When Young Aether saw the familiar figure, his body instinctively tensed. It was the same being that had driven the Ebon Stone into the earth, the same existence that had triggered the awakening of Mother's energy. Yet now, that terrifying figure was truly here, seated atop a grotesque mountain of corpses as though it were a throne built from death itself.
"Is it... observing their blood?" Young Aether murmured under his breath.
His eyes narrowed as he studied the creature. At first glance, it resembled a tangled mass of colossal tentacles, but a closer look revealed something far more disturbing.
Its body was an amalgamation of dead flesh, twisted roots, exposed bone fragments, and pulsating organic tissue. Thick root-like tendrils extended from its back and disappeared deep into the mountain of corpses beneath it. Soft crimson pulses travelled through those roots in rhythmic waves, resembling a living energy-conduction network harvesting something from every corpse it touched.
