SSS Awakening: Conquering Worlds with My Cupid System

Echidna’s golden eyes narrowed.

”You!”

The word wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. The moment it left her lips, the entire forest seemed to respond, while a tremor ran through the ground.

Silas didn’t answer. Neither did Chloe. Both had already understood something. The Mother of Monsters wasn’t playing with them. That brief exchange had been enough to reveal it.

Echidna had tested their strength, and now she had seen enough. Her expression changed. The amusement disappeared, but the curiosity remained; beneath it was something far more dangerous.

Respect.

She had recognized them as threats, and Echidna did not underestimate threats. She eliminated them.

”Then die.”

Her tail moved. Silas’s eyes widened.

”CHLOE!”

”I know!”

They jumped in opposite directions.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The spot where they had stood disappeared beneath Echidna’s tail. The earth erupted as a wave of dirt and shattered stone swept across the forest. Silas twisted through the air, his threads anchoring themselves to several trees. He used them to change his trajectory before landing on a branch.

Chloe didn’t land. She froze the air beneath her feet. A platform of ice formed. She stepped on it and launched herself again. There was another impact and an explosion. The battlefield was already being destroyed.

Echidna raised one hand.

”Come.”

The word carried an Authority, and the forest obeyed. Something moved beneath the trees. Silas’s Thread Perception immediately screamed.

”Monsters.”

Hundreds of them. His eyes widened as the threads spread outward.

”That’s not possible...”

The entire forest was moving. Creatures began crawling from beneath the earth, emerging from caves, trees, ravines, and underground tunnels.

Wolves covered in bone, winged serpents, massive insects, and horned beasts. There were creatures with too many limbs, and creatures with none. Some were barely F-Rank. Others were C-Rank.

A few were B-Rank. And among them were A-Ranks. Dozens of them. Echidna stood calmly in the center of the destruction.

”She can control them...”

Chloe’s expression hardened.

”No.” She looked around. ”She created them.”

Silas’s eyes narrowed.

”Or both.”

The monsters suddenly charged.

”Here they come.”

Chloe raised her spear.

”Silas.”

”Yeah?”

”Don’t hold back.”

Silas smiled faintly.

”I wasn’t planning to.”

He reached toward his back, and the two daggers disappeared into his storage. Then, a katana appeared in his hand. Its blade reflected the pale light of the sky.

Silas’s grip tightened. At the same time, a bow appeared in his other hand.

Chloe stared at him. ”You’re using both?”

”Why choose?”

She almost smiled.

Then the monsters arrived. The first beast leapt. Silas disappeared.

SLASH!

Its head separated from its body. He didn’t stop. A thread wrapped around another monster’s leg and pulled. The creature was dragged directly into the path of another beast.

They collided.

Silas spun through the air, his bow already drawn. A pink arrow formed and shot piercing an A-Rank monster’s skull. The creature collapsed.

Another attacked from behind. Silas didn’t turn. A thread caught its jaw. He yanked it aside, and Chloe’s spear immediately passed through its chest.

”Thanks.”

”You’re welcome.”

They separated.

Another wave came, and this time, there were too many to count. Chloe’s expression became colder. Absolute Zero erupted, causing the temperature to plummet. Everything within several dozen meters froze: trees, grass, monsters, and even the air itself.

The creatures slowed as ice crawled over their bodies. Chloe thrust her spear forward.

”Winter’s Judgment.”

A massive wave of frost erupted, and hundreds of monsters became frozen statues.

Silas stared for half a second.

”Remind me never to piss you off.”

Chloe glanced at him.

”You already do.”

”It’s called love.”

”Hmph!”

Echidna suddenly moved, setting Silas’s instincts screaming. He looked up. The Mother of Monsters was gone.

”CHLOE!”

Too late. Echidna appeared behind Chloe. Her claws came down.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Chloe barely raised her spear. The impact shattered the ice platform beneath her. Her body was driven into the ground.

”CHLOE!”

Silas fired; three arrows streaked toward Echidna, but she didn’t dodge. Instead, several monsters jumped between them, and the arrows pierced through the monsters.

The creatures didn’t stop, though. They continued forward. They were shields.

Silas’s expression darkened. ”So that’s how you’re doing this.”

Echidna smiled.

”You understand quickly.”

Another monster charged. Silas cut it in half. The battlefield became a slaughterhouse, but Echidna kept sending more. She wasn’t simply throwing monsters at him. She was observing, testing his movements and reactions. She was learning and Silas realized it.

”She’s studying us.”

Chloe emerged from the crater, blood running from the corner of her mouth. Her expression remained calm.

”So are we.”

She raised her spear, and frost exploded outward.

”Then let’s learn faster.”

Silas grinned. ”Now that’s what I wanted to hear.”

He disappeared. His threads pulled him between trees at impossible speeds, while his katana flashed and his bow fired.

Every movement flowed into the next. His sword dealt with anything that entered close range. His bow eliminated anything attempting to approach from a distance. He moved like two fighters occupying the same body.

A monster lunged; Silas ducked. His katana passed beneath its jaw.

SLASH!

He spun, his bow appearing in his left hand. An arrow formed.

THOOM!

A second monster fell. He landed. Three monsters attacked simultaneously. Threads erupted. One was dragged left, while one was pulled right. The third was forced downward.

Silas stepped between them, his katana flashing, and three bodies collapsed. Then, shadow swallowed him. Silas looked up and saw an enormous monster descending on him. Its body was larger than a house; its mouth opened.

Silas’s pupils contracted. A-Rank. The creature struck. He crossed his katana and bow to block, but the impact sent him flying. Silas crashed through seven trees before stopping. His body remained buried in the eighth.

Silence engulfed the place for a moment before the tree exploded, and he stepped out. Blood trickled down his forehead, but he wiped it away.

”Okay.” His pink eyes burned. ”That one hurt.”

The monster roared.

”Good.”

His aura erupted, and the atmosphere changed. The monster hesitated. For the first time, it felt fear.

Silas raised his bow, and a single arrow appeared. It was different from the ordinary Piercing Arrows. The pink energy around it was denser and sharper. Threads twisted around the shaft, causing the air to distort.

Echidna’s eyes narrowed.

”Interesting.”

Silas pulled the string.

”Piercing Arrow.”

He released it.

THOOOOOOOOOOM!

The arrow crossed the battlefield almost instantly. The A-Rank monster raised several limbs to block, but the arrow passed through them, then through its skull, followed by the trees behind it. The creature collapsed.

Echidna watched silently, her eyes moving toward the distant hole created by the attack.

”That attack...” She looked back at Silas. ”...would kill most Chosen.”

Silas lowered the bow.

”I’m beyond a Chosen.”

Echidna smiled. ”You are.”

A massive pressure suddenly erupted, causing Silas’s body to stiffen, while Chloe froze. Their instincts screamed, ”Death!”

This was not the possibility of death, but the certainty of it. The kind of presence that made every cell in their bodies understand that they could die.

Silas’s grip tightened, while Chloe’s frost flickered, as Echidna’s aura washed over them. This was no longer the pressure of an S-Rank monster. This was something older, something that had survived ages when humans didn’t exist; something that had fought heroes, gods, and monsters.

Chloe swallowed.

”Silas...”

”I feel it.”

”She’s serious now.”

”I know.”

Echidna slowly raised both hands, and the ground beneath her began cracking.

”Enough testing.”

The monsters around her suddenly changed. Their bodies expanded, bones snapping into new positions. Muscles grew on them, while their scales hardened. Mana surged through them as the creatures began evolving.

Silas’s eyes widened.

[WARNING!]

[Mass evolutionary phenomenon detected.]

[Target is using Monster Creation and Bestial Evolution simultaneously.]

[Multiple entities are exceeding their original racial limitations.]

Silas cursed.

”She can evolve them during combat?”

Echidna smiled.

”Why wouldn’t I?”

The monsters roared, and their collective voices shook the forest. Then they charged.

Silas looked toward Chloe.

”Ready?”

She tightened her grip.

”Yes.”

”Good.”

He raised his katana, while she lowered her spear.

***

A small mechanical object flew above the battlefield: a drone. Its lens rotated, a red light blinking. The tournament’s emergency recording drone had been dispatched by the organizers. It was designed to observe the battlefield during abnormal events, and it had been recording everything.

The destruction, the monsters, and the impossible powers.

The drone’s internal system began struggling to process what it was seeing.

[WARNING.]

[Power output exceeding tournament parameters.]

[Threat classification cannot be determined.]

[Recording emergency event.]