Rise of the Lustful Evil Monarch (Re) - Chapter 322

Chapter 322: Reaching the Abyssal Sanctum (1)
Third Person’s POV

Ethan could feel it as if it were a heartbeat echoing within his own chest.

In the next moment, he arrived at the conclusion that it was the instinctive adoration and dependence of a being toward its guardian.

Looking at the bird, Ethan’s stern face softened for a brief moment and became touched by something unspoken.

But in the next second, Bolt looked away sharply while its soft chirping stopped.

Its small body went still, rigid, as its senses caught something—something electric.

The volatile sparks of residual energy from the demon knight’s dark lightning had reached the little creature’s perception.

Bolt chirped again, but this time with a sharp eagerness.

With measured steps and guided by his bloodline instinct, he waddled forward toward the raw, scorched flesh on Ethan’s left arm.

The area was still sizzling faintly, and its surface had blistered and cracked while dark lightning flickered along the nerves like coiled serpents.

Ethan watched intently with a held breath as anticipation welled within him.

A strange certainty was blossoming in his mind, as if some ancient knowledge whispered to him from within the void of his own soul.

And Bolt didn’t disappoint.

The small eagle trembled slightly before a strange aura enveloped him.

It was an aura thick with soul-sucking darkness, and soon it surged outward with an eerie silence, a vacuum of color and sensation.

Then, like tendrils drawn to a magnet, the residual lightning bolts on Ethan’s arm began to shiver and twist and started unraveling thread by thread.

With an almost soundless hiss, the tiny bolts were pulled from Ethan’s flesh and into Bolt’s feathers, which crackled softly as they absorbed the dark energy.

The lightning danced across his wings for a moment before being swallowed entirely into the void-like black of his whole self.

It chirped in delight, and Ethan watched with growing fascination as the little creature seemed to swell slightly in size.

The change was minute and barely perceptible, but the very fact that it was happening felt abnormal and almost otherworldly.

A faint electric glimmer flickered in its sharp eagle eyes and a spark of barely-contained energy that made Ethan’s gaze sharpen with curiosity.

But before he could ponder further, the bird suddenly teetered unsteadily and swayed as if it were intoxicated by the very energy it had absorbed.

In the next moment, without warning, it toppled forward, headfirst.

It would have slipped off the carriage entirely had Ethan’s hand not moved like a blur and caught the tiny black eagle mid-fall.

He held the bird carefully and focused especially on its features.

Its small beak was now slack while its tiny chest rose and fell in a deep, rhythmic sleep.

Its little belly was swollen, and from within, subtle and faint booms like distant thunder rumbling through clouds echoed.

The sound was strange yet oddly soothing as it seemed like a living storm curled into slumber.

Ethan’s lips curled into a quiet, wry smile as he looked at his own arm.

Despite the impressive display, the little one had only managed to draw out perhaps two to three percent of the residual lightning energy with its current ability.

It was a drop in the ocean, but still a promising start.

And yet, he couldn’t help but feel a swell of satisfaction.

This was progress, and he now had a viable method of healing that wouldn’t destroy his body.

At the same time, the bird’s growth would be accelerated through exposure to this rare, potent mana.

It was a mutually beneficial path and one that was paved with an unexpected opportunity from a crisis.

He chuckled softly under his breath and thought that this little creature was truly fortunate.

To feed on the mutated black lightning mana of a Sky Realm expert—such a privilege was rare even among great beasts.

It was not just a bit of power but a signal that might lead to the potential of the divine.

Sky Realm… a realm that symbolized not just strength but a transcendent evolution in one’s divine ascension path.

And to think this young eagle, who looked at him with such unwavering trust and considered him its parent, had started its journey with such an opportunity.

Looking at its sleeping body, a subtle warmth mixed with hope for what this bird could one day become in the future stirred in Ethan’s heart.

With a light touch, he gently tucked Bolt back into the folds of his sleeve, where the nourishment of his body’s mana would cradle the little bird as it slept and digested the supplement it received just now.

Ethan then lay down on the top of the carriage and turned his eyes to the looming Bloody Moon overhead.

It hung like a silent sentinel in the night sky, blood-red and watchful.

He stared into it and let his mind drift across its haunting glow, but gradually, the crimson light began to blur and swim like liquid fire in his vision.

Looking at it, a heavy drowsiness crept over him, and his body relaxed but without realizing it, he slipped into unconsciousness.

Inside the carriage, the girls sensed his stillness and assumed he had simply fallen asleep after tending to his wounds.

Comforted by the quiet vigilance of the old blood slave and driven by their own fatigue, they too allowed themselves to rest as the chaos of the day’s events had finally caught up.

Meanwhile, Ethan’s consciousness stirred once more, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself submerged and soaked from head to toe.

A sense of confusion struck him, and he instinctively tried to breathe, but there was no air in his surroundings.

And what he got in return was only pressure and pin-drop silence with water pressing his form from all sides in a thick, suffocating, and unrelenting way.

His eyes flickered open to a surreal sight, and he found himself drifting in a vast and endless ocean.

The water was a deep, unnatural red and stretched beyond sight with a bleeding horizon in every direction.