Somewhere in the Wildlands near the crater, which is turning into a lake, the sky is covered in black clouds as rain of tribulation lightning strikes a black sphere in the sky. Sedestro is currently advancing to mythical rank.
Silvio and Devora have also succeeded in becoming mythical beasts. They advanced just a night ago. Their wyrm appearance has become even more draconic—they have taken on an even more regal and royal form.
The tribulation lightning around Sedestro has finally stopped, and the sky begins to clear. Then, the black sphere crumbles with a swing of his massive black demonic wings.
Sedestro: "Haha. This power."
An aura of terrifying might is released. His black skin and golden body markings have vanished. He now appears fully human in form, with long black hair, two obsidian black horns, and a long demonic tail. It is the form of a demon lord—demi-human in nature. He possesses a handsome, royal appearance that exudes a natural allure to the opposite sex.
Meanwhile, Agarez has also fully evolved and become a colossal dragon. His form is now regal and mighty—like a true-born dragon. His body is fully armored in silver and gold, majestic in appearance, carrying the look of an apex beast.
But despite such grand appearance and might, he is still a beast who enjoys slacking around, sleeping in the mountain region and absorbing the energy of heaven and earth.
However, this time, he is helping Teros, Ormis, Achilles, and Edeo in mining the metals and minerals in the mountain region. Even though his eyes are shut, the power he has over earth is far greater than the others', making the mining of metals much faster and more efficient.
Lyrus, on the other hand, is in the White Domain, busy creating serums for the Margorio. But before this, he had already finished creating serums for the Bolsaizar, Quardizal, and Balsar.
He also named them: Chrovix for the Balsar, Kargaren for the Quardizal, Yalzar for the Bolsaizar, and Severeno for the Margorio. All of them are still in the White Domain.
The three that have taken the serum have now fallen unconscious. With the power they are emanating, they will soon become mythical rank beasts.
Suddenly, Kargaren—the mountain turtle—wakes up. It seems like he wants to go out.
Lyrus creates an enormous gate, and now he's out in the Wildlands.
Roar.
The moment he steps out, earth energy from deep underground begins siphoning into his body. His mountainous form starts growing even larger. He walks away from the mountain side where Agarez and the others are mining, heading toward the lush forest mountains instead. The moment he enters the area, beasts of all sizes flee in panic.
Leonor: "That big guy might evolve soon."
Agarez: "Hmm." (He wakes up.) "That guy is looking for another mineral vein to extract."
Suddenly, another beast emerges from the White Domain—the gigantic behemoth bear.
Roar.
A deafening sound escapes from its mouth. Suddenly, the sky darkens as tribulation lightning gathers overhead. However, compared to Agarez's tribulation, this one is only one-third in size. The others observe quietly as it faces the lightning, while Langer sets up an assisting barrier around it.
Leonor: "I'll go and accompany that turtle mountain."
Leonor departs, following the turtle as it moves toward the horizon.
The turtle stops at another mountainous region on the horizon.
Roar.
Then, fissures crack open in the earth as another mineral vein is revealed, which it immediately begins to siphon.
Leonor: "This is..."
Leonor enters the fissures of the turtle mountain and also begins devouring essence stones hidden deep beneath.
Teros: "Hmm." (He notices the energy of another mineral vein.) "This guy also has the ability to sense natural treasures deep in the earth... and he's much better at it. I never thought there was another mineral vein nearby."
Roar.
The behemoth bear continues to endure the tribulation lightning. Its power grows more immense by the second—but its size is shrinking. Its body and energy compress further and further, forming a humanoid shape. It no longer resembles a colossal behemoth bear. Instead, it becomes a five-meter-tall humanoid beast. While still covered in fur, it now stands upright like a human. The aura it emanates is now overwhelming—like that of an apex beast.
He has now fully become a mythical beast.
Meanwhile, Chrovix—the Balsar—has turned into a large boulder of crystal inside the White Domain. It is undergoing evolution as well.
And somewhere deep within the crater, Horus discovers a cave leading underground. It is a U-shaped tunnel, so by swimming down into the submerged cave—now filled with lake water—you will find a hidden crystal cavern. Horus dives beneath and finds a mineral vein deep inside the crater.
He has been cultivating there for days now, siphoning energy from the mineral vein for himself.
Meanwhile, the others are busy around the crater, clearing out nearby beasts and hunting them.
Ishvel, Titus, Maverick, and Murus are gathering durable old trees, lumbering massive chunks of logs. Murus and Titus are transporting the enormous logs. However, Titus has once again roped Maverick into training. Now that Maverick is a legendary beast, he can lift large amounts of weight—but even though he's incredibly strong, he's still young and occasionally grows exhausted. But Titus, being a brutal trainer, heals him repeatedly to force him to continue.
Maverick: (Carrying a log a thousand meters long and 40 meters thick—far larger and heavier than himself.) "I miss going out with Master instead."
Ahead of him, Titus has transformed into a towering titan with a muscular, giant body. The aura he emanates is suffocatingly powerful—despite still being a legendary beast.
Murus, a gigantic horned wolf beast—regal and majestic—has been reduced to someone who just hauls logs. He is suffering even more than Maverick, carrying loads thousands of times heavier.
Maverick: "What a bunch of monsters."
Ishvel, on the other hand, levitates logs in the air while flying effortlessly. But what Ishvel is doing is actually harder—he is expending tremendous energy to make these logs fly. This demonstrates his exceptional control, immense power, and the result of strict training, discipline, and mastery.
Remus, Rester, and Valor observe from afar. Sensing Titus nearby, they suppress their auras to avoid being noticed. Titus is extremely strict, especially when it comes to training.
They slowly try to sneak away...
Boink.
Magnus arrives.
In the next scene, all of them are now helping carry the logs—suffering together with Maverick.
But Magnus just casually became a giant like Titus and carried the logs Ishvel was levitating in the air. Ishvel, on the other hand, went back into the forest to search for more old, massive trees.
An hour after they reached the crater area, Remus, Rester, Maverick, and Valor were fighting for their lives just to reach the goal and drop off the logs.
Meanwhile, Murus, Titus, and Magnus casually put down their logs.
Remus: "I'm dying… Huff…"
Valor: "I need water… Huff… Huff…"
Maverick: (Fainted.)
Rester: "Argh…" (He fainted too—but with just one round of carrying such enormous logs, his body had already improved significantly.)
Titus: "Hmm." (He lifted Rester with two fingers, still in his titan form.) "This guy has talent. Hehe."
He could see Rester's potential. Rester's instant regeneration and absolute reformation had made his body evolve and become stronger. With this workload alone, his physical development had advanced.
Magnus: "Let's make this guy strong. Hihi."
Titus: "Hihi." (Both wore evil smiles.) "Let's go back, everyone."
Then he healed and revitalized them all.
Remus: "What?" (He was lifted by Titus and brought back to the forest.)
Magnus carried Maverick and Valor back as well.
Titus: "I will propose to Master to create a body training program for the sect. And everyone must participate. Everyone must become physically strong."
Upon hearing those words, Rester and Valor—still conscious—were already thinking about how their lives would become even more physically exhausting in the coming months.
---
Meanwhile, Vigil had gathered the beast-women with her: Cersie, Divana, Misery, Metria, and also Devora.
Misery was riding her Chimera Tree Dragon, sitting like a queen on its throne-like seat. Metria sat elegantly on her Abyssal Centipede Dragon, exuding the aura of a villainous noblewoman. Cersie stood like a proud elf with the elegance of a villainess, holding a black petal flower.
Divana, on the other hand, was just adorably seated on a rock, smiling mischievously—with black void hands extending from her shadow.
Vigil sat on a log, with six levitating hands behind her, each with eyes. Her posture was that of a demoness, but her bearing carried the elegance of a villainess.
Misery and Metria dismounted from their monsters and sat near the log. Devora stood quietly behind Vigil.
Vasha and Deia were also present. Diane, Vania, and Lyfilia—who had evolved into an elf-like woman—were also there, along with Ana the Arxen (Night Fox), Miyo, and Teo Veredis, who had also evolved into a more humanlike form.
It was a meeting of beast-women, led by Vigil.
They had been conducting this meeting daily ever since Lyrus left for Agarez's location a week ago. The main purpose of this meeting was to share battle experiences through spiritual connection. Vigil also shared her memories and knowledge of human civilization, something she had been learning and compiling over the past four years.
By sharing her wisdom and knowledge with the others, they had all become more and more intelligent. Likewise, others shared their beastly instincts and battle memories—though in truth, Vigil extracted these directly from their minds and shared them with everyone present through a spiritual link.
However, the memories and research notes of Lyrus's mother were shared only with Lyrus's bound beasts.
Vigil also conducted similar sessions with the boys at night, which drastically accelerated their mental and intellectual evolution. With the power of White now integrated into them, all the memories and knowledge they received were easily digested and learned—rapidly enhancing their intelligence.
Vigil did this for three hours a day. It was exhausting, as it involved directly tapping into the minds, consciousness, and memories of the participants.
Vigil: "That's it for today."
Over the past few days, Vigil had also made dresses for all humanoid beasts—a personal hobby of hers. Despite her spooky, villainess-like demeanor, she was an exceptional designer. Her creations were always lavishly designed and made anyone look cool no matter what they were wearing. During their four-year stay in Bulgaria, she had honed this craft.
She was once active in the gaming community and even participated in online design contests for game character skins.
Over the past four days, she had also introduced weapons to newly evolved beasts. With the help of Edeo, Ormis, and Achilles—whose talents in metal extraction were unmatched—this was made possible.
But that effort had been paused because those three were called away to mine.
Vigil, however, continued assigning herself the task of improving the intelligence and wisdom of new beasts. Despite her eerie aura, she was a responsible retainer of Lyrus—not just concerned for his welfare, but also for the family they had become. She acted as a reliable older sister to all of them.
Divana: "Sister Vigil, do you have any books I could read?"
Vigil: "Unfortunately, I left everything in Bulgaria City."
Divana was the fastest learner in the group. Although her memory retention was relatively weak, her ability to grasp new information was exceptional. Even more fearsome were her black hands, which could devour memories and convert them into her own—an incredible learning capability.
Vigil: "Don't worry. Once Master returns to the city, we'll ask him. He'll be delighted that you're willing to learn. Master is the type of person who values growth—especially our growth in wisdom. As subjects of his, we must strive to become intelligent—with wisdom equal to or surpassing that of humans."
Divana: "I will do my best."
Vigil: "Good." (She patted her head.) "Everyone, that's it for today."
(They were still meditating with eyes shut.)
"Digest today's memories and learn all you can."
Then, darkness converged around Vigil—and she vanished.
---
Back in Bulgaria City…
The Sect Registration of AVALON had been completed.
Teo, Vania, Logan, Thomas, and Bill were in the city dome, finalizing the last procedures for the official establishment of the sect. The dome was filled with citizens of Bulgaria.
Goldoba: "I, as the City Lord of Bulgaria and Representative of the Government of Culvary, hereby approve the establishment of AVALON, a newly-formed Grade 9 sect."
Clap. Clap.
People applauded the announcement. Most of those present were related to Teo and the others.
The official signing of documents followed immediately after.
The next day, Teo and the others had already recruited about a thousand workers to help construct the sect. They also signed memory-erasure contracts, a standard procedure for construction teams involved in projects with classified information.
To prevent leakage, their memories would be erased or tampered with once the work was completed.
All of Teo's employees also became part of the new sect.
Even Bill joined—curious to finally learn what Lyrus had been doing all this time. But even after joining, the group remained tight-lipped. Frustrated, Bill decided to go to the Wildlands himself.
Bill: "You said it's miles away from here, deep in the Wildlands… but none of you brought your beasts. How are we going to get there with this many people?"
There were around 5,000 people with them.
Thomas: "Bill, you're friends with Vander, right? How about borrowing some airships from a nearby Eisien base?"
Bill: "That would be impossible. Most of the ships are deployed to the northern front to reduce the beast population in the Wildlands. And they consume a ton of essence stones. We can't afford that. They won't let us borrow them."
Vania: "Don't worry. Selso is already on the way—with Vasha and the other beasts. They'll be our transport."
Roar!
Logan: "They're here!" (He announced.)
People: "Whoa…"
City Guards on the Wall: (Sound the alarm bells for a beast alert.)
Goldoba: (He arrived at the wall with his commanders and generals upon hearing the bell.)
Teo: "Greetings, City Lord. These beasts are not foes, please don't be alarmed. The city is not in danger." (He flew into the air and greeted Goldoba.)
Vicky: "Dragons?"
Goldoba: "And all of them are Mythical Rank… It seems Vasha has advanced—but I didn't expect your serpent would evolve into a draconic lineage."
Teo: "Haha. I didn't expect it either, City Lord."
Vasha, the Sky Wyrm Dragon
Sauron, the White-Gold Cloud Wyrm Dragon
Devora, the Frost Cobralisk Wyrm Dragon
Silvio, the Red-Gold Wyrm Dragon
Deia, the Chaos Red-Black Insect Wyrm Dragon
Miguel: "Oh my god… Vasha and Deia have turned into colossal dragons! And those other three… Are they?" (He looked at Vania.)
Vania: (Nodded silently.)
Mike: "Really?"
Bill: "This—!" (His Carnova was alarmed. The sheer pressure of dragon beasts was overwhelming to other creatures. Their instincts screamed at them to flee from these apex predators.)
Five colossal dragons descended near Bulgaria's city walls. From the buildings inside, citizens could witness the breathtaking descent of the dragon wyrms.
Even though many had seen a dragon wyrm from Damean Eisien before, this was something else—five dragons at once. A truly spectacular sight.
People began taking selfies and videos, sharing them across the internet.
Thomas: "Now this is getting interesting…"
A spatial crack opened behind him—and a massive eye peered from within. It was his beast, inside his beast realm. Although Thomas had long been known as someone without a beast, it was now revealed that he did indeed possess a terrifying mythical one. Only the eye was visible—a crystalline blue eye. The pressure it emitted matched that of the dragons.
Thomas: "You're awake, old friend. Don't worry—they're allies."
The space slowly closed as the eye disappeared.
Selso jumped down from Sauron's head.
Selso: "Greetings, City Lord."
Goldoba: "You've also become stronger."
Selso: "Just a stroke of luck."
Goldoba: "I see…" (He knew that an offspring of the Eisien family was involved in this sect's establishment. He chose not to probe further. Getting involved would be too complicated.)
"I hope this doesn't stir a storm in the Western Region…" (He muttered.)
Vicky heard him. She understood the implications. A rising heir of Eisien gathering powerful forces was no small matter.
Logan: "Let's go."
Everyone began boarding the dragons. Logan, Vania, Selso, Thomas, and Teo took to the air and mounted the dragons.
Roar!
The dragons ascended higher and began flying toward the horizon.
Bill: "This is my first time riding a dragon. Never in my life did I think I'd have this opportunity."
Teo: "I never expected I'd have one either."