“So be it. Let me show you what the true law of Sagittarius looks like!”

After his warning fell on deaf ears, the monstrous bear-like monster scoffed and opened his jaws.

Between them, a silver glow gathered and…

“!!!”

*%$#@#$%^&^%$#@#$%^&^%$#@*

…unleashed a concentrated breath attack that reached the foot of the mountain in the distance…

Anything that didn’t or was unable to duck out of the beam’s way got annihilated – moreover, upon hitting the mountain the beam turned into silver flames that washed over and rebound over the surface of the earth and either killed or severely injured everything in their wake.

Although the beam was more devastating at close range, the ones in the distance were actually the ones that ended up worse.

“WHAT ARE SLACKERS DOING?! FINISH OFF THE REST OF THEM!”

Although also stunned by the shockwave unearthly sound and the shockwave from the attack, Devios roared to his soldiers before raising his hands and commanding the frost to climb up the prone enemies.

*THUMP* *THUMP*

The monster bear’s each step made the earth tremble. He reached out and picked up a werewolf with his massive paw – the monster with a silver sphere above its head looked like a small toy in comparison.

The transformed marital artist was trembling, unable to move their eyes away from the jaws of the creature that captured them.

“I am giving you one more chance. What sect are you from? Why anyone from the Heavenly Star Nation would ally themselves with Barbariacca?”

The monstrosity bellowed but the werewolf merely cowered and whimpered too scared to speak.

“…”

Zoemi closed his jaws and reached and raised his other hand – with one of his humongous claws he poked at the silver sphere above the captured monster’s head, popping it like a balloon.

Within seconds the law of Cancer’s transformation ended and instead of a werewolf, the monster bear was holding a young short-haired woman.

“…what the hell is this…?”

Zoemi bellowed, causing the woman to tremble even more – but still, the black crystal embedded into her forehead was clearly visible.

The woman had reddish-brown hair and brown eyes… but not exactly. Both her hair, and more importantly her eyes were bearing unnatural jet-black spots as if the darkness was taking over them.

“N-no…! STOP!”

Zoemi gently moved his claw and with its very tip he started to pry the black crystal off of the woman’s forehead but that caused her to cry out in panic and jerk her head away…

*squelch* “Ghah-ghh…!”

The edge of the crystal got stuck on Zoemi’s claw and the martial artist’s movement ended up pulling it away – but then it was revealed that the crystal was attached to a root-like device branching out, and yanking it out produced a nauseating sound and the woman’s eyes rolled into her skull ash her body turned limp in the monster bear’s paw as the tears still streamed down her face.

“…those trashes who wanted more power are one thing… but.. were you all stupid enough to willingly have something like this put into you…?”

The monstrous bear-like monster gently put down the body of the deadly martial artist and asked, looking towards the closest transformed martial artist.

“…we… we are already dead… mere corpses reanimated with curses and hexes…”

The minotaur with a silver orb floating above its head, half-frozen to the ground, let out an odd noise – something between a laugh and pitiful cry – and said trying to smile with its monstrous mouth.

“…this thing on our heads… in human form… it is weird… it lets us use star power without getting rid of the curse… but… the longer we have it on, the less sane we… AGHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”

The transformed marital artist said but then his yellow eye turned completely black and the only sound left in his mouth was a beastly noise of an enraged minotaur.

*CRUSH* *MHUUUUUU! ZHOOO-HEEEEE-MHIIIIIIII!”

The beast broke itself free from the icy prison and roared lowering its head and charging at the bear-like monster with its horns.

pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ The howl of a monster trying to say Zoemi’s name…

“…no…”

Zoemi froze in place, staring as the minotaur breaks off one of his horns against his scaly leg and starts punching it instead of backing off after the futile attempt.𝑜𝒱𝑙xt.𝑐𝒪𝕞

It was just like in the old timeline…! Back then George’s mother was also a corpse kept animated by hexes and curses…! And… monster being taken over… that…

…that was Cherro’s doing…!

But… But back then it was the outside influence of the great evil reborn…!

“…it can’t be…! Miri said that his presence began to fade away, he… wait… no… No! He isn’t using others… he is the one being used…!”

Zoemi gasped, staggering back because of the weight of the realization.

*SHING*

He swatted at the frenzied minotaur absentmindedly and sliced him up without the least bit of resistance.

Without even looking at it, he caught the spinning bull head and only then he gazed upon it, waiting for it to return to human form.

When it did, the bear-like monster raised it up to its eye and took a good look at it.

“… someone managed to find the fading Cherro and fed his mana to the mana-absorbing crystal…”

Zoemi gulped down his saliva and felt chills going down his gigantic spine.

The same thing that happened to Roiso happened to Cherro.

But… did whoever invented the device that merged together star power and mana was aware that eventually, the will of Cherro will take over the hosts…?

If things would be left alone the rebirth of that filth was not out of the realm of possibility…

“Zhooo… Zhoo-gheee-mhiiiighhhhh…”

“…!”

The monstrous bear-like beast flinched hearing his name spoken – and then he froze in place after realizing that the creature that called to him wasn’t a transformed martial artist but a real monster…

…a monster with a submission collar that had a jet-black crystal embedded into it…

“KILL THEM ALL!”

“AND WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK WE ARE TRYING TO DO?!”

Zoemi turned around and bellowed deafeningly and the only person gutsy enough to respond to him was none other than Devios.

“NO! WHATEVER YOU ARE THINKING IS GOING ON, THE TRUTH IS A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE! ALL OF THEM MUST BE ANNIHILATED! ALL OF THE JET-BLACK CRYSTALS MUST BE DESTROYED OR WE WILL HAVE HUNDREDS OF CHERROS… HUNDREDS OF ARISUS WALKING AROUND! YOU REMEMBER THE OLD TIMELINE! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT WOULD MEAN!”

“…!”

Zoemi roared and Devios’s face turned ghastly pale…