Belmond adjusted the scope on his Spark-carved rifle and whispered the only appropriate reaction for what he was seeing:
"...That is not a gorilla."
Technically, it was.
A Stone-Hide Ape, mutated by prolonged Aetherium exposure. Ten feet tall. Skin like obsidian armor. Spark veins pulsing like magma under cracked flesh. It had just suplexed a wagon. The wagon exploded.
Belmond blinked twice.
"Correction: That is a war crime in fur form."
They were 100 men strong.
A joint expedition from Silver Vault Salvage, one of the top-ranked Aetherium guilds. Specialists in excavation, Spark suppression, tactical containment, and the occasional brawl with local monsters.
They were professionals.
They were elite.
They were currently screaming.
"Why is it throwing boulders?! Where is it even getting boulders?!"
"That's Geoff's leg! Give it back!!"
"FIRE THE ANCHORS! FIRE THE—oh gods, he ate the anchors!!"
Belmond sighed and ducked behind a crumbling pillar as a half-crushed Spark-mech was flung overhead like a skipping stone.
"This was supposed to be a clean salvage run," he muttered, flipping open a comm-scroll. "No interference, they said. Minor Spark activity, they said."
"No one mentioned a gorilla with heat vision!?"
A pause. Then the scroll crackled.
"Technically, sir, it's infrared Spark discharge through ocular pressure conduits."
"I will come down there and slap the nerd out of your mouth, Carter."
Belmond peeked out again. The beast roared—literally sending out a shockwave of sonic Spark. Half the team was now airborne. Aetherium detectors went haywire.
The vein they were chasing?
Right under the beast's feet.
Of course it was.
He raised his rifle, locked onto the exposed node behind the beast's ear—the only known weak point.
"Alright, boys and girls. Prep the suppressors, charge the traps, and someone please make sure Geoff gets his leg back."
"Operation '100 men vs 1 gorilla' begins now."
"Squads Delta and Echo, flank left! Anchor casters, on my mark! Suppression Unit—prepare gravity pins!"
The battlefield had shifted from panic to purpose. Seasoned guild members weren't just cannon fodder after all.
Stone-Hide Ape roared and hurled a flaming half-tree like a javelin
Belmond ducked as it vaporized a cliff behind him.
"That thing's playing fetch with siege weapons. We are so dead."
Squad Delta scattered, cloaks flaring as Spark runes activated—wind-enhance for high-speed maneuvers. They zipped across the jungle terrain, baiting the beast into overcommitting.
Squad Echo unleashed burrowing Spark-anchors, aiming for the ape's joints.
The beast thundered forward—
—and leapt.
The shockwave cratered the earth. Two Echo members were thrown like dolls. One screamed, "FUCK THAT BITCH"
Belmond shouted into his comm-scroll:
"Midline support, keep him boxed! Gravity Pins—NOW!"
From hidden ledges, Spark-mages hurled disks into the ground. The moment they connected—
—the very air bent.
The gorilla slowed mid-swing, snarling as invisible pressure dragged its limbs down.
"Suppressors working!" someone yelled.
"For now!" Belmond growled.
"Unload everything! Create and Enhance types, initiate full-body containment!"
Before he finish speaking ,
"Boom!"
The ape slammed both fists down.
The earth split.
Half the battlefield went airborne. Gravity pins shorted. A Spark-mech exploded like a party popper.
Belmond backflipped over a falling tree.
"This is why we don't skip cardio!"
The beast roared again—soundwave spark tearing tents, metal, even teeth from faces. A mage lost his hat and his dignity in one blast.
"He's cycling abilities! Predictable, but fast," Belmond shouted. "He's more beast than tactician—but he's got instincts!"
He slammed a capsule into the ground—an ice-trigger rune. Frost shot out, locking the ape's right leg mid-step.
"Nail him!"
Squad Gamma activated Create-type spark traps: pillars of molten stone erupted from beneath the beast, encasing its limbs.
The ape snarled, tugged—and the stone cracked.
Belmond drew a short sword glowing with Enhance-type spark, veins of Aetherium threaded along the edge.
"Buy me three seconds!"
He dashed in—boots leaving trails of fire on the ground.
One slash—precise, almost surgical—cut across the ape's ankle node.
A burst of Spark-light exploded from the wound.
The beast howled.
Smoke scattered.
The battlefield stood still.
Half the jungle was flattened. Aetherium dust swirled in the air, casting ghostly halos around the broken trees and crushed stone.
Belmond's troops were battered, bloodied, barely standing.
And then…
The bloody Stone-Hide Ape raised its arms to the sky.
Its roar wasn't loud.
It was deep.Heavy.Primordial.
The kind of sound that shook your instincts.
"...Oh no.""Is that—?""Belmond! It's casting a Spark Signature!"
The sky dimmed.
Spark veins along the Ape's back began to glow violet—then burned red, like molten iron flooding a carved circuit.
A sigil bloomed in the air behind it: a swirling emblem of gravity and flame.
[PRIME SPARK ABILITY: Core Collapse]
From its chest, the ape pulled its Spark out like a second heart.
A singularity. Dense. Sizzling. A contained implosion.
It slammed it into the ground.
The land sank.
And collapsed inward, like reality was pulled into a drain. Everything—trees, weapons, even the wind—was dragged toward the epicenter.
A full-mile gravity sink.
"We're not surviving that—!"
Belmond planted his blade into the ground.
Then he raised one hand
"All units. Prime formation pattern: Phalanx Spiral."
Belmond murmured. "Let's bring back old tricks."
Dozens of guild members moved.
Even the injured.
Positioned in rings, interlocked with magnetic Spark anchors, shielded by reinforced Enhance-tech panels. The formation looked like a blooming metallic flower, rooted in geometry and defiance.
Belmond stood in the heart.
"Lock spark sync. Channel me."
He pulled the last vial from his belt.
A crystal core—High-density Echo Quartz, tuned to Spark harmonics.
He bit off the seal and crushed it in his fist.
Energy burst upward, a pillar of golden light piercing the void collapse.
"Spark Manipulation: Full Resonance Field!"
The guild became one mind, one body, one spark.
A titan of synchronized will.
The gravitational collapse surged toward them…
…and shattered.
Crushed against the wall of willpower and ancient tactics.
The ape stumbled—its own Prime Spark flickering, destabilized.
"NOW!" Belmond roared.
"Everyone! Channel it through me—!"
His blade surged with every Spark type available.
"OVERLOAD: WARSONG EXECUTION!"
He leapt.
Like a god riding a chorus of rage.
The blade howled.
The ape raised its arm—
Too slow.
The sword sliced diagonally, carving through Spark, bone, pride, and legend.
Silence.
Then, thunder as the ape crashed to the ground.
Breathing hard, Belmond wiped blood from his eye.
"And that, you oversized hairball... is why tactics beat tantrums."
He collapsed.
The jungle clearing was quiet now—quiet in the way that only came after absolute devastation.
Smoke curled. The corpses of Spark-forged trees sizzled. Guild members sat or lay strewn across the field, barely conscious, too tired to celebrate the kill.
Fwoosh.
A gust of wind spiraled down from above
.
And then—
"HA-HA-HA~! What a lovely day to rob exhausted strangers!"
A voice boomed from above. Everyone's head snapped up.
There, sitting casually on a floating cloud, was a man in a white fox-shaped mask. His clothes were weird—half martial robes, half comfy pajamas—and he waved a huge iron stick like some divine punisher.
Next to him, a fox about the size of a loaf of bread floated smugly, a tail like glacial silk flicking lazily in the breeze. She have the look of everyone own her money.
"...Cloud-riding. That's a high-tier Anemo spark manipulation technique. At least B-rank. Possibly A…"
The stranger flipped his stick dramatically. A single word flashed across it:
「Sun Goku」
And then he said
"I am Goku! Member of the SpankGodAss Faction! Hero of the peach mountain , Defeater of Jade Palace! Conqueror of thousands battle. Enemy of Heaven!"
"Now, put down your valuable and line up. Women on the right and man on left. When SpankGodAss Faction do business, they do it fair and square. Resist and u shall be punished by my big stick. Obey and you shall be rewarded by my big stick "limited to female"."
A rock was thrown at him.
Flicker casually redirected it with her tail into a man's shin.
"OW! THE FOX IS HOSTILE!"
"Correction," Gale said, "she's just mean."
The guild tried to form a defensive line—cracked shields, drained Spark, half a formation.
Belmond stood at the center, one arm limp and blood running from his temple.
"...You're here for the core," he said flatly
"Bingo." Gale raised a hand, palm glowing. "But I'm a gentle thief! I don't need it for power or weapons or domination—no, no. I just want to eat it."
Half the guild blinked.
"...What."
"Do you know how rare Prime Beast meat is when it's still warm and un-cored?" Gale licked his lips behind the mask. "Especially if the core was located in the heart region. Mmm. Rich, fatty flavor. The taste is out of the world."
Belmond stared, as if he'd just heard someone declare the most valuable relic in the world was best served with ketchup. 'So we just fought a literal war crime in fur form, lost Geoff's leg, and risked total annihilation... for appetizers?'
The Prime Core. An artifact of extreme rarity, found exclusively within Prime Beasts. Its value was immense, surpassing that of an entire town, mainly because such beasts were almost impossible to find, let alone kill. Beyond that, it was the ultimate component for forging high-tier artifacts and weapons, an invaluable resource for anyone seeking unparalleled power.
And this lunatic wanted to eat it.
Flicker jumped off the cloud and began dragging the ape corpse with surprising strength.
The soldiers stood frozen, their desire to intervene overridden by the absence of a direct order from their Captain. They could only watch, captivated by the absurd scene unfolding before them: a tiny fox effortlessly dragging a ten-meter-tall gorilla, a feat that, from all appearances, seemed remarkably easy for her.
It wasn't that Belmond didn't want to intervene; he simply couldn't. His team was utterly burned out from the preceding battle. Facing opponents who could just float around the sky? "Give me a break, this will be just suicidal," he thought. An opponent who could fly was a nightmare at any given time, especially now, with his forces completely exhausted.
Still ,he wasn't giving up. Even though the Prime Core wasn't their primary objective, it was incredibly valuable, and his team had already paid for it with their lives. So, he waited, looking for an opening to stake the masked man and negate his airborne advantage before backup arrived from headquarters. His original plan was to wait for support before engaging, but who knew what got into that damn gorilla's head? It had literally jumped straight into the middle of their camp out of nowhere, leaving them no choice but to fight.
The man name "Goku" came down, hand raised.
Chance! Belmond thought, his fingers twitching towards a pre-arranged seal. He was about to throw, to capitalize on the opening… but stopped abruptly.
With a casual snap of his fingers, Goku produced a paper tag and slapped it on the ape's chest. With a sparkle and a small pop, the massive corpse vanished into storage.
"Fucking Cosmo too… after Anemo?" Belmond feel speechless. This wasn't a fight he could win. Space was one of the most powerful elements, and this masked man wielded it proficiently. A dual-element master… that was beyond his league. A-rank, at least. He wouldn't be afraid if his team were at full strength, but now… he didn't dare.
Flicker hopped back up. Goku waved his stick lazily.
"You folks did great. Really. Gold-star effort. But next time—bring snacks."
He gave a two-fingered salute.
"Flicker, time for meal , let's go back."
She yawned.
And the world folded like broken mirrors. Light reflected wildly. The cloud zipped into the sky like a spark-streak comet—gone before anyone could even blink.
Some time later, the scene restored to its original state.
Silence.
Belmond wiped the sweat from his brow.
"What the hell was that just now? I thought I was going to die. And that guy… what the hell even was that guy?"
Belmond's heart was now a whirlwind of "What the hell" questions.
Others exhaled shakily as well, having also braced for death. Only after the intruders vanished could they truly let their guard down.
"We're... alive."
One of his lieutenants limped up. "Sir. Should we pursue?"
Belmond just looked at him. "Do I look suicidal?"