The rift tore wider.

Glass rained down in glittering sheets as the skyline bent, skyscrapers leaning at angles no engineer had ever dreamed of. The wound in the sky pulsed like a heartbeat, shadows sliding along its edges. Something vast pressed against it from the other side.

Hunters arriving from the western quadrant skidded to a halt at the sight. A dozen A-ranks, three S-ranks. Their armor was scorched, their blades bloodied, but they rallied as Selindra's voice snapped across comms.

"Form perimeter! West and north evacuation grids, reinforce sector corridors!"

They obeyed instantly, relief plain on their faces at the sight of her. At the sight of Varik.

And then their eyes landed on Lucen.

The mantle still burned from his shoulders, wings of black fire curling outward like blades of night. His veins pulsed with light not human, his grin sharp as a knife. Dozens of crushed abyssal corpses lay scattered around him, twitching under the invisible weight he'd unleashed.

Hunters froze. The A-ranks whispered hoarse.

"What the hell is that?"

"Is he… suppressing them?"

"No, that feels like it's suppressing me—"

One S-rank lifted her blade uncertainly, jaw tight. "Selindra. Report. Who is that?"

Selindra didn't answer. Her jaw was clenched, emerald eyes fixed on Lucen like she was staring at a bomb mid-tick.

Varik finally spoke, voice steady, blade resting loose at his side. "He's one of ours. Keep moving."

The S-rank's throat bobbed. She didn't argue. She moved.

—

The rift convulsed again.

This time it wasn't fodder. The wound spat fire and shadow, and out of it dragged a creature three stories tall, humanoid in shape, plated in jagged abyssal crystal, its head crowned with burning horns. Its arms ended in blades rather than hands, and along its spine flickered rows of pale white eyes that blinked in mismatched rhythm.

[Entity Detected: Abyssal Praetor.]

[Classification: Elite Commander-Class.]

[Estimated Level: ???]

The system's text blurred, unable to pin a number.

Lucen whistled low. "Ugly bastard."

The Praetor stepped forward, every movement grinding concrete into dust. Its blade-arms hummed, charged with raw abyss fire.

The mantle at Lucen's shoulders pulsed hungry, fire flaring wider.

He tilted his head. "You want me to feed you that one, huh?"

Selindra's voice cut sharp. "Don't."

Lucen glanced at her, grin still wide. "Don't what?"

"Don't touch it with that thing." Her staff burned brighter, emerald sigils spinning into the air. "If you let it feed again, we won't be able to pull you back."

He smirked. "Relax. I'm house-trained, remember?"

But he didn't lower his hand.

Varik moved first. His blade unsheathed in silence, the air bending under the weight of his aura. The ground cracked under his first step, then shattered on the second. By the third, he was already on the Praetor.

The commander swung down both blade-arms with force enough to collapse the street. Varik's strike met it. No sparks, no clash, just a cut. The arms fell clean, severed at the elbow, erased by iron that had no equal.

The Praetor shrieked, stumbling.

Hunters nearby gaped, knees buckling. The S-rank woman whispered hoarse, "That's… Varik…"

Selindra's voice rang out next, clear and commanding. "Barriers, hold north! Evac grid, now! I'll contain south!"

She swept her staff down. A ring of emerald sigils burst from the ground, walls of force snapping up around half the square. The weight of her control clamped reality itself into neat lines, cutting off the Praetor's swing before it even finished.

Lucen whistled low, watching the two of them carve reality clean. 'Yeah,' he thought. 'Still monsters. My mantle's loud, but they're… something else.'

The Praetor staggered, trying to right itself despite severed arms. Abyssal fire pooled from its wounds, igniting its shattered limbs into makeshift whips.

Lucen's smirk sharpened. "Alright, fine. I'll play backup."

He flicked his fingers. [Shockweave Bolt.]

Blue-white arcs cracked into the Praetor's side, searing crystal and staggering its footing just long enough for Varik's second strike to sever one leg clean.

[Entity Damaged. EXP +4,500.]

Lucen's grin widened. 'Oh, yeah. Still worth it.'

The mantle pulsed again, heavier this time. His veins screamed, blood dripping down his chin.

'You're hungry, huh?' he thought. 'Alright. One bite.'

He spread his hands. The mantle roared.

[Skill Use: Tyrant's Mantle.]

[Mode: Apex Press.]

The air collapsed. The Praetor buckled instantly, pinned as if the weight of a mountain had dropped on its back. The concrete beneath it shattered, collapsing into a crater. Its screams turned high-pitched, distorted.

Hunters nearby staggered, gasping for breath. Even the S-rank woman dropped to her knees, crushed by the aura.

Selindra snapped, voice furious. "Lucen!"

He didn't look at her. His grin had gone sharp, manic, blood dripping from his lips. "Relax. I'm helping."

Varik's blade flashed one last time. The Praetor's head fell clean, its body shattering into black shards before bursting in a wash of abyss fire.

[Entity Defeated.]

[EXP +15,000]

[Level Up!]

[Level: 48]

[Progress: 12%]

The mantle shivered, flaring higher, wings of fire curling like claws.

Lucen staggered, clutching his chest. His heart thundered in his ears. His grin didn't fade.

'More. Just a little more.'

Hunters stared at him now, not the rift. Not Varik. Not Selindra. Him.

The S-rank woman's voice cracked in a whisper. "…He's not human."

Varik's gaze cut to Lucen, flat, unreadable.

Selindra's jaw clenched, staff sparking in her grip.

And the rift roared again.

This time, the shadow moving behind it was bigger.

The rift howled.

Not just noise, pressure. The air quaked, windows exploded outward in a storm of glass, and hunters across the square staggered like puppets with their strings cut.

Lucen tilted his head back, blood still slick at the corner of his lips. His grin widened as he stared into the rupture. "…Now that's a scream."

From the wound, something vast pushed. Not claws, not talons. Hands. Human-shaped, but far too long, fingers like black spears. They hooked into the edges of the tear, peeling reality wider with the groan of bending steel.

The skyline bent. Skyscrapers cracked down their middles as the sky itself seemed to split.

Hunters screamed. Civilians being pulled down evacuation corridors turned and froze, watching something bigger than their nightmares crawl out of the rift.

Selindra barked into her comm, voice snapping like a whip. "All units, fall back perimeter one block! Civilian grids accelerate! Move!"

Her barriers flared, domes of emerald snapping into place as shrapnel rained down like a storm.

Varik didn't move. His blade remained low, iron gleaming under the shadow of a god.

Lucen's system flickered.

[Entity Detected: Abyssal Avatar.]

[Classification: Catastrophe-Class.]

[Estimated Level: 200+]

The numbers didn't stop rolling. His interface glitched, letters trembling like static before stabilizing.

Lucen whistled low. "Oh, that's not good."

The Avatar pulled free.

It was shaped like a man, but built wrong, towering thirty stories tall, skin plated in abyssal crystal that glowed from within. Its eyes were pits of white flame, its mouth stitched with bands of shadow until it split open in a scream that rattled the bones of every hunter in the district.

The sound alone leveled buildings.

Selindra's staff blazed, runes flaring like stars. "All forces, contain perimeter! Do not engage without orders!"

But Lucen was already laughing. His mantle flared, wings of fire stretching wider, casting shadows that seemed to reach the Avatar's knees.

"Don't engage? Selindra, come on. When am I ever going to get a better chance than this?"

Her voice cracked sharp, almost panicked. "Lucen!"

Varik's aura spiked. Not showy, heavy. Like gravity itself had chosen a side. He looked up at the Avatar, then at Lucen.

"Control yourself."

Lucen's grin cut wide, blood dripping down his chin. "Can't promise that."

The Avatar raised one arm. Its blade-shaped fingers gleamed with abyss fire. It swung.

The air collapsed. Streets folded inward like paper. The blow didn't land, Selindra's barrier did. Her runes screamed, her staff cracking under strain, the wall of emerald force shattering into a thousand shards. But it held long enough for Varik to move.

One step.

His blade rose.

Steel met abyss.

The impact shook the city. The Avatar's swing stopped dead, arrested in the air by a single cut that bled nothing but silence.

Hunters fell to their knees from the pressure. A-ranks vomited blood. The S-ranks held, barely.

Lucen only laughed harder.

His mantle pulsed, hungry. His system flickered warnings across his vision.

[Corruption Load: 72%]

[Stability Critical.]

[Recommendation: Disengage.]

Lucen spat blood into his palm and grinned at it. "…Yeah, no. Not yet."

He spread his arms wide.

[Skill Use: Abyssflare Lance.]

A spear of annihilation coalesced, black fire wound with violet arcs. The ground beneath his feet cracked open, concrete bending inward as if recoiling from what he'd called.

Hunters screamed at the sight of it. Even the S-rank woman from before stumbled back, voice hoarse. "That's, impossible—"

Selindra's eyes went wide, face pale. "Lucen, stop—!"

But the lance was already born.

Lucen hurled it skyward.

The spear tore the clouds apart as it screamed upward, slamming into the Avatar's shoulder with force that split the sound barrier three times over. The explosion bloomed black and violet, ripping an entire skyscraper in half as the Avatar staggered, roaring in pain for the first time.

[Entity Damaged. EXP +25,000.]

Lucen swayed on his feet, blood dripping freely from his nose. His grin didn't falter. "…Yeah. That's the good stuff."

The Avatar screamed again, louder, abyss fire boiling along its wounds.

Selindra was already moving, runes wrapping the Avatar's legs in glowing chains, slowing its next strike by fractions of a second.

Varik leapt, one slash carving a canyon through the Avatar's plated chest.

Lucen staggered, laughter curling in his throat even as his vision blurred.

'Yeah. They're stronger. Cleaner. But me? I'm louder.'

The mantle flared again, brighter, wider, hungry.

Hunters across the square weren't staring at the Avatar anymore.

They were staring at him.

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