Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 128: [You have received the title: Beast Monarch]

Darkness enveloped him.

Kael floated in a sea of shadows, where time and space seemed to have ceased to exist. It was like falling endlessly into himself—no ground, no end. Distant sounds echoed like whispers, scratching at his mind with distorted, nearly incomprehensible words.

"Accept… the beast…"

The voice came like muffled thunder—guttural, laced with malevolence. It was deep, vibrating with corrupted, demonic energy.

Kael tried to resist, but he couldn't move—his body bound by invisible chains that tightened the more he struggled.

"You were born to hunt… Souls. Monsters. Gods. Everything that exists… You are the predator… Let the hunger take over… Stop clinging to that disgusting thing you call humanity."

A monstrous presence emerged from the void—not with a defined shape, but felt. Like a creature made of a thousand teeth and a thousand eyes, all ravenous, all waiting to devour the world through him. The mana around him thickened like tar, oozing toward his chest, trying to fuse with his soul.

Kael screamed, but no sound came out.

The voice roared, "A hunter must hunt!"

But then… something changed.

A gentle warmth cut through the shadows like a blade of light. The demonic presence faltered for a moment, as if something had snapped its connection to Kael. And then, from nowhere… she appeared.

A fox.

Her body was slender, elegant, with seven tails glowing in hues of orange and gold, waving as though made of pure energy. Her eyes were a deep amber, and in her presence—even the corruption retreated.

She landed softly between Kael and the demonic entity, and when her paws touched the non-existent ground of the dream, a wave of energy surged outward.

The darkness screamed, writhing, trying to resist… but it was undone.

The fox gazed directly at the core of Kael's soul—a pulsating sphere wrapped in dense shadows and cracks that seemed ready to devour everything. Her amber eyes shimmered with ancient wisdom. Her presence radiated divine calm, yet bore the weight of something very, very old.

Her voice, both soft and commanding, echoed clearly through the dream world:

"Destiny does love to shout when something this grand awakens."

She smiled—a mix of irony and reverence playing on her lips.

Slowly, she turned to face the demonic energy boiling before her—a grotesque, living mass, with tendrils of corrupted mana reaching again for Kael.

"Divine Purification."

The words sounded like a sentence. In an instant, golden light burst from her—radiant and absolute. Like a star exploding in silence, the light swept through everything—shadow, malice, corruption. The world was drowned in a warm, comforting white.

The darkness screamed voicelessly as it was disintegrated. And in the golden void that remained, the fox sighed.

"I bought us some time…" she murmured, gazing at the freshly-purified emptiness.

She turned to Kael, who now looked at her with confused, curious eyes. There was awe in his gaze, but also a restrained innocence—he didn't yet understand what had happened, or who she was.

"Your life's a mess, kid," she said with a soft, almost maternal smile.

She walked toward him with calm steps, her mantle of tails flowing behind her like an ethereal dance. She stopped in front of him, close enough for Kael to feel the warmth of her light.

"You won't remember any of this…" she said gently, touching his chin. "Beast Monarch."

And then, without warning, she leaned in and kissed him.

It was a brief touch, delicate — but enough to seal something. At the moment of contact, a wave of pure energy surged through Kael's spirit. His consciousness trembled, his body glowed, and in a single heartbeat, everything faded to black.

Silence.

Darkness.

The world returned, slowly.

First came the sounds — muffled, distant. The soft ticking of an old clock hanging on a wall. The gentle whisper of wind subtly shifting the curtains. Then came the scent — something fresh, maybe flowers, and a faint hint of alchemical medicines in the air. And finally, the light. Gentle, golden, filtering in through tall windows.

Kael opened his eyes slowly.

His body felt like stone. Heavy, numb, but… alive. As he took a deep breath, he felt resistance in his chest, like he had fought a war within himself.

The ceiling above him was white, adorned with golden details. This wasn't his room. The bed was too soft. The sheets carried the scent of healing herbs and stabilizing magic. Crystals embedded in the walls pulsed softly with a healing mana aura. He recognized the place — the academy's special infirmary wing, reserved only for the most extreme cases.

But that wasn't what caught his attention first.

To his left, a figure was curled up on a velvet blue couch, sleeping with her head tilted to the side, long golden hair cascading over her shoulders like a shimmering curtain. Irelia. Even in sleep, her face still held traces of worry, like she hadn't truly rested.

To his right, Amelia was slumped over her own legs, leaning on the nearby desk, arms folded beneath her head like a makeshift pillow. Her shoulders rose and fell with the rhythm of deep, exhausted sleep. Scattered around her were sheets of magical notes, as if she had spent hours monitoring his condition before finally succumbing to fatigue.

And sitting right next to the bed, hunched over with her chin resting on the mattress, Sylphie slept with her eyes half-closed, dark circles beneath them. A cold cup of tea sat forgotten on the nightstand, and her fingers still lightly held onto the sleeve of Kael's coat, as if afraid he might vanish if she let go.

Kael watched them in silence for a long moment, his chest tightening with a mix of surprise and guilt. They had been here. All this time.

"…You…" he murmured, but his voice came out hoarse, raw, as though it hadn't been used in days.

Sylphie stirred first. Her eyes opened slowly, red and tear-filled, as if she were on the brink of another sleepless night. When she realized Kael's eyes were open, the shock hit her instantly.

"…Kael?"

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Her voice trembled, full of disbelief.

Amelia jolted awake at the sound, her head snapping up, eyes wide. Irelia, more alert than she looked, awoke with a soft gasp and was already on her feet within a second.

"KAEL!" All three of them said at once, a muffled chorus drowned in the overwhelming relief pouring from their eyes.

Amelia lunged forward, grabbing his hand tightly. "You… finally woke up… we thought that… maybe…" She didn't finish the sentence. Her voice broke.

Irelia took a deep breath, trying to stay composed, but Kael could see the shimmer in her eyes. She sat on the edge of the bed and gently brushed a hand through his hair, as if needing to confirm he was real.

Sylphie just lowered her head, eyes squeezed shut. Two tears slid silently down her cheeks.

"You were out for a week... a whole week without waking up... we thought…" — her voice broke at the end, swallowed by the lump in her throat.

Kael looked at her, his eyes still heavy, but clear. There was something different in them now… a depth that hadn't been there before, as if he had touched something beyond comprehension.

Even so, he smiled. Faint, but genuine.

"Sorry… sorry for worrying you." — he murmured, his voice rough, like a forgotten whisper.

Then he closed his eyes for a moment, feeling a strange peace within himself. A comforting silence. Something had changed — deep inside, within the core of his soul. That dark presence, the suffocating pressure he had felt before blacking out, was gone — replaced by something more… wild. Luminous. Calm.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw Amelia watching him closely, as if studying every microexpression, every pulse of mana around him. But it wasn't the gaze of a scholar — it was the gaze of someone who cared.

Irelia sighed, settling more firmly by his side, one hand resting gently on his chest. "You went into total collapse. Lyra said your heart was overwhelmed by a massive surge of impure mana and just shut down. We honestly thought you might die."

"But…" Amelia added, subtly wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, "...after a few days, your body started adjusting on its own. Like it was… rebuilding itself from the inside. None of our methods did that. It was all you."

Kael blinked, still dazed, still piecing everything together.

"I… dreamed of something. I don't really remember." he murmured, trying to grasp the hazy fragments of memory. "There was… a voice. And light. A lot of light."

The three of them exchanged glances, and a heavy silence fell between them. The kind of silence that said more than a thousand words — the relief, the fear, the tension… and the affection none of them quite knew how to explain.

"You all stayed with me… this whole time?" he asked, his voice almost childlike.

"Of course." Irelia replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Who else was going to hold your hand and yell at you if you decided to die again? If your mom showed up, the world would've ended! We had to make sure you woke up!"

Amelia gave a faint smile. "I think you owe us about a week of sleep, for starters."

And Sylphie… just lowered her head again, but this time, with a trembling smile on her lips. "Idiot…"

Kael closed his eyes again. Not to sleep — just to feel.

To feel that he was here. Alive.

And yet… What the hell does this even mean?

[You have received the title: Beast Monarch]