Void Reaper: The Essence Apocalypse

Chapter 64 64: A First Order Essence Stone

Even Adam and Roland, who'd already seen enough to stop overreacting to most things, looked completely different this time as their eyes swept over the wreckage scattered everywhere. Not just small chunks of concrete, but massive slabs of wall and ceiling, as if someone had ripped them from the foundations with bare hands and thrown them around at random. The whole place felt like several powerful explosions had torn the ground open.

Adam halted for a moment. His bow dipped slightly, and the words slipped out of him before he even realized he'd spoken.

"What… happened here?"

He said it quietly, more to himself than anyone else, but the heavy, almost suffocating silence made every syllable carry, echoing between the ruined buildings. A few students swallowed nervously. Others edged closer together on instinct, like another person's proximity could somehow protect them.

Leon didn't even stop. He took a few more steps, carefully placing his feet between the debris, then tossed back over his shoulder in a calm, almost indifferent tone,

"Nothing to worry about. We're moving."

Adam stared at his back in blatant disbelief, as if he needed to confirm he'd heard correctly.

"Nothing… to worry about…?" he repeated under his breath, more to himself, feeling the question churn in his head: Has Leon completely lost it?

Before he could say anything else, Natalia's cool, steady voice cut in.

"Keep going," she said shortly. "It should be fine."

No explanation. She simply moved forward, her steps sure and unhesitating, like the collapsed buildings were just scenery, not a warning.

Adam opened his mouth.

"That…" he started, but the words caught in his throat.

He looked at Natalia, then back at Leon, trying to figure out whether he was missing something… or whether they'd both simply stopped reacting to things that should've made any normal person turn around and run. A thought flashed through his mind: ever since the world changed, Natalia's attitude didn't feel like the one he remembered.

Pulled along by Leon and Natalia's momentum, Roland, Elena, and Adam had no choice but to follow, taking their places in formation again and focusing on protecting the group as they moved forward, step by step, guiding the survivors deeper in.

***

"My God…" someone whispered from the back.

And then another voice, louder, like they couldn't hold it in.

"W-what… what kind of horrible thing is that…?"

"A boar?" someone asked uncertainly. "That's supposed to be a boar…?"

"How is it even possible for it to be that big… and why is it red…?"

When the group, now more than twenty people, finally reached the open space where the limp body of the Crimson Horned Boar lay, the reaction was almost unanimous and purely instinctive.

Everyone, without exception, held their breath and took a step back, as if the sight alone could reach out and hurt them.

It didn't matter whether it was Adam, Elena, Roland, or ordinary students who'd been worrying about exams and daily trivialities just a few days ago. Standing before a creature several meters tall, something that looked more like a small building than an animal, each of them felt a tight knot clamp down in their stomach.

The beast's horn, thick and massive, jutted out like a reinforced battering ram. Its legs, thick as old tree trunks, made the hair rise on their arms at the thought of facing something like that head-on. A few people hugged themselves. Others stared in silence, like they were afraid to even blink.

"What… what kind of monster could kill something like this…?" Adam muttered, not even realizing he'd said it out loud.

He took a few cautious steps forward and, before anyone could stop him, slowly reached out and touched the beast's fur. It was shockingly hard, almost like horned hide rather than hair. He pulled his hand back, staring at it with a mix of disbelief and unease.

Roland didn't move. His gaze stayed sharp. After a moment he lifted his cane and pointed toward the monster's neck, and the many holes scattered across its massive body.

"Apparently," he said calmly, "whoever fought it punched straight through. Look at those wounds… those aren't surface cuts. Someone literally tore its throat apart."

Dried blood, thick and dark, had run down the gouges, leaving brown streaks across the red fur. The sight made several students turn away, nausea twisting in their faces.

Natalia said nothing. She stood perfectly still, staring at the Crimson Horned Boar with the same expression she'd worn earlier, when she'd helped Leon make it to the gym. Only she knew what had truly caused this scene. And only she understood that the answer to every question circling in their heads was standing just a few steps away.

Her hands tightened. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she flicked a glance toward the man beside her, Leon. A faint frustration rose in her, somewhere between unease and a tension she couldn't quite name. The longer she looked at the beast's body, the clearer it became: at her current level, she wouldn't be able to take something like this down.

Then Leon suddenly stepped out of formation, as if the decision had formed in him the instant he looked one last time at the boar's massive skull. His whole body tensed, and with a short, dull thump he launched off the ground, jumping more than three meters into the air and landing heavily on the beast's forehead, the impact making the air tremble.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

A few students' mouths fell open. Someone sucked in a sharp breath, like they'd forgotten how to breathe. A jump like that would've been deemed impossible only days ago, and now it had happened right in front of them, no wires, no tricks, no support.

Calista, standing a little farther back, clenched her fists without thinking. A hard determination settled into her eyes as she swore to herself that one day she'd become strong enough to do things like that without hesitation. Sylphia glanced at her from the corner of her eye, noticing the change. And the other three who'd stepped out of the crowd earlier stared at Leon with something beyond fear now, quiet resolve. A decision that they didn't want to remain passive observers forever.

"Are you sure it's here?" Leon whispered, standing steady on the boar's forehead, so softly that only one person could hear him.

Valeria nodded, folding her arms under her chest, answering in a calm, almost matter-of-fact tone.

"Yes. I can interfere with this world only in a limited way, so I couldn't take it for you like I did with the box."

Leon glanced at her briefly without a word, as if that answer was exactly what he'd expected. Then, under everyone's eyes, he drew his daggers and, without ceremony, started cutting.

He drove the blades into the beast's skull with terrifying speed, again and again, deeper and deeper, until the wet sound of tearing tissue and cracking bone echoed through the ruined street.

When he'd carved down roughly half a meter, he stopped. He set one dagger aside for a moment and shoved his left hand into the opened skull, rummaging inside with clear disgust. The sticky warmth of the brain made his stomach climb into his throat, and only sheer willpower, and the sudden activation of Cold Mind, kept him from vomiting on the spot.

Then his fingers hit something hard.

He clenched his fist and pulled his arm back out, drenched in blood. In his hand was a dark red stone the size of a child's fist, its surface uneven, full of imperfections, and yet it radiated a strange, captivating glow that drew the eye almost instinctively.

"That's a First Order Essence Stone," Valeria said. Her voice was calm, but there was weight behind it. "Fire element. You'll need it later for evolving skills, strengthening spells, and if you find the right blacksmith… even upgrading your artifacts."

Leon stared at the stone in his palm, a clear spark lighting in his eyes.

"So, in short," he said with a nod, "this is going to be extremely useful."

He jumped down from the split skull in one smooth motion, pushing off the rim of the hole he'd hacked open, and landed heavily on the ground a few meters away. Once he regained his balance, he walked to the backpack he'd set near the beast's head and, without any fuss, slid the newly acquired Essence Stone inside.

For a moment no one spoke. They just watched him, blood covering his hands, his clothes, his face, and the calm way he finished, as if pulling something out of the brain of a multi-meter beast was ordinary daily work, not something that would've made them gag a week ago.

Natalia, still standing in the group, narrowed her eyes the moment she saw the small stone in his hand. Then, without a word, she turned and walked off to the side, away from everyone.

"Where are you going?" Adam called after her on reflex.

No answer.

Valeria smiled faintly, a familiar gleam appearing in her eyes.

"Oo… smart girl," she said softly. When Leon looked at her in question, she finished calmly, "Seeing what you did, she went to look for a few mutated animals she killed earlier, so she can collect her own stones."

Leon froze for a moment, visibly surprised.

"Every creature has them?" he whispered, dazed.

Valeria immediately shook her head.

"No. Not all of them. Even higher-order beings don't always form an Essence Stone. And…" she added after a beat, "stones from creatures below the First Order are worth far less than the one you just got. But they can still be useful."

Leon let out a heavy breath.

"Damn…" he muttered. "In that case I'll have to look for the bodies of that cat and that marten later…"

He pulled out a bottle of water and poured it over his hands and face, trying to wash away the blood, though he already knew the smell would cling for a long time.

A few minutes later, Natalia returned with a small, surprisingly satisfied smile. She walked straight up to Leon and said in a tone as natural as if they were discussing something obvious:

"Since we're looking for food anyway… why not use the meat from that boar as supplies?"