Chapter 391: THE CRESCENT PAW TOWN ERASURE
In an isolated region of Aetheris, far from the sprawling human kingdoms and even further from the territories of elves and orcs, lay a town hidden by towering pines and mountain ridges. It was called Crescent Paw Town—a secluded haven where only beastkin dwelled. Wolves, foxes, tigers, panthers, and even avian beastkin lived together in a rare harmony, bound by ancient traditions and the instinctual unity of their kind.
This was the town that Kaelen and Kelvin had once stumbled into when the Magic Pandora forcefully carried them away from Endless’s grip in Valoria. Back then, they had only briefly rested here, keeping their identities low. It was also here that they met a clever foxkin girl with glinting amber eyes and an ever-smirking face, who had sold them an Ever-Changing Map—a curious artifact that reshaped its routes according to shifting mana currents.
Now, not far from this same town, the air quaked with battle cries.
A group of beastkin warriors—fur and tails bristling, fangs bared—were locked in combat against a ferocious beast. The creature was a hulking monstrosity, its flesh covered in jagged bone-like armor, its eyes blazing with primal fury. It moved like a storm given form, every swing of its limbs sending warriors sprawling. The ground was torn apart beneath its rampage, and nearby trees were reduced to splinters.
At the forefront of the fight stood the foxkin girl herself. She now wields a pair of twin blades which shimmered with faint moonlight, each strike carrying the fluid grace of a dancer and the lethal precision of a predator. Her amber eyes blazed with determination, ears twitching at the slightest movement, tail flicking sharply in sync with her movements. She was their leader now—recognized for her cunning and bravery after years of roaming the wilds.
Apparently, she took a liking to Kaelen and Kelvin way with melee weapons and decided to try it out for herself. That resulted to where she is at that moment.
The battle stretched on, relentless. The beastkin fought tooth and claw, steel and magic, their roars echoing through the woods. Blood splattered against broken rocks, and the beast’s howls shook the skies. But slowly, through coordination, sacrifice, and the foxkin girl’s unyielding command, the tide turned.
At last, with one final cry, her blades pierced into the beast’s chest, finding the gap between its armored plates. The creature gave a guttural, agonized roar before collapsing onto the ground, its body twitching once, twice, and then falling still.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, the beastkin raised their voices in triumphant howls and cries of victory. Weapons clashed against shields, and laughter rang out as the tension broke. They had survived another trial in the wilderness.
But their rejoicing did not last.
"—Look!" one of the younger wolfkin suddenly cried out, pointing a clawed hand toward the horizon. His voice cracked with fear.
Every head turned.
High above the skies, far beyond the drifting clouds, a figure hovered. It was distant yet impossible to miss—a solitary silhouette suspended against the vast blue, unmoving, as if it were watching them. The sunlight shimmered faintly against its form, but the details were blurred, as though reality itself was unwilling to fully reveal what it was.
A murmur spread through the beastkin.
"What is that?"
"Another beast?"
"No... no beast takes the sky like that."
"Could it be a human sorcerer?"
The voices were low, uneasy, each word laden with uncertainty. Their instincts, honed by blood and survival, told them this was no ordinary presence.
The foxkin girl, still standing over the carcass of the fallen beast, tightened her grip on her blades. Her ears twitched violently, her tail stilled, and a chill crept down her spine. Unlike the others, she did not waste words. Her amber eyes narrowed, focused solely on that solitary figure far above.
Her gut twisted.
Something was wrong.
"...No," she whispered under her breath, though her voice was carried to those closest to her. "Why do I feel like this isn’t something we can afford to take lightly."
She sheathed her blades slowly, deliberately, as her heart pounded faster. The memory of Kaelen and Kelvin flickered briefly in her mind—their mysterious aura, the strange artifact they carried, the way fate itself seemed to coil around them.
And now, this ominous figure in the sky...
She had a bad feeling. One that told her this moment was only the beginning.
Meanwhile.....
High above the misty ridges of the Crescent Paw town, Endless is the one who floated like a dark sun in the void of day. His black hair swayed faintly, his eyes glowing with the vast abyss of power now coursing through him since his awakening. The mana veins of Valoria were long dry, their essence drawn into him—yet that was merely the beginning.
Below, nestled between the crescent-shaped valley, the beastkin settlement stirred with life. Crescent Paw Town. A quaint sanctuary of furred ears and tails, its lanterns flickering with warmth and kinship. Endless tilted his head, observing it in silence.
’Perfect.’
A test bed. Nothing more, nothing less.
Just as he extended his hand—testing the flex of his awakened strength—several figures shot up from the town like blazing comets. Their bodies were cloaked in vibrant Qi and beastkin vitality, tails whipping behind them. The Crescent Paw Elders.
"Human!" one snarled, his lion’s mane flaring with gold. "Why do you hover above our home?"
Another, a wolf elder with steel-grey fur, added harshly, "Your stench reeks of corruption. State your business or be cut down where you stand!"
Their words trembled with ignorance.
Endless barely blinked. Their voices, their threats, their existence... were motes of dust caught in the storm of his awakening. To them, he appeared as little more than a pale human radiating a strange, suffocating aura. They had no comprehension of what they truly stood before.
Endless raised his hand lazily, his long fingers snapping together with a sound softer than a whisper.
Snap.
And reality itself recoiled.
The warmth, the homes, the cobblestone streets, the children’s laughter—all of Crescent Paw town—was erased. It did not burn. It did not crumble. It did not even scream. It simply ceased.
One moment it existed. The next, reality denied it.
The Elders froze, their eyes wide with unspeakable horror as they spun around. Where their beloved town had once been, there was nothing but a hollow silence and an expanse of barren ground, as though the town had never been. Their Qi shuddered. Their souls nearly ruptured under the crushing realization.
Below, not far from the ruins, the foxkin girl and her hunting group stood petrified, weapons still slick with beast blood. Their earlier joy curdled instantly to dread. She stared at the empty void where her home once thrived, her fur bristling, her instincts screaming louder than thought:
This... is not a man. This is the end of all things.
The Elders trembled, their bodies faltering in mid-air. Endless did not look at them again. To him, they were already shadows. His gaze was fixed on his own hand, flexing his fingers, listening to the echoes of a reality bending to his will.
"Not bad..." he murmured to himself, his voice soft but carrying the weight of inevitability.
The sky grew colder, darker, as if even the sun hesitated to shine where Endless stood.
And that moment was quiet—too quiet. The foxkin girl and her small band had frozen in horror at the edge of the forest, their wide eyes reflecting the blinding nothingness that now lingered where Crescent Paw Town had once stood. A moment ago, there had been laughter, the faint glow of lanterns, the warmth of hearths and families... now, not even ash remained. The town had not been destroyed—it had been erased, as if reality itself had been rewritten to pretend it had never existed.
Their ears twitched with disbelief. The foxkin girl clutched her own tail in trembling fists, her amber eyes darting toward the sky.
High above them, the figure still hovered leisurely, his long black hair cascading like rivers of night against his pale skin. His aura seeped into the world, staining the stars themselves as if darkness was consuming the heavens. The Elders—those revered protectors of Crescent Paw—floated before him, faces twisted between confusion and outrage.
"Human!" one Elder barked, his voice carrying desperation. "Explain yourself! What have you done to our home?!"
But even now, none of them dared acknowledge the suffocating dread pressing against their bones. Endless tilted his head, eyes gleaming with cruel amusement. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to.
He raised his hand casually.
Snap.
One Elder was gone. Not slain, not burned, not shattered. Simply erased. His existence unraveled in an instant, leaving no trace he had ever lived.
The other Elders staggered back, horrified, their pride crumbling into raw terror.
"What... what manner of being—?!" another stammered. His words never finished.
Snap.
The second Elder vanished. The sky trembled with silence.
Below, the foxkin girl’s knees buckled. Her throat burned with the scream clawing its way out, but no sound emerged. Her group—some were younger foxkin, still considered children by tribe standards—clutched each other in paralyzed horror.
Then Endless’s pale fingers twitched once more.
Snap.
The third Elder, who had begun fleeing desperately, disappeared mid-flight—his cloak fluttering for a moment before reality stitched itself closed around the absence.
The foxkin girl’s heart cracked in two. A sound escaped her this time—not a scream, but a raw, trembling cry. "R–Run!!" she shrieked at the others, her voice breaking from both terror and urgency.
She didn’t wait to see if they obeyed. Her instincts roared louder than thought, louder than grief. She spun and bolted into the forest, her legs moving with a speed she never knew she had. Branches tore at her arms, shadows stretched unnaturally around her, but she didn’t dare look back.
Behind her, her companions scrambled in panic, each one running in different directions, stumbling over roots, sobbing as the echoes of those dreadful snaps followed like the tolls of doom.
Above it all, Endless hovered, smiling faintly as if amused by ants scattering beneath his gaze. He had not pursued. He didn’t need to. The fear he left behind was far louder than any massacre.
The foxkin girl’s tears streamed as she ran deeper into the dark forest, her breath sharp and broken as she thought. ’We can’t fight this... we can’t even exist near it...’
And still, the chilling thought continue to linger in her trembling heart—’if Endless willed it, not even the forest itself would remain.’