Alden exhaled, watching the endless waves of monsters still pouring from the forest.

"Veytharion," he called, voice firm. "Come. There's work to be done."

The air behind him rippled like disturbed water.

A massive dragon‑snake hybrid stepped out from the spirit realm—its body long and sinuous like a serpent's, but covered in matte black scales that drank in the light. Six glowing eyes lined its angular head in two vertical rows, each eye a different shade of eerie blue. A pair of skeletal, half‑formed wings sprouted from its back, twitching restlessly.

Veytharion.

Even in their berserk state, many of the monsters froze when they saw it. Their bodies trembled, instincts screaming at them to flee… but the corrupted mana driving them mad forced them forward anyway.

They charged the spirit beast.

Veytharion turned its six eyes toward Alden, its expression strangely… pleading.

Alden sighed.

"Alright, alright," he said. "You can eat them."

The effect was immediate.

Veytharion lunged forward like a released arrow. Its jaws snapped shut around a cluster of ogres, swallowing them whole. It coiled and whipped its massive body through the battlefield, devouring trolls, goblins, and twisted beasts in huge gulps. Each monster that tried to attack it was simply consumed, their power absorbed as fuel.

It was like watching a living natural disaster feast.

Alden glanced toward Elaria, who was back on her feet and fighting.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?" he demanded.

"It's my mother's powers," Elaria answered, breathless. "They've gone out of control."

Saria, slashing through a vine and ducking under a troll's arm, added, "Yes. Our queen has multiple affinities—nature and water—and she's also a master beast tamer. When her power surges like this, the whole forest responds."

Alden grimaced. "Great."

He looked toward the distant core of the chaos—where explosions and shockwaves kept erupting.

"And I suppose Alex is trying to help her somehow," he said.

Elaria nodded.

"I knew it," Alden muttered.

Elaria clenched her fists.

"Valar!" she shouted. "Come out!"

A massive wyvern burst from a spirit portal above her—a sleek, winged creature with emerald scales and sharp amber eyes. It roared once, shaking off the remaining remnants of the spirit realm, then swooped down.

Elaria leapt and grabbed onto its saddle, pulling herself up in one smooth motion.

"What the hell are you trying to do?!" Alden shouted. "It's suicide to go there, you're not on their level!"

"I know!" Elaria yelled back. "But she's my mother! I have to do something—anything!"

Without waiting for a reply, she urged Valar upward.

The wyvern beat its wings powerfully, carrying her into the sky and toward the raging storm of mana where Alex and Aeliana were clashing.

As she flew, wind whipping her hair back, a voice suddenly echoed in her head.

{ Do you want to save your mother, child? }

Elaria stiffened, looking around. She saw nothing but sky, smoke, and distant flashes of power.

"Who are you?" she shouted into the wind.

The voice returned, calm and ancient.

{ Answer me first. Do you want to save your mother or not? }

Elaria's grip tightened on the reins.

"Yes!" she screamed. "I want to save her! I'll do anything to save her!"

{ Very well, } the voice said. { I will help you. But you must also do something for me. }

"What is it?!" Elaria asked.

{ Capture a witch, } the voice replied.

"A witch…?" Elaria repeated.

{ I will explain later, } the voice said. { For now, answer me. Will you do it? }

Elaria didn't even hesitate.

"Yes!"

A translucent message appeared before her eyes, written in glowing script.

[ The Goddess of Nature has offered you to be her Avatar.

Do you accept?

Yes / No ]

Elaria swallowed hard.

Then she reached out and pressed 'Yes'.

Light exploded around her.

A soothing, gentle radiance enveloped her body, sinking into her skin, her bones, her very soul. Her mana flared, changing—growing deeper, richer, more alive. Patterns of green‑gold light traced across her arms and chest, like branches and leaves etching themselves into her.

Something materialized in her hands—a new weapon, humming with divine power.

---

[A few moments earlier]

Inside the base.

[ Skill: Origin Collapse has been activated. ]

The world around Alex shifted.

Sound dulled, then sharpened again in unnatural clarity. Time seemed to slow, every movement stretching out. Even a drop of water falling from a cracked pipe echoed in his ears as if it were thunder.

His perception expanded outward.

He could see it all at once.

Outside, the elves battling the rampaging forest. Alden and Saria, Veytharion devouring monsters. Elaria firing arrows, then fleeing on Valar. Inside, cultists scrambling, corridors collapsing, mana formations overloading.

Every detail unfolded before him as though the entire battlefield was contained inside a single, vast glass sphere.

The system's voice broke through the overwhelming awareness.

[ Host, whatever you're going to do—do it fast. You know what this power does to you. You should be glad no one has noticed it yet. ]

"Yeah, yeah, I know…" Alex muttered.

He watched Aeliana's berserk form tearing through walls, her power shaking the entire base.

"But as you can see, I don't have much of a choice. Normally, I'm just grandmaster low‑rank. Even with my domain, I don't stand a chance against her."

He clenched his fist.

"She was already a peak transcendent… and now she's broken through to monarch rank."

Aeliana's eyes suddenly snapped toward him, crimson irises locking onto his position as if she felt his focus.

Her clothes hung in tatters from her transformation, torn open by scales and wings. Smooth skin and hardened ridges of draconic armor alternated across her body, lines of glowing mana pulsing beneath. Even in this monstrous form, her beauty was terrifying.

'Damn,' Alex thought despite himself. 'She's hot even like this.'

The system chimed in, annoyingly amused.

[ You really have a thing for older women, don't you. I'm starting to think that's the main reason you want to bring Selena back. ]

Alex's face flushed.

"You useless thing! How dare you say that?!" he snapped. "Don't you care about my emotions at all?"

He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.

"You really hurt my feelings there, you know…"

An arrow slammed into his head.

His body dropped like a stone, hitting the floor with a dull thud.

[ Serves you right, ] the system muttered.

A moment later, Alex pushed himself back up.

He reached up, gripped the arrow, and casually pulled it out of his skull. There was no blood. No wound. It was as if the arrow had never truly pierced anything real.

He met Aeliana's gaze again and stepped forward, adopting a fighting stance.

Aeliana, in her berserk draconic elf form, roared at him.

Her appearance was monstrous and majestic at once—long black horns twisting back from her head, platinum hair now streaked with midnight and whipping wildly around her. Crimson scales ran along her arms, shoulders, and the sides of her face, blending with pale elven skin. Black wings spread wide from her back, each flap sending shockwaves through the air. Her eyes blazed red, pupils slitted like a dragon's, overflowing with rage and pain.

A spirit portal swirled open beside her.

A massive lion stepped out—its fur made of golden flames, mane rippling like fire in slow motion. Its eyes burned bright blue as it growled at Alex, fangs bared.

Aeliana pointed at him, and the lion charged.

Alex moved as if he were air itself.

His body blurred, not with speed alone, but with a strange displacement—the world moving around him rather than the other way around. He weaved between the lion's flaming claws, each swipe ripping apart chunks of the base behind him instead.

He struck back with a barrage of punches and kicks, each blow landing with precision on the beast's weak points. The lion roared, trying to bite, to crush, to burn him—but every hit it landed passed through him as if he were half‑real, only grazing the fabric of his existence.

Aeliana dashed in with lightning speed, her fists and claws slamming into Alex's body with enough force to level buildings. Each blow that missed annihilated the surrounding structures—walls shattered, pillars exploded, entire sections of the base collapsed from the shockwaves.

But Alex's body remained unscathed.

Nothing left a mark.

With a single, focused strike, he drove his fist into the lion's chest, channeling the collapsed force of his warped reality.

The spirit beast shattered.

Its body cracked like glass, breaking into fragments of light that were sucked back into the spirit realm, the portal closing with a snap.

Aeliana roared in fury and punched Alex square in the chest.

Her attack didn't move him—but the shockwave from it ripped through almost half the base. Floors buckled, ceilings caved in, and distant rooms collapsed like sandcastles.

'If I were fighting normally, I'd be dead five times over by now,' Alex thought grimly.

He caught her hand as she pulled back for another strike.

"Alright," he said, gripping both her wrists to hold her in place. "Now… how do I turn you back to normal?"

Aeliana snarled and struggled, raw power pushing against the twisted reality around him.

High above, in the sky outside, another presence watched the scene like a hawk.

Marcus Reed.

He floated calmly, arms folded, eyes narrowed as he observed Alex and Aeliana through the torn roof, the chaos below reflected in his gaze.

"Looks like you've hit your limit, kid," Marcus murmured. "Everyone has one afterall."

----

A/N:

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