SSS-Rank Evolving Monster: From Pest to Cosmic Devourer-Chapter 44: Arrivals of High Priest ghostly face

Cold wind howled like a resentful ghost, echoing through the shattered silence of the battlefield. The air still shimmered with chaotic energy, remnants of high-tier mana clashing, crackling and popping like burning wood left too long in the flame.

Huff! Huff!

Elina’s breaths came in ragged, uneven gasps. Her chest rose and fell violently, and her once fair, youthful face had turned pale—almost sickly. She looked like a flower wilting in a storm, lost and brittle.

"Damn!..." she muttered, biting her lip in humiliation, trembling with suppressed emotion.

Ever since she was born, the world had treated her kindly. Not just people—no, even nature itself bowed to her name. The wind softened when brushing her cheek. The rain never dared to fall too hard.

But today, under this blood-stained sky, she learned a bitter truth.

In the vastness of this terrifying world, she was nothing.

No one cared who her father was. Her name meant nothing in the face of death.

Her eyes widened, a spark of realization flaring within them. Her lips trembled as she whispered to herself.

"When Father asked me to go with Amanda and Seraphina... I refused. Yet in the end, I gave in to his nagging..."

Now it all made sense.

"Father... is this what you wanted me to experience?" she asked the wind.

Her gaze drifted downward, settling on the blue gemstone pressed against her chest, glowing faintly with a calming radiance. Its brilliance was not flashy, yet somehow felt absolute—like a quiet guardian.

This was why her father had gifted it to her.

A protective treasure... not to be used in arrogance, but in humility.

With that, her thoughts finally stilled, her chaotic emotions calmed.

Her father would not let her die so easily.

---

Seraphina, meanwhile, appeared far more composed. Her stance was solid, her breathing steady—but her eyes told another story. They simmered with restrained fury.

Brother...

That single thought burned hotter than fire, and each time she looked at the monster before them, her fingers twitched toward her weapon. She stood behind Amanda like a knight awaiting command, eyes narrowed as she locked on to the mosquito.

---

Amanda’s expression remained frozen in icy calm. Not a single ripple of emotion betrayed itself on her face. Her glowing pupils were locked onto Ricky, unwavering.

A storm surged between them, yet neither moved.

The confrontation was silent—tense. Even the wind seemed to halt in anticipation.

Ricky, suspended in the air, narrowed his compound eyes.

"She’s strong..." he murmured in his mind. Her entire figure radiated confidence, power, and unshakable serenity.

But so what?

Strength was meaningless if she died.

Today, he would reduce her to dust.

Just as Ricky’s wings twitched, readying for the first strike—

Amanda’s pink lips parted softly.

"Descent of the Holy Blade..."

The words were like divine command.

Ricky barely had time to process them before Amanda’s fiery-orange spiritual field contracted in a flash, humming with blinding intensity.

Then—

Shiiing!

It transformed into a radiant sword of white light, humming with holy might. A suffocating pressure spread across the battlefield, so heavy it felt like gravity had suddenly doubled.

"Die."

With a mere thought, the blade shot forward like a divine comet, tearing through the air toward Ricky.

Before it could even reach him, his hardened exoskeleton began to shudder. Each of his bones vibrated violently, like hot coals under immense pressure.

"You won’t stop me..."

Ricky howled defiantly, a deep rumble echoing from his thorax, the words like a rebellion against nature itself.

"STOP!!"

Tendrils of dark mana exploded around him like grasping limbs, thick and gnarled like iron vines. They twisted toward the holy blade, trying to stop it.

"Fucking hell..."

But all his efforts melted before the divine heat. The tendrils evaporated the moment they touched the sword’s edge, turning to ash in an instant.

Amanda’s lips curled faintly.

Behind her, Seraphina and Elina exhaled in relief.

It seemed the monster was not as invincible as they feared.

"Hah, as expected," Elina muttered, pride swelling in her chest. "How could a mere mosquito withstand the might of the Radiant Knight Order?"

She clutched the blue gem more tightly, as if drawing strength from it.

The Holy Blade Descent was one of their most secretive and devastating techniques—taught only to a chosen few each generation. Not even Seraphina, a high-tier prodigy, had learned it.

---

But Ricky wasn’t finished.

Inside his spiritual space, his seed shuddered violently, pushed beyond its limits. Dark mana surged in from the surroundings, funneling into his core like a starving beast inhaling a feast. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"This... will not stop me," he growled, voice colder than ever.

He had learned only one proper offensive technique so far. But that was enough.

"Darkness Pulse..."

His body pulsed once—and then erupted.

A dome of compressed black mana exploded outward from his center. It was silent—eerily so. But everything it touched disintegrated instantly. Trees, stones, even light seemed to vanish.

Amanda’s eyes narrowed, her pupils flashing with a rare glint of unease.

Seraphina’s heart stilled in her chest, her mouth slightly agape at the nightmarish destruction before her.

Buzz...

The only sound was the strange, haunting drone of vanishing mana particles.

And then—

BOOM!

The compressed energy, having devoured everything it could, unleashed its second wave. A thunderous force exploded outward, launching debris and shattered land in every direction.

"Not good!" Amanda hissed, body instinctively reacting.

Her spiritual field flared, absorbing half the brunt—but the remaining force still sent her flying.

Her body sliced through the air like a meteor before crashing into the forest, tearing through multiple trees.

An entire patch of land—once vibrant—was reduced to ash. A scar on the earth, cursed and lifeless.

"Argh!"

Seraphina doubled over, blood bursting from her lips. Her limbs trembled as though filled with molten lead.

Elina didn’t fare much better. Her delicate arms were riddled with cuts, blood seeping down in large quantities.

Only Amanda’s shield had saved them from certain death.

Ricky flared his wings again, his eyes glinting with anticipation. This was the moment.

Finish them.

But—

He stopped.

His entire body stiffened as he turned, his senses flaring.

There—shadows moved. Subtle, but numerous.

His spiritual perception locked onto the source.

A team had arrived. Silent, but powerful.

And leading them was a face he’d hoped to avoid.

Ghostly Face.

The pale, ever-shifting specter who led one of the units.

Ricky’s proboscis twitched, his body instinctively lowering into a defensive stance.

"Not good..." he thought grimly.

The battlefield had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

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