Chapter 60 : The Devouring of the Ancient

Chapter 60: Chapter 60 : The Devouring of the Ancient

The storm had begun to weaken, but the cold remained merciless. Snow drifted slowly across the ruined plateau, settling over shattered stones and the deep scars carved into the frozen ground during the battle.

Ash stood several steps away from the fallen creature, his chest rising and falling heavily as the last traces of adrenaline faded from his body.

The enormous beast had collapsed beside the ancient stone structure, its pale scales stained with blood and its breathing becoming slower with every passing moment.

Aren remained behind him, watching cautiously.

Moonfang stood farther away with its body lowered, its silver-dark fur moving gently in the wind.

The predator that had once approached Ash without fear now kept its distance from the dying Ancient Entity, as though it understood that something about the creature had changed.

Kael had not spoken for several moments. His eyes remained fixed on the beast, but his expression suggested that his thoughts had moved far beyond the battle.

Ash slowly approached.

The creature did not move.

Its enormous head rested against the snow, and one of its eyes remained partially open. The ancient predator was still alive, but barely.

Every breath came with a deep vibration that Ash could feel through the frozen ground beneath his paws.

The sight should have made him feel victorious after such a brutal battle, yet instead he felt an unfamiliar heaviness settle inside his chest.

This creature had never truly been his enemy.

It had attacked because it was afraid.

Ash stopped beside its head.

The creature’s eye moved toward him.

For a few seconds, neither predator moved. Ash could see his own reflection in the enormous dark pupil, distorted by the curvature of the creature’s eye.

The beast looked ancient beyond anything Ash could comprehend, yet there was something almost strangely peaceful in its expression now that the struggle had ended.

Ash lowered his head slightly.

"I don’t know what you are," he whispered, knowing the creature could never answer him in words. "But I understand now that you weren’t trying to awaken it."

The creature’s breathing slowed.

Its gaze shifted toward Moonveil.

Ash followed its eyes.

The mountain stood in the distance beneath the fading storm, its upper slopes hidden behind clouds while faint blue light continued to pulse beneath the snow-covered surface.

The creature watched the mountain for several seconds before looking back at Ash.

Something passed between them that Ash could not explain.

The relic around his neck became warm.

The creature’s enormous eye widened slightly.

Then the world disappeared.

Ash felt as though he had fallen through an endless depth of darkness.

There was no ground beneath him.

There was no sky above him.

There was no wind.

He tried to move, but his body no longer seemed to exist. He could not feel his paws or hear his own breathing. Yet somewhere inside the darkness, another sensation began to form.

A heartbeat.

Slow.

Deep.

Ancient.

Then another.

And another.

The darkness opened.

Ash suddenly found himself standing beneath a sky he had never seen before.

The world was enormous.

The mountains were taller, the forests stretched across horizons without interruption, and enormous rivers cut through lands that looked almost untouched by time. The air carried scents that Ash did not recognize, and distant roars echoed from creatures whose bodies were larger than anything he had ever encountered.

He realized he was not seeing the world through his own eyes.

He was experiencing another creature’s existence.

The creature was young.

Much younger than the ancient beast Ash had just fought.

It moved through an enormous valley surrounded by towering cliffs, its senses constantly gathering information from the environment. Ash felt its hunger, its curiosity, its instinct to hunt, and its awareness of territories belonging to creatures far stronger than itself.

The young predator stopped beside a river.

Something enormous moved beneath the water.

Ash felt the creature’s instincts immediately recognize the danger.

It did not attack.

It simply watched.

The creature understood something instinctively that Ash had only recently begun learning.

Not every powerful creature needed to be challenged.

Some territories belonged to things that were better left alone.

The memory shifted.

Years seemed to pass in the space of a breath.

Ash experienced seasons through the creature’s senses. He felt snowstorms, scorching winds, heavy rainfall, volcanic heat, and the strange silence of ancient forests. He experienced long migrations across enormous distances and learned the invisible boundaries between territories.

He saw creatures that resembled nothing in the modern world.

Some possessed wings large enough to shadow entire valleys.

Others moved beneath the earth like living mountains.

Some walked alone across deserts while others traveled in enormous herds.

And throughout all those memories, the creature remained aware of one particular force.

Ancient energy.

It existed beneath the world like a vast network of invisible rivers.

The creature could sense it.

It could feel places where the energy was strong and avoid places where it became unstable.

Then the memory changed again.

The young predator entered a forest filled with enormous silver trees.

At the center stood something Ash immediately recognized.

The celestial tree.

It was larger than the one depicted in the ancient carvings, its branches stretching across the sky while faint blue light flowed through its bark.

Beneath the tree stood the Guardian.

Ash’s attention immediately sharpened.

The Guardian looked different from the creature in the ancient visions he had previously experienced, yet there was no mistaking its presence. It carried the same overwhelming stillness, the same ancient authority, and the same connection to the blue energy that ran through the land.

The predator stopped.

It did not attack.

Instead, it lowered its head slightly and watched.

Ash could feel the creature’s instinctive understanding.

The Guardian was powerful.

But it was not the strongest thing in this world.

It was a warden.

A protector of something.

The creature could sense something far beneath the earth, something even the Guardian seemed unwilling to approach directly.

Ash felt the predator’s fear for the first time.

It wasn’t fear of the Guardian.

It was fear of what the Guardian was guarding.

The memory shifted again.

An ancient civilization appeared.

Ash found himself looking over a vast city constructed from dark stone and pale crystal. Towering structures rose toward the sky, connected by bridges that glowed with the same blue energy beneath Moonveil. Strange beings moved through the streets, carrying objects that looked like tools, weapons, and instruments.

They were intelligent.

They understood the ancient energy.

And they wanted to control it.

Ash watched them build enormous structures beneath the ground.

They carved symbols into stone.

They created machines that drew energy from beneath the earth.

They entered places that even the ancient predator had avoided.

At first, their civilization flourished.

Then something changed.

The creature remembered returning to the city one day and finding it silent.

There were no voices.

No movement.

No animals.

No signs of battle.

Buildings remained standing.

Doors remained open.

Objects remained exactly where they had been left.

But the people were gone.

Ash felt the creature moving through the empty streets.

The silence was worse than any battlefield.

There were no bodies.

No graves.

No evidence of war.

It was as if an entire civilization had simply been erased from existence.

The creature eventually found the symbol.

It had been carved into walls throughout the city.

The same symbol Ash had seen beneath Moonveil.

The same symbol associated with the ancient entity.

The memory shifted.

Four figures stood before the Guardian.

The first was an enormous Blackfang Wolf with dark fur and a presence that immediately reminded Ash of the Alpha who had sacrificed himself.

Beside him stood the first Silver Lynx leader.

Across from them stood an ancient Ice Bear Chieftain, larger than any Ice Bear Ash had ever seen, while a massive Great Eagle descended from the sky and folded its enormous wings.

They stood together.

Not as enemies.

As allies.

The Guardian watched them in silence.

The four bloodlines had been chosen because they could sense the ancient energy and because their instincts were strong enough to protect what lay beneath the mountain.

The covenant was formed.

The four bloodlines promised to protect the balance of the ancient territory.

The Guardian promised to maintain the seal.

Ash understood something important.

The ancient predator he was experiencing these memories through had never belonged to the covenant.

It had existed before the covenant.

It had watched from the edges.

It understood the Guardian in a way the later generations had forgotten.

Then the memory became darker.

The earth moved.

Mountains cracked.

Ancient cities trembled.

The network of blue energy beneath the world began changing.

The predator felt it before anyone else.

Something was moving beneath the earth.

Something enormous.

Something that did not belong to the world above.

The Guardian awakened.

The celestial tree shook.

The ancient civilization vanished.

The four bloodlines scattered.

The creature ran.

It crossed vast lands without stopping.

Frostfang disappeared behind it.

Then came forests larger than anything Ash had ever seen.

Verdant.

The creature continued.

Volcanic mountains rose ahead.

Emberfall.

It crossed the burning lands.

Then came the enormous ocean.

Abyssal.

The creature crossed through territories inhabited by creatures that could swallow ordinary predators whole.

Finally, it reached the Forgotten continent.

It had not been migrating.

It had been escaping.

Ash understood the truth with a certainty that settled deep inside him.

The ancient predator had spent its existence running from the same force that now stirred beneath Moonveil.

The memory shifted once more.

The creature returned toward Frostfang.

It sensed something.

Something familiar.

Something new.

The Blackfang bloodline had awakened.

Ash saw himself.

Not exactly as he looked now, but as the ancient predator had sensed him from a distance.

A young Blackfang carrying an ancient relic.

The creature had recognized the resonance.

It understood that Ash was connected to the old covenant.

It had not come to Moonveil to awaken what slept beneath the mountain.

It had come because it believed the Blackfang heir might be capable of stopping it.

The memory collapsed.

Ash fell through darkness.

He opened his eyes.

The snowy plateau returned.

The ancient creature was still lying before him.

Only a few seconds seemed to have passed.

Ash stared at the beast with new understanding.

"You were running from it," he whispered.

The creature’s eye slowly closed.

Its final breath escaped into the cold air.

The enormous body became still.

Ash lowered his head.

He felt grief despite barely knowing the creature.

It had crossed continents.

Survived ages.

Watched civilizations disappear.

And finally returned to the place it feared because it sensed someone who might be able to stop what was coming.

The System appeared.

[Ancient Entity Life Signature Fading.]

[Ancient Entity has entered terminal state.]

[Physical consumption will initiate Ancient Devouring.]

[Warning: Host’s current body may be unable to contain the acquired energy.]

[Proceed with Ancient Devouring?]

Ash stared at the message.

He looked once more at the enormous body before him.

Then toward Moonveil.

The mountain pulsed beneath the snow.

Ash made his decision.

[Proceed.]

The world changed again.

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To be continued...