I wake to that burnt glass and blood smell. I punch myself up and on to my left hand, my face against sharp rubble - pieces of the shattered core of the Citadel, its crystalline heart cracked, bleeding mana. The chamber is a shambles: metal struts twist up from the floor, consoles are in flames and the air is tense with power.
Lirael is great next to me, half‑crushed under shattered obisidian sheets. Her silver‑white hair fans out over spilled coolant. I pull free and push rubble off her chest. She coughs, eyes fluttering open.
"Energy... surges," she wheezes, lifting to her knees. A gaseous haze of mana twists around her gauntlet as she staggers back up to her feet. "It's woke up the core… in response to the breach!"
I swallow bile and rise to my feet. My side is sliced by pain now, warm and sticky. My fanged plasma blade rests beneath debris—idle and hushed. I swipe at the metal shavings clinging to the edges of my armor and look around. Where the console used to be, a swirling vortex of black‑blue light writhes, the shattered crystal bowl at its centre.
My System HUD flares to life in my vision abruptly, but instead of red and silver flare, it's just a stark line drawing of my body.
Limitless Evolution System – LINK ACTIVE
Vitality ▏▇▇▏▏▏
Strength ▏▇▇▏▏▏
Chaos Stability ▏▏▏▏▏▏
00:45:12 until System Link expires
And beneath it, another marching line: TUTORIAL AVAILABLE – Press [T] for tutorial module.
My pulse pounds. The System is in the process of imploding, but you receive a lesson. I'm not stupid enough to rely on a war‑torn infarct for convenience. Still, knowledge is a weapon. I tap an imaginary prompt, and the HUD slips aside, making room for a ghostlike projection of Echo—his figure wrapped in the light of stars.
"Greetings, Kairo Vale," his voice pours through my head calm and firm. You are on the verge of your real evolution. This how-to will show you the basic workings of the Core of Boundless Evolution System. Beware— no power comes without a cost."
Before me a diagram hovers in the air: a circle segmented into three rings — Core, Mutation, and Price. On Core, three glyphs beat: Vitality, Strength, Chaos Stability. I swallow.
"The System is based on monitoring three key factors," Echo adds. "Vitality manages your health and regenerative potential. Strength dictates physical damage output. Chaos Stability is how much you're holding onto your humanity — let yourself become undermined, and you're just a pure mutation carrier, no brakes.
I tap my fingertip to my temple; the wound from the fragment of the Citadel pulsates. "How do I replenish Stability?"
"By the choices you make that affirm your humanity," Echo says. "Acts of mercy, restraint, and emotional connection recharge Stability. With every mutation or power grab, it corrodes. If that is depleted, you go into Anomaly Mode: untethered power counterbalanced by beastly instincts."
Echo's image goes wavy; the Mutation ring expands. Icons appear—wings, claws, elemental cores.
"Mutations are your evolutionary branches. A unique efficiency core found in every creature you kill—such as the Emberheart Core you collected. It is what unlocks new mutation paths, which offer both active and passive abilities. But, in the end, every mutation takes its toll on Chaos Stability."
The Price ring whirls before our eyes, with three scales: Memory, Emotion, and Will.
"You pay the cost for an individual mutation in your soul. Memory is your life experience — love, fear, triumph, loss. Emotion is your ability to be human and to connect. Will is your self‑control and moral determination. It is this store that gets "used up" as mutations gather. As soon as any of those scales hits zero, it's not that there's no aspect to your self, but that you've lost it, possibly fundamentally."
My heart was pounding in my ears. I taste iron. "Can I bring back Memory or Emotion?"
"Only through the deliberate, the intentional acts that repudiate the cost of the mutation," Echo says. "For instance, embracing Emberheart forms a bond that renews your empathy before resurrecting Emotion. Don't forget how Lirael stood fast at the Death Pillar — it's made you more Stable, when you committed to compassion instead of conquest."
His shape wavers, and his figure, and is replaced by the HUD schematic, which now thrums. I exhale, my breath ragged. The whirling void energy behind me roils faster, hungry.
Lirael's voice slices through the mist: "Kairo… did you find anything helpful?"
I make myself nod, the warmth of the crystal under my boot disregarded. "Mutations take pieces of me — but we can make them whole, in part." I glance at her wounded side. "We need to leave. This core's going to turn nova."
She bashes a hand against her gauntlet, keeps the eye on the vortex. "Rupture imminent—30 seconds."
A panic‑fire seized my chest. I run at a sprint for the crystal heart, my boots thudding on glass floors that are littered with the jagged remnants. My wings—once ember‑forged—shimmer faintly now. I grab hold of the raw edge of the core with two hands. The crystal pulses, cracking further. Mana hisses in the air.
Lirael, he's roaring behind me, "Kairo you can't hold it!"
I tug the broken shard from the earth, shards piercing my hand. Hentai Panty with Crystal There is a light chain between crystal and me — an umbilical cord of raw power. My HUD shifts into new alignment: Chaos Stability –1. The Downsides ring flashes: 2 Points of Memory, 3 Points of Emotion, 4 Points of Will (out of 5).
I swallow the searing pain. "Once more," I whisper.
A stream of blood runs down my wrists as I draw power to my fingertips, shoving the shatter at the core away. The crystal's glow dims—just enough. The whirlpool screams and contracts back into the fissure in the wall.
At the same time, the crystal snaps perfectly in my hand. It crumbles to motes of blue‑white light that drift toward me, eaten by my aura.
My HUD blares:
+2 Vitality | +2 Strength
Chaos Stability –2
Unlocked Mutation – Crystalline Aegis: Generates a temporary mana shield
Pain blooms behind my eyes — aching with the expenditure. Memory ticks down—two bars flashing. I reel, swaying as if having drunk inebriate.
Lirael rushes to my side, putting a hand against my shoulder. "You okay?"
I force focus. "I… will be." The mana shield pops into a pale hemisphere around us. She gazes at it, her violet eyes wide. "That—might save us."
The crack high above us bursts wide, raining shards of crystalline obsidian. We throw ourselves under the dome as the chamber collapses. We are struck by the shockwave, and I get dust in my mouth.
The dome twinkles and comes crashing down when the tremors fade. The far wall of the chamber lies in devastation—but the whirlwind of the core is no more. The ceiling sags, smoke curling.
LIRAEL rises, brushing ash from her gauntlet. "That was… incredible."
I pant, my hand clutching my punched side. "But costly. I can feel it—memories slipping."
She hesitates, voice gentle. "Tell me something you remember."
I close my eyes. Pictures blur ー the final sunrise over Earth from rain‑streaked glass; a laughter‑filled afternoon with my sister; a cup of coffee on a chilly morning. Each memory materializes like vapor, then coalesces as I talk.
"I remember … her smile," I whisper. "Before the end."
She smiles, tears glimmering. "Hold onto that."
Instinct hums through my bloodstream—no time for sentiment. I scan the chamber's remains. There's a gaping hole in the floor that is a collapsed service hatch. "We have to get out—locate the vault's control center. If the core of the Citadel folds, it might tear open the whole Underbelly."
Lirael nods, brushing dust from her tunic. "I've got comms open—calling for help. But they're scattered."
I grip her arm. "Then we fight our way there. No more waiting."
She straightens up, steel in her eyes. "Together."
I pocket the mind's echo of Earth's sunrise; it will be another souvenir, sealed inside the memory scale, one of few that were never smashed. Then I seal my jaw and stand.
Above us, alarms blare anew. The vault's primordial sirens spook the tunnels beyond. Voidspawn shrieks echo—rushing closer.
The HUD rattles as another message appears: 'WARNING CRITICAL SYSTEM LINK 00:30:00 REMAINING'.
We can only run for the service hatch. My heart beats with life and terror, memory and determination. Power has a heavy price — but perhaps if we take back these bulwarks, if we secure the realms, redemption is possible.
I pound my fist on the hatch latch. It yields, groaning. We scramble through the hole, boots clattering.
In the silence, Lirael says softly, "One more time, for Elyndros."
I pop my neck, immediately activating the mana shield. "For Elyndros," I echo.
Behind us, the chamber collapses finally, and the vault is thrown into fitful darkness.
In the next room, I know, the command centre waiting — our next crucible.
And as I enter the tunnel, the System's countdown pulses in my vision: 00:28:45.
Every second is borrowed time.
Every choice, a price.
Each mutation a step farther from home.
Yet my will is unbreakable.
I am Boundless.