Arden’s blurry vision became clearer as he met the irate gaze of the blast bull. For the first time, it seemed to have sustained actual damage.

  All of the razed marks that scoured its body were still there, and still leaked fresh blood, but none of it was tainted with Blight as it had before. Just like after the previous explosion, its affliction had been cleansed.

  Mostly, anyway.

  There was one part of the bull that looked considerably worse for wear, to the point that it hurt Arden to look at it, yet still filled him with a dark satisfaction.

  When it bit down on Arden’s arm, he was left with no recourse but to devour as much of the blast bull as was possible, in hopes that doing so would yield him enough biomass to survive the upcoming attack.

  The group of Starborn were now able to behold the fruit of Arden’s labor. Arden was able to devour the bull just as it had devoured his arm.

  The lower jaw of the blast bull was gone. Its tongue dangled from the open cavity that dripped blight essence from when it swallowed Arden's severed hand. It gave a low growl that was filled with as much anger as it was pain.

  “I didn't think that you poisoning my hand would work out like this,” Arden said to Sya.

  She said nothing in response. He only heard her forced, ragged breathing. Reading her aura as best as he could, he could see the volcanic nature of her emotions hidden within.

  ‘She's pissed,’ he thought. ‘More pissed now than I've ever seen before.’

  Arden slowly rose to his feet as steam slowly rose off of him. His body was still cooling down rapidly from being set on fire yet again.

  Extending his aura just like he had been taught, he used it to feel the auras of those around him aside from Sya’s whose aura he already read.

  Vera’s was full of a cold anger, much more controlled than Sya’s but equally furious. It warmed Arden’s heart to know how angry they felt after he was victimized. He himself knew how badly he reacted when someone close to him got hurt. Thankfully, it seemed like Sya and Vera were just going to fight against a roided up cow, not throw hands with a god or accidentally destroy the world.

  Volis and Torvis both had fluctuating, tired auras. Volis’ in particular was unsteady and flickering, courtesy of using the majority of his stellar essence on his back to back blinking. More than the pain and exhaustion that their auras betrayed was the sense of determination to see the battle through.

  Arden moved his aura sense to the last of auras. The blast bull’s. Its aura dwarfed that of everyone there. With two extra ranks on them, its aura shot up into the sky like a beacon, easily three times the size of the auras of the humans facing off against it.

  But it was not untouchable.

  Its aura was fluctuating in an even more inconsistent manner than Volis’. It was straight up shaking. Anyone with even the bare minimum of aura reading could see that the bull was feeling.

  Arden smiled. The blast bull was scared. It’s loose tongue feeling the weight of gravity proved that it was right to feel that.

  “I’ll be taking my hand back!” Arden yelled

  With his shout acting as a starting pistol, everyone charged for the blast bull, while the blast bull itself hesitated for a moment. It couldn’t decide whether to stick around and kill the humans or to make an escape, living to fight another day.

  Could it kill everyone here? Most likely. But it would just as likely sustain heavy injuries from the group of Starborn, especially the injured one. The bull hesitated for just a single moment.

  But a battle was decided by moments and who dominated them.

  In the moment that the blast bull didn’t react, Arden lowered himself closer to the ground as everyone else focused their attacks higher on the body. While they went for its head and torso, Arden went for a leg.

  The bull’s aura revealed that it wanted to leave, and Arden was going to let that happen. Not when it took a hand from him. This time, he would get his hand back without relying on another being’s power. He would do it himself.

  The bull tried to get away from Arden, but its moment of hesitation came back to bite it.

  Arden was voracious.

  His tendrils dug into the blast bull’s right foreleg and refused to let go. They sank into its flesh, connecting the bull to Arden as he began to feast.

  The higher rank biomass tasted delicious for Arden’s hungry soul. He was in heaven as he slowly devoured the bull’s leg. He didn't know how good a cooked Celestial would taste, but he wondered if it would taste as good as the breathing Celestial did. It would be a tall order.

  The bull focused all of its efforts on disconnecting the spiteful glutton from its leg to no avail. With the four other Starborn pouring attacks into it, it couldn't move fast enough or hard enough to shake Arden off.

  Ironically, its attempts to get Arden away from it allowed the others to hurt it even more.

  Sya focused on attacking the mouth with her pike covered in her blood. It was an easy target to pile on more poison. Vera's sword moved, aiming to cut even deeper into the monster's flesh. Everywhere her sword went, the monster's black fur became dyed crimson with blood, then black with Sya’s blood. Volis’ katana flashed, following each and every one of Vera's attacks to worsen the condition of the soft tissue.

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  Torvis no longer held onto the horns. With Arden on the bull’s leg and everyone else attacking it constantly and at the same time, its mobility was already compromised. Torvis brought out his hammer and swung it towards the other foreleg. A satisfying impact followed, but the bull only staggered for a moment. It didn't even try to counter attack. He felt a little undercut, being a tanker that couldn't draw aggro.

  ‘Just what is that guy doing?’ Torvis wondered, seeing Arden remain tethered to the bull’s leg with an unhinged smile.

  “How’s the tail!?” Arden yelled

  He was doing everything in his power to not let go of the leg. After close to two minutes of devouring, he definitely had enough biomass to heal his hand, but he wasn't done. He wanted its entire leg. Savish could make do with her meal missing a single leg. She was a professional.

  As Arden watched the leg start to wither and grow thinner, he heard Vera reply to his question.

  “We've got plenty of time left! It's still at around 75% length!”

  “Kill it before it explodes again!” Volis yelled, following her.

  The bull had enough of trying to throw off Arden. If it did not attempt an escape, it would become the prey. Again, it ignored the attacks pouring into it and started kicking up more dirt as it broke into a sprint. With any luck, Arden would get trampled as it escaped the encirclement.

  It was too optimistic.

  As soon as the leg holding Arden tried to flex as much of its musculature as it could to get moving, it broke. Most of the muscles and bone structure had been leached by Arden, making it extremely brittle, so when it took a step, it snapped, and the bull began to fall.

  Arden realized his mistake of latching onto the rapidly deteriorating lode bearing limb like a masochistic parasite a little too late. As soon as he realized his mistake, the incredible weight of the blast bull was on top of him.

  Before it could crush him though, a fifth person showed up right next to Arden, pressing her entire body weight against the bull that had gone still, suppressed by the newcomer's aura.

  “You guys actually held out,” Savish said, grunting with each word. Even with her physical enhancement ability, it was tough to hold up the bull.

  Arden didn't waste time with a retort, and instead just moved out of the way of where the bull was falling. As soon as he was out from under it, Savish dropped the bull the rest of the way to the ground.

  The bull shook and made a pained noise. It tried to move but it couldn't. It was clear to everyone that it was on its last leg. Metaphorically, anyway. It still had three more alright legs.

  That didn't stop the onslaught from continuing, as everyone with the exception of Savish continued beating on the dying Celestial. Arden and Sya were the ones attacking with much more zeal than the rest.

  The final attack was landed by Sya, who leapt into the air, openings be damned, with her weapon above her head. Arden recognized the technique used, as it was the exact one he used when finishing off the rogue Starborn Frozhe. Just like he had done, Sya commanded the spear to return to its base form of a great spear as she fell, using its weight to drive it through the blast bull’s skull.

  You have slain red-tier supergiant, Blast Bull.

  You have obtained a red-tier supergiant Satellite, Smoldering Ember.

  Everyone's attacks continued for a few seconds until they realized that Sya stopped. Seeing how the blast bull lay unmoving with the large great spear pinning it to the ground by its memories of childhood, and how the architect of such an attack stopped attacking, they pieced together that it was finally dead.

  Savish watched as the group of Starborn all sat down on the ground around the dead supergiant to begin circulation, like trained Starborn. All of them except Arden and Sya, that is.

  Sya stared at the fallen beast. It was dead and had even yielded her a Satellite, but her ire had only barely diminished. She felt tense. Her jaw was clenched and she felt the urge to wrap her hands around something and give it a good squeeze.

  The image of her brother on top of her, protecting her from danger again as he burned alive was burned into her eyes and her mind. She hated being a burden to him, to the point that she once sincerely thought that he would be better off if she were dead.

  The blast bull’s final explosion reminded her of that. She had hoped that seeing him protect her from the falling building when the doppelganger first appeared would be the last time she saw him sacrifice himself for her safety, but the bull had other plans.

  “Damn it!” She swore, kicking the dead bull with all of her resentment. It barely twitched.

  She flinched when she felt Arden’s remaining hand on her shoulder.

  “Sya,” he said. “I’m fine. Really. I have enough biomass to heal myself.”

  She spun around, her brows angled into a scowl.

  “I’m not mad that you got hurt. Maybe a little bit, but that's part of the job description. We fight, we get stronger, we die if we're not strong enough. I'm angry at myself for still being a burden to you.”

  Arden was about to speak, but Sya cut him off before he could.

  “Dont say it. Don't even think it. Even if you say I'm not a burden, that doesn't change the fact that I still am. Your act of sacrifice, your shielding me from a being beyond our own power shows me that I haven't changed since the the arrival of your other self.”

  “...You haven't changed,” Arden repeated back to her.

  “Sure I've gained power now, but whether it's back then when he arrived, when Domah possessed me, or now, you're always acting even more recklessly for my sake. I haven't changed. I'm still weak.”

  For a few seconds, neither of them spoke. Arden gazed heavenward, looking towards the stars that no longer existed in this world, while Sya watched her brother's face.

  “You are handling this a lot better than I did,” Arden said.

  “What?”

  “I told you what happened in my trial, but I didn't go that far in depth. After I was knocked off the cliff by the Stonelord, I had a breakdown. I was losing it. My mind completely shattered. I relived the past, but it changed. It showed me that I only got worse as I spent time with you and Vera. It brought me to a single realization: I was weak. It was easily the lowest point of my life. The stuff with Domah barely registered compared to then. I'd take a billion one-sided slaughters over another breakdown like that.”

  He sighed and looked at his sister. No matter what she believed, it was obvious to anyone that she had only improved.

  “I know what it's like to think you're still weak. Even when people tell you that you aren't, it all rings hollow if you don't believe it yourself. I won't tell you that you're stronger now. You won't believe it. Instead, I'll tell you to get stronger. Strong enough to where not even you can doubt your power. Do you want that?”

  Sya didn't say anything for quite a while. She only stares into her brother's eyes. She could tell that his words were the truth, not just simple words meant to comfort. They were spoken to show that she wasn't alone.

  “I want to get stronger…” she whispered.

  Arden smiled.

  “Then we will help you. First things first, retract your poison. I still want to eat the spicy cow in a couple weeks.”