Lightning cracked across the sky as thunder rumbled like the roar of an awakening giant. The ground trembled violently, deep cracks spiderwebbing across the earth, while massive waves surged across the black oceans, crashing with apocalyptic force.
The Silent Layer had fully awakened.
In that instant, every beast within the layer fixed their gazes on Eric and Adrian. Their eyes burned with primal hunger—to tear the two apart, devour their flesh, and drink their blood. Fear Crawlers, Voidman Stalkers, Hollow Puppeteers, Frostbite Hounds, Mirror Wraiths… it didn't matter whether Eric had encountered them before or not. All of them answered the call.
High above, the Will of the Darkness Pathway Hypernova transformed into a streak of black light and soared into the sky, overlooking the entire layer like a dark god. Through the pseudo-Hypernova Beast, it seized control of every creature under its influence. Black veins pulsed across their bodies as the Will's dominion spread.
The Will glanced in the direction Eric had fled. An abyssal aura, thick with swirling black particles, erupted from its form.
Rank 3 Darkness Pathway Investigative Aura Technique — Devil's Eyes.
Instantly, every controlled beast sprouted a sinister black eye with a dark pupil somewhere on its body. The Will could now see through thousands of eyes at once, surveying the layer with perfect clarity and tightening its grip.
Satisfied, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast dissolved into a pool of inky black water and seeped into the ground, vanishing without a trace.
No one could say when—or where—it would strike again.
Eric flew low to the ground, weaving through the dense forest. Staying close to the earth had been a desperate gamble to avoid detection, and so far, it was working better than expected.
He charged forward without pause. Adrian clung desperately to his back, using every ounce of strength just to hold on. Though Eric was putting as much distance as possible between them and the Will, his mind was a storm of panic. He had no real strategy—only raw instinct. He held no confidence in defeating a pseudo-Hypernova Beast, let alone the awakened Will of a true Hypernova.
One thing, however, was crystal clear:
If I get caught, I die.
As an Energy Pathway walker, he lacked the Light Pathway's natural advantage against Darkness beasts. He could improvise some counters, but his understanding of Light was shallow at best. And time… time was the cruelest subject of constraint of all. There was none to analyze, none to plan, none to prepare.
The forest blurred around him. Trees splintered, and the earth shattered in his wake as the pressure of his aura crushed everything nearby. For a brief moment, nothing pursued them.
Then the eyes began to appear.
Hundreds of them—black, unblinking, and abyssal—sprouted on tree trunks, vines, roots, and even the withered undergrowth. The forest itself seemed to watch them.
Howl! Roar!
As Eric burst into a wide clearing, the forest ambush sprang without warning.
A pack of Frostbite Hounds and Vermillion Heart Wolves exploded from the treeline, their coordinated assault vicious and precise. Frost energy lashed out in jagged spikes of blue-white cold, while searing bright flames roared toward him like a living inferno.
Eric didn't flinch. Deep within his Domain of Emotions, his charms had already snapped into a spinning formation. His Emotional spirit poured his power into it as he flooded the array with aura. With a single thought, the formation flared and formed a glowing arrow pointing left.
His body obeyed instantly.
He slammed to a halt mid-stride, then rocketed left like a cannonball. The Frostbite Hound alpha never stood a chance. Eric's aura-coated shoulder smashed into its side with bone-shattering force. A sickening crunch echoed through the clearing as the massive hound was launched skyward, tumbling end over end for kilometers. Trees exploded into splinters in its path before it finally slammed into the ground with a wet, meaty thud—reduced to a mangled pile of crushed bone, torn flesh, and scattered silver fur.
Adrian's breath hitched in terror. His eyes darted wildly across the pack.
"Eric! Every single one of them has a black eye!" he screamed directly into Eric's ear.
Eric had already noticed. Sinister black pupils stared back at them from the beasts' foreheads, shoulders, and flanks—watching, reporting, hunting.
"Investigative technique from the Will," Eric growled, certainty hardening his voice. He surged forward, aura blazing around his right arm, and seized a Nova-level Vermillion Heart Wolf by the skull. His fingers punched through fur and bone with a wet crack. In one brutal motion, he ripped the abyssal eye free and crushed it in his fist, black ichor spraying across his forearm as the wolf collapsed dead at his feet.
Just then, blinding yellow starlight — bright as the sun and vast as mountains — plummeted from the sky like a falling apocalypse.
Eric snapped his head upward. A colossal golden eagle dominated the heavens, its wings blotting out the clouds. Where its beak should have been, a thick, writhing elephant's trunk flexed hungrily.
"Falling Star Eagle," Eric whispered, recognizing the massive Lysi Nova beast.
He activated Repulsion Charge once more and shot into the air. As he streaked upward, his grip tightened on the severed Devil's Eye still clutched in his hand. He was about to store it inside his Domain of Emotions when a sharp, icy premonition screamed through his mind.
Danger.
Eric jerked his arm back to hurl the eye away, but it was too late. The black orb melted into corrosive liquid in an instant. It burned through his aura coating with a vicious hiss, searing his arms in black sparks. Agonizing pain flared up in his limbs as the dark corruption tried to burrow into his flesh.
He barely held on. The protective layer he had maintained on his arms saved him — had the amount been any greater, the corruption would have taken root.
So I can't even study these damned eyes, Eric thought bitterly. What else can go wrong?
He accelerated toward the eagle, but at the last moment swerved sharply upward and then forward, abandoning the clash entirely. He refused to waste precious strength fighting a mountain-sized beast while the entire layer hunted him.
His focus narrowed to one goal: escape.
But how could one man outrun an entire awakened layer that wanted him dead?
The Falling Star Eagle refused to relent. Its massive wings beat like thunder as it pursued them relentlessly.
Eric weaved through the sky, pushing his Repulsion Charge to the limit, when a deep, haunting hoot sliced through the clouds — ancient and predatory.
His premonition screamed.
Eric twisted sharply, slamming his aura-coated arms to his right just as a silver blur flashed past. The Steel-Winged Owl struck like living lightning, its razor-sharp wings slicing across Eric's side. Pain exploded along his ribs as steel feathers carved through his protective aura, drawing first blood.
The impact hurled him backward — straight toward the waiting eagle.
The colossal bird seized the opening. It unleashed a piercing cry and summoned a mountain-sized star of blazing yellow energy. The burning mass hurtled down like an executioner's blade, trailing flames and raw destructive power.
Eric's eyes narrowed. He stopped conserving his Meditation Aura entirely. In a surge of power, he vanished and reappeared directly behind the eagle's head. Layers of dense Gravitation Aura coated his arms like heavy armor as he drove both fists forward with savage force.
His right arm punched straight through the eagle's eye with a wet, sickening crunch. Golden-red blood erupted in a gushing fountain, drenching Eric and Adrian in thick, scalding liquid. The eagle's agonized wail shook the sky as Eric twisted deeper, then slammed his left fist into the back of its skull — the weakest point.
Boom.
The blow caved in the bone and brain matter. The massive creature convulsed violently, wings thrashing, before plummeting like a fallen mountain. It slammed into the ground far below, carving a colossal crater on impact.
One down.
But three more Falling Star Eagles burst from the clouds, their cries filled with fresh fury. The death of their kin only fueled their hatred.
The Steel-Winged Owl hung back in the distance, watching. These ambush predators rarely struck alone — it had risked its life once and now waited for the others to wear Eric down.
Eric knew the truth from bitter experience: staying airborne was suicide.
He broke away from the group, diving sharply toward the forest below. More beasts would swarm if he lingered. Adrian clung to his back, body trembling uncontrollably, heart hammering so hard Eric could feel it against his spine. The boy stared back in horror as countless black eyes dotted the clouds and treetops, all of them locked onto them.
Adrian tightened his grip until his knuckles turned white.
As Eric descended sharply, he spotted a narrow cave mouth carved into the side of a small ravine. Without hesitation, he dove inside. The cave was cramped but deep enough to offer a momentary shield from the sky.
He finally set Adrian down. The boy's legs buckled the instant his feet touched the ground. He dropped to his knees, body shaking violently, then hunched over and vomited.
The lamp that had been with them had broken in the earlier fight with the sky beasts, causing the cave to be completely dark.
Eric ignored all of it. His focus was on his own condition. He sat cross-legged against the cold stone wall and closed his eyes. A thin layer of pink Gravitation Aura surrounded him — noticeably faded after the relentless chase.
"Fifteen percent of my reserves are gone already." Eric thought as he heaved a deep sigh.
He didn't waste time. The charms in his Domain of Emotions swirled into a new formation as he poured both of his Gravitation and Meditation Aura into it.
Rank 4 Energy Pathway Recovery Technique — Natural Draw.
Gravity around him twisted, creating a powerful pulling force. Natural aura from the surroundings rushed inward, merging with his own. Slowly, the pink layer around his body began to thicken again.
The brief respite was shattered in seconds.
The cave floor trembled. Eric's eyes snapped open as he sensed something massive boring through the earth toward them at terrifying speed. He sprang to his feet and kicked Adrian hard in the chest, launching him toward the cave entrance.
Gravity gently caught the boy mid-air and carried him safely outside.
"Run away!" Eric shouted.
Adrian twisted in the air just in time to see a nightmare erupt from the ground beside Eric — a gargantuan silver earthworm with a perfectly circular, lamprey-like mouth lined with rotating rings of razor teeth. The monstrous maw engulfed Eric whole in a single wet, crushing gulp.
"ERIC!!" Adrian screamed, voice cracking with horror. He could do nothing as the colossal worm twisted and burrowed back into the earth, dragging Eric deep underground and vanishing from sight.
The silence stretched again, and Adrian could only look on as tears overflowed down his cheek. The cold air hit him with the reality of how weak he was yet again.
The surface of the layer erupted into violent tremors. Earthquakes ripped across the ground as shockwaves exploded outward.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
From deep underground came the brutal rhythm of fists meeting flesh. Each impact sent massive bulges exploding across the silver earthworm's body, the thick hide stretching dangerously close to tearing. The beast thrashed wildly, trying to crush Eric inside its churning stomach, but its efforts were futile.
Finally, after a relentless barrage, the colossal worm convulsed one last time. With a deafening BAM, its body slammed onto the broken earth and lay still.
A gaping hole burst open near its midsection. A fountain of thick, steaming blood gushed out like a geyser. From within the carnage, a blood-drenched Eric emerged, chest heaving. He drew in a ragged breath of turbid air, his eyes burning with cold, unwavering resolve.
His legs nearly buckled for a split second as he stepped away from the mangled corpse. Then he turned slowly, staring toward the distant horizon where the Will watched.
High above, the ancient Will observed the entire brutal display. A flicker of genuine interest stirred within its abyssal consciousness.
"Impressive," it murmured, voice like drifting shadows.
Eric didn't linger. He ignited his aura and rocketed toward Adrian. A massive wave of low-level beasts flooded his path, snarling and clawing in blind rage. He tore through them like a blazing pink comet — bodies exploded on impact, bones shattered like brittle glass, and sprays of blood and gore painted the air in wide arcs. His face remained utterly expressionless, cold and detached, as if the carnage had become background noise.
He scooped Adrian onto his back without breaking stride and charged south. Countless beasts roared and pursued, but Eric kept his gaze locked forward, ignoring the chaos around him.
The southern edge of the layer was dominated by a vast ocean of pitch-black water, fed by dozens of rushing rivers. Eric maintained a steady altitude between sea and sky, his explosive speed leaving most of the horde choking on dust far behind.
His plan was simple: reach the boundary of the layer and try to break free. He refused to deviate in any other direction. The Will's presence weighed on him like an executioner's blade at his neck, and the still-unseen pseudo-Hypernova Beast only made it worse. Both had been applying constant, invisible pressure the entire time.
He would rather they attacked openly than lurked in the shadows.
Eric's premonition detonated in his mind like a warning bell. He glanced down just as a colossal silhouette surged beneath the black waves.
"Down!" Adrian screamed.
The ocean exploded.
A massive white-haired Leviathan burst upward, jaws wide open, sword-like teeth gleaming in the dim light. Eric banked sharply and dove, plunging them both into the pitch-black depths.
His vision went dark for only a heartbeat. He activated Abyssal Eyes, and the underwater world lit up in eerie clarity. Hundreds of frenzied sea beasts converged on them from every direction.
Eric didn't hesitate.
Infinite Repulsion!
A violent pulse of aura erupted outward. The water around them was blasted away in a perfect sphere, flinging the Leviathan and countless smaller beasts backward in a chaotic storm of bubbles and thrashing bodies.
Seizing the opening, Eric shifted his stance. Thick layers of aura coated his arms as he spread them wide, as if preparing to embrace the monster. His aura reserves plummeted.
The Leviathan roared in fury as an invisible gravitational force clamped down on its massive body. It thrashed violently, trying to break free. The sheer struggle sent agonizing feedback through Eric's channels. He coughed up a mouthful of blood that mixed with the dark water.
With a guttural scream that shook the depths, Eric dragged the colossal beast through the ocean's surface. A towering tsunami erupted in their wake, swallowing nearby islands whole. Any sea creature foolish enough to approach was either hurled away or crushed into paste by the expanding repulsion field.
After a brutal, drawn-out contest of will and power, Eric finally clenched his arms shut.
Crack.
The Leviathan let out one final, earth-shattering roar before its body imploded. A massive explosion of blood and gore painted the black ocean crimson for hundreds of meters.
Eric's hands were ruined — multiple finger bones shattered, left humerus and right forearm snapped, several ribs cracked or broken. White-hot pain lanced through his body with every movement.
He didn't stop. Gritting his teeth, he charged toward the layer's edge while channeling Meditation Aura to mend his worst injuries and popping Aura stones to replenish his rapidly draining reserves.
But right at this moment, the world around them went quiet again as a huge, dominating pressure appeared on their bodies. A wave of black liquid appeared on the edge as a small hand slowly came out of it, making Eric stop in his tracks.
The will appeared far behind him; it didn't attack, only observed. Eric had been trapped from both sides at this moment.