SSS-Rank Evolving Monster: From Pest to Cosmic Devourer
Chapter 64: Xhar’Thuun

Chapter 64: Xhar’Thuun

"Hey..."

The hesitant call slipped from Ricky’s mouth, quiet as a whisper carried on a breeze. His insectoid wings buzzed uncertainly as he hovered before the circle of empty chairs. Despite his recent evolution, something about the bizarrely dressed man—his relaxed posture, the way he had beckoned with complete confidence—set off every internal warning bell Ricky had.

Still, curiosity proved stronger than caution. With an uneasy flutter, Ricky landed gently on a vacant chair, his compound eyes darting around the space.

A soft, amused chuckle drew his attention.

One of the women in a crisp, classic maid uniform was watching him with a bemused smile.

"Look how afraid he is... he doesn’t look like the chosen one at all..." Mary said with a faint scoff, her eyes narrowing as she studied Ricky from head to thorax.

There was no mockery in her tone—only a genuine bewilderment, like someone expecting a prince and getting a pauper. David had spoken confidently about meeting the next "chosen one," and Mary, despite her loyalty, hadn’t questioned him. But even in her wildest imaginings, she had not expected the chosen one to be... a mosquito.

Standing silently beside her, Ruby said nothing. Her ruby-hued eyes, calm and measured, locked onto Ricky. Though her face was composed, the slightest nod revealed that she shared Mary’s skepticism.

Unlike them, the curious and absurdly arrogant duckling, Borrito, seemed unbothered by appearances. Waddling forward on webbed feet, his beady eyes locked onto Ricky with unrestrained interest.

"You’re quite relaxed for being the chosen one..." Borrito said, tilting his head.

"Don’t you know you only have a hundred thousand years...?"

The words hit like a thunderclap.

Ricky’s mind sharpened, and he instantly straightened in his seat. His compound eyes narrowed into sharp slits, focusing on the duck with intense suspicion. His wings gave a faint buzz of agitation.

How did this duck know?

The last time someone had mentioned anything about a time limit was Damien—a being Ricky still didn’t fully understand.

"Are they connected to Damien...? And what is this ’chosen one’ crap?"

"I ain’t no chosen one," Ricky thought to himself grimly, the tension in his compound gaze now unmistakable.

David noticed.

A thin smile curled at the corner of the man’s mouth as he leaned back slightly, fingers tapping rhythmically against his armrest.

"Interesting... it appears you’re not as ignorant as I thought."

He paused. Then, as if testing something, David let the air around him stir. For the briefest heartbeat, a pulse of terrifying power radiated from his body. It wasn’t violent or overt, but deep and oppressive—like standing before an ancient, sleeping predator.

And then it was gone.

Ricky blinked in shock, his antennae twitching. He looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, but the other participants were either focused on the guardian spirit or seated with their eyes closed, deep in meditation. None of them even flinched.

David’s eyes softened, and for a moment, he regarded Ricky with the affection of an old friend long lost.

"Ah! So you already met Damien," he said with an exaggerated sigh of relief. "What a relief. That fellow wouldn’t let you live if there were anything wrong with you."

"Huh? You know Damien?" Ricky asked, surprised by the sudden change in David’s demeanor.

The man who had seemed so formal moments ago now leaned back like a man sipping whiskey on a porch. He looked completely relaxed.

David arched a brow. The two maids exchanged knowing glances. Borrito just rolled his eyes and quipped with a grin, "Of course he knows him. He practically raised the guy."

"Really...?" Ricky’s voice held naked disbelief. Given what he’d seen Damien do to a Stage 4 monster like Noctyss, Damien had to be far above that level. And this man claimed to have watched him grow?

Just how old was he?

"Look, pops, this guy just called you old as fuck," Borrito snickered, clearly delighted.

David snorted and cast a sidelong glance at the duckling, whose smug expression faltered. Borrito coughed awkwardly and waddled back toward the edge of the platform, muttering under his breath, "Tch... old people these days can’t even take a joke..."

Turning serious, David nodded toward Ruby and Mary.

"You two, take care of him for now. I want to talk with our friend here alone."

Without a word, the women obeyed, quietly moving a short distance away. Ricky watched them leave, and his unease only deepened.

He’d realized something chilling.

The other participants couldn’t see these people. A few moments earlier, Borrito had walked straight past a towering giant. The giant hadn’t even blinked, treating the duck as though it were invisible.

That wasn’t normal.

Then the floor beneath them trembled, subtly but unmistakably.

Ricky’s wings twitched instinctively. "What’s going on?"

Suddenly, a curtain of thick darkness rose from the ground like an unfurling shroud. It surrounded the two of them in a dome of shadow, cutting them off from the rest of the world.

"Hmm. That should be enough," David said with a chuckle, glancing at Ricky’s now-tense posture. "No one should be able to listen in."

Then, with a flick of his wrist, two steaming cups of coffee appeared on a nearby table.

"Coffee?" David asked casually.

Ricky stared. Not at the drink, but at the conjuration—how the mugs had materialized out of thin air without a single chant or gesture. It was as casual as breathing.

He shook his head instinctively. "Alcohol," he said bluntly. A true drinker had standards.

David raised a brow, then gave Ricky a mock-disappointed look. "Seriously? Coffee is sacred. But alright."

A bottle of amber liquid materialized in the air—a beautifully sealed bottle of Grand Cru, uncorked and already exuding a heady aroma of citrus and herbs.

Gulp.

Ricky’s mouth watered against his will. He barely resisted the urge to chug the whole thing on the spot.

David smirked at the obvious thirst, then leaned forward with a warm but serious tone.

"I know you must have a lot of questions. Ask away. I’ll answer what I can."

Ricky didn’t hesitate.

"Why do people keep calling me the chosen one? What does that even mean?"

David’s lips curled into a half-smile, as though he’d been waiting for that.

"Before I answer," he said, "let me show you something first."

Suddenly, the ground disappeared.

Ricky’s mind twisted in vertigo as reality blinked. The spiritual world, the dome of shadows, even the chair he sat on—gone.

And then—stars.

Endless, radiant stars blinked into existence around him. Ricky hovered in space, his wings spread wide as his gaze turned downward, where a colossal red sun churned with barely contained energy.

It was the Sun, but it wasn’t the same.

It had expanded grotesquely, swollen into a massive Red Giant that bathed the nearby planets in lethal light. Ricky’s antennae twitched as the truth dawned on him.

"Wait a minute..."

"Yes," David said solemnly. "This world’s parent star is in its death throes. It won’t be long before it devours everything."

Ricky remained calm. The process would take millions of years. He wasn’t planning to live that long anyway... right?

But then David’s eyes twinkled with something darker.

"Fellow Earthling," he said, "that’s the least of your worries."

The words hit harder than the gravity of a collapsing star.

"You’re from Earth too?" Ricky stammered, still trying to process the view of the cosmos. "Which country?"

David smiled faintly, shaking his head. "It’s been so long, I don’t even remember."

Ricky frowned. No way was that true. Who the hell forgets their country?

"You’ll understand when you’re stronger," David said cryptically.

Ricky wanted to press him, but David had already changed the subject.

"If you’re worried about the Earth, let me show you what you should be worried about."

In a flash, the stars vanished again.

Now, they floated in a region of darkness so profound it felt alive. Before them orbited a luminous, golden-hued planet. A massive blue sun cast its glow across the celestial body.

"This is Planet Axiom Dawn," David explained. "A high-level world. All beings here are born at Stage 3."

Ricky’s mandibles parted in disbelief. In Eldros, Stage 3s were legendary. Here, they were babies?

"This... is bullshit..." he muttered.

David didn’t respond. Instead, he pointed toward something just beyond the planet’s orbit.

Ricky turned.

And then the blood in his body froze solid.

He saw something.

Something impossible.

Something that should not exist.

It was then the space started to quake like a piece of fabric.

"What is that.."

Ricky saw a creature so massive that his brain failed to comprehend it’s massiveness.

In the distance a creature flashed closer.

David also appeared extremely serious and answered in a solemn voice.

"Abyssal Planet-Eater.."

"Xhar’Thuun the Maw of Silence,"

Ricky however didn’t react, he was too busy looking at the creature as it moved.

Xhar’Thuun body spaned thousands of kilometers, with a serpentine shape that coiled through space like a god-sized leviathan. Entire moons seemed to vanish into the gaps between its scales. When it moved, it did not fly—it replaced space itself, displacing reality like a glacier through water.