Blinded by a mixture of agonizing grief and explosive rage, Liuke lost his sanity.
He did the one thing he was supposed to avoid at all costs.
He forced his broken body beyond the point of no return.
"You heartless monster... I will tear you apart!"
Liuke roared, his voice cracking with a terrifying fury.
He channeled every remaining drop of solar energy into his right hand.
It hardened into a glowing, metallic rod of pure heat.
The temperature was so volatile that his own flesh began to sizzle and burn.
His skin turned into black ash right before his eyes.
Thick plumes of steam erupted from his arm.
The heat melted the stone floor beneath him and warped the very walls of the temple.
Liuke lunged forward—a golden streak of pure desperation.
He swung a devastating punch, but the Ice Monster was unnervingly fast.
With a sickening crunch of frost, it caught Liuke's molten fist.
It stopped the impact dead in its tracks.
With a casual, cruel flick, the beast ripped its icy spike out of Elysia's abdomen.
He tossed her aside like a broken ragdoll.
Her blood, dark and warm, stained the jagged ice of the monster's head.
Before Liuke could even react, the creature's massive hand clamped around his throat.
It lifted him off the ground with ease.
Liuke thrashed, his legs kicking uselessly in the air.
The grip was like a vice of absolute zero.
(No... not like this...) Liuke's thoughts raced through the haze of suffocation.
(I won't die at the hands of this hideous thing.)
(To save Elysia... I'll give up everything. My life, my soul... everything!)
Suddenly, Liuke's body began to distort.
A terrifying transformation took hold of him.
His muscles expanded and his skin hardened into a dark, metallic sheen.
His internal temperature skyrocketed until he was glowing like a miniature sun.
With his newfound, doubled strength, Liuke grabbed the monster's icy wrist.
The sheer intensity of his heat was so great that the monster's arm didn't just melt.
It vaporized instantly into a cloud of scalding mist.
Shocked and enraged, the beast swung its other arm.
But the "Evolved" Liuke was faster.
He dodged the blow and delivered a kick so powerful it sent the ten-foot monster flying through the air.
"Heh... heh... heh..."
A haunting, creepy laugh escaped Liuke's lips.
"I forgot... how much fun it is to kill things like you."
Liuke crouched low.
His left hand gripped his right wrist to steady the surging, chaotic power.
His right fist began to glow with a terrifying, white-hot intensity.
The flesh was gone now; only the charred, blackened bone remained.
Yet, it pulsed with a solar light that defied death itself.
As the monster fell back toward him, Liuke unleashed the final blow.
The impact was silent for a heartbeat.
And then—obliteration.
The Ice Monster was vaporized into nothingness.
Only a scorched crater remained where it once stood.
The transformation faded.
The metallic skin vanished, and Liuke's size returned to normal.
But as the steam cleared, there was no triumphant hero.
There was only a broken boy.
His skin was shriveled and dry.
His right hand was a skeletal ruin of bone, and his eyes were hollow.
He collapsed.
"Liuke!"
Commander Elvis arrived, flanked by his elite squad.
"Rayna, Helo! Check on the girl! I've got Liuke!"
When Elvis reached the boy, his heart sank.
The ground beneath his feet felt like it was crumbling.
This wasn't the Liuke he knew.
This was a husk who had burned his entire life force in a single second of glory.
The sterile white walls of the ICU were cold and unforgiving.
Both Liuke and Elysia lay in critical condition, surrounded by the constant hum of machines.
Elvis, Rayna, and Helo stood in the hallway.
The weight of the day pressed down on them like lead.
"If only I had arrived sooner," Elvis muttered, burying his head in his hands.
"Don't lose hope, Commander," Rayna said softly.
"If Solaryn wills it, they will survive."
"Liuke... you brave fool," Elvis whispered.
"You killed a monster that even I couldn't have faced alone."
"That wasn't just an S-grade, Liuke. That was something else... a Special Grade."
"And you did it alone."
"But at what cost?" Rayna asked, looking toward the door to Liuke's room.
"He didn't care about the cost," Elvis replied.
"He fought for something beyond himself, and he broke his limits to do it."
Suddenly, two doctors emerged from Elysia's room.
They looked pale and utterly confused.
"Commander Elvis? We have... strange news," the lead doctor said.
"Is she okay?" Elvis asked, stepping forward immediately.
"It's abnormal. The wound in her stomach... it's gone."
"It's as if her body regenerated itself in minutes."
"A wound from a spike that size should have been fatal, but she is perfectly healed."
"What?!" the three soldiers exclaimed in unison.
"We went to get the surgical tools, and by the time we returned, she was fine," the second doctor added.
"It's like a miracle of the Sun God. We'll keep her for observation, but she can likely go home tomorrow."
Elvis breathed a sigh of relief, though his mind raced with questions.
How could an ordinary girl possess such power?
"I hope Liuke finds the same luck," he whispered.
Back at the scorched ruins of the Solaryn Temple, something impossible was happening.
The vaporized particles of the Ice Monster began to vibrate.
Slowly, they pulled together, defying the laws of nature.
The molecules fused, the ice hardened, and the creature resurrected.
But it was different now.
Its icy skin was darker, harder than steel.
Jagged spikes erupted from its shoulders.
Two massive, crystalline wings unfurled from its back.
It didn't just return.
It had Evolved.