The Psychopathic Beast Emperor-Chapter 64: Death and Revival

The viewing space exploded with disbelief so dense it sucked the air out of the place. For a single, impossible heartbeat, the massive projection hung frozen on Bahamut’s fallen body. Blood spread beneath him, dark and final. The Eliminator stood over the corpse like a crowned executioner, its shadow the field whole.

Then... chaos!

"What?!"

"No..."

"That’s impossible!"

"He... he just..."

Voices crashed into one another like colliding waves. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

A young girl with short white hair and short oni horns screamed. A junior disciple dropped to their knees, eyes wide and unblinking. Several elders in the meeting room surged to their feet so hard their chairs scraped violently against the stone floor.

Elder Derek’s face went white.

He died!

The word echoed through his mind like a hammer strike.

"Impossible," he snarled, aura flaring uncontrollably. "That boy’s regeneration... he was winning!"

Elder Karesh laughed, sharp and incredulous, almost hysterical. "He fought a Tier 2 Dark Phantom Scorpio for that long at Circle of Spirit, and you’re telling me this ends like that?"

Elder Frugo swallowed hard. "His combat comprehension was accelerating mid-fight. He was adapting in real time."

A murmur rippled through the chamber at that.

But Iset laughed.

A low, delighted sound that crawled up spines and made skin prickle.

"In the end... he died," she said, eyes shining unnaturally bright.

Several elders turned toward her in disbelief.

"And?" she continued, licking a trace of blood-red light from her lips as if tasting the moment. "Did you see the Eliminator?"

The projection shifted slightly.

The Dark Phantom Scorpio was no longer advancing. Its posture had changed into something guarded and tense. One of its legs trembled faintly. Dark ichor dripped from multiple wounds that should never have been inflicted by a Circle of Spirit cultivator.

"It hesistated," Iset whispered, reverent. "A controlled, trained Eliminator... hesitated.

Chief Elder Sekhem finally rose. The room fell silent instantly.

His gaze was fixed on Bahamut’s body, ancient eyes unreadable.

"He forced a Tier 2 execution beast to abadon efficiency," Sekhem said slowly. "He disrupted its pattern, drew blood, and triggered caution from it. That is not failure."

Ren’s image appeared briefly on the projection, his small body trembling from rage, his aura flaring violently shocking the elders and audience again.

Exildra had collapsed beside his corpse, her hands shaking, while her face twisted in horror and denial.

"Iset... your beast failed for the first time and..." Chief Elder Sekhem stated in cold voice but was cut short by the new scene on the projection.

The projection flickered.

Crimson lines tore across the image, spiraling upward from Bahamut’s corpse like veins of fire.

Elder Iset’s grin widened, manic and feral.

"Oh?" she breathed. "What’s this now...?"

Chief Elder Sekhem’s eyes narrowed for the first time in decades.

"...Interesting," he murmured. The audience leaned forward as one.

...

Darkness...

Not the quiet kind nor the gentle kind that people romanticized.

This darkness was crowded.

It pressed against Bahamut from all sides, thick and viscous, like wading through coagulated night... It was familiar.

There was no pain to be felt anymore... only a heavy awareness: the distant echo of a body that no longer functioned.

Then he saw it. A screen ignited in the void... crimson with black details, unlike the one he knew.

[SYSTEM OVERRIDE]

Path of Reincarnation Activated!

Status: Eligible

Cause of Death: Confirmed

Do you wish to reincarnate?

Destination: Selectable

...

He wasn’t surprised... not at all. This was all too familiar, excluding the system screen and the fact that he could make a choice. He could choose where he wanted to reincarnate, unlike in the past.

He didn’t hesitate...

"Same world," he rasped, though he had no lungs or throat. "Same place..."

There was a pause... then...

[Destination Confirmed!]

Method: Revival

Note: Survival not guaranteed.

...

"Good," Bahamut replied.

Then...

THUD!

His consciousness slammed back into flesh.

...

Bahamut’s body jerked, shocking all those who were watching the scene unfold.

His corpse twitched violently on the shattered ground. Blood that had already cooled shuddered, then began to crawl back toward torn veins and ruptured muscle as if pulled by invisible threads.

Cracks spiderwebbed across his chest.

The hole where his heart had been pierced knit itself shut, flesh dragging together with wet, grinding sounds.

Bones creaked, organs reformed. His ribcage snapped back into alignment with a sound like a coffin slamming closed.

The earth around him blackened.

A dark aura poured out of his body, thick and choking, crawling across the grass like living smoke. Flowers wilted instantly. The soil turned brittle and gray. The air temperature plummeted.

Death Intent!

Killing intent was nothing compared to what this was. This was the feeling of death, the presence of death. An omen!

Bahamut’s fingers curled, slowly, jerking unnaturally like a corpse remembering how to move.

His blindfold, soaked and torn, slid loose and fell aside.

His eyes opened to reveal red eyes.

They were no longer gray and blind-looking, but a deep, abyssal crimson, glowing faintly in the dark aura that clung to him like a shroud. The scleras were pitch black.

He was no longer human.

Bahamut rose... He dragged himself upright like a revenant clawing out of a grave, his joints cracking, and his posture wrong for a second.

His head tilted weirdly...

"That worked..." he muttered, voice hollow, layered with something cold and ancient beneath it.

...

Elsewhere on the field...

Ren had lost himself.

His small body was wreathed in unstable aura as he slammed into the Eliminator with everything he had, claws glowing, eyes wild.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Ren screamed, slamming his aura against the beast’s armored limb.

The scorpion retaliated instantly.

Its tail whipped around, space distorting as shadow swallowed the strike.

Ren barely twisted away, fur singed, body thrown across the ground.

He skidded, rolled, and came up on one knee.

Then he felt it.

His ears flattened.

His pupils shrank.

That aura...

His breath caught.

"...Bahamut?"

The world lurched.

A pressure so heavy it felt like the sky itself had dropped a hand on his spine, crushing him down on the battlefield. Ren’s instincts screamed, not danger, not fear.

Move. Now.

He vanished in a flash.

Reappeared beside Exildra just as her eyes snapped open, breath frosting in the suddenly freezing air.

"W-what?" she started, shivering violently.

Ren didn’t explain.

He grabbed her wrist.

"RUN," he shouted, voice raw with panic. "Don’t look back, don’t argue; JUST RUN!"

The ground behind them exploded.

Not with sound.

With force.

A shockwave rippled outward as Bahamut moved.

Not stepped.

Not dashed.

He displaced.

The air screamed as his presence tore through it, pressure crashing outward like a tidal wave. Trees bent. Stones cracked. Exildra was thrown forward despite Ren’s grip, breath knocked from her lungs.

Her heart hammered in terror.

"That... that’s not..." she gasped.

Ren didn’t slow.

"That’s him," he said, voice shaking. "And it isn’t."

Behind them, the field fell silent.

Then something roared, low, distorted, and wrong.

The hunt had resumed.

But this time...

Death was the one walking forward.