SSS-Rank Evolving Monster: From Pest to Cosmic Devourer-Chapter 118: you okay

Just then, a voice echoed with childlike wonder.

"So pretty!"

The stunned exclamation belonged to Forty-Two. Her eyes sparkled with awe, her mouth slightly open as she gazed at the two women who had just emerged from their cocoons.

And who could blame her?

Even Ricky, who had seen his fair share of monsters, warriors, and divine beings, couldn’t help but admire the sight before him.

They were breathtaking.

---

Dark Shadow stood tall, her form radiating a presence that was both beautiful and terrifying. She looked less like someone born of flesh and more like a divine sculpture chiseled by celestial hands—though certainly not the Undead God’s.

No. This beauty was not twisted or sinister.

This was elegant. Eternal. Untamed.

She wore a sleek, obsidian-black bodysuit that clung to her like liquid metal, streaked with glowing purple-pink vein-like cracks that pulsed with faint magical energy. The patterns flickered like starlight trapped under glass, twisting and branching like the roots of some ancient, arcane tree.

And from her back, spiderweb-like appendages unfurled—thin, beautiful, and horrifying all at once. They shimmered faintly, suspended in the air, making her look like a dark arachnid goddess who had descended from a higher realm.

Even the very air around her seemed to fall quiet.

---

Beside her stood Alexandria, no less divine.

Her presence was far warmer, more vibrant—yet just as intense.

Golden eyes with a hint of feline tilt narrowed into sharp slits as they scanned the room. Then, in the blink of an eye, they softened, glowing purple as they locked onto a single figure.

Boar.

Her long, silver-white hair rippled like water under moonlight, catching the faint glow of the inheritance space. The moment she saw him, her entire aura shifted. Her sleek tail, once curled neatly behind her, began swaying from side to side in clear, unmistakable joy.

No words were exchanged.

She simply stepped forward, the soft pads of her feet barely making a sound. Each motion was smooth, fluid—almost predatory—but warm. Alive.

And yet... she stopped not before Boar, but in front of Ricky.

---

For a long breath, silence reigned in the inheritance space.

Ricky stared at Dark Shadow, and she stared back at him—eyes that were still sharp, still cold, but with something else beneath. A flicker of familiarity. Of acknowledgment.

Neither of them were talkers.

There was no grand reunion. No teary embraces or emotional breakdowns.

Only silence.

Until Ricky finally sighed, his compound eyes dimming slightly as he spoke in a tone so casual, it barely rose above a whisper:

"You okay?"

That was it.

There was no need for more.

Because that single question held everything: concern, relief, understanding—and a promise that, no matter what had happened, they were still standing.

And that... was enough.

Dark Shadow simply nodded, the corners of her lips curving into a rare, delicate smile.

There were so many questions she wanted to ask—so many thoughts storming inside her heart.

Where was she?

Hadn’t she been burned alive by those merciless bastards?

What was this strange space, and who were these unfamiliar faces standing around her?

How was their home—the Emerald Green Forest? Had it survived?

The answers itched on the tip of her tongue.

But she didn’t ask.

There was no rush.

Time would reveal everything. For now, just standing here, alive and beside him, was enough.

Sensing her restraint, Alexandria also chose silence. Whatever hushed conversation she had been having with Boar ended in an instant. Her glowing eyes flickered between faces but didn’t linger. There would be time for talk later. Now wasn’t the moment.

Ricky stood a few steps back, quietly observing everything. His compound eyes reflected the scene like countless mirrors, and a subtle curve tugged at the edge of his mandibles—a faint smile only those who truly knew him could recognize.

He didn’t say anything either.

Instead, with a single silent command, he instructed the Guardian Spirit:

Send them out.

The space around them responded instantly.

A ripple of light, invisible to the eye but unmistakable to the soul, surged across the inheritance ground. One by one, the figures of his companions shimmered—and vanished.

---

The outside world was very different.

A young woman in flowing white robes moved from camp to camp across the scarred edges of the Emerald Green Forest, her steps slow but steady, her presence like a balm to the weary and wounded.

Wherever she walked, hope followed.

She offered no long speeches, no divine proclamations—only healing light from her hands and unshakable determination in her eyes.

The moment news spread of her appearance, villagers, soldiers, even broken cultivators gathered in droves.

Voices rose, echoing through tents and crumbling huts:

"Long live the White Nightingale!"

"The healer of light has come!"

They cheered her name like a prayer whispered to the heavens.

This woman... was Felicia.

After Robert’s death, no one expected her to stay. Many thought she’d retreat back to her empire, to the comfort of holy cities and divine temples.

But she hadn’t.

She stayed.

She healed the wounded.

And she watched.

No one knew the reason for her decision. Not even her closest retainers could decipher her intent.

But deep in her heart, Felicia knew.

After healing yet another group of refugee children, she wiped the sweat from her brow, her delicate face pale with exhaustion but glowing with conviction.

Her eyes, once filled with reverence for the divine, now burned with personal purpose.

"I can’t leave this place... not yet. Not until I take care of the undead princess."

That girl, Forty-Two, was no ordinary spawn of the Undead God.

She was... something else.

Felicia had encountered her kind before. Undead princes and princesses from the death planes—soulless warlords cloaked in shadow and death.

But this one?

She felt dangerous. Too dangerous.

Not just because of her powers, but because of the illusion she wore—an illusion of innocence, of fragility, of humanity.

It wasn’t just a disguise.

It was bait.

Felicia’s grip tightened around her staff as she continued walking through the devastated camps.

"If I let my guard down even for a moment... this world may not survive what’s coming."

But that wasn’t her only worry.

As she turned her gaze to the distant trees that bordered the spiritual boundary of the forest, another name echoed in her heart:

"Venom Fang Sovereign."

Where had he gone?

What was he planning?

"Now," she whispered to herself, her silver hair catching the afternoon sunlight, "I can finally begin my investigation."

Her eyes narrowed with new resolve.

This forest had too many secrets... and she intended to uncover every last one.

Some time ago, she had felt it—that heavy, suffocating aura that once blanketed the Emerald Green Forest—suddenly disappear.

It wasn’t subtle. It was like a thick fog had been torn away in an instant.

And now...

Felicia’s eyes narrowed sharply, her steps halting for a brief moment as she stood amidst swaying trees.

She felt him again.

That unmistakable presence, sharp and oppressive like the tip of a dagger pressed against one’s throat.

Ricky.

Her mind wavered for a moment. Could I have been wrong? Had his aura never left in the first place? Was the earlier disappearance nothing but an illusion—a clever trick?

The possibility lingered... for only a heartbeat.

"No," she murmured aloud, her voice cold and certain. "I wasn’t wrong. That pressure vanished. Completely. Something happened."

But what?

Her grip on her staff tightened.

"I can’t afford to be careless. I have to investigate."

Without wasting another second, Felicia broke into a run. Her white robes fluttered behind her like the wings of a dove as she moved swiftly through the thickening woods, heading straight toward the looming silhouette of the wooden castle in the distance.

The castle—deep within the Emerald Green Forest—was no longer a forbidden zone.

With the disappearance of the undead princess Zygote, the forest had transformed from one of the most dangerous regions in Eldros into its most secure sanctuary.

Word had spread like wildfire.

All across the kingdom, stories passed from village to city square: "The Emerald Green Forest is safe now. Safer than even the royal capital."

And in desperate times, hope—even the faintest glimmer—was a blazing torch.

So they came.

In droves.

Men, women, children. The injured. The hopeless. The faithful.

A mass migration began, flooding the forest with souls seeking shelter.

Tattered caravans creaked through narrow paths.

Old warriors limped alongside desperate refugees.

Healers pitched tents beneath ancient trees, and spiritual practitioners erected protective arrays.

The Emerald Green Forest, once feared, had now become a sanctuary.

But its sudden fame... was not without consequence.

---

Northern Plains

Far away, beyond the peaceful borders of the forest, chaos reigned.

The Northern Plains—once a fertile sea of waving green—had turned into a wasteland of death.

Gone were the songs of birds. Gone was the scent of blooming flora.

All that remained was rot and ash.

A bone-chilling wind swept through the lifeless landscape. The air itself had changed—tainted and heavy, cold and sharp like a blade pressing against bare skin.

Even the sky seemed darker above these lands.

And beneath it, they moved.

Millions upon millions of undead blanketed the plains like a disease given form.

Their bodies twisted. Mangled. Wrong.

Some were missing their heads, yet still they walked.

Others dragged a single arm, or limped on shattered knees.

Their hollow cries rang out in unison—a choir of the damned.

They wandered in eerie synchronization... until the moment flesh appeared.

The moment they sensed a beating heart.

Then their aimless movement transformed into madness.

Every single one of them—no matter how broken, no matter how slow—lunged like starving beasts toward the scent of life.

They didn’t stop.

They didn’t hesitate.

They devoured—ripping, tearing, clawing—until nothing but blood and bones remained.

And above them all, somewhere in the heart of this rotting empire, an undead commander watched in silence.

His eyes glowed faintly from beneath his blackened helmet, his cloak dragging through the snowless, frostbitten earth.

Something had changed.

He could feel the shift in the balance. The forest had awakened. Something—someone—was disrupting their plans.

Soon, the commander thought.

Soon, the dead would march once more—and this time, there would be no sanctuary. freёwebnoѵel.com

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m fre𝒆webnov(e)l.com