Evolution of the Ruined Heir

The whole of Sylvastein was illuminated in green.

The dark night had vanished, and the choking chill that the darkness brought with them had been replaced by warmth.

The people of Sylvastein had never felt so alive. An incredible amount of vigor was coursing through their veins.

Their wounds had healed and mended, their pain gone. The fear of the creatures of darkness that had once gripped their spines had also vanished, replaced by hope. The darkness creatures had been reduced to ichor and gore that painted the ruined streets black.

Regardless, despite the utter devastation around them, none seemed to be focused on it.

All eyes were fixed on the distant sky, where a pillar of light tore up the heavens as though a god was returning to his rightful position.

A presence filled each of their hearts, one that they had never felt before.

And while the people of Sylvastein wondered what was happening, the same thoughts ran through the minds of the ones closest to the green pillar.

Everyone stared at the green pillar with nothing but utter shock. From Nyx, to Rhett, to Laila, Grunde, and the surviving members of the Sutrex clan.

'Even they can't move.' Rhett narrowed his eyes on the grade fours in the distance. They each hovered high in the sky, staring at the pillar with intense expressions.

Rhett had fought with grade fours before, especially when Valerian had been alive. However, in all his decades of life, even when facing the monster that was Valerian, Rhett had never seen a grade four look so serious.

'They're shaking.' His eyes slowly widened. Grade fours were beings of great cataclysm, disasters to the people of the dome.

To think that a child barely fifteen could make not just one, but three of such beings shake.

Once again, Rhett was wracked with the same question. 'What the hell did you give birth to, old friend.'

A figure emerged from below, ascending up the green pillar steadily. As all eyes landed on the figure, they froze.

It was Malakai. But he didn't look like the boy they knew.

Malakai had grown in height, hovering at six feet tall. His bulk had increased, physique imposing. His hair flowed behind him in formless waves, appearing like green silky threads.

He looked like he had aged by a few decades.

"Malakai!" Nyx shouted, her expression worried. The figure looked like Malakai, but older. While Malakai looked like a young warrior, this man looked like he had been bred for war.

Like his very purpose in life was to kill.

The green pillar collapsed, converging around Malakai in a blinding flash of green light. Nyx and Rhett used their hands to obscure the light threatening to blind them.

"Wait!"

Rhett gripped Nyx tightly on her shoulder, stopping her from doing something stupid. "Look at him," he said, gesturing towards Malakai. "Does he look like someone who needs help?"

Nyx bit her lip and brought down her hand just as the light that engulfed Malakai dimmed. He had transformed.

An armor of radiant green had encased his body, pulsing with such power that the air around him shuddered.

In his arm, the vita converged, stretching, curving, until it solidified into a massive scythe. Its curved blade gleamed like a crescent, so sharp it seemed to sever the still air itself.

Malakai hovered in silence, towering. He no longer looked human. He looked like a god incarnate.

His blazing green eyes ignored the world, fixing only on the grade fours in the distance.

At that moment, Rhett didn't miss the shudder that rippled through their forms. Their bodies tensed.

Malakai moved.

His motion was such that it defied tracking. No streak was left in his wake. No blur, no sound.

One moment he hovered high above the sky, the next he was simply there, his scythe crashing down.

The force of the attack was such that it appeared as though the sky was collapsing.

The expressions of the grade fours changed violently. The enhancer exploded in a wave of pure darkness. Its muscles grew, rippling, brimming with uncontained power.

In the next moment, it brought its massive hand back and roared. Its hand exploded forward with insane momentum, meeting the falling scythe.

There was no explosion.

The scythe ripped through the darkness that swelled around the massive hand, shearing it apart. The curved blade didn't stop, it carved straight through its flesh and bone.

The enhancer's eyes exploded wide with shock. But it didn't even have the chance to comprehend what had happened before the scythe curved again, its edge screaming toward its neck.

"Corrupter's Wave!"

The cry tore from Malakai's side, and the sky blackened. Darkness surged like an ocean, converging on Malakai.

But he didn't even turn his head.

Vita erupted from him, bursting in every direction at once.

They met with the surge of darkness, birthing a collision that ripped the skies open. Shockwaves screamed outward, the force splitting clouds apart for miles.

In the middle of the chaos, Malakai's eyes gleamed, and his scythe exploded with speed. It tore through the arm length of the enhancer to his neck.

"Filth—!"

The enhancer could barely speak before its head was severed.

The slash of Malakai's scythe continued downwards, tearing a deep trench that stretched for kilometers.

"You life scum!" A wave exploded from the corrupter's body, blasting the thick haze from the sky.

Its trembling eyes were focused on the severed figure of the enhancer, plummeting down to the ground.

But it could barely go far. A wave suddenly spread from Malakai's body, engulfing the split body. The enhancer's corpse was shredded into pieces.

In the next moment, an ocean sized vita burst out from the shredded corpse, surging into Malakai.

The corrupter watched, tensed, as the vita around Malakai became more defined, dense, powerful.

Malakai swept his scythe to the side, the single motion sending a gale tearing outward. Broken trees were hurled away like twigs.

His gaze fell on the Corrupter, and in that instant, the creature felt as though death was staring at it.