Yuto’s vision flickered for a fraction of a second as the system overlay refreshed itself in the corner of his awareness, the familiar translucent interface briefly sharpening before settling back into place as if the world itself had momentarily blinked.

Name: Yuto

Rank: Disciple

Soul Rank: Menace

Soul Cores: 166/300

The last line lingered longer than the rest, a quiet reminder of how far he had already been pulled into something he still did not fully understand.

The silence that followed the destruction of the beetles stretched across the desert like a heavy cloth laid over broken stone, unbroken except for the faint settling of sand and the distant groan of cooling armor sinking into the wasteland.

It was Tami who finally broke it.

"Dude," he said, his gaze fixed on the aftermath and then shifting, slowly, toward Yuto and the two summons that still lingered near him as if they belonged there naturally. "How are your summons this powerful? Like, seriously. What kind of power flare is this?"

His tone carried disbelief that had not yet decided whether it wanted to become admiration or suspicion.

Maya’s eyes moved to Yuto as well.

She did not speak, but the weight of her attention made it clear she was listening for something more substantial than a casual answer. Not curiosity alone, but evaluation, as though she was trying to reconcile what she had just witnessed with whatever assumptions she had already formed about him.

Normally, summons were constrained by the limits of their ethereal contract, bound tightly to the strength and development of their user in ways that created a predictable hierarchy among awakened individuals. That was the structure everyone understood, the structure that defined how growth was supposed to work.

Yuto’s situation did not fit that structure.

Not even close.

His summons were not behaving like anything he had ever been taught about.

He could not explain that to them in any meaningful way, not without opening doors he himself did not understand.

So instead, he let the question dissolve into simplicity.

"They just are," he said, as though it were the most natural answer in the world. "We should keep moving."

Tami exhaled sharply through his nose, clearly unconvinced, though he did not push further, letting the silence swallow the subject for the moment.

They resumed their journey across the wasteland.

The steel-plated beetle moved beneath them with steady power, its armored legs carving rhythmic impacts into the sand as it carried Yuto and Maya forward. Behind, Tami followed slightly offset on his black panther, the beast’s movements smooth and silent against the desert floor.

The formation they traveled in was loose but coordinated, shaped more by instinct than planning, the kind of arrangement that emerged naturally when everyone involved was aware of danger but unwilling to show uncertainty.

The sun continued its slow descent into the horizon, though it was less a visible sinking and more a gradual dimming of the violet-tinged sky, the orange streaks thinning as shadows began to stretch unnaturally long across the fractured terrain.

Somewhere in that slow shift toward evening, Yuto noticed something that had been absent all day.

Maya’s eagle wasn’t circling above.

Not visible anywhere against the strange sky.

Not even a distant silhouette.

"You haven’t summoned your eagle in a while," Yuto said after a while, his voice cutting through the steady rhythm of travel.

Maya glanced at him briefly, then returned her attention to the horizon ahead.

"I don’t feel like it," she replied.

Her tone remained flat, controlled, almost indifferent, yet something about it did not sit entirely right with Yuto. It was not what she said, but what she chose not to say, a subtle absence of explanation that made the answer feel heavier than it should have been.

He did not press further, but the thought stayed with him.

As they continued forward, the desert began to change in ways that were subtle at first but impossible to ignore once noticed.

The heat thinned.

Not disappeared, but softened, as though something beneath the world was drawing it inward.

The wind shifted, becoming slower, less aggressive, carrying sand in longer, lazier movements across the dunes.

Even the soundscape of the wasteland seemed to dull, as if the entire region was losing energy.

Then the first sign came.

The steel-plated beetle beneath them slowed.

Its massive frame, which had until now moved with unwavering certainty, began to hesitate. Its head tilted slightly, antennae twitching as though it was sensing something beyond the reach of normal perception. Its legs adjusted their stance repeatedly, shifting weight in small, uneasy corrections that did not match its earlier confidence.

Yuto frowned.

"What is it doing?"

The question had barely left his mouth when the ground beneath the beetle fractured.

Not a simple crack or surface break, but a deep, spreading rupture that tore through the desert floor as though something vast beneath it had inhaled sharply and failed to contain the force.

The beetle reacted instantly, trying to retreat.

It was already too late.

The earth gave way entirely.

The structure beneath them collapsed inward with a soundless violence that stole stability from the world in an instant. Sand and stone cascaded downward into an expanding void as the beetle lost all footing and toppled violently to one side, its armored body rolling as gravity shifted its control away from it.

Yuto and Maya moved at the same moment.

There was no hesitation, only instinct sharpened by repeated survival.

They launched themselves clear of the falling creature, pushing off its armored surface just as the ground beneath it continued to disintegrate.

A widening sink of darkness swallowed everything beneath, sand pouring downward as though the desert itself had been hollowed out.

Tami managed to react in time, though less cleanly, pulling himself free with his panther as both landed hard a short distance away, dust erupting around them on impact.

Yuto summoned Shinny.

The swordsman appeared beside him instantly, as if he had been waiting just beyond reach.

At almost the same moment, Maya’s eagle materialized into the air beside her, wings snapping open as it caught the shifting currents above the collapsing ground.

Tami was already reaching for his gauntlet, voice sharp with alarm. "What’s going on?!"

"I don’t know," Maya said, her eyes scanning the shifting terrain with focused intensity. "But something is attacking us."

The earth cracked again.

This time directly beneath their position.

Shinny moved first.

He grabbed Yuto by the arm without hesitation and launched himself away in a single explosive leap, the ground beneath them collapsing into a second widening void just as they cleared it.

Sand and stone fell into darkness once more.

Yuto landed hard but recovered immediately, rolling into a stable stance as he reoriented himself.

Maya avoided the collapse with precise movement, her eagle adjusting mid-air to carry her momentum before she landed lightly on stable ground.

Tami was not as fortunate.

The ground beneath him disintegrated mid-step, dropping him halfway into the collapsing earth as he scrambled desperately for purchase, fingers digging into fractured stone until he caught the edge of a solid slab.

"Argh," he growled through clenched teeth, struggling to hold himself up as the earth continued to shift beneath him.

His panther reacted instantly, lunging forward with powerful strides, claws digging into the rock as it anchored itself and pulled him upward with raw strength.

Maya rushed in without hesitation, grabbing his arm and hauling him the rest of the way out as the ground beneath them continued to destabilize.

Tami collapsed onto solid ground, breathing heavily, sand clinging to his gauntlet and clothing.

"What is this thing," he snapped, shaking his hand free of debris. "And how is it controlling the earth like this?"

No one answered immediately.

The desert trembled again, smaller vibrations rippling through the ground like something circling just beneath the surface, patient and unseen.

Then Shinny turned his head sharply.

His gaze locked onto a point in the shifting sand.

He raised his sword.

And shouted.

"There."