Greed: Destruction or Opportunity

"That bastard, always thinking he owns the world."

Khepri's voice rumbled through his chamber, his tone laced with disdain. His massive frame remained motionless against the stone throne carved directly into the fortress's bedrock, yet the air around him crackled with restrained fury. His fingers drummed against the cold armrest, the only outward sign of his turbulent thoughts.

"One day, I will put him in his place," he muttered, exhaling slowly, forcing himself to refocus. "But for now, let's think about what the hell is happening here."

The chamber was vast, yet suffocating, illuminated only by the glow of countless holographic projections flickering in the air before him. Reports floated weightlessly, detailing the devastation that had torn through the Earth Domain. His stone-gray gaze skimmed over the data, but the same conclusion met him at every turn.

Since the Great Purge, the Earth Domain had not suffered such destruction in decades .

The beast tide had been brutal, relentless. Even now, as he sat in calculated silence, the echoes of that hellish week weighed heavily on his mind. This was no ordinary wave of monsters. Something greater lurked beneath the surface of this catastrophe, an unseen force shifting the balance in ways he did not yet understand.

His eyes drifted to a single projection still hovering in the air—an image of the battlefield where Alex had fought the Thunder Wolf where, titans clashed.

Khepri clenched his fists.

He needed answers.

Khepri had gone himself.

Leaving the safety of the fortress behind, he ventured deep into the untamed wilds—lands where no mortal dared tread. His presence alone sent tremors through the earth, his dominion over stone and soil marking his passage. With every step, the land whispered secrets long buried beneath its surface.

But what he found was not what he expected.

The battlefield was eerily silent.

Khepri stood amidst the desolate expanse, his boots sinking slightly into the cracked terrain. The earth bore scars of the battle—deep craters, scorched foliage, shattered ley lines pulsating with fading remnants of power. Trees had been splintered like brittle bones, their once-proud trunks reduced to jagged remnants of a forgotten battle.

And yet—

No corpses.

No lingering traces of the Thunder Wolf's power.

Not even the scent of blood.

Khepri's brows furrowed. Slowly, he knelt, pressing his palm against the earth. The land responded to his touch, murmuring to him in a language only those of his kind could comprehend. He closed his eyes, reaching deeper, pulling at the lingering echoes of power that clung to this place like the fading embers of a once-roaring fire.

Two auras. One foreign. One unmistakably the Thunder Wolf's.

And yet—nothing remained.

His eyes snapped open.

A creature of such magnitude couldn't just vanish.

Unless someone—or something—had erased all traces of its existence.

A slow chill crept up his spine. His instincts screamed a warning he refused to acknowledge. He needed to move.

He strode deeper into the beasts' side of the continent, pushing past the towering, trees. The dense foliage was unnervingly still. Beasts of lower ranks scurried into the shadows at his approach, their primal instincts recognizing a predator far beyond their comprehension.

'Looking at it now, it looks like the beasts' tide was close to 55% of the beasts on the continent,' he thought.

But something was wrong.

Nothing stirred beyond the Emperor and Empress rank beasts. Even though they were present where, there was little sign of the Emperor-ranked and Empress beast that immediately ran when they sensed him, few even tried to show a little courage before running knowing the battle was a lost cause. 

Khepri's frown deepened. If the beast hid from him, he would still sense the lingering auras in the environment. He could feel their once powerful presence lurking on the land, their power woven into the very fabric of nature.

But there was nothing.

A void where rulers of the wild should have been.

He stretched his senses outward, his will extending through the land itself, demanding answers from the very foundation of the world.

Nothing.

No Legend-ranked entity.

His grip tightened around nothing, his fingers curling into a fist. The implications were clear. Either the winner has gone into hiding and is trying to elevate their power, 

Or both beasts survived and went into hiding to heal from their battle.

....

Present - Geb Fortress

Khepri's eyes snapped open.

He leaned forward, elbows resting against his knees, his mind running through every possibility, every hidden truth lurking just beneath the surface of this mystery.

'What the hell is going on?'

His thoughts churned like a raging storm, dissecting every possibility, every potential outcome. Had the battle ended in a draw? Had the victor already gone to claim its prize—to devour the defeated and ascend beyond its rank?

A cold weight settled in his chest.

A Mystic-rank beast.

Even if it had not yet crossed that threshold, and were only on the cusp of such ascension, the Earth Domain would suffer. Chaos would follow in its wake, an upheaval that even he could not easily contain.

For the first time in a long while, he felt the creeping fingers of uncertainty wrap around his heart.

'Should I tell the other Higher Clans?'

The thought was fleeting—banished just as quickly as it had come. He scoffed at the very notion. Those fools would see only an opportunity, not a threat. They would come, circling like vultures, each demanding a piece of the core. And a Legeng-ranked core was not something to be divided. It was a treasure worth wars.

No. There was no need for their interference. Not yet.

He had time.

A beast of that level would take more than a month to fully absorb such power and to complete its evolution. That was his window.

And he would find it before then.

For the first time in years, the great Patriarch of the Earth Clan allowed his greed to overshadow his rationale. The hunger for power burned within him, hotter than any fear.

Only time would tell whether this decision would elevate him to greater heights—or be what led to his downfall.