"Are you a monster too?" he asked, a bit perplexed.
He did not feel the same sensation that he got from a beast.
<No. I am not.>
"Then what are you?"
It didn’t answer him. Instead, it looked to his left. There was nothing there, and yet, its eyes glowed as if it was looking far into the distance.
<Your planet hasn’t finished the first stage of the Tower yet. It’s understandable that you haven’t heard of me.>
"What do you mean by that?" Ethan questioned again, more firmly this time.
He at least understood that the being before him came from beyond the 50th floor.
’Did he come out of the rift too? Shouldn’t that be for the monsters alone?’
The cat looked at him, its expression unreadable.
<You have a lot of queries, human. Apologies, but I cannot entertain them all. I have a lot of things that I need to do.>
It walked past Ethan, staring into the far distance of the ocean.
"If you are not a monster, then what are you? You can at least tell me that," he asked.
’I never heard anything about a talking cat before. Nor do I remember a beast like that being found in the Abyss. Does the rift have more mysteries that I don’t know about, or is there another way?’
<You have been associating me with those lowlife beasts again. Do you have a death wish, human?>
It roared at Ethan. Dark mana tendrils surged out from its body as it looked at Ethan in a different way now.
Right now, it looked like an actual predator, not just a speaking cat.
Ethan reacted quickly when he felt the danger coming from the beast before him.
He didn’t have any weapons on him, so he grabbed a broken branch, taking whatever he could for the moment.
He used the half-meter-long branch as a sword, ready to take action when necessary.
[YOU HAVE USED THE PERSONAL SKILL ’SEVERANCE (Lv.1)’]
Not wasting a single moment, he used Severance. He didn’t know if it would even work on such a monster.
’It gives me an even more dangerous feeling than when I faced the Demon King.’
The aura that he felt from the beast exceeded that of the monster who turned the entire planet into a ruin.
<Again with the skill of yours. Do you really think something like that will work on me? You think those low lives and I, Zerakh, the Beast of the End, fall under the same league?>
Zerakh took a step forward, and even more gut-wrenching fear shrouded Ethan. It wasn’t just him who was affected by this.
Every monster in the Abyss that was nearby felt that.
Ethan matched its gaze. When he did, he saw the beast, but the beast was looking further. He wasn’t looking at Ethan, but peeking inside him.
’Calm down... this is not the first time I have felt like dying.’
He calmed his heart and decided to give it his all. If it was fated that he would die here, then let it be, but he wasn’t going to go without a fight.
<I should just devour you al—>
Ethan was about to jump at him, following the threads that were guiding his way, but his feet froze midway.
Not with fear. He had faced the same situation thousands of times, but with the unexpected situation before him.
Zerakh’s eyes widened, and a single drop of tear rolled down its fur.
Only then did Ethan notice that its body, even though it was surging with terrifying mana and predatory fear, seemed to be tearing apart.
’His body cannot control his powers?’
He had never encountered anything like this before.
As he was wondering why it was happening, Zerakh stopped mid-sentence, and his body collapsed on the floor.
The terrifying pressure that was corroding the surrounding area just a moment ago disappeared as if it had never existed.
"What’s happening here?" Ethan frowned hard. He couldn’t clearly picture everything that was happening one after another.
Looking closely at him, the space itself was bending around him.
He still did not let his guard down and slowly approached Zerakh. As he got close to it, he heard a faint rustling sound coming from the forest.
Ethan tried to sense it using his Battle Sense, but it was already too late.
In the midst of being focused on Zerakh, he didn’t notice the monsters of the Abyss closing in on them.
’Ah, shit... it had to be them. They have a knack for mana tracking.’
Ethan turned around, getting prepared to face an even more annoying opponent.
"Grrr~ grrr~"
They growled while coming towards Ethan. Wolf-like creatures that looked more terrifying than mere wolves.
Hollow Hounds.
A large, unnaturally lean quadruped, standing roughly chest-height to an adult human. Their bodies were built for speed rather than brute strength, with long, powerful legs and a narrow torso that made them look almost starved.
Their bodies were covered in short, pitch-black fur that thinned around their limbs.
The most dangerous part about them was their heads. They had long, angular canine skulls with narrow muzzles and abnormally wide jaws.
Their eyes were completely black, without any pupils or whites.
Saliva trickled down their mouths as they stared at the beast behind Ethan. They were more interested in the beast that had mana than the human with no mana.