This book won't be contracted and will be published in Amazon after the completion of volume 1. Regular release 5/week will be done in webnovel. Advanced chapters (10 chaps) will be in my Patreon. Those who are interested and want to support me can join using the link below.
??"www.patreon.com/Writer_Kyn"??
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The last thing Ryan remembered was the sensation of being somewhere else.
It was not a place with shape or distance, nor something he could describe as a separate world. His perception had simply shifted, stripped of weight and pain, as though the boundary between thought and action had dissolved. There was no fear in that state, no urgency, and no awareness of time. Everything had felt quiet, dangerously so.
The quiet shattered with noise.
"Ryan, wake up!"
The sound reached him before the shaking did. Hands gripped his shoulders and pulled at him, insistently, as if afraid he might sink back into whatever had claimed him. Ryan inhaled sharply and opened his eyes, his body reacting faster than his mind. The cold stone floor pressed against his back, and the prison's ceiling swam above him, blurred and unsteady.
He pushed himself upright in a sudden panic.
"What happened to the wall?" he asked, the words tumbling out before he had fully gathered his thoughts.
Anya exhaled, the tension in her shoulders loosening just slightly, though relief did not fully reach her expression. Her voice trembled when she spoke, betraying the strain she had tried to keep buried.
"It's still holding," she said. "But I don't think we can make it like this."
Ryan barely registered the second half of her sentence.
"Your body can't handle the strain of your ability," Anya continued, forcing herself to stay calm. "You need more time to decay the residue properly. I should have stopped you earlier. I'm sorry. I put your life in danger."
Her words continued, but they washed over him without meaning. The only part that mattered had already landed. The wall was still intact.
That was enough.
Ryan pushed himself to his feet without answering her. Pain flared through his body as soon as he moved, sharp and disorienting, but he ignored it. His vision narrowed as he took a step forward, then another. His legs felt stiff and uncooperative, his posture bent unnaturally as though his spine could no longer fully support him. Each movement required deliberate effort, and he dragged his feet across the floor with none of the balance or ease he normally possessed.
Blood had dried along the side of his face and neck, and fresh warmth still seeped from the corners of his eyes. He did not wipe it away.
Anya watched him move toward the wall, unease tightening her chest. He did not walk like someone who had simply fainted. His body looked wrong, misaligned, as though the cost of what he had done was still being exacted with every step.
When Ryan reached the gate, fragments of memory stirred.
The strange clarity. The absence of pain. The sensation that decay was no longer an act of force, but understanding.
The text surfaced unbidden in his mind.
[Requirements met…]
[One of the conditions to evolve your ability has been met.]
[Unlocking hidden potential of the ability.]
The message did not end there.
[Resonance aspect of your ability has been unlocked.]
[Aspect: Resonance.]
[Description: Upon activation, structural analysis required for decay is reduced.]
Ryan swallowed, his throat dry.
Resonance.
The word fits too well. It described the state he had entered before collapsing, the way his energy had aligned rather than clashed. It had not felt like overpowering the residue, but like matching it, slipping into the same rhythm until resistance ceased to exist.
'I don't want to die from this,' he thought grimly. 'Not like this.'
He was keenly aware of his condition. His limbs trembled under their own weight, and every pulse from his second heart sent a dull ache through his chest. Pushing himself further carried real risk, not something that only ends with pain.
But the wall was already more than half compromised.
Ryan placed his palm against the stone and felt it at once. The energy residue had spread deeper than before, eating away at the structure from the inside. If it reached the critical point, decaying it afterward would mean nothing. The wall would fail regardless of his success.
There was no time left to hesitate.
"Ryan."
Anya stepped closer, her voice low and urgent.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
He turned to face her. His expression was calm, almost unsettling in its clarity, despite the blood and exhaustion. He nodded once.
He knew she was blaming herself for everything that had happened, measuring each moment and decision for where it had gone wrong. This time, he would not allow that. The choice was his alone.
Whether it was pride, responsibility, or something simpler and more stubborn, Ryan no longer cared to dissect it. He only knew that he could not allow the monsters within the prison to escape.
Ryan closed his eyes.
Instead of forcing his perception outward as he usually did, instead of calculating the precise amount of energy needed to decay a target, he searched for something else. Beneath the pain and fatigue, he sensed it again. A faint, fragile connection between his energy and the residue within the wall, thin as a thread but undeniably present.
'Resonance,' he thought.
He anchored himself to that feeling and pumped his second heart.
Energy surged through his veins, not violently, but with purpose. It flowed into his arms and through his hands, slipping into the wall without resistance. The residue responded instantly, as if recognizing something familiar.
Ryan felt it dissolve.
The decay spread quietly, efficiently, tracing the paths the residue had carved through the stone and erasing it wherever it remained. The wall itself remained untouched, its structure unharmed as the corrupting energy vanished piece by piece.
He did not stop.
Ryan continued to supply energy through the connection, even as his vision blurred and his breathing grew ragged. Sweat streamed down his face, mixing with the blood until his features were barely recognizable. His body screamed at him to stop, every instinct warning that he had gone far beyond what he could safely endure.
He ignored it.
Seconds passed, or perhaps longer. He could no longer tell.
Then the connection faded.
The residue was gone.
Ryan's legs gave out beneath him.
Anya was already moving, catching him before he could hit the ground. His body went slack in her arms, consciousness slipping away the moment the danger passed.
She held him there, her grip tightening as she looked down at his battered face.
"What kind of idiot does something this reckless," she muttered, her voice thick with emotion.
She gently adjusted her hold, supporting his weight as best she could, then reached for her phone. The call connected immediately.
"Captain, what happened?" Watson asked, tension evident in his voice.
"The emergency protocol is dismissed," Anya said steadily. "The first-level combat alert is over. The situation is resolved. Send medical support immediately."
She was about to end the call when Watson spoke again.
"Captain, headquarters is on the line. They want a meeting with you as soon as possible."
Anya's fingers lingered on the screen for a fraction of a second before she responded.
"Understood."