Chapter 31 — Immortal Class
The deeper they moved, the quieter the hive became.
Not the calm kind of quiet—
but the aftermath quiet.
Like something had already passed through.
The tunnel floor began to slope downward again, and soon the red glow from the walls dimmed enough that their own footsteps sounded too loud. As they stepped into the next vast chamber, Alicia slowed.
Shin stopped beside her.
Vaibhav exhaled.
Beast corpses—
thousands—
stretched across the cavern floor.
Layered. Burned. Torn apart.
No life force. No movement. No heat except the hive's natural pulse.
A graveyard made by something far more powerful than Transcendent-class.
Shin crouched beside a collapsed Mutated Transcendent carcass.
Its chest cavity was crushed inward, its hide shredded in precise, sharp lines.
"This isn't natural," Shin muttered.
He pressed one hand into the corpse, tearing deeper.
His fingers dug under ribs, under scorched sinew, and when he pulled—
A sharp, angular crystal slid free.
Black with a violet sheen.
Obsidian Violet.
Alicia froze.
Vaibhav's eyes widened.
Shin held it up between two fingers.
"I thought," he said slowly, softly amused, "this didn't exist in real life."
The shard pulsed faintly—dense, heavy, carrying a pressure none of their Transcendent shards ever had.
Then—
A flashback slammed into all three at once.
Not a memory of Earth.
Not Ignis Prime.
But a black forest—
Genesis Reign Online.
The three avatars stood over a massive corpse unlike anything in the real world.
A glitching titan-beast, stronger than Mutated Transcendents, harder than anything that game should have generated. Their screens had shaken from the sheer force of its final roar.
LaughingFlame69—Shin's avatar—
pierced the chest and pulled something free:
the same Obsidian Violet shard.
He handed it to DaddyVyuk—Vaibhav.
On Vaibhav's HUD:
> [+4 Immortal Power Points Gained]
He had stared at the screen.
IcyPrincess—Alicia—
asked what Immortal Class meant.
Vaibhav explained everything developers had buried in obscure patch notes—
a rank above Transcendent, supposedly added as a joke.
A fantasy tier.
Not meant to be reached.
The three of them had laughed in voice chat.
"That's fake," Shin had said.
"It's just a game," Alicia had added.
Immortal Class wasn't real.
Not supposed to be.
The memory faded.
And in the present the Obsidian Violet shard glowed again in Shin's hand.
He tossed it lightly toward Alicia.
"Go on. Try it."
Alicia caught it.
She didn't hesitate.
She pressed the shard to her palm—
and the violet light bled into her arm like liquid metal sinking into skin.
While Alicia was absorbing, Vaibhav and Shin moved.
They split to opposite ends of the graveyard.
They tore into corpses—
ripping bones aside, cutting open cavities, dragging out crystals fused inside hardened organs.
Every corpse held one.
Every shard was the same color.
Obsidian Violet.
Some were embedded deep inside shattered cores.
Some were hidden beneath layers of chitin.
Some required Shin to carve entire torsos apart using his sword spirit just to reach them.
The pile grew fast.
Twenty shards.
Forty.
Fifty.
Sixty.
By the time the last corpse was opened, Alicia had finished her absorption and walked over quietly.
She shuddered once, steadying herself as power surged down her core.
> [+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 1st shard
Shin dropped a final shard onto the growing mound.
"Sixty-five total."
Alicia stared at them—all glowing faintly, all identical, all impossibly strong.
Vaibhav ran a thumb across the edge of one.
"Immortal-class shards… in the real world."
Alicia nodded once.
Shin grinned.
"Things just got interesting."
They sat down together, the shards forming a small mountain before them, each radiating the same impossible power they had once thought existed only in a game.
The mountain of Obsidian Violet shards pulsed faintly, lighting the hollow chamber in shifting purple tones.
The three sat before them—silent for a moment, letting the reality sink in.
Immortal-class shards.
Real.
Vaibhav picked up the first shard.
Alicia and Shin followed.
They began.
Each crystal dissolved into them like sinking flame—
heavy power, dense pressure, deeper than anything Transcendent shards ever held.
There was no life force here for Vaibhav to absorb.
These corpses had been emptied long before the trio arrived.
So—
all three relied entirely on shards.
When Vaibhav pressed the first shard to his palm, violet light slid through his arm, cold at first—then violently hot.
> [+8 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 1st shard
A heartbeat later—
> [+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 2nd shard
[+2 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 3rd shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 4th shard
He didn't pause.
> [+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 5th shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 6th shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 7th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 8th shard
The chamber pulsed again—violet echoes bouncing along chitin walls.
> [+2 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 9th shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 10th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 11th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 12th shard
Vaibhav exhaled slowly, letting the overwhelming pressure settle.
> [+7 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 13th shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 14th shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 15th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 16th shard
And still—
More.
> [+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 17th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 18th shard
[+7 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 19th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 20th shard
His aura grew heavier—denser—sharper.
The final two melted through him with a deep quake.
> [+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 21st shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 22nd shard
Vaibhav let out a slow breath, his entire core thrumming with new weight.
Alicia began her absorption next.
She lifted her first shard—
it dissolved instantly, violet rushing down her arm.
> [+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 1st shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 2nd shard
[+8 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 3rd shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 4th shard
The fifth shard flickered differently—hotter, sharper.
> [+7 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 5th shard
She didn't slow.
> [+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 6th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 7th shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 8th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 9th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 10th shard
Her flame aura tightened around her silhouette.
> [+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 11th shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 12th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 13th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 14th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 15th shard
Alicia's breathing deepened.
> [+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 16th shard
[+7 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 17th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 18th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 19th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 20th shard
Her aura stabilized—heavier than ever.
Shin took in his twenty-one shards without hesitation.
The first shard dissolved cleanly.
> [+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 1st shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 2nd shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 3rd shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 4th shard
The fifth shard pulsed strangely—
> [+6 Mutated Transcendent Power Points Gained] — 5th shard
Shin clicked his tongue. "One leftover in the pool."
He continued.
> [+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 6th shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 7th shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 8th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 9th shard
[+2 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 10th shard
The pressure kept rising—controlled but violent.
> [+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 11th shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 12th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 13th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 14th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 15th shard
Each shard sunk deeper than the last.
> [+8 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 16th shard
[+5 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 17th shard
[+3 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 18th shard
[+6 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 19th shard
[+4 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 20th shard
The final shard melted into his palm in a sharp violet flash.
> [+7 Immortal Power Points Gained] — 21st shard
And then—
Silence.
Not the quiet of death—
but the quiet just before something enormous stirs.
The three sat back at once.
Every power bar—
Normal, Mutated, Ordinary to Mythic, Transcendent, Mutated Transcendent—
and now Immortal—
was full.
[Status Screen: Vaibhav]
Name: Vaibhav
Age: 17
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 67 kg
Lifespan: 250 years
Ordinary: 100/100
Mutated Ordinary: 100/100
Exalted: 100/100
Mutated Exalted: 100/100
Mythic: 100/100
Mutated Mythic: 100/100
Transcendent: /100
Mutated Transcendent: 100/100
Immortal: 100/100
[Status Screen: Shin]
Name: Shinosuke Nohara
Age: 17
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 68kg
Lifespan: 250 years
Ordinary: 100/100
Mutated Ordinary: 100/100
Exalted: 100/100
Mutated Exalted: 100/100
Mythic: 100/100
Mutated Mythic: 100/100
Transcendent: /100
Mutated Transcendent: 100/100
Immortal: 100/100
[Status Screen—Lin Xuan Crafted: Alicia]
Name: Alicia
Lifespan: 500 Years
Height: 174 cm
Weight: 58 kg
Ordinary: 100/100
Mutated Ordinary: 100/100
Exalted: 100/100
Mutated Exalted: 100/100
Mythic: 100/100
Mutated Mythic: 100/100
Transcendent: /100
Mutated Transcendent: 100/100
Immortal: 100/100
Shin leaned back on both hands. "That's everything."
Alicia nodded.
Vaibhav stared down the tunnel ahead—the one the hive kept pulsing toward, the one every redirected life force thread had pointed to.
The remaining Obsidian Violet shards sat piled neatly to the side.
None of them spoke for a moment.
Then Vaibhav rose first.
"…Let's go."
Shin and Alicia followed, the three walking toward the massive descending tunnel—the path leading to the hive's true heart, and to whatever had eaten thousands of beasts and stolen life force strong enough to reach Immortal class.