The world ended in a roar of collapsing obsidian and the shriek of twisted rebar. I plunged into the throat of the earth, my fingers locked into the mutated, leathery hide of Marcus's throat. We slammed through layers of forgotten history—old subway tunnels, limestone caverns, and then, a sudden, violent burst of blue light.
CRACK.
We hit a floor of polished jade. The impact sent a shockwave through my spine that would have liquefied a normal human. I rolled, coming up in a crouch, the golden light of the Anchor illuminating a nightmare of architectural grandeur.
"Where... what is this place?" Marcus's voice was a wet gurgle. He hauled his distorted frame upright, his chitinous blade-arm twitching.
We were in a cathedral of the damned. Bioluminescent vines crawled up white marble pillars that stretched hundreds of feet into the gloom. A dead city, silent for five thousand years, lay spread out beneath the foundations of my old office.
"It's your grave, Marcus," I spat, wiping black ichor from my forehead.
"Grave?" Marcus laughed, a sound like grinding stones. "Look at the energy here, Elias! The air is thick with it! I can feel the Void Eye screaming for more!"
He lunged. He was faster now, fueled by the raw Spirit Vein leaking into the cavern. His blade-arm whistled past my ear, shearing through a jade pillar as if it were soft butter.
"You're too slow, Heir!" Marcus shrieked, his body blooming with even more black, oily tentacles. "Your physical strength is useless! My new form absorbs kinetic energy! Punch me! Please! I'll just get stronger!"
I stepped back, narrow-eyed. I threw a heavy straight to his chest, a blow that should have caved in a tank. Marcus didn't even flinch. The black mass of his chest rippled, swallowing the force of the blow and pulsing with a dark, purplish light.
"See?" he sneered, swinging a massive claw that caught me in the ribs, sending me skidding across the jade floor. "I am the evolution! You're just a relic!"
I scrambled up, my breath coming in hot rasps. He was right. Every time I hit him, the Void energy in his system redistributed the impact. I was essentially charging his battery.
"Anchor!" I roared internally. "Give me something else! Physical strikes aren't cutting it!"
[Warning: Physical Body at 100% capacity.]
[Suggestion: Convert kinetic energy to Elemental Spirit Fire. Bloodline Seal 0.06% required.]
"Do it!"
[Processing... Conversion Engaged.]
My veins didn't just glow; they ignited. The golden light turned into a white-hot, ethereal flame that licked off my skin, scorching the ancient floor. The air around me began to vibrate with a high-pitched hum.
"What is that?" Marcus backed away, his void-eyes widening. "That's not... that's not possible! The secular world doesn't have Spirit Fire!"
"The secular world doesn't," I said, stepping forward. The heat was so intense it was melting the soles of my boots. "But I'm not in the secular world anymore, am I?"
"Stay back! I'll rip your heart out!" Marcus swung his blade-arm in a desperate arc.
I didn't dodge. I caught the blade. The Spirit Fire on my palm hissed as it met his mutated flesh, cauterizing the Void energy on contact. Marcus screamed—a sound of pure, soul-shattering agony.
"It burns! Why does it burn?!"
"Because you're a parasite, Marcus. And I'm the sun."
I slammed my flaming fist into his midsection. This time, the energy didn't ripple. It bored through him. The white-hot fire vaporized the black mass of his torso, leaving a charred, glowing hole where his stomach used to be.
"Clara..." he whimpered, his human face briefly flickering through the gray mask of the monster. "Elias... please..."
"You should have thought about her before you pushed me off that ledge," I said, my voice cold as the void he served.
I grabbed his head with both hands. The Spirit Fire flared to a blinding intensity. "Promotion denied."
I twisted. There was a sickening crunch, followed by a burst of white light. Marcus Thorne, the man who had stolen my life, vanished in a pillar of celestial flame. There wasn't even ash left behind—just a scorched circle on the jade floor.
"Sire!"
The General's voice echoed from above. I looked up to see him rappelling down a cable, his tactical gear looking absurdly out of place against the ancient ruins. He landed, his boots clicking on the stone.
"Is he... is it over?"
"Marcus is gone," I said, the fire on my arms slowly receding into the runes. "But the problem just got bigger."
I pointed toward the center of the ruins.
Beyond the plaza, at the heart of the subterranean city, stood a massive ring of floating obsidian shards. They were spinning slowly around a core of pure, jagged darkness. It wasn't just a hole in the ground; it was a wound in reality.
"What in the hell is that?" the General whispered, his hand going to his sidearm.
"It's a Spatial Rift," I said, the Anchor in my chest pulsing with a frantic, warning rhythm. "The Spirit Vein isn't just a power source. It's a seal. And by killing Marcus here, his Void energy acted as a key."
The rift began to hum, a sound so low it vibrated my teeth. A sliver of light—not gold, not black, but a terrifying, iridescent silver—began to leak from the center. It felt... heavy. Like the atmosphere was being replaced with mercury.
"General, get back! Now!"
"Sire, look!"
From the silver light, a hand emerged. It was slender, with fingers that were far too long, tipped with claws that seemed to be made of starlight. It gripped the edge of the obsidian ring, and the sound of the world tearing filled the cavern.
[Warning: Dimensional Breach Detected.]
[Entity Rank: Unknown. High-Dimension Signature Identified.]
"Is that... a person?" the General stammered.
"No," I said, the golden light of the Anchor flaring to its absolute limit as I dropped into a combat stance. "That's a predator. And we just opened the door to its dining room."
The silver light flared, blinding us both. Through the roar of the rift, I heard a voice—a voice that sounded like a thousand people whispering at once, echoing from the other side of the portal.
"The Anchor has returned. The harvest can finally begin."
A massive foot stepped out onto the jade floor, and the entire subterranean city groaned as if it were about to collapse. The sky of the cavern—the very foundation of the city above—began to crack.
I looked at the General, then at the rift.
"General, if we don't close that right now, there won't be a city left to go back to."
"How?" he shouted over the roar.
I looked at the mark on my palm, the unblinking eye of the Void that was now glowing with the same iridescent silver as the rift.
"I have to go in.