This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange-Chapter 605: Bad News

'Accept this... thing?'

'Impossible!'

Kain recoiled from his monstrous clone, his lips curling in disgust. Every fiber of his being rejected the creature before him—this twisted version of himself with its violet veins and predator's eyes. It represented everything he feared becoming, every dark impulse he'd spent years suppressing.

"I doubt that," he snarled. "You're a trick. A test. And I'm not failing this relic by listening to your nonsense."

The monster sighed, shaking its head with theatrical disappointment. "Still running, I see." It gestured lazily, and the void around them pulsed—

—revealing the faintest violet tinge in the air, like a lavendar haze.

Kain's breath hitched. Source energy.

And not just traces. The energy thickened with every passing second, the violet hue deepening until the air itself seemed to shimmer with raw, unfiltered power. It was intoxicating, overwhelming—like a siren call tempting sailors to their death.

His pulse accelerated. His fingers twitched. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a familiar itch stirred—a hunger he had kept buried but never fully erased. This was dangerous.

The monster grinned, watching realization dawn on Kain's face. "Like what you see?"

Kain's pulse quickened. He knew this sensation—the addictive pull of pure Source energy, the way it called to his very soul, promising immense power.

'A trap,' he thought, even as his body instinctively leaned toward the energy. 'It's trying to tempt me.'

But then he internally smirked. 'Nice try. But if you think I'll lose control due to this, you're wrong. This is more like a gift.

Kain could practically already hear the wonderful tone of the System announcing its next upgrade—after all, he still hadn't restored all of its features like the Training Arena. Not to mention, now that he had 'The Cradle, ' Kain very much wished to bring some of those unique creatures back to life on Pangea.

Maybe he could even introduce some humanoid creatures like elves and dwarves—it'd definitely give Pangea the fantasy world feel that he longed for. Just imagining all kinds of interesting empires and relationships being built on the planet made him dizzy with anticipation.

Kain's eyes darted to the thickening energy and waited calmly. The System should have been screaming to absorb it, should have been flooding his mind with notifications about how much he'd absorbed—

But there was only silence.

'System?' Kain called to it directly.

More silence.

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Still nothing.

'Blocked?' Panic spiked in his chest. How? The System was practically like an omnipotent piece of alien tech. And although it was annoying, Kain still regarded it as his ultimate backing—nothing in this world should be able to—

His double cut through his spiralling thoughts with its teasing voice "Nuh-uh-uuuhhh~. No cheating allowed. That foreign crutch you've been relying on has been restrained" It spread its arms, the Source energy coalescing into visible threads around its fingers. "Just you. And me. Twinsies."

'Like hell I'd want that!' Based on its statement, Kain could confirm that this version of himself was likely completely controlled by the relic, although it probably had some capacity to read his thoughts.

Otherwise, it would call it the 'System' and not a mysterious 'foreign crutch.' Still, the fact that it had the capability to detect and then restrain the System was impressive…and terrifying.

There was no guarantee that there weren't more things out there that could cut Kain off from the System. Rather, it was more safe to bet that there were other places and things that could restrain it…

'And yet I'd foolishly been relying on it thinking it was foolproof and absorbing all the Source energy I wanted without a care.'

For the first time, Kain realized that the horrifying vision where he lost control and attacked the College may not have been an irrational nightmare born out of his greatest fears…but a real prediction or vision of his future…

The idea that that was where his future was headed shook Kain to his core.

"So I need to figure out how to control the energy without the System…" Kain murmured, feeling as though he'd finally realized the purpose of this trial.

At the very least, this was an opportunity to practice without the risk of harming anyone else nearby.

"And if I fail, I can keep trying without hurting anyone…" Kain's eyes softened as he looked at the doppelganger in front of him, who was a manifestation of the relic's will.

He'd thought it was here to torment him, but now Kain realized that it was actually trying to warn and help him. Kain had completely misjudged it!

The relic wasn't his enemy—it was giving him a chance to confront his weaknesses before they destroyed him. A rare opportunity.

For a brief, fleeting moment, gratitude swelled in his chest. Maybe this trial wasn't about punishment. Maybe it was about saving him.

"Errrr. NOPE! You fail, you die." The fake Kain's voice shattered his epiphany like glass. It shrugged nonchalantly, as if discussing the weather. All of Kain's welling gratefulness and affection for the relic evaporated instantly.

"WHY?!" Kain's shout echoed through the void, raw and furious.

"Well…unlike whatever's in you, I don't have the ability to make you regain your sanity. Well…maybe I do, but it seems tiring, so I don't want to try." The monster's grin widened, cruel, mocking, and without any humanity. "I mean, why should I? At the end of the day, I am a product of this world meant to protect and cultivate the next generation of heroes for it. Your failure to control yourself would just indicate to me that you are an uncontrollable threat that needs to be put down like a rabid dog before it bites its owner."

Kain flinched at the harsh, but fitting, analogy.

"Besides, it's not just you. Death is the consequence of failure in all of these trials. Your companions are no exception…" The monster's head tilted, as if listening to something distant. "Ah! Whadaya know? One of them just died. A pretty girl too, so unfortunate."

Kain's heart stopped beating.