GOD-LEVEL SUMMONER: My Wives Are Mythical Beast

The rain didn't just fall now—it tilted. As if the sky itself leaned toward them, forcing every drop into their faces.

Kaela was the first to notice. "Uh… Jemil?" she said, squinting into the wall of rain. "That shadow… it's still growing."

Jemil's grip tightened on his sword. He could feel the vibrations through the soaked ground, slow and steady, like a heartbeat the size of a mountain.

The wives closed in around him, weapons drawn. Mirella planted her halberd in the mud, her jaw clenched.

"That's no vine," she muttered.

Lightning split the sky—

For a fraction of a second, they saw it.

A silhouette too wide to be a person. Its head nearly scraped the roiling clouds. Dozens—no, hundreds—of tendrils dangled from its hunched frame, each pulsing faintly with stormlight. And then, just as quickly, the flash ended, swallowing it back into the curtain of rain.

"What is that?" Liora's voice was low, her bowstring taut.

Jemil didn't answer. He already knew. Or at least, he remembered the warnings scrawled in the Tower's old trials logs. Warnings nobody had taken seriously.

The Storm Wall has a heart. And it walks.

The ground heaved beneath their feet. Mud splashed up to their knees. A deep, guttural noise—half roar, half thunder—rolled out of the mist.

The wives fanned out, each finding a line of sight.

"On your call," Mirella said.

Jemil lifted his sword. It still crackled with the lightning he'd stolen from Ravien's storm, but this… this would need more. He let the wind whip around him, pulling at his coat, rattling the metal of his armor. Every breath tasted of iron and ozone.

"Wait for it…" he whispered.

A flash of movement—no, several. The tendrils lashed out from the mist, fast. One smashed into the ground where Kaela had been, sending a wave of mud spraying skyward. Another tried to coil around Liora, but she rolled aside, loosing an arrow that vanished into the fog.

And then the heart of the shadow stepped forward.

It was made of roots, yes, but they weren't wood anymore—they were storm-forged. Lightning bled through them in jagged veins, each pulse strong enough to blind. Its chest was a swirling funnel of wind and water, like a miniature hurricane trapped inside its ribcage.

Jemil exhaled.

"So this is the Guardian of the Wall."

The wives didn't hesitate. Kaela dove in first, sabers flashing, testing the thing's defenses. Sparks flew when her blades met the charged roots, forcing her to back off before the electricity could bite too deep. Mirella swung her halberd in a crushing arc, severing one tendril, only to see two more grow from the stump.

"Regenerating?! That's cheating!" she yelled over the storm.

Liora's arrows peppered the creature's chest, but the wind inside it caught each one, splintering them mid-air.

Jemil stepped forward, lowering his sword until its tip dragged through the mud. "Then we'll just have to break its heart."

[Mini-Cliffhanger #1: The Guardian lowers its head and charges, the ground shattering with each step.]

The Guardian's charge felt like a landslide given legs.

Mud erupted under its weight, each step sending vibrations up Jemil's spine. The tendrils snapped like whips, forcing the wives to scatter.

Kaela rolled to her feet, gritting her teeth. "We have to hit the core!"

"No," Jemil said. "We have to make it hold still first."

Lightning flashed overhead. Jemil lunged forward, sword sparking. His first strike was aimed at the Guardian's leading arm-tendril. The blade connected—and the air exploded with blinding light. Electricity surged up his weapon, into his arm, but he didn't let go. Instead, he used the current, twisting his grip and forcing it to arc back into the creature.

The Guardian reeled, its movements slowing for just a heartbeat. Mirella was already moving, swinging her halberd into one of its legs. The blow split the root, but storm-light pulsed, knitting it back together in seconds.

"Too fast!" she cursed.

Liora took the opening to fire an arrow tipped with a crackling talisman. It struck the Guardian's chest, embedding into the whirling storm inside. For an instant, the cyclone inside faltered—and Jemil saw it. A flash of something solid. A pulsing, glowing sphere.

"The heart's real," he breathed.

But the Guardian recovered faster than expected. A wall of tendrils rose between him and the wives, sweeping them apart. Kaela shouted something he couldn't hear before she vanished into the mist, locked in her own skirmish. Mirella and Liora regrouped behind him, panting.

The Guardian stepped forward again, tendrils weaving into spear-like shapes.

"This isn't a wall," Mirella growled. "It's a prison guard."

Jemil closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, letting the storm wrap around him. He could feel it—the rhythm of its lightning, the way it cycled through the roots like blood. If he struck at the exact moment the pulse peaked…

The tendrils lashed out. Jemil didn't dodge.

He spun, slashing twice, severing both before they could hit. Lightning flared across the wound, but instead of regenerating, the severed tendrils crumbled into ash.

"I've got the timing," he said, voice steady.

The wives didn't question him. They moved in sync. Kaela reappeared on the left flank, her blades a blur of steel and sparks. Mirella attacked low, sweeping her halberd to trip the creature's front legs. Liora's arrows pinned down its upper tendrils, giving Jemil the path he needed.

He leapt.

The storm around the Guardian tried to throw him back, winds screaming, rain slicing at his skin. But he forced through, every muscle straining against the pressure.

And then he drove his sword into the glowing sphere inside its chest.

The impact was like stabbing the heart of a thundercloud. White light burst outward, the sound of shattering glass lost in the roar. Tendrils spasmed wildly, flinging mud and shards of root in every direction. The cyclone collapsed inward, sucking the rain and wind into itself before vanishing in a shockwave.

The Guardian fell.

The Storm Wall… cracked.

Through the gap, Jemil saw a path. And beyond it—lights. Not lightning, but firelight. A settlement.

[Chapter Cliffhanger: Jemil and his wives step toward the breach… unaware that something inside the settlement has been waiting for them.]