A New Nightmare

"Ha ha ha ha! It's all too late! You ignorant fools! My purpose has never changed!"

"Whether Centaurs or Tauren, they were nothing but tools for me to obtain that great power!"

"I endured for ten whole years! Ten years! And now it has all been ruined!"

"You lowly, inferior beasts—how could you possibly win Nightmare's favor? How arrogant and shortsighted you are, casting it aside like a worn-out shoe!"

"I cannot tolerate such a thing! Such usurpation demands the harshest punishment! Since I can no longer have what I wanted, then I will use it to destroy all of this!"

Crimson lightning took the form of giant serpents, driving everyone back before gathering into bundles of long whips that wrapped around the dying Vel'th. The demon's body slowly rose into the air, shrouded in light as though a god had truly descended.

"What kind of mad nonsense is he spouting?" Baine muttered.

Tamara stared intently at the pulsing cocoon before her, considering how to deal with it. As for the demon's madness, she dismissed it completely.

The others did not think much of it either, taking it as nothing more than a loser's impotent rage before death. Only the High Priestess remained silent.

"Ah, in the end, only you still stand with me, my greatest creation!"

Floating before the Storm Cocoon, Vel'th smiled and stretched out his palm as though to touch it.

"Look at you. What an ugly monster..."

"You should have witnessed a miracle rising from the ordinary to the great, yet now you have fallen into the shell of a beast, with nothing left but the desire to destroy."

"But so what?"

Vel'th sneered. "The road ahead has already been obscured. Since we can no longer fulfill our lofty mission, then let us become nightmares and unleash ultimate destruction!"

"You have already consumed enough sacrifices, but you still lack a heart. A monster without a heart is incomplete, so devour me! Let me share in your final glory!"

"The gods shall bring down thunderous punishment to chastise the arrogance of the ignorant! You shall taste suffering and become ash beneath boundless wrath!"

Amid the baptism of thunderous rain, the demon let out waves of arrogant laughter. He gradually merged into the cocoon, which then erupted with boundless light.

A furious thunderclap tore through the crimson sky. In Xiao Na's and the High Priestess's eyes, the world had become utterly different.

A sickeningly viscous presence struck the young Shaman's soul. Her face turned deathly pale, and she vomited. Standing amid that dense corruption, the High Priestess's face became even paler.

Storm elements... endless storm elements. The two Shamans finally understood where all the storm elements within dozens of kilometers had gone—they had all been devoured by this monster and corrupted into something so terrifying.

Bashana tremblingly pulled out a totem, but before she could plant it in the ground, it rotted and crumbled away, scorching her palm.

Looking up at Vel'th as he was absorbed into the cocoon, Bashana murmured, "A true... Nightmare..."

With a whoosh, a Gale Arrow shot toward the demon's body, but it could not cross that sea of lightning at all. Before it had even traveled halfway, the searing thunder reduced it to ash.

Sian threw aside his longbow and instinctively bit his lip. Only when his mouth filled with the taste of rust did he confirm that this was no longer a dream.

Within the clouds, a colossal elemental creature nearly ten meters tall flickered in and out of sight. Even its breathing in sleep was more than these ordinary living beings could bear.

Stray arcs of electricity swept wildly across the land. Wherever they passed, the earth split apart and tents burned down. Everyone dodged in disarray, while the two hunters could only launch futile counterattacks.

The fusion was not yet complete. Everyone knew this was their final chance. They should not have stood there wasting time, but...

How were they supposed to defeat an enemy that required courage merely to face?

"Tamara, Aldo... take the children and go."

The High Priestess spoke wearily. She took an unfamiliar short staff from her pouch and planted it in the earth.

"Tamara!"

"Aldo!"

Two voices rang out at once. Those two stubborn people had indeed been thinking the same thing.

"It's been a long time since I heard such an answer..." A faint, gratified laugh suddenly sounded beside them.

After coughing twice, High Priestess Sauna revealed the slightest trace of a long-lost smile, as though recalling some beautiful scene. Her aged gaze swept over everyone present, as if she wanted to etch every vivid face into her mind.

"After all these years, my students are still so stubborn. They have never changed..." The elderly Shaman smiled and shook her head.

"Teacher!" Tamara cried anxiously.

"Since you are still willing to call me teacher, then you should obediently listen to your teacher!"

"Even mischief must have an end, even if you have become parents yourselves."

The High Priestess paused slightly, then sighed. "Just once... I really wish you would listen to me..."

"But!"

Tamara cried out. She knew what this revered Shaman intended to do. She could not stop her, but at least... she wanted to stay by her side.

"I won't accept this!"

"This is absolutely impossible!"

"Please, High Priestess!"

The three children joined in as well. The High Priestess ignored their clamor. She had already made up her mind; she would no longer let these little ones have their way.

"Enough, Tamara. Give it up..."

A deep voice came from nearby. The one urging Tamara to give up was actually Aldo Thunderhorn.

Tamara froze at first. When she realized what he had said, rage rushed to her head, and she roared furiously.

"Aldo Thunderhorn? Do you even know what kind of bullshit you're saying!"

"I do!" Aldo roared back with equal fury before gradually calming. "Give it up..."

"Why!" Tamara's voice carried fear and pleading. She was truly terrified of the answer.

"Do you remember... asking me what my original intention was?"

The old hunter spoke quietly. "I'm sorry. I am a hunter, but I am also a teacher."

After saying that, leaving Tamara standing there in a daze, Aldo grabbed the noisy, crying Bashana and the endlessly shouting Baine, slung them over his shoulders, and turned away.

Ignoring the two children's struggles, he walked firmly into the distance.

His back was lonely and desolate.

"I thought..."

Tamara's voice trembled. An unfamiliar feeling enveloped her, and she suddenly realized that perhaps she had never truly known this old companion.

"Why... why would he do this..."

The High Priestess sighed and patted her student's shoulder.

In that instant, it was as though they had returned to decades ago, to a grassy field amid flowers stretching across the mountains.

"When I learned that my most mischievous student had inherited my vision, I was truly happy..." The High Priestess smiled warmly. "You are my smartest student. You can understand, can't you?"

Tamara's body slowly trembled. She wanted to nod in reply, but in the end, she shook her head.

The High Priestess seemed to have guessed what this most beloved child was thinking. She smiled, bent her aged back, picked up a handful of sand and soil, then slowly opened her palm in the storm, letting the dust scatter on the wind.

She murmured softly, "Every teacher loves their students in their own way."

"Only this will never change."

Tamara said nothing. She stiffly turned around, saw the thoughtful young Sian, and silently made her final decision.

She straightened her back, bowed toward the High Priestess, then solemnly struck her chest with her fist.

After doing all that, she scooped up the bewildered young Tauren and ran after Aldo, racing into the distance.

At last, only the High Priestess remained in this wilderness filled with thunderstorms.

"Earth Mother, forgive me..."

She hesitated for a moment, as though making some important decision, then carefully took something from her robe.

It was a crystal wrapped in blazing flames. She had once wanted her beloved disciple to take it far from the battlefield, but that had become a decision she regretted for the rest of her life.

"Moon, my good student, I once promised you that I would never let it see the light of day again..."

"You entrusted it to me, believing that your teacher would uphold her oath as always..."

"But I must break my promise again, just as I failed Tally..."

The gale howled and thunder exploded. The largest tent on the high ground had been utterly destroyed. A few broken supports remained, swaying violently before collapsing with a crash.

The High Priestess raised her head and looked up at the enormous being still taking shape. She gently stroked her two long braids, untying them inch by inch.

She walked through the raging wind, letting her aged gray-white fur fly freely.

A breeze, a stream of water, a flickering flame, and a puff of dust emerged from the tip of the short staff. The tiny flame began a dance of blazing fire, sparks scattering in every direction and falling at the Shaman's feet, igniting the hem of her robe soaked in blood.

A storm's sigh came from the dark clouds—the prelude to birth.

Across the ravaged wilderness, an ancient, desolate song arose. The aged Shaman was about to depart on a long journey.

"Let me go! Why did you leave the High Priestess there alone!"

Sian was draped upside down over Tamara's shoulder in an awkward position, like a sack full of grain, so all he could do was pound his teacher's back in an ungainly manner.

They ran several hundred meters in one breath... well, Tamara was the one running.

"What is wrong with you!"

Tamara did not answer him. They simply kept running and running until an ear-splitting explosion arrived with a scorching blast wave.

Sian struggled to raise his head and look back, but a dizzying whirl greeted him. The blast wave sent his entire body flying, and he rolled across the ground several times.

Behind him, his teacher was knocked to the ground by the tremendous shockwave. Relying on her sharp instincts, she dragged her disciple from behind to in front of her, protecting him.

He rubbed his head and climbed to his feet, only to be stunned by the sight in the distance.

As far as the eye could see, endless flames and lightning intertwined, while violent explosions and shockwaves came one after another.

A roar of utter rage and unwillingness echoed through the air—a beastlike howl.