Omega Ascension System[BL]-Chapter 304: _Witness Evolution

Aurora’s POV

*****

She leaned back in the passenger seat of the aether craft, watching the city lights blur into streaks of gold and cerulean beneath them. Floating road lanes crisscrossed the sky like glowing veins, other crafts drifting past at controlled speeds, their engines humming softly through the reinforced glass.

Normally, she loved this view.

Tonight, it made her uneasy.

"You’re quiet," Seraphyne said, fingers steady on the controls. Her eyes were fixed on the aerial lane ahead. "That’s usually my job."

Aurora huffed softly. "Lucian summoned me back to Moon Haven without context. That alone is suspicious."

Seraphyne smirked. "The Alpha Prince lives for theatrics."

"Yes," Aurora agreed, then frowned. "But this felt... urgent. And weirdly vague."

She shifted, crossing one leg over the other. Her fingers brushed the silver gemstone on her necklace — a nervous habit she hadn’t quite broken.

The craft veered slightly as they merged onto a higher lane, the altitude increasing. Below them, Solrune’s spires and bridges began to thin, giving way to open sky and distant clouds glowing faintly with lunar energy.

A few hours to Moon Haven. Should be an easy trip.

Maybe too easy.

Seraphyne glanced at the side mirror. Then the rear sensors. Then the mana readout embedded into the console.

Her jaw tightened.

"Aurora," she said carefully, "tell me you didn’t feel that."

Aurora’s spine went rigid.

"Don’t do that," she muttered. "I’m nervous as it is. If you sensed something—"

"I did." Seraphyne’s grip on the controls tightened. "A fluctuation. It was brief. Like something brushed the craft’s ward field."

Aurora turned fully now, pulse kicking up. "An attack?"

"No." Seraphyne hesitated. "More like a test."

The words settled heavily between them.

Aurora exhaled slowly and expanded her senses, letting her aura seep past the craft’s protective layers. At first, there was nothing — just open air and the distant sound of night birds—

Then she felt it.

A pressure.

Not magic in the usual sense. It wasn’t clean or alive either.

Her stomach dropped.

"...We’re being watched."

Seraphyne nodded once. "Thought so."

The aether craft’s systems chimed softly:

"External interference detected."

Aurora swore under her breath. "Gods above. Dark Hand?"

"Feels like it," Seraphyne replied, frowning. "Or something else. This feels too... predatory."

As if on cue, the mana lights along the lane ahead flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Then went out entirely.

The craft lurched as the artificial pathway destabilised, Seraphyne swearing sharply as she rerouted power to manual control.

"Aurora—"

"I see it."

Something moved in the clouds ahead.

No — several things.

Shadows peeled themselves from the mist, massive and twisted, like pieces of night stitched together incorrectly. Their bodies were long and angular, limbs too many, joints bending in ways that hurt to look at.

But unlike the Umbra beast Aurora had faced before...

These had eyes.

Thin slits of pulsing green light opened across their forms, scanning, focusing.

Learning.

"Oh," Aurora breathed. "Those are new."

The nearest one surged forward without a sound, its body phasing halfway through the air itself. Seraphyne yanked the controls, the craft spiralling sideways as claws raked across their ward barrier.

The impact sent a shockwave through the cabin.

Aurora was already moving.

Silver light erupted from her palms as she slammed her hands against the inner shield, reinforcing it with Alpha energy. The craft steadied just enough to avoid a full stall.

"Modified Umbra beasts," she said through clenched teeth. "They’re adapting to our wards."

"And tracking us specifically," Seraphyne added grimly, banking hard as another shadow lunged. "Which means this isn’t random."

Another strike hit harder this time.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the craft’s outer mana barrier.

Aurora’s heart slammed against her ribs.

"Lucian picked a hell of a time to be mysterious!" She snapped.

Seraphyne’s lips pulled back in a sharp grin. "Good thing you’re mated to someone who bites back."

She killed the craft’s lights.

The world plunged into near-darkness as the aether engine flared, dumping excess mana into a sudden vertical drop. The craft dove out of the floating lane, clouds swallowing them whole.

The Umbra beasts shrieked — an awful sound, like metal screaming under pressure — and followed.

Aurora braced herself, lunar energy coiling tight around her arms.

"Seraphyne," she said quietly, power building, "whatever these things are..."

"They’re not meant to leave witnesses," Seraphyne finished.

And Aurora smiled. "Then let’s disappoint them."

.

.

The aether craft crashed into a thick forest below them. One filled with blue leaf trees and bioluminescent flies that glowed with the same colour.

Fortunately, Aurora and Seraphyne had ejected out of the craft before it exploded, the flames consuming the Umbra beasts that clung to it.

Aurora grunted, sitting on the muddy ground and shifting her legs toward herself. The heat from the flames hit them from here, the creatures’ screeches cutting through the night.

"Light’s their weakness," Aurora murmured, grabbing Seraphyne’s hand. They helped themselves up, barely having time to worry about the dirt sticking to their clothes. "At least, for normal Umbra beasts. These ones are—"

She stopped when the screeches ceased. Then came a bone-chilling silence that unsettled her more than their screams.

Her grip on Seraphyne’s hand tightened while the latter drew out a plasma gun.

"Stay sharp," Sera whispered. "Looks like we’re far from done."

Aurora’s fingers tapped her necklace, which projected a holographic screen in front of her. "Come on. Come on... There should be a city or town nearby with a military that could help."

The empire’s princess in danger should instantly raise alarms anywhere. But to her disappointment... This forest was miles away from the nearest settlement.

Shine Town.

"Fuck my life..." Aurora swallowed hard, swiping the screen to contacts. "I’ll call Lucian. He—"

"Why so frightened, princess?" A deep, multi-layered voice boomed from the roaring flames just then. Her blood chilled, neck snapping there quickly. "Amara sends her regards through me. A gift."

A figure slowly emerged from the flames. One that almost made her stumble back.

"Sweet mother of Solara." Seraphyne’s breath came forced.

Standing just twenty meters ahead of them was one single beast now. An amalgamation of all the Umbra beasts. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

It was almost humanoid but darker than void and over ten feet tall. It had two long, slender main arms that ended in jagged claws, as well as tentacles hovering behind it like they were alive.

And then its eyes.

Coal red and locked on us.

The creature tilted its head, flames licking harmlessly around its obsidian frame. The fire didn’t burn it—it fed it, shadows thickening where the heat kissed its skin.

Aurora’s power surged in response.

"A gift?" she scoffed, stepping forward as Alpha energy exploded outward from her body in a blinding wave. Silver light tore through the clearing, forcing the Umbra thing back several paces. "If Amara wanted my attention, she could’ve sent a letter."

The beast laughed.

The sound vibrated through the ground itself.

"She sends truths," it replied, voice layered—many throats speaking as one. "And witnesses."

Aurora didn’t wait further.

She roared.

Pure Alpha energy detonated from her, a shockwave ripping through the forest. Trees bowed. Bio-luminescent insects scattered in terrified spirals as blades of condensed moonlight formed around her like orbiting stars.

She hurled them.

They struck the beast in rapid succession—slashing, piercing, exploding on impact. For a moment, the creature staggered, shadow bleeding into smoke.

Seraphyne moved instantly.

Her plasma pistol barked sharp blue fire, shots punching into the beast’s torso. She followed with a rolling toss—two plasma grenades arcing cleanly through the air.

BOOM!

Light erupted. The forest flashed white.

The Umbra beast screamed.

Encouraged, Aurora pressed harder, forming a whip of silver energy and snapping it forward. It wrapped around one of the creature’s arms, searing through shadow as she yanked.

"End it, Aurora!" Seraphyne shouted, already pulling another device from her belt.

The beast snarled—and then adapted.

Its body rippled, shadows folding inward. The damaged sections regenerated, darker. Thicker. Faster.

With terrifying speed, it slammed into the ground.

A wave of black force tore outward.

Seraphyne barely had time to activate her spatial jumper—vanishing in a flicker of blue light—before reappearing several meters away. Even then, the impact caught her mid-landing.

She hit a tree so hard her bones cracked.

Aurora screamed her name. "Sera—!"

The beast moved faster than she could speak.

A clawed tentacle lashed out, slamming Seraphyne again, this time squarely into another trunk. Her body went limp as she slid to the forest floor, unconscious.

"No—!"

Rage detonated inside Aurora.

She charged.

Moonlight flared so bright it turned night into a false dawn. Shields layered over her skin as she formed twin blades in her hands, hacking into the beast with everything she had.

It roared back.

One massive arm swept low.

Pain exploded across Aurora’s abdomen as claws tore through her defences, slashing deep. She gasped, stumbling as blood soaked into her clothes.

Before she could recover, the creature’s hand closed around her throat.

She was lifted effortlessly off the ground.

Silver energy sputtered, her vision blurring as her feet kicked uselessly.

"Amara wishes you to see," the beast intoned calmly, tightening its grip. "To bear witness to what Evaros will become."

Aurora clawed at its arm, choking, fury burning through the pain.

"Witness... what?" she rasped.

The beast leaned closer, coal-red eyes blazing.

"Change," it whispered. "Evolution. Ruin."

Her vision darkened.

And then—

Everything went black.