Looking at the pillar of reddened flames heading toward him, Elias didn't panic.
He simply activated [Devouring], the void-like depths of his eyes darkening further as the flames reached him.
VOOM
The fire encircled him as if trying to burn him alive, sizzling with the voice of a thousand dying screams, like something trying to turn him to cinders and drive him mad at the same time.
However, in the same second, the flames disappeared.
Not died out, not flickered out—but simply disappeared into nothingness, like it had never been there in the first place.
The moment the flames around him were devoured, Elias finally saw the monster that had emerged from the water, and before he could stop it, a grin stretched across his lips.
So this was Berrot, the Screaming King.
The monster was large, more than a head taller than the rest of the Echoforms in the Mirrorth. It had no hands or feet, only gigantic flippers like a fish. On top of its head sat a crown of flesh, pulsing like a heartbeat and fused into the rest of its body as though it had never been separate to begin with.
Uncertainty flickered in the monster's cruel eyes as it regarded him cautiously, clearly not expecting him to so easily nullify its attack.
However, Elias was excited for a different reason. All he could see when he looked at the monster was a giant golden chest.
And you have to understand why.
Echoforms capable of giving their songs a physical manifestation—like the maddening flames that had swallowed him moments ago—were usually found in blue-graded Mirrorths and above.
Boss or not, it was very rare for a red-graded Mirrorth to have something like this.
Echoforms in red-graded Mirrorths were mostly only capable of mental attacks. Take for instance the other fractured Howlers he had dealt with and the Echoforms that had infiltrated Avenelle.
And everyone knew it—Echoforms capable of making their songs manifest physically had the highest chance of dropping loot.
And what were those loots?
Tremors. Laments. Even Sonic Skills.
Any one of those alone was enough to make Elias excited. Even if he couldn't use them himself, he could sell them. Get cash. Finally breathe without feeling like he was constantly one step away from being broke.
So this monster… was his ticket.
His ticket to money.
'I love you… I love you… I love you!'
Elias couldn't stop the grin from widening as he cracked his knuckles, barely holding himself back from roaring in joy so he wouldn't waste what little mental strength he had left.
But the monster didn't look amused.
The uncertainty in its eyes didn't linger for long. The moment it saw the expression on Elias' face, it twisted—shifting into something far more dangerous.
Rage.
It pulled its head back and screeched.
[SCRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA]
The ripples around Elias deepened instantly, swallowing the warped song before it could reach him, crushing it into nothing mid-birth.
But that was only the beginning.
Elias watched as roaring flames shot from the monster's mouth, his muscles tensing as he prepared to meet them head-on the moment they inevitably crashed into him again.
But he was worried for nothing—or rather, for something else entirely.
The monster didn't direct the flames at him. Instead, it turned its head toward the rest of the canyon, unleashing the fire across the surrounding rocks and ledges.
They sizzled, burned, and melted down into slag.
Around Elias, the ground quickly became coated in a fresh layer of lava from the liquefied stone, thick steam rising into the air as the entire canyon turned into a boiling containment of fire.
However, even though Elias was surrounded by flames, that alone wasn't enough to make his expression shift.
After all, around him, no flames actually burned.
The fire faded into nothingness a few meters away from him, swallowed whole as he devoured it.
What made Elias wary was something else entirely.
The flames across the canyon were singing.
That's right. They didn't just burn or sizzle the way normal fire did. As they tore through rock and stone, they carried broken, warped songs with them—layered into the heat, embedded in the destruction itself.
Right now, the entire canyon was vibrating, shaking in a way that made Elias feel like he was trapped inside a giant music box.
Only this wasn't music.
It was a warped lullaby dragging everything toward madness.
[Mental Strength: 500/1200]
[Mental Strength: 480/1200]
[Mental Strength: 450/1200]
The result of this was that Elias found himself burning through his mental strength at a rate he found completely ridiculous. Because now he had to defend himself from the flames and endure the maddening songs layered inside them.
So whatever plans Elias had about taking his time were immediately thrown out of the window. He knew he had to end this fast, or things would get very troublesome.
So without wasting time, he moved.
The monster watched his advancing figure with apathetic eyes, like it was already looking at something dead. The moment Elias appeared in front of it—fists clenched, dark eyes spiraling like voids—the monster raised one of its flippers to meet his punch.
BAM BOOM BAM BAM BAM
The impact shook the canyon.
Elias pulled back and struck again, and within seconds, he and the monster were already exchanging dozens of blows.
You had to know Elias had already absorbed a large number of Echoform fragments, so his physical strength was already well beyond normal limits, nearing the Initial Apprentice Stage.
Which meant something even he hadn't fully expected this early—he could actually hold his own in a pure physical confrontation with this thing.
Still—
Elias winced.
Each hit from the monster rattled through his bones. Its flippers might not have been fists, but they carried overwhelming physical force all the same.
[Mental Strength: 380/1200]
[Mental Strength: 340/1200]
[Mental Strength: 320/1200]
Elias gritted his teeth, driving a kick into the monster's abdomen and using the recoil to push himself backward.
But the monster didn't give him a second of breathing room. Its eyes glinted cruelly as it lunged again, its grotesque tongue sliding across the line of flesh that formed its lips.
Elias kicked up a cluster of stalagmites behind him—one shattered as he grabbed another and swung it up like a spear just as the monster closed in.
'Damn it… just drop dead, you bastard!'
The monster was already on him.
One raised flipper came down, tearing through the air like a falling storm.
And the fight started for the second time.
Around them, flames burned and sang. The ground shook and fractured as nearby rocks melted, turned to slag, or were simply blasted apart from the force of their clash.
Even though the weapon Elias held was crude and unrefined, it was still better than using his fists. It gave him reach—just enough to stab through the monster's thick hide whenever an opening appeared. Each clean hit left behind green lacerations across the Echoform's body.
But Elias wasn't escaping unscathed.
One of the flippers had already swept across his face. The impact nearly shattered his teeth, leaving the right side of his face swollen. His mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood.
Still, Elias ignored it.
He kept moving.
Kept watching.
Kept looking for openings to drive the jagged tip of the stalagmite into the monster's body again.
By now, the monster's apathetic gaze had completely shifted.
Rage.
And beneath it—something quieter. Familiar in a way that didn't belong in a creature like this.
Fear.
Like it was only just now realizing it could actually die here.
Elias could understand why it felt that way.
If anyone else had been fighting it, they would've been overwhelmed already—burned down by the flames, crushed by the environment, broken by the pressure of its song alone. The monster wasn't built for direct, sustained combat. It relied on its environment, on its flames, on the madness they carried.
But all of that…
All of it was being stripped away.
However—
The monster was wrong about one thing.
Elias wasn't built for this either.
Not for long.
[Mental Strength: 130/1200]
[Mental Strength: 100/1200]
[Mental Strength: 80/1200]
Elias could feel it now—how fast it was slipping away.
If he didn't do something drastic, this fight would end in a direction he wouldn't like.