"Adrian Vale."
The Temporal Warden’s voice traveled through the chamber like metal scraping across stone.
Adrian didn’t respond immediately. He studied the human eye hidden beneath the broken mask, the ring of twelve fragments floating behind the creature, and its four motionless arms.
The monster had been sent from a modified future.
It had arrived forty years before its first recorded appearance.
And it was specifically searching for him.
"I usually prefer people to introduce themselves before saying my name," Adrian said. "But I suppose twenty-foot beasts don’t receive many lessons in etiquette."
The eye didn’t blink.
[Target identity confirmed.]
[Elimination priority updated.]
[Primary target: Adrian Vale.]
The twelve fragments aligned.
Rift Sense exploded inside Adrian’s head.
"Move!"
He and Lyra jumped in opposite directions. The space between them compressed, and a black line cut through the chamber without crossing the distance separating them. The columns, the floor, and part of the wall were severed simultaneously.
It hadn’t been an energy wave.
The Warden had erased a section of space.
Adrian landed on a tilted slab while Lyra drove her sword into a wall to stop herself. A perfectly smooth fissure almost a hundred feet long had appeared between them.
"It can erase distances," Adrian said.
"Then stop relying on them."
"Good advice. It would’ve been more helpful before I was nearly cut in half."
The Temporal Warden disappeared.
Rift Sense revealed the distortion behind Lyra before the creature reappeared. Two of its arms descended toward her, while the other two were already positioned to intercept every escape route.
Adrian extended his hand.
[Hunter’s Mark applied.]
A blue mark appeared on the Warden’s torso.
The space in front of Adrian opened like a vertical wound.
[Rift Hunter Skill activated: Rift Step.]
He passed through the rift and emerged beside Lyra. Starforged Body covered his arms in a faint layer of metallic light just before he intercepted one of the blades.
The impact made his bones crack.
The second arm struck his side and threw him into Lyra. She placed one hand against his back, used Adrian’s momentum to spin, and slashed toward the Warden’s joint.
Her blade slipped between two black plates.
The ring began rotating backward.
"Don’t give it time," Adrian ordered.
He struck the injured elbow with Starbreaker Fist. The fracture spread through the connected plates, and Lyra ripped her sword free before the temporal restoration could erase the damage.
The arm fell to the floor.
The Warden didn’t roar.
Its ring completed half a rotation, and the severed limb disappeared. At the same time, an intact arm emerged from the stump, restored to an earlier state.
"That could become irritating," Adrian said.
"It was already irritating before it started regenerating arms."
The Warden struck the floor with all four limbs.
Rift Sense showed dozens of black points opening around the chamber. Adrian activated Rift Step and appeared beside Lyra just as temporal spears emerged from every opening.
She was already moving.
Adrian followed her rhythm.
War God’s Instinct didn’t transmit thoughts or instructions. It allowed him to perceive the beginning of each of Lyra’s movements: the shift of pressure beneath her feet, the angle of her shoulders, and the direction in which she concentrated her strength.
When Lyra advanced, Adrian knew which space she would leave open.
When she raised her sword, he understood where her next slash would land.
When she leaned forward without looking back, he passed over her shoulder.
Starbreaker Fist struck the Warden’s mask at the same moment Lyra’s sword pierced one of its front knees.
[War God’s Instinct synchronization increased.]
[Coordinated strike registered.]
The mask cracked further.
The Warden swung all four arms.
Adrian saw the attack coming, but there wasn’t enough room to evade it. He crossed his forearms and activated Starforged Body.
All four blades struck him.
The first reinforcement layer shattered.
The second distributed the impact through his muscles.
The third redirected part of the force into the floor.
Even so, Adrian was launched away. He crashed through the remains of a column and rolled across the debris before stopping on one knee.
[Starforged Body proficiency increased.]
[Reinforcement capacity exceeded.]
[Minor fractures detected.]
"Next time, you could block one of them," he said as he stood.
Lyra avoided a claw by leaning only a few inches aside.
"I wasn’t the one who decided to use his body as a shield."
"It kept you intact."
"That only proves you’re a competent shield."
The Warden extended one hand toward the arm Lyra had severed.
The abandoned limb disintegrated. Its energy returned to the creature, and the fragments of its ring accelerated.
[Temporal restoration output increased.]
[Estimated core location detected.]
Hunter’s Mark changed position. The blue mark sank beneath the plates covering the creature’s chest and traced the outline of a pulsing sphere.
Adrian could see it now.
A core protected by multiple layers of folded space.
Whenever the Warden received damage, the core sent energy into the ring and replaced the creature’s present with an earlier version of its body.
Injuring it wasn’t enough.
They had to destroy the mechanism that allowed it to deny those injuries.
"The core is in its chest," Adrian said. "Four layers of spatial protection. Probably more once we get closer."
"I can pierce them."
"Not while it has four arms, four legs, and the unpleasant habit of making distances disappear."
Lyra glanced toward the sealed passage.
"Your units can’t fight it."
"My Future Soldiers can’t."
Adrian’s interface still displayed the message that had appeared before the Warden awakened.
[Evolution condition satisfied.]
While he fought, his five soldiers remained inside the Unit Archive. Their bodies had been restored upon reaching Level 15, but one had lost an arm before being recalled, and the energy from Command Severance remained attached to their bonds.
That energy was exactly what had completed a new condition.
Adrian opened the panel.
[Available Unit Evolutions]
[Dread Infantry: Increased offensive power and fear generation.]
[Rift Pursuer: Increased mobility and dimensional tracking.]
[Star Guard: Increased defense, formation control, and resistance to command interference.]
[Warning: Evolution selection is permanent.]
The first two options would have turned his soldiers into more effective hunters.
The third would turn them into something he didn’t yet possess.
A unit capable of protecting him even against enemies designed to destroy armies.
The Warden reappeared above him.
Adrian passed through a Rift Step before all four blades could close around his position. He emerged beside the opposite wall, but the creature disappeared again immediately.
It was following him through the rifts.
"I choose Star Guard."
[Unit evolution initiated.]
Five lights began burning inside the Unit Archive.
Adrian didn’t have time to observe the process. The Warden emerged from its own Rift Step and punched at his face. Adrian redirected the blow, took another in the abdomen, and allowed Starforged Body to absorb part of the force as he caught the monster’s wrist.
"Lyra."
She appeared beneath the immobilized arm.
Her sword pierced the Warden’s shoulder. Adrian struck the hilt with Starbreaker Fist, driving the blade into the center of the joint.
The ring rotated backward.
Before it could restore the damage, the creature struck Adrian with one of its front legs. The plates created by Starforged Body shattered, and several of his ribs cracked.
Lyra pulled out her sword and tried to follow him, but two arms descended on her. She blocked the first.
The second struck her blade.
The third closed around her waist.
The Warden lifted her from the ground.
Lyra tried to sever the limb, but the fourth arm caught her wrist. Black plates began spreading over her skin.
[General affected by temporal suppression.]
[Manifestation stability decreasing.]
[Current Stability: 91%.]
Adrian pushed himself upright amid the debris.
The creature wasn’t trying to kill her.
It was reversing her manifestation.
If it returned Lyra to the state in which she had remained sealed in the future, Adrian didn’t know whether Sovereign Territory would be able to recover her.
[Unit evolution: 42%.]
Too slow.
He opened a Rift Step directly toward the Warden’s torso. The creature detected it and drove one leg through the exit before Adrian finished crossing.
The claw sank into his shoulder.
Adrian felt it dislocate his arm, but he didn’t close the rift. Starforged Body concentrated every remaining reinforcement layer around the wound and prevented the limb from being torn off.
"Found you."
He caught the leg with his uninjured arm and activated Hunter’s Mark a second time.
The mark didn’t appear on the Warden’s body.
It appeared inside it.
Over the core.
Rift Hunter revealed the shortest route to his prey, even if that route passed through flesh, armor, or folded space. Adrian opened a rift the size of his fist and punched through it.
Starbreaker Fist bypassed the outer plates.
His fist struck the core’s first defense directly.
One of the four spatial layers shattered.
The Warden released Lyra.
She fell, rotated in the air, and landed on one knee. The black plates covering her arm cracked apart before reaching her shoulder.
[General Manifestation Stability: 74%.]
"You owe me an arm," Adrian said.
Lyra looked at his arm, which was still impaled by the claw.
"You still have it."
"I’m being optimistic."
The Warden pulled its leg free from the rift. Adrian’s shoulder wound opened, and blood ran down his arm, but he had confirmed that the core could be reached.
They only needed to keep a creature that fought across multiple instants from moving.
[Unit evolution: 100%.]
Five presences awakened inside Sovereign Territory.
They no longer resembled the deteriorated soldiers Adrian had found in the ruins. Their damaged armor had reconstructed itself into dark blue plates crossed by silver lines. An eight-pointed star shone on every chest.
Their old weapons had changed as well. The first soldier’s short sword had become a broad, shield-shaped blade. The second unit’s spear was surrounded by rings of energy. Long blades extended beneath the riflemen’s barrels, while the final soldier’s longsword had transformed into an enormous two-handed weapon.
[Future Soldier evolved: Star Guard.]
[Future Soldier evolved: Star Guard.]
[Future Soldier evolved: Star Guard.]
[Future Soldier evolved: Star Guard.]
[Future Soldier evolved: Star Guard.]
[Star Guard Lv. 15 ×5 acquired.]
[Unit Skill acquired: Sovereign Anchor.]
[Formation Skill acquired: Five-Star Confinement.]
The Warden tilted its head.
It seemed to have sensed the change.
Adrian smiled.
"Second round."
He opened five rifts around the chamber.
The Star Guards emerged simultaneously.
[Hostile units registered: 7.]
[Legion Extinction multiplier: ×7.]
The execution lines appeared immediately. One for Adrian, one for Lyra, and five for the new units.
This time, the soldiers didn’t try to block them individually.
All five drove their weapons into the floor.
The stars on their chests ignited, and silver lines connected their positions. The formation closed around the Warden like a constellation drawn across the chamber.
[Sovereign Anchor activated.]
[Command network stabilized.]
[External interference resisted.]
The seven executions struck the formation.
The silver light trembled. Cracks appeared across the Star Guards’ armor, but the damage was distributed throughout the network before it could reach Adrian.
Each unit received one-seventh of it.
The Warden had designed its ability to turn the numbers of an army against it.
Sovereign Anchor transformed those same numbers into a shared defense.
"That’s better," Adrian said.
The Warden attempted to cross space.
Two Star Guards raised their rifles and fired at seemingly empty points. The projectiles entered small blue rifts and reappeared in front of the creature, striking the fragments of its ring.
Its displacement was interrupted.
The lancer appeared beneath its torso and drove her weapon between the plates of one leg. The rings around the spear expanded and anchored the limb to the ground.
The Star Guard with the greatsword trapped another leg beneath his weapon.
The two remaining soldiers seized the upper arms. Their blades penetrated the joints, and the formation’s silver lines pulled taut.
[Five-Star Confinement activated.]
The five units pulled in opposite directions.
The Temporal Warden’s enormous body was immobilized in the center of the constellation.
Its ring began rotating backward, but both riflemen fired again. Each projectile struck a different fragment and disrupted the restoration’s rhythm.
"They won’t be able to hold it for long," Lyra warned.
"They don’t need to."
Adrian applied all three charges of Hunter’s Mark to the core.
Lyra moved beside him.
Silver energy covered her sword, though the black plates continued spreading across her left arm. Her manifestation had lost more than a quarter of its stability, and the skin on her hands had been burned when she stopped the ring.
Even so, she smiled.
It wasn’t a kind smile.
It was the expression of the woman who had defended a city for seven days.
"Follow my rhythm," she said.
"I was about to ask you to do the same."
Lyra advanced.
Adrian passed through a Rift Step.
She cut through the core’s first spatial layer from the outside. Adrian struck the second from within using the path opened by Hunter’s Mark.
The Warden strained all four arms. The Star Guards’ armor creaked, but none abandoned their positions.
Lyra turned.
Adrian followed the movement through War God’s Instinct.
Her sword descended on the creature’s chest. Starbreaker Fist struck exactly the same point a fraction of a second later.
The third layer shattered.
The Warden roared for the first time.
The sound shook the dungeon. A temporal wave passed through the formation and aged the Star Guards’ plates by hundreds of years in an instant.
Starforged Body reacted within Adrian.
The skill recognized his units’ defensive structure as an extension of his own power. The reinforcement layers protecting his body flowed through Sovereign Anchor and covered all five sets of armor.
[Skill resonance detected.]
[Starforged Body synchronized with Star Guards.]
[Unit durability temporarily increased.]
The deteriorated plates regained their strength.
Adrian felt the weight of the damage suffered by all five units inside his own muscles. Every joint burned. His shoulder wound tore open again, and his fractured ribs pressed against his lungs.
He didn’t stop.
Rift Hunter showed him the target.
Starforged Body kept him standing.
War God’s Instinct allowed him to move alongside Lyra.
Starbreaker gave him the strength to destroy whatever waited at the end.
His classes were no longer fighting separately.
Every one of them served a purpose within the same strike.
[Parallel Class Synchronization increased.]
[Composite Combat achieved.]
Lyra switched the sword to her other hand. Adrian knew what she intended before she began moving.
He opened one final rift directly in front of the core.
She drove her sword into the Rift Step.
The blade disappeared from the chamber and emerged inside the Warden’s chest.
Adrian closed his fist around the hilt beside Lyra’s hand.
They attacked together.
The sword pierced the fourth layer.
Starbreaker Fist released its force through the blade.
The core split apart.
Red light flooded the chamber.
The Warden’s ring stopped. Its twelve fragments fell to the floor one after another, and the Legion Extinction lines disappeared.
Strength left the creature’s limbs.
The Star Guards separated before its enormous body collapsed in the center of their formation.
[Temporal core destroyed.]
[Army Recognition deactivated.]
[Command Severance deactivated.]
[Star Guard evolution stabilized.]
Adrian pulled his arm out of the rift. He could barely feel his fingers, and there was blood in his mouth, but all five units remained standing.
Lyra rested her sword on her shoulder.
"You used seven combatants to defeat a creature designed to exterminate armies."
"Technically, it was one man, one goddess, and one army."
"Five soldiers don’t make an army."
The Star Guards raised their weapons simultaneously.
Adrian pointed toward them.
"Tell them that."
An impact echoed beneath their feet.
It hadn’t come from the depths of the dungeon.
It came from the Warden’s body.
Adrian and Lyra stopped talking.
The eye behind the mask had gone dark. The hole in its chest revealed the remains of the temporal core, divided into two powerless halves.
Another impact shook the corpse.
This time, Adrian saw the plates covering its abdomen move.
All five Star Guards assumed combat positions.
Rift Sense reacted with enough violence to make his head ache.
[Warning.]
[Secondary temporal signature detected.]
The Warden’s lower plates began to open. There were no organs or bones beneath them, only a mass of dark flesh connected to something much larger than the core they had just destroyed.
A second heart beat inside the corpse.
It was black.
And every beat forced time throughout the entire dungeon to move backward by one second.
[First heart destroyed.]
[Second heart awakening.]