The shadows peeled away like smoke caught in the wind, and Jin stumbled forward into red-tinted hell.

  The world was reforming around him in nauseating waves of sickly red light that pulsed against his retinas like a migraine given physical form.

  Can't breathe. Why can't I—

  His knees buckled—would've eaten pavement face-first if not for Reyana's hand shooting out to catch his elbow.

  "Steady," she said, her grip firm through the leather gloves.

  Jin gasped, pulling essence through his channels in the Eternal Sovereign breathing pattern. The pressure crushing down on his chest eased—slightly. His star spun faster, cycling power through pathways that fought against Vienna's corrupted atmosphere.

  Damn, it's worse than I thought.

  The red tint bled into everything. Buildings. Ground. Even the air itself seemed stained with it.

  "You good?" Reyana's voice carried genuine concern beneath her usual icy persona.

  "Yeah." Jin crouched low, still breathing hard. His lungs burned with each inhale. "Just... give me a second."

  He focused on the breathing. In through the nose. Hold. Out through the mouth. Let the Sovereign path do its work, stabilizing his essence against the corruption trying to seep into his channels.

  The pressure lessened. Not gone—would never be gone, not while Vienna stayed wrapped in this nightmare—but manageable.

  Jin ran a hand through his hair, fingers trembling slightly. Get it together. You've been through worse.

  That was a lie. But it was the lie that kept him moving.

  He bit his lip, using the pain to sharpen his focus, and looked up.

  Outpost Alpha spread before them like a tumor that had learned architecture. Three hundred meters, maybe less. Crude fortifications built from scavenged metal and wood and something that looked disturbingly organic—fleshy membranes stretched between support beams, pulsing with the same red light that infected everything else.

  A distant explosion rolled across the dead plains. Then another. Then three more in rapid succession.

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  Jin felt them through his boots. Salvatore's opening salvo, two kilometers away at Delta.

  Right on schedule.

  "Joe'll be back soon," Jin said quietly, eyes locked on the outpost. Couldn't afford to miss anything. "We wait until the cultist bites on the bait and starts moving towards outpost delta, before we begin moving."

  Reyana nodded once. She was checking her gloves—black leather that covered everything up to her elbows, leaving only her face exposed. Jin had seen what happened when she touched things without protection—rapid withering, accelerated decay, death spreading from her fingertips like infection.

  Her Mantle was powerful. It was also a curse she'd learned to live with.

  "What do you need from me?" she asked.

  "See those two warehouses?" Jin gestured with his chin toward buildings the Narrator had already outlined in helpful red in his vision. "Eastern side. Get in, loot everything that's not nailed down, get out. Your spatial storage can handle it, right?"

  "Not an issue."

  "Good. We need the cultists to think this is just a raid for resources. Quick and dirty, done in a rush. That'll keep them from suspecting we're fucking with their ritual circles."

  Reyana's cold eyes fixed on him. "Understood."

  "Make it messy," Jin added. "Like you were in a hurry. They probably don't even think anyone in Vienna knows how their rituals work. Let's keep it that way."

  "Got it."

  Jin checked Iron Howl out of habit—magazine loaded, one in the chamber, safety on until he needed it. "You can do this easily. Have faith in yourself."

  Her expression didn't change. "I'm not worried about me." A pause. Weight in those words. "Even after all the miracles and surprises you've shown... would you be okay? At the end

  of the day, you're still just a low mortal ranker."

  Ouch.

  Jin met her gaze without flinching. The coldness in the Eternal Sovereignty path helped with that—letting him project confidence he didn't entirely feel. "Don't worry. If there's one thing I'm really fucking good at, it's survival."

  Something almost like a smile touched Reyana's mouth. "Then try not to slow me down."

  BOOM.

  The explosion hit closer. Much closer. Jin felt it in his teeth.

  Buildings near Outpost Delta started collapsing in sequence—ear-shattering destruction that echoed across dead ground and made the air vibrate with force.

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  Jin found a relatively clean section of wall and slid down to sit, ignoring the grime transferring to his pants. "Give me a couple of minutes. I need to concentrate on making sure we're ghosts."

  "On what?"

  Jin cracked one eye open. "Making sure we're ghosts."

  He felt her attention sharpen, but she didn't press. Just watched in silence as Jin began to work.

  Alright. Simple sorceries should do the trick. Nothing fancy. Just need to not get murdered.

  Jin pulled essence from his core with control that would've been impossible a month ago. Hell, impossible a week ago. But so much has changed.

  Still felt like cheating. Still felt amazing.

  Four separate streams manifested around him, each glowing with different colors in the visible spectrum. One-verse sorceries. Basic building blocks. Alone, they were almost useless.

  Together...

  ? Detecting sorcery activation. Beginning analysis. ?

  The Narrator's voice whispered through his mind with clinical precision. Jin had set it to silent mode after harvesting those memories—couldn't deal with constant commentary while processing everything he'd taken. But now he needed it. Needed that external perspective to guide what he was about to attempt.

  The first verse formed in his mind, words pulling from his memories with eerie familiarity:

  ? O hush between heartbeats—swallow the world in silence. ?

  Sound dampening. Layer one.

  ? Shade of the unseen, fold light upon itself and blur what stands within. ?

  Visual distortion. Layer two.

  ? Withdraw the echo of being—let essence sleep beneath the skin. ?

  Presence suppression. Layer three.

  ? Lift the burden of the earth—let every step pass without memory. ?

  Physical presence hiding. Layer four.

  Jin's hands moved through the air like conducting an orchestra, guiding each essence stream with minute precision. His concentration narrowed to a knife's edge—blocking out everything except the essence and the Narrator's guidance whispering through his thoughts.

  The technique was called "Four-Into-One Resonance" in the books. Weaving multiple one-verse sorceries together into something greater than the sum of their parts.

  ? Recommendation detected: Apply [Chain Binding Theory] from memories. Link all four verses through a single two-verse catalyst for optimal synchronization. ?

  Information flowed into his consciousness—refined by the Narrator's processing power.

  ? Efficiency increase: 240%. ?

  ? Warning: Essence consumption will increase by 180%. Estimated duration at current reserves: 87 minutes. ?

  Eighty-seven minutes. More than enough. We won't be here that long anyway.

  The four streams began weaving together, guided by Jin's will and the Narrator's calculations. Colors merged, split, merged again in patterns that hurt to look at directly.

  Now for the binding verses. The catalyst that would fuse everything into something greater than the sum of its parts.

  Jin whispered the words in a single breath, barely audible:

  ? O unseen wind that moves between perception and truth—gather round my form and unmake the witness. ?

  ? I offer the echo of my presence; in return, let silence, shadow, and stillness bear my name no more. ?

  The world folded.

  Sound died. Color bled away. His aura flickered once—twice—then vanished completely.

  A faint shimmer pulsed around him and Reyana before dissolving into nothing.

  Air pressed close, thin as glass. Even his heartbeat sounded distant, muffled, like it was happening to someone else.

  Through the Omni-Reader's Viewpoint, everything became grayscale noise. But to every other sense—sight, sound, smell, touch—they had simply ceased to exist.

  Reyana made a small noise. Surprise.

  "That's..." She trailed off, searching for words. "That's advanced work."

  "Books." Jin was still catching his breath, sweat dripping down his face despite Vienna's chill. "Lots of books."

  Not technically a lie.

  "And maybe a little theft."

  "Theft?"

  Jin stood on shaky legs. “You'd be surprised what you learn from people who don't need their knowledge anymore."

  Reyana was quiet for a moment. Then: "The Silvers don't judge. Not when you're doing what needs to be done." Her voice was soft. Almost gentle. "Father taught me that early."

  Different worlds, same lessons.

  Jin checked the Narrator's feedback:

  ? Combination sorcery triggered → Stealth enhancement active ?

  ? Detection Probability: 1-12% against Mortal-rank (ORDER I-III) awareness, 55% against Lord-ranks (ORDER IV-VI) ?

  ? Duration: 27 minutes estimated ?

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  From eighty-seven to twenty-seven minutes. Whew~ still Plenty of time.

  Jin split his attention internally.

  Narrator assign the echoes.

  First Echo—passive analysis. Monitor everything. Ping me if anything anomalous shows up. Standard threat assessment. Don't bother me unless something's about to kill us.

  Second Echo—harvest prep. If I find something worth taking, be ready to extract without triggering every alarm in this shithole.

  Another explosion, BOOM, louder than before.

  Then another. BOOM.

  Team two was doing its job beautifully.

  ? Detecting mass movement: Outpost Alpha. An estimated 40-50 hostiles are relocating toward the disturbance site. ?

  ? Window opening: Optimal infiltration probability now 93% and climbing. ?

  "That's our cue." Jin stretched, rolling his shoulders. His body felt tight, coiled. Ready. "Remember—two warehouses, everything not nailed down. Fifteen minutes max before reinforcements circle back." He paused. "Twenty-seven before my sorcery wears off."

  Reyana nodded once. "Understood."

  They moved.

  ???

  The sorcery held perfectly.

  Jin felt like a ghost drifting through Outpost Alpha's edges—shadows coiling around his form, bending reality just enough to make him not there. Cultists rushed past, completely blind to his presence.

  This is insane. I’m glad it's working.

  One cultist ran RIGHT THROUGH where Jin was moving. The sorcery barely managed to bend around the man's passage, maintaining integrity by the narrowest margin.

  Jin held his breath.

  But the cultist kept running, following his fellows.

  Jin exhaled slowly. Carefully.

  Okay. Okay. Still invisible. Still alive. Keep moving.

  ? Guard rotation—NE corner compromised, moving to reinforce Delta. ?

  ? Western perimeter—reduced by 40% ?

  ? Underground access point—unguarded for next 73 seconds ?

  Salvatore's doing his job beautifully. Half their forces are already committed to responding. Though slicing building in half... isn't it a little too much?

  Window's open. Move.

  Red lines appeared in Jin's vision—the Narrator overlaying navigation data directly onto his perception. Optimal path forward, calculated in real-time, accounting for patrols, blind spots, and danger zones.

  Jin followed the guidance without question.

  The central building loomed ahead. Three stories of what had been a government administrative center, now converted into the cult's nerve center. Blood marked the walls in patterns that made Jin's eyes water when he tried to focus on them. Ritual circles carved deep into stone. Bodies stacked in corners like cordwood.

  Jin's stomach churned despite the Eternal Sovereignty path trying to keep his emotions level.

  If anyone doesn't know better, they'd assume that's where the ritual nexus is. But anyone with actual ritualist experience would know better. Too obvious. Too exposed. The real work happens…

  ? Detecting entrance to underground levels: 15 meters west, concealed beneath false stonework. ?

  ? Warning: Entrance is essence-locked. Requires a specific signature to open without triggering alarms. ?

  Jin stopped. Looked at the ground where the Narrator indicated.

  He reached for another sorcery—this one pulled from memories of reading the books. Earth-Shift Passage. The utility spell the protagonist had used exactly once to escape a collapsing dungeon.

  No pressure.

  Jin placed his hand on the ground and pushed essence through the contact point:

  ? O patient earth that bears the weight of all things—open thy veins to those who flee the ruin above. ?

  ? I trade my breath for stillness, my sight for stone—let flesh and will pass through your bones unharmed. ?

  The dirt beneath his boots rippled. Then swallowed him whole.

  For one dizzying, suffocating instant, there was only crushing weight and the hum of buried essence veins vibrating through his bones.

  Then he shot forward—or downward, impossible to tell—through solid earth like it was water.

  Earth-Shift released him into a chamber that reeked of blood.

  Jin stumbled, caught himself, and pulled essence to his eyes to enhance his vision. Green and red tints replaced the darkness—

  And the ritual chamber came into view.

  "Holy shit," Jin whispered.

  Massive. Easily forty meters across. The ceiling was lost somewhere in the shadows above that even his enhanced vision couldn't penetrate.

  And covering every surface—walls, floor, patches of ceiling—were ritual circles.

  Blood sigils pulsed with malevolent light. Essence crystals embedded at key points, each radiating power that made his Harvest Mantle hungry in ways that scared him.

  Okay. We're committed now. No turning back. Either I do this or everyone in Vienna dies… eventually.

  ? Ritual Classification: Grand-Scale Anchoring Array ?

  ? Primary Function: UNKNOWN - Analyzing... ?

  ? Secondary Function: Essence Harvesting, Conversion, Storage ?

  ? Tertiary Function: Terraforming of landmass and maintaining link with other circles in the array ?

  ? WARNING: 47 distinct trap formations detected ?

  ? WARNING: Active monitoring enchantments present ?

  ? WARNING: Corruption density exceeds safe exposure limits ?

  Great. It's a fucking minefield wrapped in an alarm system soaked in poison.

  ? Overdrive [x3] sequence initiated. ?

  The world slowed—not physically, but in his perception. Information flooded his consciousness faster than his normal mind could process.

  The ground above shook. A distant BOOM that rattled loose stone from the ceiling.

  Focus. Clock's ticking. Move.

  Red lines appeared in Jin's vision—Narrator overlaying danger zones directly onto his perception. Each trap highlighted, each monitoring enchantment marked, safe paths traced in green while death zones glowed angry crimson.

  ? Trap detected: Step 23. Pressure plate. Non-lethal—triggers the alarm system. ?

  Jin stepped around it carefully. His boot came within millimeters of the trigger.

  ? Trap detected: Step 45. Essence tripwire. Lethal—releases neurotoxin. ?

  Jin ducked under the invisible line. Felt it brush against his hair.

  ? Trap detected: Step 67. Spatial distortion. Lethal—teleports the target into solid stone. ?

  Jin's teeth found his lip again. Goddamnit.

  He moved with precision that didn't feel entirely his own—body following the Narrator's guidance exactly.

  One wrong step and every cultist in the outpost knows someone's down here. Can't afford mistakes. Won't get a second chance.

  Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the underground chill. The Eternal Sovereignty path kept his hands steady, kept his breathing even, but couldn't quite suppress the primal terror of walking through a death trap.

  The ritual circles grew more complex the deeper he went. Outer rings giving way to inner rings, each layer more intricate than the last. Patterns within patterns within patterns that made his head hurt trying to follow them all.

  Another BOOM from above. Louder. Closer?

  Hard to tell here, there were so many enchantments layered inside that even the narrator was having a hard time piercing through the surface.

  If something does go wrong, I should have faith in Joe and Reyana.

  And finally—finally—the chamber's core came into full view.

  Jin stopped. Stared.

  "This is bullshit," he whispered.

  Sixteen outer circles. Ten meters in diameter each.

  Six inner circles. Twenty meters each.

  One massive central nexus circle. Forty meters across, pulsing with dark energy that made Jin's essence recoil instinctively, like touching something wrong on a fundamental level.

  Blood channels connected everything. Arteries and veins in some nightmare anatomy, flowing with power that spoke of decades of planning.

  ? Scanning ritual architecture... Cross-referencing with harvested memories and user knowledge base... ?

  ? Match found: Convergence Ritual, Tier 7 classification. ?

  ? Purpose: Mass essence extraction and consolidation. Target classification: City-wide population conversion into a singular divine avatar. ?

  ? Note: Current chamber is a smaller-scale mapping of the primary Tier 7 ritual. Connection with the main ritual confirmed. ?

  ? Current progress: 33% completion. Estimated time to activation: 18-22 days at current pace. ?

  Can't destroy it. I'm only here to tweak and install my Trojan horse. Break it now, and they'll know someone's interfering.

  So why the fuck am I hesitating?

  Because looking at this, just the mini version of the intricate ritual circle was enough to fry one’s brain, and if the narrator was right—

  Jin forced himself to breathe. Eternal Sovereign pattern. In. Hold. Out.

  Think. Focus on the problem at hand. Use that big brain. What do you actually know?

  The outer circles fed the inner circles. Inner circles fed the nexus. All connected through essence channels, like blood vessels in a living body.

  I need a weak point. Somewhere to slip in my essence without triggering alarms.

  ? Analyzing 1,812 nodes in presence... ?

  Optimize the path. Sort through them. Start with outer nodes—they'll be less protected.

  ? Understood. ?

  ? Analyzing potential infiltration vectors... ?

  ? Recommendation: Target outer circle 7. Least protected, highest impact to stability if compromised. ?

  Jin moved toward circle 7 with steps that felt too loud in the chamber's oppressive silence. His hands shook as he knelt at the circle's edge.

  Alright. Let's get to work.

  But first, the essence signature problem.

  The ritual was keyed to recognize specific signatures. Dark. Twisted. Tainted by whatever fucked-up blessing the cultists carried.

  Jin needed to match it. Perfectly.

  Fortunately, he had just the thing.

  He pulled out the Mimic Crystal. Small thing, maybe the size of a marble, but worth its weight in gold. Could copy and replicate essence signatures if fed a sample.

  Just need a sample. Very small. Very careful. Don't fuck this up, Jin.

  He channeled essence into a razor-thin strand, shaping it into a scalpel with concentration so intense the world narrowed to just him and the flowing essence in the ritual circle.

  His hand trembled as he guided the scalpel toward flowing essence in the ritual circle—moving with surgical precision toward a weak point in the outer ring's structure.

  A tiny fragment of corrupted essence peeled away from the connecting line. Maybe a single drop's worth of power, barely visible even to enhanced perception. Jin caught it with the Mimic Crystal, watching with horrified fascination as the gem absorbed the sample.

  The crystal turned from transparent to sickly purple-black—pulsing with stolen essence like a diseased heart.

  Jin's forehead was slick with sweat. Every breath came shallow and controlled. The Eternal Sovereignty path was the only thing keeping him from hyperventilating.

  ? Connecting with mimic crystal... ?

  ? Essence Transmutation Available ?

  ? Convert: Pure Astral essence → Dark Blood Dawn essence signature ?

  ? WARNING: Transmutation may cause temporary physiological rejection.?

  "Do it," Jin whispered through gritted teeth.

  His essence changed.

  Nausea hit like getting punched in the gut by a truck. His stomach tried to rebel, throat closing as corrupted power flooded through channels meant for something purer, cleaner, fundamentally different.

  Fuck fuck fuck—

  Jin clamped down on the reaction through sheer will. The Eternal Sovereign's breathing pattern engaged automatically, suppressing the worst of it.

  His star spun. Essence stabilized.

  Jin took a shuddering breath. Then another. Forced his hands steady.

  ? Transmutation complete. Essence signature now matches ritual requirements. ?

  ? Warning: Extended exposure may cause permanent corruption. Recommended duration: Less than 15 minutes. ?

  This is way worse than harvesting essence through my chains. Is it because those are part of me, while the crystal's external?

  Didn't matter. No time to analyze.

  Jin molded his transmuted essence into hair-thin strands.

  He touched the connecting line at the weak point with essence fingers.

  Nothing happened.

  No alarms. No defenses. No sudden horrible death.

  Good. Signature's clean. Now for the delicate part.

  Jin pulled out an essence crystal—small, marble-sized. Began carving with the essence scalpel.

  Every line had to be perfect. Every curve is exact. One mistake and the whole Trojan horse would be worthless.

  Or detonate and kill him horribly.

  No pressure. You've got this. Except if you fuck up, you die.

  The design was elegant in its simplicity. A parasitic program that would slowly spread through the ritual's connections, linking to every outer circle, every inner circle, eventually reaching the central nexus.

  Like a virus infecting a computer system.

  Thanks, Ameye. I'd better show you my gratitude when Vienna's safe.

  He inscribed the runes using essence as ink. Each stroke took maybe three seconds of absolute focus that made sweat drip into his eyes.

  The carving took four minutes. Four minutes that felt like four hours. Jin's hands cramped. His back screamed. His lip was raw from constant biting.

  But he finished.

  The crystal pulsed with barely contained power. Runes glowing faintly in the darkness.

  Jin positioned it at the exact node point the Narrator indicated—the junction where circle 7's essence flow connected to circles 4, 11, and 15.

  Maximum spread.

  He buried the crystal. Let the ritual's own essence flow pull it deeper into the network.

  Watched as it sank like a stone in water, disappearing into patterns too complex for human comprehension.

  The ritual accepted it without protest.

  ? Trojan horse installed successfully. Current spread rate: 0.001% per minute. ?

  ? Estimated full network integration: ??? ?

  ? Note: Activation trigger required for final corruption. Requires massive essence influx, channeled directly through the crystal matrix. ?

  Problem for future Jin.

  Jin pulled his corrupted essence back. Severed the connection with movements that made his stomach lurch again. The transmutation released slowly—his essence returning to normal with protests that felt like broken glass scraping raw nerves.

  Okay. Done. Now get the hell out before—

  He stood on shaky legs. Checked the time with a thought.

  Seven minutes, forty seconds since splitting from Reyana.

  Plenty of time. Just need to phase back to surface, rendezvous, and—

  Jin reached for Reduvia mentally, feeling the shadow spirit respond with eager curiosity. Shadow tendrils wrapped around him, preparing to shift him through darkness back to the surface.

  The world dissolved into black—

  Then reformed wrong.

  Jin stumbled out of the shadow-shift into open air, Reduvia's tendrils recoiling back into his shadow while anchoring him upright. He exhaled sharply, the world snapping back into focus around him.

  Wait. This isn't where I—

  ? WARNING! SPATIAL TURBULANCE DETECTED! ?

  Then a shape moved in the darkness ahead.

  Fuck, someone kidnapped me out of teleporting? You've got to be shitting me.

  At first, Jin thought it was a statue—monolith of shadow and bone standing motionless before a shattered altar. But then it breathed.

  A long, rattling inhale. Deep and ancient. The sound stone might make if it remembered pain.

  The creature stood nearly three meters tall. Form bound in a layered black carapace that looked half-chitin, half-metal. Strips of flesh and armor intertwined seamlessly, pulsing with muted crimson veins.

  Its torso was humanoid. Bare-chested. Pale like marble left to rot.

  But the face—

  The head was not human.

  A bone-white mask extended outward in a V-shaped crown. Smooth. Gleaming like polished ivory, hiding everything above its mouth.

  From beneath it, rows of teeth stretched too far. Lips torn in a mockery of a smile that never closed.

  In its hand, a black blade dragged along the ground—a slab of iron forged to kill, not to cut.

  ? Target identified. Hybrid—Fleshbound Aberration. Blessed One of the cult. ?

  ? Order IV (???). Cult Designation: Favored of Hand Vella ?

  ? Threat Level: EXTREME. ?

  Jin's fingers tightened around Iron Howl. The soulbound pistol responded, humming with power.

  Then the voice came.

  An echo born in Jin's bones, whispering through marrow and shadow.

  "A rat sneaks into our base..." Each word scraped across the inside of Jin's skull—overlapping resonance of multiple voices speaking simultaneously. One deep and thunderous. One soft and almost kind. The sound of worship twisted into contempt. "You carry the scent of the darkened one but it's not your own."

  Jin's instincts screamed warnings.

  Black mist poured from the creature's blade. Dissolved into airborne motes that hissed against the ground. Wherever they touched, stone decayed—rotting in seconds.

  Where are Joe and Reyana?!!

  ?…Thier location is not accessible. Enemy has sealed off the the entire space in our proximity. ?

  Shit!

  "Worry not..." The creature's smile widened. Impossibly wide. "Master Vella will have everything from your dead body."

  Bonus chapters drop when I hit the goal!

  ? ? ?

  ?^>?<^ ?