The Anomaly's Path

”That voice...”

Seris looked up toward the portal, her lips parting as the space above the street tore wide open. The portal above the street didn’t close. It hung in the air like a jagged fracture in dark glass, humming with a low, spatial vibration that made the surrounding air ripple.

Headmaster Vega stepped out of the tear.

He didn’t drop from the sky, nor did he land with a loud crash. His boots simply touched the ground with a faint, dry click. He wore a simple black coat with a high collar over a white shirt, completely clean, untouched by the ash and purple mist drifting through the alley.

His short silver hair was neatly combed, and his golden eyes held a stillness so deep it made the chaos around him feel strangely quiet. He glanced at the fourteen-foot monster, then turned his gaze toward Seris.

Seris remained on her knees, her left arm hanging limp while dark blood dripped from her nose onto her skin. Behind her, in the shadow of the arch, Leo lay unconscious, his breath shallow but steady.

”Headmaster...” Seris choked out, her voice rough and weak. She tried to push herself up, her right hand pressing into the bloody ground, but her knees gave out instantly. ”I...”

”Sit down, Seris,” Vega said. His voice was calm, not loud, yet it carried clearly over the monster’s deep, gurgling roars. ”...You have done more than enough.”

He turned back to the monster.

The creature roared, its huge jaw splitting open to reveal the hundreds of pale, wriggling fingers lining its mouth. The chorus of stolen voices screamed out in a deafening blast meant to tear minds apart.

Vega didn’t move. He didn’t even draw a weapon. The moment the psychic wave reached within ten feet of him, it simply vanished. The sound died instantly, swallowed by a heavy pressure that suddenly dropped over the whole street.

The air grew thick. The space itself felt dense, as if the air had turned heavy.

Vega took a single step forward.

The Abomination’s eyeless head twitched in sudden terror. It raised its massive, trunk-like right arm, gathering a ball of dark purple energy around its heavy knuckles, and smashed its fist downward toward the headmaster’s head.

Vega didn’t dodge. He casually raised his right hand, catching the giant fist with his bare palm.

Boom!

The shockwave blew the surrounding rubble forty feet backward, but Vega’s arm didn’t bend at all. His boots remained firmly planted on the ground. The dragon shifted his eyes upward, looking at the creature’s massive, grey face with cool indifference.

”Pathetic...” Vega murmured softly. His fingers closed around the creature’s colossal fist.

Crack!

With a simple squeeze, the Abomination’s dense grey skin, muscle, and thick bone crushed like dry paper. Yellow pus and black blood burst from its knuckles, spraying across the air, but an invisible barrier around Vega kept every drop from touching his coat.

The creature let out a wet, agonizing shriek, trying to pull its arm back. Vega didn’t let go. He stepped in close, his left hand reaching up to grab the bottom edge of the monster’s lower jaw, right where the wriggling human fingers sprouted from the grey flesh.

”A construct of stolen voices,” Vega said flatly. ”You are truly a messy, ugly creation.”

He pulled.

There was a sickening sound as he used sheer physical force, ripping the monster’s entire lower jaw clean off its face and tearing through thick muscle and bone like wet paper. Black liquid poured onto the street in heavy streams.

The pale fingers in the severed jaw twitched wildly before going stiff, their screams cut short. The beast thrashed, its remaining arm swinging wildly, but Vega moved with frightening speed.

He drove his bare right hand straight into the center of the monster’s chest, punching through its thick grey hide. His fingers locked around its core, a pulsing, corrupted gem the size of a human head.

Vega pulled his arm back. The core came out with a wet, heavy sound, trailing thick grey veins. The monster’s body instantly froze. Its huge frame stiffened, the grey skin quickly losing color, turning into dull, chalky ash.

Vega crushed the core in his palm. It dissolved into a cloud of harmless grey dust. The massive corpse fell forward, slamming onto the ground with a heavy thud before crumbling into piles of harmless soot.

Vega stood among the crumbling remains, completely clean. He wiped a small speck of dust from his sleeve and turned back to the alley. Seris stared, her breathing heavy, her mind struggling to understand the gap in power.

A threat that had broken their whole group, reduced to ash in less than thirty seconds.

Steps echoed from the broken shops.

Roan limped out first, his left arm hanging useless. Behind him, Elisabeth staggered forward, clutching her burning chest, while Nyra dragged herself out of the dark ruin across the street, her snout stained red, three claws missing from her hand. Amelia slumped against a pillar, shaking from exhaustion.

They all stopped when they saw Vega.

”You really took your damn time, old man...” Roan wheezed, letting out a short cough before giving a weak, smirk. ”Were you waiting for all of us to drop dead before showing up?”

Vega looked at the battered students. His eyes softened slightly, the cold pressure around him fading into a warm, quiet presence. ”I’m sorry I was delayed at the southern rift. You all fought well. I’m proud of you.”

Roan let out a dry chuckle, though he winced as his broken ribs shifted. ”Don’t get soft on us now, old man. My ribs are broken in three places.”

Vega walked over to the shadow of the archway, kneeling down beside Leo. He placed two fingers against the boy’s neck, feeling the unsteady beat beneath his skin. He closed his eyes for a split second, letting out a sharp, quiet breath through his teeth.

He’s breathing.

A quiet weight in Vega’s chest lifted. He wasn’t afraid of dying, but he was cautious. If Leo had died here today, that crazy Zephyr wouldn’t care about anything. The Lightning Sovereign would have torn Aegis Academy apart just to let out his rage.

”He’s alive,” Vega said, his voice flat, though the relief behind it was unmistakable.

Roan let out a dry laugh from across the street. ”Lucky bastard. You look like you just dodged a war, old man.”

Vega didn’t deny it. He stood up, his golden eyes sweeping over the battered group. He looked at their torn clothes, bloodied faces, and broken bones. They had dragged themselves through hell to hold off a Grade 7 monster, facing horrors that should have killed them in seconds.

But, he didn’t waste time on empty praise or soft words. There was no room for comforting speeches when a Grade 8 rift was tearing the sky apart a few miles away, and every second spent here was borrowed time.

They survived, Vega thought, letting out a faint, silent sigh as his eyes darkened. That is praise enough for today.

With a simple wave of his arm, space split open down the middle of the street. A wide, portal expanded, opening directly onto the safe, guarded grounds of the Academy’s Central Plaza. Medical teams, healers, and stretchers were already waiting on the other side.

”Gather the unconscious students,” Vega ordered, pointing at the portal. ”Take Leo, get out, and report to the medical bay. I will handle the remaining monsters in this area myself.”

”What about you, headmaster?” Amelia asked, her voice trembling slightly. ”The Gate... the city...”

Before Vega could answer, the sky above them violently shuddered. A tremendous, heavy shockwave rolled across the sky, coming from the direction of the distant ridge near the Sealed Valley.

Even miles away, the sheer weight of the aura made the ground tremble, sending dust falling from the ruined buildings. Everyone gasped, clutching their chests as their knees buckled under the sudden pressure.

”What... what the hell was that?!” Amelia asked.

Vega turned his head toward the mountains, his expression instantly darkening. The calm, relaxed demeanor disappeared, replaced by a sharp, icy focus.

”The Gate Boss has broken through the rift,” Vega said, his voice cold.

The students froze, the horror of a Sovereign-level threat settling over them like a heavy blanket.

Seris looked up, her hand tightening. ”Are you going to the ridge?”

”No,” Vega said, a faint, dangerous glint passing through his eyes. ”Someone far more reckless has already arrived at the Sealed Valley. Even I wouldn’t dare step into his way right now.”

He gestured toward the glowing portal one last time. ”Move now. Take Leo and clear out. Let us handle the rest.”

Seris didn’t argue. She knew when a battle was far beyond them. She knelt down, carefully hooking Leo’s arm over her shoulder, forcing her shaking legs to stand as she took his weight.

”Come on,” Seris said to the others, her voice steady. ”Through the gate.”

Roan, Elisabeth, Nyra, and Amelia moved slowly, starting to grab the unconscious students who were still with them. Many of the others were already dead, and they couldn’t do anything about them, but they picked up the ones still alive.

Seris was the last to cross, dragging Leo through the tear.

Once the last student stepped through, the portal snapped shut behind them, leaving the street in quiet, heavy silence.

Vega stood alone in the ruined alley for a long moment, surrounded by the crumbling remains of the dead Grade 7 monster. He looked up at the sky, listening to the wild, distant rumbles of thunder echoing from the Sealed Valley.

”Try not to blow up the entire mountain, old friend,” Vega murmured softly to the empty air.

With a quiet step backward, he dissolved into a flash of light, vanishing to clear the remaining monsters from the Academy.

_

Meanwhile, on the Ridge of the Sealed Valley...

The high cliff overlooking the valley was no longer a ridge. It was a cratered, blood-soaked wasteland. The ground was cracked open, leaking thick purple mist that smelled of rot and blood. Dozens of monster corpses, Grade 5 and Grade 6 beasts, lay piled around the broken rock, their bodies torn apart and burnt black.

Morgana knelt on one knee in the middle of the destruction. Her clothes were torn to shreds, soaked with her own blood and the black ooze of countless beasts. Her black hair was a mess, strands sticking to her bloody face.

She was breathing in ragged, painful gasps, her right hand gripping her sword so tightly her knuckles were white. Her War affinity was burning through her veins like fire, but her core was running on empty.

A few feet away, Damon stood leaning against a jagged rock. His grey hair was matted with blood. He coughed, spitting blood onto the ground, his eyes locked onto the sky above.

”We’ve... killed almost three hundred of them,” Damon rasped, his voice tight, his power flickering weakly around his blade. ”And they just... keep coming.”

”Shut up, Draven,” Morgana growled through her teeth, forcing her body back onto her feet. Her body shook with raw exhaustion, but her dark purple eyes burned with a suicidal, stubborn glare. ”As long as I’m breathing... not a single one of these bastards touches the city.”

Suddenly, the sky didn’t just crack. It tore completely open.

A wet, sickening sound echoed through the air, like raw meat being ripped apart. The Grade 8 Gate hanging above the ridge swelled violently. The sky turned a sickly purple and yellow, and the air filled with a thick, suffocating stench of rot, bile, and open wounds.

Out of the massive tear, the Gate Boss began to push its way through.

It was a nightmare of pure horror. Instead of a solid, powerful monster, a massive, bloated, pale sack of grey-pink flesh bulged out from the sky. It hung upside down, drooping like a giant, misshapen skull made of soft bone, leaking yellow pus and greenish fluid from dozens of open, swollen sores across its body.

Covering its face were dozens of huge, bloodshot eyes. They rolled around on their own, always leaking thick, black tears down the flesh. In the exact center hung a giant, burst red eye, swinging loosely from thick, stringy muscle.

Down its front, a huge vertical mouth split open, not lined with teeth, but filled with thousands of tiny, black, maggot like needles that squirmed wildly.

Reaching out from the tears in the sky were six unnaturally long, white arms. They weren’t solid bone, they were strung together by stretched human spines and raw muscle, ending in rusted, metal-like bone hooks that dripped a greasy black sludge.

The sheer weight of its aura pressed down on the ridge.

Boom!

The ground shattered under the crushing pressure.

Morgana was slammed back onto her knees, blood spraying from her mouth as her insides twisted under the nightmare’s weight. Beside her, Damon dropped to one knee, cracking the ground beneath him as he fought to keep his head up.

”Fucking hell... that bastard came out of the Gate,” Damon choked out, his vision swimming.

The massive flesh-sack gurgled.

Long, wet, fleshy tendrils sprouted from beneath its weeping eyes, hanging down toward the ridge like dangling roots, dripping burning slime that hissed as it hit the rock. The giant red eye locked directly onto Morgana and Damon.

The wriggling needles inside its gaping jaw began to shake, ready to unleash a wave of destruction on the wounded fighters.

Morgana gritted her teeth, raising her sword with trembling hands. ”Come on then, you hideous freak...”

Before the monster could strike, a blinding streak of blue light cut through the dark clouds.

A loud roar of thunder shattered the air, drowning out the monster’s gurgles. The purple clouds were blasted apart as a bolt of bright lightning slammed down from the sky, crashing directly into the center of the ridge between the fighters and the Gate Boss.

The impact blew the fog away instantly. As the light faded, a tall figure stood among the crackling lightning.

He wore a dark coat, his dark hair windblown, his ocean-blue eyes glowing with wild, crackling lightning. He looked no older than his late twenties, holding a massive, broad black-steel sword over his shoulder with effortless ease.

Zephyr von Celestial grinned, his teeth sharp against the dark sky as electric arcs danced across his arms. He didn’t look at the horrifying monster above him. He casually turned his head back, looking at the exhausted forms of Morgana and Damon.

”You kids look like hell,” Zephyr laughed, his voice booming over the rumble of thunder. ”Who told you to fight a Sovereign without inviting me?”

Damon stared, his eyes wide. ”Zephyr...?”

Zephyr turned back toward the bloated, weeping horror hanging from the sky. His eyes narrowed, the smile on his face turning cold, sharp, and cruel.

”Alright, you ugly piece of shit,” Zephyr growled, resting his black steel blade against his neck as a storm of lightning erupted around his feet. ”Let’s see if you bleed as loud as you look.”