The absolute laws of the Spire did not bend for the panic of a single challenger.

The moment the Soul Crystal absorbed the final spark of soul energy from the thousands of constructed illusions in the plaza, a deafening mechanical chime echoed through the very fabric of reality.

It was a sound that vibrated with the heavy weight of an ending script.

The dark violet sky suddenly cracked open, revealing a glowing system interface that stretched across the entire horizon.

The text was written in giant, bleeding crimson letters that forced themselves into the minds of everyone left alive:

[EVENT RESOLUTION: ENDERS FACTION VICTORIOUS]

[TOTAL ASSET EXTRACTION: 100% COMPILED]

[INITIATING REGIONAL DECOMMISSIONING...]

The Spire Event was officially finished. The Enders had won.

Before Kenji or Ayla could make a single physical movement, the concrete world beneath them violently dissolved.

The stone plaza, the blood-soaked library pavilion, the central altar, and even the triumphant, mocking face of Amanda shattered into thousands of floating digital pixels.

The simulation was pulling its stage out from under them, forcefully ejecting the surviving challengers back into the material plane from which they had entered.

A blinding flash of white light consumed Kenji’s vision.

The next millisecond, the cool, crisp air of the academy simulation was violently replaced by a suffocating, sulfurous heat.

The sharp, mechanical luster returned to Kenji’s hazel eyes as his feet slammed against a hard, metallic surface.

He was back outside. They had returned to the exact spot where they had entered the Spire Event exactly one year ago—the grand void bridge of the Solgrace military sector.

Outside barely a day have passed.

But the scene that greeted his eyes made the blood inside Kenji’s veins completely cool down.

The grand void bridge was actively collapsing into the absolute black abyss below.

Huge structural beams were snapping with the sound of thunder, sending showers of white-hot sparks into the darkness.

The spatial stabilization fields that anchored the bridge to the real world were flickering wildly, tearing open small, localized gravity vortexes that sucked the surrounding debris into oblivion.

"Kenji!" Ayla’s voice was loud and sharp.

She did not waste a single fraction of a second analyzing the structural physics of the collapse.

Her primitive instincts immediately recognized that the ground beneath their feet was disappearing at a speed that surpassed human running limits.

For the first time since her breakthrough day, Ayla fully unleashed her primary vessel.

She activated Form 007: Celestial.

A blinding, apocalyptic light erupted from her small frame, completely erasing her human slate appearance.

Her body expanded.

From her back, eight massive, glowing wings of pure spiritual energy tore through the air, vibrating with a frequency that completely overrode the localized spatial barriers of the collapsing bridge.

Before the metallic plates beneath Kenji’s boots could tip into the void, Ayla lunged forward.

Her glowing, celestial hands wrapped firmly around his torso, picking him up effortlessly.

With a powerful, desperate beat of her eight wings, she launched them straight up into the dark sky, leaving the shattering remnants of the titanium bridge behind.

From the safety of the upper sky, they hovered together, suspended in the empty space.

Kenji clutched her luminous shoulders, his hazel eyes wide as he looked down at the scale of the destruction.

The entire Spire Event sector was not just closing; it was literally folding inward like a piece of crushed paper.

And right in the center of that collapsing spatial vortex, a massive, horrifying gate was slowly rising out of the digital ash.

The gate was thousands of meters tall, forged from a dark, decayed iron that was intricately wrapped in millions of glowing purple threads—the exact same energy signature as the Enders’ Soul Crystal.

It looked like an ancient, bleeding wound torn into the very fabric of space.

Ayla’s large, golden celestial eyes blinked at the sight, her eight wings hovering smoothly against the dark air current.

"What happens when the Enders win?" Ayla asked, her voice carrying a resonant, multi-layered echo that vibrated against his chest.

"The reason for that Spire Event comes out..." Kenji answered, his voice visibly shaking. It was absolute dread.

"You mean..." Ayla’s wings stiffened slightly as she felt the violent drop in his internal emotional temperature.

"The Spire Events are not just tests, Ayla," Kenji whispered, his teeth clenching so hard they began to ache.

"They are seals. They are digital cages built by the primary architecture to lock away the real historical nightmares of the old wars.

Every time a challenger faction beats the script normally, the seal reinforces and they gain that event.

But if the Enders win... the seal breaks. The historical nightmare gets released directly into our real world."

He stared at the massive, decayed iron gate that was slowly beginning to unlatch its heavy locks.

"Let’s quickly go to grandpa," Kenji suddenly said, his clinical mind forcing itself to bypass the shock to calculate their survival trajectory.

"No. That’s wrong. We don’t have time to go to grandpa. He would’ve already went to the battle. Let’s go straight to the Solgrace central command post. We have to report this directly to the Marshal.

A massive, unprecedented catastrophe is going to come above humanity within hours. The military lines need to be deployed immediately."

Ayla sensed the immense panic flooding his mind. She did not delay.

She focused the entirety of her saturated Bronze power into her Eight-Wing Transformation and Gale Acceleration traits, turning her celestial vessel into a blinding streak of dark blue light that shattered the sound barrier, rushing straight toward the armored silhouette of the Solgrace central fortress.

Inwardly, however, Ayla did not actually care about the impending catastrophe that was making her mate tremble.

The survival of human civilization meant absolutely nothing to a mimic slime born in the tunnel.

Rather than feeling fear, her primitive brain stems were filled with an intense, bubbling excitement.

A massive war meant that thousands of high-tier human soldiers and mysterious entities would soon be dying in the open fields.

It meant an endless, unrestricted buffet. She was internally ecstatic at the glorious prospect of eating new, powerful brains to improve her trait collectiom furthermore.

Within minutes, Ayla’s celestial form deactivated as they slammed onto the reinforced landing pad of the Solgrace central fortress.

She shifted back into her perfect human slate form within a single heartbeat as Kenji pulled her along the metal corridors.

The central command post was in a state of absolute chaos. Red alarm lights were spinning along the ceilings, and tactical monitors were flashing with spatial distortion warnings.

Kenji pushed past the lower-ranked sentries, his uniform tattered and his iron sword still drawn as he forced his way straight into the high-security briefing room where the Marshal of the humans was standing before a giant holographic map.

The Marshal was a tall, imposing man with grey hair, his chest covered in medals of honor. He looked up from the tactical map as Kenji and Ayla burst through the heavy blast doors.

"Marshal!" Kenji shouted, his usual stoic composure completely vanishing as he stepped forward.

" The Enders conquered the core script using an external Soul Crystal! The seal is broken, and a massive iron gate is manifesting outside the void bridge right now! You have to order an immediate evacuation of the lower sectors and deploy the heavy vanguard battalions before the—"

Kenji’s voice suddenly died in his throat.

The Marshal did not look surprised at all. His face remained completely cold, dark, and indifferent, as if he were looking at a pair of low-level background assets that had entered his office by mistake.

He didn’t even look at the holographic map showing the spatial tear near the void bridge.

Rather than issuing a tactical deployment order or asking for a data report, the Marshal slowly raised his right hand and pointed his index finger directly at Kenji and Ayla.

"Lock him up," the Marshal ordered, his voice flat and completely devoid of any human emotion.

Kenji’s hazel eyes widened in absolute surprise. Before his clinical brain could even process the mathematical absurdity of the command, the heavy blast doors behind them violently flew open.

A dozen elite military enforcers, dressed in heavy crimson armor that bore the exact same symbol of a broken crown that Amanda had worn in the plaza, rushed into the room.

"What are you doing?!" Kenji roared, lifting his iron sword to parry, but the enforcers were not moving with normal human speed.

They were high-tier rankers whose stats completely outmatched him.

"Only take him. I want her.." The Marshal licked his lips. Ayla was in a state of shock. Because for the first time after she get twin lenses, she could hear thoughts of a person.

The Marshal seemed to be without any thoughts at all. How could that be possible?

Before Ayla could dissolve her body into her corrosive fluid or trigger a Sonic Shriek, three enforcers lunged at her from the blind spots.

They slammed a pair of heavy, dark iron manacles around her small wrists and throat.

A loud, sickening hiss echoed through the room as the iron clicked into place.

She found her consciousness instantly turning dark as he body fell backward.

"Aylaaaaa..." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Was the last cry she heard.

* *

AN:

Sorry for the low Chapter releases these past few days. Unfortunately, the country I’m currently working in is being bombed by Iran. I have been actively trying to evacuate, and I finally managed to get a ticket for June 4th.

Chapter releases will return to normal once I safely reach home.

Thank you for continuing to read and support the story!