SSS Awakening: All My Clones Have Divine Bloodlines!

Selena watched the scene without a flicker of emotion, nothing but that same icy stare, as she took a step forward to finish what she’d started.

Vincent, lying behind her, had watched the entire fight, and even he found himself stunned by what he’d just seen. His brother had become absurdly strong because of whatever had happened to him, but what about this girl? How did she have the strength of an early-stage C-rank?

He snapped out of his momentary shock as he watched her close in on Percival.

He wanted to say something. But the longer he watched, the more convinced he became. Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t his brother anymore. It was a beast wearing human skin, one that had stopped seeing any of them as people. Just prey.

He was torn, a storm of emotions churning inside him, but none of it would have stopped Selena. Or almost none of it.

Just as she was a few steps from the tree, ready to tear the bastard in front of her apart in the most brutal way she could manage, her survival instincts screamed, and she snapped her sword up on reflex, deflecting what looked like a clawed hand bursting out from the trunk of the tree in front of her.

’Tch... what terrible timing.’ She thought, irritated, watching one of those creatures start to claw its way out of the tree trunk ahead.

It didn’t take long before more followed, and within moments, the area was surrounded by a group of those creatures.

It was obvious that in her fury, she’d used far more mana than she should have, without thinking, and that was exactly what had drawn these creatures here.

But her rage was still burning hot, and combined with the fact that she’d already killed several of these things before, it left her less afraid of them than simply angrier.

Without hesitation, she didn’t wait for them to reach her, she went on the attack first.

She had already judged that most of them were D-Rank, with only a few C-Ranks mixed among them, still within the limits of what she could handle.

She wouldn’t allow anything to stand in the way of her revenge.

Not even these monsters.

***

Elsewhere in the forest, Lirien, with Shadow trailing a step behind her, made her way toward the clearing where she’d run into that strange plant the day before.

Before this, she’d already had the chance to recover her strength and even improve it slightly, reaching the peak of E-Rank. Not bad progress at all, considering she’d only just entered the advanced-stage a couple of hours ago.

She was still a little stunned by it. More than once, the thought had crossed her mind to hunt down one of those creatures herself, just to get her hands on another one of those strange cores. But each time, she talked herself out of it.

As much as she wanted to, she knew the truth: she’d just get herself killed. Even the one core she’d already gotten had only happened because of her new, silent companion.

As she walked, she stole a glance sideways and found that cloaked figure again, wrapped in that strange dark cloth, hood pulled low enough to hide his face entirely. Only his eyes were visible, a deep, glowing shade of violet that sent a shiver down her spine every time she looked at them.

’I wonder who he really is,’ she thought.

She’d tried several times to start a conversation with her new companion.

He never answered.

Most of the time, he seemed less like a person and more like a lifeless puppet. And whenever he finally did speak about something important, his entire presence seemed to change again.

She still couldn’t figure out what kind of person he was.

In the end, though, she didn’t really care. The only thing that mattered was that she was still alive. And she owed that entirely to the mysterious man behind her.

Lost in her thoughts, she continued walking toward the clearing.

Only a few minutes remained before they reached it.

Distracted as she was, she didn’t notice another figure had appeared, one that didn’t hesitate for even a second before launching itself at her the moment it caught sight of her.

’Huh?’

She barely had time to register something rushing toward her when she felt a grip close around the collar of her light armor, yanking her backward hard and fast.

The instant she was pulled clear, the spot where she’d been standing was struck by something, or rather, someone.

The confusion that had gripped her for that split second gave way immediately to alertness, her body already shifting into a combat stance.

But just as she reached for her bow, the cloaked figure’s withered hand stopped her cold.

"Step back. This isn’t someone you can fight," Shadow said simply, his voice as hoarse and unnatural as ever.

The old Lirien might have argued. But she didn’t dare, not after everything she’d already seen him do.

If he said she wasn’t a match for the newcomer...

Then she wasn’t.

She followed his gaze toward the attacker, and the moment she saw who it was, her eyes narrowed sharply.

"You—"

She recognized him instantly. How could she not? After all, he was the very person who had been hunting her just half a day ago.

He looked different now. His skin had taken on some strange, unnatural hue, his expression twisted into something far more unsettling than before, and his eyes, he didn’t have any anymore. Only two dark hollows that seemed to contain something profoundly wrong.

"It’s him," Lirien said to the cloaked figure beside her. "The bastard who dragged us to that plant"

"Ah, is that really how you talk about an old acquaintance? That hurts, you know," Adrian said, a note of genuine surprise creeping into his voice as he recognized the girl standing beside his target.

He’d assumed she was long dead, swallowed up in the middle of that Forsaken swarm. He’d ended up caught in the same mess himself, and only barely clawed his way out. He hadn’t expected she’d manage the same.

His gaze slid past her, settling on the other figure standing there, and something in him understood immediately: whatever this was, that one was behind it.

"So you’re the one I’ve been looking for," he said.

He had received a premonition not long ago, one that commanded him to eliminate a specific individual.

It was the first time he had ever received an order like this, and it had left him both confused and intrigued. Now that he was finally here, he could finally see the person who had drawn his Master’s attention enough to warrant a personal command.

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