The Heloxian Knight charged with brutal weight, every footstep shattering rock. The battlefield trembled as it closed the distance to Wenzel, who didn't flinch. He rolled his neck, loosened his shoulders, then exhaled—
—and the air around him exploded in smoke.
Thick, choking, and black as Rift blood.
The Knight halted, swung blindly. The sword carved only vapor.
Then Wenzel appeared behind it, crouched low, a hooked blade in one hand, a smoke grenade rolling off his fingers with the other.
"Big armor and slow reflexes. You're not even fun."
The Knight spun with a roar, but again—smoke.
Wenzel vanished, reappeared on a ledge, kicked off it, and sliced the Knight's back. Sparks burst. The parasite plating cracked slightly. Wenzel landed like a ghost, already gone by the time the beast turned.
"Stop teleporting!" the Knight growled.
"Not teleporting," Wenzel muttered, lighting a cigarette with his free hand, "just moving better than you."
It rushed forward again, this time breathing purple flame. But Wenzel ducked low, smoke trailing off him like a second skin, and slammed a grenade into the Knight's jaw. The explosion flared, not deadly, but blinding.
Kai watched from the sidelines, jaw slack.
He's not even trying. He's just... playing. That's the same monster that crushed us like flies.
Smoke curled in twisting spirals across the battlefield. The Knight screamed in frustration. It slashed wild, left-right-up-down, carving scars across the cavern walls.
Wenzel kept walking, casual as if through morning fog, his outline warping between smog and steel.
Kai's breathing slowed.
And suddenly, a memory rose.
He was twelve. Face bruised, his parents were gone, and his clan was destroyed. He cried in the living room of the apartment , alone on the floor.
Wenzel sat on a dirty couch, boots on the table, watching a cooking show on the ancient flat-screen.
"You gonna cry all night?" Wenzel grunted, not even looking.
Kai had sniffled, tears pouring.
"'Cause I'm not turning the volume up. So if you're gonna cry, do it quietly."
It wasn't kind. But it wasn't cruel either.
And just like that, Kai stopped crying.
He didn't baby me. He didn't tell me it would be okay. He just stayed for a whole year.
The smoke thinned just enough to show the Knight, staggering, blade half-melted. Wenzel walked through the haze again, eyes cold.
"Fun's over."
He lunged—spinning low, stabbing through the knee joint, flipping onto the Knight's back, planting two grenades near the shoulder cores. He leapt off.
The explosion ripped through the beast. The armor cracked. The parasite beneath screeched.
The Knight collapsed to its knees, gasping, molten circuits leaking out.
"You were the strongest?" Wenzel asked, walking up to its face. "No wonder this place is failing."
Then he stabbed it once through the skull.
The body slumped.
Silence.
Kai didn't cheer. He just stared, wide-eyed.
You really came back.
Wenzel turned to him and blew out smoke.
"You got taller?"
Kai laughed weakly. "A little less."
"Good. By the way, quit being a GeneDevourer. I know you have a special parasite inside you, and instead of using it to save some people, I advise you to live a normal life."
Then Wenzel turned back to the squad. "That's a knight down. Where's the queen?"
---
Akari and Kai stood again, their wounds closed and their breath steady, thanks to the quick work of the GCC medica techs. Nanites sealed cuts and the stimulants flushed their veins. The aftertaste was bitter, like metal and ash, but at least they could walk.
Sylvie approached, brushing her gloves clean. Kai leaned closer.
"Hey. Is it really okay for us to stick with the GCC like this?" he muttered under his breath.
Sylvie glanced at the armored soldiers sweeping the rubble. She leaned in, smile twitching. "Nope. We're running the second they turn their backs."
Kai nodded. "Good."
They sat just for a moment. The cavern trembled as squads above hunted the Queen and her escape tunnels.
Once the Queen was dead and the Gemstone core destroyed, this Rift would collapse for good.
One more threat, gone for good.
But then—Kai's eyes narrowed.
From the shadow of a cracked pillar, a small shape tiptoed. A familiar waddle. Large helm bobbing side to side like it was too heavy for the body beneath.
No way…
The small Heloxian Knight.
Kai shot up, walked fast, pretending he was stretching. Then he darted, grabbed the Heloxian by the scruff and shoved the squirming thing deep into his coat pocket.
"You're mine now," he whispered.
The Knight flailed, muttered something in its chirpy language. Kai tightened the pocket zip.
"Shh."
He sat back down, ignoring the weird look from Sylvie.
Then it happened.
One of the medics, a young woman with a red visor, walked up to Akari, needle in hand.
She leaned down.
Too close.
Her wrist flicked—
A glint of steel—
Kai blinked. The knife was already pressed under Akari's throat.
The medic's face twisted and melted, like wax pulled apart, revealing segmented armor beneath. A crown of twitching thorns extended from her head.
"The Queen."
Everyone froze, even the GCC operatives.
Her voice clicked and hissed through a vibrating mouth. "Move, and she bleeds."
Kai stood, hands trembling.
Wenzel didn't move. Just muttered from the side, almost bored. "Just sacrifice the girl."
Kai's jaw clenched. His fists shook.
No, not her.
He stared at Akari's face. Her expression was calm as if she expected this.
Five years. She lived here for five damn years.
No one deserves that forever.
I'm going to get her out. I'm going to bring her back to the real world, no matter what.
"Let her go," Kai growled.
The Queen tilted her head.
The Queen dropped through the cracking floor, dragging Akari with her. Stone gave way with a grinding roar, revealing a secret chamber below.
A narrow platform floated at the center of the chamber, surrounded by glowing rivers of lava. Steam hissed through the fractures. The whole structure groaned like it was ready to collapse.
The Queen stood on the edge, holding Akari tightly, blade still pressed to her throat.
"If you try to stop me, everyone here dies," she hissed. "If you try to move, this girl dies."
The rocks under their feet shifted. Chunks rained from above. One wrong step, and they'd all be swallowed whole.
"Don't destroy the Gemstone," the Queen snapped. "You'll all be ash before that happens."
Kai stood still. His hands were shaking, but his eyes weren't.
Think. Think fast. You've done this before. You've outsmarted everyones before. This is just one more match.
He took a breath. Then turned to Wenzel.
"I've got a plan."
Wenzel looked over, his brow raised. Then he nodded slowly. "Of course you do. You led your clan in wars before you even hit ten. You're still that same damn genius."
The Queen was growing impatient. "What's your answer?!"
Wenzel took a step forward, hands raised. "We're not doing anything rash. Tell us what you want."
The ground trembled violently. Cracks spiderwebbed along the ceiling, more boulders slammed down. Everyone tensed.
The Queen's eyes darted, her grip on Akari tightened. She hissed, stepping backward.
Then her expression changed. She sniffed the air.
"There's a lot of smoke…"
Her head jerked to the side. "You—!"
But she didn't finish. A fist came out of nowhere and cracked her across the jaw.
She spun, slammed into the rock, and dropped Akari.
"What—?!"
Another punch—this time from the opposite side—sent her crashing against the platform's edge.
She barely caught herself before tumbling into the lava.
Winded and stunned, she looked up and finally saw it.
The smoke—thick and hot—had risen in a heavy curtain, blinding her. It wasn't natural lava vapor. It was something else.
And that's when she saw Wenzel step forward.
"You know, he might still be a brat," Wenzel muttered, adjusting his gloves, "but damn, his plans work."
Seconds before the smoke hit, Kai had pulled Wenzel aside and laid out the plan with precision.
He would shapeshift into Wenzel using Sekh's Adaptive ability—becoming the decoy on the platform to hold the Queen's attention. It wasn't perfectly identical to Wenzel, but it was enough.
Wenzel would hang back, hidden in the chamber's shadows, waiting for the perfect strike.
The problem was the environment. The lava wasn't reactive enough on its own, and there was too little ambient smoke for Wenzel to vanish into. But Kai had already considered that.
From his pouch, he retrieved a mutated mushroom he'd scavenged from the Heloxian forest, one rich in iodine.
He tossed it directly into a lava stream when the ground shook hard. He had asked Sylvie and Ash to shake the ground hard, but not too hard.
As expected, the lava reacted violently, not with an explosion, but with a burst of dense, acrid smoke. It filled the chamber almost instantly, obscuring visibility without destabilizing the structure.
That smoke became Wenzel's cover—thick, roiling, unpredictable.
Exactly what he needed.
Now, the Queen lay slumped against the stone, dazed. Akari crawled away, coughing.
Kai—back in his original form—reached for her and pulled her to safety.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I've been worse," she wheezed.
Wenzel dusted off his hands, chuckling. "Told you he's a genius."
The Queen grinned.
Not out of triumph—but something colder. She yanked her arm, revealing a thin black string wrapped around her wrist… connected to Akari's waist.
Before anyone could react, the Queen hurled herself backward into the lava pit.
"If I can't kill all of you…" her voice rang out, steady and cruel, "then I'll kill this girl instead. Did you really think I took her hostage without backup? I tied the string in case something like this happened. And it did. But I'm always—one step ahead."
Akari's scream cut through the smoke.
Her body lurched forward, dragged by the sudden pull. The platform cracked beneath her heel. Her hands flailed, and she fell—but not all the way.
A hand caught her.
Kai's hand. His knuckles white, his fingers locked around her wrist, holding her above the pit as the Queen clung to her legs, dragging her weight downward with relentless force.
No. No no no. Not again!
"Let me go!" Akari shouted, tears cutting through the soot on her cheeks. Her eyes met his, hollowed by desperation. "Just let go—she'll take me down anyway—just let me go!"
Kai's jaw clenched. His muscles screamed. His shoulders trembled. But his grip didn't falter.
"I won't let you!" he bellowed, voice raw, burning from his throat. "I'm not letting you die here!"
And the flames below churned.