that they were outside of it... they could finally see how huge the affected area truly was.
’’Is this normal?’’ Iris asked, her face pale.
Owen didn’t even know what to say.
The storms and chaos stretched out nearly two miles in every direction from where Theo had been.
’’It seems Theo has awakened another affinity,’’ Feng’s voice rang out beneath them. ’’But... even I don’t know what it is.’’
Glancing down, a ridiculous expression appeared on Owen’s face.
Before he could say anything, Iris suddenly pointed into the distance.
’’There,’’ she said silently.
Owen and Feng immediately followed her gaze.
Far inside the storm, the chaotic sand waves had completely disappeared.
For the first time since the start of Theo’s breakthrough... they could finally see the center again.
A gigantic crater replaced the desert where Theo had been sitting.
Almost all the sand had been blasted away, exposing the dark sandstone buried deep underneath.
And floating silently above its center... was Theo.
’Contractor,’ Feng thought silently. ’What is going on with you?’
Theo looked completely different from before.
Golden lightning swirled around his body.
But it didn’t move at all as lightning should.
Instead of violently crackling through the air, the thick bolts flowed around him almost like liquid.
Large water droplets appeared out of thin air beneath him, floating up into the sky as if gravity itself had been reversed.
And finally, gray chaos mana filled the gaps between the two elements.
Unlike the other two, it couldn’t seem to decide what form it should take on.
One moment, it stretched into long streams.
The next, it broke apart into dozens of strange shapes before suddenly collapsing back together.
Everything surrounding him seemed... completely unstable.
But it was Theo himself that truly left them speechless.
A thick, pitch-black substance had spread across most of his body.
It covered his clothes, arms, and legs like some kind of liquid armor.
Yet, it was constantly dripping.
Only none of the droplets ever reached the ground, disappearing long before that.
Dark cracks had also spread across his skin.
They ran across his arms, chest, neck, and even parts of his face, almost as if his body itself was slowly breaking apart.
Even Theo’s hair had changed.
It’d grown much and much longer, only now, its ends had become pitch black and floated up like there was no gravity.
But none of that compared to his eyes.
They’d turned completely pitch-black, leaving no pupils or irises behind.
Owen swallowed hard.
’’Fuckkkk...’’ he let out quietly. ’’And I thought my new transformation would be a cool surprise...’’
Iris subconsciously tightened her grip around Feng.
’’Is he alright?’’ she whispered in a mix of shock, disbelief, and worry.
But neither Feng nor Owen answered.
Because at that exact moment, Theo had started moving.
...
Theo slowly raised his hand.
For several long seconds, he simply stared at it.
’What... is this?’
He could feel everything.
The lightning surging around him, the water bursting out of the ground, the chaos mana, and even the thunderstorms above him.
It was almost like they’d become an extension of himself, like he’d gained hundreds of new arms and legs.
’So much power...’ he thought, his heart pounding excitedly in his chest.
He’d already felt an enormous difference when he’d reached the gold core stage.
But the power he currently had was leagues above that.
His body felt unbelievably light, and it felt like he had access to an infinite amount of mana.
And strangely enough... everything around him felt incredibly fragile.
Theo slowly glanced down at the crater beneath him.
For some reason, the first thought that came to mind wasn’t how much damage he’d already caused.
Rather, it was how easily he could cause more.
Theo’s gaze slowly moved up towards the desert city far on the horizon.
For a brief moment, an almost instinctive urge appeared inside him.
’What would happen if I flooded the city?’ he thought, feeling a strange excitement inside his chest. ’Or if I brought a storm down on top of it?’
For some reason...
He really wanted to find out.