The air thickened without warning.
Black fumes slithered into existence, curling around my body like a nest of serpents. They coiled, twisted, and spiraled upward, lifting me off the ground as if the very air had turned into hands.
I didn't know where they came from.
I didn't know why they were wrapping around me.
But they did—and they would not let go.
From below, I caught the faintest flicker of disbelief on Bheeshma's face.
"What's happening…?"
Behind me, the rusted steel of Vault B10 groaned. A restricted zone, sealed behind multiple layers of code and reinforced plating, pulsed like something alive. Then—pressure.
A crushing, suffocating weight pressed down on everything. Bheeshma staggered, dropping to one knee, his teeth clenched as the invisible force doubled… then tripled.
And then—
BOOM.
The restricted zone ruptured open in a shockwave of black light. From within, something emerged—floating, impossibly still against the chaos.
A black lotus, its petals darker than any shadow, gliding toward me.
Bheeshma's voice was raw, almost desperate.
"What is that flower…? What is that intensity? Chairperson—what secrets are you hiding from the world?"
The lotus reached me… and unfurled.
Its twenty-four petals split apart, one by one, and with surgical precision each petal pressed into my eyes.
The pain was immediate. Blinding.
I screamed—my voice torn apart by the sheer agony as molten black fire burned through my vision, my veins, my bones.
Through the haze, I saw Bheeshma's face—frozen, unreadable.
Then I felt it—bones snapping back into place, melted flesh knitting together, the black fumes rebuilding me piece by piece.
When it was done… I was no longer a nineteen-year-old boy.
I stood—taller, heavier, a silhouette carved from nightmare.
And from the look in Bheeshma's eyes…
I knew I had become something that terrified even him.
I was conscious, yet powerless. My body moved on its own, acting with precision and intent that wasn't mine. Strangely… it didn't bother me.
Across from me, Bheeshma's expression twisted. For an A-rank soldier, failing to kill me with a single strike was more than defeat—it was humiliation.
"Don't ever think you'll walk out of here alive!" he roared.
His next blow was faster, stronger—a strike meant to erase me. But my body slipped past it, standing before him in an instant.
"Judgement Arc!" he bellowed. His hand erupted into blazing plasma, slashing at me again and again. Not a single cut touched.
Without warning, my fist slammed into his abdomen—right where the Volt Chakra pulsed. The impact blasted him downward, tearing through ten underground floors.
When I landed, I saw them. Dozens of soldiers—those who'd been battling the Necradron—now lay scattered, unconscious. Whether they'd fallen to the beast… or to this sinister force within me, I couldn't say. I didn't care.
A roar shook the floor. Across the chaos, a grotesque serpentine monster—eyes sprouting and sliding across its scaled body—coiled and writhed. The Necradron.
Bheema, C.O.S.M.O.S.'s chairperson's right hand and another A-rank, fought it with grit. A Stone Chakra user, he was at a disadvantage—but still landed heavy blows.
"Begone already, ugly!" he snarled, slamming a Terra Fist into its side.
The beast's many eyes locked onto me. It tried to flee, but Bheema muttered, "Terra Shield," trapping it within a dome of stone.
"Still the match is on, worm," he grinned.
The Necradron screamed—a Psychic Roar. Bheema staggered, his vision swimming. The beast knew something dangerous had arrived.
Something inside me urged—no, commanded—me to kill it. My body obeyed. I tore through the Terra Shield like paper and struck its face. The blow hurled it across the hall, dragging it across the floor in a screech of stone and flesh.
Bheema stared at me, dazed. "Who… are you?" Then he collapsed.
I leapt at the Necradron in a single bound, landing close enough to feel its hot breath. A scream tore from its throat—not of rage, but fear—and my hands rose.
From within its body, black fumes surged out, flooding into me. And suddenly, I understood. These fumes had been mine all along. They were why the soldiers still in one piece died instead of lying in shredded heaps.
The Necradron's thrashing slowed. Then stopped.
Power flooded me, strange and intoxicating. I could feel every muscle, every thought sharpen.
Eyes. Hundreds of them. Watching.
On impulse, I tore chunks from the Necradron's corpse and hurled them, using its own mass to bring down the already-crippled C.O.S.M.O.S. headquarters. The meteor strike had left it clinging to existence by sheer luck. My attack ended that luck.
The building collapsed in a roar of dust and rubble, burying soldiers—dead or alive—beneath the wreckage.
Through the settling haze, I saw the fear in their eyes. People scrambled to flee, desperate not to be crushed.
The air thickened, choking with dust—mist-like in its spread—concealing me from the gathering crowd outside.
Through that suffocating haze, I moved.
No—leapt.
Again and again, each jump higher than the last, the ground a blur beneath me. My lungs burned, my body felt weightless, and for a moment—just a moment—I saw it.
A building like no other.
Glittering in light.
Radiant, untouchable.
It was the kind of sight you'd think was beautiful—if you weren't me.
The higher I climbed, the more the dizziness gnawed at me. My vision swayed, the air thinned, and then… gravity reclaimed me.
I fell.
Slowly at first—then faster.
A freefall.
A meteor without flame.
The impact rattled through my bones as I slammed into the asphalt, cratering the road beneath me. If anyone had been nearby, they would've been reduced to red smears.
Lying there, staring into nothing, I thought—Freedom never lasts, does it?
My eyes grew heavy. Darkness pulled me under.
I don't know how many hours passed.
When I finally woke, warmth washed over my face—a thin beam of sunlight cutting through some unseen gap. I was… home. My cramped, suffocating home where even three people standing felt like a crowd.
But the real terror wasn't where I was.
It was what I saw the moment my eyes focused.
A notification—projected into my vision.
System:Black Lotus welcomes you, lesser being.