Chapter 185: Gravitational Distortion Detected

The purple crystal wolves lunged forward in a tight pack, scraping their glass claws against the cold cavern stone. Over thirty Level 72 beasts moved as one, snapping their jaws and aiming straight for Evren’s throat.

Without drawing his weapon, he planted his right foot into the ground, activating Gravity Domain to pin the entire pack into the floor.

A crushing ring of invisible force slammed down across the cavern floor. The charging wolves shrieked as their legs snapped beneath the sudden tenfold increase in weight, their bodies pinned flat against the stone.

With the beasts pinned helpless beneath his boot, Evren raised his right hand, debating whether to test his new Heavenly Lightning or simply draw his blade to finish them off.

Faint golden sparks began to dance across his fingertips.

But before he could unleash the strike, the cavern around him let out a loud groan. The ceiling cracked open, and giant stone spikes snapped from the darkness above, crashing into the rocks like falling pillars.

A bright warning flared across his eyes:

[WARNING: HEAVY GRAVITATIONAL DISTORTION DETECTED]

[SINGULARITY INSTABILITY: ACCELERATING IMPLOSION BY 25 MINUTES]

[ASTRAL-CHASM RIFT SINGULARITY COLLAPSE: 02:07:10 REMAINING]

Evren cut the Gravity Domain instantly, his boots skidding back across the dust. The downward pull vanished, but the ticking clock had just lost nearly half an hour in a single second.

"So that’s how it is," Evren muttered, breathing out a tense breath. "If I use heavy gravity here, the singularity pulls harder and destroys the whole rift."

He had to clear this sixty-level chasm with his own hands, his blade, and his lightning, without his easiest crowd-control skill.

The pinned wolves scrambled back onto their feet, hissing with rage as purple mana flared along their crystal spines. They bounded forward again, splitting into two flanking lines to tear him apart from both sides.

Evren reached into his spatial ring and pulled out the Frost-Bane Cleaver. The broad steel blade gleamed in the dim cavern light, humming as lightning crackled across the cutting edge.

Without waiting for the beasts to reach him, Evren leaned forward and burst into a dead sprint, cutting directly through the center of their formation.

The lead wolf leaped into the air with jaws wide open. Evren stepped inside the beast’s reach, swinging his cleaver in a clean upward arc that cleaved the monster in half before it touched the ground.

Two more wolves lunged at his back from his blind spot. Using Kinetic Flow, Evren saw their attack angles before their claws even left the floor. He spun on his heel, sweeping his blade in a flat circle that decapitated both creatures in a spray of golden sparks.

He moved through the pack with relentless speed, turning, ducking, and slashing. Every strike carried the crushing weight of his SS-Rank Titan strength, shattering crystal bone with ease.

Within less than five minutes, the snarling pack went completely silent. The bodies of the thirty crystal beasts dissolved into fading purple smoke, leaving thirty glowing mana cores scattered across the cracked floor.

[CORE SIPHON ACTIVE: 30x LEVEL 72 VOID PROWLER CORES HARVESTED]

The sparkling purple cores flew into the air and streamed straight into Evren’s spatial ring. He stepped over the falling rocks, wiping a streak of stone dust from his cheek as he headed toward the lower tunnel.

The tunnel sloped sharply downward, leading him into the second zone of the chasm. The air grew colder, thick with the sharp smell of ozone and crushed crystal.

Huge purple crystals jutted out from the walls, floor, and ceiling, turning the deep tunnel into a jagged labyrinth. The gravity here was completely broken. One step felt as light as a feather, while the next step pulled hard to the left, making it feel like walking along the side of a steep cliff.

Evren adjusted his footing, keeping his center of gravity low. The jagged crystals hummed with erratic mana, vibrating so hard that tiny shards broke off and floated in the air.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Kinetic Flow showed three faint gray lines cutting straight through the solid stone wall to his right.

Evren threw his weight backward, dropping low against the stone floor. Three long crystal scythes slashed through the empty air where his neck had been an instant earlier, tearing gouges in the ceiling.

Ten Level 75 Phasing Void Stalkers stepped out from the stone walls. Their dark, glass-like insect bodies shifted as their razor-sharp arms clicked together, blending back into the rock as they moved around him.

One stalker lunged forward, then dissolved into pure shadow right in front of his eyes. A fraction of a second later, its crystal blade shot out from the wall behind him.

Evren twisted his upper body, letting the blade slice through the fabric of his jacket without cutting skin. He reversed his grip on the Frost-Bane Cleaver and drove the hilt backward, smashing the beast’s jaw.

The monster hissed in pain and tried to slip back into the rock, but Evren was faster. He pumped golden lightning down the blade, discharging a bright shockwave straight through the creature’s chest.

The lightning blew the stalker to pieces, shattering its core before it could phase away. The remaining nine beasts shrieked, darting in and out of the stone walls in a chaotic swirl of purple blades.

Without Gravity Domain to lock them in place, Evren had to rely entirely on his instincts and predictive sight. He tracked the subtle vibrations in the stone, striking the exact moment a blade began to phase through the surface.

He parried a downward strike with the flat of his blade, spun around the blow, and sheared through the attacker’s midsection.

Another stalker leaped from the ceiling, but Evren caught it with a rising slash that split its torso clean open.

A third beast managed to graze his left forearm, leaving a thin red line on his skin before his dense muscles sealed the cut. Evren didn’t even flinch; he grabbed the beast by its throat with his bare hand, slammed it into the floor, and drove his cleaver straight through its skull.

One by one, the phasing monsters fell until the entire tunnel fell quiet once more. The shattered remains dissolved into gray ash, leaving behind nine sparkling Level 75 cores.

[CORE SIPHON ACTIVE: 9x LEVEL 75 VOID STALKER CORES HARVESTED]

Evren pulled the cores into his ring and checked the countdown timer. ℯℯ𝘭.

[ASTRAL-CHASM RIFT SINGULARITY COLLAPSE: 01:21:40 REMAINING]