The illusory humans—once zombies—rushed toward Rei, their cries eerily lifelike, as if they truly believed themselves to be alive. Rei's mind raced. His instincts screamed for escape, but his heart refused to strike them down. He reached into his satchel, pulled out a handful of dark, round seeds, and threw them onto the hard earth.
With a swift motion, he gripped his water krystallite and poured mana through it. Water surged from the crystal, soaking the seeds. Then, he shifted his energy to the plant krystallite. The ground trembled softly. Green erupted from the earth—twisting, coiling, snaking vines shot up, thick as wrists and moving with unnatural speed. The tendrils wrapped around the approaching figures, binding arms and legs, forcing them to the ground one by one.
But Shane wasn't idle.
With a sharp flick of his wrist, he threw silver-edged daggers. They cut through the vines like razors through grass. The entrapped figures freed themselves and resumed their assault. Rei ducked, rolled, and sprinted from corner to corner of the chamber, narrowly avoiding a blade to the side and a fist to the skull. The illusion made them seem human. His hesitation nearly cost him his life.
Tenko, growling low, crouched nearby—poised to pounce. His eyes burned with the will to protect, but he waited. He understood Rei. He would not interfere unless there was no other way.
But Rei knew he couldn't keep running.
He thrust his hands into the ground, and the earth rumbled. "Earth Wall!" he shouted, and columns of solid rock erupted, encasing the illusory enemies in a makeshift prison. For a moment, silence returned.
But Shane was already chanting. The air shimmered with arcane pressure. Rei's eyes narrowed—he had seconds.
He yanked a hidden dagger from his boot and hurled it straight at Shane.
The blade whistled through the air. Shane twisted, dodging the attack, but his incantation did not falter. He kept chanting, shifting his stance as Rei hurled more daggers, forcing him to bob and weave mid-casting.
"Break Rock!" Shane cried out as he finished the magic.
The earth exploded.
The rock walls shattered into chunks, and the trapped figures burst free, charging once more. Rei's breath caught—this wasn't working. He had to switch tactics.
He spun and thrust both hands at Shane instead of targeting the attackers. "Earth Bind!"
A thick shell of stone encased Shane's lower body, rooting him to the ground.
Then, without wasting a heartbeat, Rei used his Qi to form a domain at his legs. He conjured a tightly compressed wind bomb at his feet, the sudden blast propelling him skyward. With precision, he launched two daggers at the ceiling, embedding them deep in the stone, and grabbed hold.
He activated another spell—"Earth Discloser"—and the ceiling cracked. A fissure opened. Gripping his daggers as makeshift handles, Rei began climbing through the gap.
Below, Shane shattered the stone around him and looked up, fury flashing in his eyes. "You're not escaping that easily!"
Shane raised his hand, already chanting a new incantation. Rei heard it—an incantation for Rockfall magic.
Rei climbed faster, but Shane was faster.
Chunks of stone broke loose from above and began to fall. Rei gasped as a rock struck his shoulder, nearly dislodging him. He lost grip with one hand—but didn't fall. Not yet.
He closed his eyes for a heartbeat, and within him, a memory stirred. A forgotten lesson.
He raised his hand toward the ground and whispered, "Seismic Pulse: Wind Resonance."
A gust of wind shot downward, using the wind as a medium, and Rei sent seismic waves at it, its frequency perfectly tuned. The ground trembled, a tremor echoing outward. From that pulse, a wall of earth surged upward, catching him mid-fall like a rising elevator. He jumped from it and caught the edge of the fissure again.
Before Shane could cast again, a silver blur darted behind him.
Tenko.
With a vicious snarl, the Navarion beast struck, claws slashing, forcing Shane back, disrupting his next spell. Rei climbed closer to the surface now.
But the fissure groaned.
The repeated use of Rockfall and Rei's own manipulation had weakened it. As Rei reached up, a massive section of the stone gave way. His support crumbled.
The ledge collapsed.
Rei fell again.
But this time, he was ready.
"Wind Cushion," he whispered.
Air swirled beneath him, softening his fall. He landed in a crouch, breath heaving. When he looked up, the illusory humans were forming a circle around him.
He summoned stone from all directions. "Earth Wall—Quad Seal!"
Four walls rose around him, enclosing him from all sides. Safe for now—but just barely.
Then... something happened.
The last of the grey colour in Qi stone on his scepter vanished. No—transformed. The color drained away entirely, replaced by deep violet. The Chaos Scepter began to tremble in his grip.
It vibrated wildly.
"Wh-What...?"
Rei cried out and dropped it. The moment it touched the ground, it rose, hovering mid-air as if alive.
Its wooden handle began to grow, sprouting branches and roots like a rapidly growing tree. In mere moments, it had become a towering structure, one-third Rei's height. The roots decayed and turned to dust, leaving only a curved wooden handle. The ores from his big box, along with ores embedded in the walls, started attracting towards the handle.
"No!"
But it was too late. The scepter consumed the ores—his crafted powders and krystallites. It tore the fire krystallite from Shane's pocket. All elements—fire, water, earth, wind, plant—merged into a swirling vortex of power. As each ore touched the wood, it turned a deep, unnatural purple.
Then the gems fused.
The five elemental gems, along with foreign gems one such as a violet core gem, merged at the head of the scepter. The wooden handle hardened into blackened ore, etched with markings no human had written. A curved staff emerged, regal and terrifying, crowned by a triangular formation of three bladed prongs that enclosed the massive violet gem.
And then—it pulsed.
Rei's vision swirled. The chamber disappeared. The ground faded. Sound, weight, time—all vanished.
He stood on an endless mirror of violet liquid, beneath a sky of swirling purple clouds. No wind, no echo, just silence.
From the surface of the liquid, a figure rose.
A humanoid, formed entirely of the same violet substance as the sea, with glowing, shifting eyes.
The creature tilted its head.
"Did you make me?" it asked.