All five soldiers pointed toward the fortress.
At the same time.
Adrian studied the black structure rising from the center of Meridian. The roots covering its walls appeared to be part of something alive. Every pulse from the red light at its peak traveled down through them before disappearing beneath the streets.
"Was that your final mission?"
The spearswoman lowered her arm. Then she struck the emblem on her chest twice and pointed at the fortress again.
A new window appeared above her.
[Fragmented mission directive detected.]
[Directive: Reach Central Defense Command.]
[Directive status: Incomplete.]
The soldiers had died trying to reach it.
Adrian looked at his own injuries. The spear had pierced his side, his shoulder had been cut open, and a burn ran along his leg. Even if he could continue fighting, crossing several miles of city in his condition would be an inefficient way to commit suicide.
"Does anyone have medical supplies?"
The spearswoman approached him. She opened a compartment at her waist and removed a small silver cylinder.
Adrian arched an eyebrow.
"I was starting to like you more before you pulled out another weapon."
She pressed the cylinder against the wound in his side.
A cold substance spread across his skin, entered the puncture, and hardened. The pain intensified for one second before almost completely disappearing.
[Military restoration compound applied.]
[Bleeding stopped.]
[Temporary tissue stabilization: 47 minutes.]
The spearswoman repeated the process on his shoulder and leg. The compound didn’t heal the wounds, but it held the muscles together and restored some of his mobility.
"I definitely should’ve registered you before you stabbed me."
The blue strip across her helmet flickered.
Adrian decided to interpret it as an apology.
He checked his remaining time.
[Remaining connection time: 01:34:03.]
The fortress was too far away to reach on foot before the projection ended. Even if they moved without stopping, they would have to cross a city filled with corrupted corpses.
"We need a route."
All five soldiers responded to the order. The shield bearer knelt and placed his palm against the pavement. Blue light emerged from his gauntlet, traveled through the cracks, and projected an incomplete map over the ground.
Most of Meridian was covered by black zones. Only a few blue paths around the former military facilities remained.
One line connected the training hall to the central fortress, but it ended after four blocks.
[Route unavailable.]
[Access tunnel collapsed.]
The spearswoman pointed toward another building to the west. The map identified it with the same emblem of a tower surrounded by seven stars.
[Meridian Unified Combat Center.]
[Military training and tactical archive.]
[Distance: 1.1 miles.]
A second underground route extended from there toward the center of the city.
"The training center first," Adrian decided. "If we find a complete map, we’ll continue toward the fortress."
The soldiers stood.
The shield bearer and spearswoman moved to the front. Both riflemen took the flanks, while the swordsman remained behind Adrian.
None of them required additional instructions.
[Formation established.]
[Unit coordination active.]
Adrian left the building surrounded by the same corpses that had tried to kill him only minutes earlier.
For the first time since he began traveling to the future, he wasn’t walking alone.
The unit advanced through the side streets.
The soldiers avoided the main avenues and stopped before every intersection. One rifleman checked the rooftops while the other watched the windows and underground entrances.
Adrian began to understand why the system treated them as a single formation.
Separately, they were Level 12 combatants with limited patterns. Together, they covered one another’s blind spots and transmitted information through pulses of light barely visible across their armor.
The corruption hadn’t created that coordination.
It had only used it.
They encountered three creatures along the way. They were quadrupeds the size of large dogs, covered in black plates with roots growing between their teeth.
Adrian didn’t get the chance to strike them.
Both riflemen fired simultaneously. The first projectile shattered each creature’s frontal plate. The second passed through the opening created by the first.
[Corrupted scavenger defeated.]
[Corrupted scavenger defeated.]
[Corrupted scavenger defeated.]
The soldiers continued walking.
Adrian checked the reserves of their rifles.
[Unit 04 — Mana Rifle charge: 29%.]
[Unit 05 — Mana Rifle charge: 29%.]
Powerful, coordinated, and without enough ammunition for a prolonged battle.
They needed to find a way to recharge the weapons.
The Unified Combat Center appeared at the end of a street covered in destroyed vehicles. Unlike the leaning towers surrounding it, the building remained standing.
Its facade consisted of white plates blackened by time. Seven pillars surrounded the main entrance, each displaying the image of a combatant wielding a different weapon.
The final pillar was broken.
A blue barrier blocked the doors.
The spearswoman approached and placed her hand against a scanner.
[Military identification detected.]
[Unit status: Deceased.]
[Access denied.]
The soldier tried again.
The message didn’t change.
"The system knows you’re dead."
Adrian held his provisional license near the scanner out of curiosity.
[Identification unrecognized.]
[Temporal discrepancy detected.]
[Access denied.]
"And it knows I shouldn’t exist yet."
The shield bearer struck the barrier. The energy rippled but didn’t yield.
Adrian pressed his knuckles against it.
Starbreaker reacted.
[Valid target.]
He smiled.
"Step back."
The soldiers obeyed. Adrian struck the same point on the barrier four times.
[Fracture: 1/4.]
[Fracture: 2/4.]
[Fracture: 3/4.]
[Fracture: 4/4.]
The blue energy split like a pane of glass. The glowing fragments vanished before touching the floor, and the doors opened.
[Unauthorized structural breach detected.]
[Defense protocol activated.]
Red light swept through the building’s interior.
"That was easier than expected."
Two turrets descended from the ceiling.
The soldiers raised their weapons.
"I spoke too soon."
The rifles fired.
The projectiles from both units destroyed the first turret before it finished deploying. The shield bearer blocked the second turret’s shots while Adrian ran beneath it and struck its support.
The structure fell after the fourth Fracture layer.
[Automated defense destroyed.]
[Starbreaker Fist mastery increased.]
[Beginner — 1.0% → 1.3%.]
More red lights activated farther inside.
Adrian signaled for the soldiers to advance.
The lobby led to seven training sections.
Each belonged to a different discipline: heavy weapons, swordsmanship, ranged combat, mana control, defense, mobility, and unarmed combat.
Most of the facilities had been destroyed or emptied during the city’s fall. The shelves stood open, the training chambers had no power, and dozens of terminals had been torn from the walls.
The soldiers guided him to the tactical archive.
The door remained sealed, but Starbreaker opened it without much difficulty. The interior contained thousands of dark cylinders arranged in rows.
Adrian picked one up.
[Training record detected.]
[Discipline: Sevenfold Spear.]
[Data integrity: 4%.]
The next contained a sword technique.
[Discipline: Horizon Severing Sword.]
[Data integrity: 1%.]
Another contained only an incomplete image of a man holding a bow made of lightning.
[Discipline: Heavenly Current Archery.]
[Data integrity: 0.7%.]
He had found an archive containing centuries of martial arts from the future.
Almost all of them had been destroyed.
Adrian opened Infinite Sovereign.
[No complete Class Soul detected.]
[Training records cannot be registered as classes.]
[Compatible techniques may be learned if sufficient foundational data remains.]
He examined the cylinders one by one.
Most failed to meet the minimum requirement. Some retained isolated movements but lacked the breathing or mana-circulation methods that made them function. Others required weapons, attributes, or affinities Adrian didn’t possess.
The swordsman found a cylinder beneath a collapsed shelf and handed it to him.
Its surface was cracked, but a white light continued flickering inside.
[Discipline: Iron Meridian Body.]
[Type: Defensive martial technique.]
[Data integrity: 36%.]
[Foundational sequence available.]
"This one still works."
Adrian activated the record.
The image of a woman appeared before him. Her face was distorted by the missing data, but he could make out her stance.
She stood still while a machine struck her abdomen with a metal pendulum.
She didn’t block.
At the instant of impact, she adjusted her breathing and changed the tension in her muscles. The force spread from her abdomen into her back, traveled down her legs, and was finally released into the ground.
The recording changed.
The pendulum became heavier.
The woman received another impact.
Her body moved backward, but her bones remained intact.
An incomplete voice accompanied the demonstration.
"Absolute defense... does not exist. Every structure... absorbs, transmits, or breaks. Iron Meridian... turns the body into a path... Never allow force to remain... in one place..."
The image distorted.
When it returned, the woman was enduring strikes from several directions. Each impact produced white lines beneath her skin. The energy traveled through her muscles and exited through her feet.
[Foundational record ended.]
[Learn Iron Meridian Body?]
[Warning: Technique data incomplete.]
[Maximum obtainable mastery: Beginner 12%.]
Adrian selected the technique.
The first movements entered his mind.
It wasn’t a complete memory like the one he had received from the Starbreaker instructor. He obtained only stances, breathing patterns, and a basic explanation of how to distribute force.
[Technique acquired: Iron Meridian Body.]
[Integrity: Incomplete.]
[Mastery: Beginner — 0.1%.]
[Effect: Distributes a portion of received physical force across the body.]
[Warning: Incorrect distribution may transfer damage to vulnerable organs.]
Adrian positioned his feet as shown in the record. He breathed, tightened his abdomen, and attempted to direct the imaginary force into his legs.
Nothing happened.
The method required an internal awareness he didn’t yet possess. He would have to receive a real impact to find the correct sensation.
Another notification appeared.
[Compatible techniques detected.]
[Starbreaker Fist.]
[Iron Meridian Body.]
[Shared principle identified: Structural vibration.]
Adrian raised his head.
Starbreaker created a vibration within a target and amplified it until the target was destroyed. Iron Meridian prevented force from concentrating in one location by distributing it throughout the body.
One destroyed structures.
The other held them together.
[Infinite Sovereign Authority reacting.]
[Technique combination available.]
[Create derivative skill?]
Adrian studied the two techniques.
Starbreaker came from a class that wouldn’t exist for another four thousand years. Iron Meridian belonged to a future discipline of which barely more than a third had survived.
No martial artist from that era would have possessed access to both of them in their current states.
Infinite Sovereign did.
"Combine."
The rings of both techniques appeared before him.
The first was dark blue and contained the image of a fist fracturing a star. The second was white and showed several lines distributing an impact across a human silhouette.
Both began to rotate.
The incomplete sections of Iron Meridian aligned with the memories of Starbreaker. The offensive principles filled some of the missing spaces, but they didn’t preserve the original technique.
They inverted it.
Starbreaker taught Adrian to find the flaw within a structure.
The new skill taught him to sense that flaw within his own body and reinforce it before it could open.
The rings collided.
[Skill combination successful.]
[New skill created: Starforged Body.]
[Starforged Body]
[Level: 1.]
[Type: Defensive growth skill.]
[Effect: Distributes received force and converts a portion into temporary Reinforcement.]
[Maximum Reinforcement layers: 3.]
[Repeated impacts against the same region increase resistance.]
[Growth requirement: Endure attacks near the body’s current limit.]
[Warning: Damage exceeding structural tolerance cannot be converted.]
Intense heat spread through Adrian’s muscles. For an instant, he felt every injury he had suffered since returning to the future. The puncture in his side, the cut across his shoulder, and the impact to his ribs appeared as red lines within his perception.
He also understood how to distribute the next impact before it worsened those wounds.
[Iron Meridian Body has been integrated.]
[Original incomplete technique removed.]
Adrian opened and closed his hands.
Starbreaker Fist remained within his class.
Starforged Body had appeared beneath it as a new skill.
He hadn’t learned an existing class.
He had used two future martial arts to create something that had never existed there.
An alarm interrupted the moment.
[Unauthorized archive access confirmed.]
[Advanced defense protocol activated.]
The walls opened.
Six spherical drones entered the archive. Each possessed four metallic limbs and a short cannon at its center.
The soldiers fired.
The drones deployed individual barriers. The blue projectiles ricocheted off them and tore holes through the shelves.
Adrian looked toward the corridor behind the machines.
An armored door was slowly descending at the end. The symbol of the central archive was displayed above it.
If it closed, he would lose access to the most important records.
"Keep the drones occupied."
The shield bearer advanced and raised his defense. The riflemen positioned themselves behind him while the spearswoman and swordsman attacked from the flanks.
Adrian ran toward the door.
One drone broke away from the formation and blocked his path. Its cannon flashed.
The projectile struck Adrian’s chest.
The impact lifted him from the floor and hurled him into a shelf. Cylinders fell around him as sharp pain tore through his ribs.
[Starforged Body activated.]
[Reinforcement: 1/3.]
[Received force distribution: 8%.]
A blue line traveled across his chest and spread into his shoulders, back, and legs. The damage was still there, but it hadn’t concentrated in one location.
Adrian stood.
The drone fired again.
This time, he adjusted his breathing before the impact.
The projectile struck the same area.
The force traveled along the line created by the first hit, divided across his ribs, and descended into the floor. Adrian retreated two steps but didn’t fall.
[Reinforcement: 2/3.]
[Received force distribution: 17%.]
The pain remained.
His body hadn’t become invulnerable.
It was simply learning to endure.
The drone charged a third shot.
Adrian advanced.
The sphere of energy struck his chest from less than seven feet away. His muscles tightened according to the pattern of Starforged Body, and the force dispersed throughout his torso.
[Reinforcement: 3/3.]
[Received force distribution: 29%.]
[Target region temporarily reinforced.]
Adrian passed through the blue glow.
The drone had no time to move away.
His first strike hit the barrier.
[Fracture: 1/4.]
The machine retreated. Adrian followed and delivered the second.
[Fracture: 2/4.]
Two metal limbs slashed toward his face. He deflected one with his forearm and absorbed the other with his reinforced shoulder.
The third Reinforcement layer absorbed part of the impact.
Adrian struck again.
[Fracture: 3/4.]
The drone attempted to rise.
Adrian seized one of its limbs, dragged it back down, and drove the fourth strike into its barrier.
[Fracture: 4/4.]
The protection shattered.
His fifth punch pierced the center of the machine.
[Automated defense destroyed.]
[Starbreaker Fist mastery increased.]
[Starforged Body mastery increased.]
[Beginner — 0.0% → 0.4%.]
The armored door was about to close.
Adrian ran and slid beneath it. Its lower edge passed over his back and struck the floor behind him.
The sounds of battle became muffled on the other side.
Adrian checked his connection with his units.
[Five registered units active.]
[Formation integrity: Stable.]
They could hold out until he found a way to open the door.
The central archive was a circular chamber. Thousands of memory blocks covered the walls, and a crystal column extended from the floor to the ceiling.
Unlike the records outside, this section still had power.
Adrian placed his hand against the column.
[Central tactical archive detected.]
[Data integrity: 8%.]
[Search available.]
Eight percent of an archive created thousands of years in the future still contained more information than he could review in a single visit.
"Show me the fall of Meridian."
The column projected hundreds of damaged records.
[Final Defense — Day 1.]
[Central barrier failure.]
[Evacuation fleet status: Destroyed.]
[Final Defense — Day 2.]
[Population loss: 31%.]
The images advanced.
Streets filled with creatures.
Towers collapsing.
Thousands of combatants defending routes to shelters that would never manage to leave the planet.
[Final Defense — Day 3.]
[Military command casualties: 64%.]
[Final Defense — Day 4.]
[Outer districts lost.]
[Final Defense — Day 5.]
[Remaining active combatants: 12,481.]
[Final Defense — Day 6.]
[Remaining active combatants: 403.]
Adrian watched the final record.
[Final Defense — Day 7.]
[Remaining active combatants: 1.]
The image of a woman appeared above the column.
She had long dark hair, white armor covered in blood, and a broken spear in one hand. The city burned behind her.
The sky in front of her was filled with creatures.
[Commander Lyra Arden.]
[Classification: Unavailable.]
[Class: Record corrupted.]
[Confirmed enemies defeated during Final Defense: 1,847,221.]
[Time Meridian remained standing under sole protection: 7 days.]
The recording advanced by one second.
Lyra raised the broken spear.
The entire horizon turned white.