Chapter 2060: Progenitor of Beast Bloodline

"Originality of the Beast?"

Rex looked at the only trait under the Progenitor of Beast bloodline.

Considering the name of the bloodline, he was frankly expecting more than only one, but when he read the description, he didn’t mind at all. Even though the bloodline only has one trait—the skill it provided wasn’t merely a divine-rank skill.

It was a transcendent-rank skill.

His second transcendent-rank skill.

...

<Originality of the Beast>

Rank: Transcendent.

Description: Activate it, and the user will temporarily become the original of all beasts.

...

Even its description is vague. What does it mean by becoming the original of all beasts?

Back then, while he was still digesting the traits that preceded his evolution into the Greater Lycan race, Rex had given no thought to the Originality of the Beast trait. He would try using it during the Purgation Duel if the situation called for it, but that was about how much he thought about the trait.

No matter how much he thought about it, he simply couldn’t understand the skill.

It was especially hard to guess since the sneak peek from the System showed him nothing but darkness.

He experienced becoming the Black Omicron and the Original Werewolf before he was given the time to pick one of their traits—which helped him easily pick the Fortuna Omicron skill and the Domination of the First Alpha.

As for the Progenitor of Beast bloodline, he only saw darkness.

And he couldn’t choose which skill to take either, as the bloodline offered only one trait.

No alternatives to weigh.

Now—as the lightning eels carved holes into his body and the smaller ocean creatures ate him from the inside, he realized what it meant. Just the bloating sensation—that gradually grew stronger and stronger was enough to make him understand.

Becoming the original of all beasts is exactly what it meant.

Becoming the original.

Across every origin of every beast in the God Realm, lower realm, and beyond—one trait bound them all. It wasn’t that they were the strongest of their kind; there were still those who far surpassed even the originals. It wasn’t that they could command their own kind; there were those who refused to be utterly controlled.

No—the one trait that every single origin shared was that it could create another of its kind.

"Originality of the Beast..."

As soon as the words slipped out of Rex’s lips, his crimson eyes were suddenly devoured.

Ink-black darkness poured through his pupils, spreading outward until his eyes became abyssal spheres; pits of absolute void from a place light had always barely been able to reach since before creation. The trace of warmth disappeared from his gaze, replaced by something cold, ancient, and ravenous.

More ocean creatures slammed into him.

Thousands of them—grotesque bodies, gaping mouths, and teeth like daggers.

Each one tore into his flesh with savage fury. They bit and ripped and crunched even through the golden exoskeleton that was covering his body, past the hardened skin, past everything that was there to protect him from external attacks.

They drowned Rex in their bodies, a living tide of hunger and anger.

Surely, this was the end.

Nothing could survive the onslaught of so many ocean creatures, each having the capability to rend the flesh of any—Awakened Demigod. But the flesh they tore didn’t shed blood. Every bone they broke didn’t snap the way bones should snap.

Instead, it stretched. Elongated. Bent like liquid.

Rex’s body began to secrete an inky substance—a black and viscous substance that felt wrong.

Something that shouldn’t exist even in the God Realm.

And the ocean creatures that touched it recoiled like it sensed that something about it was wrong.

Despite that and his condition, Rex’s lips curled into a smirk.

Splash—!

Just then, his entire body spread.

He became a stretch of darkness, a living shadow that expanded outward—encompassing the relentless rush of ocean creatures. Every single one that pushed through the dark spread disappeared. They didn’t come out the other side. They simply vanished, swallowed whole by the void that he had become.

Even the lightning eel—the strongest of them all—tried to punch through him, to carve another hole in his body. It plunged into the darkness and was gone. Nothing of it remained, including its ferocious ice-blue lightning.

Below, High Millinar Julas laughed.

"Angela!" He spread his arms wide—marvelling at the torrent of ocean creatures still pouring out from the ocean’s belly. In his current state, he was invincible among 2-star Awakened Demigods. "Look! See him being devoured by creatures like the pig he is! How marvellous is this?!"

More and more creatures came. Thousands. Tens of thousands. An endless horde.

It simply wouldn’t stop.

But then High Millinar Julas noticed something.

The torrent wasn’t reaching as high as it had been. The upper part was thinning. The creatures could not fill the gaps anymore, even though they still numbered in the thousands. His laughter faltered as a frown began to form on his face.

And his arms that were spread triumphantly began to fall down again.

Even then, he let the onslaught continue.

Kept summoning the ocean creatures to finish Rex for good.

It took a full minute for him to retract his ability, and the dark ocean closed with a reluctant slurp.

As the ocean creatures slowly dropped back down into the dark ocean and disappeared—he expected a corpse waiting at the center. He expected Rex’s body, mangled and shredded, floating in a cloud of fresh blood.

Something that would bring him happiness beyond measure.

High Millinar Julas was certain that he would be the happiest in his entire life to see such a sight.

But what greeted him wasn’t a corpse.

Instead, he saw a deep shadow.

As if it were alive, the shadow slowly gathered back into a lump of darkness—before Rex was reformed once again. His body was rebuilding itself from shadow, from the unnerving darkness, from the absolute void where light could barely reach.

High Millinar Julas’ breath was caught in his throat.

"No... No. This can’t be..." He staggered back, eyes flying wide—as a violent tremor seized his entire body. "I poured everything into summoning those creatures. Angela and I—both of us gave everything. And he’s still alive?!" His voice cracked. "I refused to believe it... I refuse."

Slowly, Rex’s abyssal eyes opened.

His body of darkness throbbed as thousands of creatures pushed from the inside, eager to come out.

"I REFUSED TO BELIEVE THIS!!"

A wide smile slowly bloomed on Rex’s face.

"Like I said... Both of you combined are still not enough to defeat me."

Out of nowhere, Davina shot skyward in a spin a distance behind Rex.

Her entire body erupted with brilliant light.

As she climbed, the glow intensified, a blinding corona that forced every eye below to wince—and turn away. But as she neared the apex of her ascent, the radiance gradually softened enough to reveal—what she had truly become.

Davina had finally deemed it the right time.

It was time to reveal the true form of the Heiress of Moon and Stars.

SWOOSH—!

Her form had changed significantly. Her skin, once extremely pale and smooth, was now shimmering black. Or translucent, to be exact, like obsidian glass with light burning at its core. Bright veins of silver and emerald and crimson traced through her flesh, pulsing with a faster heart rate.

A heart rate that suggested that she was no longer a Spirit, but something more.

Ornaments adorned her entire body, jewels of the sky bestowed upon her and her alone.

Bands of emerald wrapped her forearms, chains of crimson circled her throat, circlets of silver crowned her brow. They were not crafted. They seemed to be grown as natural as her breath. Something that was only accessible to her.

Even though the sky was stingy with its wonders, it was pampering Davina.

Her shape now walked the border between humanoid and beast, mirroring Lilliana’s werewolf form.

Perhaps it was the natural trait of every Spirit that was turned into a Werewolf.

Large triangular ears rose from her head, each matching the color of the eye closest to it. Thick fur of deep emerald, burning crimson, and cold silver covered her chest in a mixture of hues—and her tails unfurled behind her with the same mixture of hues.

Her battle suit still clung to her frame, but the fabric had changed.

It was now wavy, flowing, like woven starlight caught in a breeze.

And above her head, a crown of ten stars hovered with insurmountable life and immortal energy.

She was beautiful and terrible at the same time.

A true Heiress of Moon and Stars.

At the apex of her ascent—her energy exploded outward in colorful rays that painted the dark sky with light. She looked down at High Millinar Julas—not as an equal, not as an enemy, but as a goddess looks down at an insect.

Her expression was calm, cold, and indifferent altogether.

She raised her index finger skyward.

And then she dropped it, pointing directly at High Millinar Julas.

As soon as the index finger pointed at him, the moonlight and starlight above intensified—blazing even through the absolute darkness of the realm as if the sky itself had been set ablaze. The light bent toward Davina, answering her call, and then shot at High Millinar Julas.

Crack—!

He immediately felt it.

A weight pressing down on his shoulders, on his chest, on his very bones.

It felt like gravity had been magnified a hundred times around him, rooting him in place.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. He could only stare down at the dark ocean and endure.

On the contrary to him, who was feeling like he was on the brink of being crushed, Rex’s power gradually grew under Davina’s presence. His aura swelled to an insurmountable height, pushing every part of him to a new level.

And without wasting any time, he unleashed the wailing creatures inside him.

BURST—!

Rex’s body burst open.

Dark liquid erupted from every pore, every seam, and every joint.

From that liquid, thousands of twisted, grotesque ocean creatures spilled out.

They were wrong. Misshapen. Their bodies were covered in eyes, their mouths filled with needle-teeth, their fins and limbs twisted into impossible shapes. They surged forward, a corrupted mirror of the exact horde High Millinar Julas had summoned, and they were all screaming.

As the creatures burst out, Rex’s mind was infiltrated with another memory.

It was the memory of the Progenitor of Beast.

He saw the darkness, but now, he could hear the sound of currents. Seems like he was underwater. And then, from the darkness—Rex noticed a pair of crimson eyes. Small, about the same size as his, but they seemed to contain innocence.

Like he was staring at a baby fish.

Slowly, the pair of crimson eyes wiggled left and right as if the creature was getting out of something.

And finally, it popped out and swam away.

Rex then saw another pair of eyes, yellow, but each eye was the size of his own body. Humongous.

Exactly like the first pair, these massive yellow eyes wiggled and then broke away.

Perhaps because he had already digested the bloodline of the Progenitor of Beast, he seemed to know things that he had never learned. It was the same as how a kitten would instinctively search for its mother’s breast for milk.

Rex knew that the Progenitor of Beast was asleep at the bottom of an unknown body of water.

It was always asleep and never moved.

No—the Progenitor of Beast didn’t even know the concept of sleeping or moving.

It simply existed, sleeping, never knew or even wanted to know the world beyond.

And sometimes, when there was ever a nightmare, a dream, or a surplus of consciousness—a beast was created inside its body. Those eyes he saw earlier belonged to the beasts that it created. Now, Rex has a portion of that power.

Rumble—!

A collective growl thundered across the sky as thousands of grotesque beasts descended.

High Millinar Julas’s face turned pale in horror as the creatures he sent at Rex were now coming at him.