SSS-Ranked Awakening: I Can Only Summon Mythical Beasts-Chapter 493: Don’t Die So Early

Its eyes which were massive, lidless, and glowing faintly with unnatural light, snapped upward.

Locked onto them.

Garrick’s heart dropped. "It— it’s looking at us."

"It can’t reach us," Garrick added quickly, though doubt crept into his voice. "We’re too high."

The creature stared.

Then as if to answer their challenge, wings tore free from its sides.

Great, membranous things unfurled with a wet, ripping sound, sending shockwaves through the air. The sea below exploded outward as the creature launched itself skyward, water cascading from its scales as it climbed with horrifying speed.

Garrick shouted. "DAMN IT— IT FLIES?!"

Skylar’s wings beat once, powerfully.

Damien’s expression didn’t change.

"It’s a peak Grade Four," he said calmly, eyes tracking the rapidly ascending monster. "Strong. But not enough."

The creature was abnormally fast, its massive body defying reason as it surged upward, closing the distance with terrifying intent.

Flap! Flap! Flap!

Its wings beat frantically, dragging its bulk higher and higher, jaws opening wide enough to swallow Skylar whole.

Garrick braced himself, panic surging. "Do something!"

Skylar responded before Damien gave the order.

The wyvern twisted sharply, banking sideways and accelerating, its movements smooth and deliberate. It didn’t flee—not truly.

It played.

Skylar dipped, then rose, darting just out of reach. The creature followed eagerly, a predator driven mad by the chase, its roars shaking the sky.

It couldn’t quite measure Skylar’s rank or else it would’ve noticed that it was the prey in this game of hunting.

Skylar didnt care though. It simply kept soaring higher.

Higher still.

The air thinned. Frost began to form along the creature’s wings as it strained to keep pace, muscles screaming under the unnatural exertion.

Skylar suddenly climbed even faster, pulling them toward the upper reaches of the clouds.

Garrick clung on, teeth clenched, vision blurring.

Then—Skylar stopped climbing.

Its wings folded inward.

For a split second, they hung in freefall.

"What the fuuuuuuuck!" Garrick screamed.

Black fire gathered inside Skylar’s maw.

A dense, swirling inferno of shadow and heat compressed into a single, lethal point.

The pursuing creature surged closer, triumph flashing in its monstrous eyes and just then, Skylar struck.

A beam of black flame erupted outward, slamming directly into the creature’s chest.

Boooooom!

The impact detonated midair, fire and shadow tearing through flesh and bone. The creature shrieked as its wings were shredded, massive holes burning clean through the membranes.

It thrashed wildly, losing control.

Skylar didn’t slow.

It folded its wings completely and dove.

Straight toward the island.

The crippled creature followed, driven by instinct and fury, unable—or unwilling—to stop now after what Skylar had just done. Wind screamed past them as the ground rushed closer, cliffs and forests rapidly expanding in their vision.

At the last possible moment, Skylar snapped its wings open.

The sudden force yanked them upward violently.

Garrick’s stomach lurched as they shot skyward again.

The wounded creature tried to mimic the maneuver. But its wings failed.

Air tore through the gaping holes, offering no resistance, no lift.

The monster plummeted.

Boooooooooom!!

It struck the island with a thunderous impact, shattering stone and flattening a swath of forest as its massive body broke apart on contact. The ground trembled. Dust and debris exploded outward in a rising cloud.

Silence followed.

Skylar circled once, then leveled out, continuing toward the island as if nothing had happened.

Garrick stared, breathless, then burst into wild laughter. "You— you used gravity to kill it!"

Damien nodded. "It overestimated itself."

Garrick wiped tears from his eyes, shaking his head. "Remind me never to chase you."

Below them, the island loomed closer.

The Forest of Twin Disasters waited.

The shadow of Skylar swept across the canopy as the wyvern descended.

And Damien felt it clearly now. There was something deep within the land that stirred in response to his return. To his presence. The land thrummed oddly. At least to him.

Below them, the Forest of Twin Disasters opened itself like a waiting maw—vast, ancient, and heavy with a presence that pressed against the senses.

The trees here were older than most kingdoms, their trunks thick and twisted, bark darkened by time and something far less natural.

Roots clawed through the earth like grasping fingers, and the air itself carried a faint, metallic tang of mana and blood long since absorbed into the soil.

Skylar slowed, wings beating carefully as it found a relatively clear stretch of ground near the forest’s edge. With a final gust of wind, it touched down.

Garrick slid off almost immediately, legs trembling as his boots hit solid ground. He took several steps away from the wyvern, bent over with his hands on his knees, and laughed breathlessly.

"We... we made it," he said, half-disbelieving. Then he straightened and turned to Damien, expression serious, almost reverent. "I won’t forget this. Bringing me here alive—through that sea, that thing in the sky—thank you."

Damien nodded once. "You held your nerve."

"That doesn’t mean I wasn’t terrified," Garrick replied dryly. He glanced around, eyes scanning the forest warily. "So this is it. The Forest of Twin Disasters."

Damien didn’t answer. He simply raised a hand.

Skylar dissolved into the same blue portal that had brought it into this world, its massive form dispersing as the summon was cancelled. The sudden quiet felt strange after the constant presence of wings and pressure.

Then he moved towards the creature they’d just defeated. It was a bloody mess but nonetheless, it was food waiting to be eaten up by something ugly. And he had the perfect hungry weapon. Luton.

"Summon Luton." He mentally commanded and the next moment, his Stellar Slime was bouncing out of a blue portal.

"Feast on it," Damien said, "but keep the core for me. I’ll need it."

Luton wasted no time, swallowing up the mana beast in seconds, leaving the floor clean.

In the next breath, the ground trembled faintly as Damien summoned Fenrir too.

Fenrir emerged in a burst of pale light, the massive white wolf stepping forward with quiet dominance. Its fur rippled as if stirred by an unseen breeze, eyes glowing faintly as it took in its surroundings.

Almost immediately after, Luton bubbled as it had finished devouring its target, the translucent slime wobbling happily before hopping up and settling on Damien’s head like a crown.

Damien stopped moving as he now faced the forest itself. There was no path leading into it but he sure to carve one.

For a moment, just a moment, his gaze unfocused, drifting across the trees, the undergrowth, the shadows between roots and stone.

This place.

The way the air felt heavier deeper in the forest. The faint echoes of distant roars. The sense that the land itself remembered bloodshed.

He remembered it too.

But he said nothing.

Garrick noticed the pause. "You’ve been here before," he said quietly. It wasn’t a question.

"Yes," Damien replied at last.

Garrick hesitated, then asked, "Why come back?"

Damien rested a hand briefly against Fenrir’s neck, fingers pressing into familiar fur. "To settle old scores."

That was all.

Garrick studied him for a second longer, then let out a slow breath. "Fair enough." He adjusted the straps on his gear, then added, "I wasn’t going to ask you to share. But since we’re being honest... I’ll tell you why I’m here too."

Damien turned slightly, listening.

"I need money," Garrick said bluntly. "A lot of it. Fast."

He hesitated, jaw tightening, then forced the words out. "I borrowed from the wrong people. A loan shark with connections I shouldn’t have touched. When I couldn’t repay on time, he took my family instead."

Fenrir’s ears flicked.

"My wife," Garrick continued, voice rough, "and my two kids. He says if I don’t pay everything back in five days, he’ll start sending me pieces. A head a day."

Silence settled between the trees.

"I’ve got four days left," Garrick finished. "This forest has beasts. Demons. Essence cores worth enough to buy my family back—if I survive long enough to collect them."

Damien exhaled slowly.

"That’s your plan," he said. Not judgmental. Just factual.

Garrick nodded. "It’s all I’ve got."

Damien looked at him for a long moment, then said, "Good luck."

It wasn’t unkind. It was honest.

He turned, ready to move deeper into the forest.

"Wait," Garrick said quickly.

Damien paused.

"You’re not going in alone," Garrick added. "Not after what you just did for me. If I’m going to die in this cursed place, I might as well die fighting beside someone who knows it."

"I don’t need protection," Damien replied. " Neither do I need support."

Garrick snorted. "Doesn’t matter. I’ll give it anyway."

Damien didn’t argue further. He simply started walking.

Fenrir moved along with them, massive paws silent against the forest floor. Luton wobbled slightly on Damien’s head, then settled.

They didn’t go far before the forest responded to their presence. It finally acknowledged their arrival and probably was ready to test their worth. It they died, they were never worthy or worse, they weren’t welcome here.

"Don’t die so early." Damien smirked as though he knew what was coming.