The hatch slammed shut behind Rowan, sealing the chamber in a suffocating silence.
Only Jarek's trembling breaths broke it.
Aria still held Elias' collar with faint pressure—her knuckles white, her eyes burning with questions she wasn't getting answers to.
Kellan leaned against a cracked pillar, breathing deeply as the last traces of his Beast-Spine state faded from his muscles, leaving him bruised and exhausted.
And Elias…
…Elias went still.
Too still.
His pulse slowed.His breath steadied.His eyes focused on something no one else could see.
Another System message flickered behind his gaze:
Threshold Veins — Stage Two OverloadWarning: Instability detectedRisk of consciousness bleed: High
His fingers twitched.
Aria noticed instantly.
"Ward," she said sharply, stepping back from him."What's happening?"
Elias didn't answer.Couldn't answer.
The pressure inside him thickened.As if something pressed against the inside of his skull, trying to spill forward.
Jarek backed away.
"Elias… you're scaring me…"
Kellan watched closely.
His eyes narrowed—not with fear, but with recognition.
"You're holding something in," Kellan murmured."I've felt that weight before."
Aria snapped toward him.
"When?"
Kellan didn't look at her.
"When my back broke for the first time."
Aria stiffened.
Elias' breath caught.
The pressure snapped.
Not explosively.Not visibly.
Something inside him shifted, like a door pushed off its hinges.
The metal beneath his feet groaned.Tiny fractures rippled across the floor panels.
Jarek stumbled backward with a yelp.
Aria drew her blade.
"WARD—stop it!"
Elias' vision blurred.White Pulse flared on its own, without permission, bleeding into his senses like an overexposed lens.
He saw—
Aria's pulse, fast and sharp.Jarek's panic, trembling like a candle in wind.Kellan's tension, coiled like a hunting cat.
And behind them—behind a cracked section of wall—he saw movement.
Golden eyes.Not the first creature.The second hunter.
Larger.Lower to the ground.Breathing softly, calmly.
The chamber vibrated.
Aria stepped in front of Elias.
"Look at me," she demanded."Focus on my voice."
He tried.
Her face flickered—once sharp, once blurred—as the instability twisted his perception.
Kellan tightened his grip on his staff.
"If he loses control, we hold him down."
Jarek squeaked.
"We can't hold him down! He just killed a mutant single-handed!"
Aria didn't look away from Elias.
"We're not letting him break."
But it was too late.
The second hunter crashed through the wall.
Not as fast as the golden-eyed first one.Not as elegant.
This one was brutal.Heavy.Wrapped in bone-like armor.Its skin was a charred black.Its pupils glowed orange like burning molten steel.
Kellan cursed.
"Another one?!"
Jarek stumbled behind Aria.
Aria didn't move.
Her blade rose, steady, eyes locked on the creature.
Elias' mind snapped back into focus for an instant.
Just long enough to see the creature's claws reaching for Aria's throat.
Just long enough to understand one thing—
He wasn't going to reach her in time.
The pressure collapsed.
And something broke open inside him.
Not a new form.Not a transformation.Not some mystical burst.
Just raw instinct sharpened by something older.
His hand moved before thought.Faster than anything he had ever done.
He grabbed Aria's shoulder and shoved her aside violently.
Her body slammed into the ground.Her breath left her lungs in a sharp gasp.
The creature's strike missed her neck by a breath—
—and slammed into Elias instead.
Claws raked across his ribs.Pain lanced through him—hot, sharp, real.
But he didn't fall.
He stepped into the creature's attack.Used its weight.Its momentum.
And drove his fist into its jaw with brutal simplicity.
No technique.No elegance.Just a strike born from instinct and something deeper—a fracture of the Threshold waking up.
Bone splintered.
The creature staggered back, stunned.
Kellan blinked.
"…what was that?"
Aria rose slowly, breathing hard, staring at Elias with shock more than pain.
"Ward," she whispered."You shouldn't be standing after a hit like that."
Elias didn't answer.
His ribs burned.His vision swayed.His pulse hammered in his skull.
The Threshold inside him pulsed again:
Instability rising…Mind-state shifting…Control incomplete.
The creature regained its footing.
Its molten eyes locked onto Elias—recognizing him, focusing on him, ignoring everyone else.
Jarek screamed.
"Elias! Move!"
But he didn't.
He walked toward the hunter.
Aria reached out, voice cracking.
"WARD—DON'T GO ALONE!"
He stopped only once—turning his head slightly, his voice low and steady.
"I'm not going alone."
Aria froze.
He added, quietly:
"You're here."
She didn't breathe for a moment.
Then she tightened her grip on her blade.
"Then don't you dare collapse."
Kellan slammed his staff against the ground.
"Let's kill this thing."
Jarek swallowed hard.
"O-Okay… okay… I'm… I'm with you…"
Elias exhaled slowly.
Pain.Instability.Pressure.And a hunter that wanted him dead.
But all he felt was—
Focus.
The creature lunged.Faster now.Angrier.
Aria struck first, sliding under its arm and carving across its flank.Kellan slammed into its back like a battering ram.Jarek hurled a desperate burst of mana that barely scratched it.
Elias moved last.
He pivoted around a claw strike, planted his foot, and slammed a clean, brutal punch into the creature's throat.
It staggered.
Aria shouted:
"Now! All of us!"
The group struck as one.
And the creature fell.
Hard.
Dead.
Silence.
Long, heavy silence.
Elias' knees finally buckled.
Aria caught him before he hit the floor.
She whispered:
"You idiot."
He didn't respond.
His consciousness flickered.
The System whispered:
Threshold Veins — Stage Two unlocked soon.Instability critical.Find an anchor or collapse.
Aria shook him gently.
"Elias. Stay awake."
His breath slowed.
The world darkened.
His last thought before it all went black was simple:
Not again.
Not yet.