The seconds dragged like hours. Kaelen could feel his heart hammering against his ribs, but his limbs remained entirely frozen. The thick cocoon of dark Aether swirled around him, acting as a physical barrier but leaving his vision unobscured.
Through the shifting shadows, he watched the young Vanguard approach.
She did not step carelessly. Her polished boots moved with lethal grace over the cracked stone and bloodslicked debris. The glowing crystal embedded in her silver chestplate pulsed erratically. It cast a harsh, bright light that fought against the natural gloom of the Deep Sump. Kaelen noticed the air around her visibly distorting from the sheer density of her magic. She was practically leaking raw energy.
"Fascinating," she murmured. Her voice was smooth but laced with a sharp edge of authority.
She stopped a few feet away from the pile of gray ash that used to be the Ironback Hound. She inspected the rusted ventilation grate, the sheared release cable, and the discarded, bloodied Vanguard dagger lying on the floor. Her aristocratic eyes narrowed as she pieced the chaotic battlefield together.
Then she turned her full attention to Kaelen.
"A mortal kills a Bronze Tier beast, absorbs its essence, and triggers an abyssal mutation," she stated, taking a slow step toward his glowing black cocoon. "You are either a very lucky scavenger or a very dangerous heretic."
Kaelen screamed at his muscles to move. Nothing happened. The system interface hovered mercilessly in his peripheral vision.
[Evolution time remaining: 80 seconds.]
He needed more time. If she decided he was a threat, she could run him through with that rapier, and he would die without ever lifting a finger.
The Vanguard raised her weapon. The polished silver blade gleamed as she pointed the tip directly at the center of Kaelen's chest, right where his Void Core rested beneath the shadows.
"The Vanguard Guild mandates the immediate execution of any unauthorized Abyssal anomalies," she said. Her grip tightened on the hilt.
Kaelen gritted his teeth. He poured every ounce of his willpower into his right hand, desperately trying to break the system's absolute paralysis. His fingers twitched, but it was not enough.
[Evolution time remaining: 45 seconds.]
She stepped closer. The tip of her rapier breached the outer layer of his shadow cocoon.
The moment the silver metal touched the dark Aether, a violent reaction occurred. The overcharged magic leaking from her chest crystal flared blindingly bright. The Void Core inside Kaelen sensed the massive, unstable energy source and reacted with primal hunger. Dark tendrils whipped out from the cocoon, wrapping around the blade of the rapier.
The young woman gasped in shock. She tried to pull the weapon back, but the shadowy tendrils held it in a vice-like grip. The dark energy began traveling up the silver steel, moving directly toward her glowing chestplate.
"Let go!" she shouted, channeling a burst of pure kinetic force through her arm.
The shockwave shattered the surrounding stone tiles, but the tendrils only pulled harder. Kaelen felt a sudden, freezing surge of foreign magic flood into his system. His core was actively siphoning her overcharged Aether.
[External energy source detected. Evolution accelerating.]
[Time remaining: 10 seconds.]
The Vanguard panicked. She planted her boot on the ground, abandoning her attempt to pull away. Instead, she lunged forward, driving her entire body weight behind the rapier to pierce the cocoon and kill the parasite at its source.
The blade tore through the shadows. It plunged straight toward Kaelen's heart.
[Evolution Complete.]
[Host motor functions restored.]
Kaelen snapped his eyes wide open. The paralysis shattered instantly.
He did not try to dodge. He threw his right hand forward and caught the razor-sharp blade of the rapier mere inches from his chest.
The newly acquired Ironclad Carapace activated. Metal ground against magically hardened skin, producing a shower of bright sparks, but the blade did not cut him. Kaelen clamped his fingers down, halting her lethal thrust completely.
The dark cocoon violently exploded outward, dissipating into the mist.
Kaelen slowly stood up to his full height. He kept his bloody, vice-like grip on her weapon. The young Vanguard stared at his bare hand in absolute shock, her aristocratic composure finally breaking.
"You are going to need a bigger sword," Kaelen whispered, his eyes glowing with a faint, abyssal light.