As the terrifying yet mesmerizing Yin-Yang fire in Shinju's hands slowly died out, a heavy, soot-laden silence fell over the forest. The smoke rising from the ruins of the cave mingled with the purple clouds above. Shinju could feel those two opposing poles finally taming, beginning to flow through his blood like a rhythmic river. However, this moment of peace was shattered by Aurelia's sharp footsteps.
Aurelia stepped toward Koharu. Her expression was less of relief and more of the sharp anger a teacher felt toward a wayward student. Her golden eyes blazed with the natural authority of her Dragon blood.
"Never again," Aurelia said, her voice cutting through the forest's silence like a blade. "If you ever attempt to wander off from the group again with that little hero complex of yours, Koharu, you will witness firsthand just how terrifying a dragon can be. Do you understand me?"
Koharu lowered her head. Her clothes were torn, and her face was covered in soot, but the sorrowful light in her eyes had not faded. She knew the protective instinct underlying Aurelia's rage, yet she whispered apologetically, "I only... I only stepped away for a brief moment to relieve myself. I didn't want to wake you; you all looked like you desperately needed the rest, Aurelia. Especially Shinju..."
Aurelia's gaze softened for a fleeting second at this innocent yet dangerous reply, but the hardness in her voice remained. "The life you gamble without consulting us is not just yours, Koharu. If something had happened to you, Shinju would have lost his balance and surrendered to the darkness. We are a team; we are not parts of a puppet theater. No one gets to cut their own strings."
Swen intervened as she stuffed materials she had scavenged from Kaelith's cave—items she intended to use for alchemy—into her bag. A typical wry smirk played on her face, trying to diffuse the tension. "Alright, alright... I think the lesson has been learned. But let's be honest, now that the 'utopia' that freak wove with his hair is gone, the forest is starting to smell a bit more... real. Disgusting, but real. At least we can walk without the fear of tripping over hair anymore."
Aurelia turned to Swen, narrowing her dragon eyes threateningly. The tension on her shoulders felt like a physical weight pressing down on Swen. "The real culprit here is you, Swen. Falling asleep on guard duty is not something that can be forgiven."
Feeling the immense pressure radiating from Aurelia's eyes, Swen backed away with her hands raised. "Okay, okay! You're right, just pretend I didn't say anything. If I even blink an eye again, you can turn me into a fry-up, deal?"
But Shinju was not listening to them. He was far beyond the group's petty bickering. His newly awakened Dragon Eye was locked onto a point beyond his control.
"Be quiet," Shinju said suddenly. His voice was so deep and cold that the argument between Aurelia and Swen was cut short instantly.
Shinju's gaze was fixed on a disturbance far beyond the misty horizon, something a normal human would see only as a blur.
"Something is coming," he said, his voice carrying deep loathing rather than a warning. "No... they aren't coming. They are hunting."
"What do you see, Shinju?" Aurelia asked. She was curious about the limits of this new 'vision' he had acquired.
Shinju narrowed his eyes further. The Dragon Eye focused on the tops of the trees deep within the forest. "Spider-legged, massive shadows... They are gliding through the branches, defying gravity like demons. Down below, they are attacking marsh rat nests. But this isn't feeding... it's a pure slaughter."
Shinju's face contorted with the foulness of the sight. "From their mouths... they fire a black, sticky web of hair. They snatch the rats mid-air and pull them up. And then, with those disgusting hands..." He paused. He felt a lump in his throat. "I've never seen creatures like these before. Even in the Void, I haven't encountered such perversion."
The rest of the group held their breath, waiting for Shinju to describe what he was seeing. As he delved into the details of the ucube forms, the air grew even heavier.
"Their limbs... their arms and legs aren't natural," Shinju continued, his voice trembling. "What I'm seeing is a chaotic hybrid. They have the body of a bear, but from their shoulders, pale human arms erupt, reaching almost to the ground. The skin of the arms is white like marble, but the veins are swollen with pitch-black Yin energy. The head... the head is like the jaw of a massive crocodile, but those armored jaws are crudely sewn onto a wolf's skull with black hair. It's as if Kaelith took the deadliest parts of different animals and humans and pieced them together like a puzzle with his own hair. The strands pass under their skin, connecting their muscles and nerves like puppet strings."
Swen's face turned as pale as chalk. As an alchemist, her mind immediately began scanning the technical details. "What you're describing is biologically impossible, Shinju! A living body wouldn't accept the limbs of another species. There would be tissue rejection, the immune system would collapse in seconds, and the creature would rot from the inside out. A bear and a crocodile... they cannot be merged with a human arm!"
Swen paused for a moment, her eyes widening. She answered her own question with her dark logic. "Unless... unless Yin energy is acting as a 'glue' that holds those tissues together and prevents rejection. Damn it... Kaelith, you sick bastard! He wasn't just playing with hair. He defied the laws of nature to create a Chimera Army! They are his 'Remnants.' When he was alive, he controlled them with his mind, like a web of hair strings. But now he's dead... and that pressure, that control mechanism, has vanished instantly."
"Because they've lost control, they are now acting purely on instinct," Swen said, her voice shaking. "They've been unleashed as pained, uncontrolled, and hungry ucube machines. Kaelith's death didn't set them free; it only turned them into unchained monsters."
Koharu huddled close to Shinju and took his hand. Shinju felt the fear in the girl's heart, but also her trust in him. He set his eyes on the horizon, on the massive shadows gliding over the trees. Kaelith was dead, but the nightmare he created was approaching them, baring its teeth.
On the horizon, one of those ucube shadows dived down with a sharp movement. Through his Dragon Eye, Shinju watched second by second as the chimera caught a marsh rat with its crocodile jaw and tore it in two with the human hands emerging from its chest, like tearing a piece of paper. The blood splashing onto the purple leaves was like a symphony of horror echoing in the silence of the forest.
"They are coming for us," Shinju said. His voice was as still as the herald of a coming storm, and just as chilling. "Their numbers are increasing every second."
Aurelia turned to Shinju and smirked defiantly. The sparks of battle were flickering in her golden eyes. "This couldn't be a more perfect time to show us that awakened dragon power of yours," she said, her voice trembling with excitement. "Come on, let's charge at them!"
Shinju didn't even budge. "There is no need to move," he murmured calmly. He slowly extended his left hand. "Just watch me."
In his left palm, fındık-sized, concentrated golden fireballs began to appear. Each Yang Bullet glowed like a miniature sun trapped within. The moment Shinju flicked his fingers, those small spheres soared into the depths of the forest one after another at bullet speed. they vanished from sight at a pace near the speed of light.
Swen looked at this little light show and chuckled under her breath. "Seriously, Shinju? What a disappointment," she said mockingly. "Is this the extent of your power? Are you firing firecrackers at an army miles away? Are we waiting for them to die of fear?"
But Swen had barely finished her sentence when the horizon suddenly exploded in a blinding golden yellow. As massive explosions lit up the sky one after another, the earth began to shake. When the shockwaves reached them seconds later, the forest rumbled with the sounds of destruction that rivaled thunder, drowning out the ucube snarls. Shinju calmly lowered his hand and turned to Aurelia, saying only two words in a frost-cold voice:
"None left."
Aurelia couldn't hide her shock as she stared at the golden smoke rising in the distance. "Incredible... your Yang control and range have reached an unbelievable level. The Dragon blood has fully awakened in you."
Swen shook her head as she watched the cloud of dust created by the blasts. "I've been saying this guy is abnormal from the very beginning. It's like the rules of alchemy don't even apply to him."
Koharu rushed to Shinju's side excitedly, her eyes shining. "You were amazing, Shinju! sen artık çok güçlüsün. With this power, we can easily take back Michael's spear and defeat his army!"
But Swen was quick to interrupt Koharu's childish joy with a warning. "You're moving too fast, Princess. What you saw were just stray experiments. Michael's army is disciplined, consisting of thousands of powerful warriors and commanders as fierce as Aurelia. And worse; they have strong barrier spells against Yang energy. Burning them with pure light won't be that easy."
Swen fixed her gaze on Shinju. "But what about the other side of the balance? Shinju, what is the status of your Yin energy? If Yang has leaped forward this much, what state is the darkness of the Void in?"
Shinju opened his right hand. A darkened, freezing, and completely silent aura gathered over his palm. This dark mass, which seemed to swallow the light, just sat there. It was neither growing nor diminishing. "There isn't much change in it," Shinju said, watching the Void in his right hand. "It's exactly the same strength as before. Stable, but unlike Yang, it hasn't shown any development."
Swen took a step forward to continue, but then stopped and looked back. "I see... That means your balance is currently tipping more toward one side. We will continue our journey, but first, I want to see what those 'firecrackers' of yours did. I need to examine those creatures with the eye of an alchemist. No matter how much of a low-life freak Kaelith was, he did something revolutionary, even if it was unethical."