The corridor narrowed again, squeezing the group into a tight formation as the Iron Descent plunged deeper.Pipes rattled overhead.Steam hissed from cracked valves, casting the air in a warm, metallic haze.
Aria led now—not out of trust, but instinct.
Kellan followed behind her, shoulders still heaving from the earlier fight.Jarek clung to the middle of the group like a terrified shadow, trying not to hyperventilate.
Elias walked last.
Not because he was slow.But because he wanted to feel the presence behind them.
The golden-eyed watcher.
It was there now.Close.Pacing them like a wolf that already knew its kill was inevitable.
The deeper they went, the colder Elias felt.
Not physically.
Spiritually.
The Sovereign inside him stirred again—low, deliberate, hungry.
Aria suddenly raised a hand.
"Stop."
The group froze.
Elias sensed it too.
The air ahead was wrong.
Too still, too heavy, too thick—like a predator holding its breath.
Kellan gripped his staff.
"Traps?"
"Worse," Aria murmured.
She pointed at the floor.
A thin line of shimmering light trembled across the metal—then vanished.
A flicker.An illusion.A test.
"Hallucinatory field," Aria said."These appear in elite-level Ruptures. Not in cadet trials."
Jarek's voice shook."Why… why is this here? Why is any of this here?!"
Aria didn't answer.
Kellan did.
"Because the trial's corrupted," he said with a grim grin."Someone—or something—wants us dead."
They stepped forward carefully.
The corridor widened again… into a chamber shaped like a cylinder, steel walls scarred with claw marks, vents spewing cold mist from somewhere deep below.
The sound came first.
A low growl.Deep.Unnatural.
Jarek grabbed Elias' sleeve in panic.
"What is that?!"
Kellan inhaled deeply.
"Something strong."
Aria closed her eyes briefly, calculating.
"There's only one rule here: stay close and do not—"
The creature dropped from above.
It hit the floor with a weight that cracked metal.Its body was humanoid—but twisted, arms too long, spine hunched, claws long enough to carve steel.
Its eyes were empty sockets glowing faintly with silver light.
A Descent Mutant.
Not a cadet.Not a construct.
A former participant.Corrupted by the Descent.
Jarek screamed.Aria stepped forward.Kellan's grin widened in something close to joy.
"That's more like it."
The mutant roared and charged.
Aria vanished into motion first—lean, sharp, precise—striking its knee with a temporal displacement that caused the joint to buckle.
Kellan followed with brute force, swinging his staff with both hands.
The mutant smashed backward, sliding across the floor.
Elias watched.
Analyzing.Studying.
But he saw something the others couldn't:
The mutant wasn't attacking randomly.
It was sniffing.
Searching.
Looking for… him.
Kellan charged again.
The mutant grabbed his staff mid-swing—and its muscles swelled grotesquely.
Kellan's grin vanished.
"Oh. That's new."
The mutant hurled Kellan across the chamber.He smashed into a pillar, coughing blood.
Aria moved instantly to intercept the creature before it could follow up, using temporal echoes to distort its balance.
But Jarek—
Jarek froze.
Too slow.
The mutant swung.
Aria wasn't close enough.
Kellan was dazed.
And Elias—
His heartbeat slowed.
Something in him opened.
The Sovereign stirred like a sleeping beast.
Cold light threaded across his vision.
A System whisper hissed:
Threshold Veins resonate with hungerSkill evolution availableWould you like to awaken a new skill?[Y/N]
Elias moved.
He didn't choose.
The Sovereign chose.
His vision flared white.The world slowed to a crawl.His muscles tightened as if strings of light pulled them into perfect alignment.
He reached Jarek before the mutant's claws could land.
His hand shot up.
He caught the creature's arm.
Aria's eyes widened.
Jarek collapsed behind him.
Kellan stared, speechless.
Rowan—hidden in the shadows far behind—watched with wide, feverish eyes.
Elias spoke softly.
Not a shout.Not a threat.
Just a sentence.
"You're not after him."
The mutant trembled.Its claws jerked away from Jarek and turned directly toward Elias' chest.
Aria rushed forward."WARD!"
But the System cut her voice in half.
Skill UnlockedWhite Pulse: Override
- Allows brief auto-prediction of enemy motion
- Instinctive combat alignment
- Duration: 4 seconds
- Side-effect: Spiritual strain
Everything sharpened.
The mutant's next movement was already in Elias' mind before it even made it.
He ducked.He pivoted.His elbow slammed into the creature's jaw with surgical precision.
Bone cracked.
The mutant roared and staggered.
Elias stepped in—calm, cold, perfect—and drove his palm into its chest.
A shock rippled outward.
White light flared.
The mutant flew backward, smashing against the far wall, limbs twitching before it collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Silence.
Long, broken silence.
Jarek sat trembling on the floor.Kellan wiped blood from his lip, struggling to comprehend.Rowan in the back whispered to himself like a prophet or madman:
"He's… not human…"
But Aria…
Aria stared at Elias with something colder than fear.Something deeper than suspicion.
Truth.
"Ward," she whispered."What did you just do?"
Elias didn't look at her.
He stared at his own hand—still trembling from the Sovereign force echoing through it.
"I don't know," he said.
A lie.A clean one.Delivered with the same calm as always.
But Aria didn't buy it anymore.
She stepped toward him, voice barely controlled.
"You can't hide from me forever."
Her eyes locked onto his.
"No more half-truths.No more silence.You're going to tell me what you are—"
Her voice cut off.
Because behind Elias, deep in the fog…
…the golden eyes opened again.
Not watching.
Not observing.
Advancing.