Interstellar Beast Master

Chapter 65: Leak II

"What the hell is this?"

After they made their descent down the red earth of the ravenous mountains, Serena took the lead in explaining exactly what they had come across, as even Guardian Flameborn was looking around this Entropic Domain while trying to understand exactly what had happened.

"This is a Rift as basic as they come, with a few hundred Initiate Entropic Beasts inside of it, only a dozen of them being Tier III, but why is it that even now..."

She raised her head as she looked around the distant twisting red earth and malformed mountains alongside the dead trees that seemed to be howling chaos and entropy. From them, her yells had actually drawn over multiple Entropic Beasts.

And when they all looked at them, all of these beasts had the same apathetic eyes as the ones they had come across before. And undoubtedly, their levels of Entropic Energy were at Tier III.

"...Why is it that only these little shits at Tier III keep coming out? Man, why are all the annoying things happening one after another? It’s like bad luck is raining down since yesterday!"

Guardian Flameborn was more than annoyed as behind her, Damian stayed absolutely quiet while he continued to sense the changes in Kitsuul.

Her eyes were currently sparkling with a terrifying silver luminosity, and even this was her continuing to veil everything. For the past minutes, the rate at which the invisible pure Entropic Energy was flowing in had only increased.

Damian felt like her body was reaching a critical level, and her communications toward him were extremely happy.

She was telling him that she felt like, with all of these waves of pure energy, she would undergo a growth spurt soon.

A growth spurt.

Would she be able to attain an older form after all this?

Damian was half expectant and cautious, because he still did not understand the intricacies of the why behind all of this.

So he was happy that Kitsuul was growing much stronger this quickly, but he was also trying to figure out what her connection and specialness was regarding Entropic Domains like this.

"Ah well, you all get out first. I’ll clear this place up a bit and then see if we can get some of our Scientists down here with their gadgets to try and understand exactly what changed. We will pick another Rift for you all to dive in today after we get this handled..."

She dismissed them as the Trial Guardians looked at each other and followed orders without asking too much.

And Damian wanted to stay for as long as possible, as he was almost about to raise his voice to ask if it would be okay for them to stay behind for now, to observe as she battled against the Entropic Beasts.

But...

BZZT!

Arcs of purple light buzzed behind him as, in the next moment, the figure of Alex was flung back alongside his Winged Peacock Lion.

He was the first to try and leave through the same portal that they had walked in on, and yet at this moment...

"The Rift Portal... rejected me!"

He spoke with an incredulous expression as all the Trial Guardians and Guardian Flameborn looked at him and became stern.

Guardian Flameborn became utterly serious as she called out.

"Lyra."

She only spoke a name, but it was clear what she wanted to test out. In the next moment, Lyra turned to look at Damian before she walked toward the Rift Portal and raised her hand out first to pass through it.

And...

BZZT!

Arcs of purple light bounced her hand away, as shockingly, she could not go through.

She could not go through.

"What is this..."

The expressions of the Trial Guardians gradually became ashen.

This was something they had never heard of nor experienced before.

Even Guardian Flameborn no longer made any jokes or shouted as she went toward the portal herself and proceeded to raise her hand toward it as—

BZZT!

And the same result occurred.

"..."

An immense silence descended.

Nobody spoke.

A Rift Portal, rejecting them from going through it.

Such a thing had never happened before in history as far as they knew.

And at the same time as this occurred, around this chaotic red earth filled with malformed trees and ravines of mountains, an eerie silence spread. As they turned toward where the Entropic Beasts were silently gathering, they saw that even more of them had arrived and were staring at them in an eerie silence.

They did not roar. They did not bellow, nor did they growl.

They only stared at them with apathetic eyes filled with no emotions, as more and more seemed to come out of the crevices of the red mountains.

"What is this...?"

Even the voice of Serena shook as she asked.

Then Damian became stern as he rapidly communicated with Kitsuul, but apart from her automatically drawing in energy, she said that she wasn’t particularly doing anything else.

Guardian Flameborn became utterly serious as she turned to face the silent beasts in the distance.

"Something unknown has occurred. As of this moment, we operate under Emergency Protocols."

...!

Flames began to blaze around her.

Her Flaming Eagle Archaeopteryx moved ahead as it looked like a bastion of a towering beast that could not be taken down by anything.

And the voice of the only true Guardian here continued to echo out.

"Stay around me at all times, and follow every order the second that I give it. At least whatever happened happened in this Basic Entropic Rift, and the only beasts within are Initiate Entropic Beasts. After I clear them, we will see if things chang—!"

Her words stopped.

Damian felt his heart skip a beat.

He looked up as he followed Kitsuul’s gaze.

Guardian Flameborn and the others also looked up.

And there.

In the dreary crimson skies of this Domain that were covered by murky clouds that allowed nothing to be seen...

There, it looked like the crimson skies began to tear, and from them, waves of Entropic Energy began to leak.

As if the very skies were leaking.

And alongside this leak...

ROAAR!

A booming roar echoed out as an Entropic Beast Behemoth bigger than any of the ones they had seen so far came out.

It looked like a massive purple-scaled... Anaconda.

With bony wings sprouting on its back.

And rings of purple flames circling its serpentine body.

And no.

It was not an Initiate Entropic Beast.