CHAPTER 270: 270: THE SKY DEVOURER DESCENDS

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They shifted positions slowly. Vel activated a soft defensive aura veil, coating the group in a faint shimmer that blended them against Alka’s plumage. The wind shifted again. The presence above them moved further eastward.

And then it was gone. Not flying away. Not vanishing in a blaze. Just... gone. Like it had folded itself out of existence.

Azhara broke the silence. "That was creepy."

The silence that followed Azhara’s last mocking wave should have been comforting. But it lingered too long, stretched like a taut string waiting to snap. The wind, once playful, now trembled unnaturally. The air felt wrong, thicker, colder, quieter than it should have been. Every instinct screamed that something was watching.

Alka’s wings shifted. Her feathers twitched as though a storm were building far above. Her head cocked to the left, her eyes narrowing on the sky.

A low vibration crept across the sky. It was not sound. It was pressure. A deep, metallic groan layered with something old and cold. As if like the hinges of an ancient tomb opening at the edge of the world. It made the soul shiver.

Vel conjured her aura lens with a practiced flick. Her pupils dilated. "There is no magic," she said.

"No beast signature either," added Sha.

But the stars began to vanish one by one, swallowed by a growing blotch above them.

Akayoroi’s antennae stood rigid. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Something is here. And it is not flying with wings."

Then it moved.

From the sky, a shape tilted downward. It shimmered like liquid obsidian, veins of cyan running across its back like rivers of glowing death. No part of it looked natural. It was both alive and mechanical, both flesh and machine, stitched together by nightmare logic.

Alka screeched and dropped in altitude. The girls clung to her feathers, twisting in the air like leaves caught in a gale. Behind them, the shape fell.

No wings. No flapping. No propulsion. It simply fell because it wanted to. Gravity obeyed it.

As it descended, the shape revealed more. Its body curved like a manta ray fused with a leviathan. Rows of circular teeth spun inside its gaping mouth. Its face had no eyes, only a crown of long, coiling antennae that twitched hungrily, searching for aura.

It passed them once. The shockwave of its presence shattered Vel’s barrier.

Sha was nearly thrown off Alka’s back. Her fingers caught a ridge of feathers just in time. Azhara swore and flung three daggers. They bent mid-air and crumbled before reaching the creature.

"It is immune to conventional aura!" Vel shouted.

The beast circled again. It moved like a beast who had forgotten physics. Its body rotated in mid-air as though it were examining them.

A voice entered their minds. No sound. No vibration. Just presence. It did not ask. It declared. " Crown giver is found. Essentially unstable. Purge initiated."

Akayoroi gasped. "It is a monster. A real one. One from old age."

Vel’s lips trembled. "I thought they were extinct."

Sha’s hand moved to her sword. "Wake him up. Now. We can’t fight it. Only sir Kai can fight."

Alka spun to evade the next pass. A tail longer than a mountain’s shadow lashed out. It scraped across her left wing, leaving a glowing gash that shimmered with energy burn.

Vel conjured a solar flare and launched it into the sky. It hit the creature’s armor, exploded in light, and then, the light dimmed. The beast drank the energy and pulsed with pleasure.

"It is learning," said Naaro.

"It is scanning us," added Akayoroi.

The creature folded in on itself like a dying star. For a breath, it vanished. Then it reappeared.

Closer. Too close.

Its mouth widened into a cavern of spinning blades. Each rotation sounded like a funeral bell. It came for them again, jaws widening with hunger.

Azhara pulled her dagger, drew blood from her palm, and began a ritual. "If I die, bury me along with Sir Kai’s bed."

Vel’s voice cracked. "Fight first. Bed talk later."

Black lightning surged from Sha’s weapon. She aimed directly at the spinning mouth. The lightning struck deep. For the first time, the creature shrieked.

It did not echo. The sound bent space.

But Kai stirred. He sat up slowly. His body hair quivered. His gaze locked onto the beast.

The hunter did not flinch. It watched him. "Crown giver identity confirmed. Purge level two initiated."

Kai’s aura flared. Not a pulse. Not a ripple. A detonation. The sky split. Clouds ran in opposite directions. Birds crashed into mountainsides. The stars flickered.

Alka screamed in triumph. The monster hesitated. Its surface cracked, just slightly.

Kai stood there.

Sha tossed him his spear. "Time to act, sir Kai."

Kai caught it. No words. Only fury.

The beast descended.

Kai leapt. He struck like a bolt of willpower.

And the real battle began.

The sky, already broken by Kai’s explosive aura, held its breath as he rose into it.

He did not stand still. He launched by activating apex Form.

His legs coiled, aura compressed like a cannon, and with one terrible release, he shot upward faster than lightning could cheer him on. His form glowed in the shape of an ancient monarch, mandibles broad, antennae curled, a gleam of silver beneath his carapace.

The Sky monster did not retreat. It met him.

The impact cracked the air. It rippled through the clouds. Kai’s spear struck the outer plates of the monster and sparked like a sunstone hammer against glacier iron. But it did not break. The plates twisted, folded, then expanded outward, blades hidden within the monster’s body shot out, aiming to cut Kai into ribbons.

He spun midair, antennae flashing. "Reflex Mode. Tiny Tank. Adaptive Armor." He activated three skills at once.

A shell of hardened exoskeleton cloaked him instantly. The first blade struck his chest and bent. The second skidded off his leg, slicing only surface chitin. The third found his arm and split it open but Kai did not yield.

With his free hand, he grabbed the blade. And he bit it. Metal crunched in his mandibles. The monster reeled.

Below, Alka stabilized with a scream of effort. The group of girls clung to her, watching the dance of warriors in the sky.

"He’s actually doing it," Vel whispered.

"He’s insanely strong," Sha corrected.

"He’s beautiful," Azhara sighed.

"He is going to get injured if we do not help," said Akayoroi, standing fully now. She looked at the clouds and raised both hands. Her aura expanded like a net of sound, a call to the earth and sky. "Prepare to assist. I will find its heart."

Kai and the monster clashed again.

The creature opened its belly, revealing a secondary mouth lined with lull drills. From within, a roar of strong energy burst forth. It struck Kai and consumed half his aura in a blink.

[System Alert: Aura Drain Detected!]

Kai gritted his mandibles. He shoved his spear through the rotating drills. The weapon hissed and cracked, but it held.

"Essence overlord. Consume!"

His system activated. A flood of void tainted energy flowed into him. It was toxic, wild, but Kai drank it in with a grin. He spat blood into the wind and twisted the spear.

The monster beast screamed. Its scream shattered rocks on distant mountaintops.

Vel opened her scroll and began casting. "Give me thirty seconds," she said.

"You have ten," Naaro growled.

Azhara pulled out one of Kai’s stolen underpants from her robe and tied it around her head like a bandana. "Time to be weird."

Sha covered her face. "Why."

Azhara screamed up at the sky, throwing a spell made entirely of emotional instability and underwear-based aura. The monster beast faltered.

Kai took the opening. He shot downward and slammed his foot against the thing’s ’crown.’ The antennae writhed. One snapped.

It retaliated. Three tail blades emerged and drove toward his spine.

"Reflex Mode, boost to ninety percent!"

Time slowed. Kai saw each blade. He dropped. He let gravity win. The blades cut air.

Below, Akayoroi shouted, "Now!"

Vel’s spell casting was completed. A chain of solar aura shot through the clouds. It struck the crack Kai had made and ignited it.

Boom!

The Sky monster wailed. Pieces of its armor peeled. Its body began to bleed— not red, not green, but something that looked like starlight and despair.

Kai landed on its back. He roared. He raised his spear. He started to stab it. "This sky has a king already. Go back to your hole."

The beast howled. It twisted. It tried to escape.

Kai would not allow it. His aura expanded one last time, forming the shape of a crown behind his head.

A real one. Monarch class.

The Sky monster beast split down the middle, its essence ripped apart. It exploded in silence, folding inward, becoming nothing.

Kai dropped, exhausted, landing in a crater of his own making. His antennae twitched. His breathing slowed.

Above, the stars returned. His girls landed around him, one by one.

Alka nudged him with her beak. Azhara collapsed onto his chest. Sha stood guard, sword out. Naaro kept her arms folded but would not stop staring. Vel let the tears fall.

Akayoroi knelt beside him. "You are not just our lord," she whispered. "You are our enemies’ fear."

Kai grunted. "That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me." Then, he passed out.