The air in the crypt was just… wrong.
It buzzed against Alvian's skin, a low hum that made his teeth ache. The light from their Aether-stones didn't cut through the darkness; it was just eaten by it, leaving the edges of their vision blurry. The ancient glyphs on the walls weren't glowing. They were weeping some kind of black gunk, like infected cuts.
"This isn't right," Elara whispered, her glowing blue rapier held tight. "The reports said the Gravemaw Behemoth was in the Sunken Barrows. Not… whatever this place is."
Kaelen grunted from the shadows. "The Aether here feels curdled. Corrupted."
Alvian felt it too, but his system was screaming about it. A flickering alert was trying to break through the static in his head.
[Ding!]
[System Scan Interrupted… Environmental Corruption Detected!]
[Analyzing… Null Essence Signature… Negative. Aether Signature… Negative.]
[Anomaly Detected: Data Glitch… Kzzt… Threat Level… UNKNOWABLE!]
'Unknowable.'
The word sent a bolt of pure ice down his spine. The system could classify anything. For it to fail meant this wasn't just a monster. It was a bug in the world itself.
"Stay close," Alvian ordered, his voice low. "Kaelen, flanks. Elara, my back. We confirm the target and get out. No heroes today."
They moved deeper. The main chamber was a huge, circular cavern. Bones of massive, long-dead creatures were scattered everywhere. And in the center, a mountain of scaly flesh and jagged rock moved. The Gravemaw Behemoth.
It was bigger than the reports. Way bigger. The size of a small house, its hide crusted with pulsing, sickly violet crystals. Every wet, ragged breath released a toxic gas that made the stone around it hiss and melt.
This wasn't just an Alpha beast. It was a walking nightmare.
"That's it," Elara breathed. "But those crystals… that's not natural."
"We can take it," Kaelen said, his hand on his sword. "Just need an opening."
Before Alvian could say a word, a deep hum vibrated through the floor. The weeping glyphs on the walls suddenly flared with a searing, blood-red light! Beams shot to the ceiling, forming a crimson dome that sealed the entrance.
[WARNING!]
[High-Density Aetheric Bounded Field Detected!]
[Spatial Coordinates Locked! Teleportation and External Communication SEVERED!]
[Analysis: This is a containment array. A trap!]
They were caged.
"ROOOOAR!"
The Behemoth, woken by the energy surge, let out a deafening roar that felt like a physical punch. It fixed its glowing, multi-faceted eyes on them. It wasn't just a beast in its lair anymore. It was an executioner.
"A setup!" Elara cried, stumbling back as the monster took a thunderous step. "Alexios… he led us here!"
"No time!" Kaelen yelled, drawing his sword. "Fight or die!"
The Behemoth charged. It was an avalanche of claws and corrupted crystal, impossibly fast for its size.
Kaelen met it head-on, his body erupting in silver light. "Its left side! A gap in the crystals near the shoulder!"
Elara blurred into motion, her rapier a streak of blue light aimed at the weak point. A perfect strike!
CLANG!
The blade bounced off like it hit solid diamond. The impact rattled her to the bone. The beast roared, swiping a massive claw at her.
Alvian was already moving, his Sun-Forged Blade a golden arc that deflected the blow in a shower of sparks. The force was insane, but his body held. "Its hide is too dense! Normal attacks are useless!"
The Behemoth, enraged, reared back. Its throat began to glow with a terrifying, internal light.
"INCOMING!" Kaelen screamed, his Soul-Sight showing him the catastrophic energy building inside the beast.
It wasn't a breath weapon. It was a wave. A tsunami of the same corrupted, glitching Aether that filled the crypt.
No time to run. Nowhere to hide.
"Get back!" Elara screamed. She planted her feet, drove her rapier into the ground, and a dome of pure, crystalline blue water erupted around them—her ultimate defense, the Azure Bulwark.
The violet wave of corruption slammed into her shield.
For a second, it held. The two energies fought with a screeching sound, like reality itself was being torn apart. But the corruption was too strong. It wasn't just attacking the shield; it was infecting it. Sickly purple cracks spread across the blue dome.
"Elara, drop it! It's poisoning your Aether!" Alvian roared.
She wouldn't. Her face was a mask of pain and grit, buying them seconds. With a final, explosive shatter, the bulwark collapsed.
The leftover energy washed over them. Kaelen and Alvian were thrown back, but Elara took the full backlash.
She crumpled to the ground. Her body convulsed, faint violet lines spreading across her skin like lightning. Her Aether signature flickered like a dying candle. The corruption was eating her from the inside out.
She was dying.
"ELARA!" Kaelen screamed, scrambling to her side.
Alvian stared, his mind a storm of pure, white-hot fury. He saw her helpless on the ground. He saw Alexios's sneering face. He saw the laughing bullies from his past. He saw himself pinned in the mud, utterly powerless.
Never again.
The careful logic, the suppressed power, the entire act—it all burned away.
'Nyx,' his thought was a command. 'Drop the veil.'
Kaelen looked up from Elara's fading form, his face broken with despair. "Alvian, we can't… she's—"
He stopped. The air around Alvian exploded. The weak, flickering aura he had faked for years vanished. In its place, a terrifying pressure slammed down, so immense even the Behemoth flinched.
Silver-white Aether and abyssal-black Null swirled around Alvian in a silent vortex. His eyes began to glow—one gold, one silver.
"Kaelen," Alvian's voice was a low, resonant baritone that vibrated with power. "Shield your eyes. Protect her."
Kaelen just stared, his face a mix of awe and terror. This wasn't the clumsy rich kid. This was a god. Or a demon.
The Gravemaw Behemoth let out one last roar and charged, its body wreathed in corrosive violet energy.
Alvian didn't move. He just raised his blade. The sword's golden light was swallowed, replaced by a colorless shimmer that bent the light around it. He whispered a single word into the chaos.
"Soulforged Edge."
He swung.
His blade didn't clash with the beast's hide. It passed through it. Through crystal, through muscle, through the corrupted Aether itself. There was no sound. Only a faint hiss.
The Behemoth's momentum carried it another ten feet before it just… stopped. A thin, shimmering line appeared diagonally across its entire body.
Then, it fell apart.
The two halves slid away from each other, dissolving into a cascade of glitching data particles that were unwritten from existence before they even hit the ground.
Annihilated.
The cavern fell silent. The beast was gone. But the crimson dome remained. Elara was still fading. And Kaelen was on his knees, staring at the being of impossible power that stood where his friend used to be.
The secret was out.