I Can Devour Monsters' SSS Talents

Time passed.

The battle passed one hour ... then another hour, and the gray light of the Realm slowly changed.

Nobody knew exactly how many hours they had been fighting, only their bodies knew.

Cassian had a deep cut on his side.

Marcus could no longer raise his right arm completely.

Ethan was covered in blood from head to toe, although a large part of the blood was not his own.

Liana was breathing heavily, Shadow Wolf was wounded on its side and one of its back legs was limping when it moved.

Seraphina had used a large part of her Mana.

Even Rindo was no longer only giving orders, when one of the Cindari Captains passed through the Inner Barrier, he entered the battle himself.

His first strike pushed Rindo back, the second broke his personal Barrier and the Student Council President passed beside the third Slash and used his Skill directly on the man’s side.

It was not enough.

The Captain turned around.

But Marcus entered from the blind side, attacked with his healthy shoulder, and the man lost his balance.

Rindo took the chance and pushed his blade into a gap in the Armor.

The Captain fell to the ground and Marcus stood there for several seconds and sighed, all of them were reaching their limits.

Another Awakened messenger arrived, this one could barely stand on his feet.

”West Inner Barrier has fallen.”

”Send Reserve.” Rindo immediately said.

”We have no Reserve.”

This time even the sounds of the Battlefield seemed far away for a moment, Rindo said nothing, the reality was so simple that it needed no explanation.

There was no Reserve left.

Every Awakener who could hold a sword, cast a Spell, or even keep a Barrier up was already on one of the lines.

The Healers had almost no Potions left and their defensive, offensive, and healing abilities had reached their limits.

If another Breach happened, there would be no fresh person to stop it.

”How much longer do we have to hold on? We can’t do this anymore!” Seraphina reached them, there was a thin line of blood beside her face.

”I don’t know.” Rindo looked at her, how could he know?

”Lian told us to buy time, I hope he also knows how expensive we are paying for it.” Marcus, who was leaning against the wall, took a short breath.

Nobody answered, because they were all thinking exactly the same thing.

Tavren Korr finally understood that the Humans had reached their end, and the order for the final Assault was given.

The Cinderhold Horns sounded at the same time.

Ashenreach Heavy Units moved forward.

Emberwell Mage Formations entered Range.

The Mages focused all the Mana they had left on breaking the last Barriers.

Rindo looked at the battle from a distance, some were barely standing, some were holding weapons that were already broken.

Some drank their last Potion at that moment.

No long Speech was needed, everyone knew the situation.

”There is no next line.”

Several people raised their heads, deep inside, all of them knew that they might die here ...

Were they afraid...? Of course! How could they not be afraid? We were talking about life and death, and all these Awakeners were only young people with promising futures.

Every single one of them was afraid, Marcus, Cassian, Ethan, Liana, and even Seraphina were afraid, each of them was afraid because of the wishes, dreams, and future they could have had, but which could end today.

”This is it, if we break here, it’s over.” Rindo pointed toward the central Barrier.

But in the end, nobody ran, there was nowhere to run, every part of the city was surrounded, by thousands of soldiers!

Mana rose, swords were ready.

The Barriers were strengthened one last time, the Mages prepared to use the last amount of Mana they had left.

....and the two sides finally reached each other!

The first Unit hit the Barrier, blue light spread in all directions and the Barrier shook.

The second strike.

Crack.

Marcus threw himself forward, Seraphina stopped two Cindari from the right.

Liana and Shadow Wolf entered from the north.

Ethan came out from under the rubble of a half-broken Barricade and fought again.

The Cindari entered like a wave, the Humans resisted like a wall that had already been cracked.

But the wall was breaking, a Heavy Soldier smashed the Barrier with the third strike and the explosion threw Marcus several meters backward.

His body hit the ground.

Ethan was buried under part of the wall, Seraphina was trapped between two more soldiers.

Rindo also entered the battle and charged directly toward the Cindari.

Everyone knew that this was the final battle, the final battle of this damned and unfair war, they would either resist until Lian could complete the mission or return.

Or all of them would be killed, or at best, captured.

There was no shortcut, there was no second path, there was no hope ... and everyone was fighting in despair.

After killing two Cindari, Seraphina looked into the distance, toward the place where she had last seen Lian ...

Their only hope right now was that man ... but had he even reached the Tree? Could he complete the mission before all of them died....?

Even she was starting to lose hope in her childhood friend ...

And at that exact moment, the ground shook.

At first, it was weak, so weak that most people did not even notice, the Battlefield was already full of explosions, a normal earthquake would not make much difference.

But a few seconds later, the second shake came, and this time nobody could ignore it.

”What the hell is happening? What was that earthquake?”

All of Vhalaris shook. The entire fucking city shook!

The Towers shook, windows broke, the old Bridges made loud sounds, the huge trees that had been part of the city for centuries twisted like living creatures for the first time.

Even the Cindari stopped their attacks.

”What was that?” Rindo barely kept his balance and looked around.

Nobody had an answer, because everyone was looking for one.

Then the third shake passed through the ground, this time bigger, much bigger, and the problem was that only Vhalaris was not shaking.

In Emberroot, the huge trees bent almost at the same time, branches that were dozens of meters long hit each other.

Monsters hidden among the roots came out of their nests.

In Giant’s Forest, creatures that normally would not even leave their Territory when enemies appeared started running.

In Emberwell, the surface of the huge Reservoirs first began to wave, then water spilled over the stone edges.

In Ashenreach, the walls of several mines cracked.

The Miners ran out of the tunnels, in Rootcrown, very old Statues on the central Plazas shook.

On one of the Statues of Cindar Vael, a thin crack appeared from the neck to the chest.

In Giant’s Graveyard, huge chains that held the Corrupted Titan deep underground were pulled.

One of them moved several meters with a sound like a mountain breaking.

And in Glassthorn, all the glass and trees started shaking.

The entire small World was shaking!

Not like an Earthquake, an Earthquake came from the movement of the ground.

This came from something deeper, as if the structure of the World itself was being changed by the pressure of something.

”What the hell is happening?”

”Could this be the apocalypse?”

Then the shaking suddenly stopped, but calm did not return, something worse took its place.

Mana.

Seraphina was the first to notice, she unconsciously put her hand on her chest.

”This...”

Her eyes moved around, all the Mana in the area was moving, not like a normal flow, not like when a powerful Mage activated a Skill, but it had a direction.

All the Mana in Vhalaris was being pulled toward a certain place ... toward the Forgotten Tree!

The Cindari Mages also felt it, several of them became completely still.

Even Tavren turned his head toward the east in the distance, for some reason, he felt a very bad feeling.

The sky changed, it did not become night, the light of the World itself became weaker, the gray color of the sky became darker for a few seconds.

In the distance, the sounds of Monsters rose.

Roars.

Howls.

Screams.

Fear.

Even the battle almost completely stopped, Humans and Cindari had felt the same thing.

The System appeared in front of every Awakener present.

[Warning.]

[Catastrophic World Event Detected.]

Several people stared at the panels and the next line appeared.

[Calamity Is Manifesting.]

[Origin Detected: Forgotten Tree.]

”Forgotten Tree...” Liana’s face changed immediately.

”Lian!” Seraphina said only one name.

Those who knew at least part of what was happening suddenly had countless guesses in their minds.

Everyone kept their eyes on the panel, but no other panel appeared.

Then ... a sound came ... not from the sky, not from underground, but from everywhere!

THUMP.

A sound like a Heartbeat, but so deep that it was not only heard, it was also felt in the bones.

All of Vhalaris became still for a moment, even the distant Monsters became silent, and a few seconds later—

THUMP.

The second time.

This time the Roots under the city shook with the beat, the black cracks that existed in some of the old parts of the ground lit up for a moment.

Black light....something that made no sense, but everyone saw it.

”What the hell are they doing?...” Rindo whispered in disbelief, God knew what Seris and Lian were doing that was causing these things to happen.

Cassian, whose face was covered in blood and dust, came closer by several steps.

And everyone looked into the distance, toward the direction where the Forgotten Tree was located very far away.

The battle had completely stopped.

Not because of a ceasefire or because of surrender, not because of any Commander’s order, but because every living creature in Vhalaris had felt the same thing.

Something in the distance was waking up.

Not a Monster, not even something that could be explained with a simple Level, something whose presence was enough to make the entire Realm shake.

Then the third beat came.

THUMP.

This time the sky above became completely black for a moment, as if part of the World had forgotten light for a fraction of a second.

And at that exact moment, the System finally showed one single message in front of all the Awakeners.

[Warning.]

[A Calamity Is Being Born.]

Rindo looked toward the Forgotten Tree without moving, nobody in Vhalaris knew what had happened there.

Nobody knew whether Lian was still alive or not, nobody knew whether the Main Quest was failing or something completely different was happening.

But everyone understood one thing, the thing they had fought to prevent from being born and the reason for all of this ... was being born at that exact moment.