The threshold of the Abyssal Vault did not look like the rusted iron gates of Sector 7.
Carved directly into the white granite roots of Sector 1’s central spire, the entrance was a colossal archway of black void-stone. Heavy silver containment runes were embedded every three inches along its frame, humming with a sharp, high-pitched resonance that vibrated through the marrow of the bone. Suspended within the archway was a swirling, vertical tear of pure dark violet space—the gateway to the First District’s most dangerous subterranean rift.
Evaluating officers clad in pristine white-and-gold Vanguard plate lined the staging platform, their crystal recording slates glowing as they logged Squad Alpha’s entry codes. High above on the observation gantry, Valen Craig stood with his gauntleted hands resting behind his back, his fiery amber eyes tracking Rian’s every step.
Instructor Brandon stepped up to the edge of the void-stone archway, his single eye grim under his scarred brow. He unslung a heavy brass-bound parchment ledger, stamping it with a sharp red seal.
"Listen to me carefully, Squad Alpha," Brandon rumbled, his gravelly voice cutting through the high-pitched hum of the containment runes. "The Abyssal Vault isn't a low-tier training ground. The upper two floors are unstable spatial ruins, but the Third Floor... the Third Floor is a Tier C+ spatial convergence zone. Environmental miasma saturation down there sits at sixty-two percent."
He leaned closer, his gaze sweeping from Marcus’s dark-grey vanadium shield to Sabrina’s silver rapier, before fixing directly on Rian’s slate-grey coat.
"The life-tether crystals issued for this trial are tuned to high-district protocols," Brandon warned softly. "If your crystal shatters on the Third Floor, the spatial tears down there will drag your body into the void before the safety bubble can deploy. You pull back the second your formation breaks. Understood?"
"Understood, Instructor," Sabrina replied, her voice razor-sharp and completely devoid of hesitation.
"Step through," Brandon commanded.
Squad Alpha stepped into the swirling violet tear.
The sensory transition was instant and violent.
The light of the First District vanished, replaced by an endless, dark cavernous expanse spanning miles in every direction. The ceiling high above was a jagged canopy of inverted basalt spires, glowing with veins of pulsing, violet-blue spatial mana. The ground beneath their boots was composed of cracked black obsidian tiles floating over a bottomless, purple mist-filled chasm.
The air here was ice-cold, dense, and suffocating—it tasted of raw ozone, crushed quartz, and ancient, unrefined spatial miasma.
> [Environmental Hazard: Abyssal Vault — Floor 1 Transition]
> Aether-Miasma Saturation: 58% (Tier C Spatial Threshold)
> Living Shadow Passive: High-Density Siphoning Active!
> Living Shadow EXP: 1200 / 3000 -> 1296 / 3000 (+96 EXP from spatial entry)
>
Timothy immediately dropped to one knee, coughing violently against his rubber filter mask before frantically adjusting his copper valve. His taped spectacles reflected the violent violet glare of the floating obsidian tiles.
"The environmental pressure..." Timothy gasped out, his fingers trembling around the grip of his repeating crossbow. "My filter gauge is redlining! It feels like fifty pounds of iron pressing straight down on my chest!"
"Lock your internal core suppression at ninety percent," Sabrina commanded smoothly, stepping alongside him.
Her snow-white braid swished over her shoulder, her pale blue eyes scanning the vast, broken obsidian platform ahead. Her silver rapier rested drawn in her right hand, its blade emitting a tight, two-inch skin of pale blue frost that hissed softly as the violet spatial fog touched the metal.
"Don't let the miasma draw your breath," she added, her tone crisp and analytical. "If you panic down here, your mana channels will calcify in five minutes."
Marcus took two heavy steps forward, slamming the dark-grey vanadium faceplate of his tower shield into the obsidian tile. CLANG! The newly welded cross-brace on the back absorbed the vibrations effortlessly.
"Structure is solid," Marcus grunted, wiping sweat from his forehead. "The shield is holding the ambient pressure. Which way to the stairwell to Floor Three, Timothy?"
Timothy tapped his brass optics slate, pointing down a narrow, floating causeway of shattered black tiles that bridged a two-hundred-foot spatial chasm. "Straight down the central causeway! But... the thermal scans are erratic! There are multiple high-density signatures warping straight out of the spatial tears!"
Rian walked at the center of the formation, his slate-grey coat unbuttoned, his hands tucked loosely into his coat pockets.
Where Marcus and Timothy struggled against the heavy spatial pressure, Rian took deep, rhythmic breaths. Underneath the pale skin of his forearms and neck, the midnight-black threads of his Level 4 Living Shadow twitched with intense, rhythmic satisfaction.
Beneath his leather boots, the Level 4 shadow expanded twelve full meters across the black obsidian tiles, moving like a vast mantle of liquid night. Its six violet eye-slits flickered deep within the dark pool, scanning the spatial ripples distorting the air around the causeway.
> [Living Shadow Domain: Active Scan]
> Host Entity Status: Level 4 (1296 / 3000 EXP)
> Entity Reach: 12.0 Meters
> Host Mana Pool: 600 / 600...Master... The leaf-scraping voice inside Rian's mind resonated with smooth, chilling clarity. ...Thick space... warping beasts in the void... dense food ahead... Find the original chapter at novelping(.)com.
"They aren't waiting on the causeway," Rian spoke up quietly, his flat voice cutting through the ambient hum of the rift. "They're warping through the spatial fissures above us."
KRRR-RIP!
The spatial air fifteen feet above the causeway tore open like wet paper!
Out from the dark violet rift lunged three terrifying entities—Void-Warp Skitterers (Tier C- — Level 8).
Unlike the low-tier Iron-Spined Skitterers of Sector 7, these beasts were twelve feet long, their skeletal bodies forged from dark obsidian crystal that reflected no light. Their multi-jointed legs ended in razor-sharp spatial blades that warped the air as they moved, and their elongated, jawless heads featured three burning, violet spatial cores in place of eyes!
> [Target Identified: Void-Warp Skitterer Pack (x3)]
> Level: 8 (Tier C- Spatial Predators)
> Armor: Reinforced Obsidian Crystal / Spatial Distortion Vector
> Threat Level: Extreme (Phase-Shift Attackers)
"Spatial predators!" Timothy shrieked, pivoting his crossbow upward. "They phase through physical barriers!"
The lead Void-Warp Skitterer shifted out of phase, its twelve-foot crystal body turning translucent as it passed straight through the air above Marcus’s shield, its spatial scythe claws swinging down aimed directly at Timothy’s neck!
"Not through my line!" Sabrina cold voice cut through the dark.
Glacial Horizon — Absolute Freeze!
Sabrina swept her silver rapier in a wide vertical arc. A ten-foot wall of brilliant, blinding blue frost erupted from the obsidian tiles!
The absolute zero temperature of her apex frost core didn't just freeze physical matter—it flash-froze the ambient spatial mana in the air, forcing the translucent Skitterer back into physical space mid-phase!
CRACK-FROST!
The lead beast’s front three crystal legs were encased in solid blue ice, pinning its massive frame against the floating causeway!
"Timothy, shoot!" Sabrina barked.
Timothy didn't waste a second. He squeezed his trigger, releasing a three-bolt burst from his repeating magazine!
THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!
The vanadium-tipped bolts punched clean through the lead beast’s frozen eye cluster, shattering its central spatial matrix into a cloud of glittering purple dust!
> [Target Neutralized: Tier C- Void-Warp Skitterer]
However, the second and third Void-Warp Skitterers lunged simultaneously from the left and right flanks, their spatial scythe claws whipping through the air to cut off Squad Alpha's retreat!
The second beast slammed its massive crystal head straight into Marcus’s shield!
KRRR-BOOM!
The spatial shock wave blew a shower of black stone dust off the causeway. Marcus grunted heavily, his boots sliding back three feet as the vanadium faceplate held firm, but the third Skitterer leaped high into the air, its spatial scythe tail aimed straight for Rian’s unprotected back!
"Rian, six o'clock!" Marcus yelled through his mask.
Rian didn't turn around. He didn't draw his short sword.
SOVEREIGN’S DOMAIN — SHADOW VEIL!
BOOM!
A twelve-meter field of absolute pitch-black darkness erupted from Rian's boots!
The black shadow field swallowed every drop of ambient spatial light within twelve meters, blinding the descending beast’s spatial sensors instantly! The beast let out a distorted, raspy shriek as its phase-tracking misfired in mid-air!
"My turn," Rian whispered flatly. Get faster updates on g.com.
SOVEREIGN’S TENDRIL — TRIPLE OBSIDIAN HARPOON!
WHIP-CRACK-CRACK!
From the twelve-meter dark pool beneath Rian's heels, three thick, pitch-black tendrils erupted from the obsidian tiles like solid obsidian spears!
The first tendril impaled the descending Skitterer’s central chest plate, halting its spatial leap instantly. The second and third tendrils shot upward, coiling tightly around its front two crystal scythe arms and snapping them like dry glass with Level 4 physical shadow force!
CRACK-SHATTER!
The twelve-foot spatial beast slammed violently face-first into the black tiles at Rian’s feet, completely immobilized!
Rian stepped forward, stopping right above the thrashing monster's head. He reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a small glass vial containing purified catalyst dust he had prepared before entering the rift.
He crushed the vial, letting the grey powder spill over the beast's cracked crystal skull, while his boot stepped squarely onto its shadow.
Living Shadow... Siphon Field — OVERLOAD!
BOOM!
A violent, pitch-black whirlpool erupted from Rian's boot!
The Living Shadow drank the beast's Tier C- spatial core matrix at terrifying speed! The twelve-foot obsidian crystal frame shuddered violently, its deep purple light turning ink-black before dissolving into fine, calcified grey dust within four seconds!
> [CRITICAL EVENT: Siphoning Tier C- Spatial Core Matrix!]
> Absorbing High-Density Spatial Core...
> Living Shadow EXP: 1296 / 3000 -> 1896 / 3000 (+600 EXP!)
A powerful, exhilarating surge of purified spatial mana flooded Rian's core subspace! The black threads beneath his skin expanded, weaving deeper into his muscular pathways and refreshing his mana pool to full capacity.
> [Living Shadow Status]
> Level: 4 (1896 / 3000 EXP)
> Mana Pool: 600 / 600
> Reach: 12.0 Meters
> Target: 1104 EXP remaining to Level 5.
Across the causeway, Sabrina finished off the second trapped Skitterer with a swift, ice-infused rapier thrust to its central core.
Silence returned to the floating causeway, broken only by the low hum of the abyssal chasm and the heavy breathing of Marcus and Timothy.
Timothy walked over, his eyes wide behind his taped spectacles as he stared at the pile of grey dust where Rian’s beast had stood. "Six hundred EXP in one extraction... Rian, your entity is absorbing Tier C spatial cores without taking a single drop of physical recoil..."
"The shadow matrix is expanding," Rian said flatly, picking up two glowing violet spatial core fragments from the stone floor and stashing them into his iron spatial ring with a flick of his index finger.
Sabrina sheathed her rapier with a crisp metallic click. She walked up beside Rian, looking down the long causeway toward a massive, glowing blue stone archway five hundred yards ahead.
"The gateway to the Third Floor," Sabrina noted softly, her pale blue eyes looking into his face with quiet, unshakeable confidence. "The spatial miasma density past that archway sits at sixty-two percent. That's where the Sovereign Core is anchored."
Marcus stepped up, hoisting his dark-grey vanadium shield onto his shoulder, a confident grin splitting his face behind his mask. "We just cleared three Tier C- spatial beasts in under three minutes. Lead the way, Rian."
Rian adjusted his slate-grey coat, pulling his collar up against the cold abyssal wind.
Beneath his leather soles, the Level 4 Living Shadow twitched with quiet, unyielding hunger, its liquid dark surface pulsing twelve meters wide across the black obsidian tiles.
"To the Third Floor," Rian said, his voice carrying the calm, double-layered authority of an ascending Sovereign. "Let's go claim our core."