Adyr’s eyes opened in the middle of nothingness; only distant, floating islets could be seen, giving small pieces of life to this empty place.

But even those did not look permanent, as the void itself trembled without pause, like an ancient structure about to crumble inward, ready to collapse with everything inside and be buried in infinity.

Upon regaining his senses, he felt a deep ache throughout his whole body, with changes coursing through his muscles and skin as though another evolution had begun.

He ignored the constant transformations running through him and looked back to where the Serpent had been chasing him. It was still quite a distance away.

"So all those things didn’t even take a second." Adyr realized at once that although the memories he had lived inside his mind felt like hours or even days, in reality they had not lasted even a second.

It was good news, because he had returned before the Rank 4 Spark reached him. He started to flap his cloudy wings once again and began to escape.

And while escaping, his body kept changing in pain.

The change in his body was not like the changes that came when he ascended his evolution steps. This time it was more comprehensive, more detailed; he could feel all his bloodline talents rising to the surface, as if they were blending with his body to construct something new.

His Malice surfaced over his skin as dark smoke, and his Grace started to fight it with divine light. Not even Adyr could predict which one would win.

His Presence showed itself like a spectator, calmly seeping around, not wild, not shifting.

And his Gaze was different; to make itself known, it began to work on his eyes, shaping them from within.

While in flight, Adyr suddenly lost his vision; more precisely, he lost control of it.

Too many scenes, more than he could keep track of, began to pass through his sight, making his head and eyes burn with overheated input.

As a physical change, the eyes that had once looked like a sky with clouds drifting inside began to darken; gray smoke rose within them, and they turned bright red, like metal heated until it took on a molten glow.

It was a painful process, but not as painful as what was happening to his wings.

As he tried to keep flapping without pause, his wings also began to change shape under the constant territorial battle between Malice and Grace .

White and black collided, energies coursing through him and gathering in his wings, as if the decision would write the cosmos’s secret law.

His skin and hair answered the struggle. The pure white and fair flesh began to change as the two bloodlines combined, graceful light braiding with ancient darkness to forge a new color, a new existence no eyes had ever known.

Then the changes reached their peak, making him appear like the flesh of something unnamed. Adyr halted, and the crumbling void froze around him. Even the pursuing Sszhar went still, as if compelled to witness.

—

"I suggested that we leave right away." With annoyance on his face, Maruun stood by the enormous hole, the exit, and shouted at the group in front of him.

"And I said we’re waiting until our lady returns." The woman with silver hair and silver pupils held her ground, stubborn as stone.

Not far from them, the Gorathim representatives made their position clear. "We either leave with him or we die here with him." It was obvious who they meant; they were ready to give their lives for their soon-to-be Chief.

"These unreasonable people..." Maruun’s eyes narrowed, and anger flared.

"Don’t you understand? They ordered us to bring the core outside. Staying here will only make things worse and render their order meaningless." He raised his voice; his anger would no longer be contained.

The worst part was that even though he and the mixed-race group wanted to leave, Lunari and Gorathim refused to let them take the core, turning the situation into an inescapable stalemate.

Without the Core, leaving empty-handed was meaningless.

"Maruun, calm down." Loudbark stepped closer. He could see how close Maruun was to starting a fight, and a fight here would only make things worse.

"How can I calm down? Don’t they see that if they keep waiting, they’ll die in this crumbling place?" Maruun shouted at the Houndkin, his temper fraying.

"They stayed behind so we could leave. They gave us a mission to finish." His eyes widened, red veins standing out. "We don’t even know if they’ll succeed and come back alive, and these idiots would rather die here with them and ignore the mission they were given—for what?"

At his words, the Practitioners’ faces fell; some frowned, some tensed, but no one answered.

"Look, you dumbasses." Maruun faced the silence, clenching his teeth. "You all know we live in a world where death is not just a possibility but only a thought away. If you want to believe they’ll survive, that’s fine with me, but at least think logically about the possibility that they might die and the mission could fail."

His voice lowered and trembled at the end. He wasn’t heartless; he wanted Adyr to survive. But he insisted they accept reality.

Brakhtar was the chief of one faction, and Thalira the young leader of another, but in a grim situation like this, their customs and beliefs were irrelevant. Their decision to wait was utter folly.

"I’m alive because he saved me, and now, honoring his last wish, I will take this core and leave. Even if it means I have to fight and kill every one of you." Maruun did more than state his resolve; a crystal trident appeared in his hand. With him, all the Aqualeth drew their weapons, ready to fight.

Seeing him, Loudbark sighed and drew his weapon. The Houndkin closed in at his back, and Rhadak with his Obsidren kin took their stances, ready to fight at any second.

Not convinced, the Lunari and the Gorathim reached the same silent decision and took their places, ready to fight to the death until their leaders returned.

The tension spiked, enough to make them forget the crumbling, trembling void around them, a void ready to shatter and swallow them whole at any moment.

Yet the air soon changed again, shattering the stillness.

All at once, while braced to fight, everyone felt it: skin prickling, hair rising.

An ancient presence seemed to brush their backs; sweat beaded without cause as instincts woke and whispered.

"Hey, Fish, is it just me, or do you feel it too?" Loudbark called out, his fur standing as if under a charge.

"Yes." For a moment, Maruun lowered the trident and gazed into space. "Does space collapse like this?" He wasn’t sure if something else or the shifting and breaking space around them was causing the sensation that was pouring into him.

It didn’t take him long to wonder. In the distance, the source became visible.

"What is that?"

To speak, every gaze shifted to the figure emerging from the shadows, resembling a monster ripping its cloth and forcing its way into their dimension to speak.

***

A/N: Another 100 mark and another bonus Chapter. Thanks a lot.