The second heart beat.
The entire chamber reversed by one second.
The fragments of the destroyed core leaped from the floor and returned to the Temporal Warden’s chest. Cracks in the walls sealed, dust rose back into the columns, and the blood covering Adrian’s arm flowed into his wound.
Then the heart beat again.
The process repeated.
[Temporal reversal field detected.]
[Field duration: 1 second per cycle.]
[Warning: Repeated cycles will restore the destroyed temporal core.]
Adrian stared at the Warden’s open chest. The two halves of the first core had separated again, but each beat of the second heart pulled them several inches closer together.
"It’s trying to revive it."
"No," Lyra replied. "It’s trying to escape."
The black mass inside the abdomen contracted. Dozens of filaments detached from the artificial organs surrounding it and withdrew into the heart.
The Warden’s enormous body convulsed.
The five Star Guards tightened their grip on their weapons, pinning its limbs against the floor, but the creature wasn’t trying to rise. The plates covering its abdomen opened completely, and something crawled out from between them.
The second heart was almost as large as Adrian’s torso. It possessed six slender limbs, a black carapace, and a human eye embedded in its front. Three metallic fragments floated above its back, smaller versions of those that had formed the Warden’s ring.
[Secondary entity identified.]
[Temporal Parasite — Unregistered Species.]
[Connection to modified future confirmed.]
The parasite looked at Adrian.
"Target... too strong."
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"I like that more than the first thing you said."
The parasite extended all six legs and leaped.
Adrian opened a Rift Step in its path, attempting to send it back into the center of the formation, but the three fragments above the creature began to rotate. The spatial rift changed direction and appeared over one of the walls.
The parasite passed through the Rift Step.
"It can control the Rifts," Adrian warned.
"Then close it."
Adrian clenched his hand, but the space resisted him. Rift Hunter allowed him to create and traverse dimensional paths. It didn’t grant him absolute control over them.
The parasite was using a superior authority.
[Foreign Authority interference detected.]
[Rift control contested.]
One of the Star Guards abandoned his position and threw his broad sword. The weapon crossed the chamber and struck the parasite before it could disappear completely.
The black carapace cracked.
The heart shrieked, and a transparent membrane appeared around it. The sword rebounded from the barrier.
[Temporal shell activated.]
The parasite completed the jump.
The rift closed behind it.
Adrian activated Hunter’s Mark. The symbol appeared on the other side of the wall, descended through several corridors, and stopped inside the maintenance chamber where Evelyn was protecting the students.
"It went after them."
Lyra pointed her sword toward the Warden’s corpse. The first core continued rebuilding itself with every temporal reversal.
"If we pursue it, this will awaken."
Adrian looked at his units.
"Star Guards, destroy the body. Don’t leave a single piece larger than my fist."
The five soldiers released the limbs and raised their weapons.
"That won’t stop the restoration," Lyra said.
"No. But it’ll make it take longer."
The rifles opened fire. The lancer drove her weapon into the Warden’s chest and released a silver discharge, while the other two soldiers began severing its limbs at the joints.
Adrian opened a rift.
"Let’s go."
"That parasite controls the Rifts."
"That’s why you’re going first."
Lyra looked at him.
"How considerate."
"Starforged Body won’t protect my dignity if you land on top of me again."
She entered the rift without dignifying that with an answer.
Adrian followed.
Evelyn felt the distortion before she saw it.
The lights inside the maintenance chamber went out. The temperature dropped, and a black rift appeared between her and the sealed gate.
The six students retreated.
"Is that the exit?" one of them asked.
"No."
Evelyn raised what remained of her sword.
The upper half of the blade had been lost while blocking the attack that pursued the Future Soldiers. Only twelve inches of jagged metal remained, but that was still more than enough to kill something if she could get close.
One black leg emerged from the rift.
Then came a second.
The heart slowly crawled through. Its single eye swept across the chamber before stopping on the nearest student.
[Replacement vessel located.]
The filaments beneath its body extended toward the boy.
Evelyn stepped between them.
Her broken sword traced three arcs at once.
[Blade Dancer Skill: Triple Reflection.]
The filaments were severed, but pain tore through her ribs from the impact. Evelyn lost her balance for half a step.
The parasite noticed.
The three fragments began to rotate.
Evelyn saw the creature attack, but not from a single direction. Six versions of the heart appeared around her, each occupying a slightly different moment.
The first strike came from the left.
Evelyn blocked it.
The second appeared behind her.
She spun, caught the leg on her sword, and deflected the point over her shoulder.
The third didn’t try to strike her.
It slipped past her.
The parasite’s eye fixed on the students.
Evelyn changed direction despite the pain. Her body was in no condition to keep using Blade Dancer, but she allowed the technique to dictate her steps.
One turn.
Two slashes.
The broken blade pierced one of the parasite’s legs and struck its carapace.
The transparent membrane reappeared. The metal stopped before it could penetrate, and a temporal wave traveled through the weapon.
The steel rusted in an instant.
The blade disintegrated in Evelyn’s hand.
The parasite struck her with one of its limbs.
Evelyn was thrown against the gate. Her fractured ribs finally broke, and the air was driven from her lungs.
One of the students ran toward her.
"Don’t come any closer!" Evelyn ordered.
The heart turned toward the group again.
Evelyn tried to rise, but her right leg didn’t respond.
She had no sword.
She could barely breathe.
And Adrian had entrusted six lives to her.
The creature opened another rift behind the students.
It wasn’t searching for just any vessel. It intended to take one of them with it.
Evelyn picked up the hilt of her sword. The blade was gone, but the mana core remained inside the guard.
She tore off the safety cover with her teeth.
"I told you that you weren’t getting past me."
She drove the hilt into the edge of the rift and released all the remaining energy.
The core exploded.
The spatial distortion closed around the destroyed weapon. The edges of the rift became trapped inside a mass of unstable mana.
The parasite turned toward her.
Evelyn raised her empty hands.
"Now I’m in a bad mood."
All six legs shot toward her chest.
A blue rift opened between them.
Lyra emerged with her sword raised.
Her blade intercepted all six limbs in a single movement. The floor beneath her feet sank, but not one of the legs reached Evelyn.
Adrian appeared behind Lyra.
"I knew you could protect them."
Evelyn was still sitting against the gate.
"You took your time."
"We were destroying a heart."
She pointed at the parasite.
"It escaped."
"Which is why I’m leaving this part out when I tell people about my first victory against an A-Rank boss."
The parasite retreated. The three fragments above its back began rotating, and its temporal membrane grew denser.
Lyra studied the shield.
"It isn’t a normal defense. It’s superimposing multiple states of its body. We can destroy one layer, and it can replace it with another as many times as necessary."
"How many?"
"More than you can strike before it escapes."
Adrian activated Rift Sense.
The room filled with lines. Each represented a possible escape route: rifts leading to other sections of the dungeon, openings into the future, and paths ending in spaces Adrian didn’t recognize.
One route was different.
It didn’t lead anywhere.
It led to no moment at all.
The parasite didn’t need to run. It could abandon the present entirely.
[Temporal escape sequence initiated.]
[Completion: 8%.]
Adrian applied Hunter’s Mark.
The blue symbol appeared over the heart but immediately split into seven images, one for every superimposed state.
"Seven layers," he said.
"I can destroy six," Lyra replied.
"That leaves one for me."
The parasite shrieked.
Hundreds of filaments erupted from its body and filled the chamber. Lyra advanced as her sword became a line of silver light.
The first slash destroyed one layer.
The second severed a dozen filaments and struck another version of the heart.
Adrian followed her movements through War God’s Instinct. Whenever Lyra opened a space, he occupied it. Whenever the creature tried to circle around her, a Rift Step placed him in its path.
Starforged Body absorbed a strike aimed at Lyra’s back. One leg pierced the reinforcement layers and sank into Adrian’s abdomen, but he caught it before it could withdraw.
"Keep going," he said.
Lyra didn’t stop.
Third layer.
Fourth.
The parasite released a temporal wave. Rust spread across the chamber walls, and the students collapsed as a single second repeated itself inside their bodies.
Adrian felt the wound in his shoulder open and close several times. Starforged Body distributed the temporal damage, though every repetition weakened his muscles.
Lyra pierced the fifth layer.
The parasite turned toward the rift Evelyn had blocked. The destroyed sword core wouldn’t hold much longer. Black lines were already spreading around the mass of mana.
[Temporal escape sequence: 51%.]
Evelyn placed one hand on the floor and tried to stand.
Adrian looked at her.
"I need three seconds."
"I only have a broken hilt."
"The first time we met, you threatened me with a complete sword. Consider this progress."
Evelyn grabbed one of the metal bars that had broken away from the gate. She propelled herself forward and drove it into the mana core blocking the rift.
The unstable energy came into contact with her own skill.
[Blade Dancer Skill: Flow Reversal.]
The mana that had been about to disperse changed direction. Instead of releasing the rift, it spread along its edges and compressed it.
The escape route collapsed.
[Temporal escape sequence interrupted.]
The parasite’s eye fixed on Evelyn.
"You’re going to regret that," Adrian said.
Rift Step carried him directly above the creature.
The heart raised its membrane, but Lyra appeared beneath it. Her sword pierced the sixth layer and exposed the true body.
The seventh and final defense remained attached to the carapace.
Lyra planted one foot against the parasite and launched it toward Adrian.
"It’s yours."
Adrian closed his fist.
Hunter’s Mark no longer showed seven targets.
Only one remained.
Rift Hunter opened a path through the final layer. Starforged Body concentrated every remaining reinforcement around his knuckles. War God’s Instinct showed him the exact instant the heart contracted and its carapace lost tension.
Starbreaker Fist descended.
The strike pierced the membrane.
The black carapace caved inward.
The human eye opened completely.
"Adrian... Vale..."
"I heard you the first time."
His fist reached the center of the heart.
The fracture spread through every filament, leg, and metallic fragment. For a fraction of a second, the entire creature was covered in white lines.
Then it shattered.
A black wave swept through the chamber, extinguished the remaining rifts, and disappeared into Adrian’s body.
Silence endured for several seconds.
Then the messages appeared.
[Future Beast defeated.]
[First Future Boss defeated.]
[Contribution calculated.]
[Adrian Vale: 61%.]
[Lyra Voss: 31%.]
[Evelyn Hart: 8%.]
[Final execution confirmed: Adrian Vale.]
Adrian looked at the final message.
"I took the first kill."
Evelyn let the metal bar fall from her hand.
"I would congratulate you if you hadn’t allowed the heart to reach us."
"I knew you would stop it."
"You couldn’t have known that."
"I knew you were too proud to let it ruin our dinner."
Evelyn stared at him for two seconds. Then she pointed toward the blood covering his abdomen.
"You’re injured."
Adrian looked down at the puncture wound.
"That explains why every breath is starting to feel like a bad idea."
His legs gave out.
Lyra caught him by his uninjured arm before he could hit the floor.
"Your body has exceeded Starforged Body’s limit."
"But it’s still in one piece."
"A generous definition."
The black light that had entered Adrian divided into three parts.
The first took the shape of a bestial silhouette covered in temporal armor. The second condensed into an orb surrounded by teeth. The third was a golden fragment that appeared to exist in several positions at once.
[Unit Registration available.]
[Eligible unit: Temporal Warden.]
[Estimated registered level: 30.]
The silhouette bowed its four arms before Adrian.
Another message appeared.
[Class Soul acquired: Calamity Beast.]
[Class Rank: Legendary.]
[Core traits: Catastrophic Growth, Adaptive Carapace, Calamity Heart.]
[Absorb Class?]
The sphere opened its jaws.
Adrian felt the power contained within it. Calamity Beast wasn’t a class designed to learn techniques or wield weapons. It transformed its bearer’s body into a living disaster that became more dangerous with every injury it sustained.
Then the golden fragment reacted to Lyra.
[Authority fragment detected.]
[Type: Fragment of Temporal Dominion.]
[Compatible General detected: Lyra Voss.]
[Authority fragment can be converted into General Restoration.]
[Estimated restoration increase: 0.0004% → 0.017%.]
Lyra could sense it as well.
For the first time since Adrian had awakened her, her expression changed completely.
To anyone else, an increase of less than two percent might have seemed insignificant. To someone who had recovered only a microscopic fraction of her former power, it meant multiplying her current strength several times over.
Three rewards floated before Adrian.
A Level 30 boss he could register as a unit.
A Legendary class he could add to Infinite Sovereign.
An authority fragment capable of restoring a portion of an SSS-Rank general’s power.
[Evolution reward available.]
[Select one.]
[Option 1: Register Temporal Warden as a unit.]
[Option 2: Absorb Calamity Beast Class Soul.]
[Option 3: Transfer Authority Fragment to Lyra Voss.]
Evelyn couldn’t see the messages, but she noticed his silence.
"What is it?"
"The system is offering me three rewards."
"And you don’t know which one to choose?"
Adrian examined the options.
Any one of them would completely change his power.
A new boss for his army.
A Legendary class.
Or a Lyra far closer to recovering her former strength.
For the first time since awakening Infinite Sovereign, there was no obviously correct choice.
Then his unique class reacted.
All three rewards began to vibrate.
[Infinite Sovereign has detected an incomplete reward structure.]
[Class limit removed.]
[Unit limit undefined.]
[Authority compatibility confirmed.]
A fourth line appeared beneath the others.
At first, it was covered in black symbols. Then they began disappearing one by one.
[Hidden Sovereign Option unlocked.]
[Option 4: Take Everything.]