The stale air reeked of rot and blood. Noct's breathing was steady, his steps precise. Ellen and Mia moved beside him in formation—Ellen scouting ahead with her agile reflexes, Mia monitoring aether fluctuations behind them.
They had gone deeper.
Every level tested them harder than the last. Since acquiring the aether-regeneration ring and gaining more control over Numbers, Noct had grown more confident. But the labyrinth had no end to cruelty.
A shrill shriek echoed from deeper within the mist-veiled corridor.
"Scatter," Ellen ordered calmly, vanishing into a side shadow.
Mia stayed close to Noct. "Five presences. Close. They've been tracking us."
A sudden screech tore through the air, followed by monstrous shapes lunging from both walls—skeletal beasts with elongated limbs and warped jaws.
Noct's eyes sharpened.
He raised a hand. Sequence Dash.
Numbers spiraled around his legs. His body blurred as he stepped across a Fibonacci pattern, evading the first claw. He calculated angles. Vector Strike—his blade slashed two beasts simultaneously from impossible angles.
Mia snapped her fingers, releasing a burst of kinetic force from her exploding clones that crushed a monster against the wall.
Ellen reappeared mid-air, her sword plunging into the final creature's skull. It didn't even have time to scream.
Silence followed.
Noct exhaled. "We're getting faster."
"Not fast enough," Mia muttered. "We're being tested. Something's watching us from deeper in."
Ellen crouched beside a strange object the monsters had been guarding—a large, sealed case of silver with faded Coalition markings.
"A relic cache," she said. "Probably left behind by an old expedition."
Inside, they found medical supplies, high-grade elixirs, and a reinforced shortblade that hummed with aether. Noct claimed it silently, strapping it to his back.
Mia looked ahead into the darkness.
"Next floor. Let's move before this place sends worse things after us."
>Selene's Perspective – Overseas Nexus, Crimson Ruins
It had been three days since the Creed of Evolution revealed themselves.
Selene's squad had been deployed to assist in subduing a Nexus anomaly, but what they encountered went far beyond corrupted monsters.
They had arrived to find the frontlines shattered, operatives screaming about a "woman made of shifting flesh." The survivors spoke in hushed terror.
Selene stood atop a crumbled altar, her Stellar Sword—Sword of Vela—drawn and glowing with white-hot judgment.
Below her, the battlefield was chaos: flames, ruptured terrain, twisted monstrosities created from fused humans and beasts.
At the center of it all stood Kaedra Voss—The Flesh Weaver.
Kaedra's body writhed with ever-changing shapes. Wings formed, then legs, then tendrils, then hardened scales. She grinned wide, eyes glowing with feral joy.
"I envy your structure, Selene," Kaedra said, voice distorted. "Still held together. Still... linear. Let me show you what adaptive freedom looks like."
Selene didn't respond with words.
She raised her hand.
The sky responded.
Four Stellar Swords hovered around her, glimmering constellations etched in silver light. Each hummed with the judgment of celestial wrath.
Starlight Judgment End was still recharging. She had used it only once this week.
She knew using five swords at the same time would be taxing.
But Kaedra wasn't going to wait.
With a snarl, Kaedra launched herself forward, her mutated arm forming a blade.
Selene met her mid-air with Sword of Draco—its weight immense, its edge absolute.
The two forces clashed.
Kaedra adapted faster with every strike—growing flame-resistant skin when hit by Sword of Vela, forming mirrored vision to counter light bursts from Sword of Lyra.
Selene gritted her teeth. Constellation Arsenal let her switch swords in the blink of an eye.
But this was different.
Kaedra wasn't just fighting.
She was learning.
Selene slashed downward, Sword of Orion glowing as it connected. The blade tore through Kaedra's shoulder—but already, the flesh wove itself back together.
Kaedra smiled.
"Mutation is endless. How long can your stars shine before they burn out?"
As she changes her body once more.
Selene narrowed her eyes. Her divine ather flared, forming a defensive spiral of Stellar Swords around her.
"I only need one moment."
Back in the labyrinth, Noct felt a strange chill run through him.
Far away, forces beyond understanding were moving.
And soon, their paths would converge.