SEASON 2 — EPISODE 8
Storm Before the Feast
Cold Open — Two Fronts
The storm outside the war council tent screamed like a living thing, rattling the poles and tearing at the canvas. Shadows of Hunters moved across the walls, cast long and warped by the flicker of oil lamps.
The Guild Master slammed a weather-stained map onto the table so hard the ink bled at the folds. Red markers glowed faintly with mana, each pulsing like a heartbeat.
"One Servant's rising in the Titan King's territory." His voice was stone and thunder. "Another in the Sea of Broken Spears."
Kai's gloved hand traced the map. "They'll hit both fronts within the hour. If we split our strength, both battles fail."
The tent filled with silence, broken only by the hollow moan of the wind.
"Pick one, Xavier," Kai said finally, eyes locked on him. "We can't—"
"I'm not picking," Xavier interrupted, his voice calm, almost cold. "I'll kill them both."
No one laughed. Not anymore.
Act 1 — The Impossible Plan
Outside, the war drums echoed across the snowfields. The air was thick with frost and dread.
Xavier stood apart from the Hunters, tightening the straps of his armor. The thought had been brewing in his mind since the First Servant fell — a gamble that could burn him out from the inside, or win the war before it truly began.
Hunter's Duality — pushed far beyond what the skill was meant for. Not just targeting two enemies. Not just fighting in split focus. No… this would split him. Two bodies. Two minds. Two lives burning twice as fast.
He exhaled once. "Hold both lines for twenty minutes. That's all I need."
Act 2 — The Sea of Broken Spears
The world tore in half. The moment the skill activated, Xavier became two. Each felt as real as the other — the same heartbeat, the same breath, the same killing intent.
Copy-One sprinted toward the coast, boots slamming into ice-crusted sand. The sea foamed black ahead, rising in unnatural swells. Then it broke — a wall of water, higher than the Citadel towers, crashing forward with a roar that wasn't water at all.
From its depths rose the Servant — Kraken-shaped, a mass of black ice and molten veins that glowed like the cracks in a dying world. Dozens of tentacles slammed into the sea, dragging whole warships under with a single pull.
HUD flashed:
Servant of the World-Eater
Threat Level: 97 — Abyssal Class
Its single, lidless eye opened — an abyss in itself, a swirling black hole of mana. The pull nearly tore the air from his lungs, dragging him toward the churning water.
"Not today," Xavier growled, Volt Breaker Overdrive sparking around him.
He ran across the waves, lightning turning each step into an explosion of steam. Tentacles lashed from all sides — each strike a mountain's weight. One slammed into him, spinning him through the air, ribs cracking.
He landed hard, coughing blood, but never slowed.
When the eye widened to devour him whole, Xavier dove beneath the surface. Arc Storm Cleave ignited even underwater, a golden lightning storm boiling the sea into vapor.
The Servant screamed — a sound like tectonic plates grinding — as its body split apart. Molten ichor poured into the deep, staining the water with light.
HUD flickered:
Threat Neutralized. Life Force: 52%
Act 3 — The Titan King's Territory
On the other side of the split, Copy-Two Xavier was already running into fire and ash. The volcanic plains were lit red by the Titan Servant's presence — a warlord of obsidian armor, crowned with flame, every step melting rock into rivers.
Kai's defensive line was breaking. Hunters screamed as a black wave of Corruption rolled out from the Servant, their skin blistering, armor dissolving, minds snapping under the weight of its aura. Some turned feral, attacking their own comrades.
Xavier's Eater's Bane shielded him from the worst, but his skin still cracked, glowing white-hot where the corruption tried to take hold.
The Titan Servant noticed him. Its molten hammer came down with enough force to split the plain. Xavier barely rolled clear, the impact blasting shards of lava into his back.
No more time.
Apex Fang Sever — his Limit Break — surged into him, golden-white power flooding every nerve. He ran up the molten hammer, ignoring the burns, and drove his blade into the Servant's heart core.
The world went white.
When the light cleared, molten glass stretched for miles, the Servant's body frozen mid-collapse before crumbling to ash.
HUD flashed again:
Threat Neutralized. Life Force: 19%
Act 4 — The Becoming
Both Xaviers staggered. Every heartbeat felt like a hammer blow. The skill's tether snapped, and the two versions of himself collapsed toward one another.
When they merged, something… shifted.
His aura didn't fade. It expanded. Golden-white light poured from his eyes, constant now, the storm inside him visible to everyone who looked too long. His voice carried a low echo, as if something else spoke beneath his words.
Kai's boots crunched over the glass plain. "…What are you?"
Xavier stared at the molten horizon. "Not human. Not beast. Something the Eater can't kill."
Act 5 — Aftermath & New Power
The battlefield lay silent. The Hunters who could still stand kept their distance, some in awe, some in fear. The Guild Master's eyes narrowed — not in distrust, but in calculation.
HUD burned brighter than ever:
LEVEL UP! 60 → 70
NEW FORM: Apex Ascendant — Human limits transcended. Limit Break now baseline, further enhanced by Eater's Bane.
No one cheered. The air was too heavy. Too changed.
Ending Cliffhanger
Far below the Frostwraith Citadel, in the ice-bound seal chamber, the Shadow King stood in the dim blue light. Three Servants knelt before him, their shapes barely contained by the room's impossible size.
Behind them, the darkness shifted. A silhouette far greater than the Citadel itself leaned forward. Its horns scraped the cavern ceiling. Its eyes were dying stars.
"It wakes," the Shadow King whispered, lips curling into a smile. "And now… it will notice you, Xavier."
Above, Xavier stood alone on a cliffside. The storm clouds swirled into the shape of a colossal, open jaw in the sky, its teeth formed from lightning. And somewhere in that endless black throat… something laughed.