The night sky trembled.Every collision between Arin and Kaelith sent shockwaves tearing through the forest—leaves ripped from branches, stone split, and the ground cracked like shattered glass.Rick could barely stand. “Arin… how is he even alive right now?!”Zaya grabbed his arm, pulling him behind a fallen tree as another burst of force rippled outward. “He’s not fighting with strength alone. The Ember and the Void—those cores aren’t cooperating. They’re competing. The pressure is tearing him apart inside.”Rick’s stomach twisted. “Then why isn’t he stopping?”Zaya’s eyes darkened. “Because if he stops… you die.”Rick froze.Kaelith appeared in front of Arin again, spear raised.“You’ve improved within minutes. Fascinating. But this is still—”Arin struck with a burst of flame so bright it lit the entire forest.Kaelith blocked with one hand.“One–sided.”He twisted, driving his knee into Arin’s stomach. The impact echoed like a drumbeat. Arin gasped, stumbling back as void energy

The storm above the Ruined Frontier finally calmed, leaving behind a sky split between silver clouds and dark haze. Ethan, Selena, Aiden, Mei, and the rest of the expedition stepped through the shimmering veil—the remnant of the Aether Boundary Ethan had just stabilized with his power.What lay beyond made everyone fall silent.A vast city stretched out across the horizon, built from obsidian stones that glowed faintly with blue veins of energy. The buildings were impossibly tall, sharp-edged, and ornately carved with runes that seemed to shift whenever one blinked.Aiden’s voice cracked.“Impossible… This place looks older than every known civilization.”Selena scanned the ruins, her eyes narrowed. “Older—and far more dangerous.”Ethan stepped forward. The ground beneath him hummed, reacting to the Oblivion Core in his body. For a moment he saw ghost-like silhouettes, flickering like echoes from the past. Warriors, scholars, strange humanoid beings—vanishing as quickly as they appear

The world around Rick wasn’t a world at all.It was… shifting.Breathing.Alive.He floated in a space that felt like a void and a dream at the same time, the darkness thick enough to touch, yet weightless enough to move like mist. Sometimes it felt cold, then suddenly warm, as if the place couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.Rick tried to move his hands, but the darkness wrapped around them like soft ropes.“Hello?” he called.His voice didn’t echo.It vibrated, like the air itself listened.A whisper came back—not from a direction, but from everywhere at once:“Bridge…”Rick froze.That same voice…the same one that pulled him through the door back in the ruins…the same one that had opened its eyes from the shadows…It was here with him.Rick swallowed hard. “Why do you keep calling me that? Who are you?”A ripple went through the darkness, like something massive shifting just out of sight.“We… are the Ones Before.”“Before what?” Rick asked.This time, the darkness trembled.“

The growl behind the stone door didn’t sound like a creature.It sounded like a storm.A storm that had been trapped too long.Rick felt the air thicken with pressure, the kind that made every hair on his arms rise. The glowing chains wrapped around the massive door pulsed like veins, struggling to hold whatever was inside.Rick exhaled slowly.“Whatever is in there… used to be mine?”Lysara stepped beside him, hands folded behind her back.“Not a creature. Not a weapon. A part of you.”Rick frowned. “A part of me doesn’t growl like that.”“Your soul does,” she replied.Rick’s chest tightened. “You’re not helping.”Lysara ignored the comment. She motioned to the glowing floor beneath the door. Symbols began aligning themselves, forming a circular seal made of shifting light.“Before the Veil was made,” she explained, “your past self bound your own power in a place no enemy could reach.”Rick stared. “And now you want me to… release it?”“You cannot face the Devourer without it.”Rick

The shadows surged like a black ocean, all rushing toward Rick at the commander’s command.Rick braced himself, blades crossed, aura flaring. “Come on then!”But Ethan was already moving.He blurred across the battlefield, appearing in front of Rick before the shadows even reached him. His eyes glowed with a violent black-gold radiance—raw Oblivion energy swirling around him like a storm that had finally stopped pretending to be gentle.Rick shouted, “Ethan, don’t—!”Too late.Ethan unleashed everything.A deafening blast erupted from his body, a shockwave so powerful that even the ground cracked like shattered pottery. The first wave of shadows disintegrated instantly, torn apart by sheer force. The second wave never reached them. The third dissolved in midair, screaming as Ethan’s power consumed them.The commander’s head tilted slightly, as if surprised.Rick staggered backward, shielding his eyes from the blinding light. “Bro… what the hell did you just do?!”Ethan’s breath came h