All Chapters of APEX AWAKENING : Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
122 chapters
THE SECOND TEST
Three days passed, and Draven’s life fell into a strict, unrelenting routine. The mornings belonged entirely to the Ascendant Cycle. He stood alone on the training ground, sweat pouring down his face, muscles trembling, as he tried to maintain the rising spiral of elemental energy. Most attempts failed almost immediately. Sometimes the spiral unraveled after just a few seconds. Occasionally, it held for a half-breath of time, teasing him with the feeling of power running perfectly through his body.Each attempt left him exhausted, gasping for air, but every failure also taught him something. He adjusted the timing, refined the flow, and pushed his Qi a fraction further. By the third day, his mastery had climbed from one percent to three percent. The progress was tiny, but it was real. The spiral felt less fragile, the energy inside him more connected. And each time it held, even for a moment, his heart raced with the addictive thrill of total elemental harmony.It was dangerous how
THE HUNGRY SHADOWS
They moved toward the rift as a tight group. Draven’s bubble of stable Qi was their only protection. The rainbow-colored energy ahead shimmered and warped the air, making the ground underfoot feel soft and unreliable, like walking on rotten wood.“Energy signatures are spiking,” Selene said, her voice tight as she scanned her slate. “Something’s moving at the edge of the distortion field. Multiple somethings. Life signs are jumbled. The rift’s energy is mutating them.”A low, chittering growl came from their left. From behind a jagged outcropping of blackened rock, a creature appeared. It looked like a Sand-Stalker, the lean six-legged predators common to the Expanse, but now patches of its carapace glowed with unstable violet light. One of its front claws had turned into a twisted crystalline spike that hummed with chaotic energy.“Contact left!” Goran shouted, shifting his stance. The creature shimmered, and a slightly transparent copy of itself lunged from the right.An illusion or
FORGING A NEW VESSEL
The Spire’s familiar shape offered no comfort as the skiff docked. The mission had been a success, but for Draven, it was also a warning. His Chaotic Seed was no longer unknown. The Conclave now understood its value in controlling chaos. He had become a tool, and tools are used until they break or until something better is found.He needed to be more than a tool. He needed to be irreplaceable.Back in the quiet heart of his enclave, the pressure was tangible. Kieran’s whispered warnings about moves from the Flame-Soul Patriarch weighed heavily. His current strength was visible to enemies. To surpass it, he could not just learn new techniques. He had to rebuild the very instrument of his power: his body.Draven sat cross-legged, shutting out the world. His mind dove inward, accessing the System’s deepest repository. The Physique Refinement Sovereign Tier section glowed with a single, daunting option.[ Primordial Chaos Body (Seed Stage) ][ Cost: 4,000 Strife Points. ][ Description: I
INTO THE SHATTERED PEAKS
The night was on his side. Draven slipped out of the Verdant Spring Enclave like a shadow. The new power in his body made his movements almost unnatural. He did not take a skiff or the main gates. He simply walked to the edge of the courtyard, looked down at the dizzying drop into the Wastes, and stepped off.He fell for a hundred feet before sending his Qi downward. His flight felt different now, smoother, faster, requiring almost no conscious effort. The Chaos Avatar passive made the turbulent night air feel like a welcoming current instead of resistance. He flew low and fast, a dark streak against darker earth, following the mental map Selene had placed in his mind.The journey to the Shattered Cloud Peaks took most of the night. As dawn's grey light touched the jagged summits, he saw why the place was feared.These were not mountains. They were the shattered teeth of a dead god. Stone spires leaned at impossible angles. Chasms vented plumes of fog that crackled with static electri
THE SLEEPING STORM
The silence after the Gale Wraiths was heavier than anything before it. Nothing moved. Nothing spoke. The only sound was a deep, steady thrum rising from far below. It felt like a heartbeat. The mountain was alive.Draven walked down a winding staircase carved naturally into the rock. The stone was slick under his boots. The air was thick with static and made his hair prickle. There were no glowing crystals here. Light came from blue white lightning crawling across the cavern walls. Each flash lit the space for a heartbeat, then plunged it back into shadow.The stairs ended.Draven stepped onto the edge of a massive round cavern. His breath caught.At the very center floated the Storm Heart.Chains made of solid lightning held it in place. Tornadoes twisted slowly around it like guards. The Storm Heart itself was a perfect sphere of dark blue crystal, as large as a small house. Inside it, a tiny storm raged forever. Clouds boiled. Rain fell upward. Lightning danced in silent patterns.
THE HEART’S QUESTION
The voice was not sound.It did not echo. It did not vibrate the air.It pressed.It felt like the weight of an endless sky folding inward, squeezing itself into a single thought and pushing straight into Draven’s soul.WHO WAKES MEDraven could not pull his hands away from the Storm Heart. The shock from the impact still locked his palms against the crystal surface. Power flooded into him in heavy waves, wild and vast. It was not attacking. It was searching.Judging.Testing.Every breath felt slow. Every thought felt small.Across the cavern, Zephyr staggered back on the stone dais. His earlier arrogance shattered like glass. Fear burned in his glowing eyes, tangled with raw rage.“No,” Zephyr shouted, his voice cracking. “This is wrong. It was mine. I was chosen. I was its master.”The Storm Heart shifted its attention.A thin strand of mist flowed out from the crystal, smooth and effortless. It wrapped around Zephyr’s chest, arms, and legs. He barely had time to gasp before it lif
THE TASTE OF THE ROT
The path out of the mountain felt wrong from the very first step.The air no longer carried the sharp, clean scent of lightning or wet stone. It smelled sour and heavy. Like spoiled earth mixed with rotting meat and old metal. Every breath scraped against Draven’s lungs and left a bitter taste on his tongue. The faint sick green glow along the tunnel walls guided him forward, pulsing slowly like a dying heartbeat.Draven frowned as he walked.He was certain this tunnel had not been here before.The Storm Heart had shown him the way. Or perhaps the Rot itself had opened a path, sensing him and reaching out. Either thought made his grip tighten.After a long climb that burned his legs and shoulders, the tunnel finally opened.Draven stepped out onto a high ridge carved smooth by constant wind. The cold air hit him hard, but it did nothing to clear the smell. He looked down and felt something twist in his chest.The valley below was dead.Not barren. Not empty.Dead.The stone was black
CHAOS AGAINST THE VOID
The Corrupted Silhouette stood on the stone outcrop across from Draven, silent and unmoving.It did not feel like an enemy made of flesh or energy. It felt like a hole torn into the world. From ten feet away, Draven could feel it pulling at him, not with force, but with absence. A quiet numbness crept into his thoughts, whispering that nothing mattered. That effort was pointless. That it would be easier to stop.Behind him, Scout Mara’s ragged breathing broke through that pull.Draven clenched his fists and held his ground.The Silhouette glided forward without a sound. It did not hurry. It did not hesitate. Wherever its feet touched the stone, the rock gave up, crumbling into fine grey sand as if it had never truly existed.Draven knew waiting would only make things worse.He stepped forward and struck first.Power surged through the Ascendant Cycle as he unleashed a Blossoming Strike. Five colors of chaotic energy wrapped around his fist as he drove it straight into the creature’s c
A SPARK IN THE ROT
Draven’s hand throbbed with a deep, cold numbness. He opened and closed his fingers slowly. Feeling crept back little by little as his Chaos Body tried to heal the damage left behind by the Rot. It was healing him, but not fast enough.He looked at Scout Mara.She was worse.The green corruption around her bandaged arm pulsed softly, beating in time with the weak but still living ley line beneath the valley.“We need to move you,” Draven said. His voice sounded rough, even to his own ears.“Move me where?” Mara coughed. It was dry and painful. “This poison is inside me now. If I go back to the Spire, I will spread it. Or they will lock me away until I rot completely.” She stared at her arm and gave a tired laugh. “I am already dead. I am just slow about admitting it.”Draven clenched his jaw and looked away toward the corrupted valley. The weight of the Heart’s geas pressed on him. Heal a ley line. That was his task. He could not do it from above. He had to go down into the sickness i
THE LAND REMEMBERS
The Rot reacted at once, and it was violent.The entire trench of sick energy did not just move. It boiled. The corruption stopped focusing on Draven and turned downward instead. It dove into the ground, attacking the bedrock itself, trying to smother the tiny golden spark of the land’s spirit he had awakened.It was desperate. Furious.Violet green tendrils drilled into the stone like living things, digging deeper and deeper.Draven knew he could not fight it head on. He could only protect the spark.He pressed his hands harder against the ground and poured everything he had into it. Chaotic Life energy. Earth energy. Will. He turned himself into a shield, standing between the Rot and the land’s memory.Behind him, Mara cried out. “It is working,” she said, her voice shaking with awe and pain. “The ley line is fighting itself.”She was right.Where the Rot drilled down, patches of clean golden light flared up from below, pushing back. The valley floor began to crack and rumble. Stone