~Denzel Ardent was still pinned to the ground, wrists bound in glowing cuffs. His breath came short, ragged against the cold metal floor. The red lights painted everything in the room the same colour as blood. The soldiers fanned out in a half-circle around Kendrix and me, their rifles trained steady. The hum of charged mana filled the air — the sound of restraint, not mercy. Calen stood behind them, hands folded neatly behind his back. His coat looked untouched by the chaos he’d created. “Restrain them,” he said. His tone was soft, but the kind that made you move faster. One of the guards stepped forward. The chain in his hand hissed faintly with energy. I met Kendrix’s eyes. He didn’t need to say anything. Neither did I. The first soldier reached for my shoulder. I exhaled once, slow — then snapped my fingers. Flame detonated from the floor in a sharp, expanding burst. Heat and light ripped through the chamber, throwing men backward like ragdolls. The shockwave cracked the

~DenzelThe floor hummed under me, the faint metallic vibration of the fusion chamber collapsing into silence. My lungs felt like they’d been lined with fire. I tried to push up, but gravity itself betrayed me. Calen’s shadow stretched long across the ruined room, calm in the middle of the wreckage.He stepped over the debris, his coat unruffled despite the inferno we’d just torn through. The pale light from the ceiling flickered across his face, highlighting a thin smile that didn’t reach his eyes.Without a word, he hooked his fingers slightly — and invisible hands gripped my leg.I was yanked off the floor like a rag doll, crashing onto my back before being dragged across the metal surface.“Get off—” I growled, twisting, but my body wouldn’t obey. My muscles felt disconnected, my mana refusing to respond.Calen didn’t even look back. His tone was clinical. “Don’t waste your energy. It’s impossible to get out of my telekinetic hold. No one has ever succeeded.”My body lifted off th

~Laurent“What’s the plan?” Denzel’s voice was rough, still frayed at the edges of what we’d just escaped.“Get out of Verdant forest alive.”–––The ridge fell away into darkness below us. Verdant stretched out like a sleeping giant—black treetops shifting in the wind, mist crawling through their branches. The smell of burning metal from the facility clung to the rain. Every breath carried ash.We started down the slope without speaking. The forest swallowed sound fast; even the crunch of wet leaves underfoot died before it could echo. I kept Ereval drawn, the blade dim but warm against my palm. From his expression, I knew he wanted to ask me where that sword I was wielding came from but couldn’t because we had worse things to worry about. We were in a monster city which was already dangerous on its own and now, all the monsters were probably searching for us. Denzel walked a few paces behind me, looking over his shoulder every few minutes to make sure we weren’t being followed.He m

~Laurent The gate closed behind me with a sound that didn’t belong to metal — more like something exhaling after waiting too long. The air turned thick, warm, and wet against my skin. I took one step forward and the echo came back wrong, swallowed too fast. The catacomb opened wider here, and the light changed. The walls weren’t just carved stone anymore; they pulsed faintly, threaded with veins that glowed red under a translucent layer. Every few seconds, the glow ran down into the floor like blood through a circuit. It made the place feel alive — or dying. I tightened my grip on Ereval. “This room gives off a lot of energy. The monster here must be really powerful.” The silence pressed closer. Far off, something dripped at a steady rhythm. I moved carefully, measuring each step, letting my eyes adjust to the dim. Bones — human, maybe — were fused into the wall. Not decoration. Absorption. A reminder that everything here had been taken by something stronger. A low hum ripple

~Laurent When the last of the clones folded back into me there was a hollow, echoing sensation behind my ribs, like settling stones. For a moment I stood with my hands on my knees, breathing the cold air of the catacomb and feeling every pound in my pulse. The teeth of the cave had been bared; the Brood Warden was down. It should have been simple gratitude, but there was something else — the quiet arithmetic of what I’d just pushed my body through and what might lie ahead. The system stuttered across my vision like an old machine remembering its own name. [Level Up: 80] [Attributes Significantly Increased] [UPDATED STATS: Laurent Draven] Level: 80 Strength: 425 Agility: 340 Endurance: 330 Perception: 250 Intelligence: 190 Skills: (listed) + Spectral Rift (mastered), Blood Berserk (improved), Blood Clone (improved), etc. I smiled when I saw the upgrade. I honestly wasn’t expecting this much. Maybe, just maybe I had gotten strong enough to go toe to toe with Calen and his a