Chapter 185: The Beast Unleashed
Aboard the spaceship, the silence was becoming unbearable. Five minutes had passed. The last time Moon had gone down, it had taken him barely thirty seconds to retrieve Anne and return. This delay was a poison, dripping slowly into their hopes.
Lisa's mind raced, a storm of worry and logic. "He found Kai, right? He must have. Check the cameras again!" she urged the technician.
The man frantically adjusted the long-range scopes. "I'm trying, ma'am! The interference is... chaotic. But I have a partial lock. Moon is on the surface, searching... and he's not alone. There's a large, black wolf with him. They're moving together."
Lisa's eyes widened. "That's Kuro! His bonded beast." A sliver of hope—with Kuro, Moon's chances were significantly better.
That hope shattered with the technician's next, panicked shout. "Contact! The other subject—Kai—has engaged! He's attacking Moon!"
"Put it on the main screen! Now!" Dr. Voss's command was a ragged cry.
The central hologram flickered and resolved, showing a grainy but unmistakable image. There was Kai, standing tall and menacing. And on his forehead, gleaming with a malevolent light, was the Red Diamond Crown.
A chorus of horrified gasps filled the bridge. "Oh no... no, no, no, no..." Lisa whispered, her hand flying to her mouth.
Dr. Voss stared, his face ashen. "Oh, my god..." He turned to Lisa, his eyes filled with a despair so profound it was contagious. "Please, God," he prayed, his voice breaking, "keep them both safe. I... I cannot bear the weight of two more lives on my conscience."
From the viewport, they couldn't see the details of the battle, but they saw its echoes. The planet's surface below flashed with violent bursts of energy—a hungry crimson and a desperate, brilliant white. It was clear: a battle for survival was raging, and the brothers were at the heart of it.
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On the surface, the possessed Kai stood over the fallen Moon, the corrupted Luminis Aquae raised for the final, decapitating strike. Crimson energy swirled around the blade, ready to consume.
"Any last words?" the entity taunted.
But the strike never landed.
Kai's eyes snapped wide open in shock. His slash, meant to end a life, was frozen mid-air. He looked down. Blocking the razor-sharp edge of the crystal sword was not a weapon, but a single, white sports shoe. The sheer, impossible force required to stop his blow with a foot sent a jolt of confusion through him.
His gaze traveled upward. Standing protectively over was a figure, one leg raised in a perfect, high block. It was Moon... but it wasn't.
This creature was a fusion of man and primal beast. Moon's skin had taken on a dark, purplish-black hue, like a massive, deep-tissue bruise. His canine teeth had elongated into prominent fangs that gleamed against his dark lips. His eyes, once sharp and human, now burned with a feral, molten gold light. His fingers ended in long, viciously sharp claws, and an aura of raw, untamed power pulsed from him—a visible, shimmering distortion of purple and black energy that felt ancient and hungry.
From the entity's lips fell two whispered words, laden with a mix of shock and dawning excitement: "Bond Transformation."
This was no trained technique. In the heat of the moment, as Kuro saw his master about to be slain, the wolf's instinct to protect had overridden everything. He had instinctively initiated a merge, a sacred fusion between bonded souls. But neither had ever achieved this state before. The result was not a controlled union, but a wild, unstable amalgamation. The final control hadn't gone to Moon's will or Kuro's instinct; it had been seized by the raw, base programming of the merged entity itself: the primal drive to fight, to kill, to survive. In this state, the line between friend and foe was erased. It would destroy anything in its path until the transformation ended or the enemy was dead.
Seizing Kai's moment of shock, the transformed Moon moved. His speed had doubled, tripled. He vanished from his blocking stance and reappeared chest-to-chest with Kai. With a guttural snarl, he drove both of his clawed palms deep into Kai's torso with brutal force, lifted him off the ground, and hurled him like a ragdoll across the battlefield.
Kai slammed into a cliff face, the rock cracking under the impact. It pushed itself out, laughing—a low, chilling sound. The Blood Authority it had used earlier was already at work, knitting the internal damage, preventing any blood loss. It felt only a thrilling, distant pain.
"Never, ever in my life have I had such an exciting battle!" it roared with glee.
It was still laughing when the beast was upon it again. Moon's clawed hand shot out, grabbing the entity by the face, his claws digging into its cheeks, and with monstrous strength, he slammed its head into the ground, cratering the earth.
The entity reacted instantly, its legs coiling and delivering a powerful double-kick to Moon's abdomen, sending the transformed brother flying backward.
The possessed Kai rose, still laughing maniacally. He dismissed Luminis Aquae, storing it away. This was beyond swords now. This was primal. It clenched its own fists, crimson energy wreathing them.
"Come on, beast! Show me more!" it screamed.
With a roar that shook the very air, Moon charged on Kai, his claws extended for a killing slash. The entity met him head-on, its own fist pulled back, ready to deliver a world-shattering punch.
Two forces of nature, one of corrupted order and one of pure, untamed chaos, collided once more.
To be continued…