Adyr waited patiently for them to keep speaking, to say what their purpose was, but before he could hear more, the heads suddenly fell silent and began to fade, as if an unseen veil were drawing over his vision.

And when the heads and the gates all disappeared from his sight, his brows pulled together, and his mouth tightened. "Is it some kind of joke?"

He looked at the empty void and felt confused. It was like a kind of joke, the humor a god would have. They showed themselves to remind him they exist, gave needless hype and tension, then left without doing anything.

Adyr felt it was like a child under a white sheet trying to scare their parents, then retreating when the expected reaction never came.

He tried to understand what it was, what the whole scene implied, but then realized something even more frustrating.

"I can't remember their faces?"

For someone like Adyr, who never forgot a face once he saw it, recognizing this unnatural shift was irritating. He even considered saying "Primora" again to summon the two once more, but decided against it as the void began to tremble again, ready to collapse.

More importantly, there was another being he needed to face first.

His gaze finally fell on the massive serpent body of Sszhar. The Spark had been waiting there for a while, watching everything with curious eyes. It showed no fear and no agitation; it only watched with the curiosity of a child.

Taking advantage of the moment, Adyr opened his character panel to review all the changes numerically before deciding his next move.

[Name]: Adyr Hellcraft

[Race]: Nimbus Nephilim

[Path]: Primora

[Evolution Step]: 3

[Physique]: 1483 → 1783

[Will]: 400 → 700

[Resilience]: 605 → 905

[Sense]: 525 → 825

[Energy]: 4313 → 5513

For the first time in his evolution, or rather mutation, Adyr received a balanced power-up: every stat rose by 300, 1200 in total, a massive upgrade.

But the most eye-catching change was not his stats. It was his race.

"Nephilim?"

His shock had a clear cause, because he knew exactly what the term meant. In his old world, it was not extremely common, yet it was well known enough: a word given to the children of fallen angels and humans, in short, an angel-human hybrid race.

According to his knowledge, Nephilim should have been one of the giant lineages, unlike Adyr's current height, which, after his last evolution, stood around 1.80 m.

That detail brought another possibility to mind. The gates and the giant heads that had appeared at those gates.

"Were they Nephilim? Is that why they came to check on me, because they felt some familiarity?" He murmured the question.

Adyr did not have much visual information about the race, but when he thought it through, it made sense. What did not make sense was his race changing from Human to Nephilim. That question stayed sharp in his mind.

"Great, just another puzzle to be solved." A bitter smile touched his face, and he finally turned his focus back to Sszhar.

"What do we do now?" He looked at the unmoving serpent.

It seemed to have no intention of attacking after witnessing the recent scene, yet Adyr actually preferred it to attack. He was eager to test his new body against it.

He summoned the Tower of Worth in staff form, spun it twice to let it sit in his grip with proper balance, then beat his wings and drove himself toward the Serpent.

Sszhar did not stay idle. It hissed deeply, as if it had finally made up its mind, and its long body began to glide toward the being it still could not classify.

"Let's test my new innate ability," Adyr murmured with a hint of satisfaction now that the Serpent was engaging, and he raised his staff for the strike.

He was faster than before, his body far more balanced, as if he had finally learned to wield the only weapon he had ever truly possessed: himself. He closed the distance on his wings, devouring the void, and tightened his grip on the stone staff, his now-black nails biting into the haft.

His staff met the Serpent's sword-long fangs.

CLANG!

Stone and bone collided, the crash rolling through the void. Sszhar's body trembled from the impact, and even its long teeth showed a slight crack. It was small, yet enough to prove damage had been done.

As for Adyr… His body burst apart completely; he puffed into a gray cloud that scattered outward under the force of the blow.

Sszhar startled for a heartbeat. Its enemy seemed to have died so easily. It watched the black cloud drift and thin, ready to vanish, and judged that its prey had been weaker than expected.

Until a voice from the side made it hiss.

"Wow, what an impact. I can feel its force even from here." Adyr hovered in the void with black and white wings beating steadily, perfectly fine, as if he had been there from the start, merely watching.

Not understanding what had happened, Sszhar hissed again. This time, it chose to attack first. It rushed its prey, opening its maw wide like a corridor of living flesh, and drove its two fangs like weapons.

The next second, the same crashing note rang out. Adyr's stone staff and the bone fangs met once more, deepening the crack along the tooth, and Adyr's body again erupted into a gray cloud and vanished.

This time, Sszhar did not buy the illusion of death. It scanned the void, and sure enough, it found Adyr's smiling face, whole and unmarked.

"You look confused." Adyr chuckled, watching confusion and anger build in the Serpent's eyes.

A long hiss spread across the emptiness, a blood-colored tongue lashing, and Sszhar attacked again, adamant to learn what trick this strange man was using.

The outcome repeated. The Rank 4 Spark's fang-crack grew wider, and Adyr's body, after bursting into a gray cloud, re-materialized at another angle, waiting for the next strike.

The Spark was not mindless. It realized this would not work and changed its tactic.

While Adyr waited for the next charge, he felt the space around him shift. His sense of distance and breadth began to twist together.

"Oh, it is using its Rift Maw skill." His eyes lit with interest as he looked around, and in an instant, space dragged him out of the Legacy Domain and into a new pocket dimension before he could react.

When the new dimension solidified, he found himself inside a prison without walls, a place with nowhere to run.

Soon Sszhar entered as well, crossing by Riftwalk, the proud look of a hunter on its face with its prey cornered, and only one thing left: to swallow.

Its maw opened wide once again, and it rushed at the small body, only for the same scene to repeat, with Adyr's body bursting into a gray cloud and disappearing.

Only this time, when Sszhar looked around, it couldn't see where he had gone, as if he had really disappeared completely.

***

A/N: Sorry for the late chapters. I needed to do some research and reread some previous information about the story to make the plot tighter, so I took my time writing the chapters. Thanks for your patience and support.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.