The Glorious Evolution

Fifteen seconds earlier...

Shia’s sticky blood caught around her father’s torso and legs, slowing his flight as she stepped back under his weight and drew him into her arms.

’I’ve got him!’

BOOM!!

Her message barely left her before Levi smashed through a tree.

Shia looked past her father’s shoulder, watching broken branches fall over him while his burning staff tumbled across the ground... Rain was already following!

’Levi!!’

She almost stepped toward him, but her father’s weight pulled against her arms... his head rested weakly against her shoulder, blood gathering at his lips with every attempt to breathe.

’Shia, follow the plan,’ Jasmine reminded her.

’Did you see what he did to him?!’

’He’s still fighting... trust him,’ Jasmine said; her mysterious inked black eye showed her the ongoing struggle between Levi and Rain in black and white.

Although Levi appeared to be losing, Jasmine hadn’t lost faith in him in the slightest.

He had already told them that he was going to fight without relying on Sun or Void abilities to ensure that the Bishop and his dogs wouldn’t be given evidence of his Celestial identity... it wasn’t a choice, but a necessity for their survival and their planet’s safety.

After all, if Celestial’s identity were exposed with recorded evidence, then... forget about the Bishops; Earth would be conquered by both Oblivar’s followers and the Radians’ followers, who wouldn’t hesitate to use whatever it took to capture him.

Of course... this choice was based on the situation not getting out of hand to the point where all of their safety was threatened... if it got to that point, his hand would be forced.

Shia feared for his life because he had decided to limit his strength to a single seed and a weapon... but she knew what she was supposed to do.

Levi dealt with Rain, Jasmine restrained Fang, and she got her father out.

That was the plan, and she had given him her word to respect it.

Suddenly, a growl interrupted her thoughts.

Between the trees, Levi’s illusory figures flickered and broke apart, leaving the blood wolves snapping at empty air... then their heads turned toward her father; the smell of blood on him was so heavy it left them seeking him at once.

Before she could think of running away with her father, she was forced to summon her glaive and defend her father from a beast that lunged at Idriss’s dangling leg!

Slash!

The crescent blade split its skull, but another wolf rushed around her before she recovered from the swing. She turned her father away from its jaws and struck it with the shaft, knocking it across the dirt.

It landed on its paws and circled back with the others.

Their eyes followed Idriss whenever she moved him... even when she exposed her own side to swing, they ignored the opening and went after him instead!

This wasn’t random, as Fang was making sure to keep them around by attacking their weakest link while he dealt with Jasmine’s control.

’Jasmine, the wolves!’

’You’re on your own. I’m sending Fang through!’

As much as Jasmine wanted to assist Shia, she had a bigger fish to fry.

She swiftly opened a prepared scroll beside his portrait and completed its signature, forming an inked portal a few paces behind Fang, consuming a great chunk of her energy reservoir again.

Then, she returned her brush to the painting, altering the position of his legs.

Fang’s knee bent against his will... his foot lifted and moved backward, followed by the other as she forced him toward the portal!

’You little bitch!’

His muscles strained against every movement, making Jasmine pour more energy into the scroll just to complete each step... she needed him through before he broke free and turned the situation upside down!

Meanwhile, Shia retreated toward a slanted root, sweeping her glaive across the wolves approaching from her left.

They scattered around its reach, and she barely intercepted another beast rushing toward her father’s exposed throat.

Realizing she couldn’t keep protecting him from every direction while holding him, she lowered Idriss against a tree trunk and drove the glaive’s shaft into the ground.

Mantra Blood Arts: Bleeding Peaks!

Rumble!!

Jagged towers of crystallized blood erupted around them, forcing the approaching wolves backward as the pillars’ pointed ends leaned inward and met overhead!

Several wolves were already too close to Idriss to leave outside... Shia sealed them inside with her, cutting them off from the rest of the pack!

BANG! BANG!

The wolves outside smashed against the blood crystals, but Shia ignored them as she pulled her glaive free and turned toward those trapped with her father, her expression as cold as it could get.

Blood Ring of Damnation!

The crescent blade separated from its shaft, following the thread of blood connecting them as it swept through the enclosure!

Slash! Slash!

Two wolves broke apart against its edge... another sprang toward Idriss while the blade passed behind Shia, forcing her to knock it aside with the shaft before guiding the crescent through its neck!

The last beast tried to retreat, but the same peaks keeping its pack outside blocked its escape... Shia sent the blade after it, splitting its body before recalling her weapon.

Only then did she kneel beside her father.

”Dad... here.”

She supported his head and brought a recovery totem to his mouth, helping him drink while the wolves continued hammering against the enclosure.

Idriss struggled to swallow, his throat too damaged... but Shia helped him force it down and swiftly muttered the incantation to activate the liquid.

Cough! Cough!

As the totem’s energy finally spread through his body, he was forced to cough out a large amount of hot, steaming blood.

Shia waited a moment until he stopped coughing and then fed him another recovery totem... both were high-grade and supplied by Levi to help Idriss recover as fast as possible in case they failed to bring him inside the portal as they had planned.

”Better?”

Idriss’s breathing remained rough, but he swallowed more easily this time... even the pain from the Hound’s strike on his stomach had lessened.

”A little...”

He wasn’t at his peak yet... but he could move!

”Shia.. yo...”

Just as Idriss was about to scold her for being so rash and risking her life like this for him, explosions resounded outside of the Bleeding Peaks enclosure.

When they looked outside through the muddled, crystallized blood peaks, they saw green explosions... a color that matched a single person here.

Levi!

Boom! Boom!

Successive Combustion Leaps echoed through the forest as Levi raced past Fang and Jasmine, pursuing the Hexgaze Lurker and drawing Rain after him!

Fang watched the two exchange attacks as they rushed past, disappearing between the trees as quickly as they had emerged.

His gaze shifted to Idriss’s silhouette, which had straightened behind the crimson crystals... then, his own leg moved against his will.

Jasmine forced him another step backward, bringing his heel dangerously close to the portal!

While Levi kept Rain occupied and Idriss recovered, Fang couldn’t even control his own limbs... a little girl was moving him like a puppet, forcing him toward a portal whose destination he could only guess!

The Hound’s hellish fate was enough to convince him that he couldn’t afford to find out.

Blood poured through his fur and spread across the dirt, forming another pack of giant, muscular wolves... but this time, their heads turned toward Jasmine!

’Jasmine, behind you!’

Shia sensed their emergence and warned her as the first beasts rushed between the trees.

Even the wolves surrounding the Bleeding Peaks abandoned the enclosure too, joining the charge from the other side!

Seeing this, Idriss swiftly summoned his greatsword and told his daughter to assist Jasmine, assuring her that he would be fine on his own.

The high-grade recovery totems were healing him quickly, and despite not being at his peak, he could protect himself at least.

Alas... even when Shia canceled her Bleeding Peaks and tried to help Jasmine, the wolves were faster.

At once, Jasmine raised her free hand and created white erasure walls around her... the leading wolves plunged into them, and their heads vanished before their jaws could close!

The rest suffered the same fate, without even a drop of blood emerging on the other side.

Unfortunately, this caused her brush to pause over Fang’s portrait... it was only a brief lapse... but Fang was waiting for exactly that slight sense of release.

His head snapped upward, turning toward the enormous crimson moon, which was slowly emerging from the clouds disturbed by the meteor’s fall.

’Oh!’

Jasmine swiftly returned her brush to the portrait, trying to force his head down... but crimson light already washed across his upturned face and, most importantly, his eyes.

Blood Moon Sovereign Form!

CRACK!!

Fang’s spine arched as his shoulders expanded, his muscles swelling against the posture imposed on him!

Jasmine poured more energy into the painting, forcing its legs into a kneeling position... yet Fang’s feet remained planted in the dirt, sinking deeper as his body continued growing!

Even the remaining wolves around her swelled with him, their limbs thickening as more blood surged through their bodies.

Jasmine had to reinforce the white ink again, and the connection to her portrait buckled under Fang’s resistance!

”GRAAAAAH!!”

A fracture split his painted figure, and she hurried to complete another stroke... but the portrait crumbled before her brush reached it, scattering torn fragments at her feet.

Behind the portal, Fang stood five meters tall even with his back hunched, forcing Jasmine to look up as his shoulders rose against Cruor’s enormous blood moon.

Crimson light outlined his bristling fur, but his lowered face remained in shadow... only when his lips peeled back did she make out the rows of wet fangs crowding his jaws.

His long arms hung loosely at his sides, ending in enormous claws that slowly opened and curled again.

With his head thrust forward and his knees bent, he looked ready to drop onto all fours... or spring straight over the portal like it meant nothing to him.

Jasmine and Shia knew his Sovereign Form... but this was nothing like the transformation they remembered from the Faction Event.

’The Blood Moon...’

They had only seen him transform under an illusory blood moon before...

Now, looking up at him under Cruor’s crimson light, their hearts sank as they wondered how much stronger the monster they already feared had become!

Grrrrrr!!

Then his chest expanded, and a low growl trembled through his mouth as his crimson, bloodthirsty eyes landed on them... saliva spilling down his trembling jaw.

There wasn’t an ounce of intelligence or humanity in them.

Only... Murder.