The air between Master Sung and the four black-marked beasts that had descended from the portal was thick and tense, so much that it would be best referred to as oppressive. Everyone remained locked in a silent standoff, their gazes fixed on opponents whose very presence chilled the air. The silence stretched on, each second feeling like an hour. Brok could hear his own heartbeat thundering in his ears so loudly he was convinced everyone else could hear it too. Mara found herself unconsciously holding her breath, only releasing it in short, controlled bursts when her lungs couldn't hold it anymore. Leo, however, could feel his legs shaking ever so slightly. His palms were sweating so much that he had to keep wiping them on his pants, leaving dark stains of wetness on them. The Luo techniques flowing through her body should have made her feel confident, powerful even, and with Sen and Master Sung by her side, she should have felt a bit more confidence, but unfortunately... Eve

All around Ryder's body, energy was crackling like lightning—purple lightning that seemed to dance with its own free will, each bolt more violent and unpredictable than the last. The air felt tense, but for once it wasn't emanating from the black-marked beasts that had descended from the portal like bringers of doom. Rather, it was radiating from Ryder himself, whose usually calm demeanor had been completely shattered by the connection to the Falcon Guild about his parents' death. The confidence that had been completely crushed earlier by the overwhelming presence of Valachi and his companions was suddenly brought back, not through hope or determination, but through rage. Without a second thought, all the Sen activated their advanced techniques as they took the front line, their bodies beginning to undergo the remarkable transformation that would merge them temporarily with their familiars. **Transformation** The Sen began to take their familiar forms—humanoid but different f

"I think you must be mistaken," Valachi said, and his body slowly began to levitate upward, rising into the air without any visible means of support. Valachi pure white eye, which had been unsettling enough before, now began to burn with actual black flames that flowed with menace in the darkness of the night. "I haven't even begun to use my own internal energy yet, not my techniques, and you're acting like you've achieved some great victory," Valachi continued. "You must have forgotten your place just because I decided to have some fun with you." Everything that had happened so far—the intense battle, the lightning techniques, the transformation abilities, the single scratch that Master Sung had managed to inflict—all of it had been nothing more than Valachi playing around. The creature hadn't even been trying, and that seemed to be just about to end. --- Mikasa slowly circled Draki like a predator analyzing its prey, though it wasn't the actual case right now, because... Well,

In the midst of this intensive battlefield that had once been the proud Red Eastern Guild headquarters, two figures stood facing an opponent that seemed to have crawled out of nightmares themselves. The double-headed dragon was standing firmly, one head staring at Ryomen and the other at Zhou. One head bore eyes that burned with orange flames, while the other glowed with deep crimson, as red as blood. Both stared with predatory focus at their respective opponents. Ryomen was in his transformed state—a massive skeletal undead, to be precise, with hollow eye sockets that seemed to contain endless darkness and long grey hair that flowed with the wind. The transformation had elongated his size considerably. Where once stood a decently impressive-shaped human, now evolved a towering skeletal figure around eight feet in height. Also on the battlefield was what appeared to be a panda—but calling it a regular panda would be like calling a tornado a gentle breeze. This was Zhou in his

For the first time since the clash between the summoner and the black-marked familiar began, Valachi showed fear. The emotion was so strange to his face that for a moment, even Master Sung—battered, bloodied, and kneeling on the devastated ground—couldn't comprehend what he was witnessing. Fear wasn't an expression that belonged on the face of a creature that had descended from the black-marked section of Astral Shadow Plane, especially on someone like Valachi who had the confidence of a god among mortals. Yet there it was, unmistakably clear across Valachi's pale, scaled face. The fear wasn't radiating from Valachi simply because Ryder was the Dracogon's soon-to-be summoner—though that alone should have been enough to make any black-marked familiar reconsider their actions. However, this terror was something he was feeling from Ryder himself. It was because of Ryder's very core at this moment—his aura was... inhuman. Ryder, who had appeared ordinary throughout their entire