Author's Note: Hey there... yeah, you, the handsome/pretty thing reading this.
I'm posting this chapter and then possibly taking a one- or two-week break, as I have some family affairs to take care of. (Nothing unpleasant, good stuff actually.)
Anyway, as always, thank you for reading my little fanfic and thank you for your patience during this upcoming break. — Old6
...
The jungle-like terrain of the floating mystery island buzzed with an unnatural, ancient energy.
Max, sporting the towering, hyper-muscular build of Toriko and his trademark wild blue hair, glided effortlessly through the dense canopy, the rush of speed sending that hair streaming behind him.
Even without consuming a single creature in this First God's Sanctuary, his base fitness score of 15 placed him leagues above any ordinary human, and now it was much higher than that.
Toxic smoke suddenly billowed into his path, weaving through the dense trees and tangled vines, unleashed by a three-foot-tall frog with striking yellow and black markings.
The creature sprang forward to bar his way, spewing a vile, churning miasma that twisted and writhed toward him.
But, to the frog's utter bewilderment, the poisonous cloud disintegrated harmlessly upon touching Max's skin, vanishing as though it had never existed.
The poison mist was almost instantly rendered harmless by Max's top-tier elemental and poison resistances, along with his formidable healing factor—gifts from the enhancements he had carefully chosen just before his body was rebuilt over a decade ago.
Max smirked as he caught up to the now-fleeing frog, which had panicked when its normal strategy of surprise poison had zero effect on this creature more than twice its size.
"Talley ho! You little bitch!"
Max drew back his leg and unleashed a lazy, sweeping kick the moment he was in range.
The Mutant-class frog shot through the air like an amphibious missile, careening through the trees, shattering smaller branches while croaking in agony.
It collided with the trunk of an especially massive tree, bounced off hard, and proceeded to ricochet between a couple more trees in a slapstick pinball performance that would've put any arcade machine to shame.
Max didn't hear the kill announcement in his head, so he decided to let the frog go for now. He figured there would be plenty of time to deal with his would-be assassin later.
'Hhmm... tough toad... I'll let ya go, don't try that shit again though, buddy.' Max thought while continuing on his way.
He didn't just glide through the place blindly, though; he felt the island with his abilities.
With his absolute mastery over magnetism, Max traced the veins of raw ore running deep beneath the floating landmass—both naturally occurring and planted by him—like a super-precise mini-map in a video game.
He skillfully avoided the more annoying creatures present as he made his way toward the island's center, eager to save time. The excitement for the day's main event was too strong for him to waste any energy on ordinary beasts.
'Man, this is some thick-ass bush... too bad I don't have a speeder bike like in Return of the Jedi... this place kinda looks like Endor. Should I be watching out for some spear-chucking Ewoks?'
As he walked, he subtly manipulated the underground deposits, stretching them into microscopic threads, liquefying them, and pumping them upward through the soil like a massive, hidden web just beneath the surface.
Even without [Electromagnetism] to help, his [Destiny] precognition hummed faintly at the back of his mind, whispering lines of absolute certainty. Even when the skill was not activated, it would still passively function in the background of his mind's traffic.
The skill [Domino] provided advanced luck manipulation, which could also smooth every step, ensuring no leaf crunched and no beast crossed his path too early if that was what he desired. Max had also now opted to start hovering a few inches above the ground to take the whole sound thing out of the equation.
As he got closer to the center, Max also took this opportunity to cloak himself with light again, too.
This little trick was coming in very handy during this jump. Max already knew that if he approached without doing this, the fight would be more annoying—not tougher, just more troublesome.
Normally, Max wouldn't mind extending a fight he had already foreseen himself winning with low difficulty, but the creature he had seen using [Destiny] was far too noble and far too pretty to bully. He didn't feel like chasing after this thing if it noticed him coming and had a head start.
Among the many possible paths he had foreseen, this clever creature would either take flight or charge at him whenever it saw or smelled him as he came close enough to engage.
Everything was falling perfectly into place, regardless, however. Reaching a steep cliffside deeper toward the middle of the floating island, Max transitioned from hovering to full flight.
If anyone in the sanctuaries had seen someone fly without using beast soul wings... they would have labeled Max as a humanoid creature and tried to hunt him relentlessly.
Humanoid creature beast souls were just as powerful and expensive when sold as they were rare.
He rose into the air, levitating effortlessly on the realm's geomagnetic lines. Below him, the canopy parted to reveal a massive, pristine clearing at the absolute center of the island.
There it stood.
The Sacred Blood creature Max had seen in his vision was a magnificent, breathtaking spectacle of Chinese mythology brought to life, looking like a cross between an antlered deer and a mighty dragon.
It was a Kirin, its majestic body covered in shimmering jade-and-gold scales that caught the sunlight like polished gemstones.
A brilliant, ethereal mane floated around its proud head like liquid fire, and its hooves barely touched the earth, leaving faint wisps of mist in their wake.
Hovering around its divine frame was a spectacular hagoromo—a celestial scarf of pure white cloud, crackling with little blue energy bolts.
Thick arcs of violet electricity snapped and hissed violently within the dark cloud that should have been black; a storm accompanied by white clouds was a strange sight, even when cloaking a beast that should just be legend.
Because of the strength of the creatures and their genes in the First God's Sanctuary, the Kirin could not discharge this elemental power as a ranged attack, but the raw, localized plasma density still warped the very air around it.
The Kirin lifted its head, its intelligent, piercing eyes locking onto the spot where Max was floating above.
Max had already known about its keen sense of smell, and he hadn't bothered to try and hide his manly musk at all. All he needed to do was get this close, and the Kirin wouldn't be able to flee after discovering just how badly it was outclassed here.
Max simply released the hold he had on his light-based camouflage and decided to do a 'superhero landing,' hitting the ground with both hands in his pockets, barely bending his knees to absorb the impact while standing straight.
Boom!
'Hell yea!'
He made a small crater as he landed, causing the Kirin to take a step back, before one of its front hooves started pawing the ground in front of it.
Acknowledging Max as a potential predator or rival, the beast let out a defiant, earth-shaking roar.
It charged.
The Kirin surged forward with incredible speed—a streak of jade, gold, and crackling lightning—ripping up the ground in its path. It struck the earth with its hooves only twice while soaring horizontally through the air, closing the gap to its target in the blink of an eye.
Max didn't even blink. He simply smiled, raised a single hand, and casually flicked his wrist.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The entire clearing erupted. The massive network of subterranean metal he had pre-emptively threaded through the island broke through the soil like a forest of titanium briars.
Hundreds of thick, jagged metallic chains tore out of the ground, wrapping around the Kirin's legs, torso, and head mid-stride.
The sudden, violent deceleration slammed the massive beast into the dirt. It thrashed furiously, its electric hagoromo flaring wildly against the metal, but the sheer magnetic force anchoring the chains held it completely pinned to the ground.
Max walked toward the struggling dragon-horse hybrid, which was giving him a look that screamed—"Hey! Bro! This is cheating! Fight me like a real dragon, you bastard!"
Or something like that anyway.
A head tilt followed, and then the mighty creature stopped struggling and just looked at Max in a strange, deadpan expression that hid a boatload of sarcastic defiance behind it.
Max squinted at the Kirin, matching its gaze. He wasn't surprised that it suddenly gave up struggling; he had seen this earlier in a couple of different versions of how this went down.
"That wasn't too fair, is that what you're thinking? If you were from the second sanctuary and fresh out of the egg, I would try to raise or train you the way you are... but you're an old dog, and I don't think you're down with learning new tricks, are you, buddy?"
The Kirin squinted and growled in return, as if saying—"Damn right I'm not going to obey you, filthy creature. I'll kill you!"
"Well, if it makes you feel better, the only future you win in is if I let you. So... relax, I guess."
Max felt a bit awkward trying to comfort the Kirin; his words came out sounding a little too cocky, and a twinge of guilt hit him as he thought about what he was about to do at the same time.
But then he remembered that this thing would gladly rip his throat out, given the chance, and he didn't feel as bad anymore.
"Rest easy. See you soon. Zephyr." Max murmured while walking a little closer and raising a palm toward the Kirin.
As if sensing what was about to happen, the Kirin started thrashing again, struggling with all its might in one last attempt to escape. Sadly for it, the chains controlled by Max didn't budge at all.
While Max usually favored grand, theatrical attacks—such as hurling metal or transforming himself into a living railgun—he could just as effortlessly turn to microscopic, subatomic manipulation of neural chemistry using [Electromagnetism] when the situation demanded precise, calculated intervention.
Max's eyes lit up, and he used subtle electromagnetic manipulation to peacefully put his target to sleep, knocking the Kirin out cold. To make it fatal, he simply maintained that neural suppression while stopping the creature's cardiac electrical signals.
The brilliant light in the beautiful, yet violent Kirin's eyes faded, and the crackling electricity of the hagoromo vanished into thin air.
A cold, mechanical voice echoed directly in Max's mind: "Sacred Blood Creature Mystical Kirin killed. Beast Soul of Sacred Blood Mystical Kirin gained. Eat its meat to gain 0 to 10 sacred geno points, randomly."
Max smiled strangely as the streaks of light flowed directly into his sea of souls.
A majestic, jade-and-gold Kirin, nearly identical to how it appeared when alive just minutes ago, took its place among his beast souls—not just as armor or a weapon transformation, but as a loyal pet companion ready to grow alongside him.
This was part of the reason Max had been so amped up to own this particular island. For this beast soul pet.
Max lowered himself smoothly back to the ground, his feet settling into the freshly torn earth. With a casual flick of his fingers, the massive web of iron chains liquefied and vanished back into the depths of the island, leaving the clearing silent once more.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a sleek, premium pack of Alliance-brand cigarettes.
They were the highly sought-after, biologically optimized blend his three henchmen had tracked down and brought to him before this leg of the journey—designed to provide all the rich, relaxing flavor of a smoke without any of the toxic buildup. In fact, they were somewhat beneficial to the lungs, perfectly complementing his already flawless physique.
"Hey, I wonder what would happen if I turned these ciggys into a beast soul?"
He pulled one out while talking to himself, looked at it while pondering, sparked a small flame with a snap of his fingers, and took a deep, satisfying drag. The crisp, clean smoke swirled around his blue Toriko-style hair before dissipating into the jungle air.
Exhaling a slow plume, Max leaned back against a smooth boulder and closed his eyes. It was time to head into his sea of souls, examine the newly acquired Sacred Blood Kirin, and see how his growing collection of beast souls was settling in.
He was just about to shift his consciousness inward when a sharp, distinct sound cut through the quiet of the clearing.
CRACK.
It wasn't a branch snapping underfoot, nor was it the shifting of the island's bedrock. It was an echoing, crystalline fracture that resonated directly within his mind, originating from the dark recess of his sea of souls. Max's eyes snapped open, a sharp grin spreading across his face.
That wasn't the Kirin.
That was the unmistakable sound of breaking. Deep within his inventory, his rare Fairy Queen beast soul was finally beginning to evolve.