SSS-Rank Evolving Monster: From Pest to Cosmic Devourer-Chapter 167: ARRIVAL OF King Eldros
A blinding crimson flash split apart the heavens above the Eldros capital, bathing the sprawling city in blood-red light. The brilliance was so fierce it seemed to scorch the storm-darkened skies themselves, and for an instant, day and night were overturned.
Down below, terror spread like wildfire. Merchants abandoned their stalls, soldiers froze mid-step, and nobles peered out of their carriages with faces pale as bone. The air quaked with an oppressive pressure that slammed into the heart of every soul, leaving no doubt as to the origin of this power.
This was no natural phenomenon.
This was the king.
Before a single prayer or curse could rise from trembling lips, the crimson figure vanished. The only proof of his presence was the scar he left behind in the heavens—a rift in the storm. Clouds were sundered cleanly apart, split into two colossal halves stretching tens of kilometers across the sky.
The heavens themselves had been torn by his will.
---
Far from the chaos, Ricky sat in silence. His mind was not on the storm nor the king, but on something far more elusive.
Ever since he had obtained the book about the man with three affinities, a puzzle had lodged itself within him like a thorn. He had scoured archives, cross-examined every rumor, and followed countless dead trails, yet nothing surfaced. Beyond that single book, there was not a whisper, not a fragment, not a name.
It was as if the man had never lived at all.
Ricky’s brows knitted. Impossible.
How could there be only one mention of such a figure? A man of three affinities should have left legends carved into stone, a legacy that shook eras.
His dark cloak stirred in the wind, its hem fluttering like a restless shadow. The purple glow in his eyes deepened, sharpening into a cold gleam, as though the unanswered mystery itself was daring him to uncover it.
Then—an idea struck him like lightning.
The guardian spirit. She would know. She had to know.
Without hesitation, his voice broke the silence, low but resolute.
"Where are you..."
The words had barely left his mouth when the fabric of space before him rippled. Reality bent, the air twisting like water disturbed by an unseen hand. From the distortion, a figure emerged.
She wore a plain black gown, yet on her, it held the elegance of royal silks. Her silver hair cascaded down like a river of moonlight, flowing with every subtle movement. Ethereal, untouchable, she seemed less like a spirit and more like a vision painted by the heavens themselves.
The guardian spirit’s gaze settled on Ricky, eyes shimmering with quiet inquiry.
Internally, the guardian spirit could not help but wonder why Ricky had summoned her.
Since the moment he inherited Saint Selene’s legacy, the boy had rarely sought her out of his own will. She could count such moments on one hand. For him to call her now, without hesitation, meant something weighed heavily on his mind.
While these thoughts flickered through her heart, Ricky’s voice cut through the silence. His tone was calm, but beneath it lay a thread of frustration. He spoke of the strange emptiness surrounding the man with three affinities. No matter how deeply he searched, the world held nothing but a single book—one lonely fragment, as though that figure had been erased from existence itself.
The guardian spirit’s expression grew grave at once. Her eyes, as silver and endless as moonlight on still water, lingered on Ricky’s face before she released a long, quiet sigh.
"As expected of you, Master," she said softly. "That question was inevitable. Saint Selene herself knew it would one day surface."
Her words carried a weight that pressed on the chamber around them.
"Very few throughout history ever managed to leave an impression upon Saint Selene in her long life. But there was one... a man the world later whispered of as the great warrior Northern Star."
Ricky said nothing, his gaze fixed upon her, pupils gleaming faintly with the violet light of his awakened affinity. He absorbed every word, unwilling to let even the smallest detail slip by. Something within his intuition whispered—this Northern Star might hold the key to the obstacles before him.
"Not much is known about him," the guardian spirit continued, her tone low and reverent, almost as though speaking his name summoned echoes of a forgotten era. "The man was reclusive, almost myth. He shunned the world, chasing nothing but power—an endless pursuit, unbound by clan, kingdom, or creed. So deep was his isolation that most living beings never even knew he existed. The only reason any trace of him survived was by chance... when Saint Selene stumbled across a recording etched within ancient ruins of the True Dawn Continent."
At that name, Ricky’s brow furrowed. His lips pressed into a thin line, his thoughts churning.
True Dawn Continent?
He had never once heard of such a place.
The guardian spirit seemed to have read his thoughts before he could even voice them. Her silver gaze softened, though her words remained steady.
"It is expected that you know nothing of the True Dawn Continent, Master. That land lies unfathomably far from Eldros—so far, in fact, that even a Stage Three cultivator, with a thousand years of lifespan ahead of them, might fail to bridge the distance within their lifetime."
Ricky froze, staring at her as though she had sprouted horns.
"...Are you serious?" he muttered, his voice caught somewhere between disbelief and mockery.
A Stage Three powerhouse could live for thousands of years without worry of age or illness. Such beings crossed nations and oceans with ease. For the guardian spirit to claim that even they could not reach this so-called True Dawn Continent in an entire lifetime... it sounded ridiculous. Preposterous.
How far must a place lie for eternity itself to fall short?
But her expression didn’t falter. No hesitation, no flicker of doubt. Only the calm firmness of one who spoke the truth, whether or not it was believed.
Ricky’s lips twitched. The silence stretched between them, heavy with the weight of mysteries far beyond his reach.
Her eyes lingered on him for a heartbeat longer, then she shook her head, veil-like hair drifting with the motion. "That is all that is known of the one called Northern Star. Beyond this, nothing remains. If you seek further answers... if you truly wish to uncover his shadow... your only path lies in reaching the True Dawn Continent."
Her words hung in the air like a decree, final and absolute.
After saying a few more words—ones that slipped past his ears without registering—the guardian spirit faded from sight, leaving Ricky alone in the quiet chamber.
For a long while, he stood there in silence, her parting words lingering in the back of his mind.
And then, clarity struck.
The problem wasn’t simply Northern Star. It wasn’t the True Dawn Continent either. The real issue was far more fundamental: he knew too little about this world.
It had been years since his transmigration, yet when he thought about it, the scope of his knowledge was pitiful. Beyond the Eldros Kingdom and the chaos he had been forced to swim through, the wider world remained an enigma.
How many forbidden zones existed? What true powers lurked in the shadows? What ancient legacies slept beneath the soil?
He clenched his fists. None of it was his fault—not entirely. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
One calamity after another had crashed down upon him, leaving no room to breathe, much less study. Every day had been about survival, about clawing forward in the face of endless threats. How could he have spared time to learn the vastness of the world when even his next step was uncertain?
But now...
Ricky exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing as determination hardened within.
Now, he knew exactly what he needed to do.
....
Noctyss was fiddling with something in her hands when her senses abruptly tightened.
A powerful aura was rushing toward them—swift, oppressive, undeniable.
Her perception had barely adjusted when the skies above the wooden castle erupted in crimson brilliance, as though the heavens themselves had been drenched in blood. Scarlet light spilled over the world, bathing everything in an ominous glow.
And yet, at this sight, Noctyss’s lips curled faintly upward.
Let’s see how far you’ve grown.
Far below, Darius sat cross-legged, his eyes closed as though lost in meditation. The storm of power rolling overhead failed to ruffle his calm. His breathing did not falter, nor did his expression shift. In his heart, he had already accepted this confrontation. Whether he liked it or not, the moment was inevitable.
But Kael, seated some distance away, could not match such composure. His gaze shot toward the blood-colored heavens, face tightening, every muscle coiled with unease.
Kael’s chest tightened as the blood-red heavens pressed down on him.
The aura above was suffocating, like an invisible mountain grinding against his bones. His fingers twitched against the hilt of his weapon, but he knew instinctively that if he dared to act, he would be crushed before he even moved.
This... this is the Eldros King.
Kael’s throat felt dry. He had heard the legends whispered in shadows, the stories of a monarch whose strength eclipsed ordinary comprehension. But to feel that presence firsthand—no tale could capture the sheer weight of it.
His gaze flicked toward Darius.
The man sat there, cross-legged, eyes closed, as if the sky itself wasn’t about to fall upon them.
How could he be so calm?
"Are you mad...?" Kael muttered under his breath, but the words carried no conviction.
For a moment, he looked at Noctyss.
Unlike him, she wasn’t trembling. Her faint smile hadn’t faded, as though she had expected this visit all along. That smile made Kael’s stomach twist. Was she truly confident... or was she simply waiting to watch them burn?
The crimson glow deepened, and Kael felt sweat bead at
his brow. His instincts screamed at him to run, but his legs were stone.
If the King truly descended here... would any of us leave alive?
