On the frozen wasteland of Antarctica, three Generals stood at the edge of a massive cliff, staring down into the valley below. The air was dry, bitterly cold, and smelled faintly of ash and ozone.
Beneath them stretched a desolate battlefield—a vast cratered basin littered with the remains of war and crawling with dozens of Corrupted.
In the center of it all loomed the Gate: a monolithic obsidian structure glowing with an eerie golden-yellow light. It towered over the valley, at least thirty meters tall, perfectly circular, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The Portal hummed, as if aware that something catastrophic was about to unfold.
This place… it's going to be hell in a few minutes, he thought. And I'll be in the middle of it.
He turned slightly, casting a glance behind him.
Lined up on the icy plain were over a thousand soldiers—Core-bearers like him. Men and women from all corners of the Earth, battle-scarred and armored, their Cores pulsing faintly with energy. But even among them, the strength of a General stood apart. Neptune knew most wouldn't survive what was coming.
It's beginning.
A shrill whistle pierced the sky, followed by a thunderous roar. The first explosion lit up the valley like a second sun. The Generals instinctively braced, jumping back from the shock wave. Neptune's ears rang as the world trembled beneath his boots.
Above, the dark sky was streaked with contrails. Dozens of fighter jets tore across the clouds, releasing payload after payload into the basin below. Explosions rocked the earth in rapid succession—missiles and bombs raining like divine judgment.
But this was only the beginning.
Corrupted weren't easy to kill. A Tier 5 could walk away from an atomic blast. The airstrikes weren't meant to kill the strongest. They were meant to clear the fodder—to wipe out hundreds of lower-tier monsters in a single blow.
And for ten long minutes, that's exactly what happened.
By the end, the valley was blanketed in smoke, fire, and shattered earth. The last rocket struck with a blinding flash, and then… silence. Neptune coughed, waving away the smoke as he stepped to the cliff's edge.
He froze.
Through the haze, shapes began to emerge—still standing. Dozens of Corrupted. But not just any kind.
His stomach twisted.
Light Devourers.
Towering over two meters tall, their grotesque forms were unmistakable. They had four elongated arms ending in cruel, black claws. Their ashen skin shimmered with a sickly gray gleam. Where a head should have been was a massive human skull, warped and oversized, filled with jagged teeth and a tongue that lolled from its mouth like a dead snake. They were highly immune against explosive and fire attacks, that was probably the reason why they had survived.
Neptune had faced them before—nearly died, in fact. They were relentless, vicious, and utterly insane. And they hunted light. Any light. He remembered a night mission when a lantern gave away his position, and a swarm of them nearly tore him apart.
He turned to the others. Both General Olivia and General Dalton had gone pale.
"These aren't just leftovers," Neptune said, his voice low and cold. "They're all Light Devourers. And judging by their energy, most of them are Tier 6."
Olivia's expression darkened. Dalton gave a tight, grim smile.
"Well then," Dalton said, cracking his knuckles. "Kill as many as you can before the Gate Keeper shows up. And try not to die."
He took a deep breath, steadying himself.
The wind shifted.
The Gate pulsed once more—and something stirred.
From the center of the portal, a deep, rumbling growl echoed across the valley. The kind of sound that didn't just reach your ears, but shook your bones.
The Gate Keeper was awakening.
Neptune's grip tightened around Dark Moon.
"Here we go."
From within the glowing Portal, a dark silhouette began to emerge—taller than anything Neptune had ever seen before. First came the clawed hands, massive and jagged like obsidian spears. Then the legs—thick as tree trunks, each step leaving molten cracks in the frozen ground. The creature's entire body seemed to be forged from shadow and metal, his core was pulsing in a golden-magma like color brightly.
The Gate Keeper had arrived.
Its form was humanoid, but exaggerated—grotesquely tall, nearly fifteen meters high, hunched forward with a head like a helmeted skull, its face veiled by vertical slits of light. Its presence alone caused a wave of oppressive energy to roll across the cliff like an invisible tsunami. Weaker soldiers dropped to their knees, gasping for air.
"Core suppression field… it's strong," Olivia muttered, eyes narrowing.
Neptune's body screamed in resistance as the pressure sank into his chest. It was like breathing underwater while someone pressed a knife against his lungs.
Dalton's voice broke the tension.
"Focus on the Light Devourers! Olivia and I will stall that thing. Silvius is inbound."
Without waiting for a reply, Dalton leapt off the cliff. His body blurred mid-air, coated in blinding violet energy, and slammed into the valley floor like a meteor. Cracks exploded outward from the impact point, and a wave of force knocked three Light Devourers back like ragdolls.
Olivia followed, spinning her massive warhammer above her head. She landed next to Dalton, driving her weapon into the ground. Shards of ice erupted upward in a jagged circle, piercing several enemies on impact.
Neptune didn't hesitate.
He reappeared in a blur beside a Light Devourer, slashing its torso open with a clean, upward arc. Black blood hissed in the air as the creature screeched and collapsed. Neptune was already on the next target, ducking under its swipe, spinning, and driving his blade through its chest.
[+1 Soul absorbed.]
[Souls Collected: 410 / 1500]
Another lunged at him from the side. Neptune turned mid-air, landing on its shoulder before slashing downward, cleaving its head in two.
[+1 Soul absorbed.]
But even as he moved like a ghost through the chaos, he realized the battlefield was shifting. The Light Devourers weren't disorganized anymore—they were… coordinated. Forming packs. Moving in flanking patterns.
That wasn't normal.
And the Gate Keeper—still standing at the heart of the battlefield—hadn't moved. It was just watching. Almost like it was… controlling them.
Neptune's instincts screamed.
"This is wrong," he muttered, cutting down two more attackers. "They're smarter."
Up above, a loud sonic boom ripped through the air.
Commander Silvius had arrived.
A golden streak shot across the sky, descending like a comet. He landed directly in front of the Gate Keeper, sending up a wall of dust and shockwaves that halted even the Corrupted in their tracks. He rose from the crater, cloaked in gold flame. His Core shimmered visibly through his chest—an intricate pattern of runes floating above his heart.
The power he radiated made Neptune feel like a flickering candle beside a furnace. He had probably also one of the most useful powers, he can fly.
"About time," Dalton grunted, grinning.
Silivus didn't speak. He simply lifted his hand—and summoned a massive glaive made of glowing crystal. The Gate Keeper responded.
With a deafening roar, it stepped forward. The ground cracked beneath its feet as it raised its arm. Its fingers twisted unnaturally, and black tendrils lashed out in all directions.
"NOW!" Silvius shouted. "Hold the flanks!"
Neptune growled under his breath and sprinted to the side, cutting down another Devourer on the way. There was no time to think. The real battle had begun.
Neptune dashed through the battlefield, mud and ash splattering across his uniform as he ducked under a swipe and countered with a devastating upward slash. But there were too many. The Light Devourers weren't just relentless—they were coordinated now, attacking in squads, circling like wolves.
This isn't sustainable. I'll be overrun if I keep fighting like this.
His eyes flashed with a cold, focused light.
"Time to stop holding back."
He thrust his katana into the ground.
[Essence Drain: Activated]
A pulse of dark turquoise energy rippled out from him in a five-meter radius. The effect was immediate—every Light Devourer in range staggered, their movements slowing as if something vital had been ripped from their cores. Their skin turned grayer, thinner, their snarls weaker.
At the same time, Neptune i
nhaled sharply. A rush of warmth filled his chest. His wounds closed. His muscles tightened with power. The dull ache behind his eyes vanished.
[Essence Drain: 12 enemies affected. Health restored. Power meter: +24%.]
Refreshed and ruthless, he surged back into the fray.
His katana cleaved through enemy flesh with fluid precision. One Devourer lunged from behind—but Neptune ducked, pivoted, and sliced through both of its legs in one sweep. It collapsed, shrieking, before his follow-up strike, killing it on instant.
Then, as a new wave approached, Neptune used his second Core Ability.
[Soul Harvest: Active]
Faint orange-gold runes appeared over a dozen enemies in front of him—small sigils burning above their chests like inverted halos.
The countdown had begun.
He moved like a blur, diving into the marked pack. Every slash he made was faster, every strike more calculated. The moment one fell, its soul was ripped from its body and funneled into him like a stream of light.
[+1 Soul absorbed. Soul Harvest active: +3% Strength, +3% Speed.]
Another fell.
[+1 Soul absorbed. Soul Harvest active: +6% Strength, +6% Speed.]
And another.
[+1 Soul absorbed. Soul Harvest active: +9% Strength, +9% Speed.]
His eyes gleamed with unnatural intensity as his form became a blur of motion and shadow. Then—four of the marked enemies fell at once, caught in the arc of a devastating spin slash.
BOOM.
A massive soul explosion erupted from their bodies—a fiery blast of golden-white energy that incinerated everything in a ten-meter radius.
[4 Souls Harvested. Soul Explosion triggered. Area Cleared.]
The blast sent a shockwave across the battlefield, toppling even unmarked Corrupted like bowling pins.
Several soldiers in the back gasped, seeing the crater Neptune had left behind.
"…Did he just—? That wasn't a bomb, was it?" one of them stammered.
Neptune stood at the center of the blast zone, his breath heavy but steady. Golden Core energy still shimmered faintly around his body. His gaze scanned the battlefield—not out of awe, but calculation.
He turned to Olivia through the chaos.
"I cleared the right flank. Ten seconds, I'll move center."
She grunted in acknowledgment, swinging her warhammer and creating a barrier of ice spikes to hold back a charging beast. Neptune had come up with a plan.
Dalton's voice crackled through their comms.
"Good. Keep pushing. Silvius and I will keep the Gate Keeper busy."
But as Neptune prepared to launch himself into the next wave—
—the Gate trembled.
A pulse of golden light surged from the Portal. The Gate Keeper threw its arms back and screamed—a horrible, guttural roar that cracked the ice and sent dozens of Core-bearers to their knees, clutching their heads.
And then…
A second silhouette began emerging from the Gate.
Smaller than the Gate Keeper—but faster. Its movements were fluid, serpentine, its form shifting in and out of visibility like smoke.
"What the hell is that?" Neptune hissed, his eyes narrowing.
Even from a distance, he could feel the pressure it emitted. It wasn't raw power like the Gate Keeper—but something subtler. Sharper. As if reality itself didn't want to acknowledge it existed.
A new type of Corrupted. One they hadn't seen before. With a grim expression, Neptune shouted,
"I'll take this thing on! You keep fighting!"