The control chamber of the Elven High Command was bathed in the cold glow of strategic Etherion displays, the arcane projections shifting as new battlefield reports filtered in.
King Valtheris stood at the center, his hands clasped behind his back, his sharp emerald eyes scanning the ever-changing map of the war. He did not like what he saw.
The war was not going as it should have.
His people, the High Elves of Veylith, had been dominant for centuries. Their command of Etherion, their superior battle tactics, their natural advantage in both knowledge and discipline, it should have been enough.
And yet.
The front lines were falling back.
The strategic cities along the eastern borders, fortresses that had stood against invasions for centuries, had begun to crumble under relentless assaults. Elite squads sent to handle key positions never returned. Reinforcements deployed to reclaim lost ground were encountering something unnatural.
Something wrong.
A subtle shift in the Etherion projection highlighted the current status of their territories. More red than green. More enemy-controlled land than they had lost in the last hundred years combined.
Valtheris' jaw tightened.
The Dark Elves had always been a threat. Ruthless. Cunning. Willing to do whatever it took to gain an advantage. But never before had they fought with this kind of efficiency.
This kind of overwhelming force.
He flicked his fingers through the projection, pulling up battle reports from the past month. His advisors had flagged something in these engagements. Anomalies.
His gaze narrowed.
The pattern was there.
Soldiers who should have died… didn't.
Elite strike forces wiped out with no bodies left behind.
Weapons infused with dark Etherion, beyond anything the Dark Elves should have been capable of producing in such short time.
They were not just winning battles. They were taking something from them.
And then there were the disappearances.
Not just soldiers.
Not just prisoners.
Entire platoons vanishing without a trace.
Valtheris exhaled slowly, pressing a hand against the cool surface of the control console. He knew what this meant.
The Dark Elves had found something.
Something that was changing the tide of war in ways he did not understand.
And worse—
They were getting bolder.
A faint chime echoed through the chamber, signaling an incoming transmission. One of his generals, Commander Sylas, materialized in a shimmering projection before him. His armor was stained with battle, his face set in grim determination.
"My King," Sylas greeted, his voice steady despite the weight behind it.
"Report," Valtheris commanded.
Sylas did not hesitate. "The battle at the Asilith Border is lost."
Valtheris did not flinch. He had suspected as much. "Casualties?"
"Too many. We barely managed an organized retreat. But it's worse than that, my King." Sylas' expression darkened. "It's not just their numbers. It's… them."
Valtheris' fingers curled slightly. "Explain."
Sylas inhaled sharply. "They don't die." His voice was edged with something close to disbelief. "I've seen fatal wounds close in seconds. I've seen warriors cut in half only to stand back up as if nothing happened. Our best spells? Our Etherion-reinforced weapons?" His jaw tightened. "Useless."
A cold sensation settled in Valtheris' chest.
"What of the scouts?" he asked.
Sylas hesitated.
That alone was enough to tell Valtheris what he needed to know.
"None returned," Sylas admitted. "And the ones who did make it back—" He exhaled. "They weren't themselves. Their Etherion signatures had changed. Corrupted."
Valtheris' gaze sharpened. "Dark Etherion?"
"No. Something else. Something… manufactured." Sylas grimaced. "It's like their very essence was rewritten."
The words settled heavily between them.
Valtheris straightened, his mind moving faster now. He had heard whispers before. Rumors of experiments. Of unnatural forces being wielded. But he had dismissed them as battlefield exaggerations.
He should not have.
The Dark Elves had uncovered something.
Something capable of reshaping warriors at a fundamental level. Something beyond conventional magic, beyond natural Etherion.
And it was working.
Valtheris exhaled, a slow breath that did nothing to ease the growing unease within him.
"This war," he murmured, almost to himself. "It's not just a battle for territory anymore."
It was becoming something else.
Something far more dangerous.
Sylas hesitated before speaking again. "What are your orders, my King?"
Valtheris stared at the crimson marks on the battlefield projection—the stark contrast of their dwindling presence against the ever-expanding reach of their enemies.
He had fought wars before.
He had won them.
But this?
This wasn't just a war.
This was a shift.
Something was changing in the balance of the world itself.
And if they did not act soon—
They would not survive it.
---
The morning sun rose over the treetops, its golden rays piercing through the dense foliage as Evolis, Aeliana, and Orion set out from their temporary camp. The night had been restless. Not because of physical exhaustion, but because of the weight left behind by their conversation.
Orion, despite his usual antics, had grown uncharacteristically quiet, walking slightly ahead of them as if lost in his own thoughts. Aeliana, for her part, had stayed close to Evolis, her gaze flickering toward him every so often, as if making sure he wasn't about to disappear into his own mind again.
They moved swiftly but cautiously, traversing the rugged terrain that separated them from the ancient ruin Evolis had sensed. Dense undergrowth, twisting roots, and uneven slopes made the journey slow, but none of them complained.
The further they traveled, the more the atmosphere began to shift.
It started subtly, a faint hum in the air, a pressure that grew with every step. The trees around them became thicker, darker, twisted in ways that didn't seem entirely natural. The usual sounds of the forest, birds chirping, the buzzing of the insects, had begun to fade, replaced by an eerie, unnatural silence.
Aeliana's fingers flexed near the hilt of her blade. "Do you feel that?"
Orion exhaled. "Yeah. It's like the air itself is getting heavier."
Evolis didn't answer immediately. He felt it more than either of them.
It was an energy, seeping through the very fabric of this place... old, waiting, watching.
His golden eyes flickered as he activated The Seer's Gaze, peering beyond what was visible to the naked eye.
And there, woven into the very land beneath them, was a current of Etherion unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Not wild. Not natural. Controlled. Deliberate.
Like a pulse buried beneath the earth, leading them forward.
Evolis' jaw tightened. Something was calling them.
Or worse... luring them.
Aeliana must have caught the shift in his expression. "Evolis?"
He blinked, letting the glow in his eyes dim slightly before shaking his head. "It's nothing."
Orion scoffed. "Yeah, see, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence."
Evolis smirked faintly. "Then maybe you should've stayed at camp."
Orion let out a dramatic sigh. "And miss out on walking toward almost-certain death? What kind of idiot do you take me for?"
Aeliana rolled her eyes. "The kind that complains and follows anyway."
Orion grinned. "Damn right."
The banter was lighthearted, but the tension beneath it remained.
Because they all felt it.
The closer they got to the ruins, the colder the air became.
Not in temperature, but in presence.
It was like stepping into a place that had been abandoned by time itself.
And then, finally—
The trees thinned. The land opened.
And before them—the ruins stretched across the horizon.
The ruins stretched before them, crumbling remains of a civilization long since devoured by time. The remnants of once-great structures lay in jagged heaps, vines curling over shattered stone, as if nature itself was trying to reclaim what had been lost.
Evolis, Aeliana, and Orion moved carefully through the wreckage, the eerie silence pressing against their senses. There was no sound beyond their footsteps and the occasional rustling of the wind through the broken pillars.
It felt abandoned.
It felt forgotten.
And yet, Evolis knew they weren't alone.
Not because he could see anything. Not because of any visible threat.
But because his Etherion felt wrong.
Subtle. Almost imperceptible. But there.
A flicker of something unnatural hummed beneath the surface of the ruins, buried deep within the layers of history that lay rotting around them.
Aeliana slowed her steps beside him. "You feel it too?"
Evolis gave a slight nod, his golden eyes narrowing. "Something's here."
Orion let out a slow breath, adjusting the grip on his daggers. "That's fantastic. And by 'something,' you mean…?"
Evolis didn't answer immediately. He let his sight peel back the layers of existence, his golden irises burning with the subtle glow of Etherion perception.
And then he saw it.
A thread of Etherion.
Thin, almost invisible, stretching through the ruin like a faint pulse of dying energy—a current leading somewhere deeper.
It wasn't just lingering power from an ancient time.
It was active.
Still alive.
Evolis' gaze locked onto it, following the invisible line across the rubble-strewn path.
"There," he murmured, pointing toward the crumbled remains of what must have once been a temple.
Aeliana studied the direction he pointed in, eyes narrowing. "You're sure?"
"Positive."
Orion sighed, rolling his shoulders. "Well. That's never a good sign."
Without waiting for confirmation, Evolis moved forward.
The deeper they walked into the ruins, the heavier the air became.
The shift was gradual at first—barely noticeable. But then, as they stepped past what seemed like the threshold of the ruined temple, the change became undeniable.
The air thrummed with something old.
Something waiting.
Evolis stopped. His heart thudded once—a sharp, instinctual warning.
And then, it hit him.
A sharp pulse shot through his mind, splitting behind his eyes like a hammer to his skull.
His breath hitched, and for a brief second, he wasn't in the ruins anymore.
He was somewhere else.
Somewhere dark.
Massive pillars stretched into the void above, obsidian and gold, shimmering with ethereal light. Symbols, ancient, unknowable, etched themselves across his vision in lines of glowing blue.
One symbol burned itself into his mind.
A shape he recognized.
But not from this life.
A name whispered at the edges of his thoughts—a name he should have known.
The Architects.
He stumbled slightly, exhaling sharply as his vision snapped back to reality.
"Hey—" Aeliana's hand was on his arm immediately, steadying him. "What just happened?"
Evolis blinked hard, shaking off the lingering sensation of something just beyond his reach. His skin prickled, his Etherion still humming with residual energy.
"I—" He hesitated, inhaling slowly. "I don't know. I saw something."
Orion stepped closer, his usual smirk absent. "Saw what, exactly?"
Evolis ran a hand through his hair, gaze flicking toward the remains of the temple ahead. "A symbol. An organization. And something… old."
Aeliana studied him for a moment before glancing toward the path ahead. "Do you think it's connected to whatever's buried here?"
"I think it's leading us somewhere."
She nodded once, firm. "Then let's keep moving."
Orion muttered something under his breath but followed without complaint.
The temple ruins yawned open before them, the shattered stone archways framing the darkness beyond.
Whatever waited inside…
It had been waiting for a long time.
And Evolis had a feeling it was waiting for him.
As they traveled Evolis checked his status for the first time in a while.
Name: Evolis Aetherion
Age: 18
Race: ???
Attributes:
Strength: 78 → 223
Agility: 76 → 230
Endurance: 83 → 235
Vitality: 81 → 234
Intelligence: 71 → 196
Charm: 62 → 243
Etherion Core Level: 37 → 83
Stage: High Novice
Talent: SSS
Bloodline(s): Locked
Affinities:
Greater Gravity(Stage 4)
Greater Space (Stage 4)
Unique Plantae (Stage 5)
Time (96% unlocked)
Fire (89% unlocked)
Earth (93% unlocked)
Water (91% unlocked)
Wind (92% unlocked)
Abilities:
Innate Skills:
The Seer's Gaze [Grade: Stage 1] [Evolvable]
Body of the !O# %F @$%pt$b$%#@y %$& G#$wt% [Grade: Stage 1] [Evolvable]
Evolis exhaled, his golden eyes flickering as he absorbed the changes.
He had come a long way.
When he had first stepped foot in the Elven Kingdom, he had been barely scraping the Awakened Stage, just another talent among many, a nuisance at best, an unknown at worst.
Now?
He had crossed a threshold.
His body was stronger, his Etherion deeper, his affinities honed to a razor's edge. The brutal training with Varian and the Elves had forged him into something sharper, harder, and far more dangerous than he had been before.
But what unsettled him the most wasn't his improvements.
It was the things that were still locked.
Bloodlines.
His very race.
And those abilities, one of which was so corrupted it couldn't even be read.
Evolis' fingers flexed at his sides.
'I guess it's just one of those things I'll have to figure out as I go along.' He thought as he exhaled.
He exhaled, rolling his shoulders, letting the tension bleed away.
No matter what mysteries lay ahead, he would uncover them.
No matter how strong the enemies he faced, he would surpass them.
And when the time came…
When the truth finally revealed itself—
He would be ready.