The High Priest's triumphant cry was the sound of a death knell for the world. The obsidian dagger plunged downwards, a streak of black lightning aimed directly at Seraphina's heart. In the same instant, the crack in reality above the altar tore open with a sound like ripping canvas, a violent, guttural tearing of the world's skin. It was no longer a simple rift; it was a wound, a gaping, circular maw of pure, starless black that began to vomit a palpable wave of cold and dread into the cavern.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

With a final, desperate surge of strength, Seraphina snapped the last of her shadowy bonds. She didn't have time to dodge. Instead, she threw her body to the side, a violent, rolling motion. The dagger missed her heart by a fraction of an inch, sinking deep into the fleshy altar beside her with a sickening squelch. The High Priest roared in frustration, trying to wrench the blade free.

It was the only opening Edward needed.

He abandoned his fight with the cultists, leaving his back exposed. He poured every ounce of his strength and speed into a single, desperate charge, his body a black-clad blur crossing the last twenty feet to the altar. He moved with a speed that was not human, his feet barely seeming to touch the stone floor.

He reached the altar just as the High Priest tore his dagger free, preparing for a second strike. Edward didn't aim for the priest. He ignored him completely. His focus was on the gaping wound in the sky.

From the blackness of the rift, something was beginning to emerge. It wasn't a monster of flesh and bone. It was a being of pure, divine energy and ravenous hunger, a colossal, vaguely humanoid shape made of solidified shadows and flickering lines of what looked like golden code. It had no face, only a swirling vortex of energy where its head should be. This was not a mere dungeon beast. This was a direct extension of the Oblivion Core, a lesser avatar, a small piece of the system's god made manifest in the physical world. Its very presence felt like a weight on his soul, a crushing pressure that threatened to extinguish his own will.

Edward knew, with a certainty that chilled him to the marrow, that they could not fight it. Its power was on a completely different scale. Even if he and Seraphina managed to kill every cultist in the room, they would be nothing more than insects before this entity. They could not fight it. They could not outrun it. They could not reason with it.

He looked at Seraphina, who had scrambled to her feet, her rapier now in hand, her face pale but resolute as she stared up at the emerging god-thing. He saw Fenris and Selene, being pushed back by the sheer force of the avatar's aura, their desperate fight against the cultists faltering. He saw the High Priest, his arms raised in ecstatic worship. He saw the end.

And in that moment of absolute despair, a wild, insane, utterly reckless choice sparked in his mind. It was not a strategy. It was a final, defiant act of a cornered animal. If he was going to die, he would die on his own terms. He would not be erased by this thing. He would meet it head-on.

"Seraphina!" he yelled, his voice raw. "The priest! Stop the ritual! I'll deal with this!"

"Deal with it?" she shouted back, her voice barely audible over the roaring of the rift. "Edward, that's not a monster, it's—"

She didn't get to finish. Edward was already moving. He leaped onto the fleshy altar, his boots sinking into its strange, yielding surface. He used it as a launchpad, springing upwards, directly towards the colossal, half-formed avatar that was still emerging from the rift.

He was a speck of dust flying towards a hurricane.

The avatar's faceless head tilted, its attention focusing on the tiny mortal charging it. A wave of pure, divine pressure slammed into Edward, an invisible fist designed to crush his soul into powder. It was the system's ultimate authority, a command to cease existing. Any other hunter, even an S-Ranker, would have had their consciousness snuffed out instantly.

But Edward's soul was different. It was corrupted, scarred, and chained to the Core's power. He was not just a hunter; he was part of the system, a broken, rogue piece of the machine. The divine pressure hit him, and while it felt like his every bone and sinew was being ground into paste, his soul did not break. It bent, it screamed, but it held.

He reached the avatar. He was so close he could see the swirling, chaotic data within its shadowy form. He raised his right hand, not to strike, but with his palm open. And then, he did the unthinkable.

He activated Soul Assimilation.

He reached out and touched his god.

The effect was instantaneous and apocalyptic. It was not like devouring the soul of a beast or a man. This was not a stream; it was an ocean. He was trying to drink a tsunami. The raw, unfiltered, chaotic power of the Oblivion Core's avatar flooded into him. It was a torrent of pure data, alien thoughts, and a hunger so vast and so ancient it made his own predatory instincts feel like a child's tantrum.

His body, his very soul, became a conduit for this divine energy. His vision dissolved into a screaming kaleidoscope of golden light and black static. He felt his own consciousness being shredded, washed away by a billion voices all screaming of order, of entropy, of hunger.

He could feel his physical body beginning to disintegrate. The power was too much. It was like trying to channel a star through a wire of flesh and blood. His skin began to glow, cracks of golden light appearing all over his body as the divine energy threatened to tear him apart from the inside out.

The avatar itself let out a silent, psychic scream of rage and surprise. It had never encountered a being that could do this. It was a predator that had just been bitten by its prey. It tried to pull back, to sever the connection, but Edward's will, forged in a hundred impossible fights, held on with the tenacity of a dying wolf.

Below him, the battle in the cavern had come to a dead stop. Cultist, Unchained, and princess alike stared in stunned, horrified silence at the spectacle in the air. They were watching a mortal man trying to eat a god, and the sheer, blasphemous insanity of it was breaking their minds. The High Priest, his face a mask of disbelief and horror, could only stammer, "No… that's not possible… that power is not for you to take…"

Edward's world was now nothing but pain and noise. The voices of the Core were screaming in his mind, trying to overwrite his personality, trying to turn him into a mindless puppet. He could feel his memories being stripped away—his childhood, his time at the academy, the faces of his friends. He was dissolving.

A terrifying notification, glowing with a fatal, blood-red light, filled what was left of his vision. It was the system's own diagnostic, a final, cold report on his impending demise.

[Warning! Direct assimilation of a Divine-Grade entity initiated.]

[Host soul integrity is insufficient.]

[System Override: Active. Soul structure destabilizing.]

[Soul Integrity at 5%...]

He was losing. The Core was too strong. His will, his anchor, was about to shatter.

[Soul Integrity at 4%...]

He thought of Sarah's smile. The memory, the one he had refused to sell, was the last piece of himself that remained, a tiny, warm ember in a storm of cosmic ice.

[Soul Integrity at 3%...]

He clung to that ember with everything he had left. It was not enough. He was going to fail. He was going to be erased.

The High Priest, recovering from his shock, saw his opportunity. He let out a fanatic's scream and charged Seraphina, his obsidian dagger raised. "The ritual must be completed! The heretic will fail, and the Master will be pleased!"

Seraphina met his charge, her rapier a blur of silver as she engaged the priest in a desperate duel at the foot of the altar. But Edward couldn't see them. He couldn't see anything. He was adrift in a sea of oblivion, his last spark of self about to be extinguished forever.

The system's final, cold judgment flashed before his fading consciousness.

[Soul Integrity at 2%... Assimilation failure imminent. Commencing soul-disintegration protocol...]

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