The air still trembled where the Apostle had fallen.
Charred bones littered the clearing, and the scent of burnt essence clung to the wind. The humans stood in stunned silence, their faces pale, their weapons forgotten.
Amit Kumar lowered his bow slowly, blue flame still flickering between his skeletal fingers. His gaze swept over the ruined battlefield — not with pride, but calculation. The Apostle's death hadn't been just a victory. It was a signal.
And someone — or something — had heard it.
[System Alert.]
[Abyssal Apostle slain. Unregistered entity detected.]
[Attention of a Fragmented God acquired.]
Amit's hollow eyes glowed brighter. The familiar cold voice of the system twisted, layered now with whispers — tones that weren't mechanical, but alive.
"So… one of us returns."
"The relic chose well."
"But evolution is hunger, and hunger devours its own."
The whispers faded. The system stabilized, leaving only static in his mind.
The mage from the human expedition dropped to his knees, trembling. "You—you drew divine attention. No mortal can do that! Even the High Priests can't—"
"I'm not mortal," Amit interrupted quietly. His voice was calm, but each word carried a weight that silenced the forest itself. "Tell me about them. The fragments. The gods who fell."
Varic, the captain, wiped soot from his face. "You really don't know." It wasn't a question.
"I was dead once," Amit said. "Now I'm something else. Start talking."
The humans exchanged glances, then the mage swallowed and began.
"Before the Cataclysm, there were Seven Divines. They built the system to regulate power across Elarion — to bind life, death, and mana into balance. But one of them… betrayed the rest. The Eighth, the God of Evolution."
Amit's eyes flickered. "Evolution…"
The mage nodded shakily. "He believed life should never be contained — that even gods should grow endlessly. The others called him mad. They shattered his core and sealed his fragments across the worlds."
"Fragments…" Amit murmured. "So the system—"
"—is built from what's left of their souls," the mage finished. "Every evolution, every level, every class is filtered through their divine remains."
Amit fell silent, his mind racing.
If his talent — Infinite Evolution — didn't belong to this system, then it might not be a gift.
It might be a remnant of that fallen god.
"The God of Evolution," he said softly, "wasn't destroyed… was he?"
The mage hesitated, then whispered, "They say his final words still echo through the cycle: 'If I die, let my will evolve.'"
Amit's grip tightened on his bow.
The relic. The voice in the void. The perfect compatibility.
It all aligned.
He wasn't just a random transmigrant.
He was the vessel of a god's unfinished evolution.
The air shifted.
Every instinct in his body screamed warning. He turned sharply, raising his bow.
The shadows deepened — coalescing into a single humanoid form wrapped in ragged light.
[Entity Detected: Fragment of the God of Stasis — Rank: B.]
A woman's voice echoed, smooth and cold. "Blasphemer," it said. "You carry the corruption of the Eighth. You dare wield it."
Amit's eyes locked onto her. "So the gods send assassins now?"
"You trespass upon divinity," the entity hissed. "Your evolution threatens the balance."
"Balance," Amit said, laughing softly. "That's just another word for chains."
He raised his bow. The world dimmed around him. The Revenant Marksman's aura spread like frost across reality itself.
The humans stumbled back, unable to breathe under the pressure.
[Skill Activated: Soul Tempest.]
Hundreds of spectral arrows formed above him, orbiting his body like stars caught in his gravity. The Fragment lifted a hand, divine runes blazing around her form.
[Counter-Protocol: Stasis Field.]
Time stopped.
The arrows froze in midair, the wind halted, the forest turned still as glass.
Only Amit moved — his blue eyes cutting through the frozen world.
"Nice trick," he murmured. "But I don't play by your rules."
His Infinite Evolution pulsed. Runes burned into his soul, twisting and rewriting the laws around him. His skill adapted mid-battle.
[Skill Mutation: Soul Tempest → Voidstorm Arrows (C Grade).]
Effect: Bypasses divine interference. Absorbs stasis energy to amplify destructive output.
The frozen air shattered like glass.
He loosed the arrows.
They didn't fly — they erased. Reality folded around them as each shot punched through the Stasis Fragment's divine form, consuming it piece by piece. She screamed, her voice dissolving into static and light.
[Entity Annihilated.]
[Divine Essence Absorbed.]
[Talent Resonance Evolved.]
Amit fell to one knee as power flooded through him. His vision flickered with memories not his own — glimpses of towering beings, golden cities, and a single god standing defiant before the others.
A god whose eyes glowed the same cold blue as his.
"You are my final experiment," a voice whispered from the depths of his soul.
"Evolve beyond gods. Evolve beyond fate."
When Amit looked up, his aura was no longer merely undead — it carried divine undertones, both terrifying and beautiful.
Varic and the mage could only stare.
"What… what are you?" the captain whispered.
Amit rose slowly, his shadow stretching across the ruins. The faint echo of divine flame burned where his heart once was.
"What I was doesn't matter," he said quietly. "What I'm becoming does."
He looked toward the horizon — the direction of Elarion, the lost city that now pulsed on his system map like a beacon.
Somewhere there, he knew, the rest of the fragments waited — both allies and enemies.
The gods were stirring again.
And this time, evolution wouldn't stop at divinity.
"If the gods made this world," Amit murmured, drawing his bow and gazing at the rising light,
"then I'll make the next."