‘Gaia must’ve told him to intervene if Typhaon proved too much to handle.’
“Okay,” Emma said cautiously. “The two of us should be able to hold back Typhaon until reinforcements arrive—”
“I don’t need reinforcements.”
Thanatos interrupted her, unsheathing a black blade that radiated an eerie, consuming aura.
The moment he slashed, a wave of destruction rippled outward.
Typhaon’s minions, who had almost reached the awakeners’ position, were bisected in a single strike.
A moment of stunned silence enveloped the battlefield.
“Everyone, retreat,” Thanatos commanded.
His voice was as cold and sharp as his blade.
“Gaia has sent me to deal with Typhaon.”
Before anyone could react, he raised his sword again and swung downward.
The sheer force of the strike obliterated everything in its path, carving a direct route to Typhaon’s Core.
As he walked forward, one of the awakeners whispered shakily,
“T-that black sword… isn’t it the one Sir Apollo told us to watch out for?”
Emma’s heart skipped a beat.
Her gaze snapped to the weapon in Thanatos’ grip, but before she could study it further, he was gone, disappearing into the haze of the battlefield.
“Dammit, how could I be so stupid! If his name is Thanatos, then of course it’s ‘him’!” Emma muttered under her breath.
Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet rumbled violently.
All heads turned toward the source of the tremors, and they saw Thanatos thrown high into the air.
Dust and debris scattered around, creating a smoky haze.
Before Thanatos could retaliate, a burning tornado enveloped him.
It spiraled upward like a pillar of fire and scorched the air around it.
“You’re finally here!” a booming voice roared.
Standing at the source of the flames was Oni, the Sovereign of Flames, one of Typhaon’s direct servants.
His molten eyes glowed with malicious delight as he pointed a clawed hand at Thanatos.
“Master has told us to kill ‘you’ with special attention!”
“It’s always amusing to hear a monster call another monster ‘master.'”
Thanatos’ voice rang out from within the burning vortex, calm yet dripping with disdain.
A beat later, the fiery tornado fractured.
Uniform cracks appeared on the burning flames.
They split into countless pieces as if cleaved by an unseen blade.
The scattered flames dissipated into dying embers, revealing Thanatos standing atop a massive shadow summon in the shape of a bird, its wings spread wide as it hovered in the ash-choked sky.
“Don’t speak in human language,” he said coldly, his gaze locked on Oni. “It’s disgusting.”
Oni flinched.
A bead of sweat rolled down his temple as he processed what had just happened.
His flames—flames that no ordinary awakener could withstand—had been effortlessly cut apart.
Thanatos’ piercing eyes briefly flicked to the two other Sovereigns lurking in the shadows.
They were biding their time for the perfect moment to strike.
“It’s not me you should be fearing,” he said, his voice cutting through the air like a razor.
The ground shuddered again, more violently this time, as though responding to his words.
The Sovereigns tensed.
The tremors, which they had dismissed as the aftereffects of Typhaon’s overwhelming aura, now felt… different.
They weren’t caused by Typhaon.
It was something else.
Something dangerous.
“It’s him.”
The northern region of the Savage Expanse collapsed in on itself.
The earth caved in as though devoured by an unseen force.
A shrill, bone-chilling cry reverberated through the battlefield.
And then it emerged.
A monstrous worm, larger than a fifteen-story building and ten times as wide, burst forth from the collapsing ground.
Its segmented body gleamed with an unnatural sheen, and its circular maw was lined with thousands of razor-sharp teeth that glinted like bloodied knives.
The air grew thick with the worm’s bloodthirsty aura, suffocating everyone nearby.
The creature let out another deafening shriek before lunging at the nearest cluster of monsters.
Its colossal movements crushed the forest and the beasts beneath it, leaving a path of absolute destruction in its wake.
Trees snapped like twigs, and the earth groaned under the sheer weight of its body.
Emma’s jaw tightened as she watched the carnage unfold.
“What…what is that thing?” one of the awakeners stammered, his voice trembling with terror.
Thanatos didn’t answer.
His gaze remained locked on the Sovereigns, his expression as cold and unyielding as the blade in his hand.
“Devour them,” Thanatos commanded.
The worm opened its gaping maw, revealing an thousands of razor sharp teeth.
A low, guttural sound reverberated from its depths as it began to inhale.
The force of its suction moved the air.
The trees closest to it were the first to go.
Their trunks groaned and splintered as they were uprooted and pulled into the giant worm’s mouth.
The soil followed next,.
Great chunks of earth crumbled and vanished into the worm’s maw.
But it didn’t stop there.
The very essence of the Savage Expanse seemed to be consumed.
The worm started to devour Time.
Monsters and the Sovereigns froze, unable to move, as the worm was eating their Time.
Then, something astonishing happened.
The monsters and the forest began to age backwards.
They grew younger.
And younger.
And younger.
Monsters howled in agony as their forms distorted and disappeared.
The proud Sovereigns of Typhaon could do nothing.
They realized, too late, the true nature of the worm’s power—it wasn’t merely consuming matter. It was devouring their Time.
Their bodies shuddered as the horrifying process continued.
The Sovereigns’ forms grew younger.
Their features regressed with each passing second.
Their mighty auras diminished.
Their strength faded as they were forced backward through the sands of time.
Panic flickered in their eyes, but they couldn’t move.
The worm’s suction had them utterly paralyzed.
And then, they vanished.
First, their physical forms dissolved into the void. Then, their very existence was erased, as if they had never been.
The suction intensified, and the surrounding forest began to disappear too.
Leaves grew into buds, trees shrank into saplings, and finally, the ground itself aged backward into barren wasteland.
Emma and the awakeners, standing far enough to avoid the worm’s immediate attack, watched in stunned silence.
The air around them felt heavy, suffused with an unnatural stillness.
“What just… happened?” one of the awakeners whispered in a barely audible voice.
Emma’s fists clenched as she surveyed the devastation.
In mere moments, the lush expanse of the Savage Expanse had been reduced to a desolate wasteland.
The vibrant greenery, the sprawling trees, the teeming life—all of it had been devoured, leaving behind only a barren desert.
At its center lay Typhaon’s Core.
The giant tree pulsed like a beating heart, the only remnant of the once-vast forest.
The worm let out a final, ear-splitting cry before coiling into itself.
Its body disappeared into the sands as quickly as it had emerged.
Emma swallowed hard.
What she had just witnessed shook her to the core.
“That thing…” she whispered.
Her voice trembled with a mix of fear and awe.
“It’s beyond anything we’ve ever faced.”
The barren wasteland stretched out before them.
It was a reminder of the worm’s terrifying power. Of Thanatos’ terrifying power.
Thanatos’ ignored the commotion of the awakeners and commanded his shadow summon to take him to the Typhaon’s Core.