Building on the momentum of the Grey Zone and the rising threat of the Eclipse Order, we move into the eye of the storm.
The air within the Shattered Expanse had turned into a viscous soup of dark energy. Every step toward the black pillar felt like wading through freezing mercury. Kaito's [Monarch's Domain] was the only thing keeping the void-erosion from eating their equipment, the golden aura flickering like a dying candle against the overwhelming darkness."Kaito, look up!" Seraphina shouted, her voice barely audible over the screaming wind.
Above the center of the rupture, the sky had torn open. It wasn't just a portal; it was a wound in reality. Giant, skeletal ribs of obsidian matter arched across the vortex, forming a cathedral of shadow. At the center of this "Abyssal Cathedral" floated a figure draped in robes of tattered starlight—a High Priest of the Eclipse Order.
[System Warning: Tier-1 Apostle of the Void Detected][Level: 55 (A-Rank Initial)][Threat Level: Fatal]
"An Apostle," Seraphina hissed, her knuckles turning white around her rapier. "They've sacrificed an entire Grey Zone just to summon one of their high-ranking leaders. Kaito, you have to leave. Now. I'll hold him here."Kaito didn't move. His [Intelligence: 740] was feeding him a different set of data.
He could feel the Unidentified Egg in his rucksack pulsing in perfect synchronization with the Apostle's mana. It wasn't fear the egg was projecting—it was hunger."I'm not leaving you, Seraphina," Kaito said, his voice dropping into that cold, resonant tone of the Monarch. "And besides, the egg won't let me. It wants what that Apostle is holding."In the Apostle's hand was a Void Heart—a crystalline organ that served as the anchor for the rupture.
It was the purest concentration of dark mana in existence.The Apostle looked down, his face hidden behind a mask of silver bone. "The Anomaly and the Valkyrie. A tragic pair. You struggle against the inevitable. The Void does not take; it simply reclaims."With a flick of his wrist, the Apostle unleashed a wave of Void-Erosion. Seraphina lunged forward, her A-Rank mana exploding in a brilliant white shield, but the impact sent her skidding back, her boots carving furrows in the glass sand.
"Luna! Spatial Displacement: Triple Layer!"Kaito didn't attack the Apostle directly. He knew a B-Rank couldn't pierce an A-Rank's natural defense. Instead, he used his SSS-rank skill to warp the space around Seraphina, redirecting the Apostle's follow-up strikes into the ground."You're clever, boy," the Apostle mused, his voice echoing inside Kaito's mind. "But how long can you maintain the space of two worlds?"The Apostle raised the Void Heart, and the gravity in the zone intensified by tenfold.
Kaito fell to one knee, the weight of the Void-Slayer Katana suddenly feeling like a mountain. His mana pool began to drain at a terrifying rate.[Mana: 3,200 → 1,800 → 900...]"Kaito!" Seraphina screamed. She saw the Apostle preparing a final, soul-striking bolt. She made a choice. She stopped her own defense and threw her rapier, the blade turning into a streak of crimson light meant to distract the Apostle, even if it left her wide open."No!" Kaito roared.
As the Apostle's dark bolt fired toward a defenseless Seraphina, the Unidentified Egg finally reached its breaking point.
[Synchronization: 100%!][Condition Met: High-Density Void Presence][Hatching Sequence Initiated!]
The rucksack exploded. A pillar of obsidian and violet light shot into the sky, rivaling the Apostle's rupture. The dark bolt meant for Seraphina was simply inhaled by the hatching light.From the center of the explosion, a creature emerged that defied the logic of the Academy's beast-manuals. It was a quadrupedal beast, the size of a large wolf, covered in scales that shifted between jet-black and deep space-purple. Two draconic wings, made of flickering shadow-matter, fanned out from its shoulders. Its eyes were two burning suns of gold, identical to Kaito's
[Monarch's Domain].
[New Beast Tamed: Void-Eater Drake (Unique - SSS Rank Growth)]
[Name: Nero]
[Current Level: 1 (Growth Phase: Infancy)]
The drake, Nero, didn't wait for a command. It let out a roar that silenced the wind. It lunged, not at the Apostle, but at the Void Heart. In a blur of shadow-teleportation that put Luna's blinks to shame, it appeared in front of the Apostle and snapped its jaws shut around the crystalline organ.
The Apostle's eyes widened behind his bone mask. "What... what have you brought into this world?"As Nero swallowed the Void Heart, the rupture began to collapse inward. The Apostle, robbed of his mana anchor, began to dissolve into ash.
[Experience Gained: 500,000 (Slaying an Apostle - Rank Gap Bonus)][Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! ...]
[Kaito Yamada: Level 31 → 35]
[Nero: Level 1 → 15]
The shockwave of the collapsing rupture threw Kaito and Seraphina together. They tumbled across the sand, landing in a heap as the sky finally began to clear, returning to a pale, natural grey.Kaito lay there, gasping for air, his heart hammering. He felt a heavy weight settle on his chest. He opened his eyes to see Nero, the small drake, sitting on him, looking down with a curious, tilted head. It let out a soft, reptilian chirp and licked Kaito's cheek with a tongue that felt like cool silk."You... you're a handful," Kaito wheezed, patting the drake's scaled head."Kaito?"He looked to his side. Seraphina was propped up on her elbows, her hair a mess, her armor cracked. She was staring at Nero with absolute disbelief. Then, she looked at Kaito.
The fear she had felt for him, the adrenaline of the battle, and the relief of being alive swirled together.She didn't say a word. She leaned over and pulled him into a kiss—not a soft, tentative one, but a fierce, desperate embrace that tasted of salt and mana.Kaito froze for a second before his hands found her waist, pulling her closer.
In the middle of a desolated Grey Zone, with a newly hatched SSS-rank dragon sitting on his chest and a Celestial Fox watching with amusement, the "Instructor" and the "Student" finally vanished.Seraphina pulled back just an inch, her emerald eyes misty. "If you ever do something that reckless again... I'll kill you myself."Kaito smiled, his fingers tracing the line of her jaw. "Does that mean the training session is over?""No," she whispered, her forehead resting against his. "It means it just got a lot more complicated."
Kaito Level 35 (B-Rank Peak)
New Beast Nero (Void-Eater Drake) - Level 15
Luna Level 25 (Ready for Evolution)
Relationship Bond Confirmed (Seraphina & Kaito)
Nero's Skills (Level 15):Void Consumption: Passively eats incoming dark magic to restore Kaito's mana.
Shadow Phase: Can turn Kaito and itself intangible for 3 seconds.