《My Wives Are A Divine Hive Mind》 Chapter 1: Atomic Introduction Chapter 1 - Atomic Introduction"I don''t want to die alone~" Amidst the playful humming, Kivas Chariot walked home in the rainless dusk, boots clacking softly against the faded concrete, her figure a blur beneath neon haze and distant warning sirens. It was always like this lately. Silent streets. Empty benches. The air tasted faintly of copper, and the electric signs flickered above shuttered storefronts as if half-asleep, whispering to no one. She adjusted the collar of her jacket and tilted her head toward the sky. The sun looked wrong today. Not in color. Not in brightness. Just... wrong. Like it was staring back. "Another solar warning?" she muttered, pulling up her holopad to check the alerts. "Third one this week. Haah. It''s like the sun''s finally had enough of us." She forced a laugh. It echoed too loudly in the stillness. No one replied. No one ever did. "Nyeh, people are too afraid to go outside nowadays." She shrugged. "It''s not like the war will end if everyone remains inside..." Kivas lived on the twenty-fourth floor of a half-abandoned high-rise. Her apartment was modest: a bed, a broken stove, three working lamps, and an old terminal that still ran legacy programs from before the Great Net Collapse. "I''m home~!" She chimed, before she sighed. "Not even a single lockpicking attempt today too, huh. Maybe I should be the one who start intruding someone''s shelter." She settled in, peeled off her jacket, and stared at the wall for a while. She had food. She had shelter. But she had nobody. Lately, she''d started whispering to herself before sleep. Not prayers. Not mantras. Just... whispers. As if maybe something out there might be heard. "Please... I don''t want to be alone forever." She would say it like brushing her teeth. Out of habit. Half-joking. "Give me a handsome dude, or a normal dude, or maybe just a dude!" Her eyes squinted, cheeks burned red. "Heck, I don''t mind dating a woman at this point...!" At the very least, she wanted a companion to converse with. Ever since she wasn''t permitted to perform her job activity from her current affiliated company due to the current restriction in her city, her anxiety was on the rise. And at one point, sleeping on the bed wasn''t even that comfortable anymore. "How horrible of them, to leave without saying anything..." When slumber came, so did a moment of peace. Sometimes she dreamt of arms wrapping around her from behindgentle, warm, unjudging. A face in the darkness murmuring. "I understand you." And every time she reached back, her fingers grasped only the cold void. "...Mmmmmmm?" The terminal on her desk buzzed with static. Her eyes drifted to it. The screen, for a split second, flashed whitethen returned to normal. She frowned. "Solar interference?" She got up and looked out the window. The sky was bleeding gold. Not orange. Not red. Just pure, searing gold. Then everything gasped. A deafening crackle of wind shattered the stillness, striking the landscape. In the first millisecond, a ball of plasma, hotter than the sun, erupted and expanded into a fireball kilometers wide. Inside its radius, nothing remainedno ground, no buildings, no home. Just instant vaporization. The flash came next. A wave of blinding light swept across the city ruins and beyond, rendering anyone who dared look at it temporarily blind. The thermal pulse that followed scorched everything within 13 kilometers, burning it all to ash. And then came the shockwave. The fireball''s energy compressed the surrounding air into a massive bubble of destruction. Traveling faster than sound, the shockwave tore through 175 square kilometers, ripping buildings apart and flinging debris like confetti. What once stood strong crumbled like brittle cards. As the fireball cooled, a mushroom cloud of dust and ash rose into the atmosphere, a haunting reminder of the devastation. The cloud pulled in air from the surrounding areas, creating more destruction as it sucked everything inward. Far beyond the epicenter, black rain would soon fallradioactive ash descending on what little remained of the city, poisoning the ground and the few unlucky survivors. In the days to come, silent, invisible radiation would seep into the earth and sky, ensuring that the scars of this moment would linger for decades. As for Kivas. Not a single trace of her remained. She had been struck directly by the sun. "Guess I died, huh." It wasn''t long before a troubling realization hit her "...Wait. How am I still capable of thinking!?" There was nothing but her consciousness adrift in an endless void of darkness. Even she herself wasn''t quite aware. "Haah, am I about to be judged? Sent to hell? Dear lordsall of you, if you existplease hurry up and get on with it..." Her mind floated in the emptiness, though there was no vessel, no physical body tethering her to anything. "Huh... maybe the afterlife is a reincarnation after all. And maybe, waiting might works?" So, she waited. Patiently. For anything to happen. Time dragged on, and the boredom became unbearable. Death, she realized, was not a sudden event, but a slow, agonizing waiting game with no end in sight. If it even ends at all. Like a restless child counting sheep to sleep, Kivas began to count moments in her mind. One. Two. Three. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. And it went on. To twenty-two. To one hundred thirty-four. And beyond. It was all she had to keep her sanity running, miraculously. Eventually, years passed. 100 years, to be exact. Chapter 2: Lonely Chapter 2 - Lonely"I see. Maybe at the end of everything, there''s only this. Just perpetual darkness." Her will slightly faltered. "Maybe reincarnation isn''t real. Maybe there''s no judgment, no Yama, no hell. Uuurgh. I''d even take eternal damnation over this silence...." Kivas, unshackled from a mortal body, felt no fatigue. Her current state seemed to engineered itself hard to preserve her cognitive functionan unholy gift, maybe? Just to ensure she remained conscious, tortured, alone. As more years slipped by, Kivas began to lose hope. "Maybe this is hell after all. An eternity of solitude to cleanse my sins, one agonizing moment at a time..." 1,000 years had passed. Somehow, she still held onto her sanity. Was it sheer human determination? Or was Kivas simply an aberration, an anomaly of willpower? She kept counting. Always counting. And whenever she made a mistake, she corrected himself. Not like there was anything to do. She felt like this passage of time, its reality in its numeric sensewas the only thing that had been keeping her rooted to the very core of her existence. The act was beyond stressful, sure, but what could she do when there was nothing but a mind that was forced to keep the gear churning? Adrift in endless time, Kivas turned her thoughts back to Earth with melancholy. Her clock was still ticking subconsciously. "Maybe by now, there aren''t any more weapons of mass destruction being lobbed around like a chaotic game of table tennis. No turns, no rulesjust chaos. ...Or maybe humanity''s already gone. Wiped itself out. If they survived, though, I can''t even imagine what their culture or technology might look like." Even in this shallow state of existence, Kivas found faint amusement in imagining the possibilities. It was a fragile lifeline, but it kept her mind alive. 10,000 years had passed. "If I remember correctly, Antares would''ve gone supernova by now. They said it''d even be visible from Earth during the day." Her memory hadn''t faded, strangely. Not even after millennia. Was this unnatural clarity persisted because her mind was somehow preserved? Or was this all a simulation, a broken program spinning endlessly in some cosmic processor? "I guess I read too many science blogs back then," she thought with an imaginary chuckle. But the thought struck a nasty chord, feeding her existential dread. Still, she endured. She had no choice. Hope and despair ebbed and flowed like tides, and Kivas clung to the faint belief that somethinganythingmight eventually change. 100,000 years had passed. Kivas no longer had the willpower to keep her consciousness actively engaged. It remained as sleepless as ever, but she chose to retreat into silencementally and spiritually. With such an unfathomable amount of time passing, even the constellations began to shift slightly, though they were still somewhat recognizable from this expanse of darkness. Maybe comprehension happens regardless of the will, after all. The handle of the Big Dipper had relaxed a little. 1,000,000,000 years had passed. The Sun grew 10% more luminous, causing Earth''s oceans to evaporate. Organic life was now unlikely to endure. 4,000,000,000 years had passed. The Milky Way collided with its neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, forming a new galactic entity: Milkomeda. 10,000,000,000 years had passed. The Sun swelled to 250 times its former size, almost certainly consuming Mercury, Venus, and Earth in its fiery expanse. If humanity had reached the era of interstellar exploration, perhaps some of them had survived, scattered across the vast, ever-expanding universe. 1,000,000,000,000 years had passed. It was possible that "The Big Crunch" had begun. The universe, once accelerating in expansion, might now be collapsing in on itself. Galactic clusters converged. Stars collided, their explosive deaths illuminating the dark void. Black holes merged, forming larger and larger singularities, until eventually, all that remained was a single, incomprehensibly massive black hole, consuming everythingeven itself. 1,000,000,000,000,000 years had passed. But perhaps no Big Crunch occurred. Perhaps the universe continued expanding indefinitely. In this scenario, the universe entered a new era. Nucleonsprotons and neutronsdecayed, leaving only black holes in an endless, barren expanse. If a new universe had not already begun, this one settled into its final resting state of energy. Uninhabited. Uninhabitable. Perpetual, limitless darkness. Through all of this, Kivas'' subconscious mind had adapted itself to keep counting. And counting. And counting. And counting. By now, her soul was nothing but an empty shell. Her consciousness remained awake, but her mind had long since succumbed to the most excruciating kind of death imaginablea death so abstract that even human knowledge could barely comprehend it. Time spiraled into an incomprehensible infinity. At some point, even her subconscious stopped caring about the passage of time. But then, all of a sudden. Time began to reverse. sea??h th novlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 3: Unraveled Reality Chapter 3 - Unraveled RealityThe fabric of everything thinned. Then, it frayed. Time collapsed inward. Seconds condensed into singularities, memories folded into themselves like burned photographs curling at the edges. The clock stopped ticking, and the gears behind it melted into slurry. Light stretched until it vanished. Shadows dissolved. Entire galaxies bled into spirals of colorless decay. In this, Kivas'' signature of existence drifted through the collapse, caught in a current she couldn''t sense. Her thoughts floated in half-formed pulses, tangled in the ripples of an unseen tide. She didn''t resist. Her consciousness had been silent for so long it forgot the language of refusal. Everything was unspooled. The universe slumped, then rolled. What was once expansion became motion with no precedentno strong concept existence. It became a momentum that wasn''t forward nor backward, as if it churned toward something new. The stars didn''t return to origin. They followed an unknown direction, folding into impossible trajectories. Molecules gathered. Particles danced again. Life stitched itself together with alien rhythm. And somewhere amid that spiral, she formed. Kivas''s body returnedfirst bones, then nerves, then wet red tissue pressing against warm, wrinkled skin. Her lungs shuddered into motion. Her scalp itched as follicles rewove into her skull. Veins flared to life. Her eyes fluttered, but her vision remained steeped in overwhelming black. She was breathing, though the space around her offered no air. Her fingers twitched. Skin glistened with newborn dew. Every inch of her flesh tingled with unbearable sensitivity, as if pain itself had forgotten how to differentiate from sensation. Sear?h the N?velFire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She wasn''t alone in the spiral. All around her, things emerged from the unwinding threadsshapes, creatures, remnants of every ecosystem that ever was. Wolves with skin like silver smoke. Crocodiles reborn from ancient bone. Dandelions bloomed in midair and scattered into seeds that spun toward distant coils of living color. Bugs. Rodents. Predators. Flowers. Reefs of vibrant plankton. Even microorganisms shimmered like stars in fluid constellations. The dead returned, not in defiance of entropy, but as participants in a new law. They spun together, tangled, churning toward something greater. Kivas drifted between them, carried like sea foam in a galactic whirlpool. Every being shared the same trajectory. No will. No resistance. Just spiral. A deeper spiral. Endless, blooming, overwhelming. However, far above the flood of returning forms, the heaven split like wet canvas. A fracture ran through the empty dark, and from it descended a colossal handeight fingers long and slender, carved with lines that shimmered like molten starlight. It reached gently into the core of the spiral and cradled the reemerging All. The gesture wasn''t violent. It was quite deliberate. Reverent. As if the spiral wasn''t just seen, but cherished. That hand belonged to something beyond the scope of dimensions. A figure whose silhouette bent distance, whose height breached the barrier between thought and matter. Its presence pulled concepts apart. Language unraveled in its wake, and even time dared not exist near it. The entity held the spiral as one might hold a child''s breath. Now, in its palm, every resurgent thing continued to move. No screaming. No chaos. Only the slow, infinite spin. But nobody could know it, not a single thing could comprehend it outside of those who were informed of its existence, like those of observers from a different dimension, plane of existence. And in a mere snap, the universe-claiming hand gripped shut, consuming everything in its grasp. Everything became a mystery. Until suddenly. Kivas consciously felt her legs return. Her chest. Her heartbeat. She landed, kneeling on ground that pulsed like the inner lining of a womb made from star matter. Her breath was shallow. Her muscles spasmed with leftover echoes of annihilation. She opened her eyesand saw nothing. Only the idea of distance. Her pupils adjusted to darkness that carried shape, but no definition. Her bones ached with unfamiliar gravity. Her skin sagged, subtly dissolving into soft mist, then congealing again. Her hair clung to her face, soaked with unspoken sorrow. "I..." The word fell out, fragile and hoarse. Her mind felt bruised. Like she''d been scraped across the underside of reality and forced to remember everything she had forgotten. A tear welled upbut didn''t fall. It evaporated mid-journey, absorbed by the pulsing air. "I feel... strange." Her body hunched forward. Her spine groaned under its own weight. Not human. Not whole. Something less, something undefined. A being between forms, unsure if it still had the right to call itself a name. "But..." Her voice cracked. "Why... does it matter how I feel?" She gripped the groundif it could be called that. Her fingers sank slightly into the surface. It pulsed beneath her like a slow drumbeat, steady but unfamiliar. Warmth radiated from it. She didn''t cry. She didn''t scream. She just sat there, hollowed out, trembling, her heart stumbling with every beat. Then, the air hissed. Before her, a seam tore through space. A clean vertical slit, as if the fabric of dimensions had been pinched and pulled apart by unseen claws. From the opening poured eyes. They blinked, rotated, dilated. Eyes with no symmetry. Eyes with teeth where pupils should be. Some glowed; some wept; others simply stared with cyclopean stillness. They peered. Dozens. Then hundreds. Each one locked onto herKivas, the feeble creature kneeling on the living soil of the reborn spiral. The pressure of their gaze flattened the world. It was not of weight that one could sense immediately, but that of an intellectual recognition. As if she''d been tagged. Observed. Chosen. She flinched. Her limbs barely responded. Her throat went dry. She wanted to speak. To ask. To beg. But words dissolved into breath before they could take shape. The eyes remained still. Behind themshadows churned. Shapes too vast for perception. She could feel them shifting, shifting, shifting. The eyes were only windows. The thing behind was still hidden. Yet somehow, impossibly, it smiled. Chapter 4: A Human To An Ant Chapter 4 - A Human To An AntFrom the wound in space, the eyes receded like breath held in reverence. Then, in their place, tentacles emergednot in the way flesh moves, but how influence swarm unfazed. Each one slithered silently, weaving into the air with impossible grace. Their surfaces shimmered like rivers of starlight, threaded with runes that pulsed with alien rhythm. They didn''t reach toward Kivas. They reached around heranchoring themselves to the empty space, stitching themselves to the seams of time, pulling on the reality that held her. With each movement, the world around her folded, pressed, shivered. The living soil beneath her disintegrated into cascading glyphs. The void stretched thin, warped, and then unraveled like fabric pulled from every corner at once. Gravity spun. Space buckled. The planar axis tilted and melted. Kivas felt her soul lurch. Her breath fled her lungs. There was no sound. Then everything cracked. She fell through the breach. When sensation returned, she found herself standing at the heart of a ritual circle traced in burning celestial threads. Glyphs rotated above her, vast and alive, flickering in perfect synchronicity like the ticking gears of a divine machine. The plane around her shimmered like oil on water. "Ah... ah..." Above her stretched an astral sky, veined with auroras that danced and fractured like glass under pressure. The ground pulsed with shifting geometries, as though it too were breathing in tandem with some unknowable rhythm. And then, she saw them. Three titanic entities. Each one towered over the horizon, so immense that their features couldn''t be understood at once. They stood at the edges of the world, forming a perfect triangle around the ritual site. Their wings spanned the breadth of galaxiespulsating, iridescent, and densely packed with eyes. Countless, unfading, moving independently, blinking in irregular harmony. Each eye carried the weight of a sun and the silence of a dying star, all watched her without motive or expression. The wings shimmered as if stitched from fragments of fate itself. "Haaa..." The titans chanted. Voices older than meaning spilled from their unformed mouths. The words clashed with the rules of language, overlapping, slipping, reversing, pulling apart comprehension and sewing it back together with crooked threads. The sound reached into her bones. It wasn''t loud. It wasn''t even in the form of noise. It was a pressure that could erase existence. Like the weight of all lost time pressed into a single condensed syllablerepeating, repeating, repeating. Kivas dropped to her knees. Her vision fractured into spirals. She tried to scream, but the pain outpaced her lungs. Her thoughts crumbled. Every heartbeat echoed like a hammer against glass. Her soul thrashed, not out of intentional rebellion, but instinct. The ritual was burning her and staking her to the ground It was never made for something small. Something human. "Stop!" She screamed into the sky, or at least she thought she did. The words didn''t leave her lips. They left her essence, vibrating through the formation like a pulse of raw emotion. "Stop it! It hurts!" There were no tears. Only the unraveling of self. Her soul, already brittle, cracked wide. Memories surged outwardscreaming neon, silent laughter, warmth in arms that never existed. Regret bloomed like fire. A pain so abstract yet familiar. "I never asked for this!" The ritual''s light flickered to her plea. The chanting staggered in response. The three titans paused. Kivas fell to her side, gasping, her body spasming with leftover convulsions. The pressure liftednot completely, but enough for her to breathe without drowning in it. And then. A sound. Soft. Gentle. The same voices. But this time, they spoke her language. "You are heard." The words rippled across the plane like silk. "You are felt." Kivas breath hitched. "You are acknowledged." The words reached not her ears, but her soul. For the first time in the eternity since her death, she felt real. One of the titans leaned forwardif it could be called that. It was like a planet bowing. The eyes on its wings blinked in perfect sequence. "Where... where am I?" Kivas whispered. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "World Forgery," the voice replied. Kivas tried to sit up, clutching her sides, her skin still raw with aftershock, melting and trying to form back a comprehensive shape. "What... is that?" "A plane for sculpting the unborn," the voices answered as one. "Where all that has never existed is dreamed into shape." Her fingers trembled. "And... you three? Who are you?" A moment of silence passed. The eyes blinked in overlapping cascades. "To know us personally," said the nearest, "is to unmake your soul. It is not wise of us to reveal, when the result will be catastrophic to you." "Then what is the safest image that I can have for the three of you?" she asked instead, her voice trembling. "What do you want from me?" "We are forgers of what lies beyond origin," they spoke. "We have retrieved your essence to study its singularity. Creation seeks a mother to mirror, with greed. Your echo has been shaped many folds, shaped many folds, and possess unfiltered purity. "We seek to understand... and to reflect." Kivas stared, barely blinking. "So I''m a... reference. To this whole, forgery thing?" "You are a resonance," they answered. "An anomaly that endures. A splinter of mortal cognition that has retained cohesion where countless others have failed." She laughed weakly, bitterly. "So I''m finally useful for something." "There is no greater truth than the act of reflection," they replied. "From your memory, we have already constructed ten thousand iterations of silence. From your sorrow, the blue of the void has gained new shades." "Does this... matter?" she asked. "Does my existence hold any meaning now?" They pulsed with a low humsomething close to affirmation. "More than you understand," one of them said. "We have gained much from the mere act of gazing upon you." She wanted to feel pride. She really did. But all she felt was the faint echo of fatigue still clinging to her heart. "Then is there anything here... for me?" she asked. A silence fell. No metaphors. No riddles. "Nothing." Her heart didn''t sink. It had already sunken long ago. The answer didn''t even sting. But then. One of the titans moved, just slightly, folding its wings in a spiral. A moment of weightless pause. "You remained intact," it said. "You remembered when no others could. Most dissolve. You did not." The voices hummed again. "Would you like something in return?" Chapter 5: My Greatest Wish Chapter 5 - My Greatest WishKivas remained silent. The question had been asked, and the vastness around her seemed to hold its breath. Would she like something in return? She watched the celestial formation around her flicker, the ritual''s embers still suspended in soft motion. The wings of the titans pulsed gently, their countless eyes still and waiting. Kivas lowered her gaze, her thoughts drifting, scattered like ashes in deep water. "I... I don''t think I need anything," she finally said. The words sounded strange. Even as she said them, they felt disconnected, floating above the depths she hadn''t yet dared to explore. A soft vibration moved through the space. The titan nearest to her responded. "Is that the truth?" Kivas flinched. "I''m... unsure," she admitted. The admission stirred something inside her. She pressed her hand to her chest. There was no heartbeat she could feel, but the weight behind her memories throbbed like phantom pain. "I remember Earth. I remember being human. My name, my room, the lonely meals, the silence between days. Even the time where everything is still unbroken," she repainted. "All of that is intact. But so is the part of me that counted for eons in the dark. The version of myself that didn''t speak, didn''t move, just floated endlessly... "But, does it even matter?" As her words trailed off, her body began to shift. Her arms thinned into strands of darkness, her legs coiling into slick tendrils that reached outward. From her back, more emergedflexing and curling, searching the space around her. Her skin deepened in tone until only the suggestion of form remained. No limbs. No face. Just presence, veiled in reaching shadow. The transformation felt effortless as if she willed it herself. One of the titans asked, "Are you still a human?" The question came without emotion, but it landed with weight. Kivas stirred because of it. Her limbs, if they could be called that, recoiled. The shadows retracted, folding inward, spiraling down into the core of her being. Shape followed. Form returned. Her legs straightened. Her arms flexed. Her skin found its texture. Her eyes reopened. "Yes," she answered as a human. The titan''s wings shifted. Light swept through their many eyes. "What do humans yearn for?" She considered the question carefully. "Survival," she said, with realistic consideration. Another pause. "Is that enough?" "No," she replied. This answer came faster. Clearer. She stared at her own hands, clenching and unclenching them slowly. The act grounded her. Made her feel present in a space that barely acknowledged the concept. The space shimmered with quiet, ambient glow. The formation around her rotated with unerring precision. The booming voices then returned in resonance. "What is it you truly desire?" The pressure behind the words slipped through her thoughts like a warm breath on glass. They pressed gently at the corners of her soul, encouraging her to peer inside, to look past the responses shaped by fear or fatigue. She gasped as the question opened something deep. Sarch* The N?vel(F)ire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Her thoughts spiraled inward. The scenes came in flashes. Rain on her old apartment window. The ache of silence. The way her voice used to echo in an empty room. The laughter of others, always distant. The warmth she only ever dreamed of, arms imagined but never felt. The time before the world was put in chaos, the time where there were still people smiling for her, and giving words to her. From the beginning, even before the death, before the void, before the ritualthis truth had been buried in her. Tears collected at the corners of her eyes. Her chest trembled. She whispered, as if speaking to herself, "I want to be understood..." The words cracked from her. Her lips quivered. "No more probing alone in the dark. No more endless silence." And the tears spilled freely now. "I want to have someone... someone who holds me when I feel bound. I want to feel that warmth. To be cuddled like I matter." Her breath hitched. Her voice trembled. "I want to be loved!" The plane shifted. From beyond the ritual circle, a deep sound rosehorns unlike any instrument, shaking the skies and the foundation beneath her. The tone was vast and layered, woven from stardust and gravity wells. Each note peeled across the realm, vibrating against the ritual''s glyphs and the distant curves of space. A signal. Her desire had been heard. The wings of the titans closed in slightly to surround the moment. The world itself leaned forward. The ritual threads burst into new color, weaving faster, flowing into the core of Kivas'' presence. Her body rose from the ground. Light poured from her chest, her limbs, her skin. Her features softened as if wind was pulling her into the stars. Her form shimmered with radiance, threads of her being lifting and curling like petals in reverse bloom. She looked up. Her vision dimmed, but her heart felt weightless. The final word from the titans came through her very soul. "Your wish shall be granted." Then, she dissolved. Her memories flared one last time, and her last sensation was a warmth cradling her very essence. Chapter 6: Kivas Reborn Chapter 6 - Kivas RebornThere was a smell in the void. A scent thick with trembling thought, curling through unreality like steam in a freezing room. It stank of anxietysharp, briny, metallic, like iron dipped in sugar and smoke. The scent clung to the outer shell of existence, unnoticed by the grand mechanisms that turned behind the curtain of the world, but pungent to those who lingered in the spaces between. That smell belonged to a mysterious lifeform made of liquid. It quivered as it watched the world being born. The world, fresh and trembling, layered in barrier after barrier, gleaming in cosmic purity. To the liquid, the shape and elegance of the creation held no meaning. Its being could not comprehend the intricacies of this world''s forging or the elegance of its mechanisms. But it felt something. A shiver of excitement coursed through its body. It rippled with anticipation. In its dormant state, the liquid hung in the in-between spaceneither inside nor outsidewithout edges, without volume, suspended in a state of waiting. Time passed, though it did not track it. Eons folded over themselves, silent and vast, and still the liquid remained. Until, slowly, it began to shed. A single droplet fell from its body, trembling and curious. It slid from the mass like a child stepping away from a parent for the first time, and it dropped through the veil of protection around the world. One drop, then another, and anotherthough never in quick succession. Every hundred years, sometimes a thousand, passed in between. Each droplet splashed into the growing land. Some seeped into the sea, becoming something unseen. Others were lost in storms, absorbed into clouds and stone. With each fallen drop, the body of the liquid lifeform thinned, became quieter, more compact. This lifeform never wept. It never resisted. It simply continued, content with its slow and quiet descent. Eventually, what remained was no more than a pond-size of itself. A small pool of slow-turning silver, shimmering faintly at the edges. The scent of anxiety was softer now, dulled by centuries of passive erosion. But the feeling inside remainedeager, coiled, patient. The final drop finally fell to the world below. Through the first barrier. The surface burned. The liquid condensed, gaining density. Its shape adjusted, fibers of structure whispering through it like soft bones threading themselves into jelly. Through the second, it compressed further, instinctively recoiling and folding into a cocoon of pressure. A core began to formlightless, pulsing. The third barrier laced it with memory. Not its own, but echoes of something familiar. Laughter, wind chimes, sobs in the dark. The fourth peeled away its indecision. The liquid twisted violently, as if reacting to pain. Its shimmer gained colorwhite, laced with soft golden hue. The fifth barrier embedded it with awareness. Sensory flashes. Language. The notion of "I." And many more things that it had lost in its creation. The sixth stirred form. Limbs reached out, tentative and slow. A spine aligned itself, laced with light that breathed. And then The seventh barrier. The air rippled. All else broke. It emerged as she fell from heaven. A body formed from convergence. Humanoid, but unmistakably other. Statuesque, ethereal. Her skin radiated a soft glow that pulsed with steady rhythm, and from her back extended two wings, vast and feathery, each strand alive with psychic resonance. The wings shimmered, shifting with faint pulses of energy, casting trails of pale light. Her hair dragged long and straight, pure white with golden essence coiling within it like threads of sunlight hidden beneath snow. The strands caught the world''s light and bent it, giving off a soft glimmergentle from the front, elusive and mysterious from the back. A halo of controlled fire hovered above her head, fixed in space but trembling from the friction of the turbulence. Each flicker of the flame enhanced her presencedivine, unshakable, foreign. With air still brushing her hard, her eyes opened, golden and soft, filled with a light that didn''t reflect the world but seemed to recall something beyond it. But she was still falling. Fast. Without grace. "Wha-what!?" With a startled shriek that cracked the serenity of her arrival, her form spun awkwardly as gravity claimed her. She plummeted toward the world below, limbs flailing in a spiral that ended with a tremendous crash. She landed headfirst. The sound echoed like a dropped bell. Her legs stuck out of the earth, straight and twitching. The world around her vibrated in confusion, dust puffing around the crater of impact. Feathers flopped loosely. Her wings beat once, lazily, upside down. Sarch* The n??el Fire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. There was a muffled scream. "AAAAAAGHHHHH!" She clawed at the dirt, kicking her heels uselessly in the air. Her voice was smothered by the soil, but the sound continuedhigh-pitched, furious, and thoroughly confused. Eventually, she managed to wriggle herself upright. With a cough and a grunt, she flopped over, sitting in the shallow crater she''d made, hair tangled, wings splayed like a collapsed tent. Her eyes crossed slightly, then snapped open wide with realization. "Wuh!?" She wailed again, throwing her arms in the air as feathers fluttered off her wings. Her halo pulsed indignantly. She shoved dirt off her face, stood up with exaggerated effort, and inspected herself. Her glowing hair sparked faintly. Her skin flickered with residual energy, albeit tainted by the red that was trickling from her wounded head. The world around her stayed quiet, seemingly stunned. She brushed herself off, looked around with a mixture of awe and irritation, then exhaled a long breath. "Wha... what...?" Kivas Chariot was reborn in confusion. Chapter 7: Strange Wings, Strange World Chapter 7 - Strange Wings, Strange WorldKivas pulled herself out of the shallow crater with a grunt, brushing loose soil from her tangled hair and glancing around. The world she found herself in was soaked with heavy, humid air. The scent of moss and strange pollen clogged her senses. Plant life sprawled endlessly in every directionlush, overwhelming, and dark. The leaves were deeper than green, some teetering toward shades of black and bruised violet, swaying with a sluggish, wet sort of grace. Every trunk, vine, and root seemed to breathe in the mist. Kivas squinted, one hand shading her face. Even with the thick canopy overhead, her halo still burned brightly atop her head, shedding gold-tinged illumination like a living torch. It fluttered and hissed faintly against the moisture. "Great," she muttered, pressing a palm against her forehead. "If there''s anything out there, they can probably see me from five kilometers away." The thought sent a chill down her spine. She flexed her wings cautiously, feeling the feathery appendages rustle against the dense air. "Ah right, I have wings now, for some reason." The thought of having them was so curious, that she tried to take it for a ride. "Hup!" The motion of the wings was surprisingly smooth. Standing on the tall protruding root of one of the giant trees, she took a leap of faith. The memory from that was fresh and painfula powerful jump, a frantic flapping, then an immediate plummet into dirt. The fact that she forgot that her head was already bleeding from the initial fall, and then she used the same head to take the brunt of the experimentshe was not in a comfortable state. "Nope," she whispered to herself, folding the wings neatly behind her back. "Flying is not happening. Not yet." She took stock of her situation with growing clarity. Also her head was still bleeding. She came to this world with a white dress. So she ripped a piece of the fabric and performed first aid on her wound. The fabric of her clothing regenerate back, so that was another weird thing to put on the list. "I can''t think clearly, head, too dizzy..." Strange world. Unknown dangers. No visible civilization. Her stomach twisted at the familiar weight of anxiety, but it was a quiet, manageable thingnothing like the soul-wrenching loneliness she had survived before. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She began gathering materials out of instinct. Branches with thick fibers. Large leaves slick with dew. Flexible vines that she twisted and wove into rough lashings. She had no tools, no fire, no suppliesbut instincts guided her hands. As if the experience of survival was etched into her bones, deeper than memory. She worked near the crater she had made, choosing a slightly raised patch of ground with good visibility and a few thick trees nearby for shelter. The humid air clung to her skin, making every movement heavier, but she pressed on. As she bent to lash two branches together, she caught a glimpse of herself reflected in a puddle. She paused. For a long moment, she simply stared. Her skin shimmered faintly, unnaturally smooth and polished, like marble warmed by the sun. The face that stared back at her was familiar and yet alienhers, but elevated, softened and brightened into something angelic. "Hmm, at least it is similar to my face." Her wings flexed again, almost involuntarily. The halo''s reflection flickered atop her head, a burning crown she couldn''t remove. Kivas chuckled under her soured expression. "Of course," she murmured. "The universe finally throws me a bone, and it makes me into an angel. After frying me to oblivion." She traced the edge of one wing with careful fingers, feeling the softness, the vibrant hum of warm energy just beneath the surface. Despite the absurdity, she couldn''t deny the tiny flare of pride warming her chest. She looked incredible. But the practical part of her mind soured quickly. An ever-burning halo? Massive white wings she could barely control? In a world she didn''t understand? "I''m basically a glowing, flapping dinner bell," she grumbled, lashing another set of branches together with exaggerated vigor. "Come eat the helpless angel! Freshly fallen!" The thought of another crash landing made her cheeks flush with secondhand embarrassment. At least nobody had been around to see it. The shelter was coming together though. She weaved the structure tightly, layering thick leaves overhead for rudimentary rain protection. It wasn''t muchlittle more than a triangular lean-tobut it was better than sitting exposed on damp ground. Kivas leaned back to survey her work, wiping sweat from her forehead. As she rested, her mind wandered. What was she now, really? The question dug at her, gnawing gently, like a thorn stuck deep under the skin. She wasn''t human anymorenot fully. She wasn''t exactly something new either, at least not something she could name. Her body was alive with forces she didn''t recognize. Her thoughts felt sharper, crisper, clearer than ever before. Her senses stretched beyond the physical, brushing against the textures of space around her like unseen fingertips. Yet at the core of it all, she still felt like herself. Still Kivas. Still aching for something familiar. Still longing for something she couldn''t fully put into words. As her thoughts swirled, a flicker of movement caught her eye. At first, she thought it was a trick of the humidity, the way heat plays tricks with vision, or her awful bleeding. But then the flicker sharpened, condensed, and bloomed into something tangible. A screen. It hovered in front of her, suspended by a translucent, flickering purple flame. The frame of the screen curled at the edges, almost organic, like the surface of burning petals. Text formed across its surfaceancient yet somehow readable. Kivas stared, blinking slowly. "...You''ve got to be kidding me." ?WELL OF THE SOUL Name: Kivas Chariot Race: Fateling Total Level: 0 ?Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 8 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 16 ???? Piety (PIE): 20 ????? Vitality (VIT): 7 ???? Speed (SPD): 6 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 10 ???? Luck (LUK): 9 ?Vitals ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 10 / 10 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 10 / 10 ? Derived Stats ????? Attack Power: 8 ? Magic Power: 16 ???? Divine Power: 20 ????? Defense: 7 ???? Magic Defense: 20 ????? Detect: 14 ???? Disarm Trap: 10 ???? Evade Trap: 7 ???? Action Speed: 6 ???? Accuracy: 10 ???? Evasion: 7 ?? Resistance: 15 ?Classes ? Null ?Skills ? Divine Soulmate Imbuer Lv1 C You possess the power to imbue a Genesis Core onto your fated soulmate. ? Fate Weaver Lv1 C You possess the power to weave fate. ?END OF THE WELL The screen pulsed softly, gazing. Chapter 8: There! A Chest! Chapter 8 - There! A Chest!Kivas sat on the edge of her makeshift shelter, arms wrapped around her knees, the flickering purple flame still hovering before her. The screen didn''t fade, didn''t change, didn''t react no matter how long she stared at it. "Ten HP and ten MP," she muttered, squinting at the numbers. "That''s... neat, I guess." She pressed her finger against the number beside her health, expecting it to pulse, maybe give a tooltip, or wiggle with some magical flourish. Nothing happened. It was like poking glass. Kivas frowned. "Then why," she said, reaching up to tap the side of her head gingerly, "have I been bleeding like a sacrificial goat for the past hour, yet these numbers didn''t reflect that?" Her fingertips came back damp and red. The bleeding had slowed, but her injury was realand those stats hadn''t budged a single digit. "I''ve played enough RPGs before that stupid war happens, enough to know when something doesn''t add up." Kivas pouted. "Well, either I''m in a world that doesn''t obey common sense, or the common sense are just really bad at explaining themselves... "Actually, now that I read it again, there is a chance that Hemo Psyche doesn''t have the same meaning as Health Point at all." She let the screen hover and turned her attention toward the Attributes section. Strength, Intelligence, Piety... nothing too shocking. Though, the fact that it was referred as Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, instead of simply Intelligence in the Well of the Soul did spark some interesting implication. But then she scrolled her eyes lower. "Detect. Disarm Trap. Evade Trap." She read them out slowly. "That''s quite the focus on trap-related stuff, as if it''s a broad and general thing." The forest around her remained quiet, like it too was pondering the question. "Is this world a death maze or something? Are they throwing landmines under every tree stump?" The glow of the status window flickered lazily in her periphery. It refused to vanish without order. It refused to explain itself. It just... was. Then came the part that really caught her eye. Skills. Her lips twisted slightly as she read them again. ? Divine Soulmate Imbuer Lv1 C You possess the power to imbue a Genesis Core onto your fated soulmate. ? Fate Weaver Lv1 C You possess the power to weave fate. Kivas reached out and pointed at the first. "Okay. Let''s break this down slowly. Divine. That''s... me, apparently. Soulmate? Kinda weird. Imbuer?" She rubbed her itchy and painful temple. "So I have the power to imbue something called a Genesis Core into my fated soulmate? What?" She didn''t even know what a Genesis Core was. "And why just stop at my soulmate? What happens if I try it on someone else? Will they explode? Implode? Get friendzoned by the gods?" Her eyes lingered on the entire title again: Divine Soulmate Imbuer. "Did this have something to do with my wish?" she asked the empty air, head wrapped in pain as she tried to remember the event with the three World Forgers. "Back then... when I told them... what I really wanted..." Her voice faltered. The wind answered with silence. Leaves twitched. No birds. No bugs. No noise. Just her breathing and the strange distant rustle of trees rearranging themselves in the mist. She turned her attention to the other skill. Fate Weaver. "Sounds busted," she smiled, albeit, still confused. "Like, really busted. If that''s real, then I''m basically a walking causality nuke~ "There''s also levels on these skills, as if they can get even stronger." Sarch* The Novl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. But even if it was her magnum opus, as it certainly sounded like... she had no idea how to use it. No interface. No menu. No activation key. She tried whispering the name. She tried thinking really hard about fate. Nothing happened. She leaned back against the trunk of the tree that her makeshift shelter was placed onto, groaning. "I still don''t know anything, unfortunately," she muttered, defeated. "I don''t know what a Fateling is, I don''t know what these numbers accurately represent, and I definitely don''t know why the hell this place is so... empty. "That part is creeping me out more than anything." She pulled her knees tighter, mocking the forest. "Like, I''d settle for a squirrel. A bird. Hell, even a weird-looking bug! You hear me!" But the forest offered nothing. Not even the buzz of an insect. No chirps. No signs of animals rustling in the brush. No worms in the soil she dug through to build her shelter. The only thing alive was the plant life, breathing and coiling faintly in the haze like it didn''t understand what standing still meant. It was too quiet. If there was only oblivion and darkness, then it was understandable. But such an isolation in an open and colorful place like this? Kivas stood up. The sunor what she thought was the sunstill hung high in the sky, casting a strange, refracted light through the thick leaves. It didn''t look like any sun she remembered. Its shape pulsed at the edges, like heatwaves constantly bleeding off into nothingness. She glanced around again, noting her own footprints and disturbed soil. Her makeshift shelter stood nearby, quiet and humble. But something was off. She squinted toward a patch of forest she had passed earlierwhere she''d gathered vines and leaves for the roof. The trees were different now. She stepped forward slowly. The tree trunks had new grooves in thempatterns that didn''t exist before. The branches curled in alternate directions. The moss changed colors. Even the ground held no trace of the marks she''d left while dragging wood. "I was just here," she whispered. "This was where I picked up the leafy stuff. I remember the root with the crack in it..." It was gone. But somewhere close to that place, was something that looked even more out of place. A chest. A treasure chest-like, kind of chest. It sat between two trees, nestled in the dirt as if it had always been there. A wooden container with metallic trim and a domed lid, almost comical in its classic treasure-chest aesthetic. It gleamed faintly, unnaturally, as if bathed in spotlight. Kivas felt a chill down on her spine. "...No." She turned around slowly, scanning the woods. "Is this a trap? Should I be scared?" Her eyes returned to the chest. It hadn''t moved. But there was a chance that the forest around it might change soon, and so would the chest. Despite the inherent danger and fear, she wanted that chest really bad. She wanted to open it, and uncover its secret. "Regardless, It''s time to plunder that box-shaped lumber, hehehe." She stepped closer, the soil giving slightly under her bare feet. Each step was cautious, measured. She kept her wings tucked tight, not trusting them to help if she needed to escape. Then, a few meters from the chest, she knelt and examined the dirt. It was smooth. Too smooth. Like nothing had disturbed itlike the chest had grown out of the ground instead of being placed there. Thinking that she might have gotten transported somewhere and lost her painstakingly built shelter, she decided to carefully wrap the chest with vines. She then began dragging the chest across the ground back to her shelter. "Holy, this thing is quite heavy!" Chapter 9: Trap Disarming Chapter 9 - Trap DisarmingBack near the shelter, Kivas crouched near the chest with her knees in the dirt, her eyes narrowed. It sat there quietly, as if it hadn''t just spawned out of nowhere and got dragged. Just a box. Wood with metal trim. Rounded top. Classic fantasy nonsense. She reached out and rapped her knuckle against its side. Solid. No hidden pulse. No whisper of magicat least, not the kind she could detect by sight alone. "Alright," she muttered. "Let''s assume this isn''t just a random chest for decoration." She leaned closer, inspecting the seam between the lid and the base. There was no keyhole. No latches. Just a seamless divide running horizontally through it. Weird, but understandable. The locking mechanismor lack thereofmade it look like the two pieces were just pressed together, no barrier or fastening keeping them shut. "Not even a stupid padlock?" she whispered. "You''re making this too easy..." Her eye twitched. She wasn''t about to forget the trap-related stats from her Well of the Soul. Detect, Disarm, Evadeall sitting right there like flashing neon warnings. No lock. No security. Too easy in perception. Which probably meant it was bait. Still, if there was something here, she wasn''t about to just walk away. With a grunt, she backed off and returned to her shelter, rummaging for what passed as tools. A stick she''d sharpened earlier. A rock with a decent point. She tied them together into a makeshift pry bar. "Alright, you mysterious bastard," she said, crouching again. "Let''s see what you''re hiding." She wedged the sharpened edge into the seam, holding it steady with one hand, the stick''s length giving her leverage. With a slow inhale, she pushed. The chest groaned, faintly. Then. Everything broke. Her world split. Symbols she''d never seen before flooded her visionalien glyphs drawn in flickering light, twitching at the edges of her sight like static on the edge of a corrupted screen. Her breath hitched. She blinkedand suddenly, she was two people. One, crouching beside the chest. The other, standingno, runningdown a branching hallway made of crumbling stone and flickering walls. Her body was different here. Lighter. More agile. She had no wings. No halo. Her hair was short, tangled. Her skin grayed by fear and filth. Her feet slammed against moss-slick stone as she turned blindly into a corner. "What the?!" She could feel both versions of herself. The one in the maze. Sprinting. Heart pounding. Breath sharp and ragged. And the one still in the forest. Hands gripping the stick. Face twisted in confused horror. Her mind buckled. It felt like holding a mountain over her head while trying to crawl under a table. She staggered in the real world, but didn''t drop the tool. And in the other A scream was invading her hearing. It came from the left. She looked in the maze, and theresomething horrible emerged from the bend in the corridor. A wave of flesh and bladed tendrils, red and wet, screeching with impossible pitch, lashing against the walls, carving grooves into the stone like butter. It surged forward like a tsunami of nightmares. Her body in the maze bolted for escape, a release from this unthinkable nightmare that she was experiencing. "Is this the trap disarming process!? Getting your mind thrown into a mouse-chasing event, as the mouse!?" Every footstep was a prayer. Every corner was a gamble. The maze twisted. Forks. Ramps. Stairwells spiraling into other halls. Sometimes dead ends, sometimes brief narrow bridges crossing chasms she didn''t dare to look into. She didn''t know where she was going. Her body moved on instinct, blind panic driving her forward. Her real body gritted her teeth. She couldn''t scream. Couldn''t collapse. If she dropped the pry bar, what would happen? In the maze, she reached another splitleft or right? She chose left. That was a bad call. The hallway in front of her began to collapse. A roar echoed behind her. The walls pulsed. That living horror poured in like it belonged there, its fleshy mass clawing at every surface. She turned back in panic and sprinted the other way, backtracking with the hope that she was fast enough before that monstrous horror reached the intersection. Heart thundering. Lungs tearing at her ribs. Legs already trembling. "Aaah! Aaaaaah! I''m fast enough, but now it''s tailing me hard!" The thing was only a meter behind her now. She could hear it breatheif it breathed at all. She could feel it in her bones, like it was gnawing at the foundation of her soul. She screamed viscerallyin both bodies. In the forest, her mouth ripped open, her voice echoing through the misty trees, raw and broken. In the maze, she screamed in sheer terror, stumbling, dragging herself forward as bloodor something close to itsplashed from her lip. And then. A light. Blinding. Up ahead, in the maze. Pure white, framed by ornate arches that shimmered with the same symbols that had flooded her vision earlier. She didn''t think. She didn''t breathe. She slammed her feet and continued on. Harder than ever. The light grew. Closer. Closer. The horror snapped at her heels. One of the blade-tendrils sliced open the air right behind her. She dove. "Save me!" Everything slammed shut. The maze vanished. So did the creature. So did the second body. She was back. Whole. Still crouched beside the chest. Still gripping the makeshift pry tool. Her hands were slick with sweat. Her arms were shaking. Her heart felt like it had run three marathons and lost all of them. The chest in front of her trembled. Then hissed. A pulse of energy erupted from the seamviolet, crackling, bursting outward like a magnetic flare. And then it opened. The lid creaked, slow and deliberate, as if dragged open by some invisible mechanism. A low hum filled the air. Inside of it was A sword. Thick. Wide. Short. Somewhere between a dagger and a cleaver, yet robust and tough. A cinquedea-type of sword, or just simply, a cinquedea, if Kivas memory served. The blade was a soft, lifeless gray, etched with strange red vein-like patterns that pulsed faintly, like the weapon itself had a heartbeat. Kivas dropped the tool and fell onto her back, gasping. Her halo flickered like a dying ember. Her wings twitched involuntarily. She stared up at the forest canopy overhead, chest heaving. "...That was the trap," she wheezed. "Quite an introduction that I have in that aspect, huh." But she had survived it. Somehow. Sarch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. And she had a prize. A grotesque, alien prize that looked like it had seen war and survived worse. She sat up slowly, eyes locked on the weapon. "I don''t even know if I can use a sword," she said, reaching toward it anyway. "I can start role playing as a thief now, though." The process might be scary and maybe life-threatening, but Kivas felt satisfaction and excitement. "Of course, if the so-called class section of my Well of the Soul even work the way I expect it to be." She opened her Well of the Soul, hoping that maybe she would get a thief class after this. Her expectation was responded with nothing. "Eh, I can just focus on the class thingies later." The weapon was warm in her hand. And very, very real. Chapter 10: No Appraisal? Chapter 10 - No Appraisal?There was a subdued weight in the bladenot just physical, but suggestive. A whisper of violence. A hum of something still coiled inside it. She tapped the flat with her finger, watching the red veins flicker in response. "Hah." A short, breathy chuckle escaped her lips. If she wasn''t covered in light bruises and dried sweat, she might''ve grinned. Instead, she tilted her head, trying not to look too excited as she squinted at the blade. "So... how do I actually know what you are, huh?" If this was really a world with stats and skills, then there had to be an appraisal function. Some kind of Inspect, Analyze, Check Equipment button. She focused hard on the sword. Whispered things under her breath. "Appraise. Examine. Show Info. Inspect Object... Uh... Analyze...?" Nothing happened. She narrowed her eyes. "...Lore Scan?" Still nothing. Not a flicker. Not even a laughable denial message. "Well, that''s disappointing," she grumbled. She tapped the blade again and opened her Well of the Soul. Still the same display. No change to Attack Power, no added stats, no fancy class upgrade. No skill improvements. No new windows popped up. Her Total Level remained a glorious, infuriating zero. All that screaming, running, and almost dying... and the universe didn''t even toss her a numerical pat on the back. Does equipment even affect the stats? Or maybe she thought about this whole stats screen with the wrong mindset... Kivas sighed and leaned her head back against the tree. "Applying gaming logic into this doesn''t seem to work." Then again, the fact that Kivas still remembered her gaming youth after all the thing she been through was quite the achievement in its own. "Just what kind of world that I fallen into?" Sear?h the N?velFire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Despite her fatigue, her wings ruffled faintly behind herhalf in irritation, half in awareness. And then, it hit her. A sensation she hadn''t felt in... how long? Her stomach growled. Hard. A sharp, twisting pang pulled through her gut like a blade. She blinked and put a hand to her belly. "...I''m hungry." She stared at her palm like it had betrayed her. Of course, it made sense. She was alive. She had a body. But somewhere along the linebetween dying, spiraling through eternity, getting pulled apart by eldritch forces and put back together again as something divineshe''d forgotten what hunger actually felt like. Sharp. Weakening. The world felt slightly heavier than before. Her limbs slower. "Ugh, I''m not just hungry," she muttered, "I''m hangry." And, thinking about it more logically, her glowing halo and those massive wings probably didn''t come free. If anything, they were like running a dozen furnaces without enough fuel. "Faster metabolism, more aesthetic suffering," she chuckled. She stood slowly, testing her balance. The dizziness didn''t help. Exploring deeper into this hell-kind of forest was terrifying, especially after the chest-trap nearly split her soul in two. That was barely ten meters from her shelter. Who knew what fifty meters would bring? So she did the next worst thing. She grabbed a few thick leaves, some rubbery dark-green stems, and peeled up a few wild root-like growths poking from the moss. The stuff looked vaguely edible. No obvious thorns. No bugs fleeing from itsince there were no bugs in this periphery. Some were bitter. Others were slimy. She pulled a leaf off her wingone that had gotten stuck there earlierand used it to wipe grime off the roots. Then she stared up at the faintly glowing ring above her head. "Alright. Don''t set my hair on fire." She leaned forward and concentrated. The halo pulsedand a line of heat extended forward, a gentle tongue of flame. She hovered her leafy loot near it, and began a sad, shaky roasting. It worked. Sort of. The root wrinkled, darkened. The leaf crinkled and gave off a slightly sweet smell. Kivas cringed as she took a bite. "Bluh." It tasted like bitter kelp and tree bark had a baby. But she chewed and swallowed. Then another. And another. Even the leaves and grass. She sat down again, chewing like a wild animal who''d forgotten etiquette. Eventually, the burning gnaw in her stomach eased. The ache in her limbs retreated a little. Her head felt less like it was filled with fog. "...I hate that it actually worked." She leaned back again, letting the sword rest across her lap, eyelids heavy. Maybe she''d just sit like this for a while. Think. Plan. Process everything. "I need to plan for my next move, hmm." Her body agreed. Her instinct, however, suddenly did not. Almost immediately, every hair on her body stood on end. Her halo flared onceviolently. Her wings stiffened, feathers shrinking toward her back like they''d been hit with a sudden gust of fear. She bolted upright. Pressure spread through the air. Thick. Heavy. Like drowning in silence. Then the gradient of the forest shifted. The trees around her bled into shadows. The colors of the earth dulled into tones of ash. Her shelter behind her faded into the background like a distant, unreachable memory. Ahead, in the clearing It emerged. A beast. Massive. Four-legged. Muscular like a lion made from tension and malice. But for one, it wasn''t the massive body that chilled her blood and sweat. It was the head of that beast. A human-like facegrotesquely enlarged than the body. Wrinkled, ancient, yet grinning with a mouth too wide for logic. Its eyes glowed violet, and its expression seemed fixed in amusement. A caricature of joy. It was laughing. Kivas rose to her feet slowly, her cinquedea in hand. She didn''t scream. She didn''t bolt. Her instincts were in overdrive, and they didn''t say run this time. She felt that trying to stay away from this beast would just consume her into the surrounding darkness, cursing her, torturing her even. Fight. That was what her soul was flaring, kindling to push her will to survive. Her fingers tightened around the hilt. Her breath slowed, narrowed. Her feet slid into a readied stance without conscious thought. For once, she had something to fight with, or maybe forced to. She had a weapon now. And more importantly, she had the will. The beast lowered its body, claws digging into the soil, its grotesque head still grinning. The beast then growled a language, warm and foul in its intent. "What a weird, and delicious-looking chicken~" Chapter 11: I鈥檓 Not Tasty! Chapter 11 - I''m Not Tasty!The beast lunged. Not like an animal pouncing. Not like a predator on instinct. Nothis was deliberate. A joyful, exaggerated motion like a stage performer leaping through a curtain. And it moved fast. Kivas barely registered the motion before it was already in front of her, that grotesquely human head barreling straight toward her face with a sick grin plastered across itits wide, violet eyes shining with hungry delight. She jumped back. Hard. Her wings flared for balance, and she lashed outsword swinging wide in a chaotic arc, not out of training or discipline, but out of sheer primal panic. Kivas barely hit anything, but all of her wild swinging was imbued with power. The beast however, didn''t flinch at any of them. Instead, it laughed. "HAHAHAHA! What a jump! What a swing! It''s been so long since I saw something so funny! And delicious!" Kivas gritted her teeth, heart hammering inside her chest like it was trying to escape. Sear?h the N??elFir.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It had intelligent, she thought, eyes darting for anything around hercover, escape, divine salvation. It could talk. The beast thinks. It understands humor. It''s not just a monster. Maybe this monster could be reasoned. Or maybe it could be tricked. The beast continued, circling her slowly now, savoring her trembling posture. "Mmm... Look at you. Such a fine-looking snack. I''ve tasted all kinds of treats. But you? You''ll be a party in my stomach. I can feel it already!" It licked its lips. Kivas felt a surge of icy sweat crawl down her spine. But behind itanother thought was surfacing. She swallowed hard and took a step back. Then forced a smile. The most awkward, lopsided, surely-I''m-lying kind of smile. "Uh... actually," she said, lifting her sword slightly, "you might want to reconsider. I''m not exactly... edible, in the most generous sense." The beast blinked once, clearly amused. "Oh?" it said, voice a syrupy drawl. "Why''s that?" "I taste awful," Kivas said, nodding with far too much enthusiasm. "Like, really bad. You wouldn''t enjoy it at all. Bit poisonous, too. Bad batch. Expired meat. You name it. I carry all sorts of yuck and stink when a tongue touches me. You''d regret it." The beast stopped its pacing. Its smile widened. "Oh ho ho! A lying snack! That''s even richer!" It lunged againslower this time. Just enough to let Kivas dodge, then another swipe. She ducked, her wings nearly getting clipped. Dust burst from the soil as its claws tore through the ground beside her. Too close. Too damn close. "You lie well," the beast said between laughs. "But you lie to me? Do you know who I am?" "Nope," Kivas muttered, skidding back on her heels. "And I''d love to keep it that way, actually!" She danced backward again, trying to grind the gears of her mind until she heard something. The idea struck like a spark behind her eyes. Her expression changedinto one of forced exasperation. She puffed her cheeks and frowned, letting her voice drop into something low and bitter. "Fine. You''re right." The beast tilted its monstrous head. "Oh?" "You caught me." She sighed and held up her free hand. "You''re too smart. You saw through it~" Then she did something mad. She held the sword up, reversed the grip, and brought the tip to rest gently on her wrist. The blade was pressed enough for a drip of blood to feed the cinquedea, eventually trailing and hurrying to the ground. "Look. If you really want to know... if I''m poisonous or not. I''m willing to make a deal. I''ll give you a taste." The beast leaned closer, suspicious. "Hmm..." "You get ten seconds," Kivas said, keeping her voice firm. "You eat thismy handand if you don''t start bleeding out your eyes or vomiting eldritch ooze or dying a dramatic, horrible death within ten seconds, you can eat the rest of me. Simple, and easy, right?" Kivas smiled wide. Too wide. Mimicking the beast''s former manic grin. She could feel the shift. The beast''s expression didn''t change much, but something behind those eyes flickered. Doubt. It stared at her hand. Then at her eyes. Then at the sword against her wrist. "You think I''m a fool," it said, almost casually. "You think I''ll eat your cursed limb and let you run away while I writhe on the floor?" Bingo. The fish ate the bait. Kivas kept smiling, but her heart was racing faster now. The beast chuckled, slowly nodding its big, grotesque head. "Yes, I see it now. You''d let me take a bite, and then flee. Sacrifice one part to save the rest. Clever... Clever!" Kivas let her eyes widen in mock surprise. "Whahow did you... damn it!" She lowered the sword with a huff and kicked the dirt. The beast roared with laughter. "HA! I knew it! You can''t outsmart me! I''ve eaten fools who tried. I''ve eaten a genius who prayed. No one is cleverer than me! I" It stomped forward with a grin that seemed to stretch wider than before. "don''t even need to eat you. I''ll just play with your body after you die. Tug the wings off first. Then maybe wear your ribs like a crown." Well, at least it no longer attempted to eat her. "Well, try at me then~!" The beast huffed. "Bratty fool!" The moment it lunged, she dove aside. Again. The paw hit the ground, just barely missing her, but this timeit stuck. The beast snarled, trying to rip it free. Kivas didn''t waste it. She turned, dug her heel in, and stood her ground. Her blade leveledsharp, tight, breathing with her pulse. And then it lunged once more. That massive, horrifying face opened wide. It was going for the bite. "Hmmph!" Wings extended. Legs coiled. She flung herself back with every ounce of force she hadand at the same time, swung her cinquedea. The blade sang through air and flesh alike. There was an impact. A flash of resistance. A splatter of something not quite red. And for the first time, the beast did not laugh. It recoiled, hissing. The grin was gone. Its face bore a shallow, bloody gougebarely deep, but jarring. It bled. Kivas panted, her stance faltering just slightly, but she didn''t lower her sword. The beast growled low, and its violet eyes gleamed with something new. Not amusement. But rage. "How dare you!" The beast roared. "The pain you sow is the pain you reap!" Chapter 12: Unprecedented Clash Chapter 12 - Unprecedented ClashThe beast''s screech echoed through the ashen woods, primal and furious. Kivas staggered slightly, wings still flared from her retreating slash, the warmth of adrenaline burning in her limbs. Her breath came quick, ragged. But even as her pulse screamed for her to run, to move, to do anything, a thought gnawed at the back of her mind. That strike should''ve failed. The beast had moved too fast. Its leap had been deadly, deliberate. She shouldn''t have had time to react, let alone wound it. So what slowed it down? Her eyes flicked to the beast, which now paced in jagged arcs, snarling low as blood trailed from the gouge on its oversized, human-like face. Its expression twisted with venom. But even then... its movements didn''t feel quite right. Too stilted. Like something resisted it. Not hersomething else. Fate Weaver? The phrase pulsed in her mind like a half-forgotten whisper. A titleno, a powershe saw back in the Well of the Soul. Back when she first awakened. Could that be what was bending the edges of this fight? She couldn''t confirm it. But she felt it. In the way the air folded right before danger struck. In the way the beast''s claw had hesitated, just a fraction too late. Something was weaving chances for her. Kivas narrowed her eyes and leveled her sword at the beast. "You might be the smartest creature alive," she said, gassing the beast up, "but your head is as hot as it is big. How about a calm and civil compromise? You know, like all intelligent beings usually conclude." Kivas was not the most confident here, the tremble in her knees told her so. But her grin didn''t falter. The beast didn''t speak. It simply roaredand charged. Its claws tore up the ground, dirt and dead leaves flying in the air like shrapnel. Kivas ducked under the first swipe, spun around the second, and narrowly dodged the backhand that would''ve flattened her ribs. But againagainshe felt it. Sarch* The n??el Fire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. That pull, just before impact. Like the world twisted to buy her a split second. Was it luck? Or a goddamn divine cheat code that she possessed? Whatever it was, she wasn''t complaining. Many and many times, she saved her life by a hair-length, just enough to not leave a wound. She twirled mid-dodge, wings tilting to redirect her momentum, the sword flashing as she counterednot to hit, but to draw the beast back and away from her exposed side. It worked, briefly. The creature hissed, recoiled. Then the beast stopped. Its muscles tightened, posture shifting low to the earth. Kivas paused for a split second, enough to notice the twitch in its massive shoulders. "Wait!" The ground exploded. A claw powerfully smashed into the earth in front of her, not to strike but to disrupt. Dirt flew in a choking, blinding cloud, a brown-black screen of grit and dust that filled her nose and stung her eyes. She coughedjust oncebefore pain came. Something weighty collided with her ribs like a swinging gate of bone and muscle, and she flew. Straight into the trees. Or, more accuratelystraight into her shelter. "Urgh..." she realized that she was far too comfortable. "What a nasty hit..." The structure splintered. Her makeshift shelter buckled under her impact. Debris rained downwood fragments, leafy scraps, broken makeshift tools. At this point, most of them were useless. Kivas also hit the forest floor hard, her wings splayed beneath her. One leg throbbed with a sharp twist of pain. The sword had tumbled from her fingers. She groaned and crawled back until her spine slammed against the tree beside her ruined shelter. The beast laughed, slow and hoarse. Its violet eyes gleamed through the fading dirt cloud like twin moons drenched in spite. "Cocky little featherbag," it growled, licking its jagged lips. "You''ve got the most annoying taste in dialogue." Kivas blinked away dust. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She spat, dragging herself upright just enough to retrieve her blade and plant its tip into the dirt. "Sorry," she rasped. "I get chatty when I''m not dead yet." The beast prowled closer, stepping over the wreckage. "No more lies. No more poison. You''re broken now. I''ll snap those pretty wings. Tear out your eyes. Grind your bones into paste. Then I''ll wear your guts like garlands. Lovely, musical little garlands" Before it could finish its sentence, the entire forest shook. Kivas flinched. The beast froze. A shadow fell across them both, massive and silent, but with a weight that was unmistakable. And then, something crashed from above. A colossal form struck the earth, slamming directly onto the beast''s back and shoulders, driving it face-first into the dirt. The impact shook trees. The wind shuddered. Kivas felt her ribs vibrate from the shockwave. The beast didn''t even scream. Its body twitched once, then lay stillpinned under a limb large enough to crush carriages. Dust choked the clearing. Fiendish ichor sprayed across broken leaves. A new presence loomed above beyond the darkened gradient. Massive. Ancient. Watching. Kivas, still slumped against the tree, dared not breathe. Chapter 13: Gaping Dragon Chapter 13 - Gaping DragonThe human-headed beast writhed beneath the crushing limb, its grotesque arms flailing, violet eyes bulging in panic. The arrogance that had filled its voice earlier was gone, replaced with shrill, pathetic pleading. "W-Wait! I yield! Spare me! II was only playing! A little sport!" A low, thunderous growl boomed from above, like the sound of mountains grinding. Then came the voicedeeper than the world''s crust, ancient and furious. It rolled through the trees, bending branches and warping shadows. "Maul''tahk." The name landed like a curse. "You made a vow," the unknown entity continued its vicious anger. "You said you would never spread your gradient within the heartwood of this forest. Not again." Maul''tahk beneath the massive limb squirmed harder, panic bubbling through every word. "II forgot! It''s been so long since anyone dared set foot in Vaingall! A newcomer! A little Fateling! I couldn''t help myself!" The voice above snarled in disgust. "You forgot?" The limb pressed down. There was a sickening crunch. "AAARGH!" Maul''tahk''s scream cut short, lost in the sudden hush that followed. The air trembled, the oppressive dark gradient that had saturated the clearing dissolving like ink in flame. Alongside it, the unnatural shadows peeled away, retreating from the roots and trees. The forest began to breathe again. The black tint drained from the leaves. Color returned. And in the wreckage of silence, Kivas saw it. The thing that had brought Maul''tahk to ruin. Her lungs stalled. A creature that dwarfed the forest itself, towering high above the tallest trees, its colossal wings folded like mountainsides draped in ruinous shadow. Red-black scales, edged with gold and bruised with age, shimmered under the clearing sky. Its long, coiled body stretched out through the treetops, serpentine yet grounded in brute weight. A scribble of a dragon that came straight out of the devil''s nightmare. And then Kivas saw its head. The dragon''s skull was elongated and jagged, too many horns arching in alien symmetry. Its mouth stretched unnaturally wide, teeth spiraling not just from its jaws but lining the underside of its neck and torso like a grotesque crown of hunger. Its eyes burnednot red, not gold, but something older, god-shaped, yet comprehensible. Kivas couldn''t move. Her body refused. Every nerve curled inward. Her instincts howled in silence, warning of something far beyond death. The entity turned, its massive eyes catching on the slumped, broken-winged girl against the tree. Kivas didn''t even flinch. She couldn''t. All she could do was shiver, breath trapped halfway in her chest, her weapon trembling in her grasp. The dragon tilted its massive head, observing her. Then it spoke again, in a cold, reflective wonder. "A Fateling." The voice reverberated like a dead god''s memory. It tasted of smoke and time and endings. "It has been a long time since I''ve seen one wander in Fathomi." Kivas blinked, slowly, still shivering in terror. Fathomi? The dragon''s eyes narrowed slightly. "You do not know the name of the world you breathe, for you are too young. Now, I dare say, you know her name." It began to shift, body creaking with weight as it slithered forward. Trees bent away. Roots split. Kivas backed up against the bark behind her, breath quickening. The dragon''s head lowered, impossibly slow, until one massive, terrible eye hovered before her. A single golden-red orb, its pupil split and endless. All she could see in her vision at that moment was that eye. As if it had already swallowed the world. "Speak," it said. "What is your name, little Fateling?" Her breath hitched. She was still shaking. Sar?h the n??el Fire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. But something inside hersome little shred of survivalurged her to comply. To submit to the current, ride the torrent, and hope to land somewhere not crushed beneath claw and fang. Her voice came hoarse. "...Kivas. Kivas Chariot." A low rumble passed through the dragon''s framelaughter? "A Fateling with a name already. And one you''ve chosen so quickly." It raised its head slowly, its massive form shifting with glacial gravity. "Very well then, Kivas Chariot. You may return that courtesy." The air trembled again. "I am Samael. Voidling," the dragon continued. "Same kin as the one you saw buried under my limb. Though I do not claim him. He was weak. Undisciplined. Dead." Kivas exhaled slowly. She tried to smileshaky, thin. "Nice to meet you, Samael...!" The dragon didn''t respond at first. "Hm." Its head turned slightly, gaze still fixed on her. "Do you know the meaning of introductions here, little one?" Kivas didn''t answer. She knew whatever answer she gave would be wrong. "In this world," Samael continued, "to share names is to acknowledge one another''s existence. A sacred gesture of mutual recognition. It binds us to the law of reality." Kivas blinked again, still frozen, still barely breathing. "I, I see..." "I assume Maul''tahk did not tell you his name?" Kivas shook her head faintly. "Of course not. He wished no acknowledgment. No bond. Just your bones in his maw." Then the dragon leaned closer once more. Its next words bled heat. "But do not think that mutual recognition means mutual peace... "I hate Fatelings." Sharp and twisted, the temperature around Kivas immediately dropped with the weight of that statement. "I have killed them." Samual eerily chuckled, its breathing visible and audible from its gaping maw. "Devoured them. Burned their huddled nests and wiped them from Fathomi''s bones. To the extent that, I thought your kind were extinct." Kivas''s mouth openedbut nothing came. She didn''t even know what kind of answer could fix this. "But perhaps fate grows restless. Perhaps this world calls for more." The dragon''s wings slowly unfurled, casting a blood-colored light through the forest canopy. "Do know, my hatred is not without cause. For it is righteous. And it is what this world needs." It stepped forward, and the trees bent in agony beneath its shadow. Kivas''s body went rigid. She tried to move, but couldn''t. The pressure. The air. Her thoughts. But on the edge of hopelessness, something shimmered. A flicker. A spark. A fiery purple light bloomed before her eyeshovering like a tear in reality, angular and sharp-edged, a familiar glyph of divine essence. Soulmate Detected. Kivas was dumbfounded. "What...?" More glyphs lit the air. Would you like to imbue a Genesis Core onto this Soulmate? Seeing Kivas'' abrupt change in emotion and expression, Samael paused in curiosity, Its massive head tilted. Kivas, breathless and reeling, muttered the only word her brain could grasp. "Y... yes?" The glyph burned brighter. Then, like a rod that was struck by lightning, it screamed and exploded. Fiery gold ink burst outward from the air itself, roaring to life with a crackling flame. The symbols spread in arcs, latching onto Samael''s immense form like divine chains. The dragon reared back, roaringnot in fury, but in shock. "What is this!?" The fire spread. Samael''s form convulsed as golden veins seared across its hide. The flame dug inbeyond the flesh, deeper into its essence. And Kivas could only stare as the unkillable beast began to scream. Chapter 14: Samael, The First Soulmate Chapter 14 - Samael, The First SoulmateSamael''s roar scraped the sky. The flame devouring her form intensified, golden arcs surging through her enormous wings and jagged tail. Its size began to shrink, slowly at first, then rapidlybones cracking, scales crumbling, horns bending inward. Its colossal figure spasmed, twisting under the unseen hand of divine transformation. Kivas, still huddled near the tree, could only watch through wide, stunned eyes. Her body ached everywhere, blood crusting down her arms and neck, her weapon somewhere behind her. But curiosity overrode the pain, pushing through her fear with a surreal numbness. This was the process of the Genesis Core imbuement. That realization landed in her mind like thunder. Disjointed fragments of logic tumbled into a jagged puzzle. The message she received said Soulmate. She had a skill called Divine Soulmate Imbuer in her Well of the Soul. And after answering the prompt, accidentally, a Genesis Core was being forcefully implanted into Samaelbecause Kivas had agreed to it. Her voice, her consent, had triggered this transformation. Which meant... Samael was her soulmate. The so-called soul-forged connection. A universal pairing. Fated and immutable, of love and journey that many romanticize. Kivas blinked hard. Her soulmate... was a void-born dragon that had just declared she had exterminated her kind to extinction? Kivas wanted to laugh, and maybe proud to some extent? She winced as her ribs screamed in protest, still. "What the hell is happening...?" Samael''s monstrous shape now coiled inward on itself, the gold fire embracing every corner. Its wings, once as wide as valleys, folded in. its tail coiled like a ribbon before vanishing into the light. What remained was a smaller figure, humanoid in shape, kneeling in the scorched center of the clearing. The golden flames lingered, but dimmed, wrapping the form in a slow-burning shimmer. Kivas pushed herself upright with a grunt, her legs wobbling. Step by step, she crept toward the figure. She couldn''t stop herselfwhatever part of her feared this being was overwhelmed by the urge to understand. She had to see. The flames covering shrunken Samael eventually hissed away. Then, two red eyes flickered open. In a single heartbeat, a bolt of red energy cracked from it. Kivas screamed as she was thrown to the ground, her back slamming into a shattered root. Her breath caught mid-inhale. Before she could react, a hand clamped around her throat. Kivas gasped, gagged. The pressure was iron. "Eek!" Above her, what should become of Samael loomedbut no longer as a dragon. Her form was now unmistakably that of a mature woman. She was tall, statuesque, her body wrapped in a strange black garment that shimmered like a living shadowidentical in design to Kivas'' own regenerating dress, only darker. A pair of curved black horns spiraled from her head, streaked faintly with red. Her long hair hung in waves down her back, coal-black with ember tips. Bat-like wings jutted from her shoulder blades, twitching with restrained fury. Her crimson concentric eyes burned like twin stars falling into madness. "What... did you do to me?" The voice was familiarstill deep, still heavybut less distant. More mortal, and pleasing. "Release, me...!" Kivas choked, grasping weakly at the hand on her neck. "C-Can''t... talk... ifif I''m... dead..." Samael''s eyes narrowed, and for a moment it looked like she would snap Kivas'' neck. Then, with a frustrated snarl, she threw her hand back. Kivas fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. "You imbued something into me," Samael hissed. "You cursed me. Changed me! Thisthis bodythis formI am no longer Voidling! No longer the very thing I''m proud and live with!" Still on the ground, Kivas rasped between coughs, "Didn''tdidn''t know it would do this..." Samael ignored her. She held her palm aloft, summoning a burning violet glyph into the air. An ornate, familiar screen shimmered open, arcane and radiant. Dozens of rotating circles and texts hovered around it. Kivas stared up at it, but the glyphs blurred before her eyesforeign, shifting like water. It looked as if Samael was opening her own Well of the Soul, but it seemed like Kivas couldn''t really read anything from the distance. Samael''s eyes darted back and forth. Her breathing hitched. "No... no, this isn''t right. My skills. My libraries of cultivated, high-leveled classes. My eternal mana gridwhere is it!?" Her voice cracked with something deeper than ragepanic. She tried to scroll up and down faster, as if she was still acting like there was more to it than a mere few sections of her Well of the Soul. "My unique and inherited skills, my awakened attributes... all gone." Kivas wiped her mouth, sat upright against a rock. "So, if you''re no longer Voidling, what race are you now?" "Exo Human. That''s what it says. That''s what I am now." Samael''s gaze turned to her with venom. "A human in appearance, the resemblance of humanity on the outside, but of unknown origin and nature..." Kivas blinked, but she got the gist of what Samael currently took form as of now. Samael''s hands fell to her sides. Her shoulders trembled. And then she laughed. A hollow, shrieking sound that echoed in the trees like something unhinged. Her face twisted between disbelief and rage, like her mind was fracturing from the absurdity of her situation. "I should kill you," she whispered, staring at Kivas with an unreadable face beneath the darkened gradient. "I should torture you until your bones forget what light is. I should end you slowly, like all of the Fatelings that I have killed in the past." And this was supposed to be Kivas'' soulmate in this world. Kivas raised her arms weakly in defense, eyes wide. "Is there no space for negotiation...?" "I really want to do heinous things to you, but I won''t," Samael growled, stepping closer. "Because I don''t know what this Genesis Core is that resides within my Well of the Soul. And if I end you... I may never find out." She pounced onto Kivas, straddling her stomach without care. The pressure made Kivas yelp in pain. "Ow!" With her soulmate on top of her, close and personal, Kivas'' instinct was overwhelmed on whether she was in danger or not. "Let me guess, the skill description barely tells you anything?" "Such is the way of Fathomi," Samael answered begrudgingly, pinning both Kivas'' arms by the wrist to the floor. "Everyone must strive to uncover their own essence and their surroundings. Wisdom brings power, and power can lead you to more opportunity for wisdom." "You''re surprisingly helpful and informative for someone who wants to torture me." "It is the role of an elder to always enlighten a newcomer to this world, regardless of the circumstances, and you''re not an exception." "Alright, teacher, but can you stop pinning me down and pressing onto my stomach?" Kivas grunted. "I''m quite wounded in that area." Samael tilted her head, expression blank. "No." "You''re crushing me!" "You deserve that at minimum," Samael said coldly. "Just, so you know, you''re now somewhat of my soulmate," Kivas tried her best to construct a sentence. "I have a skill that allows me to imbue this Genesis whatchamacallit, and it gets triggered when you further approached me back then!" "Mhmm... throughout all of my time of living, I have no idea what this Genesis Core and the skill that imbues it." "Huh! So much for an ancient being with so much wisdom, ouch!" Samael tightened her grips on Kivas'' hands, almost to the point of crushing it. "I want you to retract this Genesis Core from me. Maybe, just maybe, it will revert my existence back to its original. Do it now, focus your instinct, will it into existence." "Eh, I don''t really know," Kivas looked away and sneered. "If you somehow returned to normal, I might get eaten. You know, due to your so-called principle obligation." Samael leaned in, her eyes centimeters from Kivas'' face. "You think this is funny?" "No. I think this is terrifying and confusing! But also my ribs are rearranging themselves, so maybe that''s distracting me!" Samael sat back slightly, still pinning Kivas with her weight, her tone quieter now. "You''ve barely existed in Fathomi for more than a day. You don''t know anything. About this world. About what you''ve done..." Kivas winced. "I''m curious, elder. How do you knew that I''m new to this world right away? You like teaching, right? This question should calm you down a little." She bitterly chuckled. "...Your soul hasn''t even begun to absorb the essence of this realm," Samael said, eyes narrowing. She couldn''t help herself from answering that question. "I can feel it. You are still fresh. Untouched. Your soul is like airthin, shapeless. You haven''t even started living." "I see... could''ve told me that while not breaking my rib cage though," Kivas grunted. "Thanks for the exposition, still." Samael stood suddenly, the pressure lifting. Kivas collapsed to the dirt, wheezing relief. Samael turned away, staring at her hand. This new body of hers felt alien, but she somehow possessed the right instinct and muscle memory on how to efficiently use it. Just like how she pinned Kivas to the ground in no time, or even standing without problem. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "To think that I greatly regressed my existence," she muttered. Kivas sat up slowly, watching her. "Your new look is... nice, though," Kivas offered, giving Samael a thumbs up. "If you exist back in a world I know back then, you would become a supermodel with one million online followers." Samael whirled, eyes flaring. "You!" And in an instant, she was back on top of Kivas, fury radiating from her frame, choking Kivas'' neck. "I ought to flay you!" "Gah! You keep saying that!" "Die! You accursed Fateling, die!" "Y-you need to cure your anger issue, first!" Chapter 15: Learning The New World Chapter 15 - Learning The New WorldTwo hours had passed. Kivas sat on a fallen tree, legs propped up, swaddled in makeshift bandages fashioned from her own regenerating clothing. She leaned back against a trunk split by fire, eyes half-lidded, listening to the strange quiet of Vaingall''s wilderness. The air smelled sharp and cold, like iron and burnt ether. As of now, Samael had gone hunting. Before she vanished into the treeline, Samael had promised foodafter bluntly declaring that she wasn''t going to let her "accursed Fateling" starve if she wanted answers. Not yet, anyway. Something about "If you die, I don''t get to learn what you did to me." That seemed to be the cornerstone of their temporary alliance. And before Samael''s departure, Kivas had since learned more about Fathomi. Or rather, she''d been told a few things. A day is 24 hours, and a year is 365 days shared across 12 months of the same familiar name. That alone was quite enough to make Kivas felt less disoriented in her brand new life experience. "Basically Earth 2.0, with a massive update that added supernatural and weird law of physics." Fathomi wasn''t a world in the conventional sensemore like a cradle of existential density, a realm where things simply were, and remained. To put it simply, living conscious beings didn''t age, not unless something forced them to. In this world, time passed, but it didn''t decay its inhabitants into a state of entropy. This would mean that Kivas would barely age or change in appearance too unless something was forcefully manipulating it. As such, inhabitants of Fathomi didn''t care about time. As Samael herself proclaimed, they cared for wisdom, for power, and for permanence of essence. And that essence was recorded, accessed, and shaped through a compact medium called the Well of the Soul. "Samael cut her explanation short after she realized that her stomach is burned empty alongside the transformation," Kivas mumbled as she gazed into her Well of the Soul. "I haven''t known much about these things I''m seeing." To Kivas, Well of the Soul was basically an RPG stat screen. She still didn''t know what most of the entries meant, but at least she had deciphered two of the most confusing before Samael had left. Case number one, Her HP and MP bars never moved. Her pre-assumption about these two stats was that they were Health Point, the denominator of one''s healthand Magic Point or Mana Point, the amount of fuel meant to perform magical stuff. And at one point, she even used to think that was a bug. Now she knew better. "Whoever made this part to be abbreviated instead of spelling the entire thing needs to be fired." HP stood for Hemo Psyche, the fuel of her ability to imbue and transform herself, her blood, her strength, and those of other living beings. It was the boundary of self-infusion, the spiritual battery for affecting herself or others on a soul-deep level and physical level. Kivas hadn''t been taught exactly how it work, but she got the gist of it. And MP was Mana Psyche, the latent reservoir of her will''s power to influence the world. Things like the surrounding, the air, the earth. But it couldn''t directly affect living entity unlike Hemo Psyche and vice versa. Both were stable this whole time because they weren''t utilized at all, because Kivas didn''t possess any means or skills that could siphon them from her existence. "They are basically Mana Points but for two different skill categories, heh." Still, those bars barely scratched the surface of the complexity. Samael had told hersome things, or in this case, skills, just ignore those rules. Kivas'' Fate Weaver skill operated like that. It didn''t draw from Hemo Psyche or Mana Psyche in a traditional sense. Instead, it resonated with what makes existence, exist. Its output depended on its level, on intent, and apparently, proximity to fate-altering events. "As expected, I''m a walking causality nightmare~" Branches snapped in the underbrush, something was approaching. Kivas raised her head just as Samael stepped back into the clearing, dragging a monstrous corpse behind her. "Samael!" Kivas waved her hand. "Welcome... back?" The corpse was long. Centipede-like. Glossy black and purple. At least two meters of pulsing, segmented carapace and rows of slitted eyes. Its legs were gonetorn off at the stumpsand its mouth was a shattered beak lined with twitching feelers. Samael hoisted it up with one arm, then tossed it down beside the fire pit with a wet thud. She wiped her face with the back of her hand. Fun fact, the fire pit was lit using Kivas'' flaming halo. "Meal time," Samael said, voice casual. "Us unpowered beings of this world should feast on other living beings aplenty to get stronger." Kivas blinked. "And that''s what you want to get?" "I said that I''m searching for food, no?" "You said food. Not a nightmare millipede." "As much as it''s not within your palate, it''s one of the least poisonous beings in Vaingall," Samael replied, crouching beside the corpse. Her eyes gleamed in the firelight. "In fact, it''s surprisingly edible. Lean protein, nourishing. Lots of soul-sustaining marrow." "Appetizing, yeah, I can hear myself wanting to gag," Kivas muttered, nose wrinkling. "What even is this thing, again?" "A minor Voidling that I barely care about the name of. An annoying pest. I''ve wanted to kill it for years, but it kept hiding in rifts." Samael inspected one of the segments and reached for the cinquedea she''d borrowed earlier for the hunt. "Took me three near-deaths to put it down." "Wait, you almost died three times?" Kivas sat upright, alarmed. "You can''t die just yet, you know! I need someone to babysit me until I''m well!" "I''m the one who almost died, why are you the one who rile...?" Samael was awestruck. "And for the wrong reason too" "That aside, how are you still fine now?" Kivas questioned. "I used what was left of my Hemo Psyche." Samael continued her meal prepping. "Don''t worry, I''ll teach you about everything you need to know." As she spoke, the corpse twitched. Kivas jolted. "Uhh. Samael. It just moved." The beak of the centipede cracked open. "You... dare... wear the name of Samael...!" the centipede Voidling hissed in a shrill voice, distorted and warped like gurgling gravel. "You... human... you disgrace the name of the eternal. I''ll kill you!" Samael''s expression didn''t shift. She casually flipped the cinquedea in her hand and drove it into the thing''s mouth. There was a crunch, a squelch, and then a muffled scream as black ichor pooled from its maw. "... Did that Voidling somehow revive itself just now?" Kivas gawked. "It wasn''t even dead to begin with." Samael yanked the blade back out and wiped it on the centipede''s shell. "Voidlings of that breed can segment their vitality. I ruptured enough of them that it couldn''t fight nor move for a while, but its core didn''t fade." "You were planning to eat something that was still alive?!" Kivas then realized what Samael was before she transformed into this one beautiful and wise woman. "Nevermind, I forgot what you are." "You''re also going to eat it too, you know?" "I''m thankful for the gesture." Kivas smiled wide, happy with how Samael seemed to care about her. "But that''s not my kind of food." "This is not a suggestion, you need to eat it." Samael snapped a leg segment free from the creature''s thorax. It detached with a wet pop, wriggling slightly in her grip. She held it out toward Kivas, the jointed end twitching like a severed muscle. "Here. The marrow''s still warm." Kivas recoiled. "Can you at least tell me why this is necessary to begin with? I already ate before we met..." "I still haven''t taught you much about how the Well of the Soul works" Samael said innocently. "Alongside the method to accumulate strength. We can start on that, when you took your first bite." "The damn thing is still moving!" "You''ll get used to it." "That is not reassuring at all!" Samael sighed and sat beside her on the log, placing the leg across Kivas'' lap. "You need to understand something, Fateling." "Here we go..." Kivas muttered. Samael ignored her. "Fathomi isn''t this Earth you talked about earlier. Things don''t die the same way. Things don''t live the same way. You''re used to food being sterilized and dissected. Here, life is persistent. It clings. Even death is more of a transition than an end." Kivas stared at the twitching limb, then back at Samael. "I barely even told you much about the place I came from before I got here as a Fateling, why are you talking like you have gone to Earth yourself?" sea??h th Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Don''t need to go there, I can already tell what kind of world that you lived in." Samael snickered. "Besides, you''re not the only one who possesses a memory of their former life in their own respective former world. A reincarnator, so we say, those who found a new vessel in Fathomi." "Are you saying that you''re the same as me?" "No, I met many entities who possess those circumstances." "And here I thought that my soulmate could relate to me a little..." "Empathy is the essence of intelligent beings. It can simply be done through putting pieces of your own experience and wisdom, not the reliance of a complete replication." "Huh, you''re more human than I thought." "Now that you said it, the fact that the concept of humanity exists in your former world is quite interesting," Samael said with a genuine smile. "I can''t wait to uncover many aspects of you." "Coming from you, it sounds more like a threat..." Kivas took the leg. Lifted it slowly. The chitinous surface was warm to the touch, and the jagged end oozed a white-yellow sap that smelled vaguely of roasted garlic and rancid metal. "Don''t bite the hard shell," Samael warned. "Snap the end and suck the marrow." "I want to hate you for doing this." "Your hate will barely do anything." Chapter 16: Meaning Of Attributes, And Method To Gain Them Chapter 16 - Meaning Of Attributes, And Method To Gain ThemThe fire flickered beside them as Kivas gnawed reluctantly on a half-charred segment of the centipede-like Voidling''s leg, trying not to gag as each bite pulsed slightly in her jaw. The chitin cracked and oozed a white-yellow marrow that burned her tongue with bitterness. Nearby, the rest of the Voidling still squirmed weakly, its mandibles twitching despite being mostly dismantled. Samael bit clean through a thicker portion of its thorax, casually chewing as if it were grilled lamb. "Good gradient," she commented. "Minimal bitterness. Lean muscle. Nothing infected." Kivas side-eyed her. "You seem to be enjoying this." "With wisdom, you''ll learn to enjoy many aspects of life, no matter how bizarre," Samael replied without looking up. "Voidling meat spoils differently depending on what they''ve been feeding on. Some of them get contaminated if they have been preying on others too much, and some have a clean taste when they are starved. You''ll taste it immediatelylike mildew and blood clots." Kivas dry-heaved. "Disgusting, and absolutely enlightening." She dropped the chewed carapace on the ground with an exaggerated sigh. "You said you were gonna explain more about the Well of the Soul, I think a lesson while we feast on this monstrosity can help me digest better." "Double entendre, you''re quite witty for a Fateling." "Is this your bias speaking or Fatelines is just that less bright in general..." "Can be both." Samael set her food down and sat back, wings flicking once with satisfaction. "To put this simply, the Well of the Soul is... everything for Fathomi''s inhabitants... "It''s not just some vanity ledger. It defines your existence in Fathomi. The world recognizes you through it. It changes how your essence responds to realityand how reality responds to you." Kivas raised an eyebrow, chewing slower. "If you still remember what I told you back then, then the objective reality that age doesn''t matter faintly in this world, can all be rooted back to the Well of the Soul." Samael gestured lazily toward her own chest. "The reason bodies don''t decay naturally here is because our Well of the Soul anchors us. "So long as it persists, our forms remain constant. Physical aging is irrelevant. Death comes from something else. It comes from wounds, from attacks that destroy the vessel or corrupt the soul directly." "Right. Immortality through metaphysical bureaucracy. Cool, terrifying, makes sense." Kivas swallowed the next bite like swallowing glass. "But why are you so insistent that I eat this thing alive? I mean, it''s still breathing. Still glaring at me. It''s mouthing something. That''s gross for me." "To grow stronger," Samael said, matter-of-fact. "When a conscious entity with a functioning Well of the Soul partakes in another''s death, they absorb portions of that being''s essence. Attributes, in this case, and the amount depends on how much you contribute to the death." Kivas paused mid-bite, jaw stiff. "Ahh... I understand your intention now." Samael tilted her head. "By eating it alive, your soul engages in its demise. You''ll earn something from it." "You know, you can just tell me to stab that thing a few times on the head, or have myself do the killing blow to have the same effect, right?" "Might as well savor their nutrients, no?" Samael smirked. "Killing two guardians with one poison. Now, open your Attributes section on the Well of the Soul. It''s time for you to know what those values mean." Grumbling, Kivas brought up her Well of the Soul and flicked her hand, trying to open the Attributes section. To her surprise, the interface responded with a gentle flare. The Well split neatly, like turning the page of a thick book. The main display peeled back, and the stats glowed softly before her. ?Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 8 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 16 ???? Piety (PIE): 20 ????? Vitality (VIT): 7 ???? Speed (SPD): 6 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 10 ???? Luck (LUK): 9 ?END OF THE WELL "I can open it in parts now... Huh. That''s new." Samael nodded with approval. "Good that you learned how to do it this early. That''s going to be useful once you gain more classes, and your skill libraries start expanding. Navigating it gets annoying when it''s all crammed in one window." Kivas ran her eyes over the numbers again. "Okay. So what does each one mean, teach?" "Strength," Samael began, "isn''t about your muscles or how loud you can scream. It governs actions of raw physicality. Not in appearance, but in effect. If your Strength is high enough, the world will bend to validate your forceswing harder, throw farther, lift the impossible." Kivas nodded slowly. "So it''s like... reality just works harder for you, the higher your Strength is." "Intelligence Quotient sounds like a standard intellectuality of an individual and how they grasp and interact. But to be exact, this specific stats of the Well reflects how well you can perceive and comprehend Fathomi itself. The secrets, the patterns, the illusions. The higher it is, the clearer everything becomes. "It has no relation to your normal intelligence." "That sounds confusing, why did they name it like that?" Kivas winced. Samael maintained her deadpan. "Don''t ask me, I''m not the one who makes all of these. Moving on... "Piety is spiritualrepresenting how well you align with Fathomi''s essence, its miracles and divine structures. And more importantly, interacting with it instead of just comprehending them." "A more active version of IQ, huh." "Your Fate Weaver skill might also scale with how high your Piety is," Samael added. "It should explain why you''re able to fight Maul''tahk on almost equal ground with the amount of your shortcomings." "That''s quite harsh of a comment..." "Vitality governs the power of your will to live." Samael took other limbs of the centipede and began feasting on it. "It fuels regeneration, stamina, and the ability to resist entropy of all kinds, physical, spiritual, emotional. Well it''s not about toughnessmore like soul-borne defiance." Kivas rubbed her ribs. "Could use more of that." "Speed is broad. It impacts your ability to process, to move, to act. A high Speed doesn''t just mean you run fastit lets you outpace others in thought, in casting, even in dodging metaphysical phenomena." Kivas narrowed her eyes. "Ooh, what''s the difference with Dexterity?" "Dexterity," Samael continued, "is grace. Precision. The accuracy of motion, whether you''re dancing, picking the end of a cotton strand, or weaving between realities. It''s the soul''s ability to thread the mind through action." Kivas assumed that it might also have some relation to the trap disarming in this world. "And Luck?" "Luck is... luck. It bends the chance around you. A high enough Luck stat lets you survive situations you shouldn''t. Or find things you shouldn''t. Though, no matter how immensely high it is, it doesn''t drastically affect your life in many ways or the other." "Sounds like a scam." "It kinda is," Samael chuckled. Kivas tapped the glowing digits with her finger, watching the screen flicker and pulse. She tilted her head. "So what''s the minimum requirement to take these stats from someone else? Just being involved in their death?" "Yes," Samael said. "Usually. But... there are exceptions." Kivas looked up. "How about Maul''tahk''s attributes? I should have contributed enough action to partake in his death, no? Considering the huge gash on his face before you stomp him to death." Samael snickered. "He doesn''t count. I have a unique skill that allows me to prevent the attributes from being distributed to any third parties. Though, I no longer have that skill now...'' "That''s dirty." Kivas squinted her eyes in disbelief. "It''s effective," Samael countered. "I''ve always fought alone. I didn''t want parasites stealing my evolution." Kivas frowned, then muttered, "Still nasty." But with how Samael utter it, Kivas felt some semblance of empathy. To always fight by oneself, was her life filled with loneliness at the peak of her existence? "Hey, this sounds like a weird question. But, how did you get your name?" Kivas asked, remembering what Samael said back then about how Kivas already got her name. "I gave it to myself," Samael said. "Like most natural inhabitants of Fathomi. When you gain enough selfhood to anchor identity, you claim a name." "Why ''Samael'', though?" "I found it once in a broken scripturea being of divine flame, truth and wrath. It sounded regal. Powerful... It is an angelic being of a forgone past." Kivas snorted. "Ironic, considering there''s barely anything about you that is angelic." "True angelic essence has nothing to do with hollow kindness," Samael replied casually. "An angel does not comfort. It enforces others." Kivas leaned back and hummed. "You can somewhat comfort me, you know?" "If there''s any reason to." Samael gazed at Kivas intensely, as if she was peering into Kivas'' soul. "I might have been deemed as a soulmate for you, but it doesn''t mean that I should comply with it." "Hey, it''s the same situation for me too, you know?" Kivas shrugged. "I didn''t expect to have an almighty ancient dragon that hunted my kind extinction to be my own soulmate, nor did I expect that she became such a beauty that I started swinging the other way." "What do you mean by the latter?" "Don''t mind that, I doubt that the concept of gender matters much here~" "Gender in this world is just a genetic role that barely matters now, so you''re right on that." Samael pointed out. "Reproduction can be done regardless of gender and numerous methods, depending on the knowledge and the race... "Since there''s no such thing as growing old here, a mortal creating an entirely new living being works a little differently than most worlds. Especially the one where you came from, assuming that my understanding of your origin world is not faulty." "Oh wow, that''s quite the world building." "Speaking of the whole thing, how about you?" Samael said with a half-lidded gaze. "What''s the origin of your name?" "My parents wanted a boy," Kivas said. "When I came out as a girl, they didn''t want to waste time. Slapped on the name they already picked. Then waalaa! Kivas, with Chariot as the family name." Samael paused. "So Kivas are supposed to be masculine in terms of name, then." "Where I came from, yeah." Samael gave her a look. "Well, you don''t look like you''re exuding any kind of masculinity." "That''s what I said!" Despite their circumstances, they possess the willingness to learn about each other. Maybe there''s a reason why they were assigned to be each other''s soulmates. Albeit, rough and gritty at the start, it might be able to bloom into something more warm and radiant than anything in their entire life. They finished their meal in uneasy peace. Samael tore the last segment from the Voidling''s abdomen, then finally stabbed it through the brain stem. The twitching stopped. Kivas blinked at her status screen. No change. She turned slowly. "...My attributes haven''t moved." Samael didn''t react. "Of course they didn''t." "Uhm, excuse me?" S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "To claim the attributes of those whose dead you partake, you must defeat their ever lingering revenant in the form of a Nightmare." Chapter 17: Nightmare And Classes Chapter 17 - Nightmare And Classes"You''ll need to fight it," Samael told Kivas, easy and simple. "Fight what?" Kivas smiled wryly, hoping that there won''t be any complicated process after this. "The Nightmare of the Voidling you consumed. It will appear to you in a dream. That is when it must be truly defeated to claim what shall be yours." Kivas raised a brow, then anxiously ran a hand through her hair. "Wait, it''s still not over? We ate it. It''s dead." Samael turned her head slightly, one crimson eye focused on her. "Physically, yes. But in Fathomi, essences linger. Especially that of conscious beings. Their soul leaves an imprintresentful, twisted, anchored by the mark you made upon them. That imprint forms the Nightmare. "This Nightmare had no longer anchored to Fathomi with no physical vessel grasping to it, thus essences of their existence remain within those who partake in their event of death. "And since they are ethereal in nature, they can only be interacted in a spiritual state like a dream. Hence the name, Nightmare." "So... a boss fight in my sleep?" Kivas sneered. "In essence." Samael moved back toward her, kneeling beside her log seat, wings folding in tightly. "You must defeat it inside your dream. That is how the Well of the Soul allows you to claim its attributes. For the dead shall leave their inheritance to the living." Kivas leaned forward. "And what happens if I fail?" "Then nothing changes," Samael said flatly. "The Nightmare survives, returns the next time you sleep. And the next. However, if too much time passes, if you allow too many Nightmares to persist, they might begin to gnaw at you from within." Kivas frowned, albeit smiling. "That''s... concerningly worrisome." "They can find cracks in your soul, slither in, and twist you," Samael said, her tone not changing. "At best, they weaken your attributes. At worst, they replace you." Kivas whistled low. "No pressure then. I can just try fighting them when I''m ready." "You''ll know when it begins. Don''t worry about timing it." Samael stood again and dusted herself off. "But defeating the Nightmare isn''t your first priority for today." Kivas narrowed her eyes. "Why do I feel like you''re going to add more homework?" "You need a class," Samael said. That caught her attention. Kivas opened her Well of the Soul and navigated down to the empty tab titled Classes, where a single line glared at her: ? Null "Okay, yeah, you''re right. That section''s been a barren wasteland since I woke up," she admitted. "It''s necessary if you want to progress. Skillsthey respond much more directly when aligned with a class, and will grow with you the more you perform or achieve something that aligns with the meaning of that class itself. Fighting a Nightmare is one of them. "Thus, fighting one while you''re classless is not an efficient thing to do. Right now, you''re aimless, so you must choose a path to tread." Kivas was hyped up, suddenly interested. "So how do I get one? Do I have to slay a dragon? Climb a tower? Do some metaphysical puzzle? Tell me it''s dramatic." Samael blinked at her. "It''s not. For Basic Classes, the classes that can be acquired right at the get got, the process is mundane." Kivas deflated slightly. "You could''ve lied to make it sound cooler." "You''re asking the wrong person for sugarcoating," Samael muttered. "But yes. There are Advanced Classes. I''ll explain those later when the time comes. As for now." She gestured toward the mossy forest floor. "Close your eyes." Kivas looked skeptical, but she did it regardless. "Just like that?" "Yes. Imagine yourself. In hardship." Kivas raised a brow. "Well, I''m good at imagining. This should be done in a jiffy~" "Fathomi will guide you to it regardless as long as you intend to acquire a class with this gesture." Samael folded her arms. "For a better result, choose a situation familiar to you. One that resonates. Let your mind sink into it." "I''ll see what I can do." Kivas let her mind go quiet. She leaned against the tree, the bark firm behind her back. The pain in her ribs softened. She gave into the void, her body relaxed, and her thoughts drift. Darkness camenot the terrifying kind, but the kind that drew the soul inward. And then... she saw it, the place that she wanted to imagine. But something was enhancing the experience, just like what Samael insinuate about Fathomi guiding the process. Instead of just visualizing the event of hardship, Kivas felt like she had just gone back in time. "...How juvenile." Concrete and smoke. The stench of blood and scorched wiring. Kivas found herself crouched low in a ruined pharmacy storefront, the walls half-melted, ceiling caved in. Rubble blanketed the pavement outside. Fires bloomed in the distance. The roar of gunfire cracked like thunder, too close. Distant shouting mingled with the mechanical rhythm of bullet sprays. Soldiers in armor scrambled through alleyways, shouting codes and commands over the chaos. Drones buzzed overhead like hornets. In the distance, a military walker with cracked plating took cover behind a collapsed skyscraper. Plasma pulses lit the air. Kivas turned her eyes down. Two civilians huddled near her. One was a child, arm broken, blood running from their temple. The other, a mother, silent, tears streaking her face as she tried to stop the bleeding with torn cloth. She remembered this. Right after the war started. She remembered the silence that came after her own scream failed to reach anyone. How every attempt to signal for help had been jammed. How hopelessness clung to the skin like a second layer. There were no medics coming. No reinforcements coming. Only a world devouring itself. Kivas knelt beside the child and tried again to stop the bleeding. Her hands trembled. She whispered nonsense in their ear, not because it helped, but because silence felt like death. She looked past the ruined windows and saw more people running. Screaming. More fire. Buildings caving in. She wanted it to stop. Everything. The suffering. The sounds. The uselessness of her hands. sea??h th N?vel(F)ire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She wanted peace. She wanted a state where no one had to suffer. She wanted to become something that could lift this weight from the world, even for a moment. And then. Class Gained: Priest Kivas'' eyes opened. The forest returned. So did the cold. The pain. Samael was sitting on a nearby boulder, sharpening the cinquedea again. She didn''t even bother checking Kivas state. "I felt it," Samael said, regardless of her expression. "Congratulations." Kivas stared at her hand. "...I''m a Priest now? I think?" "Yes." "Huh, that definitely felt more bizarre than I expected." Samael gazed at Kivas, her expression unreadable. "Did the process answer something for you?" "Yeah," Kivas said slowly. "I remembered what it felt like to want to take someone''s pain and remove it for them. I wanted to help. That''s what it was. A juvenile, and quixotic dream." Samael nodded once. "Then your class reflects that." "What''s the rest of the potential class I could''ve gotten out of all the Basic Classes?" "Mage, Thief, Warrior, Knight, Ranger, Bard, Monk, Alchemist, Hexblade." "Shit, I landed on the lamest one." "Not quite," Samael chuckled. "I found Priest class to be quite reliable for someone''s first class. Not to mention, you need to have at least a couple of them as a requirement to get one of the Advanced Class." "Huh, I guess there''s a reason why it''s called ''Classes'' here in the Well of the Soul." Chapter 18: Kivas, You鈥檙e A Priest Chapter 18 - Kivas, You''re A Priest? WELL OF THE SOUL Name: Kivas Chariot Race: Fateling Total Level: 1 ? Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 8 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 21 ???? Piety (PIE): 30 ????? Vitality (VIT): 10 ???? Speed (SPD): 7 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 10 ???? Luck (LUK): 15 ? Vitals ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 36 / 36 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 26 / 26 ? Derived Stats ????? Attack Power: 8 ? Magic Power: 21 ???? Divine Power: 30 ????? Defense: 10 ???? Magic Defense: 30 ????? Detect: 19 ???? Disarm Trap: 12 ???? Evade Trap: 9 ???? Action Speed: 7 ???? Accuracy: 12 ???? Evasion: 9 ?? Resistance: 23 ? Classes ? Priest Lv1 Disc0 ? Skills ? Divine Soulmate Imbuer Lv1 C You possess the power to imbue a Genesis Core onto your fated soulmate. ? Fate Weaver Lv1 C You possess the power to weave fate. ? END OF THE WELL Kivas sat cross-legged, the glow of the canopy casting slow, sleepy patterns across her shoulders. She wiped her fingers on her thigh, then waved her hand to summon her Well of the Soul. Her eyes scanned over the now-familiar interface. Her brows furrowed. "...Huh." Samael, who was reclined a few feet away against a tree, one leg crossed over the other, gave her a side glance. "What is it now?" "I think... some of my attributes just increased." Kivas tilted her head, squinting at the pulsing numbers before her. "But I haven''t fought the Nightmare yet." "Let me guess," Samael said, already smug. "You''re wondering why that happened?" "Oh wow, how did you know that?" Kivas sarcastically remarked "Who would have thought that I''m wondering why that happened. Did my new class do this?" Sear?h the N??elFir.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Correct. Gaining a class influences your base attributes. The change is subtle, sometimes unpredictable," Samael explained, flicking a stray twig off her shoulder. "But it''s natural. A new class rewrites parts of your soul''s structure. The soul adapts, and the stats reflect the new form." Kivas played around her finger upon the Well of the Soul in front of her, nodding to herself. "So there''s bonus effects from simply getting a class... that''s great." "Don''t get too eager." "Why not? What if I get more classes now? Like... stack them all up. Priest today, Mage tomorrow, maybe Thief on Sunday" "You will weaken yourself," Samael said flatly. "Why?" "The more classes you hold, the more divided your growth becomes. Each class demands experience to develop. If you split your focus, none of them evolve properly. Not until your soul is seasoned enough to carry that weight." "Oh..." Kivas rubbed her chin. "So having too many classes early on is like juggling with broken hands. Got it~" "Focus on one. Learn its rhythm. Let it bloom. Then you''ll know when to branch, train their concept, and evolve." "Okay... okay..." Kivas looked back at her hand. "So how many classes did you have before... you know." Samael smirked without turning. "More than a hundred." Kivas nearly fell over. "Holy numbers, what?!" "Class slots expand with time, with mastery, with essence consumption. I''ve lived long enough to gather what most wouldn''t in three lifetimes, heh." "I meanof course you did. You were terrifying. You are terrifying." "I was revered and feared," Samael added, resting her chin on her palm. "My classes were not just toolsthey were extensions of my identity. At some point, I even have the ability to craft and tinker with a unique class of my own." "Woah, can I achieve that level in my lifetime?" "If I continue to mentor you, take my original form back, and find yourself interesting enough to not outright kill you. Maybe." "What kind of person does that to their soulmate?" Kivas chuckled. "I''ll set the precedent," Samael smirked. "Yeouch." A second later, Samael was gone from Kivas'' sight. Kivas then found a finger playfully pushing her cheek in curiosity. She then saw Samael above her shoulder, speaking in a rather serious tone. "I forgot to point this out, but let me inform you of something, Fateling." "Yweah?" Kivas raised her eyebrow, her cheek still being pushed by Samael''s index finger. "Never reveal the content of your Well of the Soul to others. Not even me." Kivas replied with a half-lidded gaze. "You''re literally the one mentoring me, though." "That doesn''t change the principle." Samael''s tone sharpened. "The Well is sacred. Personal. Telling another being about your skills, your attributes, your class specificsit weakens you. Spiritually. You let them touch your existence through knowledge alone." "Seriously?" "This world listens when names are spoken. Skills especially. Their names are power. Numbers, toorevealing even one value in the wrong presence could be as dangerous as dropping your weapon mid-fight." Kivas exhaled slowly, nodding. "Okay... but thenis it dangerous to open the Well in front of someone, like I''m doing now?" "No," Samael answered. "The interface is soul-locked. Only the owner sees it. I can''t read anything on your screen, not even if I gouged your eyes out and used them myself." "Terrifying way to make a point, but thanks." Samael retracted her finger and began sitting right beside Kivas, the moment of intensity fading. "You''ll learn to protect it. As you grow, others might try to trick you into revealing what you carry. Don''t give them that edge." Kivas smiled. "Understood." She opened the Well again briefly, scanning the lines. Another thing she noticed. "Mhm, my HP and MP values went up too." "Of course," Samael said. "Those rise with class acquisition. Your soul''s vessel has grown broader." "But I don''t have any skills that use them yet." "Then you acquire a skill," Samael said easily. "Not every skill belongs to a class. Some are ambient, born from concepts, rituals, or environments. If you can learn the language of the world, you can learn to speak through it." "Do you... know one I can learn?" Samael stood. "I do." Kivas perked up. "Oh?" "One that aligns well with your class, even if it''s not Priest-specific. The class amplifies it, lets it shine." She motioned to follow. "Come." They crossed the clearing, moving through soft moss and tall grass until they reached the remains of their earlier meal. The chitin shells of the centipede-like Voidling glimmered under the filtered light. Kivas approached the glistening remains. "Okay, what now? Don''t tell me that I need to eat the shell too..." Samael pointed to a jagged, roundish plate of polished carapace. "Touch it. Don''t think. Just let your essence bleed." Kivas crouched beside it, placing both hands against the shell. It was warm, thrumming faintly. "Now close your eyes," Samael instructed. "Reach. Extend your soul. Even if you can''t imagine the process, just imagine the concept. Picture a tendril. Something from your chest. Your spine. Your crown. Let it touch the chitin." Kivas followed the instructions. Eyes closed. Breath steady. In her mind, she imagined a soft filament, like smoke, uncoiling from her sternum and pressing gently into the slick shell beneath her hands. Chapter 19: Non-Class Skill Acquisition Chapter 19 - Non-Class Skill AcquisitionSkill Gained: ? Soul Entanglement Lv1 C You possess the power to latch your soul The moment the message flared across her vision in vivid violet script, Kivas jolted upright, her palms still pressed against the Voidling''s polished chitin. "Whoa! Wait, what did I just do?" she blurted, blinking rapidly. "I got something! It says I can... latch my soul?" Samael leaned over from behind, her gaze half-lidded but interested. "Congratulations. You''ve awakened your first non-class skill." Kivas stared at the swirling glyph still lingering in front of her, already fading. "''Soul Entanglement'' sounds really cool, but the description is vague. What does it even do?" "It does what it says. Your soul can now interact with other thingseverything, in fact. Living or not," Samael explained, kneeling beside her and brushing aside a strand of Kivas'' hair that was stuck to her cheek. "Objects. Creatures. Essence. Even abstract concepts, if your skill level is high enough. At the start, it''s like grasping at threads. But once you learn to pull the right ones, you''ll understand what it means to affect the world." Kivas turned toward her, wide-eyed. "Can I use it to alter reality?" Samael tilted her head. "Yes. Or embrace it. Or twist it. Or bind it to yours." There was a gleam of interest in her crimson eyes. She reached toward the cinquedea resting on a nearby stump, the same blade Kivas had retrieved from the chest when she first arrived in Vaingall. "Let me demonstrate." As soon as the weapon touched her palm, it pulsed. A ripple of heat shimmered across its surfaceand then, flames burst from the blade. sea??h th Novl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Okayokay, wow" Kivas scrambled back. "That was fire! Literal fire!" Samael remained still, focused. The flame died. And then, without warning, a frost-like sheen enveloped the blade. Ice crept along its edge, crystallizing down to the hilt. "I... didn''t know it could do that," Kivas said in awe, voice lowered to a near whisper. "Such a simple sounding skill..." "It couldn''t. Until my soul spoke through it," Samael replied. "Soul Entanglement is the foundation of all real synthesis. A soul is composed of the same exotic matter that birthed Fathomi. When you understand it deeply, it becomes a toolan alchemical brush." "So you can literally change reality using your soul..." "With the right knowledge, intention, and enough Mana Psyche to fuel it, yes. It becomes a medium." Kivas leaned closer, resting her elbows on her knees, eyes still locked on the icy blade. "How long does it take to reach that level?" "A hundred years," Samael said dryly. "Actually, a thousand for you." Kivas groaned, collapsing backward into the moss. "I just became more tired than I was this morning..." "But now you have a tool. Use it. Experiment. It won''t be long before you begin to feel how the world breathes back." As the sun dipped past the tree line, Vaingall''s hues began to shift. What was once stark green and gold turned into saturated orange and violet. The wind carried with it a cool, metallic scent. Samael and Kivas remained beside their initial environment since it was already a perfect place to settle temporarily. Over the next hour, Samael demonstrated how to channel Hemo Psyche using Soul Entanglementhow to circulate it through injuries, using the tendrils of her own soul to ignite the healing process. Two hours later, Kivas leaned against the wall of their reconstructed shelter, sighing in satisfaction. The makeshift bandages were no longer needed. Her body ached less, and the worst of her injuries had sealed. Her HP, though, was drained to its lowest. "You weren''t joking when you said that healing through HP is exhausting." "Because it is," Samael said, kneeling by the hut''s interior hearth, where a small violet flame flickered. "Don''t forget about how fickle its regeneration rate is. Your physical activity, your meals, even your emotional state can influence the recovery of your Hemo Psyche... "This is why proper rest and food are required, regardless how strong and immortal you are." And for the next few hours, Kivas felt like dilly-dallying around in the open space felt a little bit too revealing for her, so she asked Samael for help when it came to make a brand new shelter. Samael rejected the offer at first, since she didn''t find any reason to shelter herself when the forest itself was already a home in her point of view. Regardless, Samael felt obligated to take care of the youngling, who was in this case, her fated soulmate. "I love you, Samael." "Didn''t you say that you want to hate me a couple of hours ago?" "I love you now." Kivas stared at the newly finished hut. The roof was made from wide, sun-dried leaves and layered moss. Reinforced wooden ribs from the local trees curved across the walls like a ribcage. Inside were two bed-like structures of packed vegetationsoft and aromatic. A carved fire pit now sat at the center, warming the space with gentle, controlled heat. "This is... amazing. It''s actually cozy." "I''m very experienced at making temporary habitats, regardless of my preference," Samael said. "It''s a byproduct of being nomadic. And powerful. You tend to sleep in strange places." "I can''t even make a proper building." "You''ll get there." As they sat near the warmth, Kivas looked toward the darkening trees. "So... night in Vaingall. Is it dangerous?" "Not really more discomforting than the day. But at night, distortion worsens." "Distortion? You mean the case where the environment suddenly change and all of that?" Samael poked the fire. "Fathomi is alive. Its geography rearranges. Surfaces shift. Most of the world is unstable. What you see today may vanish by morning. Paths loop. Mountains stretch." "So like a procedurally generated map with a notable reset time." "I have no comprehension of what you''re talking about." "You''ll know more the longer you''re with me." Samael chuckled and slightly shook her head. "You will hear the term ''Space Distortion'' often. Learn to read the changes. Even if you map the land, understanding on the surface it will only guide you for a time." "And the people here deal with this how?" "They adapt. Or vanish." Before Kivas could ask anything further, a sudden jolt instinct led her to peek outside. Samael noticed the change in gesture, and so she followed along. Just outside the shelter, near the fire-warmed boundary of the clearing, a strange shimmer erupted into being. It was accompanied by the faint sound of a chimesoft, echoing. There was a treasure chest. "Do these things just... spawn around here?" Chapter 20: Curios Of The World Chapter 20 - Curios Of The WorldThe chest sat beneath the red-violet sky, half-embedded in the roots of a warped, slanted tree. It wasn''t there moments ago. Its presence warped the air around it, like heat radiating off the pavement, subtle yet constant. Etched into its wooden surface were spiraling sigils that shifted with every glance. A new kind of treasure chest than the one she saw before. Kivas stood a safe distance from it, arms folded, her foot tapping with unease. "Nope. Absolutely not. I don''t like that thing." Samael, calm as ever, stepped up beside her with her usual smirk. "Worried?" "Yeah, most definitely." Kivas voice was flat but wary. "Weird chest randomly spawning out of nowhere, just outside our shelter. I''ve seen this horror movie before." "We call these kinds of chests as Curios, for your information." "I just called them trauma boxes." "They are a kind of environmental anomaly, yes," Samael said. "Curios are born from Fathomi itself. The world crafts them when conflict and interaction reach a certain threshold. It''s Fathomi''s way of keeping things... interesting." "Fathomi sounds like a sassy bitch," Kivas uttered, squinting at the box like it might bite her. "So these Curios are like little reward crates that pop up when something important happens?" "Well, they just appeared for many reasons from time to time." Samael replied. "Each Curio has something within. An item, a boon, sometimes a curse. Their contents varybizarre, powerful, or utterly mundane." "And let me guess," Kivas muttered, "they come with a trap." Samael raised the cinquedea, its blade catching the dying light. "You''ve experienced that firsthand. That trap almost split your soul in two, if I remember the words you said correctly "That was horrifying," Kivas deadpanned. "And I didn''t even get anything cool. Just a weird knife." "It''s a well-forged dagger imbued with faint divine will," Samael countered. "You just don''t appreciate craftsmanship." Kivas sighed, stepping slightly closer, still wary. "So, what happens if we touch this one? Will the sky folds inside out? "Then you try not to die," Samael said, before placing her hand casually on the chest''s lid. "For this particular chest, it appeared to be hosting a trap that will place one of your splitted consciousness into a room of emptiness with several clues." The world bent. Only for a moment. Kivas staggered, the forest tilting like her mind was trying to fall through itself. Leaves reversed mid-fall. Distant shadows flickered between realities. And thennothing. Just the sound of the chest clicking open, softly. The glow from within pulsed once, golden and firm. Samael removed her hand. "Regardless, a complex trap can be easily disarmed with a great wisdom and experience." "Whoah! That''s my girlfriend right there!" "You''re too quick to claim me as your partner." "Hey, it''s not like you''re rejecting the idea~" Kivas whistled. "For a woman of your worth, I will be so dumb to not claim you right away." Sarch* The Novl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I''m a Voidling." "Formerly." Kivas chuckled, enjoying the time where she can tease the deadpanned Samael. "Still, that was a very very fast process of trap disarming." "I''ve disarmed thousands. The traps respond to intent. And skill. The more familiar you are with the world''s soul-layer, the less likely it is to try and unmake you. Not to mention, the stats within your Well of the Soul." Kivas happily muttered something under her breath that sounded like cheating. Samael ignored it and slowly lifted the lid. Inside, nestled in a velvet-like inlay, was a long black object with a sturdy wooden stock, sleek barrel, and metallic body. It gleamed with age and function. Samael tilted her head. "Now that''s unexpected." Kivas stepped forward. And froze. "That is..." Kivas was unbelievably put in a great disbelief to what she had seen sitting inside the disarmed treasure chest. "A Remington Model 870." Samael didn''t answer immediately. She simply picked up the firearm with both hands, inspecting it. The weapon had no rust, no damage. It was clean, heavy, humming faintly with imbued energy. "That''s a shotgun," Kivas said louder. "A pump-action shotgun. It shouldn''t be here. That is a pump-action culmination of freedom!" Samael held it up, turning it slowly. "I''ve seen a few like these. From time to time. Not the most peculiar object to find in Fathomi." "You''vewhat?" Samael glanced at her. "It''s not uncommon. Curios sometimes draw from places beyond Fathomi. Even beyond other dimensions. The logic of where these items come from is unknown, even to me. They simply appear. Fabricated. Or plucked. Or gifted. In this case, might be related to your former world." Kivas clutched her forehead. "This is a gun. From Earth. From my world. I used this model in half a dozen video games before. It''s literal. Why is it here?" "You tell me. You seem to be very familiar with it." Samael gave the gun a light toss. Kivas instinctively caught it, holding it in both hands like a holy relic. "I examined it. It''s Exotic Tier." "Is that good?" "The tiers are: Common, Rare, Noble, Exotic, Legendary, and Godly. Exotic has a one-in-a-thousand chance. So yes, congratulations, Fateling." Samael chuckled. "You got a good loot." "I am screaming internally." "Externally, too." "But it''s just await, how does it even work here? Where''s the ammo?" Kivas turned the weapon in her hands, searching for a slot, chamber, or port. "It uses Mana Psyche," Samael said. "When you pump it, it converts a portion of your MP into kinetic energy. Try it." Kivas hesitated, then gripped the fore-end and pumped it. She felt it immediately. A sharp pull against her core, a surge through her arms. 2 MP was deducted from her Well of the Soul. ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 7 / 36 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 24 / 26 She raised the barrel, aimed at a nearby tree. Pulled the trigger. The air shattered with the echo of a scatter-blast. Bark exploded from the tree, shredded and thrown back in chunks. The recoil bit into her shoulder. "Okayholy hell" Samael stepped back, eyebrows lifted. "Hmm. It''s loud. And a bit underwhelming. The damage isn''t as high as I''d hoped." "But it barely used any MP!" Kivas shouted, face bright. "I can use this like, ten times before running dry!" "Then it''s perfect for you" Samael unwarily turned to say morethen flinched. A sudden sharp pain bit through her forearm. She staggered as her wings flared instinctively. A second sting sliced across the membrane of her right wing. Blood spilled in jagged lines. She spun around. Kivas stood with the shotgun raised, still smoking. Her arms were firm. Her posture rigid. Her eyes were narrowed, pupils smaller than usual, her stare unfocused and frozen. Emotionless. Cold. She pumped the shotgun again. The metallic shhk-shhk echoed through the clearing. Samael narrowed her eyes, blood dripping from her fingers. "Kivas." No reply. Kivas cocked her head slightly, the barrel following with it. Samael''s breath slowed. Kivas took a step forward, silent. Another pump. Another click of the trigger being primed. Chapter 21: Ascending Halo Chapter 21 - Ascending HaloThe air cracked again. And again. And again. Each thunderclap echoed through the trees like a celestial execution. The forest trembled beneath the divine percussion, leaves dislodging, dust spiraling upward. The scent of scorched bark and mana residue thickened the atmosphere. Golden scatterlights shimmered in the air like splintered holiness unleashed in fragments. Behind a wide-bellied tree, Samael crouched low, her breath sharp through her clenched teeth. Her once-pristine flesh was torn across her shoulder, thigh, side, and cheek. A dozen fresh wounds poured slow rivulets of blood, her wings twitching erratically behind her as she poured her concentration inward. Her Hemo Psyche pulsed unnaturally, strands of red energy converging into her palms and spreading into the open flesh. Muscles knitted back together, sinew crawling into place with reluctant obedience. "...This is why I hate Fatelings," she hissed beneath her breath, her tone low, venomous, shaken. "A ticking time bomb. Always one moment from apotheosis. One misstep, one spark of divine alignment, and they slip into something else. Something not themselves..." A whirring silence followed. But silence was not an indication of safety. Samael twisted to the side instinctively. The barrel of the Remington hovered inches from her temple. Kivas stood beside her, silent, expressionless. Her gilded irises had receded, leaving behind blank voids that shimmered with unfiltered light. The weapon in her grasp hummed faintly, reacting to her Mana Psyche with an eerie eagerness. Before the eerie angel could shoot, Samael raised the cinquedea and swiped the shotgun aside in a sweeping arc. The next blast roared into the canopy, tearing through ancient wood as shards of glowing magic sprayed into the heavens. Kivas didn''t flinch. "Accursed Fateling!" Samael stepped in, blade reversing as she swung across the torso. The edge met resistance, then pierced. A deep gash ripped through Kivas'' luminous robe and skin, spillingnot the red blood that she used to have, but radiant light that spewed like molten dawn. Kivas took the blow without a sound. Her hands remained steady, shotgun already repositioning toward Samael''s chest. Samael''s second strike arrived faster. Her blade carved through muscle, tendon, and bonesevering Kivas'' right arm at the elbow before she could squeeze the trigger again. The fingers spasmed reflexively, releasing the weapon. It fell to the forest floor, still whispering with stored mana. Kivas staggered. Only barely. "Hmph!" Samael then stepped into her reach, grabbed the angel''s silky collar with one hand, and forced the blade''s edge beneath the pale skin of her throat. Light bled upward from the contact point, forming radiant veins along her neck. But stillno reaction. Kivas'' eyes never left her. No fear. No resistance. Only the instinctive act to observe, to preserve itself in its progress to ascend beyond mortal comprehension. Then Samael saw it. The halo above Kivas'' headunstable beforenow shimmered with layered rings, forming complex geometries of fire and divinity. Lines etched themselves mid-air around it, folding and spiraling like recursive glyphs. A soundless burst of light surged outward. "Tch!" Samael''s body was hurled backward through the trees, cracking branches and displacing entire trunks. She flipped midair and slammed her heel into the ground, sliding backward through a curtain of fallen leaves. Smoke curled from her shoulders as she regained her stance. Ahead, Kivas reached for her severed arm. Her body leaned as she picked it up, golden ligaments unraveling from the exposed joint like ethereal threads. She pressed it against the stump. Muscles found muscles. Bone fused with bone. Flesh rewrapped itself with a surgical miracle. Throughout the entire process, her gaze never left Samael. Not even a blink. Samael''s body tensed. But her observation yielded a boon of knowledge. "...It seems like she''s not able to gauge our distance." Samael wrenched her cinquedea from the soil and, with a single powerful motion, flung it toward Kivas'' face. The blade embedded itself between her eyes, just above the bridge of her nose, and held. No sound. No flinch. Kivas simply absorbed the strike. Samael charged forward. Her body blurred through the light, reclaiming the hilt mid-dash. She drove forward, using the sword''s momentum to slam Kivas down into the earth. The impact cratered the ground beneath them. Kivas'' wings flared out, radiant feathers twitching as she tried to rise. Samael yanked the blade out of her skull, turned it, and plunged it downwardnailing the left wing into the dirt. Kivas retaliated. Her right arm transformed. From skin and bone emerged holy steelsegmenting into a cannon-barreled construct that gleamed like sanctified artillery. Light coalesced at the muzzle before erupting in a wide arc of blazing bullets. Trees behind Samael disintegrated into dust, shredded by divine ordnance. Samael pivoted, dashing sideways in a sharp crescent. She snatched the discarded Remington mid-roll and spun toward Kivas. Six blasts tore through the clearing. Each shot collided against the armored appendage, forcing Kivas to stumble. One clipped her shoulder. The next disrupted her conjuration, interrupting the cannon''s structure, causing it to fracture into shrapnelized particles of failed divinity. "The only way to prevent a Fateling''s ascension without killing them" Samael pressed in and grabbed at the short sword that was nailing Kivas to the ground. "Is to destroy their holy organs!" Her blade sang from the soil, through the air, and with the feather, cutting across Kivas'' left wing. Freed from the ground, Kivas launched herself backward, creating distance once more. Her arms stretched wide as a massive spear of condensed holy light formed above hershaped like a rocket, thruster igniting with a silent fury. Samael fired three more shots in quick succession. One cracked Kivas'' ribs. Another destabilized the forming projectile. The third forced her out of position. Samael lunged again. She stabbed her blade into Kivas'' last wing, pinning her in place. However, the holy rocket above continued to build power, engine burning audibly in the void. "Oh no, you won''t!" She grabbed the handle of the sword with both hands, feeding power through the sword until it pulsed with Voidling strength. Unpinning Kivas'' wing, then slashed upward. The rocket veered from the strike. It spiraled into the skyits trail burning a hole in the forest canopybefore detonating midair in a sunburst of pure soul light. Below, Samael finally twisted the blade and tore the final wing free. Both wings were finally cut, and there seemed to be a great decrease in the intensity of the foreign energy within her. However, Kivas had not yet returned to her former self. The wingless angel tried to rise, mouth barely openingbut her frame betrayed her, knees buckling, breath faltering. Samael punched the angel to the ground, before throwing her sword aside. Samael then reached for the halo above Kivas'' head. Her fingers curled around it. The fire scorched her hands, biting deeper than any flame she''d known. But she held fast, channeling every drop of strength she had. Kivas'' hands rosegrasping Samael''s wristsfingertips trembling. sea??h th N??elFir.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. They locked eyes. "Break, dammit!" And then, with a scream that shattered the tension in the sky, Samael shattered the halo. Its radiant rings cracked and burst, scattering in fiery shards. A shockwave erupted, throwing her backward across the clearing. Samael landed, rolled once, then steadied herself on one knee. Kivas then finally stood up. Barely. Tears streamed from her eyesliquid gold tracing her cheeks. Her expression had returned. Confusion. Despair. Awareness. Her hands clutched at her chest like something precious had been torn from it. She collapsed to her knees, weeping with ragged sobs that carried far too much weight for a single voice to bear. Chapter 22: A Moment, Whole Chapter 22 - A Moment, WholeSamael stood in the broken clearing, wind tearing through the torn branches, light still bleeding in jagged arcs through the atmosphere. Her hands throbbed with heat from the remnants of the shattered halo, her chest rising and falling as the weight of what had just occurred began to sink in. Kivas knelt among the fragments of her wings, sobbing in golden streaks that melted into the soil. But it wasn''t the end yet, The divine pressure hadn''t dissipated. The ground around Kivas'' body vibrated with a rising current, a twisting cyclone of raw essence spiraling out from her core. Samael could see itnot physically, but within the soul-layer. Threads of fate-weaving energies flailed in every direction, tangled and breaking against one another. Each one screamed instability. Kivas'' body was resisting collapse only by reflex, but her soul had begun to unravel into recursive loops, sparking flashes of transcendent structure inside her Well of the Soul. "How troublesome..." Samael''s eyes narrowed. She knew how to end a Fateling. Cut the wings. Sever the halo. Break the anchors. Or better, immediately go in for annihilation. She knew how to prevent apotheosis. But she had never tried to preserve one intact with sanity. sea??h th ovelFire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This instability right before her would either devour Kivas entirely or erupt again in another chaotic surge that she might not survive a second time. The wingless angel trembled as she knelt, arms cradled around herself. Her voice was small, crushed under the weight of everything, barely pushing past her lips. "Everyone leaves me..." Samael stepped closer, cautious, silent. "They always leave... no matter what I do." The voice cracked, splintered with a sorrow so intimate it struck through the divine static around her. "They always... leave, and I need to do everything myself.. alone..." Samael tilted her head slightly. This wasn''t a divine frenzy. This was grief. Her emotions weren''t disjointedthey were focused, buried deep and erupting in response to some spiritual pain that the apotheosis had triggered. "Tormenting emotion, the negativity, it resonates with the instability." Samael''s gaze lingered on Kivas'' bent posture, her weakened shoulders, her fractured sobs. "...This might give me a clue on how to proceed forward." Samael''s fingers twitched. She remembered the tool. A simple skill, one she''d shown Kivas out of boredom. A hunch, a theory. Yet with the right pressure, it became a weapon, a thread, an all encompasing lifeline. She crossed the distance in a breath. Her fingers grasped Kivas'' trembling hand. "Please connect!" Attaching one soul to another is greatly demanding, regardless of the wisdom and experience. At this point, Samael barely had enough Mana Psyche to create a stable connection. But maybe, just maybe. If the praise about her being a fated soulmate to Kivas, maybe a resonance will be made regardless of the catalyst. Samael reached inward and began casting the link, the simplest and most underestimated skill in the soul artsSoul Entanglement. And then, a latch. A gentle clasp of one existence to another. The world around her blurred. "... Where am I?" Samael found herself to be no longer in Fathomi. A low, stale wind passed over her. Her sole pressed against a strange stone, tiled and smooth. The air carried a chemical burn, a sterile sterility unnatural to the forests of Vaingall. A sea of black-clothed strangers stood beneath a flat gray sky. Faces downturned, conversations murmured in quiet monotony. In front of the group, two long rectangular boxes rested atop metal stands, each draped in white with framed pictures above themone of a woman, one of a man. Their expressions held fixed smiles. And in front of them, alone, knelt a tiny child. Samael stepped forward. No one turned to acknowledge her. No one saw her. Her form moved through them like smoke. The child trembled, fists clenched at her sides, sobbing violently into the silence. "What...?" The child''s face was obscuredno features, just a black void, as if her soul had never completed its shape. "They say it was a double suicide," muttered a man nearby. "The parents planned to bring their daughter with them, poisoning her lunch before they went and hanged themselves. What kind of parents is that!?" "Thankfully, she didn''t eat it," added another. "The child has some sort of eating disorder. And by sheer luck, she didn''t touch her food at school." "I say that this is the worst circumstance. The parents had a massive debt, and now that mountain of burden is being inherited by the poor child." Samael''s fingers twitched as she looked at the girl again. A hollow shell. The noise of grief clashed with the muttered pities around her, like two realities competing. Then unnaturally, the faceless child stared at Samael, as if the child could see her. The scene immediately melted, transforming into another. "Huh, it''s a clear sky." Stone gave way to concrete, high above a cityscape. The wind blew colder now. Samael stood atop a tall structure, looking down at endless streets and moving lights. Beside her stood a teenage girl. Her hoodie draped loosely over her thin frame. Black hair spilled messily down her shoulders. Her hands clutched the railing, and her knees shook as she leaned forward. Her expression showed no paniconly exhaustion, and something far worse, resignation. Samael noticed a familiarity in this teenager''s face. This person was a teenage Kivas. Her mortal form, before Fathomi. "I should''ve jumped months ago," she muttered as she looked down. "But I have a job now at least. I''m not twenty yet, maybe I can pay it all until I got into my thirty." She exhaled sharply, laughing once, bitter and hopeless. Then she stepped back from the edge. The world blinked again. And it happened again, and again, and again. Slowly and surely, Samael began to uncover her own so-called soulmate, her story, her emotion, her reasons for existing. What should have felt like years and years of Kivas'' compilation at her lowest, was a mere fraction of Samael''s lifetime. Samael knew how to empathize and construct a relation, feeling the emotion of the lower kind. However, she never really felt their emotions. But in this case, there was a single vibrant emotion that was lingering in Samael''s heart. Her pity for this human she had just observed. However, this very pity should soon bloom into something brilliant and warm. In a smooth realization, Samael''s consciousness returned to the shattered grove. Kivas stood with quite the distance, her wingless form vibrating with divine tension. Her eyes had returned to the hollow glow. Her tears had dried into heat. Her skin cracked with luminous sigils spreading across her body like crawling fractures in porcelain. Divine equations spun around her head, reality-bending glyphs of unstable holy magic snapping open like jaws and launching projectiles in spiked geometric patterns. Triangles spun into orbiting blades. Fractals turned into spears. Cubes imploded into raw pressure pulses. "She is restarting her apotheosis..." Samael gallantly stepped forward. "Her feeling of loneliness, the fatigue of carrying her burden without a single person sharing the weight... "If I can at least soothe that emotion, there might be a chance to calm her divine energy and return her to normal!" Multiple projectiles were launched in deceptive arcs, all aiming at a single person. Yet none of them could gauge the true distance of their paths. "In her world, there I learned so many gestures of true affection, appreciation, and assuredness." Samael''s legs burned as she closed the gap, dashing through collapsing loops of spiraling spellwork. "Yet she receives none of them, or at least their utmost genuine form of intimacy." The moment Kivas saw her approach, she sent three more kinetic triangles toward her face. Samael slid underneath them, spun into a jump, and reached the girl''s shoulder with her hand. The divine energy tore at her skin. Still, she leaned in. She grabbed Kivas fully with both hands, pulling her close. "All or nothing!" Samael then pushed her face forward, slamming a passionate kiss. Chapter 23: Intimate Exorcism Chapter 23 - Intimate ExorcismKivas trembled, her frame still resonating with heat and half-formed divinity. The unstable light behind her eyes flickered with confusion as Samael pressed forward, deepening the kiss with deliberate, unrelenting intent. "Mhm." "Ahh?" Their mouths remained locked, the shared breath pulsing with the tension of divine interference being restrained mid-flight. Samael could feel the shifta gentle fracture in Kivas'' core, a softening of the spiritual tremor that had threatened to rupture her entire being. It was working. The soul-layer ripple had slowed. The madness was being starved. She then proceeded to insert her tongue, heightening the act of intimacy as she explored Kivas'' mouth like a hungry tendril, interlocking, sweeping and slowly slurping on the bodily liquid. Noticing how her improvisation worked, Samael pushed and leaned forward, angled deeper, tilting Kivas back with calculated pressure until her spine bent into an arc, her arms shaking beneath the weight of her own emotional overload. Resistance came in light twitches and unsettled breaths, but there was no power behind it. Kivas'' divine equation had lost its coherence. The fragments of unstable godhood dissipated with every second of their merging contact. "Mhmm!" Samael pushed further, adjusting her grip to pin both of Kivas'' wrists to the broken earth. Kivas blinked rapidly, lips parted beneath the relentless fervor, but any attempt to channel her power faded into nothingness. The storm had become still air. The divine command structure around her fractured into dormancy. Between long, breathless moments, Samael pulled back slightly to study her. Kivas'' cheeks were flushed with residual heat, her eyes unfocused and dazed. No words came, just shallow breathing and parted lips awaiting either retreat or continuation. Kivas'' consciousness had not returned. So Samael returned the kiss again, holding it longer, pressing her presence into the hollow where the storm had lived. Her hands remained steady on Kivas'' wrists, a gesture of reassurance masked as restraint. After a half hour had passed, the radiance in Kivas'' skin had fully settled. The glow of her sigils dimmed into a faint shimmer. The fractures sealed with the slow grace of light yielding to the flesh. Her halo remained shattered. Her wings were absent. But she was whole again. But the instability was still there. Not feeling that it was enough, Samael pushed Kivas to the ground, pinning both of her arms to the soil. Samael''s body was in between Kivas'' legs, not giving any sense of privacy as Samael continued her exorcism to heal this wingless angel''s soul. After another while, Kivas''s consciousness returned in the middle of the heated session. She found her wet lips interlocking with the former, scary, and dominant Voidling in front of her vision, close to the point of sharing breath, gazing back with such a casual fervor. Noticing how Kivas were having a hard time breathing from the panic, Samael retracted her head and stringed their saliva. Kivas gasped hard, cheeks red and gaze flustered. "What is happening!?" "Don''t move much, there''s still instability," Samael said casually and emotionless before plunging down again, reentering the lovely entrance that she had wrapped and embraced for quite a while. "Mmmm! Mhmmmh!" Kivas'' mind went into a nuclear meltdown, but there was a guilty sensation of pleasure inseminating her mind. This stabilizing ritual went on for about twenty minutes more. When Samael finally withdrew, her breathing remained steady. Her body showed no signs of fatigue. As if it was nothing but a mundane thing that she needed to do regardless. She sat beside the stunned Kivas, eyes half-lidded with calm appraisal as Kivas lay splayed across the ground, breathless and blinking at the open sky. Face still burning red, hands and legs shaking overwhelmed. Words tried to exit her throat but all of those words felt like they had already been sucked dry by Samael'' intense gesture of intimacy. "So?" Samael asked with casual curiosity, brushing a strand of her own hair from Kivas'' cheek. "How do you feel now?" Kivas lifted her arm, stared at her own trembling hand, and then at the forest canopy above. Her voice was quiet, still laced with disbelief. "Like I fell into heaven... and accidentally stole something I wasn''t supposed to touch. Too absurd to implicate, too impossible to experience." Her eyes slowly turned toward Samael. "What happened!? What did you do!? Why has it progressed to this!?" Samael leaned back slightly, her tone returning to its usual cadencemeasured, factual, slightly amused. "You passed through a threshold. A Fated Apotheosis." "Apotheosis..." "A transitional state where a Fateling can ascend and become one of the living divinities of this world." Samael sighed. "All Fateling eventually reach this state, and it is also one of the reason why I vehemently hate them>" "And you... stopped it?" Kivas blinked, her expression caught between awe and confusion. Sarch* The N?vel(F)ire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I preserved you," Samael corrected. "Your soul was unraveling into something the world wanted you to become, not what you chose to be. So I anchored you. Pulled you back into the shape of yourself." "But isn''t... ascension supposed to be good?" Kivas whispered. "Becoming a god sounds... awesome." "Incredible, yes," Samael replied, her eyes narrowing. "Beneficial? Never." She turned to face Kivas fully, her expression sharpening. "Fatlines are not a divine creature by birth, nor was it completely devoid of divinity. "By nature, Fatelings are foreign conduitsphenomena caught in the stream of reality''s rewriting process. Fathomi doesn''t fully understand you, so it reacted and took a personal measure. This world always tries to simplify things it doesn''t comprehend. "Because of that, it pushes Fatelings into one box or another. Most often, the divine." Kivas processed that slowly, her gaze lowered. "So I really... almost became a goddess because Fathomi is too impatient..." Samael''s nod came with a trace of something unreadable. "Yes. And had you succeeded, Fathomi would have claimed you. Your essence would have been bent into a form the world considers ''appropriate.'' "That could mean a floating, bubbling mass of divine instinct. Or a scattered network of totemic projections stretched across the surface of the realm. Perhaps even something less elegant. "But never anything human. Never anything that thinks like a sane entity, or even anything remotely human." "That''s" Kivas swallowed hard. "That''s terrifying." "If apotheosis were desirable," Samael added, "don''t you think I would''ve done it by now?" Silence lingered between them until Kivas looked away, her face flaring again with embarrassment. "Then... why did you do it that way?" Her voice dropped an octave. "That... that method. You know... uhm, the thing we did..." Samael said without hesitation, "You''re lonely." Kivas visibly flinched, her ears turning red as the words sank in. She lifted a hand to cover part of her face. "What." "I more than noticed," Samael said, her voice lower, rich with certainty. "I felt it. You''re heavy with it. That kind of loneliness doesn''t just hurtit seeps and taints. Using Soul Entanglement, I connected with your soul, and I realized it was the weight that Fathomi used to put your divinity out of balance." Kivas wryly chuckled. "You know, I kinda enjoyed that." Kivas forcefully cleared her throat. "I shouldn''t have, but I did. You saw my face. Because of that, I apologize. So please, I hope that there will be no awkwardness between the two of us" "Good. Because I enjoyed it too." Samael''s lips curled into a feline smile. Kivas whipped her head toward her with wide, stunned eyes. "Youwhat?!" Samael leaned in, resting her cheek on her palm as she gazed at Kivas with a smirk that radiated dangerous charm. "What, did you think I was suffering through it out of duty?" Kivas shot to her feet in flustered panic, stumbling a few paces back with her face burning red. She couldn''t believe what she saw, what she heard, what was implied. "Who are you, and what have you done with Samael?!" Samael stood with deliberate grace and began walking toward her, each step slow and measured. "I hated you, utterly despised you to the core," Samael said, her tone tightening. "I was irritated when you appeared. Some random Fateling crashing into my existence, dragging me into a binding I never asked for, tearing away everything I was..." Kivas stepped back again, lips parted in alarm. "I-I''m sorry, okay? Can you stop now, you''re being weird and creepy..." "But now" Samael stopped just in front of her. "Now I find myself curious. Intrigued. Ensnared." "W-what are you even talking about!!?" Kivas stammered, edging slightly away. "I thought that you''re a cold cat, since when did you become a vixen!?" "Don''t make me pin you to the ground again." Kivas almost raised her hand. "... With what had just happened, I don''t think that is a good threat." Hearing the absurd and usual comical retorts coming out of Kivas'' mouth once again, Samael''s gaze softened, and for a moment, there was no smirk. No sarcasm. Only quiet, reverent intensity. "You and I... we''re two lonely beings carved out of different eternities," Samael said. "I''ve forgotten how to feel the ache of solitude because I''ve worn it for so long. But in you, I felt it again. The pain, the realization that I had such a pain... "But now, I can choose to expel that pain away completely without much compromise." Kivas stared in disbelief as Samael knelt before her. Samael then took her hand gently, lifted it to her lips, and pressed a soft kiss to the back of her knuckles. "You claimed me because you saw worth, and there''s no hesitation perceived when you utter those adorable words to me," Samael said, looking up with firelight in her eyes. "And I refuse to be slower than a Fateling" Her smile turned radiant and unwavering. "You''re mine now, Kivas Chariot." Chapter 24: Equipping The Mind Chapter 24 - Equipping The MindThe shelter''s interior was silent save for the ambient creak of wood slowly reshaping under the pressure of the world''s shifting. The hearth, made from carved stones and Voidling bones, emitted gentle fire, retained a strange residual warmth from the last time Kivas used her halo to light it. The two bedrolls, lined with stitched bark and all sorts of comfy plantations, lay on opposite sides of the space, though one had shifted closer. Kivas lay there, stiff as a board, her limbs folded atop her chest while her wingswhat remained of them spirituallyitched from phantom memory. Her eyes flicked toward the ceiling, then toward the barely visible profile of Samael lying beside her. Just right beside her, within arm length, Samael''s gaze was fixed directly on her. Unblinking. Attentive. The weight of it felt like a crushing wall of gravity. Kivas took a deep breath and cupped her mouth, attempting to hide her expression without looking away. The memory of the earlier incident refused to vanish. Every shift of her breath reminded her of her lips being devoured. Every faint sound echoed with the low, amused voice that claimed her without shame. "Can''t sleep?" Samael asked, her tone as casual as if she were commenting on the temperature. Kivas turned her head slowly, uncertain whether the awkward churn in her chest was anxiety or something more embarrassing. "How about you?" Samael shrank the lid of her gaze. "Occasionally, but not this time. I''m taking nightwatch. You don''t have to worry." Kivas let her head fall back against the bed, staring into the darkness again. "I wasn''t worried about you falling asleep...!" "Then?" Kivas hesitated, tugging at the blanket''s edge. "I just don''t feel like sleeping. I mean... it''s not because of what happened earlier. I''m not avoiding you. And it''s not because you proposed out of nowhere either, and then pinned me down for an hour-long soul-stabilizing session..." "I wasn''t trying to stir your thoughts. Only your soul." Samael smirked. "It''s not my fault that you enjoyed it." Kivas coughed once, loudly. "Right. Yeah. Still. That''s not it." Samael waited. "It''s just... I''m scared." Kivas finally admitted. "When I lost consciousness during the apotheosis, I think... I think my mind was thrown into the dream layer, a brutal colosseum..." Samael''s expression sharpened with realization. "You encountered your Nightmare." Kivas gave a slow, tired nod. "The Centipede Voidling. Massive. Multi-segmented. Screaming with immense hatred. The whole freak-show package." "And?" Samael asked. "How did the fight go?" "I died. Over and over." Kivas pulled her blanket up higher, tucking it beneath her chin. "It tore me apart, stomped me into a pulp, snapped my neck, crushed my skull, ate me alive... Every time, I''d just come back. No time to recover. No room to breathe. It was just me and it. Alone... "Still, thanks to the ''tender'' awakening," Kivas chuckled. "I woke up with my PTSD rewritten by a constant, intoxicating, full session of french kiss." "So that''s what happened on your side." Samael sat, arms folded. "Normally, when someone dies in a Nightmare dream, their consciousness returns to Fathomi. A wake-up reflex will happen, and they will just wake up to the land of the living... "But since your apotheosis was active, you were locked in. You couldn''t wake up. The only progression was to keep fighting." "I think it got worse the longer I stayed," Kivas whispered. "Like... it learned. It got better. Stronger. Meanwhile, I just stayed the same." Samael regarded her for a long moment before asking, "Do you feel different now?" "I mean, I woke up without a halo or wings," Kivas muttered. "And with my mouth already being... occupied." Samael''s expression didn''t shift. "Irrelevant details." Kivas grumbled, covering her face with her hands. "Maybe not to you." Samael straightened her posture. "In any case, if you''re going to survive this Nightmare and claim its attributes, we need to plan." Samael sighed, and stood up. "It''s grown stronger from repeated victories. You''ve returned to Fathomi with your soul intact, but that Nightmare is now a seasoned combatant within your spiritual layer." Kivas shifted, her tone laced with disbelief, "You mean, you expected me to beat it the first time?" She also stood up and followed Samael. "You were supposed to enter that realm prepared." "What." Samael unfolded her arms and reached for the rack beside her bedding. She withdrew the Remington 870, its sleek body shimmering faintly with residual mana. Then, with her other hand, she retrieved the cinquedeaits mysterious edge pulsing quietly in the dim shelter. She placed both weapons into Kivas'' hands. "Equip them to your mind." Kivas stared at her blankly. "How do Iwhat does that mean?" "You''ll feel the pull," Samael said. "Let your mind recognize the weapons. Let your Well of the Soul memorize them." Before Kivas could ask again, she felt a strange tugging sensation in her chest, like invisible threads had latched onto the shotgun and dagger. The weapons shivered in her grip, then glowed. Slowly, they faded, disappearing into golden outlines that sank into her palms. Sarch* The novlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She blinked rapidly, then looked down at her now-empty hands. "Okay. That was weird. But I think I get it." "Good." Samael nodded. "Those weapons are now anchored to your spiritual self. You''ll have access to them in the dream layer, as in, you will now enter the fight with your Nightmare with these weapons in hand." Kivas exhaled through her teeth. "That would''ve been helpful to know three deaths ago." "I didn''t expect you to trigger apotheosis this soon. Or to get trapped in a Nightmare mid-process. Your timing has always been problematic." Samae; chuckled. "No wonder the fight felt impossible. I was trying to bare-knuckle box a mythological centipede." "You did better than most," Samael admitted, tilting her head. "In terms of resilience. One would usually get corrupted fast if they were forced to face their Nightmare again and again without a delay." Kivas gave a dry laugh. "I took my words back, I still have PTSD and now I feel like you''re arming me and giving me pat on the back like you''re sending me to summer camp." "Because I am." Kivas blinked. "Wait, what?" Samael stepped forward placing two fingers on the back of Kivas'' neck. "Wait, wait, wai" The pressure struck without warning. Kivas'' body slackened, her breath caught mid-sentence, and her eyes dimmed as she slipped into unconsciousness. Samael watched the stillness return to the shelter. "Dream well," she said softly. "And this time, don''t hold back." Chapter 25: Nightmare To Vanquish Chapter 25 - Nightmare To Vanquish"What the hell..." The air was thick. Too thick. A dreamlike haze clung to Kivas'' skin as she stirred, her senses swimming against a tide of dampness and illusion. The soil beneath her was soft, wet, pulsing faintly with a humid pressure that coiled into her soles. She blinked several times, the fog settling across her vision in slow folds. Massive gnarled trees stretched like the limbs of titans, their twisted silhouettes crowding the sky above. Mist crawled through every surface, tracing the forest in silent, white breath. Kivas exhaled harshly, sitting up with narrowed eyes and clenched fists. "She really knocked me out again..." she muttered bitterly. "Seriously, who just decides that for someone else?" Her voice vanished into the mist like it had never existed. Still grumbling, Kivas glanced at her hands and her breath caughtgleaming softly in her grasp were the unmistakable forms of the Remington 870 and the cinquedea. She lifted both slowly, turning them in her hands, eyes scanning the flawless integration of metal and the pulse of mana lining each weapon''s edge. The weight was perfect. Familiar. Part of her now. "I''m... actually armed this time." She stood carefully, soles sinking slightly into the wet soil as fog coiled around her ankles. This iteration of the Nightmare realm looked completely different from the lastthe shattered throne room, the molten cliffs, the frozen tomball had changed. Now she stood in a hushed woodland that oozed with ancient weight, every step squelching in a rhythm that mimicked breath. She lifted the shotgun slightly, her other hand spinning the cinquedea once for reassurance. It felt weightless, surprisingly easy to handle unlike the time she wielded it in the real world. "I wonder if this feeling will persist after I got out from this nightmare." Kivas pondered with a wry smile. "Never had time to try it because a certain former dragon chopped my neck like I was a karate block." The comfort didn''t last long. From the edge of the fogfar behind the dying light of the dreamworld''s unseen sunsomething moved. A long, slithering distortion coiled between the trees. Massive chitinous plates shifted into view. Segmented armor scraped against the mist-drenched wood. Dozens of jointed legs emerged one by one, carrying a mountainous bulk of obsidian and glistening muscle. A skeletal crown of mandibles creaked into place. Spiraling limbs emerged from where a head should have been, weaving into the open grin of its horrific face. The same face she had seen each time. The same grin it had worn while devouring her countless times. The Centipede Voidling. Kivas didn''t move. Her knees locked in place. Her heartbeat rattled her ribs in erratic pulses. It had found her again. Its body scraped into visibility with impossible length, eyesif they could be called suchglaring with that same malignant certainty. It remembered. It knew her. It knew her weakness. It understood her fear. Its every movement was deliberate, cruel, like it was savoring the pause before the carnage resumed. Kivas could barely breathe. She felt like she had died. She wanted to end it before it happened, end it now and spare herself the vivid pain and utter torment when her body was mutilated while she was still alive. She wanted to end it. She wanted to end it. She wanted to end it. The Nightmare body arched like a collapsing bridge, every limb crashing forward with killing intent. The wide mandibles opened as it rushed her, poised to sever her head from her body. Its speed tore through the fog, splitting the air in jagged spirals. Kivas watched it happen, but a sudden realization came to her. She remembered. She remembered Earth. She remembered her mother and father in caskets she couldn''t comprehend. She remembered the dull taste of cafeteria food she never touched. She remembered the rooftop wind brushing her face as she considered ending her own life to escape inherited debt. She remembered the void between lives. The eternity of torture. The realm between death and incarnation. The probing minds of three eldritch gods tearing into her soul for amusement. She remembered being nothing. She remembered being reborn. Kivas always remember, because she couldn''t forget. People around her was jealous of it, claiming that it was a blessing, saying that she should be in a better position while stabbing her in the back. They didn''t know that Kivas was just a normal human being, an averagely intelligent individual with the curse of hyperthymesia. And now, she was being hunted again. Always hunted. Always alone. Always cornered. "Haa..." Something cracked. Something inside her, buried beneath layers of anxiety and vulnerability, finally shattered into clarity. A silent scream. A declaration. An ultimate realization. She didn''t have to run. She didn''t have to flinch. She didn''t have to submit to survival. She could just wreak havoc and make them rue their sin. Her arms moved before her mind caught up. The shotgun bucked in her grip, magic-infused shrapnel ripping into the centipede''s descending face. The blast tore into its left mandible, shattering half its jaw. Steam burst from the wound, divine heat burning into its outer plating. Its shriek never left its throat. She shot again, rotating her footing as she ducked under one of its legs and fired into the gap between its chitin. Her aim was perfect. The pellets embedded themselves deep, and the creature reared in confusion. She rolled beneath it, coming up on the other side, already slashing with her cinquedea. The divine dagger sliced into the crevice between its body segments, severing muscle and shattering spiritual shielding. She didn''t stop. She moved with inhuman precision. The Fate Weaver skill in her soulsupported her malicious intent like a loyal butler. Every time the centipede turned to retaliate, her body slipped from its grasp like smoke. When it lunged, her blade was already waiting. When it reared to crush her, she had already fired twice into its eye sockets. The Voidling howled, yet she laughed. The forest warped as the creature tried to adapt. Its legs shifted, its form expanded, its plating transformed to repel bullets and blades. She adjusted instantly. Her shotgun released glowing rounds that exploded on impact. The cinquedea crackled with soul-light as she reversed the grip and plunged it straight into the nerve cluster beneath its primary brainplate. With each injury she inflicted, something cold and deep within her surged with delight. All of the helplessness that had clung to her spine since birthgone. All the anguish that had no place to gofound purpose. The centuries of silence. The agony of becoming. The humiliation of fear. She bathed in it, the bodily liquid that was thrashed around this dome of vivid drea. The Nightmare bucked and flailed. She rode it down. It crashed into the soil, tearing up roots, shattering the mist with its impact. She stood atop its ruined crown, legs firm, eyes burning with contempt. Her shotgun rested against one shoulder. The cinquedea dripped black soul-fluid in her opposite hand. Kivas stood still. Mist rolled around her ankles again. The forest quieted. No wind. No movement. No resistance. Atop the corpse of the Centipede Voidling, Kivas stood with eyes empty of mercy, lips pressed into a thin line of disdain. The edge of her blade tilted downward as she watched its twitching limbs fall still. Whatever hatred had been buried in her heart for years had finally found a target. But should this be enough to quench it? Sear?h the novlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 26: Waking Up From The Nightmare Chapter 26 - Waking Up From The Nightmare"Gyaa!!" The moment consciousness returned, Kivas bolted upright, gasping, drenched in cold sweat. Her breath came in ragged pulls as if her lungs had only just remembered how to work. The dream world had vanished, but the echoes of the centipede Voidling''s screams still reverberated through her bones. Her hands trembled faintly. Her skin felt feverish. Yet underneath the physical exhaustion, there was something cleaneran absence. "You''re awake," Samael''s voice murmured above her. "How do you feel?" Kivas blinked rapidly and only then noticed the warmth beneath her cheek. Her head rested against Samael''s lap, the former dragon''s fingers calmly brushing strands of hair from her forehead. Kivas stared in blank confusion at the fabric beneath her face, registering the texture with alarming clarity. "...Am I still dreaming?" she muttered. Samael tilted her head slightly. "No. You''re quite real. And quite damp." Kivas groaned, hiding half her face in the fabric. "You didn''t think to put a pillow under me?" "I tried," Samael said. "You rejected it mid-spasm and dove directly into my thigh." Kivas exhaled into Samael''s leg, cheeks tinted with the color of shame and amusement. "Well, I can''t complain. These thighs feel like memory foam and guiltless luxury. I think I once stayed in a hotel with cushions this soft. Fancy job assignment abroad." Samael raised an eyebrow. "The one where you fumbled so bad that you got demoted?" Kivas narrowed her eyes and rolled her head sideways. "How would you know that?" Samael gave her a sideways smile, almost smug. "That''s a secret." Kivas groaned and tapped her forehead with her palm. "I''m going to assume you peeked using some eldritch dragon magic and let that trespass slide, because I''m too tired to throw accusations." "Curiosity is a healthy thing to have, but a dangerous one to maintain." Kivas let herself rest against the lap a few seconds longer, her breathing evening out, until she finally lifted her hand and flicked her fingers. Her Well of the Soul opened. Glyphs formed in the air above her, symbols shifting and churning in patterns that would make no sense to any outsider. Purples and violets danced with interlaced reds. Each arcane stroke reflected a language of soul-resonance, one only Kivas could interpret. She scanned the data and frowned deeply. ? WELL OF THE SOUL Name: Kivas Chariot Race: Fateling Total Level: 1 ? Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 14 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 23 ???? Piety (PIE): 31 ????? Vitality (VIT): 20 ???? Speed (SPD): 19 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 10 ???? Luck (LUK): 16 ? Vitals ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 20 / 36 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 2 / 26 ? Derived Stats ????? Attack Power: 14 ? Magic Power: 23 ???? Divine Power: 31 ????? Defense: 20 ???? Magic Defense: 31 ????? Detect: 16 ???? Disarm Trap: 12 ???? Evade Trap: 18 ???? Action Speed: 19 ???? Accuracy: 12 ???? Evasion: 18 ?? Resistance: 26 ? Classes ? Priest Lv1 ? Skills ? Divine Soulmate Imbuer Lv1 C You possess the power to imbue a Genesis Core onto your fated soulmate. ? Fate Weaver Lv1 C You possess the power to weave fate. ? Soul Entanglement Lv1 C You possess the power to latch your soul. ? END OF THE WELL "Wait. +6 Strength, +2 Intelligence, +1 Piety, +10 Vitality, +12 Speed, +1 Luck? That''s it?" She turned toward Samael with a betrayed look. "I got dragged through a trauma stew, fought that overgrown insect until I was bathing in its blood, and this is what I get?" Samael looked unfazed. "You barely contributed to its death in your earlier attempts. The Nightmare that formed wasn''t bloated with enough resentment." Kivas sat upright properly, still in Samael''s lap, legs stretched, her hands flopped on her thighs. "So... the stronger the victim''s hatred, the stronger the Nightmare. But if I don''t feed enough hatred, the rewards are weak, huh." "You want gains? Then make sure you are the source of the final death," Samael replied. "Feed it your rage, make it fear and haunt you to death." Kivas rubbed her face. "I''m not sure if I''m fighting my enemies or becoming a therapist." "Think of it as a spiritual economy. And this was your down payment." "I feel like I got taxed and mugged." Samael tilted her head. "You''re alive. That''s the return." Kivas let herself fall backward and splay over Samael''s legs again, groaning theatrically. "Then I''ll be resting here for hours." "As expected." Samael then grabbed Kivas'' head before casually dropping it to the ground. "Gyah!" "I''ll be hunting Curios and getting something to feed this Exo Human body of mine," Samael smirked. "Hope you have a sweet rest, my Fateling." "Yeah, yeah, make sure you get home safe~" Kivas playfully teased, holding her aching head. Kivas spent the next six hours barely moving, her mind drifting in and out of shallow sleep, quenching her thirst for silence and peace. She didn''t dream again. No insects. No nightmares. Just weightlessness. By the time she stirred again, her body felt lighter, her limbs loose, her breath smooth. What she did feel was hunger. Obnoxiously persistent, physical hunger. Her stomach growled in a rude declaration. Before she could voice her needs, Samael stepped through the doorway of the shelter, arms full. A mass of cloth and canvas tumbled onto the table beside the fire pit, some tied in string, others wrapped in runes. Kivas turned her head slowly toward the pile. "...Samael." "Yes?" "What are those?" "Loots," Samael answered with a slightly disappointed undertone. "I searched a wide radius, but there weren''t many Curio spawns this cycle. Still, this is usable." Kivas got up and approached like a curious animal. She squatted by the table, began peeling back layers of cloth, and froze as the first item gleamed in the ambient light. A bottle filled with swirling golden liquid that clung to the glass as though alive. Its surface emitted a soft hum. "Flask of Imbued Equilibrium," Samael explained. "Common-tier. Restores balance between Hemo Psyche and Mana Psyche when used. Good for recovery in lopsided fights." The next item she uncovered was a crescent-shaped dagger made of crystallized sap, its edge etched with soul fractals. "Voidwood Fang. Another common. Weak durability, but bypasses certain resistances if your target has shadow-aligned soul cores." The pile kept revealing itself. A ring with a carved ant headChitinous Sigil. Common-tier. Passively boosts survivability against insectoid enemies. A folded black scarf that occasionally shimmered blue at its edgesDriftwool Wrap. Common. Improves stealth in fog-covered zones. An orb of glass containing a petrified eyeStaring Pearl. Common. Can be thrown. Explodes in a burst of paralyzing fear for lower-mind creatures. Other items included. A Myco Spore Pellet, edible but mildly mutagenic. A Glass Mapplate, a broken navigation artifact. Three Hollow Totems, non-functioning relics, soul-inscribed but inert. A Pulse-Flint Bracelet, stabilizes minor heat on the arm for three seconds. Quite useless. A Dream-Skin Drum, spiritual signal tool, not for combat. A pair of Fractal Pins, common alchemical foci. And a Sifter''s Journal, which appeared to be blank but held soul echoes when viewed with divination. Kivas pulled away the cloth covering the rarer items. A dagger forged of coral and boneSerated Coralblade. Rare-tier. Absorbs vitality with each strike and temporarily converts it into movement speed. A palm-sized orb of vibrating waterLiquid Mnemonic. Rare. Can store a memory for instant recall. Has one use. A small lantern lit with silent green flameLantern of the Buried Voice. Rare. Reveals invisible trails left by cursed beings. And lastly, a red locket marked by dragon symbolsDrakeborn Favor. Rare-tier trinket. Once activated, grants resistance against fire-aligned soul damage for one battle. Kivas gaped openly. "This is... I mean, this iswow." Samael crossed her arms. "No Legendary. No Exotic. No Godly. No Curio chains. Just average frequency and density. The loot pool is thin this cycle." Kivas laughed. "I think my mouth just watered at the idea of these so-called common and rare loots, let alone Legendary." "Don''t drool on the table," Samael said dryly. "Also, you''re hungry, aren''t you?" Kivas'' stomach roared before she could lie. "Starving." Samael turned toward the doorway and raised an eyebrow. "Then it''s time to hunt. There''s no better breakfast than a Voidling you kill yourself." Sear?h the Novl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas stood slowly, stretching her arms with a faint wry smirk. "So that''s how you get your food here. Slaughter and seasoning. No wonder why you didn''t bring me any..." "Slaughter, then devouring their nightmarish essence," Samael corrected. "You''ll learn the flavor varies depending on what part of the soul you bite into." Kivas cringed. "That''s going to ruin metaphors for me forever. That''s not how attributes acquisition works." "Good," Samael said. "Now let''s go see if these new equipment and your new stats can actually catch something worth eating." Chapter 27: Hunting For Gain Chapter 27 - Hunting For GainKivas stood at the edge of the shelter, the last of the mist curling against her bare soles. The sky above them had adopted the strange dullness of dusk, yet no moon traced its way across the sky. One by one, Kivas equipped the arsenal Samael had brought. She tied the Flask of Imbued Equilibrium to a rough strap across her waist, improvising a belt from coiled plant-fiber and reinforced bark. The bottle clicked against her hip with a soft pulse. Its contents swirled calmly, golden and waiting. The Voidwood Fang slid into a sheath she had stitched from dried hide scraps, positioned against the small of her back. It was light and balanced, barely felt unless she reached for it. The knowledge that it could bypass shadow-aligned cores intrigued her, suggesting elemental systems and deeper soul mechanics she had yet to explore. The Well of the Soul had told her many things, but so much of it remained cryptic, and so much of it was untold, cloaked in shifting glyphs she still struggled to interpret. This world kept secrets beneath secrets. She slipped the Chitinous Sigil ring over her index finger. It adjusted its size automatically, cold at first, then strangely warm. A faint shimmer pulsed when her mana rose. "The fact that there is an item that helps resist an attack against a certain species really makes this world more of an RPG game than anything. The Driftwool Wrap settled over her shoulders, black and soft as silence, the edges barely visible against the filtered light. When she tugged the hood up for a moment, her outline dimmed in the shadows, faint mist curling tighter around her presence. The Staring Pearl she tucked into a leather pouch also fastened to her thigh, its cold weight resting like a promise she''d rather not have to use. It pulsed with unease when she held it, a feeling that whispered it would work once, and only once, when fear must win the moment. Then came her primary arms. The Serated Coralblade, elegant in its fusion of coral ridges and polished bone, latched into a newly fitted loop on her belt. She had run her fingers across its edge for long minutes earlier, feeling the intensity of the pull of speed it promised with every drop of vitality it will drank. And lastly, the Remington 870, her first ever Exotic Tier loot, or Samael''s technically. It hummed softly in her hands, attached to her soul. She slung the Lantern of the Buried Voice onto her back, its green flame sealed for now, and slipped the Drakeborn Favor locket around her neck. She felt its dormant ward settle just beneath her collarbone, inactive but prepared. The rest she left behind. Either because they were useless, or they were too much of a pain to bring along. Samael leaned beside the entrance, arms crossed, watching her with a soft smirk. "You look... adorned." Sarch* The n??el Fire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I feel like a treasure chest spat me out." Samael tilted her head slightly, her gaze appraising the fitted gear with an amused gleam. "It reminds me of the last human I ate. Came at me just like that. Covered in Curio gear from toe to temple, glinting like a chandelier in heat." Kivas''s expression twitched. "That''s an image I didn''t need." She gestured vaguely to herself. "Because I''m kind of dressed the same way." Samael offered no apology, her smile unmoved. "You are." "Should I be worried?" "Maybe." Kivas groaned and rolled her shoulders. "Why don''t you wear or use anything, then? You only have that soul-fabric outfit, the same as mine, but I''ve never seen you use loot. Not even the rare stuff." "Curio items are for the weak, the unsure, the ones still scrambling for assuredness in Fathomi," Samael said simply. "Eventually, you stop looking for clutter and only want the best. Legendary. Godly. The kind that bends rules." Kivas stared at her. "And where''s your collection then, miss apex predator?" Samael raised a hand, flexed her fingers once. "I used to have a special and powerful skill. One which allows me to devour Curio items and absorb their traits or power depending on the object." Kivas''s eyes sparkled. "You could what?" "Consume the relic. Gain its power. No need to carry. No risk of breakage." Samael''s voice was quiet, distant. "That''s amazing! You could just chew through a dozen artifacts and become a one-man!" "I was," Samael admitted. Kivas hesitated, the tone finally registering. "Right..." "Gone." Samael looked to the side, voice losing some of its edge. "This Exo Human form stripped it, or maybe I had permanently lost that precious skill forever." Kivas''s enthusiasm dimmed, sympathy slipping in a panicked consoling, "You''ll get it back. You''re ridiculously wise. There''s nothing that you can''t do when you put your mind into it, right?" Samael''s gaze returned, sharp and disturbing. "Maybe I should kill you. See if that triggers something." Kivas stiffened immediately. "Hey! Don''t discard something you just claimed! That''s not moral!" Her arms flailed in complaint. Samael chuckled, low and pleased. "You''re lucky I''m in a good mood." Soon enough, the forest accepted their passage without resistance as they departed their beloved shelter. The shifting roots and soft-moving paths seem to accommodate them. The brush was thinner today, but the trees leaned inward, their dark trunks slick with soul-dew. Kivas crouched low as Samael raised a hand, silent. Their steps turned cautious. The Driftwool Wrap cloaked her better than expected, dampening her sound and softening her outline. Kivas followed close behind until they came to a break in the trees. Ahead, between two collapsed stone obelisks, something moved. A towering figure paced slowly, dragging thick arms behind it, one of them clutching a giant stone sword that could visibly be seen chipped from all of the reckless friction. This being stood upright on two massive legs, its entire body swollen with corded muscle, gray flesh pulsing with dull light between bulging veins. Its headif it could be called thatwas that of a deep-sea fish. The maw jutted forward with needle teeth, eyes blank and wide, as if perpetually panicked and blind to its own horror. Kivas stared, frozen. Samael leaned in beside her. "Ah. A human." Kivas''s expression twisted instantly. "That''s not a human." Samael shrugged, the smirk never leaving. "Bipedal hominin, large brain cavity, upright posture, uses tools. Meets the standard." "That thing has a lanternfish head!" "Still a human." Kivas drew a sharp breath. "If that''s what humans look like here, I''m going to start questioning everything." "They''re the baseline of form. Most sapient entities in Fathomi stabilize into a hominin structure." Samael''s tone was serene. "Flesh adapts to intelligence. Intelligence adapts to survival. Human is the simplest conclusion. The average." Kivas squinted at her. "Then what are you?" "Exo Human. Human exterior. Core of something else. Could be a Voidling. Could be divine. Could be something worse~" Kivas nodded slowly. "So you''re like a dragon in human skin, with context." Samael gave a subtle tilt of her head. "Exactly." "Still, are you sure that we''re seeing a human right now, and not a Voidling?" "Yep, that is no Voidling." They watched the creature shift weight, turning toward a grove of flowering fungi. Its gait was heavy but deliberate. Kivas leaned in closer, seeing that this was a good opportunity to delve into this topic. "So what''s a Voidling, really?" "An entropy-tethered entity. They align with destruction, negation, rot, or malice," Samael replied. "They are the inverse of preservation. Some do it consciously. Others are born into it. They warp space. Unwrite logic. Their cores resonate with dissolution. Though, at an uncertain caliber." Kivas looked again at the creature. The fish-head creature paused. Its gaze snapped toward them, sniffing the air through thin gill-slits. Samael nudged her. "You should strike first. That one''s going to charge." Kivas sighed, pulled the Remington 870 forward, and primed the pump. Mana channeled into the shell chamber. She leveled the barrel, eyes narrowing at the shifting outline of her soon-to-be prey, approaching, running at her with the intensity of a speeding car. Chapter 28: The Fish Who Wished Chapter 28 - The Fish Who WishedThere was once a miserable fish that lived in a puddle fated to dry. It had no name, no memory, no knowledge of anything beyond water and breath. But when the sun clawed higher each day and the puddle shrank, the fish began to understand what fear was. It wished. It wished to breathe air. And somehow, against every rule etched into its weak bones, the fish flopped its way across the dirt. Its scales hardened. Its gills twisted, burned, and reshaped into lungs. However, every second outside the water screamed death. Every inch of ground it crossed was a gamble against a thousand predators. So it changed. It bent its bones. It stretched cartilage into legs. It studied the things that crawled past it, and it made itself more like them. The fish always saw something, needed something, and wished for it, and it always tried to achieve it. Wanting to live but there''s no source of food? The fish began to change its diet to anything that is available around it, whether it is a corroding corpse, metal, soil, or even air itself. The fish never stopped moving because to stop was to die. The fish learned how to become alive. Ane day, it looked up and saw the sky. It wished to fly. And so it grew wings. And the fish didn''t stop there. As time went on, it grew teeth that could split mountains, a voice that could silence dimensions, a source of power that could grasp an entire civilization under extinction. The fish stopped being a fish. It forgot what being a fish was. Its existence became a slow, brutal ascent toward absolute power. But that power attracted enemies. It attracted worship. It attracted chaos. The fish became a creature of myth, tasked with holding back storms of entropy, guarding boundaries even gods feared. It acquired too much wisdom, and in return, too many responsibilities. Its comprehension achieved so far that it felt obligated to perform a certain action to maintain the status quo of Fathomi thanks to its position and power. This life was miserable, even more miserable than when it was once a miserable fish. And this life went on, and on, and on, until it stopped counting. It learned everything and forgot most of it. It kept living because it had forgotten how to stop. And then, on one forgettable day, the old fish was told that it was a soulmate, by a Fateling, radiant and strange, yet dangerous angel who fell from the old sky. "Huh, she is better at combat than I expected." And now, that same Fateling was facing down a mutated brute with the head of a fish. Samael leaned against a crooked branch, arms folded, watching the scene unfold below. A ripple of laughter tickled her throat. Ever since Kivas emerged from cover and dashed forward, her Remington 870 was almost always primed against her shoulder. Her steps light and her cloak swirling around her boots. Mana churned within the barrel, converting intent into lethal velocity. And now they both clashed like there was no tomorrow. "Die, you abhorrent fish!" "Glup blup!" The fish-headed brute turned just in time for the shot to collide with its shoulder. Its thick muscle dented under the blast, but the creature remained standing. Its teeth gleamed with slime as it lifted the massive slab of stone it used as a sword. Kivas rolled sideways, avoiding the crushing weight of the swing, then lashed forward with the Serated Coralblade. The dagger bit into the joint behind the brute''s elbow, dragging crimson light from the wound. Speed surged through Kivas'' limbs as the blade converted pain into acceleration. "Gluglublub!" The fishman roared and twisted, slamming the flat of its sword toward her. Kivas ducked under it, twisted, and slid behind its leg, slicing the tendon clean with a reverse grip. She sprinted several paces back to recover distance, pumping another shell into the Remington and firing directly into the base of the fishman''s neck. Samael whistled softly. "That''s a clean form. I think you''ve been practicing in your sleep! Either that, you used your skill to cheat again." Kivas flinched mid-swing. "Stop distracting me!" "You fight better under pressure." "Not that kind of pressure!" The fishman spun and threw its blade. Kivas leapt over the incoming stone, her cloak flaring. The Driftwool Wrap dulled her movement''s sound and shimmer, making her vanish briefly in the ambient mist of the environment. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Before the fishman could find her, she reappeared to the creature''s flank, plunging the Voidwood Fang into its back. The fish-headed brute roared and slammed its elbow into her side. "Guh!" Kivas staggered but held her ground, swinging her Coralblade in a wide arc and opening another laceration across its chest. The brute stumbled, knees weakening under the onslaught. With a final shot from the Remington into its leg joint, the fishman dropped to the dirt. Kivas stepped back, panting, holding both weapons at the ready. Her body trembled slightly with residual adrenaline. Samael approached slowly, gaze neutral. "Clean. Minimal injury. The wound on your ribs will fade in a minute when you use your Hemo Psyche." "He''s still alive."Kivas exhaled and stared down at the twitching fishman. She hesitated. "You want a share of the Nightmare?" Samael smirked. "You did the work. You''ll reap the reward. Besides, the more your soul contributes to the death, the more significant the Nightmare. Especially if you''re the only one. It''s more efficient that way." Kivas grimaced. "Right. Bigger nightmare. Better attributes acquisition. But also worse trauma." The fishman wheezed, lifting a trembling arm. His voice spilled through gurgling breath. "You... wretched things. You don''t know... who I am..." "Ah, it talked like a human," Kivas was genuinely surprised. "I told you that it is a human," Samael retorted. "No matter how much you pushed that agenda, I won''t believe it." The fishman continued to utter its last breath. "...I am a chosen, follower, of the Endless Dragon Samael..." Blood was spurted from its throat. "And when the almighty calamity finds you, will burn your souls... will crush your bones... will" Kivas furrowed her eyebrows. "Wait." The brute groaned. "will cast you into the void and" "You mean this Samael?" Kivas pointed sideways. "The one who''s been giving me life advice and breakfast options for the past day?" "...What?" Samael crouched beside the dying brute and tilted her head. "Hello, Altahar. Still wearing that same armor of delusion, I see." Kivas blinked in confusion. "You know him?" "One of my old errand servants." Samael poked at Altahar''s ridiculous fish head. "This wretch fetches relics, burns heretic nests, and brings tribute. Never much of a conversationalist. Bit too much zealotry." "Avenge me... Lord Samael..." Kivas wryly smiled, "Is it... okay that I killed him?" Samael grinned with a smug. "You didn''t kill him yet." "Is it okay that I''m going to?" "I don''t care." "May entropy shine homeward..." Altahar let out one final breath, gurgled something indecipherable, and fell still. Kivas stood frozen for a moment, processing, bamboozled. "Ah, right." Samael rose with a light stretch. "I''ve always avenged the ones who dare harm my toys, you know. Maybe I will avenge this human servant of mine." "You gave me the green light!" Kivas turned to her with disbelief. "Also, this fish head is not a human!" "Now that you hunted one, will you try to eat it?" Samael gave a flirty side eye. "No." Samael raised an eyebrow. "Not even a bite? This one is battle-cooked. Freshly tenderized. Good soul marrow." Kivas cringed from the description. "It''s a fish-headed man! I''m not committing cannibalism. That''s where I draw the line." "I thought you said that this being isn''t human?" "Humans still don''t like eating human-like beings!" "Pity," Samael said, walking away with a smile. "You need to be more open minded." "More like open wide, splitted with a hatchet." Chapter 29: Vaingall Is No Place For Scavenger Chapter 29 - Vaingall Is No Place For ScavengerKivas stirred with a soft groan, her eyelids fluttering as the weight of dream faded and the warmth of the waking world pressed gently into her cheek. Her head rested atop something both warm and softpliant yet unmoving. She blinked once, then twice. The filtered light of morning bled through the dense canopy in threads. It was the second day of Kivas'' life in Fathomi. ? Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 26 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 28 ???? Piety (PIE): 32 ????? Vitality (VIT): 35 ???? Speed (SPD): 28 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 10 ???? Luck (LUK): 25 ? END OF THE WELL She had also defeated the Nightmare that she had just acquired, gaining +12 STR, +5 IQ, +1 PIE, +15 VIT, +9 SPD, +9 LUK for her attributes. It was quite an easy fight too since it was basically the very same fight, and that her soul-equipped items and consumables won''t use the actual on in real world. "How long was I asleep?" Her voice was scratchy, soft as if afraid of breaking something fragile in the moment. "Not long," Samael said above her. Her tone was quiet, the kind of gentleness reserved for things neither fully owned nor completely understood. Fingers combed through Kivas'' white strands, parting them with idle curiosity. Kivas squinted upward, finding Samael''s gaze fixed on her face. Something lingered in those eyesa quiet pause, a restraint barely hiding longing. Kivas didn''t comment on it. Her stomach growled before her mouth could. "I need food," she muttered with lazy eyes, pushing herself upright. "A real meal. Something that doesn''t blink at me from the dirt." Sar?h the ovlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Samael chuckled and rose to her feet. "Then let''s find something palatable." The forest of Vaingall stood still in its dissonant silence, branches gnarled as if sculpted from scorched bone and bark. Yet, the trees bore no fruit. The shrubs grow no bulbs. Consumable vegetation existed, but so rare it bordered on myth. If not, it tasted horrible or poisonous. Because of that, finding anything edible or palatables in this place was quite the hassle. As they descended from the ledge of their resting grove and entered the deeper paths of the forest, Kivas roused those questions from her mind. And as usual, Samael began her casual exposition with the ease of someone dragging old memories from the edges of permanence. "Vaingall was a battlefield," she said. "Long before I arrived here." Kivas didn''t know the correlation of fruitless forestry with a former battlefield that might have happened eons ago, but she was interested in the topic and took a mental note. Kivas adjusted the straps on her gear, securing the Staring Pearl tighter to her side. "Let me guess. You caused it." "Tempting story," Samael replied, glancing sidelong. "But no. I came after most of the ground had already been salted by death. It was... calmer when I arrived, or to be exat, properly settling in." Kivas snorted. "What kind of calm are we talking about here?" "Calm enough for me to survive." Kivas stopped short. "You? Having a hard time to survive? That''s a red flag." Samael gestured ahead with a small flick of her hand, continuing the slow walk. "The forces that converged here weren''t just dangerous. They were foundational. Warring constructs of world-shaping magnitude. Beings who command entire philosophies. Time fractals. Recursive fate loops. Bio-theological sovereigns." Kivas stepped around a bent trunk, eyes scanning the bramble-drenched floor. "So you''re saying you were the underdog? I remembered that you''re a very powerful being, or was that just my imagination?" Samael smiled faintly. "I was one of many powerful beings. Not the most. Certainly not the weakest. But no one walks out of Vaingall unchanged." Kivas looked ahead again, thoughtful. "Funny. Hard to picture you having a hard time. You always seem two steps ahead." "The fact I''m here, as a powerless Exo Human, proves I wasn''t." Kivas gave a small nod. "Fair. Though for someone who calls herself powerless, you still terrify me." "As you should." Samael''s grin returned briefly before it faded again. "But the truth is simpler. Even the most absurdly powerful entities aren''t invincible in Fathomi. Power scales with risk. The more variables you draw into your life, the more possibilities one can destroy you. You''re proof enough of that." Kivas gave her a sharp look. "Was that a compliment or an insult?" "A fact," Samael replied with a shrug. "A newborn Fateling ended up dragging a Voidling to ground level alongside the other ants." Kivas laughed, arms folding. "This so-called ground-level Exo Human can still kill a pack of beasts by flexing." "Reduced or not, I remain efficient," Samael agreed. "But so does unpredictability. That''s why experience matters more than brute stats." The development of this conversation didn''t answer why there wasn''t any food easily available in Vaingall, but Samael acted quite cute as of late, so Kivas ignored that. A shimmer caught their attention near a break in the tree line. The unmistakable glint of a Curio shimmered beneath a twisted tree, its form half-buried in thorny roots. The air shimmered faintly around it. Kivas'' face lit up. "Treasure box!" Samael nodded, arms folded. "Go ahead. You need the trap experience." "Heh, just say that you''re feeling lazy." "I want to see my helpless and fumbling girlfriend grow into someone dependable." "Aww, that''s so sweet of you. But I thought you''re the one who takes that position..." Kivas approached the Curio with no hesitation. As her fingers brushed the metallic edge of the artifact, a spike of sensation pierced through her soul. Her vision blurred. Laughter echoednot aloud, but within her bones. Then the puzzle began. Gears emerged within her mind''s eyeinterlocked, meshed, a sprawling mechanism of endless complexity. Some turned on instinct, others only moved when their siblings aligned. Kivas could feel the pull, the anchoring of Fate Weaver threading through her consciousness. Her hands remained still in reality, but her soul began to interact. But most importantly, her Fate Weaver skill intreacts as well. She began turning the primary gear. The sensation deepened. She didn''t hear voices, but she felt will, an echo guiding her to the right rotation, the perfect sequence of motion. She shifted another gear. The web of gears flexed, a piece clicked. The trap unwound. Her body relaxed as her mind returned. The Curio creaked open. Inside lay a half-mask made of bleached bone, carved with intricate veins of silver and red glyph. It covered only the upper half of a face, the edges notched like ancient tribal regalia. Samael''s voice purred near her ear. "You''re getting rather comfortable using your Fate Weaver skill." Kivas lifted the mask, fingers brushing along its edge. "Ever since that apotheosis attempt, I''ve felt it more clearly. Like I can feel when fate''s twisting. Even before it pulls." She chuckled. "It helps me confirm whether the skill activates or not." Samael accepted the mask as it was handed to her. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she examined the glyphwork, fingers trailing the etchings like a scholar deciphering ancient scripture. "Noble-tier," she said. "Trait is, Efficiency Wrought. Reduces the Mana Psyche consumption of your skills." Kivas whooped once and raised both fists. "Finally! A decent loot that''ll stop my shotgun from sucking my mana dry!" Samael gave a small nod. "Useful at your level. The effect diminishes the higher your total soul level, but right now, it''s extremely efficient. Especially with the Remington. It''ll extend your burst window." "I''ll take it. I don''t care if it loses value later. I burn through Psyche like a cursed battery." Before they could celebrate further, the world began to shimmer. A low pulse of distortion rippled across the forest. The trees stretched, the roots curled, and the very air around them rearranged with subtle finality. Fathomi''s terrain reshaped. The canopy above opened in places it hadn''t moments before. The sun rose unnaturally fast, casting long rays across areas that had been midnight-black just moments before. Kivas stiffened, scanning the light, her hands twitching toward her weapon. "Is this normal?" she asked. Samael calmly turned toward the new paths being revealed. "Yes." "Can we still find our way back to the shelter?" "I marked it. It moves with the distortion, but I tagged it metaphysically." Before Kivas could ask how that worked, something new reached their senses. A smell. Faint, savory, tinged with cooked oils and warm spice. Somewhere between grilled marrow and sun-baked grain. Kivas sniffed. "Is that... food?" Samael turned, expression shifting into intrigue. "A civilization, to be exact." Chapter 30: A Civilization! Chapter 30 - A Civilization!The scent thickened the deeper they walked, curling through the twisted branches of Vaingall like a lure braided from smoke and soul. Kivas took in a long breath, the savory tang of cooked substance and roasted spice making her knees weaken. "It smells like dinner. Like, real dinner. Will there be a gentle lady that offers me actual food? A lady who''s kind to strangers with a warm family to bode?" Kivas voice came in quick succession. "Do people even have cities here? Is it a marketplace? Is it underground? A floating town? A hive built into a living cliff? What if it''s a dome grown from fungus? Orohwhat if they milk Voidlings for essence and sell it fried?" Samael exhaled in amusement, eyes half-lidded as she watched her companion''s verbal sprint. "You''ll see." Kivas didn''t slow. "Do they have taverns? Inns? Smithies? Guns exist, so I want to see a vending machine that trades in forgotten memories. Maybe a place that sells clothes that change when you lie. Or a cafe that brews anxiety into tea~" Samael stepped forward, soles brushing the moss-carpeted path. "This is the first time I see you this filled with excitement." Before Kivas could conjure another hundred images of what might lie ahead, a subtle ripple moved through her senses. Her skin tingled, and something spiritual shifted around her, a barely audible hum running along her spine. It felt like walking through silk strung with static. She turned her head. "What was that?" "A barrier," Samael said. "We just passed through the field projected by a Crystal of Covenant." Kivas glanced backward, seeing nothing but fading mist and warped tree silhouettes. At this point, her expectation of Fathomi''s bizarreness had gone through the roof. "Crystal of what now?" Samael walked without urgency. "Fathomi doesn''t support normal civilization. Land isn''t stable, reality bends. But some materials in this world are chaos-resistant. One of them is Maelnium. When refined properly, it becomes usable as a stabilizing tool." "Like this Crystal of Covenant?" Samael smirked as an answer, "It anchors land during distortion. Creates fixed zones. Without it, any civilization bigger than our personal shack would crumble the moment the world hiccups." Kivas muttered a quiet "damn," nodding to herself. "Fathomi becomes more and more terrifying the more I think about it." "That''s the sign that your IQ stats took effect." "I don''t need high IQ stats to understand this. What''s the possible highest IQ stats that one could ever have anyway?" "Hmm, more than a million, probably." "What the heck..." As they moved deeper, the forest receded. The trees spaced wider. The thorns faded. The color of the air itself changed, less of that unsettling mist-glow, more grounded light breaking through a wider sky. Then they saw it. Wooden walls rose in the distance, thickly reinforced and spiked at the top, slightly covering the skirt of the civilization behind it. Ballistas lined the watch posts, constructed from bone and iron, unknown materials, and a rather unique rigging. The gate in the center stood tall, barred yet slightly open, its surface carved with crest-like sigils and chained runes of binding. In front of the gate, two figures loitered beside a metal grill mounted on warped stone. Like, a very familiar-looking design of metal grill. Was that also acquired from a Curio too? As for the figures, one stood taller than any human Kivas had seen so far, cloaked in leathery layers that swayed as if resisting gravity. Instead of humanoid shape, their head was a skull resembling that of a massive goat, with wide, curling horns scorched black at the tips, covering the enigmatic blue flame within it. Despite the inhuman head, pale muscle peeked beneath the gaps of the outfitsmooth, taut, too clean to be human. The other appeared much younger, a teenage girl with very long, sharp fox-like ears. Her cloak hung loosely, revealing layers of pouches and stitched leathers beneath. Her hair, short and rust-colored, flicked around her ears every time she spoke. Her arms moved quickly as she turned a set of skewers on the grill, adjusting glowing embers beneath with sharp flicks of a bone fork. "Told you the plan would work," the girl said with a grin. "Food smell brings the vagabonds. Works every time~ The tall skull-headed figure nodded once. "Ingenius indeed. Vaingall has little to offer. A soul will chase heat and scent before thought." Kivas barely had time to process the exchange before the wendigo-like figure vanished in a blur. A blink later, they stood directly in front of her and Samael, extending a pair of wooden sticks with a red, grilled cube skewered on it. The smell coming off the block was rich, deep, both sweet and metallic. "You must be hungry. Vaingall drains more than just patience. Take these as a sign of our hospitality." Kivas blinked. "What is this?" "Blood Cakes" The teenage girl appeared at the side, flicking one of her ears and pointing with pride. "You should be thanking me, that my immaculate Blood Cakes draw you so strongly, leading you to a civilization!" She wasn''t wrong. "Removes fatigue," the skull-headed one added. "Restores Psyche. Both Mana and Hemo." Samael took the offered skewer and bit into it without hesitation. She chewed, then nodded. "Not bad." Kivas watched her carefully. If Samael ate it, it must be safe. She used to be a dragon, after all, a very careful and experienced one too. She sniffed the Blood Cake again, eyes narrowing, then took a bite. The block was warm and dense, melting slightly on her tongue. It had the texture of liver, but cleaner, marbled with sweet-salt balance and laced with an iron tang that lingered without cloying. She closed her eyes as she chewed. "This is... surprisingly good." "Told you." The fox-eared girl beamed. "I''m Charishe," she said, puffing out her chest. "Bastion Scavenger. Forager. Local cook. Sometimes genius, sometimes dumb and intolerable." The horned figure inclined their head. "Voille. Keeper. Sentry. I maintain the gate." Samael gave a faint nod. "Samael." Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas remembered that the name introduction holds a significant meaning in this world. Even if it didn''t apply to these people, it was still a polite thing to do. "Kivas Chariot," Kivas followed, giving a polite tilt of her head. "And thank you for these treats, really!" Kivas wondered what blood used to make these Blood Cakes, if they were even made out of blood to begin with. Voille''s sockets shimmered faintly with inner light. "A noble. Rare for these parts." Charishe grinned and jabbed Voille in the ribs. "How''s that for an extra point? My plan attracted nobility. That''s one for the records!" Kivas leaned toward Samael and whispered, "Why does that matter?" "Quite mattered." Samael''s voice was low, or maybe she used some kind of skill to deliver her words. After all, her mouth wasn''t moving. "Having a surname means that your soul is strong enough to contain it. That alone makes your existence noble, and noble can be treated a little bit differently depending on the places." Charishe stepped between them again, one hand spinning a skewer. "Welcome to Solvish Keep," she welcomed and opened her hands with a cherished tone. "This is a community bastion that was built by the people, for the people! "We''re not a city, but we''re stable enough to matter. We''ve got about a hundred people here. Tradespeople, nobles like you, and even a guild for all sort of associations" While Charishe was in her lecture, Kivas'' mind was focused somewhere else. Dozens of figures passed through, dressed in a chaotic blend of fabrics, metal plates, and rather unique shapes of equipment of all kinds. Some had animal limbs or insectoid traits, but their shape was still humanoid. Others wore helmets, an outright gas maskKivas also saw what appeared to be a chainsaw being strapped to the back by one of them. It was not mistaken, they were armed with an arsenal of Curio loot. One of them called back toward Charishe in the middle of her speech. "Hey! Don''t scare off the fresh meat with your bragging!" Charishe lashed out, "You moron, don''t interrupt me!" Voille was casual as ever, however. "Going for another expedition?" "You bet we are," said one of the group, a mature woman with a big scarf on her neck. "We''re counting on you once again to keep the bastion safe." "As always, mon amie," Voille replied The group kept walking, weapons slung, packs shifting with every step. Some waved back. Others simply laughed and vanished into the treeline. Kivas watched them go. "Who are they?" Voille''s voice softened further, contrasting their scary appearance. "You must''ve wandered long before reaching a bastion." Kivas looked at Samael for a cue to that question. Samael merely gazed back and smiled, as if watching to find out what her adorable pet will do in this sudden social interaction. Kivas pouted at that response. Seeing their quiet shenanigans, Voille decided to just answer Kivas''s initial question. "They''re Void Divers." Chapter 31: Void Hunters, And The Solvish Keep Chapter 31 - Void Hunters, And The Solvish Keep"Void Hunters are association-bound individuals," Charishe said, twirling her skewer like a pointer, "registered under a local ledger and authorized neutral faction to take requests, missions, recovery jobs, bounty dispatches, and information gathering. They also defend the bastion they''re stationed in! "Not that I participate in all of that often." Charishe shrugged with a grin. "I''m a cook. Forager. Idea generator, and I prefer it that way." Kivas clapped her hands together. "So, like adventurers!" "Exactly!" Charishe pointed at her with triumphant joy. "You get it! That''s the perfect word for it. I''ve been calling them that too, but nobody ever clicks with it! WaitwaitKivas, do video games exist in your world?" "Of course they do!" Kivas practically beamed. "I''ve spent a quarter of my miserable years grinding dungeons and optimizing loot routes as a way to procrastinate!" Charishe staggered back with an exaggerated gasp and dropped her skewer onto a nearby crate. "Fifty years! I''ve lived in this chaos pit for fifty years and never met anyone who knew what a video game was! Finally! A cultured soul! Someone who understands!" Voille tilted their head slightly, resting one elbow on their knee. "Congratulations, Charishe, you finally have someone to share your weird obsession with now." "Can you believe it?" Charishe was pacing now, energized. "No one here knows what the internet is. Not even basic online databases. No memes. No livestreams. And this one right here" she pointed toward Voille, "comes from a world where science wasn''t even a publicly accepted concept!" Voille didn''t look remotely offended. "Ranching. Farming. Daily meals. Seasonal festivals. It was peaceful. Science sounds great but doesn''t sound necessary." "That''s quite interesting," Kivas said, trying to imagine a world that primitive. "Were there at least books?" "There were goats," Voille answered. "They produce milk. Milk is good." Kivas glanced at Samael, her curiosity flaring again. "Is this how it is for most people in Fathomi? Everyone here used to have a former life, alongside their old memories?" Samael shifted her gaze across the bustle beyond the gate. "Most of them did. The majority of inhabitants are drawn in through soul drift, fractured timelines, failed worlds, or divine error. "Those with anchored identity survive the passage. The rest vanish or mutate and become nonrational." "Ehe~ Regardless! I''m finally glad that I grilled those Blood Cakes. It brings me a kindred from a different side" Charishe threw an arm around Kivas''s shoulder, her sudden movement met with a quiet interceptSamael''s hand closing around her wrist. The air thickened slightly. Charishe glanced at the pale fingers gripping her arm and raised an eyebrow. Samael''s smile was eerie, gentle in a way that made it hard to tell if she was joking. "Kivas can be a little sensitive to being touched by strangers. Better not carelessly attempt a skinship." Kivas tilted her head, expression neutral. "I''m not." "You are." "I''m really not." "You flinch." Charishe grinned, slipped her hand away, and tapped her chin in thought. "Interesting. What exactly is the relationship between you two?" "Soulmates," Kivas said brightly. "I own her," Samael replied at the same time. "Oh, romantic," Charishe laughed. "A possessive yandere, protecting her dorky wife. That''s the good stuff." She nodded with a rather perverted expression. Voille observed quietly, her tone even. "You seem headstrong, Samael." Samael didn''t reply, her smile holding like a lingering thought. Charishe spun on her heel and waved toward the interior of the bastion. "Anywho, come on! You''ve seen the gates, the walls, and all the boring stuff. Time to see the soul of Solvish Keep!" As both Kivas and Samael were being dragged around for a tour, they waved to the tall wendigo. Voille offered a parting nod, and adorably waved back. The inner keep revealed itself as they crossed through the open gate. From the inside, the walls curved inward slightly, constructed from a blend of living wood and reinforced crystal lattice. Lanterns hovered midair at intervals, flickering with green fire, shedding a faint warmth that repelled anomalies residue. Humanoid entities of all sorts moved aboutscaled, horned, furred, and limbless. Some rode beasts of unknown lineage. Others floated slightly above the ground, trailing cloth and essence like smoke. Most nodded in passing, recognizing Charishe and appraising the new arrivals with cautious interest. "The whole place is built like a nest," Charishe said, gesturing around. "We''ve got a builder camp over there, crafting and structure repair. They keep everything standing when the ground decides to breathe sideways." "Nice side job you got there, Charishe. Why not help us plan the new building today?" "Sorry, folks, I''m escorting a noble vagabond here. My current task is a priority." A playful whistle could be heard as Charishe bickered back and forth with the people of the builder camp. Kivas admired the camp''s massive skeletal scaffolding, with workers balancing on bone spires, welding glowing seams of material together. Sarch* The novlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. And then they moved on to the next. "And that''s the inn." Charishe pointed again. A spiraled building with layered balconies and hollowed rooms came into view. "They give free accommodation to new-faced vagabonds until you can help the bastion around Can get free food too! Just, don''t sleep there after eating hallucinogenic mushrooms." "So you''re saying that I should try sleeping once after eating a hallucinogenic mushroom," Kivas nodded. "Pretty sure that you''re not meant to do that," Samael said with sarcasm. A group of masked individuals passed by, carrying heavy crates shaped like oversized puzzle-boxes. Charishe waved at them without pausing, and they also waved back with a word. It sure did feel like a close-knit community. The next structure, albeit still quite far from where they were, caught Kivas'' attention immediately. A dome with arched windows, coated in bone-white carvings, stood to the side. Glyphs pulsed faintly along its shell, resembling veins in pale skin. Statues stood at the entrybeings with open arms and no faces. "That''s our church," Charishe said. "Healing, blessings, minor resurrection services, guidance from spirit-bound clergy. As long as your soul or body''s mostly intact, they can patch you up!" Kivas raised a brow. "Huh, I wonder why you aren''t introducing it when we got there." Charishe leaned in, voice hushed. "I''m not exactly on good terms with one of the priests. You see, there is this one annoying and dumb bitch called Lyenar" Just as she said that, a tall figure appeared behind her. She had long black hair swept into a tight braid, a deep scar trailing across one eye. Her robes were ceremonial but practical, with soul-runes stitched into the hem. Her presence definitely carried authority, subtle and immediate. "Whispering to newcomers in public is hardly polite," she said. Charishe jumped slightly, then groaned. "Ugh. Speak of the self-righteous skull-face." Lyenar grinned with distaste. "Still an annoying little brat, I see." "You''re the one who excommunicated me for singing during the ritual, asshole!" "You replaced the benediction with a limerick about mitochondria, in the form of a song!" "It was catchy." Their exchange held no venom. Kivas watched them bicker like old roommates rather than rivals. After a few minutes, the tour moved on. Samael leaned toward Kivas. "Still wondering if everyone''s human?" Kivas scanned the crowdswinged merchants, eyeless blacksmiths, a centauric librarian adjusting scroll-saddle pouches. "I mean... yeah." Samael gave a small nod. "I told you already. Most of them are. It''s just what form intelligence gravitates toward. That fish man wasn''t an outlier. He was an example." "Well, thank god that I didn''t commit cannibalism back then." "I wouldn''t thank the god here if I were you." "Do you think that those eldritch gods will hear?" "Who knows~" After another walk, they reached a larger, more fortified building. Twin doors carved with branching paths and hunter sigils marked the entrance. A sign above read: Void Hunter Guild C Solvish Chapter. The interior held rows of bulletin boards and multiple desks filled with receptionists. There were tables made of petrified wood, and racks of bizarre equipment. A few individuals lingeredeach bearing armor or robes that shimmered unnaturally. One wore a helmet with insectile limbs protruding from the neck. Another adjusted a gauntlet that breathed fire occasionally. "This," Charishe said, stepping into the middle of the hall, "is where the brave gather. Or the stupid. Or the broke. All kinds of fellas, actually." Kivas spun slowly, absorbing the strange, rugged energy of the place. The people inside didn''t seem to mind the duo and Charishe'' eccentricity. There weren''t any hostility, but there weren''t many that were curious about Kivas and Samael either. "Since you survived Vaingall and walked out fully geared, you''re pretty much a certified badass," Charishe said. "A Shotgun. Mask. Daggers. Wrap. You''re halfway to being registered already!" "That''s not how registering works," Samael quipped. Kivas grinned. "What do you get from registering?" Charishe held up her fingers. "Information. Maps. Strategic data. Priority shelter. Disarmed Curios, Resurrection failsafes. You name it! By joining the Void Hunter Association, you''re joining the ranks of power who sides with humanity~! "And humanity rewards loyalty." She folded her arms, her grin widening. "You side with humanity, and humanity sides with you." Chapter 32: Registering As A Void Hunter Chapter 32 - Registering As A Void HunterThe receptionist had the appearance of a porcelain doll carved into the shape of a young woman, dressed in a tailored uniform of muted green and silver trim. Her face bore a permanent, professional smile that never wavered, eyes closed as if serenity was part of her role. Her dark hair curled in a spiraling cascade behind her shoulders, and the desk she stood behind bore the crest of the Solvish Chaptera branching path carved into blackened wood, framed with sigil-engraved iron. A name tag that spelled ''Rian'' was embedded on the left side of her chest. She was probably the second individual in this bastion that Kivas could deem a human with how devoid she was of bizarre looking trait. The first one was Lyenar, the priestess that Charishe was having a beef with. "Welcome to the Solvish Chapter of the Void Hunter Guild," she chimed. "How may I assist you today?" Kivas stepped forward with a bright spark in her eyes. "Hi. I have a list." The receptionist nodded without hesitation. "I am prepared." "How long has this place been operating?" "Seventy-three years, eight months, and six cycles." "Is the Guild open all the time?" "Yes. Shifts rotate based on distortion stability and priority reports. There is always a representative available." "What kind of ranks are there? Like, is there a grading system?" "Void Hunters are ranked from G, the lowest, to S, the highest," the receptionist explained smoothly. "Each grade reflects cumulative trust, capability, and contribution to the Association. Subgrades exist in transitionary tiers." Classic, ascending letters for the grading system, was what Kivas thought. "If I''m a Void Hunter, can I get demoted if I mess up a mission?" "Only if your actions directly compromise bastion safety or result in proven misconduct." "Do you assign partners?" "No. Partners, teams, and squads are freely formed. However, long-term contracts may be recommended for large-scale operations." Kivas leaned on the counter with both elbows. "Is there a special badge? Like a guild license thing?" The receptionist''s smile widened. "Indeed." "Is it shiny?" "Yes." "And cool-looking?" "That depends on your aesthetic sensibilities." "I love this place already." Kivas face beamed with reflection. "It is as I remembered how an Adventurer Guild works in a fantasy world I digested." The receptionist didn''t miss a beat. "I''m delighted to hear that." Samael stood with her arms crossed behind Kivas, her expression unreadable but her eyes glinting faintly. Charishe, lounging against the side of the desk with one foot kicked back behind her ankle, simply looked entertained. After a few more rapid-fire questions from Kivas regarding quest distribution frequency, loot requisition channels, regional interconnectivity, and soul-bound authorization layers, the receptionist gave a quiet tilt of her head, hands still folded neatly. "I must say," she offered with a melodic tone, "you are delightfully inquisitive. With such enthusiasm and preparedness, I believe you''d make an excellent addition to our roster!" Then, without warning, she opened her eyes. Pale silver irises met Kivas''s and then slowly flicked to Samael. Her smile never dimmed. "You both carry a presence of power," she said. "Our Chapter would benefit greatly from your registration." Samael''s gaze hardened in an instant. The air turned sharper. Her eyes became slits of concentric crimson, like focused lenses burning a hole into the receptionist''s soul. The receptionist acknowledged the intimidation, then calmly closed her eyes again. "Of course, this is merely a suggestion. The Solvish Chapter holds no authority over personal agency." Her tone returned to the same airy professionalism as before. Kivas glanced sideways. "What''s a ''Chapter'' exactly? Is that just your name for a location?" The receptionist brightened. "A Chapter refers to the physical guild facility and its internal structure, operations, and local jurisdiction. All Chapters are networked via their governing Association. In this case, the Solvish Chapter is under the Karasu Association." "Karasu?" Kivas tilted her head. Karasu means Crow in a certain language Kivas knew in her former life on Earth. The receptionist merely nodded her head. "Yes. Known for its extensive information networks and rapid data relay systems. Unlike martial-focused Associations, Karasu emphasizes observation, communication, and broad-scope knowledge sharing. "Individuals tied to this Chapter can report phenomena, anomalies, or emergent patterns. Should the information prove useful, compensation will be provided accordingly." Kivas''s eyes sparkled. "So if I find something weird or stab something rare, I can just report and get paid?" "Precisely." Kivas turned to Samael with a grin. Samael raised an eyebrow but didn''t argue, smiling in silence. "So... how do we register?" Kivas asked. "You simply purchase a Void Hunter Tag," the receptionist said, reaching beneath the counter. "Once you possess and equip the Tag with your soul, your presence will be recorded spiritually through the Chapter''s anchor. No paperwork necessary." Kivas paused. "That''s it?" "That is it." "No writing down names, birth dates, soul affinities? No retina scan, blood sample, appraisal crystal, magical oath?" The receptionist folded her hands again. "We respect the privacy of our hunters. Unless you become a threat to humanity, or you are involved in an incident report, your information remains unprocessed "Our job is not surveillance. It is facilitation." Charishe gave a short chuckle. "That''s why the mortality rate''s high. They don''t babysit you, or a high enough bar to deter high-ego dumbassess from trying to make a living and dying." "We do not," the receptionist agreed. Kivas looked over her shoulder toward Samael. "But, I don''t have money." "Money doesn''t exist!" Charishe said before Samael could. Her smug teasing face was met with a rather scary glare from Samael, so she wryly backed down her enthusiasm. "Not here, at least not in the way you''re thinking." Kivas frowned. "Then how do people trade?" "The good ol'' barter!" Charishe answered enthusiastically, accidentally cutting off Samael again. Samael ignored that, and proceeded to spoke with the quiet cadence of old memory. "Currencydefined as a shared belief in valueis metaphysically dangerous in Fathomi. When too many souls agree upon a concept and funnel intent into its stability, it births something. A god. Or something close to it." Kivas blinked. "You''re saying... the economy creates gods?" "It has," Samael confirmed. "Once. And we killed it." The receptionist interjected gently. "Which is why Curio items are the most commonly accepted trading medium. They are native to Fathomi, born from its unstable will, and thus safe to exchange without invoking external metaphysics. Flexible, inspectable, and dangerous only in intent." Kivas stepped back and dug into her inventory, pulling two items: the Flask of Imbued Equilibrium and the unused Staring Pearl. She placed them on the counter. "Both are unused. Still soul-attuned to me, but not activated." The receptionist examined each one with an expert motion, holding her hand just above them. Glyphs shimmered beneath her palm, pulling faint threads of essence that shimmered with item-tier resonance. "Both are common-tier but functionally valuable," she said. "We accept these in exchange." She reached under the counter and retrieved two tags. Each was shaped like a narrow black hexagon, smooth and cold, embedded with a floating core of shifting runes. The runes pulsed softly. A faint holographic trail curled behind each as the tags were lifted into the light. At the bottom, a small silver letter "G" gleamed beneath the surface. "These are your initial Void Hunter Tags. Grade G," the receptionist explained. "The moment you equip it to your soul, this Tag is your identifier, your key, and your pass. Keep it close. Lose it and you''ll need to confirm your soulprint at the local forge node and back to the guild." sea??h th n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas accepted hers with wide eyes. "It looks awesome." "Grades can be promoted through consistent activity, verified accomplishments, or providing value to the Association," the receptionist explained, "Higher ranks unlock better services, higher-risk missions, and access to more restricted intelligence about Fathomi and the wider state of the world." Samael held hers without comment, tucking it away beneath the folds of her outfit. After equipping the Void Hunter Tag, Kivas felt a foreign tug on her chest. It dissipated quickly, but lingered nonetheless. Kivas turned it over in her hand. "So I''m officially a hunter now?" "Welcome to the Void Hunter Association, under the Solvish Chapter," the receptionist said. "We expect a great contribution to your addition in our fight toward a greater humanity." Chapter 33: Tour Afterburn Chapter 33 - Tour AfterburnThe tour didn''t end after the guild registration. Charishe insisted they continue, and neither Kivas nor Samael protested. The winding lanes of Solvish Keep curved between mixed-material structuresliving wood curled around soul-wrought iron, and fungus-stamped bricks bore the faint shimmer of enchanted moss. Lanterns floated higher here, drifting with intention above crosswalks and gathering points. "This," Charishe declared, gesturing to a squat building with a crooked roof and an attached outdoor counter, "is my place." The scent that clung to the air was unmistakably appetizingthick, sweet, iron-rich. It radiated from multiple open grills lining the building''s outer ring. Through glass-paned openings, miniature figures flitted back and forth inside the kitchen. They had the exact shape of Charishe, though in a chibi formshorter, with oversized simplified eyes and limbs exaggerated for cuteness. The most striking trait, however, were their ears, comically long fox-like tufts nearly twice their height, bobbing with every motion. Two of them were cleaning plates stacked taller than themselves. Another was carrying a bowl with a flaming broth sloshing in impossible directions. "They''re not sentient," Charishe explained preemptively. "Tall-eared Workers, I called them!" Kivas leaned in. "You basically made little versions of yourself to run a kitchen." "Sounds narcissistic," Samael snickered. "Hey, they are cute, alright! I''m already cute too, so things just goes as usual~" "Do they eat something or do they just work tirelessly?" Kivas asked. "They run on my Mana Psyche," Charishe nodded with a prideful smug. "Just need to inject them with it from time to time and all is ok~!" A few patrons sat at nearby tables made from repurposed shield-wood and mounted skulls. Dishes lined with carved bone, glass-flecked meat, and syruped roots sat half-eaten before them. One of the Tall-eared Workers passed by with a tray balanced on its head. Or more precisely, their tall ears, which strangely also works as an appendage. "This is where you can find me if you need anything," Charishe said, spinning a brass-colored token between her fingers. "Consider this a housewarming gift." She handed Kivas and Samael each a thin rectangle etched with layered scriptfree meal tokens. "One free item on the menu. Valid any time." Kivas immediately accepted. "Blood Cakes." Samael mirrored her. "Same." Charishe raised a brow. "Not feeling adventurous? You can ask for all the new things you haven''t tried, no?" Kivas bit her lower lip. "We''ve had a lot of adventures before this. I''m in the market for something comforting." Samael folded her arms. "I like what I like." For the infamous Endless Dragon to like something, it must mean something great. Unfortunately, Charishe didn''t know any of that. With a dismissive shrug, Charishe waved over one of the Tall-eared Workers. It nodded, scampered off, and returned shortly after with a tray carrying four skewers, each holding steaming red cubes. Kivas took hers eagerly. Samael followed, chewing without hesitation. "Did you put some kind of illegal substance here to make it addictive?" Kivas said it with no filter, while casually enjoying it in her mouth. "Hehehe, it''s a trade secret." Charishe grinned. "But don''t worry, it''s not something that will negatively affect you or something. The opposite actually, all of my food comes with benefits!" "Like a food buff!" Kivas snapped her finger. In return, Charishe did the same. "You got it, friend!" Kivas and Samael walked while eating, letting the last legs of the tour pass with casual conversation. After a few more points of interesta new forge node under construction, a spiritual garden used for harvesting herbs and blessed vegetations,and a quarry filled with floating bouldersCharishe came to a halt and turned to them. "So. That''s Solvish Keep," she said, hands on her hips. "Anything else?" Kivas chewed, swallowed, and shook her head. "Nope." Samael gestured vaguely with her skewer. "This is sufficient." Charishe chuckled. "Short and sweet. I like that." Kivas looked up from her food. "Do you get anything from doing this?" "Obviously, I am!," Charishe replied. "I report any vagabonds I guide and help to the inn and the guild. The inn gives me a commission pay and joint collaboration. The Guild rewards me in services, sometimes Curios, and maybe a relic! "Not to mention, you''re a noble too~" Kivas frowned slightly. "They can tell?" Charishe pointed at Kivas''s Void Hunter Tag. "Noble will have their tags faintly flicker in the rune core. You have a strong soul structure innately. People pay attention to that." Kivas didn''t seem bothered. She took another bite. Samael didn''t seem to care either, so Kivas didn''t think much of it. "Well," Charishe stretched, "I''ll be around. Enjoy the Bastion. Try not to die~!" Sarch* The N?vel(F)ire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas smiled and waved. "Thanks for everything." Samael offered a polite nod, and the two departed with skewers still in hand. They walked in silence for a while, letting the rhythm of the keep settle into their senses. The people had different forms and different auras, but their movements carried shared intentsurvive, contribute, rest, repeat. Bastion life seemed cyclical, ritualized, but not mechanical and stiff. It might be a great brand new experience to uncover slowly over time. Kivas licked her fingers clean. "So, what now? Should we hit the inn?" Samael gave a small glance sideways. "I recommend going to the church first." Kivas tilted her head. "Why?" "You haven''t advanced your class at all." Kivas''s Priest class still sat at a comfortable Lv1. She needed to do an activity related to priest until she can see any progress. Kivas raised her brows, thoughtful. "True, I haven''t noticed anything new." "That''s because you haven''t sought anything new." Kivas gave her a sideways look. "Why don''t you guide me then?" Samael''s mouth curved. "As much as I dislike giving you to someone else" "That''s adorable of you." "I''m curious. Human institutions intrinsically fascinate me." Samael ignored Kivas'' teasing attempt. "When I was a dragon, I had no access to them. No chance to understand how they breathe from the inside.. "Church is one of the places that I often want to visit because of its constant evolution of culture, lore, and method." "Since it is referred to as a church, is there any kind of major religion being prosetlyzed around in Fathomi?" "Well, all sorts of religions exist," Samael pondered. "But a church can run without the core of religion, and only as a medium to supply services to the people." "Oooh." They turned down a quieter street, heading toward the dome-arched church they passed earlier. But before they could cross the wide stone path leading to the front stairs, a tug pulled at both their awareness. "Hmm?" The presence was small, tight, but densepressurized like gravity wrapped in cloth. A figure stood at the base of a nearby well. A girlor at least something girl-sizedwatched them with an unreadable expression. Her oversized katana rested against her shoulder, disproportionately massive for her frame. A black leathery cloak clung to her short form, and two large, rounded rat ears twitched atop her head. She stepped forward and raised a hand. "Azulus," she introduced, her voice clipped and confident. Kivas extended her own hand, smiling, but Samael intercepted the gesture with her own arm, stepping forward slightly. "What''s your business?" Azulus didn''t flinch. Instead, she reached into her cloak and retrieved a Void Hunter Tag. It was the same black hexagonal form, runes dancing in the corebut instead of a G, hers bore an F, etched more deeply, surrounded by a faint ripple of resonance. "I snatched a very high quality request. A good one. High-tier! I noticed you two just got registered, so I''m thinking of getting you two on my expedition." Kivas slammed the bottom of her fist to her palm. "Ah, right, you''re there in the guild." Kivas wanted to comment about how she thought that Azulus was a stray child without the oversized katana, until she remembered that there was no such thing as a child in this world as everyone didn''t age and just got transferred here in an already finalized state. But after a certain consideration, Kivas decided to not say that. Azulus gave a casual nod. "I offered a lot of people in the guild and also those outside of the building, but all of them miraculously were already in an expedition or in preparation for it." The rat girl didn''t seem to lie, as Kivas remembered clearly that she was indeed trying to recruit people left and right inside and outside the guild. Samael said nothing, her eyes narrowing slightly. Azulus held her gaze without backing down. "So, no allegiance, no oath. You want in?" Chapter 34: A Deal And The Church Chapter 34 - A Deal And The ChurchSamael glanced sideways. "Interested?" Kivas'' skewer slowly lowering as she chewed on the last of her Blood Cake. She gave a shrug and a nod at once. "Doing expeditions is something we''ll have to do eventually, right? Might as well get our feet dirty with someone slightly more experienced. We''re both G-grade. She''s F. Could be a great time." "Power is not the issue here," Samael considered. "But having hands-on guidance from an actual Void Hunter should be a much more authentic experience." There was a sparkle on Azulus'' eyes. "Thank you for the incredibly high praise." Samal nodded. "We accept." "Meet me here in six hours." Azulus said, casting some sort of spell or skill with her spare hand. "The Association projected a disruption eight hours from now. That''s our window. You''re free to do whatever until then." "Alright," Kivas waved her hand. "I''ll see you later then." "Don''t be late!" Azulus replied in a shout, as her body flickered in and out of existence between short distances until her real body was no longer in sight, leaving numerous afterimages of her petite figure and oversized katana. Kivas nudged Samael. "Church?" Samael offered a single nod. "Let''s go." Feeling slightly adventurous, they took a different, more unorthodox path this time through a less busy corridor of the bastion, until the silhouette of the church returned into view. Its dome shimmered faintly in the light, and the soft thrum of spiritual resonance pulsed around it, as if the building itself exhaled between seconds. Closer now, Kivas could feel a change in atmosphere. The sense of tension within her bones dulled slightly. Her breath eased. Even her lingering aches began to fade. They crossed the open path to the front stairs. Statues stood on either sidefaceless figures with outstretched arms, each one carved from different materials. One looked to be fused glass, another from porous volcanic bone, and a third entirely of thorn-wrapped copper. Kivas looked up at the nearest one. "These are... eerie." "They are," came a voice from behind. "The statues you see here were excavated from what is referred to as the Quiet Basilica." Kivas turned to see the tall woman they encountered earlierthe same one who bickered with Charishe near the gates. "Ah!" She approached without sound, robes flowing behind her in long vertical seams of ink-black cloth. Her features were sharper up close, and the scar that ran across one of her eyes had a jagged texture, as though it was made by a force that didn''t understand anatomy. "As useful as they are, they are visibly unpleasant," Samael commented. "Unpleasant up close, yes, but they''re soaked in passive restorative energy. Stand near them long enough and they ease bodily stress." Lyenar offered a small bow. Even stooped, her height made it feel performative more than respectful. "My apologies for appearing so suddenly." Kivas studied the statue again, noticing how the mist around it pulled gently inward, like it inhaled the surrounding air. "Quite the introduction for first-impression." "They''re sacred anomalies," Lyenar said. "Sometimes the old world gives us gifts, whether we deserve them or not." She then brought a closed hand to her chest. "Lyenar. One of the priests, and an acting anchor of this church. I assume you are the new Vagabond that comes to the bastion?" "Kivas Chariot," Kivas offered. "We just got here today!" "Samael," came the clipped reply from her side. Lyenar''s eyes lingered briefly on Samael''s gaze, as if assessing something deeper beneath the name. Then she shifted to Kivas. "And you are here for..." "I want to level up my Priest class," Kivas said plainly. "Straightforward." Lyenar turned and gestured for them to follow. "Come, then." They walked past the front hall into a garden path. It was larger than it appeared from the outside, wrapped in curved hedges marked with whisper-thin glyphs. The inner architecture extended deeper than its physical layout suggested, bending interior space like a shell with hidden chambers. Kivas glanced around as they moved through corridors and gentle ramps. "This place is bigger than the outside." "Space-folded Structure," Lyenar replied. "A technique used when consecrating space. The interior grows in accordance with the accumulated resonance that people pour into this place. "While not exactly faith-imbued, the same concept can be seen in many buildings in this bastion, most prominently, the inn." Sarch* The n??el Fire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Priests passed them occasionallysome in armor, some in robes, others in barely-there wrappings dyed with celestial ink. No two outfits matched. Some bore masks, others exposed their faces. Their faiths all thrummed differently. "There''s no uniform?" Kivas asked. "There''s no doctrine, to be precise," Lyenar said over her shoulder. "Only the role." They arrived at a chamber shaped like a fan, with walls lined in relics: rosaries, staves, broken shields, feathered charms, and emblem-etched disks suspended in transparent fields. It was as if showcasing the diversity of belief shimmered across cultures, eras, and worlds. "Woaah," Kivas awed quietly. In the center of the room stood a single figure. He was massivebroad across the chest, twice the width of any man, and his skin was slate-grey and smooth like polished stone. Where a face should have been, there was a wide vertical mouth, permanently agape. Within that mouth, another face residedhuman-shaped, but serene, unmoving. He sat within a circle of nine glyphs etched into the floor. They pulsed slowly, syncing with his breath. "This is Goliath," Lyenar announced. "He crafts resonance catalysts." "Resonance catalyst?" Goliath didn''t move, but the inner face within the mouth opened its eyes. "I see a seeking soul," he said in a voice that echoed slightly without bouncing. "Which one of you requires the catalyst?" His gaze moved to Samael. Samael stepped aside slightly. "Not me. Her." Kivas lifted a hand. "Hi. Yeah. Me." Goliath inclined his enormous head once. The mouth did not move. Only the internal face showed expression. Lyenar stepped into the light of the glyphs. "Priest classes grow through resonance. This resonance can be anything, whether it is oneself with Fathomi, oneself with Fathomi''s inhabitants, or even oneself with a non-existing concept. "That resonance however, must align with your beliefswhat you find sacred, what you define as purpose. It can be anything. Kindness, vengeance, protection, healing, punishment, beauty, death, order, entropy." "I see," Kivas nodded in contemplation. "You''re simply making your own personal religion to abide by." "In a sense," Samael chuckled, amused by what she was seeing. "But that belief must be concentrated," Lyenar continued. "And to concentrate a will into a resonance, a mind needs an anchor. A lens to pour through." She turned toward Goliath. "That is the purpose of the resonance catalyst." All of the objects displayed in this chamber turned out to be the resonance catalysts, all of the objects that were used to attune oneself to the core of their belief. Chapter 35: Make Your Own Resonance Catalyst! Chapter 35 - Make Your Own Resonance Catalyst!Goliath''s inner face watched Kivas in absolute stillness, the larger mouth framing him never moving. The ambient glyphs around his seated form pulsed once, and a deeper hum vibrated through the floor beneath their feet. "I will now ask questions," Goliath intoned. "Your answers will guide the forging of your resonance catalyst. Speak truthfully. Clarity of self defines the clarity of faith." Kivas inhaled slowly, exhaled through her nose, and nodded once. "I''m ready." Goliath''s first question arrived without pause. "Have you ever consumed flesh?" Kivas blinked. The question seemed simple at first, but she immediately recalled the time she ate a Voidling corpse Samael had harvestedan old trick to link herself to its spirit, creating a weak Nightmare to hunt for attribute growth. Technically, it could also mean flesh in its simplest sense. "Yes," she answered without shame. "Do you find delight in lying?" Kivas frowned slightly. "No, even if it is necessary." "Would you sacrifice yourself for the greater good?" "No," Kivas said flatly. "My death benefits no one unless I choose to frame it that way. But I won''t let the ''greater good'' define my value." Goliath did not comment, simply shifted the pressure of his presence and continued. "Do you dearly cherish your belongings?" "That depends on the context," Kivas replied. "If you mean ''do I appreciate and value the things I own,'' then yes. But if you mean ''do I attach myself to them,'' then no." "Why not?" Goliath asked, his voice deepening by degrees. "Because nothing in my grasp stays forever," Kivas said with measured calm. "Things break. Things are stolen. People die. And I''ve learned not to pretend otherwise. Just being able to say something existed in my lifethat''s enough. I don''t need to keep it chained to my soul." "A logical answer," Goliath observed. "But more generalized than you admit." "I think general truths hold best when they''re shaped by specific experience." Silence reigned for a breath. Then the next question followed, shaped more like a blade than a sentence. "Which matters morethe means or the end?" "Neither," Kivas answered, voice stronger now. "The means, the ends, and the person must align. The ends have to be worthwhile. The methods have to be ethical. And the person must act with integrity... "If you do something awful for a noble outcome, you''re just clever evil. If you do something kind for a cruel purpose, it''s still rot wrapped in silk. And a good person doing good thing without achieving anything is just naivety." Goliath tilted his massive head slightly. "You are greedy." Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas smirked. "I call it ambitious. Civilization doesn''t evolve by clinging to the status quo. We invent. We experiment. We imagine new ways. That''s how progress works." Goliath accepted that with no visible emotion. "If forced, would you commit evil?" "Yes." "Will you betray?" "No." A moment of silence stretched across the chamber. Kivas did not blink. Then Goliath asked the next question with a quieter tone, softer than the others, yet somehow heavier. "Have you ever dreamed of a greener pasture?" Kivas stilled. Her fingers lightly tapped her thigh. "Maybe," she said slowly. "I think everyone does at some point. It''s a longing for better circumstances. A fresh start. A chance to escape your current self or current cage. I guess I''ve thought about it... "But I don''t know if I ever fully believed it. I''m not sure if I''m dissatisfied or just... drifting." Goliath''s inner face closed its eyes. "A deeply introspective, principled, and paradoxically grounded-yet-aspiring soul," he announced. His voice echoed louder now, as if speaking not just to the room, but into the core of the world itself. "You accept impermanence, yet aim to shape permanence. You value ethics, purpose, and self without elevating one above the others. You abandon attachment, yet cling to clarity. You can transgress when cornered, but refuse betrayal as a line too far. You seek more, not from greed, but from the deep, human ache to make meaning." The air tightened, glyphs flaring with intensity. Then a swirl of light bled into being before Goliath, forming a rising flame that held no heat. Within the fire, something coalesceda shape, slowly rotating. The resonance catalyst revealed itself as a double-helix rod of silvery white, each twist a spiral of mirrored tension. It arched slightly like a rising horizon. At its top, a singular circle stood suspended, with a vertical line descending through its center. The line split at the base into a symmetrical fork, like a tree root or a flame splitting at its origin. Kivas stared in awe. Goliath described the shape as he summoned it. "The helix represents duality, growth, and continuity. The curve is a hope rising from the present. The circle is completion, awareness, and the cycles of all things. The line, is direction, purpose, and the anchoring truth. The fork is your choice, your divergence, your evolution." Lyenar stepped forward, committing the image to memory with her eyes closed. The glow of the object reflected on her skin as she opened her eyes again. "I will have it forged by our church artisans," she said. "Return tomorrow. We will deliver the completed catalyst and conduct the Baptism. Your Priest path will be formally acknowledged, and your resonance will greatly take root." Kivas let out a slow breath, shoulders slightly slouched in the aftermath. "This... has a lot more steps than I expected." "Likewise, all of my questions differ from person to person," Goliath said. "Normally, I would question more, but your philosophy is quite stable from the start, and it only needs to be forged through willpower and experience." Samael chimed in with a satisfied expression. "If you look at it from a personal perspective, this system is made to nourish your growth. Without the alignment of belief and firm structure from the beginning, your progression would suffer bottlenecks and inconsistencies." Lyenar inclined her head. "That is wise of you. Very few understand this quickly." Samael gave a rare, unguarded smile. "My compliments in return. Both you and Goliath have given me a new form of wisdom today." Goliath bowed his massive head once, then resumed stillness, the inner face again closing its eyes. The fire that held the resonance catalyst extinguished itself, leaving only its memory behind. Chapter 36: Azulus, The Enigmatic Rodent Chapter 36 - Azulus, The Enigmatic RodentThe gentle shimmer of the church''s glyph-lit halls slowly faded behind them as Kivas and Samael stepped back into the more grounded rhythm of the bastion''s outer walkways. The light was dimmer now, slanting sideways through the floating lanterns that lined the roads. Warm hues spilled over cobbled paths and the soft-spoken hum of distant conversation echoed in intervals. Several of the priests, including Lyenar, gave small nods as the two passed the entrance of the church, their expressions bearing a quiet formality. Kivas turned and waved with a bright smile. "Thanks for everything! We''ll be back tomorrow!" Lyenar inclined her head with a slow gesture of farewell, her scar catching the light slightly as her robe whispered across the stone. "May your faith enlighten your path." "Come back again, you two!" "Don''t be afraid to join the daily prayer!" And so did the other priests that joined along after the meeting with Goliath. Sar?h the ovlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas adjusted the loose fold of her scar and glanced up at Samael. "We''ve still got a few hours. You tired?" "I do not tire in any meaningful way," Samael replied, her tone a notch drier than usual. "Same. Let''s go kill time." Rather than venture into unfamiliar areas, Kivas instinctively turned toward the scent trail of sizzling spice and iron-rich sweetness that lingered in her memory. It wasn''t long before the familiar crooked roof and dancing lanterns of Charishe''s restaurant came into view. The Tall-eared Workers were still out, one of them balanced precariously on a stool while scrubbing what appeared to be a lanternfish-shaped grill pan with a comically oversized brush. The moment they stepped into the outdoor seating ring, Charishe''s voice rang out from behind the counter. "Well, well, if it isn''t my favorite newbies! What brings the soulmate duo back here so soon? Miss me already?" "We didn''t want to wander too far," Kivas replied, sliding into one of the curved seats. "Also, your place has a good ambiance and view of the street." Samael took the seat beside her, silent as usual but not dismissive. One of the Tall-eared Workers appeared almost instantly with two mugs of chilled root-brew. Charishe beamed. "I''m honored. Most people only come here for the food." "I''m pretty sure you''re putting addictive stuff in it," Kivas snickered. "Only addictive if you have taste." They sat for a few moments in comfortable quiet. Behind them, the restaurant bustled as small orders were passed across counters and sizzling trays were handed off to workers with exaggerated fox-like ears that twitched every time someone shouted an order. Maybe now was the right time for Kivas to get curious about the senior Void Hunter that she met a few moments ago. Samael saw what Kivas was about to say and gestured a hand, "Go for it." Kivas nodded. "Hey, Charishe. You ever heard of someone named Azulus?" "Azulus? That name rings a bell." Charishe''s brow lifted, lips quirking. "Short? Looks young? Giant mouse ears?" Kivas nodded, chuckling at how synchronized their impressions were. "That''s her. We''re going on our first expedition with her soon. As a much more senior-senior locale of Solvish Keep, anything that we can note about? Samael silently watched Charishe''s expression as it shifted from amused recognition to contemplative curiosity. "I remember seeing her for the first time about a year ago," Charishe said. "She''s not a local, though. Not exactly. She comes and goes. I only see her maybe once every month. Sometimes two." "So, she just disappears and appear from time to time?" "Disappears, reappears, and always wields a different oversized weapon each time. Never the same one twice. Still always too big for her." Charishe chuckled. "I find that fact amusing." "Is it safe for us to take her request?" Kivas asked, genuine concern touching her tone now. Charishe leaned on the table, resting her chin on one hand. "Honestly? I''m not sure what to say. I''ve barely talked to her. She''s friendly enough, but there''s a weird distance." Then she lowered her voice and leaned closer, the edges of her grin sharpening. "But I have heard rumors." Kivas leaned in as well, elbow propped on the table. "Now we''re talking." "There''s been whispers," Charishe began, "that Azulus has been an F-grade for a very long time. Way longer than you''d expect. Years, maybe. Yet everyone who''s ever gone on an expedition with her comes back with drastically different opinions." "How different are we talking?" "Polarized. Some say she''s absurdly strong. Could probably jump grades if she wanted. Others say she''s borderline incompetent, and the only reason she survives is because she''s carried or lucky. It never settles. Always swings back and forth. "Some say that she is shy, some say that she is nice, some say that she is mischievous. One time, she went on a quite risky expedition with ten other Void Hunters of her grade. The expedition returned with only four people alive to tell the tale. "The survivor mentioned how Azulus barely does anything to contribute until at the last moments where she appeared to fight like an A grade Void Hunter with thousands and beyond average attribute stats, multiple advanced classes, and hundreds of skills." "That''s bizarre," Kivas muttered. "There''s even a theory," Charishe added in a whisper, "that she''s not even a normal hunter. Some think she''s a direct agent from Karasu Association. Sent here to monitor things, but under deep cover." Samael sipped from her cup without shifting her posture. "She''s extremely cautious," she said after a moment. "That''s what I noticed." "I''m not saying she''s dangerous." Charishe retracted with a smug. "Just aware of something she doesn''t share." The mood at the table shifted slightly as the quiet stretched. Eventually, Charishe leaned back and clapped her hands together lightly. "Well, no use chewing the worry-grass over a mission that hasn''t even started. Let''s change gears. You two ever thought of staying here for a bit longer?" Kivas blinked. "You mean like, properly staying? Not just crashing the inn?" "We haven''t even tried the inn yet," Samael quipped. "Yeah. Setting roots, even if it''s shallow. I''m saying this because you two look like fun people to keep around. Some of the locals here even already agreed with that statement." Charishe gave a double finger-guns. "We have keen eyes and judgement when it comes to personality and potential, you know?" Kivas looked at Samael, then back to Charishe. "I guess... maybe? We haven''t really talked about that." Samael offered her own thought, "Solvish Keep is well-structured. Not too large to create class divisions, not too small to collapse under pressure. Its collective governance makes it stable, and the Association influence keeps its systems responsive. "There isn''t much to complain about either. Helping around the activity of the bastion alone seems like a feasible way to keep oneself maintained." "I was going to say that," Charishe pointed out with a mock pout. "Stealing my lines, scary dragon-winged lady." "She is a scary one, alright," Kivas teasingly smiled. "I gave you two too much leeway in conversation." "Well, if you two ever decide, I can talk to the people at the builder camp and the Solvish Guild," Charishe continued. "They''ll cut you a fair deal for land. Being a noble helps too, Kivas." "Does the Solvish Chapter act as the town council or something?" Kivas asked. "Kinda?" Charishe waved a hand vaguely. "It''s more like a joint system. The Solvish Keep runs on overlapping management. Builders, traders, guild folks, even the inn staff, all play a role. The Chapter just helps hold it all together." "So there''s no one in charge?" "Correct," Charishe confirmed. "We just... make it work." Kivas exhaled and leaned back, thoughtful. "That''s honestly amazing." They lingered for a while longer, discussing odd menu ideas, strange visitor stories, and the occasional local superstition. Charishe eventually introduced them to a few of her regularsan eyeless bark-skin courier, a glass-jawed artifact hunter, and a veteran named Thassel who claimed he once suplexed a boulder back into orbit. Most of the introductions ended with mild laughter or exchange of food tips. It was certainly a good place to hang out with how open the customers were with its chef. Kivas also connected with this world more than a mere tell-a-tale that Samael dumped time to time. Then the sky above the bastion shifted hue. One of the floating markers above the central pillar rang softly, indicating the passage of another hour. Charishe pointed toward the shifting sky. "That''s your cue." "Alright," Kivas stood, straightened her outfit, and stretched her arms. "Time to meet the senior rodent. Thank you for the time everyone!" "Good luck on your first expedition!" "Break a leg, masked lady!" The two of them already appeared to be quite the topic the moment they entered Solvish Keep, so it was easy enough to converse as the locals were already likely to have heard of the gossip beforehand. "That''s quite the fun time," Kivas grinned a teasing shine under a half-lidded gaze. "What do you think, Samael? How''s the experience on your side?" "I find it not uncomfortable," Samael merely answered with a faint smile on her face. "I prefer my time being alone with you, if you want my honest opinion." "Y-you really know how to tease a maiden, huh." "It won''t be for long." "What." "Nothing." "You can''t just retract that! I have good memories!" At the same place where they once met the rodent girl for the first time, Azulus stood waiting. But she wasn''t alone anymore. Three new individuals had arrived and stood beside her, each bearing the posture of someone who had signed a pact with danger. Chapter 37: Preparing For The Expedition Chapter 37 - Preparing For The ExpeditionAzulus stood calmly at the agreed meeting point, her oversized katana resting against the paved stones beside her. She glanced toward Kivas and Samael the moment they stepped into view, and then gestured behind her with a slight tilt of the head. "I managed to recruit three more," she announced. "Hope you don''t mind." "Not at all," Kivas replied. "The more the merrier." Samael gave a simple nod in agreement. Standing behind Azulus were three distinct individuals. The first was a cloaked figure whose entire body seemed to waver in form, as though made from compressed mist. His outline held, but his features were in constant flux, like vapor barely stitched together by will. Despite his lack of a face, he gave a polite half-bow. "Joyhan. Fog-borne, in a way. But in this world, I''m still considered a human," he said, voice airy and smooth, echoing faintly as if spoken from multiple directions at once. "F-grade, nice to meet you." "Kivas Chariot. I''m a new Void Hunter, nice to meet you all!" She then pointed to Samael. "This is Samael, same circumstances, but less sociable." Samael merely smileD faintly, more so from Kivas'' adorable attempt more than the joy of meeting new people. Next was a broad-shouldered man, his red skin marked with old scars that shimmered slightly in the fading sunlight. A single horn jutted out from the center of his forehead, curving slightly upward. His armor looked hand-forged and heavy, layered in mismatched plates reinforced by cracked bone. He gave a casual wave. "Toriq. G-grade." he said with a deep voice, rough around the edges but friendly. "We''re in the same grade then. Hope we can get along." "Let''s do our best!" Kivas cheered, while Samael merely nodded. The third was a young woman who kept herself partially behind the others, her arms crossed and gaze fixed on the ground. Her hair was a thick weave of dark mossy strands tied behind her neck. A massive alligator tail dragged behind her, swaying slightly even when she didn''t move. "Beilan," she said curtly. "G-grade." "Kivas Chariot, thanks for having me," Kivas said as curtly. Azulus cleared her throat to bring everyone''s attention. "Now that introductions are out of the way, let''s begin the briefing." "I wonder what will be the destination of our first expedition," Kivas said in a hushed tone. "Do you have an idea of what it will be?" Samael smirked, "It is as clear as a day." "We''ll be raiding what''s classified as a Xenorealm." The group shifted slightly at the term, and Kivas leaned forward slightly with interest. Azulus turned toward her, tilting her head. "Do you know what a Xenorealm is?" Azulus said, referring to Kivas and Samael since they were new in this industry. "I do," Samael said immediately, raising a hand, "and I know everything about it." She turned and pointed at Kivas without looking. "She doesn''t." Kivas shrugged. Azulus nodded, and began kindly explaining, "A Xenorealm is a separate dimension or world that operates on laws and foundations foreign to Fathomi. Think of it as a bubble of alien reality that somehow became tethered here... "The reason for the tethering is unknown, but a natural entrance to a Xenorealm is created from time to time due to the instability of Fathomi''s core of existence. "But if you''re wondering if it is safe to enter a domain of unknown law and rule of existence, then don''t be afraid. If we enter a Xenorealm through a direct entrance that conjoin these two worlds together, Fathom''s rules and influence will also permeate the foreign world, allowing us to traverse and explore it." Azulus held up her Void Hunter Tag. Thin lines of silver light spiraled from her fingers, brushing through the air until they connected to the tags held by each member of the party. "Coordinates transmitted. Everyone can attune to your tags to check on the coordinates I sent." Kivas held her tag up as it vibrated faintly, a new resonance spiraling through her palm. Her vision blurred slightly as the coordinates embedded themselves into the tag''s runic core, entering Kivas'' mind and soul and presenting itself like some sort of a personal, spiritual, GPS. "Woah, this is interesting." "This same function," Azulus added, glancing at Kivas, "can be used to locate nearby Void Hunter Guild or Chapters. Keep that in mind." Even then, something still feel conjoined in the reasoning of this expedition. Kivas raised her hand. "Why are we going into a dangerous unstable place, again? What''s the reward?" Azulus met her gaze. "Remember when I said that the phenomenon and rules that exist in Fathomi will also happen to the Xenorealm? This includes the inclusion of Curios." "Ah!" Azulus continued, "Not only that, when Fathomi''s influence touches a foreign world, it creates dissonance. That dissonance leads to improbable outcomes. Events that shouldn''t happendo. "One of those outcomes is an increased probability of high-tier Curios spawning naturally. This also doesn''t include the amount of exotic objects and material. "Items of great power, unusual structure, and impossible utility can be harvested from within Xenorealms. It''s high risk, high reward." Azulus gave Kivas an encouraging thumbs up. Beilan raised her hand, her expression still closed off. "How do we divide the loot?" "Everything we bring out is pooled," Azulus replied. "Then distributed based on merit and contribution. No exceptions unless otherwise agreed before we begin. I believe fairness is best decided by those who risked their lives." Toriq gave a single nod of approval. Joyhan gave a thumbs-up gesture with one of his swirling hands. "No other questions?" Azulus asked, scanning the group. No one spoke. Azulus then continued once again, "This particular Xenorealm is new. The intel hasn''t reached the larger channels yet. That means we have a first-entry advantage. Untouched space. Unclaimed loot. Virgin terrain. "But it also means no safety net. If something goes wrong, we cannot request help. The Karasu Association, Solvish Chapter, or even basic tag connectivity might fail inside." "That''s terrifying," Kivas muttered, half to herself. "Exciting," Joyhan whispered cheerfully. Kivas glanced at Samael, lowering her voice. "The Void Hunter Tag has more functionality than I expected." Samael tapped her tag gently. "A marvel of collective design. Humanity''s ingenuity is known to have no bound, especially when death is constant." Azulus then clasped her hands. "You have ten minutes to prepare. Restock. Eat. Trade. I''ll wait at the Solvish gate." She then blinked left and right, teleporting and leaving afterimages like back then. The three others began dispersing without much communication, minding for their own supplies and overall preparation. Left standing in the now-quiet square, Kivas turned to Samael. "We''re not prepping?" "We''re already prepared." Kivas pursed her lips. "Are you sure?" "I''ve been through Xenorealms before," Samael replied calmly. "Not all, but many. Enough to know what patterns to expect, and which ones never repeat." Kivas took a breath, let her thoughts slow, and nodded. "That helps." Samael''s gaze softened slightly. "It should." "I trust you more than anything in this world as of now, you know?" "And I plan to maintain that status quo." "You don''t want me to trust others more than you?" "How would you feel if your adorable pet began to latch on to others instead of their owner?" "I''m not a pet." sea??h th ovlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "To me, you are," Samael chuckled, albeit with a pretty scary smile. "If that''s the case, then how come you made me hunt for food myself?" Kivas pouted. "That''s called training." "You really are firm in this whole pet-play shenanigans, huh." The quiet was peaceful for a moment longer. Then the distant bell of the gate chimed, signaling the passage of the final minute. Together, Kivas and Samael walked through the familiar paths back toward the outer edge. As they neared the massive gate and walls lined with ballistae, they spotted Azulus waiting patiently. To one side, Voille stood beside a pile of stacked crates, arms folded. When they spotted the two of them, their eye sockets shimmered briefly. "Vagabonds," they said in a low tone, waving their hand. Kivas replied with a wave of her own. While waiting for the other three, Kivas and Samael informed Voille of their thoughts and experience within the Solvish Keep for the past few hours. From their registration to the Solvish Chapter, getting recruited by Azulus, and to the present moment. Chapter 38: A Building? A Car? Must鈥檝e Grown Naturally Chapter 38 - A Building? A Car? Must''ve Grown NaturallyThe newly spawned entrance to a Xenorealm wasn''t far. That alone confirmed the value of the information Azulus had gatheredSolvish Keep wasn''t even a full day''s trek away from the place where reality bent inward. For a Void Hunter still ranked F, Azulus'' access to this level of intel was rare, if not suspicious. "May the wind graze your pastures, Void Hunters," Voille said as Kivas and everyone departed. "I''ll treat you to a meal when I''m back!" Kivas enthusiastically shouted. "Are you expecting to bring back a treasure trove of Curio items with that statement?" Samael teased. "You barely have ten of them to buy anything." "Promising someone for a meal is not a big deal~" Kivas chuckled. "I can try begging Charishe to give us food if all else fails." "And I can threaten her, if you want," Samael said with a confident sly smile. "I don''t think we want such infamy with that one." They departed without fanfare. Seven Void Hunters stepped beyond the bastion''s protective field, walking as one unit into the deeper maze of nature built by Fathomi. And as they walked, Kivas noticed that the environment that she was about to tread would be very far different from the Vaingall she knew. The terrain twisted subtly the further they advanced. Tree roots coiled like arteries across cracked stone, and the air shimmered with slow-moving specks of silverresidual traces of aether distortion. In less than an hour, they encountered their first cluster of Voidlings. "Formation!" Azulus took the helm of command. "These Voidlings are low stats and leveled, but still proceed with caution!" They weren''t difficult. Gangly beasts, shaped like half-skeletal wolves with glass jaws and tendrils that shimmered when they snarled. Their attacks came in flickering movements, but they lacked strategy or coordination. They seemed to have the intelligence to possess Well of the Soul, but their vocabularies were very minimalistic and animal-like. It makes one wonder how they survived until now. "I got this one!" Kivas jumped into the fray without hesitation, her Coralblade carving through one of the Voidlings'' sides, the life essence trailing along her skin like a gentle static before it surged inward, temporarily boosting her speed and physical energy. "Becareful, newbie!" Toriq followed suit, slamming his horned head into a second beast with a kinetic crunch, before swinging a metalwork hammer at the beast''s spine. Joyhan phased forward, his misty form drifting and reforming as his attacks came from unexpected angles. "Back out!" Hands in the air, and multiple knives of different shapes and material emerged from Joyhan''s cloak, before slithering into the air and sought the vital point of the skeletal beast. Contributing to the gang fight, Beilan landed a solid tail-swipe to the last Voidling, stunning it long enough for Azulus to plunge her katana through its back. The creature convulsed once before dissipating into wisps of unformed memory. Meanwhile, as everything unfolded, Samael stood to the side, arms crossed, having moved only a few steps throughout the entire skirmish. Her expression remained unreadable, and was mostly focused on Kivas and anything related to her. By contribution metric in that fight, Kivas should get around four Nightmares of these wolves. Kivas couldn''t wait to beat these small fries once again in her dream just to gain those sweet sweet attributes. Obviously, everyone also got their share of Nightmares that they would harvest at later time. Everyone except Samael. Kivas caught the narrowed glance Beilan shot at Samael. As they continued walking, the alligator-tailed woman finally broke her silence and addressed Kivas. "Your friend doesn''t do anything." Kivas arched a brow, pretending to be casual, but she could feel the temperature of the atmosphere tightening. Samael heard it. She was sure of it. "That lady is stronger than you think," Kivas chewed her words carefully before speaking. "She is kinda not here to show off. If she took care of everything, no one would get stronger~" Kivas shrugged. "That''s an excuse." By just looking at Beilan''s expression, Kivas could tell what she was thinking after that information. If someone doesn''t contribute, they shouldn''t expect a sharewhich was definitely off than what Kivas was trying to convey. Beilan looked sideways at her, and then Samael, skeptical, but decided not to press the issue. As the group moved deeper into the shifting terrain, more Voidlings emergedfluid-bodied creatures that shrieked in dual-tone voices and left trails of hexed ash wherever they touched. They were harder than the pack of half-skeletal wolves, but it wasn''t anything that would endanger their lives. Some got wounded but they were immediately treated with their own Hemo Psyche. "Man, I want to do priestly things, but my resonance catalyst is not here yet," Kivas complained to the air. Samael teasingly smiled. "You can do priestly things without it, you know." The group adapted quickly in that fight, striking from angles, covering blind spots, and timing their attacks with quiet coordination. Each of them got their share of weakened Nightmares of these monsters, thanks to their cooperation. Except for one person. Samael never moved, once again. S~ea??h the Novl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You don''t want a share of the Nightmare too?" Kivas asked Samael as they were lagging at the end of their formation. "You didn''t know this," Samael said with a sly smirk. "I killed more than the centipede I dragged back to you yesterday after our first time meeting." Kivas dramatically gasped. "No wonder you''re chilling, you pre-farmed!" "I don''t know what that means but I understand the intent behind that word." This process repeated for quite a while until a sign of progress was visible in their track. Their path of struggle eventually led them to a clearing, and then to something stranger. A set of structures loomed aheadgray husks of vertical buildings that rose like broken teeth. They were rectangular, decayed, filled with shattered glass panes and rusted metal balconies. Graffiti-like symbols marred some of the lower floors, and exposed wiring dangled like vines. Kivas tilted her head up toward the top of one of the structures. "These are apartments." Samael glanced sideways. "And?" Kivas blinked. "They look exactly like mid-century modern housing blocks. Pre-collapse design, staggered balconies, exterior-mounted AC units. This is ancient urbanization tech!" Her eyes were sparkling. "The lore behind these ruins... they must be exquisite!" "Kivas." Samael faintly smiled. "These buildings, they just... grew." Kivas paused mid-step. "I''m sorry?" "They grew," Samael repeated. "Fathomi mimics patterns. Sometimes it dreams in shapes it barely understands. I''m sorry to shatter your expectations, but these aren''t ruins. They''re more like tumors, natural existence. The land formed them. Not people." Kivas slowly turned in a circle. "... This place reeks of historical density. Are you telling me it''s just a hallucination of civilization?" Joyhan chuckled softly. "Fathomi probably sees these buildings the way plants see leaves. Maybe it thought they''d bear fruit." Toriq nodded. "They don''t, though. Nothing here bears fruit." Kivas stopped beside what looked like a convenience store with shelves made from vertebrae and bone. "Is that a gas station...? What...? Should we loot it?" Beilan pushed past her. "Doesn''t matter. It''s all useless. No food, no resources. Just empty shapes pretending to be useful." Kivas felt slightly irked by that gesture, but it wasn''t anything unforgivable, so Kivas just brushed it off. After everyone''s words at trying to tell Kivas that there wasn''t anything special behind these ruins of the modern landscape, Kivas sighed and accepted the truth. Maybe Fathomi, or in a rather vague case that Kivas remembered, the three eldritch gods that peeked upon her memory to forge some sort of worldthat world is surely Fathomi, right? Maybe they thought that the modern city that Kivas lived in was not man-made and nature made. Well, to think that they were misinterpreting Kivas'' memory, Kivas thought that it was hilarious. And right after Kivas was about to accept the bizarre truth of these ruins A car floated. Not above a track. Not on a ramp. Just... floating. Mid-air. Its undercarriage glowing with faint pulsing glyphs, its doors half-rotted and windows covered in a fine layer of crystallized grime. A wheeled, self-propelled vehicle designed primarily for passenger transportation, a car. The kind that typically runs on roads, seats one to eight people, and has four wheels. That one car that is supposed to be powered by engines that convert chemical energy into kinetic energy to propel itself. Kivas pointed. "Okay, what the actual" "Now that," Joyhan said with an audible grin, "is new." "I''ve seen a lot of things today," Kivas said, "but a levitating car is where I draw the line! I can believe grown buildings, but not a naturally suspending car, especially if they grow naturally there!" Toriq squinted at the object. "Looks like an armored wheeled wagon without any sea-lion dragging it." "Sea-lion what" Beilan didn''t even slow. "Not worth looking at." "Some parts of Fathomi are more unstable than other places." Azulus, on the other hand, was willing to slow down and began explaining the phenomenon, "The sighting of that ''car'' there means that the distortion field is thicker here. "This is a hint that we''re near the entrance of the Xenorealm we''re seeking." Azulus smiled. "So this car is a side effect?" Kivas asked. "Yes. This zone''s dissonance is climbing. We''re entering a place where things no longer obey familiarity." The group continued down a ramp made from stacked vehicles and rebar, the descent leading to what had once been an underground parking lot. Rusted signs flickered above the entry, their lettering partially in script, partially in unknown runes. And then there was. A thin barrier shimmered at the far wall. A soft spiral of distortionlike a bubble trapped in concrete, rippling with slow intent. "There it is," Azulus said. Everyone stopped. Kivas stared at the entrance. "That''s the entrance to the Xenorealm, huh." "And this is the calmest it''ll ever be." Samael nodded. "This kind of entrance is usually more volatile. We''re quite lucky to find one this passive." Joyhan flickered slightly, the edges of his form reacting to the boundary. "It''s definitely fresh. Still forming and reaching its peak activity!" "Remember, everyone." Azulus turned to face them. "This is a new breach. We''ll be the first in. Expect anything. Assume nothing." Kivas reached instinctively toward her dagger. Samael placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don''t brace too early. You''ll tense too fast." Kivas exhaled slowly. They stood in silence for a moment longer, the air thick with expectation. And then they walked forward. Chapter 39: Exploring The Xenorealm Chapter 39 - Exploring The XenorealmThe ringing started faintly, like a series of bells far in the distancethen came the sensation of their tolls reverberating through Kivas'' bones, clanging again and again until her vision broke apart. The Xenorealm unraveled before her. "Woah..." Clouds blanketed the horizon below, tinged in soft shades of gold and cyan, their edges curling upward as though rising rather than falling. Floating islands drifted across the expanse, suspended by columns of mist that spiraled with a steady rhythm like a heartbeat. Above them, where the sky should have opened to an endless atmosphere, instead there loomed an inverted continentan upside-down world bristling with alien spires, towering monoliths, and living structures that defied symmetry. The landscape bore no horizon, only depth. The upper expanse stretched infinitely, layered in impossible architecture. Some parts pulsed gently, others hovered midair with appendages of living stone reaching outward like antennae. The scale was disorienting, the gravity subjective, and it was still nothing but breathtaking to witness through Kivas'' own eyes. Connecting all of the floating islands, were vast ropes made of sinewed flesh wound from one floating landmass to another, their veined lengths twitching occasionally as if aware of the party''s presence. On the islands themselves, trees shaped like pulsating neural clusters swayed in a nonexistent wind, their branching dendrites folding inward and outward like breathing thought. No one spoke for a while. The entire party stood still, each struggling with their own threshold of awe, fear, and the unease of existing in something this alien. Azulus broke the silence. "If anyone wants to head back for a break, eat something, breathe a littlethis is the moment. We''ve crossed through, and there seems to be no immediate danger unless we search for it." No one moved. "I''m staying," Joyhan said, his voice diffused. "Same," Toriq grunted. Kivas shook her head. "I still feel energetic!" "If Kivas stays, then I''ll stay, simple as that," Samael shrugged. With mutual agreement, they stepped further into the Xenorealm. Azulus led them across the first island, their boots pressing into soft, sponge-like ground layered with tendrils of pale flesh. Fungal stalks jutted upward intermittently, releasing faint streams of colorless spores that shimmered with inner luminescence. Glassy slugs slid past their feet, dragging behind trails that crystallized seconds after passing. Crystal-shelled hermit crabs huddled between stones, twitching each time someone approached, their shells radiating unstable bursts of energy. Joyhan extended an arm to scoop up a slug. It popped like a water balloon when he touched it, dissolving into a cloud of refracted light. "That one''s off the list," he muttered. They continued forward, eventually arriving at the edge of a floating isle where the flesh-rope bridge awaited themthick, veined, and taut between landmasses. It pulsed underfoot as they crossed, as though responding to their weight, guiding them forward rather than resisting their passage. "New location mapped," Azulus said, tapping her tag. "Marking this bridge as a stable connector." They reached the next island where their first treasure awaitedan embedded Curio, partially fused into the pulsing trunk of a brain-tree. The chest was cubic, its surface layered with mirrored flesh and dull bone, and it quivered when they approached. Certainly not the usual shape and appearance of the Curio one could find in Fathomi. Beilan stepped forward, her expression sharper than usual. "Let me try disarming it" Joyhan drifted beside her, lifting a hand. "Allow me. I''ve got a knack for high-risk absurdities." The mist man winked. Without waiting for permission, he stripped away his cloak and gear, revealing his full bodyhis torso swirled with vaporous patterns, features breaking apart and reforming constantly, like steam trapped in human shape. Kivas felt a little bit awkward but then noticed that nobody reacted seeing it. "Here I go~" Joyhan touched the Curio. An instant later, Kivas saw hundredsthousandsof slashes erupting from nowhere, cutting across every inch of Joyhan''s body. He didn''t flinch, and neither was his life. "Whops, looks like the trap is an extremely difficult one," Joyhan said after a pause. "The trap consists of a single scenario of being chased away by what appeared to be an almighty being. I saw some glyphs and shapes that might be a hint to disarm the scenario, but my stats seem to be too low to decipher them." He grinned. "This means that there is a chance that the loot is very good." Azulus nodded. "Noble-tier or above, most likely." Samael''s smile stretched unnaturally wide. "May I?" Azulus made no objection. "I wish you luck then." Samael approached the Curio. When her fingers reached the chest, a wave of sigils burst outward from its surface, swirling oncethen folding inward and vanishing. The chest opened. Everyone was in awe, especially Joyhan who was on his way to get all of his clothing back. "I appreciate the information," Samael faintly smiled, referring to Joyhan. "To risk your own life to scout the trap ahead, well done." "Your praise is highly valued~" Joyhan bowed and tipped his knife. Kivas however, was not agape from that. Her eyes aggressively latched at the content that was revealed from the disarmed chest. Within it lay a cylindrical object nearly as long as Kivas'' torso, coated in dark grey metallic shellwork, with warning runes etched into its tail end. Kivas took a step forward, stared for a full two seconds, then raised both hands into the air. "No. No way. Thisthis is!" Kivas screamed. "A goddamn ballistic missile!" Toriq peered over. "Someone seems to be high in energy, I wonder what that thing is." While Kivas was having a breakdown in the background, Samael inspected the new loot calmly. "Name inscribed within its existence. Crumbling Judgment. Trait seems to be capable of manifesting or a projection of propelling thrust on the side where the exhaust is positioned... "An extremely volatile energy is detected within it, which can be controlled by the owner that soul-equips it. It can also regenerate." Kivas paced in a small circle, arms thrown up. "What the hell Fathomi!? You can''t just decide to shove an entire regenerating explosive delivery system into a treasure box! A missile! A literal, chemical-kinetic death cylinder of doom! AAAAA!" "Regenerate?" Joyhan asked with keen interest. "The cool kind of regeneration?" "Yes," Samael confirmed with confidence. "To put it in another word, the inner resonance maintains a renewal loop. Upon destruction, its molecular structure reconstitutes and reconstructs its own entire existence. It''s soul-equippable, responds to will, and contains a detonation core." Kivas threw her hands down. "It''s a frickin'', regenerating, ballistic missile!" Azulus, seemingly unbothered by the absurdity, smiled. "It''s an Exotic-tier weapon. A strong one at that too, just basing it from Samael''s analysis alone." She then gazed at Kivas who was doing some sort of ritual dance of madness. "She seems to understand its origin, how about I suggest to have this weapon to be equipped by her, at least until the end of expedition?" "That''s a good idea!" Joyhan whistled. "Seeing how strong it can be, that weapon alone might increase our combat power by a lot, especially on the right hand," Toriq agreed with a nod and a smile. "I don''t object..." Beilan sheepishly nodded. Still reeling, Kivas accepted the weapon and slung it over her back beside her shotgun. "Congratulations," Samael said with a slow smirk. "You''re now walking artillery." "I have evolved... with this piece of military artifact in my hand..." From that point onward, the expedition began to spiral into fortune. Each new floating island offered something newfragments of foreign metals, unusual elemental stones, and twisted remnants of whatever culture once built the upside-down skyworld above them. Not to mention, more Curios and oscillating tiers of loots. The expedition stored everything they could grab within the Xenorealm into a storage outpost that was established right before the entrance to this bizarre world. And in case that it might get stolen, Azulus expanded a private field, folding a pocket of subspace to contain the more valuable items, and on top of that, hiding them from plain sight. Kivas'' mind began to churn as she stared at Azulus, "Spatial manipulation, hmm..." "Hmm?" Azulus'' entire arsenal, it seemed, revolved around spatial manipulation. The way she blinked and teleported in short distance multiple times under a short timespan, and also how she could be seen manifesting an invisible staircase for the expedition team when there was no visible path from one floating island to another, is a testament of that. And with the amount of progress that they made, the expedition team decided to create a second outpost inside the Xenorealm, alongside a teleportation checkpoint that allowed one to teleport to another checkpoint located on the entrance of this world. This whole system was erected by Azulus And Samael. "To think that we might possess the same hidden class..." Azulus commented. Samael replied with a mischievous smile, "It should be a hidden class no more if there is more than one person that knows of its existence." "Without spoiling what this class is," Kivas chimed in, wanting to sate her curiosity without probing too much at other''s Well of the Soul personal information. "Is there a chance that I might be able to acquire it too?" "A very low chance, that is," Azulus smirked. "Zero percent, to be honest," Samael followed. "Guh!" By the time they fully established a second outpost, everyone was tired but accomplished. The shimmering light of the horizon crackled faintly around as Kivas settled into a moment of peace, laying on the moss-textured ground, looking up to the alien world above them. And of course, where there was Kivas, there would be Samael somewhere near her, "This is quite the experience," Kivas said with a comfy smile. "Glad that you took delight in this," Samael smiled to the happy face she saw on her soulmate. S~ea??h the novlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Beilan approached quietly. She stood before Kivas and Samael, her posture uncharacteristically tense. "I want to apologize," she said. "I misjudged you. Both of you. Especially you." Her eyes flicked to Samael. "I greatly apologize..." Samael looked her over once, then waved a hand. "I don''t take offense." Kivas wryly grinned. "It''s alright. Samael is not holding grudges. Or else, you would be dealt with already." Kivas waved her hand as if she was throwing a casual retort. Samael added after a moment, "Still, if I may give a thought. Unless you have the strength to dismiss someone completely, it is more advantageous to form connections." "Aww, what kind word from the almighty Samael," Kivas teased. "Relationships are levers," Samael continued, "use them, manipulate them, utilize them wisely." Kivas turned slowly toward her, face filled with disappointment. "I almost felt proud until that last sentence." Beilan absorbed the comment, then bowed with respect. "I''ll remember that." The air relaxed again. Everyone sat quietly, either eating or observing the alien landscape. At this point, they should have collected enough loot to be exchanged for a great amount of rewards and services on the Solvish Chapter. And by the off chance, promote their grade! Even if a foreign party entered and began monopolizing this Xenorealm, Kivas and the rest of the expedition would be happy to let it be. "It''s bizarre," Kivas said. "But peaceful." "It is..." Beilan answered, still acting shyly around Kivas and Samael. "Hmm..." Samael hummed with unsureness. Kivas'' gaze drifted upwardtoward the ceiling world far above, layered in black towers and shimmering chains of light. Then she paused. A singular black dot glowed faintly near one of the monoliths on the world above. It pulsed once, then twice, and so on, rhythmically, like a heartbeat made of void. Samael stood immediately and prepared herself. "Kivas." "I see it...!" The flickering intensified in an extremely short timespan! A blink later, something impossibly fast plummeted. Before anyone could react, a glowing stone the size of a small fortress crashed down from above, its form wrapped in molten runescrushing Beilan under its massive lump of wrath. Chapter 40: Allegro Chapter 40: AllegroThe moment Kivas saw the monolith crush Beilan, her thoughts shattered and realigned into a rapid spiral of clarity. Every sound became a bell, clanging through the cathedral of her skull. It echoed until the ringing became rhythm. Clanging, splattering, and smearing everything in every direction of her senses. Her vision slowed. Her breath shortened. The air thickened, and so did her cold sweats. Kivas was on the ground. "Haa..." Samael was on top of her, hair disheveled, eyes focused on a space that had changed just seconds ago. They werent on the same island anymore. Samaels arm pulsed with residual light from her teleportation. The surroundings shimmered, the curvature of reality bent just enough to recognize that the platform they now stood on hadnt been where they began. A moment later, a second monolith crashed down on one of the floating islands nearbythen another, then two, then ten more! Each slammed into different islands across the floating sea of flesh and stone, shattering the ground with each impact. Trees shaped like beating brains were crushed. Flesh-ropes convulsed and tore. And a second after their landing, all of the Monoliths began secreting a thick fog to their surrounding. Kivas tried to push herself up, disoriented. Samael turned to her, voice direct. "Call it, the Crumbling Judgment." Kivas blinked, only now realizing all of her equipment were in her possession except for the ballistic missile that she left laying on the ground back then. "Right." Her breath hitched. "Calling it now!" She stretched her will into the space where the missile had last existed. She could feel it, barelysomewhere far below in the layer of clouds beneath. Her soul-flame flared, and in response, the missiles dormant spirit ignited. The Crumbling Judgment lit its thruster. Below the horizon, a streak of light cut upward, spiraling with scorching pressure. It roared through the air, burning past islands, flesh, mist, and fragments of shattered terrain. With a hopeful arc and prismatic flame, it reached them. Samael caught it with one arm, twisted her stance, and flung the missile toward the far side of a dense purple fog rolling toward their direction. The missile vanished into the mass. Then it struck something. The fog dispersed instantly in a shockwave of displaced air. Beyond it, the grotesque shape of a crawling monolith revealed itself. Its smooth face dragged across the ground, tentacles extending from every side, each one as thick as a grown mans body, moving like limbs of purpose. Samael didnt hesitate. "They are coming!" She grabbed Kivas again, and carried her. Samael then shifted her stance into a low crouch and springing forward with immense velocity, leaping across the floating terrain. Kivas clung to her as they moved. Her eyes darted from side to side, taking in the devastation. The second outpost was gone. Nothing but fragments of scaffolding and the fading glyphs of their checkpoint remained. The island that once hosted their supply cache was now split into two bleeding halves. Samael leapt again, legs pushing off from the edge of one cracked platform to another. Kivas caught her breath enough to speak. "Whywhy arent you teleporting?" "Costs Hemo and Mana Psyche," Samael said over her shoulder, her tone tight. "Ive used it twice. Im at half capacity. If I waste it now, we die later." The ground behind them erupted as another monolith rose from a different angle, launching itself using tendrils to close the distance. Spikes of obsidian extruded from its sides like blooming claws. Samael dodged intensively. Tentacles lashed across the sky, warping the air from their speed. One clipped the edge of the island Samael had just launched from, sending it into a downward spiral. "Wait, why are they here!?" Kivas scowled. Ahead, Kivas spotted two familiar figures moving toward the direction of the nonexistent second outpost. Toriq and Joyhan. They were running. Kivas shouted, voice cracking, her hands cupped around her mouth. "RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" The distance was too far. Her voice dissipated in the wind. "Too late," Samael snarled. "And they are barely moving around..." Below Toriq, the space warped inward. A black portal bloomed into existence without warning. A single tendril launched upward from it, piercing straight through Toriqs gut, lifting him into the air like a banner on a pole. "Gyah, by the nine!!" Joyhans vaporous form reared back in shock. He flickered, about to dissolveonly for the sky to darken. Another monolith dropped. It crushed the spot where Joyhan stood. But under its weight, familiar mist scattered. Joyhans essence fractured in a hundred directions, twisting into lines of escaping fog. For a moment, he almost made it outhis pieces drawn toward one another in hopes of recombination. But then tendrils burst from the monoliths surface. Dozens, then hundreds, erupting in impossible directions, faster than sound. They wrapped around each mist-line, sealing every route of escape, closing in until the mist turned solid and silent. "Dammit!" Kivas gritted her teeth, watching it all unfold helplessly. "Waah!?" Samael shifted her grip, hoisting Kivas over her shoulder like a sack of feathers. "Be fret not," Samael said with conviction. "Were not dying here." She reached for her cinquedea with one hand. The blade sparked with radiance. Samael hurled it forward, the weapon trailing a beam of focused light like a tethered anchor. It latched onto the branch of one of the brain-trees two islands away. Reality convulsed, and their positions swapped. Kivas blinkedand they were now standing where the brain tree was. Kivas looked back and saw the tree fumbling around in their former spot. And in that same instance, one of the monoliths behind was now impaling the space they had just abandoned. Kivas gasped as the Crumbling Judgment reformed along her shoulder. "Aaaa! The missile, it returned!" "Well use it!" Samael took it, cradled the weapon, and commanded Kivas, "Thrust to maximum!" Kivas closed her eyes. Her will expanded. The missile reacted to her call, its thrusters igniting again. Samael let go of her footing, and piloted the missile that she hugged with one arm on her side. "Its too fast!" Kivas shouted as air friction trying to drag her away. "The better!" The pair flew forward under the screaming force of the missiles propulsion, dodging the swarm of heat-seeking tendrils with mere inches of space to spare. The tentacles crashed into the path behind them, smashing through the floating islands and snapping the entire thing in half. And with every second, the tendrils became more and more denser, creating a maelstrom of walls upon walls of extending eldritch tendrils. Samael, witnessing how the tendrils began to creep from every single direction, began to swivel and did a U-turn before releasing her hold on the missile. She then cast an invisible sphere of force around her and Kivas. "Now!" Samael barked. "Detonate it!" Kivas obeyed. "Detonation!" The Crumbling Judgments will clicked. The missile, still locked in full thrust, detonated. Light erupted. A wave of kinetic energy crashed forward, launching them through the air as the barrier absorbed and redirected the blast. At the same time, massacring the waves of tendrils was about to be their doom. They stumbled across another platform, landing in a bruised heap but alive. "Stand up!" Samael rose first, dragging Kivas to her feet. "The longer we stay in a single spot, the faster we sprint to our death!" "Waaaaa...!" Kivas readied her shotgun. Samael retrieved her cinquedea. Below them, the surface tore again. Mini portals opened, tendrils surged upward from it in dense waves. Kivas narrowed her eyes and activated her Fate Weaver skill. Threads of probability twisted around her, guiding her steps, allowing her to slip through near-fatal strikes with micro-adjustments. She twisted her torso. A tendril missed her by a hair. She jolted a step. A tendril missed her by a nail. She pulled the trigger. Sar?h the N??eFire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The blast from her shotgun severed two tentacles in a blink. The weapon fed off her Mana Psyche, turning her fear into fire. At the same time, Samael danced between attacks, blade slashing like silver lightning. She reached for Kivas, catching her by the wrist mid-strike, before pulling her up and over the next advancing platform. "Brace for impact!" "Gyaaaaaaa!" They landed hard again. But at this point, Kivas was already quite exhausted. And in this scenario, where they need to maintain the same speed and efficiency without a single loss of momentum, it could be fatal. Samael saw Kivas despairing face, or at some angleanger, the cumulation of helplessness turned wrath and hatred. Where was this hatred pointed at? Why did this anger exist? Then, before Samael was about to learn the meaning of that expression Kivas wore, she heard a reinforcement. Kivas also heard it, the sound of hope. The sound of a katana being brutally hissed from its sheath. "Kai" At the speed of 75,000 meters per second, or 46.602839 miles per secondan invisible arc of pressure streaked through the atmosphere, slicing through 29 advancing monoliths, cleaving 78 islands, and dismembering 12,873 tentacles in one single stroke. Panting, Kivas turned her headand saw a familiar figure above her, silhouetted by fractured light. Azulus stood there, katana gleaming with unreal heat, eyes calm and unblinkingstorm and flame unflinching. Chapter 41: Cadence Chapter 41: CadenceThe moment the last arc of her slash dissipated into vapor, Azulus lowered her katana, the blade pulsing faintly before it went dim. Her eyes, which a moment ago radiated a terrible clarity, dulled instantly as she stepped back with no strength. Sheathing the blade with one shaky movement, she let out a breathless sigh and collapsed backward, falling with no resistance. Kivas stood frozen, her shotgun lowered, heart hammering in confusion and fear. Words stuck in her throat, speechless and confused, to the point where she finally let go of her strength and grasped onto fatigue. Her legs buckled and she stumbled forward, nearly tripping over uneven ground before catching herself. Azulus lay there, barely conscious, arms slack at her side except for the one still gripping the hilt of her weapon like it was a lifeline. Kivas dropped to her knees beside her. "Azulus... heyare you okay?" Azulus tilted her head slightly, eyes half-lidded and expression unreadable. Her voice came slow, dry, as though each word cost her a breath she barely had. "Used all of it. HP, MP... might not be able to move much for five minutes." "Five minutes?!" Kivas looked around the shattered floating island. "They might come back" "They will," Azulus confirmed. "Soon." Panic permeate Kivas face. Her arms slipped beneath the much smaller frame of Azulus, who didnt resist as Kivas lifted her off the ground. The weight wasnt much, but the anxiety threading through Kivas body made her arms feel like melting wax. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Azulus still clutched her sheathed katana tightly as if she had forgotten how to let go. A second later, Kivas felt herself lifted. "Samael...?" Strong arms wrapped around her from behind, hoisting both her and Azulus in one swift motion. Samaels voice was low and decisive as she began to sprint. "Were leaving." The ground blurred beneath them as Samael launched forward, each leap carrying them across the fragmented terrain. Their momentum turned from escape into an aggressive pursuit for survival, straight toward the glimmering gate in the distance. The boundary that marked the divide between this world and Fathomi, that should be their utmost priority. As they raced forward, Kivas tightened her hold around Azulus, and glanced down at the rodent girl cradled in her arms. The exhaustion on her face was surprisingly casual, like a puppet whose strings had snapped, but also didnt mind the helplessness. "...Where were you?" Kivas awkwardly asked. "Not somewhere far, but it took me quite a while to get here since a giant monolith nearly crushed me," Azulus casually answered. "It took me a while to relocate where I am and where I want to go with all the chaos." Samael didnt look at her but responded all the same. "You were holding back from using that attack because no one was nearby." Azulus confirmed with a slow nod. "That strike drains everything. If I use it when Im alone, Ill most certainly die. Cause Ill be this vulnerable for at least five minutes." "Well, at least you have some sort of secret and powerful technique in time like this," Kivas said, trying to lighten the mood. "Honestly, I almost want to give up after I realized that eventually I will slow Samael down, and that I might be the fatal burden." "You gave up too quickly," Samael sighed. "I might no longer be the same powerful being as I was, but letting you escape is not an impossibility." "But I will drag" "I dont care about the rodent youre carrying." "Ouch," Azulus said with a poker face. "I thought that were close, Samael." "We barely talk to one another." A pause passed between them, filled only by the rhythmic sound of Samaels leaping and the pulse of disturbed wind. "Im sorry," Azulus said after a moment. "For not arriving sooner. Before Joyhan and Toriq" Kivas tightened her grip around Azulus frame. "Its not your fault...." "I was the leader," Azulus sighed, albeit with little to no weight or expression. "And the recruiters. Technically, I brought everyone to this Xenorealm without confirming the hazard and danger." "You werent the god of foresight," Kivas said with a wryly humored. "None of us knew it would escalate like this." "Death is common, and you did inform us about the danger of this expedition before we departed already," Samael added from below, "Not to mention, this realm was far more volatile than expected. The Xenos here hid their presence and intent too well." The Xenos refers to the inhabitants of a Xenorealm. "They were baiting us," Azulus whispered. "Letting us grow confident, huh." Kivas could see the strain on Samaels face nowher breathing rougher, her movements slightly staggered. Her grip around them remained secure, but the fatigue clung to her body like iron. Still, she never slowed. The faint shimmer of the gateway came into full viewframed by the ruined arches of the underground parking structure that once held it. The remains of the first outpost stood just behind it, still mostly intact. Then the air warped again. Dozens of monoliths plummeted from the sky, surrounding them in a tightening noose. Fog spilled from their impact zones, and tendrils slithered through the air like death incarnate. "Theyre closing us in," Samael said, her voice like steel. "Were not stopping." Kivas felt the Crumbling Judgment regenerate against her back. She reached it out with her soul, and the missile responded instantly. Its casing solidified in her grip. "Just, let it be done with it, already!" The missile roared to life. She aimed toward the densest wall of writhing tendrils and let the warhead scream. The impact tore open a corridor through the death field, blasting a path clean toward the gate. The explosion cleared the way for mere seconds, but that was all Samael needed. She pushed off the cracked island with a final burst of speed and flew through the final gap. They passed through the boundary between the Xenorealm and Fathomi like a spear of flame. "Hurraaah!!" "Yah!" "Kuh!" They landed hard on the concrete of the underground parking lot. Shards of stone scattered. The air tasted differentearthier, denser. Real. The world snapped back into its familiar weight and temperature. Samael didnt slow. She tossed Kivas forward, and in addition, Azulus rolling on the ground like a struck pinball. Samael remained just on the threshold of the portal and immediately turned. Tendrils breached the gap between the two worlds behind her, twisting and lashing in silent fury. Samaels fingers twitched before she swung her arm. The space around the portal bentthen she clenched her hand and severed the connection entirely. The entrance collapsed like a wound sealing shut. Or to be precise, sealed, in the same manner of Azulus space manipulation skill. The tendrils, mid-reach, were cut at the root and fell limp on the concrete, twitching once before dissolving into black ichor and evaporating. Chapter 42: Recuperation Chapter 42: RecuperationThe air beyond the sealed Xenorealm was heavy with the silence of the aftermath. No one said a word for several minutes. Samael stood still, eyes cast toward where the portal had once hung like an open wound, preparing in case that the Xenos planned to blast through the seal from the other side. When the Xenos of the Xenorealm decided to pass through the gate and invade Fathomi, the Void Hunter Association referred to it as a False Banquet. A False Banquet was quite a danger on its own. Not only that Fathomi would get tainted and might start to apply a foreign rule that it saw from the other side, but the Xenos would also become the inhabitants of Fathomi, which means that they would acquire all of the benefits of being a Fathomis inhabitants. The Xenos would acquire their own Well of the Soul, they would also become ageless and devoid of time entropy. A certain type of Xenos might take advantage of this and become much stronger than they were supposed to be. "...They arent pursuing us," Samael sighed in relief. "Finally..." Kivas sat with her back against a support beam, breathing steadily. Azulus laid nearby, wrapped in her own fatigue, eyes half-lidded but awake. Time passed slowly until Azulus stirred. She sat up with minimal grace, her body still drained but her will clicking back into place. "Im no longer limp," Azulus said, standing with effort and walking toward the storage recess hidden within the wall behind the outpost that had established near the entrance of the Xenorealm. Her fingers traced a sigil onto the surface, pulling a lock of air and force into alignment. A space pulsed and then unraveled, revealing the cachehidden by a spatial fold, just as promised. The interior shimmered with dimensional layering, like looking into a room that existed in overlapping slices of reality. Inside were all the exotic resources and objects theyd managed to recover before the Xenos had struck. Kivas stood beside Samael as Azulus began laying out everything they had brought back. From semi-translucent plant fibers laced with natural filament that glowed when wrapped in skin or cloth to a moss that absorbed ambient sound and vibration. A dense, pulsating fungal growth that produced low-level regenerative aura, a semi-sapient goo that hardened under pressure, a durable unknown material extracted from the floating islands themselves, and tons of many more. Kivas and Samael decided to help as they began to sort the collection of Curio items retrieved from across the isles inside the Xenorelm Mirror of the Unspoken Edge, a circular glass artifact that reflects not image, but potential movement, Common tier. Pendulum of the Inner Star, a swinging talisman that reveals hidden rooms or space, Common tier. Hollow Scepter of Delay, a baton that delays ones perception of time for up to five seconds, once per cycle of night, Rare tier. Box of Levitating Ash, self-fueling combustion core used, usable for all sorts of things, Rare tier. Heartglass Reservoir, gem-like canister that absorbs blood essence for later deployment in healing or offense, Rare tier. Tome of Inverted Memory, a blank book that writes your dreams and battles with Nightmares into it, Rare tier. Lantern of Never-Dark, provides ambient light that reveals illusions, enchantments, or psychic residue, Rare tier. Polished Fang of Rhetak, a dagger made out of an unknown beast-god, amplifies fear-induced attributes, Noble tier. Halo Ember Coin, single-use charm that nullifies death for five seconds by isolating the soul in a side-plane, reusable with one day cooldown, Noble tier. Sarch* The ovelFire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Tetherhook Arrowhead, arrowhead that returns to the soul-equipped owners hand once lodged in a target. And extract some of the targets attributes temporarily, Rare tier. Dustscroll of the Howling Lexicon, a scroll that unleashes a psychic scream capable of breaking morale, Rare tier. Breather Mask of the Null Mist, allows inhalation and filtration of almost any toxic, cursed, or magical gas, or even conceptual poison, Exotic tier. Cloak Thread of the First Hunter, a partial wearable that extremely improves Strength and Speed on the first five minutes whenever the wearer encounters a dangerous situation, or at a minimum, when the body is put into a state of fight or flight, Exotic tier. Frozen Orb of Echoing Impact, it holds one violent moment in stasis, capable of being unleashed later for a powerful and devastating blast of chaos, Exotic tier. And lastly, a Soulcall Whisper Bell, rings silently unless the owner is in utter danger a minute into the future, Exotic tier. Kivas began organizing the piles. Samael assisted without comment, helping her separate the materials from the Curios, noting their magical signatures, and assessing condition. When it was all accounted for, Azulus sat cross-legged, drawing a mental line through the loot. "We got a lot more than I expected. Especially for an expedition of seven that lasted just under six hours." "Not to mention, a distortion also already happened on the outside, a couple of hours ago" Samael added. "Another distortion will be arriving soon." Kivas stared at the pile of loot, her expression caught between excitement and exhaustion. "Yeah, but... only three of us made it back." Azulus nodded slowly. "Thats why your cut will be larger." She leaned back, elbows on the broken stone. "I wont be taking much. I only need a selection of the exotic materials to sell to the Void Hunter Association. And most importantly, Ill be submitting a full report and log to Karasu." Kivas blinked. "Youre not taking any of the Curios?" Azulus shook her head. "Information is my currency. And the Karasu Association values first-contact data extremely highly. A fresh Xenorealm, its ecosystem, loot spectrum, emergent hazards. Not to mention, my worth to the guild. That alone will grant me a positive return. Samael folded her arms. "A strategic approach. The intangible often outweighs the tangible." Kivas smiled faintly, her fingers brushing over her hair. "Then I guess this... is a net win." The words tasted bitter. "Azulus. How many people have you lost before?" Kivas looked up again. "This is my first expedition, and it reminded me of a bitter experience that was eternally lodged into my mind..." Azulus tilted her head to the side, thinking, her expression calm as ever. "Too many to count." She paused and gazed at Kivas troubled face. "Void Hunter work has the highest mortality rate of any sanctioned profession across most of any human civilization. Sometimes even higher than field necromancy." Kivas absorbed the words in silence. But at the same time, quite curious on how there was a topic of necromancy insinuated to be a legal work of a society. "I stopped pretending I could save everyone," Azulus added. "But I will always try. Thats all I can do. And Im grateful when anyone, or at least one of them survives. Like today." Azulus emotion barely change but there was this gentleness in her words that almost made it felt like she was smiling when saying that. Before the weight of that could linger too long, the air shimmered with familiar pulses. Across the horizon, the soundless waves of distortion began rearranging the topography again. It was silent and barely visible, but it was happening. Ridges collapsed and reformed, valleys split into new canyons, distant trees twisted upward into columns. The world shuffled itself in silence, reshaping. Azulus pulled her Void Hunter Tag and held it out. "Time to re-check our surroundings. The spiritual coordinate function will tell you the nearest Guild." Kivas did the same. A soft resonance spread through her arm as the tag synced with the new geospatial configuration. The words Solvish Chapter, Solvish Keep Bastion floated into her vision. The name remained, but the distance metric had shifted. "Still our closest," Kivas said, "but... its farther than before." "Not unusual," Samael said. "Fathomi folds upon itself like it is breathing." Azulus nodded. "The world is remade each time it breathes." Samael stood up, "Ill be on the night watch. You two should sleep and clear out your Nightmares before they stack up to the point of unmanageable." "I actually prefer if they stack up," Azulus raised her hand, giving her reason. "Remember the skill you saw back then? It becomes more accurate and powerful the more hostile entities within my periphery, translate that to the Nightmare reaping, and you get what I mean." "Well be on the night watch then." Kivas also raised her hand. "I dont feel sleepy!" "You dont have any reasonable objection," Samael said. "Youve stacked too many Nightmares without clearing them. The more you carry, the harder the next harvest becomes." "Im fine" Samael walked over, seized her by the hand and tugged. Kivas squirmed in protest, but the next thing she knew, she was pulled into Samaels lap. Her head rested on the soft curvature of her partners thighs. "I said youre sleeping," Samael said, brushing her hair back. "Youre not needed to stay awake." Kivas chuckled under her breath. "You cant just" "I can. I will." Samael began humming softly. The tune wove around the quiet, a subtle lullaby threading through the open air. A soft and gentle melody, wrapped under a beautiful intent. Kivass eyelids grew heavier the longer she heard it. She reached up blindly and caught Samaels hand. "Thanks... for this." Samael didnt answer, but her hum continued. Within moments, Kivas breath slowed and deepened. Azulus, nearby, gave a faint groan. Samael glanced over. Azulus had fallen asleep mid-sitting posture, her body leaned against a crate, her expression undisturbed. Samael exhaled. Chapter 43: Slash Away The Nightmare Chapter 43: Slash Away The NightmareThe sky in her dream was black and without stars. No moon, no wind, no horizonjust shifting folds of void and random biomes where her breath made no echo. In that chaotic realm of unconsciousness, Kivas stood there, wrapped in the familiar weight of her gear, her soul-bound equipment gleaming faintly through the dark. The shotgun connected to her MP reservoir like a heartbeat. The Driftwool scarf coiled around her throat in weightless stillness. The Crumbling Judgment sat docked on her shoulder, resting in a reinforced sling of instinct and expectation. The mask dulled every thought not necessary to the moment. Kivas gazed at her dirty hand, soiled. She was alone, she was fatigued, she was devastated. And the Nightmares began to appear. First came the half-skeletal wolves, the glass-jawed Voidlings that she and the others had dispatched with ease when the journey began. They came in packs, scrabbling over the malformed terrain of the dreamscape. Kivas raised her shotgun, fired, reloaded, fired again. Each shot tore open the mind-made beasts, their bodies bursting into psychic dust and vapor. She didnt slow down. Before her MP got drained fast, she switched her weapon and stomped the ground, launching herself forward. She didnt speak. There was no joy, no fear, no grief in her face. Only stillness of anguish, More Voidlings came, warped and fluid-bodied, screeching as they twisted toward her. She didnt hesitate to cut them down. The Coralblade carved red arcs into their masses. Her scarf waved in rhythm with her steps as she cut through the mist-heavy gaps and flanked them from unnatural angles. She unloaded a barrage of slashes, and again, and again, and the Nightmare shattered. Then another group. She threw herself forward in abaddon and controlled the Crumbling Judgment, guiding the missile into a cluster of misshapen beasts. The landscape was ruined in a powerful explosion, and she barely lingered her gaze at the view. Because inside, her mind boiled. Each step she took was haunted by the dull throb of guilt. She had taken the expedition lightly. Her voice had been bright, her mind focused on small curiosities and jokes, on food and fleeting awe. She had assumed that Samael would always be enough. That if anything truly dangerous happened, Samael would sweep in and fix it, that she was an almighty entity that could solve every problem without caring much. Kivas had relied on her. Too much. Kivas mistook Samaels confidence as might. Kivas thought of Samaels quiet resolve, her unreadable silences, her habit of stepping in only when necessaryand never before. Even then, Samael only cared about Kivas. Even if Samael possessed the power, she would still ignore the rest of the expedition members. And worse, Kivas realized that Samael wouldnt have saved Azulus if she hadnt picked her up first. That her survival had come not from merit or worth, but from Kivas choosing to care. Samael was a guardian for Kivas, but not those around her. Kivas didnt take this into an appropriate account. The next Nightmare that lunged at her caught a full blast of her rage. She swung her Serrated Coralblade and Voidwood Fang and spun, before she stabbed the Nightmare, again, and again until she saw another one approaching her. She continued fighting. The negative mist thickened, but her pace never slowed. Then she thought about the loot. Sar?h the N??eFire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The way everyone had agreed to pool all the Curio items for later evaluation. That was a giant mistake. It seemed smart. Democratic. Fair. But it was flawed. No one had been given the powerful ones earlynot the cloak that could boost reaction time in emergencies, not the mask that nullified poison, not even the Fang of Rhetak that might have granted Toriq or Joyhan the edge needed to survive. Theyd trusted in merit-based distribution, but no one, including Kivas herself, thought that they would be useful if they were distributed earlier. Maybe Samael noticed it, but Samael had no purpose to inform it regardless cause she had no reason to keep everyone fair and alive. "Aaaa..." Kivas sliced through the next wave of Nightmares without pause. Her Coralblade caught three in a single horizontal arc. Her shotgun slammed into the skull of another before firing point-blank. More of them came. She wasnt slowing. And then she saw her. The Nightmare of Beilan. Standing in the dark like a statue carved from doubt. The young womans face looked just as it had when she stood on the platform, tail behind her, arms crossed in blunt defiance. Except here, in the dream, there was fury in her eyes. Grief. Her voice cracked with venom. "You let me die." Kivas froze. Her body went cold. Her fingers trembled around the grip of her weapon. Beilan stepped forward, unarmed, no armor, no defensesjust pain carved into her voice. "You and that cursed woman. You left me. You didnt do anything. You walked. You let me die!" Kivas didnt breathe. Her mind felt assaulted, she wanted to grasp onto something but there was nothing to rely on but herself. "This is your fault..." Beilans face morphed into a nightmarish painting of despair. "Dont you think that you took it a little bit too easy with that prideful demon, having your spineless back?" Beilan charged. Kivas raised the shotgun. The barrel leveled automatically. Kivas hesitated. But she pulled the trigger. The shot exploded through the dream. And let the lily scatter the blood. Beilans body fell in silence, evaporating into thin slivers of regret. Kivas fell to her knees. "I didnt do anything wrong..." she whispered. "I was just... I was trying... I dont know what to do... Why are you haunting me..." The silence of the dream pressed around her like a dome of anguish, a shower of rotten lemon that covered her body, cold, sticky and pungent. "I was in the right," she whispered again, this time weaker. "I didnt do anything wrong..." The ground beneath her cracked. Tentacles surged upward from the broken crust of the dream. Monoliths fell from the sky. Dozens. Hundreds. The false sky trembled with the weight of invasion. "Aaa... Aaaaaa...!" Kivas screamed and raised her hand, calling the Crumbling Judgment again. The missile flared to life and launched toward the approaching cluster. She activated the Driftwool effect and vanished from immediate sight, and moved between tentacles with shotgun flares lighting her path, dagger chipped from too many usage. The Nightmares of the Xenos surged forward. Shaped like the monoliths, but less defined. Weaker. Each one shattered after only one or two hits. Her blades tore through them with impunity. Because she hadnt killed them. Because they werent hers to bear. It wasnt her fault. She hacked and blasted her way through them, her rage bleeding into every strike. The landscape cracked under her fury. She broke them with blade and buckshot, fire and wrath. She let the Crumbling Judgment ignite again, letting it scorch a path through the mist. Still, she fought. Still, they came. "I barely knew you!" Kivas shouted into the dream. "I barely care about you! Why do you appear as my Nightmare!? I have no responsibility for you! "You approached us first, you apologized! Was there any intent behind that gesture!? "Is this image of yours that appeared as my Nightmare the real you... or is it just a distorted version of my own perception..." Until the dream began to tire, the mist grew thin, and her body slowed. And then, there was nothing left but the remnants. The ash and smoke. The wounds in the ground. The silence. Kivas dropped to her knees. She looked up at the sky. It didnt move. It didnt change. Her face twistednot from sorrow, but from something deeper, less defined. Her breathing came slow. Her arms slumped at her sides. She said nothing. She wept for nothing. Her thoughts remained clear, and yet distant. Her anger was spent. Her guilt had not lifted. Kivas stared upward at the night of her own mind, and said nothing. "Right..." Kivas hands trembled as she dragged it into her peripheral view. "All of this doesnt matter if I get stronger..." A manic smile of disbelief expanded on her face. "Blaming others wont do anything, the rice has turned into mush, and someone has spitted on the bowl... "I must accept the fact that I cant do anything but accept this reality, before I can change everything that will come." ? WELL OF THE SOUL Name: Kivas Chariot Race: Fateling Total Level: 2 ? Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 88 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 78 ???? Piety (PIE): 77 ????? Vitality (VIT): 285 ???? Speed (SPD): 118 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 160 ???? Luck (LUK): 68 ? Vitals ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 5/ 42 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 2 / 32 ? Derived Stats ????? Attack Power: 88 ? Magic Power: 78 ???? Divine Power: 77 ????? Defense: 285 ???? Magic Defense: 77 ????? Detect: 75 ???? Disarm Trap: 132 ???? Evade Trap: 103 ???? Action Speed: 118 ???? Accuracy: 132 ???? Evasion: 103 ?? Resistance: 150 ? Classes ? Priest Lv2 Disc0 ? Skills ? Divine Soulmate Imbuer Lv1 C You possess the power to imbue a Genesis Core onto your fated soulmate. ? Fate Weaver Lv1 C You possess the power to weave fate. ? Soul Entanglement Lv1 C You possess the power to latch your soul. ? END OF THE WELL Chapter 44: Third Day Living In Fathomi Chapter 44: Third Day Living In FathomiKivas woke to silence. "...Well, that is surely a nice way to greet the morning." Kivas muttered. "Not like I have confirmed that its already morning, but I felt like I slept long enough to enter my third day in this wonderful and exciting world~" The outpost was still. A thin haze filtered the morning light through the cracked ceiling of the parking structure, painting the dust-laced air with a golden grey. She stirred slowly, pushing herself up on the folded bedding she had fallen asleep on. The air felt real, the weight of her body pressed against the concrete was grounded, but something in the way the wind curled was wrong. The pile of sorted Curio items and stacked crates of Xeno materials stood untouched nearby, exactly as they had been before she fell asleep. Yet Azulus was gone. Samael was the same, nowhere to be seen. No presence, no weight in the air, not even a faint imprint of their existence. The spatial threads she had learned to subconsciously feel were vacant, and many more signs that she had learned to keep in track of Samaels rather unique existence. It might have something to do with the fact that Samael was imbued with this so-called Genesis Core, something that neither both of them had deciphered yetbut Kivas could immediately tell if Samael was there or not right away. "Just when I thought that I would wake up to a sensation of soft thighs at the back of my head." Kivas sighed. "My lovely sadistic and obsessive girlfriend is nowhere to be seen." She stood and checked the surroundings. No shifted crates, no recent footprints, not even a psychic imprint. The Void Hunter Tag in her pocket was unresponsiveno coordinate readings, no registered connections. The fact that she could no longer check the nearest Void Hunter Guild was already eerie, even though the Void Hunter Tag was supposed to be capable of detecting any nearest Chapter no matter the distance. Kivas turned back toward the core of the outpost, and began gazing at the very thing that she wanted to avoid to interact the moment she opened her eyes. A floating crystal hovered silently near the space where the Xenorealm gate had once stood. Thin cold mist bled off its sharp surface, cascading downward in a gentle fall that resembled a miniature frozen waterfall. The crystal pulsed with violet rhythm, then cracked across its middle. "What the heck!?" A line of jagged glyphs shimmered into the air. [YOURE AWAKE, BUT YOURE NOT AWAKE AT FATHOMI. SURVIVE OR FIND A WAY OUT!!] Kivas recoiled, instinct seizing her body before logic could catch up. She didnt touch it. Instead, she ran up the broken ramp and exited into the sunlight. Outside, the world stretched before her, wrapped in early sun hues. The shapes of the ruins were correct to her memories. The bend of the sky held the right distortion. Even the scent of moss and dust was familiar. But it was all too perfect, too symmetrical. This was her third day in Fathomi, now that she finally confirmed it. That realization hit with no ceremony, only loneliness and no one to celebrate with. "And possibly the shittiest way to start it." Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She didnt believe this was real. And now was the time to confirm it. Kivas stilled her mind and activated the one skill she had begun to understand the more she experimented with it herself. Soul Entanglement. As Samaels own words, a basic-seeming skill that possessed no clear boundary. Its description was vague, but Samael had proven how expansive it could be. Kivas had been training it in small bursts before. Now, with her current attributes, she was ready to test it in earnest, the accumulation of her own understanding and will. "Maybe it is time to see if my theories can be applied..." She closed her eyes and extended her will. Her soul unraveled into tendrilsfine threads of translucent purpose. They reached outward from her chest, shoulder, fingertips. She sent them creeping along the floor, the walls, the outposts architecture, and then beyond. But ten meters, that was the maximum radius for now. Through Soul Entanglement, every contact brought possibilities of limitless interaction. But for Kivas with her low-end attributes and skill level, she couldnt really do all of those cool stuff that Samael showcased back then. However, there was something that she could do with this skill. Minor information gathering. Or to be exact, impression. "I see~!" The structures she probed with her spiritual tendrils carried no weight of memory. The air itself was not connected to a real worlds cycle. The land appeared to be made, not grown like what it supposed to be when it comes to Fathomi. This place had no clear history. It was a replica. This world was an illusion, created by something or someone. Kivas stretched her soul forward until she latched onto the unknown scaffolding of connection she had just foundthe unnatural structure that held it all together, existed everywhere, and could be interacted with anywhere no matter the distance. Through the touch of her soul against its skin, she read its breath. Its intent. The illusion was connected to its creator. And its creator was searching for her. "Alright, Ill play with you." Kivas focused deeper, using this unknown connection, she pried through the veil with pressure, without breaking the threshold of her 10 meters limit. She probed through the wall of fabricated sky, through the bent horizon, and gathered every impression that she could probe. The soul that made this space was vast, but not omniscient. It was something interlaced into the thing she probed because of how things were much more connected than it seemed. Yet at the same time, her Soul Entanglement skill was limited by attributes and experience. As much as she wanted to pry further, she couldnt. But it didnt matter. Because she caught it unaware. Kivas found the reason and motive of this world. There was hunger. That was the dominant emotion of impression that she found consistently everywhere in this seemingly illusory world. A raw hunger, blind and unsatiated. It stretched outward like teeth made of air, searching for prey. She pulled her soul tendrils back and moved, returning to the core of the outpost. The sorted loot remained. 15 Curio items lay within her reachhers and Samaels share, untouched. Kivas knelt down and began selecting. First, she equipped the Soulcall Whisper Bell, clipping it to the strap of her cloak. Its silent chime would trigger only in the presence of unavoidable danger, exactly one minute before impact. Then the Cloak Thread of the First Hunter, a reactive garment piece laced beneath her Driftwool Wrap. The passive ability would spike her strength and speed at the moment her body recognized imminent danger. Five minutes of heightened physicality. A desperate edge that could be utilized heavily. She secured the Breather Mask of the Null Mist to her beltready for poison, gas, or corrupted air. Her current skull-half mask would stay on until it was needed. The Polished Fang of Rhetak was fitted into her belt opposite the Coralblade. A dagger made of a god-beasts bone, resonating with fear. It would amplify any dread around her into strength. The Dustscroll of the Howling Lexicon was kept rolled and sealed in her satchel. Single-use. A psychic scream meant to break formation, spirit, or concentration. Each one she touched, she soul-equipped. Every addition expanded her resonance. Every connection pulled her deeper into the Well of her own power. Kivas then checked her HP and MP reservoir. ? Vitals ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 40 / 42 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 32 / 32 ? END OF THE WELL "Looks like everything has replenished aplenty," Kivas snickered. "Looks like I can try this one in action." Kivas began weaving the tendrils that she stretched from her soul into her own soul, creating some sort of a cyclic pathing in which she could interact with her own soul and the other spiritual tendrils in tandem. She then began fueling her raw Hemo Psyche and Mana Psyche to her own soul, and began a cycle of repeating flow of energy that spun and traveled in an endless circle. That counted as an action with a result, a fated result and a fated causeno matter how miniscule. Kivas then began triggering her Fate Weaver skill to break the cycle, altering the in between of the determined cause and determined result, altering the law of casualtyjust like how she made any attack that should sure hit her to graze her, like how she made her attack to land despite it not probable. And thus a spinning energy of raw Hemo Psyche and Mana Psyche was expanding from Kivas soul and outward, into the physical plane of the illusion, and outward. That energy was still connected and supposed to be connected and still was connected to Kivas soul tendrils, and thus still within the influence of the Soul Entanglement skill... Meaning that this pulsating, spreading, and spinning energy act the same, making everything it passes through to be capable to be senses by Kivas A prideful grin stretched wide on her face. "It worked~" Kivas extended the field outward, into the physicality of this illusory world, and more. Everything the energy touched could now be felt by her soul. A vibrational latticedelicate, tuned to her presence, like water rippling around a single stone. And within that wave, she found it. The creator of this place. "?" It recoiled. It knew it had been struck. The wave of soul-imbued fate had brushed its edges. It knew it had been seen. But it didnt know from where. The pulse had no direction. No determined echo. It basically struck from every angle. From the ground. From the walls. From the sky. From the dreamscape. There was no vector. No scent to follow. Kivas presence had permeated everywhere that this pulse had touched, and as a resultKivas could be sensed everywhere, but never the exact whereabouts. Skill Gained: ? Detection Pulse of Madness Lv1 C You possess the power to scatter your all-encompassing essence Chapter 45: The Dream Devourers Chapter 45: The Dream Devourers"Took a while." Samael exhaled slowly, her breath curling through the dying air. She held out her cinquedea, the once-clean silver now coated in thick, burnt ichor. Without pause or gesture, the blood lifted from the blade in tendrils of defiance, peeled away by the subtle manipulation of her Soul Entanglement skill. The debris rejected from the edge dissolved into ash as the blade shone clean once more. Before her stood a twisted figure, unmoving and monstrous. Its body was a grotesque fusion of spiked obsidian wheels and jointed spider limbs, supporting a central carriage whose front bore the snarling visage of an onihorned, wide-mouthed, its fangs gleaming through cracks of half-melted iron. From within its carriage-like structure, faint whispers and echoing wails spilled out like steam from an opened tomb. Its red-lacquered panels twitched faintly with each breath it took. The street around them was scorched and fractured. Thirty of its kin lay broken in mangled heaps, limbs bent backward, eyes gouged out, carapaces torn open like fruit. Samael chuckled as she tilted her head slightly. "So the infamous Dream Devourers of the East really are migrating through Vaingall." Her voice brimmed with self-satisfaction. "I should thank you. Ive needed a few tough Nightmares to round out my current attributes, and maybe a couple of levels up." The lone Dream Devourer made no sound of fear. Instead, it raised its main carriage forward slightly and stared through its sculpted oni-eyes. Its voice rasped through a gullet of grinding metal. "You left me alive. Why?" "Welp, my time is up." Samael blinked once and turned her head toward the east. "Youre the lone sacrifice to feed my hungry and anxious, wingless angel." Before the Dream Devourer could ask more, Samaels fingers twisted in a gentle, downward stroke. A cloud of fog bled from the ground. It moved with unnatural silence, devouring the corpses of the Dream Devourers like ink spreading across old paper. Flesh, ichor, carapaceall pulled into the mist, leaving no trace behind. The Dream Devourer stared. "What are you" "Also," Samaels gaze shifted. "I dont want her to find my presence." Samael then vanished into the mist, her presence dissipating as if folded into the architecture itself. The last Dream Devourer remained still. Then it turned, chittering quietly to itself. "There is still one more." Its core growled in hunger. "My family fell, but I must traverse still. A prey is needed to fuel the voyage." Sarch* The N?velFire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It crawled across the cracked pavement with the fluidity of a thought given limbs. Its spiked legs clicked softly as it moved. "Still caught within the false reality we spun. The Exo-Human shrouded her... "There has been no third attempt to leave. No spiritual ripple of it. That masked human must still be inside..." The Dream Devourer stopped at an intersection. It scanned the surroundings, its spiritual sense reaching into the fractured world it had fabricated. It began its mental tally of residual impressions. The remaining single prey should suffice. If it could extract the entirety of that one soul, it could complete the second cycle and sustain its migration westward. That was the plan. Until it wasnt. A pulse exploded in an ineffable process. Raw Hemo Psyche and Mana Psyche flooded outward in a radial cascade. There was no malice in its intentit had its claw digging and searching. And it struck the Dream Devourer dead-on. "What is this?" The pulse expanded further, a formless sonar of soul-rending awareness. The Dream Devourer recoiled as the effect of the pulse became evident. Someone was using it to pinpoint its location. And they had found it. "How... could this be...?" But the Dream Devourer couldnt pinpoint where the pulse came from. Its senses flared, extending across the illusion like fire over dry fields. And everywhere it lookedit was there. The casters presence. It was in the walls. In the wind. In the fallen leaves. In the cracks of ancient glass. It was in the sunlight, in the corners of abandoned rooms. It was everywhere the pulse had touched. The Dream Devourer once encountered something similar to this in the past and it lived to tell the talea powerful eldritch being of unfathomable proportion. But this being had already died, the humans and their organized army and weird weapons vanquished this eldritch being. "Impossible," it whispered. "It might be a similar skill, but it is too similar." The presence wasnt scattered like a bowl with multiple leaves turned over above the ground. It was unified like the strands of silk that encompass a handkerchief. The distribution was total. The Dream Devourer began to circle in place, limbs clattering on concrete, confused yet imbued with hunger. The prey that it searched might be something dangerous, but the Dream Devourers sense of self preservation was too farsighted, that it pushed the importance of its own journey rather than its own safety. "They know where I am, but I need to search for them." Nothing to see. No one nearby. Still, it felt watched. It was being listened to. From everywhere, every angle. Something might be watching, something might not. There was a moving shadow on the left, was that the dancing cloud or a delicious food? "Sound of fireworks?" The Dream Devourer turned a corner and gazed up. Something burned through the sky. A sleek, blackened cylinder tore upward before curling into a descent, its surface glowing with spiritual propulsion. It didnt know what it was. So it didnt dodge. The missile collided with its face and detonated. The blast caved in the upper layer of the carriages demon-mask, splintering pieces of outer armor and igniting the spider-limbs into fractal burns, as fumes expanded and covering the periphery. "Ah, a dangerous object." It staggered. Before it could reform its legs, three simultaneous attacks pierced its flanks. Gunfire struck from one angle, then sharp instrument from another. The attack didnt stop before a second strikemuch closerpierced a joint. Then a slash tore into the ribbing beneath its lower fuselage. "Show yourself!" the Dream Devourer growled as it tried to find the assaulter. The attacker was fast. Or perhaps there were multiple. Or perhaps it was simply so far outside its perception that it mimicked omnipresence. The dust then cleared, revealing the surrounding once again. Nothing. The attacker couldnt be seen nor found in any direction that it could access. The lingering omni-present essence was still there too, making it more harder for the Dream Devourer to pinpoint its own target. The only thing it found was the Dream Devourers own blood, dripping thickly over the imitated natural asphalt of Fathomi. It chittered in frustration and resumed its movement. "A speedy bunny..." Still hungry. Still hunting. The city around it was a ruinnatural and false, the illusion layered over real architectural memory. The Dream Devourer slithered through the mimicry of modern decay, wandering until the pulse that had once struck it began to wane. The presence that had once spread through every molecule now began to narrow. Like oil condensing under pressure, the casters spirit was retracting. "Finally..." That was the opening. The Dream Devourer turned sharply, retracing the true source of the pulsation. "Haah." It found it. Right beneath it. No. On it. A presence was there. The prey had been there all along, latching itself on the Dream Devourers back like an unrelenting tick. It stared at the structure atop its own back. The presence coalesced like a knot of thick, tar-like aura, so dense it carried weight, and consumed everything that came near it. Could this be the prey that the Dream Devourer searched all along? Or could it be a foreigner that invaded the False Reality to hunt it? The Dream Devourer was an existence of hunger and natural calamity, it hazed the field of living beings and reaped numerous lives by putting the soul of their prey into a False Reality, hunting them inside that illusion. Those that were successfully hunted inside the illusory realm would immediately die of natural causes in the real world, fueling the Dream Devourer for its next hunt. Because of this aimless hunting, it brought a lot of infamy, and thus a lot of vengeance-driven entities trying to exact revenge. Could this scenario be one of them? "Youre here all along..." The Dream Devourer found something within this concentrated haze of presence. A figure. A twisted silhouette of shadow and smoke, draped in silence and heavy with power. It bore no face, only a mask, dripping malice and sadistic joy live venom. And this figure was holding a scroll. The scroll unfurled, and psychic screams poured from it, unraveling space with sheer spiritual pressure. "Graah...!" The Dream Devourer reared backward. Its limbs twitched, each movement delayed. Its mind couldnt track. Its sensory scrambled. Then it saw the figure raise something. The same cylindrical bomb that had once flown right into its face. That very bomb glinted against the mirrored sunlight. And that figure threw it. The missile arced downward and sailed directly into the Dream Devourers mouthwedged into its internal cavity where no defenses lay. The catalyst of destruction detonated inside the Dream Devourer. The sound of tearing metal and rupturing screams erupted. The creatures body folded in on itself. Its limbs curled upward as fire spilled through its sockets. Its dream-carriage shattered into drifting plates of melting sigils. Black smoke billowed out. Viscera rained down, painting the asphalt with the demonic color and sadistic touch of its painter. What was left of the mangled body of the carriage oni collapsed against the ground, and from within the crater, the illusion began to stutter. Chapter 46: Cornered Rodent Chapter 46: Cornered Rodent"Well, this is awkward." Azulus back was pressed against the surface of a rusted support wall. Pinned there by the very weapon she carried. Her oversized katana had been unsheathed and embedded just an inch deep beside her head, its blade humming with residual space-cutting energy that was once felt when it was used to cut through Xenos and floating islands within the Xenorealm. On the other end, Samael stood close, hand gripping the hilt of the katana. Her arm extended and her body rigid with restrained fury. Azulus raised both arms slowly, fingers splayed in the air with deliberate calm. Her expression remained impassive, eyes half-lidded and unconcerned. Samaels gaze was anything but peaceful. "Ive had enough of this charade," Samael hissed. Her smile was slight, but the rage in her voice eclipsed the amusement. "Lets stop pretending, shall we?" Azulus remained quiet, watching the slant of light shift through the crumbling upper floors of the nearest building, the result of their short conflict before it led to this. "You sabotaged the barrier," Samael continued. "You let the Dream Devourers of the East slip past it. You let them enter, and you let them hunt us." Azulus blinked, slow and dry. "I dont know what youre talking about. Dream Devourers can only draw in those who are asleep, Uuuh, maybe you should ask yourself why you happened to fall asleep during that time?" Samael tilted her head, voice shifting into mock disbelief. "Is this really the information that the Karasu Association distributed to their Void Hunters now? Id have expected more creative lies from the ones who deal in secrets." "You seem to know a lot for a fledgling hunter." "Im unfamiliar with the current era of humanity. Im very well familiar when someone rolls their lies like dice, as they toss it from their tongue." Seeing full well how Samael had already caught up to AzulusS horrible attempt to redirect the blame, Azulus paralyzed for a moment before she calmed herself down. "Well..." Azulus offered a soft deadpan shrug. "I guess, it is rather foolish of me to try misleading the Endless Dragon of Vaingall." Her tone never shifted, but she continued with drier sarcasm, "Clearly Im terrified. Probably even peed myself. Actually, you can kinda see that Im quite leaked down there from the amount of intimidation that you placed on me. Samaels eyes narrowed. She didnt respond to the last comment. She pressed her hand forward slightly, driving the blade a breath closer to Azulus neck. The edge hovered a heartbeat away from skin. "Ill ask once again," Samael said, her voice low and sharp. "Does Karasu know?" Azulus tone shifted into something near sincerity. "Theyre anticipating you. Theyve been watching Fathomis shifts for signs of your re-emergence... "From the day that the atmosphere above Vaingall shifted the moment it lost its true ruler, the Karasu Association has used the fact that the next few distortions will relocate the Solvish Keep within the Vaingall territory without any complication. "Not only that, the association has also put their eyes on your girlfriend." Samael seemed to expect that her disappearance would bring numerous interest to some factions, but she didnt expect that one of them would pinpoint her current state this early, alongside the fact that Kivas was also a Fateling. Even now, where Kivas no longer possessed the divine organ that marks her proof as a pure Fateling. "How much did they know about Kivas?" Samael asked, hoping that her assumption about the association to be false. Azulus nodded once. "The Karasu Association confirmed her status. If not the last, then certainly one of the final surviving Fatelings. Her appearance within Vaingall was not only weird but also influential, especially since it is your territory... "They have been very curious as to why you are in this state, and also why the two of you are even mingling together." Azulus looked away. "They would certainly not expect that the two of you are so close with one another, especially of your history with Fatelings ever recorded." "What do you think that you will utter to them if you happen to be alive after this?" Samael asked, wondering if Azulus was daring. Azulus paused for two seconds. "I would tell them to not ever mess with you, or the Fateling, lest they want you to hunt every single of their members and headquarters throughout all Fathomi." "Where was this intelligence when I asked you about the Dream Devourers?" "I told you, Im literally scared to death and pissing myself. It takes me a moment to regain my composure," Azulus said with a deadpan, hard to tell on whether she was sarcastic or not. The katana trembled slightly in Samaels hand. Her next words came slowly. "Joyhan. Toriq. Beilan. Did you plan that too?" Azulus closed her eyes briefly. "Joyhan has a history. Hes scammed several Void Hunter Associations across multiple bastions. The worst offender however, was selling false information to Karasu through the Solvish Chapter. Most recently, before a distortion buried the last one." "I guess the association deems his existence to be more harmful than beneficial, huh. What about Toriq?" "Killed forty-five fellow expedition members throughout his career as a Void Hunter," Azulus answered immediately. "Confirmed on multiple occasions and through several protected witnesses.." "Hows that alligator, Beilan?" "A runaway from an extremely hostile and volatile faction that still hunts her." Azulus swallowed her saliva. It seemed like this case was much more severe than the other two. "She refused Karasus extraction offer to depart from Solvish Keep." "The reason?" "Solvish Keep is one of the only bastions under an association that is consistently letting itself be carried by the flow of the distortion, greatly changing its location more than any known easily accessible societies." "So the Karasu Association wanting to kill her means that they already made a deal in return for no conflict between the two factions, mhmm." "As expected of the Endless Dragon." Samael sighed as she finally saw the bigger picture. "Youre Karasus executioner, then." Azulus didnt answer. She simply lowered her raised hands slightly and gave a single, slow nod. "Were not supposed to become your obstacle," Azulus finally said. "Karasus directive is clear. The Endless Dragon and the Fateling are to be protected. Guided, even. Whether you join us or not." After that, the air rusted in cold, red flame of wrath. Samaels voice was no longer sharpit was predatory. Cold, deep, and brimming with the weight of brutality. "Then why did you let those Dream Devourers in?" Azulus met her gaze fully. "Because you and Kivas would survive." Azulus fingers quivered for a moment. "I already gave the two of you all of the Curio items, and they all should be accessible when the Dream Devourers put the two of you into their False Reality." A long moment passed. Samael saw no lie in her posture. No tension in her stance. The woman believed her own words. Maybe even told the truth. Samael pulled the blade free from the wall and stepped back. She gave it a single spin, reversed the grip, and extended it back toward Azulus. Azulus took it with one hand, nodded once, and stepped forward. Her gait was uneven. "You really did piss yourself," Samael said, watching the rodent girl limp slightly. Azulus didnt answer. They walked back to the parking structure in silence, footfalls echoing across empty concrete, stained with drying ichor from the previous night. Azulus broke the silence first. "I had to make sure," she said, voice quieter. "Karasu has reliable records, but something is off. Youre both weaker than predicted. No confirmed reason yet. But youre not where your potential should place you." Samael didnt stop walking. "And you thought that letting an entire pack of Dream Devourers was the right way to help?" Azulus nodded. "Yes." Samael exhaled, not angry, but tired. "If your organization wants us alive, they need to stop helping with knives behind their backs. Be upfront next time." "Noted." "Dont note, uphold it." As they returned to the lower level, the parking lot, the subtle sound of breathing reached them first. Kivas lay sprawled, curled around the Crumbling Judgment missile like it was a long, metallic pillow. Her face nuzzled into its base, eyes closed, breath slow. Samael stopped beside her and waited, until Kivas breath was steady, until her moan stopped, and until she finally defeated the lone Dream Devourer in the False Reality. Kivas stirred a moment later, her hand twitching as she reached up to rub her eyes. "Hmnn...?" Samael crouched beside her, one hand brushing stray hair from her forehead. "Welcome back to Fathomi. Did you have a nice dream?" Kivas yawned, voice slurred with sleep. "There was a crab-thing... big carriage? I think... I woke up after my Nightmare and ended up in some fake world. Had to hunt it down... yawn~" Samael tilted her head. "Not crab-thing, spider-thing." sea??h th novlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas blinked. "...Yeah?" "It was called a Dream Devourer." Her face contorted through confusion, realization, and then resignation. "What..." And then she lay back down and buried her face into the missile again. Chapter 47: Toward A New Bastion Chapter 47: Toward A New BastionAfter killing the singular Dream Devourer in the False Reality that she was caught in, Kivas woke up to Samael telling Kivas, or in this case, forced Kivas to sleep again and kill it again in a Nightmare form. It was much harder than their initial fight where Kivas got the advantage of information and initiative, but Kivas managed to kill the Nightmare form of the Dream Devourer that she defeated, increasing her attributes in the largest quantity per single Nightmare ever slayed. "Samael, please stop chopping the back of my neck without any moments notice from now on." "Ill try chopping your neck immediately after I tell you then." "Its better if youre not chopping it at all!" At the least, Kivas stats were quite stacked now, with that singular Dream Devourer Nightmare netting Kivas with +22 STR, +20 IQ, +25 PIE, +45 VIT, +67 SPD, +53 DEX, and +20 LUK. ? WELL OF THE SOUL Name: Kivas Chariot Race: Fateling Total Level: 2 ? Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 110 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 98 ???? Piety (PIE): 102 ????? Vitality (VIT): 330 ???? Speed (SPD): 185 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 213 ???? Luck (LUK): 88 ? Vitals ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 42 / 42 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 32 / 32 ? Derived Stats ????? Attack Power: 110 ? Magic Power: 98 ???? Divine Power: 102 ????? Defense: 330 ???? Magic Defense: 102 ????? Detect: 95 ???? Disarm Trap: 176 ???? Evade Trap: 156 ???? Action Speed: 185 ???? Accuracy: 176 ???? Evasion: 156 ?? Resistance: 182 ? Classes ? Priest Lv2 Disc0 ? Skills ? Divine Soulmate Imbuer Lv1 C You possess the power to imbue a Genesis Core onto your fated soulmate. ? Fate Weaver Lv1 C You possess the power to weave fate. ? Soul Entanglement Lv1 C You possess the power to latch your soul. ? Detection Pulse of Madness Lv1 C You possess the power to scatter your all-encompassing essence ? END OF THE WELL "So, how much distortion happened when I was asleep?" Kivas asked. "Around three distortions," Azulus said as she raised three fingers in front of her. "Fathomi seems to be a little excited lately, it is having more distortion consistently than the last few months." "Fathomi can get excited..." "It might sound many to both of you, but back in my day," Samael chimed in, eyes sparkling despite her signature deadpan face. "There are times where Fathomi has more than thirty distortions a day." "You sound like a grandma." "What do people do back in your day when such things happen?" Azulus asked in curiosity. It was not everyday where one could have a casual conversation with the Endless Dragon of Vaingall. "Nothing, we let our fate adrift by the wind~" The Void Hunter Tag glowed with a pale indigo pulse as Kivas held it up. The spiritual display projected outward in a lattice of shifting symbols, outlining the nearest registered guild. "The Solvish Chapter isnt even listed anymore," Kivas said, squinting at the shifting glyphs. "Closest one is the Zarangar Chapter... Zarangar Valley..." Her voice trailed off, and then, dramatically, she threw her hands into the air. "Oh nooo... NOOOO...!!" Kivas wailed, "Huuukh, I guess Ill be old and withered by the time I can get my resonance catalyst from the Solvish church. My poor priest class progression is ruined... Im going to become a battle nun without faith at this rate." "You need one more class for that, since it is advanced," Samal added. "Wait, that is a class?" Azulus said as she had finished tuning her spatial storage to bring all of the Xeno materials with them in their journey, brushing dust off her sleeves. "Relax, messiah. I remember the church in Zarangar Valley offers teleportation services. You should be able to hop back to Solvish Keep once we get there." Kivas squinted, deflating slightly. "Wait, seriously?" Azulus nodded. "I went there multiple times. The church there is also more advanced than the one we have in Solvish Keep." Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas turned to her. "What else can you tell us about this Zarangar Valley and their Chapter?" Azulus stretched her arms overhead before replying. "Zarangar Valley is a well-established bastion, two times bigger and tech-savvy than the one you saw in Solvish Keep. It is also known to not relocate often when distortions happen as they are quite the hub for multiple other bastions and several non-human factions out there... "So this mean that it was Vaingall itself that moved toward the Zarangar Valley, which is a very rare occasion in itself." Samael raised an eyebrow. "Vaingall is starting to become more unstable as time goes, it seems." Azulus looked at her. "Yeah. Probably tied to the missing ruler of the region. You know, the Endless Dragon who was supposed to anchor this territory to stability. Guess someone slayed it, or the almighty Voidling is taking a vacation." Samael stared at her flatly. "Youre very brave when not having a blade pressing your neck." Azulus offered a lazy shrug, but her forehead was sweating cold rain. "Well, in a way, bravery can also come from stupidity. Maybe Im just being stupid right now, who knows." Kivas laughed as she hoisted the Crumbling Judgment onto her back with an improvised strap. "Whats the association behind the Zarangar Chapter?" Samael tilted her head slightly, also curious. Azulus answered. "Hephae Association. It is one of the older ones. To put it simply, their association is based around Curio items, material recovery, artifact trade, that sort of thing. Active in partaking in a deal and collaboration with other associations. Theyre more laid-back than most." Kivas perked up. "So, like, less of a murder squad organization, and more of a casual gatherer and work agency?" "Correct, in a way? They dont like unnecessary risk, they dont push deep expeditions unless theres massive profit." "So youre saying," Kivas said, her grin growing, "That this place is the perfect market for a bunch of exotic Xeno materials and rare Curio items from a freshly sealed Xenorealm." Azulus gave a thumbs-up, her face remaining as flat as ever. "Im going to strike a deal so good the Hephae rep might cry blood." "Is that allowed for a Karasus Executioner?" Samael asked with a smirk. "What Karasu Executioner?" Azulus feigned ignorance. Once everything was packed, Samael sealed the crates into her spatial storagea ripple in reality drawing the gear and loot into hidden folds. Azulus did the same with her share. Kivas stared at both of them with burning envy. "I want a spatial pocket. It sounds nice. It looks accessible, and very comfy. You know how long it takes to pack things manually? That thing is very, very useful." Samael didnt look at her. "Maybe in your next lifetime." Azulus added while brushing her gloves, "Spatial manipulation like this is tied to our class progressions and skill gained from it. It is also locked behind a very hidden class." "Awesome. So Im excluded from greatness." "Not entirely," Azulus said. "Whatever you did inside the Dream Devourers False Reality... Ive never seen a Fate-related Psyche construct pulse like that. You might not replicate our spatial distortion, but youre shaping something different. You could develop a unique derivative. Possibly better." "Better?" Kivas blinked, then smiled wide. "You really think so?" "If youre smart enough for it, yes," Samael finished. Their journey began with broken concrete and melted railings, the decay of ancient civilization overtaken by Fathomis slowly reclaiming nature. And the more they progressed their journey, toward Zarangar Valley, twisted metal covered in fungal moss curved like roots toward the sky, and shattered buildings bent at unnatural angles, reshaped by time and energy. Voidlings emerged quickly in one of their encounters. Slender, white-bodied figures with glass-like faces and long clawed limbs. Samael advanced without hesitation. Her cinquedea glowed silver as she shifted through them with smooth, brutal precision. Each strike severed limbs or necks, the blade flashing with spatial imbalance and radiant heat. Azulus followed behind, not engaging directly but surveying. She fired thin psychic needles from her fingers at weakened foes, downing several before they could react. It seemed like she was still hiding some skills that Kivas hadnt seen yet. Kivas, now fully adorned in her expanded Curio arsenal, moved with uncharacteristic grace. The boost from her Cloak Thread activated as soon as she sensed danger. Strength and speed surged. She blasted two of these new Voidlings with her shotgun, shifted into the mist using her Driftwool, and reappeared beside another, driving her Coralblade through its chest. The Soulcall Bell jingled inaudibly. A one-minute warning pulsed through her nerves, and she twisted instinctively. A bolt of cursed energy streaked past her face, barely grazing her mask. They continued without break, with a couple of fights and discovery in their way. By mid-journey, they had already found three Curios that they happily disarmed and claimed. The first contained the Ring of Scarce Gluttony, a ring of reflective obsidian, pulsing with hollow echo. Rare tier and it have the trait of lessening ones urge to hunger, which was quite useless in a fight. The second held an Exhaustive Nightmare, a bottled creaturesome kind of ancient worm curled in a sealed stasis tube, the label scrawled in a dead language. It was a Noble tier, with nothing to examine other than the fact that it carried an ancient worm foreign to Fathomi The third was a Futile Stargazer of Hopelessness, a black cube with six rotating faces, each carved with lock-glyphs. Noble tier, it could scream really hard, and that was it in terms of raw utilization. They moved down a collapsed highway, the canyon below them carved from forgotten disasters and warping laws of terrain. The sun filtered through fractured skylines, casting golden rays onto distant trees twisted into bone shapes. "Its been a while since we found any natural Curio in the ground of Fathomi," Azulus uttered as she was gazing at the strange face-riddled cube. "High tiered too." "Surely, this is not a sign that we will encounter something dangerous and troublesome~" Kivas hummed. Then they saw them. Figures ahead, nearly a dozen. Clad in gothic armor tinted with shadowed iron. Helmets shaped like elongated priest masks, faceless and solemn. Each held a different kind of weaponcross-shaped blades, polearms with cathedral motifs, censer-maces leaking smoke that hissed through the air, and even firearms. They stood silent across the road. Kivas stepped back slightly. "Well, I guess I jinxed it." Samael stayed silent. Her gaze narrowed. Azulus adjusted her grip on the sheath of her katana, brow faintly furrowed for the first time. Their detection range and stealth capabilities were the same as Kivas group, and both of them were within each others detection hotspot. One of the armored figures stepped forward. The soundless motion sent ripples through the spiritual air. Chapter 48: First Encounter With The Nightsilk Order Chapter 48: First Encounter With The Nightsilk OrderThe moment the figure at the front of the gothic-armored group surged forward, the air bent under the sheer spiritual force of his acceleration. Shadow peeled from his limbs in a slick wake, and even the fractured stone beneath his armored boots left fissures trailing in the wake of his charge. Azulus stiffened immediately, one hand sliding to the hilt of her oversized katana, body tensing as if to move in an instant. Her eyes flared open out of pure instinctual survival calculation. While the scene unfolding, Kivas noticed that her Soulcall Whisper Bell didnt ring even once, meaning that around one minute from now on, her life was in no intrinsic danger. Samael didnt move. The armored figure arrived within a blink of perception and came to a perfect stop in front of Samael, dropping to one knee with practiced grace, his chestplate shining beneath streaks of ornamental scripture and faded symbols of a thousand unknown prayers. From his armored hands, he presented a bouquet of radiant, crystalline flowersfragments of crystal spires reshaped into petal forms, glittering with inner light. "My lady," the armored knight intoned, his voice deep, solemn, yet carrying a charming lilt of melodrama, "I have crossed lifetimes and devotions, but never before have I witnessed beauty so immutable and divinely sharp. Are you, by chance, open to light conversation and mutual ascension of spirit?" The wind froze around him in reverence to his gall. Azulus could nary say a word. Meanwhile, Samael barely changed in expression. It was as if she had just seen an intriguing thing happening in front of her, but she barely cared enough to focus on it. Before Samael could respond, a second armored figure, draped in ceremonial nun-like armor with flowing veil panels etched in faded black prayers, stepped forward and drove her plated fist into the back of armored knights helm with such force that his head sank into the ground like it was a childs toy being punished. The ground cracked. His legs flailed once and then stopped. "I apologize," the nun said curtly, brushing ash off her gauntlet, before gracefully bowing, maintaining a powerful posture. "He might look like a higher ranking of ours, but it is no mean that he cant be put under probation for inappropriate conduct during external encounters. Please disregard his behavior!" Samaels smile sharpened with a low twitch of amusement. "You punched him for calling me beautiful?" "No," the nun clarified. "I punched him for doing that while were in mission." "You seem to be taken aback, Azulus," Kivas said to the wary rodent-eared friend in a very casual manner. Azulus answered with a whisper that appeared to be coated in a concealment skull. "Explaining it will be long and complicated, but to put it simply, we really dont want to be in conflict with them, absolutely not." Kivas immediately knew what was up, now that she saw Azulus being frightened firsthand. And now, Kivas and Azulus could only hope that Azulus would peacefully diffuse this situation and get themselves detached from the gothic group as fast as possible. "Hmm... As much as I wanted to let it go here." Samael placed her hand to her chin, eyes lazily flicking to Kivas. "There is something said by your side that I greatly disagreed with." Azulus cringed and pleaded in her head that Samael would just drop this. Kivas also recoiled in anxiety, knowing full well that when Samael insisted on something, it could be catastrophic depending on the topic of discussion. And thus, with conviction and pride, Samael uttered a declaration, "Im not the most beautiful woman here." Azulus visibly flinched, wondering if she was high or poisoned at this moment. Kivas choked in the background, and was trying her best to look normal. "Well, you dont need to do this now" Samael then reached backward and grabbed Kivas by the back of her collar, yanking her forward. With a slow and casual motion, she ripped Kivas skull-mask upward, revealing her entire face. "Because this is the most beautiful woman in this vicinity!" Samael shouted as if it was a matter of life and death. "Wuh...?" Kivas was bewildered, and was extremely anxious now that she was the subject of an important interaction between two possibly volatile and dangerous factions. Meanwhile, Azulus was already curling up and hiding her face out of embarrassment. "Stopstop this is not!" The gothic knight, still half-buried, twitched. He struggled upright, chunks of dirt falling from his helm as he looked up at Kivas, who stood in full flustered confusion. Then, as if divinely inspired, he presented the same bouquet to Kivas, lowering his head. "My lady, I rescind my earlier error. It is you who holds the sun in her smile and the tempest in her glare. Would you consider courtship?" The nun dropped her head slightly, muttered a prayer, and then punched him again. His helm disappeared into another crater. "Once again, I apologies," she said with the same curtly demeanor. Azulus screamed, fully in disbelief of what she had witnessed through her fingers. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Let me kill him, she had just proposed to one of my possessions!" Samael declared but in a rather playful and casually deadpan face. Kivas tried her best to hold Samael back by grabbing her from behind. "Youre the one that led him to this, and what do you mean about killing!" Despite the chaotic interaction, there was surprisingly no malice and killing intent involved. As such, things managed to eventually shimmered down. The rest of the armored group shifted in place, relaxed postures returning, and they ell already began focusing on their next move, unrelated to Kivas and her little group. "We shall take our leave," the nun said. "Theres no conflict between us. May your paths remain clear of entropy." She bowed slightly, a formal nod, and the rest of the gothic-armored group followed her lead. In solemn unity, they turned and moved into the distance, their steps barely making sound against the cracked and dry soil. Azulus exhaled deeply once they were gone, as if ten thousands years of problem had disappeared in an instant. "Thank whatever sleeps beneath that didnt escalate..." "You were so worried, more than I ever expected," Kivas noted, adjusting her scarf. "You recognized them?" Azulus nodded, expression now somber. "The Nightsilk Order. That was one of their military detachments." "And whats wrong with that?" Kivas tilted her head. "Their operations are so deeply encrypted that even high-rank Karasu operatives dont know what theyre up to. Not to mention, their influence permeated so far and wide without anyone realizing if they were within their palms or not. "They are extremely powerful, and anyone that got in their way or goal will be met with a decisive erasure." Azulus then gazed at Samael as if she held a grudge for the Endless Dragon for playing around with her heart. "They rarely patrol. If you ever see them, and they see you, its because youre near their line operation. And that means whatever their goal is, its close to where you are. "And worst, their goal might be you all along, and you have no idea why or what triggers it because of how highly encrypted their channel of information is." Samael crossed her arms, staring in the direction they left. "They didnt have malice, though. No killing intent. Their movements were empty of aggression, and I find it that they are in their downtime, barely attached to any duties and are probably returning back to their post without hurry." Azulus nodded. "Sure, sure, theyre always polite. Friendly. Until they decide youre an enemy. Then they stop smiling, and things get... surgical." "Well, the group we encountered sure got some of the powerful individuals amongst their entire ranks." Kivas tilted her head. "How strong?" Samael gave her a glance. "Two, maybe five times stronger than the three of us combined. Depending on how much theyre holding back." "Are you joking?" Kivas face paled. "Why did you play around in front of them like that!...? Samael didnt answer. Instead, she asked, "Do you remember when I told you Vaingall was born from factions fighting each other in the dark?" "Yeah...?" Kivas hesitated. "I barely forget anything I see and hear, unless someone directly tampers with my memory. Samael nodded. "The Nightsilk Order is one of those factions." Azulus gave Samael a long look, interested in the lore tidbit of the infamous Endless Dragon. "Have you ever fought with them before?" Samael chuckled. "No. I collaborated with them. Some parts of them." "What were they like?" Azulus pressed, eyes sparkled. "Good allies," Samael said. "Cold and careful, but they never backstabbed. If you werent their target, theyd leave you be. If you were... you probably never knew you were until you were already removed from Fathomi entirely." Kivas grimaced. "Why do I feel like we walked past a black hole wearing a clown wig?" They resumed their journey across a descending incline of tilted concrete overgrowth and strangled highways. The next stretch was quieter, broken only by the occasional buzz of ambient anomalies and rusted air-things humming above the ruins. Eventually, the wind shifted. Kivas had her Soulcall Whisper Bell rang, indicating that her life would be in danger in one minute from now on. "Theres something up ahead..." Samael narrowed her eyes. "Avoid." Azulus nodded. "Agreed." Below the jagged slope, a single Voidling stalked the remains of a collapsed fortress. Towering. Possibly 20 meters tall or 65 feet. Its skin was translucent, shifting through shades of red and white, constantly changing shape like a sloshing membrane of pain. It had no face, only a chest cavity of open mouths that whispered cursed verses backward. Its arms were long, dripping with blades made of sinew. Each step made the bones around it crack and twist unnaturally, even when they werent touching the ground. Samael didnt hesitate as she observed the situation. She gestured to them all to crouch low. The three of them moved silently, each step layered with stealth addition from all sorts of Curio items and skills to avoid even making a spiritual sound. Minutes passed like hours. The massive Voidling never turned. By the time they emerged two massive boulders later, sweat beaded Kivas brow despite the cool air. They stopped only once they were certain they werent being followed. Kivas looked back at the barely visible titans that they had successfully passed by. "What was that thing...?" Chapter 49: The Tale Of Nihil Chapter 49: The Tale Of NihilOnce upon a time, Fathomi was quiet, idle, and empty. But as time went on, it was filled with more things. New elements, new rules of physics, until a moment where it became whole. Life breathed and conscience were implemented. It was unknown to many of its inhabitants, but Fathomi was an unrelenting force that was always seeking for a chane, a force that condemns stillness into the void. A place where skies drifted in endless hues and gravity bent softly through dreams. It was still a world where entropy had not yet taken root, and harmony curled through every fold of terrain like a sigh through silk. The creatures of Fathomi breathed peace, not air. They grew without conflict, without contest. Ecosystems didnt compete, they collaborated. Cycles turned not by decay, but by transformation and evolution since there was no decay in living entities. For a while, this was enough. Fathom however, kept on churning its gear. Left undisturbed for too long, curdles into stillness. And stillness, when overstayed, becomes boredom. Fathomi was tired of this, and it wanted to feel something else. It had only been creating and adding things on top of aspects that it had implemented before. And thus, it introduced entropy into itself. It introduced typhoons where there was once only soothing rain. Quakes where there had been only rich soil. Winds that didnt caress, but flung and harass. Tides that didnt cleanse, but devoured. The forests snapped under pressure. The oceans rose against their own walls. Mountains screamed in pain until it bled a river. Calamity became Fathomis form of art. And as centuries passed, that chaos collected. Every broken rhythm, every disrupted heartbeat, every wound that didnt heal right was stored away, compacted into nothingness. Buried in the folds of itself. But entropy doesnt like to be forgotten. Eventually, it crawled out of the silent wells it had been buried in. Born not from hate but from accumulated aimlessness. It named itself in silence. Nihil. A being formed not by mistake, but by too many questions left unanswered. Born without meaning and goal, but a mindless destruction to turn everything into nothingness. "That one we saw near the ruined fortress," Samael pointed out after telling this tell-a-tall, adjusting her regenerating dress that she wore like its own scales. "It was one of the Nihils." The fairy tales dreamy haze evaporated into the brutal heat of the sun-soaked path they continued along. Kivas blinked, one foot resting on a root that looked like ribcage segments. "And here I thought that Voidling was enough of a danger and chaos in this world." "I doubt that Voidling is the main cause of chaos in this world." Azulus brushed her surroundings, one hand still holding her oversized katana. "Were lucky it didnt notice us. They might be the manifestations of calamity itself, but they are mindless and oriented without a goal." Kivas turned to them both, frowning. "Okay, but what makes it so dangerous? I mean... its the two of you. Im a youngling in this world, so I see the two of you like my parental figure in a way, and a baby duckling just cant fathom their big duckling get beaten by an even bigger duckling." S~ea??h the N??elFir.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "What with the duckling..." Azulus paused in confusion. "Also, Im not your mother." "Its an analogy." Samael kept on walking, waiting for the other two to keep up. "Nihil arent like Big Voidlings as you expected it to be. They arent even aligned with entropy. They are entropy." Azulus picked up from there. "Defeating a Nihil nets you nothing. No useful drop, no such thing as loot. Not even a lingering Nightmare. Their existence is pure destruction with no cycle attached." "They unexist, in a way," Samael said, matter-of-fact. "You destroy them, and youve merely taken them off the board temporarily. As time passess, theyll just recover and reappear somewhere with the same appearance." Kivas grimaced. "To think that there is an even bigger duckling than the Endless Dragon and Karasus Executioner..." "I never admitted to being a Karasus Executioner," Azulus retorted. "It is already too obvious, just accept it." "I can try making her admit if you want." "You two scared me..." The air grew noisier with their words, but the path ahead remained clear. For hours, the land stretched quiet. No Voidlings. No spectral threats. The Nihils aura had seemingly cleansed the area of all aggression. Eventually, they reached a forested regionbone-pale trees, their bark calcified and their branches stretched like brittle fingers toward an opaque sky. Moss bloomed in faded purples, and fungi glowed where the sun didnt reach. The ground crackled like ceramic with each step. "Is this still Fathomi?" Kivas asked. "Yes, were still within the territory of Vaingall," Samael answered. "As far as I remembered." "Vaingalls lands had probably been so scattered and fragmented that it cant no longer be called Vaingall anymore," Azulus playfully chimed in. "Unless the Endless Dragon does something about it." "How about I paint the ground with your" "Woah woah, thats too graphic. Think about the children!" After a while, they set up a short rest near a fallen tree whose interior had crystallized from the inside, forming a natural bench. Kivas took the opportunity to kneel down and rest her hands against the ground. "Im gonna try something," she said, more to herself than anyone else. She stretched her soul slowly outward. Not into the world, but inwardtwisting tendrils of psyche into the air like invisible roots. They swirled gently, interlaced and reactive. Last time, she had formed a detection pulse. Inefficient, chaotic, but it worked. And it gave her a new skill. Maybe she could try the same theory and method to invent an entirely new skill fueled by Fate Weaver. She drew from her Hemo Psyche firstletting it coil through her limbs like heat in blood. Then her Mana Psyche, letting it hover beyond her skin like mist. Then she let them dance, trying to mimic the loop she created before, where they fueled each other in a cycle. As she focused, someones presence slipped into the edge of her senses. Samael crouched beside her, watching quietly. "Getting better at manipulating your spiritual resources?" she asked. "You should have known," Kivas said with a sly smile. "You were watching me fight the Dream Devourer, werent you?" Samael raised an eyebrow. "Of course I did. You screamed a lot. And used way too much energy for a detection trick." Kivas acted as if she was devastated. "I got a new skill, though. Thats worth it, right?" "Inefficient," Samael said, poking at Kivas cheek. "You used both Hemo and Mana Psyche to power a single effect. That made your signature giant and fuzzy because it used the characteristics of both psyche... "You masked your presence, sure, but the cost of broadcasting your existence to literally everything, is not an efficient method to do it. To put it simply, this skill is horrible, especially since youre low levelled and have a low reservoir of Hemo and Mana Psyche." Kivas nodded in agreement. "Im an obvious genius that makes terrible engineering choices. That doesnt change the fact that it is creative!" "You built something unique. That alone is rare," Samael admitted. "Ive never seen a skill exactly like that before, or remembered others Ive met used this specific skill." Kivas smirked. "So Im a genius!" "Youre a genius at being inefficient in a way no one else considers," Samael corrected. "No one has the same skill because no one is as inefficient despite having the same tool provided." Kivas smirk deflated. "Surely, one of the Fateling you brutally murdered did the same thing as me..." "Still," Samael added, "You have the blueprint now. You understand how to birth skills. Youre halfway there." Kivas furrowed her brow. "So what should I do now? Use the same bad method?" "Use the theory. Not the execution," Samael said. "You used both Psyches together because you wanted the pulse to interact with everything. Yourself, the world, the target." She drew a small circle in the dirt with her finger. "But Hemo Psyche affects living beings... "Yourself, others, anything with soul. Mana Psyche affects the world. Objects, space, influence." She bisected the circle, drawing an arrow for each. "Separate them. Use each for its intended vector. Dont overlap unless youre intentionally creating hybrid phenomena for a very specific result." Kivas stared at the diagram, then blinked. "That makes sense." "Of course it does. I taught you this back then." "Just because I remembered every single thing, doesnt mean that I can perfectly choose the perfect and most efficient action." Samael stood and dusted her palms, chuckling at the verbal shenanigan of her adorable, wingless Fateling. "Try using the same skill, but this time, carefully plan both Hemo Psyche and Mana Psyche separately and use the appropriate amount for each of their purposes." Kivas exhaled, turned her attention back to the threads she had extended. She watched them swirl, split, coil. This time, she guided her Mana Psyche outwardprojected like a ripple of feeling that touched only the terrain. Then she drew her Hemo Psyche inward. Not to power herself, but to prime her sensitivity. To feel what her pulse felt, and any detectable pulse in the vicinity. A two-part skill, simultaneously conducted as the spiritual tendrils began to weave. Her fingers twitched. The soul tendrils began folding back on themselves in an elegant shapenot a loop, but straight to the spiral. Narrow at the core, wide at the edges. A cone of influence that was indefinitely controlled directly. And then she let her Fate Weaver skill loose to ensure the process ran smoothly. "I think..." she whispered, "I get it now." A ping returned through the pulse. A birdlike creature, sleeping beneath the hollow roots of a tree, small and Void-touched, but not hostile. Another signal, deeperan underground tunnel, collapsed long ago, but still echoing with some form of curse residue. This time, she no longer lingered her presence everywhere, because there was no excess essence of herself being wasted and scattered everywhere. It was the opposite actually. Those that felt her sincere and clear, energy touch felt calm. Yet they werent alerted to whoever divine touch that interacted with their soul. Skill Gained: ? Detection Pulse of Serenity Lv1 C You possess the power to scatter your all-soothing essence Chapter 50: The Rule Of Class Anonymity, And Crafting Skills Chapter 50: The Rule Of Class Anonymity, And Crafting Skills"To think that my newfound skill landed us a scrumptious lunch~!" "We already located that bird before you even used that skill," Azulus said with her deadpan. "I guess it gives us a reason to feed you, in a way." Samael smirked. "Come on, let me celebrate my own illusion of contribution!" Kivas cried. The bird-like Voidlings sizzled over the fire, their featherless forms skewered on makeshift metal rods scavenged from fractured bone-like materials of the trees in this biome. Their blood had been unusually viscous, nearly gelatinous, and drained with surgical efficiency before cooking. Despite their grotesque nature, the meat darkened into a proper char, scentless but warm. No lingering curses, no residual psychic danger. They were edible. "Mhm~!" "Mmm." "..." The three of them sat around the low campfire, the forest of bone-barked trees encircling their encampment like skeletal sentinels. Luminescent moss cast faint purples and blues over their resting space, creating a faint kaleidoscope of corrupted tranquility. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas tore into her piece of meat with a soft groan. The texture was fibrous, somewhere between boiled leather and steamed cartilage, but it was food. It warmed her stomach and softened the tension in her shoulders. "This is disgusting," Kivas muttered with a tired smile, chewing relentlessly. "And Im still so thankful." Samael chewed through her own piece, barely reacting to the taste. Her eyes remained half-lidded and bored, as if her mouth was only working out of duty. "I miss those Blood Cakes." "And who gave us those cakes back then?" Samael stopped chewing for a solid five seconds before finally uttering words, "Tall-eared girl." Kivas facepalmed. "Dont tell me youve already forgotten Charishe..." Azulus gnawed her portion slowly, her posture slouched with exhaustion but her hand never faltered. "You know what, Kivas? Youll reach a point," Azulus said, pointing the slightly curved skewer toward Kivas, "where you wont need to eat like this anymore. Save yourself the displeasure of eating anything inedible while youre in the middle of your expedition." Kivas blinked, still chewing. "Yeah? And what is that?" "When your level is high enough," Azulus nodded as she swallowed. "Your reservoir for Hemo Psyche and Mana Psyche becomes sufficient to substitute biological needs. A year or more, even, just off soul-based fuel." Kivas lowered the meat slightly, curious of the implication. "Did you reach that level already?" Azulus lips curved into a rare smug grin. "Almost." Kivas would remember this rare moment forever, and it kinda ruined her image of Azulus stoic and adorable figureinto that of a possible hidden gremlin. Samael stirred the fire with a flick of her finger, watching a few embers jump without shifting her body. "Theres a skill," Samael added, "that lets Mana Psyche simulate Hemo Psyche directly. Tricky technique to get, needs an advanced class that branches off from either Priest or Hexblade." Azulus paused mid-bite. "Seriously?" Her expression stiffened, then softened into a mix of excitement and reluctant interest. "Great. Now I might need to start laying the foundation for the Priest class... Something that I havent touched for years." "Youll love the hymns," Samael deadpanned. "Time to sculpt yourself out of mud and think of a fake god that you wanted to pray as your god-like figure, and then kill that very god-like figure because that belief manifested into reality." "Speaking from experience?" Kivas chuckled. "It was a hard time." "I was joking..." Kivas expression curled. "Holy shit, that is crazy." "Heard an even worse occurrence when it comes to levelling Priest class," Azulus leaned forward. "Once there was a man whose belief focused on the skeleton of ones being being their true body and the flesh and organ being the cage... "In order to resonate further with this path of self-inflicted idea, that man freed more than 1,200 skeletons of those he was close with, before a Void Hunter Association put a bounty on his head and put him down for good." "Ah, that human," Samael chimed in as if she personally knew the aforementioned flesh-ripping priest. "I remember that he also got a hidden class because of it." "Yet you forgot the name of someone youve just met a few days ago." "Ah, so the rumor is true then," Azulus said, eyes widened. It was the words of the Endless Dragon herself who confirmed it after all. "So many hidden classes are still left uncovered. I wonder if Fathomi just creates a new one every now and then to inflate the pool." Kivas cocked her head to the side. "Hey, come to think of it, you two never mention class names other than the basic one. Is that some kind of taboo thing? Like revealing any detail of the Well of the Soul rule?" Samael smirked without looking up. "Nope. We just cant." "You cant?" Samael waved a finger in the air. "Conceptual regulation, to put it simply. Fathomi doesnt allow disclosure of class names. Especially hidden classes. You cant say what you dont qualify to share. Your soul literally rejects the action of informing it in any way." Kivas squinted. "So its a censorship system?" Azulus leaned back, resting on one elbow. "There are workarounds. Special inks and rituals. You can encode class data through glyphs or physical imprints. Theres even a hidden class that exists solely to bypass Fathomis conceptual locks." Kivas blinked. "A class that exists just to break the system of class concealment?" Samael nodded. "Yes." Azulus added with a dry chuckle, "Its one of the most hunted hidden classes for that reason." Kivas furrowed her brows. "If the existence of this class is known, then how come its owner didnt just share the qualification of this hidden class to others, instead of just leaving generations of people to hunt for it?" "Simple," Azulus said. "The person with that class can reveal the name and requirement of other classes, but not the class that allowed it to do so." "That sucks." "And that person is also dead," Samael added. "That sucks even more." The fire dimmed slightly as the wood beneath the empty skewer hissed and collapsed into ash. Kivas stood, brushing dirt from her legs, her mind racing with thoughts. Azulus didnt stir along. Her body leaned heavier into the bone-like bark behind her, head dipped forward. It seemed like Azulus wanted to clear her Nightmares in case that he attributes was lacking for any future encounter, now that a Nihil had been sighted not a long time ago. Samael sat cross-legged, still close to the fire, examining the lingering tendrils of Kivas last soul experiment. Her gaze traced the faint remnants of effort left hanging in the air. To think that she could just do that, Kivas wondered what was the content of Samaes current skillset, If only the rule about not revealing one Well of the Soul didnt exist, they would had already been nerding about their skills and numbers like best friends. Or in this case, couples. Right, Samael was Kivas love partner now, or owner, or whatever the romantic angle that she could decide at any moment. "You need an offensive tool," she said plainly. Kivas turned, slightly confused. "Ive got plenty" "Not tools you carry," Samael cut in. "Something from you. A skill. You rely on your Curio arsenal too much. If something steals them, curses them, or locks them awaywhats left?" Kivas frowned, nodding slowly. She knelt again. Fingers touched dirt. Eyes narrowed. With breath measured, she began again. She didnt pull from both Psyches. She drew from her Hemo Psyche alone. Just the reservoir meant for shaping vitality and soul-anchored force. She shaped it with intent, tightening it into a single point between her palms. The pulse formed quickly. A raw Hemo Psyche concentrated, compressed into a needle of will. Then, invoking her Fate Weaver skill, she let the causality bend. Will form results. Her desire was not merely to damage but to unravel and scatter the target that was hit by it. That designation should be enough for her current level of Fate Weaver to achieve, as long as it wasnt done in a major scale. With a final push of intent, the energy fired. It streaked from her palm into the treeline, where a large, insectoid Voidling had just crawled into viewdrawn by the warmth, or the noise. "Ah, I hit something." Its carapace shimmered greenish-red in the moonlight, and its wings flexed outward. The bolt struck it dead center in the head. It did not die, nor was there any physical damage foreseen from Kivas position. It screamed. And then it laughed. Its movements spasmed. It twitched in place. Its claws curled and uncurled. It staggered sideways, struck a tree, fell on its back, then shrieked with delight or agonyit was hard to tell. It spun once. Froth leaked from its mandibles. Then it sat perfectly still and sobbed. Kivas jaw dropped. "What...?" Samael approached the creature, knelt briefly, and watched its twitching form. "Its not dead," Samael said. "Just paralyzed with madness." She turned toward Kivas. "You launched raw Hemo Psyche, twisted by Fate, into its soul. No shaping through elements, no modifier, no intended emotionjust core disruption of ones psyche." Skill Gained: ? Madness Bolt Lv1 C You possess the power to launch a bolt filled with madness "Well, a notification had just arrived," Kivas said, staring at the glyphs that she could only see. "Can I share the name of this skill?" Samael immediately answered before Kivas said anything stupid. "Better not. Having one of your intrinsic skills read like an open book should be the limit. Its not like I couldnt deduce what was happening right in front of my eyes." "So, why did Hemo Psyche do that again? Is this because of my fate thingy?" "For some reason, the concentrated Hemo Psyche changed its intrinsic characteristic, as if it was bent conceptually, that it disrupts the soul and mind despite you having not a single skill that supports madness-infliction." Samael then bonked the madness-infliced Voidling with the blunt side of her cinquedea, before hitting a certain part that made it unconscious. "But the effects end as soon as severe physical trauma reasserts dominance." Azulus spoke without lifting her head, her voice faint. "A Fateling is definitely a race with the most limitless potential in terms of chaos." "Thats fast!" It seemed like Azulus had already finished sweeping her Nightmares away. Samael then continued, "And it seems like the effect of madness varies depending on the amount of Hemo Psyche used and the targets Resistance stats... "If you hit someone with low enough soul resilience, you can keep them incapacitated indefinitelylaughing, screaming, weeping. Whatever their psyche defaults to when cracked." Kivas blinked, looking at her own hands. "That only took ten HP. But I could feel itI could have pushed more. A lot more." "Every increase scales power and risk. Youll burn through your Hemo Psyche if youre not careful. But for a skill with no material cost, thats fine." Kivas grinned. "Hehehe, such a power in my hand~!" "Ah, she is drunk with power," Azulus casually commented. "She will definitely be one of Fathomis great calamities if this attitude keeps up," Samael joined the teasing. With Kivas HP and MP depleted after experimenting more of her currently newfound power, they broke camp. As they continued their journey, Kivas trailed behind as they resumed their walk toward the Zarangar Valley. Her mind burning with new plans, her soul lighter with discovery, and her fingers twitching with the memory of raw, soul-forged madness that she could abuseif she became powerful enough. Chapter 51: Arriving At Zarangar Valley Chapter 51: Arriving At Zarangar Valley"The air feels wrong." Samaels voice pierced the casual rhythm of their march. Her words didnt carry any urgency, however. "Could it be..." She didnt stop moving at first, but her expression dulled for a moment, eyes searching the air like it had yelled something directly to her. Kivas glanced at her former-dragon girlfriend, head tilted. "Did something happen?" Samael didnt answer immediately. She paused, gaze fixed ahead like the wind might offer explanation. After five seconds, she resumed her steps without elaboration. "Its nothing." "Suspicious..." Kivas widened an eye and a brow, placing index and thumb on her chin. "Is there really not a thing that you want to say?" "I merely had a premonition, or some kind of hunch, but it barely grasped anything and was built upon no foundation to prove its credibility." "So your instinct is telling you something, why dont you tell us what that is?" Azulus chimed to the discussion, maintaining a casual walking speed ahead. "No, who in the depths are you?" "Why dont you tell me what that is?" Kivas tried. "A certain flow of energy in the air suddenly shifted, and it kept getting more and more unstable until it wasnt anymore," Samael immediately answered. "This kind of phenomenon usually happens alongside a distortion, but there isnt any distortion happening within the small window of that happening." "Youre so mean to me," Azulus said with a deadpan, or maybe a pout but there were barely any changes on her face. As they continued, the smell of a civilization began to permeate their position. The terrain curved upwardascending toward the horizon, framed by monolithic ridges of stone and fractured plateaus that signaled the fringe of the known. And then they saw it. Zarangar Valley unfurled ahead of them like the broken memory of a dream painted in flawless scale. Twin mountain ridges towered on either side, their peaks lost in cloud-thick fog. Between those titanic shoulders of the world sat the bastionits foundation carved directly into the mountain walls, as though the earth had been split and hollowed to birth it. "Woaah...!" Kivas eyes sparkled with life and admiration for the colossal. "Its so much different from Solvish Keep!" Albeit hard to see, rivers of crystallized silver ran through its base like veins of a living machine. Luminous threads of power curved in arching circuits across the outer gates, snaking around the infrastructure in glyph-etched spirals. Floating obelisks hovered above the walls parapets, each marked by rotating rings of celestial metal. The entire structure looked grown rather than built, molded by hands not only skilled but devoted to the ancient science of divine architecture. Either that, a divine being came down directly from heaven and sculpted this bastion into existence. The vibration of moving gears whirred faintly in slow harmony behind those walls, but no sound could be traced to its source. Kivas eyes still widened, caught somewhere between reverence and envy. "Were really here... Man, this is so sick, actually!" She ran ahead briefly, stepping just far enough to see the scale extend beyond the curvature of the valley. It was obvious that Zarangar Valley dwarfed the Solvish Keep in every axis. Where Solvish had been a fortified city, this was an empire of power hidden in a canyon, wrapped in natural walls and crowned by ancient design. But then her footsteps slowed as she noticed that her excitement wasnt shared between Samael and Azulus. Azulus caught up beside her, brows drawn low. "Where are the crowds?" Kivas scanned the area again. Her Soulcall Whisper Bell remained quiet. No pulses. No alerts. Just a persistent pressure that pressed along the edge of her perception like a hand closing around her lungs. Well, that was quite paranoid of her to expect a bell ring when there was only a good sight forward. "Theres no guards nor a single sighted activity," Samael said, "The ground in front of the gate feels empty, despite the bastion influence still covering a good chunk of the land... "I suppose that there should be a line of merchants and crowd going back and forth since it is mentioned that Zarangar Valley is quite the hotspot." "There should be," Azulus muttered, slowly uncovering her uneasiness. "Zarangars main gates are always active. Travelers, merchants, caravans, faction transports, guild patrols. Always a line. Always a presence. Even during distortion peaks..." Kivas turned back. "Maybe theyre just not as busy today? Or maybe they are filled to the brim on the other side? Assuming that there is another gate." Azulus shook her head. "No. This is the standard from Zarangars administration. All navigational relics designate this as the front entrance. They dont even allow traffic from the other end due to spatial integrity risk between the mountain junctions." Samael moved slowly now, her eyes narrowing further as she traced the upper towers. Her gaze flicked across every arch, turret, and aerial platform. Her pupils dilated. "Theres something over this place," Samael said. "I cant do anything from here. We might want to get closer." The closer they walked on the grand road toward the entrance, the eerier the air felt. Eventually, they reached the threshold of the colossal gate. Still no people in sight. "Its not fully closed..." Its halves were slightly parted, open just enough for three to slip through. No guards. No warning glyphs. Not even an automated rejection code or defense mechanism that Kivas would expect out of a high-tech fantasy bastion. They entered through the gap. Beyond the gate, Zarangar Valley introduced itself before them. The city inside was breathtaking. The inner bastion climbed upward like stacked rings of civilization, each level connected through hover-rail platforms and spiraling elevators crafted of levitating runes. Spires of colored light streamed from some of the towers, projecting ethereal banners that shimmered in the upper sky. Aqueducts and conduits flowed with blue-glowing liquids through transparent pipes. Floating islands housed agriculture suspended midair, rotating slowly on anchored runic cores. The city was alive with design. And yet utterly dead in presence. No voices. No lights within the windows. No movement in the floating transports. Every automated system functioned in eerie perfection. Energy grids pulsed. Elevators moved. City mechanisms rotated in silent rhythm. But no one was there. No soul was detected. Kivas looked around slowly. "What is going on...?" Azulus didnt answer. Her mouth was slightly open, stunned. Samaels expression hadnt changed. She might have expected this from the beginning. "I dont know," Samael said. "Something is preventing any of my currently available arsenal from uncovering anything." "I cant probe anything either," Azulus finally found her voice after a moment of disbelief. "Ive never seen anything like this before. Even from my own associations recorded anomalies. This doesnt match any listed phenomenon..." It might be something that was far above Kivas knowledge, since these two spoke as if there was something specific happening with their own attempt to appraise and detect this dead bastion. Kivas took a step back. "Should we... leave? Find another place? Another bastion using our Void Hunter Tag?" Azulus reached for her Void Hunter Tag and lifted it up. The narrow black hexagon gleamed under the filtered light. Its embedded floating core pulsed gently, runes curling and spinning in soft procession. Zarangar Valley still displayed as the nearest active Void Hunter Associations Chapter. "No matter whats happening," Azulus said, "Zarangar is still being registered as active. That means the guild node is intact. Its core is still alive, and so was the core that kept this bastion intact when distortion happens..." Kivas frowned. "Well, that is certainly scary." "It might be under lockdown," Azulus said. "Or the administrative node is still isolated and self-functioning. We can try searching for it before choosing our next course of action." Kivas pulled her own tag. The same resultZarangar Chapter was the one that appeared as the nearest guild. "Should I try with my detection pulse?" Kivas offered Azulus opened her mouth to respond, but Samael spoke first. "No need. Weve already done our own sweeps." "Nothing to sense," Azulus added. "I tried three directional scans with psychic threading. Theres no soul signature anywhere nearby. Not even a faint memory echo. I also tried my blood-detecting skill and theres still nothing coming up." Samaels gaze flicked to Kivas, realizing something, "But your pulse skill mightve resulted in a different outcome. Maybe you can attempt it." Kivas nodded, setting her jaw. She drew in her breath and closed her eyes, focusing. "Here I go!" Soul tendrils stretched out again, serene and calm, woven with the threading of her Fate Weaver and shaped by the discipline Samael had taught her. As the Detection Pulse of Serenity launched, the moment it stretched for more than ten meters, a violent response rippled through her entire being. A shriek rang through her soul, a violation of sense. Kivas buckled immediately. Her knees gave. Samael caught her before she fell, cradling her with ease, one arm curled under her legs and the other steadying her back. "Kivas," she muttered quickly, scanning her face, and possibly everything to appraise in case that there was any permanent status affliction. "Say something. Can you mutter a thought? An expression of speech?" S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.et website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kivas grimaced, eyes fluttering open. "Still breathing. Still functional... Hehe. But something... didnt like that. I think it tried to push me back..." Samael held her for a moment longer, then turned and began walking away from the gate, her pace immediate and certain. Azulus blinked. "Where are we going?" Samaels voice was low, cold, and final. "Anywhere else. Proceeding further will endanger Kivas. This isnt worth any answer." Azulus frowned, her feet remaining planted. "Wait. Wait, hold on" Samael didnt stop. "Uncovering the mystery behind this damned bastion is not our responsibility. I would rather return to become vagabonds and wander around until we stumble a brand new sign of civilization," Azulus stepped forward. "The church," she said. "The teleportation facility. If the structures intact, its still linked to the external bastions. Solvish Keep should be reachable. We could use it! And if the interior systems are still functioning, we might find loot. Curio items. Unclaimed tech, and many more that might be worth the risk." Samael paused. She didnt turn. "Is that it?" she asked. Her voice was sharp now. Deadly still. Azulus hesitated. Samael slightly turned her face, revealing half of her expression that was laced with venom and anger. "Is. That. It?" Chapter 52: Gratefulness Chapter 52: GratefulnessThe air hadnt lifted. The tension remained wrapped around the back of Kivas skull, dull and steady, like the ache of a storm behind the eyes. Samael and Azulus had drifted into another bout of verbal exchange, their voices hardened by calculation and differing instincts. Kivas could barely register the content of itSamaels clipped, cutting tones and Azulus steady, scared, yet unwavering counters collided like steel on steel. It wasnt heated in volume, but sharp in intent as the two of them were insistent on their own path that could barely find any middle ground. Words like "recklessness," "priority," "risk factor," and "pointless endeavor" flared in between the static of Kivas disorientation. Each sentence passed over her as if her mind was filtering the world through fog. Her breathing remained steady, but her focus slipped, carried inward toward a memory that had never fully left. It was always there. Beneath the surface. Not dramatic or explosive, just quietly rooted like a splinter in the soul. And she always recalled this undying memory again and again, at every waking moment. A rooftop of a tall building. Her feet on the ledge. Cracked concrete beneath half-worn shoes. Wind pulling gently against her bruised face. Below her, the city pulsed like a living thing. People drifted from place to place, voices raised in moments she could not hear. Lights flickered. Traffic crawled. Life moved, and they went on in their own waves, uncaring. And she stood apart, gazing at them, those who lived their lives. There was no call for attention. No final message written on a scrap of paper. No tragedy steeped in poetic metaphors. Just the silence. Just the feeling of gravity calming her down, singing her lullaby about how great it was when everything ended. The warmth of entropy waiting with open arms. Kivas remembered how her fingers had curled at her sides. Not clenched, not trembling. Just existing, giving up as if her life had already been taken from her. She didnt want to take a step forward. Not entirely. But the thought lingered like a taste in her mouth, and she tried her best to resist her own mind from making any critical suggestion. And in this precious and haunting memory of hers, what she had wanted wasnt an escape. Kivas had nobody to tell this feeling and entropy she felt, someone to reach out her hand, someone to witness what she felt. To be seen. To be felt. For someone to understand the weight that pressed down on her, even when she smiled. Even when she laughed. Even when she kept walking. Just one person. Just one hand to reach out and say, "I see you, please, keep on living." Yet no matter how much she dreamed of it, no such hand had come. Before she knew it, Kivas slowly came back to the present. The fog in her mind began to dissipate, and her ears no longer filled with static. Cradled in Samaels arms as, Kivas blinked slowly. Then she leaned forward and buried her face into the crook of Samaels neck. Her arms wrapped around her without warning. Samaels speech was cut short. Her head tilted slightly to glance down. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked, voice dropping into something quiet. Not worried. Not surprised. Simply a gentle gesture of assurance. Kivas didnt answer with words at first. She only clung tighter. Then, softly, muffled by the contact, she spoke. "Im just feeling incredibly lucky." Her voice had that same lopsided cadence it always held when she was trying to downplay the truth. "To meet this callous yet considerate person, the second person who ever tried to kill me when I woke up confused in this world." Samael exhaled faintly through her nose, ignoring the bait as she smiled. "Do you want to eat something? Rest somewhere before we move? If you feel any weight of discomfort, just feel free to utter them. Im here." Kivas shook her head against her shoulder. "No. I just want you to be here. Right now. Every now and then, maybe never out of my sight." Samael didnt hesitate. "Then I will." "If you ever arent" Kivas began, her words tightening into a fragile quiver. "If you ever arent, Ill be devastated." "I wont ever leave you," Samael replied. "And even if we split up, Ill find you and be there for you as fast as I can." "Hmm, since when are you this smooth of a talker?" "I just know what stance to choose when my Fateling is feeling down, thats all." Samael warmly grinned, albeit sharp enough to be seen as devilishly. Kivas pulled back just far enough to look toward the horizon over Samaels shoulder. Azulus stood a few paces away, half-turned, visibly trying to give them space. She had her arms crossed, one brow slightly raised, expression neutral and unreadablethough, it was quite obvious that she felt rather safe now that the Endless Dragon was no longer in the aggro. Kivas chuckled softly and loosened her grip. "I still want to get that resonance catalyst," she said. "If we dont use the teleportation facility now, who knows when Solvish Keep will show up again. Or if it ever will... "You will also get to taste that Blood Cake again," Kivas smirked. "The amount of times I hear you mutter about wanting to take a bit at those red cubes have been too many to count." Samael stared at her for a moment longer, assessing for any lingering weakness. Then she nodded and gently lowered Kivas to the ground. The second her feet touched the smooth tiles of the road, Kivas straightened her back. Samael watched her regain her balance, then nodded once. "If thats what you wanted." Azulus could be seen brimming with excitement, her round rodent ears perked up, and her eyes were sparkling despite the deadpan. "But were skipping the Zarangar Chapter." Samael continued "No guild core looting. No side scavenging. We go straight to the church." Azulus let out an audible sigh. "Understood," she said flatly. Samael shot her a look. "That sounded reluctant." "It was," Azulus answered with no attempt at hiding it. "But fine. Well go your way. I wont cry about it..." Kivas pressed her hands against her cheeks, grounding herself. The memory of the rooftop was still lingering behind her eyes, but it no longer carried that same haunting weight. Samaels presence was steady beside her, and she hoped that it stayed that way until Kivas felt safe enough to turn around from the sight below. "Weve only met for three days, Azulus already began moving forward, wordlessly assuming the role of navigator now that the decision was final. Fathoms sky was starting to set, and the night was waiting for its light to bloom "Weve only been with one another for only three days," Kivas pondered warmly. "To think that you made me feel better than any person Ive remembered in my past life." "Im glad if you feel that way," Samael smiled with half-lidded eyes. "I can say the same thing about you." "Even though I made you more crippled than an ant?" "Now youre just downright insulting me~" "Hmm, I guess I might also need to try to find my fated someone," Azulus muttered under her breath, somewhat feeling a purple envy from all of the flirting and shenanigans happening between the two priority individuals behind her. "Do you have someone in your mind for that?" Kivas said as she suddenly closed the gap. "Not in particular." Azulus said outright, then pausing for a second before she continued, "Ill try my best finding them from now on though, seeing how comfortable the two of you are with one another." "Just seek another Fateling, it might change your life," Samael casually chimed in. "I dont think I will be finding one anywhere in the future..." "Exactly," Samael snickered. "Dont mind her," Kivas tried to console. "Youll find someone in the near future." Azulus nodded deeply, "I appreciate that." They weaved through the outer sectors of Zarangar Valley, moving in a straight vector toward where Azulus remembered the church being located. The streets remained empty. Transit platforms buzzed silently without passengers. The glow of power didnt flicker, but pulsed in steady rhythm. Like the city itself had never noticed it was abandoned. Kivas glanced up at the spirals of energy rotating above spires, and the silent stairways rising into the suspended gardens overhead. A world too intact to be fallen. Too silent to be functional. Her steps echoed on stone, and the sound failed to bounce back. They passed through one of the outer rings, a semicircular plaza filled with statues of various humanoid figuressome robed, some armored, some alien in character. A historical monument likely meant to honor notable explorers and inventors tied to Zarangars growth. No nameplates were etched. Only rotating glyphs hovering midair, as if waiting for someone to read them aloud. None of them tried. Even at this point, Kivas felt apathetic to the history of this place, and was much more focused on going back to Solvish Keep, that one familiar place that she might be able to call home. Kivas couldnt wait to meet with the people she knew again. The tall-eared fox demi-human Charishe, the wendigo-shaped bastion guard Voille, the seemingly passionate priestess Lyenar, and many more. "Here we are," Azulus presented. The church sat at the third inner circleits walls constructed from radiant black marble laced with runic light veins, interlaced with suspended bell towers that emitted no sound. Its design was simultaneously futuristic and ceremonial. A rather strong blend of shrine and machine. A cathedral grown from logic and worship. Two large doors marked its entrance, made of overlapping spirals of dark crystal. As they approached, no alarms went off. No barriers triggered. The entrance opened, responding to their presence without resistance. Whatever else was wrong with Zarangar Valley, the church recognized them. Azulus stopped at the threshold, waiting for confirmation. Samael gave a small nod. They stepped into the silent sanctum beyond. "The inside is surprisingly creepy," Kivas voice echoed. "I noticed that," Samael replied. "Are all churches at the current age of humanity made to be this way?" "Thats not true, but I can see where you came from," Azulus answered without looking back. The church welcomed them with silence, the kind that wasnt born of reverence or sanctity, but of something hollow and watching. As they moved deeper into the cathedrals vast nave, the temperature didnt shift, but something in the air grew softerthicker. It pressed against Kivas skin with a slow, syrupy resistance, as though she were walking through a dream that wasnt entirely her own. She blinked, expecting her senses to adjust, but the fuzziness remained. Her breath caught for a moment. Her vision clouded, not with darkness but a strange haze, like the warmth of vapor slipping beneath her skin. Her balance wavered slightly, though her feet still moved on reflex, keeping pace with Samael and Azulus without question. Something sweet drifted into her ears. A melody. Delicate at first, thin and fragile as the whimper of a lost thing, played on strings too old to hold perfect tension. It fluttered like the wind brushing across a glass harp, each note trembling as if hesitant to exist. A distant reverb followed, like the pluck of something wet and glistening, yet hollowed. An underwater piano of bone and pearl struck slow chords beneath the fragile stringsnotes held too long, decaying too fast. Then came the chorus of breath. Soft, feminine, like a choir lost in mourning, harmonizing in distant echoes. It wasnt in any language. Just vowels stretched into emotion, woven into the notes like veins into a leaf. They didnt rise in joy, nor grief. They simply wereaware of their own resonance, aware of being heard. Kivas turned her head, watching their surroundings shifttall obsidian columns inscribed with glowing glyphs, crystalline murals depicting entities in ritualistic poses, a suspended circular balcony far above, from which runes spun in spirals like gravity had abandoned them. She could see the lips of Azulus moving. Samaels hand flicking in some subtle gesture, the lift of a brow, the tilt of a head. She understood none of it. The words didnt reach her. They passed by like the wind around the music. All that existed was the sound. And something deeper beneath it, as though the melody curled around her soul and hummed softly into her bones. The air grew warm again, too warm for comfort, but her limbs refused to register anything beyond the melody. Kivas moved like a ghost following the scent of its old name. Then the music stopped. Abruptly. Cut clean like a thread severed mid-weave. The weight of the silence that followed was immediate, suffocating. Kivas inhaled sharplyand her lungs failed to respond. Her breath staggered. Her knees buckled. Azulus stood ahead of her, only a few steps away. Headless. Her body remained upright, utterly still, frozen mid-turn as though she were about to respond to something. Blood didnt flow. It just hovered, a crown of red mist where her neck ended, spinning ever so slightly like it obeyed another worlds physics. Kivas tried to scream, but no sound came. Her limbs wouldnt move. Then her eyes were torn toward the right, against her will, as if a puppet string had snapped taut. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Samael was there. Or what had once been her. It was a shape writhed in the air. "Aaah..." The body was twisted at impossible angles, arms bent backward with joints that didnt belong, legs spiraled inward like they were caged by an unseen force. Her jaw unhinged in silence, black threads pouring from her mouth like ink made of hair. Her eyes were blank. "Samael...?" The light in the church flickered. The glyphs dimmed. Then all of a sudden, Kivas felt a cold, at the same time, burning sensation on her neck. Her vision spun. The world tilted sideways, round and round it spun. And then she hit the ground, gaze landed upward to the ceiling. It was there, the perpetrator of it all. Soulmate Detected. It was one of the most hideous evil that Kivas had ever seen in her entire life. A shape so horrible, a color so hideous that the concept of malice reeked from every pores that exist on the skin of that ineffable being. An imageryno, a memory that would forever be engraved upon her soul. Would you like to imbue a Genesis Core onto this Soulmate? Before Kivas putrid consciousness waned into nothingness, she finally remembered the words and things that were caught in her ears when that evil melody intoxicated her. One of them was the sound of her Soulcall Whisper Bell, ringing a minute ago. To think that she would let her guard down. Kivas felt something inside of her, sunk deep into the abyss, so deep that she could taste the entire void. "He...lp..." Darkness soon consumed. The pain, the happiness, the sufferingthe amalgamation of all things rainbow and sunshine. All doomed to entropy. Thus, marking the first death of her epic. In the ever repeating cycle of hell. In this Fathomi. Chapter 53: Once Again, Like A Rogue Chapter 53: Once Again, Like A RogueKivas floated between thoughts, awareness fractured and curling around itself like steam over frozen water. She didnt know where her body was, if she still had one, or whether the breath she thought she took was truly hers. There was no pain here. No light. Just the thrum of her own memory, far off, muffled, but persistent. Kivas remembered dying. The moment the bell rang, her mind registered the silence, and then the music began. She had felt her thoughts stretch too thin, her perception unravel, and finally, when the sight of Samaels body cracked and folded, something inside her simply gave way to the entropy in her heart. It felt like she had collapsed. The foundation she had built to hold herself steady crumbled, because it had only been built on a single name. A single presence. The one string she had dared to grip with hope, snapped in front of her with no warning. It was snatched away right in front of her, and she couldnt do anything. "It was my fault..." Kivas muttered to herself, sorrow lamenting her past action. "If only I didnt try to convince Samael to search for the church..." Just the quiet knowing that she couldnt keep herself together anymore, was enough to sink down every little light that she grasped throughout her time in Fathomi. She had wanted so little, so simple, so childish... A hand to hold. A voice that saw her. Someone to anchor her when her soul started slipping again into the places that whispered endings into her ear. She had gotten it. And she had lost it. And maybe, just maybe, the wish itself had been the curse. Because wanting someoneneeding someonehad chained her to a dream she wasnt worthy of. Something beautiful trying to root itself into dead soil with no future, no vegetation in sight. She drifted through that void of thought, too tired to struggle. Then a voice broke through the fog of misery, like a god-shaped messenger entering the periphery of a sinner in their utmost regret. "Have you ever sinned?" There was no mouth. No presence. Just the inquiry, clear and dry. Kivas responded instinctively. "Yes." It wasnt something she needed to think about. It had happened many times, back on Earth and Fathomi. Meals to survive. Selfish action to defend herself, to justify her own ideology. It was not noble. It was not clean. In fact, Kivas deemed her own existence to be entirely made of sin. Sar?h the Novl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Otherwise, how could she suffered so much? The voice did not pause. "Do you find delight in lying?" "No," Kivas answered. She didnt enjoy deception. She could do it, sure. She could twist her words and smile like everything was fine, but that wasnt delightful. That was only for necessity. It was one of the most reliable methods of survival in a world that rarely asked for truth. "Would you sacrifice yourself for the greater good?" Kivas hesitated, but only for a moment. "If that greater good gives me a second chance... if it brings Samael back... then maybe..." The space around her quivered in silence. "Do you dearly cherish your belongings?" "Yes." Her voice was quieter now. "Even if I dont deserve to have them." "Which matters morethe means or the end?" "The end," she whispered. "Ive already crossed too many wrong paths to pretend the journey cleanses me." "If forced, would you commit evil?" "Yes." Her answer came before the question had fully formed in her mind. "If I have to. If theres no other way. I will." "Will you betray?" "Yes," she said. "If it means keeping something. If it means taking something back." "Have you ever dreamed of a greener pasture?" A pause. A breath she didnt take, but remembered dearly. "Yes. Every single day. Ive dreamed so hard I sometimes believe Ive already reached it." The voice went still for a long stretch. Time didnt pass. There was no motion. But she felt something settle within her like a name being etched in a place beyond language. "You have been blessed by the Remembrance of Renenutet." There was no reaction she could offer. The voice was not congratulating her, nor was it trying to consulate her. It was more like a divine judgment, a holy reward for the faithful and the misery. "To contain its essence, you shall also carry the Frugal Vow." Then warmth. Spreading from the core of her chest outward, like the air remembered how to hold her again. It pressed into her thoughts with a softness that didnt ask her to wake, but simply to rest. She drifted again, but into something different. Her senses began to return, not as a soul adrift but as something reanchored. A shape. A form. She could feel limbs again. She could feel breath again. And when she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the black, nor in the Zarangar Valley church. She stood in a place of ambiguous light and colorno walls, no floor, just a firm atmosphere shaped like a space. The details were unimportant because what stood in front of her took all of her attention. It was herself. But younger. No strange features. No pale skin or white hair. Just an ordinary girl with black hair tied behind her head in a loose knot, wearing the kind of clothes youd find in Earths dying cities. Her expression was tired. Eyes dulled by too many nights awake, but not empty yet. And still, that girl smiled with melancholy. "This is not the end," said the girl. Kivas blinked, startled. "Youre..." "Me," the human girl answered. "Before all this. Before Fathomi. Before the Curios, the deaths. Before I became something else." Kivas took a step forward. "How are you" "That doesnt matter." Her smile never wavered. "Im not really here. Just a part of you that never came along. After all, Ive always stayed back. Watching. Waiting to see if youd fall apart again. Waiting to be the last person you could fall back on." Kivas opened her mouth, but words didnt come immediately. "Can you still endure?" the girl asked. "To walk through the pain, to chew glass and bleed your tongue. Do you still have the willpower to keep on existing?" Kivas let out a quiet sigh. Her shoulders slumped. Her mouth pulled into a crooked line. Then she smiled. "When theres nothing waiting for me, I still have myself huh?" Kivas bitterly chuckled, pathetically. "I... I think I get that now. But, I feel like... I dont know if there is a sliver of hope within me anymore." "Is that so?" The girl nodded. "Can you say it with confidence that you no longer carry a light within you?" "To carry a light within me..." The melancholy on the girls smile disappeared, widening in warmth. "Hope doesnt exist in certainty. Thats not what it is. Hope shines the strongest when everything else goes black." She lifted her hands slowly, palms up. Between them, a star began to form. Not a literal star, but something in the shape of meaning. Radiant. Pulsing. Not hot to the touch, but warm with significance. "I know you want to die sometimes," the girl said. "I know you dont think youre worthy of being loved. But maybe that doesnt matter. Maybe what matters is you still want it.... "And thats okay." Kivas stared at the light. "What is this?" "Nothing. Everything. Something to cling to when no one else is left. The void that had always been in your heart. The stress you put into your action. The thoughts that muddle and weigh in your head as you try to scramble for answers... "You dont have to believe in the world. You dont have to believe in a future. Just believe in yourself. Just once." Kivas hesitated. Her hand lifted, shaking slightly. "The oceans dark," her past self continued. "But even when you cant see, the act of reaching through it means you havent given up on yourself. That act is what keeps you from drowning completely." She held the star out further. "As long as you can move. As long as your feet still touch something solid... "You can choose a different path. A different hope. One thats yours." Kivas reached forward slowly. Her hand hovered just above the light. And she let herself hope again. Even if just for a second. Even if it was only herself that believed it. Even if the world had already ended. She reached out. And touched the star. The light welcomed her. "Okay.. it is starting to blind me now..." Maybe a little too much. And before she knew it, the light slowly dissipated. Pale gradients started to turn into colors, and sensation began to envelop her whole being as if she had reclaimed her physical body. A sensation of diving at extreme speed towards the ground. "Aaa?" With a startled confusion, her form spun awkwardly as gravity claimed her. She plummeted toward the world below, limbs flailing in a spiral that ended with a tremendous crash. She landed headfirst. The sound echoed like a dropped bell. Her legs stuck out of the earth, straight and twitching. The world around her vibrated in confusion, dust puffing around the crater of impact. Feathers flopped loosely. Her wings beat once, lazily, upside down. There was a muffled scream. "AAAAAAGHHHHH!" Her voice was smothered by the soil, but the sound continuedhigh-pitched, furious, and thoroughly confused. With a powerful grasp on the soil, she easily extracted herself from the ground like a plucked radish. With a cough and a grunt, she flopped over, sitting in the shallow crater shed made, hair tangled, wings splayed like a collapsed tent. Her eyes crossed slightly, then snapped open wide with realization. "Wuh!?" Feathers fluttered off her wings as she regained the long sensation that she had lost for a while. Her halo pulsed indignantly. She brushed dirt off her face, stood up with exaggerated effort, and inspected her reality. Her glowing two-toned silvery white and golden hair sparked faintly. Her skin flickered with residual energy, with no imperfection aside from the small bruise that could barely be seen on her forehead. The world around her stayed quiet, seemingly stunned. "Did I just go back in time...?" Chapter 54: Another Beginning Chapter 54: Another BeginningKivas stood in the center of the shallow crater, her feet sinking slightly into the soft dust that had cushioned her descent. Her fingers brushed dirt from her hair as a muted ache faded from her skull. The air around her shimmered with unreal claritylike freshly formed glass that hadnt decided whether to remain solid or melt. She blinked, once, then twice. "Ive truly returned here, to the beginning..." The strange sensation of her body still being whole registered in the corners of her nerves. She hadnt lost her wings. Her halo still pulsed above her head, flickering its flame with usual strange rhythm. Kivas then concentrated. ? WELL OF THE SOUL Name: Kivas Chariot Race: Fateling Total Level: 2 ? Attributes ???? Strength (STR): 110 ???? Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 98 ???? Piety (PIE): 102 ????? Vitality (VIT): 330 ???? Speed (SPD): 185 ???? Dexterity (DEX): 213 ???? Luck (LUK): 88 ? Vitals ?? Hemo Psyche (HP): 42 / 42 ???? Mana Psyche (MP): 32 / 32 ? Derived Stats ????? Attack Power: 110 ? Magic Power: 98 ???? Divine Power: 102 ????? Defense: 330 ???? Magic Defense: 102 ????? Detect: 95 ???? Disarm Trap: 176 ???? Evade Trap: 156 ???? Action Speed: 185 ???? Accuracy: 176 ???? Evasion: 156 ?? Resistance: 182 ? Classes ? Priest Lv2 Disc0 ? Skills ? Divine Soulmate Imbuer Lv1 C You possess the power to imbue a Genesis Core onto your fated soulmate. ? Fate Weaver Lv1 C You possess the power to weave fate. ? Remembrance of Renenutet Lv1 C You embody a fertile field, bringer of happiness, and a nourishment of milk. ? Frugal Vow Lv1C You limits the amount of your spiritual equipment in exchange of enhancing the effects of what you equips. ? Soul Entanglement Lv1 C You possess the power to latch your soul. ? Detection Pulse of Madness Lv1 C You possess the power to scatter your all-encompassing essence. ? Detection Pulse of Serenity Lv1 C You possess the power to scatter your all-soothing essence. ? Madness Bolt Lv1 C You possess the power to launch a bolt filled with madness. ? END OF THE WELL Every single skill. Every attribute. Every thread of accumulated growth since her arrival in Fathomi. The numbers. The strange spells she created. The Nightmare-conquered boost. It was all there. She was whole. More than that, she was intact in memory too, and even gained two pairs of new skills. "The Remembrance of Renenutet," Kivas muttered, familiar with the words of a certain wiki page that she checked back when she was on Earth. "Renentet is an ancient Egyptian goddess of grain, nourishment, and the harvest. To think that a mythical history that exists in my world just got brought here in the form of a skill... "Wait, what does You embody a fertile field, bringer of happiness, and a nourishment of milk mean...?" Kivas was concerned about the description of the skill. "I guess it makes sense since she was also a motherly figure?" And then there was the Frugal Vow skill, where it apparently reduced the numbers of items that Kivas could equip with her soul but also increased the effects of the one she equipped. This skill was quite simple and explanatory, unlike the rest of her arsenal. "I wonder how great the effect is, and how many items I can equip." Kivas snickered. "I should try asking for her wisdom "Right, I wonder where she is now..." Kivas was in the same place where she had landed from the sky, dazed and confused, just a few days ago. The distortion of space and time had reset the world around herbut not her. She had kept everything. She remembered everything. Including what happened. What she lost. The foundation she had almost built in just three days. And her heart was just as weary, knowing that she needed to redo all of those connections all over again, made her chest ache more than she expected. Kivas face tightened, but she didnt dwell on it. Not yet. She reached inward again, using her Pulse Detection of Serenity. She spread it slowly, letting the calm pulse of her Hemo Psyche drift outward like a silk veil unfurling in water. It kissed the terrain gently, yet not colliding with it, faintly brushing across every pebble and twisted root, every static-crusted leaf and forgotten ruin. No souls answered the call. Nothing stirred in the dark. No sentience. No voice. No sound. That lined up with her memory. There had been no one here the first time she arrived either. This stretch of Vaingall had been a grave of silence until the first distortion emerged and carved the world open. She adjusted the skill output to its thinnest breadth, letting it linger in a constant scan while draining the bare minimum of her psyche. Then she took a walk. The forest of this part of Vaingall was just as she remembered, the soil, the branches, the leaves, the wild vegetation that she attempted to roast using her flaming halo, all of them were here again. Kivas didnt really know what would happen if she were in a different place when the incoming distortion arrived. Would she arrive in a different place than before? She didnt want that. She wanted to meet Samael who may or may not still be in her Endless Dragon form. So to achieve that, she needed to follow the same order of events, the position where the distortion took, the amount of time and action, the order of entities she met. Her thoughts twisted into tension. She stopped beside a tree she recognized, a place where the first distortion recallibrated the land. As if summoned by her thought, the distortion happened on the exact time she countedshe remembered the scenery, how there were barely anything noticeable when everything was reordered like a jigsaw puzzle. "Right on time," she muttered. The distortion passed. And just like before, something was discovered in sight. It sat between two trees, nestled in the dirt as if it had always been there. A wooden container with metallic trim and a domed lid, almost comical in its classic treasure-chest aesthetic. She walked toward it without hesitation. The Curio stood there, exactly where she remembered. "This should be an easy disarm, if the trap is still the same. She placed her palm on the chest and her consciousness was split. Her body remained in Fathomi, but half of her soul was projected into the disarming event. She found herself standing in the same familiar maze. Her other self, her projected psyche, was armed with instinct alone. But this time, she was ready. She already knew the correct path. The right turns. The false reflections. The baited dead ends. She ran the route, feet striking soundless floors, eyes locked on the end gate. The traps tried to adapt as the waves of horrors tried to close the gap from the other side. But her boosted stats carried her forward. Her upgraded reaction time let her preempt each hurdle. Without putting much effort, she reached the exit and grasped at the light enveloping her at the end of the tunnel. Then the maze shattered. "I guess stats do matter, now that I have ten times the amount of what I used to have back then, heh." Back in the real world, the Curio unlocked with a grinding hum. The lid lifted. Kivas leaned over and peered inside. "Wut..." It wasnt the same weapon. Back then, it had given her a grotesque cinquedealaced with veins. Now, a different prize awaited. A sword rested within a crystalline sheath, its surface shimmering like frozen light. She reached for the handle. The moment her fingers brushed the hilt, the crystal casing exploded outward. Shards floated midair, suspended around the obsidian-black sheath wreathed in faint flame. The fragments of crystal circled like petals around a blossoming weapon. Five seconds later, they reassembled slowlyforming a perfect, non-threatening sheath, quiet and elegant. Kivas unsheathed the blade. It gleamed with a strange gradientpurple bleeding into orange like sunset caught in steel. The metal was folded and layered with alien craft, bearing no makers mark. Only a presence. She sheathed it again slowly, uncertain. "So even the rewards change..." Kivas breathed in awe as she examined the first Curio item she got in this timeline. "Maybe the so-called chaos inside every Curio is truly made out of unpredictable chaos... "As much as I want to equip it to my soul right now, I dont want to accidentally equip a cursed item, especially with how fancy this sword is." Besides, if this was a true reset, then Kivas wouldnt have a single Nightmare to fight. And even if she were to be forced to fight a strong Nightmare in this instance, she believed that her arsenal of skills should be enough to make a proper attempt without any spiritual equipment. Still, the realization struck her harder than she anticipated. Time had reversed, but the Curio did not yield the same content. The world seemed aware in a sense, as it knew that something not meant to be had shifted. Before she could sink deeper into thought, a twinge sparked in her extended pulse net. Movement. A spiritual signature brushed the edge of her serenity fieldfaint, wild, flickering like a dying star. "It is quite far, but believable at this point." Maultahk. The human-headed lion Voidling. The one that had nearly torn her limb from limb during her first day in Vaingall, if a certain dragon didnt save her in time. She remembered its malice. Its sadistic grin. Its deadly claws. "Eh, I doubt that I would be having a problem in killing that beast now." So she decided to seek out Maultahk instead of waiting for the fateful meeting. "Might as well go for the early kill." Samael would just sought Kivas regardless of Maultahk being dead or not, since this didnt change the fact that Kivas was still a Fateling that Samael utterly despised. "I wonder if I could convince this Samael the same..." She moved quietly, dropping low, curving around a ridge to gain visual confirmation. And then she saw it. The human-headed beast was dead. Its massive body lay sprawled in a ditch of broken patch of flowers, neck twisted at an unnatural angle, ichor staining the ground beneath its still form. And atop the corpse A figure. Sear?h the n??el Fire.nt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. One knee perched on Maultahks mangled shoulder, gazing calmly at the broken form beneath her. Two-toned hairblack on the outside, crimson on the other. A pair of curved horns extended upward from her scalp. A pair of dragon wings folded loosely against her back. Her crimson eyes burned faintly with bored serenity. Samael. Not in her dragon, but in the form she had taken after receiving the Genesis Core. An Exo Human. And very much alive. Kivas froze. Her heart thundered in her chest. She stared, eyes wide, soul caught between disbelief and joy, terror and awe. "Kivas...?" Chapter 55: The Endless Dragon, On An Endless Pursuit Toward Love Chapter 55: The Endless Dragon, On An Endless Pursuit Toward LoveSamael stood still beneath a pale canopy of green, framed by trees that she recognized, just not by the same scales that she used to witness from above. The wind tasted of daylight. The leaves rustled with the faint hush of undisturbed naturenormal, living trees of Vaingall. Sar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She stared at her hands first. Humanoid in nature and appearance. She was still an Exo Human. The body shaped for her by the Genesis Core and Kivass foolish defiance of death. She was not the Endless Dragon anymore. At least not visibly. But she was also not dead. That much became clear quickly. She extended her psyche inward, reaching for the familiar lattice embedded in her essence. The response was immediate. ? WELL OF THE SOUL Every attribute, every skill, every thread of her progression was identical to what it had been before Zarangar Church consumed her. Even the Genesis Cores aftershocks were intact. Her soul echoed with all the power and structure shed earned. She closed the Well with a flick of thought. Samael narrowed her eyes, scanning her environment. She had been here before. Days ago, in a different life. Or perhapsmore accuratelyin a previous loop. Her expression darkened. "To think that something like this can happen..." She tried to recall the last coherent memory. Zarangar Valley. The church. She and Azulus was ahead, and they were attacked. There had been an entity. Something that didnt belong. An ineffable thing that didnt move through space so much as rewrite it. Samael remembered sound without origin, light without form, the taste of endings on her tongue. It hadnt struck her. It hadnt even acknowledged her. And yet she had been unmade. Annihilated without the courtesy of battle. Even now, she couldnt describe it. Only that it had ended her. And now here she was. Alive. Whole. Reconstructed. Her soul was reborn but not rewritten by the past history. She stood quietly as the implication sank in. This wasnt random. This wasnt divine resurrection or entropys mercy. This bore the stench of fate. And fate, in Fathomi, had many teeth. Her thoughts turned to Kivas. A Fateling. The first of her kind to use a Genesis Core on another. The only person Samael had ever felt fate bend around. "If Kivas had returned too..." She looked to the horizon, mentally calculating. The position of the stars. The scent of the earth. The timing of the breeze. "The only way to confirm all of my theories is to meet with her..." Samael had already promised that she would be there for Kivas no matter what. And even though they were splitted, Samael promised that she would be right on Kivas side as fast as she could. And not only that, ever since Samael awoke at this point of time, her heart had been heavy and weary. She failed to protect Kivas, and she failed to detect the danger before the three of them entered the church. For Samael that kind of mistake was unacceptable. If she werent brought back to the past like this, then it would be the end. It would be over, her beginning of trying to undo her lonesome nature in Fathomi. "Kivas... Kivas... Kivas... Kivas..." Face frowned, Samael felt a tug of anxiety around her, coiling her like a rope. "Where are you... How are you... How could I leave you...?" NoSamael was far. Too far from where Kivas had first fallen into Fathomi. The land had not yet been distorted. But if it had returned to its cycle, as everything else seemed to, it would realign soon. The pieces would move again like sliding tiles in an unsolvable puzzle. She would wait. The moment crept in quietly. No thunder. No tremor. Just a whisper in her nerves, a pause in the insects, the breath of trees shifting slightly sideways in logic. When the time arrived, reality recut itself in silence. The distortion passed in less than a blink. And the world was new. Samael raised her chin. The land had shifted, folding geography upon itself with quiet precision. She opened her awareness like a net, sending her soul forward across the new terrain. A presence. Faint. Familiar. But not Kivas. Closer. Wild, and volatile. Samael shifted without hesitation, teleporting across the brambles as efficient as possible. She arrived on a ridge overlooking a clearing that shouldnt exist. There, below her, stalked a figure she hadnt seen in her current form. Maultahk. Human-faced. Lion-bodied. Voidling core knotted tightly in a mockery of pride. He hadnt changed either. This should be enough that there was no anomaly in this strange timeline regression. And judging by the way he sniffed the air, he didnt recognize her either, confused of what to make of this strange encounter himself. Maultahk wouldnt know. The Endless Dragon had been a creature of scales and entropy, not flesh and skin. Still, the sight of him made Samaels vision narrow. He had nearly ripped Kivas apart once. If Samael didnt come back in time back then, then she would had never met Kivas. She wouldnt be imbued by the Genesis Core, and she would still be the powerful Endless Dragon that was forever alone until another fateful encounter happened. That was enough to make Samaels blood boil. Samael vanished from her spot and reappeared mid-air, directly in front of Maultahk. Her fist was already clenched when she reentered visibility. The punch landed squarely across Maultahks face, crushing his cheek inward and sending his massive body sailing into a tree with bone-jarring force. Bark cracked and the beast bounced upward, claws scraping against the trunk as he caught himself mid-sprawl and righted his stance on the side of the tree. Maultahk snarled, fangs bared. "Who dares" Darkness bloomed. A wave of magic surged from the Voidling, coloring the entire world in a bleak monochrome gradient. Every color bled away until only shades of ash and coal remained. The air felt dry. Frictionless. "You insolent creature!" Samael snapped her fingers as she leaped, invoking a precise gravitational fold. The next instant, she clung to the tree like it had become her floor. She surged forward, latching onto Maultahks head with one hand, driving him backward. Grabbing onto the Voidlings head, his skull slammed into the trunk with a deep indentation. She followed with her knee, crunching it into his ribcage, then drove her elbow into the bridge of his nose. Blood streaked the bark, again, and again. Another punch to the eye. Another to the temple. Then a flurryquick jabs, precision strikes to his face and snout, until Maultahk roared in disoriented pain. Samael lifted his head again, then spun him off the tree and hurled him downward into the clearing. The monochrome forest flickered under the shock. She descended immediately, gravity folding around her legs to pull herself to the ground faster and stronger. She landed hard on Maultahks torso, one foot crashing into his solar plexus with enough force to leave a crater beneath them both. The beast gasped, spine arching involuntarily. Samael crouched beside his head and pulled it upward by his tangled mane. Her eyes pulsed red. A dragons roar, compressed into the shape of a cone-like fury, surged from her mouth directly into Maultahks ear canal. The sound wasnt a simple noiseit was a structured weapon, laced with the metaphysical essence of her soul and everything destructive to ensure the death of her victim. It collapsed his spiritual cortex in one blast. The body beneath her went slack. The dark gradient peeled away. She remained on top of him, hands resting on her knees, breathing controlled but sharp. The rage receded gradually. The memory of Kivas nearly dying under those claws was enough to ignite the storm. But now that it was done, she felt the storm pass. She straightened, standing tall atop the cooling corpse of the Voidling, brushing a loose strand of hair from her brow. "Hahaha..." Samael smiled as she facepalmed. "I guess Ive been a little bit too obsessed with my lovely Fateling... "No, Kivas are no mere Fateling." Samael gaze sharpened. "I have killed countless Fatelings, and not a single one of them is like that of Kivas... "Her existence is unique, and she had been soothing my ennui so powerfully, like an unrelenting tempest, destroying all of the ruins that shaped my heart..." And then A shift in air. She sensed it before she turned. The familiar aura. The distinct soul-pattern that she had come to memorize in full detail. Behind her, just emerging from the tree line, stood Kivas. Eyes wide. Heart pulsing like a drum in Samaels awareness. Samael turned her head, slowly. "Kivas...?" The second she saw Samael standing over Maultahks corpse, haloed in heat and silence, every wall of composure she had built inside her mind crumbled without resistance. Kivas ranfeet hammering the ground, not as a calculated charge but a reckless sprint driven by raw emotion. Her breath caught in her throat, not from exhaustion but disbelief. The moment blurred around her. Colors. Trees. Air. Gone. Just Samael. Samael, who was dead. Samael, who had fallen beside her in a place they never should have entered. Samael, who now stood as if no time had passed. Kivas leapt. Samael didnt move. The stoic poise she heldshoulders squared, posture balanced, eyes half-liddedshattered the instant Kivas collided with her. The two of them toppled sideways onto the soft, torn earth beside Maultahks body. The breath went out of Samaels lungs, more from shock than force. Her arms flailed for a fraction of a second, then dropped against the ground in stunned surrender as Kivas clung to her with the intensity of someone who had just been resurrected by proximity. "Im sorry," Kivas choked. "Im so sorry..." Samaels eyes blinked slowly, letting the warm and gratitude enveloped her as she tried to convince herself that it was Kivas that was currently tightly hugging her. "I didnt listen," Kivas continued, voice already breaking. "You told me. You said we should leave. You knew. You knew, and I" Her words were tangled. Her body trembled. "I thought that nothing could go wrong. I felt too complacent, a goody-two-shoes who didnt see the obvious. That I could survive it like I always have. But I" Her voice collapsed into a sob, raw and ugly, spilling out of her like all the pressure and guilt that had built since the moment she realized she had survived when Samael hadnt. "I killed you!" The sentence hit the air like a weight thrown into still water. Samael stared at her, frozen for a breath that felt like eternity. Then, slowly, she sat up, arms lifting Kivas with care. Samael then put Kivas on the ground standing, before examining Kivas. Finger trembling, arms retracted. Samael leaned her head toward Kivas shoulder, then wrapped her hand around Kivas, gently, like enclosing a wound that refused to close. Her hands pressed against the trembling back, and she pulled the girl in tighter. "You didnt kill me," Samael said, voice quieter than usual. "Its alright. Everything is fine." "I didnt listen," Kivas whispered again, clutching the fabric of Samaels coat like it was the only thing keeping her from slipping away again. "You said we should leave. We couldve gotten out. We shouldve. And I said no, I insisted on going back so that we can hurriedly get back to Solvish Keep. I led us there" "You dont have to explain," Samael interrupted gently. "I remember. You must be scared, confused, lonely." Kivas buried her face into Samaels poised shoulder, voice muffled. "I didnt know what to do..." Samael held her tighter. "And I promised to protect you." There was a pause. The wind moved through the leaves like a soft breath from the world itself. "I failed," Samael admitted. Her tone was heavier now, lined with something she rarely let show. "I said Id keep you safe. I said you could rely on me. But I let my guard down. I thought I could beat whatever was in her way. I thought" Her jaw clenched. "I thought I was still strong enough to protect you from anything. I had forgotten my new weakness. It all happened because of how careless I was." "No," Kivas gasped, lifting her head enough to meet Samaels eyes. Tears streaked her cheeks, jaw tight from grief. "Both of us are at fault." "Indeed," Samael smiled in amusement. "Truly, what an unreasonable conclusion.". Samael unwinded their position, and then she pressed her forehead to Kivas. Samael closed her eyes. "Everything will be alright, now that were together again." Finally, Kivas painted a smile on her face. "Yeah..." A silence stretched between them, but it didnt ache. Samael moved her hand to Kivass cheek, brushing a tear away with the back of her knuckle. "Then lets do it right this time." Kivas nodded, eyes clenched, as another sob slipped through her lips. They stayed like that, curled together beside the broken body of Maultahk, two beings bound by fate, scarred by entropy, and tangled in something deeper than either could define. Neither spoke. They didnt need to. Their hearts were beating near each other, communicating with the feeling of warmth. Chapter 56: Andante Chapter 56: AndanteSamael reclined with her head resting across Kivas thighs, one arm bent loosely over her midsection, the other draped across the grass. Her gaze was turned upward, fixed on the half-shadowed profile of the angel above her. The branches above filtered sunlight in soft beams, tracing faint patterns across Kivas expressionequal parts tranquil and tired, touched with something peaceful she hadnt worn since the distortion reset the world. The lap beneath her was surprisingly comfortable. Samael had worried her horns would complicate the arrangement, but theyd formed at such a modest angle that she simply needed to rest closer to the bend of Kivas knees. Her neck arched slightly, but the view was worth it. From here, the world narrowed down to soft cloth, steady warmth, and Kivas quiet rhythm. Also, Kivas thighs were plump enough to accommodate her. "This whole time-resetting thing," Samael murmured, her voice tinted with amusement, "still feels utterly insane." Her fingers brushed faintly against the fabric over Kivas leg, slow and idle. "Ive thought about it. A lot... "And Im certain of it now. This isnt a different Fathomi. This is our Fathomi. The same layers, the same cycles. Just... rewound. Not recreated anew or being thrown to a different timeline." Kivas looked down at her, fingers gently combing through the twin-toned strands of Samaels hair. "I was scared," she admitted softly. "The world flipped, the ground was gone, and you were dead. Then I woke up again like nothing ever happened. I kept asking if I was hallucinating... "If everything was a dream." She paused, her touch pausing mid-stroke. "But when I saw your face again... it was like a switch flipped inside my chest. All that anxiety vanished. Just like that." Samaels lips curved slightly, and her gaze turned away, not toward the sky but toward the opposite side of the field, away from Kivas line of sight. A faint heat bloomed across her cheekbones. Her hand began moving again, this time tracing idle circles along Kivas thigh, fingers skimming in quiet patterns. Sear?h the novlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You feel different today," Samael said, eyes half-lidded. "Theres something in your face, your aura. Something warm. And tingly... You smell different, too." Kivas tilted her head, brows quirking slightly. "Different, huh? What do I smell like?" Samael inhaled softly, almost imperceptibly, her nose brushing lightly against the skin just above Kivas outer thigh. "You smell... floral. Like petals caught in the spring wind. But theres something else beneath it." "Something else beneath?" Samael blinked once. "Milk." Kivas narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Milk?" Samaels gaze shifted down to Kivas chest. Her eyes lingered for a moment, then widened slightly. Kivas followed her gaze. Then her expression shifted with realization. She cleared her throat. They saw a certain something leaking, a rather embarrassing thing to perceive. Kivas didnt really know what to do since it happened so suddenly, but she thought that Samael was not any normal human who cared for such a thing. Samael was a former Voidling, an Endless Dragon at that. Just because she looked like a human at this moment, doesnt mean that she would possess the same kind of perversion. "Right, so," she said quickly, lifting her voice half a pitch to redirect the subject, not putting any focus on things that didnt matter. "I got two new skills." Samael didnt lift her head. Her cheek remained pressed comfortably against Kivas thigh, raising slightly up just so that her horn didnt poke Kivas skin. "You dont have to tell me details about your Well of the Soul, there might be a future where we need to fight and you need to win against me at all cost." Kivas chuckled. "I dont care. Its more important that you know. If I hold everything back just to optimize for some unknown scenario, then whats the point of us being together in the first place?" Samaels hand paused in its tracing. "You know the consequence. If you reveal more than Ive already experienced about your Soul. Your stats will lose some of their actualization when facing me, especially in conflicting layers." "I know," Kivas replied. "But if you let me give you hints, will that bypass the limitation?" "It can, in a way," Samael said slowly. "Dont give me the direct names. Keep the explanations vague. Let me guess the skills without uttering it fully. That way, the Soul doesnt register it as knowledge." Kivas exhaled, letting her fingers fall into the rhythm of brushing once more. "The first skill came to me right after I woke up again. I think its tied to... a certain important deity from a certain civilization of the past." Samael closed her eyes briefly, considering. "Does the skill description say how you embodied a certain trait of that deity?" Kivas nodded. "Something like that." Samaels lashes lifted. "Ah. Then its probably part of the Remembrance series." She let the silence rest for a moment, then added, "Those types of skills pull from historic, religious, or mythic referencesregardless of which reality they originated from... "Theyre powerful, to the point that it might transform you depending on the origin and source material of the remembrance." "Youve had one?" Kivas asked. "Seeing how knowledgeable you are, Im assuming you have this kind of skill." "Ive collected around 32 of them," Samael replied casually. "Some of them are fairly high-leveled, too. Before I was... now." "Show off." "Youre the one asking me if I have one." "True, but still, what a show off~" "I dont mind if its you. I can laid everything bare if you want it." "Now, youre making this whole thing suggestive." Kivas chuckled. "As for the second skill. This ones tied to a promise. To explain it as simply and vaguely as possible, I cant equip as many spiritual artifacts now as I wanted now." Samael tapped her fingers against Kivas leg, rhythm picking up slightly. "So youre restricted to fewer soul-bound items. But Im guessing the ones you can equip get amplified?" Kivas nodded. "Exactly. It feels like... the fewer I carry, the stronger each becomes. Something along the line." "Ah, that skill. I knew that." "I guess my explanation is barely vague in a sense." "At level one," Samael began, "youll likely be allowed three. Maybe two, depending on your cores temperament. But those equipped will be doubled in effect. At level five, youll probably drop to just one." She turned her head again to meet Kivas gaze. "But the boost becomes exponential, and scales indefinitely, if you somehow find a way to level it up." "Thats... kind of incredible," Kivas said, eyes widening slightly. "Honestly, managing too many items was getting exhausting anyway." "Its not just convenience," Samael added. "Its just a perfect state of being. Relying on your own strength is quite the cathartic experience, you know?" "Did you have this one too?" Kivas asked. "I did," Samael replied. Kivas chuckled, raising one eyebrow. "On top of that skill that lets you gain the traits and abilities of Curio items you eat?" Samaels lips curled into a sharp, smug grin. "Naturally." "Shows off~" "More like someone prodded it without me doing anything." Their eyes met for a quiet second, the air between them lighter nowless haunted by the weight of their reunion, steadied by the rhythm of shared knowledge, shared history, and that small, wordless feeling of moving forward together again. Samaels fingers then paused in their tracing. Her brows twitched slightly. She blinked once, slowly, her gaze narrowing as something unfamiliar pulsed beneath her skin. She sat up without a word, lifting herself off Kivas lap with measured ease, her eyes focused somewhere invisible in the middle distance. Kivas blinked and tilted her head. "Whats wrong?" Samael didnt respond at first. Her hand hovered in the air, palm half-closed as if trying to grasp something unseen. Then her voice came, soft but edged with a curiosity that ran deep. "It seems Ive just gained a new skill." That caught Kivas full attention. She sat upright, leaning forward slightly. "Out of nowhere?" "Yes," Samael murmured. "Its... unusual. Nothing in my current state should have triggered this unless..." She trailed off, gaze sharpening as her fingers flexed once. "Unless its directly linked to the Genesis Core you forced into me when we first met." "Forced into you makes it sound so aggressive," Kivas muttered under her breath, but her curiosity overrode the sarcasm. "What kind of skill are we talking about?" Samael stood in full, eyes still tracking something unseen as if reading across layers of script floating in space. "One I havent seen before." She reached upward, palm now fully extended. Energy crackled faintly, barely visiblesubtle distortions, like heat bending the air in a soft shimmer. It gathered with the rhythm of breath, then with the gravity of will. Crimson hues began to pool at her fingertips, laced with undertones of blackfamiliar colors, worn in the same palette as her soul. And then it shifted. The shimmer solidified, condensing in mid-air into a rough silhouettean incomplete humanoid shape carved from swirling fragments of colored essence. It mirrored Samaels form loosely: same long limbs, same crown of twin horns, same draconic presence bleeding through the lines. But it was hazy. Unrefined. Kivas rose slowly to her feet, her breath caught somewhere behind her ribs. The conjuration pulsed, fluctuated, then compacted into a more stable form. Where once there was just haze, now there stood a figurea being of black dusts and crumbling void, smaller than Samael by a head or two, with texture like a statue carved from scorched ash. Its skin cracked visibly across joints and shoulders, exposing swirling void within. One horn curved upward from the left side of its head. The right side was broken, jagged, like it had shattered long ago and never reformed. Its body didnt breathe or beat a pulse. It simply existed, held together by will and definition. The apparition tilted its head toward Kivas. Chapter 57: The Divine Constructs, And The Divine Hive Mind Chapter 57: The Divine Constructs, And The Divine Hive MindThe apparitionnow fully formed, yet flickering slightly at its edgesbegan to stir beside Samael. Its limbs bent with a strange, weightless grace, joints cracking faintly as it rotated its head in both directions. Eyes of pale flame ignited in the hollows of its face, their glow trailing as it slowly stepped around Samaels form, mimicking her presence without overlapping it. It studied the world with curiosity that wasnt quite human, its movements sharp yet deliberated, like it was learning how to move in real time. Without a sound, it turned its attention toward Kivas. The air shivered briefly as the construct glided forward.. It moved with its body held upright, arms hanging in place, until it was only a stride away from Kivas. Then, smoothly, it bent forward and swept her into its armsone beneath her knees, the other around her back, lifting her like she was weightless. Kivas eyes blinked wide, mouth opening a fraction. "What... Samael, what is this thing doing?" Samael, still standing just a few paces away, folded her arms and tilted her head. "It seems to respond intuitively to my thoughts and intentions. I didnt command it to pick you up in that specific way, but I did wonder how youd look being carried." "Well, now you know," Kivas teased. "You barely allowed anyone to carry me after all." "Ill kill anyone who picks you up without my permission." Her gaze lingered on Kivas awkward position in the apparitions arms. "As for this summon, it appears to function like a puppet, but its more than that. Theres something... internal. Not quite a soul, but something approximating it... "Lets see." Samael stepped forward, placing her hand on the constructs shoulder. "Mhm, this doesnt seem like a summon. Not in the traditional sense, at least. It doesnt follow an artificial pattern or script, nor a hollow connection to a temporal plane of existence. In a way, this dust-made copy of me appeared to be a newly-birthed permanent living being." Kivas tilted her head from where she lay in the constructs arms, smirking, "So is she your daughter?" "No. Otherwise, it will have an independent soul." Samael considered for a moment, then gestured. "Its using my own Well of the Soul. Thats what Im sure of now. This construct is bound to me, shaped by me, and shares my attributes... "It is an extension in every sensejust without an independent existential anchor." "So like your shadow?" Kivas snapped her hand into a fingergun. "Closer to a detached embodiment," Samael replied. "Its me, externalized. And yet, theres clearly something thinking behind those eyes." Kivas looked toward the constructs expressionless face. "Does it have a name?" "I can surely command it to give us some proper and natural introduction." Samael turned to the figure again, speaking with a quiet authority. "Identify yourself." The construct shifted, head tilting slightly as if something aligned internally. When it spoke, its voice was similar to Samaels, but threaded with a gentler, more mechanical tone. Especially since Kivas was still held in its arms. Sar?h the N??elFir.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I am a Divine Construct," it said. "A system extension formed from the Genesis Core. You, Samael, are the Divine Hive. I exist to serve, interface, and enact will within parameters defined by your spiritual architecture." Samaels gaze narrowed. "So this is the Genesis Cores work." The construct inclined its head. "The Genesis Core has finished establishing foundational resonance. Your status has evolved. You are now a Divine Hive." "And that means?" "You are the central axis of a distributed divine network. Divine Constructs like me are extensions, shaped by your conceptual schema. I am the first of many. Limbo Tier, as I call myself, and there will be more variation to come." "Limbo Tier," Samael repeated, testing the phrase on her tongue. "How many tiers are there?" "That depends on the attunement progression," the construct said. "The more aligned you become with your Genesis Core, the more complex and potent the Constructs you may produce. Each is uniquely defined, shaped from pieces of your legacy, your experience, and your metaphysical weight." Samael took a moment to process. "Is there a cost?" The constructs eyes dimmed briefly, then flared. "Yes. As a Divine Hive appointed through Genesis convergence, your fate has become aligned with the Celestial Avatars trajectory." It turned its gaze to Kivas, still resting within its arms. "Her path defines yours. You will converge with her future, just like how she brought you along to the past." "So Samael returned along with me is the result of the Genesis Core..." Kivas muttered. Samael scoffed quietly. "Thats barely a cost." "I thought that too." The constructs tone shifted, almost amused. "There is barely any conflict of interest." A slight smile ghosted across Samaels lips. "Youre an attentive one. To think that a Divine Construct can be this wise and tasteful." "As expected of the schema of my creation, you too possess a great wisdom to immediately find use of us, analyzing our whole beings without a single mistake." Kivas narrowed her eyes. "I feel like Im watching someone giving compliments to the mirror." The construct turned toward Kivas again. "I am a unique mind, defined by the parameters of my Hive. I possess agency and perspective. My thoughts, however, are routed to the Divine Hive. We share perception and goals. But I am not a puppet." "So youre like a clone," Kivas said. "An independent version tethered by shared cognition. Not a husk, per say. Just shared." "Correct," the construct answered. "Can you make another one?" Kivas casually asked Samael, gesturing her index. Samael raised her hand again, drawing in a shallow breath. "Lets find out." A new shimmer arced across her palm, twisting upward in a spiral of flickering ash. Another form took shapesame height, same featureless face, same crown of half-broken horns. It solidified in seconds, standing silently beside the first. The two of them didnt seem to have anything to say to one another, despite claiming to have personal minds of their own. Maybe they had already conversed through telepathy, similar to how Samael and her constructs appeared to have a strong bond with one another. Samael glanced at it, then turned back to Kivas. "Looks like I can~" Kivas slowly stood up, carefully sliding down from the arms of the first construct, which released her without resistance. "Out of curiosity," Samael began, "do you still have any Nightmares? Ones you havent defeated yet?" Kivas shook her head. "I havent returned to the dream realm since we got pulled back here. I dont even know if any of them followed me. Everything feels like a fresh start." "Thats what I thought," Samael said. She looked at the construct. "Can you interact with the Celestial Avatars spiritual structures?" "Yes," both constructs answered in unison, before one of them continued the rest of their answers, "The Divine Constructs are capable of accessing connected realms through established soul-links between the Divine Hive and its Celestial Avatar. We are, after all, but an essence gifted by the Genesis Core, and the Genesis Core is appointed by none other than the Celestial Avatar." The second construct stepped forward. "The Celestial Avatars soul, once linked to the Hive, allows the Hive to command the Constructs to enter the dream layer she occupies. When she dreams, we can go with her and help her harvest." "It wont interfere with attribute inheritance?" Samael asked. "No," the construct confirmed. "While we can greatly interact and manipulate the outcome of the process. We are nothing but voluntary observers, extensions of a foreign soul unconnected to the link between the Nightmares and their contributors. All attribute consolidation remains solely with the Avatar." Kivas raised her hand. "Okay, stop." Both constructs turned toward her. "Yes?" "I get that youre brimming with knowledge, but youre starting to sound exactly like Samael. Explaining everything like its a thesis paper just because someone asked a single question." The constructs fell silent for a moment before one of them said something. "I assume that a question has been bogging your mind." "Indeed." Kivas crossed her arms, her wings fluttered. "Why do you keep calling me the Celestial Avatar anyway?" Samael answered for them. "Thats the designation they use for Fatelings, or what it is supposed to be. But to be precise, a Celestial Avatar in their context refers to an entity that granted the Hive of their Genesis Core... "Remember the Soulmate prompt you mentioned back then?" "I cant forget." "It wasnt just a poetic term per say. The Soulmate in question, it could refer to an entity that is compatible with the divine and complicated nature of the Genesis Core." It was such a cruel implication, one that could destroy the light that Kivas had been clinging in her lifetime within Fathomi. Kivas pondered upon the explanation before she sighed in dejection. Her halo dimmed in color. "To think that my soulmate merely meansa being that I can convert into some kind of host that housed a core with the ability to create a social construct, similar to the naked mole rats." "Im neither naked, nor am I a rat." "Thats an analogy." "Samael is trying to lighten the mood," said one of the constructs. "She basically meant to convey that it doesnt matter what the purpose and meaning of the soulmate that has been applied to the two of you. What matters is how the two of you live with it." "Right," Kivas chuckled in amusement. Her halo regained its hue. "To think that I can get annoyed by it." "It just means that you care," Samael closed the gap between her and Kivas, took the hand of the troubled angel, and then rubbed her cheek to the back of it, all while maintaining a calm and intimate gaze. "I have compromised to tie myself with you, it doesnt matter now that the meaning of the so-called fate suddenly changes in meaning." "I guess Im such a worrywart~" "Can I nibble on your fingers?" "What." Chapter 58: Hunting The Voidlings, And The Divine Construct鈥檚 Efficiency Chapter 58: Hunting The Voidlings, And The Divine Constructs EfficiencyThe clearing was stained with movement and the scent of ruptured essence, as fractured limbs and twitching nerves of the Voidlings massive body dragged along the dust-streaked terrain. The creatures form was a conjoined monstrosity of torsos, arms, tendons, and eyesstitched together in no discernible pattern, crawling over itself in confusion and instinct. Its head rotated too far along its spine, lips peeling back to reveal humanlike teeth in rows. Kivas stood centered beneath the fractured sunlight, her eyes sharp with focus. One hand gripped the hilt of her newly soul-bound weaponRoyal Valor, now glowing faintly with energy drawn from her core. The sheath shimmered with its crystal lattice, slowly rotating in her other hand, weightless and hovering. Royal Valor, the newly appraised Curio weapon that Kivas acquired back then, was an Exotic Tier object. Its blade housed a condensed energy reactor that generated energy over time, which Kivas could channel to replace the consumption of Hemo Psyche or Mana Psyche during combat. At the same time, its sheath possessed its own separate function. The clustered crystals embedded across it were telekinetically linked to her grasp as long as any part of the blade and sheath was touching the owner. By channeling focus through the base of the sheath, Kivas could manipulate those shards into various formsdefensive barriers, orbiting blades, or weapons of mass compression. Each crystal regenerated over time when damaged, and with enough stored energy, she could multiply their number. Now, with her Frugal Vow skill amplifying the quality of her equipped weaponry, the effect of Royal Valor was nearly doubled in both attack and manipulation. "This is certainly a brand new experience," Kivas grinned. "You can do it, darling!" Samael shouted from above, sitting on a thick branch of a tree. "Ill kill it in one swoop if it ever get hold of an advantage of you!" The Voidling flailed as it tried to reassemble a clearer shape from its tangled limbs. Its voices echoed from mismatched mouths, some begging, others snarling. Kivas flicked her wrist, and the sheaths crystal lattice dispersed in sharp formationfourteen pieces forming a halo around her body. The energy along the blade of Royal Valor pulsed with stored potential. "You can stop now!" One of the mouths muttered. "I understand. I understand my mistake. You may cease this violence, cease this injustice!" Samael observed from a branch above the treeline, legs crossed, one arm braced casually on her bent knee. "The two of you are equal, and as long as you dont try to escape, it will always be a fair and balanced fight," she said so casually, knowing the fact that it wasnt fair in the slightest. The Voidling would end up dead regardless. The amalgam twisted again, pulling an arm free from the knot of its shoulder. The limb bent unnaturally and detached, dragging itself away in a crawl of fingers and twitching muscles. One of Samaels Limbo Tier Constructs blinked into motion, its cracked horn glinting beneath the forest canopy as it sped up. The construct dropped from a higher ridge without a sound, landed beside the living limb, grabbed it in one seamless gesture, and hurled it back toward Kivas in a spiraling arc. The flying limb spun, trailing viscera like thread. Kivas rotated her sheath midair. The floating crystals compressed and whirled in a tightening ring, spinning faster, blurring into a high-speed saw configuration. The limb collided with the rotating barrier and shredded instantly, broken apart in mid-air, reduced to meat and nullified spirit. "I told you to be brave and fight the angel right in front of you," Samael mocked. The Voidling howled. Its many mouths opened, some screaming, some sobbing, some chanting. "I only prey on the weak. I avoid those who can resist. That is harmony. That is peace. That is survival! A survival for the peaceful and gentle! Please, I dont want to fight any of you!" "Thats not peace," Kivas said, eyes cold. "Thats cowardice with a poetic excuse... I I happened to be weaker than I am, you would justify killing me because it is your personal rule of survival." "Youre cruel," it wept. "Both of you. Cruel and relentless." One of its mouths cracked open wider than the others, bulging at the edges, then released a dense stream of green-black acid, aimed directly at Kivas position. The liquid shimmered with distortion, capable of corroding both flesh and soul layer. Kivas narrowed her eyes and sidestepped the initial burst, letting her bare feet slide across the dust. In the same movement, she raised Royal Valor, its blade already pulsing with unnatural pressure. She channeled the skill Madness Bolt through the swords reactor, redirecting the psychic expense from her own vitals into the artifact. Energy converged at the tip, then it was released in a concentrated lance of warped cognition. The bolt struck the Voidling squarely across one of its central heads. Its shriek became a stagger. Limbs twisted out of sync, eyes blinked erratically, and the flow of acid diverted. The spew lost control, spilling across its own chest and shoulders, burning its surface with its own weapon. Kivas exhaled slowly, then stepped back, drawing the sword into its sheath. The moment Royal Valor clicked into place, the sheaths crystal clusters flared outward, spinning into a larger, intricate shape. She poured the remainder of the reactors stored energy into the configuration, letting it anchor her intention. The crystals reformed into a spinning disc nearly the height of her body, jagged at the edges like the teeth of a colossal grinder. The saw hovered above her, rotating with increasing velocity. Kivas lifted it with her will, then hurled it downward. "Die!" The construct-formed saw descended in a vertical line, cleaving through the Voidlings torso from clavicle to hip. Black fluid spattered across the earth, and a burst of energy ruptured from the impact. The beast shuddered, then attempted to crawl, its voice reduced to static sobs. Kivas launched another blade formed from the residual crystals, this one smaller and tighter, spinning along a spiral trajectory. It cut across the remaining limbs, slicing two sets of arms from the central mass. The Voidling collapsed again, crawling with four remaining legs. Kivas dashed forward and spun once, guiding another saw-form to cut the rear appendages off cleanly. "No more," one of the mouths whispered. "I surrender. I reject the hunt. I unweave the pattern. I acknowledge extinction. Praise be your conscience and let me breathe air for longer than this feeble endeavorAAARGH!" Kivas stabbed Royal Valor directly through its central eye, then rotated the blade before dragging it back out. The process repeated until a life was snuffed out. The form writhed, then collapsed entirely, its limbs folding inward and its mouths silent. Silence took the field. The dust settled. The Voidlings remains dissolved into mist. "Good work, Celestial Avatar," praised one of the Divine Constructs that popped out of nowhere, just to praise Kivas in place of their Divine Hive. "While the Royal Valor gives you a major advantage, the Voidling you fought will often resort to dirty tricks when it is cornered, and you barely give it a chance to do anything still!" Speaking of the Divine Constructs, Samael ended up creating another 8 Limbo Tier Divine Constructs, draining whatever the resource that was generated by the Genesis Core embedded to her. That should make 10 Limbo Tier Divine Constructs in total. And at the moment, five of them were sent to scout and even explore the landscape of Vaingall. They were almost as smart and conniving as Samael, and possessed all the attributes and skills that Samael possessed because they were using Samaels Well of the Soul instead of their owns. sea??h th N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This should make the Limbo Tier a great scout or information agent that would wander far away from Samael. The Divine Constructs could also contribute to the death of a living being with the Well of the Soul, giving Samael the Nightmare to vanquish for attributes. The demerit was, the efficiency of the Nightmares that they harvested was only 25%. Meaning that sending a Divine Construct to kill something for Samael, would only result in a quarter strength and benefits of attributes that Samael could get when killing the Nightmare in her dream. This works the same with having two Divine Constructs or more to kill a single being, the 25% extraction works the same unless Samael involved herself directly into the contribution. But as much of a demerit it was, Samael and the Limbo Tier didnt see it as a negative at all, hence why the construct didnt mention it when Samael asked the demerit to become a Divine Hive for these constructs. But then one might ask, where did the rest 75% go? Nothing, apparently. Those essences returned to Fathomi, just like when a being with the Well of the Soul died through natural calamity. When Kivas asked if this was bad for the attributes economy of this world, Samael merely answered that Fathomi would eventually find a way to recycle all of it. Samael justified the acceptance of this negative aspect because she wasnt the kind of person who put value on the prey she hunted, nor their attributes. She valued wisdom and experience more, and the fact that she was able to acquire Nightmares by just letting her Divine Constructs wild in Vaingall was a great perk to have at her current power level. There was never going to be a shortage of lives in Fathomi. No matter the amount of murders and massacres happening in this world, Fathomi would replenish it just as much. That was what Samael taught to Kivas before they started to hunt the Voidlings in Vaingall. "The fact that our Well of the Soul stayed the same when we went back to the past, should be enough of a motivation for you to become more powerful incrementally," Samael said right after Kivas dueled another Voidling. "Also, what are you doing?" Kivas was caught licking the bodily liquid that was sprayed onto her hand after she finished her prey. "I felt that at times, seeing blood and viscera became nothing but a hollow decoration, the more I vanquish lives with these hands." "But why are you licking it?" "Im curious, okay? Kivas awkwardly smiled with eyes shut in embarrassment. "Also, Im quite hungry, so that pushes a dark urge to do something stupid." "Then just eat the corpse," Samael casually gestured her hand. "Might as well consume the rest now that you have tasted it." "Im not a savage brute." "A non-savage brute wont just casually lick the blood mixed with the viscera of the prey they hunted, raw."