The Psychopathic Beast Emperor

Chapter 253: Break. Strength of a Tier 5

Far beneath the Shadow Fang Sect, the battle had already surpassed the limits of what the tunnels could endure. The underground network that had existed for centuries was collapsing violently.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A colossal root thicker than a tower erupted through solid stone and chased after Caron like a living dragon. The dark elder shot backward through the tunnel, his robes fluttering wildly as shadows exploded around him. The root missed him by inches.

KRAAAAAAAAAASH!!!

An entire section of the tunnel vanished.

"That woman is trying to bury me alive!" Caron’s eyes widened. His body dissolved into darkness once more, and a split second later, a vine spear longer than a city street pierced through where he had been standing.

Elder Baset stood atop the head of the Gravefang Lion, his expression calm, but the air around him was anything but that. Multiple summoning circles floated around his body, each one glowing with a different color. Each circle was connected to a beast. A true Beast Summoner was terrifying not because of personal strength, but because every beast became part of their strength, and one at Tier 3 was just something else entirely.

"Ridiculous!" Caron’s expression finally changed as a fifth circle opened, then a sixth, and a seventh.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

A gigantic beast emerged. It resembled a wolf, but it stood over twenty meters tall. Its body was made entirely of black crystal, its eyes glowed silver, and every step it took created fractures in space. It was the Voidfang Wolf, one of Baset’s strongest contracted beasts. The moment it appeared, the darkness throughout the battlefield recoiled. The beast was a predator, one that hunted things hidden in darkness.

Caron raised both hands, and the shadows around him exploded outward. Darkness flooded the battlefield, and the whispering intensified while the temperature dropped. The dead answered. Figures emerged.They were humanoid and wrapped in funeral cloth. Wraiths... they numbered to the thousands.

The entire battlefield transformed into an army of the dead while the sky above the tunnels darkened.

"You’re using forbidden techniques openly now?" Baset narrowed his eyes.

Caron laughed. The sound was exhausted, desperate, and mad.

"They already know everything." The shadows surged. "So why should I care anymore?!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The dead charged. The collision was catastrophic. The Gravefang Lion tore through hundreds of wraiths. The Stone Gorilla crushed dozens beneath its fists. The Molten Serpent transformed entire sections of darkness into rivers of magma. The Crimson Hawk descended from above like a falling meteor, crushing hundreds of wraiths under it.

The Voidfang Wolf just opened its mouth, and a silver beam shot outward, clearing everything in its path. Wraiths, darkness, and stone. The beam carved a canyon through the underground world. For the first time, Caron bled. The silver beam had grazed his shoulder, and his entire arm had nearly vanished. The dark elder stumbled backward with shock on his face. Baset was stronger than he remembered.

"NOW!"

Iset’s voice rang out, and the roots moved. The entire underground network exploded as roots erupted from every direction simultaneously. The shadows tried resisting and failed. The wraiths tried escaping and failed too. The roots wrapped around them all and crushed them. The pressure became unbearable, and the tunnels could no longer contain the battle.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The ground above the sect exploded. Disciples screamed, buildings shook. Entire sections of earth were blasted into the sky as a colossal pillar of roots erupted from underground, followed by darkness, beasts, and three Tier 3 beings. The battle had reached the surface.

The disciples of the Shadow Fang Sect looked upward in horror. The sky itself seemed to be collapsing. A gigantic wolf made of dark crystal stood atop a floating mountain of roots, surrounded by the other beasts of Baset. Caron floated amidst a storm of darkness. His robes were torn, his chest was blood-stained, and one arm hung uselessly. Yet his eyes were more dangerous than ever. He had stopped caring about escape and survival. The old monster had finally become cornered, and cornered monsters were the most dangerous.

The sky darkened as the shadows under Caron expanded for a good mile and stopped. Baset frowned while Iset’s expression changed. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The darkness under Caron wasn’t moving naturally anymore. It wasn’t responding to him: it was responding to something else.

Caron’s eyes widened, and for the first time in the battle, he looked genuinely terrified.

"No..." The darkness trembled while the earth shook. Somewhere beneath the Shadow Fang Sect, something ancient opened its eyes.

The world shook. The darkness under Caron continued expanding. The shadows had long stopped obeying him. At this point, they were moving on their own. The earth cracked, and the roots of Iset’s domain recoiled. Baset’s beasts became restless. Every beast present felt it... Something was waking up. Something they were never meant to disturb.

...

Deep beneath the Shadow Fang Sect, beyond all sorts of compartments and barriers, something shifted. A gigantic black hand emerged briefly from the darkness, yet that partial appearance alone made space distort around it. The hand looked mummified, covered in golden symbols that glowed faintly through cracks in the dried flesh. The fingers twitched just once.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The sky split apart. Several disciples immediately collapsed unconscious, while others began bleeding from their eyes. The weaker beasts throughout the sect fled in terror. Caron stared downward, his face becoming pale.

"No..." The elder took several steps backward. "No..."

This wasn’t what he wanted. This wasn’t what he intended. He only wanted leverage... a weapon. He wanted something powerful enough to force an escape, not this.

The darkness continued spreading as the hand began pulling itself upward slowly.

Meanwhile, every elder in the sect felt it. Every single one. The pressure spreading from beneath the sect was unmistakable. Ancient, hostile, and wrong. But it vanished instantly, as if someone had switched off reality. The darkness stopped, the summoning stopped. Everything in action froze. A voice spoke, almost like a whisper, but it echoed through the entire Shadow Fang Sect.

"Break."

CRACK.

The darkness shattered. The partially emerged hand exploded into golden dust. The shadows evaporated. The summoning formation beneath Caron collapsed instantly. His mana vanished. The roots of Iset’s domain disappeared, and Baset’s summoning circles blinked out of existence: the contracted beasts were forcibly returned to their spaces. Nobody could understand what was happening. Nothing worked. It was as though the very concept of power had been denied.

The place had become silent when they heard footsteps, making every head turn as the sky itself seemed to bend. The clouds parted, and the sunlight dimmed, while the wind ceased entirely. A man appeared, standing in midair. He had long black hair and golden eyes, and wore simple robes. He had a calm expression. The moment people looked at him, they immediately looked away. Their minds instinctively refused to stare for too long. It felt disrespectful.

Sekhem, who had just arrived alongside several other elders, immediately lowered his head. A gesture of respect. The disciples watching from afar were confused, terrified, and completely lost.

Who was this? Why were the elders reacting like that? Why had all power ceased to function? Why did merely standing near him feel like standing before a living natural disaster? And why did the person look so familiar?

Caron knew, and that realization broke him. His legs gave out instantly. The dark elder collapsed onto his knees as his face became bloodless.

"No..." His voice trembled. "No..."

The man looked down at him with an expressionless and cold gaze. For the first time in decades, Elder Caron experienced true fear. Pure and absolute. Standing before him wasn’t merely a Tier 4 or just a powerhouse. This was a being who stood at the peak of mortality. A Tier 5, a Divine Champion, one of the few individuals capable of rewriting battlefields, cities, and histories through sheer existence. The man’s golden eyes settled on the terrified Caron, and he spoke calmly.

"You dug where you should not have dug."

Caron couldn’t answer, move, or even think. The pressure alone crushed all resistance. The battle was over. Someone far beyond all of them had decided it was over.