CHAPTER 57: THE EAGLET’S

’Luckily, I made an Inter-transfer Array,’ Rhys breathed a sigh of relief.

He focused his will, reaching for the small, intricate formation he had hidden under the sand near his feet. It was his final safety net, a teleportation array that would take him far away from this disaster.

He just needed one second to activate it.

But as he tried to pour his Qi into the array, something far more horrible happened. He couldn’t move.

’What’s going on?’

It was not an external force that held him. It was a power from within. The Tempest Djinn core in his dantian, the Tyrant-grade power he had been so proud of, began to act on its own.

It flared chaotically, rejecting his commands of control. It wasn’t attacking him; instead, it was pulling his body down and anchoring him to this spot.

The Malevolent Spirit, which had been preparing to attack, suddenly stopped. Its single, burning red eye fixed on Rhys with a new, hungry expression.

It was not a hunger for his life. It was a hunger for his body, for his very soul. A crimson spear of energy rushed out from its body towards his direction.

A new warning from the System screamed in his mind, its tone more panicked than he had ever heard.

[Warning! The spirit’s intent is not to kill! It seeks to replace the Host’s soul!]

The moment the message appeared, Rhys felt a crushing spiritual pressure. It was a force that did not attack his body; it attacked his mind.

He felt like a giant, invisible hand was squeezing his soul, trying to push him out of his own body. He was immediately incapacitated.

His powerful skills, his perfect body—all of it was useless against this pure, overwhelming will. He could not move.

He could not even think clearly.

He saw Yuki try to step forward, but she also froze. A look of shock appeared on her pale face. The conscious will of the Tyrant was too strong.

It suppressed all other power around it. They were completely helpless. He was going to be erased, his body turning into a puppet for an evil spirit.

In that moment of absolute despair, the figure appeared. It materialised from thin air, as silent as a thought. It was a shrivelled, desiccated corpse, a husk of skin and bone so frail it looked as if a strong gust of wind would turn it to dust.

It stood between Rhys and the Malevolent Spirit, its back to him, its skeletal arms spread wide.

The crimson spear of energy that the spirit had formed slammed towards Elder Solon, but before it could reach any closer, the energy around them changed.

Everything froze: the tyrant, the ash raining from the sky, and the crimson spear of energy.

[He used his Trait...]

A single, choked word escaped his lips. It was a whisper of disbelief and growing horror.

"Master..!"

The mummified form of Elder Solon turned its head slowly. Its empty eye sockets seemed to focus on Rhys. A voice, ancient and weak, echoed in Rhys’s mind.

"A Tyrant’s spirit, when cornered by its own salvation, can become a thing of pure malice. Its desire to escape is so strong that it breaks the laws of this world.

It becomes a conscious will. This was a risk I knew we had to take. Do not blame yourself for this failure, my disciple."

Rhys felt his Master’s calm thoughts wash over him. The spiritual pressure from the Malevolent Spirit lessened, just enough for him to think.

"An evil spirit is not a simple monster," the Elder continued. "It is a conscious will. It cannot be killed by normal means. There are only two ways.

You must either overwhelm it with a power far greater than its own, or you must force it into a weaker body. A body that can act as a prison."

Rhys understood immediately.

The Titan Golem was the superior strength, but it would still take a few minutes to reach this intersection—the only place where its path would meet the tyrant’s.

If the Elder knew the tyrant’s spirit would turn malevolent if it was cornered and still sent him to trap it, he would also have known it would be impossible to trap it with his own strength for long enough for the Titan to stomp it to death.

That meant the key to kill the tyrant was always him.

[What a meticulous plan...]

’Yeah. But how is he sure the tyrant would choose me? My handsome face?’

[It’s not time to joke, Host.]

Rhys shrugged understanding how it would chose him. The Tyrant core he had absorbed.

"You are smart, child of the outside. You might have already deciphered everything. But are you really smart? That’s questionable," Elder Solon shook his head.

Looking at his confused face, the Elder continued, "Do you know the story of an eagle and its three eaglets?"

[There is a possibility of escape... but only if you are ready to cripple your micro-dantian where the Tyrant core is...]

’Wait...’

"...There were three eaglets for the mother eagle. Two of them were healthy and strong, while the last one was fragile. The mother eagle mercilessly threw the last one from the tree... ...

The two remaining eaglets were too scared of their mother; they started to act tough and strong, believing the mother had killed their younger sibling because it was weak.

The mother also seemed to praise them by giving them more food every day. That’s when one eaglet decided to try something more adventurous.

It tried to go out of the nest and attempted to fly. It failed in countless tries but finally succeeded after hours of hard work.

While the other eaglet just watched its sibling trying hard to fly, what do you think the mother eagle did after she knew one of the eaglets could fly?"

Elder Solon looked straight at Rhys.

"Give it more food?"

"Haha. No. The mother abandoned the eaglet."

Rhys’s lips twitched.

"Because she didn’t seeked strength or talent in her eaglets; she simply wanted the eaglets to grow up. When an eaglet finally grows up, the mother doesn’t want it to be trapped in the nest fighting for food with its siblings. The mother eagle simply wanted what was best for her children."

"If the mother eagle cared a lot about her children, why did she abandon the first child?" Rhys asked, muting the system from speaking.

Elder Solon’s shrivelled lips curled upwards.

"She was also giving a chance to that weak eaglet by abandoning it. Rather than losing every time against its siblings for food, she merely gave it a chance to grow on its own by hunting smaller monsters down below.

If it died... that would be quicker than dying slowly from hunger."

Rhys had no idea why the Elder had narrated a story to him. How did it affect the rating of his smartness?

"You are the same as the second eaglet. Wanting to prove you are talented so you will get more rewards, without thinking about the consequences of being too talented." Rhys widened his eyes.

"Do you think I fell into your trap for your pitiful tries to look talented before me so I would teach you formations?

No, do you seriously believe that if I wanted something from you... you would have a chance to negotiate with me?" The Elder’s eyes turned vicious.

"Regrettably, boy... you are a bit... no... horribly, terrifyingly dumb. You want to know why I didn’t force you to absorb the Tyrant core then and make you a puppet, to simply allow the tyrant to replace your soul so I could easily kill it and escape this hell?"

Elder Solon slowly shrugged, pointing his finger towards the silver-haired girl standing far away.

"Her..."

"Yuki...."