Novel Full Chapter 825: Guessing Game
Chapter 825: Chapter 825: Guessing Game
The interrogation cell was thick with tension as Kain’s eyes fluttered open, his consciousness snapping back from Pangea to reality.
Airalai lay slumped in the enchanted ropes, her face pale, sweat-streaked, and unconscious, her violet eyes closed under Bea’s mental grip.
Outside the glass panel, Darius, Malzahir, Jax, and Miya leaned forward, their gazes locked on the scene, a mix of curiosity and unease etched across their faces. For most of them—Jax, Miya, and Malzahir—this was their first time witnessing the Pangea awakening ceremony from a third-party perspective. The exception being Darius, who had observed their own awakenings. The others’ eyes darted between Kain’s calm expression and Airalai’s still form, the glowing array on her shoulder pulsing faintly with energy. The intricate lines, carved with the enchanted pen, shimmered like liquid starlight, a stark contrast to the fading beacon beneath it.
Miya broke the silence, her voice low but sharp with doubt. “Hold on, Kain. Is this even going to work?” She glanced at Airalai. “Back when we nearly fought her, she was emitting a lot of that black spiritual power. With that kind of strength… isn’t she already a beast-tamer? Can this ritual even work on someone who’s already got a contract?”
Darius tilted his head as he considered her words. “Hmm…” He rubbed his chin, frowning. “You’re right about the black spiritual power. But it may not mean she’s a beast tamer specifically. The only colours I’ve heard of spiritual power being in humans are white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet. I’ve heard Demigods—9-star beast-tamers—can have spiritual power outside the usual spectrum, but she’s no Demigod. That would be too crazy if she was at her age. Maybe she’s not a beast-tamer at all? Or maybe she’s something else entirely…” His voice trailed off, uncertain, as the team exchanged uneasy glances.
Malzahir shifted, his voice muffled through his mask, still wary of another sneeze triggering chaos. “Something else? Like what? The spiritual power hierarchy in the Southern Tribes also follows a similar pattern. Are there cultivation systems that differ? Or is she a product of one of the Black Dawn experiments?” His eyes flicked to Airalai, her previously trembling body now still in unconsciousness.
Jax snorted, “Whatever she is, that black aura was freaky. But if she’s already a beast tamer, this ritual might just fizzle out, right? Or blow up in our faces.” His sarcasm masked a flicker of genuine concern, his gaze fixed on the glowing array.
The team fell silent as Kain’s eyes met theirs, his expression unreadable. But he didn’t reassure them. He too, had no idea if Airalai was a beast tamer, and he also had no idea what would happen if a person that was already a beast tamer underwent this ritual? Did they need an unbound star to contract a creature from Pangea? Would they somehow gain an additional contract slot—or would the ritual backfire completely?
He decided to investigate further after dealing with Airalai.
He leaned closer to Airalai, studying the array with a faint smirk as the lines composing the array began to wiggle and reshape into the appearance of her new ’partner’.
The team’s questions hung unanswered, their attention drawn to the array as it began to shift. The intricate lines pulsed once, twice, then collapsed inward, reshaping into a tight spiral pattern. The glow faded, leaving the design pale, like an old scar etched into her skin, the beacon’s light finally snuffed out beneath it.
Darius’s eyes widened slightly. “It’s done. It worked,” he murmured, recognizing the transformation from his own awakening. “That’s the contract mark. Whatever she bonded with, it’s set now.”
Jax leaned closer to the glass, squinting. “A spiral? What’s that supposed to be? A snake? A wyrm? Maybe a wingless dragon?” His voice was half-joking, but his curiosity was real, his cube beast humming as if echoing his intrigue.
Miya tilted her head, her voice skeptical. “Could be a unique one, like your cube, Jax. A bunch of floating blocks of electricity isn’t like anything I’d heard of before either. Maybe her contract is a floating spiral or something? I mean that other world, I think Kain called it ’Pangea’, has got weird stuff.”
Jax nodded, agreeing that his contract was out of the ordinary. “Could also be a vortex creature. I read that there’s a creature like that in the ocean, those—rare, spinny things that suck all creatures swimming by into their mouths like a black hole.” His voice trailed off, imagination running wild about the terror of encountering one of those things underwater.
Kain, ignoring their guesses, reached for a second vial of ink from the stool, this one black as midnight, unlike the shimmering starlight ink used for the array. He dipped the enchanted pen into it, its tip humming softly, and began tattooing over the pale spiral. The black ink sank into the scar-like mark, tracing its curves with deliberate precision, transforming it into a bold, tribal-like design resembling the birthmarks of the Southern Tribes.
He’d done the same for Darius, Malzahir, and the others that underwent this same process. It was an important part of masking the strangely shaped ’scars’ left by the arrays to pass as the ’birthmarks’ that would appear if they were to awaken a dormant Southern bloodline—a cover story to deflect questions about their sudden beast-tamer status and the fact that they can only bond with a single contract. If anyone asked, they could spin some rumour about an old family scandal nobody took seriously (like the buff, very tanned milkman grandma used to hang out with a lot and was her ’best guy friend’), not Kain’s ritual.
Bea’s presence lingered, keeping Airalai unconscious as Kain worked, her body limp in the ropes. The team watched, their guesses growing more animated. Jax tapped the glass, grinning. “Bet it’s a dark-attribute serpent. Based on the colour of the ink Kain chose, it’s gotta be the dark-attribute. Not to mention a dark serpent fits her whole sneaky vibe.”
Miya shook her head. “Too simple. Maybe a dimensional coil—those things twist space itself. Saw one in a bestiary once. Rare as hell.” Her feline hissed softly beside her, as if skeptical of her owner’s theory.
Malzahir’s voice was muffled as he spoke through the mask. “Could be a mirage sprite. In the south they have eyes in a spiral shape like that and disorient people wandering in the desert to make them lose their way. They mess with your mind and lure you into dangerous areas like scorpion pits. After you die, if there’s any part of you left by the scorpions, they will eat it. They’re small, but… nasty.” He shuddered, his wrappings rustling.
Darius, quieter now, studied the spiral’s shape. “It’s not like any contract I’ve seen. Too… lifeless. My jellyfish-squid mark has flow to it, like waves. This is just… cold.” His unease mirrored the team’s growing suspicion that something was off.
Kain finished the tattoo, the black ink settling into Airalai’s skin, the spiral now a stark, ’birthmark’. He leaned back, wiping the extra ink from the pen on a cloth, and finally spoke, his voice dry but laced with a grim satisfaction. “It’s a worm.”
The team froze, their guesses cut short. Jax blinked, his grin fading. “Wait, what? A worm? Like, a wiggly dirt-crawler?”
Kain’s smirk widened slightly, his eyes glinting with cold amusement. “It’s called a Deathleech Worm. Parasitic. It’ll sap her spiritual power, drain her vitality, keep her weak. Not exactly the dragon she was aiming for.” He glanced at Airalai’s unconscious form, her chest rising faintly, oblivious to the cruel bond now sealed within her.
Miya’s eyes narrowed. “A parasite? That’s… brutal.” Her voice held a mix of awe and discomfort at the idea that there were such harmful objects that they could have accidentally bonded on Pangea.
Darius nodded slowly, his expression grim. “Effective, though. No beacon is being sent out anymore and her threat is reduced. And if she’s not a tamer—or whatever she is—this’ll keep her in check.”
Jax let out a low whistle, his cube beast humming faintly. “Well, damn. Guess she’s not slithering out of this one.” His sarcasm returned, but his eyes lingered on Airalai, a flicker of pity breaking through. Then he muttered under his breath, “Still can’t believe all that pain and build-up was just for a worm.”
Airalai’s breathing began to pick up again as Bea relaxed her control over her mind. Her eyelids fluttered, a faint groan escaping her lips as consciousness returned.
At first she looked disoriented, her gaze unfocused, but then her brows knit together as she felt something strange gnawing at the core of her being. Instinctively, she tried to summon her spiritual power—only to flinch violently, a sharp hiss of pain leaving her throat as if invisible fangs bit into her veins.
Her hand jerked against the ropes, her chest rising fast, and her eyes snapped wide open. The violet irises trembled, shock and dawning horror spilling across her face as she looked directly at Kain, wordless but demanding an explanation for the unnatural violation burning inside her.