The Glorious Evolution

Thud!

Levi hit the ground among the broken branches, rolling over his shoulder before he stopped himself short of an exposed root.

He quickly tried to push himself up, but the movement pulled at his chest wound, sending blood down his stomach... along the long gash, the spilling blood gathered into a familiar face.

Arthur’s.

His brother’s mouth opened as the blood slid over Levi’s skin, and his voice erupted directly inside his mind!

”Big bro... it hurts! Please, make him stop!”

The plea broke into a screech, so familiar that Levi nearly answered before another face formed beside it... His mother’s, followed by his father’s.

Ragged bite wounds opened across them, dragging the rest of that cursed night into his mind... Na’thir’s dark red tentacles, the doglike mouths snapping at his parents, and their blood splashing across the floor of their home.

”Don’t look, baby...”

His mother wore the same strained smile she had forced through the agony that night... then another bite tore it apart.

”It hurts, Levi... please... make them stop biting...”

Her voice broke into a scream, and Levi’s attempt to stand faltered against his will, his heart ripping from its place.

She had never asked him to save her... even as those mouths tore pieces from her body, she had tried to protect him from watching... but Rain’s technique used that same loving voice to beg for help he couldn’t give!

It wasn’t just them... Shia, Jojo, Nurah, Jasmine, and everyone Levi cared for had their harrowing faces spill with his blood, begging him to save them, reproaching him for forsaking them, and using their voices to utter things Levi feared happening to them the most.

Then, his father’s mouth emerged again, already bitten away, just as Levi remembered... yet his voice still reached him.

”Son... why didn’t you save us?”

”I...”

Levi tried to form an answer even though he knew that he wasn’t real... what he said would never come out of his father’s mouth.

Still... the technique used their voices so precisely that every cry left him incapable of ignoring it.

How heinous.

How cruel.

How fitting... of the Fear Aspect.

Through Scarlet Noctem Arts, Rain had infused his katana with one’s own worst fears... every wound it inflicted under Dread Ascension drew on them, shaping their spilling blood into manifestations of those terrors.

With his subconscious barrier already damaged by the jaws, the voices broke through whenever he tried to gather his thoughts.

His illusions throughout the forest flickered.

Levi tried to restore their spiritual auras, but his mother called his name again... he lost the connection halfway through, and hundreds of his figures broke apart between the crimson trees!

The wolves chasing them suddenly found nothing in their jaws.

’Levi, focus!’

Ash’Kral’s stern warning reached him through the voices, giving him something real to follow and helping him snap out of the voices at last.

Instantly, he tuned them out until he heard nothing else; whether they were mental voices or real ones, Levi’s Harmonic Spine allowed him to manipulate what he heard and their volume to perfection.

Thus, while Rain’s katana’s effect was still active, Levi simply heard nothing but muffled noises.

’How is he so strong already?’

Levi frowned, gathering his thoughts at last and hurriedly sealing the chest gash with an aetheric layer.

Levi knew that Rain’s strength wasn’t to be underestimated.

He still recalled how much of a pain in the ass it was to get rid of him in the Faction Event... but the bastard had unleashed this much force before he even had time to harvest their fear!

’It must be stored fear,’ Ash’Kral shared. ’He’s consuming what he already harvested before the fight... such techniques are usually temporary.’

’Stored fear...’

That explained the sudden rise in Rain’s strength and how he was able to crack through his reinforced subconscious barrier... but knowing it would eventually run out didn’t comfort him much when a small opening was enough for Rain to cause this much damage.

Worse... this was only the beginning, as Levi’s Harmonic Spine had already sensed Rain emerging above him from a cloud of crimson mist filled with harrowing faces, his katana descending toward his neck!

Whoosh!

Aetheric Grasp snapped the fallen Judgement’s Chainstaff into Levi’s hand, and he held it in front of him, channeling aetheric energy into a concentrated stack of dark green shields!

Shatter! Shatter!!

Rain’s katana broke through the reinforced barriers one after another, the fears it consumed escaping into the air as agonized screeches!

Aaaaaaaa!!! Nooooo!!

Levi knitted his brows at the realization that each stored fear had belonged to someone... someone Rain had mentally tortured to harvest their terror.

What fueled that blade wasn’t merely spiritual energy, but the suffering he had inflicted on those people... and now, he was consuming it against him like mere fuel to be replenished.

The thought alone left Levi sick to his stomach as he stared at Rain’s indifferent face... messy white hair fell over his sunken, sleepy eyes, not an ounce of sympathy reflected in his dark pupils.

Boom! Boom!

But Levi knew this wasn’t the time for such emotions... he swiftly used Combustion Leaps from his soles, sliding rapidly across the soil in an attempt to keep Rain away.

But Rain was relentless, as even the instinct to retreat gave him an opening to use his powers.

His dark eyes flashed once, and Levi found himself fed a false sensation of the katana already cutting into his neck.

While it was false, his body reacted reflexively on its own, making him jerk his staff upward to block it!

Expecting his response, Rain twisted his wrist and changed the blade’s course toward Levi’s exposed side.

’!!!’

Levi’s expression turned dark as he swiftly used Aetheric Grasp to pull himself unnaturally, knowing that his flexible body could handle the movement... while it did save him from getting sliced into two halves, the katana still opened a cut along his upper arm in its trajectory.

Slash!

Levi’s mother’s face formed in the fresh blood, its mouth opening in a plea he could no longer hear... but the pain was still as real as it could get.

Levi gritted his teeth and swiftly drove the burning green staff’s crown toward Rain’s chest in an attempt at a counterattack.

Alas... this was Rain.

His human projection dissolved into mist before the flames reached it, causing the weapon to pass through empty air.

Taking advantage of this brief moment, Levi brought out a recovery totem, consuming it while rapidly mumbling its incantation.

But before the effects could heal him up properly, Rain emerged on his right side.

Levi went down and swept the burning staff across his approaching legs, forcing him to scatter his projection again.

But this time, he left the katana floating in the air, waiting until Levi’s swing was already committed before reemerging in the same position, his hand grasping the swung katana and continuing its momentum!!

With his back fully exposed to the attack, Levi didn’t falter or think of retreating again... he reflexively manifested a concentrated aetheric arm born out of his wide back, with its palm facing the screeching katana to block it!

’Really?’

Rain sneered and sliced through the extended arm like it was made out of cotton, his sharp blade unstoppable!

Alas, he might have taken advantage of a few openings, turning the battle’s momentum in his favor, but Levi’s battle IQ wasn’t praised by many of his opponents for nothing.

Before Rain could realize it, the sliced aetheric arm vibrated intensely for a split second, and then it exploded in his face!

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

Rain barely managed to dissolve some of his body into mist before the explosion sent his body tumbling away.

As for Levi? He wasn’t spared from the explosion either... it sent him rolling to the other side, but he swiftly braced himself against a tree and stood on his feet without suffering much additional damage.

Preparing for the explosion meant preparing a protective measure against it!

Levi knew that the only way to separate from Rain was to go this far since it was nearly impossible to land a solid hit on Rain’s projection... every counter forced him to commit to a movement Rain could abandon since his soul was never inside that body.

His partner in crime, the Hexgaze Lurker, still held it.

Levi remembered chasing the creature during the Faction Event... his spiritual vision had failed to follow its camouflage then, just as it failed him now... even his advanced aetheric vision wasn’t much of a help.

However... his Harmonic Spine hadn’t.

After finally getting a chance to recollect his thoughts, Levi focused his Harmonic Spine past Rain’s reforming body, following the faint ripples left elsewhere in the surrounding frequencies.

His Warden evolution had expanded its range to two kilometers, more or less... and near that new limit, he located a small colorful chameleon hiding between two roots.

’Found you.’

Levi followed the chameleon as it changed forms, trying to disappear from his perception... but each change left another disturbance for his improved Harmonic Spine to catch!

Boom! Boom!

Without hesitation, he detonated compressed sound and aether at his soles, launching himself past Rain’s reforming projection!