The void began to crack.
Not with light, but with time.
Jack's body floated in nothing, his eyes wide as the darkness unfolded into a thousand colors, a thousand lives.
A voice — Arthen's — echoed faintly through the storm of visions.
> "To bind with us… you must first see us."
And so he did.
---
Kael — Damage Class
Jack stood in a world of fire and ash.
Kael stood upon a mountain of corpses, his molten fists crushing entire armies.
Volcanoes erupted at his roar. The sky itself bled.
> "They called me destruction," Kael's voice rumbled. "But I was the first light. The fire that gave birth to everything after. From my ruin came life."
He raised his arm — and Jack saw that beneath the cracks of his molten skin, stars flickered, like the embers of creation itself.
> "Remember, boy. I was the first to burn… so that others could rise."
---
Sapphire — Swimmer Class
The world shifted — water surrounded him. Deep, endless, alive.
Sapphire glided through coral forests glowing with ghostly blue light.
Around her swam thousands of creatures — her creations, each beautiful, each deadly.
> "I guarded the deep," she whispered. "I shaped beauty in silence. But they poisoned my seas. My children died choking on the filth of surface dwellers."
She looked back at him, her eyes filled with grief.
> "I became what they feared — a siren, a monster — to protect what I loved."
A tear of salt rolled from Jack's eye as the ocean turned to glass.
---
Boros — Digger Class
The sea drained into soil.
Jack was underground now, surrounded by stone that breathed like lungs.
Boros, massive and scarred, dug through the rock with his bare hands — carving tunnels lit by glowing crystals.
> "They called me the silent builder," Boros grunted. "I gave them homes. I built their shelters."
He stopped, looking up with eyes that gleamed like diamonds.
> "But they forgot the maker when the world above began to shine. So I buried myself — and the world forgot me too."
The cavern collapsed around him, but his voice carried on, steady and proud.
> "I am the foundation. Without me, nothing stands."
---
Veyra — Flyer Class
The air screamed.
Jack was flying — through thunder, through fire, through a storm that had no end.
Veyra's wings tore the clouds apart, lightning dancing across her feathers.
> "I was freedom," she said, her voice a rush of wind. "But freedom meant solitude. I was made to watch, not to stay."
She soared above cities built from Kael's ashes, above oceans Sapphire wept for.
> "You cannot hold the sky, Jack. Only touch it… and let it go."
---
Thalene — Plant Class
Now he stood in a forest of bone and flowers.
Vines crawled up skeletons, roses bloomed from skulls.
Thalene appeared — tall, serene, with moss growing from her shoulders.
> "Life and death are not opposites," she said, brushing a petal from his face. "They are lovers."
She gestured around her — trees grown from corpses, each one beautiful.
> "I do not kill, nor do I save. I recycle. I remember."
A vine curled around his wrist — gentle, but firm.
> "Remember me when you heal or destroy — for both are my gifts."
---
Vorren — Weapon Class
The ground turned to metal.
Jack stood in a forge where screams replaced the hammer's sound.
Vorren shaped a sword from living flesh — its veins still pulsing, its mouth whispering softly.
> "You fear me," Vorren said, grinning, his teeth bone-white and sharp. "Good. Fear keeps you sharp."
He thrust the sword toward Jack.
> "Every weapon remembers who wielded it. Every cut leaves a story. My creations bleed memory."
Jack reached out and took the blade — it pulsed once, whispering his name.
---
Nahlis — Parasite Class
Now came darkness again — but not empty.
Jack felt movement beneath his skin.
A thousand voices whispered from inside him.
> "I am Nahlis," said the voice, echoing through his bones. "The shadow within the strong."
He saw people corrupted, controlled — yet their bodies healed faster, fought longer, survived death.
> "I do not destroy," the voice murmured. "I adapt. I make the weak thrive through hunger."
A shiver ran through him, half fear, half awe.
---
Krixa — Bug Class
The air filled with chittering.
Jack stood in a hive the size of a continent. Millions of insects moved as one, forming tunnels, bridges, even statues of their queen.
Krixa rose — tall, armored in glistening obsidian shell.
> "I am Krixa," she hissed. "Mother of the swarm."
She looked at him with compound eyes glowing faintly green.
> "Alone, we are nothing. Together, we are godhood."
The swarm moved in rhythm with her words, the hive glowing brighter.
> "The others see chaos. I see perfection — a million wills, united."
---
Ryn — Runner Class
The world blurred.
Jack could barely see — time itself was moving too fast.
Ryn appeared as streaks of motion, his voice overlapping itself a hundred times.
> "I am speed," he said. "But not for glory. I run because I must — because if I stop, I feel."
The world slowed for a moment.
Ryn's eyes met Jack's, haunted.
> "Every fast thing runs from something. Remember that."
---
Gorran — Tank Class
The air thickened.
A giant stood before him, covered in armor grown from his own flesh. Each scar on his body glowed with light.
> "I am Gorran," he said quietly. "The wall between life and oblivion."
He knelt, showing his chest — covered in the handprints of those he'd protected.
> "Every mark is someone I saved. Every scar is someone I couldn't."
Jack's heart ached.
> "To endure," Gorran said, "is not to live. It is to carry."
---
Eila & Lyss — Support and Healer Classes
Two figures stepped out of golden mist.
Eila's hands glowed warm; Lyss's shimmered silver.
Together, they smiled at him.
> "We are mercy and hope," they said.
"But mercy without strength is wasted."
"And hope without pain is hollow."
They touched his chest — light poured through him, washing away the darkness.
> "When you use our gift, remember: healing is not kindness. It is courage."
---
Murk — Minion Class
The light shattered into infinite pieces.
Jack stood in a field of mirrors — each reflection was himself, staring back.
> "I am Murk," they all said in unison. "The legion. The echo."
Each reflection spoke a different tone — angry, kind, afraid, cruel — until their voices blended into harmony.
> "We are every version of you that could have been. We are what happens when will becomes command."
All the reflections smiled at once.
> "You lead us well, Vessel."
---
Arthen — Summoner Class
At last, the darkness settled.
A cloaked figure stood at the edge of the void, his white eyes gleaming.
> "And I," he said, "am Arthen. The first to dream monsters into being."
He extended his hand — and before Jack appeared every class, every creature, every power, all linked together by glowing threads of light.
> "You are the bridge, Jack. The only one to see what we saw. To feel what we felt."
The web of light pulsed, each class's energy flowing into Jack's chest.
> "You are not just our Vessel," Arthen said, his voice fading into the stars.
"You are our bond."
---
The visions faded.
Jack gasped — awake again, his body glowing with thirteen sigils.
Each pulsed in time with his heartbeat, whispering the same word through every class, every soul:
> "Together."
The ocean churned.
The battle had turned into chaos — sonic blasts cracking the air, plasma rounds flashing through rain and smoke. Team Turtle fought with desperate precision, their gadgets flaring, their shields humming under pressure.
Sapphire hovered above the waves, her blue light dimming. Then… she stopped.
Her eyes widened.
Tears — clear at first, then glowing white — streamed down her cheeks, evaporating before they reached the sea.
> "Jack…" she whispered, voice trembling.
Her form began to flicker. Fins shrank. Scales dissolved. The siren's glow broke apart into a swirl of blue and white energy, spiraling upward into a column of light that split the clouds.
From within the light, Jack stepped out.
But he was no longer the same.
His hair flowed down his shoulders, black and smooth, shimmering faintly like ink in moonlight.
His body was carved muscle and scar — every inch traced with glowing sigils, symbols pulsing like veins of molten silver.
His eyes were blank white, not empty but filled — a mirror to every soul that had once lived inside him.
The wind stilled. The sea froze.
Even the storm hesitated.
Jack looked down at the trembling soldiers of Team Turtle. His voice echoed, layered with a thousand tones — human, monstrous, divine.
> "You used us."
The ground vibrated. Vines crawled from the soil, thick and alive, spreading beneath the squad's feet.
> "You took our power to build your towers… your cities… your homes."
The vines wrapped around them, binding their arms and legs. The soldiers shouted, trying to activate their gear — but the vines only tightened, sharp thorns sliding through armor and skin, drawing lines of blood.
> "And when we became no more use to you…" Jack continued, his tone sharpening into fury,
"You cast us out. You burned our forests. You buried our temples. You killed our homes."
The symbols across his body flared bright red.
> "Now—"
He raised his hand. The sky darkened.
> "You will feel our wrath."
He leapt from the air, crashing to the jungle floor like a meteor. The impact cracked the ground, a shockwave of light racing through the trees.
Every summoned monster — from the wolves to the corrupted beasts — froze where they stood… then dissolved into ash.
The air went silent.
Jack stood among the remnants, eyes burning white. The vines constricted around Team Turtle, blood soaking the mud.
Then, from the shadows, he summoned the Screeching Maws — floating, eyeless creatures with mouths that stretched open into infinity. They hovered above the trapped soldiers, emitting a soundless hum.
> "Try it," Jack said, voice cold as stone. "Use your toys. Fire your weapons."
One soldier flinched, instinctively reaching for his energy rifle. The maw shrieked — a piercing, physical sound that cracked metal.
The rifle dissolved into dust, its energy absorbed in an instant.
The man screamed.
Jack tilted his head, watching them without pity.
> "You don't even have power," he said softly.
"You have gadgets. Machines. Lies."
He stepped closer, his shadow stretching across them like a living thing.
> "You call yourselves powerful?"
His tone turned to disgust.
> "You disgust me."
The Maws hissed, vines tightened, and the ground began to tremble with something deeper — something awakening beneath the soil.
Jack's symbols flared again, brighter, pulsing like a heartbeat ready to explode.
Every creature of the island turned toward him.
Every eye opened.
Every forgotten class stirred.
The world itself seemed to whisper his name.
> "Jack… the zoo keeper