Reinhard, high in the air, drew his Demon Blade. The urge to kill surged through his mind, and a bloody aura burst from his body.
Threads lashed outward, encircling Arthur, before Reinhard yanked them back—using the momentum to spin and slash down from above!
Arthur moved to strike back, but Lightbrain forced his body three steps in retreat.
Reinhard crashed down with a vicious arc. His eyes gleamed with something eerie.
Invisible puppets swarmed all around. Whenever they closed in on Arthur, he sensed it instantly and fell back.
Lightbrain was feeding him readings—detecting minute shifts in airflow through Arthur's senses, warning him of approaching unseen units.
Reinhard flicked his hand, retracting the threads. His Demon Blade spun in his grip, and he lunged forward again!
Arthur braced himself. With a single blow, he could shatter the Demon Blade in Reinhard's hand.
Steel clashed—twin knives against Demon Blade. But Reinhard knew the danger. He twisted, pressing the back of his blade against the flat of Arthur's knives, never letting edge meet edge.
Absolute Severance. Absolute Piercing.
One triggered by the blade tip. The other by the cutting edge.
As long as contact stayed on the flat, Arthur's absolutes would not ignite.
Pressing down hard, Reinhard leapt, heel lashing toward Arthur's head.
But suddenly, Arthur dropped back.
Then both legs shot up—rabbit kicks eagle—driving into Reinhard's chest!
Thud!
Reinhard's body skidded mid-air. He fired threads into the ground, anchoring himself and dragging his body upright.
Something was wrong.
Behind his mask, Reinhard's brows tightened. Arthur had grown stronger.
The clearest proof: landing a clean strike on him had become far harder.
Reinhard stabbed his Demon Blade into the ground. Arthur lunged to exploit the opening—only to face a sudden palm strike.
Flames!
Whoosh!!
Fire roared from Reinhard's hand. This time, Arthur couldn't evade.
Why? Because Lightbrain had no data on magic.
The fire slammed into him. Arthur hacked through the blaze with a knife, but his clothes caught, burning through with gaping holes. The flames clung on.
Without hesitation, he tore the cloth away and hurled it aside—revealing a metallic exoskeleton battlesuit beneath.
"I remember now… you can use magic too."
Arthur grinned, his armored body gleaming beneath the sun.
Reinhard's expression hardened, his stance tightening.
Arthur… had undergone mechanical modification?
It had to be Computer's handiwork.
Drawing his Demon Blade once more, Reinhard set himself in defense.
He hated two kinds of people: those who pursued technological ascension… and those who pursued it without taking him along.
...
Elsewhere, Kitsune had mobilized the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
The deployed Heavenly Stems were Bing Fire, Xin Metal, Wu Earth, and Gui Water.
Jia Wood remained imprisoned, while Ji Earth and Ren Water were held back at headquarters, lacking compatible partners.
As for the Earthly Branches—six were dispatched: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, and Snake—the first six of the cycle.
This operation also included an S-class acquisition specialist.
And what was S-class? Kitsune's highest tier of acquisition personnel.
Deca were A-class. The Twelve Branches were B-class.
Below S-class, rankings depended on raw ability. But S-class wasn't judged solely by ability—it also demanded extraordinary past achievements.
At present, Kitsune had only two such operatives.
One had sealed 005 with his own body and now lay in deep slumber.
The other wielded an absolute characteristic.
"Afraid of the dark?"
Instantly, absolute darkness smothered the Antarctic continent.
A ghostly figure moved within the abyss, descending upon Antarctica in the blink of an eye.
As planned, Kitsune's fighters and warships switched to autonomous guidance, converging on the Antarctic coast.
Meanwhile, the Chaos Insurgency and Serpent's Hand lost all sense of direction.
The S-class acquisition specialist—codename Nightmare.
His characteristic: Absolute Darkness. This landing was a night raid centered on his power.
Seeing this, 009 placed a call to Nightmare.
"Looks like you're doing well at Kitsune, kid."
Fan Ye's face stayed calm. "I've already picked you a spot in the acquisition room. Guaranteed to be a treasure ground, 009."
"Hahahaha, good. Just be careful—don't let that place end up containing you instead of me!" 009's voice was shrill, almost gleeful.
Fan Ye tore off his communicator and tossed it carelessly to the ground.
Chaos had seized full control of communications—keeping it was pointless.
Absolute Darkness peeled away, and Kitsune's soldiers stormed onto Antarctic soil.
Direct conflict erupted across the continent, Serpent's Hand's coastal defenses collapsing under the assault.
"Everyone, focus! The target is the Book of God!"
...
Far away, at Kitsune headquarters.
The O5 Council convened yet another meeting. Lately, they gathered often—and always for matters of weight.
But one thing was conspicuous: Zero had been absent from all of them.
Speculation rippled through the chamber. What exactly was the Chief planning?
"024—Library of the Exiled. Like Leviathan, it's a known but unattainable Object. Its location shifts constantly."
"We've encountered it before, but the door has never yielded."
"Now someone claims to have taken the Book of God from it—saying it can grant all wishes. That's baseless."
"Granting all wishes? Impossible."
"Impossible or not, it exists. Better to believe than to dismiss it."
"Are you an idealist?"
"My point is this: Objects cannot be approached with common logic. Acquisition itself defies reason."
"Even if this is an obvious conspiracy—we have to move."
"Because we can't afford to gamble."
...
Above the Antarctic sky.
A stealth-painted fighter cut through the air toward the icebound continent. It was a drone on autonomous control.
Yet inside the drone sat a man, clad head to toe in black.
He slid open the canopy, bracing against the howling wind, and pulled a gas mask over his face.
Immediately after, an azure phantom manifested behind him.
The phantom bore a serpent coiled across its shoulder, its two arms folded together in a prayer-like stance.
At that very moment, an artillery shell streaked upward, targeting the drone!
The azure phantom moved instantly.
Countless vines erupted from within its form, entwining the missile in midair and detonating it just short of impact.
The explosion rocked the drone, flames spreading along its wing, sending it spiraling downward.
The masked man merely shook his head and leapt into the open sky.
...
On the Antarctic battlefield.
Wu Earth and Gui Water, working in tandem, fought back against the endless tide of ghouls.
"On your left."
Wu Earth raised his palm. A colossal rock hand surged from beneath the ice, seizing a pack of ghouls and crushing them into a mangled heap.
His secondary phantom was the Dual-Faced Buddha, while Gui Water's phantom took the form of a blue dancing maiden.
The abilities of Wu Earth differed sharply from Ji Earth. Ji Earth specialized in tunneling and terrain control, manipulating the soil itself. Wu Earth, however, commanded earth golems—manifestations of mass and weight, embodying mountains and walls.
The differences between Gui Water and Ren Water were simpler: dew versus profound ice.
Yi Wood and Jia Wood followed the same pattern. Yi Wood was not trees, but flowers and plants—her phantom was a flower spirit. Jia Wood, by contrast, was the spirit of trees.
Bing Fire and Ding Fire were fire's dual faces: Yang Fire and Yin Fire.
Yang Fire was celestial flame, the blazing sun.
Yin Fire was terrestrial fire—dependent on fuel. Without wood, it could not burn. Thus Ding Fire's violet phantom often carried no flame at all, instead wielding poison.
Then came Geng Metal and Xin Metal. Geng Metal was steel, forged weapons.
Xin Metal, however, was soft metal—ornamental, fragile, a luxury. Her phantom manifested in pure white. Her combat power was the weakest of the Heavenly Stems, without rival in that regard.
Her ability was to draw wealth, causing fortune and treasures to gravitate toward her.
When paired with Bing Fire, the celestial flame illuminating metal, Xin Metal's ability grew stronger still.
Wu Earth crushed waves of ghouls with his two colossal rock hands, yet still no living members of the Serpent's Hand appeared.
Only ghouls. And beneath the frozen wasteland lay uncountable corpses—augmented now by the fallen of Chaos and Kitsune alike—feeding a tide of undead without end.
"These ghouls are being summoned. Attrition won't solve anything. We need to find the summoner."
Gui Water's phantom swept its arm, and the surrounding snow dissolved into water. It merged with the sea, rising as a tidal wave that hurled back the swarming horde.
"Didn't Bing Fire and Xin Metal already go to search?"
Wu Earth frowned, gazing toward the distance. "Bing Fire is too much the idealist. With Xin Metal beside him, he assumes fortune will bend in his favor."
"In truth, no. The benefit flows only to Xin Metal—not to him."
"But didn't the instructor say that as long as two combine, it's fine—like us?"
Wu Earth shook his head. "Combination isn't just about being together. There are many forms—competitive, jealous, stumbling, and so on. At the very least, it must achieve one of those types."
"Then what we did before… does that count as combining?"
Before Wu Earth could answer, a wooden thorn shot from afar, striking straight at his blind spot!
"Watch out!"
Gui Water's warning came just in time. Without hesitation, Wu Earth forced his phantom to slam the ground. A colossal rock wall surged upward!
The wooden thorn struck against the wall and shattered. Lowering the barrier, Wu Earth turned—and his eyes fell on a black-robed figure, seated casually on the wreck of an armored vehicle, a gas mask concealing his face.
Behind the stranger loomed a wooden phantom. A single serpent coiled across its shoulder, its eyes glowing purple, tongue flicking ceaselessly.
"Jia Wood?" Gui Water gasped.
Wu Earth held her back. "That's not Jia Wood."
Normally reserved, Wu Earth nonetheless knew each of the Heavenly Stems intimately—not only their personalities but also their phantom forms and the abilities tied to them.
This phantom was wrong. Jia Wood's phantom always bore two green snakes twined over his shoulders, vines incarnate.
But this figure's phantom carried only one serpent, coiled at his neck, its eyes feral.
"If not Jia Wood… then who?" Gui Water whispered.
"It's you, Ren Water." Wu Earth's voice cut sharp.
The black-robed man gave no reply.
Wu Earth's gaze hardened. "Even if you stay silent, I know. The secret of Heavenly Stem combinations isn't yours alone." His eyes narrowed. "You absorbed Ding Fire's ability, didn't you?"
Still wordless, the masked man launched himself forward!
Wu Earth swung a punch. From the frozen earth, a colossal rock hand erupted, closing into a fist and driving toward the attacker.
The black-robed man stomped down. A massive tree burst from the ground, its branches splitting into five titanic fingers that seized the rocky fist!
Wu Earth roared, pouring strength into his phantom. The tree cracked and shattered under the pressure, the stone fist breaking through and surging again toward the masked figure!
Though Wu Earth usually kept a low profile, his strength was anything but weak.
The black-robed man slipped past the crushing rock hand in a blur—but then the sky dimmed overhead.
Looking up, he saw seawater massing above. Gui Water's phantom had seized the tide itself.
"Fall!"
The water crashed downward. The black-robed phantom spread its arms wide—its green glow suddenly shifting to a deep, ominous black.
The moment it darkened, the falling sea froze solid, splitting into two enormous ice floes that hammered toward Wu Earth and Gui Water.
"It's you, Ren Water!" Wu Earth shouted. "Do you still need to pretend?"
He thrust both hands forward. Twin stone arms rose from the ground, catching the ice and grinding it to rubble.
But in that instant, the black-robed figure flickered, reappearing right before Gui Water.
Going for her first?!
Wu Earth slammed his heel down. A massive wall of rock shot up, intercepting the blow.
Thud!
The masked man snarled, lashing out with a kick. Behind him, his phantom shifted to a blue shade, vomiting out endless vines that coiled around Wu Earth.
A heartbeat later, purple flames ignited along the phantom. The fire raced down the vines, straight toward Wu Earth's body!
Gui Water reacted instantly. She swept her arms in a graceful arc, summoning every trace of surrounding moisture. The purple terrestrial fire hissed and died under the sudden deluge.
Freed, Wu Earth tore himself loose from the burning vines. "My thanks."
"Don't," Gui Water said flatly. "You thank me every time. If you must, I'd have to thank you twenty times a day in return."
Wu Earth coughed awkwardly, then inclined his head. "Fair enough. No thanks. Let's strike while the iron's hot—and take him down."
The ground rumbled in answer.
A towering Rock Golem tore its way out of the earth, its colossal arms slamming forward toward the masked man.
But the black-robed figure didn't dodge. Didn't even flinch.
"What…?" Wu Earth's eyes narrowed.
Because behind the enemy, a second phantom had emerged.
Yes—there was a second phantom!
It shimmered gold, six arms outstretched, each hand gripping a chained blade.
Before either could react, the golden phantom lashed out. Six arms swung in unison, chains rattling as six blades shot outward like whips.
Boom!!
The Rock Golem shattered, cleaved neatly into six pieces.
Killer—Geng Metal?
No… not quite. Wu Earth's eyes narrowed.
Geng Metal's phantom wielded raw, straightforward force. But this one? Its chained blades flowed and twisted, striking from impossible angles. Strength and flexibility. That was no pure Geng Metal style.
"So… Yi and Geng—combining to form Metal?"
The fragments of the broken golem sank back into the ground.
The black-robed man touched his throat. Behind him, two colossal phantoms now loomed—one golden, one azure.
Wu Earth inhaled sharply. "Gui Water. Use that."
She nodded. No further words were needed.
The brown phantom and the blue phantom converged, their forms twisting together into a single, searing blaze.
From the fusion erupted a black, mournful fire that lit the snowfield with an otherworldly glow.
"Wu and Gui—combine to form Fire."
...
Kitsune Headquarters.
Inside an acquisition room, Jia Wood sat hunched in a chair, staring blankly at the floor.
"Did I really kill Geng Metal… and Yi Wood?"
His voice trembled.
"…How could that be?"
But still—the word Geng Metal had left behind… what did it mean?
"Was I controlled without knowing? Or did someone erase my memory? Even if I deny it… but that petrification—"
His thoughts spiraled into self-doubt, self-denial.
At that moment, the doors creaked open. Ji Earth stood in the entrance, her face urgent.
"Jia Wood—I found it!"
"I found out who requested that bomb!"
Jia Wood looked up. "It was… who?"
Ji Earth pulled out an intelligence brief. "It was Ding Fire."
What did this mean?
"Jia Wood, listen to me. I've gone back over the entire incident. There were only two things that couldn't be explained: Petrified's reaction, and the wood-element strike that killed Geng Metal."
"So I approached the Vice Chairman, laid out my suspicions, and requested further testing on Petrified."
"And these are the results."
"Look."
Wu Earth produced a report. It clearly stated: Petrified's lie detection was influenced by the subject's own perception.
"Our first test was this: we knew the real culprit, but we deliberately pointed all the evidence toward an innocent person who happened to be present."
"But we never told him he was suspected. Once he realized on his own that all the clues pointed at him, he fell into doubt and self-denial."
"At that moment, we asked him with Petrified if he was the culprit. He said no—but Petrified turned red."
"The experiment team's Dr. Ding Yuan called this the 'undeniable conclusion.' Because the subject couldn't fully deny that the matter involved him, his answer of 'no' registered as a lie."
"Internally, his true response was uncertainty—not yes, not no."
Wu Earth raised Petrified again. "So, Jia Wood, I'll ask you one more time. Regarding the murders of Ding Fire, Geng Metal, and Yi Wood—was it you? You can answer 'I don't know' or 'I'm not sure.'"
"I'm not sure."
As Jia Wood spoke, Petrified did not heat up or turn red.
"Exactly."
Jia Wood froze, a sudden clarity dawning on him.
From the instant he had rushed to the scene and seen Geng Metal's dying 'Jia' character, everything had seemed staged—crafted to create this very kind of perception trap.
"Petrified is swayed by subjective perception?"
"Then… what if I erase my perception entirely?"
"Then, no matter what others ask, if you answer in the negative, it will register as true."
Ji Earth slid Petrified back into its case. "That was our second experiment. We used forgetfulness spray on a subject, erasing a particular memory."
"When asked whether the incident involved him, he answered 'I don't know.' And Petrified judged it to be the truth."
"Jia Wood, let me ask you something. I don't know if you still remember."
"Remember after Ding Fire died—when we went to see Ren Water? We asked him what he wanted to eat, told him we'd bring something back after our mission."
"He said he had no appetite. But if possible, he wanted a bottle of sugar cubes."
Jia Wood nodded. "I remember. He said it was because of low blood pressure."
"And yet when that mission ended, when we brought him the sugar, he claimed he had no memory of asking for it."
"He laughed it off, said his memory wasn't good, but still thanked us."
Ji Earth pressed her palm firmly against the glass of the acquisition room. "But think carefully—it's true. He was always forgetful, even before."
"After every mission, he would lose pieces of conversations. Doctors said it was likely from head trauma during missions—injury-induced memory decline."
"The key point is that sole surviving investigator."
"After you were arrested as the mole, we questioned him. He swore he saw Geng Metal rush out, then shouted your name."
"After that, someone in a gas mask appeared. He thought that person was you, thought you were the culprit—so he never dared speak a word."
"But yesterday morning, when we asked him again, he couldn't remember any of it."
"His memory had been erased. Someone used forgetfulness spray on him. The dosage was massive—an entire year of memories gone."
"This couldn't have been self-administered. And naturally, it wasn't you."
"And the spray—something like that has to be returned after every mission, no exceptions. So I checked the equipment logs."
"I investigated Ren Water first. Strangely, his gear was always returned on schedule."
"But every time, the forgetfulness spray came back short—by 10 to 20 milliliters."
"Then I checked Ding Fire's logs. After her death, her equipment was never returned."
"Remember? We were the first on the scene. We assumed it had all been destroyed in the blast."
Jia Wood frowned. "But that still doesn't explain why the ability that killed Geng Metal was wood-element."
"No—not only wood-element."
"There was poison as well." Ji Earth's voice sharpened.
"Geng Metal's autopsy has long been released. He was poisoned by Purple Fire Venom—that's Ding Fire's ability!"
"So, tell me—do you think it's possible that Ren Water can absorb other people's abilities?"
"Is this what the teacher once called: 'the great ominous change—Ren Water's devouring fate'?"
"Where is Ren Water now!"
Hearing Jia Wood's words, Ji Earth froze. "Ren Water is at…"
She suddenly realized—she hadn't seen Ren Water for an entire day.
"What about the others?"
"Except for the three of us, everyone else was dispatched to Antarctica."
"This operation is massive. Chaos and Serpent's Hand are both making moves…"
"Chaos is making moves?"
"Is Computer on-site?"
"Most likely. The front-line communications have been cut off."
At that, Jia Wood's face changed instantly. "Damn it!"
"Hurry—go find Chief! Wu Earth and the others are in danger!"
...
Antarctica.
Dark, surging fire swept the icy plains, melting the snow into rivers. Wu Earth and Gui Water had fused—their two secondary bodies merging into one!
Behind Wu Earth, the towering phantom of a Buddha statue loomed. Half its serene face was shattered, revealing a pitch-black demonic visage beneath.
The statue's once-prayerful hands slowly parted—like human hands unraveling—only to twist into monstrous claws. From those claws, torrents of dark flame erupted, flooding the battlefield.
Wu Earth slammed his palm to the frozen ground. The colossal phantom behind him mirrored the gesture, striking down with both palms at once!
In an instant, two colossal Stone Hands, each wreathed in black fire, burst up from beneath the ice.
The figure in the gas mask didn't flinch. Behind him, two phantoms unfurled at once—coiling wooden serpents, writhing vines, and chained blades lashed forward in unison, tearing toward Wu Earth and Gui Water.
"He's using Computer's blackout to cut off reinforcements," Gui Water spat. "And Antarctica itself as a trap. We have no way out—only to fight to the death!"
"Ren Water… you truly are calculating!"