Chapter 1362: What Kravik Regretted

Ataneya leaned back and pulled with all twelve tails.

Crack!

The stone giant’s arm broke off at the shoulder.

Her tails ripped the massive limb into the sky, sending chunks of rock flying from the break. The golden blade lodged in its palm came free and spun back into Andona’s hand.

Ataneya wasn’t finished.

Infernal flames slowly gathered in her palm. Heat rolled outward, staining the tails wrapped around the severed arm red with firelight.

Andona’s face changed the moment she saw it.

"Ataneya!"

She hurriedly grabbed Ataneya’s wrist.

"Ethan and the two little girls are still inside!"

Ataneya looked down at the stone giant.

The Infernal flames in her palm vanished as soon as she heard the three of them were still inside. Her twelve tails remained suspended in the air, swaying slowly as she watched the giant below.

The stone giant clearly had no such concerns.

It raised its remaining arm and swung at them again.

Ataneya’s tails immediately changed course. Several caught the stone palm while the rest coiled around its wrist. The heavy arm stopped in midair, unable to get any closer to Seraphina.

Seraphina took the opportunity to descend and let everyone off somewhere safe.

Once the last person had left her back, she beat her wings and rose above the stone giant’s head.

Then she folded her wings and dropped straight down.

Her enormous claws slammed onto the giant’s head, driving the crushing force through its stone body and into the ground.

Boom!

The entire stone giant was smashed into the earth.

Soil erupted in every direction, and the impact flattened the gray-white trees. A vast crater spanning a huge section of the forest appeared beneath it.

The giant lay motionless at the bottom.

Its dark crimson eyes stopped flickering.

Everyone stood at the edge of the crater without attacking again. No one dared act recklessly. If they used too much power, they might kill Ethan, Auri, and Idra along with the giant.

Inside the stone giant, Ethan and Idra studied their surroundings.

They had clearly heard running water before entering, but there wasn’t a single drop in the passage before them. Neatly fitted gray-white stones surrounded them, and even the floor was so dry that there wasn’t a water stain in sight.

More troubling, Auri was missing.

"Auri!"

His voice carried down the stone passage, but only layers of echoes answered him.

The stone giant suddenly shook violently.

The platform beneath Ethan tilted sharply until it was almost vertical. He lost his footing and slid down the smooth stone surface.

Idra spread her wings and flew after him.

They passed through a narrow tunnel and dropped into a deeper chamber.

Auri was down there.

But she wasn’t waiting to be rescued. She was locked in a fierce battle with the giant bird.

Green branches covered the ground and kept winding around its feet. The bird beat its wings as red-black energy flickered inside its beak, each sweep slicing through a swath of branches.

Sensing new arrivals, the bird turned to glance at Ethan and Idra.

That brief distraction was all Auri needed.

A verdant branch sprouted beneath her feet and launched her upward, carrying her over the bird’s wing.

A sphere of green energy formed between her hands.

Auri thrust both hands forward. The sphere struck the bird squarely in the beak, snapping its head back and scattering the red-black energy it had been gathering.

The bird quickly recovered.

It opened its beak again, and red light gathered deep in its throat. The glow had already illuminated the surrounding stone walls. It was only a moment away from firing.

But Ethan had arrived.

With him here, there was no way he would let this bird keep running wild.

An energy sphere flew from his hand, skimmed over the branches Auri had left behind, and struck the bird squarely in the chest.

Boom!

The blast hurled the bird backward and drove it into the stone wall. The gray-white rock caved in around its body, and fragments slid down through its feathers.

As soon as Auri sensed Ethan’s presence, she ran to him.

She reached his side and pointed at the bird embedded in the wall.

"Daddy, this little piece of trash is the one behind everything!"

Auri waved her fist.

"Beat it up!"

Ethan didn’t attack right away.

The bird in front of him was clearly weak. Even Auri could overpower it. Yet the energy permeating the entire gray-white forest was far beyond anything it had displayed. The two simply didn’t match.

"Are you really behind this whole disaster?"

Ethan looked the bird up and down.

"You don’t seem like it. The only thing that fits is that you’re as ugly as ever."

Up close, the bird looked even stranger.

Its feathers grew in complete disarray, with a few red ones mixed among the black. Its beak was grotesquely oversized, while the two claws beneath it were pitifully small.

The bird slowly slid out of the dent in the wall and collapsed onto the rubble, gasping for breath.

"Kravik is weak?"

It raised its head, its feathers bristling with rage.

"Lies! Kravik is strong! Kravik is the strongest! I only used up all my power! Kravik is tired!"

Ethan didn’t fully believe it.

He turned to examine the chamber.

Gray-white boulders were arranged neatly around them, with narrow gaps between each one. A dried-up riverbed ran along one side. There was no water left in it, only solidified gray-white residue.

The stone giant began shaking violently again.

The entire chamber flipped upside down as rubble flew from every direction. Ethan raised a hand and formed an energy sphere, preparing to fire at Kravik—only to discover that the bird was no longer sprawled on the rocks.

A moment later, Kravik appeared beside a floating, spherical stone.

It pressed both wings against the stone and steadily poured red energy into it. At first, only light entered the sphere. As more energy flowed in, the red glow gradually thickened until it became a dense liquid that seeped into the rounded stone.

Only after the red liquid completely covered the sphere did Kravik relax. It collapsed beside the stone, panting.

Ethan soon found it.

He crossed the tumbling rocks, came up behind Kravik, and pressed the energy sphere against its head.

The light inside had already been compressed.

With a single thought, Ethan could erase Kravik from existence.

But Kravik didn’t run.

Tears spilled from its eyes and slid down its tangled feathers. It gave Ethan one long look, its gaze filled with nothing but regret.

Then Kravik moved out from beneath the energy sphere and flew toward the floating stone.

Ethan froze.

Regret?

What did it have to regret?

Wasn’t everything that had happened here its doing?

Before Ethan could make sense of it, Kravik reached the spherical stone.

The giant bird lost its shape in midair. Its feathers, beak, and claws all melted into a stream of pure bloodred liquid, which poured completely into the stone.