Alistair tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword.
The leather beneath his fingers creaked faintly.
His gaze never left Solaris.
With a grave, unshaken face, he muttered to himself—
"I have to stop him…"
Not as a lord.
Not as a warrior.
But as a father.
On the other side—
Solaris suddenly stopped powering up.
The violent lightning around his body calmed for a moment, still crackling across his skin like restless serpents. His head slowly turned toward the deeper part of the forest.
His eyes narrowed.
A greedy, predatory gleam surfaced in those yellow pupils.
"I sense something big in there…"
His voice was no longer human.
It sounded rough. Untamed. Hungry.
Without another word—
he kicked the ground.
The earth shattered beneath his feet, and his body shot forward like a bolt of lightning, vanishing into the dense trees—heading straight toward the heart of the forest.
Alistair froze.
For a second, he couldn't process what he had just heard.
"Something big…?"
His expression twisted.
Then realization struck him like cold water.
"Don't tell me…"
His grip on the sword tightened even more.
"He's going after the Forest Guardian?!"
---
With that, Alistair also started running—to stop Solaris.
But the moment he moved, he realized something terrifying.
Solaris's speed was beyond reason.
It wasn't the speed of a child.
Not even the speed of a trained warrior.
It was as if he had turned into a streak of pure light—
a glowing orb tearing through the forest.
While running, Solaris slowly raised one hand forward.
Instantly, a layer of aura wrapped around his body.
A protective shell—yet nothing about it felt protective.
Within a radius of ten to fifteen meters, everything that touched that aura simply vanished.
Trees didn't break.
They didn't burn.
They vaporized—as if erased from existence.
Low-level monsters hiding in the bushes didn't even have time to scream; the moment the aura brushed past them, their bodies dissolved into nothing.
The forest itself was being carved open—
not by force,
but by overwhelming presence alone.
---
The fourth layer of the forest was supposed to be dangerous.
For anyone else.
A pack of armored forest bears crossed Solaris's path—massive bodies, claws like curved blades, breath heavy with killing intent.
They never stood a chance.
Solaris didn't slow down.
At that blurred, impossible speed, his body passed straight through the first bear—
not around it, not beside it—
through it.
A deep, brutal hole opened in the creature's stomach as if something invisible had punched clean across its body. The beast staggered once, eyes blank with confusion, before collapsing into the grass.
The others roared.
Furious. Territorial. Stupid.
Two bears lunged at him from opposite sides, claws tearing through the air.
Solaris moved like flowing water.
One step—he was gone.
Another—he was already behind them.
His fist rose.
A simple punch.
The moment his knuckles touched the bear's back, the massive body swelled unnaturally—like a skin stretched beyond limit.
Then—
BOOM.
A dull, bloody explosion painted the trees behind it.
The remaining beasts hesitated for the first time, instincts finally screaming that this was not prey.
It was death wearing a child's shape.
But hesitation meant nothing.
Solaris appeared among them like a storm with a heartbeat.
One by one—
neck snapped,
chests crushed,
bodies thrown aside as if they weighed nothing.
There was no technique.
No strategy.
Just overwhelming, predatory violence.
Within seconds, the ground of the fourth layer turned silent again.
Only torn earth and broken corpses remained.
Solaris didn't even glance at them.
Without a single breath of pause—
he started running once more, deeper into the forest.
---
Alistair saw him from afar—
a small figure drenched in blood, tearing through the bears like they were made of paper.
By the time he reached the place—
It was already over.
Broken bodies lay scattered, the ground still steaming with heat and mana residue. The air smelled of iron and burnt flesh.
Solaris was gone.
Alistair turned in panic and shouted into the trees,
"SOLARIS—!"
His voice echoed through the forest.
No answer.
Only the distant sound of something moving deeper… faster… farther away.
---
At the sixth layer of the forest—
Thousands of thunder wolves surrounded Solaris.
Their fur crackled with electricity, fangs exposed, eyes glowing with predatory intelligence. They attacked in perfect coordination—circling, striking in waves, using speed and numbers like a living storm.
Against anyone else, it would have been a massacre.
But today—
they were the prey.
Solaris didn't dodge with technique.
He didn't fight with form.
There was no art in his movements—
only raw, barbaric destruction.
A single punch crushed a wolf's skull into paste.
A kick sent another flying like a broken doll, spine snapping mid-air.
He grabbed one by the jaw and tore—
flesh ripped apart with a wet, sickening sound.
Blood painted his face.
And he laughed.
Not a child's laugh.
Not even a human one.
---
[ STATUS UPDATE ]
» Congratulations! You have advanced to E Rank.
System is recalibrating your status to match your rank.
---
[ NOTICE ]
⚠️The host is undergoing a transformation process.
Status upgrade cannot be completed at this moment.
---
Each wave of wolves came faster—
and each wave died faster.
Claws raked his skin, teeth bit into his arms—
he didn't even feel them.
He punched.
He kicked.
He threw bodies aside.
He ripped limbs off with bare hands.
And still they kept coming.
Hundreds fell.
Then hundreds more.
Yet Solaris showed no fatigue.
No fear.
Not even irritation.
Only that same uncontrollable laughter echoing through the sixth layer—
---
Alistair followed the burned road—
a trail of vaporized trees, scorched earth, and torn corpses that led deeper into the forest.
There was no need to search.
Solaris had left a path that even a blind man could follow.
By the time Alistair caught up—
The thunder wolves noticed him.
A few broke away from the pack and lunged at him, lightning dancing across their fangs.
But unlike his son—
Alistair fought like a swordsman.
Not a beast.
His blade left the sheath with a clean metallic whisper.
Mana wrapped around his body—dense, emerald green—steady and controlled.
One wolf leapt at his throat.
Alistair twisted his wrist.
A single cut.
The creature split mid-air before it even realized it was dead.
He didn't stop moving.
With a burst of speed, he vanished—
then reappeared a few steps from Solaris.
His boots crushed the blood-soaked grass.
Then Alistair lowered his stance, sword pointing downward, mana roaring around him like a storm under discipline.
His voice rang cold and absolute—
"KING OF SWORD—"
"THOUSAND BLADE—"
"THOUSAND SLASH."
The air trembled.
From nothingness—
thousands of blades made purely of mana materialized around him, floating like a silver constellation.
Alistair shot forward.
His sword struck one thunder wolf—
slicing it into fragments.
At the exact same moment—
Every single manifested blade copied his movement.
Like reflections in a mirror, the swords surged ahead and repeated the strike—
again, and again, and again.
In less than a heartbeat—
The battlefield turned silent.
Not a single thunder wolf remained standing.
Only falling pieces, fading lightning, and the soft rain of dissipating mana.
Alistair exhaled slowly, sword still glowing.
Then he turned toward Solaris.
---
On the other side—
Solaris crushed the last thunder wolf beneath his foot.
Bones cracked.
Lightning faded.
For a brief second the forest went silent.
Then Solaris lifted his head.
His breath was heavy, eyes burning with that unnatural yellow glow.
"I need more… I need more…"
"GIVE ME MORE— AAAAAAA!"
With a savage roar he began to power up again.
Lightning exploded from his body, crawling across the ground like living snakes. The air trembled, trees bent, and the very mana of the forest started twisting around him.
Alistair's face tightened.
"SOLARIS— STOP THIS!"
He rushed forward, shouting with everything he had.
"IF YOU CONTINUE— THIS BLOODLUST WILL CONSUME YOU!"
"YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO COME BACK!"
"STOP THIS MADNESS—!"
But he was too late.
His voice scattered into the storm of mana.
It didn't reach him.
At least—
it didn't reach the Solaris Alistair once knew.