SSS-Rank Evolving Monster: From Pest to Cosmic Devourer-Chapter 58: Clear and undeniable

"Argh!"

Ricky groaned as an agonizing spasm coursed through his body, his mandibles twitching violently as though caught in a seizure. One of his forelimbs bent at a grotesque angle, twisted unnaturally by the brutal clash he had barely survived. His spiritual field flickered weakly around him, fragments of his strength drained away in the desperate fight against overwhelming odds.

Below him, the broken corpses of the Aegis ants lay in eerie silence, their thick carapaces split cleanly apart. Though lifeless, their limbs twitched faintly—residual energy spasming through ruined joints. Viscous, dark blood pooled beneath them, staining the cracked stone with a sickly sheen.

Huff!

Drawing in a ragged breath, Ricky steadied himself, each inhale sharpening the pain radiating from his battered body. Crimson blood—both his and theirs—matted his exoskeleton, dripping in slow trails to the forest floor. The scent of iron and death hung thick in the air.

"Damn... I should be even more careful next time."

His voice was low, gritted, more a growl than a statement. This fight had pushed him to the edge—facing three peak Stage 2 beasts, each one a walking calamity. No amount of technique or cunning could replace the toll raw power demanded. His battered limb throbbed in protest as he moved.

Footsteps crunched softly against the underbrush behind him. He didn’t need to turn to know who it was.

Noctyss. freeweɓnovel-cøm

Her figure emerged slowly from between the tree trunks, cautious yet drawn in by curiosity and awe. Her wide eyes betrayed the disbelief she carried, her gaze fixed on the battlefield with the haunted look of someone watching a ghost walk through fire.

"How... how can he be so strong..."

She whispered it more to herself than anyone else, her voice trembling slightly.

Hidden behind the trunk of a massive tree, Noctyss had witnessed the entire confrontation. Every strike, every counter, every explosion of spiritual force. The forest had trembled beneath the clash of titanic wills, and the victor—unbelievably—was the mosquito.

But what shook her even more wasn’t just the strength he had shown... it was the techniques he had used.

"How could he be so proficient in Demonic Being’s Howling in Ten Directions..."

Her voice was colored with something between fear and astonishment. Ricky’s execution of Darkness Pulse had been near flawless—fluid, instinctive, practiced to the point of second nature. But it had only been weeks since she had first taught him the technique. Even the most gifted prodigies needed years, even decades to attain such control.

Yet here he stood, drenched in gore, as if born from the abyss itself.

Hehe... quite shocked, aren’t we?

Ricky smirked internally, smug satisfaction curling in his heart. How many times had this demonic being looked down on him, boasted of her experience, and displayed her superiority?

Now she stared at him like a mortal gazing upon a god.

But outside, Ricky remained composed—aloof and cold, or so he thought. In reality, with blood spattered across his frame and bits of ant-flesh still clinging to his shell, he looked less like a stoic warrior and more like a devil who’d torn his way through hell’s gate.

If demons existed... they’d surely look like him.

Noctyss took a hesitant step closer. Ricky’s gaze, sharp and calculating, returned to the crevice.

It was time.

"Noctyss, you go first." His voice was firm, void of emotion.

"Why me..." she instinctively began, still dazed. Her protest died in her throat as her feet began to move of their own accord, as though compelled by an unseen force.

Like a servant obeying a master, she walked slowly toward the gaping crack in the earth, each step filled with dread. Her heart pounded in her chest, the image of those monstrous ants still fresh in her mind. What if there were more? What if—

Just before stepping into the crevice, she turned back and glared.

Her eyes were full of resentment.

"Damn that pest, he could’ve accompanied me..." she cursed internally. But her feet didn’t stop. Despite her fear, despite the unease twisting her gut, she walked on and disappeared into the glow of the rift.

Ricky stood silently, eyes fixed on the crevice, watching until her form was fully swallowed by the crack.

Then he waited.

The wind howled softly through the trees. The battlefield around him was quiet—eerily so. Blood still stained the rocks, and mana still spilled in waves from the rift like a silent tide.

Ten minutes passed.

"Hmm... There’s no immediate danger to life..." Ricky murmured.

He could feel her life force, faint but stable, connected to him through the bond they shared. If she had encountered danger—true danger—he would have felt it instantly.

No Aegis ants, then.

That much was certain. Noctyss wouldn’t have lasted a minute otherwise.

Still, caution overruled impulse.

He waited. Twenty minutes. Then thirty. Then a full hour passed.

Only then, with certainty carved into his thoughts, did Ricky finally move.

His thin, glass-like wings shimmered as they spread from his back. With a sharp pulse of spiritual energy, his body shot forward—rising into the air, then curving into a dive.

Like a sleek missile, he vanished into the crevice’s gaping mouth.

The ridge fell silent once again. Only the glow of the rift remained, quietly seething and spilling unending waves of mana into the world.

---

Ricky felt the world twist around him.

Spacetime bent unnaturally, folding inward like the crumpling of a dream. It was a sensation he recognized—a warped echo of the moment he had transmigrated into this world.

Then, everything settled.

The air stilled.

"This place..." Ricky whispered, his senses sharpened to the limit.

What greeted him sent a chill crawling down his spine.

A sea of Aegis ants.

Rows upon rows of monstrous figures stretched into the distance. The scent of bloodlust rolled off them in waves, thick and cloying. Every single ant radiated the unmistakable pressure of peak Stage 2, and every single one had its gaze locked onto him, the intruder.

So many of them.

Their gleaming black shells shimmered like obsidian under a ghostly light. Their mandibles clicked in eerie unison. Hunger glinted in their eyes—deep, primal hunger.

For the first time in his life, Ricky felt true fear.

He swallowed reflexively, the motion slow and audible.

His body started to retreat on instinct, but barely had he taken a step when his back slammed into something hard.

He turned slowly.

Behind him rose a towering wall—gleaming and translucent like it was carved from diamonds. Cold, unyielding, and utterly impassable.

His antennae twitched.

Then he turned back to face the ants, who were beginning to advance—mandibles snapping, spiritual pressure intensifying.

Hundreds of them. No escape behind. No allies beside him.

A single word echoed in his mind, clear and undeniable.

Fuck.

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