I Built a Divine Zoo in Another World

Chapter 128: Transformation of the Rat King

The eight Royal Guards were dead. Their bodies lay scattered across the clearing, some still smoking, others already beginning to crumble into black dust.

The twenty soldiers breathed heavily, their armor covered in blood and sweat. Some leaned on their own spears, their bodies trembling from exhaustion. Others wiped the black blood from their swords, their movements slow and weary.

Even the horde seemed to freeze. The smaller rats, which had been maintaining constant pressure against the formation until then, simply stopped. Their red eyes glowed in the dim light, but there was no movement in them. It was as if an invisible force had frozen time itself.

No one moved.

Lukas immediately looked toward the horizon. His Eagle Vision crossed the distance separating him from the cliff, where the Rat King remained exactly where it had been.

Motionless.

Watching.

Hundreds of eyes, perhaps thousands, were all fixed upon the battlefield. There was no emotion in them. No triumph or defeat. Only an unsettling calm, as if everything were unfolding exactly as planned.

Then...

Every one of the creature’s countless eyes closed at the same time.

It was not a blink. It was a deliberate, synchronized movement, as though every pair of eyes were controlled by a single will. For a fraction of a second, the Rat King was plunged into complete darkness.

The silence that followed was absolute. Even the wind seemed to stop.

A fraction of a second later...

"SKRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The scream tore through the forest.

It was not merely loud. It was monstrous. The sound seemed to possess weight and substance, as if it were a physical entity spreading across the clearing. It did not travel only through the air; it seemed to pass through flesh, bones, and thoughts. Every fiber of Lukas’s body vibrated with the intensity of the sound, and a searing pain shot through his head.

Lukas immediately clapped his hands over his ears, but it was useless. The sound did not come from outside. It came from within, resonating inside his skull like the bells of a collapsing temple.

A groan escaped his throat before he could suppress it, and his knees buckled beneath his own weight.

Around him, several soldiers did the same. Some dropped to their knees, while others simply collapsed onto the ground. Weapons slipped from trembling hands, and cries of pain mingled with the King’s scream.

The wind mage fell to his knees, his mana dissipating into chaotic spirals. The support mage, who had maintained the strengthening circle for so long, finally collapsed, her exhausted body unable to withstand the sonic assault.

The wounded horses abandoned in the distance answered with desperate neighs. Their bodies struggled violently against the ropes binding them, some managing to break free and flee at full speed.

The forest itself seemed to tremble. Birds took flight in every direction, their wings beating frantically against the branches.

Branches snapped beneath the weight of animals trying to escape. Leaves rained down, forming a green carpet across the battlefield.

The scream continued for several seconds. Every second felt like an eternity, an eternity of pain and pressure crushing the senses.

When it finally ceased...

The silence that followed was even more terrifying.

No one dared breathe. The soldiers remained motionless, some still lying on the ground, others clutching their weapons as though they were the only things anchoring them to reality. Every eye was fixed upon the horizon, upon the place where the Rat King had unleashed its scream.

Then it happened.

An ordinary rat stopped its attack. The creature, which only moments earlier had been charging toward the formation with savage fury, simply halted. Its body became motionless, its red eyes fixed on some distant point.

Then another. And another. Within moments, dozens of rats had stopped attacking.

The entire horde simply came to a halt.

Thousands of red eyes turned toward the same direction. Toward the King. There was no confusion in them. No hesitation. Only absolute obedience, as though every creature were a puppet whose strings had been pulled simultaneously.

Without any visible command, the rats began to retreat.

At first, slowly, as though testing the movement. Then faster. And then they ran. They were not fleeing from the humans. They were not retreating out of fear or defeat. They were fleeing... toward the King.

Hundreds. Thousands. A black tide swept across the clearing once more. The monsters completely ignored Clavor, Hark, and the soldiers. They darted between trees, leaped over corpses, and shoved one another aside in their desperate race. Every one of them ran toward the same destination, driven by a single will.

"What’s happening?" one of the soldiers murmured, his voice trembling with uncertainty.

The support mage gripped her staff tightly, her fingers white with tension. Her face, already pale from the strain of battle, now looked even whiter.

"This... this isn’t a retreat..." Her voice faltered, and she swallowed hard before continuing.

"They’re heading toward it."

The wind mage watched the movement with a completely pale face. His mana, still recovering from the sonic attack, flickered weakly around his fingers.

"I’ve never seen monsters behave like this." He narrowed his eyes, trying to understand what he was witnessing.

"It’s as if... as if they’re being summoned."

Lukas remained motionless. His eagle vision followed every movement, every detail of the scene unfolding before him. The rats disappeared toward the King’s enormous body, their uninterrupted stream like water flowing into a drain.

And then...

He saw it.

The first monsters reached the colossal creature. The King’s body, which had remained motionless until then, now pulsed with a black light that grew more intense with every passing second. The plates covering its skin slowly expanded, as though preparing to receive something.

Instead of stopping before it, the rats’ bodies began to disappear. Not as though they were being killed, but as though they were... being absorbed. Swallowed by the King’s own shadow. Their forms dissolved the instant they touched the creature’s surface, merging with it like drops of water falling into an ocean.

More came right behind them. Then dozens. Then hundreds. An endless mass of rats ran directly into that gigantic body, and not a single one of them reappeared.

The King’s body began pulsing with even greater intensity. The plates covering its skin slowly expanded, as though something were growing beneath them. Its countless tails writhed like maddened serpents, lashing through the air in frantic movements.

Black mana began to rise around the creature in dense spirals, making the air heavy and difficult to breathe. The energy was so concentrated that it distorted the space around the King, creating ripples that seemed to tear reality itself apart.

Lukas felt a chill spread throughout his entire body. His stomach tightened, and sudden nausea rose in his throat. Every instinct screamed that something terrible was about to be born. Something that would make the previous battle seem insignificant.

He had never seen such an absurd amount of mana gathered in one place. Not even in his darkest nightmares had he imagined anything like it. The energy was so dense it seemed solid, like a black wall rising toward the sky.

Not even Clavor and Hark remained silent. The two looked toward the horizon at the same time, their bodies still heaving from the battle they had just fought.

For the first time since the battle had begun, Count Hark’s confident expression disappeared. His face, which always carried an ironic smile even in the most dangerous moments, was now pale and serious.

"Clavor..." Hark’s voice was low, almost a whisper.

"I know." Clavor’s reply was equally restrained.

The two warriors looked at each other. There was no need for words. They both understood what they were witnessing.

The Rat King was not fleeing.

It was transforming.