"What do you want?"
Vela's voice carried a tremor she tried to hide.
Evan stepped forward. His eyes glowed with a muted dusk-colored fire that didn't flare, didn't rage—it watched, as if it already understood her answer.
"I ask you to give me…"
He let the silence deepen.
The wind halted.
Branches creaked.
Even Kael's faint breathing felt loud.
Then he finished.
"Give me your soul fragment. Everything you're left with is the Authority's second lifeform. Come under my banner."
Vela froze.
Not in fear—In disbelief.
"Do you think this is funny?" Her anger broke through. "You believe a fragment can't kill you, and even if it doesn't, I can at least take you down with me. Are you trying to force a one-way suicide pact?"
Evan didn't blink.
"Your assumptions are noted," he said softly. "They don't matter."
He lifted his hand.
Vela braced for arrows.
But the chains burst from his palm instead—silent, quick, alive. They shot toward her like a hunting serpent and wrapped around her before she managed a single motion.
She tried to phase.
Failed.
She tried to erase her presence.
Failed.
She tried to slip through the gaps.
Nothing budged.
An invisible weight pressed down on her soul, heavier and colder than any physical restraint.
Her breath hitched.
Evan tilted his head, studying her as if this were a routine test.
"You still don't understand these chains," he said. "They didn't kill your former body because they're indestructible and have crazy effects. They killed you because they bind the soul itself. If your prime form couldn't escape, what makes you think a fragment can?"
The chains tightened.
Vela gasped as her soul cracked under the pressure. It didn't rip her body—it squeezed the existence inside it.
"Now," Evan continued, voice steady and patient. "Understand the reality. You don't have the leverage to refuse."
He lowered his hand toward her.
"Come with me. Walk beside me. I'll take you further than your own potential ever could."
She didn't answer.
Her eyes drifted from him to Kael's unconscious form.
Evan followed her gaze.
"If you choose him," he said, calm as ever, "I will kill you both here. No witnesses. No remnants. No future."
Vela shook.
He continued, tone unchanged.
"And even if I spare you today, Kael will still die. Tier 2 at best, perhaps Tier 3 if fate takes pity. You know what lies above these skies. He won't survive what's coming."
His hand opened, waiting.
"If you choose me, he may never reach greatness," Evan said. "But he'll live. He'll laugh. He'll have a life without running from death. I'll clean his traitor mark myself."
Her throat tightened.
"Decide, Vela. Choose the path where you won't carry regret."
Silence stretched between them.
Her eyes flicked between Evan's outstretched hand and the blade in his other—ready to end everything.
Then she laughed. Low. Bitter.
"Some choice… either kneel or die." Her voice cracked. "Fine. I'll do it. But if you break your word, don't expect loyalty when you need it most."
She raised her hand, weaving familiar signs.
A silver thread of soul stretched from her chest to Kael's forehead.
She smiled at Kael, barely a whisper of comfort.
Then she cut the thread.
Her body flickered. Her soul grew unstable. She was unravelling.
"Evan, she's fading," Arven snapped. "Put her in a vessel now!"
Evan scrambled. "Where—where do I—"
His eyes fell to the egg in his inventory. A strange push tugged at him from within himself.
He hesitated to use it; he shoved it back.
He pulled out something else.
Crimson Edge.
Arven didn't wait more to let him choose, as she was seconds from dispersing.
He shoved her into the sword.
The blade swallowed her whole.
Flames roared along its edge.
The metal vibrated as something alive had woken inside.
Evan staggered back in shock.
Notifications exploded across the Eternal Omniverse System.
[Detected: Host weapon "Crimson Edge" has gained external influence.]
[Detected: Tier 4 Soul Fragment has besieged Host weapon.]
[Scanning for harmful presence.]
[No threat found. Compatibility: Perfect Sync.]
[Host talent
[Possible evolution path discovered: Ego Weapon Creation.]
[Requirements Met:
1. 20,000 EEP
2. Soul Fragment
3. Compatible Weapon
4. External Flame Source]
[All conditions have been met. Proceed? Yes/No]
Evan stared at the blade devouring his mana like a starving beast.
Arven spoke sharply.
"Don't hesitate. She's forming an ego. She's using your mana and blood as the medium. If you let it continue without guiding it, you'll be drained dry."
Evan checked his status.
Two-thirds of his mana was already gone.
"…damn."
His fingers tightened.
He hit Yes.
The world shook.
[-20,000 EEP spent.]
[T.P: 65,822]
The blade erupted with a blast of heat that forced Evan to shield Kael with bone spikes. The hilt melted. The core fused into the blade. The shape twisted in a storm of silver and dusk flames.
Evan stepped closer, watching the transformation.
"Twenty thousand points…" he muttered. "This better be worth it."
The system chimed again.
[Process approaching pseudo-completion.]
[External Flame Source required.]
Evan blinked. "External flame…?"
He grabbed Kael's blade, thinking to merge it and push it forward—but it nearly melted instantly.
He yanked it back, confused.
"What source is it asking for…?"
The answer wasn't obvious.
But the heat radiating from the evolving sword made it clear:
He needed something extraordinary.
Something alive.
Something rare enough to complete an ego weapon.
Something only Evan possessed.
He remembered the source of flames he was being asked for.
Death Duskflame, the one he just got, what could be better than that flame?
They bloomed in his hand as ash-colored fire streaked with black veins of corruption, carrying a cold bite and a suffocating heat at the same time. Even his own skin prickled when they appeared.
The Crimson Edge reacted the moment it sensed them. It hissed like a starving predator and lunged at the flames.
They rushed at him, ready to snatch. Evan didn't wait. He hurled the Death Duskflames straight into the oncoming blaze.
The collision shook the space around him.
His flames were superior in element and density, but the sword's flames gnawed at them like a bottomless maw. The Death flames were swallowed faster than he could feed them.
Evan gritted his teeth and pushed more mana into the output. His reserves plummeted, but not like before. His huge mana pool, natural regeneration, and his talents were barely keeping pace.
Slowly, his flames overtook the Crimson Edge's output and poured along the blade, overwhelming the red glow and burning into the metal.
The sword trembled. Its aura spiked—far above its current realm.
'Is it really evolving? But here? Inside the expanse?'
He wasn't sure. If it worked, it would upend everything he knew.
"Come on. Just a bit more. Don't stop here. Just break through." He urged it on, even as the talent flared a warning.
'If this continues, you'll end up with a half-formed piece of trash.'
Arven thought while looking at him, watching the process unfold.
Even if the evolution were completed, the expanse's laws wouldn't let the sword reach the next tier. It would cap out before crossing that threshold.
But Arven wasn't someone who accepted limits. Even here, even reduced to a Tier 0 being relic, he still carried the weight of the Abyss behind him.
Without alerting Evan, Arven pulled more than a hundred souls from the relic and compressed them into a single silver-lit pearl between his palms.
"A quick catalyst. Her soul should handle this much." His smile turned sharp. "Watch closely. This is why I am the Ruler of Souls."
He flicked the floating pearl into the evolution circle.
The circle erupted.
A shockwave kicked Evan back several meters. Instead of panic, a grin broke across his face. A reaction that violent meant something big was happening.
"Good… keep going," he muttered, forcing even more flames into the circle.
The flames were devoured like strands of dry grass falling into a black hole. His mana reservoir drained into nothing.
And then—The circle lit up.
The evolution finished.
Evan staggered, chest tight, vision dim. He checked his remaining mana.
154 MP.
"Thank my luck… I thought it would demand blood next." He let out a long breath.
The sword was shrouded in a thin sheen, like metal fresh out of a forge. The blade remained the same, but the hilt and joint had transformed—intricate, almost artisan craftsmanship replacing the plain structure.
Heat radiated from it, stronger than anything he had felt so far.
'Did it break past the tier? It better have… or I swear—' He reached for the hilt.
But something happened, Eavan felt a strange sensation from the weapon as he jumped back in confusion.
The Space around the blade started to tremble.
A fracture tore open beside the blade. The void collapsed inward, forming a vacuum that started swallowing everything around it.
Evan froze. This wasn't the reaction of a divine treasure.
Before he could move, spectral chains erupted from the cracks, wrapped around the sword, and yanked.
Evan reacted fast. His own chains lashed out, anchoring the blade from his end.
They clashed. His chains strained. The other chains dragged without mercy.
"Who's trying to steal my sword? How would anyone even know what I'm doing in here?" Evan growled as the force dragged his body forward.
He reinforced his grip with elemental chains and activated Gravitic Vein. The sword was already half-swallowed by the void.
"Arven, who's behind this?! Say it! At least let me know whose head I'm taking later!"
"Hah. Even if I told you, you can't kill him."
"Try me!"
Arven sighed.
"It's the expanse itself. Its law is removing a weapon too dangerous to exist here. It's sending it away. Randomly. Anywhere. You won't be able to track it."
Evan's heart dropped.
"Do something! I'm not letting this go. Not after everything I spent!"
"I can't fight the expanse. This isn't the Abyss. I'll mark the sword so you can track it later. That's all."
"No… I won't… I refuse!" Evan roared, thinking of something and made up his mind.
He released the chains and sprinted.
He summoned the Tide Halberd—an unused, almost forgotten weapon—tightened his grip, and halted just short of the collapsing void.
The world muted.
His eyes sharpened.
His breath steadied.
The air froze.
"Soul Core Release—Requiem Blade…"