Chapter 6: The Shattered Talon
The three days leading up to the escape were a blur of agony and evolution.
Inside the forge, the atmosphere was thick with the scent of ozone and heated iron. Kaelen worked like a machine, the five-hundred-pound Abyssal Lead bracers now feeling like a second skin. Every movement was a deliberate battle against gravity. When he wasn't pumping the bellows or hammering steel, he was consuming the beast cores Elara had provided.
The Fire Lizard core had tempered his blood, making it run hot and resistant to exhaustion. The Frost Serpent core had refined his nervous system, sharpening his Void Perception to a razor's edge. The Earth Bear core had increased his bone density to a level that defied human biology.
By the dawn of the third day, Kaelen stood in the center of his shack. He slowly took off the iron ring.
The Null Singularity did not roar this time. It hummed—a low, stable vibration of absolute power.
[Host Status: Rank 0 - Peak Phase (The Mortal Limit).]
[Physical Prowess: Equivalent to Mid Rank 2 (Mana-less).]
[Ability Evolution: Void Step (Initial Form).]
Kaelen slid the ring back on. He was ready. Or so he thought.
The sun had not yet risen when the peace of the slums was shattered.
Kaelen was finishing his final shift at the forge when the heavy front doors were kicked off their hinges. A wave of suffocating, brown mana rolled into the room, extinguishing half the torches.
Vance didn't move from his anvil. Kaelen stopped pumping the bellows, his eyes narrowing.
Through the dust and smoke stepped a man who looked like he was carved from a mountain. He was nearly seven feet tall, wearing heavy plate armor engraved with the mark of the Blood Hawks. Every step he took cracked the stone floor. This was Vane the Breaker, the Mid Rank 3 Earth Realm leader of the Syndicate.
Behind him were twenty armed men, their auras flaring.
"I don't like my things being broken," Vane rumbled, his voice shaking the tools on the walls. He looked at Vance, then his gaze shifted to Kaelen. "My scouts said a Null-rat with cold eyes was seen near the alley where my brothers were butchered."
Vane stepped closer, the pressure of his Earth Realm aura making Kaelen's ribs ache. "I don't believe in ghosts, boy. I believe in flesh and blood. And I'm going to turn yours into a pulp."
Vance finally looked up, his blue eyes cold. "He's my apprentice, Vane. Take your trash and leave my forge."
Vane laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "You're a cripple, Vance. A relic of a dead age. Don't tempt me to finish what the war started."
Kaelen stepped forward, the Abyssal Lead bracers hidden under his long sleeves. He knew Vance could likely kill them all, but it would reveal the old man's identity. This was Kaelen's mess.
"I killed them," Kaelen said, his voice echoing in the sudden silence.
Vane's eyes flared with a murderous brown light. "Then you will die slowly."
Vane didn't use a weapon. He lunged, his massive fist glowing with the density of granite. The air pressure alone was enough to crush a normal human's lungs.
Kaelen didn't retreat. This was his first time facing the Earth Realm.
Void Perception: Active.
The world slowed. Kaelen saw the flow of Earth mana—it was slow, heavy, but unstoppable. He used Void Step. His body blurred, not through magic, but through the sheer explosive power of his Peak Rank 0 muscles. He moved like a shadow, slipping past Vane's punch.
Kaelen's fist, weighed down by two hundred and fifty pounds of Abyssal Lead, slammed into Vane's armored ribs.
CLANG!
The sound was like a hammer hitting a church bell. Vane staggered back two steps, the steel plate on his chest dented. His eyes filled with shock. A Rank 0 had just moved his Mid Rank 3 body.
"You... you little monster!" Vane roared. He slammed his hands onto the floor. "EARTH SPIKE!"
The stone floor of the forge exploded. Dozens of jagged, mana-infused rock spikes shot upward.
Kaelen leaped, his movements fluid and feline. He kicked off a falling beam, twisting in mid-air. But Vane was fast for his size. He caught Kaelen's leg in mid-air and slammed him violently into the stone anvil.
Kaelen coughed up a spray of blood. His vision blurred. The difference in raw mana-reinforced strength was still immense. Vane walked over, his fist glowing for a finishing blow.
"Die, rat!"
As Vane swung, Kaelen didn't try to dodge. He reached out with both hands, grabbing Vane's glowing arm.
"Consume," Kaelen hissed.
He didn't take off the ring. He pushed the Singularity to its absolute limit, drawing the energy through the suppression of the ring.
The brown, earthy mana of the Rank 3 warrior didn't just fade; it was violently ripped out of his body. Vane screamed as he felt his very life-force being sucked into Kaelen's palms. The granite glow died. Vane's massive muscles began to wither.
"What... what are you doing to me?!" Vane shrieked, trying to pull away. He felt as if he were staring into the maw of an ancient god.
Kaelen didn't stop until Vane was on his knees, his Rank 3 core flickering on the verge of collapse. Kaelen's own body was trembling, the stolen energy trying to tear him apart from the inside.
With a final, brutal kick to the chest, Kaelen sent the weakened Syndicate leader flying through the wall of the forge and into the muddy street.
The twenty henchmen stood frozen. Their leader, a Mid Rank 3 monster, had been defeated by a boy in seconds.
"Leave," Kaelen rasped, his eyes swirling with dark, stolen mana. "Or you're next."
They didn't need to be told twice. They grabbed their unconscious leader and fled into the fog.
Kaelen slumped against the anvil, his breathing ragged. Blood dripped from his knuckles. He looked at his hands—they were trembling. The energy of an Earth Realm warrior was too much for a Peak Rank 0 to hold for long.
Vance walked over, looking at the destruction. He didn't seem angry. He looked... impressed.
"You're sloppy," Vance grunted, though his voice was softer. "But you're alive. That Earth mana... it'll burn you up if you don't refine it. Go. The girl is waiting at the north gate. If you stay here any longer, the Azure Sky Sect will find the mana residue."
Kaelen nodded, wiping the blood from his mouth. He looked at the old man. "Will you be okay?"
Vance picked up his hammer, a strange, lonely smile on his face. "I've been dead for a long time, boy. This is just a chore. Go make the world fear the Zero."
At the edge of the Whispering Woods, near a hidden smuggler's crawlspace, Elara paced back and forth. She was wrapped in her cloaking artifact, her amber eyes searching the darkness.
"You're late," she whispered as a shadow detached itself from the trees.
Kaelen stepped into the moonlight. He looked like he had crawled out of a war zone—his clothes were shredded, he was covered in dust and blood, and his aura felt... volatile.
"Encountered a variable," Kaelen said, his voice cold. "The route is clear. Let's move."
Elara stared at him, noticing the way the ground seemed to slightly indent under his feet. She realized with a chill that he was even stronger than before. "What happened to your arms?"
"Pressure," was all he said.
As they stepped into the deep, echoing darkness of the Whispering Woods, Kaelen felt the Null Singularity finally digest the stolen Earth mana.
[Evolution Criteria Met.]
[Condition: Breaking the Mortal Limit.]
[Initiating Rank 1 Ascension: The Aura of Nothingness...]
The journey had truly begun. Behind them, Oakhaven was in flames. Ahead of them lay a world of gods, and Kaelen was coming to eat them all.