A few years ago, when Eric was still seventeen, an idea had struck him without warning — the kind of inspiration that arrives once in a lifetime and demands everything from you in return.
He had chased it obsessively. He traveled across continents that year, sitting in lecture halls and seminar rooms full of people decades older than him, listening to theories on energy, on resonance, on the fundamental architecture of Aura itself — absorbing everything he could, piecing together fragments of understanding that no single teacher had ever offered him whole.
He hadn't slept properly for months. He hadn't needed to. The technique had consumed him the way only a handful of things ever had.
And when he finally completed it — when the theory became something real, something he could hold in his hands and feel humming with intent — he understood immediately that he had made a mistake.
Not in the technique itself. In what it was.
It was powerful in a way that frightened him. Destructive in a way that made his own hands feel foreign to him the first time he used it. He had built something that didn't simply exceed his control — it resented being controlled at all, straining against him every time he called it forward, like trying to hold a star still with his bare hands.
He had used it exactly three times since. Each time had cost him something he never fully spoke about, not even to Max.
He had promised himself a fourth time would only come when there was truly nothing left to lose.
Eric looked back at Adrian, who was floating near the Angel Spirit, his small body trembling against the wind and the dark and everything bearing down on both of them.
Then he looked up at what was coming for them.
There was nothing left to lose.
Eric willed dozens of charms to manifest within his Domain of Emotions. They rose into the air like stars awakening.
Vortex Clearance Charm. Singularity Condensing Charm. Gravitational Field Charm.
Dozens more followed, swirling together before descending into a complex semi-circular formation on the mental ground. His Emotional Spirit sprinted forward, frantically inscribing hundreds of glowing symbols onto the formation cores with desperate speed, causing black and purple sparks to appear often.
In the real world, Eric slowly raised his right hand. An overwhelming pressure gathered in his palm as gravity itself began to collapse inward.
The shadow beasts sensed the growing threat and surged forward in a frenzied wave, determined to interrupt him.
They never reached him.
The Hypernova Angel Spirit moved like a golden storm. Its radiant wings sliced through the horde with merciless precision, sending arcs of holy light that severed corrupted bodies mid-leap. With every flap, violent gusts of wind hurled the beasts backward, buying Eric precious seconds.
The Angel Spirit knew the situation was critical. It split its focus, channeling a portion of its power into a gentle golden-white light that rained down on Eric and Adrian. The light slowed the corruption gnawing at their bodies, though it could not purge it entirely. The Spirit refrained from using the technique on itself—Angel Spirits possessed natural resistance to corruption—but Eric and Adrian did not have that luxury.
Unfortunately, true purification was beyond its current capabilities. It lacked the necessary relic, and any improvised method would cost too much time or carry devastating side effects.
Adrian also refused to remain idle.
He flew beside the Angel Spirit, taking on the weakest Nova-level shadow beasts. This was a rare chance to fight while protected, and he seized it.
Black sparks of Destruction Aura erupted around his arms. The energy was wild and unstable. Pain lanced through his nerves as the aura backlashed, numbing his limbs. He nearly lost concentration, but one glance at Eric—broken, bleeding, yet still standing—ignited something fierce inside him.
If he can keep fighting on the verge of death… then what is my pain?
Adrian's eyes burned with determination. Under the Angel Spirit's watchful protection, he poured every ounce of his talent and desperation into the technique. Slowly, clumsily, he learned to wrap the Destruction Aura around his arms like liquid cloth, then began crystallizing it through sheer force of will.
It felt like hammering his own intent against molten metal, over and over.
The moment the crystallization stabilized, he spotted a dying piranha-like shadow beast and struck with everything he had.
Boom!
Black sparks exploded. The beast let out a piercing shriek as its body disintegrated from the inside out.
A surge of confidence flooded Adrian's chest. For the first time in what felt like hours, hope flickered in his eyes.
But the moment was fleeting.
More beasts poured in. A Frostbite Hound lunged from the darkness, its icy aura nearly freezing his spine. Adrian started to fly away as he focused, his Aura concentrated in his right hand's index finger. After getting a comfortable distance, he suddenly twisted mid-air, firing a condensed needle of Destruction Aura from his index finger. The hound wailed as parts of its body collapsed, then began regenerating.
Adrian didn't give it a chance.
He reversed direction instantly, landed on its back, and drove a crystallized fist straight into its skull. The beast disintegrated into fading shadows with a final, pitiful cry.
Adrian didn't know what he had been destroying all along, but he couldn't care to give a single thought to it as he noticed a horde of Nova-level beasts as he flapped his wings and charged at them. Ready to fight to the best of his abilities.
The Angel Spirit noticed Adrian's quick, almost unbelievable rate of growth. He was quickly learning how to use his Aura, coat it, condense it, shoot it, and also make smart decisions. This was everything a normal walker needs, at least weeks to properly learn.
But this little boy, who had only advanced to barely a few days ago, was rapidly evolving into a better version of himself by the second.
"Impressive." This was all it thought before charging and assaulting a horde of Lysi-Nova level beasts itself, whipping up a storm in the battlefield, observing that Adrian was growing so rapidly had also made its own battle intent to surge.
Eric's head started to fill with cold sweat, making his hair plastered to his forehead, his heartbeat had increased significantly, and the weight and pressure in his right palm kept increasing by the second.
The Emotional Spirit kept inscribing symbols without any rest, quickly stabilizing the singularity; if just even one step were to go wrong, this singularity would explode and engulf Eric himself.
His end won't look pretty if that were to happen.
The Emotional Spirit took one of the core's charms and moved to the middle of the dark formation space, which now had an intense gravitation field, even affecting it.
It bent down and placed the charm named Event in it. The charm named Event looked like a small blob of black frozen had been placed in a cubical box and then frozen for a thousand years. This was one of the most crucial charms he had gotten from dismantling the formation. It was very rare and expensive, being very crucial for many walkers of the Energy, Quantum, and many other Pathways.
To think that it was being used at such a critical point now.
The first half of the formation immediately ignited with black sparks, roaring like an awakened dragon. The Emotional Spirit moved with frantic precision, inscribing the final symbols as it burned through its Aura reserves. The moment it stabilized, the spirit dashed to the second half.
Outside the Domain, an earth-shaking roar shattered the silence.
Eric's eyes snapped open. He froze the activation process mid-step. The timing was terrible — he couldn't afford to delay much longer, or the formation would collapse and deliver a devastating backlash.
The Pseudo-Hypernova Beast had arrived.
Adrian's face paled with fear. The Angel Spirit immediately shot forward, tucking the boy protectively under one of its radiant wings as it flew toward Eric.
Shadow beasts swarmed them from all directions. The Pseudo-Hypernova Beast took one powerful step forward, eyes locked on Eric, but the moment their gazes met, that same primal fear flickered across its monstrous face. It roared in fury and charged.
That single heartbeat of hesitation cost it the initiative.
Repulsion Charge!
Eric blasted away from his position just as the Angel Spirit arrived, using its body and power to block the horde behind it. The Pseudo-Hypernova Beast could easily overpower the Angel Spirit in raw strength, but without the Will's direct guidance, it was still just a mindless monster. Alone, neither of them could dominate the battlefield.
Eric kept moving, the singularity still forming in his palm. Shadow beasts poured in endlessly, chasing him no matter how fast he flew. The protective light from the Angel Spirit was fading, and the corruption surged forward again, crawling across his right cheek and threatening to invade his eye.
He had no choice but to finish the technique under extreme pressure.
Cracking sounds came from his right hand as the singularity's mass grew rapidly. His Aura, which had only recently climbed back to ninety-two percent, plummeted into the red zone once more. He frantically consumed the last of his Aura stones just to keep the technique from collapsing.
The singularity grew heavier — denser — pulling in ambient energy, natural Aura, and even fragments of the battlefield itself. The Pseudo-Hypernova Beast screamed in primal terror as its instincts screamed at it to flee.
But it charged anyway, crossing the distance like a black meteor.
Eric didn't retreat. He coated his body in Aura and charged straight toward it.
One from above. One from below. Both radiating pure resolve.
At the last possible moment, Eric twisted. He grazed past the Beast, its claws barely missing him. Using the momentum, he snapped his fingers and unleashed Gravity Press — a weaker application of his power.
The Beast smashed through it, but the brief delay was enough. The Angel Spirit slammed into its side, knocking it off course.
Blood dripped from Eric's nose. He wiped it away with his sleeve and activated Infinite Repulsion to buy another precious second.
Inside his Domain of Emotions, the Emotional Spirit grabbed the final charm — "Horizon" — a glowing orb leaking pure yin energy. It slammed the charm into the formation's core.
The second half blazed to life.
A terrifying surge of power exploded through Eric. The singularity in his palm became monstrously dense, weighing as heavy as a continent. Every muscle in his body screamed as he struggled to contain it. Sweat mixed with blood poured down his face. His vision began to tint blue at the edges.
Shadow beasts that dared approach him were instantly warped and sucked into the tiny black point, corruption and all.
The Pseudo-Hypernova Beast broke free from the Angel Spirit with a furious roar and crashed into Eric like a runaway mountain.
"ERIC!!!" Adrian screamed, reaching desperately toward him.
The Angel Spirit held him back.
Crunch.
The Beast's massive arm tore straight through Eric's right chest. Blood sprayed violently. Eric coughed up a thick mouthful of it, yet a small, defiant smile formed on his bloodied lips.
He stared directly into the Beast's eyes.
For a moment, something deep within the creature seemed to freeze.
The singularity in Eric's hand raged like a tsunami trapped in a bottle. With the last of his strength, he tilted his palm and let it drop.
The tiny black point fell into the darkness below.
For one heartbeat, absolute silence ruled the battlefield.
Then —