The silence that followed the Umbra Stalker’s annihilation was heavy, a physical weight that pressed against the lungs of everyone present. It was not the silence of peace, but the stifling vacuum left in the wake of an apex predator. Grandmaster Echidna, usually a pillar of stoic martial discipline, found herself unable to move.
Her hands, calloused from years of commanding the Stone Rhino, were trembling. She had seen horrific creatures in the service of the Royal Guard... creatures designed for war and terror... but nothing compared to the entity standing behind Lazek Oberon.
It was a masterpiece of biological discord, a creature that seemed to offend the very concept of nature itself. Its multifaceted eyes leaked thick, toxic-green mana that sizzled against the rotting wood of the ancient root-plateau.
Beside her, Grandmaster David was no better. He had spent his life in the Tigerwood Forest, believing he understood the hierarchy of beasts. Yet, looking at the ape-manticore-octagon hybrid, he felt discombobulated.
It was not just power; it was the presence of something that should not exist, a defiance of the World Will’s design.
Rando and the members of the Wolfberg mercenary team were catatonically shocked. Fabio’s Pyro Cobra, usually a creature of fierce, flaming pride, had retreated so far into his shadow that only a faint orange glow remained visible.
Paula’s Prism Hornet had ceased its buzzing altogether, its crystalline wings folded tightly as if trying to shrink into non-existence.
They had seen Kale’s Hydra, a creature that already defied common sense, but Lazek’s creation was on a completely different scale of monstrosity. Mostly because it was a true monstrosity built for immediate destruction and power, without thinking about any regard for biological stability.
"Master..." Kale breathed, his voice cracking. He was the only one who did not look away.
His green eyes, now shimmering with the Absolute Affinity of a Hexarion Human, traced the chimaera’s genetic structure with a mix of awe and analytical hunger. He could see the Octagon trait integration pulsing through its skin and the Ape-might reinforcing its frame.
Lazek did not turn to look at him. His pale, handsome face remained tilted slightly downward, his gaze fixed on the spot where the Stalker had once stood. The Umbra Stalker was a Ravager-rank predator, a lord of the shadows that should have taken an entire squad of Masters to suppress.
Lazek’s chimaera had treated it like a nuisance.
However, the battlefield did not remain still. The massive clash of auras caused by Lazek’s chimaera had turned the Southern sector into a beacon of high-intensity energy.
To the Ravager-rank entities leading the hordes, the chimaera was an affront. It was a foreign intruder in their forest, a scent that set their predatory instincts mad.
From the surrounding thickets and the lightless gaps between the gargantuan roots, multiple roars erupted. The air grew cold, then humid, then spiked with ozone as several high-rank signatures locked onto their position.
Three Ravager-rank beasts emerged from the foliage simultaneously. From the left, a Titanic Moss-Boar, its tusks carved from ancient, mana-conducting stone. From the right, a Sky-Dreader Mantis, its chitinous body shimmering with wind-elemental blades. And from the shadows beneath them, another darkness-based entity, a Void Panther, slithered forward.
The mercenaries scrambled, their newfound Feral beasts whining in terror. Echidna and David instinctively reached for their mana, but their movements were sluggish, suppressed by the sheer density of the encroaching Ravager auras.
"Stay back," Lazek said. His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, yet it carried over the snarling of the beasts with the clarity of a funeral bell. He finally turned his head, his cold, black eyes landing on Kale.
For a fraction of a second, the boredom that usually defined Lazek Oberon vanished. In its place was a murderous, incandescent rage that made the surrounding air vibrate.
Lazek was a man who found the Association’s politics tedious and the Church’s laws laughable. But Kale was his disciple. Kale was the one genius who had survived his tests, the one mind capable of matching his own twisted ambitions.
If he had arrived even a second later, the Umbra Stalker’s claws would have snuffed out that miracle. The thought of all that genius being extinguished by a "common weed" of the forest made Lazek’s blood boil with a heat that exceeded any elemental flame.
"I have spent too much Accredit and too much of my time on you, Kale," Lazek murmured, his eyes beginning to glow with a violent, obsidian light. "I will not have my investment ruined by cattle."
For the first time in his public life, Lazek Oberon revealed a secret that he had kept hidden even from his senior brothers. In this world, the Awakened pathways were distinct but not isolated. Artificers, as masters of creation, possessed a unique foundation. Every Artificer possessed the partial pathways of both the Martial and the Elemental.
Usually, even the most talented Artificers neglected these, viewing them as auxiliary tools. But Lazek was a monster of comprehension. Due to his unprecedented genius, he had not only achieved mastery in all three professions of the Artificer pathway, but he had delved deep into his partial pathways as well.
He had spent decades refining his body like a Martial and his soul like an Elemental, treating his own existence as the ultimate crafting project.
Lazek raised his right hand, his fingers splayed. A ripple of absolute darkness spread from his palm, a cold, structured void that seemed to delete the light from the environment.
"Void Shackle," Lazek uttered.
The Sky-Dreader Mantis, mid-leap, was suddenly jerked to a halt. Thick, obsidian chains manifested from the air, wrapping around its limbs. The Ravager-rank insect screeched as the darkness began to corrode its internal mana pathways.
The Titanic Moss-Boar charged, its stone tusks glowing. Lazek did not even look at it. He snapped the fingers of his left hand.
"Obsidian Deluge."
From the ground beneath the boar, a geyser of liquid darkness erupted. It was highly compressed darkness-elemental mana with the acidity of concentrated bile. The boar was engulfed, its massive frame dissolving instantly. The creature did not even have time to scream before it was reduced to black, melting sludge.
Kale watched, transfixed. He could see the efficiency, the way Lazek manipulated the element’s variables to achieve the most devastating result with the least movement. It was Artificing applied to combat. The Void Panther, seeing its comrades deleted, attempted to flee into the shadows.
"Running? How tedious," Lazek remarked. His eyes flared, the dark flames doubling in intensity. He stepped forward, and his figure blurred. He did not use a beast’s speed; he used a high-level Martial footwork technique integrated with elemental propulsion.
In a blink, he was standing directly above the Panther. Lazek reached down and grabbed the Panther by its throat. His bare hand was wreathed in dark mana, acting as a physical containment field. The Ravager-rank beast found itself unable to move.
He tightened his grip. A sickening crack echoed as the Panther’s neck snapped like a dry branch. Before the body could hit the ground, Lazek’s dark flames consumed it, leaving only a Ravager-rank Darkness Core in his palm, which he tossed carelessly toward Kale.
"Neo, catch," Kale ordered. The Hydra snatched the core out of the air, swallowing it whole.
But Lazek was not finished. His rage was a cold fire that demanded more fuel. He turned his gaze toward the massive tide of Alpha-rank beasts still pouring out of the Sundered Root-Gap. The hundred-strong horde of Sabres and Husk-Apes tried to turn back, but Lazek’s presence had already sealed the ravine.
"I am in a particularly foul mood today," Lazek sighed, walking toward the sea of beasts.
What followed was not a battle, but a systematic slaughter. Lazek became a whirlwind of obsidian death. He used no more complex spells, simply coating his hands and feet in darkness mana and moving through the horde with the grace of a dancer and the brutality of an executioner.
With every punch, an Alpha-rank Gore-Husk Ape’s chest exploded. With every kick, a Shadow Sabre was cleaved in half by a blade of compressed darkness. He was treating the high-ranking beasts like cattle in a slaughterhouse.
He moved through the bottleneck that Kale had defended earlier, but where Kale had used strategy to survive, Lazek used absolute, overwhelming suppression. He was a Grandmaster Artificer who had mastered his partial pathways to the point of absurdity.
Blood, black, red, and green, painted the ancient wood of the tree. The scent of death became so thick that the mercenaries had to cover their mouths to keep from vomiting.
Turned into a killing machine that defied everyone’s understanding of power. Echidna looked at Kale, who was watching his master with intense focus.
"Your master..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "He is not just an Artificer. He is a monster."
Kale did not look away. A dark, prideful grin touched his lips as he felt the bond with Neo thrumming with satisfaction. "No," Kale corrected her, his voice steady. "He is a Genius of the highest order. Just like myself."
As the last of the Alpha-rank beasts was torn apart by Lazek’s bare hands, the Fleshcraft Grandmaster stood in the centre of the clearing, surrounded by a mountain of carcasses. Not a single drop of blood had touched his grey attire.
He turned back toward Kale, the violent obsidian light in his eyes slowly fading, replaced once more by terminal boredom.
The Fleshcrafter declared, "Now then, disciple... why don’t you show me what your little Hydra can truly do?"