SS Awakening: My Monster Merging System!

Zich’s eyes were fixed on the soul stone channels spread across the cavern floor, and the more he watched them move, the clearer the situation became in his mind.

He raised one hand slightly and pointed toward the nearest channel. "Iron, break that path. Slimy, block whatever comes through after."

The Elite Undead Knight stepped forward with heavy steps before swinging its black sword down at the stone channel. Slimy bounced from Zich’s shoulder at the same time and landed near the side tunnel, poison already bubbling across its soft body.

BOOOOM!!!

The sword smashed into the channel and shattered the stone route apart, sending soul stones flying across the ground. Slimy spat poison across the broken section right afterward, melting the edges into a smoking green mess that blocked the next line of stones from rolling forward.

The Devouring Bone Giant, its massive skull turned toward them, and the red light in its chest flared violently. The creature let out a deep roar before slamming one enormous fist into the cavern floor.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The entire cavern shook under the impact. Several stone pillars cracked at once, and dust exploded outward as broken rocks fell from above. A thick cloud spread through the battlefield almost instantly, swallowing the soul stone mound, the channels, and half the cavern in dirty gray darkness.

Helen raised one arm in front of her face while coughing slightly. "Zich!"

"I’m alive," Zich replied from somewhere inside the dust, though his voice was already farther away than it should have been.

He did not wait for anyone to find him. The moment the dust covered the battlefield, he activated Blink and crossed deeper into the cloud where nobody could clearly see him. Varok’s voice shouted something behind him, but the sound became dull and unclear as haze rolled between them.

Zich landed near the side of the Devouring Bone Giant, his boots sliding slightly across the cracked floor. Although his mana was relatively high, using Tiamant here was the kind of decision that could empty him very quickly if he misjudged the timing.

But the dust cloud was too useful.

He could not waste it. If the others saw the bone dragon, especially Jayden and Helen, it would raise too much suspicion and create questions he did not want to answer.

"Tiamant," he muttered quietly.

Black particles gathered in front of him, but this time he did not pull the full dragon out. He focused only on the smallest manifestation he could manage, forcing the graveyard connection to open just enough for a portion of the commander rank summon to cross over.

The air became colder. A massive skeletal head slowly formed inside the dust, its pale golden eyes opening like cold lamps behind the gray haze. One enormous claw pressed against the broken stone floor, and from behind the skull, a single skeletal chain dragon uncoiled silently.

Zich’s mana dropped sharply. His jaw tightened, but his expression did not change much. He already expected the cost to be ugly.

The Devouring Bone Giant raised one hand toward the soul stone mound, but the moment Tiamant’s aura spread across the dust cloud, its entire body froze.

For a second, the giant did not move.

Even the red light inside its chest flickered violently, as if something inside it had been struck by a force it did not understand. Its massive hand stopped only a short distance away from the soul stones.

Zich narrowed his eyes. He expected fear, resistance, or aggression. He expected the Bone Giant to roar and swing at the partial dragon manifestation, especially since it had been attacking everyone else without hesitation.

Instead, the giant slowly lowered its skull.

Its huge body bent downward, one knee pressing against the cavern floor. The motion cracked the ground beneath it, but the meaning behind it was unmistakable.

It was... kneeling.

"What?" Zich’s pupils contracted slightly.

Tiamant did not speak. Zich doubted it could, or perhaps it simply did not want to. Her pale golden eyes remained fixed on the Devouring Bone Giant, and the single chain dragon behind her moved forward without haste. It wrapped around the giant’s wrist, the same wrist that had been reaching toward the soul stone mound.

The Bone Giant did not resist. The chain tightened and dragged the arm away from the mound. The red light in the giant’s chest weakened for a moment, and the cracks across its body stopped closing.

Outside the dust cloud, the others could not see what had happened clearly. Helen only felt a cold pressure suddenly spread across the cavern, making the flames around her hands flicker violently. Jayden froze at the familiar sensation, his face changing as memories of the shelter incident flashed through his mind.

Varok’s eyes narrowed sharply as he tried to look through the dust. "What is that pressure?"

The giant Velhari coughed while forcing himself upright. "Feels like death."

Helen’s heart suddenly skipped a beat as she ooked toward the center of the dust with a troubled expression. For a moment, she thought she saw something huge there, something made of pale bone and black shadow, but the dust shifted before she could focus on it properly.

"Zich..." she muttered. "What are you doing again?"

Inside the cloud, Zich continued watching the Bone Giant kneel before Tiamant’s partial form.

His thoughts moved quickly.

The Devouring Bone Giant was a Boss rank monster, Level Seventy, a creature powerful enough to dominate entire regions of the ruined city through sheer strength alone. Such a monster should not have knelt before anything so easily.

Power could force obedience; Fear could force submission. However, what Zich had just witnessed did not resemble either of those things.

The giant had not resisted and failed. It had not attempted to attack before being suppressed.

The moment Tiamant’s aura spread through the dust cloud, it had simply stopped.

What kind of monster could inspire such a reaction?

Or perhaps the better question was...

What kind of existence had Tiamant been while she was still alive?

Slowly, Zich lifted his gaze toward the massive skeletal head floating within the cloud of haze.

The pale golden eyes stared forward silently, ancient and indifferent, as though the submission of a Boss rank monster was nothing worth acknowledging.

A strange feeling stirred within his chest.

For the first time since obtaining the summon, he realized just how little he actually knew about the creature connected to his graveyard.

"What exactly were you before you died?" he muttered quietly.