He took a single step and appeared before the Three-Tails' enormous head.
He raised his right hand and pressed it against the shell on its forehead.
"Now, choose."
Liuyu's voice rang out like a final judgment.
"Will you remain a tool manipulated by humans, forever repeating the cycle of being sealed and exploited-"
"Or will you accept my gift, break your shackles, and achieve true 'evolution'?"
Fierce emotions churned wildly in the Three-Tails' single eye.
Anger, fear, hatred, confusion...
And a longing for "freedom" buried deep for a thousand years.
It remembered the schools of fish that occasionally swam past while it slept on the seabed.
They were weak and short-lived, yet they could swim freely, live freely, and die freely.
Yet it, with the power to destroy mountains and a nearly eternal life, remained forever bound in chains.
Why?
What gave them the right?
The struggle in its single eye gradually subsided.
In its place came an almost desperate...
Longing.
"...Evolution..." Isobu rasped out the word. "Is it... really possible?"
"It is." A purple-black glow began to shine from Liuyu's palm. "As long as you're willing."
The Three-Tails closed its eye.
Its last psychological defense collapsed.
"Then..."
Its voice was quiet, but carried a certain resolve.
"Do it."
The corners of Liuyu's mouth curved upward.
"A wise choice."
Purple-black Hollowfication reiatsu erupted from his palm, pouring madly into the Three-Tails' spiritual core like a flood bursting through a dam.
"AAAAAH!!!"
Isobu let out an agonized roar as its spiritual body began to twist and deform violently.
White bone armor emerged across its body, rapidly spreading and covering it. Its shell cracked apart and reassembled; its tails shortened, then grew anew.
A pale bone mask covered its single eye, leaving only a narrow slit glowing purple.
The desert in the