Unedited*

The black cloud, which was hard to make out, swallowed up everything beneath it. People, trees, cities, beasts, sanguines...

In its wake, it left nothing but destruction and chaos.

But that black cloud...

’Have I seen it before?’ Edward wondered.

He felt he had seen it before, but he didn’t understand where or why he felt that way.

The only two black things in his memory right now were... that carriage in Rebirth City and the dark rock on the mountain where his mother was buried.

However, that dark rock on the mountain couldn’t be it. He didn’t sense the energy through a transmission.

On the other hand, the energy he’d seen in Rebirth City was different. It was enigmatic, powerful, dangerous, and very deadly. Could it be compared to this?

Although they were equally oppressive, he didn’t feel they were the same. The problem was that he saw one directly and the other through a fragment of death. But both were overwhelmingly oppressive—just how powerful were they?

Edward shook his head to stop thinking. He felt like he was going crazy, because even he was getting confused by his own thoughts.

Luckily for him, he thought he’d found the necessary fragment of death. It was the only one that gave him a strange, uncertain feeling.

He didn’t let it out of his sight, and with a leap, he grabbed it firmly in a bold move.

Once it was finally in his hand, he reconnected to look at that mental illusion of death, but he stopped it as soon as it began. He had already seen it and already knew which body was his target’s.

The only giant’s body among the spirits.

He approached the area where he had killed him.

"I hadn’t noticed because I thought he was just like everyone else, but this guy didn’t disintegrate completely," he thought.

He wanted to brace himself to avoid the fragments that were still flying, but when he looked around, he realized something was missing.

The fragments weren’t moving. They were frozen in midair, as if gravity didn’t affect them and as if their previous momentum had been nothing but an illusion.

’Is it because I grabbed this one?’ he thought, looking at the fragment in his hand.

He decided to heed the intrusive thought that told him to let it go, and that’s what he did.

Just then, the fragments began to move again with the same momentum. They hadn’t lost a single bit of speed.

His eyes gleamed, and he grabbed the shard of death he had just let go of, causing them to freeze once more.

"Heh heh. Well, it wasn’t that hard to find the core of the illusion." He didn’t need to know any more. He approached the spirit’s half-destroyed body and crouched down.

’I wonder what I should do...’ His thoughts hadn’t finished when the fragment of death glowed with a grayish hue and connected with the wandering spirit beneath his feet.

But the connection lasted only a second before both began to disperse.

Edward stood there, perplexed, staring into nothingness.

However, he was actually seeing and hearing something.

"...Be careful of the darkness watching you... It’s more terrifying than you think."

It was a silent whisper, barely audible. It seemed to carry a tone of gratitude, but also of regret. The conflicting emotions gave the words a melancholic touch.

Just then, his consciousness snapped back to reality.

And another whisper came with it.

"Heh, at least I know you’ll be able to do something..."

Edward froze more at that whisper than at the first one. The first might just be the effects of a restless soul, but this one...

’It wasn’t the same voice.’ Edward frowned.

"Another mental attack?" A voice beside him pulled him out of his deep thoughts.

Edward looked at Malakor and nodded heavily. "Yes. I think the spirits are trying to communicate with me."

"Well." Malakor’s eyes sparkled. "If spirits want to communicate with you—even these corrupt ones—it means you have a heart willing to regard them as living beings. Not all of us are like that. You should try to see what they’re trying to tell you."

"Don’t you consider a spirit to be a living being?" Edward asked, confused.

"They aren’t, are they? They have no flesh, and perhaps never did. They are merely entities whose sole mission is to hinder God’s commands."

Edward stared at him for several minutes.

"Is something wrong? Don’t you think the same?" Malakor smiled.

But Edward simply shrugged. "I suppose your way of thinking, as an archbishop, is surprising."

"Hahaha." Malakor burst out laughing.

Edward said nothing more to him.

As for whether spirits were living beings or not, he believed they were. To begin with, on Earth it was believed that a human was made up of spirit and soul, in addition to the body. And in the world he had arrived in, that belief existed to a certain extent.

It is believed that magic flows through the soul, where the spirit is responsible for giving life and, together with the soul, containing the beasts you summon.

It made sense that the Sanguines didn’t believe that, since they don’t possess magic like humans do, much less summoned beasts. They depend entirely on blood, to which they owe their power, and all of that is created by the body and its organs.

"Every race has its own way of viewing power," he thought.

After verifying that he had successfully leveled up, he continued on his long journey.

The seemingly endless road yielded them about 200 usable shards of death over the course of roughly a week’s walk.

Occasionally they had to stop to avoid mental exhaustion and camped beside dry bones, partly because Malakor had to find a way to control himself better to avoid attracting the attention of any Sanguines that might be nearby.

After a week, Edward took a deep breath and asked, "We’ve faced more than 15 groups of spirits and spent a whole week walking. Is this route endless?"

"It might not look that way on the map, but it’s a very long route. Although we’re actually taking a shortcut, because if we went through the other area, we’d have to travel for a whole month to reach our destination."

"And how much further is it from here?" Edward asked, hopeful. Maybe they were almost there?

"Another week or two."

"That’s still a long way!" Edward retorted angrily.

"But it’s less time." Malakor shrugged.

Edward couldn’t argue with that. Going from four weeks to three or two was certainly a shortcut.

But this gloomy atmosphere was stressful. Still, he had to grit his teeth and keep going.

The first few days were fine. It was a bit annoying, but there certainly wasn’t too much danger.

Once he understood the illusions, everything became too easy.

He was taking advantage of the situation to level up as well; his fire beast had already gone up two more levels, past 30, and his own understanding of this world had increased. So he was doing well on this route, which was still stressful.

Although the most important thing was that his beast...

Had evolved!

The Third Evolution of the Fire Caterpillar, the Komodo Dragon!

Well, if you consider that the Caterpillar is also an evolution, according to researchers, then this would be the fourth...

It was a relatively slow evolution. While the Butterfly evolution took less than 15 minutes and the Snake evolution took about 30 to 45 minutes, this one took over 8 hours to complete.

At first, he was surprised that it was taking so long, but after seeing that it had turned into a Komodo Dragon, he understood immediately.

It’s not a beast you see very often. In all of Lor... there aren’t any. In fact, perhaps there isn’t a single Komodo Dragon in the entire kingdom, let alone one that evolved from a Winged Serpent and an Elemental Butterfly.

Although Edward had been avoiding trying to guess what his beast would become during his fifth evolution for quite some time, he could no longer run from it.

There are some beasts that reach their maximum evolution in their fourth or fifth evolution. However, this is because they have special bloodlines, and "maximum evolution" does not refer to maximum strength, but rather to the final stage of their species.

Among these types of beasts are those with dragon blood.

Yes. Dragon blood.

They usually have one or more winged forms and one terrestrial form. If they have two winged forms and one terrestrial form, it is almost certain that the next evolution will be that of a Dragon.

The most powerful beast among the races, the one that rules the sky and the earth, the one that rises above the mountains... That would be the next evolution of the little Fire Caterpillar that was so mocked in its early stages, if the researchers are correct.

"Unlike the beasts of Aurora, whose power usually comes from evolution rather than the refinement of their bloodline, dragons don’t need to evolve as much once they’ve taken their form," he thought.

So the next evolution of his little Fire Caterpillar should also be... the Evolution of Intelligence.

He’s noticed it ever since they turned into Serpents. They’re smarter and learn much faster.

The Evolution of Intelligence must be coming soon. That means his beasts will acquire consciousness, ego, and true intelligence.