Chapter 139: Inspect Their Breasts
A few hours later, Kalon moved through a dense stretch of forest on Veylora.
He had come here to hunt. He knew that this is what he needed in order to reach the higher ranks.
The system map and the trails of crushed undergrowth had led him to this area. The air smelled of sap and ripe berries. Broken branches marked recent movement.
Twenty Berry Hunters stepped out from the trees.
They formed a rough half-circle around him. Their skin and faces looked human, but their bodies were thicker and more primitive, with heavy brow ridges and longer arms.
A faint blue mark glowed behind each ear. They carried crude spears, clubs, and nets. None of them spoke. They simply raised their weapons and charged.
Deep Sea Pressure weighed on them the moment they entered his range. Their steps slowed. A few stumbled under the sudden heaviness. Kalon did not waste the opening.
He activated Ninefold Sunbreaker and condensed six solar spheres instead of the full nine.
The golden orbs locked into orbit around him, then shot outward in controlled pairs.
The first pair smashed through the chests of two Hunters and erased them. The second pair took three more. The extreme flames evaporated their primitive bodies and left them as a pile of ash on the forest floor.
The rest closed the distance.
A spear came at his chest. Kalon activated Astral Counter. His hand moved, caught the line of the attack, and stored the force. He returned it in a single palm strike that caved in the Hunter’s ribcage and sent the body flying back into two others.
He followed with Photon Slash. A blade of pure light formed in his grip and cut horizontally. Four Hunters fell in pieces before the light blade faded. Residual radiance hung in the air for a moment, but he kept the output tight so it would not spread too far into the trees and attract more attention.
Seven of the humans remained.
They tried to spread out and surround him.
Kalon stomped forward and activated Eternal Winter at a reduced level.
A wave of extreme cold exploded outward from his position. Frost coated the ground and the legs of the nearest Hunters. All of their skills were now frozen.
While they struggled against the freeze, he launched the remaining solar spheres from Ninefold Sunbreaker. Each sphere hit with great force, evaporating humans and trees.
Only three managed to survive the attack, and even those were badly injured with burns.
One threw a net. Kalon stepped through it, grabbed the Hunter by the throat, and slammed him into the dirt hard enough to stun him.
He wanted this one alive.
The other two rushed him together.
A short Photon Slash removed both of their heads in one clean swing.
Kalon turned back to the stunned Hunter on the ground. The man was still breathing. His eyes were open. The blue mark behind his ear pulsed.
"Who sent you?" Kalon asked. "What are the marks behind your ears?"
The Hunter’s mouth opened. No words came out.
The mark behind his ear flared bright blue.
A wet cracking sound came from inside the man’s skull and chest. His body locked, eyes rolled back, and within seconds he was dead.
Foam gathered at the corner of his mouth. The light in the mark died.
Kalon checked for a pulse. Nothing.
A defensive mechanism had killed the Hunter from the inside to keep him silent. Every one of the twenty bodies on the ground now carried a dead mark.
They could give no information. Only confirmation that the marks were designed to enforce silence the moment they were captured.
Someone’s hiding something... I bet it’s one of those planets.
He stood up, looked over the clearing of corpses once, then turned and headed back toward the church.
...
The cathedral was quiet when he arrived. Green vines still covered the walls and the stained glass. Soft light filtered through the leaves, but not enough to cause Photosynthesis.
Nyphara stood near the front with Yildaphia at her side.
Behind them, a group of younger trainees waited in a neat line. Their robes were closed at the chest. None of them had earned the right to expose their breasts yet.
Nyphara’s heavy green breasts remained naked as always, resting full and open above her white robes.
Yildaphia’s smaller chest was also uncovered.
Both women turned when Kalon approached.
"Light Bringer," Nyphara said. Her voice was calm. "You return with the smell of fire and blood. The Berry Hunters?"
"Twenty of them," Kalon answered. "They’re dead. I tried to keep one alive for answers. The mark behind its ear killed it before it could speak."
Nyphara’s expression did not change much, but Yildaphia’s eyes widened slightly.
She couldn’t believe that this man was truly so powerful. She wondered whether her planet was truly saved from its troubles.
"The silence marks," Nyphara said. "We have seen this before. When one of them is captured, the mark ends their life. It has always been this way. We still do not know who placed the marks on them."
Kalon nodded once. It matched what he had just witnessed.
The trainees in the line stayed quiet, watching him with curiosity.
Most of them looked younger. Their leaf-skin varied in shade, and small buds or thin vines marked their arms and necks. None of them spoke.
Nyphara glanced at the line, then back at Kalon.
"These are the new disciples. They have trained hard, but they have not yet received the Mother Tree’s full recognition. Until they do, their chests remain covered. It is our way."
Yildaphia shifted her weight slightly, still standing close to Nyphara. The smaller priestess looked at Kalon with the same quiet attention as before.
Nyphara stepped closer. The movement made her heavy breasts wobble.
"Light Bringer. You have given us light more than once. You have protected us from the Hunters. The disciples have heard of what your radiance can do. Some of them are close to their next growth, but they need a proper inspection to measure their readiness."
She met his eyes directly.
"Would you inspect their breasts for the mother?"
The trainees in the line straightened their backs. A few of them glanced at each other.
Their cheeks blushed.
Nyphara’s request hung in the quiet air of the cathedral, open and without shame, as if it were the most natural thing she could ask of him.