The maintenance tunnel was a narrow, claustrophobic vein of concrete and grease, but to Elias, it felt like a sanctuary. Outside, the "District of Radiance" was screaming. Even through miles of rock, Elias could feel the thermal shockwaves of the High Avatar's arrival. The golden heat was trying to claw its way underground.
Elias slumped against a rusted pipe, his chest heaving. The obsidian skin was retracting, but it didn't disappear smoothly; it flaked off like charred wood, leaving raw, violet-bruised flesh underneath.
[Synchronization Rate: 6.8%]
[Status: Mythic Overload. Body is rejecting the mortal framework.]
[Warning: Identity Integrity at 78%.]
[Identity Loss: Memory of the color of the sky in childhood – DELETED.]
"Elias, your eyes..." Sarah started, but she stopped when she saw the fragments of the Eclipse Key still embedded in his palm. They weren't just stones; they were pulsing with a rhythmic, bioluminescent light.
"I can hear her," Elias whispered. His voice was a dry rattle.
"Hear who?"
"The one who was here before the sun was a spark in a dead god's eye," the cold, feminine whisper returned, resonating from the shards in his hand.
Suddenly, the shadows in the tunnel didn't just sit still—they rose. They swirled around Elias, forming the vague, ethereal shape of a woman with hair like a nebula and eyes like twin black holes.
[Entity Identified: Nyx (The Primordial Night - Fractured Consciousness)]
"You... you're a god," Sarah gasped, drawing her dagger, though she knew it was useless.
"God? No," the entity whispered, her voice echoing in their minds. "The Olympians are gods. They are decorators. They took my darkness and carved it into their little rooms. I am the Room itself."
The entity turned her gaze to Elias. "You carry the scent of the Wild Man, Enkidu. But you are different. You don't just serve the Myth. You eat it."
"Tell me... how to kill the Avatar," Elias groaned, his body twitching as the heat from above intensified. The High Avatar of Apollo was melting the surface, searching for the "Breach."
"The Avatar is a sun-dial," Nyx whispered, leaning close to Elias. "It only has power as long as it has a 'Source.' Destroy the Source, and the golden puppet falls. But the Source is not in this world. It is a 'Beam of Divinity' anchored in the Temple you just desecrated."
"I already destroyed the Altar!" Elias shouted.
"You destroyed the glass. You did not destroy the Anchor," Nyx smiled, a terrifying sight of infinite depth. "The Anchor is the High Avatar's own shadow. Since they are beings of light, they have no shadow—except for the one they 'cast' into the Middle Layer to stay grounded."
[New Objective: The Shadow-Severing]
[Difficulty: Divine]
Suddenly, the roof of the tunnel turned white. The concrete didn't collapse; it vaporized.
A figure descended through the hole. It was beautiful and horrific. A man-shaped entity of molten gold, with six wings made of solar flares and a face that was nothing but a polished mirror. Every time Elias looked at the Avatar's face, he saw his own death.
"THE VOID-STAINED MORTAL," the High Avatar spoke. The sound wasn't a voice; it was the roar of a furnace. "YOUR EXISTENCE IS AN ERROR IN THE GREAT EQUATION. I AM THE CORRECTION."
The Avatar raised a hand. A spear of pure, solidified sunlight formed in its grip. The heat was so intense that Sarah's cloak began to spontaneously combust.
"Sarah, get back!" Elias screamed.
He stood up, his obsidian skin flaring back to life, but this time, it was mixed with the "Primordial Night" of Nyx. He wasn't just a Beast anymore; he was a Beast in the Dark.
[Sync Rate: 7.5%]
[Skill Unlocked: Black-Hole Grasp]
"If you do this," Nyx's voice giggled in his ear, "you will lose the memory of your first friend. Is the trade acceptable?"
Elias looked at the golden spear leveled at his heart. He looked at Sarah, who was choking on the ozone-filled air.
"Acceptable," Elias hissed.
[Identity Loss: Memory of Leo, the boy who shared his bread – DELETED.]
Elias lunged. Not at the Avatar's heart, but at the ground beneath the Avatar's feet—searching for the invisible "Anchor" Nyx had described.
The golden spear thrust forward, piercing Elias's shoulder. He didn't flinch. He let the divine fire cauterize his flesh as he slammed his obsidian claws into the spot where the Avatar's "Shadow" should have been.
"I found it," Elias grinned, his teeth turning into jagged points of black glass. "The leash... that keeps you here."
With a roar that shook the very foundations of the Heptarchy, Elias tore at the invisible Anchor.