The Absolute: Humanity's Second Chance

Within a peaceful mountain range, where the peaceful summer breeze blew down the mountain slope, like a gentle sigh from the world.

The sky was clear and blue, the sun showing off its presence as usual, and the occasional sight of small animals moving from here to there.

The world seemed calm. This mountain range was peaceful. The atmosphere was perfect. Unfortunately, peace never lasts.

Boom~!!

An explosion destroyed every aspect mentioned above, the peaceful mountains, the peaceful summer breeze, the clear skies...

Gone in just the blink of an eye.

And the reason for that, was the ongoing battle between a beauty cloaked in almost all black, and a group of completely cloaked purple furred wolves.

"..."

The woman was Esther.

She paused after using "Chaos Borne" to push back the growing numbers of wolves that were after her.

The explosion covered quite the large range, destroying anything within a 150 mile range. The generated cloud of dust also grew to temporarily cloak the sky above her.

"...Grr..."

"Aw..."

"..."

But her opponents were quick quick on their feet. They managed to avoid her attack, and pulled back as fast as they possibly could.

Yet Esther had already obtained her goal. She hurriedly kicked off the floor, and ran ahead as fast as she could, transforming into a blur to the eyes of anyone watching.

"Awooo!!"

"Awooo!!"

The wolves saw her escape, and took off after her. All of them achieving monstrous level of speeds, as they transformed into literal bolts of lightning, shooting off ahead.

'This again... It's as if they are genuinely becoming lightning, and running as fast as it can strike.' She thought, increasing her speed as well.

The chase of cat and mouse began once more, the wolves running behind Esther's tail, yet never catching up to her.

Meanwhile above a tall mountain far from the battle, two people wearing gray cloaks stood unbothered, watching the chase take place.

"Miss Esther really is fast. She's as fast as lightning. If not faster." The shorter one amongst the two commented, who was revealed to be Fiona.

Her eyes could not follow the pace of the battle, and could only watch streaks of purple lightning chasing after a blur of black light. It was beautiful, yet incomprehensible.

"Indeed she is." David nodded at Fiona's comment, his cloak hiding away his prideful grin.

But Fiona could already guess his expression. She thus added, "But as things are, it seems to me that she'll sooner or later get tired. And these wolves are not getting tired themselves."

Indeed. The Wolves had higher levels, and thus higher stamina. They would probably catch up to Esther once she got tired. Or so Fiona thought.

"That might be true, yeah." David said, then his grin grew into a sneer as he added, "But Esther's my woman. And being my woman, she's not a force to be looked down upon."

"..."

Fiona kept quiet, and decided to ignore him. But her thoughts always ran as usual, 'You really are prideful of your wife, are you not, mister?' She thought in exasperation.

She was prideful in herself, but compared to David? She saw herself as being quite humble.

And as they continued with their little introspections, the situation within the battle abruptly took on a change.

During the chase, one wolf surpassed the others in terms of speed and ran directly parallel to Esther along the path she took.

...!!!

Esther was surprised by the sudden burst of speed and did her best to increase her own. But she then realized that the wolf running parallel to her, was slowly closing up the gap separating them.

'It's planning a sneak attack?' She thought, and just as she thought that, the wolf closed up the gap between them, and quickly launched itself at her.

"..."

Regrettably for it, Esther was a peak human above being an assassin. She immediately twisted her footwork and performed a backflip using the gathered momentum to carry her through the air.

The wolf thus missed its target, and it's teeth snapped at nothing but air. Esther then carefully landed, facing the wolf's direction.

Yet just as she landed from her flip, a streak of purple lightning slid across the floor towards her direction, almost snapping off her legs.

Luckily, just as she landed, she still allowed the momentum to carry her body backwards as she rolled, avoiding the attack.

And when yet another streak of lightning flew towards her, she broke her backward roll mid-way, and pushed herself up using her hands, avoiding yet another sure kill attack.

"..."

Mid air, she took the time to assess her situation as fast she possibly could.

After all, everything that occurred was too fast, and almost instantaneous. To David and Fiona, it was like dodging three lightning bolts at almost the same time.

'The first one missed me, the second and the third as well, now... where are the other two?' She thought, using one of her Abilities to fluently manipulate the wind around her.

She controlled it to circulate around her body, helping her suspend herself within the air.

She then took the time to better check out the locations of her opponents, and that's when she saw the remaining two wolves that did not attack her previously.

'There you are, but... what are they doing?' She thought with a small frown on her face.

From her view, she could see that the two wolves were running around in a circle. They ran so fast, they literally became a ring of purple lightning to her eyes.

And as if that alone was enough, she saw the other three wolves join the... ritual. She watched as the five of them ran around in a circle.

'This... doesn't ring safe alarms. I need to stop them.' She thought, yet could not come up with a situation on how to stop them.

This could be a trap, she thought. And if that were the case, she would just be throwing her life away for no apparent reason. 'Keep calm.' She meditated.

As an assassin, she had control over her emotions and could keep calm. Patience was her greatest virtue.

"Hm..?" And perhaps because of that calm, she managed to see how the ring of lightning was slowly shrinking into itself the faster the five wolves ran.

'Seriously... what are these puppies planning now?' She thought, expectant at what surprise was there for them now.

But anything that they were doing, would probably not be as weird as what occurred to them a month ago.

She and her husband suddenly 'blew' up into something Fiona considered, "pillars of energy".

According to her, the energy was like intense Mana, but more... intense. She said that it almost terrified her into fainting, as she could not bear with it..

But stuck through till the end. And what she saw, was the enhanced beauty of both Esther and David's looks. Facially and physique-wise.

Their hair also had a mixture of silver to it, and their eyes had a unique blue spark to them. Not only that, they both felt stronger somehow, as well as having more Mana.

They considered it a "Metamorphosis", and were waiting for Damien to return, so he could explain it to them properly.

"...Hopefully, they are not having a "Metamorphosis" of their own, are they?" She thought, increasing her altitude a bit.

Her senses were beginning to warm her. Especially so, when the ring of lightning finally shrunk into itself, and erupted out into a pillar of purple lightning.

"Mhm. That's nothing safe alright." She affirmed, pulling away from the battlefield as fast as she possible could.

And just as she left, the pillar of purple lightning dispersed, revealing the figures of a single wolves that was five times the size of the previous wolves.

"GRR..." It growled, it's base rivaling that of suppressed thunder before a storm, while it's eyes sparked with insufferable rage.

It's body indirectly discharged purple lightning, before transforming into a lightning beam that left behind its trail, and a thunderous roar that shook the entire mountain range.

"..."

"..."

All the while, Fiona and David had frozen due to shock. They were left speechless by the fact that from beginning to end, not even two minutes had flown by.

And also by the sudden evolution of the wolves. The air sorounding it had also changed, giving off an untouchable feeling of supremacy.

"...What's this?" David frowned. His ego felt threatened by the blooming feeling of supremacy from just glancing at the wolf.

He also felt disgusted, infuriatingly disgusted, at the feeling of inferiority that was ever so slowly, trying to bloom within his heart. It was unacceptable!!

"..."

Meanwhile, Fiona was overwhelmed. She was quite prideful, but that was due to royal blood. In front of someone of a higher status or power, she would deflate her pride.

An example was this couple she met. There was no sign of royalty or pride in front of them. One could say that she preferred a position that was much safer for her.

And right now, "...That wolf's presence... it's calling unto me... it's as if, it's telling me to... bow... to bow down to it..." She said, her words incoherently put together.