Bahamut and the girls were so in their world that they didn’t realize that time had passed. They were currently lying on the floor, with Bahamut lying in the middle, covered in hickeys that would make Ren’s marks seem like decorations. Alana, as always, lay on his chest, while Lily and Exildra took his left and right sides.

They were just silently enjoying each other’s company when it happened.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!

A powerful shockwave rippled across the town, while the earth shook. Even the sturdy house creaked, as if threatening to collapse.

"What the hell was that?!" Ren’s voice rang from outside.

"The monster we are up against... This is a warning..." Bahamut said as he slowly rose amid the shaking and quaking. The roar was powerful, very powerful. If just a roar could cause this, then what can the owner of that roar, the beast itself, do?

He made his way outside, the girls tagging along. The quaking had stopped for now, but it brought tension and fear. Hopelessness, helplessness...

"We are, we really going to die!" Someone exclaimed. "Our ancestors are angry at us. We will all die to appeal for our sins!"

The streets of Senkeht had transformed in seconds. What was once lively, busy with children playing, adults chatting, and the sound of desert life, had become frozen in terror. People stumbled out of homes and shops with pale faces. Some fell to their knees immediately. Others looked toward the distant dunes with expressions of utter despair. Children cried, animals panicked, and even the wind itself seemed uneasy. The sand shifted strangely across the streets, almost vibrating from the lingering force of the roar.

Bahamut stepped out of the house barefoot, his upper body still bare, the black markings across his body faintly glowing under the scorching desert sunlight. Behind him came Lily, Exildra, and Alana, all still looking slightly disheveled from what they had been doing moments ago. None of them cared now. The atmosphere had changed too much.

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!

The second roar came much closer now, but less powerful. But it didn’t change anything.

BOOOOOOOM!

The entire town shook violently. A building in the distance cracked down the middle, its upper half collapsing into the street in an explosion of sand and debris. Screams rang out immediately.

"Move!"

"Get away!"

"Protect the children!"

The pressure behind the roar slammed into everyone like a physical force. Bahamut narrowed his eyes. This wasn’t just sound; it carried intent... Dominance. A declaration.

Ren appeared beside him instantly, his ears twitching violently.

"That thing is insane."

Even Ren looked serious now. Sel arrived moments later alongside Gabi and the others, their expressions equally grim.

"That wasn’t normal," Sel muttered.

"No beast should be able to project pressure across an entire town from that distance."

"It’s not just a beast," Gabi said quietly. The poison-user’s scales had risen slightly, an instinctive fear response.

The townspeople around them were beginning to lose control.

"It’s awake..."

"We’re doomed..."

"The ancestor has judged us!"

An old man collapsed onto the sand, trembling violently.

"We shouldn’t have dug there... I told them... I warned them..."

"No one listened..."

Bahamut’s gaze sharpened instantly.

"Dug where?"

The old man looked at him with bloodshot eyes. There was fear. Pure fear.

"The tomb..."

Everyone nearby visibly stiffened, and even saying the word seemed forbidden.

"We opened the forbidden tomb beneath the eastern dunes..." the old man whispered hoarsely.

"At first... it was treasures... Artifacts... Gold..." His voice broke. "Then the disappearances started." Another tremor ran through the ground, smaller this time, but enough to make everyone flinch.

"The excavation team vanished first," a woman nearby added shakily. "Then the guards."

"It only roared at night before, but now..." Her face lost all color. "Now it’s coming here."

Silence fell. A distant explosion echoed across the desert horizon.

BOOOOOOOOM!

Everyone turned instantly. Far away, beyond the dunes, something massive moved. The sand itself parted from sheer size. A gigantic trail stretched across the desert as if a mountain were moving beneath the surface.

"Nope," Ren said immediately.

"Nope. Absolutely not."

"That thing can stay wherever it is."

But even as he spoke, the pressure increased again. This time, stronger and more focused. Bahamut suddenly frowned. His instincts screamed. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

The roar earlier... It was different. It was different from the second roar. His eyes slowly narrowed beneath the blindfold.

"We are up against two beasts..."

The moment those words left his mouth, the desert exploded.

KRAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!

A gigantic eruption of sand burst upward outside the town walls. Screams erupted instantly. People scattered in blind panic. And then, a colossal silhouette slowly rose from beneath the dunes.

At first, all they saw were eyes. Massive, golden, and ancient, filled with an intelligence far too human. Then came the head, covered in black-gold scales larger than shields, long horn-like protrusions curved backward from its skull. Its mouth opened slightly, showing rows upon rows of jagged teeth visible within.

The creature kept rising. Entire buildings looked tiny beside it.

"What the fuck..." Ren whispered. Even Bahamut’s expression darkened completely, because the thing staring at the town was not merely a beast.

It felt like a calamity. The beast remained there. Half of its body towered above the dunes, casting an enormous shadow over the outskirts of Senkeht. The sand around it shifted constantly, unable to remain still beneath its sheer weight and presence. Every breath it released sounded like a furnace opening, hot air blasting outward and creating violent currents across the desert.

And its eyes... Those ancient golden eyes simply stared at the town. No one moved. No one dared to. Even the crying children had fallen silent under the overwhelming pressure. It felt as if the creature could erase the entire town with a single motion if it wished to.

Bahamut felt sweat trail slowly down the side of his face. His body was warning him. The creature’s massive pupils slowly narrowed. Its jaw opened wider as the inside of its mouth glowed faintly gold. The surrounding sand began to melt.

"It’s going to attack!" someone screamed.

Panic exploded instantly. People ran blindly through the streets. Some tripped over each other. Others grabbed children and fled toward the inner parts of the town. A few simply collapsed, unable to even move under the pressure. The beast’s chest expanded while the air distorted around its mouth.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!

Another roar exploded across the desert, but this time it didn’t come from the colossal beast before them. It came from farther away, yet somehow louder and more dominant.

The sky trembled. The dunes in the distance collapsed from the sheer force of the soundwave, and for the first time since appearing, the gigantic beast froze. Its glowing eyes widened slightly.

Everyone felt it. That roar carried something terrifying. Authority. An absolute declaration of superiority. The massive creature before the town released a low growl in defiance.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Then the second roar came again.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!

This time, the shockwave split dunes apart across the horizon. The desert storms themselves were blown away, and even the colossal beast staggered slightly.

"What the hell is out there..." Sel whispered. For once, even his calm expression had cracked completely. The giant creature growled again, louder now, furious, almost humiliated. It slammed one massive claw into the sand.

BOOOOM!

An entire section of the outer wall shattered from the impact alone. People screamed again, but the creature didn’t attack. It backed away. The gigantic body began sinking beneath the dunes once more, though its eyes never left the town, never left Bahamut. The moment Bahamut realized that, his heart skipped. The beast had been staring at him specifically. The sand swallowed the creature little by little until only its glowing eyes remained visible above the dunes. Then even those disappeared.

Silence followed. Nobody spoke for several long seconds. Only the sound of harsh breathing and shifting sand remained. Ren finally broke the silence.

"I officially hate this mission."

No one disagreed.

Bahamut, though, was confused. The beast was Tier 2, Circle of Comprehension. He could feel it, and the system had warned him. Meaning, that was the supposed leader of the beast horde that would be attacking the town. It was powerful, no doubt. For the first time, he felt hesitant. He couldn’t understand it. At Tier 1, he managed to kill a Tier 2 beast at the Circle of Comprehension, so then why was this one different?

Why did this one feel so powerful that he felt that even if he went full chimera, it would take more to defeat it. And that roar. The first roar and the recent one. They were from the same beast. Most couldn’t tell the difference, but he did and he somehow understood them. That begged the question...

"Does it know me?"