Chapter 116: Internal Collapse

As the creature vanished from sight, Seraline frowned. Even as an Adept-level knight, she couldn't sense it. No smell, no sound—it somehow swallowed the noise around it, blending perfectly with the darkness it summoned. Outside the brief moments, it came into view; the only thing she could rely on was her sense of touch—the subtle shifts in the air, the faint vibrations through the ground. But even that wasn't reliable. The thing moved like it should've been heavy, but it barely caused a tremor as it charged past her. Only the shift in the air and its strange shadow form had told her it had even moved past them.

It can regenerate from being torn apart… how are we supposed to kill it?

Seraline's thoughts raced, searching for a way to defeat it, when Magnus's voice cut in.

"Seraline, I have a way to kill that thing." She turned her head slightly, keeping her gaze locked on the forest's edge.

"How?"

"It's... a technique I've been working on. I haven't tested it on anything yet, but if I land the hit, I'm pretty sure it'll kill it. I just need to hit it once." Seraline's interest piqued, though her face remained unreadable. He had a technique strong enough to take down that thing in a single strike? But then Magnus spoke again, his tone dropping.

"The catch is... I can only use it if I'm within ten meters. If it escapes before I activate the ability, it's useless." Seraline's expression tightened. Getting within striking range was one thing, but keeping that monster within ten meters of them? That was a whole different challenge. Seraline wasn't sure if the creature was sentient, but it was smart. It pulled back when its attacks failed and avoided taking direct hits. Worse yet, it was fast. Fast enough to cover over a hundred meters in just a second. If they were going to make this work, there was only one way.

"You need me to act as bait," she muttered. Behind her, Magnus nodded.

"A minute, at most." Magnus knew it was a big ask. The only reason that monster would stay in one place was if it believed it had a chance of killing one of them.

A tense silence passed between them before Seraline finally spoke again.

"Alright. I'll get you the minute you need. But if I'm going to distract it, I'm going to need a way to keep track of it first." If it kept slipping away into the dark, every time it sensed a hint of danger, there'd be no way for them to pull this off.

"I think I have a way to deal with that," Magnus said, "but we need it to attack again first."

Everything he was proposing hinged on one thing—her trust. They barely knew each other, and yet Seraline seemed willing to put her life in his hands. Magnus wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because they were stuck in this together, maybe it was because he agreed to go on this assignment with her, or perhaps it was something else entirely. But in the end, it didn't matter. She was trusting him with her life. That meant he couldn't afford to miss once he got his chance.

Before they could exchange another word, Magnus's expression shifted beneath his mask.

"It's coming," he warned, his voice low.

The music's tempo had quickened, signaling to Magnus that this next attack was going to be faster, or maybe even stronger than the last. Seraline still didn't understand how Magnus could sense the creature when she couldn't, but she braced herself anyway. Meanwhile, Magnus stood ready, listening for the signal—the ticks before the scream. But, when it finally came, his eyes widened in shock. The piercing, haunting wail, sharp enough to shatter glass, echoed from not just one direction—but many.

Four... eight... fourteen... twenty... Shit, it's attacking from every direction!

Magnus couldn't keep track of how many attacks were incoming. Worse, he had no clue where they were all coming from. Defending against something visible was one thing, but being assaulted from every corner of the darkness was something else entirely. His decision was made in a split second—a barrier. It would be their safest move. He conjured it quickly, expanding it to cover both himself and Seraline. At first, Seraline looked confused, but that quickly turned to surprise. Magnus's barrier wasn't just a simple shield—it was layered to an insane degree. Dozens upon dozens of densely packed barriers, stacked so thick they were nearly opaque.

The spell itself was Apprentice-level, but Magnus had modified the mana formations far beyond their usual limitations. Even an Adept would struggle to break through one layer, let alone the hundreds he had made all at once. But the thing hunting them wasn't ordinary. As soon as the barrier formed, dark arms shot out from the shadows around them, each appendage tipped with long, twisted fingers, warped together into sharp drills or spears.

They struck the barrier from every direction, silent but violent. The force sent ripples across the mana-constructed layers, causing them to shatter. One arm alone was enough to smash through seventeen barriers. What could nearly a hundred do, striking all at once and even faster than before? Magnus gritted his teeth, pushing his mind to its limits as he conjured new layers just as quickly as they were destroyed. For every barrier shattered, he created two more. In an instant, fifty layers broke apart like fragile glass, only for a hundred more to take their place. But they were ripped through just as quickly.

His mind worked at a furious pace to keep up, and it was only after what felt like the hundredth barrier that the relentless arms finally lost their momentum, scraping uselessly at the last remaining layers, unable to break through.

"Persistent bastard..." Magnus muttered, his voice heavy with relief. Seraline glanced back at him, a flicker of admiration in her eyes. But that relief was short-lived as a thought hit Magnus.

Wait... why hasn't the music started up again yet?

Then they saw it. It happened so fast that only Seraline reacted in time, instinctively dodging to the edge of the barrier surrounding her and Magnus. But Magnus wasn't as quick. The creature's hulking shadow burst from the treeline, snapping entire trees like twigs as it charged. Magnus barely had a second to change expressions before the creature's full weight slammed into him, obliterating the remaining mana barriers. The impact was indescribable, but if Magnus had to compare, it was like being hit by a freight train. His body was launched into the air, blood spraying against the dark sky, lit only by the flickering flames.

Seraline, with her heightened senses, heard the sickening crack of his bones and the sound of organs being crushed.

"Cain!" she screamed. She was about to leap forward, desperate to catch him, but the hands that had been clawing at the now-destroyed barrier were free to move and started to close in.

Seraline's eyes narrowed, and her aura flared violently. The hands weren't moving as quickly or as forcefully as before, but they were relentless. In an instant, her spear blurred, spinning in tight arcs around her. All anyone could see were flashes of light as the weapon sliced through the air. Any hand that dared approach her was shredded into ribbons or smashed into the ground by the shaft of her spear. The creature had spread its body across the trees like rope, twisting and weaving to launch attacks from all angles. It quickly noticed Seraline's assault and began to retreat, retracting its arms back into the shadows.

Seraline considered chasing it down but knew she had to get to Magnus. If he hit the ground from that height, he'd be killed instantly. At least, that's what she thought.

Just as her spear tore through the last of the nearby arms, she heard a voice.

"You're finally in the open."

It was Magnus's voice. The moment the creature had struck him, the magic artifice on his chest activated, allowing him to trigger [Perfective Regeneration]. The cracking and crushing sounds Seraline heard were indeed his bones breaking and organs rupturing—but it was also the sound of them being restructured and healing. Just like his barriers, where two replaced each one that was destroyed, his body regenerated as quickly as it was damaged. By the time he was airborne, he had already begun to recover.

Magnus glared down at the creature, and without giving it a chance to escape, he began condensing mana at the edge of the forest, transmuting it into massive walls of solid earth. The creature slammed into them as it tried to flee, but even it couldn't break through meters of rock in a single charge. As it crashed into the walls, Magnus then expanded them, enclosing the creature in a cage of earth.

Once he was done trapping it, he hovered in mid-air as though standing on an invisible platform. Bending his legs and locking eyes with the shadowy figure below, he launched himself at it like a rocket, the explosive force creating a shockwave in the air. In his right hand, he held something as he flew toward the creature, and when he reached it, he palm slammed into its body. Although there was no sound, the result was clear. The creature's form rippled and crumpled from the force of the blow, the ground beneath it cracking under the impact.

It didn't have a chance to split apart before the strike hit home.

"Seraline!" Magnus shouted, but before the words left his mouth, she was already in motion. High above, she spun like a falling comet, her body twisting with the precision of a spinning top. Each rotation built up a massive amount of momentum, and she funneled all of it into a single, devastating thrust. The impact of her strike surpassed even that of Magnus's one just a second ago. A massive hole burst open in the creature's body, shadowed tissue spraying everywhere, and the impact sent it crashing further into the ground with such force that the earth beneath it splintered, cracking like shattered glass.

After that, Seraline pushed off the creature's body, landing gracefully beside it. Slowly, the creature rose again, balancing on what appeared to be multiple legs jutting out from the sides of its torso—limbs that resembled the arms it had used to attack, though much larger. Its body trembled, not with pain but with something that looked like rage. Though its muted roar remained silent, the fury was unmistakable.

What followed was the longest minute of Magnus's and Seraline's lives.

Realizing it was trapped, the creature abandoned all attempts to flee. Instead, it charged directly at Seraline, the closest target. Without the cover of shadows, its fighting style became wild and uncoordinated. Arms sprouted from its body in every direction, all of them homing in on Seraline, ready to tear her apart. At the same time, its hulking mass barreled toward her, intending to crush her beneath its weight.

But the situation had changed. Seraline could now see her opponent—and she was faster.

Just as ten arms closed in, about to slam into her from all sides, Seraline vanished in a blur. She reappeared standing vertically on the stone wall, encasing them, her legs coiling as she launched herself forward again. In an instant, a deep, jagged gash appeared across the creature's back. It trembled once more, and more arms—countless, writhing limbs—burst from its body in a grotesque frenzy. The creature thrashed violently, slamming into the ground, the walls, and anything in its path, consumed by a blind rage.

What followed was a chaotic clash of flesh and spear.

Seraline's aura exploded outward, flaring so brightly that even the floating orbs of flame seemed dull in comparison. She unleashed her full speed as an Adept-level knight, moving faster than the eye could follow. The battle was already eerily silent due to the creature's ability, but now, as Seraline broke through the sound barrier, her attacks seemed to arrive before the sound could catch up. The shockwave of a thrust would reverberate through the right side of the stone-walled cage, but by the time the sound hit, Seraline was already on the left, cutting down a dozen arms as they tried to close in on her.

The entire battlefield became a blur of fire and shadow, the two elements swirling and twisting around each other as Seraline and the creature clashed in a deadly, violent dance.

But even with her speed, Seraline was being forced to stay in an enclosed space, limiting her mobility. On the other hand, the creature was trying to overwhelm her with sheer numbers—quantity over quality. Though Seraline could hurt it, she couldn't kill it, and it took advantage of that.

Being assaulted from three sides by hordes of arms, she spun her spear swiftly, driving the heel into the cracked earth beneath her. Her muscles tensed as she strained, sending chunks of rock, weighing tons, hurtling toward the arms closing in from her right. Then, without hesitation, she twisted her spear and swung it in a wide arc to the left.

"Grounded Arts: Seismic Cleave!" Her spear seemed to extend, glowing as it swept through the air like a cone of light, slicing cleanly through everything in its path. But in the middle of her strike, the ground beneath her feet suddenly cracked open. A hand shot up from the earth, wrapping around her leg.

It can burrow!?

With a force she couldn't resist, Seraline was yanked underground through the tunnel the creature's arm had carved. The tight passage squeezed her body, the jagged rocks tearing at her. If it weren't for her aura, she would have been ripped apart as she was dragged deeper into the earth.

Meanwhile, Magnus stood on the stone wall, keeping himself within range of the creature. But his attention wasn't on the chaotic battle. Instead, his focus was on what he had been holding when he struck the beast—a mana imprint catalyst he had gotten from the exchange center. Using the blood that had spilled from him after the creature rammed into him, he'd linked the catalyst to both himself and the creature's body when he struck it. He'd been right; the creature was biological, though its shadowy exterior had made it seem otherwise.

Now, visual data was streaming directly into Magnus's mind, revealing the creature's internal structure. Every living thing had similarities, despite their differences—one of which was a vital point. Something essential to survival. That was the basis of Magnus's attack: to find that spot and destroy the creature from within. But scanning a creature this size wasn't easy. If it were a human, Magnus could find its vitals instantly based on his knowledge of studying his own body. But he could barely handle processing the interior of a human body at once, let alone something so big that it could knock over trees. Which meant he had to do a pinpoint search.

Where is it... where is it, come on...

As Magnus scanned, Seraline was fully pulled through the tunnel, breaking through to the surface on the other side.

The creature whipped Seraline into the air by the arm wrapped around her leg, then slammed her back into the ground with such force that the surrounding trees quaked. Gritting her teeth, Seraline grimaced in the ditch her body had created. She clenched her hand around her spear and swung at the arm, slicing it cleanly from the creature's body. The second she severed it, the creature charged forward, one of its massive legs rising above her, ready to crush her into the dirt. Seraline rolled out of the way just in time as the beast's foot stomped down, leaving a deep imprint where she had lain seconds before.

Pain shot through her leg as she scrambled to her feet. The squeezing, slamming, and dragging through the tunnel hadn't caused serious damage thanks to her aura, but as she glanced down, she noticed her pants were torn where the arm had grabbed her. Her skin beneath was raw, an angry red mark standing out starkly against her flesh.

This thing... it's a mana beast!

Only something derived from mana, like aura or magic, could break through a knight's defenses and injure them like this. And the only creature that had mana coursing directly through their bodies, so that even their physical attacks could be considered magical in nature, was a mana beast. As she had this realization, the creature suddenly whipped the front of its body toward her. Seraline tried to dodge, but a sharp pain shot through her leg the moment she put weight on it. The creature's head slammed into her, sending her flying into the stone wall that enclosed them.

Lying in a hole in the wall, Seraline struggled to her feet, her body aching. She watched, eyes narrowing, as the severed limbs of the creature regenerated, reforming into a writhing mass of arms that waved menacingly in the air. They seemed endless, an ocean of limbs ready to tear her apart as the creature advanced. Blood dripped down the side of her face, and her balance wavered, her vision hazy.

How long has it been? Has it been a minute yet?

In battles fought at high speeds surpassing that of sound, seconds could feel like an eternity, and Seraline had lost track of time. She had no idea how much longer she needed to hold out, but the creature wasn't going to give her any respite. It took another step forward, and in an instant, all of its arms surged toward her, flooding the world above as it charged at her.

I don't have a choice... I have to rely on Weapon Unity...

It was her trump card, a technique that required absolute focus and precision and was best used when its user was in peak condition. Using it now, while she was injured and off balance, would leave her in bad shape afterward, just like it did in her match against Velis. But there was no other option. But, just a moment as she prepared to enter the state of merger, the creature froze. Every one of its rushing arms halted mid-air.

"Found it!" Magnus shouted, a grin spreading across his face. From his perspective inside the creature's body, he had pinpointed the area where everything seemed more solid and condensed. Zooming in, he saw it—a dark, glass-like bead nestled within the mass of flesh. While the rest of the creature's tissue appeared inert and lifeless, the area around the bead pulsed like a beating heart. Without hesitation, Magnus targeted it, launching a barrage of visualizations focused on complete biological failure.

He imagined every possible disaster: halting cell division while forcing others to mutate and spread like cancer, tearing its tissues apart, twisting muscles, rupturing veins, and blocking the flow of internal fluids. Every flaw he could conjure hit the creature's body simultaneously, over and over again, in the same vital area.

From the outside, Seraline watched in confusion and horror as the creature began to shake. Then its body began to bubble, as though something was boiling beneath its skin. The arms extended from its body collapsed to the ground, turning into piles of boneless flesh that didn't return to the main form. And soon, it all reached its tipping point. The creature's body stretched and bulged grotesquely until, finally, it exploded. Gore splattered across the ground, walls, and trees.

Even Magnus and Seraline were coated in the creature's insides, chunks of flesh still raining from the sky.

Well, that was disgusting.

[Master, look!]

Basker's voice snapped Magnus's attention back. Through the falling gore, he spotted it—the glass-like core from within the creature. Unlike the rest of its body, it hadn't exploded. In fact, it was flying through the air, as if trying to escape. Magnus prepared to destroy it, but Seraline moved faster. With a sharp focus, she raised her spear like a javelin, her body tensing as she launched it with incredible force. The spear flew through the shower of flesh and struck the core dead-on, even as it darted through the air.

The impact shattered the core, sending shards flying. But the spear didn't stop there—it continued to burrow through the rock wall Magnus had created, which was now dissolving back into mana, and lodged itself deep into a nearby tree.

Magnus let out a low whistle.

"Damn, she's got one hell of an arm."