The reason Leike had remained stuck at Fourth Order Transcendence, unable to advance, was not because his will lacked resolve. On the contrary, Leike might have been among the Night Watchers with the strongest wills.
Rather, it was because the way he had embarked upon this Transcendence Path had been far too brutal, far too cruel.
Back then, the entire town Leike had lived in was devoured hollow by the Swarm Insects. Carrying unwillingness and resentment, Leike had actually turned around and devoured the Swarm Insects in return.
As the Swarm Insects gnawed at Leike's body, Leike gnawed at the Swarm Insects.
And so, Leike had forcibly eaten himself into a half-Eerie existence. In essence, Leike was actually an oversized Swarm Insect.
Yet Leike possessed a human will. This meant that he and the Swarm Insects within him had never been able to coexist well, which was why, after reaching Fourth Order at breakneck speed, he had remained locked there ever since.
Only some time ago had Leike finally crossed that hurdle in his heart, but his control over the Swarm Insects was still insufficient.
This meant that if Leike wanted to reach Fifth Order, he might still need an exceedingly long accumulation of years.
Now, catalyzed by the immense energy of the Fifth Order core, the number of Swarm Insects within him began to skyrocket. The newborn insects kept mutating, growing ever hungrier.
They needed more flesh and blood as a warm bed for survival, while Leike's shattered Fourth Order shell clearly could not satisfy such an enormous appetite.
Crack. Crack.
The muffled sounds of bones breaking rang continuously from within Leike's body. His bones began fracturing across large areas, while his entire chest cavity bulged high from the swelling insect swarm. The insects within began to turn on