LEVEL EVERYTHING UP in my Eldritch Tribe

As Lyerin crushed the head of the Borgias Family Patriarch in his hand, a grotesque squelch echoed through the space they occupied.

Blood and bone fragments spilled between his fingers, and Lyerin's face twisted into a maniacal grin, his eyes gleaming with unrestrained madness.

"Oh, you thought it was over?" he said, his voice dripping with malice. "This head… it was still alive, sustained by Eldren energy! The patriarch's essence clung to it even in death... but now? No more."

The ground beneath them trembled, an ominous vibration spreading through the air like a wave.

Suddenly, the space around Lyerin warped, and a low, rumbling growl filled the atmosphere.

Yasira's eyes widened in terror, her confidence eroding as she sensed the overwhelming presence manifesting before them.

A deafening roar split the silence, the sound primal, ancient, and filled with rage.

The ethereal form of a panther materialized, its black, spectral body shimmering with an otherworldly energy.

The panther's eyes glowed with a fiery intensity, its sleek form moving with deadly grace.

The air around it crackled with power, its presence alone enough to send waves of fear rippling through anyone who dared look upon it.

Lyerin, however, remained unfazed. In fact, his maniacal grin only widened as the panther materialized.

He spread his arms wide, laughing maniacally as the ship beneath them began to shake violently, its hull creaking as if it were about to be torn apart.

"Look, everyone!" Lyerin shouted, addressing the Earthlings watching from below, his voice dripping with irony.

"Yasira was right! I'm lying! Just as she said! But oh... what's this?"

He gestured to the ethereal panther, still roaring in fury.

"It seems even my lies can summon spirits!"

Yasira stood frozen, her mind racing in panic.

The Shura spaceship they were on trembled even more violently, and the air around them grew thick with tension.

Her eyes darted around, looking for any escape, but it was too late.

With a final, earth-shaking roar, the ship's integrity gave way, and the entire structure began to collapse beneath them.

The ship plummeted from the sky, disintegrating as it fell, revealing Lyerin and Yasira floating amidst the wreckage.

And there, looming over them like a harbinger of death, the black panther spirit circled, its eyes fixed on Lyerin.

It was as if the panther embodied the soul of the Borgias Family itself, born from their collective essence, weak but burning with purpose.

But Lyerin remained unfazed.

As the panther lunged at him, its claws outstretched to strike, Lyerin snorted, raising his hand lazily.

With a flick of his finger, a surge of Earth-brown Eldren energy crackled through the air.

It was subtle at first, a faint pulse, but the moment it made contact with the panther, the spirit disintegrated.

The ethereal form unraveled in an instant, dissolving into particles of dust that blew away in the wind.

Lyerin laughed once more, his voice booming across the sky.

"Hahahaha! Is that it? Is that all the Borgias Family has to offer? A weak, level-one spirit, born only to be extinguished!"

---

On Earth, the reactions were nothing short of shock and horror.

In the halls of the Borgias Family, a collective gasp rippled through the room as the sight of the black panther spirit appeared on the screen.

The patriarch's severed head, the mad laughter of Lyerin, the crumbling ship—none of that shook them as much as the moment they saw their family's spirit, the black panther, appear for the first time.

Lyuzen, Lyerin's father, stood frozen, his face drained of color. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"The panther…" he whispered, barely able to get the words out. "The spirit of the Borgias… it shouldn't come out!"

One of the elders, an ancient man with deep lines etched into his face, collapsed into his chair, his hands trembling. "But… that should be impossible," he muttered. "They will know!"

Another one added. "No family has ever been able to awaken a spirit. We've tried for centuries… for generations. But only we can do that because of Lyerin? I thought he gave it to his mother for free?"

A younger member of the family, wide-eyed with disbelief, turned to the others.

"They will know. If the spirit really was awakened, then that means Lyerin wasn't lying. He… he knew the secret to awakening it. He knew! And the other families would…"

Another elder shook her head, her voice filled with fear.

"The panther was weak. A level-one spirit… barely formed. But it was real. It existed. The Borgias Family—our family—has a spirit! We just followed what was on the scroll on whim!?

How come!?"

Lyuzen slammed his fist into the table, rage and frustration boiling inside him.

"But how?! How did he do it? How did he summon the spirit of our family to attack him?!"

He paced back and forth, his mind racing.

"This isn't supposed to happen. If the other Families knew… after all, spirits are only awakened by the ancient tribes of Earth. We—" He paused, gripping the edge of the table with white knuckles.

"We will be attacked from all sides," another voice chimed in, "the other families wouk think that the Borgias have been sitting on a secret this whole time…"

The room fell into a stunned silence.

Every member of the Borgias Family knew what this meant.

The existence of the black panther spirit, even if it was weak, was proof that Lyerin's claims about the family's hidden power were indeed true.

They had the means to awaken a spirit, but until now, they had failed to do so.

Another family member, his voice shaking, finally broke the silence. "We've been exposed. The other families will know we have the secret. They'll come for us. They'll want to know how to do it themselves. They'll want to—"

"Enough!"

Lyuzen roared, silencing the room.

He stared at the screen, his eyes burning with fury and disbelief as Lyerin's image continued to laugh maniacally in the sky.

The black panther spirit, once a symbol of their power, their legacy, had turned to dust before their eyes.

---

In other parts of the world, the reaction was no less dramatic.

In the halls of other powerful families—the ones who had controlled the narrative of Earth for centuries—panic spread like wildfire.

The spirits, the legends, the ancient secrets they had sought for generations, all seemed to be unraveling before their very eyes.

A council of elders from the Rothwalds Family, an ancient lineage that had survived countless wars, sat in stunned silence.

The oldest among them, a woman with silver hair and sharp, calculating eyes, finally spoke.

"If the Borgias Family has truly awakened a spirit, then the balance of power is about to shift."

Another elder leaned forward, his face pale.

"But how? How could they have done it? We've been searching for the secret to awaken spirits for centuries. If the Borgias have figured it out…"

The leader of the council slammed his fist on the table.

"We need to know. If the Borgias have unlocked the secret, we cannot allow them to hold that power alone. We must find out how they did it."

---

Back in the sky, as the last remnants of the black panther spirit faded into nothingness, Lyerin's laughter died down to a low chuckle.

He turned to Yasira, who stood trembling beside him, her face pale with fear and confusion.

"You see?" Lyerin said mockingly. "Even in my madness, there's a shred of truth. You thought I was lying, Yasira. But look—They awakened the Borgias Family's spirit."

Yasira could only stare in shock as the truth of Lyerin's words sank in.

He had done it.

He had summoned the panther spirit, something no one believed possible. And even though the panther was weak, its existence alone proved that the Borgias Family held the secret that could change everything.

Lyerin's grin widened. "Let's see how the rest of the world reacts to this revelation, shall we?"