Chapter 336

Chapter 336
Chapter 336

—

…This was possible because the White King held the capacity to ’empower’ his subordinates.

In the same way the Black King divided his essence to bolster his inner circle.

The White King wielded a dominion that functioned like a divine right to ‘cultivate’ those beneath him.

Essentially, the ‘White Tiger Clan’, who had reigned over the predator hierarchy for eons, possessed this ‘unique skill’ as a birthright.

Rooted in the Hidden Trait ‘Beast Lord’, it was a highly specialized power concerning ‘advancement and metamorphosis’ known as the ‘Grace of the White Tiger’.

This blessing was the primary catalyst that drew countless beasts to pledge their loyalty to the White Tiger Clan.

However, the White King had refrained from employing that talent fully until his period of isolation.

To be more accurate, he had consciously avoided its use.

‘The Grace of the White Tiger strips a being of its true self.’

To undergo metamorphosis.

And to subsequently forfeit one’s ‘individual characteristics’ was not always a favorable outcome.

Naturally, if the progression moved toward an ideal state, it would be beneficial, yet the Grace of the White Tiger triggered a mutation that forced a pursuit of ‘raw might’ above all else.

Ultimately, such a mutation resulted in nothing but a violent loss of control.

It caused them to abandon their natural shapes and identities, becoming intoxicated by sheer strength.

That was the reason he had never truly tapped into the Grace before now.

The White King simply did not possess the means to regulate it.

But.

‘After a lifetime of seclusion, drifting through the world after the theft of my status, I finally grasped the truth.’

It was a fundamental law of the universe to replenish a void.

The White King, having been stripped of his fang and his dignity, had become a virtuoso at manipulating the Grace.

Far from losing control, he had gained the ability to transition them into a more sophisticated and flawless state than ever before.

This mastery was the secret behind the meteoric rise of his primary battalion.

Consequently, in this engagement.

‘Defeat is impossible. This triumph belongs to me.’

…He felt an absolute certainty about the outcome.

Victory was already a settled matter in his mind.

Because the progression of this strange ‘Monster Soul’ followed that exact same logic.

Bestowing the Grace of the White Tiger and forcing a cycle of perpetual growth and mutation to secure a win was trivial for the current White King.

Instead, he intended to unleash the Grace without restraint to forge a perfect entity.

Since the ‘Monster Soul’ occupied the space between the living and the inanimate, such a feat was viable.

‘A catalyst for unending mutation. This… is truly remarkable.’

The World Tree’s dungeon.

With the involvement of a forgotten deity, the instrument provided offered truly limitless potential.

True to its primordial origins, it acted as the blueprint for the very first ‘Soul’.

An accumulation of latent energy that could manifest as any form and shift into any shape!

He was genuinely intrigued by the identity of the celestial being who had offered such a tool for a mere contest.

Yet, regardless of a ‘god’s’ participation, he did not believe he could be overcome.

“Consume it, Mok, King of Ruin.”

Grrrrrrrrr!

Standing before the White King.

A bizarre creature was voraciously eating the corpse of the defeated raid boss, the ‘Hydrak Mammoth’.

Riiiiip!

Though it was barely a third of the size, it shredded the carcass without pause.

Leathery gray flesh, an unnaturally developed torso with massive arms, a pair of stunted wings on its back, and a multitude of ‘eyes’ surfacing across its entire frame.

Mok was a unique breed of monster once feared as the King of Ruin.

It earned the titles of Demon King and King of Ruin because total desolation followed in Mok’s wake.

It had vanished from history at some point, its ancestry and disappearance shrouded in mystery.

But the White King held the secret.

‘Mok was the ultimate creation of the White Tiger Clan.’

A beast perfected by the zenith of the White Tiger Clan.

A crowning achievement forged at the conclusion of an evolution driven by a thirst for power!

The issue was that the creature was far too lethal and impossible to command.

The mighty White Tiger Clan of that era had managed to suppress Mok using their collective strength, but that effort had forced the White Tiger Clan onto the brink of total collapse.

However, the fact that Mok was resurrected through his Grace meant something specific.

‘I can dominate Mok, a feat that broke the White Tiger Clan of old.’

…It meant he could amend the narrative of past disaster.

It was the perfect moment to demonstrate that he was the preeminent White Tiger.

This was destiny.

To fulfill the ancient ambition of his bloodline and, more importantly, to establish a legacy of triumph.

The ‘Monster Soul’ was a device that validated the quality of the one who summoned it.

And no matter the circumstances, no rival could hope to best Mok.

The White King gave a thin smile.

He felt he finally understood the true purpose behind his entry into the World Tree’s dungeon.

The celestial metal of the Dianax.

And the Star Tusk carried by the Angel Behemoth.

I gathered these materials with a feverish intensity.

And I waited for the moment of ‘metamorphosis’ once more.

If my intuition held true, I was certain this journey was far from over.

‘I knew it!’

Eventually, the Angel Behemoth began its transformation.

《The ‘Angel Behemoth (Grade 50)’ has hit its threshold.》

《The mark etched into the ‘Monster Soul’ will now be inscribed upon the user’s own flesh.》

《The current classification of the ‘Angel Behemoth’ is ‘Super-Supreme’.》

《The ‘Angel Behemoth’ will now shift based on the user’s internal nature.》

《It has mutated into the ‘Initial Stage of Infinity’ rarity Divine Beast, ‘Ten-Tailed Fox’!》

《The ‘Ten-Tailed Fox (Grade 50, Divine Beast, Light Attribute, Raid Boss)’ possesses 4 auxiliary traits.》

A Ten-Tailed Fox.

True to the description, it had shifted into a colossal fox bearing ten tails.

Infinity—it signified that it had stepped across the threshold into a realm without boundaries.

I could only stare at the Ten-Tailed Fox in awe.

‘The holiness is overwhelming.’

Was this because it was a creature that mirrored my current state of being?

It was a fox that radiated a profound, sophisticated, and ancient grace.

It possessed an ethereal quality that felt entirely untouchable.

While beings known as the Nine-Tailed Fox usually focused on the power of ‘seduction’, the Ten-Tailed Fox projected a sense of sacrosanct purity from an entirely different plane.

‘A primordial, original divine beast.’

What defined a divine beast in the first place?

A divine beast.

It referred to a creature that had ascended in rank, broken past mortal limits, and finally attained a spark of godhood.

A tortoise that had endured for ten millennia, a serpent that had ascended to dragonhood—they all fit this mold.

Such divine beasts carried an aura of grandeur that humans could never hope to mimic.

But in modern Pangenia, such ‘divine beasts’ were nonexistent.

They had all vanished following the arrival of the ruin.

The entities currently called divine beasts were merely diluted shadows of the original archetypes.

It was only logical; when the ruin appeared and the land rose, the creatures of the world became significantly smaller and more fragile.

But the Ten-Tailed Fox standing before me was an authentic divine beast.

A sacred animal that had walked the world before the ruin ever took hold.

‘The World Tree’s dungeon. This is a realm where the original blueprints of existence remain.’

Then, the realization hit me.

Just as I had discovered the ‘First Fire’ within the ‘Ancient Treasure Vault’.

There were countless ‘prototypes’ hidden here as well.

The real objective was to locate these original forms and bring them back to life.

It was a journey of reclaiming what had been erased and lost to time.

If that was the case.

‘…This won’t be the stopping point either.’

A primordial divine beast.

This was merely a new threshold.

Something even older, the source of all divine beasts.

There had to be a sacred creature that appeared at the very dawn of time.

I was filled with curiosity.

I wanted to see that creature.

While gathering materials was vital, a higher objective had surfaced.

In the remaining time, I dedicated every ounce of effort solely to the cause of evolution.

《The ‘Ten-Tailed Fox (Grade 75)’ has hit its threshold.》

《The mark etched into the ‘Monster Soul’ will now be inscribed upon the user’s own flesh.》

《The current classification of the ‘Ten-Tailed Fox’ is ‘Initial Stage of Infinity’.》

《The ‘Ten-Tailed Fox’ will now shift based on the user’s internal nature.》

《It has mutated into the ‘Mature Stage of Infinity’ rarity Divine Beast, ‘Eleven Holy Heavens’!》

《The ‘Eleven Holy Heavens (Grade 75, Divine Beast, Light Attribute, Raid Boss)’ possesses 4 auxiliary traits.》

Eleven Holy Heavens?

Did it imply a being that encompassed eleven celestial realms?

The form that emerged was every bit as sanctified as the name suggested.

A white dragon whose length seemed to pierce the firmament, sporting eleven tails just as the name implied.

At the tip of each of those eleven tails sat a rounded, translucent gem.

‘Those are all wish beads.’

…Every single one was a wish bead.

I had never even heard of a dragon wielding eleven wish beads simultaneously.

Aren’t those beads supposed to be limited to one per dragon?

Even if one were to slaughter other dragons and seize them, like Isera, the count would usually only reach two or three.

The magnitude of these beads, and their shimmering radiance, were absolutely peerless.

After the Ten-Tailed Fox came the Eleven Holy Heavens.

Was the progression of evolution tied directly to the count of the tails?

One thing was certain: this was a being that had never been documented in any legend.

It existed on a level far beyond the Dianax or the Angel Behemoth.

So, what would follow this?

《The ‘Eleven Holy Heavens (Grade 75)’ has hit its threshold.》

《The mark etched into the ‘Monster Soul’ will now be inscribed upon the user’s own flesh.》

《The current classification of the ‘Eleven Holy Heavens’ is ‘Mature Stage of Infinity’.》

《The ‘Eleven Holy Heavens’ will now shift based on the user’s internal nature.》

《It has mutated into the ‘Extreme Stage of Infinity’ rarity Divine Beast, ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons’!》

《The ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons (Grade 99, Divine Beast, Light Attribute, Super Raid Boss)’ possesses 6 auxiliary traits.》

With roughly sixty minutes remaining before the combat deadline.

I pushed for the final metamorphosis once again.

Predictably, the Twelve Heavenly Sons featured twelve tails.

However, it had taken the shape of a massive bird rather than a dragon.

The image of a snow-white crow.

It possessed twelve tails, and a concentrated heat resembling a miniature sun flickered above its head.

‘This is insane.’

I was completely speechless.

Looking at its divine aura.

This was a truly perfected entity, bolstered by six extra traits, vastly outclassing the divine beasts that came before.

But the events that transpired next left me even more stunned.

《The divinity of the ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons’ rouses another dormant ‘???’.》

《’???’ rejects the presence of the ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons’.》

《’???’ seeks to seize the essence of the ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons’.》

Kieeeeeeeek-!

The Twelve Heavenly Sons let out a piercing shriek.

Its entire body convulsed as if an internal war was being waged, and it collapsed to the ground.

Fwoooosh!

Simultaneously, its white exterior began to slough off.

Its wings, its plumage, and even the tiny sun burning above its head.

Every inch of its being was stained with a somber gray light.

And then.

《The essence of the ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons’ is overwritten.》

《The requirements to summon the ‘First Retainer of the Other Ruin’, the ‘Crow of Ruin’, have been fulfilled.》

《The ‘Crow of Ruin’ consumes the divinity of the ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons’.》

《The ‘Crow of Ruin’ reclaims its ‘original’ strength.》

《The ‘Crow of Ruin’ finally achieves its complete state.》

《‘Nameless Eagle (Grade 100, Ancient Divine Beast, Primordial Attribute, Old One)’》

Ruin had made its appearance.

Nameless Eagle.

The entity that had emerged by overwriting the Twelve Heavenly Sons was the Crow of Ruin.

The primary servant that Randolph could call upon after taking the ‘Other Ruin’ class!

But I had no prior knowledge of how to call forth the Crow of Ruin.

I couldn’t just transform into Randolph on a whim, and it wasn’t a creature that responded to mere will.

‘To think it would manifest in this manner.’

A summoning technique that only triggered when specific criteria were met.

It appeared that a ‘retainer’ was something that only surfaced once it had a finished vessel to inhabit, which it then consumed to take form.

Now that I thought about it.

Didn’t the servants of the ruin always enter the world in their finalized states?

Furthermore, the Crow of Ruin that had devoured the vessel looked nothing like what I had pictured.

Its expansive gray wings looked capable of parting the oceans, and its hooked beak looked sharp enough to puncture any defense.

The tips of its twelve tails were as exquisite as blossoming petals, resembling a lotus in full bloom, and the long crest feathers on the sides of its head burned with solar intensity.

For a servant of the Other Ruin, wasn’t this creature far too radiant?

The reason became clear momentarily.

【Nameless Eagle (Grade 100)】

Trait (1): A novel existence born when the ‘Retainer of the Other Ruin’, the ‘Crow of Ruin’, consumed the life of the ‘Forgotten Holy Heaven’, the ‘Twelve Heavenly Sons’.

Trait (2): An ancient divine entity categorized as an Old One; the bird that once perched atop the first World Tree, a being that belongs to no faction, the ‘Nameless Eagle’.

Trait (3): The ‘Primordial Attribute’ provides a 50% defense against all elemental types, including the powers of light and shadow.

Trait (4): Originally a servant of the Other Ruin, it is anchored in a unique state due to the anomalous influence of the ‘Star Lord’ and the holy essence of the ‘Forgotten Holy Heaven’. Consequently, all ‘traits’ receive a mystical boost.

Trait (5): The strengths of the forms it previously occupied are preserved within the ‘Sun Flowers’ at the tips of its 12 tails. The currently recorded forms are five (Dianax, Angel Behemoth, Ten-Tailed Fox, Eleven Holy Heavens, Twelve Heavenly Sons).

Trait (6): The Nameless Eagle undergoes continuous evolution by consuming the identities and shapes of its adversaries.

Trait (7): It can be integrated as a helmet when using the ‘Gauntlets of Calamity and Ash (Ancient)’. (Connection)

Trait (8): It takes on either a holy or dark aspect based on the nature of the form currently active in the ‘Sun Flowers’. (Presently: Potent Holiness)

Strength: 100~???

HP: 100~???

Agility: 100~???

Intelligence: 100~???

MP: 100~???

Skills: Active abilities cycle according to the current form.

…

As the details of the status screen scrolled by.

Reading through those eight distinct traits, a profound chill ran down my spine.

I had never encountered a summoned creature of this nature before.

The authentic manifestation of a ‘Soul’, which could adapt to any role and assume any appearance.

But its evolution into the ‘Nameless Eagle’ didn’t feel like a stroke of luck.

‘The Nameless Eagle is the being that mirrors my soul.’

This creature was the manifestation of my own identity.

This was why it resided within my spirit and was carved into my very skin.

It felt as though I had finally come face-to-face with ‘myself’ after a journey of unending change.

I felt a bizarre, deep connection to it.

‘…I’m glad I didn’t stop pushing.’

I had been concerned that I was being too reckless with its evolution.

If the transformation had gone off course, it would have been a disaster.

But the choice to trust my instincts and forge ahead with resolve had yielded the finest result possible.

A result that couldn’t be improved upon.

‘Since it shares my experience and proficiency modifiers, its progression was destined to outpace everyone else.’

The cause of this rapid advancement wasn’t just ‘battling in high-level zones’.

It was because the creature had inherited my bonus attributes exactly as they were, with a massive latent potential as its core.

A total experience bonus exceeding 500%.

A proficiency growth rate of over 2,000%.

Added to that were various unique and devastating options.

And of course, there was one more underlying factor.

‘…The Gauntlets of Calamity and Ash.’

Those ancient relics bestowed by the God of Calamity and the God of Ash as a crowning prize.

Beyond the simple utility of swapping between Park Hyunmyeong and Randolph, there was a deeper, concealed power.

‘The two gauntlets act as a conduit. I thought of it as a transformation, but its true function is a link. A bridge.’