The jungle awakened.
Not in celebration of my victory, but in answer to it.
Every vine quivered with predatory hunger, every fern exhaled poisonous mists, every tree dripped with sap that gleamed like blood in the moonlight. The Beast Vein Continent was never a forgiving land, and the death of the Blood Beast only reminded the wilds that I was intruding.
Blue flames flickered faintly across my skin, cold and hot at once, refusing to extinguish even as my Vestigium calmed. Frostfire—my new element—lingered like a living mantle. When I flexed my hand, sparks of azure drifted skyward before crystallizing midair into ice shards that melted to vapor. And beneath my flesh, the Solar Pyre veins glowed like molten rivers, pulsing with steady orange light. The two paths, once opposed, now coiled together like twin serpents inside me.
Felicity pulsed within my blood, her voice calm but curious. "Master… you've changed. The Frostfire dances on your form as though it recognizes you. Even your Solar Pyre has accepted it."
I smiled faintly. "Let's get back to the Poison lotus clan."
I let my body relax—then dissolved. The Frost Firefly swarm erupted upward, ten thousand tiny points of blue flames hovered in the early morning pre-dawn glow. The clearing, still scarred from the battle, filled with living constellations. Each wisp carried a piece of me, my senses stretched wide and sharp, painting the world in luminous detail.
And I moved.
This was Swarm Travel.
No more bounding across the land like a beast chained to earth, no more relying solely on flesh and muscle, leaping about. My form scattered through the jungle, a meteor shower of fireflies, each wisp flowing around venomous vines, slipping through clouds of toxic mist, darting above pools of caustic ichor. Where one fragment passed, another reformed ahead, and together they wove an unbroken tapestry of motion.
The jungle roared back in answer.
A great flower uncoiled its petals, spewing a cloud of acid spores. My swarm scattered, fireflies spiraling through gaps smaller than a needle's eye. Blue flame kissed the spore cloud as I passed, and it froze midair before shattering like brittle glass.
A serpent of roots erupted from the ground, its bark scaled with obsidian thorns. My swarm fragmented, then reformed in its hollow coils, bypassing the trap entirely before streaking higher through the canopy.
And always, the Frostfire followed. Each wisp of me was no longer only ember-gold, but haloed in icy flame. It did not burn the jungle—it silenced it. Toxic blooms wilted as I passed, their poisons neutralized by my cold fire. Predatory vines recoiled as the blue glow touched them, unable to cling.
The swarm scattered across the jungle, thousands of glittering fragments moving as one. Frostfire crackled in every mote, some sparks burning orange, others shimmering blue-white, until his wake looked like a storm of stars bleeding through the canopy.
Deep in the frost fire pool of my dantian, something purred.
It wasn't my flames. It wasn't my veins. It was her.
Felicity's voice curled warmly through my dantian, silken and commanding, her resonance purring against his marrow.
"So this is what it means to travel as a King…"
The vibration shivered through my fragments, every ember of swarm-light answering her tone, like a lover's fingers trailing across my scattered body. My laughter came out fractured, carried in a thousand tiny echoes.
"I'm not there yet," I murmured, even though my body was in pieces, my will was whole. "But we're very close...my Queen."
Felicitys purr deepened, vibrating so strongly his swarm shuddered mid-flight, blue flames flaring brighter. She wasn't just pleased—she was claiming it with him.
And for the first time, the jungle wasn't just his hunting ground.
It was their kingdom.