The ash-choked wind of Sector 7 finally began to settle.
For the first time since the drop, the oppressive, world-ending gravity of the Exarch Prime was completely gone. The towering, headless corpse of the alien commander lay in a pool of its own glowing, highly acidic blue blood.
Prince Zhao Long remained sitting on the shattered asphalt, clutching his broken ribs. His Earthly Fiend magma-veins were slowly dimming back to their dormant state. He let out a weak, bloody, triumphant laugh that quickly turned into a violent coughing fit.
"We actually did it," Zhao Long wheezed, his violet eyes tracking the sky above the ruined Central Spire. "Tier 2 Low... killing a Tier 2 Peak. The Imperial Court is going to have an aneurysm when they read this combat report."
Kai stood over the corpse, leaning heavily on the hilt of the Sovereign's Edge. His Stage 2 Titan-Pulse muscles were twitching violently from the sheer adrenaline and Qi exhaustion. His newly forged Five-Element solid core was throbbing, desperately pulling ambient energy back into his empty meridians.
"Don't celebrate yet, Long," Kai breathed, his metallic voice rough. He wiped a streak of alien gore from his cheek. "We still need to harvest the core. A Tier 2 Peak diamond core... the sheer density of that thing. I can forge a weapon that cuts through dreadnought armor with that."
From the cover of a collapsed commercial building fifty yards away, the rest of Squad 7 cautiously emerged.
Maya lowered her heavily cracked shale shield, her face pale but beaming with absolute disbelief. Robert was supporting Princess Yan, both of them staring at the dead alien commander as if it were an illusion. They had survived.
Kai turned toward his squad to signal an all-clear. He let his guard drop for exactly three seconds.
It was three seconds too long.
A metallic clink-clink-clink echoed softly against the glassed sand.
Anvil, the Qilin-hound, had been commanded to stay back during the catastrophic clash. But with the alien's suppression aura gone, the mythic beast's instincts took over. Despite being the size of a large wolf and covered in shimmering metallic scales, Anvil still possessed the reckless, gluttonous mind of a puppy.
And right now, the puppy smelled the most delicious, energy-dense treat in the entire sector.
"Anvil, wait!" Robert shouted from down the street, his Void-snake hissing a frantic warning.
Kai whipped his head around.
When Kai had violently ripped his sword sideways to kill the Prime, he had cleaved the alien's upper torso open. Nestled deep within the exposed, bio-mechanical chest cavity was the Exarch Prime's true solid core—a flawless, fist-sized crystal of absolute black-diamond, radiating a terrifying, hypnotic green light.
Anvil didn't approach it with caution. The Qilin-hound trotted right up to the glowing blue gore, completely ignoring the acid that was melting the asphalt, and buried its snout directly into the alien's chest.
"No! Anvil, drop it!" Kai roared, his [Agility: 35] flaring as he lunged forward. "That's a Tier 2 Peak core! It'll blow you apart!"
But Anvil didn't drop it. The metallic hound clamped its powerful jaws around the fist-sized black diamond. It tilted its head back, gave one massive, unnatural gulp, and swallowed the Exarch Prime's core whole.
"You stupid mutt!" Prince Zhao Long yelled, his eyes widening in pure horror as he scrambled backward on the asphalt. "That's raw, unfiltered radioactive Qi! It's going to detonate!"
Kai hit the ground next to Anvil, reaching out to grab the beast's scruff, desperately hoping he could use his Five-Element Qi to force the dog to vomit.
But the moment Kai's fingers brushed Anvil's metallic scales, a physical shockwave of pure, unadulterated energy blasted Kai backward.
[CRITICAL SYSTEM WARNING]
[Contracted Beast Anomaly Detected!]
[Entity: 'Anvil' has consumed a Tier 2 (Peak) Exarch Core.]
[Warning: Energy density exceeds biological parameters by 800%.]
Anvil didn't explode, but the reaction was instantaneous and terrifying.
The hound let out a whimpering, metallic howl that sounded like grinding gears. Its shimmering scales began to glow with a blinding, radioactive green light—the exact same color as the alien's plasma blade. The heat radiating from the dog's body instantly flash-melted the street in a ten-foot radius.
"System! Sever the Soul-Link!" Kai shouted, terrified the explosive alien energy would travel up the golden tether and shatter his own newly forged core.
[Command Denied.]
[The Beast Taming Contract is fully solidified. The host must share the burden of the physical vessel.]
The golden array on Kai's chest violently ignited.
"Gah!" Kai fell to his knees, clutching his heart. The raw, unfiltered Tier 2 (Peak) energy wasn't just burning Anvil; it was forcefully venting into Kai. A torrent of chaotic, hyper-dense alien Qi slammed into Kai's Five-Element core like a runaway train.
"Hart!" Zhao Long yelled, struggling to stand.
Maya, Robert, and Yan sprinted into the clearing, horrified as they watched the glowing green energy bridge the gap between the howling metallic hound and their captain.
"Don't touch them!" Princess Yan screamed, throwing her arm out to stop Maya. "That's pure, unrefined alien radiation! If you interrupt the cycle, it will violently reject their human meridians and vaporize this entire block!"
Kai squeezed his eyes shut, his teeth grinding so hard he tasted bone.
It's too much, Kai thought, feeling the green fire ravage his meridians. The alien core is fighting back. It's trying to crystallize my blood.
But then, the mythic bloodline inside the puppy finally woke up.
Anvil wasn't just a stray dog. It carried the dormant lineage of a Qilin—the Auspicious Beast of the Forge. A creature literally born to consume raw, heavy earth and unrefined metal to forge the world.
Through the searing pain of the Soul-Link, Kai felt a massive, ancient presence stir within the hound. Anvil stopped whimpering. The dog planted its four heavy paws into the molten asphalt, lowered its head, and let out a roar that did not sound like a dog.
It sounded like a dragon.
The golden tether between them shifted from a chaotic, burning conduit into a flawless, high-pressure forge.
[System Alert: Mythic Bloodline Resonance Activated.]
[The 'Qilin' lineage is forcefully digesting the foreign core.]
[Host's Five-Element Foundation is acting as the cooling agent.]
"Circulate it!" Kai roared, realizing what the beast was doing.
Kai didn't fight the energy anymore. He threw his Tier 2 (Low) core wide open. He used his Water and Wood nodes to desperately cool the radioactive heat flooding into his body, while Anvil used its mythic internal gravity to physically crush the alien diamond in its stomach.
The street was bathed in a chaotic storm of green alien radiation, golden mythic light, and the five-colored aura of Kai's foundation.
For five agonizing minutes, the squad could only watch as the boy and his dog acted as a living, breathing alchemical furnace. The heat was so intense it warped the air, making the ruined buildings around them shimmer like a mirage.
Finally, with a sound like a massive pane of glass shattering, the resistance broke.
The blinding green light of the alien core was snuffed out, violently consumed by the golden aura of the Qilin.
Anvil let out a massive, exhausted burp. A small cloud of green smoke puffed from the hound's nostrils.
The golden tether on Kai's chest faded back into his skin. Kai collapsed forward, catching himself on his hands and knees, panting heavily. His Vanguard uniform was completely soaked in sweat, and his muscles were trembling uncontrollably.
[System Alert: Digestion Complete.]
[The Tier 2 (Peak) Exarch Core has been successfully assimilated.]
[Contracted Beast 'Anvil' has absorbed massive structural density. Commencing biological evolution sleep-cycle.]
[Host has received extreme feedback nourishment. Core Capacity permanently increased.]
Anvil didn't look like a puppy anymore. The beast had grown another foot at the shoulder. Its metallic scales were no longer just a flat grey; they now possessed a terrifying, absolute black-diamond sheen, identical to the armor of the Exarch Prime.
The hound looked at Kai, let out a soft, satisfied yawn, and promptly collapsed onto the melted street, falling into a deep, impenetrable, evolutionary sleep.
"You..." Kai wheezed, staring at the comatose, heavily armored super-predator snoozing in the dirt. "You owe me a new sword, you gluttonous idiot."
Prince Zhao Long limped over, staring at the sleeping beast with his jaw hanging slightly open.
"It ate the Prime's core," Zhao Long whispered, shaking his head in sheer disbelief. "The greatest piece of war-loot in Sector 7... and your dog just ate it as a post-battle snack."
Kai let out a weak, exhausted laugh, rolling onto his back to look at the ash-filled sky. "So much for my Tier-3 weapon. But I guess a diamond-scaled Qilin isn't a bad trade."
Kai closed his eyes, finally allowing his Stage 2 Titan-Pulse muscles to completely relax. He was ready to pass out right there on the glassed sand.
Suddenly, the invisible golden array carved into Kai's chest flared to life again.
It wasn't the chaotic, burning radiation of the alien this time. It was a pure, terrifyingly heavy pulse of hyper-refined, crystallized Qi pushing backward through the Soul-Link.
Kai's eyes snapped open.
[System Alert: Evolutionary Digestion Commencing.]
[Reminder: The Beast Taming Contract dictates a mandatory 50% symbiotic feedback loop between Beast and Host.]
[Warning: Contracted Beast 'Anvil' is currently processing the Tier 2 (Peak) Black-Diamond Core. 50% of the raw physical density, crystalline armor attributes, and alien base stats will now forcefully transfer into the Host's meridians.]
[Host's physical vessel must prepare for extreme, involuntary biological reinforcement.]
[Brace for kinetic impact in 3... 2...]
Kai's exhausted smile instantly vanished. The color drained from his face as he stared at the red warning screens flashing across his retinas. He looked over at the sleeping, heavily armored hound, then up at Prince Zhao Long.
"Long," Kai gasped, his eyes wide with sudden, absolute panic.
"What?" the Prince asked, frowning at Kai's sudden terror.
"Run."
[... 1. Feedback Initiated.]
BOOM!
A shockwave of pure, black-diamond density slammed directly into Kai's core from the Soul-Link. Kai's back violently arched off the asphalt, a guttural scream tearing from his throat. The sheer, unfathomable mass of half a Tier 2 (Peak) alien commander flooded his newly forged Tier 2 (Low) meridians.
His bones began to literally pop and crack, hardening with terrifying, alien density. The prismatic Five-Element aura around him violently erupted, blowing Prince Zhao Long backward as Kai's body was forced into an agonizing, immediate biological overdrive to survive the harvest.