The Creatures that We Are

The simple words were uttered in a gentle, meandering, and dignified voice, filling the space between heaven and earth. It didn’t so much reach everyone’s ears but washed over them.

Gao Yang felt his soul trembling like a kite hanging from a cliff amid a rainstorm, ready to be swept away into the unknown.

When the last word faded, Gao Yang sensed his body and mind breaking slightly free. Lonesome Emperor's control had loosened. Two seconds later, that will and power slammed back down, pinning him like a butterfly beneath crystal glass.

Qilin's eyes twitched as he gazed skyward. A subtle change rippled through the atmosphere. The deep bluish-black night had lightened, veiled beneath a layer of gray.

Through Clairvoyance, he saw the clouds—a silent tsunami spreading across the celestial dome, rolling inexorably toward the ground.

Thud. His stomp cracked the earth as he launched himself toward the sky, a golden missile reaching nearly a kilometer high in one second. He combined Fly, Jump, and Teleportation, enhanced by combat Talents—Killing Expert, Muscles, and God of Blades.

Whoosh. Six magnificent wings erupted from his back, unfurling against the night—crimson wing of Fire, deep purple wing of Lightning, pure white wing of Frost, light blue wing of God of Water, translucent wing of Gale, and black mist wing of Phantom.

After two seconds of charging, the elemental wings shattered into particles, their energy concentrating in his right arm and clenched fist. With a growl, he struck. Six strands of elemental energy intertwined like the Pillar of Creation, soaring upward as a multicolored howling qilin, as if he had summoned the mythical creature itself.

The shockwave sent him plummeting. When he struck the ground, earth elements burst forth, forming a brown thorny throne to catch him.

Above, the elemental qilin met the gray fog's border. What should have triggered an explosion capable of razing Li City dissolved like mist before dawn. The mighty creature, capable of burning the sky and boiling the ocean, vanished like an epic light show projected onto a gray mirror—absorbed and reflected without trace.

The gray fog continued its relentless descent toward earth.

Without hesitation, Qilin created a double. Both forms vanished, combining Fly, Jump, Teleportation, and other movement abilities into a burst of speed that rivaled Waking Insects.

Gao Yang barely tracked the movement. Only the violent air currents proved the man's existence.

In ten seconds, Qilin and his double scouted in all directions—east, south, west, north, and below. A grim discovery awaited: the gray fog approached from everywhere, forming a sphere of doom three kilometers across. Qilin stood trapped at its center.

Whoosh. Qilin and his double reappeared before Gao Yang, merging into a single form.

His head snapped back, chest swelling unnaturally as his throat distended.

“Aghhhh!”

The scream erupted from his chest. A pure white Wave of Serenity laced with dark green psychic rays shot out, expanding outward in a perfect hemisphere against the encroaching fog.

Qilin used Eidos, Disorientation, Mute, Requiem, and Strange to amplify his Wave of Serenity, desperate to halt or undermine Overlord's advance.

The other awakeners should thank Lonesome Emperor's control; without it, that scream would have shattered their eardrums and broken their minds.

It didn't work.

The gray fog pressed on like divine judgment—undecipherable, impenetrable, irresistible.

“No.”

That was the first thing Qilin had said since the turn of events.

Overlord's realm tightened its noose, leaving only five hundred meters of clear space that shrank with each passing moment.

Gao Yang felt Lonesome Emperor's dominance crumbling as Overlord's will grew stronger.

The will spoke, a familiar and gentle voice whispering to them:

“Good work. Leave the rest to me.”

Gao Yang ceased his struggle, letting the two powers of control wage war within him. As Overlord gained supremacy, weightlessness took him. His feet lifted from the ground, carrying him skyward with the others. Even Qilin rose, all of them suspended a hundred meters high within Overlord's domain.

The gray fog solidified, sealing them within its perfect sphere.

“No,” Qilin repeated.

Clink.

A golden cube of energy crystallized around him—an Absolute Barrier, said to stop anything in this world.

Qilin's final act of defiance.

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