Chapter 194: Separated

Three Void Prowlers rushed out from the purple fog, snarling with black teeth bared.

Evren moved before they could reach him. His Kinetic Flow caught the first beast’s leap, and he stepped sideways, bringing the Frost-Bane Cleaver around in an arc.

The blade cut straight through the creature’s neck. Blue lightning cracked across the cut, and the beast’s body burst into black smoke, dissolving into gray ash before it even hit the rocks.

A dark purple mana core bounced onto the stone and was pulled straight into Evren’s spatial ring by his Core Siphon.

The other two prowlers lunged together from both sides.

Evren ducked under the left beast’s claws, thrusting his elbow into its ribs with the force of his SS- Rank.

The impact shattered bone, and as the creature stumbled, Evren sent a jolt of Heavenly Lightning straight through its chest. The beast turned to ash mid-air.

The third prowler tried to turn and run, but Evren closed the distance with a quick burst of speed, driving his blade straight down through its spine.

Two more cores clinked into his ring.

Evren wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead and tapped the screen on his wrist-pad.

The screen flickered with faint static, but the green vector line was still there. It pointed straight ahead along a narrow, cracked rock ridge hanging over the dark drop below.

He walked for another two minutes before the path suddenly ended.

A forty-foot section of the stone bridge had sheared clean off, leaving a sheer drop into the bottomless abyss of swirling cosmic dust.

Evren stopped at the edge of the break, looking across the gap. On the other side, the jagged stone path picked back up, winding deeper into the purple fog.

Normally, a forty-foot jump over a bottomless void would stop a hunter in their tracks. But not Evren.

He took a short step forward and activated Umbral Blink.

His body dissolved into a shadow phase, slipping seamlessly through space. A fraction of a second later, he solidified cleanly on the opposite ledge, his boots gripping the rough obsidian stone without making a sound.

The moment he landed, the rocks behind a jagged boulder shifted.

Two Void Stalkers that had been camouflaged against the dark stone sprang forward. Their long, scythe-like forearms slashed down toward Evren’s throat from both sides.

The red arcs of their blades flashed in Evren’s vision before they even made the move.

Evren dropped into a low crouch, letting the twin scythes scrape harmlessly through the empty air above his head. He spun on his right heel, sweeping his leg low to kick the legs out from under the first stalker.

As the beast crashed down, Evren drove the tip of the Frost-Bane Cleaver straight through its chest plate, channeling a surge of high-voltage lightning into its core.

The creature shrieked once, then dissolved into black smoke, leaving another Level 75 core behind.

The second stalker hissed and tried to leap backward, but Evren didn’t give it room to breathe. He lunged forward with a two-handed thrust, burying his heavy blade into the beast’s torso and shoving it over the cliff edge.

The stalker turned to ash before it even fell ten feet into the fog.

Evren stood back up, catching his breath. He lifted his wrist-pad and checked the compass heading.

As he looked out across the vast chasm, he caught sight of faint flashes in the distance. Nearly three miles away, through the dense layers of purple fog, bright golden bursts of light lit up a floating plateau.

’That has to be Silas Drake and Solar Crown,’ Evren thought, watching the distant golden light flicker against the dark. ’They got thrown across the other side of the sector, but they’re holding their ground.’

The air in the rift felt thick and heavy in his lungs, almost like breathing in damp steam.

Every few hundred yards, the path seemed to bend at odd angles, and when Evren looked back, the rocks behind him didn’t line up with the way he had just walked.

Evren frowned, but didn’t stop moving.

’The military tech warned us space warps inside this place,’ Evren reminded himself. ’Nothing in a rift plays by normal rules. I just have to keep moving toward the signal.’

He gripped his cleaver tighter and pushed ahead through the fog.

—

On another floating ridge nearly two miles away, a flock of winged void terrors swooped down through the gloom.

Amber drove her right dragon saber upward, meeting the first dive-bombing flyer head-on. The blade cut clean through its chest, and the creature burst into purple mist, leaving a small crystal core that dropped to the ground.

A second flyer banked hard, aiming its jagged talons at Amber’s blind spot.

Amber snapped her wings open behind her back. The kinetic barrier across her wings took the full brunt of the beast’s attack, throwing the creature off balance.

From the shadow beneath Amber’s feet, Zephyra moved.

She flickered out of the darkness like a ghost, her black daggers flashing twice in the dim light. She drove one blade through the flyer’s neck and the second straight into its skull.

The beast crashed onto the stone and turned to gray ash in seconds.

Two ground prowlers charged from the rocks ahead, trying to exploit the opening.

But Zephyra dropped low, sweeping her arm across the ground as dark shadow tendrils shot from her fingertips, wrapping tightly around the beasts’ front legs.

The prowlers tripped and slammed hard into the stone.

Before they could scramble back up, Amber closed the distance with a burst of speed, bringing both dragon sabers down in a cross-slash that severed both heads in a single strike.

Both bodies dissolved into black smoke, leaving two more cores rattling against the gravel.

"That’s the last one in this pack," Zephyra said, retrieving her daggers with a flick of her wrists.

Amber lowered her weapons, letting her wings settle against her back. She wiped a line of sweat from her forehead and pulled up her wrist-pad.

"The comms are completely dead," Amber said, staring at the scrambled screen. "I can’t reach Silas or any of the other guilds. That shockwave threw us miles off course."

"What about Master?" Zephyra asked, stepping up to her side with her daggers still drawn.

Amber took a breath and focused inward on the mental link in her chest.

The connection felt faint and fuzzy, like someone speaking through a thick concrete wall, but Evren’s presence was still there. She could feel his steady heartbeat and his mana burning strong.

"He’s fighting, but he’s fine," Amber said, checking the direction arrow on her screen. "The beacon shows a wide bridge connecting the sectors about a mile ahead. If he’s following the probe’s path, he’ll head straight there."

"Then let’s hurry," Zephyra said, checking the edges of her daggers. "He shouldn’t be dealing with that cocoon by himself."

The two of them took off across the stone path, staying close together as they moved toward the bridge.

—

Evren reached the wide stone bridge fifteen minutes later.

The bridge was a massive span of dark rock, stretching across a deep gorge that dropped into nothingness. In the center of the span, a large four-armed Void Golem blocked the path, swinging a heavy club made of jagged stone.

Two Void Prowlers flanked the golem, growling as they circled its feet.

Without wasting time to trade hits, Evren sprinted straight at the golem. When the brute brought its massive stone club down with a thunderous crash, Evren slid beneath the swing, the wind of the club whistling inches over his hair.

He channeled Heavenly Lightning into the Frost-Bane Cleaver and spun with the momentum of his slide, slicing both of the golem’s lower legs off at the knees.

The heavy monster roared and crashed down onto the bridge.

Before the two prowlers could jump on him, Evren sprang to his feet and drove his cleaver straight through the glowing purple core in the golem’s chest.

The golem shattered into black dust with a loud hiss, leaving a large Level 78 core that flew straight into his spatial ring.

Evren didn’t stop. He turned smoothly, unleashing two rapid arcs of lightning from his left hand that blasted through the two prowlers, turning both into gray ash before they could close the distance.

Clink. Clink.

Evren rested the tip of his blade on the stone, taking a deep breath to settle his pulse.

He checked his wrist-pad: fifty-two minutes left on the emergence timer.

From the darkness ahead, the steady pulse of the central cocoon vibrated through the stone, making the gravel at his feet rattle with a low, menacing beat.

Then, he heard quick footsteps coming from the far side of the bridge.

Evren raised his cleaver, blue lightning sparking along the steel.

Two figures ran out of the purple fog.

Amber had her crimson wings folded back, her sabers held low at her sides. Right beside her, Zephyra stepped into the light, lowering her daggers as soon as she saw him.

Both of them looked tired, but their gear was intact and neither had any serious wounds.

"Evren!" Amber called out, rushing forward with a clear look of relief on her face.

"Master!" Zephyra followed right behind her.

Evren let out a breath and lowered his heavy weapon. "You two made it," he said, a real sense of relief washing over him.