Then the Guide returned to the central arena.
Where the glyphs bled.
Where Kael was still rising.
The Guide remained motionless.
His eyes scanned the floating projections before him.
— Lines of essence, aura variations, curves of adaptive load.
Some candidates were progressing.
Gravyor… crushing.
Kiyoshi… resisting without hatred.
But Kael…
Kael fit into no pattern.
The data said so.
The interfaces confirmed it.
But his intuition refused to accept it.
"Three resistances. Two waves. Zero withdrawal. Zero fracture."
He enlarged the interface of the central arena.
A red blinking light.
Not a warning.
An indicator.
Of fluctuation.
Of something the Tower hadn't foreseen.
The Guide squinted.
"This isn't learning."
"This isn't adapting."
"It's… something else."
A silence settled, almost sacred.
Then, in a whisper, quieter than anything he had said before:
— He's not surviving…
— He's absorbing.
The ground vibrated again.
A dry pulse.Like a broken drum hit by a fist.
Kael slowly lifted his head.
He was no longer aware of the blood dripping from his temples.His arms, covered in soot and wounds, still trembled.
But he was standing.
And in his eyes…the glyphs still pulsed.But more violently than before.
They no longer showed.They screamed.
They arrived silently.
Three.No more.
But different.
Their skin glowed with an unhealthy heat.Their limbs were stretched, elastic, twisted by an internal fever.
Their flesh was lined with glowing cracks,and some wore pieces of burning weapons,blackened blades, blood-red, smoking in the open air.
One spat on the ground —the ground melted.
Kael wanted to retreat.
But his legs gave way.
And his vision… shattered.
The glyphs.The cracks.They doubled.
They overlapped.Saturated his retina like a wall of molten light.
He let out a hoarse, almost animalistic cry.Not of fear.
Of pain.
He wanted to close his eyes.Too late.
A gremlin leapt.Its blade struck Kael's shoulder,and his skin hissed.
Like meat thrown on a hot plate.
Kael screamed.
Fell.
His breath had become a wheeze.His hands clenched the burning ground.
And then, in the pain…
[Burn Resistance — Avatar Sub-Enhancement: confirmed]
A flash.
A muscle contraction.A cold wave ran up his nerves like a counter-fire launched inside his flesh.
The burn…was not gone.
But it was held back.
Controlled.
Kael reopened his eyes.
A single rune vibrated.Stable.Central.As if the universe had removed all distractions to leave only one point of entry.
He slowly stood up.
And struck.
His palm hit the gremlin's throat.
Not with force.With precision.
The creature froze.Its neck cracked.A black light escaped.
And it fell.Dead.
The other two stepped back.More cautiously this time.
Kael breathed hard.He was bleeding.
But he was still standing.
And in his eyes…a glow redder than the rest.
The silence lasted only briefly.Kael didn't even have time to catch his breath.
A deep, almost visceral tremor ran through the ground.Then… nothing.
No noise.No scream.No identifiable creature.
Only blurred shapes.Reflections.As if the air itself doubled around him.
He blinked.One… two… three figures?
They spun.Merged.Reflected.Multiplied.
One gremlin appeared. Then a second.Then five. Then two. Then ten.All identical.All distorted.
Kael raised his arm —but his movements were slow.As if space itself was crumpling.
A voice hissed near his ear.Then to the right. Then behind.He spun, struck at the void.Nothing.
His balance faltered.His breathing accelerated.A dizziness, stronger than before, made him fall to his knees.
And then…
[Confusion Resistance — Spirit Sub-Enhancement: confirmed]
A shiver ran up his spine.A mental breath.Then… calm.
The illusions fell all at once.The world regained its contours.A clear, single rune floated in his vision.He struck. True. Again.
The fifth and final wave.
The ground cracked.
But this time… no vibration.
Only… a bite in the air.
A cold that came neither from wind nor stone.
A living cold.
Kael stepped back.
A white breath escaped his mouth.
His arms trembled despite the previous heat.
Something was wrong.
They arrived.
Three gremlins.
But one of them… was not like the others.
Thinner.
Almost translucent.
Its skin dripped spectral frost, like frozen dew.
It slowly raised a claw.
Not to attack.
But to call.
And then, the cold condensed around it.
The air bent, vibrated, then sliced.
Kael raised his arm.
Too late.
An invisible blast sliced his left side.
His skin cracked like glass.
His muscles froze.
And the frost crept into his bones.
He screamed.
A sharp, involuntary cry, pierced by agony.
The spectral gremlin approached.
Not hurried.
Not joyful.
Just… certain.
Kael tried to move.
Impossible.
Every nerve in his body screamed.
And suddenly…
[Frostbite Resistance — Avatar Sub-Enhancement: confirmed]
The shiver broke.
A weak but constant thermal wave spread through his limbs.
His legs moved again.
His arms.
His teeth stopped chattering.
He rolled on his side, dodged a vertical strike,
and planted his hand against the gremlin's temple.
A crack.
A wave.
A mental fracture.
The gremlin froze,
before slowly collapsing to the side.
Kael, exhausted, fell back to his knees.
But…
he smiled.
The ground vibrated one last time.
Faintly.
But differently.
A last enemy approached.
And this one… was no longer a gremlin.
Wave 6: Bonus
Calm returned.Deceptive.Heavy.
Kael stayed kneeling, panting.His muscles twisted with exhaustion.His blood pounded in his temples like a drum.
He lifted his head.
And that's when he saw it.
A gremlin.Isolated.Still alive.The last one.
But something was off.
It did not flee.It did not crawl.It… trembled.
Not with fear.Nor excitement.
Its eyes vibrated.Its veins pulsed.A black glow seeped beneath its skin.
Kael wanted to move, but his body was still frozen.
So he watched.
And the thing… changed.
The gremlin's skin tightened.Its limbs twisted.Its back silently cracked.Bone protrusions burst from its shoulder blades, then retracted.Its jaw split in two, revealing a row of finer, longer, more vibrant teeth.
A new aura appeared.Not a logical evolution.A rupture of essence.
In the observation room
The Guide froze.
A red line appeared before him:
[Fusion detected: gremlin substrate + Diablis Fragment][Result: Diablis Rank F — premature awakening]
He tapped the interface.The data scrambled.He tried again.Same result.
— No...— No no no no... not now...
He snapped his fingers. Nothing erased.The Diablis was being born.
And Kael… still in the arena.
The Guide clenched his teeth.His gloves creaked.
— I promised.— I promised Thanatos he wouldn't die in this test.
He stood up.His eyes, though inhuman, betrayed something rare.
Fear.
Not for himself.For what he just unleashed.
In the arena, Kael tried to stand.
But the creature stared at him.
It was no longer a gremlin.
It was hunger.It was rupture.It was Diablis.
And it had not been summoned.It had chosen to evolve.
The Guide said nothing.And for the first time in centuries...he was afraid.