Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 1880: Their Secret and Their Path

Adam had only recently learned about the Monster Nexuses. For the most part, this was a thing of the past, since virtually none of the new Phantoms possessed the Monster Nexuses.

Over the past ten years, thousands of Phantoms have appeared, but only two of them had the Monster Nexuses. Those were Sano and Natta. Obviously, they weren’t ordinary Phantoms, since they worked for Aiden.

Thus, excluding Sano and Natta, there hasn’t been a single Phantom with a Monster Nexus in the last ten years. It was an extremely rare occurrence that has all but disappeared in modern times.

The main reason for this was that regular Nexuses offered no less combat power but were far safer to create and use.

Also, no matter what type of Nexus a Phantom had, if he was advancing toward greater power, sooner or later everything came down to a single point – the Manifest Nexus.

In fact, a standard K4-Phantom wasn’t supposed to know about either the Monster Nexus or the Manifest Nexus. One was a dark secret, and the other was too great a power for his current level.

But Adam knew about this.

He knew that sooner or later, he and Silvana would have to create the Manifest Nexus, of which she would be the central part. He knew that the Monster Nexuses possessed terrifying power and that there used to be far more of them than there are now, but the risks were enormous.

Now, Adam saw something he hadn’t expected at all when he accepted Amelia’s request to heal her father.

He looked at Gladius’s Nexus, seeing it for the first time. But he wouldn’t have been so surprised if Gladius’s Nexus hadn’t turned out to be a Monster Nexus.

“Wait… How can this be…?”

Adam was confused.

He knew that what stood before him was the Manifest Nexus, since Gladius was a powerful Phantom even among the Second-Rank Ones.

However, it was also a Monster Nexus. The open eye on the blade and the distinctive aura were proof of this.

“His Operator is Xyrea…” Adam muttered as the picture gradually came together in his mind. One piece at a time.

Xyrea and Gladius were the most unusual pair of Phantom and Operator Adam had ever encountered. After all, Xyrea was a monster, yet she was his Operator.

Most Phantoms and humans would have concluded that this was impossible, but Adam knew enough to understand that what mattered most was the bond between them.

Still, this was a unique case.

However, every time Adam thought about Gladius and Xyrea, there was one thing he couldn’t understand.

How?

How could Gladius have gone to the Dead Lands and defeated such a powerful monster as Xyrea? If she was his Operator, that meant he hadn’t had one until that moment, which meant his power level was limited to the K2 level.

Adam knew there was some secret behind the answer, and now, everything fell into place.

“Fuck…”

Adam’s face paled at the realization.

“During our conversation before the Hollow Lands, I assumed he’d simply attacked Xyrea, defeated her, and forced her to submit. But… It wasn’t like that at all, was it?”

Adam’s pupils trembled.

“He didn’t just beat Xyrea… He killed her and turned her into his weapon, didn’t he?”

Deep down, Adam knew that was the case, yet he found it hard to accept.

He knew that as the Monster Nexus’s power grew, so did its intellect. Those Monster Nexuses that proved stronger than their owners devoured them and regenerated their bodies, essentially coming back to life after being defeated many years ago.

So, if a Phantom was weak, the monster it had killed would eventually become a monster again, ceasing to be the Phantom’s weapon. Such monsters were known as the Returned Monsters.

Obviously, this wasn’t Gladius’s case. He was more than strong enough to control his Monster Nexus.

“But when I asked Aiden what would happen if a Phantom were strong enough to subjugate its Monster Nexus and reach the Second Circle, well… he didn’t answer. His response was vague.”

Now, Adam understood why.

“Shit… If he had answered, I would have understood everything back then. In one scenario, a Monster Nexus kills its owner and returns to the Dead Lands. But in another, the Phantom and the Monster Nexus work together and reach the Second Circle. Then…”

Adam gulped as he looked at Gladius and his halberd.

“In that case, a Monster Nexus finally becomes an Operator as it returns to its monster form. Now, it’s simultaneously a monster, an Operator, and a weapon, just like Arika is to Goen: she’s a human, an Operator, and his sword…”

One of the peculiarities of the Monster Nexuses was that Phantoms with such Nexuses didn’t have Operators in the usual sense of the word.

Adam had no proof of this, but he and Silvana had come to this conclusion while he was fighting Sano and Natta.

So, if Gladius had a Monster Nexus, that meant it was also his Operator. It was Xyrea.

“So, technically, is Xyrea one of the few Returned Monsters?”

Adam muttered as his gaze fell on Gladius.

“Hell, how many secrets does that bastard have? He works with Aiden Henk, a Second-Rank Phantom, has a Monster Nexus, and, as a result, a Monster Operator, and on top of that… it seems he’s the one responsible for the birth of the Spirit of Eternal Winter, one of the Legacy Artifacts…”

True, Adam hadn’t expected to get an answer today about what actually happened between Gladius and Xyrea that led to their alliance, but he was glad it had happened.

“I wonder… Among the other Second-Rank Phantoms, is there anyone else with a Monster Operator? That would mean they have Monster Nexuses too, just like Gladius, right?”

Tremble!

A sharp tremor in space caught Adam’s attention, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Soon, a bitter smile appeared on his face as a silhouette he knew all too well appeared behind Gladius.

“Huh… I see.”