The rocky forest was no longer just a place for a fight.
It was boiling.
It was shaking.
It was turning, little by little, into a primitive altar that reshaped the world with blood and savage intent.
Ashen was the first to move.
It was not only his body that rushed forward…
The savage intent itself was bursting from his pores, roaring, twisting, flowing like crimson smoke that carried spirit after spirit.
In one moment…
The air changed.
It became heavier, deeper, like an ancient primeval forest filled with forgotten beasts.
The stone trees began to tremble as if alive, their shadows twisting, the rocks cracking, and even the wind pulling back as if afraid of what was appearing.
Then… the eye.
The eye that looks at the soul.
It appeared above Ashen's head like a nightmare made from pure savage intent.
Five full meters of glowing crimson, its lines shaking like muscles, and its aura striking the ground with waves that opened long cracks like the jaws of a monster ready to swallow the entire forest.
The eye turned toward the imperial guard.
For a moment… everything froze.
The black-robed man, with his cracked skin and blood—his own and others'—felt something he had never felt since the empire created him:
Exposure.
His soul naked.
His soul uncovered.
His soul held between the fingers of something that should not exist.
Then came the pain.
It was not normal pain.
It was a stab that pushed a knife into the soul itself.
Blood exploded from the guard's mouth, then his nose, then his ears, then his eyes.
His aura, which burned like black fire, shook and fell back, as if pulled from under his feet.
The guard stopped.
He could not move.
Half a second only…
But that half second was all the giant monster needed.
The fifteen-meter monster did not waste a moment.
The arm that had been cut off grew back now, the skin twisting over it like blood worms closing a wound at terrifying speed.
It released a roar that split the air.
Blades of power surged above its head—two curved crimson blades that pulsed with energy, making its muscles swell and rage.
Then its blood manifestation ignited over its four arms:
The gorilla arms grew larger, their bones glowing like red coals, and the giant human arms were covered with layers of blood armor that snapped the air like continuous cracking sounds.
Then the four massive blades took shape—giant blood blades, each one tens of times bigger than Ashen, their tips glowing like guillotines from hell.
In that moment…
The monster charged.
The ground shook under it, each step ripping out boulders the size of small houses.
Every swing of its four blades left behind a violent crimson arc that tore through the air.
Ashen did not stay still.
His five-star blood frenzy aura around him was like a red storm.
His strength, speed, reaction time, and even defense—all of it doubled completely.
His three bloodline runes burned across his body:
Crocodile Blood Scales covered his entire body with a layer of heavy crimson armor.
Sky Leopard Feet exploded beneath his legs with speed that devoured distance.
The primitive iron skin turned into a polished black alloy that absorbed impacts.
And while the monster charged, Ashen rushed with it.
They were like two meteors colliding on a single straight path toward the imperial guard who was still stunned under the effect of the eye.
Before he could move…
The four blades struck.
The ground exploded.
Rocks the size of wagons flew.
The rocky forest tore apart layer after layer.
The blades fell on the guard like four mountains one after another.
At the same moment…
Ashen struck from below, leaping upward, his hands burning with the aura of Bear Fists, and the savage intent gathering around his fists like a spiritual blade ready to tear anything it touched.
He directed the seismic shock at the guard.
His blows were not human blows.
They were vibrations.
Bombs.
Small earthquakes that concentrated their force in a single knuckle.
Ashen's strikes hit the guard's chest at the exact moment the four giant blades landed.
The result?
An explosion the forest had never witnessed before.
A full row of stone trees shattered as if made of salt.
Red dust filled the sky.
Fragments of rock flew like stripped shrapnel.
The ground split for dozens of meters.
The imperial guard finally moved.
His body was thrown backward violently, the air igniting around him, his black robe exploding into pieces, and his chest compressing as if a mountain had fallen on him.
But…
He did not fall.
He freed himself.
A simple shift of his shoulder…
And the hundreds of blood arms trying to hold him broke apart.
He tore the blood nets with his hand as if they were cotton threads.
The monster's blades cut his skin, but they could not pierce his bones.
And the seismic shock—although it made him vomit blood…
did not break him.
Ashen saw this.
He did not stop.
He released the eye that looks at the soul again.
The spiritual pain stabbed the guard once more.
More blood poured from his eyes.
His knees shook.
The monster saw the chance.
Howl of Catastrophe.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Seven times in a row.
Each howl was a pressure wave, a blood wave, an explosion that shook the forest like a small world ending.
Then it opened its giant vertical eye…
Destruction Beam.
A straight crimson line, one meter in diameter, fired toward the target at a speed no human could track.
At the same moment, Ashen opened his hands…
And launched dozens of initial shocks one after another, each one a compressed pressure sphere of savage intent, all aimed at the same point on the guard's body.
Then…
He raised both arms.
Pulled his energy.
Coated the savage intent with everything he had.
The great shock.
A huge circular wave of raw, almost blind energy, violent enough to crush an entire row of fighters.
All of it—the eye, the blades, the howls, the nets, the beam, the shocks, the great shock—fell on the guard at the same moment.
The man could no longer be seen inside the bloody storm.
He vanished.
He was pushed.
He was crushed.
When everything ended…
His body was thrown across the forest, smashing into every rock in his path, until he was nailed into the earth hundreds of meters away like a stake hammered into the world's heart.
The ground shook.
A giant crater one hundred meters wide appeared around him.
The entire section of the rocky forest disappeared.
Ashen was gasping.
The giant monster was gasping.
Dust covered everything.
You could hear the stone crumbling…
The blood dripping…
And their breaths as they watched the crater.
Then…
From the rubble…
From the smoke…
From the hole of hell…
The imperial guard appeared.
Climbing out slowly.
His robe was completely torn.
His skin cracked.
Blood from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears.
But his wounds were only on the surface.
His bones were not broken.
His spirit was not damaged.
His aura was not weakening…
It was rising.
Growing.
Roaring.
Turning into something darker, deadlier, more violent.
He wiped the blood from his mouth with his finger.
He lifted his head.
He looked at them…
And the ground exploded under him from the pressure of his rising aura.