A gap torn in the encirclement.
It was not the hunt of a mere serpent, but closer to the stride of an armed warrior sweeping across the battlefield.
The mercenaries were not simple cannon fodder. Their mechanical eyeballs simultaneously flashed red, linking into a tactical network.
"Clear the blind spots! Predict its trajectory!"
The encirclement tightened like a net. But my vision opened first.
Inside my vertically slit pupils, the pattern of the Eye Technique spun rapidly.
"Shoot! Grind it all— Huh?!"
The body of the lead bastard, about to pull the trigger, stiffened like stone. Like a beast meeting the eyes of a predator, even the servos of his artificial joints froze for an instant.
That brief gap.
I used Earth Shrinking to close the distance and burrowed in. My jaw, reinforced by demonic power, tore away at the back of his neck—the thin joint left uncovered by armor.
Without so much as a scream, one of them collapsed like a dead tree.
"You crazy monster bastard! Spread out and shoot!"
The panicked bastards pulled their weapons in unison. From all directions, plasma rifles and small particle cannons spewed blue-white fire.
I did not dodge.
The Eye Technique extended, twisting the flow of space.
Tutututuk.
Dozens of energy rounds hurtling in straight lines had their trajectories curve as if sliding off an invisible wall just before touching my scales. The twisted, superheated projectiles in midair were not aimed at the floor.
"Kuaaaak!"
"Where are you shooting!! Fuck!"
Their trajectories tangled, and plasma impaled the armor of allies.
"Sorry, the trajectory went wild on its— Kuk!"
The formation collapsed into an Asura field of allies slaughtering one another. I leisurely burrowed into the very center of it. I swung my tail to break a bastard's leg, stepped on his collapsed body to leap, and cut short the next one's breath.
Reason and instinct overlapped perfectly.
I could feel the temperature of the blood flowing across my scales growing cold. Demonic power was merely a savage force craving destruction, yet the Dao power engraved in my mind was refining that power into the most efficient killing trajectory.
The sensation of reason's control layered over the beast's ferocity. I could wield the massive, grotesque body of a reptile as if it were an exquisitely crafted weapon.
The sensation from when I had once stood at the apex of Dao arts mingled with this grotesque demonic power, producing overwhelming synergy.
The remaining mercenaries had already lost their will to fight. Drenched in their comrades' blood, they trembled as they gripped their weapons and stepped back.
It was time to finish things.
It was the moment I was about to kick off the ground.
Something fell from above with a thunderous roar.
Boom—!
The ground shattered, and a cloud of dust erupted.
Keuk…….
A blood-covered old face. The One-Eye with the mechanical prosthetic who had fled earlier was impaled in the middle of the battlefield like a meteor, vomiting blood.
Sparks of a nervous energy flew from the broken prosthetic eye, and between the half-torn robe, grotesquely twisted artificial joints protruded hideously.
My gaze naturally turned upward.
Through the massive gap torn in the ashen sky, someone was descending. Not falling, but with leisurely, arrogant steps, as if treading upon invisible stairs.
Two eyes burning red.
Though it was a being I faced for the first time since my birth, my instincts screamed at the massive, alien energy that I could not even fathom. My breath caught in my throat. Precisely because I had gained strength and recovered the rational senses of my past, the gap felt even more bone-deep.
Each time he took a step in midair, the surrounding air seemed to tear and crack. Even the acrid dust cloud rising was pressed down by the pressure erupting from his feet, sinking heavily to the ground.
A bizarre sense of pressure, as if the central axis of the world was forcibly twisting itself toward that man.
That… was something I could never oppose in my current state. The moment it touched me, I would be erased.
I pressed my body low against the ground, stifling even the sound of my breath. The one who had descended by treading on air stopped and swept his gaze across the floor. The blood-soaked One-Eye, the butchered mercenaries, and me coiled up tight in the very center.
His gaze stopped. The red eyes, perfectly controlled, narrowed very slightly.
"……This."
A low, chilly voice fell upon the air. His face stiffened slightly.
What broke that heavy silence was a voice filled with malice from a surviving mercenary behind him.
"Fuck…… Tyler! Open your eyes, you bastard!"
The hands of the man embracing the corpse of his half-burnt comrade trembled violently. Bloodshot eyes mixed with rage, shock, and terrible terror were fixed on me.
"The rounds…… curved. The moment we met its eyes, we froze…… Fuck, is that a Contaminant? We…… we were the ones being hunted. From the very start."
The gazes of the mercenaries cursing their comrade's death were fixed entirely on me—who had torn their common sense to shreds—rather than on Red Eyes descending from the sky.
But I could not feel even the slightest bit of pride. If I did anything foolish now and drew that overwhelming Red Eyes' gaze fully onto myself, everything would end.
Within my dimmed vision, I quietly raised my Dao power—not to fight, but to flee at any moment.
The Red Eyes' gaze that had been directed at me turned toward the One-Eye impaled on the ground.
"What is that."
The One-Eye's gaze turned toward me. A brief silence passed over his bloody face. His mouth did not open.
The pupils of Red Eyes slowly sank.
"You do not know."
His gaze swept over me again.
"Irregular? Were there beast forms?"
But the doubt did not last long. He turned his head as if losing interest. The arrogance unique to an overwhelming powerhouse—an attitude that treated my existence as nothing more than a bug.
"Well, it does not matter."
At that moment, Red Eyes' finger flicked.
Kuaaaaaak—!
The One-Eye's body folded. His limbs bent inward and were slammed into the ground. I could not see what was crushing him. Yet I could clearly see the concrete cracking like a spiderweb beneath his body.
"To think you ended up like this, chased by mere scrap-metal drones. How pathetic."
At the cold sneer, the One-Eye vomited blood and gritted his teeth. Humiliation was fully revealed upon his twisted face. Yet only his gaze remained unbroken.
Even from his fallen position, his spirit remained heavily present. Inside his broken body, a grain that had never knelt beneath anyone was accumulated.
Red Eyes looked down arrogantly and twisted the corner of his lips.
"So. Where did you hide it."
Red Eyes' voice was low. The moment it touched the air, it froze the atmosphere.
"……Did you inform the Council, Executor."
The One-Eye's lips twisted. A metallic laugh slipped through the blood foam.
"As if I would. As if I would. As if you could witness the filth of that noble bloodline rolling all the way to the bottom of the Council."
Red Eyes did not answer.
"For an Executor who serves as the Council's hunting dog to end up like this because you couldn't control a single daughter. Is that why you crawled down here alone? Unable to entrust anyone with it?"
Red Eyes' expression coldly erased itself. Neither denial nor affirmation. That itself was the answer.
In that moment, the One-Eye's pupils, filled with pain, gleamed fiercely.
"Hide it?"
A hollow laugh slipped through the blood foam. Then that hollow laugh gradually grew louder.
"Hide it…… Kekeuk. Euhahahaha!"
Even as the One-Eye's body convulsed in pain, the laughter did not stop. There was only one reason for the bastard, impaled and shattered on the ground, to laugh. The very question Red Eyes had thrown was news of victory to him.
"Did you think rolling as the Council's hunting dog meant you stood atop the world! Not even knowing a blade was being sharpened right beneath your feet! All while boasting of that precious pureblood, that noble bloodline!"
A voice filled with malice rang through the ruins.
"No wonder your daughter stabs her father in the back!"
The air froze.
Red Eyes said nothing. His expression did not change. Yet that expressionlessness was different from the expressionlessness of moments ago. I could not pinpoint what had changed. But that something had changed was certain.
The One-Eye seemed to sense that change as well. His remaining eye glared wildly as he spat out further venom.
"Lick that precious bloodline's filth like a dog for the rest of your life, you hypocrite bastard! Keuk, keuk…… Euhahahak!"
Before the laughter even ended.
Energy began to swell from inside the One-Eye's body. It was not the way he normally handled mana. It was a method of burning his own body as fuel.
Self-destruction.
If it detonated here, it was over. The instant I thought it, I kicked off the ground and raised my Dao power to the limit. It was the moment I was about to fold space with Earth Shrinking to flee.
"Where do you think you're going."
A casual single word. At that one word, all the Dao power I had built up scattered entirely.
Boom—!
My body, about to leap into the air, was ruthlessly slammed into the ground. It was not a simple physical blow.
Weight poured down. Not from all directions. It poured from above. Onto me alone.
A pressure that felt as though it would crush my organs and burst my veins covered my entire body. The concrete floor cracked like a spiderweb, and my scales were driven into the fissures.
Earth Shrinking, physical evasion—everything froze solid. Within an overwhelming pressure where the bones throughout my body screamed and I could not even breathe, I barely lifted my gaze.
Red Eyes did not even look at me; he simply kept pressing his hand downward.
"Ke…… Keoeok……!"
The body of the One-Eye, who had been attempting self-destruction, twisted bizarrely. The energy expanding like mad could not burst outward and was forcibly compressed and dying down. The overwhelming difference in strength that did not even permit self-destruction.
Red Eyes looked down coldly, as if finding it ridiculous. A chilling, absolute predator's voice that froze the air of the ruins pressed down upon the sky.
"My question."
He cruelly pulled up the corner of his lips.
"Isn't over yet."