SSS Ranked Reincarnation: Dark Dragon Legacy

After taking down the first one, the Rift Monsters began swarming in huge hordes. Most of them were weak, ranks 1 and 2, their claws and tails glowing faint shades of light and dark green.

Silva didn’t even break a sweat. Each one that came too close was reduced to ashes before it could blink. His blasts tore through them from a distance with surgical precision. It felt almost effortless.

“This mission’s turning out easier than I expected,” he muttered, stretching his arm and glancing at his hand. “Sometimes I forget how far my strength has come.”

Snow, perched comfortably on his neck, watched him with her small, curious eyes, a soft smile tugging at her face.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Silva asked with a faint grin.

But before she could chirp a reply, a violent gust tore through the forest. Branches snapped, the ground trembled, and a massive figure burst through the trees, charging straight at him.

Silva’s senses sharpened instantly, every fiber of his being alert. Yet he didn’t flinch. He didn’t reach for his sword, nor did he move to dodge. He simply stood there, eyes locked on the incoming blur.

It emerged fully from the shadows, a hulking wolf-like beast with spikes jutting out along its back, four burning crimson eyes, and a jagged tail that looked more like a blade than flesh. Its presence was feral and suffocating.

Silva exhaled, unimpressed. “Guess things are finally getting a little serious.”

He raised a finger, conjuring a flame that condensed into a sphere of molten energy. The fireball spun violently, pulling the air around it into a vortex before he flicked his finger.

Boom!

The blast cut through the monster’s head like a bullet, leaving a smoldering hole as the creature’s body slumped to the ground with a dull thud.

Silva lowered his hand and sighed. “Still not an issue.”

But before the words could even fade, a shadow lunged from behind him, fast and silent.

Something had gotten past his senses, and it was already too close to dodge.

The monster that lunged at Silva was a much larger version of the wolf-like Rift creature he had just killed. Its body rippled with muscle, its black thorns gleaming like obsidian under the faint light filtering through the forest canopy. But this one was different, far more dangerous. Instead of one tail, it had two, both tipped with a glowing purple hue that pulsed like the heartbeat of something alive and malevolent.

The instant Silva saw it, he recognized its level. Rank 4… maybe 5.

The beast slammed into him before he could brace fully, the impact sending him crashing backward through the air. As he flew, he grabbed Snow from his neck and flung her toward a newly summoned clone. The clone caught her easily, cradling her against its chest as Silva landed on his feet, skidding backward through the dirt, the ground cracking beneath his boots.

“Take care of her,” he ordered, his tone calm despite the chaos.

Snow giggled, unbothered by the violence erupting around them, her tiny voice breaking through the tension with childlike amusement.

The Rift Monster roared and lunged again, its twin tails cutting through the air with whistling precision. Silva raised his right hand like a blade and swung. A crescent arc of dark flame erupted from his fingertips, tearing across the ground. The attack cleaved through the earth, striking the creature mid-charge.

A deep gash opened across its torso, but to Silva’s surprise, the wound began stitching itself back together instantly.

“Regeneration, huh?” he muttered, dodging as the beast’s tails lashed forward like scorpion stingers. He flipped backward, landing lightly, then pointed a finger toward the monster. “Enough of this.”

A vortex of fire gathered at his fingertip, denser, hotter, and far more unstable than before. With a sharp motion, he released it.

Boom!

The explosion ripped through the forest, disintegrating half the monster’s body and leaving a smoking crater beneath it. For a second, it looked over. But then, impossibly, the flesh began to regenerate again, muscle knitting back together as black smoke hissed from its wounds.

Silva’s eyes narrowed. “A mutation…? Its healing factor’s far stronger than normal.” He sighed, summoning his weapon. “Doesn’t matter.”

In an instant, the Abyssal Blade formed in his grip, its edge coated in swirling dark flame. Silva lifted the sword high, his aura flaring violently. “I’ll just kill you in one strike.”

He swung.

The slash split the air, and a wave of fire surged forward, engulfing the monster completely. Its roars echoed through the forest before vanishing into silence, nothing left behind but ash and charred soil.

Silva clicked his tongue, unimpressed. “Tch. That it?”

Then, Boom!

A thunderous explosion erupted from deep within the island. A violent shockwave tore through the forest, uprooting trees and sending debris flying in every direction. The pulse of energy that followed wasn’t ordinary, it carried something unnatural, almost alive, crawling across the skin like static.

Silva’s expression hardened. “That came from the rift…”

He glanced at his clone. “Watch over her.”

Then he blurred forward, launching himself into the air, streaking toward the heart of the island. His clone followed behind, Snow perched on its neck, her wide eyes glowing faintly as she watched the chaos unfold ahead.

When he got close to the rift, he saw it—like a massive tear in the sky. It killed everything near it, creating a void that pulsed with darkness, growing larger every second. Around the rift stood over a thousand Rift Monsters, lined up like guards, and Silva could feel something inside, pushing to break through.

“This must be what Lilin warned me about,” he said. If she was right, he had to stop it before it escaped. Silva launched forward at full speed.

“Time to have some fun,” he muttered.

The monsters noticed him instantly, and a huge hoard rushed hid way to stop him. They consisted of a few rank ones and twos, many ranks threes, fours and fives