The forest was a cathedral of shadows, ancient trees clawing at a sky that wasn't quite right. The air here tasted of ozone and forgotten things.
"Derrick, it's not how it is—."
He cut her off not with words, but with motion. His fingers unlocked from hers, and he stepped back, the fallen leaves crunching under his boots like the whisper of dead worlds. The space between them suddenly felt like a chasm.
"What is going on?"
The atmosphere thickened, charged with unspoken histories. Chaos stood there in her dress of liquid night, the fabric barely stirring in the windless air, her dark hair cascading past her shoulders like liquid midnight. She watched him—the sharp lines of his jaw, the glacial blue eyes that held no recognition of eons shared, the silver hair that caught what little light bled through the canopy.
Even in this situation, even without memories, even stripped of power… he is still so impossibly him. A breath escaped her, not quite a sigh, not quite a sob.
"Alexis." She let the name fall between them like a stone into still water. "She believes killing you would restore the balance."
"She believes?" His eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, the cold intensifying until it seemed to leech warmth from the very air.
"Yes. But it's not the right time to go into more details." Even as she spoke, the light shifted, dusk settling onto her dark hair like a mourning veil, painting amber highlights across the waves.
"Right time, you say…" The words fell from his lips like ice chips, each one a separate dismissal. He turned and walked away, his form dissolving into the deeper shadows between the ancient oaks.
If only you remembered. If only… She pressed her lips together, then called out, her voice cracking the heavy silence. "Do you even know where you are?!" She gathered her skirt and ran after him, a streak of darkness pursuing darkness.
---
I can't believe I'm stuck here with this.
Holik's gaze could have frozen magma. He stared at Myra with an expression of such profound, academic annoyance that lesser beings might have spontaneously combusted. She turned, her elegant neck rotating with that unsettling elven grace, and caught his look. Ugh. A visible flinch. She immediately faced forward and increased her pace, putting distance between them like a physical barrier.
What is bothering me… His eyes drifted to the translucent blue text hovering at the edge of his vision. This interface. His lips formed the words with clinical precision. "My Profile."
The System responded instantly, blue characters sharpening into crystalline focus before his eyes:
```
[Personal Profile]
[Name: Holik Alternate]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 23]
[Race: Anomalous Hybrid - Veiled Human]
[Level: 1]
[Essence: Transcendence]
[Innate Personal Abilities: Precognitive Intuition]
[Innate Bloodline Abilities: (VEILED) — get stronger to access]
[Unique Abilities: (Apotheosis locked) — get stronger to access]
[Abilities: Alchemy]
[Stats]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 18]
[Intellect: 80]
[Willpower: 40]
[Constitution: 90]
[Vitality: 100]
[Dexterity: 65]
[Sense: 50 (suppressed)]
[Luck: 50 (suppressed)]
```
His brow furrowed, carving deep lines into his forehead. No anti-aging. That was the entire purpose of the experiment.To transcend the mortal coil, not to become some… game character. His fingers reached out, almost involuntarily, and touched the glowing text. The surface yielded strangely, a watery resistance that rippled under his skin like touching the surface of a digital pond.
The ability details unfolded:
```
[Innate Personal Abilities]
[Precognitive Intuition Level 1 (Hybrid: Active and Passive):
Systemic Insight (passive): Intuitive, flawless understanding of
mechanical, digital, and logical systems.
Ambient Threat Sense (passive): Subconscious "gut feeling" of
environmental safety or unease.
Threat Level Inquiry (active): Upon activation, visual threat auras
appear for 3 seconds.
Green (0): safe
Yellow (1): Caution
Orange (2): Danger
Red (3): Extreme Danger – Flee
Black (4): Certain Death – Avoid entirely
??? (5): Immeasurable/Anomalous – beyond conventional threat scaling]
```
This ability… is acceptable. He dismissed the interface with a thought and walked briskly toward Myra, who stood facing a cluster of snarling goblins—barehanded, unarmored, and utterly unafraid.
---
Inside Ruby's Mansion
The room was drowning in crimson. Red walls, red furniture, red drapes that swallowed the failing light. Ruby sat enthroned in her chair, fingers steepled, her red eyes burning like coals against her porcelain skin.
"What did you say?"
Viola sat across from her, violet against the red sea, her hands gripping each other so tightly the knuckles had gone white. "The Realms are merging into one." Each word fell carefully, precisely, like placing explosives.
"I presume that the Merging is only happening to earth."
"Presume?!" Viola's voice cracked, her eyebrows shooting upward. "It is happening to earth. Right. Now."
The silence that followed was a living thing. Ruby's scowl deepened, her voice dropping to something low and dangerous. "So what?"
"Fine!" Viola exploded from her chair and stormed out, her violet energy trailing behind her like a wounded cloak.
---
The Shopping Mall
Screams painted the air in shades of terror. Civilians poured through the exits like water from a burst dam, their faces masks of primal fear.
"Kate, it's those humanoids with long ears." Jane's finger extended, pointing at the elegant, sharp-featured figures emerging from the pulsating portal.
Kate's hand shot out, grabbing her sister's wrist and forcing it down. "Jane! Stop pointing." Her whisper was fierce, urgent.
"Don't you know that it's rude to point?"
The voice came from directly in front of them. A figure had materialized from the portal's glow—golden hair that seemed to hold its own light, features so symmetrical they hurt to look at. His green eyes scanned Jane with an amusement that made her skin crawl.
"Who are you?" Jane's voice came out stronger than she felt, her scowl firmly in place.
"A High elf." His voice was flat, clinical, but those green eyes… they danced. "You are quite Interesting."
"She meant your name." Kate stepped forward, her hand finding Jane's and subtly pulling her sister behind her protective frame.
"I have no reason to tell you my name." He turned and walked away, dissolving into the chaos like a dream you can't quite remember.
"Let's get out of here." Kate tugged Jane's hand, and they fled the mall, leaving the screams and the strange golden figure behind.
---
Downtown
Irene's red car was a blood streak through the urban nightmare. Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel, her golden-amber eyes wide as she took in the scene through the windshield.
What are those things? Creatures loped between stalled cars—bodies of men, heads of wolves, bears, eagles. Half-beast, half-human hybrids that moved with predatory grace through the panicking crowds.
She steered hard, the car drifting around a cluster of the creatures, tires screaming protest. Then she accelerated, the engine roaring as she left them behind.
And then—
A flash of blue text materialized directly in her line of sight, hovering like an unwelcome ghost.
What is this blocking my view? She tilted her head left, then right, trying to see the road around the glowing obstruction. The speedometer climbed—120mph, 130—the city blurring past in a smear of chaos.
SHREECH.
The tires locked, smoke billowing as she slammed the brakes. The car fishtailed, then stopped, perfectly parallel to the curb. She sat there for a moment, chest heaving, then threw the door open and stepped out, slamming it behind her. She leaned against the warm metal, her back pressing into the door, and stared at the text now calmly floating before her.
```
[System Initialization Complete.]
[User: Irene Vein Ashtara]
[Race: Vampire - Sanguine]
[Age: 10985]
[Essence: Mythic]
[The Tower is now active]
[Welcome to the Integration]
```
What is the meaning of this?! Her arms folded across her chest, a barrier against the impossible. How dare this watery glass mention the 'Vein'—Father. A sharp exhale. "Turn off."
The system obediently faded, and the world rushed back in—the screams, the fires, the distant crash of falling structures. And directly before her, no more than twenty meters away, a dungeon portal pulsed with malevolent light. Even as she watched, a monster emerged—massive, twisted, its multiple eyes finding her instantly.
Don't tell me… a dungeon break? Her eyes widened, then narrowed. If Derrick was here… A sigh escaped her, carrying the weight of ten thousand years. It's just an S- rank dungeon.
She pushed off the car and walked toward the monster, her red dress catching the hellish light, her eyes locking with its multiple gazes. The predator became the prey.
---
A Street, Outside a Dungeon Portal
Williams stood encased in his heavy steel armor, the metal plates catching the orange glow of distant fires. Beside him, Natasha was a vision of lethal grace in her light red armored suit, her figure silhouetted against the chaos.
"I don't know what this blue screen is?" Williams' voice rose, threaded with something that might have been excitement. "It seems more like a system."
The blue text hovered before each of them, identical in content but invisible to the other:
```
[System Initialization Complete.]
[User: Williams Dusk]
[Race: Human]
[Age: 28]
[Essence: Epic]
[The Tower is now active]
[Welcome to the Integration]
```
"But can you see mine?" Williams asked, gesturing at the air before him.
Natasha tilted her head, squinting at the empty space where his screen must be. "Nope, I can't." She turned and walked away, taking four measured steps before stopping. Her hands came together behind her back, a gesture of quiet grace. Then she lifted them toward him, a warm smile breaking across her features like sunrise.
"Williams, let's get out of here." Her voice carried a longing that cut through the chaos like a blade.
Williams' smile answered hers. He crossed the distance in three strides, swept her off her feet, and—
BOOM.
The ground cratered where he'd stood. They were airborne, leaping from building to building, the city sprawling beneath them like a burning map. Natasha held onto him, her arms wrapped tight, her face pressed against his armored chest.
My Williams. Why do you have to be so dramatic? But her smile never faded, even as the wind screamed past them and the world burned below.
Behind them, forgotten, her own system screen flickered once before fading:
```
[System Initialization Complete.]
[User: Natasha Ash]
[Race: Human]
[Age: 23]
[Essence: Epic]
[The Tower is now active]
[Welcome to the Integration]
```