Chapter 151: All Done Inside?

"Evren, watch out!" Silas shouted desperately. "It’s filling the room!"

The eight heads opened their maws together, exhaling a thick cloud of toxic, blood-red mist.

Within moments, the entire cavern was swallowed by the burning smog. The corrosive fog hissed against Evren’s coat, obscuring all vision and burning the throat with every breath.

Through the red haze, the sounds of shifting scales echoed from all directions. The Hydra was circling through its poisonous domain, using the fog to mask its next strike.

Evren closed his eyes, shutting out the blinding mist. Instead of relying on his eyes, he expanded his spatial senses. He felt the minute vibrations in the stone and the ripples in the air.

Behind him, three heads lunged out of the fog in total silence, aiming to tear him apart from his blind spot.

FLASH!

Evren executed an Umbral Blink, vanishing into thin air.

The three hydra heads collided violently with the crystal boulder where he had stood, shattering the rock into flying debris.

Before the monster could turn, Evren materialized ten feet above its main body.

He focused his SS-Rank Gravity Domain, not across the whole cavern, but into a concentrated gravitational singularity directly over the Hydra’s spine.

CRACK-BOOM!

Fifty times gravity crashed down onto the beast’s center of mass like a falling meteor.

The immense localized pressure slammed the Hydra’s massive torso flat against the floor, cracking the bedrock wide open and trapping its heavy body in the stone.

The eight heads flailed wildly, screeching in agony as the gravity well pinned them down.

Evren dropped from the air, planting his boots firmly onto the monster’s scaled back. With both hands on the hilt, he plunged the Frost-Bane Cleaver straight down into the main nerve junction where all the necks connected to the spine.

CRUNCH!

Evren flooded the cleaver with his full reserve of mana which turned sub-zero upon reaching the core of his blade..

A blinding wave of absolute zero ice raced through the monster’s inner skeleton. The frost froze the Hydra’s blood vessels and spinal marrow from the inside out, completely shutting down its internal thermal core.

All eight heads froze mid-snarl, their muscles locking up as thick layers of blue ice spread through their scales.

"This ends now," Evren said coldly.

He ripped the cleaver free, leaped forty feet into the air, and raised the weapon toward the ceiling. Dark gravity mana swirled around the frozen edge of the blade, forming a terrifying vortex of crushing force.

"Gravity Cleave!" Evren roared as he brought the cleaver down in a thunderous vertical strike, striking the Hydra’s chest and splitting its frozen heart clean in two.

The massive Level 72 beast froze completely solid from head to tail.

Then, with a loud crack that echoed through the underground cavern, the giant monster shattered into millions of glowing red pieces.

The toxic red mist dissolved into the cool cavern air, leaving behind pure silence.

A glowing golden screen materialized in Evren’s vision:

[ZONE TWO MUTATED RIFT BOSS ELIMINATED!]

[ACQUIRED: 1x LEVEL 72 ABYSSAL HYDRA REGENERATION CORE (S-RANK)]

From the center of the fading stardust, a fist-sized red crystal floated into the air, pulsing with rich spatial mana.

Evren’s Core Siphon pulled the S-Rank core straight into his hand, and he stored it safely inside his spatial storage ring.

A few paces away, Silas Drake stared at Evren, trembling from head to toe.

He had watched every second of the battle. It was not a mindless brawl, but a display of incredible control, skill and power. Evren had dismantled a monster that broke the city’s top guild, staying calm and in complete control from start to finish.

Silas looked up at Evren. "You saved my life after everything I said at the gate... Why?"

Evren lowered his Frost-Bane Cleaver, resting the blade lightly on his shoulder.

"I came to stop this rift from breaking through to the city, not to coddle your pride," Evren said smoothly. "Pick up your men and crawl back to your medics."

Suddenly, a violent tremor tore through the cavern floor.

With the core boss dead, the spatial domain was rapidly losing its stability. Glowing dimensional fractures spider-webbed across the ceiling, and loose red crystals began to rain down like hail.

In the center of the cavern, the collapsing spatial energy coalesced into a massive, swirling blue exit portal.

"The rift is collapsing," Evren said, glancing back at Silas. "Drag your men through that portal before this space implodes."

Silas scrambled to his feet, barking hoarse orders to hoist his unconscious guards. He looked at Evren with trembling lips, his heart burning with debt and gratitude. "Evren... thank you," he choked out.

Evren gave a faint nod. Turning toward the swirling vortex, he stepped straight into the exit portal.

A flash of blinding white light washed over his vision.

In the next instant, Evren materialized back onto the sunlit asphalt of the mountain pass. Behind him, the massive crimson tear in the mountain let out a final, hollow boom, collapsing in on itself and sealing into solid rock.

Outside the entrance, Amber and Zephyra stood waiting by their combat rover. Every stray monster that had tried to escape had been cleanly wiped out.

"All done inside, Evren?" Amber asked with a bright smile.

"All done," Evren smiled back. "Zone Two is closed."

Right then, the thrum of twin rotors shook the air above the highway as an imperial command gunship bearing the seal of the Grand Arbiter landed on the cracked asphalt.

Grand Arbiter Raymond Kincaid stepped out in full military dress, flanked by imperial honor guards.

Kincaid looked at the sealed red rift, then at the three calm figures standing by their rover. A look of profound respect crossed the veteran general’s face.

Kincaid walked toward Evren and snapped his right hand to his brow in a rigid military salute.

"Chairman Evren," Kincaid said, his voice filled with reverence. "The Capital owes Apex a debt it can never fully repay."

Evren returned a calm nod. "Just doing our part, Grand Arbiter."

With the frontier rifts secured and the cure catalysts resting safely in his ring, Evren looked toward the distant skyline of the Capital.

It was time to return to Meridian Tower and heal Calista.