POV — Serah / Level 4

The corridor of level 4 was different from the previous ones.

Wider.

Taller.

The black material of the walls had something active beneath — not light, not heat, something the primordial aura detected as energy but couldn’t classify because it wasn’t from Aethon.

And in the center of the corridor, fifteen meters away, was what the primordial aura had sensed since level 3.

It was big.

Four meters tall in its still position, its body built from what seemed to be the same black material as the fortress walls — not flesh, not scales, not plates.

Material.

As if someone had taken the substance Grimvast was made of and shaped it into a creature.

Two arms the length of its entire body, ending in flat surfaces without fingers — not for grabbing, for striking with mass.

Four short, wide legs, completely static, the kind that doesn’t run but withstands. No separate head — the upper part of the torso simply ended in a flat surface where a blue point of light pulsed to the rhythm of something.

It had no eyes.

But the blue point of light followed Serah when she crossed the opening.

’It senses the primordial aura.’

Serah’s silver markings pulsed — half the intensity they’d had at the start, the cost of three levels of structural ice and creatures with tentacles and bone plates that reassembled.

’Thirty percent less than what I should have.’

’Doesn’t matter.’

’Kai is fine.’

’I’m going in.’

---

POV — Kai / Level 2 / Minute 33

Kai had tried doing push-ups.

The first twenty were useful — exercise, movement, something concrete to do with his body while the corridor remained empty and the screen showed Serah crossing the opening to level 4.

The twenty-first was when he looked at the screen and saw the four-meter-tall thing built of fortress material.

He got up.

Looked at the screen.

Looked at the empty corridor.

Looked back at the screen.

"Seriously?"

The corridor didn’t respond.

---

[DraconicLegacy: "SERIOUSLY?" TO THE EMPTY CORRIDOR HAHAHAHA]

[Wolf1179: Kai was doing push-ups. PUSH-UPS. To pass the time.]

[RagingMutant: saw Serah’s four-meter creature and jumped to his feet]

[Drakeking12: the corridor received a direct question and didn’t respond. neutral.]

[Jack_Moore: the corridor has more composure than Kai at this moment]

---

The creature didn’t move when Serah approached.

It waited.

The blue point of light followed her — constant, unblinking, without the kind of adjustment an eye makes when calibrating distance. Just tracking.

Serah stopped at five meters.

’It doesn’t attack first.’

’It’s assessing.’

’Good. So am I.’

The primordial aura expanded toward the creature — active search, the kind that under normal conditions detected the power level of any entity in its radius.

The creature absorbed the aura.

Didn’t reject it.

Didn’t deflect it.

Absorbed it — like a sponge.

Serah’s markings pulsed.

’It absorbs primordial aura.’

’Structural ice uses primordial aura.’

’If I use it directly, the creature absorbs it too.’

’I need something different.’

Serah looked at her own hands.

’What would Kai do?’

Then she stopped.

’No. I’m not going to think that.’

’I think about him enough already.’

’Focus.’

---

POV — Kai / Level 2 / Minute 37

Kai had found a small stone on the corridor floor.

It wasn’t exactly a stone — it was a fragment of the black wall material that had come loose at some point.

The size of a coin.

Solid enough to do what Kai had in mind.

He threw it against the far wall.

It bounced.

Kai caught it.

Threw it again.

Bounced.

Caught it.

The screen showed Serah looking at her own hands in front of a four-meter creature.

Kai threw the fragment again. It bounced. He caught it.

"Come on," he said, without knowing exactly who he was saying it to.

---

[DraconicLegacy: KAI FOUND A ROCK AND IS PLAYING BY HIMSELF]

[Wolf1179: he’s been in the empty corridor for 37 minutes and is playing toss and catch]

[RagingMutant: "come on" said without knowing to whom. Kai on the edge of despair.]

[Drakeking12: the screen shows Serah in front of an aura-absorbing creature and Kai is throwing rocks]

[Jack_Moore: the best contrast possible]

---

POV — Lira / Level 4

The figure in the center of the corridor was human in form.

In nothing else.

Five-foot-eleven, correct proportions, two arms, two legs, a head.

But the skin was the same black material as the fortress — uniform, poreless, without the kind of texture variations real skin has. It had no facial features.

The head was a smooth surface where there should have been eyes and a nose and a mouth and there were none.

But it had followed Lira since she crossed the opening.

Without eyes.

It followed her all the same.

Lira stopped at six meters.

"Interesting," she said, in the tone she used for that word when something was genuinely strange rather than a courtesy.

The figure didn’t respond.

Thirty-two percent blood magic available.

Lira activated the tracking threads — the thin ones, the ones for energy signatures.

The threads reached the figure.

The figure absorbed them.

Not with violence.

Lira retracted the threads.

’Total absorption of external magical energy.’

’Currents won’t work.’

’Mist won’t either.’

’Thirty-two percent magic available and none of my techniques have an angle against this.’

A pause.

’How annoying.’

---

POV — Kai / Level 2 / Minute 41

Kai had lost the stone fragment.

He hadn’t thrown it far — just on one of the bounces it had gone at a different angle and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor.

He stood staring at where it had disappeared.

The screen showed Lira in front of the featureless figure that absorbed any magic she sent at it.

Kai looked at the screen.

Looked at the corridor where the fragment had disappeared.

Looked at the screen again.

He did something he hadn’t done in all his time in Aethon — he lay back on the corridor floor, face up, staring at the ceiling.

The ceiling was black.

Smooth.

Nothing interesting.

"This," Kai said to the ceiling, "is unfair."

---

[DraconicLegacy: HE LAY ON THE FLOOR STARING AT THE CEILING HAHAHAHAHA]

[Wolf1179: Kai face up on the floor of an A_D_M labyrinth because he got bored]

[RagingMutant: "this is unfair" said to the ceiling. the ceiling didn’t respond either.]

[Drakeking12: in 41 minutes he went from combat stance to push-ups to playing with a rock to lying on the floor staring at the ceiling]

---

POV — Serah / Level 4

The creature moved when Serah took a step toward it.

Both long arms rose — not in attack position, in something more like reception.

As if it expected the primordial aura it knew would come.

Serah didn’t use the primordial aura.

She used her claws.

Pure physical.

No additional energy.

The base strength of an SSS primordial wolf in partially transformed form, concentrated on the edge of the claws aimed at the surface of the creature’s torso.

The claws connected.

The surface gave way — not like flesh, like the wall material when it receives enough physical pressure.

It fractured.

The blue point of light flickered.

The creature did respond to physical damage.

’Good.’

’No aura. No ice. Just strength.’

The creature’s long arm came down.

Serah blocked it with her forearm.

The impact moved her a meter and a half back.

’Strong.’

’More than the size suggested.’

’Good. That means there’s real mass behind that material.’

’If there’s mass, it has a limit.’