Violet Essence was leaking out of my body in violent surges, swirling around me like storm. It wasn’t calm or controlled, it was raging, bursting out in waves. The leaking Essence was so intense that Steve and North couldn’t even step closer; the pressure from it kept them back.
I groaned and forced myself upright, every muscle aching as I took in what I was seeing.
The generator core inside me was spinning wildly, channeling Essence through my body at a terrifying rate. It was as if a black hole had opened inside me, pulling everything toward it and that black hole was my right arm, the one I had sacrificed in the soul realm.
The Essence channels I had carved into my body were damaged there, torn and leaking like broken veins.
I took a deep breath and focused, gathering my will. I pushed my Psynapse to the limit and enforced control over my Essence flow. Slowly, I redirected the torrent away from my right arm. The surges calmed, the glowing around me dimmed, and finally, the leaking stopped.
I exhaled and let the tension ease from my shoulders. My body felt heavy but stable again.
Steve and North cautiously stepped closer, still alert. "Are you okay? What was that?" Steve asked, his hand resting on his sword. His eyes flicked briefly toward Vaelix, who stood in the distance, watching us with that same cold focus.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
"Maybe five minutes," North said softly, her voice still shaky. She looked exhausted, her shoulders trembling slightly.
"I’m alright," I replied, glancing at the others. They were all drained. Steve’s breathing was shallow, North’s Essence signature flickered weakly, and Primus’s hands were trembling uncontrollably. But they were alive and that was enough.
Then I noticed something else, the crimson chains that had bound us before were gone. Completely vanished.
I looked ahead. The next stele stood there, its surface glowing faintly with golden light. The word carved into it was still unreadable, shifting like mist.
This time, Vaelix didn’t rush forward like before. He stayed where he was, watching the stele in silence.
"What now?" Primus asked, his voice weary.
"Let’s recover a little," I said. "Then we’ll try the next one."
But before I could finish the thought, the air split with a sudden metallic sound, chains rushing in from every direction.
"Brace!" I shouted. I flared my Essence shield open, forming a violet barrier around us.
The chains hit like a storm. The impact shook the ground, and cracks spread across the barrier instantly. The pressure behind the attack was enormous, one blow, and it nearly shattered my shield.
Across from us, Vaelix’s golden aura flared violently as his own defense struggled against the onslaught.
"I guess we can’t rest," Steve muttered.
I nodded grimly. "Let’s go."
Together, we ran forward. The moment our feet landed inside the glowing circle, the stele pulsed. The blurred text carved across its surface sharpened and became clear.
"Sacrifice."
Before I could react, the ground beneath us cracked open with a thunderous snap. Five enormous crimson chains erupted upward, their surfaces etched with moving runes. They coiled around us in an instant.
I flared my Essence out of instinct, forming a barrier that shimmered violet across the circle.
But the chains tore through it like paper. I gritted my teeth and reinforced the shield again, merging my will with my Essence. Still, it didn’t matter. Each link of the chain felt heavier than mountains, carrying something deeper than mere force, it carried intent. The intent to take.
Even Vaelix, who stood apart, his golden aura blazing brighter than the others, found his barrier shredded by the same crushing strength.
One chain wrapped around his torso, another his arms, binding him to the ground. North screamed as one coiled around her legs, pulling her down. Steve and Primus were caught next, their resistance short-lived.
And then it was my turn. The chains lunged toward me like serpents, wrapping around my chest, arms, and legs until I couldn’t even move. I felt the cold bite of their surface pressing into my skin.
"Don’t fight!" I heard someone shout, it might’ve been Steve but the sound faded as the chains tightened.
The pressure multiplied tenfold, then twentyfold, until breathing became a distant thought. My Essence shield shattered completely, and I felt the burn of the chains sink deeper.
It was as if they were reaching inside me.
I tried pushing back with Soul Force, willed the ripples to burst out, to throw off the bindings.
Nothing.
It was like trying to move a mountain with bare hands. My mind strained, my soul screamed, but the chains only drew tighter. The last thing I felt was the dull, deep pull, like something important was being taken from me. And then everything went black.
When I opened my eyes, the world was gone.
I floated on a small piece of jagged rock, drifting in an endless void.
All around was emptiness, except for a single light far, far away, a sun burning a deep, furious crimson. Its glow painted everything in shades of blood and shadow.
I slowly pushed myself up and looked around. Not far from my rock, I saw the others, North clutching her head, Steve kneeling, Primus sitting motionless. Even Vaelix was here, though his usually sharp presence felt dulled, dimmed by the strange stillness around us.
"What is this place..." I muttered. My voice echoed faintly, swallowed by the endless void.
Then, the light shifted.
The crimson sun dimmed as something enormous passed in front of it. A silhouette, vast beyond reason, moved lazily across the burning sphere.
Its shape was serpentine at first, like some cosmic leviathan gliding through the sea of light. But as it turned, I saw its body glint.
Links.
It wasn’t a serpent. It was a chain.
A single, titanic chain, swimming through the sun like it was an ocean, its motion so fluid it almost seemed alive.
Yet when I looked closer, my mind faltered, it was alive. Its segments breathed.
The sight twisted my thoughts, and a chill ran through me. I couldn’t tell what I was looking at anymore, metal, creature, or something between both.
My instincts screamed danger.
Then the chain stopped.
Slowly, its colossal head or what resembled one, turned toward us. A hollow space opened at the front, wide and dark, and for a moment I thought it was only a void.
Until it moved.
The maw opened wider, stretching across the entire horizon, and an ear-splitting roar tore through the emptiness.
The sound hit us like a tidal wave, shaking the very stones we stood on. My knees buckled. North and Steve dropped instantly. Even Vaelix fell to one knee, his golden aura flickering weakly.
I couldn’t hear anything after that.