Evolution of the Ruined Heir

As a large surge of vita ran through his body, Malakai felt alive.

It was akin to a sudden adrenaline boost. For a moment, he felt like he could reduce mountains to dust with a single punch.

Like he could transverse the world with a single leap. All this power, at his fingertips… Malakai felt alive.

But just as quickly as this feeling came, it vanished.

Malakai found himself standing above the mangled, lifeless corpse of the grade three enhancer. Reality.

'Nothing was lost.'

He was glad. Unlike before, his control over vita had risen to such an extent that he was able to absorb all the vita from the grade three enhancer.

Though he also gave credit to his evolved body. The increase in power had made his body more resilient to vita. Now, he could absorb more than he ever had.

He focused on his body.

'Not many changes. But my vita increased.'

Synergy stage was the next rank after node formation. To reach it, after all seven nodes were formed around the body, one had to link them together.

And during his fight and power boost at Sylvastein, Malakai had created the pathways that linked each node together in his body.

Now, they were efficient. They acted as one. Sharing from the same power pool. Now when he absorbed vita, he was sharing it with all his nodes.

Regardless, this was what he had to do to achieve the bloom rank. Keep absorbing vita, so long as his body could take it.

One would achieve the bloom rank when their nodes transformed. Bloomed. It was a level of power Malakai couldn't wait to achieve.

He focused on the enhancer beneath him. The battle had been brief. With his newly awakened muscle node, he had been able to overpower it easily. He hadn't even used a weapon.

Suddenly, vita coated his arm and it blurred down, piercing through its head. In the next moment, Malakai retrieved the grade three vita core.

'There you are…'

He couldn't wait to use it. He focused and a small vita dome surrounded it, stopping the energy within from dispersing into the air.

A sharp sound caught his attention, and he turned.

'That's right, they're still alive.' The other two node formations.

They were still within a hundred meters from him and were being held in place. Malakai had made sure of it during his brief fight.

'I want to try out something.'

He blurred and appeared in front of one. Before carrying out his experiment, Malakai questioned them first to see if he would be lucky enough to find out any useful information.

But just as he had expected, it was to no avail. No matter how he tortured them, they insisted they knew nothing about who ordered the assassination.

After that, Malakai didn't waste time. He took one and created distance from the other, before severing the latter's head with a slash of vita.

As the darkness pillar formed, Malakai narrowed his eyes.

'That same feeling again.' The same feeling of being watched. Though it prickled at his skin, it confirmed his assumption.

'It's a portal.'

If Malakai had even a hint of the sheer significance of what he had just uncovered, then perhaps he wouldn't have remained this unfazed.

Regardless, Malakai focused on the pillar of darkness with narrowed eyes. Over the course of centuries, many had made assumptions on what the pillar of darkness truly was.

The emergence of death? A beacon? The assumptions were endless. But Malakai believed his was true.

For that being to be able to see him meant there was some link between here and there. A portal.

'Because of the death…'

They were creatures of darkness. Death was their calling. Their beacon.

'A portal opens after every death. What happens if I go through it?' Did it mean he would end up outside the world?

Breaking through like he had done at Sylvastein and going through it were two different things.

But Malakai shuddered at the thought of being taken from the protection of the dome and out into the world.

He snapped himself back to focus and stared at the darkness pillar, feeling the heavy gaze on him. A thought suddenly came to him.

'If it's a portal, it can be closed.'

He stretched out his arm and focused. The vita listened. It converged around the pillar like a heavy wave, pushing back against it.

Malakai felt like he was trying to crush stone with his palm. The pillar was hard, not budging no matter how much he tried.

But Malakai had no intention of giving up. He pushed himself to the limits, and more vita surged towards the darkness pillar.

Malakai felt something within him roar. He felt the strain almost instantly, but he couldn't even focus on it.

He had just felt a shift.

'Did it just…'

He was sure of it. The pillar had just shrunk!

'I need more.'

Malakai gritted his teeth, head spinning. He manipulated even more vita.

As it converged around the pillar, he felt his eyes blur, a splitting headache hitting his head. But the sight of the darkness pillar gradually shrinking kept him going. He didn't stop.

It was only after the surging vita compressed the pillar into nothingness, that he finally released a deep and laborious breath. He felt the cold glare of the being before it vanished.

Malakai wiped off the cold sweat from his forehead. He could feel his clothes clinging to him. His body was drenched in sweat.

'I did it.'

Regardless, it did nothing to dampen the grin on his face. He had actually fucking done it. He couldn't believe it. No one would believe it.

He had stopped darkness from spawning!

"Malakai?"

He turned towards the voice. Nyx stood meters away from him with a worried expression.

"Nyx…" Malakai muttered. "Did you see what I just did? Can you believe it?"

Nyx turned towards the point the darkness pillar had been, eyes serious. "I saw it." She said, though even she couldn't believe her words. Couldn't believe what she'd just witnessed.