The Tree of Light radiated purifying power like a beacon.
The corrupt soldiers closest to the tree immediately began to flee, writhing in agony as the pure light burned the corruption from their systems.
Screams that weren’t completely human filled the air as the abyssal transformation began to disintegrate against their will.
Coleoran, or what remained of him, writhed against the roots.
His body, swollen and deformed by concentrated corruption, convulsed violently as the tree’s light attacked every corrupt fiber of his being. It was like watching someone being electrocuted, but the pain was spiritual as much as physical.
The tree’s roots continued expanding, brilliant filaments of pure light that sank into the corrupt earth like healing fingers.
Each tendril carried cleansing force that promised to restore what had been twisted, to bring light back to places where only darkness had reigned.
In the sky, Victor and the flying soldiers allowed themselves a moment of triumph.
"He did it!" Victor shouted, his voice charged with relief and exultation. "He’s purifying everything!"
The joy in his voice was infectious. After years of corruption spreading like a cancer across the land, finally they were witnessing it being burned away by pure light.
Zhao smiled for the first time in days, watching how the light roots extended, chasing the corrupt farther and farther away, promising to heal kilometers of corrupted territory.
"The nightmare finally ended," one of the doubles murmured, lowering his guard slightly.
The words carried hope that had been suppressed for too long. Victory seemed not just possible but inevitable, written in the spreading radiance below.
But then a pulse was heard.
What made it unpleasant wasn’t a sound or physical vibration. It was something deeper, more visceral.
An unpleasant heartbeat that sent chills down everyone’s spines, like the echo of a diseased heart. It was wrong... not the irregular flutter of something dying, but the steady, purposeful beat of something gathering strength.
The light roots stopped.
Not gradually, not with resistance. They stopped abruptly, as if they had collided with an invisible but impenetrable barrier.
The halt was so sudden it was almost violent. One moment the roots were expanding with inexorable purpose; the next, they were frozen mid-growth like time itself had stopped.
What remained of Coleoran pulsed again, but this time the rhythm was different.
It was the constant, powerful heartbeat of something that was feeding.
"No," Dragarion whispered, feeling hope transform into horror. "It can’t be... it’s not over."
The realization hit him like a physical blow. Everything... it had all been insufficient.
The soldiers who moments before had been fleeing from purification now transformed completely.
They were no longer humans who had been corrupted; they were pure abyssal beasts, creatures that had completely abandoned any vestige of humanity.
The transformation was total and seemed irreversible. Flesh flowed like liquid, reforming into shapes that followed no earthly evolutionary pattern. Limbs multiplied and specialized, creating killing machines optimized for destruction rather than survival.
In the sky, these new abominations attacked with rage that transcended simple hostility.
It was pure hatred, the absolute antithesis of the light they had seen born and now wanted to destroy with every fiber of their corrupt existence.
"Defensive formation!" Zhao shouted, but his words were lost in the chaos.
The flying beasts lunged at the group with chaotic violence.
Victor and Zhao’s soldiers managed to match their level thanks to their fusions, but quickly realized they didn’t have much advantage.
The enhanced humans could hold their own, but barely. Each exchange of blows revealed how thoroughly their enemies had transcended normal limitations.
"They’re too excited!" Victor shouted as his beast dodged the claws of something that had been a soldier but now looked like a logical collection of appendages and mouths.
Claws, tentacles, and appendages impossible to distinguish in the overcrowded mass plunged into the earth, excavating an enormous tunnel with efficiency that would have been impressive if it hadn’t been so terrifying.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons