Tale of the Creation of the Heavens

The giant centipede plummeted from the cave ceiling, falling dozens of meters through the air before crashing to the ground in the village's central area. Part of its impact was cushioned by the dozens of Fungelites completely destroyed by the weight of the massive creature. Tristan stared at the largest monster he had ever seen up to that point; its length was comparable to that of a bus.

Some of its legs had broken due to the earlier collision, but that didn't stop the beast from advancing like a moving train. Worse still, it wasn't very far from him—less than a hundred meters separated Tristan from the centipede.

However, that wasn't the greatest threat to his life at the moment.

"What's going on?" Zahira's sleepy voice sounded from behind him, freshly awakened from her rest.

Tristan responded by grabbing her hand and leaping from the giant mushroom where they had been resting. There was no time to talk. The next instant, a massive rock fell onto the spot where they had been, crushing the mushroom flat.

He landed gracefully, a stark contrast to Zahira, who fell face-first onto the ground. Buk, the poor mascot, was squashed beneath her body.

"My nose…" she lamented, holding her face. "Damn it, why did you do that?"

Tristan ignored her complaint, pulling her away as more boulders began to rain down. He cast a quick glance behind him, seeing Buk, now flattened like a pancake, slowly regain his three-dimensional form and hop after them before another rock could hit him.

He guided Zahira away from the danger of falling from above.

"What's happening to this place?" she asked, alarmed, as the cave continued to collapse.

"An unwelcome guest has arrived," Tristan replied calmly, pointing his finger at the giant beast.

She turned and saw it. The black centipede raised its monstrous body into the air, its multiple segments writhing as it coiled around helpless Fungelites, tearing them apart with claws and blade-sharp mandibles.

"That thing has symbols carved into its body. I think it must be one of the 'Marked' you mentioned earlier."

Zahira hadn't seen the runes because they were small and the area was poorly lit, but when Tristan said this, a look of understanding appeared on her face.

"We'd better get out of here!" She said seriously.

Tristan pondered this. Indeed, the best thing to do was leave the area as quickly as possible.

His gaze shifted toward the monster's conflict with the village's inhabitants. The beast was heading toward the main nursery.

'It seems this monster already has its target.'

He found himself in a dilemma. He knew it would be safer to leave, but the chance to observe such a colossal creature in action was too tempting to ignore. Judging by the centipede's size and strength, he assumed it had already reached the yellow core stage. He had rarely encountered magic above the orange level.

And from what he'd heard in his childhood, the true power of cultivation began to manifest between the yellow and green core stages.

"That thing seems pretty occupied; I think we can watch and see what happens."

Tristan noticed Zahira giving him a strange look.

"Why do you want to watch that thing massacre this village's population?" she questioned.

"Don't you think it's good to take any chance to study these 'Marked'? As you said, the only apparent similarity between them is those symbols. But what if there's something else? Anything we learn about these creatures now might be useful in the future if we're forced to face a tougher situation involving them."

Zahira fell silent at his words, perhaps agreeing with his logic or doubting his sanity.

Either way, after convincing Zahira to stay for a while longer, he focused his attention on the conflict between two different species.

By that point, a trail dozens of meters long with countless pieces of dead Fungelites could be seen. Noticing the centipede's dangerous approach to the main nursery, the imposing guards protecting the area moved in. Though they weren't as fast as the beast, they ran impressively fast for their size. Because of this, it didn't take long for them to collide.

The Fungelites wielded logs shaped like clubs and rocks carved into crude blades. On the other hand, the centipede only had its natural weapons at its disposal. Even so, Tristan wouldn't have had the confidence to bet on who would win.

The mushroom creatures surrounded the beast, and loud sounds of impact echoed with each of their strikes. The beast was equally brutal, its attacks tearing apart everything in its path. Some smaller Fungelites clung to the monster's legs, pulling together until they managed to tear them off.

Tristan's eyes widened at the centipede's reaction—or rather, its lack of reaction. Even as its limbs were torn off, nothing stopped its advance. This behavior reminded him of the fire serpent after it became an elemental zombie.

'It's as if this thing has no survival instinct.'

One of the guards struck the centipede's back with its stone blade, cracking and breaking off a piece of its chitinous armor. Without that protection, Tristan saw something that left him perplexed: inside the monster was something metallic, circular, and long.

'Why is there a cylinder inside a monster?'

It seemed the mysterious symbols weren't the only secret behind the creatures that had suddenly appeared in the forest in recent years.

'What's its function?' Perhaps that was the key question at the moment. Tristan wanted to know how important the cylinder was to the monster, and there was only one way to find out.

He turned to Zahira and asked, "Could you give me some of your spines?"

She tilted her head, confused, but then shrugged and did as he asked. Three spines grew from her arm, reaching the size of arrows. She plucked them and handed them to Tristan.

"Thank you."

Tristan wouldn't dare touch a monster like that just to test something, so he decided to use Zahira's spines—the only thing he thought might pierce metal.

Although the centipede was surprisingly agile for its size, to Tristan's eyes, it moved as if in slow motion.

He approached a distance he considered safe and channeled his vital energy into the muscle fibers of his right arm. He threw the three spines with all the strength he could muster. The flight lasted no more than five seconds; two spines struck the cylinder, while the third lodged in the monster's exoskeleton.

Tristan watched a thick, luminous liquid gush from the pierced cylinder. A loud hissing sound filled the air, indicating the pressure inside the cylinder was high. The giant centipede let out a guttural sound, like a muffled roar, and its entire body shuddered violently.

The creature's once agile and menacing movement became erratic. Its hind legs gave out, folding under its weight as it tried to move forward in desperation.

Suddenly, the colossal body stiffened. Then, with one final shudder, the centipede collapsed. The impact reverberated through the cave, sending up dust and fragments of destroyed fungi.

This was one of the few moments when Tristan's face showed exactly what he was feeling.

'Damn it.'

It had never crossed his mind that destroying the tank would kill the creature. At most, he thought it might weaken the monster.

But he had seen everything with his own eyes, and the truth couldn't be denied.

'Was that a fuel tank or what?'

A monster of that size dying in such a manner was somewhat disappointing to Tristan, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Collecting his prize was all he could think about.

The Fungelites took a while to realize the creature was dead, continuing to strike it for several seconds.

Once they stopped, Tristan rushed toward the centipede's body in excitement. Obtaining a yellow core this early was completely beyond his plans. In the best-case scenario, he believed it would take him nearly two years to extract such a core from a monster's corpse.

When he reached the body, he used his Light magic to locate the core.

[Dark Blade]

He sliced through the exoskeleton and pierced the monster's flesh.

Tristan had to plunge his entire arm in to touch the core. When he felt the smooth surface of the crystal with his fingers, he stretched his arm and grasped the gem, quickly pulling it out.

The moment he extracted the core from the corpse, his face became as immobile as a statue.

With his mystical senses, he could feel the faint yet unmistakable essence of a red core.