[Warning! Structure limit exceeded.]
"Deploy."
Fourteen massive runes materialized in the darkness, spinning around Alvian. He didn’t use them as a shield this time. He cast them downward, arranging them into a horizontal platform beneath Valeria and himself.
"Impact brace."
They hit the runes.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The runes detonated one by one upon contact, not with explosive force, but with a repulsive kinetic blast. Alvian had inverted the [Reactive Force]. Instead of reflecting damage, the runes acted as high-powered air brakes, blasting them upward against the pull of gravity.
The deceleration was brutal. It felt like being hit by a truck, but it was better than being splattered on the bedrock.
They slowed from a lethal drop to a hard landing.
"THUD."
Alvian landed in a crouch, his [Vestments of the Void Monarch] absorbing the shock. His boots crunched on metal grating, not stone.
Valeria landed a few meters away, rolling heavily. Her heavy plate armor scraped against the floor, throwing sparks into the gloom. She groaned, trying to push herself up, but collapsed, her Titan form receding completely.
"Stay down," Alvian ordered, his voice echoing in the vast, cavernous space. "We have a welcoming committee."
He stood up, the [Lance of the Void Winter] materializing in his hand. The violet frost radiating from the blade provided the only light in the immediate vicinity.
They were in a massive industrial sector. But this wasn’t the clean, ancient dwarven architecture of the Sunken City. This was twisted. Pipes dripped green sludge. Cables pulsed like veins along the walls. The air smelled of formaldehyde, rot, and ozone.
This was the Blind Spot. The place that didn’t exist on any map.
From the shadows, red eyes opened. Dozens of them.
"Fresh meat..." a voice hissed. It sounded wet, as if the speaker’s throat was full of fluid.
Creatures emerged from the gloom. They were humanoid, but only barely. Their skin was translucent, revealing muscles that had been stapled together. Metal plates were bolted directly into their skulls. Some had blades where their hands should be; others had alchemical tanks grafted onto their backs.
[Monster Identified: Failed Subject - Scavenger Type]
[Level: 35]
[Status: Aggressive / Ravenous]
There were twenty of them. Rejects from the Syndicate’s experiments. Hungry ghosts haunting the basement.
"They smell the blood," Valeria gasped, forcing herself to her knees. She drew her claymore, though her arm trembled. "Alvian... I’m at 10% mana."
"Save it," Alvian said, stepping in front of her. "You are the shield. Shields don’t need to attack when the spear is this sharp."
The Scavengers shrieked and charged. They moved with a jerky, unnatural speed, climbing over pipes and dropping from the ceiling.
Alvian didn’t move. He didn’t need to dodge.
[Passive: Solar Cycle - Mana Regeneration Active.]
[Current MP: 45,000 / 45,000]
"Let’s test the sustain."
Alvian spun the lance.
"[Glacial Void Pierce]: Sweeping Beam."
He didn’t thrust. He swung the lance in a wide horizontal arc. As he did, he unleashed a continuous stream of void energy from the tip.
"VWOOOM!"
A crescent of black ice and violet light carved through the darkness.
The first wave of five Scavengers didn’t even have time to scream. The beam passed through them.
[-12,500! Void Crit!]
[-12,500!]
Their bodies simply ceased to function. The void energy ate their kinetic momentum, freezing them mid-air before they shattered into frozen gore.
[Mana Absorbed: +600]
The remaining Scavengers hesitated. Their primitive brains registered a threat greater than hunger.
"Don’t stop," Alvian taunted, walking toward them. The black coat of his armor drifted behind him like a shadow. "Come and eat."
A Scavenger with hydraulic claws lunged from the ceiling.
Alvian tilted his head.
"[Shadow Step]."
He vanished, reappearing instantly on the creature’s back mid-air. He drove the lance through its spine, riding the corpse down to the ground.
"CRUNCH."
He landed, ripping the spear free.
"Inefficient," Alvian muttered. "Too much movement."
He looked at the remaining horde. He raised his free hand.
"[Frost Descent +2]."
He channeled the spell, not into a storm, but into the floor grating.
"Spread."
The metal floor flash-froze. Ice crystals shot up like spikes, impaling three Scavengers through the feet.
[Target Immobilized.]
Alvian walked past them, casually beheading them with short, efficient strokes of his lance.
Use mana. Kill. Absorb mana. Repeat.
It was a rhythm. A dance of infinite resources. In his past life, Alvian had always been counting his MP, rationing every spell. Now, he was a god walking among mortals, his resources limitless.
The last Scavenger, a massive brute with a tank of green acid on its back, roared and tried to spray him.
Alvian didn’t even look. He activated [Runic Aegis +2].
"Launch."
A single purple rune shot out, intercepting the stream of acid and slamming into the tank.
"BOOM!"
[Reactive Force Triggered.]
The tank exploded. The Scavenger dissolved in its own bile.
Silence returned to the Blind Spot.
Alvian flicked the black blood from his lance. He turned to Valeria. She was staring at him, her eyes wide. She had seen him fight before, but this was different. In the arena, there were rules. Here, in the dark, Alvian was a horror movie monster.
"We need to move," Alvian said, extending a hand to pull her up. "The noise will attract the bigger ones."
Valeria took his hand. Her grip was firm, despite her exhaustion. "Where are we going? We’re trapped under the Academy."
Alvian looked at the twisting pipes on the ceiling. He pointed to the thickest one, a conduit pulsing with the same violet light he had seen in the Sunken City.
"We follow the energy," Alvian said. "The Syndicate is siphoning power from the Core to feed Subject Zero. The pipes are the breadcrumbs."
He began to walk deeper into the facility.
"And Valeria?"
"Yes?"
"Keep your helmet on," Alvian said, his voice grim. "I have a feeling we’re about to see some familiar faces in those tanks."
Valeria paled, but she nodded, snapping her visor shut. They moved into the shadows, two ants marching into the nest of a dragon, ready to burn it from the inside out.