Raiden sat cross-legged under the shade of a tree near the flowing river as he listened to the sound of nature and meditated.

It had been fifteen days since he came back from the competition, and he had been focusing on training to cross the Silver Threshold.

Normally, it is not that hard to evolve into a Silver Tier Battle Master, but his case is unique.

In normal cases, both the Battle Master and their partner Terra Beast train together for a period of time until the Terra Beast hits its ceiling of growth or potential in that tier.

To grow even further and stronger, they need to evolve into something even more.

Their partners likewise grew even stronger every time they broke past a potential limit in the same tier while using the training manual and meditation.

Just like that, they form a mutually reinforcing system, where both Battle Masters and a Terra Beast help each other in evolving and growing stronger together at a much faster pace and break the natural limits.

At least that is what usually happens in normal circumstances.

But the bond that Raiden and Woolie shared, it was anything but normal.

After evolving into the EX Tier Bronze Terra Beast, Woolie had grown to become an utterly different and terrifying beast altogether.

He had become so strong that nothing in the bronze level was able to pose a challenge to him at all. So he had started challenging the Silver Tier Terrans that lived deeper into the forest.

And the scary part was, he won and had just kept winning. There was not a single Terra Beast in Silver Tier that was able to pose a challenge to him in general.

At the Bronze Tier, he had already sat on the very top of the Silver Tier in battle powers, considering challenging the Gold Tier Terra Beast next. He was sure he hadn’t heard of any Terran more absurd than this.

Usually, Raiden should be very happy and celebrate this fact. After all, the stronger Woolie was, the safer he would be in the future. But that was only if the situation wasn’t so absurd.

Woolie had gotten so strong, so fast that Raiden’s body wasn’t able to keep up with him. Now he was left playing catch-up, and that’s what he had been doing for the past fifteen days.

He had pushed aside all the tasks and work temporarily to focus on growing stronger and transitioning into a Silver Tier Battle Master at the fastest speed possible. He had been training day and night, cutting his sleep and leisure time to just 5 hours in total, almost becoming twice as strong as before, but even that wasn’t enough.

"Aree you readyy Rai Rai~?" A cold yet concerned hiss sounded in front of Raiden as he looked at the large golden eyes blinking and staring straight at him.

’So it still had to come down to this, huh?’ Raiden thought bitterly to himself. He wanted to avoid this route if possible, but life wasn’t that kind.

"Yes, I am ready, Aunt. Please begin the blood cleansing ritual." Raiden spoke with conviction in his voice.

"Are you suree?? This process will be unimaginably painfull~ You can still trainn normallyy. It’s just threee monthss." Ruby muttered in concern as she looked at him.

Hearing this, Raiden fell into a thought for less than a second before he snapped back to attention immediately.

"Yes, I am sure, Aunt. I don’t want to wait that long. I don’t have time. I’d rather take care of that thing sooner than later." Raiden muttered with conviction in his voice.

Woolie had grown so strong that it would take approximately three more months of training for him to even come close to physical compatibility. He was originally happy to move at that pace. After all, he had all the time in the world.

But then he came across that issue, and it became all the more important to him to grow stronger at a much faster pace. He couldn’t afford to wait too long.

That’s when he came across the idea of approaching his Aunt for ideas and help. And help she did. So he spent the rest of the month making his body strong enough to handle it.

"So basically, during this ’Blood Cleansing Ritual’, I just had to sit still, and you will do all the work for me??" Raiden asked curiously.

"Yesss. I will extract blood from yourr whole bodyy before refining it into onee without impurityy." Ruby explained simply.

"And after that, thicker and denser blood returns to my body, you will use your skill to manipulate it and strengthen my body in return at a rapid rate, and repeat this process until I am strong enough for Woolie." Raiden finished her explanation, nodding at it.

"Yesss. But it’ll be veryy painfull." As an Empress of All That Is Crimson, manipulating blood in someone’s body and refining it into a stronger form was super easy for her. In fact, she was worried she might refine it into something too powerful, and it might end up bursting the whole body apart with him.

"Alright, let’s begin then," Raiden answered calmly.

Ruby coiled her massive body slowly around Raiden in a loose spiral, her scales gleaming under the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees. The river kept flowing peacefully beside them, indifferent to what was about to happen.

"Closee your eyess and don’t movee, no matter whatt." Ruby instructed gently, her golden eyes narrowing in focus.

Raiden took one last look at the peaceful scenery around him.

The green grass. The flowing river. The sound of Woolie causing a ruckus somewhere in the distance.

’Ah. What a nice day to suffer.’

He closed his eyes.

For a moment, nothing happened. Just the sound of wind, the river, and the other Terra Beasts, rhythmic breathing filled his ears as he prepared himself.

Then it began.

It started small. A tingling sensation in his fingertips was barely noticeable. Like pins and needles after a long sleep.

’Oh. This isn’t so bad actually—’

CRACK.

It felt like someone had grabbed every single vein in his right arm and pulled.

"GHHK—"

Raiden’s jaw clamped shut as his whole body lurched. His hands balled into fists on his knees so hard his knuckles went white.

’WHAT IN THE—’

The sensation travelled up his arm like a lit fuse, burning through his shoulder, down his chest, splitting off in every direction at once as Ruby began her work in earnest.

It felt like his blood had suddenly turned into this liquid fire and had decided to act accordingly, wreaking havoc across his entire body.

"Breathee slowly. Don’t hold your breathh." Ruby’s voice was low and controlled. Hearing this, Raiden tried to focus on it.

Raiden forced air through his nose.

In. Out. In. Out.

’In. Out. In. Out. IN. OUT. WHY IS THIS—’

CRACK. CRACK.

Two more veins. He could feel them one by one as Ruby isolated them, pulled the blood through them at a controlled rate, extracted it from his body, refined it outside, and pushed it back in.

He had been told what the process would feel like in theory.

But the theory was a liar and a coward.

In practice, it felt like being slowly unmade and remade cell by cell, with no anaesthesia and no mercy.

His teeth were grinding so hard that he was genuinely concerned about his molars.

’Okay. It’s going to be okay. You are fine. People have survived worse than this. Old Man Sol made Kael’s bones crack without touching him, and Kael survived. This is fine. This is just—’

CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK—

Every single vein in his torso fired at once.

"AAGGHH—!!!"

A strangled sound forced its way out of his throat as his whole upper body convulsed. He didn’t scream. He refused to scream. But the sound that came out was not entirely dignified either.

Sweat had already soaked through his shirt. His fingers had gone numb from how hard he was clenching them.

’I am going to die. This is it. This is how Raiden Ashford dies. Not in a tournament. Not fighting some legendary beast. But at the hands of his Aunt instead. Sitting cross-legged under a tree, getting his blood wrung out by his Aunt like wet laundry.’

"Halfway done with the firstt pass." Ruby informed him calmly.

’FIRST PASS?!’

"How many passes are there?!!" Raiden wheezed out through clenched teeth.

"Threee." Ruby answered simply. Her tone brooked no arguments as she continued to work her magic.

Raiden’s left eye twitched.

"You didn’t mention THREE PASSES before—"

"You didn’t askk~" Ruby replied, with a hint of something that could only be described as amusement.

’I am going to—I am going to—’

CRACK.

’—DIE. I am going to die.’

The first pass finished with a sensation that Raiden could only describe as every single piece of his blood being squeezed through a sieve made of lightning, wrung out, and poured back into a body that was now slightly too small for it.

He sat there for a moment, panting shallowly, his vision swimming at the edges.

’Okay. That was the first one. One down, two to go. You survived. You are fine. You—’

"Beginningg the second passs."

"WAIT—"

CRACKCRACKCRACK—

He didn’t even finish the word before the second pass detonated through his body like a controlled explosion.

Where the first pass had been a slow, deliberate burn, the second was faster and denser. The refined blood from the first pass was already thicker, already stronger, and now Ruby was refining that.

Raiden felt it settle into his muscles like molten iron being poured into a mould.

His arms. His legs. His chest. His back.

Every single muscle fibre was being restructured whether it wanted to be or not.

A sound escaped him that he would never in his life be repeating to another human being.

Somewhere in the far distance, he heard a familiar voice.

"Woolie??" Woolie stopped dead at the edge of the tree line, ears pricked forward, staring at the scene in front of him.

His human, soaked in sweat, trembling faintly, teeth bared in a grimace, coiled inside a very large snake that appeared to be concentrating very hard.

Woolie stared for a long moment.

He turned around and walked back the way he came.

’Not my business.’

ヾ(￣▽￣)

----------------------------

Back under the tree, the second pass finished with a sound that wasn’t quite physical — more like a deep resonance that Raiden felt in his bones rather than heard.

His body felt simultaneously destroyed and rebuilt. He could feel the difference already, and it had only been two passes. His arms felt heavier. Denser. The baseline weight of them had simply increased.

’So that’s what she meant. It actually works.’

He wasn’t sure if that was encouraging or terrifying for his life.

"Lastt passs." Ruby announced.

Raiden exhaled one long, slow breath.

He thought about Woolie, 6 meters tall, cracking the stage just by stepping on it.

He thought about the white egg sitting in its incubator back at the house, waiting.

He thought about that issue, the one that had pushed him to this decision in the first place.

’I don’t have the luxury of three months. I don’t have the luxury of any of this. So.’

He straightened his spine. He steadied his hands on his knees.

Fuck it. I am Ready." Raiden said. His voice came out steady. He was surprised.

A brief pause from Ruby. When she spoke again, her voice had something warm underneath the clinical control.

"Proudd of youu, Rai Raii~"

But he didn’t have time to respond to that as the third pass arrived.

The third pass hit like the world ending, very politely, one vein at a time.

He didn’t know how long it lasted.

At some point, the pain stopped being individual sensations and became one single continuous note, high and clear and all-encompassing, like being inside a bell that had just been struck.

At some point after that, even the note faded into a kind of white stillness.

And in that stillness, Raiden felt something he hadn’t expected.

Clarity.

His body felt different. Not just stronger — settled. Like all the excess noise had been burned away and what was left was just the essential, densely packed version of him.

He opened his eyes.

The river was still flowing. The trees were still swaying. The sun had moved. Significantly.

’How long was that?’

"How are you feelingg~?" Ruby was watching him with careful golden eyes as she slowly unwound from around him.

Raiden tried moving his hand.

It moved immediately, smoothly, with none of the sluggishness from before. He clenched his fist and felt the new weight of it — the density.

He let out a breath.

"Like I got run over by a cart being pulled by a very large horse." Raiden answered. He looked at his hands. "And also like I could probably pick that horse up."

Ruby’s tongue flickered. Her version of a smile. "Goodd. Thenn it workedd."

He slowly, carefully, got to his feet. His legs held. His body was very close to it. He could feel it. The Gate of Silver Tier just around the corner.

He looked at Ruby, who was watching him with a quiet and steady patience that she reserved for exactly two beings in the world.

"Aunt Ruby," Raiden said.

"Hmm~?"

"Same time tomorrow?"

A long pause.

"...Youu are crazyy, Rai Raii."

"I know," Raiden said, already walking back toward the house. "Same time tomorrow."

Behind him, Ruby watched his retreating figure in silence.

Her tongue flickered once.

’Stubborn childd.’ She thought.

She did not say no.