The thin cocoon of flame shattered.
Heat exploded outward like a solar flare, warping the air, scorching stone, and forcing the mountain itself to groan in protest.
At the same instant—
Evan pushed his senses to their absolute limit.
Every nerve sharpened.
Every instinct screamed.
What stood before him was no longer a fragile Tier 0 existence he could casually suppress.
This was a newly Evolved warrior.
A being whose body had crossed the mortal threshold.
Power rolled off Kael in violent waves, distorting space with sheer heat alone.
"Careful," Arven warned, his voice suddenly serious. "This one's feral right now. Handle it fast, or you won't walk away clean."
Evan cracked a grin, though his stance lowered instinctively.
"Relax. I've tamed worse things than this in past lives."
The confidence lasted exactly two seconds.
"…Where are you?"
Kael's voice cracked.
He staggered forward, eyes wide, scanning his own body like something vital had been torn out.
"I can't feel her. I can't hear her. Where is my sword… where is Vela?"
There was no warmth answering him anymore.
No familiar flame whispering inside his soul.
Only a small, dim fragment remained. Enough to ignite fire. Nothing more.
Yet despite that emptiness—
His body felt stronger.
The shackles of Peak Tier 0 had shattered.
He had stepped into the Tier 1: Blaze Body.
Kael lifted his head slowly.
His gaze locked onto the masked man.
Recognition flickered.
Then rage detonated.
"You…" his voice trembled. "What did you do to me?"
Before Evan answered—
Kael vanished.
The ground where he stood imploded, cracks spider-webbing across the mountain peak as if struck by a meteor.
Evan twisted sideways on instinct.
A fist slammed through the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier.
The shockwave alone hurled air back for dozens of meters.
Only then did Evan truly see him.
Bare chest.
Torn shorts.
Skin glowing red-hot, veins pulsing like molten lines beneath flesh.
Heat radiated from Kael's body so intensely that the air shimmered.
Evan didn't draw his weapon.
'Not yet.'
"Where is she?" Kael growled, voice low, shaking.
Evan tilted his head, eyes calm.
"Hah. Acting like a predator after you blacked out from one hit earlier?" he said flatly. "As for her—forget it. You're never seeing her again. So stay down."
The provocation landed.
Kael disappeared again.
This time, Evan barely managed to cross his arms before impact.
BOOM—
A blow like a hundred-ton hammer smashed into his guard.
Bone screamed.
The force sent Evan flying straight off the mountain cliff.
Wind howled past as the world flipped upside down.
Evan snapped his fingers mid-air.
The Great Eagle materialised beneath him, wings flaring just in time to catch his fall.
From above, the mountain peak continued to collapse, stone crumbling like dry clay from a single exchange.
Evan grimaced, staring at his hands.
Cracks laced both arms.
Bones were on the verge of giving out.
'There's still a gap,' he realised grimly. 'A big one.'
Before he could finish healing—
Kael leapt.
Straight into the sky.
Gravity meant nothing to him now.
He rose higher than the eagle, flames condensing around his fists, then hurled himself downward.
A massive flame construct shaped like a clenched fist tore through the air.
Evan cursed.
An ice wall snapped into existence before him.
The flame fist smashed through it like glass.
The impact swallowed Evan and the eagle in fire.
They plummeted.
Evan dismissed the summon instantly, healing it as he fell, landing hard on the forested slope below.
Flames crawled over his clothes.
He brushed them off calmly, eyes lifting.
Kael stood on the cliff edge above, staring down at him like a god of ruin.
"You want to play?" Evan said quietly.
Geo-energy surged into his arm.
The mountain answered.
The earth roared.
From within the cliff face, massive earth serpents erupted, bodies twisting, jaws snapping as they surged toward Kael.
Kael met them head-on.
Every serpent shattered mid-air, crushed apart by raw strength alone.
Still, the force pushed him backwards.
He crashed half a kilometer away, skidding across rock and dirt before stopping.
When he stood—
Only faint bruises marked him.
Nothing more.
His head snapped up.
Then he vanished again.
Evan's danger sense screamed.
He looked up.
Red dots bloomed across the sky.
Fireballs.
Dozens of them.
Kael hovered above, body wreathed in flame, eyes burning.
"Tell me where she is," he roared. "Or die."
Evan sighed.
"I already told you. She's not coming back."
The fireballs dropped.
Evan moved.
Ice shards burst into existence around him, streaking upward like a storm.
The sky became a battlefield of fire and frost.
Explosions chained together, heat waves rippling outward as ice and flame annihilated each other.
But Evan knew—
This couldn't last.
Kael ignited himself completely, flames swallowing his body as he prepared to dive.
"My neck's getting sore," Evan muttered. "Why don't you come down?"
His hand clenched.
His talent,
The world pulled.
Kael's descent turned into a forced crash.
He slammed into the ground like a falling star.
The earth ruptured.
A massive crater webbed outward.
Kael staggered to his knees.
His voice cracked.
"Why…" he gasped. "Why is everything taken from me…"
His friends.
Velma.
Vela.
His sanity fractured under the weight.
Evan watched silently.
Kael's body burned brighter.
Yellow markings began crawling across his skin.
His eyes glazed.
Control slipping.
"…This is bad," Evan muttered. "If I don't end this now—"
Kael lifted his head.
Something else looked back.
Something feral.
Something no longer human.
The real fight—
Was just beginning.
Evan felt it.
A pressure far beyond Kael's earlier surge.
Not wild power anymore.
This was something twisting, evolving mid-fight, grinding against the laws of the Expanse itself.
The air burned.
The ground cracked beneath Kael's feet, glowing faintly as his body trembled; his veins pulsed like magma channels beneath his skin.
'Another surge…?' Evan's eyes narrowed. 'How is that even possible.'
He glanced over his shoulder.
Vela remained silent, hovering above the blade, her expression finally fractured.
"…I don't know," she admitted quietly. "This shouldn't be happening. Those markings—those appear when someone reaches Tier 2, when flame and body fully synchronise."
Her gaze sharpened.
"But he hasn't crossed that boundary yet."
Evan exhaled slowly.
"Then he's forcing a path that doesn't exist."
His jaw tightened.
"Looks like I'll be breaking a few bones of mine today."
He closed his eyes.
The world dimmed.
His skill activated.
Bone surged outward from beneath his skin, interlocking plates forming over his body in a brutal, living armour.
The structure was dense, raw, unfinished—yet terrifyingly functional.
Cold followed.
Ice condensed across the bone plating, crystal layers reinforcing every joint, every vital point.
When Evan opened his eyes again—
They were calm.
Focused.
He stepped forward.
And let gravity take him.
Without his summons, his body dropped like a meteor straight toward Kael, who was now half-transformed into something monstrous, flames ripping uncontrollably from his frame.
Evan extended his hand.
A massive ice spear condensed instantly and launched downward.
Before it reached Kael—
It evaporated.
Gone.
Reduced to mist by sheer heat.
Evan didn't flinch.
'As expected.'
The armour creaked.
It wouldn't hold long.
But long enough was all he needed.
He landed directly in front of Kael, ice energy compressing into his arm so intensely that frost crawled up to his shoulder, flesh screaming beneath the bone plating.
If he hesitated—
Kael would burn everything.
'This ends now.'
Evan surged forward.
But Kael reacted.
Even in his berserk state, his instincts screamed danger. He retreated with inhuman speed, feet carving trenches through stone.
Evan stopped.
Raised his hand.
The ice-coated arm pulled back.
Then—
Gravity twisted.
Kael's body was ripped forward, dragged violently through the air as if the world itself had seized him.
He roared, resisting with raw strength, but it wasn't enough.
Evan caught him by the throat.
Heat exploded outward.
The flesh beneath Evan's grip burned instantly, bone armour hissing, cracking.
Pain stabbed through him.
"Just—shut—down," Evan growled.
His free hand slammed into Kael's abdomen.
The impact sent Kael flying.
Mid-air—
The energy Evan had injected detonated.
An eruption of absolute ice exploded from within Kael's body, freezing everything in a violent shockwave.
The mountain screamed.
Crystal ice swallowed the battlefield.
Evan leapt back just in time, landing atop a rising ice pillar.
At the center—
Kael stood frozen, flames raging desperately inside the ice prison, barely holding him alive.
Evan sensed it clearly.
'He'll break out.'
Soon.
"Enough," Evan muttered. "I don't have time for this."
Vela watched in stunned silence.
She couldn't tell anymore.
Was this man insane—
Or simply operating on a level she could no longer comprehend?
The ice shattered.
Kael erupted out, flames weakened, but rage undiminished.
Evan was already moving.
Darkness flooded Kael's vision.
Dark Veil.
A heartbeat later—
Shadow Leap.
Evan reappeared behind him.
For a Tier 0, it would have been over.
For a Tier 1—
It bought him only an instant.
But an instant was enough.
"Sleep."
Evan's palm struck the back of Kael's head.
Kael collapsed.
Vela froze.
"…It worked?"
Evan smirked.
"Old trick."
The ground trembled.
Kael twitched.
Then started to rise.
Evan stepped back instinctively, eyes narrowing.
"…Yeah. Should've expected that."
Kael lifted his head.
Eyes burning.
Rage absolute.
Vela moved instantly.
"Enough!" she shouted. "Leave—he'll kill you—"
Evan laughed.
Not nervously.
Not strained.
A crazy, delighted laugh.
Kael lunged.
And froze.
Mid-motion.
Invisible pressure crushed down on him.
Spectral chains—so faint they were almost unreal—wrapped around his limbs, his torso, his neck.
Vela's breath caught.
Those weren't her chains.
Those were—
The Expanse itself.
"Hah," Evan said calmly. "You're late."
The chains tightened obediently.
"Almost let him break a rule today."
Evan stepped forward, casual, unhurried.
Lightning crackled faintly around his fingers.
Vela's eyes widened.
'Lightning…?'
She didn't even know when he had learned it.
Evan tapped Kael's forehead.
Light flashed.
Kael's body went limp instantly.
Silence.
"What did you do?!" Vela demanded, rushing forward. "Did you kill him?!"
Evan waved dismissively.
"If I wanted him dead, he'd be ash already. He's unconscious. That's all."
He glanced back.
"Be grateful. I'm in a generous mood."
Vela stared at him for a long moment.
Then, silently—
She returned to the blade.
'Now I understand,' she thought. 'Why you choose him… my other half.'
The chains retreated, slipping back into the void as if afraid to linger.
Evan exhaled.
Looked around.
Frozen land.
Shattered stone.
Ruined terrain.
"…I really need to stop doing this," he muttered.
The eagle descended.
Evan lifted Kael onto its back and mounted behind him.
The wind picked up as they took flight toward the town.
Behind them—
The battlefield slowly stilled.
Ahead—
A larger stage awaited.
Stronger enemies.
Greater truths.
And faces Evan had waited far too long to see.
The climb had only just begun.