The eight Nullborn Hounds turned their masks toward them.
None of them had eyes.
They didn’t need them.
The black lines running across the platform lit up beneath their paws and disappeared into the walls. Adrian sensed their hostility through War God’s Instinct, but he couldn’t determine where they intended to attack from.
They weren’t preparing to charge.
They were waiting.
Lyra raised her spear.
"Don’t let them bite you."
"I wasn’t planning to."
"Their teeth implant spatial coordinates into flesh. Once you’re marked, they can attack through any nearby opening regardless of where their bodies are."
Evelyn adjusted her grip.
"How do you know that?"
"I killed thousands of them."
The first Nullborn disappeared.
It hadn’t moved too quickly to see.
The space around its body folded and swallowed it.
War God’s Instinct detected the attack.
Rift energy appeared behind Evelyn.
"Down," Adrian ordered.
She ducked.
A white mask emerged from the air above her head. The Nullborn’s jaw split into four sections and snapped shut where her neck had been.
Adrian punched it in the face.
[Fracture: 1/4.]
The creature was sent flying, but it never struck the ground. A black opening appeared beneath its body and swallowed it before it could land.
The other seven disappeared.
"Back to back," Evelyn said.
Adrian moved beside her.
Lyra remained six feet in front of them, completely still.
Openings appeared everywhere.
The walls.
The floor.
The ceiling.
Four Nullborn attacked simultaneously.
Lyra took one step.
Her spear produced a golden line that pierced two masks. The creatures were thrown from their portals and struck the ground with their skulls split apart.
[Nullborn Hound defeated by registered General.]
[General restoration energy acquired.]
The other two reached Adrian and Evelyn.
Evelyn spun. Flowing Edge produced three turquoise slashes and forced the creature to close its jaws before reaching her.
Adrian didn’t block.
He waited until the teeth approached his arm, pulled the limb back, and drove his fist into the side of its mask.
[Fracture: 1/4.]
It was a different Nullborn.
The first layer remained inside the creature he had struck earlier, but War God’s Instinct couldn’t distinguish which of the identical figures carried it.
Both monsters retreated into the rifts.
The survivors began moving around the platform in short jumps. They appeared for a fraction of a second, changed positions, and vanished again.
"They’re trying to separate us," Evelyn said.
"No," Lyra replied. "They’re trying to determine which of you is weaker."
Three masks appeared facing Evelyn.
"Looks like they decided," Adrian said.
She glanced at him.
"Would you like to test that?"
The Nullborn attacked.
Evelyn rushed to meet them.
Blade Dancer wrapped her legs in turquoise mana. She spun between the three creatures, avoided the first set of jaws, and severed one of the second creature’s legs. The third appeared behind her.
Adrian used Meridian War Step.
He crossed twenty feet and struck the mask before it could close.
[Fracture: 2/4.]
The vibration responded.
It was the first Nullborn he had struck.
Adrian threw another punch, but the creature opened a portal around its head. His knuckles passed through the darkness without hitting anything.
Its claws emerged from another opening beside his ribs.
Starforged Body reacted.
[External impact detected.]
[Received force distribution: 14%.]
[Bodily Reinforcement: 1/3.]
His B-Rank armor prevented the claws from penetrating, but the impact sent him toward Evelyn.
She planted one hand against his back and pushed him in the opposite direction.
Adrian regained his balance.
"I thought you were going to let me finish one so you could evaluate my abilities," Evelyn said.
"I already did."
"Then stop protecting me."
"I wasn’t protecting you. That was the one I’d marked."
"Of course."
The Nullborn stopped attacking.
They returned to the dead Railfang.
Six remained.
Two had fallen to Lyra’s spear. One had lost a leg, while another carried two Fracture layers inside its mask.
The injured creature approached the corpse.
Its companions made no attempt to help it.
The largest Nullborn opened its jaws and bit into its neck.
Evelyn stepped toward them.
Lyra extended her spear to stop her.
"Wait."
The monster tore away part of its companion’s body. The black roots beneath the platform entered both corpses and transported their energy into the feeding Nullborn.
Its back began to open.
The white plates separated. Two new limbs emerged beneath the original ones, and the mask lengthened until it covered the creature’s entire neck.
It devoured the Railfang.
Then the injured Nullborn.
Its level increased with each core it consumed.
[Forced evolution detected.]
[Nullborn Hound — Level 9.]
[Nullborn Hound — Level 11.]
[Nullborn Hound — Level 14.]
The platform’s spatial rifts converged on it.
The monster raised its body.
It now stood almost ten feet tall.
[Nullborn Rift Hunter.]
[Level: 16.]
[Classification: C-Rank Boss.]
[Class Core detected.]
Adrian read the last line.
It wasn’t a Class Soul.
Class Souls contained a human profession and the accumulated experience of their owners. The Nullborn’s body held something different: a core developed during its evolution and formed around a class.
Infinite Sovereign reacted.
[Compatible class source detected.]
[Class: Rift Hunter.]
[Acquisition requirement: Defeat current owner.]
Adrian clenched his fist.
"That one’s mine."
Evelyn raised her sword.
"There are four others."
"Handle them."
Lyra studied the Rift Hunter.
"You can’t track it."
"Not yet."
The creature disappeared.
War God’s Instinct detected hostile intent from three different directions.
All three felt real.
Adrian moved toward the first.
The opening was empty.
The Rift Hunter emerged from the second and drove one claw into his side.
His armor prevented it from penetrating completely. Starforged Body distributed the impact, but Adrian was still launched into the train.
[Bodily Reinforcement: 2/3.]
The monster disappeared before he could retaliate.
The third opening remained active.
A feint.
The ordinary Nullborn used portals as entrances and exits. The evolved creature could create several of them, hide its route, and attack through any one.
"Listen to the space," Lyra said.
Adrian rose.
"That instruction would be more useful with an explanation."
"False openings displace mana. The real one displaces mass."
"That’s better."
The Rift Hunter attacked again.
Five portals opened.
Adrian ignored the hostile intent and focused on the platform.
Four openings disrupted the flow of mana.
The fifth produced a slight vibration in the floor, as though something heavy had stepped down on the other side.
Adrian turned.
The mask appeared in front of him.
His fist struck the same place where he had applied the previous layers.
[Fracture: 3/4.]
The Rift Hunter shrieked.
A claw descended toward Adrian’s head. He blocked with both forearms. Starforged Body received the impact, distributed it through his back, and reinforced his arms.
[Bodily Reinforcement: 3/3.]
Adrian remained standing.
The Nullborn opened a portal beneath him.
The ground disappeared.
Adrian began falling into bottomless darkness.
Meridian War Step activated against the portal’s edge. The force propelled him back onto the platform before the opening could close.
The Rift Hunter was waiting.
Its four arms attacked from different angles.
Adrian evaded the first.
Redirected the second.
The third carved three lines across his chest protection.
The fourth struck his shoulder.
The armor held.
Adrian entered the monster’s guard and drove his final punch into the base of its mask.
[Fracture: 4/4.]
[Target integrity compromised.]
The upgrade he had received upon reaching Starbreaker Level 4 spread the vibration through every connected plate.
The entire mask fractured.
The Nullborn retreated, but it didn’t die. There was no face behind the broken protection. Only a black cavity with a core suspended at its center.
Adrian tried to strike it.
The core disappeared.
The creature had transferred its only vital point through an internal portal.
"It can move it," Evelyn said as she blocked another Nullborn. "Rear leg!"
The core glowed inside one of its limbs.
The Rift Hunter changed its location again.
Flank.
Chest.
Neck.
Adrian followed the glow, but the monster transferred its core before each attack.
Breaking its armor wasn’t enough.
He needed to prevent it from escaping.
The Rift Hunter disappeared.
Six portals opened around the platform.
Adrian closed his eyes.
War God’s Instinct detected its intent.
Starbreaker perceived the vibrations left within the fractured plates.
The creature could conceal its position in space.
It couldn’t erase the damage Adrian had placed inside its body.
The vibration moved behind him.
Adrian turned before the portal appeared.
He caught one of the Nullborn’s limbs as it emerged, pulled the body forward, and forced it to complete the transition.
Its rear half remained inside the opening.
Its front half was trapped on the platform.
Adrian punched the ground beneath the portal.
First layer.
The Rift Hunter tried to retreat.
Second strike.
Its claws reached his back, but his armor and Starforged Body kept his bones intact.
Third strike.
The spatial boundary began to tremble.
The Nullborn moved its core into the part of its body that remained on the other side.
Adrian smiled.
"That’s where I wanted you."
He threw the fourth punch.
[Fracture: 4/4.]
[Target: Spatial boundary.]
The edge of the portal shattered.
The opening collapsed around the Rift Hunter’s body, severing the connection between its two halves. The section containing the core fell through a second rift several yards away.
Adrian used Meridian War Step.
He appeared above it before it could open another portal.
His fist pierced the core.
The Rift Hunter convulsed.
Every rift on the platform closed.
[Nullborn Rift Hunter defeated.]
[Boss target defeated.]
A black sphere emerged from the destroyed core. Inside it, the silhouette of a hunter pursued creatures through portals, cities, and weightless spaces.
[Class Core detected.]
[Class: Rift Hunter.]
[Rarity: Evolutionary.]
[Type: Spatial Tracking Class.]
[Core Abilities: Rift Sense, Hunter’s Mark.]
[Absorb?]
Adrian extended his hand.
"Absorb."
The sphere entered his chest.
A second structure appeared within Infinite Sovereign. It wasn’t a blue ring like Starbreaker. It was black, with a silver line dividing it through the center.
[Class acquired: Rift Hunter.]
[Current registered classes: 2.]
[Rift Hunter — Level 1.]
[Class skills acquired.]
[Rift Sense.]
[Hunter’s Mark.]
Adrian sensed every spatial distortion on the platform.
The portals that had once appeared as unpredictable openings now left trails behind. He could perceive where they began, how much mass passed through them, and where they would reopen.
He also felt something deeper.
A network of rifts connected the entire sector.
Hollow Station wasn’t an isolated dimension.
It was connected to another place.
[Multiple registered classes detected.]
[Infinite Sovereign function activated.]
[Parallel Class Synchronization unlocked.]
[Synchronize Starbreaker and Rift Hunter simultaneously?]
"Yes."
The blue and black rings revolved around his arms.
[Starbreaker synchronized.]
[Rift Hunter synchronized.]
They didn’t merge.
Both classes remained separate, but Adrian could use their attributes and abilities simultaneously.
The four remaining Nullborn disappeared.
Before, Adrian would have needed to wait for their attacks.
Now he could see their routes.
Silver lines crossed the walls and converged around Evelyn.
"Three on your right," he said. "One above you."
She trusted the warning.
Flowing Edge activated before the portals appeared. Her sword pierced the first Nullborn’s neck as it emerged. Evelyn turned, severed the second creature’s legs, and moved out of the path of the third one’s jaws.
The fourth descended from the ceiling.
Adrian marked it.
[Hunter’s Mark applied.]
A silver line appeared across its mask.
The Nullborn entered another portal.
The mark remained visible through the wall.
Adrian punched the surface where it would emerge.
[Fracture: 1/4.]
His fist struck the mask the instant it appeared.
Second impact.
The monster tried to retreat.
Adrian caught one of its legs.
Third impact.
The creature bit his arm. Its teeth closed around his gauntlet, but they failed to penetrate it.
Fourth impact.
[Target integrity compromised.]
The mask exploded.
[Nullborn Hound defeated.]
[Rift Hunter experience acquired.]
[Starbreaker experience acquired.]
The messages appeared simultaneously.
Adrian paused.
Rift Hunter hadn’t delivered the strike that killed the creature. It had only tracked and marked it.
It still received experience.
Starbreaker hadn’t tracked the target, but it received credit for the same victory because its technique had destroyed it.
Both classes had participated.
Both were progressing.
[Rift Hunter reached Level 2.]
[Starbreaker Level 4: 71%.]
The final three Nullborn attempted to escape.
Adrian could see every route.
"They won’t get far."
He marked the first.
Evelyn intercepted it as it emerged and pierced its core.
Adrian received Rift Hunter experience for locating it even though Evelyn had dealt the final blow.
The second appeared behind Lyra.
She struck its mask with the shaft of her spear and sent it flying toward Adrian. He applied four layers before it could hit the ground.
The third opened several false portals.
Rift Sense identified the real route.
Adrian pointed toward the location.
Evelyn threw her sword.
The blade disappeared into one rift and emerged from the correct portal, piercing the Nullborn’s head.
Every creature fell.
[Nullborn pack eliminated.]
[Combat contribution analyzed.]
[Participating registered classes: 2.]
[Starbreaker.]
[Rift Hunter.]
[Participating shared abilities: 1.]
[War God’s Instinct.]
[Infinite Sovereign distributes complete victory experience to every participating class.]
[Experience will not be divided.]
The energy from eight Nullborn and one evolved Boss entered every ability Adrian had used.
[Rift Hunter Lv. 1 → Lv. 3.]
[Starbreaker Lv. 4 → Lv. 5.]
[War God’s Instinct synchronization increased.]
[General Synchronization: 1.0% → 1.8%.]
[Starbreaker Fist mastery increased.]
[Rift Sense range increased.]
[Hunter’s Mark capacity: 1 → 3.]
Adrian opened his status.
[Registered Classes: 2.]
[Starbreaker — Level 5.]
[Rift Hunter — Level 3.]
He hadn’t been forced to choose which class received the experience.
Infinite Sovereign hadn’t divided the reward between them either.
Every profession that contributed to a victory could grow as though it were the only one he had registered.
With two classes, he gained two forms of progression.
With ten, he could gain ten.
The empty spaces within the Class Archive seemed to extend even farther.
Evelyn recovered her sword from the corpse.
"You just awakened another class."
"Yes."
"From a monster."
"That too."
"People can’t have two classes."
Adrian displayed both rings.
"Apparently, I can."
"Infinite Sovereign said you could register classes, but I thought you would need to switch between them."
"So did I."
"Can you use both at once?"
Adrian pointed toward a rift that was beginning to form behind her.
"I can see it with one and break whatever emerges using the other."
The rift disappeared.
Evelyn fell silent.
She had witnessed Infinite Sovereign’s result during the Awakening. She had watched Starbreaker destroy targets it shouldn’t have been capable of damaging.
Until now, she could still have believed Adrian merely possessed an unusual class with one unregistered technique.
Now she had watched him absorb a second profession from a monster and use it alongside the first less than a minute later.
Lyra approached the Rift Hunter’s corpse.
Black particles rose from the remains and entered her armor.
[General restoration energy acquired.]
[General Restoration: 0.4% → 1.6%.]
"This evolution was induced," she said.
Adrian placed the empty Class Core inside the dimensional container.
"By the roots."
"And by whatever controls them."
The ground trembled.
The black lines across the platform went dark.
Evelyn raised her tablet.
"The signal to the entrance is gone."
She opened the map.
The route they had traveled remained visible, but the metal door they had used to enter no longer appeared. Neither did the staircase leading back to the E-Rank sector.
Adrian used Rift Sense.
He searched for the distortion created by the exit.
He found nothing.
The tunnel behind them extended toward a solid wall.
There was no door.
No portal.
No connection to Hollow Station.
[Dungeon structure changing.]
[Temporal quarantine activated.]
[All exit routes removed.]