The instant the second Divine Tree began to shake, the earth answered.
The ground beneath it trembled like a drumskin—then split open.
Cracks crawled outward in jagged lines, widening fast, as if something below was forcing its way up. Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw both snapped back at the same time, clearing the danger zone in one clean retreat.
But Adrian didn't look at the tree at all.
He looked at the broken ground.
Because the moment the soil tore open, a thick, overwhelming scent surged out—rich enough to tighten his throat.
It wasn't floral.
It was… meaty.
Alive.
Tempting.
Adrian's eyes narrowed behind his glasses.
"That smell…" he muttered.
The livestream exploded.
"WHAT is this? Bigger than last time!"
"The Divine Tree is shaking—this has to be external force. A creature?!"
"Most likely! The ground is splitting!"
"Underground ambush? That's so scummy!"
"Divine Domain monsters do sneak attacks now? I've seen everything."
"Anything underground is a rat—send a giant cat. Bloodline suppression!"
"You'll need an S-Rank cat or it'll get counter-killed."
"Adrian already noticed something below!"
"No worries—Dragon Nation's elites always deliver!"
"Guaranteed win!"
Their confidence wasn't blind.
Raven stood tall, breathing steady, listening through the soles of her boots—feeling for the rhythm of movement beneath the stone. Adrian tracked the scent itself. If it surged again, it meant the thing below was about to strike.
Then—
The vibration doubled.
Tripled.
It surged so abruptly that the cracked ground jumped.
Raven's expression cooled a degree. Her presence sharpened—quiet, terrifying. She ignited her cell-burn without fanfare, and the air around her seemed to thin. Her hand settled on the hilt of her combat saber.
A heartbeat later—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The earth behind them exploded. Chunks of stone and root shot upward. A massive shadow burst out of the crater and landed low on four limbs—heavy enough to make the entire clearing shudder.
And at last, Will of Blue Star spoke.
[Warning! Dragon Nation contestants Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw have encountered a legendary Divine Domain lifeform!]
[Analyzing…]
[Analysis complete!]
The world seemed to hold its breath.
[Name: Earth-Drilling Mountainbreaker King]
[Threat Rating: SS-Rank]
[Profile: An SS-Rank Divine Domain lifeform—an apex predator even among its tier. It attacks from beneath the earth with near-impossible angles and timing. It bores through mountains and shatters bedrock like rotten wood. Its armor is so dense that most strikes cannot find purchase. When it comes, the land collapses—when it leaves, it vanishes without a trace. Want to catch its shadow? Try.]
The chat instantly panicked.
"SS-RANK?! Are you trying to kill us?!"
"No warm-up? No A, B, C ranks? Straight to SS?!"
"Is Will of Blue Star targeting Dragon Nation or what?! I'm actually nervous!"
"Four trees total… if difficulty keeps climbing, the last one might be SSS!"
"SSS is legend-tier! This is insane!"
"Adrian—listen, okay?! If it's too much, forget the treasure!"
"Dragon Nation's already leading by a ridiculous margin—just leave!"
Fear piled up fast, because everyone understood the Divine Domain rule the hard way:
Every rank gap is a cliff.
And the higher you climb, the steeper it gets.
The Mountainbreaker King was enormous. Its back was layered in thick armor plates that gleamed black with a metallic sheen—yet didn't look like metal so much as something that made metal feel cheap. Its claws flexed against the stone, leaving grooves as if the platform were soft.
It lifted its head.
And then it spoke.
Its voice was sharp and grating, like a drill biting into rock.
"Humans? How did you get here?"
Its small, dark eyes flicked toward the second Divine Tree, and something like irritation flashed across its face.
"I thought it was another group of fools trying to pry at the tree."
Adrian and Raven didn't answer.
The creature snorted, almost contemptuous.
"Then the one before me is dead, huh?"
It spat—an ugly, humanlike gesture that made the audience's skin crawl.
"That useless thing. Good riddance."
Then, incredibly, it rose briefly onto its hind limbs, foreclaws clutching its belly as it laughed—high, harsh, delighted.
It dropped back down. Its gaze sharpened like a blade.
"Still… you killed it. If I let you walk away, that makes me look weak."
Its claws scraped.
"So—join it."
With that, the Mountainbreaker King leapt.
And in midair, it spun.
Like a drill.
Then it plunged straight into the earth.
BOOM—!
The ground swallowed it as if it were water.
Cracks raced outward again—circling Adrian and Raven, tightening like a noose.
The chat screamed.
"It went underground again! So cheap!"
"Come out and fight fair!"
"It's just ambush after ambush—no honor!"
"Boss Raven! Adrian! Move!!"
But neither of them ran blindly.
They stayed poised—reading, tracking.
Because if you flee without direction against something that hunts from below…
you don't escape.
You become prey.
The ground beneath them suddenly burst.
A sharp, conical head punched through the stone, foreclaws crossed like spears, aiming to skewer both of them in a single vicious rise.
Adrian moved first—springing sideways with minimal motion.
Raven flowed the other direction, her perception stretched razor-thin.
The attack missed by inches.
The Mountainbreaker King surfaced fully this time, and its grin looked almost proud.
"Fast," it hissed. "Good."
Then it slammed both claws down and began chiseling the earth.
CRACK! BOOM! CRACK!
The ground around it shattered into chunks. And then, as if the creature was commanding gravity itself, the broken stones lifted into the air.
Each chunk grew jagged, spike-like protrusions along its surface. All of them rotated—pointing—locking onto Adrian and Raven like a swarm of airborne stakes.
"Go."
The creature's voice dropped.
The stones shot forward.
Raven moved like a blade skipping across water—low, fast, unreal. Explosions followed behind her as stone spikes hit and detonated against the ground. The ones that caught her line—
Clang! Clang!
—were cut apart by her combat saber, the steel humming from impact.
Adrian didn't move.
Not a step.
The Mountainbreaker King's eyes widened.
Then it grinned.
"Scared stiff?"
It barely finished the taunt.
CRACK—CRACK—CRACK!
Behind Adrian, his kagune unfurled—dark-red tendrils blooming outward in a dense ring.
Rinkaku.
Faster than the incoming stones.
The tendrils snapped forward again and again, each strike detonating the chunks midair—turning lethal projectiles into harmless dust that rained down like gritty snow.
In seconds, the entire wave was erased.
Not a single shard touched Adrian's clothes.
The creature's expression finally changed.
"…You're not human."
Raven didn't answer.
She simply appeared at its flank—
and with one clean, brutal lift of her saber, she hooked under its armored mass and threw it upward.
The Mountainbreaker King rose—forced into the air.
And in that moment, Adrian's tendrils pivoted.
They were already aimed.
The creature curled into a tight ball midair—armor plates sealing together into its strongest defensive form.
It laughed even while it rotated.
"Hahaha! You think you can hurt me? My armor has withstood half-step SSS-tier predators!"
Adrian's Rinkaku struck.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The impacts were thunderous—air itself shuddering. The armored ball was punched higher, shoved back, battered like a meteor being hit by invisible hammers.
And still—
no crack.
The Mountainbreaker King's laughter grew louder.
"See?! Pointless!"
Then the air shifted.
Something else unfolded from Adrian's back—sharper, cleaner, colder.
Holy Sword Kagune.
Spear-lances formed—sleek, lethal, almost elegant in how wrong they looked.
The livestream erupted.
"Holy Sword Kagune!"
"HE'S SERIOUS NOW!"
"This is over!"
The lances shot forward.
And this time—
PFFFT!
One lance pierced through the armor.
Not a dent.
Not a chip.
A full penetration—clean through the defensive seam.
The Mountainbreaker King's laughter died mid-breath.
"What—?!"
Adrian didn't waste the opening.
He drove the Holy Sword Kagune again and again, tearing into the seams he'd created, ripping plates loose.
Then—one decisive wrench—
a whole armor scale was peeled off.
The creature screamed.
A real scream.
Raw panic and pain, dragged out of something that believed it was untouchable.
Adrian's eyes stayed calm—almost clinical.
"SS-Rank," he said softly. "Yeah… that smells right."
He stepped forward as the creature slammed down, blood staining the shattered earth.
The Mountainbreaker King tried to crawl backward, eyes wide, voice shaking with rage.
"Kill me, you bastard! If you have guts, kill me!"
Adrian leaned in, inhaled the scent rising from the blood, and smiled—small, cold.
"Kill you?"
He tilted his head.
"That'd be letting you off."
He raised the Holy Sword Kagune again—
and the Mountainbreaker King suddenly froze.
Its entire body stiffened in a single unnatural instant.
Then it began to turn gray—stone creeping over flesh, starting at the puncture points where the Holy Sword Kagune had pierced it.
Within a breath, it crumbled like dried clay.
Puff. Puff.
Wind scattered it.
Nothing remained but a stained patch of earth… and the echo of its own terror.
The chat blinked.
"…Did it self-destruct?"
"Looks like it."
"Adrian scared it into suicide."
"Okay that's… insane."
"Sad. No eat-stream segment."
"Bro what do you mean 'sad'?!"
"Not gonna lie, the brutality is still… weirdly satisfying."
"Are you people eating while watching this?"
"Yes."
"I ate two bowls of rice."
"I ate five."
"My mom is steaming another pot."
Someone screamed in chat:
"HEY—Deathmatch is starting another round! People are saying it's Dragon Nation again!"
"Wait—what's that? A guy with scissors?"
"Wu Liuqi?? That name is ridiculous!"
And just like that, half the audience split their screens again—
one eye on blood and treasure,
the other on the next slaughter waiting on Blue Star.
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