The air was thick with the stench of blood and the echoes of distant screams. Rai knelt on the fractured earth, staring at the lifeless soldier sprawled before him, his face frozen in a mask of incomprehensible terror.
Their unit had been ambushed en route to the reported location of the Deviant. Without warning, massive black tentacles had erupted from the ground, tearing through buildings and hurling rubble like confetti in a storm.
The squad had responded swiftly, guns and blades raised, but it was futile. One strike from the monstrous limbs had flattened multiple soldiers, their bodies crushed or flung into the debris.
Rai rose slowly, eyes burning with fury. He summoned his power. Arcane symbols formed mid-air, glowing with raw mana. The glyphs spun in the air before warping into shimmering portals, drawing mana directly from the environment.
Moments later, jagged ice shards burst forth from the portals, homing in on the writhing tentacles. Each shard pierced deep, freezing tissue and making the wounds brittle, more vulnerable to follow-up strikes.
The creature screamed, or something close to it. The tentacles lashed about in blind rage, uprooting trees and tearing chunks from nearby structures. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the mass of limbs withdrew back into the earth.
Rai collapsed to one knee. The Tier 3 spell had done its job, but the cost was steep. He could feel his mana core pulsing weakly, dim, unstable.
He fished a mana stabilizing orb from his pouch and consumed it. The orb dissolved instantly, its energy flowing through his channels, recharging his vessels and allowing the core a moment to realign.
Standing again, Rai surveyed the battlefield. He moved from soldier to soldier, helping the injured and checking on the fallen.
Of the original 25-man squad, ten had taken damage. Three were severely wounded. The rest bore cuts and bruises, shaken but alive.
But something didn't make sense.
The last known sighting of the creature had been near the emergency tents, north of their current location. Yet this attack happened nearly ten kilometers south of there.
Which meant either the reports were inaccurate… or something far more disturbing was at play.
Rai's breath hitched.
No. It can't be.
An Elite Deviant-class?
While Deviant-class creatures were rare, Elite Deviants were almost unheard of. Artificially corrupted, they were augmented with mana-binding seals, allowing them not just to feed on mana, but to wield it as a weapon.
Rai's conclusion rested on two key observations.
First: it wasn't multiple creatures attacking simultaneously, it was one. No Deviant would ever coordinate with its own kind; they were aggressively territorial by nature. This also brought forth another terrifying point. The creature was actively using mana to increase its attack range.
Second: during the earlier strike, Rai noticed the creature's wounds trying to heal despite being frozen. Each regeneration attempt caused the creature to suffer further as the new flesh froze again, a clear sign that the creature was actively manipulating mana.
Natural Deviants couldn't do that.
Only Elite Deviants could.
"Someone summoned this thing here," Rai muttered under his breath.
"What?" the Captain asked, stepping closer.
Rai straightened, eyes narrowing. "I said… it's not natural. This is an Elite Deviant. Either someone summoned it intentionally, or it was drawn by something else."
He glanced north, toward the site of the first attack. "If there was another of its kind… we'd already be dead. That only leaves the first option."
The Captain held Rai's gaze for a long moment before turning away, nodding grimly. He began shouting orders, medics rushed in to carry off the wounded, and the remaining soldiers regrouped quickly.
Within minutes, the squad was moving again, toward the epicenter of the chaos.
Ground Zero.
***
Jake stood beside Renissa, his thoughts flickering between her fragile condition and Rai's unknown whereabouts.
He had pieced together fragments of what had happened. After he lost consciousness near the emergency tents, Renissa had dragged him to safety—just before the creature went berserk. Every living being near the tents had been devoured. Those left alive wished they weren't.
Renissa had suffered her injuries while dodging the creature's lashing tentacles. Somehow, she had gotten them into this cave before collapsing.
Now, Jake looked over at her. Her color was returning. Her breathing had stabilized. The bleeding had stopped, and her wounds were slowly regenerating.
But her eyes were wide with confusion and fear.
"Wh... why can't I activate my powers?" she whispered. "Why can't I feel any mana?" Her voice cracked under the weight of panic.
Jake turned toward her, guilt tightening around his chest.
"That's the price of my healing," he said softly. "It severs your mana pathways. In exchange for your magic, it restores your body."
"Oh" her face showed a pain expression, while her thoughts shifting towards confusing feelings and what to do next.
Time passed in tense silence.
Eventually, she stood, her mind racing to grasp what had just happened.
"How did you do it?" she asked, inspecting the now-fading scars. "I mean really. You don't look like a Tier 5 healer—or even a priest. This… this healing was beyond anything I've seen. Even demonic spells have limits. Nothing in this world heals like that. So what are you?"
Jake sighed and leaned against the cave wall, arms folded.
"Honestly? I don't know. I don't have a core. I don't use magic. I came across this abilty during my stint at Nasreal village. Nobody had answer , but it didn't came as shock to me. My body… it's always been different than people I have came across. It's stronger, faster and more durable than any mortal, awakened or beast".
He paused before continuing.
"Except for the Transcendents. I want to be like that someday. Strong like them."
Renissa gave him a skeptical look, eyes narrowing.
"Strong as a Transcendent?" She scoffed. "You don't even have a trace of mana in your system. The tiers go: Beginner, Novice, Expert, Master, then Ascendant. Transcendents are beyond that. That's not just strength. That's legend."
She looked him up and down, slowly.
"Except for this freakish healing power of yours—which comes at a hell of a cost—you don't have anything that even makes you Beginner level."
She paused, and her expression softened.
"Well… I guess I can't say that about myself anymore, either."
Jake lowered his head. "I'm sorry."
She waved her hand dismissively. "Don't be. I'm alive. That's what matters. I didn't have much magical talent to begin with. Now I don't have to pretend I'm working on it."
With that, she stepped out of the cave's mouth, eyes scanning the horizon.
She suddenly stopped in her tracks. "Wait… did you say Nasreal Village?"
Jake turned to her and nodded. "Yeah."
Her brows furrowed. "Why that place? Isn't that where the godless people go or something?"
"Yes," Jake replied, "but not godless as in those who hate the gods. More like people who've never been claimed by one."
Renissa blinked. "Not claimed by a god? That's… impossible. Everyone gets claimed by the time they're two, maybe three at most. That stopped being an issue centuries ago. Hell, it's the reason we have so many Awakened now—ever since the end of the Fifth Enoch. Hell,Some even say the Divine Wars started over this. And you're saying you weren't claimed?"
Her eyes narrowed. She stared at his forearm.
Jake sighed. He slowly rolled up his sleeve, revealing skin that was bare—untouched by divine markings. Only a few small scars crossed the surface.
Renissa stepped closer, her expression frozen in disbelief. She examined his arm carefully, searching for any hint of concealment magic or a hidden mark.
There was none.
"I can't believe this…" she whispered. "I've read about the unclaimed, but to actually see someone—this is… wow." Her voice sounded almost excited.
Jake chuckled. "I don't blame you. Even the elders at Nasreal didn't believe me at first. The only other unclaimed person they ever knew was a 108-year-old man who died a month before I arrived. The village was about to shut down the old temple built for the unclaimed—no one needed it anymore."
He paused, a touch of nostalgia in his voice. "I stayed for a few weeks. Picked up some of the old fighting techniques passed down by godless masters. Without a divine aspect shaping your body and mana, they had to invent their own blend of arcane and physical combat. It's... unique."
Renissa crossed her arms, nodding thoughtfully. "Makes sense. Being claimed by a god is just another kind of leash."
Jake raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Saying that out loud? Not afraid of being struck down for blasphemy?"
She smirked. "I'll start repenting the day gods start throwing lightning bolts at me."
They both laughed lightly. Renissa stepped outside the cave, sunlight catching on her skin and illuminating her tousled hair. For a brief moment, peace hung in the air.
Jake watched her, quiet. Then he looked down, voice soft. "I'm worried about Rai. We should head to the town—check on the situation."
Renissa nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."
They moved through the forest in silence. The trail was rough, and at one point they crossed paths with a wild animal—but neither of them spoke. Their minds were elsewhere, heavy with dread.
Eventually, they reached a path leading toward the Northern Gates—the same area where the creature had last been seen.
Suddenly, the sky above the horizon began to twist unnaturally. A swirling purple light flared across the clouds, staining the sky with an ominous glow.
Jake and Renissa locked eyes, fear flashing between them.
Without a word, they broke into a sprint—racing toward the storm.