The Threshold
Dawn arrived without birdsong.
No wind.
Only the thick murmur of a forest that, after centuries of resistance, seemed to hold its breath.
Rob stood before the squad. Behind them, the makeshift camp they had set up during the night began to be dismantled. Not out of haste, but out of conviction: there would be no turning back.
Lucía, still weak from the previous day's mental confrontation, adjusted her communicator without a word. Nando sharpened his spines with slow, methodical movements. Camila prayed softly. Thiago… simply stared into nothingness, as if waiting to see something move within it.
And then, the System spoke:
[Proximity: 1.4 km][The Threshold – Confirmed – Psychic State: Hyperactive][Distortion Level: Unstable / High risk of identity loss]
Rob clenched his fist.
"It's time."
The approach was silent.
The jungle seemed to fade as they neared the marked location. The green melted away. The textures turned flat. Everything began to feel… imagined.
And then, after crossing a curtain of translucent mist, they saw it.
The Threshold.
It wasn't a structure. It was a crater of living energy. A floating void held by black roots and columns that didn't touch the ground. Inside, like a floating heart, pulsed a dull red core: the last bastion of the slaver mosquito.
"This… this couldn't have been built," whispered Camila.
"Because it wasn't," Rob replied. "It was dreamed. Fed by enslaved minds. And now… it exists."
Before they could descend, Thiago raised his hand.
"Movement. Southern perimeter. Not natural."
At that moment, a buzz cut through the air. Not like wings—but like a mental echo. A message projected directly into their subconscious.
"Welcome to the end. I don't want you to die. I want you to choose. I want you to understand."
Lucía clutched her ear in pain. Camila countered with a wave of light to seal the intrusion.
"He's already testing us!"
Nando raised his spines, aiming toward the base of the Threshold.
"South! Mutated slaves incoming!"
And then they saw them.
A horde of more than forty altered bodies moved as if they shared a single mind. All were—or had been—human. They had parts fused with black roots, antennae under their skin, and faces smiling without emotion.
Rob took command instantly.
"Nando and Thiago, hold the left flank. Lucía, with me in the center. Camila: maintain the clarity field. No one breaks."
He activated his sword.
"This is our last shadow. And we're going to pierce through it."
The battle was brutal.
The slaves didn't feel pain. They attacked in groups, surrounding the squad as if they were a single body. Nando became a spinning wall of thorns, cutting without killing. Thiago unleashed waves of energy to unbalance the enemies. Camila held a dome of light that kept the group's sanity intact… though it was starting to flicker.
"They're not going to stop!" shouted Lucía. "They're not soldiers… they're parasites in human form!"
"Then we free them," said Rob, and unleashed a gravitational wave that cracked the ground beneath their feet.
When they finally scattered the horde, they were still standing… but exhausted.
And that's when it happened.
Lucía turned, sweating, breathing heavily. Her eyes searched for Camila… but something was wrong.
Camila was bleeding from her nose. Her light trembled. Her gaze… was empty.
"Camila…" Lucía murmured.
Rob noticed it too. He stepped toward her.
"Camila. What do you see?"
She looked up.
"The cycle… has already begun, Rob."
And she attacked.
The Face of Betrayal
"Camila!" shouted Lucía, stepping back.
But the woman didn't respond.
There was no rage in her eyes, no pain, no will. Only a dark, dim glow… as if a foreign flame had ignited within her soul.
Camila raised both hands. Her inner light, once warm and purifying, turned cold, like a flashlight that only illuminated what the mosquito wanted seen.
"You're not yourself…" said Rob, quietly but firmly. "Since when?"
She tilted her head. Her voice wasn't entirely her own.
"Since you saw the altar. Since you believed you could decide the fate of everyone… just because you remember."
Rob didn't move.
"I'm not going to fight you."
"You don't have a choice."
And she launched the first attack.
The explosion was psychic. A wave of inverted light tore through the terrain, forcing the squad to scatter. Thiago was thrown against a rock. Nando shielded Lucía with his body, forming a cocoon of thorns.
Rob remained standing, face-to-face with Camila.
"I won't kill you," he repeated.
She responded with another blast. Rob deflected it with a dark barrier.
"Camila… listen. You're trapped. You're not corrupted. You're infected."
For a moment, her eyes trembled.
"I… didn't mean to…"
But then, the mosquito's voice emerged from her mouth, smooth as poison in warm milk:
"Don't fight, Rob. It's not her. It's no one's fault. She was just useful. Like you."
Rob stepped closer.
"No. Not like me. Because I chose. And now, I'll choose for her."
He activated his mark.
Darkness surged from his right arm like a sentient serpent. It wasn't an offensive technique. It was an exorcism of psychic energy. A breaking seal.
"Lucía, mental anchor!" he shouted.
Lucía, from the rear, cast her ability across the field. A wave of stabilization swept the area, allowing Rob to channel his energy without distortion.
Camila fell to her knees.
She screamed.
Not from physical pain, but from the horror of seeing again.
Her eyes lost the dark glow.
"Rob…"
He caught her before she collapsed completely.
"I'm here."
Camila wept. But she smiled, just slightly.
"Sorry… for doubting… for failing you…"
"You didn't fail. He did."
In the silence that followed, the squad regrouped.
Nando helped Thiago to his feet. Lucía knelt beside Camila and sealed her mental wounds with her ability.
"She's going to live," she said, breathing deeply. "But she can't continue."
Rob nodded.
"I know."
Camila was placed in a portable isolation capsule, designed for critical situations. The system would keep her in suspended animation until the mosquito's mental hive was destroyed.
Before it sealed completely, she looked at Rob with renewed clarity.
"Take it to the end. For me… for all of us."
Rob nodded.
"I swear it."
When they stood again, they were no longer five.
But the four who remained… burned with a determination greater than fear.
The Threshold pulsed before them.
The heart of the mosquito.
The final frontier.
And Rob, with a hardened gaze, whispered to himself:
"It no longer matters what you were… Only what you chose to be.
And I choose… to end this."
The Heart of the Threshold
The entrance to the Threshold didn't open.
It yielded.
When Rob took the first step, matter itself seemed to retract, as if the world acknowledged something had changed. It wasn't fear. It was respect. Or something close to it.
Lucía, Thiago, and Nando followed in silence.
Behind them, Camila's capsule hovered in suspension, invisible to the enemy's eye, guarded by the mobile base's automated systems. But everyone knew her true shield now rested in Rob's hands.
The Threshold was an unnatural structure, a space born from the distorted thoughts of thousands of enslaved minds. Hallways floated with no visible connection. The floor was covered in psychic liquid, as if frozen thoughts had pooled into murmuring puddles.
The walls… whispered names.
"Listen," said Lucía through gritted teeth. "They're saying the names of those who fell. Everyone it absorbed."
Nando raised his spikes.
"If we listen too long, we're lost."
Thiago stopped.
"There's another presence… it's not the mosquito. It's… like Rob. But broken."
Rob turned toward him.
"Where?"
Thiago closed his eyes, activating his ability at maximum sensitivity.
"There," he pointed to a bifurcation on the left, where the corridor looked darker, older, more real.
"Let's go."
What they found wasn't a creature. Or a machine. Or a monster.
It was a man.
Standing, with broken armor and a shattered sword. His eyes were closed. His body seemed frozen in pause. But as they approached, Rob felt it.
He recognized himself in him.
"No way…"
Lucía frowned.
"You know him?"
Rob took another step forward.
"I don't remember… but I know him."
The man opened his eyes.
And spoke with a voice so much like Rob's that the air itself seemed to collapse.
"You took your time, Rob."
"Who are you?"
"I'm… what you were before. In another cycle. In another attempt to save the world. And I failed."
Rob felt an invisible fist strike his chest.
"There's no record of you in the system."
"Because the system erased me. Because I broke its rules. Because I tried to rewrite the judgment… without destroying the executor."
Nando raised his weapon.
"Are you with the mosquito?"
"No," the man replied. "But I can't help you either. He locked me here. So you wouldn't see me until the end."
Thiago stepped forward.
"Do you have a name?"
The man looked at him.
"I had many. But the one I hated the most… was 'Devastator of Hope.'"
Silence.
Rob moved closer until he stood face to face with him.
"Then why did he leave you here?"
"Because he can't kill me. I'm like you. A mirror. A possible self. An echo of what you might become… if you choose wrong."
Rob took a deep breath.
"Then tell me… how did you fail?"
The man looked at him, without hatred. Without guilt.
"I chose to forgive what I should have destroyed. I had compassion… for the mosquito. I thought it could be redeemed. That it was just an executor. But no. It made its choice."
Rob clenched his fists.
"Then I won't make your mistake."
The Devastator smiled.
"Then maybe… the cycle ends with you."
Suddenly, the walls vibrated.
The Threshold roared.
And the mosquito's voice echoed, multiplied, deep, and mocking:
"You've seen it now, Rob. The reflection of your compassion. The testimony of your fears. Will you be different… or just more efficient?"
Rob drew his sword, now darker than ever, its edges pulsing with pure energy.
"I will be just."
He walked toward the core without hesitation.
"And you… will cease to exist."
The Final Judgment
The core of the Threshold was a crimson void suspended between floating columns. There, like a god without a throne, the enslaving mosquito awaited. It no longer floated. It walked. Its body had taken a winged humanoid form, with a crown of living energy and eyes like wet embers.
Around it, thousands of memory orbs floated like planets: fallen cities, crying children, humans turned into smiling slaves.
"You've arrived, Rob. Where you were always destined to fall."
Rob descended the floating steps connecting to the center. He said nothing. His sword vibrated on his back. Each step echoed like a hammer striking the scales of justice.
"Do you feel strong?" the mosquito taunted. "Righteous? Impartial? A redeemer?"
Rob raised his gaze. His eyes burned like coal.
"No. I feel ready."
And he unsheathed his sword.
The first clash was brutal.
The mosquito moved at impossible speed, like a living buzz that tore the air apart. Its first strike shattered Rob's defenses, hurling him against one of the floating columns. His back hit it with a crunch.
"Rob!" Lucía shouted from the upper platform.
Nando and Thiago couldn't get close: the mental energy barrier surrounding the arena was absolute.
The mosquito appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye.
"You can't defeat me. Because you can't understand me."
It drove a claw into Rob's side.
Rob screamed.
"You're hatred! There's nothing to understand!"
"No. I am order. You are chaos disguised as virtue."
It threw him again. This time against the psychic floor, which shattered like glass.
Rob was bleeding. Breathing heavily. The mosquito's voice echoed in his mind:
"You will fail. Like the one before you. Like all of them."
But then… Rob smiled.
"Maybe…"
And activated his ability:World Devourer.
The shadows engulfed him. But they weren't destructive darkness. They were balanced strength. Rob allowed the darkness to absorb the energy around him — every blow from the mosquito, every venomous word.
The next attack was intercepted.
Rob didn't just block it. He consumed it.
The mosquito's claw disintegrated on contact with his sword. A dark rune glowed on the blade.
"What have you done…?" the mosquito growled.
"I've learned.From every victim.From every memory you stole.From every mistake I made in my past life."
And he struck back.
What followed was an escalation of power never seen before.
The mosquito summoned a storm of illusions: thousands of bodies crawling toward Rob, begging for mercy. Rob pierced through them like an arrow of judgment. Each strike was clean, final. No hatred. No cruelty.
Only justice.
The creature tried to entangle him in mental webs. Rob absorbed them.
It tried to shatter his soul. Rob condensed it.
It attacked him with the image of his family dying. Rob used that vision to anchor his resolve.
Each time the mosquito released energy, Rob turned it into power.
His sword, now bathed in living darkness, changed shape. It became thinner, deadlier, more precise. Its edge vibrated as if it had a heartbeat.
Rob leapt into the air and struck with an impossible sequence: ten slashes in one second. The mosquito screamed, retreating, part of its chest torn open, its psychic crown fractured.
"You can't be human!" it screeched.
"No.I'm human… who chose to stop being afraid."
And he pierced it through.
The mosquito tried to escape, to dissolve, to split into thousands of fragments.
Rob closed his eyes, turned his sword… and said:
"This time, you won't come back."
He unleashed his energy.
A devouring wave surrounded everything.
And the mosquito was split in two.First its body.Then its soul.And finally, its echo.
No dust remained. No trace.Only silence.And one final message from the System:
[Class S Enemy – Eliminated][CYCLE: INTERRUPTED][ROLE: REDEFINED][SURVIVOR: ROB – Guardian of Free Will]
Rob fell to his knees.
Not from weakness.
But because the weight he had carried from the beginning… had finally been released.
Lucía, Thiago, and Nando crossed the collapsing barrier. They helped him stand.
And with a broken yet steady voice, he murmured:
"It's over."
But deep inside, he knew it was only true…if the world chose to stay free.
As they left the Threshold behind, leaving the corpse of the cycle in its wake, Rob thought only of one thing:
Going home.
The Rebirth of Silence
The Threshold was unraveling.
Not like a collapsing structure… but like a dream finally waking up. The floating columns dissolved into golden particles. The psychic sky disintegrated like smoke dispersed by wind. The core that once housed the mosquito no longer pulsed.
Only peace remained.Not the peace of victory—but the peace of liberation.
Rob stood surrounded by his squad. His clothes were torn, his body covered in dry blood and mental ash. But his eyes… still burned.Not with fury—but with purpose.
And then, the System —silent since the start of the battle— spoke again.
First, a single sound:[PING]
Then, a solemn sequence, like cosmic bells tolling:
[Main Mission: Hunt the Mosquito of Silence – COMPLETED][Class S Threat – Neutralized][Planetary Memory: Unlocked][Cycle's Fate: Interrupted by Conscious Choice][Reward: Title Evolution – Guardian of Free Will][NEW WORLD STATE: NO CYCLE]
The silence that followed was absolute.Not even the trees of the jungle dared whisper.
Lucía dropped to her knees, sobbing.Not from sadness—but from relief.
Thiago placed a hand on Nando's shoulder.
And Rob… Rob allowed himself to breathe,as if it were the first time.
Minutes passed. The mist vanished.At last, the sky revealed a true sunrise.
Camila was awakened from her capsule. As her eyes opened, the first thing she asked was:
"Is it gone?"
Rob nodded.
She closed her eyes again.But this time, to sleep… not in defense,but in peace.
Hours later, far from the Threshold, Rob recorded a message to be sent to all bastions, floating cities, hidden shelters, and Survival System terminals.
He did it with no armor, no suit—wearing only the worn clothes of a warrior who had survived something greater than war.
His face was human.But his voice… was a flame.
"Rob here.The threat is over. The enemy has fallen.But the cycle… doesn't disappear just because we won."
He paused.
"The cycle is rewritten every day.With every act of justice.With every brave decision.With every time we choose not to become what we hate."
He closed his eyes.
"I chose the hard path. The one where I didn't give up.The one where I judged with balance.The one where I didn't forgive those who used their power to oppress."
He lifted his gaze.
"That path… is still open to all of you."
Another pause.
"We still have to rebuild. To heal. To live."
He whispered:
"We still have to… become human again."
As the message traveled the world, reaching hearts and minds still broken,Rob stood atop a hill facing the jungle,where the Threshold once stood.
There, he buried the remnants of his sword —now shattered—because justice no longer needed a weapon to live in his heart.
And then, the System whispered one final phrase:
[Thank you for choosing]
Rob smiled.
And for the first time since it all began…he felt no guilt when looking at the sky.
[END OF CHAPTER 25]