The crimson explosion had not been kind.
The stage was scorched black, its already fractured stone floor now warped and cratered, steaming violently beneath the aftermath of Kaelix's reckless ignition.
Jagged cracks spiderwebbed outward from the epicenter of the blast, slicing the earth into splintered plates that hissed and spat as if rejecting the alien heat. All around, hunched forms writhed and twitched—Adversaries caught within the radius of the blast.
But they didn't writhe like before.
The crimson flames clung to them like sentient parasites, latching onto their flesh at the point of contact and spreading slowly with a hissing burn. It didn't just scorch; it infected. Unlike before, their injuries did not vanish with ease like nothing had happened. No uncanny regeneration stitched their wounds closed. No temporal reversal of damage corrected the chaos.
Kaelix, still kneeling, noticed this with heavy, uneven breaths. His own body trembled from the strain, smoke pouring from a dozen self-cauterized injuries.
Where blood had once flowed, now only charred skin remained—blackened edges sealed by the ignition. The pain was raw and screaming, but it wasn't fatal.
Not yet.
And best of all, it worked.
The crimson flames had done something no strike, no bite, or claw of his had achieved before: they had stuck. The Adversaries could still move,yes, but they were actually damaged. Whether they were in pain or not did not matter to him. It just matters that he could now potentially get rid of them.
It was intoxicating to realize it. For the first time, they were not unstoppable.
Then, before he could stand, the Runes appeared before his eyes—glowing pale red, pulsing like veins beneath skin.
[Minor Rune Actualized: Blood Ignition]
A pause. Then another line, this one slower, more deliberate:
[
Kaelix stared at it, brow twitching in confusion. That's what just happened? This was a Minor Rune? The description was blunt, barely helpful, but something about it clicked in his instincts. Like he'd known how to do it all along but never had the circumstances—or the pain—necessary to trigger it.
He was about to dig deeper into the implications when—
"Curious."
Kaelix snapped his head sideways.
The Entity floated right beside him. Not in an attack stance, not braced for battle. Just... hovering there, one hand crossed behind its back, eyes fixated not on Kaelix, but on the smoldering Adversaries in the crater.
Kaelix flinched backward instinctively, kicking up dust as he retreated several feet in one ragged motion.
The Entity didn't follow. It simply tilted its head, observing the aftermath.
"Surprising," it murmured again, almost conversational. "A low-class Adversary, yet already awakened to a Minor Rune. And such a strange one at that."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Kaelix snarled, still holding his side. "Rune? Low-class? You keep saying these words like they mean something."
The Entity shrugged lightly, as if humoring a child. "You used one of the many gifts bestowed upon we, the higher Adversary. That was not expected, and it definitely causes me a slight problem..."
"...But, then again, expectations are unreliable when dealing with an anomaly."
Kaelix's eyes narrowed. "If it hurts you, why are you telling me any of this?"
The Entity's gaze didn't falter. "Why not? Information, like anything, is meaningless without application. You can't use this gift to kill me. No matter how it burns these lower ones, the result remains unchanged.
Its voice turned quieter then. Not softer. Lower.
"But I... I can kill you. Myself."
Kaelix swallowed as he looked at it—really looked at it. The book was still in the Entity's hands, but far fewer Runes were pouring out now. Instead of the cascading torrent that had heralded its arrival, only a slow, rhythmic drip remained.
The form it wore had nearly stabilized. Skin tone still shifted like oil on water, and its clothing shimmered between fabrics, but the core had settled.
It was humanoid.
Too humanoid.
Symmetrical in some ways—slim frame, straight spine—but the details contradicted one another. One arm looked slightly longer than the other. One eye had a vertical pupil, the other horizontal.
Its fingers twitched in patterns that didn't match, like multiple thoughts in motion. Bones bulged subtly beneath skin as if undecided on how many joints to settle on.
It wore no armor, nor the graduation robes Nick wore—only a tattered mismatch of rapidly changing material with fine runes floating on its surface.
But all of that faded the moment Kaelix looked at the face.
His brother's face.
Nick.
Same structure. Same cheekbones. Same crooked little scar on the chin from that one time in the kitchen. But now with long, unruly red hair, smoothed by otherworldly presence but undeniably his.
Kaelix's vision pulsed with red.
"Stop wearing his face," he growled, voice gravelly.
The Entity turned to him fully now, floating just a few feet off the ruined ground. "Why? I've grown fond of it. Besides, you've been rather... troublesome. Slowing my integration. Irritating. It feels fitting to wear something agitating for a pest like you while I watch your last moments."
Kaelix's teeth ground together. "Dream on. You're the one running out of time."
The Entity chuckled—soft and mirthless—and then raised the Tome. Its pages fluttered open, and for a brief moment, Kaelix could see what the runes spelled.
[Integration: 97%]
The Entity's grin deepened.
"You have until completion," it said. "If you can do something, you'd better do it fast."
Kaelix's hands clenched.
And the stage burned beneath him.
Kaelix charged first.
A blur of blackened limbs and raw force, he surged across the fractured stage with singular purpose. But this time, the Entity did not vanish. It remained exactly where it was, its left arm raised lazily—palm outstretched.
Kaelix had no time to pivot mid-air.
The Entity caught him by the face.
There was no struggle. No resistance. It simply grabbed him.
A thunderous impact followed as Kaelix's body was hurled like a ragdoll into a loose pile of recovering Adversaries. He slammed through them like a wrecking ball, plowing into their limbs and torsos with a bone-shattering crunch. The ground beneath them crumpled from the impact. Blood erupted from his mouth before he even registered the pain.
"Gah—!" he gasped, coughing red.
The power disparity was grotesque.
If the typical Adversaries were a terrifying threat, and Kaelix, enhanced by his exploding blood—was thrice as threatening, then the Entity stood at least five times as threatening as himself.
No contest. Just raw, unfiltered supremacy.
Buried in a pile of twitching, flaming Adversaries, Kaelix snarled and moved without hesitation. He dug his fingers into the blackened scab over his previous wound, teeth clenched in fury.
"Tch—!"
He ripped it open.
Blood flowed freely again—and with it, came the spark.
"Ignite!" he roared.
The pile erupted in a violent nova of crimson fire. The Adversaries shrieked as they burned, their forms twisted by the sticking, searing flames that refused to fade. Kaelix used the blast to vault out of the crater, landing hard and rolling into a ready stance, his vision blurring at the edges from the cost.
The Entity didn't dodge. It simply floated above the blast radius, arms crossed behind its back, book now hovering lazily beside it. Its red hair shimmered in the firelight like molten thread.
And it smiled.
What followed was a brutal, unrelenting dance.
Kaelix launched himself again and again, carving through ruined ground and leaping over broken pillars of flame-warped stone. Every time he got close, the Entity disappeared—phased just outside his range, reappearing behind or above or beside him, always watching.
He would land among Adversaries, tear into them with claws or fists or blood-fueled detonations, and they would collapse under the flame... but not before dealing more wounds without care for their demise. Deep gouges. One tore through his side. Another cracked across his ribs. A third barely missed taking his eye.
He was slowing.
And the Entity was still idle.
Kaelix's mind raced.
It's not even trying. It's playing. I'm just a goddamn toy until that Integration finishes.
He knew it. Every time the Entity could've followed up a counter—it didn't. Every time Kaelix was vulnerable—it waited. Not out of pity, but because it wanted him to suffer. To struggle. To be reminded of his futility.
And the voice didn't help.
"Still so reactive," it said, casually as it floated above him again. "Just like when Nick used to prank you. Do you remember? That time with the spice tubes?"
Kaelix froze mid-lunge.
The Entity's smile widened. "You turned red for hours. Couldn't eat for a day. He laughed for weeks."
Kaelix's eyes burned.
"Shut. Up."
More leaping. More flame. He burst apart another knot of Adversaries with a double ignition—shoulder and thigh. But the Entity's voice continued.
"Or maybe that time he caught you crying over that model aircraft you tried to build and broke?"
Kaelix growled, teeth clenched. "Shut the hell up!"
"Oh, you've gotten better at hiding it. The pain. The loss. But I can see it." The Entity's voice lowered, intimate and cruel. "You know...He would've wanted you to give up."
"Stop lying to me!"
Kaelix screamed, flinging a hand back and detonating a midair trail of blood to slingshot toward the Entity. It didn't even flinch, fading away again before reappearing a few feet higher.
"Still not fast enough."
More Adversaries. Kaelix didn't count anymore. Half of them were burning husks. The Entity made no move to restore them.
Whether it couldn't, or wouldn't. He didn't know.
But Kaelix was spent.
His body was a patchwork of torn flesh and scorched muscle. His claws were cracked. His knees buckled every third step. Still—still—he forced himself forward.
And then, amidst the agony, came a thought.
A mad thought.
He gritted his teeth. Lowered his arms...
...And slit his own ankles.
Blood poured down his feet in thick, red sheets. He braced. Focused. Ignited.
"Ignite!"
The blood at his feet detonated—twice.
Kaelix shot forward like a bullet, red flames bursting beneath him, kicking off the air like a goddamn rocket. The world blurred. Pain screamed up his spine. But he saw it:
The Entity was too slow to vanish.
Its smile flickered. For a fraction of a second—surprise.
Kaelix roared and crashed into it, his black claws extended.
They pierced into the neck.
Rainbow ichor spilled. The book tumbled from the air. And for the first time—
The Entity bled.
There was a moment of silence.
Kaelix didn't move. He didn't breathe. His arm was still buried up to the elbow in the entity's neck, claws sunk deep, blackened talons cracking the slick bones beneath that terrible skin. His breath caught in his throat.
He had done it.
He had actually done it.
A hit. A clean one. A vital one. Right at the neck. No dodging. No vanishing into the air. No appearing behind him to whisper mockeries in his ear. Just pure impact. A break in the game.
His mind scrambled to understand the implications. Even if it hadn't killed the thing outright—even if it was tougher than he thought—surely this had done something.
Then, a sound.
A giggle.
Childlike. Sweet. Innocent.
Then a voice followed it, warm and amused. "Bravo," it said.
Kaelix looked up in disbelief. The entity was laughing. Its throat vibrated around his arm, a wet sound like laughter through jelly. It stared down at him with those eyes still wearing Nick's expression.
"You finally did something worthwhile," it cooed, delighted. "Your entire meaningless life, spiraling in obscurity, has built up to this moment. Aren't you proud?"
Kaelix's confusion turned quickly into horror.
Why wasn't it struggling? Why was it talking? Why wasn't it… dying?
Then it moved. Slowly. Casually.
It raised its arm and grasped his own, fingers folding around his forearm. No struggle. No resistance. Then, like lifting a feather, it began pulling his arm out of its neck. Kaelix tried to resist, tried to dig his claws deeper, but he was floating now. Floating.
His feet weren't touching the ground. The entity hadn't just lifted his arm. It had lifted him.
And as he watched—helpless, still suspended—the impossible happened.
The wound sealed.
Rainbow-colored ichor that had been spilling out just moments before now reversed its flow, crawling backward through the wound, through the air, back into the entity's neck. Skin closed like a zipper of divine fabric, sealing shut until not a single blemish remained.
Perfect. Untouched. Whole.
Kaelix's stomach dropped.
"Did you forget so quickly?" the entity asked, almost disappointed. It tilted its head, voice like a patient teacher correcting a foolish child. "I told you, didn't I? That Adversaries of the same Advent can't hurt each other without my permission. And that includes myself."
Its smile widened.
"You still are of this Advent, Kaelix. A strange, broken thing, yes. But still mine. That strike of yours? Utterly useless. Had you used that Minor Rune… maybe. But this?"
It clicked its tongue.
"Wasted effort."
Kaelix couldn't speak.
His body trembled. Rage and despair fought in his chest, neither winning.
Then he saw it.
The Tome.
It was still in the entity's hand. Still open. But no longer pouring runes like a flood. It was still. Still and silent.
And on its glowing, iridescent pages was a single line of text:
[Integration Complete: 100%]
The entity followed Kaelix's gaze. It didn't speak at first.
Then it leaned forward, forehead nearly touching his, and whispered:
"Time's up."