Chapter 1208: Primary Nightmare: Within the Territory
After carefully organizing his thoughts and how to proceed from here, Jacob tried to relay his intent through speech towards the special Zodiac Beast in front of him, but only a distortion of incomprehensible sounds without any language structure came out of his mouth.
At that moment, the entity moved closer to Jacob with clear intent to devour this insignificant and irrelevant cannon fodder who doesn’t know its place and had intruded into its precious territory and disturbed its peace.
But Jacob didn’t resist or panic despite his failure to communicate with the ’antagonist’; instead, he decided to use a direct approach to make it understand, as there seemed to be no concept among these Zodiac Beasts, or at least among those he was coming into contact with.
The next moment, he acted as if he had used the concept of Anachronism to mask the subtle soul force he suddenly channeled through this body, projecting vague yet accurate emotions, filled with urgency, towards the chaos and disturbance outside.
’If even this can’t make you understand, then all I can do is to retreat and hide...’ Jacob thought coldly as he had already measured the ’intelligence’ possessed by this guy, and it wasn’t high at all, just around a six or eight-year-old human child.
Nonetheless, within the Universal Void, even this much awareness could make a huge difference between life and death.
The next moment, as if finally understanding something, the Zodiac Beast suddenly paused. It understood, maybe not fully, but just enough, as its head turned toward the outer territory!
Jacob instantly felt astonishment from the Zodiac Beast before bloodlust overwhelmed its mind, and then, ignoring ’Jacob’, it moved in fast, leaving behind violent waves filled with Void energy.
Moreover, the strongest Zodiac Beasts, who were acting like statues, also reacted similarly and followed behind. Jacob didn’t tarry either, and carefully followed while maintaining distance and acting in accordance with his insignificant role.
When the Zodiac Beast reached the outer zone, the damage was clear as all the lower-ranking Zodiac Beasts except for one, ’Jacob’, were gone, either consumed or erased.
The shallow structure created by the Fable Legendary State Zodiac Beast was broken and disrupted by Whiteness, making the former froze.
But the next moment, it exploded with fury and raging killing intent focused on the daring ’hunter’ who had dared to ’hunt’ its minions, who solely belonged to it.
Although its intelligence was low, it was by no means an insignificant thing within the Universal Void, and the moment it realized someone had taken all of the Zodiac Beasts that it had gathered after a long time, it began hunting.
The Zodiac Beast started to release incomprehensible cries, but they were filled with powerful intent. The next instant, those Zodiac Beasts seemed to have gone berserk as they madly started searching and tracking for the one who dared to infiltrate their master’s territory.
Even ’Jacob’ felt the strong urge to risk his life to follow this command, and he didn’t go against this urge either, and just to ’act’ according to his character, he started ’searching’ for Whiteness without going too far away from the Fable Legendary Zodiac Beast.
But deep down, Jacob already knew that it was too late because whiteness was gone the moment he realized that the ’prey’ who had escaped his clutches had awakened the entity he wanted to avoid.
Or there was another possibility that Jacob also didn’t ignore that it also could be a test or a probe towards the Fable Legendary Zodiac Beast, since Jacob had already noticed that Whiteness wasn’t hunting randomly. So, it could be that Whiteness was evaluating this entity, its territory, behavior, and strength.
Soon, one by one, those scattered Zodiac Beasts started to return as they emerged from every direction of the void. Some were fast, some slow, but unharmed, and all carried the same thing...nothing!
They found no traces or residue of the Void Mantis, and just as Jacob had expected, Whiteness was gone. But he silently remained far behind them while continuing to be insignificant, hidden behind layers of instinct and submission.
Jacob didn’t dare stand out or even exist at that moment because, at the center, the antagonist was waiting and watching until the last of the Zodiac Beasts returned, and just like the others, it came empty.
After learning of the unacceptable result, something inside the antagonist snapped, and the next moment, the void trembled as a violent surge of intent exploded outward, filled with raw fury unlike its earlier controlled rage, but closer to a child’s tantrum, unstable and unpredictable.
The massive Zodiac Beast convulsed as its form distorted slightly, and void energy surged violently around it.
The next moment, without warning, it moved towards two of the strongest Zodiac Beasts, who were Peak Unique Rank entities, standing closest to, and seized them instantly without resistance or struggle.
The next instant, they were crushed and devoured as their forms dissolved and were consumed, erased as if they had never existed.
A horrifying silence followed, and every Zodiac Beast froze while trembling, but not out of loyalty, but out of fear that originated from their pure instinct because, despite not having any intellect, they still understood that they could be next.
Jacob also didn’t move and pretended like the others while he stayed behind, lowering himself even further, and reducing his presence to the absolute minimum.
Because he knew if that thing noticed even the slightest irregularity, he would be next to be consumed, and even with all his control and concept of Anachronism, this place was not safe for him, not even for a moment.
The tantrum of the massive Zodiac Beast continued for a while with violent waves of void energy pulsing outward, before it finally stopped as the entity stilled with its chaotic intent and slowly settled.
Maybe it suddenly thought about the intruder, the Void Mantis was still alive, and since it could flee or remain hidden under so many Zodiac Beasts, it probably concluded that these Zodiac Beasts were still useful.
Although the remaining Zodiac Beasts trembled, none dared to move before a command spread through the intent of the massive Zodiac Beast.
The command was simple yet absolute, which ordered them all to return and reform the broken structure.
For either out of fear or loyalty, the Zodiac Beasts quickly moved and rebuilt it as their positions were reassigned, and the formation was quickly restored as if nothing had happened, as if those two ’comrades’ never existed.
Jacob also followed without hesitation as he returned to his place, becoming part of that ’silly structure’ again.
But this time, something different happened when a subtle but direct intent shifted toward him.
Jacob’s awareness sharpened instantly as he became gloomy because that intent belonged to none other than the antagonist!
