Aaron woke up and something was wrong.
He lay there. Room was the same. Morning light. Theren moving in the kitchen. Everything normal.
Then his screen lit up.
CLUCK!
[ UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED ]
[ Classification: 3RD STAGE ADAPTED PLAYER ]
[ Threat Level: BEYOND ALL CURRENT RECORDS ]
[ Status: APPROACHING ]
Aaron sat up.
3rd Stage.
He was 2nd Stage. Barely Level 3. After a fight yesterday that had nearly finished him four separate times.
3rd Stage Adapted Player.
He got out of bed fast.
Theren was in the kitchen. Coffee. Newspaper. Same routine every morning without fail.
"You're up early," Theren said without looking up.
"Yeah."
Aaron looked out the window. Street was normal. People walking. Nothing wrong with any of it.
His screen updated.
KABOOM!
[ DISTANCE: CLOSING ]
[ IT KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE ]
It tracked me, he thought. Through everything. It actually tracked me here.
He looked at Theren. At the back of his head. At the scarred hands wrapped around the coffee mug.
Not here, he thought. Whatever this is, not here.
"Going out," Aaron said.
Theren looked up. Looked at Aaron's face properly. Something moved behind his eyes that he kept to himself.
"Be back before noon," he said.
Aaron grabbed the Void Scythe and walked out.
Outside the street was still normal.
Aaron walked and his screen kept updating and he thought about the ruins and the one that got away and thought it found me. After all of that. It found me at home.
He turned into a narrower street. Less people. His feet went there on their own because whatever was coming he wasn't letting it anywhere near Theren.
He stopped.
Waited.
The air changed.
Not temperature. Not wind. Just something in it went wrong. The whole street went quiet in a way that had nothing to do with the time of morning.
Then it stepped out.
Aaron had seen the figures in the ruins.
This was not that.
Taller. The dark material on its skin not crawling slow the way the others had. Moving fast. Aggressive. Something underneath constantly shifting and pushing. Its eyes weren't frozen. Weren't waiting.
These eyes were hunting.
They found Aaron.
Stayed there.
His screen fired everything at once.
[ ENTITY IDENTIFIED: THE BEING ]
[ Stage: 3RD STAGE ADAPTED PLAYER ]
[ Skills Detected: ]
[ VOID STEP — Exceeds all visual tracking ]
[ PRESSURE FIELD — Radius: Everything around you ]
[ SOUL STRIKE — Bypasses ALL known barriers ]
[ WARNING: SOUL STRIKE residual
damage will overwhelm HEALING FACTOR over time ]
[ WARNING: Prolonged engagement not advised ]
Aaron read SOUL STRIKE bypasses ALL known barriers.
Through everything, he thought. Through the Ethereal Barrier. Through all of it.
He thought about the Director.
About watching him fight three of the figures outside the Academy. The most powerful Returnee alive. Losing ground.
If the Director fought this thing, Aaron thought. Would he win.
He genuinely didn't know.
That thought sat in his stomach and stayed there.
The Being hadn't moved yet.
Just stood there. Reading him. Patient. Not in a hurry at all. Aaron understood then why it hadn't finished things in the ruins. Hadn't been ready then.
Was ready now.
It moved.
Not fast.
Instantly.
VOID STEP.
Right there. In front of him. No warning. No transition. Just suddenly right there and the hit landed before Aaron's eyes finished registering movement and—
CRACK.
SOUL STRIKE came through the barrier and hit Aaron somewhere deep in his chest and it wasn't pain. It was worse than pain. It grabbed at something inside him that had no name and pulled.
He hit the wall.
Dropped.
Lay there with his ears ringing and his chest doing something wrong and thought—
What the—
He got up.
"What the hell WAS that," he said out loud. His voice came out shaking. He didn't care. "That went THROUGH my barrier. It just went straight through—"
The Being watched him stand.
Aaron looked back at it and thought about how strong 3rd Stage was compared to his 2nd Stage and thought the Director. Even the Director might struggle with this. And I'm standing here with a scythe I got yesterday.
He moved anyway.
Straight at it. Scythe dark with acid. He drove it at the Being's chest and it stepped aside without effort, didn't even look rushed about it, and hit Aaron across the jaw with an open hand.
WHAM.
Aaron hit the ground sideways and tasted blood and lay there for a second.
"You piece of—" he started.
The PRESSURE FIELD activated.
BOOM.
Not a sound. A feeling. Every breath suddenly costing twice what it should. Every movement like pushing through something invisible that pushed back. The air itself pressing against Aaron from every direction at once.
The Being walked through it without feeling a single bit of it.
Aaron swung the scythe and it ducked and hit him twice in the ribs.
CRACK. CRACK.
Something broke. The healing factor grabbed it immediately but Aaron still felt it and the sound that came out of him wasn't planned.
"DAMN—"
He swung again and it caught the blade in one hand.
Just held it.
Aaron pulled. The Being held. Aaron pulled harder and it held and just looked at him with those hunting eyes.
Aaron let go of the scythe and drove his fist into its face.
His hand screamed.
The Being didn't move.
It looked at his fist pressed against its face. Then at Aaron.
Then it hit him back.
Aaron went through the air and hit the far wall and dropped and the impact went through everything and the barrier took most of it and the healing factor took the rest and he lay on the ground and stared at the sky and thought—
That's how strong 3rd Stage is.
The Director fights things this strong for breakfast.
What is the Director.
He lay there another second just processing that.
Then got up.
Because what else was there to do.
"Okay," he said. Breathing hard. Blood in his mouth. The PRESSURE FIELD making every breath work. "Okay you're strong. I get it. You're incredibly strong. Noted."
He forced himself up, ribs screaming.
His screen was still going.
[ HEALING FACTOR: STRUGGLING ]
[ SOUL STRIKE residual: ACTIVE ]
[ Continued exposure: CRITICAL RISK ]
If this keeps going, he thought. I go down and I don't come back up.
He looked at the Being.
VOID STEP means I can't react. SOUL STRIKE means my barrier means nothing. PRESSURE FIELD is draining me just standing in it.
He thought about the Mountain King.
72 hours duration. Still active.
A summoned Mountain King against a 3rd Stage, he thought. Is that enough.
He had no idea. But he had nothing else left and his chest still felt wrong from the SOUL STRIKE and the PRESSURE FIELD was making every second cost more than the last.
He raised his hand.
Reached for the skill.
"Hey."
From above.
Aaron looked up.
The new S ranker was standing on the roof across the street. Looking down at the Being. Her badge catching the morning light.
She looked at Aaron.
Then at the Being.
Then back at Aaron.
"You look terrible," she said.
"She don't know me," Aaron thought.
The Being turned toward her.
Its eyes changed.
First time since it arrived it looked at something other than Aaron with real focus. Something in it shifted. Something it hadn't expected to find here.
She stepped off the roof.
Didn't fall.
Came down slow and landed in the street between Aaron and the Being and—
KBOOOOM.
The shockwave from her landing cracked the road in every direction and the PRESSURE FIELD shattered. Just gone. Air normal again instantly.
Aaron stood behind her breathing hard and looked at what one landing had done to the road and thought S rank. That's what S rank actually means.
The Being looked at her.
She looked back at it. Completely still. Not scared. Not even tense.
"Go," she said to Aaron. Not looking at him. Eyes on the Being.
"I'm not—"
"Go."
Aaron looked at the Being. At her standing between them. At his screen still running warnings he hadn't finished reading.
He didn't go.
He raised his hand.
Reached for the Mountain King.
[ SUMMONING: MOUNTAIN KING ]
[ Duration remaining: 61 hours ]