The Moss Spectors and Manti were twisted, living horrors, part plant, part beast. Thick vines wrapped around humanoid skeletal frames, their roots extending like sinew and muscle, forming something too unnatural to be alive, yet too precise to be random.
Their eyes—hollow sockets filled with pulsating, glowing spores. Their limbs stretched unnaturally long, ending in barbed thorns that dripped with a sickly green toxin.
They moved with eerie grace, each step creaking like a forest shifting in the wind. Even the vines off the trees started to retaliate.
And then they attacked.
⚡ "Damn it, Vallen!" Nico snarled, shadow-stepping through the battlefield.
The moment one of the insectoids lunged at him, his blade flickered like a phantom. The air itself darkened, and—
SCHLICK.
One clean slash. The creature screamed as it was cleaved in half, its body dissipating into the Rift's unstable Aether.
⚫ Lilith - Tactical Supremacy
Lilith was already moving.
Her eyes glowed with Quantum energy, and in an instant, the space around us warped.
A wave of telekinetic force rippled outward, sending several Phantasms tumbling back.
Then—she wasn't done.
Lilith threw up a localized gravity distortion, locking down a section of enemies. The air shimmered as they struggled to move, their limbs bending under invisible pressure.
⚡ "Lucian, I can't get an exact count!" she called out. "The Rift's energy is distorting everything—whatever this place is, it's changing!"
I grit my teeth. They were adapting. They were evolving too fast.
🔥 Vallen - Blazing Recklessness
Vallen was too deep in the fight.
His body flickered between fire and raw energy, his movements erratic but devastating.
A Phantasm lunged. His fist connected first.
BOOM.
The shockwave from his punch ignited the air, sending a burning crater through the enemy.
More rushed him. He laughed. "Come on! You think you can keep up?!"
I saw the flaw immediately.
Vallen was tearing through them—yes. But he wasn't watching the field. He didn't realize that every Phantasm that died left behind a ripple of shifting energy—the Rift was learning.
And it was feeding off him.
I ducked under an attack. My heart slammed in my chest, the adrenaline mixing with something else.
That blue-green energy. It was everywhere.
It seeped from the dying Phantasms, swirling like mist. Like it wanted me to take it.
And I did.
Osmosis.
The name whispered through my mind.
I absorbed. I learned.
And then—I adapted.
⚙ Genesis Stack: Activated.
I moved.
One strike—a mark appeared. Another hit—another mark. I hit more.
Each impact left an imprint of Genesis Energy on my targets, siphoning Aether from all the marked at once.
And then—it activated.
BOOM.
The Phantasms I had marked staggered, their bodies seizing, their Aether forcibly ripped away.
For a second, I saw through them. I understood them.
Their flow. Their structure. Their weaknesses.
And then?
I became faster. Stronger. Sharper.
The jungle trembled.
Lilith froze, her head snapping up. Nico's smile faltered. Luca tensed, muscles coiled.
And then, I felt it.
The Rift itself twisted, pulling in more Aether, reshaping itself.
A new energy signature erupted.
🔥 Vallen finally stopped moving. His eyes widened. "What the hell—"
And then we saw them.
The Titans.
The first was an Indestructible Marionette—a towering horror forged from jagged stone, sinew-like ore cables, and a molten core visible beneath its cracking armor. Its movements were smooth yet heavy, the very earth buckling with each step as if bowing to its presence.
The second? A Storm Raven, its wings formed from arcs of living lightning, its body constantly flickering in and out of visibility. Each flap sent a pulse of charged air rippling across the canopy, leaving trails of scorched leaves in its wake.
Their eyes locked onto us.
They weren't summoned. They weren't random.
They were the Rift's answer. It'sa challenge. It's judgment.
Six Indestructible Marionettes rose from the ground like forgotten gods, their jagged limbs flexing with eerie coordination. Molten veins pulsed across their chests, illuminating ancient runes etched into their armored hides. Their movements were deliberate—strategic.
⚡ Overhead, six Storm Ravens screamed from the clouds, forming a net of electric arcs across the sky. They moved like lightning incarnate—unpredictable, fast, lethal. Tendrils of current whipped between them, forming a dome of energy that pulsed with intent.
And with them… came the Legion.
A wave of Phantasms poured from the trees, the rocks, even the ground beneath us—shapes of dust, stone, and elemental fury. Some were beasts of thunder, darting with speed that defied logic. Others lumbered like animated cliffs, bodies made from compressed sediment and void-born madness.
A storm. An earthquake.
And they were hungry.
The roar in my ears wasn't just adrenaline. It was the Rift. Screaming. Awakening.
I looked down at my hands, still pulsing faintly with the blue-green energy I had absorbed. It whispered. It asked:
"Will you evolve again?"
"WHAT ARE YOU BLACKING OUT FOR?! LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!"
Nico's voice snapped me out of it.
An orb of darkness tore past my cheek, hissing through the air like a cursed comet.
BOOM.
Impact.
The pressure wave knocked dust into my eyes as something heavy slammed the jungle floor behind me.
I spun—
Three Giant VenomMantisi.
Each towered over me, their sleek, obsidian carapaces glistening with toxins, spiked forearms twitching like they were eager to taste blood. Their long, scythe-like claws gleamed with venom that hissed as it hit the ground.
I barely had time to think.
One lunged—
RRRIP.
My shirt shredded in an instant, the claw missing flesh by inches.
I froze, breath caught in my throat.
And then—
"YOU DISGUSTING INSECT."
🔥 I launched. My body moved before I could think, rocketing upward with a devastating back-breaking kick, sending the first Mantis Wraith sky-high.
Two more lunged from the ground— I stomped down on both their heads, their skulls crunching under my weight, using them as a springboard to launch higher.
Spin heel kick—
CRASH. The first slammed into the ground, forming a crater.
My heart pounded, my body burning. I felt hot. I heard my breath, shaky, unsteady.
Then—Lilith's voice snapped in my head.
"Found him. He tore through and made it to an opening in the forest past these things."
Her voice was controlled, but I could hear it. The strain.
She was fighting.
A low hum filled the air, then—
💥 BOOM.
Lilith raised her hand, and the Phantasms around her imploded. She exhaled, eyes glowing. "So we just clean up, then?"
⚡ Nico was already moving.
His dagger blurred in and out of the shadows, Phantasms dropping one by one in his wake. He flipped over a Storm Raven's incoming lightning bolt, landed on its shoulders, and drove his blade into its throat, severing its flickering form.
I grinned. Something in me told me to go with "the flow," so I did…
The ground beneath me shook as I slammed my foot down, and—
💧 A massive wave of water erupted outward.
It rushed like a living tide, shaping into arrowhead-like forms, launching like high-velocity missiles. As I imagined.
Phantasms screeched as they were skewered, impaled, erased from existence.
But the Marionettes weren't done.
The battlefield shifted. The Rift pulsed.
Then, A sixth sense screamed through me.
I turned—a Marionette was already swinging. A fist the size of a damn boulder.
I had no time to move.
The world blurred.
And then—
🌊 A rush of waves.
For a second, everything stopped.
Then, A single drip of water echoed in my mind.
💧 "Take. Adapt. Evolve."
And suddenly—
I wasn't there anymore.
The Marionette's fist smashed into the ground where I had just stood.
I blinked. I had moved.
Instinctively. Effortlessly. Like breathing. Like a Veil had wrapped around me, pulling me through the gaps itself.
I landed softly on the battlefield, but something was different.
I felt... invincible.
The fight was just getting started.
In seconds, the area was clear, but I barely had time to breathe.
My heart was hammering, slamming against my ribs like it wanted out. My vision swam. A wave of dizziness crashed into me, and before I could stop it—
I hit the ground hard.
I gasped, my breath coming in short, shallow bursts. "Tch… Let's get moving. I'm—I'm getting hot—my heart's about to beat outta my damn chest."
🔥 "WELL, NO SHIT!" 🔥
Nico was already at my side, gripping my arm and hauling me up like I weighed nothing."WHAT KIND OF ATTACK WAS THAT?!"His voice cracked—half awe, half panic."I mean—yeah, cool and all, but what the hell was that, Lucian? Since when could you—? Better yet, HOW did you do that?! I thought you couldn't even control your damn Gift?!"
I staggered, shaking my head, trying to clear the fog settling behind my eyes."…I don't know."The words tumbled out before I could stop them. "I don't even know if I cananswerr."
Because I didn't.
I clenched my fists. My fingers trembled.
This feels like when I fought Jason, but...Worse.No—better.No... both.
I was losing it. Or something inside me was waking up.
Something that wasn't normal.
My thoughts spiraled as heat swirled beneath my skin like a fever I couldn't sweat out.
What was that blue-green energy?Was it Aether? Was it something deeper?Was I absorbing it? Or stealing it?Is that why my body felt like it was on fire?
Before I could chase those thoughts any further, a cold chill surged down my spine.
Like I'd been dunked in ice water and static.
My muscles spasmed.
I snapped my head up.
The battlefield was still.Too still.
🔥 Vallen.
No flames.
No roar.
Just... silence.
And silence?
Silence meant something worse.