The air turned electric.
Rhea's squad spread across the shoreline, weapons glowing under the storm's flashing sky. The monstrous squid roared, crashing through the surf, its tentacles slamming into the sand hard enough to shake the island itself.
> "Focus fire on the core!" Rhea shouted. "Bring that thing down!"
Pulse rifles screamed. Plasma bolts tore into the creature's slick flesh, exploding in sprays of blue ichor. The smell of ozone and salt filled the air.
But it wasn't enough.
The beast kept coming—unstoppable, enraged. Each swing of its limbs tore through trees and sand like paper.
Then Mason, the team's electromancer, stepped forward. His gauntlets hummed as static crackled up his arms, turning the rain into glowing threads of light.
> "Back up," he muttered, voice calm. "I've got this."
He slammed both fists together. A shockwave of pure electricity burst outward—an expanding sphere of blinding white.
The blast hit the squid dead-center.
The monster convulsed, shrieking. Lightning danced across its body, frying nerves, cooking flesh. It collapsed into the sea with a final, echoing roar, steam rising from its carcass as the water boiled around it.
The light faded. Silence fell—just the hiss of cooling metal and the rain.
Mason exhaled, panting. "Target neutralized."
But Rhea's eyes were on the shore.
Sapphire was still there.
Her gaze locked on the smoking remains of the squid—her companion. Her fingers trembled, then curled into fists. The air around her shimmered, humming with restrained fury.
> "That was my first friend," she whispered, voice breaking like glass.
"He protected me… when no one else would."
Her tears fell, glowing faintly blue as they hit the sand. Then her expression changed. Calm… still… but wrong.
The ocean began to boil.
Waves twisted upward, spiraling into columns. The wind howled. Static crackled through the air, stronger than before—but this time, it wasn't Mason's doing.
Sapphire raised her hand. "Now you'll understand what it means to lose."
The sea erupted.
Tendrils of glowing water shot toward the squad like living blades. Rhea dove, rolling as one sliced through the ground where she'd been standing. Another slammed into Graves, sending him flying into the treeline.
> "She's manipulating the tide!" Mason shouted. "It's not water—it's energy!"
> "Then hit her again!" Rhea barked, firing a pulse round that exploded against Sapphire's shoulder. The shot staggered her—but only for a second.
Sapphire's eyes turned white, glowing like twin stars.
> "He gave me his strength," she said, her voice echoing with Jack's tone beneath it. "Now I'll give you his rage."
The ground trembled.
From beneath the beach, more shapes began to rise—humanoid, half-formed, made of coral and bone. The fallen soldiers of Bravo and Delta, reshaped by the sea.
> "Contact front!" Rhea yelled. "Hold formation!"
Lightning flashed, illuminating the new battlefield—Rhea's battered team facing an army born from the ocean, Sapphire floating above them like a goddess of ruin.
And behind her, deep in the sea, something vast moved—something that wasn't dead after all.
The battlefield burned with ghost-light.
Energy blasts lit the fog in stuttering flashes, showing glimpses of horror — half-rotted soldiers made of coral and bone, dragging themselves forward through the sand.
Team Turtle fought fiercely, their shields flaring with every hit. Plasma, lightning, and sonic bursts tore the creatures apart, but for every one that fell, two more clawed out of the surf.
Rhea's visor flickered with static. "Keep pushing! Don't let them surround—"
Then her voice caught.
Sapphire hovered above the battlefield, water swirling around her like ribbons of glass. The rain hissed against her skin, steam rising from her glowing form.
Her eyes shimmered with sorrow.
> "Stop this…" she whispered, though her voice carried like thunder.
The coral soldiers froze mid-motion, their eyeless faces turning toward her.
Team Turtle hesitated—guns still raised.
Sapphire's expression softened. "Jack… I'm sorry."
Her gaze drifted downward, her hands clutching at her chest as if she could still feel his heartbeat somewhere inside her.
> "We didn't mean to take your body. We only wanted to protect you. From them. From all of them."
"You were too kind, too human… You couldn't fight the way they demanded you to."
"So we came. We—the ones they killed, the ones they twisted—took shape inside you."
Her voice trembled, sadness seeping through every word.
> "We know how it feels, Jack. To face so many, and still try not to hate them. But we will protect you now. Even if it means becoming the monsters they always feared."
The coral soldiers let out low, mournful cries—like whales in the deep.
Their movements became deliberate, coordinated—no longer mindless rage but a disciplined defense. They surrounded Sapphire protectively, forming a living barrier of bone and coral around her.
Rhea stared from behind her cracked visor, breath catching.
> "She's… talking to him," she murmured. "Jack's still in there."
Sapphire's gaze lifted again, meeting Rhea's across the chaos. The faintest smile touched her lips—sad, knowing.
> "You call us monsters," she said softly. "But you're the ones who never stop coming."
The ground beneath her began to glow—runes of deep blue forming in the sand. The air thickened with pressure, the ocean trembling as if the whole island was breathing with her.
> "You will not take him again."
The coral soldiers screamed in unison as the runes erupted, releasing another wave of energy—a tidal force rushing outward like the heartbeat of the sea itself.
The dark pulsed around Jack like a living heartbeat. The air was thick — not with oxygen, but life.
He stood at the center of a vast black ocean, where light flickered from below like dying stars.
Then came the voice — ancient, thunderous, cracking through the void like the first sound after silence.
> "At last… the Vessel awakens."
A massive figure rose from the depths. His body was carved from molten rock, every breath exhaling smoke and fire.
When he spoke, his voice rumbled like a collapsing mountain.
> "I am Kael, the Damage Class. The first breath of creation — the strike that birthed all others."
The black water boiled beneath his feet.
> "Before there was life, there was power. Before power, there was me. Every class you see here — every creature that crawls, swims, or flies — was born from my chaos."
The others began to appear around him, one by one — lights forming into figures.
From the waves rose a graceful woman of water and coral, her hair flowing like seaweed, eyes deep as the abyss.
> "Sapphire, Swimmer Class. The sea that remembers. The tide that protects and consumes."
From beneath Jack's feet, the ground cracked open, and a monstrous figure of stone and earth emerged, tusks glittering with crystal.
> "Boros, Digger Class. I carve the veins of the world. The earth obeys me."
A shadow fell over Jack as a figure swooped from above — feathered wings tipped in silver fire.
> "Veyra, Flyer Class. The wind's predator. The unseen death that descends from the sky."
Roots tore through the ground next, and a tall woman stepped forth — bark and thorns twisting across her body, flowers blooming from her shoulders.
> "Thalene, Plant Class. I am rebirth and decay — the garden that feeds on flesh."
Then came one whose presence froze Jack's blood.
Skin pale as bone, body laced with sharp, jagged spines that flexed with every movement. His arms elongated, splitting open to reveal living blades that breathed and pulsed.
> "Vorren, Weapon Class. The forger of flesh. My blades are alive, my armor grows, my creations scream."
"Every weapon you wield carries a soul. Every cut bleeds memory."
Jack took a step back, his heartbeat quickening.
Next came a writhing shadow of tendrils, whispering through a hundred mouths.
> "Nahlis, Parasite Class. I am hunger given form. I live inside the strong — and make them mine."
Lightning cracked as a figure blurred into existence — too fast to see clearly.
> "Ryn, Runner Class. I am motion. The pulse between breaths, the killer in the blink."
A massive armored being followed, his every step booming like thunder.
> "Gorran, Tank Class. I am endurance. I bear the pain others cannot."
Two radiant figures appeared next, hand in hand — twins of light.
> "Eila, Support Class. I bind and strengthen."
"Lyss, Healer Class. I mend and forgive."
Then came a shifting shape that split into hundreds of smaller versions of itself, all whispering together:
> "Murk, Minion Class. We are the many. The infinite echo."
A cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows next, his eyes pure white light.
> "Arthen, Summoner Class. I was the first to call life from thought. I created the beasts that followed Kael's fire."
The last shape crawled from the black — sleek and insectoid, its shell glittering like obsidian glass. Six wings buzzed softly as it spoke, its voice a thousand chittering tones woven together.
> "Krixa, Bug Class. The swarm that never ends. We are order born from chaos. I am the hive, the colony, the will of millions."
The twelve figures encircled Jack — the air trembling from their combined presence.
Kael stepped forward again, his molten eyes locked on him.
> "You see them all, Vessel. My children. My fragments."
"Each of us was born from the spark I gave to the void. But each was cursed — locked into a single instinct."
Sapphire's voice was soft, mournful.
> "We live and die by one nature alone. I swim. Boros digs. Vorren kills. None of us can change."
Kael's fire flared, casting shadows over all of them.
> "Until you."
Jack's chest glowed faintly — twelve marks burning beneath his skin.
> "You, Jack," said Arthen, "are the vessel where the classes unite. The only being who can wield all that we are — the True Summoner."
Sapphire stepped closer, reaching out to him.
> "You hold our freedom — or our extinction."
Vorren grinned, his bone blades flexing.
> "And if you lose control… we'll rip you apart from the inside."
Jack's breath shook. "Then I'll control it. I'll control you all."
Kael laughed — the sound of volcanoes erupting.
> "Bold words, boy. But remember: I was the first flame. I burned worlds before yours even dreamed of light."
The ocean around them roared, glowing brighter as the twelve lights merged into one ring of color beneath Jack's feet.
> "Then learn, Vessel," Kael thundered. "Learn what it means to wield creation itself."
The ring pulsed — blue, red, gold, black — each color sinking into Jack's skin. Energy roared through him like a storm of souls.
Sapphire's voice echoed last, fading as he was pulled back to the living world:
> "We are within you now, Jack. All of us. Don't let the first flame consume the last light."