Chapter 229: Debt free.

All the strategies that Zyra and Hunter came up with were completely useless right now. Until the rain and floods stopped or at least calmed down a bit, those girls were just sitting ducks out there, if they were alive.

"I am going to send out drones, maybe they didn’t make it to the Wildlands at all or they were blown of course. They could be in the Wild lands, but in the Aurora Dominion." Hunter finally said. "We have to wait for the rain to become lighter to check this."

They still remained in the room, watching the footage Beauty was sending in just in case luck was on their side. As for the plan of the soul messaging, Zyra planned to consider it later.

Sitting around doing nothing was driving them crazy, so they decided to pivot to something they could actually do; it was time to make Tyrant evolve!

But just as Hunter was getting ready, Zyra held up a hand. "Hold on. First things first. I need to settle a very annoying debt problem."

Hunter raised an eyebrow. "Right, clear all of it."

"Beauty, access the Thorn Guild accounts. Let’s pay off this stupid debt once and for all." Zyra ordered

Hunter nodded approvingly. He really liked that she wasn’t letting debt hang over her head. A clean slate was always best.

Beauty’s voice chimed in instantly.

[Accessing Bank accounts. Extracting details. Clearing debt.]

Silence fell over the room for a few minutes while the system did its magic. Then, suddenly, a glowing screen popped up inside Zyra’s head.

The screen showed a silly little cartoon snake avatar wearing a bright party hat. It was blowing a tiny party trumpet wildly.

[Ding! System Notification: Your debt has been paid in full! Congratulations, Host.]

Before either of them could react, small hidden holes opened up in the ceiling, and a shower of colorful confetti sprayed everywhere, covering the floor, their clothes, and their hair.

Hunter stared at the paper floating around them, completely speechless. "This is_ ridiculous! I guess this means that Beauty is happy that the debt is cleared."

Zyra didn’t care at all. She burst out laughing, threw her arms in the air, and started hopping around like a little kid, trying to catch the paper slips. "Woohoo! No more debt! I’m officially the owner of this beautiful shelter!"

Hunter watched her spin around. For a second, the world seemed to slow down. The way her eyes lit up, the way she laughed so freely like she had no worries at all, he suddenly realized just how beautiful she was when she was not worried about money.

Zyra caught him staring and grabbed his hand, pulling him into her goofy rhythm. "Come on, Hunter! Stop being such an old man! Jump!"

Hunter coughed, trying to look serious, but a huge grin broke across his face. "Alright, fine, fine!"

He started jumping with her, kicking the confetti into the air. It was childish, completely stupid, and made zero sense in the middle of a flood and all the problems that they had. But in that small space, it was just the two of them, laughing until their stomachs hurt.

After a few minutes, they both collapsed against the wall, panting for air, covered in paper scraps.

Hunter wiped his forehead and looked around the messy room. "Okay, that was fun, but how on earth are we going to clean all this up?"

"Uh_" Zyra blinked, realizing the floor was completely buried in confetti. "Good question."

Before they could even look for a broom, a low humming sound vibrated through the room. The tiny holes in the roof suddenly started acting like powerful little vacuum cleaners. In less than ten seconds, every single piece of confetti was sucked right back up into the ceiling. The floor was sparkling clean again, as if nothing had ever happened.

Zyra clapped her hands together, amazed. "Well! That solves that problem!"

Hunter chuckled and shook his head, brushing off his shoulders. "This place is full of weird surprises."

"Right? Anyway, no more distractions!" Zyra turned around, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Let’s head back to the Beast Pavilion and get Tyrant upgraded!"

Hunter rubbed his hands together, his face lighting up with anticipation. He gestured toward the door and smirked. "After you, my lady. I have been waiting for this moment."

On the getting to the beast pavilion, the beasts were in the lounge room relaxing. Hunter called Tyrant and together they went to the training room.

"Let us begin." Zyra told them as she brought out the resonance stone.

The process of evolution for Tyrant was quite similar to that of the drake. Zyra carefully handed over the resonance stones, and as soon as Tyrant consumed them, a mechanical chime echoed in her mind.

[Ding! Evolution process initiated. Please stand back.]

At first, everything seemed totally normal. Tyrant just stood there blinking his large, golden eyes, looking slightly confused. "I feel nothing." He said to Zyra.

Zyra nodded, "Just wait a minute," She said to him, then she pointed at him. "Oh and do not dare bully other beasts after you evolve or else I will turn you into a tiny cat. I am serious."

"I told you, I was just playing with Spice. She is such a cry baby! You spoil that snake too much. " Tyra looked the other way.

Some minutes past and there was still nothing.

Hunter crossed his arms, leaning in close. "Is it working? Please do not tell me that Tyrant ate all those resonance stones for nothing, that would be wasteful."

Before Zyra could answer, they heard a loud bang. A wild surge of brilliant purple-gold lightning violently erupted from Tyrant’s body!

"Whoa!" Hunter yelped, jumping back three feet and nearly tripping over his own boots.

Tyrant threw his head back toward the sky. Something deep within him had awakened. His muscles suddenly tightened into hard knots, and a terrible cracking sound rang out as his bones began to reshape themselves. Surprisingly, his body didn’t expand or grow bigger; instead, it became far denser, like compressed iron.

Thick, heavy muscle wrapped around his limbs like layers of forged steel. His paws expanded, growing big enough to crush giant rocks into dust with a single step. Even his iron wings transformed_ they turned a pitch-black color, heavier, sharper, and crisscrossed with glowing golden lines of pure energy.

When Tyrant finally opened his eyes, golden lightning flashed brightly inside his pupils.