Birth of the Ruler: The Emergence of the Primordial Race

During the moment Lunara pushed Karl off the attack targetry, at the other side, Nyxander stood to his feet, stretching his arms as if shaking life back into his muscles, massaging the tension that clung stubbornly to his frame. Across from him, the Primordial Beast Monarch watched in silence, its monstrous presence filling the space as it gently freed its massive right wrist from the shackling grip of its slowly loosening left fingers.

"Haaaaa!" Nyxander's yell tore from his chest, raw and guttural, like a lion shaking the silence of its cage. He cracked his neck sharply, each pop echoing like war drums, as if shaking free the remnants of exhaustion clinging to his body.

"I've been wondering…" his voice cut through the heavy air, sharp yet steady. "Why every punch I threw lost its weight the moment it landed on you. At first, I thought it was simply a lack of force behind them… but now I see. Your ability shifts energy, diverting it, distorting it, robbing your opponent of strength as though their power were swallowed whole. I can't yet tell how it works, but the result is clear: temporary weakness where there should have been power."

The Primordial Beast Monarch gave no answer, only a faint, guttural rumble that rolled like distant thunder. The corners of its mouth curved downward ever so slightly, a silent smirk painted with disdain. Its gaze fell on Nyxander not as on a foe but as on a spectacle, an amusement dancing at the edge of its patience. Silence gathered like a shroud.

Nyxander's thoughts raced, his mind piecing fragments together. I was able to solve this… thanks to Nullpoint, who sharpened my focus to see the hidden thread behind it.

"That's good," the Primordial Beast Monarch's deep voice rumbled, snapping Nyxander out of his inner monologue. "Since you've guessed correctly, I shall grant you the courtesy of confirmation."

Its words dripped like molten steel, both revelation and threat, like a monarch granting crumbs to the unworthy. "My ability lets me command life energy itself. By shifting life energy from any part of my opponent's body, I make that area sicken, its strength collapse. It is as though illness seeps into flesh at my command."

"Oh, I see…" Nyxander's eyes glimmered, a dangerous smile tugging his lips. "So it's like debuffing. No wonder my fists trembled like they'd caught some hidden disease the instant they met your flesh. You've been draining me… corrupting my strength by tampering with the health of my own hands."

The Monarch tilted its head, unbothered. "You grasp only a fragment, but close enough. Still, what good is knowledge to you? Knowing the rules won't stop the executioner's blade."

"No…" Nyxander's tone hardened, his smile widening into something resolute, almost defiant. "You're wrong. Knowing the problem is solving the problem. And that," his eyes burned with renewed fire, "is enough."

silence like a drawn blade fell over them. Both figures radiated intensity, their bodies coiling into readiness. The Monarch's aura pulsed with primordial menace, while Nyxander's spirit surged like a fire refusing to be snuffed out.

Nyxander raised his fists, stretching them across his face as his fingers clenched tighter, the veins along his forearms bulging like cords of steel. His knees bent, coiled like springs ready to launch his body forward. Across from him, the Primordial Beast's monarch braced itself, its colossal frame pressing weight into the earth until cracks spider-webbed beneath its talons.

"I don't know what trick he used to counter my ability," the Primordial beast monarch growled inwardly, its breath steaming like molten smoke. "But I must raise my guard higher than ever." Its massive hands stretched outward, poised to crush, to counter, to end.

Then, BOOOOM! Nyxander burst forward, a living thunderbolt. His steps were so fast that only flickering afterimages betrayed his movement, the gap between them dissolving in the blink of an eye. The Primordial beast's monarch swung both of its mountainous hands inward, like twin mountains collapsing to bury an ant. The air itself shuddered beneath their descent.

But just before the colossal palms could close around him, Nyxander dropped his body low, sliding forward in a blur, his momentum kicking up spirals of dust that cloaked his frame. Behind him, the beast's hands collided with a cataclysmic CRASH, slamming together inches above the earth and unleashing shockwaves that split the ground apart. Dust erupted in waves, veiling Nyxander's presence as though the earth itself conspired to hide him.

The glide carried him through the dark space beneath the beast's towering legs. His waist and shoulders emerged on the other side like a phantom breaking free from shadow.

"Aetherial Shroud Manipulation: Void Crystallization!" Instantly, the void around the Monarch's left calf solidified, freezing in crystalline form. Nyxander's right arm bent sharply, his elbow drawn like a hammer of judgment. BAAM! His strike detonated against the crystallized void, the shockwave rippling through the ethereal structure and exploding into the beast's leg. The impact forced the colossal beast monarch's knee to buckle, crashing into the earth with a thunderous quake that sank stone into dust.

Still sliding, Nyxander spun to his right, chest twisting downward, his palms slapping the ground to halt his momentum. Using the recoil of his own balance, he pushed upward and vaulted, his body snapping with feline agility onto the beast's massive back.

"Stormbreak Void Fist: Void Tempest!" His fist came down on the exact center of the Monarch's spine. The strike cracked like lightning splitting the sky, sending a torrent of explosive agony rippling through the beast's colossal frame. The Monarch roared, a sound that split the air across him , its massive hands slamming against the ground to stop itself from collapsing.

But Nyxander was relentless. He surged forward, racing across its mountainous back toward its head, each step a blur of fury. As he reached the upper thoracic ridge, he leapt high, his shadow looming over the beast's skull.

"Stormbreak Void Fist: Void Tempest!" He reeled his arm back, ready to smash down upon the back of the Monarch's head with apocalyptic force.

But then, darkness appeared. A massive shadow swallowed him whole. Nyxander's eyes darted upward mid-air, only to meet the titanic hand of the Monarch's right arm, stretched out like the judgment of the heavens themselves. Before thought could even spark, the beast's fingers clamped around him, crushing him in their prison of flesh.

And then, WHOOOM! With contemptuous force, the Monarch hurled him forward like a discarded scrap of parchment, an unwanted mistake. His body twisted violently through the air, spinning like a raging hurricane caught in its own spiral. Then, CRAAAASH! He struck the earth, detonating the ground in a geyser of shattered stone and dust, the shockwave rippling outward like a battlefield quaking under a god's wrath.

Back at where Nyxander and the beasts monarch subordinates exchanged confrontation, a storm of dusty wind swirled restlessly, cloaking the battlefield in a veil of chaos. At its heart stood the shadowed figure, still and unwavering, balanced like an omen atop the colossal Primordial beast whose horn now lay severed in half. Karl, Kola, and Theodric looked on from their positions, their gazes locked and breaths held. Even the other Primordial beasts, savage by nature, paused as though struck with awe at the enigma unfolding before their eyes.

Realizing its horn was maimed, the beast's fury boiled over. It raged like a mountain god in pain, stomping the ground with enough force to make the earth itself cry. "Roooorrrr!" it thundered, its guttural roar splitting the air, each bellow rolling like an avalanche down a valley. Dust rose in angry clouds, smothering vision, wrapping both the giant and the shadow figure above its head in a shifting shroud of earth and smoke.

Then, a strange sight: rivulets of red fluid trickled from the shadow's face, dripping like sap from a wounded tree, glimmering in the dust-filtered light.

"Lunara!" Karl's voice tore across the battlefield, desperation coating his tone. Yet the shadow did not flinch, did not respond. Still as a statue, she remained. Seconds crawled like years until, at last, the figure moved, leaping gracefully from the beast's crown, descending toward its right flank.

The Primordial beast seized the moment, its predatory instinct flaring. With fury blazing in its massive eyes, it raised its left foot high above the shadow's form. The weight of mountains gathered in that poised strike, then crashed downward like a sledgehammer on stone. The ground split and screamed beneath the blow, the air thundered with the sound of impact, and red droplets splattered across the earth.

"Lunara!" Karl's voice shattered into a cry, his axe slipping uselessly from his grasp. His knees hit the ground, trembling, as if the world itself had collapsed upon his shoulders. Tears welled and spilled, streaking down his cheeks like rivers carving through stone. His voice broke with anguish, "Lu…na…ra." Beside him, Kola and Theodric echoed her name, their voices hollow, disbelieving, as though their throats had been stuffed with grief.

But then like a cruel jest from fate the shadow reappeared, unbroken, beside the beast's massive leg. The titan shifted its foot in confusion, and only then did they realize the truth: Lunara had escaped at the razor's edge of time, vanishing a heartbeat before the crushing blow. The red droplets scattered across the earth were not her life lost, but blood already flowing freely from the dark upon her face.

The beast, enraged, raised its foot again, a mountain preparing to fall. But Lunara's figure dissolved into motion. Daggers gleamed like twin fangs in her grip, blades tilted outward as if thirsting for blood. Then, vanished.

A whistle, sharp and sudden, Fuuuu! and she was spinning downward, her form blurring into a cyclone of steel. The daggers sliced into the beast's flesh, shallow compared to its titanic bulk, yet each wound screamed far louder than its depth. The pain was searing, electric, ripping through its nerves like lightning ripping through a stormy sky. The monster bellowed, a tortured symphony of agony, the sound echoing in endless ripples that rattled bone and soul alike.

One by one, the shadow lashed at each of the beast's four legs, carving slivers of torment that dwarfed their size with suffering. Then, she was upon its head once more. With merciless precision, she drove her daggers into its skull. Pain cascaded like wildfire through its nerves, unbearable even for its core of essence. The essentia crystal within, its head, fractured under the onslaught and shattered like glass struck by thunder.

The beast's cry lingered, long and mournful, before its massive body finally succumbed. Its lower half crashed into the ground, the jaw slamming deep into the earth, tearing the land as though the world itself had been split. Silence followed, heavy, absolute, the kind of silence only death can claim.

The shadow remained above the fallen titan, daggers still buried in its skull. She wrenched them free with a spray of glistening fluid as more of that red liquid streamed down her face, dripping relentlessly like a broken pipe bleeding its last. Stretching her arms wide, head tilted back toward the sky, she screamed.

"Haaaaaasss!" The cry ripped through the air, half triumph, half torment, like the roar of a warrior who had just slain her greatest enemy, yet paid dearly in blood for the victory