Aruma was a veteran warrior who had spent over half a century on the battlefield. Those years had taught him how to keep a straight mind in any situation. He was furious when he received Hana's message about Gumiho's abduction, but still, he planned carefully and didn't repeat the same mistake of attacking alone that had cost him his arm. He gathered the army, called his close allies, and only attacked the fox clan after ensuring his wife and daughter were safe.
However, the moment he saw the Ancestor gulping down the pill, he lost it—literally.
All logic, reasoning, and planning went straight out of the window.
Aruma didn't utter a word. He unsheathed his sword and raised his foot forward.
The moment his foot touched the muddy ground, a horrendous Soulforce pressure erupted, and the whole Soul Domain collapsed.
Aruma's body began to transform—a godly bright aura covered one half of him while the other half was enveloped in an eerie darkness. His eyes radiated with tails of crimson red energy. White and black fur sprouted across his body as he turned into a dual-colored giant fox.
"Th-that's the legendary Life and Death Divine Fox," the army of fox-beasts gasped.
"I've read about it in the books! This is the same form the first Head of the clan had," another exclaimed.
A leg imbued with dual black and white energy formed in place of his severed limb as he walked forward.
Each step he took sent a wave of Soulforce pressure across the battlefield, turning all the fox-beasts below the mid-tier stage into ashes.
He opened his mouth and let out an ear-deafening roar filled with raw fury, slamming the remaining fox-beasts into the ground.
"So, he actually managed to anger Aruma to such an extent?" Vyomendra said, sitting atop Yamato's headless corpse as his blood-soaked hands dripped.
Meanwhile, the Ancestor's eye and limb had already regenerated, and all his other injuries were healed as well.
"Hahaha! Since you decided to go all out, I will also show you the form the heavens blessed me with after continuously devouring your daughter's flesh and blood for fifteen years," the Ancestor barked as his white fur began turning green. A poisonous smoke erupted, and his skin transformed into a jelly-like substance. His fangs elongated, reaching all the way to his front knees, and his entire body was soaked in a poisonous liquid that burned the ground beneath with each drop.
"Bwahaha! Look at my blessed body. It's called the Ultimate Poisonous Body. Just a slight touch, and you're as good as dead. Do you dare touch—"
Before he could utter another word, a booming sound echoed as Aruma slammed his head straight into the Ancestor's belly, sending his giant body flying into the air. The impact was so intense that several beasts in the army collapsed.
"This is a battle between High-tier beasts," Vyomendra declared. "If you don't want to die, leave the battleground right now."
Heeding Vyomendra's warning, Aruma's army immediately began retreating.
"Aren't you—arghh—afraid of getting poisoned?" the Ancestor muttered as he tried to get up.
However, before he could even move, Aruma was already standing atop him. He raised his paws and began slamming them down at blinding speed.
Bam...
Bam...
Bam...
.
.
.
Bam...
The Ancestor's agonized screams echoed with every slam, but after half an hour, they stopped. There was only the sound of green blood splattering, bones splitting, and flesh tearing.
Aruma's whole body dripped with the Ancestor's green blood, smoke rising from his flesh burning with poison.
"I have never seen your father this furious before," Hana murmured. "He has lost all reason."
Aruma didn't stop until the Ancestor's body was split into two.
"It's enough, Father," Gumiho begged as she hugged Aruma's back leg. "Stop—sniff... sniff—please don't hurt yourself anymore."
Hearing his daughter's cries, his crimson eyes returned to normal, and he finally calmed down.
He looked down at the Ancestor, who was barely alive and muttering something under his breath.
"F... fi... five."
"Fo... four."
"Th... three."
"Is he counting the time until his death?" Vyomendra mocked.
"Two..."
"One," a faint smile appeared on his face as he muttered further, "Die..."
The moment he said that, Aruma, Hana, and Gumiho coughed out blood simultaneously.
"What the fuck is happening?" I cursed, my eyes widening.
Aruma's transformation was reluctantly undone. "Ume—cough... cough—Hana," he whispered between coughs as his veins began turning green.
Gumiho and Hana weren't in any better condition either. Hana's skin had already turned green, and her facial orifices were continuously leaking blood, while Gumiho was struggling for every breath.
"It's the poison," Vyomendra gasped. "But what kind of poison can work on a divine beast?"
Aruma's eyes rolled up, his legs buckled, and he fell onto his back.
"In order to... to become a god... I needed to devour Ume's heart and core... but whenever I tried to remove the petals covering her private parts... it started clutching Ume inwardly, threatening me that it would crush her from within before I could claim anything. No matter... how much... I tormented her... that bitch didn't give up. So... I changed my approach... and after years of testing and examining her body... I created an odorless poison that... that... could even kill a divine beast easily. However... it took three to four days to work. I knew you would come for Ume, Aruma, so I waited for you... and deliberately let her escape while dipping her whole body in poison," the Ancestor declared.
"Wait a minute!" I murmured. I could hear the Ancestor's voice, but where was he exactly? Nobody had noticed that only his lower half was lying on the ground.
I had an ominous feeling—the same feeling I always had when something sinister was about to happen.
And the very next moment, it happened. The Ancestor—in human form—emerged from the ground, splitting it open directly beneath where Gumiho stood.
His claws were extended forward as he shouted, "Your heart is mine, Ume!"
SPLASH...
His claws pierced straight through the chest and pulled out a beating heart.
Except, the heart he pulled out wasn't Gumiho's.
It was the heart of his grandson, Yuta.