Volume 1, Chapter 99: Dark Transformation

Hundreds of thousands of silver crosses exploded, and the resulting white light swallowed the entire world in an instant.

Seconds later, the light gradually faded.

Mirror Knight landed beside Flame Warrior and asked teasingly, "How was that?"

"Tch!" Flame Warrior curled his lip, appearing utterly unconcerned on the surface, but inwardly he was secretly astonished.

"Tregear." Zero grinned, looking up at Tregear in the sky. "Your lackeys have been defeated. Next up is you!"

"Oh? Is that so." A smirk curled at the corner of Tregear's mouth, and his gaze drifted indifferently toward where the King of Kirelode stood. "That's not necessarily true, you know."

Hearing this, Zero's brow furrowed, and an ominous feeling suddenly stirred in his heart.

Could it be...

The four of them fixed their gazes on the continuously dimming white light. When it had completely dissipated, what was revealed was none other than the King of Kirelode's snarling face.

"Heh heh heh. I possess divine power—none of you can hope to defeat me!" The King of Kirelode let out a low growl, and the blue flames around his body instantly coalesced into a single spear, shooting straight toward where Flame Warrior stood.

"Watch out!" Zero shouted, leaping in front of the two in a flash, transforming his Ultimate Armor into the Ultimate Shield and bracing it firmly before them.

Boom—!

The spear wreathed in blue flames burst against the shield, and the resulting shockwave expanded at a visible speed, annihilating every building within a radius of a hundred kilometers in a single instant.

Zero was sent hurtling back a full hundred yards by the sheer impact, his feet carving two massive trenches into the ground.

"Am... amazing!"

Yuyu and the trio of Taiga, watching from below, were completely dumbfounded.

This kind of power was far beyond anything they could have imagined.

"Heh heh heh... hahaha!" Tregear's laughter came down from above, its soul-snaring, mesmerizing tones boring into Taiga's ears. "Taiga, do you want to obtain this kind of power?"

"Haven't you always wanted to be acknowledged by your father, acknowledged by everyone else?"

"I can help you. With power, you won't need to prove anything to anyone. You only need to be yourself."

"Cut the nonsense!" Taiga shouted. "I'll prove myself to my father with my own strength! I don't need you!"

"Oh? That's not necessarily true."

The moment Tregear's words fell, Taiga suddenly felt himself plummeting into a dark abyss—boundless, bottomless, deep and shadowed.

"What is this place!"

Taiga looked around in panic, but all he could see was darkness upon darkness. Nothing was discernible at all.

"Tregear! Tregear!"

Realizing he had fallen into Tregear's trap, Taiga screamed at the top of his lungs within this space.

But all that answered him was Tregear's endless laughter.

"Heh heh heh... hahaha... hee hee hee..."

"Taiga, you didn't think my light ring was used for nothing, did you?"

Taiga froze, then his pupils dilated. Seeming to recall something, he asked in disbelief, "Your light ring... is a Monster light ring!"

During their earlier battles, every time he defeated a monster, he had received a corresponding monster light ring.

Could it be...

Just as the thought crossed his mind, Taiga suddenly noticed that his hands had been enveloped in a layer of black energy at some point, and it was spreading toward his chest at terrifying speed.

"What's going on?! No!"

Taiga shook his head in resistance, but it could not halt the encroachment of the darkness.

"Heh heh heh. Fall into the darkness, and offer me your soul."

Tregear's voice seemed to come from every direction at once, and yet also right by his ear, leaving Taiga momentarily dizzy and utterly disoriented.

"No... stop it—get away from me!"

Taiga struggled wildly in the darkness, roaring with hysterical fury, but it had no effect. On the contrary, his rage only accelerated the black energy's advance.

His color timer was devoured, and the crystalline blue light slowly shifted into a dim glow symbolizing darkness.

Meanwhile, in the outside world, Yuyu and the other two, who had been watching the spectacle, had no idea what was happening. They simply saw Taiga's device fly into the air on its own and complete the transformation by itself.

Over on the other side, the completely unharmed King of Kirelode had also given Zero and the others a tremendous scare.

They knew Mirror Knight's strength better than anyone, and that last attack had been unleashed at full power—even Zero wouldn't dare take its destructive force head-on.

Yet this never-before-seen alien had not only endured it, but hadn't sustained so much as a scratch!

"All together!"

Knowing they couldn't take him down in single combat, Zero decisively opted for a coordinated assault.

The four charged out together. Mirror Knight repeated his tactic, using his Mirror Domain to trap the King of Kirelode.

Zero hurled his headblade, coordinating with Mirror Knight, carving into the King of Kirelode's body in a frenzy.

Steel Warrior did not advance any further. Instead, he halted mid-air, his entire armor breaking apart and reassembling to form a massive cannon barrel upon his chest.

Having learned from the previous exchange, Flame Warrior no longer dared to underestimate the enemy. Together with Zero, he assumed a firing stance, unleashing a searing beam from both arms.

The moment the beam was fired, wave after wave of heat spread outward. From a distance, the entire battlefield looked hazy and surreal.

Facing their combined assault, the King of Kirelode wore an expression of utter contempt. The smirk on his face was one of pure derision. "Energy? The more you send my way, the more I devour!"

"Arrrgh—!"

The King of Kirelode let out a ferocious roar, and the blue flames around his body erupted like boiling water, surging up layer upon layer into a curtain of fire that swept forward.

The attacks of Zero and the other three plunged into the fiery curtain—no explosion, no fluctuation of energy whatsoever. They vanished as if stones cast into the sea, not stirring so much as a ripple.

"What!"

Zero, Mirror Knight, Flame Warrior, and Steel Warrior were all stunned, staring in horror at the King of Kirelode.

And at that moment, Tregear in the sky suddenly raised his arm, releasing three beams of eerie light.

The light struck the ground, transforming into four hideously ferocious monsters.

And the aura they exuded... all of them were on a universal level!

"This can't be!" Zero finally lost his composure.

They were already struggling to cope with the King of Kirelode alone, and now three more monsters of the same caliber had appeared. Their situation was undoubtedly about to become even more perilous.

Most importantly, Tregear was still up there, watching with predatory intent.

Glancing upward briefly, Zero said in a low voice, "Let's finish this quickly. The longer this drags on, the more I worry something will go wrong."

Just as the words left his mouth, he caught a glimpse of the transformed Taiga from the corner of his eye, and his expression changed instantly.

There stood Taiga, who had completed his transformation alone—his eyes blood-red, black energy churning ceaselessly around his body, and his skin color being stained pitch black.

"Taiga!" Zero shouted, about to charge over, only to be sent flying by the energy field erupting from Taiga's body.