Chapter 1,297.

A/N: That's month 2 of the Ultom Arc. Hope you've enjoyed! The next month will continue without breaks as Zac draw closer to the pillars and the secrets buried in the Left Imperial Expanse. Hope to see you there!

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The groaning chorus of countless trees being torn apart was swallowed by Ogras' dense blanket of shadows. Three layers of domains did little to slow down the adolescent crocodile. The trees conjured by [Apex Jungle] couldn't withstand a single swipe, and the spiritual beasts they released were like flies to the enraged beast.

The good news was that one of the demon's assertions proved true. The beast lacked experience in dealing with unfamiliar Daos. [Apex Jungle] continuously rearranged itself according to his Evolutionary path, and the shimmering starfield added to the crocodile's confusion. It repeatedly got turned around and ended up moving in circles.

Still, its rampage put the already straining [Apex Jungle] under tremendous pressure. Letting the beast tire itself out before stepping in wasn't an option. Zac sent a message to Ventus before entering a nearby tree. A river of starlight holding an intense aura of truth descended on the crocodile as Zac's surroundings changed to the hot spring's lakebed.

Bubbling water was seeping out of the bedrock, though it would take a while for the pond to replenish. The battle hundreds of meters above was barely audible through the dense sponge of plant matter that had replaced the pond's anthracite water. Zac barely had time to inspect a submerged tunnel leading further down before dozens of nearby trees exploded.

The crocodile that was still fighting Ventus on the jungle's other end had simultaneously appeared in the depths. The specimen targeting Zac was rapidly gaining strength, soon surpassing the other. The lifelike mirage that seemed real to Zac had failed to trick Ogras's senses. The real thing had turned into a streak of shadows the moment the second bomb went off, heading for its escape tunnel while its doppelganger kept the enemy occupied.

Zac appearing to block the way only changed its approach. Raw force replaced subterfuge, and the crocodile roared with fury when Zac tried to collapse the tunnel with axelights. It didn't work. The stones were incredibly resilient—as expected of a material that could resist the rainwater's overbearing power of reinvention. Zac could only give up and face the hurricane of razor-sharp shadows that grew to fill up the whole pool.

The beast's ancient bloodline was on full display. Everything the shadows touched was torn apart. The walls held, but the sheer force generated tremors that squeezed out more water from the cracks. The crocodile was in the cyclone's center, picking up speed as it barreled toward Zac. The crocodile was just as powerful as advertised. Zac was a stubborn rock in the middle of the storm, refusing to move out of harm's way. It was game over if the beast was allowed to enter the tunnel.

A discordant note seeped into the swirling shadows, disrupting its accumulation. Then, a nauseating flicker of countless spears stabbed at the beast. Ogras moved with such unfathomable speed that the afterimages of his attacks made the crocodile look like a porcupine. The attacks didn't accomplish much more than Zac's axelights until the beast suddenly pivoted with great urgency.

An inconspicuous vine growing from Zac's position had gained a sudden burst of velocity as it stabbed the crocodile from below. At the same time, hundreds of marks appeared across the beast. Shadow strings reeking of bloodshed connected them into an array, and the outline of a demonic God briefly appeared above the crocodile's head.

The crocodile released a desperate roar carrying the echoes of a long-gone age, shattering the illusion of a blood-soaked world before it could fully descend. The vine was upon the beast at that point. It transformed into a pitch-black beam that instantaneously extended far enough to pierce the clouds of cooling water miles above. It held boundless murderous intent like it was a spear aimed at the Heavens themselves.

A straight line of missing scales proved just how close the beast came to getting impaled. Even the surrounding storm was quelled by the concentrated might of the thrumming pillar. The streak of bloody shadows flickered and disappeared, turning into Ogras's pitch-black spear. A frenzied surge of primordial anger ejected the demonic God, and the defense-lowering array engraved on the crocodile's body lost half its strength.

The crocodile rushed toward Zac with even greater urgency as a barrier of shadows ensconced it. Ogras's attack had put the fear of God in it. The beast even sacrificed hundreds of scales along the ridge of its back. They shot out like bullets, each holding enough power to grievously wound a Middle Hegemon.

Only a few flew toward Zac, who activated [Empyrean Aegis] for its protective barrier. The crocodile hadn't bothered aiming since its goal was to surround itself with an impassable wall of destruction and prevent a second attempt on its life. It only needed to endure a while longer before reaching the safety of the tunnel's corrosive water.

Zac had remained unmoving until now, fusing with his surroundings while accumulating momentum. His senses were strained to their limits. Shadow beasts were often tricky, and they couldn't let the target slip away again by transforming into one of its scales. Instead of a plot or hidden threat, it was the Dao that entered Zac's eyes through the closing tunnel created by Ogras.

Standing at the bottom of the pit, looking at the shrinking dot of utter darkness, Zac was no different than the toad gazing at the sky from the bottom of the well. Yet at that moment, with a desperate beast barreling toward him, the Heavens felt so close Zac could reach out and grab it. Zac's original goal was becoming unclear as a greater purpose urged him on.

The wooden wheel floating behind Zac's back turned, and stillness gave way to explosive movement. He became the bridge unifying the Heavens and Earth. Muscles tempered by lightning and aligned by Law became the perfect delivery system of calamitous truth. He was the precursor of Life's ceaseless struggle, his axe the brutal blade that clawed its way toward the summit of Evolution's ladder.

Not even fate was safe from its bloody hunger, and the crocodile was only the latest victim to the endless cycle of affirmation. Zac's roar joined Verun's as his whole existence merged into a world-rending swing that followed in the wake of [Empyrean Aegis]'s disruptive pulse.

The shadow of death was reflected in the inbound beast's eyes, and it was too late to change course. The crocodile had already overdrawn their bloodline to regain the momentum stolen by Ogras's ambush. The Empyrean pulse brought unremitting change different from the corrupting waters, one the crocodile couldn't avoid. The shadow barrier crumbled, removing the final divider between prey and predator.

A blinding flash momentarily quelled the roars of battle as [Verun's Bite] dug into the crocodile's lower jaw. Zac barely noticed the hulking figure ahead. His eyes peered into the great beyond, following his swing to its conclusion. Vines, shadows, stars, and rain—nothing could halt Evolution's flight toward the Heavens.

A crescent moon of Life and Conflict created a vertical pupil aimed at the sky, the springs a brutal eye trained at the road leading toward the Terminus.

Clarity faded as quickly as it came, obscured by pain and a rain of blood. An explosive force threw Zac deep into the tunnel, where the waiting waters attacked him from every direction. Head muddled and muscles torn, Zac furiously swam back toward the surface. It wasn't about survival. He needed to grasp the truth before it slipped through his fingers.

It was too late. The Heavens had averted its gaze, and the bridge between man and Dao had crumbled. Zac was once more the toad at the bottom of the well. He sighed and turned to the target. The sudden epiphany had almost ruined their hunt. Thankfully, the crocodile had been chosen for its great endurance. The Late Beast King was bleeding profusely from a scar that had practically cut it in half. A lesser beast would have directly died, but the ancient bloodline proved its worth.

Strings of muscle and sinew grew in the shadows cast by the crocodile's blood, rapidly putting the pieces back together. However, its unstable aura couldn't be faked. Zac's enlightened strike had grievously wounded it. It was like what he pictured came true—the swing had severed the crocodile's fate and, thus, it's future.

"You lunatic," the shadows chided. "Well, this is fine. Help me tie him up."

"Sorry," Zac said as he blinked the blood out of his eyes.

Dozens of vines soon held the struggling Beast King while new trees sprouted to box it in. Meanwhile, drops of ancient blood were swallowed by Ogras's shadows. From here, it was a battle against time. They needed to refine the crocodile before the returning water refined them.

Ogras had appeared atop the crocodile's head while dozens of clones fought to suppress its movements. He looked quite grotesque, with a wide beak poking out of his hood while squirming tentacles peeked out of his sleeves. The demon was drawing on the abilities of the Shifting Dreamgeist he'd captured inside the Perennial Vastness.

Powerful hallucinations disrupted the crocodile's attempts at breaking free. Adding insult to injury, radiant stars packing enough punch to make the Ishiate Tinkerers proud incinerated any shadow that split off from the beast's body. While Ventus couldn't seamlessly join Zac and Ogras's practiced teamwork, he was a follower of Order who excelled at reading energy flows. Predicting an enemy's actions was his forte.

Ventus hadn't solely joined the group to help out. It was also out of necessity. The corrosive rain had eaten through Zac's jungle to form a small lake atop the old spring. The only thing keeping them safe at the bottom was a final membrane of plant life. [Conformation of Supremacy]'s boost to plant life couldn't buy much more time, even if [Primal Edict] gained greater resistance to the water with every generation of vines.

There wasn't much Zac and Ventus could do at this point beyond ensuring the crocodile didn't get away. They could only anxiously wait as a cocoon of shadows gradually enclosed Ogras and his prey. It was different from when Zac assisted in the previous hunt. He'd seen Ogras directly reduce the Dreamgeist into a struggling bundle of shadowy energies before dragging it into a weird gate in his stomach.

It could be the result of improving the method, though Zac suspected the demon had deployed a treasure for privacy. Sure enough, the shadows had soon transformed into a sturdy cocoon roughly two meters across. While there was no word from Ogras, the size indicated the beast had been absorbed.

Zac guessed the demon had been forced to seclude himself. The crocodile was much stronger than the previous beasts Ogras had absorbed, whether in grade or bloodline purity. He should be locked in a battle of wills, unable to worry about his surroundings. Unfortunately, the danger was far from over. Zac didn't need to be a Numerologist to tell that the shadow realm had changed at a fundamental level.

"What's he—never mind," Ventus said, dropping the question after a warning look. "We need to go. Now."

This time, Zac was fully on board with a hasty retreat. While it made no sense, the juvenile crocodile had been the lynchpin that kept the whole realm stable. The shakes didn't subside after the battle. They grew stronger until new cracks formed on the lakebed to release horrifyingly concentrated water. The hot spring of before was nothing compared to what now came pouring from the ground.

Something was stirring.

Zac didn't have the luxury of worrying about lost epiphanies or maintaining a stable environment for Ogras. Sweeping up the cocoon in a net of vines, Zac rushed toward the surface. Two fractal edges appeared before his axe, and Zac activated [Rapturous Beginning] just as [Apex Jungle] collapsed. The lake above was delimited by a blade endlessly collapsing unto itself, and the duo squeezed through the gap before it closed.

They were greeted by utter chaos. A chorus of horrified roars shook the forest as countless rivers appeared and turned into lakes. The danger didn't only come from below. Zac gawked at a whole mountain falling from the sky, joined by countless trees and boulders. It was a more terrifying rain than what they'd avoided for the past days.

"The layers are collapsing," Ventus groaned as wooden beads smattered.

Zac had to give it to the elf. It was like he had woken up from a dream. The apocalyptic scene wasn't enough to make Ventus break down. Instead, he rose to the occasion. An ethereal light seeped out of his pores, giving the already annoyingly handsome elf a transcendent appearance. His flowing robes rippled as a halo of sixteen stars surrounding a much larger sun appeared behind him—the Dao Peaks arranged around the Peak of Order.

One star, in particular, reacted with the surroundings, and the elf's eyes shot open. "That way!"

Zac grabbed Ventus and sped off. The Numerologist continued to calculate the crumbling realm to find the quickest way out. The mad dash continued for half a day, where the two weaved through the crumbling world. Thankfully, they didn't have to worry about the locals. The environment kept deteriorating, and even the Beast Emperors were too busy running for their lives to bother with two foreigners going in the same direction.

The radiance surrounding Ventus finally faded. His skin was pallid from spiritual strain, but his eyes were bright as he gazed at the falling mountains and cascading waterfalls. It was like he'd forgotten they were still days away from safety.

"Winds of chaos, indeed. I can see why you find such beauty in its primal mayhem."

"What beauty? Did the stress push you over the edge?" Zac cursed as he dodged a huge tree crashing nearby, its withered wood turning into a storm of razor-sharp shrapnel.

Zac swung his axe, destroying the projectiles before they could get close to the cocoon. The desolate energies seeping out of the ground were already pouring into the egg like it was looking for the crocodile, and Zac didn't want to test how much more punishment it could endure. He glanced at [Verun's Bite] with regret. He'd tried to recapture that beautiful swing countless times already, and it was always out of reach.

"I'm simply accepting that Chaos is part of the natural order," Ventus said with a smile. "I'm drained; I leave the rest up to you."

Zac grunted in affirmation. It was already impressive for Ventus to maintain his elevated state for such a long time. His divinations had carried them through the most dangerous stretch. The second half was within Zac's means. Following intuition and occasionally the smarter shadow creatures, Zac kept a steep and steady pace for another day.

Finally, the monochromatic world gave way to color. A scintillating wall held the shadows at bay, creating a sharp border to the shadow realm. Moving closer, Zac saw it was a huge dune made from glass beads of differing colors. They reflected the essence of raging flames, unyielding earth, coursing waters, sharp metal, and resilient wood.

The reflected Daos of the Grand Materia held the darkness at bay, returning color to the world. The shadow beasts withered before the light, yet urgency drove them further into the desert. Zac was no different. The painful lights were nothing to the brewing danger. They only managed to add half an hour's distance to the shadow realm before time was up.

An ear-splitting rumble forced the whole region to a halt, including Zac and the horde of fleeing beasts. An immense aura permeated the air, allowing nothing else to pass. They could only helplessly look on as a huge crack appeared in the shadow realm's center, like two tectonic plates being pushed apart. The crack expanded as a deluge of water flooded what remained of the region.

Miles and miles of shimmering sand were also drenched, strangling its vibrant light. Zac shuddered at the absolute loss of life and was immensely grateful the tidal wave failed to reach their position. The mass extinction birthed a thick Miasmic mist that spread for as far as he could see. It was nothing compared to the intense aura of decay coming from the heart of the shadow realm.

Towering waves heaved as a pillar rose in the ocean's center. It reached miles into the air in no time, and it was only the beginning. A mountain range followed the pillar from the depths, completely redrawing the landscape. The intense death came from the mountain itself, almost like—

"What the hell," Zac gasped as two turbid eyes rose above the surface, their bleak, pale grey looking like haunted moons over the hazy water.

The mountain range that stretched for hundreds of miles was only the scales of a monstrously large crocodile. It wasn't even the whole thing. Only the head and part of its neck were visible, with the rest of its body still beneath the surface. While there were significant differences in its aura, there was no doubt this was an ancestor to the crocodile Ogras was currently refining.

The overwhelming decay wasn't part of its Dao. The crocodile was closer to a corpse than a living beast, stuck in limbo right at the threshold. Zac wasn't convinced it was even conscious. It more seemed like the body had stirred on instinct, no doubt because of their actions.

"I knew it," Ventus said, content rather than horrified at the rotting monstrosity. "I told you the kid would have powerful ancestors."

"Good job," Zac said, his mind screaming of danger. Alive or dead, conscious or not, a simple thought from such a powerful existence would erase their existence. Zac would have run for his life if his legs had let him. Since they didn't, he could only ensconce himself and the shadow cocoon in a layer of Void. "You can put it on your resume in the afterlife."

"We're not fated to die today," Ventus confidently said. "Look."

Dark runes lit up along the pillar, triggering an explosive rain of bedrock that exposed a sleek dirk beneath. It matched the crocodile's size and was stabbed right into its skull. Zac couldn't tell exactly what concepts the runes on the hilt echoed, but he was certain a hint of it was reflected in the bubbling water.

As the enormous dagger gathered strength, an implacable pressure descended from above. Zac could vaguely see the outline of a hand as large as a planet. The crocodile's ascent was halted and then reversed. The whole ocean trembled from the struggle, the vibrations pushing the encroaching waves closer. Zac had to activate [Empyrean Aegis] to resist the invisible pressure.

The ancient beast ultimately failed. The mountain ranges retreated into the ground, and the water levels receded. Just as the crocodile was about to disappear beneath the surface, it released a burst of Dao. It came from the deepest depths of the earth, from a sky different from today's.

Ventus collapsed like his bones were turned into water, blood running down his nose and ears. He was knocked out cold, and Zac was about to follow in his footsteps. Zac screamed with pain as ancient Dao was deciphered into meaning, almost tearing apart his Soul Aperture along the way.

An anguished roar from the distant past filled Zac's mind. It held the resentment of an apex predator at the cusp of breaking free from the chains of fate, only to encounter a higher Heaven. The hazy sensation eluding Zac over the past day crystallized into certainty just as his soul couldn't take anymore.

The last thing Zac saw was a trembling hyena growling at the Heavens, refusing to abandon its master.