I Can Devour Monsters' SSS Talents

One passed through the white dust without slowing down. Behind them, the bridge was collapsing piece by piece.

The Warden pulled part of its body out from between the vertebrae and raised its massive blade.

The pressure of its Mana weighed on the space.

If the strike landed, it would not only destroy One but also the remaining part of the bridge!

Seris gripped her sword’s hilt tighter. Mana gathered around her.

But Lian did not look at the Warden. His gaze was on the chain on the creature’s left side.

Echo Adaptation was still active. It had analyzed the monster’s movements since the first observation.

Now he understood something. When the Warden delivered heavy strikes, it would shift its weight to a specific chain.

The chain on the left was not only a weapon or restraint. Its tall and irregular body’s balance depended on it.

”The left chain!.” Lian said.

Seris only looked once and understood.

Lian activated Thunder Step. In an explosion of lightning, he landed on the chain. Glacial Reaper Claw formed again.

He slammed the ice claw onto the thick link. The cold spread along it.

The black metal froze, and blue cracks formed on its surface.

The Warden lowered its blade, but at that same moment, Seris moved.

[King’s Breaker]

Her sword hit the frozen point. The chain’s defensive power collapsed, and the massive link broke... the chain was severed in half!

All of the Warden’s weight suddenly fell to one side. Its tall body lost its balance, and the blade hit the wall instead of the bridge.

The creature fell among a pile of bones. Several massive ribs shattered under its weight.

Mist and bone dust rose in the air.

It was not killed... it did not even seem severely wounded, but it needed time to get out from among the bones.

Those few minutes were enough.

”This is our only and last chance! Cross this damn thing right now!”

One crossed the last part of the bridge. The bones collapsed behind its feet.

Its body passed through the Crystal Wound. The moment they crossed the border, the pressure of the Giants’ Graveyard disappeared.

Not gradually, but suddenly, as if an invisible wall had been between the two areas.

The sound of the wind returned, the leaves moved, a bell-like sound echoed among the trees, and the cold and living air hit their faces.

One ran a few more meters and then slowed down. Lian felt through Hive Link that the ant’s deep fear had lessened.

Anxiety was still there, but that instinctive pressure that came from the entire graveyard remained behind them.

Seris turned back. The gray mist of the Giants’ Graveyard stopped at the Crystal Wound’s border.

Its strands came to the edge of the crack like long fingers, but did not enter the forest.

In the distance, the Warden moved among the bones again. It placed its hand on the ground, and its tall body slowly rose, but it did not chase them.

Perhaps it could not leave its territory. Perhaps the black chains were not only weapons but also bindings that kept it in the Graveyard.

The area panel appeared before Lian’s view.

[You have left Giant’s Graveyard.]

[You have entered Glassthorn Forest.]

Lian looked at the words for a few seconds. They had not conquered the Giants’ Graveyard.

They had not killed the sitting giant, nor had they discovered all the graveyard’s secrets, but they had survived it.

They had passed the Grave Mimics, Bone Scavengers, the occupying core, the Doppelgängers, and the Warden.

Not by recklessly using their most powerful Skills, but through observation, analysis, and coordination. And that too was a kind of victory.

Lian got down from One. His feet landed on the cold, dark soil of Glassthorn Forest.

He took a deep breath. The forest air was sharp and cold... but it did not smell of death.

It smelled of wet crystals, tree bark, and unknown plants.

The trees of Glassthorn had unusual heights. Their bark was transparent, and blue and purple lights moved inside the trunks, as if Mana flowed through them instead of sap.

The branches had come out of the trunks like cut glass. The leaves were narrow, semi-transparent, and hard.

With every gust of wind, they hit each other and created a delicate sound like small bells.

Light broke several times among the trees. Shadows were cast in unnatural directions. In the distance, large shapes moved behind the transparent trunks.

But due to the light refraction, it was impossible to determine their real distance and size.

Seris also got down from One. She examined the forest for a few moments.

”Better than the graveyard.”

”Still not clear.” Lian looked at a shadow that moved behind three trees, and fell on the ground, leaning against his ant.

”What was that?” Seris looked back again.

Ever since they entered that graveyard, they had faced strange and bizarre creatures one after another, each stranger than the last.

”I have no idea. I don’t even know exactly what it was built for... but most likely, it was a type of guardian.”

”A guardian?” The young Pendragon frowned, but a moment later, a spark seemed to ignite in her mind.

”You mean... to prevent that giant from waking up?”

”Correct.” Lian nodded in confirmation.

”According to the Varkesh warning, that Warden only patrols a specific area and reacts to bloodshed. Whenever blood is spilled in that area, it immediately intervenes and eliminates its cause.”

He paused for a moment and then continued.

”If you noticed, after we killed the occupying core and the Doppelgängers, the sitting giant’s awakening percentage directly reached five percent.”

He fixed his gaze into the distance.

”If my guess is correct... that giant has never died. It is trapped between life and death, and by absorbing the bloodshed within this graveyard, it gathers the necessary energy to awaken.”

The more he thought about it, the more logical this hypothesis seemed to him.

That was why monster corpses should not be destroyed. The giant needed blood or perhaps a type of residual energy left in the victims’ bodies to continue its awakening process.

And precisely for that reason...

That Warden would reduce to ashes any creature that caused bloodshed.

Not just kill...

But leave no trace of its body behind; no flesh, no bone, not even a single cell.

As if it wanted to ensure nothing remained to feed that giant.

Probably that was also why the occupying core had kept the six Varkesh bodies intact.

It knew that if their blood was spilled on the ground, the Warden would immediately appear and destroy everything.

But as long as the conflict did not end in bloodshed...

That guardian would not interfere either.

Lian said with more confidence.

”The Warden’s duty is this; it patrols around the most sensitive part of the giant’s burial site and does not allow bloodshed in that area. If anyone violates this rule, it reduces them to ashes without exception.”

Seris frowned slightly.

”But we fought several times inside the graveyard and there was no sign of it. Does that mean the area it protects is that small?”

”Probably.” Lian thought for a moment and answered.

”In the first battles, the giant’s awakening percentage only increased by one percent. But when we reached that skull and killed the occupying core and the Doppelgängers, another three percent was added.”

His eyes narrowed.

”I suspect that same area is the most sensitive point of this graveyard; where every drop of blood has the greatest effect on the giant’s awakening. That is why the Warden protects exactly that same area.”

”That sounds logical...”

Seris nodded slowly, but another question would not leave her mind.

”But who placed that Warden there? Who was willing to build such a guardian to stop that giant’s awakening at any cost?”

A heavy silence fell among them.

”And more importantly...” Her gaze was fixed on the graveyard’s dark depths.

”What exactly is that giant... that they went this far to keep it asleep? So much so that they turned this entire graveyard into its prison?”

Lian remained silent. He had no answers to give to these questions. He too was curious about what exactly had happened in this graveyard.

But they had no information, not even a little, to reason with...

Although neither Lian nor Seris... at that time, knew that the secret of the Giants’ Graveyard was the reason this world still existed...

A world that, of course... was approaching its end.