Chapter 184: What a Welcome

The Citadel loudspeakers hummed across the crowded stone plaza. Five thousand hunters stared directly at Evren, waiting to see how the young chairman of Apex would respond to Grand Arbiter Kincaid’s sudden order.

Across the square, Silas Drake let out a quiet sneer, crossing his arms over his chest. The guild master of Solar Crown clearly expected Evren to hesitate or collapse under the sudden pressure of leading the imperial strike force.

Evren did not flinch. In his line of sight, the gold System timer was ticking down:

[ASTRAL-CHASM RIFT SINGULARITY COLLAPSE: 02:58:44 REMAINING]

If the chasm collapsed, the Level 80 Star-Diamond Void Core would be destroyed forever, and Calista would never walk again.

Evren reached out through his telepathic link, connecting directly with Amber’s mind.

Can you and Zephyra hold the capital skies with Walter? Evren asked silently. The rift containing Calista’s next cure just opened in District 3.

Go get her cure, Amber’s steady voice answered in his thoughts without a second of hesitation. Zephyra and I will hold the sky line with Walter. Not a single beast will touch our city.

Evren took two calm steps forward, his voice carrying clearly across the stone platform without a microphone. "Apex accepts the First Strike command for the aerial perimeter."

Kincaid nodded firmly, his iron gauntlet resting against his hip. But before the commander could speak, Evren raised his right hand to continue.

"However, tactical command requires splitting our forces," Evren said, looking straight into Kincaid’s cold gray eyes. "The sky breach above District One will be held by Vice-Chairman Amber Sterling and Chief Guardian Zephyra, backed by Guild Master Walter and his forty-nine veteran shield-bearers."

Amber stepped forward to Evren’s side, the twin dragon-bone sabers on her hips gleaming in the morning light.

With a snap of mana, two massive wings of radiant crimson light burst from her shoulder blades, casting a glow over the front ranks of the imperial army.

Beside her, Zephyra stepped into the light, dark shadow sparks crackling along the segmented whip-blade at her waist. "Apex holds the frontline," Zephyra declared as she stood shoulder to shoulder with Amber.

Walter slammed his tower shield onto the pavement with a loud metallic crash, his veteran hunters locking shields behind him in perfect unison. "Iron-Thistle stands with Apex! We hold the sky line until the last beast falls!"

A ripple of stunned approval ran through the assembled hunters. Even Kincaid’s weathered face showed genuine respect as he looked at Amber’s blazing wings and Zephyra’s coiled shadow blade.

The supreme commander gave a single, decisive nod. "Vice-Chairman Sterling and Chief Nightshade have full imperial command over the aerial strike line."

"What about you, Chairman Evren?" Silas Drake called out loudly from the Solar Crown formation, stepping forward with a mock smile. "Are you running away while your women fight your battle?"

Evren did not even glance in Drake’s direction. He kept his eyes locked on Kincaid.

"The Astral-Chasm Rift on the western frontier has entered a gravitational singularity collapse," Evren stated calmly. "If that rift implodes, the spatial shockwave will shatter the tectonic plates beneath this city and wipe out the capital’s power grid."

The smile vanished from Drake’s face, his eyes widening in shock. Kincaid frowned deeply, tapping the holographic tactical display on his wrist console.

A red warning alert flared on Kincaid’s screen, confirming Evren’s words. "The seismic monitors just registered the anomaly," Kincaid said. "That canyon is sixty levels deep, and a standard team would take twelve hours just to reach the bottom."

"I don’t need twelve hours," Evren replied calmly. "I will clear the chasm myself before the singularity breaches."

Without hesitation, Kincaid tapped his wrist comms and issued a direct order to flight control: "Prep a rapid-strike transport on Pad Four! Give Chairman Evren unrestricted flight clearance straight to the western ridge!"

On hearing that, Evren gave one final nod to Amber and Z, then turned on his heel. He broke into a dead sprint toward the military flight pads behind the Citadel, the clock in his vision showing two hours and fifty minutes left.

At Pad Four, an Imperial Defense Division high-speed transport was already whining at full throttle. Evren ran up the lowered steel ramp into the pressurized cabin, and the hatch sealed behind him with a sharp hiss.

"Cleared for immediate departure!" the military pilot announced as the engines roared to life. The transport rocketed into the sky, blasting across the western horizon at three times the speed of sound.

Inside the cabin, Evren strapped himself into his seat. Even though he was flying alone, he could feel the warmth of his Soul-Bonds in his chest.

He checked his spatial storage ring, ensuring the Frost-Bane Cleaver was ready to draw at a moment’s notice. The ticking clock in his vision was relentless, but his mind was calm.

Fifteen minutes later, the gunship began to shake violently as it crossed the boundary of Sector Three. The pilot’s tense voice crackled through the cabin speakers: "Approaching the western canyon rim with violent spatial turbulence ahead! I can’t fly any closer without tearing the wings off!"

"This is close enough," Evren replied calmly over his headset. "Hold your altitude and turn back toward the capital the second I’m clear."

Unbuckling his harness, he walked to the rear of the cabin and hit the emergency release. The cargo hatch dropped open with a pneumatic hiss, letting in a howling blast of icy wind and purple spatial static.

Below him, the mountain canyon was split wide open.

A massive crack ran deep through the gray granite, where a spinning vortex of dark purple mana pulled falling rocks and crumbling ground into the earth. The wild tear ripped through the canyon walls with crushing gravitational pressure.

[ASTRAL-CHASM RIFT SINGULARITY COLLAPSE: 02:32:10 REMAINING]

Evren stepped up to the edge of the open ramp and looked down into the roaring abyss. Without a second of hesitation, he stepped off into three thousand feet of empty air.

The wind roared past him as he dove straight toward the glowing purple portal at the bottom of the canyon.

The moment he crossed through the tear, the sky vanished, replaced by an enormous underground cave.

Rocks and dirt were crumbling everywhere as the rift began to collapse. Instead of climbing down the cave levels one by one, Evren used his shadow teleportation. He blinked downward through the dark air in huge leaps, dropping straight toward the bottom of the cavern in seconds.

His boots slammed into the solid stone floor, kicking up a cloud of gray dust. Before the dust even cleared, dozens of sharp hisses echoed from the dark rocks around him.

A pack of purple crystal wolves leaped out from the shadows, flashing razor-sharp claws as they charged him from all sides.

"What a welcome," he said to himself as he stood up straight.