The school hallway was no longer a place of learning; it was a corridor of chaos. Screams echoed against the lockers as students grappled with their new, violent realities. Some were weeping as fire flickered from their fingertips; others stood paralyzed as their skin turned to stone.
Aryan stood in the center of the classroom, Ananya still leaning against him. Her breath was ragged, cooling the air into faint mist.
"Aryan, look!" Ananya pointed toward the back of the room.
One of their classmates, a bully named Rohan, was undergoing a grotesque transformation. His muscles were tearing through his shirt, his teeth lengthening into tusks. His eyes were bloodshot, devoid of human reason.
> [IDENTIFIED: CRITICAL FAILURE IN MANA INTEGRATION]
> [ENTITY: MANA-STAINED BERSERKER (LEVEL 3)]
> [THREAT LEVEL: LOW]
>
Rohan let out a guttural roar and lunged toward a group of cowering students.
"Aryan, we have to—" Ananya started, her hands glowing with a lethal, frosty blue light.
"Stay back," Aryan interrupted. He stepped forward, his movement so fluid it looked like he was gliding. "You're still stabilizing. Let me handle the heavy lifting."
As Rohan swung a fist the size of a sledgehammer, Aryan didn't dodge. He simply raised his palm.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[ACTIVATING ORIGIN ATTRIBUTE: ABSOLUTE EVOLUTION]
[SUB-SKILL DETECTED: PREDATORY TOUCH]
The moment Rohan's fist connected with Aryan's palm, the air rippled. Instead of Aryan's bones shattering, a terrifying sound of slurping filled the room. The dark, chaotic energy fueling Rohan's transformation was visibly sucked into Aryan's hand.
"Gah... argh!" Rohan shriveled, his muscles deflating like a punctured balloon.
> [ENERGY ABSORBED]
> [EXP GAINED: +45]
> [ANALYZING BERSERKER DNA...]
> [EVOLVING PASSIVE: PHYSICAL DENSITY LEVEL 1 ➔ LEVEL 2]
>
Aryan felt his muscle fibers knit tighter, his bones becoming as dense as reinforced steel. He didn't just beat the enemy; he consumed the very essence of their strength.
He turned back to Ananya, who was watching him with a mixture of awe and fear. She had always known Aryan was different, but this... this was monstrous. And yet, seeing him stand there, bathed in the dying light of the violet sky, her heart skipped a beat for all the wrong reasons.
"You... you just took his power?" she whispered.
"I reclaimed it," Aryan said, his voice calm. "He wasn't using it well."
The Escape
"We need to get home," Aryan said, grabbing his backpack as if it were a normal Tuesday. "If the school is this bad, the city streets will be a war zone. My sisters... they'll be fine, but I want to see it for myself."
"My parents are at the hospital!" Ananya panicked, her Frost Dragon aura flaring up, dropping the room temperature by ten degrees. "The city hospital is right near the center of the Pulse!"
Aryan walked over and gently placed a hand on her head. The cold didn't bother him anymore; his Absolute Evolution had already adapted to her specific mana frequency.
"Hey. Look at me," he said, his gold-swirled eyes locking onto her blue ones. "Your parents are with my dad today, remember? They went to the administrative block. It's built like a fortress. We'll get to them. I promise."
Ananya bit her lip, her eyes shimmering. "You promise?"
"When have I ever broken a promise to you?" Aryan flashed a grin, the flirty, confident version of him returning for a split second. "Now, keep those dragon claws ready. We're going to have to run."
The Streets of Bhopal
The walk out of the school was a bloodbath. Huge insects with metallic shells were crawling through the shattered windows.
> [TARGET: AETHER-ANT (LEVEL 5)]
> [RANK: F]
>
"Ananya, left!" Aryan barked.
Ananya reacted instinctively. She thrust her hand out, and a spear of pure, crystalline ice erupted from the floor, skewering the giant ant mid-air.
"Wow," she breathed, looking at her hands. "That was... easy."
"That's because you're a Mythical Rank, Ananya," Aryan said, his eyes scanning the area. "You're a Ferrari in a world full of bicycles. Just don't let it go to your head."
"Shut up!" she snapped, though a small, proud smile played on her lips.
As they reached the school gates, a massive shadow loomed over them. A Level 15 Greater Hellhound stood guard, its three eyes fixed on the "tasty" humans.
Aryan stepped in front of Ananya. His aura, which had been suppressed, suddenly surged. Even though he was only Level 1, the Origin nature of his soul acted like a spiritual weight.
The Hellhound, a beast driven by hunger, suddenly whimpered. It felt as if it were standing before a primordial predator—something that had existed before the stars were born.
"My turn," Aryan whispered.
He didn't use a weapon. He moved with a speed that shouldn't be possible for a Level 1. He lunged, his hand glowing with a dark, devouring purple light.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: EVOLUTIONARY RUPTURE]
He punched the beast squarely in its chest. Instead of an impact, there was an implosion. The Hellhound's entire mana pool was forcibly ripped from its heart and funneled into Aryan's body.
> [TARGET ELIMINATED]
> [EXP GAINED: +500]
> [LEVEL UP!]
> [LEVEL 1 ➔ LEVEL 6]
> ╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
> EVOLUTIONARY REWARD:
> NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: [HELLHOUND'S AGILITY]
> REWARD: +20 AGILITY POINTS
> ╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝
>
Aryan stood over the dissolving carcass, feeling his nerves twitch as they were rewired for extreme speed. He looked back at Ananya, who was looking at the dead beast and then at him with a pout.
"You didn't even leave one for me," she grumbled, though her eyes were narrowed in jealousy. Not because of the kill, but because of how cool he looked doing it. Stop it, Ananya! It's the end of the world! Focus!
"Don't worry, princess," Aryan teased, wiping a drop of black blood from his cheek. "There's a whole city of monsters between us and home. You'll get your turn."
The Kourav Household
They reached the suburbs of Arera Colony just as the sun began to set, turning the violet sky into a bruised purple. The Kourav house stood strangely intact, though the pavement outside was scorched.
Suddenly, the front door flew open. A blur of silver light shot out.
"Get back!" a feminine voice roared.
A girl no older than fifteen, with pigtails and glowing white eyes, swung a wooden practice sword that was somehow emitting beams of pure solar energy.
"Diya, wait! It's me!" Aryan shouted.
The light died down. The little sister, Diya Kourav, squinted. "Bhai? And Ananya-didi?"
She ran forward, hugging Aryan so hard his new 'Physical Density' trait was the only thing that kept his ribs from cracking.
"You're alive! Meera-didi is on the roof sniped a giant bird, and Mom is in the kitchen making tea because she says 'the guests will be hungry'—even though the guests are literal monsters!"
Aryan laughed, ruffling Diya's hair.
> [SENSING KIN...]
> [NAME: DIYA KOURAV]
> [ATTRIBUTE: LEGENDARY RANK – LIGHT BRINGER]
>
"Where's Meera?" Aryan asked.
"Right here, little brother," a voice drifted from above.
Standing on the terrace was Meera Kourav, the eldest. She held a kitchen knife that was vibrating with such high-frequency mana it looked blurred.
> [NAME: MEERA KOURAV]
> [ATTRIBUTE: LEGENDARY RANK – BLADE SAINT]
>
"Nice eyes, Aryan," Meera said, leaping down and landing perfectly. She eyed him suspiciously. "You look... different. Stronger. And Ananya... you smell like a lizard's freezer."
"It's a Frost Dragon, Meera-didi!" Ananya defended herself, blushing.
"Whatever," Meera smirked, then her expression turned serious. "Dad and Mr. Sharma called. They're trapped in the South District. The system calls it a 'Zone-1 Calamity Area.' We were just about to go get them."
Aryan's eyes darkened. The South District was the densest part of the city. If it was a Calamity Area, it meant the monsters there were evolving faster than humans.
"We go together," Aryan said. "But first..."
He turned to his system screen, which was flashing a gold light.
> [LEVEL 5 REACHED: FIRST EVOLUTION BRANCH AVAILABLE]
> [PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR PATH:]
> * MONARCH OF FLESH (Focus on physical invincibility)
> * VOID REAPER (Focus on stealth and soul consumption)
> * ORIGIN ARCHITECT (Focus on ability synthesis and aura control)
>
Aryan didn't hesitate. "Architect."
[EVOLUTION INITIALIZED... STAND BY.]