The aura hit Jin like getting slammed by a semi-truck going full speed.

  His knees buckled, and he barely caught himself, scraping his palms on the rough floor, arms shaking with the effort of staying upright instead of flattening completely against the rooftop.

  Beside him, Rudy went down just as hard. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. A strangled curse escaped through gritted teeth.

  Through the haze of pressure squeezing his skull like a vice, Jin saw Reyana on one knee. Her own aura flickered around her frame in defense, pulsing against the overwhelming force crushing down on all of them.

  It wasn't enough.

  The beam of corrupted light receded like a curtain drawn back from hell itself, and two figures stepped forward through the dissipating darkness.

  Jin forced his head up. Forced his eyes to focus past the spots dancing in his vision. Forced his mind into the cold clarity of Eternal Sovereign circulation even as his channels protested every circulation with sheer anguish.

  The world sharpened. Pain eased from unbearable to merely excruciating.

  Good enough.

  ? It seems you are under direct suppression of an ORDER IV entity's aura. ?

  I fricking know that! Jin screamed internally at his narrator. Tell me something helpful instead of stating the obvious!

  ? … ?

  ? This effect won’t last long. ?

  Jin bit his lip hard enough to taste fresh copper and pushed himself to look at the enemies. He had brief moments of clarity before the aura suppression effects would resume and turn his brain into mush.

  The first figure was wrong.

  That was Jin's immediate assessment, and every instinct he possessed screamed at him to run, hide, or preferably both.

  ? I’m certain this entity is blessed, and that’s the blessing’s influence is at play, so avoid direct eye contact if possible. ?

  The thing standing before them was eight feet of grotesque amalgamation of charred muscle and exposed bone that looked like someone had stuffed a demon into a meat grinder and reassembled the pieces wrong.

  Horns curved from its skull in twisted spirals. Massive claws ended arms that were twice the length of its torso, talons dripping something dark and viscous that hissed when it hit the concrete, eating through the material like acid.

  Its face, if that word even applied, had eyes like burning coals blazing from deep sockets. A quick look was enough to trigger a wave of hallucinations, and Jin jerked his head away.

  ? What did I just say! ?

  The look it gave us was as if we were insects, just waiting to be squashed.

  The pressure intensified, and Jin tasted more fresh blood as something tore in his nasal cavity.

  “Argh,” His vision went red around the edges.

  Overdrive. Now!

  ? Initiating [Overdrive sequence (x6)] ?

  Time slowed to a crawl as Jin's perception accelerated to six

  times normal processing speed. The world turned into a slideshow of frozen moments—Rudy's grimace, Reyana's flickering aura, the monsters taking another step forward.

  Corrupted essence radiated from every inch of exposed flesh on the first monster. Jin's Omni-Reader flooded his vision with warnings, danger alerts stacking on top of each other until they blurred together like static on a dying television.

  But one word stood out in blazing red text that seemed to pulse with its own malevolent heartbeat.

  ? BLESSING OF THE DARKENED ONE. ?

  Shit.

  ? I was right, the blessings are too concentrated on this enemy. You are in the presence of a true blessed of [The Darkened One].?

  ? This would be a dangerous battle. ?

  Agreed.

  The second figure stood slightly behind the first. A skeletal warrior clad in dark flames that seemed to drink light from the surrounding air like a black hole made of fire. A single horn jutted from its forehead, inscribed with runes that pulsed and crackled with the same dark flames wreathing its body.

  In its clawed grip rested a sledgehammer made from pristine white bone.

  The contrast was disturbing—bone so white it practically glowed against the darkness surrounding it, like someone had torn the femur from an angel and turned it into a weapon.

  Get me their statuses.

  ? Understood. Running appraisal. ?

  The first monster shifted its weight, and the building groaned. Stone cracked. Rebar whined in protest somewhere beneath their feet.

  That eight-foot frame shouldn't weigh enough to damage reinforced concrete, but the corruption pouring off it made reality itself bend around its mass.

  Blue panels flickered into existence in Jin's vision, text scrolling faster. Overdrive let him absorb it all in seconds that felt like minutes.

  〔═══════════════〕

  [ THRENVAL, THE ABYSSAL CHILD OF THE DARKENED ONE ]

  ? Rank: ??? Current power level shows Peak ORDER IV.

  ? Blessings: [DARKENED ONE - TIER ???]

  ? Abilities: [ Summoning ??? Interference detected. The blessings are preventing piercing into the enemy's status.]

  ? Warning: Divine Corruption Detected

  ? Warning: Veil Resonance Detected

  〔═══════════════〕

  Threnval? A named monster... That's not good.

  ? There's very little chance of escape. Even if you manage to create distance, the veil will track your location as long as Threnval, the abyssal child, lives. ?

  ? This monster is connected too deeply to the veil itself. Likely because of its direct relation to the Darkened One. ?

  ? I'm forcing through the resistance, but be vigilant. ?

  Drastic measures then.

  Jin matched the gaze of the other monster, the skeletal one with the hammer, and straight out of his memory surfaced an image he really didn't want to remember. The shape reminded him too much of another monster who had kidnapped him during the ritual circle sabotage.

  Vellakin.

  The monster's empty eye sockets regarded them with the dispassionate attention of a butcher examining livestock. Then those hollow pits locked directly on Jin.

  He felt seen in a way that made his skin crawl.

  〔═══════════════〕

  NOURMA, THE 4TH CREATION OF HAND VELA

  ? Rank: ORDER IV [MID]

  ? Classification: Artificial Construct

  〔═══════════════〕

  Jin focused and found the monster had no aura, just like Vellakin. Instead, there was a layer of faint dark flames covering its body like a second skin.

  ? Much like [Entropy Zone] of Vellakin, this monster Nourma should have access to something similar. ?

  ? Their full status will be available soon. I'm almost past the interference. ?

  "Argh—" Jin coughed out blood as his mind reached the limits of what it could bear under Overdrive. Red droplets spattered against the rooftop floor. With a mental command, Jin let the acceleration lapse.

  Time resumed normal speed.

  Threnval, the abyssal monster, moved, and the pressure increased tenfold.

  ? We are reaching a critical threshold. Any more and you all would not be able to bear it. ?

  What in hell are you doing, Joe—

  Jin's mental rant vanished, overwhelmed by another intense pressure crashing into the first.

  Fierce waves of a familiar aura collided with the crushing weight. The two forces met, and the air between them shimmered with heat distortion and spatial tears that looked like reality was cracking at the seams.

  This new presence didn't crush. It pushed. Creating space where there wasn't any before, carving out room to breathe in the suffocating weight, trying to flatten them into paste.

  The pressure on Jin's chest eased, and he gasped for a full breath. Blood still coated his tongue with copper bitterness, but at least his lungs worked again.

  Joe walked past them. Hands clasped behind his back. His usual jovial expression was gone, now replaced with something cold.

  The face of someone who hunted monsters for a living and was very good at his job.

  "Get your bodies in order," Joe said without looking back. "That goes for all of you."

  Jin nodded and scrambled backward on hands and knees until his back hit an AC unit hard enough to bruise. Reyana and Rudy crashed into the same unit a second later, and the three of them huddled like survivors of a shipwreck clinging to debris.

  "How in hell are there two Underlords after us?" Rudy's voice came out rough. Blood still trickled from his mouth. "If only master were here… since he's not—"

  Rudy paused while breathing deeply through his nose, cycling essence with visible effort. He turned to give Jin a look that was somehow both serious and accusatory.

  "It's your duty now!"

  "Huh? How am I the one!" Jin muttered, pulling Iron Howl from his ring. "Whatever, for now, breathe and meditate. The aura clash has messed up our circulations. Get them in order, or else our skill will not hit them at peak damage."

  Snap.

  The sound was loud and crisp, like someone breaking a twig.

  Jin's eyes traced spatial distortion rippling out in visible waves.

  The pressure from Threnval wavered. The Abyssal Child's head snapped around, searching for the source of the disturbance.

  Doors materialized out of nowhere. One, two, five, ten—wooden frames appearing from nothing, standing upright without support, defying physics and common sense.

  They surrounded the two monsters in a perfect circle.

  Threnval's head snapped toward the nearest door. Its claw lashed out, talons raking across the wood with a screech like nails on a chalkboard amplified a thousand times.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Snap.

  The door became ethereal. The claw passed through empty space, and the monster stumbled forward, off balance for the first time since appearing.

  Snap.

  The doors opened. Every single one, all at once.

  Red light spilled out like blood from a wound. Pure molten lava spewed from each door, arcing through the air in thick streams that hissed and spat. The temperature spiked so fast that Jin felt the hair on his arms singe, skin tightening from the heat.

  Threnval's aura exploded outward in response. Dark flames mixed with corrupted blessings formed a shimmering barrier. Lava struck the barrier and hissed, steam rising in thick clouds that smelled like sulfur and burning stone.

  Nourma raised its hammer and brought it down in an overhead smash that cracked the rooftop. Dark flames erupted from the impact point, meeting the lava head-on.

  Joe performed fast hand gestures, fingers blurring through complex patterns. The lava flooding the rooftop pulsed with fiery light, its red glow intensifying as Joe's essence merged with the molten rock.

  Snap.

  More doors appeared, and they opened to reveal chilling winds that blasted across the rooftop, carrying the bite of arctic cold.

  Steam exploded into the air, obscuring everything in a scalding fog that smelled like sulfur and burnt stone. Jin's eyes watered from the heat and moisture.

  Through the haze, Jin heard Joe start chanting. Low and rhythmic, the words were too rushed and fast for Jin to make sense of.

  Runes flared to life across the solidified lava, burning themselves into the makeshift stone prison trapping both monsters.

  The chanting stopped. Joe stood there for three seconds, breathing hard, then downed three potions in quick succession.

  Joe turned to face them. Sweat beaded his forehead despite the cold wind still howling. His hands shook slightly before he clenched them into fists.

  "We have a couple of minutes," Joe said, voice steady despite the tremor in his hands. He grinned—blood coating his teeth from where he'd bitten through his lip during the casting. "What's the play, boss?"

  Jin's brain stalled on that last word.

  Boss?

  "Thanks for finally stepping up, Joe." Jin shook his head, pushing past the confusion to focus on what mattered. His face hardened. "Now listen. The bigger monster is called Threnval, the Abyssal Child of the Darkened One. I can't pierce through much of its status, but it's at its peak ORDER IV. With the amount of blessings it has, I'm betting it can hit pseudo ORDER V levels when pushed to the brink."

  "The other one's called Nourma. Similar to the fucker that attacked me at the ritual site, another one of Vela's creations. Artificial construct, no aura, but don't let that fool you. It's still ORDER IV, and it's smart."

  Rudy and Reyana stayed silent. Both were cycling their essence, recovering what they could in the precious seconds they had left.

  Joe looked at Jin. Shrugged in that infuriating way he had—like they were discussing lunch options instead of imminent death. "Time for your test, kid. If you want to do what I think you want to do later, I need to see your judgment calls under pressure."

  "Joe, this is no joking matter." Jin's voice came out flat. Dead. "There are two ORDER IVs right in front of us. Two. That's not a test—that's an execution waiting to happen."

  Joe shrugged again.

  Infuriating bastard.

  "Fuck you, Joe." Jin turned to the others, and something shifted in his voice—a colder edge crept into it, the tone of someone who'd stopped asking permission and started giving orders. "Fine."

  He met Rudy's eyes first, then Reyana's. "From now on, follow my commands. Ask questions later, or don't ask at all. Understood?"

  Darkness started seeping from under the stones. Thin tendrils at first, then thicker streams.

  Crack. Crack. Crack.

  Fissures spread across the pile of solidified lava. Molten light leaked through the gaps like blood from a wound. The temperature spiked again, hot enough that Jin felt his skin tightening.

  "They're breaking out." Jin took a breath that scorched his lungs. "Listen closely. We need to disrupt and separate them."

  He gave Joe a pointed look. "Focus everything on the Abyssal Child. All your doors, all your power, everything you've got. On my signal, create a door and take it away from the battlefield. We'll handle the other one."

  Rudy's eyes went wide. "WE HANDLE IT? Jin, that's an Underlord! We're still ORDER I mortals who can barely—"

  He paused, swallowed hard. Asked more softly, "You have a plan, right? Please tell me you have a plan."

  Joe gave Jin an amused look. The corner of his lips curled up in something that might have been approval or anticipation of watching them fail spectacularly. "Very well. This should be entertaining."

  He stepped back to the edge of the rooftop. Hand signs flowed in complex patterns that left afterimages in the air.

  Jin ignored Rudy's panic and pushed forward. "On my signal, Rudy uses Warrior's Call on both targets. Draw their aggro, lock them down solely on you."

  "And then? What are we—"

  "Shh." Jin cut him off with a gesture. Hard stop. His eyes locked on Reyana. "It'll be you and me taking point. We draw their full attention, deal damage where we can, and most importantly, stay alive."

  "Understood." Reyana's voice was steady. "I'll follow your lead."

  "Good." Jin tightened his grip on Iron Howl and cycled essence through the channels, feeling them respond despite the earlier damage. "Prep up. They should be breaking out any second now."

  The stone pile exploded.

  Chunks of rock flew in every direction like shrapnel from a bomb. Jin threw up his arms, shielding his face as fragments peppered his body hard enough to bruise.

  The two monsters stepped out of the debris cloud.

  Wounded.

  Jin saw lava burns across the Abyssal Child's torso, exposed bone where flesh had been seared away. Nourma's flame armor had cracks running through it like broken pottery.

  But the wounds were superficial at best. Damage that would heal in minutes for creatures of their power level.

  The Abyssal Child threw its head back and roared. Darkness rippled out from its body in a visible wave, spreading across the rooftop in an expanding circle. Where it touched stone, corrupted essence seeped into the material like ink staining paper.

  From the darkness, shapes began to rise. Pulling themselves up out of the darkness like drowning victims clawing toward air.

  Jin recognized them instantly; they were the same breed of monsters they'd fought in the streets below.

  One. Two. Three. Four.

  Four ORDER III abominations materialized in the span of three seconds.

  "Shit," Rudy breathed beside him. "It's a summoner type."

  "Not what I was expecting, but all the more reason why we need it gone." Jin took a breath, letting cold flood through him. Eternal Sovereign circulation flowed through his channels, bringing that familiar icy clarity. "Reyana, we attack NOW!"

  "On it!"

  Jin reached out with his essence, feeling for the connection [Inevitable Doom]. His awareness spread across the rooftop like a net, touching each monster, each abomination, each source of hostile intent.

  The marks sank in. Invisible hooks that burrowed into flesh and essence and held.

  ? Sound condense and strike as thunder. ?

  Not waiting for the monsters to organize, Jin raised Iron Howl and triggered [Spellshot Synthesis], cramming a short one-verse sorcery into the round.

  The sorcery etched itself into the metal. Jin could feel it wanting to detonate early, essence building toward critical mass.

  And with an exhale, he squeezed the trigger.

  Bang.

  The bullet shot forward, but then a door opened in its path, swallowing his bullet like a hungry mouth.

  "Oh, c'mon, Joe!" Jin grunted, already adjusting his aim. "A little warning next time! Now I've got to change strategies!"

  "Anytime!" Joe's voice came through the link, sounding far too cheerful about sabotaging Jin's opening move.

  Ignoring the interference, Jin breathed out his Cryo affinity. Let the cold flood through his essence channels until frost formed on Iron Howl's barrel.

  He raised the gun and fired three more rounds in quick succession.

  bang, bang, bang

  Each bullet trailing with crystalline mist.

  The rounds hit the abomination's center mass with meaty thwacks. Frost spread from the impact points, flash-freezing flesh and corrupted metal. Limbs locked up as moisture in their tissues turned solid.

  But what Jin was actually after was the secondary effect.

  A faint wave of cold exploded out from each impact—not enough damage to matter, but enough to trigger something far more important.

  [Mark of Doom] transformed into [Mark of True Doom].

  Six afflictions per target. Jin didn't know which specific curses took hold, but he felt them land through his connection to the marks. Felt the skill drink deep from his reserves as it worked its insidious magic on seven targets simultaneously.

  All the afflictions piled up at once.

  Blood poured from the four abominations' eyes, from their mouths, from wounds that opened spontaneously across their flesh like invisible knives were carving them apart. They collapsed within seconds.

  The Abyssal Child's head snapped toward Jin. Blood poured from its mouth, from its eyes, from wounds that opened across its body. It took a step toward him, murder written in every line of its posture.

  Nourma's head also turned. Fixed on Jin with those empty sockets that somehow conveyed absolute intent to kill.

  Shit.

  Both of them were coming for him, and Jin was suddenly very aware of how squishy ORDER II bodies were when ORDER IV monsters decided to express their displeasure.

  "A little help, Reyana!" Jin said as he dove sideways, narrowly avoiding a beam of dark flames that turned the space where he'd been standing into molten slag.

  "I'm here!"

  Reyana appeared beside the Abyssal Child, shadows delivering her with perfect positioning. Her longsword glowed grey, imbued with her death aspect.

  Her strike hit the monster's back, cutting deep between the shoulder blades. The wound hissed as her death essence ate at the corrupted flesh.

  Instead of pressing the attack, she backflipped rapidly, putting distance between herself and the monster.

  The Abyssal Child retaliated immediately. Dark flames exploded outward in a sphere of destruction that would have incinerated her.

  But she was already gone. Shadows caught her mid-flip, pulled her away to safety before the flames could touch her.

  In the exact moment when Nourma was focused on Jin and the Abyssal Child was focused on Reyana, a small door opened in the space between them.

  Positioned perfectly. Right as the two monsters lined up from Jin's angle, a straight shot through both targets.

  Jin's charged bullet exited the door at five times its normal velocity, trailing light from the compressed sorcery.

  Nourma reacted, those empty eye sockets somehow tracking the projectile but not fast enough to dodge.

  The bullet punched through its shoulder with the sound of breaking bone, then continued forward to embed itself in the Abyssal Child's skull.

  "Boom," Jin mouthed silently, clenching his fist in the universal gesture of satisfaction.

  The inscription triggered. Sound compressed into a single point, then released in a catastrophic detonation.

  Half the Abyssal Child's skull exploded outward in a spray of bone fragments and corrupted flesh.

  Jin felt [Mark of True Doom] refresh through his connection to both monsters.

  Blood loss counted as an affliction. Every affliction refreshed the mark. New curses layered on top of old ones, creating cascading chains of debuffs.

  Wave after wave of nasty effects wrecked both monsters' bodies. Even at ORDER IV, they would still need precious seconds to recover—and those seconds were all Jin needed.

  "Rudy. MOVE!" Jin screamed through the link.

  "I hate you so much right now!" Rudy's voice came back as he charged forward, his skin shifted to ashen grey, his greatsword ignited in brilliant white flames tinged with crimson at the edges.

  A roar tore from his throat as he triggered Warrior's Call, the skill resonating with power. "Come and face your death, you suckers!"

  Both monsters' attention locked on Rudy like iron filings to a magnet. Their wills latched onto the provocation whether they wanted to or not—Fate itself compelling them to respond to the challenge.

  They moved to engage, abandoning their previous targets.

  Reyana materialized from the shadows directly in the Abyssal Child's path. Intercepted its claw swing with her blade—the impact drove her back three feet, boots scraping against concrete, but she held.

  Then she twisted her wrist with perfect timing and severed the regenerating claw right off the monster's arm. It hit the rooftop with a meaty thump, still twitching.

  The Abyssal Child roared more in fury than pain. Another blast of aura exploded outward, dark flames mixing with raw pressure.

  Reyana vanished into the shadows before the flames could touch her.

  Nourma lunged at Rudy, swinging the bone hammer in a brutal overhead arc that would have turned him into paste.

  ? Soil beneath, claim the weight that treads upon you—drag the unworthy down. ?

  Three bullets hit Nourma in rapid succession—thwack, thwack, thwack—each one carrying the embedded sorcery. The monster stumbled as essence disrupted its balance.

  The imbued sorcery triggered all at once.

  The rooftop beneath Nourma's feet liquefied. Stone turned to quicksand. The monster sank halfway through the floor before the effect ended, and the stone re-solidified with a crack, trapping it in place like a statue half-buried.

  Both monsters roared, their attention still fixed on Rudy despite everything happening around them. The skill forced them to focus on the target even as Jin and Reyana's attacks carved pieces from their bodies.

  Rudy shifted mid-dash, and with a roar that carried genuine battle-fury, his greatsword came up in an overhead stance.

  Jin recognized the form immediately, one of the techniques Salvatore had been drilling into Rudy. His friend's presence expanded, the partial colossus manifestation flickering around him like a heat mirage, incomplete but demanding attention.

  Rudy swung.

  Not at the monsters directly. At the space between them, the blade drew a line in the air that glowed with concentrated essence.

  The line carved through both monsters, and just when Rudy started to shift into the next form of his technique sequence, his earpiece buzzed with Jin's voice.

  "Rudy!" Jin called through the link. "Don't question, don't think, just trust me. Jump off the building!"

  Rudy faltered. Just for a second. Jin was absolutely certain his friend was inventing entirely new profanity combinations.

  But Rudy's pace increased instead of slowing. He committed to another attack, and both monsters reacted, claws and hammer coming down in killing strikes.

  His strike became a feint at the last second. He ducked under their counter-attacks with inches to spare.

  Then he triggered the second effect of Warrior's Call, the overclocked version Salvatore had taught him that increased the compulsion tenfold.

  The effects latched onto both monsters like chains. They rushed Rudy anyway, compelled beyond reason. Fate pulling them along like puppets on strings toward the rooftop's edge.

  Rudy ducked and weaved past claws and hammer, reached the edge in a final sprint.

  "Make sure to aim for the bushes!" Jin called out to Rudy.

  Rudy went sliding and then dove off the building, twisting to give Jin the middle finger.

  The monsters knew it was bad. Some part of their intelligence recognized the trap.

  But they jumped anyway. Fate demanded it, and even ORDER IV entities couldn't fully resist a properly executed Warrior's Call.

  Jin chuckled and looked at Joe. "Joe?"

  Snap.

  A door opened beneath Rudy mid-fall. He dropped through the portal and came out screaming back onto the rooftop, rolling to absorb momentum.

  "I FUCKING HATE YOU, JIN! YOU HEAR ME? I HATE YOU SO GODDAMN MUCH RIGHT NOW! WHEN THIS IS OVER, I'M PUNCHING YOU IN YOUR STUPID FACE!"

  Joe's form flickered. He stepped through one of his doors mid-stride, paused at the threshold to look back at Jin.

  "Good luck. Try not to die." He grinned, blood still coating his teeth from earlier exertion. "I'll take care of the Abyssal one. Don't wait up."

  The door closed.

  ???

  Jin turned to Rudy and Reyana, adrenaline still singing through his veins.

  "That fucker's gonna be back any minute, so listen close."

  He took a deep breath and let the Overdrive sequence drop back to normal time perception. His head pounded from the prolonged use, migraine building behind his eyes that promised agony later, but he pushed through it.

  "The monster's called Nourma. Similar construct to the one that kidnapped me at the ritual site." Jin's voice took on a lecturing quality despite the circumstances. "What you need to be aware of is that it's artificial. No aura. But—"

  He held up his hand, cutting off Rudy's relieved expression before it could fully form.

  "But that doesn't mean shit. We're facing an ORDER IV. Regardless of how many skills and powers we've gained, how many techniques we've learned, that means nothing compared to the sheer baseline power of an Underlord. Their physical stats alone could crush us."

  His voice went cold. Flat. The tone that made people stop joking and start listening.

  "You slip up once, and that's your death. One mistake. One moment of hesitation. Dead. No second chances, no dramatic saves, just dead."

  He watched his words settle over them like a weighted blanket. Rudy's jaw tightened. Reyana's eyes hardened further—if that was even possible.

  "The moment my skill finishes the full appraisal, I'll relay everything to you through the link. For now, it's up to you two to engage Nourma and keep it busy."

  "Wait, you're goi—"

  "Setting up an ambush," Reyana cut off Rudy, sending him a glare that could freeze lava. "Obviously. Let him work."

  "Rudy, focus." Jin met his friend's eyes. "All I need is for you both to buy me ten minutes minimum. The moment I signal through the link, come downstairs immediately. No heroics, no last stands. Just follow orders. Understood?"

  He paused, then asked the question that mattered. "Can I trust you both to stay alive that long?"

  "Yes." Reyana's answer came immediately, without hesitation.

  "Yeah." Rudy's voice was quieter. But steady. Resolved. "We got this. You just make sure your ambush is worth it, you scheming bastard."

  A roar shook the building.

  The sound of something massive and very, very angry was climbing toward them with single-minded purpose. Claws scraped against brick with sounds like knives on stone.

  Nourma was coming.

  And it sounded pissed.

  ~~~

  ? ? ?