The concrete station roof crumbled under the weight of giant claws. A creature standing five meters tall loomed before them a three headed wolf stripped of every scrap of skin. Each step shook the whole building hard enough to send chips of concrete raining down from the already cracked ceiling. Thick dust choked the air mixed with the stench of rotting flesh that burned the nose. The beast breathed slow and heavy and exhaled waves of heat that seared the floor until the concrete hissed like metal plunged into fire. "What manner of creature is this," Axel hissed. He raised his black bone spear higher. His jaw went tight as he stared at the horror standing in their path. The power that had made him feel nearly invincible moments before now felt small and frail beneath the crushing weight of this monster’s presence. All three wolf heads moved independently. Pairs of burning red eyes watched him from separate directions as though each min

"At last... the lost Archon Bone Spear has returned. The Sealing Key has chosen its new master."The blind old woman's voice trembled, soft yet heavy like a whisper drifting across time from the distant past. Her gnarled fingers brushed slowly over the black bone spear in Axel's hands, tracing each ancient carving etched along its length. When her fingertips touched one of the deepest swirling patterns, her frail body shuddered violently. An unseen cold spread through the entire room, and the guards standing around the stone altar exchanged sharp glances filled with alarm.Axel frowned deeply. Ever since stepping into the Shadow Realm, too many impossible things had happened in far too short a time. A dimensional gate opening. Void energy healing his wounds instead of harming him. Even the fact that human survivors still clung to life in a place the Order had always described as a hopeless hell. Now this old woman spoke as though the spear he carried was merely a small part of somethi

"Listen to me very closely, Rian. This gray world we stand upon now... it is humanity's true original world, before history was falsified."The blind old woman's whisper nearly drowned beneath the roar of explosions shaking the hall. Thin streams of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, staining the lined face that had held so many secrets for so long. Her trembling hands gripped Axel's arm with strength that belied her frail form. It was as though every last spark of life sustained her only to speak those words.Axel froze where he stood.All around them firelight cast a bloody red glow over piles of shattered concrete. The screams of the fleeing, the crack of laser fire, and the crash of colliding metal merged into a deafening chaos. Yet to Axel it all seemed to recede. There was only the old woman's voice echoing endlessly inside his head."What are you saying, Grandmaster?" Axel's voice came out rough and broken. His jaw tightened painfully. "The true world? This Shadow Rea

Axel's boot slammed into the Order logistics officer's chest driving the man hard against the dust-choked concrete floor. A stifled groan pushed past gritted teeth. All around them the remains of the outpost outside Nine Towers still reeked of hot metal spilled fuel and drying blood. Axel stared down expressionless as he tore the Aether energy battery from the man's tactical belt moving with a calm far more terrifying than any outburst of rage.The officer reached for his sidearm. The tip of the black bone spear stopped inches from his throat. The man froze."Hand over every battery you carry," Axel said flat his tone low and sharp enough to make the air itself feel colder.The officer swallowed hard his eyes narrowing with pure hatred. "You think you can betray the Order and walk free?" he snarled. "Sooner or later they will hunt you down."Axel did not answer right away. Once words like these might have stung him. Once he might have argued or tried to prove he still stood on the rig

"Why did you let us die Rian?"The hoarse voice seeped forth as if from a throat choked with blood and echoed down the illusory corridor of the Nine-Towered Spire. It was not loud yet it froze Axel in his tracks. Every syllable struck his mind like a nail driven slow and sure."Mother Father?" he breathed the name barely audible. His feet stepped back of their own accord.The concrete floor beneath him shifted instantly. Dark red fluid seeped from the cracks and spread in every direction until it formed pools that mirrored his own face. The sharp metallic scent filled the air stinging his nostrils.Axel swallowed hard. His throat went dry as ash.Before him stood two figures he knew far too well. Their faces. Their voices. Their bearing. Everything looked so real his breath caught. Axel’s chest grew tight as though pressed by an invisible weight.He knew the Nine-Towered Spire was rife with things that defied reason. Yet seeing his parents standing there after all these years still sh