Three hours after Vicente's warning, the mana surrounding Onyx shifted, causing the area protected by the mana suppressors to darken, while darkness completely enveloped the black crow's body.",

His aura, which had fluctuated over the past few days as if it had encountered a barrier that prevented its rise, suddenly transformed.

The great magical beast's physical and mental constraints reached a tipping point where they could absorb mana without drastic changes, emitting a thunderous sound that reverberated through the surrounding area and stimulated storms nearby.

As a fierce storm brewed, something abruptly drew all the mana in the vicinity into Onyx, as if his body had become a massive mana vortex.

Vicente's mount's aura finally ascended without limitation, breaking past the 4th stage barrier and rapidly doubling the mana within the creature's body.

As the mana within Onyx increased, its form within him developed and attained a new level, while the magical essence of the creature, previously yellow, turned completely green.

The body parts of the black crow appeared, with feathers that differed slightly from the previous ones growing along its large body, which grew accordingly.

Onyx's dominant characteristic was his physical abilities. He had powers over darkness that could help him a lot in battle, but he really depended a lot on his body.

His muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, and organs became more efficient, more resistant, and developed their structural quality and regenerative capacity.

From the moment he began his advance to the end of the evolutionary process, five minutes passed amidst the storm already roaring nearby.

Day had given way to night, while Onyx's mana had not completely changed because of the items Vicente had got during his current journey.

Though the storm could draw unwanted attention, this was only true for those who were very close to their group. Beings that were over 20 kilometers away wouldn't be able to notice what was happening there. They disconnected all the mana in the surrounding area from the place where Onyx was advancing.

In another situation, the advance of a magical creature like Onyx might attract the attention of living beings hundreds of kilometers away. Fortunately, with the use of the mana suppressors, the group wouldn't have to worry about beings outside the space up to 20 kilometers away from them.

In the sixth minute since the breakthrough began, Onyx would open his eyes, awakening from his sleep while already at a new level!

'Low-level Paragon!' he thought to himself as he felt his feathers ruffle, looked up for a moment, and felt incredible.

"He did it." Vicente smiled as he said to his companions outside the building Onyx had completed the entire evolution process.

As soon as the crow left it, everyone looked at him in awe, seeing the 'first' Paragon of the group!

Onyx was smaller, but his current appearance was much more brutal, showing that he was no ordinary creature.

Now a Low-level Paragon, he could probably fight even Mid-level Paragons of the Light Path. As a Dark Path beast, he had incredible power!

"The hunt for our pentagrams will be a walk in the park now," Rory muttered to Sarah, the two of them being the last of the group to go hunting for their pentagrams before Vicente.

"Master," Onyx halted before Vicente, overwhelmed with gratitude for the countless opportunities his master had given upon him throughout the years.

Even though he had been forced to become the mount of this black-haired young man, this beast was truly grateful, realizing how the outcome of the day they had met had favored him.

If he stayed at Vicente's side long enough, perhaps one day he could form a cyan essence and join the continent's most powerful magical creatures!

"You did well, Onyx. You took advantage of every opportunity and made a breakthrough." Vicente smiled at the bird before him.

"Now it's time for you to prepare for our journey to the north of the continent."

They were still in the central part of the continent. If they continued north through The Hungry Canyon, they would reach The Pure Enclave in a few weeks, where they could actually enter the northern Polaris Realm, which was the northernmost area in the center of the continent.

Everyone in the group, including Lina, knew that Vicente was hunting a cyan pentagram, something they were unlikely to find in The Hungry Canyon. Thus, his interest in traveling north did not surprise them, even if it was possibly the most dangerous place on the continent.

"When do we go to The Pure Enclave?" Sarah asked.

Vicente looked away from the bird in front of him and answered the woman. "We will go down The Hungry Canyon to The Pure Enclave. If we come across any fantastic opportunities, we'll stop. Otherwise, we'll go straight to where you two will hunt."

The Pure Enclave was an area rich in the elements common to these two, but also to Vicente. Others in the group could also take advantage of passing through the area. Whether they stopped at other ruins in The Hungry Canyon wouldn't make much difference to the group.

The group stayed in these ruins for the next ten minutes, until everything was ready for departure, and Vicente, his six companions, and the three robotic armors set off in a northerly direction.

...

One week later, in the capital of the Seidel Kingdom...

A major battle involving members of the royal guardthe most advanced order in the royal armystartled the city this morning.

Unfortunately for the local forces, their enemies were powerful Sky Sovereigns from the Dark Path.

On such an occasion, the enemies not only assaulted the royal palace. They also took the body of someone who had suddenly died minutes before such an attack.

The locals didn't know who had died, but the Fuller family and the royal family knew: the powerful Low-level Paragon who lived in Grandis to protect the king had suddenly died before Miss Death and her three companions could take his body!

That day, the forces of the Seidel Kingdom realized a serious problem that was already plaguing more northern parts of the continent.

Not all the continent's magicians were united in their fight against the vampires!

Soon, the entire continent would be shocked to discover actions similar to Miss Death's, where Dark Path magicians were killing pillars of humanity to further the monsters' plans to take over the Polaris Realm!