Chapter 375 — Why Now?

Damian’s eyes scanned the surroundings, taking in details that made his stomach sink.

Ancient trees towered overhead, their trunks wider than anything he’d seen during his training sessions in the forest.

’This isn’t the outer forest.’

The realization hit with cold certainty.

When Kaiser had thrown him into the woods for training, he’d stayed in the outskirts where D and C rank beasts made their territories.

Safe enough for a student to survive with skill and caution.

This was something else entirely.

The Aura density in the air was oppressive, saturating every breath he took, the kind of concentration that only existed deep in untamed wilderness where apex predators ruled their domains.

’How far did that bastard bring me?’

His hand went to his wrist instinctively, reaching for his watch.

Empty space greeted his fingers.

’Right.’

He’d left it in his dorm room.

He’d only planned to walk Luna back to her dormitory and return to his own bed.

A simple task that should have taken minutes.

Now he was standing in the deep forest with no communication device, no way to call for help and no way to tell anyone where he’d gone.

’Kaiser.’

The Headmaster’s name surfaced in his mind with a flash of frustration.

He hadn’t seen or heard from the old man in weeks.

Just... silence.

Gia hadn’t been responding to his attempts to contact her either.

He’d tried reaching her again after Elizabeth’s ambush, after the battle with the Death Cult assassins, after everything that had happened in those chaotic hours. But no response ever came.

And Elizabeth herself had mentioned.

"Right now, many powerful awakeners have gone somewhere. Their whereabouts aren’t known. Everyone strong enough to matter is... elsewhere."

He’d filed the information away at the time.

Now it clicked into place with uncomfortable clarity.

’If Kaiser was here... if he was actually at the Academy instead of wherever the fuck he’s been...’

The Royce Patriarch wouldn’t have showed up today.

The risk of Kaiser taking offense, of starting a conflict that would escalate beyond anyone’s control, was too high.

Which meant Kaiser’s absence was known.

Public knowledge among the powers that mattered.

’What the hell is happening that has someone like Kaiser occupied enough to abandon his Academy?’

The question meant something important was happening behind the scenes that he had no clue about.

Then the sky split open.

BOOOOOOM

The sound went beyond thunder and beyond anything that belonged to the natural world.

Reality itself seemed to detonate overhead, the shockwave powerful enough to shake the ground beneath Damian’s boots and send every bird screaming from their nests in panicked flight.

His head snapped up as brilliant light flooded the world from every direction at once.

The radiance washed across the heavens in waves that made his Aura react instinctively, his core pulsing hard in response to some massive external pressure.

The light kept intensifying until he had to close his eyes against the glare, his hands raising to shield his face even though he knew it wouldn’t help.

Then... silence spread.

The kind that only followed catastrophic change.

Damian opened his eyes slowly, blinking away afterimages that burned across his vision.

The sky stretched above him in blood red.

Deep and unnatural crimson that extended from one horizon to the other like the world had been dipped in arterial blood.

The sky looked like an open wound.

"Oh fuck my life~"

The words came out flat despite the shock freezing his body in place.

"Of all the fucking times for this to start... why now?!"

The old beggar’s voice echoed in his memory, narrating passages from that tattered novel, describing in vivid detail what happened when the world’s Aura density finally crossed the threshold.

The ambient Aura levels would spike.

Beasts would grow stronger, their ranks climbing as their bodies processed the sudden abundance of power.

The forests would become death zones.

Every creature fighting to consume the surge and claim their place in the new order.

And he was standing in the middle of one of the biggest forests in the entire world.

"That fucking Patriarch."

Rage burned through the shock.

"Why couldn’t that old fuck send me back?! Why leave me here?!"

’Was this deliberate? Did he know? Did he–’

ROOOAAAAR

The sound ripped through the forest from somewhere to his left.

Then more joined it.

ROAR

ROAR

ROAR

Calls and cries and screams erupted from every direction.

The forest woke up as its inhabitants felt the Aura surge and responded with primal instinct.

Fight... Feed... Evolve.

The ground trembled as something massive moved through the undergrowth close enough that Damian could hear branches snapping under its weight.

Trees crashed down in the distance as territorial disputes turned violent.

Howls and shrieks layered over each other until individual sounds became meaningless noise.

Damian’s eyes snapped to the charred S rank beast corpse still burning with orange flames beside him.

The smell of cooked meat was already spreading, carried by wind through the forest.

Every predator within kilometers would be drawn to it, investigating the scent.

’I need to move away from here.’

The decision came instantly.

Staying near a fresh kill this large was suicide in a forest full of newly empowered beasts looking to establish dominance.

He turned and ran as pure survival instinct drove his legs as he crashed through undergrowth and vaulted over fallen logs, his enhanced speed carrying him through the dense vegetation.

Low-rank beasts scattered from his path.

A D rank wolf pack stalking through the trees to his right suddenly reversed direction, their alpha’s ears pinning back as it sensed something it couldn’t challenge.

Two C rank serpents coiled in the branches above went absolutely still, their bodies freezing mid-movement as Damian passed beneath them.

The weaker creatures could feel it.

This human was dangerous.

This human was stronger than them.

This human was a predator.

Damian’s boots pounded against the forest floor, his Macro Vision tracking movement in his peripheral vision, his Perception identifying potential threats before they could manifest.

Then his instincts screamed.

’Move!’

He threw himself sideways without conscious thought, his body reacting to danger his mind hadn’t processed yet.

But he was too slow.

SLASH

Pain exploded across the left side of his face as something tore through flesh.

His skin peeled away from cheekbone to jaw, the entire left half of his face suddenly exposed, muscle and bone visible through the wound.

Blood sprayed in an arc, painting the leaves beside him crimson.

Damian hit the ground rolling, came up with his axe already materializing from his spatial ring, his Self-Healing skill activating automatically as Aura rushed to close the wound.

The flesh began knitting back together, slow and agonizing, nerves reconnecting with painful sensations

Meters away, perched on a low branch with absolute stillness, sat a black panther.

Its fur was so dark it seemed to merge in the surrounding shadows and its yellow eyes tracked him with predatory focus.

The Aura radiating from it was unmistakable.

A rank.

’Can’t sense it.’

The realization came with cold dread.

His Perception was at 300, normally sharp enough to detect threats before they struck.

’How did it get that close?’

He’d felt nothing before the attack, the panther had given off zero killing intent, hadn’t leaked any presence, kept its Aura signature completely suppressed despite that obvious A rank power.

’Stealth specialist.’

It was a beast that could erase every trace of its existence until it decided to strike.

The panther moved.

Whoosh

One moment perched, the next airborne, closing the distance with extreme speed.

Damian’s axe came up, translucent flames of Slaughter Intent wrapping around the blade as Abyssal Slaughter channeled through the weapon.

But the panther twisted mid-leap, its spine bending at an impossible angle, the axe cut through empty air where its head had been.

Its claw caught Damian’s shoulder, tearing through his shirt and the flesh beneath, opening him from collarbone to bicep.

Blood sprayed hot across his neck.

"Fuck–"

He activated Sonic Blink through gritted teeth.

His body flickered, reappearing fifteen meters away as his Self-Healing kicked in desperately.

The panther landed where he’d been standing, turned to face him with those unblinking yellow eyes.

’Need protection.’

"Obsidian Hide."

Viscous black liquid emerged from his pores, spreading across his skin, hardening into jagged leathery plates that covered everything below his neck.

The panther tracked the transformation with predatory patience.

Then it attacked again.

SLASH SLASH SLASH

Claws hammered into his obsidian armor, each impact spider-webbing cracks across the plates, the force behind them enough to cause internal injuries.

Damian’s axe became a blur, deflecting strikes, his enhanced physical strength letting him match the A rank beast blow for blow.

But matching wasn’t winning.

The panther flowed like liquid darkness, attacking from angles his eyes couldn’t track, faster than his axe could follow.

His Macro Vision gave him split-second warnings and saved his life a dozen times in as many heartbeats.

But it still wasn’t enough.

A claw found the gap between his armor plates at his ribs, tearing through flesh, scraping against bone.

Another opened his thigh to the femur, muscle peeling away in strips.

A third shattered his left arm’s armor completely, fragments exploding outward as claws severed tendons beneath.

The arm went numb, hanging useless at his side.

Blood ran down his legs, pooled in his boots, made his grip on the axe slippery.

His Self-Healing was working constantly, burning through Aura reserves to keep him functional, but the damage was accumulating faster than he could repair it.

’Can’t keep this up. Need to–’

Then it happened.

The panther blurred as its form literally split into multiple copies, each one moving independently, each one radiating the same A rank presence.

One, two, three... seven panthers total, all circling around him.

"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!"

His Macro Vision locked onto each one, searching for tells, for the micro-movements that would identify the real threat.

But every single panther disturbed leaves when it moved, leaving paw prints in soft earth and their breath condensed in the cooling air.

’All of them are real... Or none of them are. Either way–’

Seven warnings screamed through his Perception simultaneously as they lunged at him as one.

Damian used Sonic Blink desperately, his body flickering through space, reappearing outside the attack radius.

Slash Slash Slash

But three of the panthers were already there, waiting, their claws opening his back from shoulder blade to hip in parallel lines.

"Argh!"

The voice tore from his throat before he could stop it, his legs buckled as he caught himself on his axe, leaning against it like a crutch, vision swimming as blood loss dragged at his consciousness.

Movement flickered at the edges of his awareness.

More beasts were approaching through the undergrowth, drawn by blood and violence, eyes reflecting crimson light as they investigated.

’Can’t fight them all. Can’t even–’

A panther materialized at his blind spot.

Jaws closed around his right forearm, fangs punching through obsidian armor and through flesh and bone.

CRACK

His radius and ulna bones snapped.

His fingers went numb, releasing the axe involuntarily.

The weapon hit the ground with a dull thud that sounded like a death knell.

Thud

He waved his hand as the axe went inside his ring.

’Fuck this... Run!’

His legs moved on pure instinct, wounds forgotten, broken arm forgotten, everything except survival forgotten.

His Sonic Blink fired in rapid succession, space folding around him, carrying him through the forest in desperate flickers.

Behind him, all seven panthers gave chase with terrifying grace.

’Need to find somewhere defensible... A cave, a clearing, anything with–’

His Perception caught movement ahead.

A B rank boar, massive and armored, was charging through the undergrowth toward the scent of blood.

Toward him.

"Come here, you fat bastard."

His functioning hand shot out, Telekinesis grabbing the creature mid-charge, hurling it at the nearest panther.

CRUNCH

The beast and the panther collided with bone-crunching force as both went down in a tangle of limbs and squeals.

Damian didn’t look back to see the outcome, his legs pumping and lungs burning, his enhanced speed pushing past every safe limit.

Then he felt more beasts closing in front multiple directions

The panthers were still following, still matching his pace, their yellow eyes visible through the gaps in the trees.

And ahead...

His Macro Vision caught the subtle shift in vegetation that indicated a den or burrow, some kind of shelter carved into the roots of a massive tree.

It wasn’t ideal, but better than nothing.

’No choice... Have to risk it.’

He activated his Domain.

"Despair."