This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange-Chapter 606: Bad News (2)

Kain's blood turned to ice. "Who died?" The words clawed out of his throat, raw and desperate.

Although he felt it was unlikely, he couldn't help but worry…was it Serena?

It very well could be...

Technically, from what he'd seen, she was the weakest one there—at least in terms of spiritual power grade.

The Easterners, Cassian, and the white-eyed girl were all blue-grade. Whereas, the 'Holy Son' was likely even stronger since Kain couldn't sense his spiritual power grade accurately.

'No…it's definitely not her!' Kain shook his head to dislodge the image of Serena's cold, dead body—if the relic would even leave the body intact.

'It must be one of the others. One of the Easterners? The white-eyed girl? Heck, maybe even the 'Holy Son' or Cassian are secretly women.' It must be anybody but her…

The monster's grin widened, revealing too-white teeth. "Wouldn't you like to know?" It tapped a finger against its chin, mock-thoughtful. "Pass the test, and you'll naturally find out. Fail..." It shrugged. "Well, you can meet her yourself in the afterlife."

Kain's hands trembled—with rage, with fear, with the intense desire to strangle the thing wearing his face. His knuckles turned white from how tightly he clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms hard enough to draw blood. But he forced his fists to unclench. Violence won't work here. He'd already tried that.

So instead, he sat.

Cross-legged on the pitch-black floor, Kain tried to absorb the swirling Source energy the way he would Star-attributed spiritual power while cultivating.

It was a mistake.

The energy didn't flow into him—it invaded. Where spiritual power was a stream, this was a tsunami, crashing through his meridians with violent hunger.

His veins lit up violet beneath his skin, pulsing like live wires. His muscles locked, his bones vibrating under the strain. His vision blurred, edges tinged with the same eerie glow.

"Tsk, tsk." The monster crouched in front of him, its head tilted. "You really thought it would be that easy?"

Kain's breath came in ragged gasps. He could feel his consciousness slipping, his thoughts fragmenting under the energy's assault. He was losing—he could feel it.

Kain's body convulsed as the Source energy tore through him, a wildfire in his veins. His vision blurred at the edges, violet static at the edges of his vision creeping inward. He had to contain it—now.

Kain did the only thing he could think of.

The star space, probably the most important location within him that contained not only his contracts but also Pangea, seemed the only possible vessel. With desperate focus, he wrenched the rampaging energy inward and shoved it into the star space.

Soon, the dark space, that contained only whisps of green-spiritual power due to Kain's recently advancing, took on a purple tinge. The energy swirled like a gathering storm, condensing into thick, luminous clouds. And in no time, the density of the Source energy was so great it was as though a lavender haze covered everything—making it hard for Kain to even see clearly. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

But the power rampaging through his veins had calmed down. It was much more comfortable. For one terrifying heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then Pangea was the first sign of something going wrong.

The world buckled beneath the sudden onslaught of pure Source energy.

Through his connection to the planet, he felt the land itself recoil—mountains shuddering like living things, their bedrock groaning under pressure they were never meant to bear. Rivers ran thick and slow, their waters turning syrupy with condensed energy, glowing faintly violet under a sky that felt like it was physically heavier and crashing down on the creatures below.

The thick concentration of energy gave the creatures on the planet the illusion that gravity had increased several times over. The weaker ones died, their bodies unable to handle the density of power suddenly saturating the air—too much of a good thing acting like poison to them.

Many also evolved and flashes of white light lit up throughout the planet.

Although not all those evolutions were ideal. A herd of gazelle-like beasts near Aurem's territory collapsed mid-stride, their bones audibly cracking as extra limbs burst from their sides. Trees lashed their roots like whips, destroying everything around them.

The impact of the dense energy in the star space was also not completely beneficial to Kain's contracts.

Although he was cut off from them by the relic, and they couldn't communicate, Kain could sense that something was wrong.

Kain could sense Queen's pain through their bond, as well as the loss of some weaker tertiary bonds. After the relic's repeated trials, Kain already had less than 10 Vespid guards remaining—many of whom were injured. And now, many of the remaining injured guards died, their battered bodies unable to process the energy.

Moreover, the still recovering Vauleth, roused briefly from his rest and expressed immense discomfort to Kain—although thankfully he didn't seem to be in danger.

Only Aegis and Bea seemed relatively stable. For Aegis in particular, after his evolution, this energy was like a higher form of Abyssal energy and was being absorbed by him readily.

Bea, while not genetically gifted to deal with Source energy like Aegis, was at a higher grade than the others, and thus didn't really suffer.

Still, as the concentration of energy in his star space continued to increase, that could change.

Kain took a glimpse at the remaining object in his star space he hadn't paid much attention to—the fifth star. Currently ownerless since Kain hadn't found a suitable fifth contract.

With desperation, he wrenched the rampaging energy toward it and shoved it into the fifth empty star.

The fifth star in his core swelled, a supernova contained within his very soul, the energy building toward something catastrophic.

Outside.

The clone of Kain watched from the side with detached amusement, its head tilted like a scientist observing a lab rat. It leaned in to observe the focused Kain more closely, its violet eyes reflecting the light now bleeding from Kain's pores.

"Interesting…I might not have to kill you. It looks like you'll explode on your own."

"Kaboom!" The man mimicked the sound and explosion of a bomb using his hands, before devolving into mad laughter.