"I don’t like these dark places… and what are we doing? Going even deeper into them," Ricarda complained.
They had now entered the next kingdom—or what remained of it. It quickly became evident that the young girl hadn’t originated from here either, but she had clearly visited these people as well.
While Ricarda was visibly uneasy, Pikar and Thalion were both excited. Pikar because he could finally make sense of the intricate tunnel network, and Thalion because it looked like there might be another item with a strong darkness affinity.
To be precise, the first “item” had been a living plant. Here, however, the girl had left behind something different—a black egg.
Pikar and Thalion began speculating about what might have hatched from it. Thalion was still hoping for something harmless—like a chicken—while Pikar expected something closer to a wyvern. At D-grade, such an evolution was entirely possible for high-rarity beasts. Becoming a wyvern at E-grade, like Thalion had, was unheard of.
This time, the girl had gifted the egg to another queen—but unlike before, the path downward was different. Instead of descending stairs, they moved through what appeared to be a long-forgotten tower. Through shattered windows, they could glimpse parts of a ruined city below, half-buried under what looked less like sand and more like hardened bedrock. Only fragments of streets and buildings remained visible.
Pikar wanted to explore them later, but since they were already following a promising lead, no one wanted to waste time.
Thalion had already shifted into his Eclipsari form, hoping to sense concentrations of darkness. Aside from his title indicating that something powerful lay below, however, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There were no murals, no tablets—only decaying structures and furniture worn down by time.
Pikar suspected the tower had once been the queen’s residence. From the few remaining images, she appeared older than the one Thalion had killed earlier, raising the question of how she had survived for so long.
As they descended further, the air grew damp. Mushrooms spread along the stone walls. Unlike before, there was no chamber sealing them in. Instead, the staircase opened into a vast plaza at the heart of the ruined city.
Most of it had been buried—but in the center sat a massive, bloated lizard. Beside it lay an old hag.
If the system wanted to trap them now, it would have to collapse the entire city on top of them.
Both the queen and the lizard looked more surprised than hostile, as if they had just been woken from a long sleep. Thalion quickly noticed large, lizard-sized holes torn through the surrounding buildings.
Both were early D-grade. And judging by their aura, fully aligned with darkness.
Perfect.
A long, frog-like tongue slid from the lizard’s mouth, licking across its face in anticipation. Pikar and Ricarda, however, were far less enthusiastic. This wasn’t a fight where they could simply stay back.
"And who are you? I thought no one was left anymore," the old hag said, her voice amplified by mana, echoing through the sunken city.
She slowly rose into the air while the lizard pushed itself upright on unsteady legs.
Thalion felt a flicker of concern. The creature might look sluggish, but it didn’t give off the presence of a powerful beast. And facing it in close combat—even with his resistance to darkness—wasn’t something he felt entirely confident about.
"Hello. We are new to your… grand kingdom. Would you be so kind as to tell us where the little girl who gave you the egg came from?" Pikar replied, keeping his tone as polite as possible.
"So the gates have finally opened… and we can rise again to feast as much as we want," the hag said, turning toward the lizard. It nodded eagerly, as if it understood every word.
The next moment, their auras exploded outward. Darkness spread rapidly, flooding the plaza.
Thalion’s anticipation spiked instantly.
It felt like standing before a rising storm.
The darkness began to swirl and condense, growing denser with every passing second. Their combined aura far surpassed that of both the previous queen and the flower. The pressure alone weighed heavily on his mind, making the very air vibrate.
Thalion had to admit—D-grade beings were on an entirely different level.
There was no chance of overpowering them head-on. Not that they could coordinate an attack properly anyway.
The longer this trial went on, the more he began to wonder…
How were the others even scoring points?
Up on the surface, they were being hunted. Down here, they had to face D-grade enemies. Without Thalion’s immunity to darkness, this fight would have been far more dangerous—and he was already among the strongest E-grades in the trial, likely surpassed only by a handful of Chosen close to breaking into D-grade themselves.
A sharp sense of danger radiated from the two enemies before him. Thalion released his own aura in response, pushing back against the oppressive pressure.
He barely had time to react before a long, sloppy tongue shot toward his face.
Dodging to the side, he conjured his claws of living darkness and sliced clean through the top half before it could retract. Black blood spilled onto the ground, sizzling on impact. Thalion wasn’t sure whether it was due to the darkness or some acidic property—but either way, it wasn’t something to ignore.
The lizard hissed in irritation.
Time to move.
Thalion needed to occupy the hag. His teammates wouldn’t survive long otherwise.
Around the old woman, streams of darkness gathered, twisting into serpentine forms. If you hadn’t seen them take shape, you might have believed they were alive.
Pikar used a skill on a small dragonfly, enlarging it enough to mount. He shot upward, taking to the air. Ricarda used a vine—similar to the one from their previous fight—to create distance.
Five serpents lunged toward them. Three came for Thalion—along with the lizard.
Despite its bloated form, the creature was incredibly fast. When it opened its maw, it reminded Thalion of a pelican—wide, gaping, and ready to swallow him whole.
Thalion let the serpents hit him directly—something the lizard clearly hadn’t expected. They pushed him back slightly, but did no real damage. The result? The lizard completely missed its bite, snapping down on nothing but dust and broken stone.
The hag, meanwhile, paid little attention to Thalion. She focused on directing the remaining serpents at Pikar and Ricarda, already summoning more.
Thalion considered using Voidtide Manifestation—but dismissed the idea. Against that lizard, turning into a mass of darkness might get him swallowed whole instead. He needed more power before that skill would be effective against D-grade enemies.
So he changed tactics.
Using Shadow Step, he shot upward—over thirty meters into the air. Darkness gathered instantly in his hands as he formed four long, razor-sharp spikes.
The hag was busy targeting his teammates.
Perfect.
The lizard took a moment to follow—but Thalion didn’t wait.
He unleashed the spikes.
They tore through the hag’s body, ripping her apart. The unstable energy she had been channeling detonated, further shredding what remained.
The lizard let out a furious screech as the hag fell to the ground.
Yet… no notification appeared.
Thalion frowned as the creature turned, leaping toward the scattered remains of the hag. In a few grotesque gulps, it devoured her body—then began licking the blood from the ground.
And just like that…
Its tongue had fully regenerated.
More than half a meter of flesh—restored in seconds.
Worse, its aura surged, growing even stronger than before.
At the same time, new serpents of condensed darkness formed around it and shot toward the group.
Pikar focused entirely on evasion, clinging to his dragonfly. Ricarda summoned two plants, both beginning to charge up her orange beams of light.
Meanwhile, the lizard grew more aggressive.
It lunged at Thalion—and this time, it closed the distance in a single leap. Faster. Stronger. Its open maw now created a pulling force, making it much harder to dodge.
Thalion was forced to use Shadow Step again to escape.
Ricarda’s plants used the moment of peace and unleashed their orange beams of light.
Both beams struck the lizard—but its hide was too tough to penetrate. Still, the impact was enough to knock it aside.
Thalion immediately moved in, staying close to its hind leg, slashing again and again, tearing flesh from its body. The Lizard ignored Thalion and instead lunged for the easier prey flying above.
Pikar and Ricarda struggled to keep up. The only reason they weren’t overwhelmed in seconds was because Thalion kept interfering—pulling on the creature’s tail, plunging his claws deep into its flesh, disrupting its attacks.
The lizard showed no sign of pain. No hesitation.
It didn’t even react as chunks of its body were ripped away.
Thalion fought with ruthless efficiency. Tendrils shot from his body, impaling the creature again and again.
But it wasn’t enough.
The flesh regenerated too quickly. The lizard didn’t slow down.
Pikar remained on the defensive, unwilling to risk his summoned creatures by engaging directly. Ricarda’s plants tried to pressure the beast—but it wasn’t enough to stop it.
Only Thalion thrived in the chaos.
With his title and intuition guiding him, he evaded every lethal strike—
while tearing the creature apart piece by piece.
Thalion had no idea what his next mutation would be—but right now, he was consuming massive amounts of darkness. The lizard was like a beacon of power, and Thalion was genuinely grateful.
It would have been even better if he could somehow refine the darkness—grill it, change its texture—but he wasn’t about to complain. The elemental within him was devouring it just as eagerly.
"Don’t you have anything stronger? Back in our last fight, you had far more offensive abilities," Ricarda shouted, constantly dodging the lizard, which had shifted most of its focus onto her. Pikar, meanwhile, remained out of reach.
"This thing is highly resistant, and I don’t have my strongest skills in this form. Just keep going—you’re a Chosen, after all!" Thalion called back.
For the next few minutes, the battle continued in the same rhythm. The lizard chased Ricarda while Thalion tore chunks of flesh from its body. The damage began to accumulate, and for a brief moment, the creature slowed.
So it had been even more gluttonous than Vorlok the World-Shatterer.
Then its behavior changed.
It abandoned the chase, dropping heavily to the ground before letting out a deafening screech. A shockwave erupted from its body, powerful enough to send Thalion crashing into a nearby wall. Ricarda was slammed against the ceiling, while Pikar’s dragonfly lost all six wings and several legs midair.
The lizard began to convulse—then vomit.
Not just slick darkness—but bodies.
The old hag reemerged, followed by dozens of figures. The hag looked much as she had before, but the others were… wrong. Twisted by darkness, their movements sluggish yet purposeful. Each one radiated a strong aura—high E-grade at the very least.
They were vaguely human, but their mouths were filled with elongated black teeth, and a dark fluid constantly dripped from their lips.
The lizard itself had changed as well.
Gone was the bloated, gluttonous form. In its place stood a lean, muscular predator. Its eyes burned with far greater intelligence—and both were locked onto Thalion.
Another roar shook the ruined city as it empowered its minions.
The hag, still clearly sentient, began to cackle.
"What the hell is that?!" Ricarda screamed, activating her boosting skill.
"This isn’t good," Pikar muttered, summoning a new dragonfly beneath him.
Thalion couldn’t disagree.
This wasn’t just bad—it was escalating too fast.
The corrupted figures split into groups. Some rushed forward as fighters, others began casting, while a third group knelt and channeled power into the rest. The lizard and the hag were already enhanced by their own abilities—now they were being boosted further.
Two layers of enhancement. On top of their D-grade base.
Their aura surged in waves, dominating the entire battlefield. Even Thalion’s fully released aura was suppressed, only a faint trace of his elemental pressure pushing through.
The enemy had gone all out.
Which meant he had to do the same.
Otherwise, his teammates wouldn’t survive.
Shadows spiraled around Thalion as he activated Shadow Step, dissolving into darkness itself. He aimed straight for the support casters.
But the corrupted figures reacted instantly. They intercepted him, shaping weapons from darkness.
It didn’t matter.
Thalion ignored every strike, focusing entirely on tearing them apart. His offensive power—combined with everything Ratgul had taught him—made short work of them.
The only problem? He didn’t have time to fully absorb them.
It was as if the lizard had swallowed half the city.
Meanwhile, the hag focused on Pikar, who struggled to evade her increasingly varied attacks. Shadows lashed out, rivers of darkness chased him through the air.
Ricarda, on the other hand, was being hunted by the transformed lizard. Faster, more agile—far more dangerous. Her plants fired beam after beam, but they barely slowed it.
D-grade was simply on another level.
The lizard tanked everything.
And worse… they were still getting stronger.
The lizard’s muscles tensed as its power continued to rise, while the hag layered skill upon skill, her attacks growing more relentless by the second.
They needed something to shift the tide.
And with the lizard momentarily occupied, why not test his new skill?
Chapter 500… yeah, that’s kind of crazy. Not gonna lie.
Thank you all for the support ;)
As a small reward, here are a few thoughts—and a glimpse of what’s looming on the horizon.
Since the first System Event and Thalion’s evolution to E-grade, the story has focused on slow progression and world exploration, while the conflict between factions steadily escalated—not just among mortals, but on a much larger scale.
Right now, the tension is still relatively calm… but that’s about to change.
In my opinion, truly high tension only works with the right buildup. If Thalion had gained his divine class after a short and easy first System Event, it wouldn’t carry the same weight it does now.
As for the approaching war, the groundwork has been laid for quite some time—subtle hints scattered across the last two hundred chapters. Before the second System Event, things started to take a more concrete shape… and once it concludes, the pace will accelerate even further.
Then it will be time to see who claims true dominance over New Earth.
CITIZENS OF THE ENDLESS EMPIRE—THE AGE OF WAR IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY?