While the others sat in a loose circle, focusing on the glowing cores in their hands, Raith stood apart. He had nothing else to do right now.
Ivara seemed to be meditating as well.
Raith moved his body a bit. He could feel the warmth from the essence of the mutated monster cores circulating inside his body. It was slowly settling in his muscles like a slow burn.
What surprised him the most was how it had healed the pain in his limbs. His chest, too, no longer ached. His muscles felt tightened and stronger. Besides, his bones felt reinforced.
"I'm perfectly healed?" Raith muttered in disbelief.
He believed that it was the essence that had helped him. He moved his fingers and could feel how smooth the motions were. Even the lingering soreness from earlier battles had faded.
'How much stronger am I right now?' Raith wondered.
He was eager to test himself, but he realized he knew very little about this place. The next monsters he would face could be stronger than the ones he had already encountered.
He might be able to handle it, but there was still a good chance he wouldn't. He dismissed the idea of testing himself at least for the moment.
But something still bothered him.
Raith turned and looked around. The buildings that lined this ruin weren't the same as those on Old Earth. Not the same as the New Earth, either.
The structures were alien, yet eerily familiar. Their design held curves where humans might place corners. Metal joined stone in patterns that hinted at both advanced design and ancient craftsmanship.
He asked Ivara quietly, "Miss Ivara, can I go and check the surroundings a bit?"
"What do you plan to do?" she answered without opening her eyes.
"Err... I'm curious about the structures and signs."
"Keep within two hundred meters," she said, tone even. "If your body's recovered, make yourself useful later to your squad."
Raith nodded and walked away, boots crunching against scattered debris. He moved toward the structure whose wall he'd shattered earlier, right where he'd sent the red Crawler flying.
'We can enter the building here?'
That thought had never crossed his mind before when he was sent to mine the Force Crystals. Now, looking at the entrance created by the previous battle, it called to him.
He turned back to look at Miss Ivara. He planned to shout and tell her that he was going to check the inside, but that might attract trouble. The others were still absorbing the cores, and he didn't want to disturb them.
'I think nothing is wrong if I'm checking it.'
He stepped through the broken wall and entered the building. Immediately, the air changed.
Inside, the layout was wrong.
The ceiling tilted sideways. Some floors seemed inverted, as if gravity had been forgotten mid-construction. Tables were bolted to slanted walls. A stairwell twisted halfway up before vanishing into nothing.
Yet none of it had collapsed. Everything was held in place as if glued there by some invisible force.
Raith frowned as he walked past a wide hall. He saw rows of chairs arranged and facing something like a broken large screen. It was the same as the War Deck back at the camp.
"A war deck or a lecture hall?" he guessed.
The words slipped out without thought, and a pulse of something stirred in his chest. A dull headache flared behind his eyes. He kept walking, relying on his memory to track the twisted path.
Due to the way space distorted around him, he was grateful for his eidetic memory. Any other Cadet would have gotten lost within minutes.
He passed more halls, strange classrooms, and then paused at a junction. Letters were etched on one of the signs.
Now, he was fully convinced that they weren't in Earth's language. Not even in the Old Earth's script, not even the revised tongues of Haven Bastion. But… they weren't that different either.
Raith stared, eyes scanning the symbols. After seeing them a few times, he realized that they followed the structure of an alphabet. If he compared it to the standard ABC, it wasn't too far off.
'It's not like the ancient Japanese or Korean characters… those would've taken longer to decode,' he thought.
Even so, understanding the letters didn't mean he understood the language. The sounds, the grammar, the meaning—that was still lost to him.
Still, it was a start.
He continued forward, drawn by instinct now. If this were some kind of camp, school, university, or any kind of academic center, then there had to be a resource center.
Maybe a library. That was how pre-Shattering systems were structured. If he could find one, he could learn something real.
A little bit of information or clues about this place would do, too. It would be even better if it were about the Mark on his hand.
He quickened his pace but slowed down again when he reached a large hallway. It ended with a pair of towering doors, each about four meters high. The doors were thick, sealed, and made of a dark metal that shimmered faintly.
"Now I'm not even sure what this place is anymore."
He stared at the doors for a moment. He could feel that whatever he needed to learn first about this place was behind these doors.
He approached cautiously and placed a hand on the cold surface of the doors. He pushed, but they didn't budge.
He pushed harder. Still, nothing happened.
"What's with this door?" Raith muttered, gritting his teeth. He was far stronger than he had ever been, but these doors didn't seem to care.
He stared at the door and then realized that his Mark glowed faintly.
"So that's how it is…"
His Mark lit up brighter as he channeled his Force.
"Alright. You asked for this."
He pressed his palms against the doors and pushed with all his strength. The metal creaked, and the hinges groaned. Slowly—inch by inch—the doors began to yield.
He grunted, channeling his Flux through every muscle. Sweat trickled down his temple. After nearly a minute, he finally created just enough space to squeeze through.
If he had been any bulkier, he wouldn't have fit.
He slipped inside and let the doors close behind him with a rumbling echo. As he entered, he was met by a complete and suffocating darkness.
Raith paused and surveyed his surroundings; there was no sound, no movement. Then, he noticed a light around two hundred meters away.
A single light hovered in the center of the void.
"A candle?" he whispered.
But this light didn't waver like a candle would. It remained steady, suspended above something unseen.
'Who lit it? Why hasn't it gone out? Was there someone here not too long ago?'
Something about it made his skin crawl.
He hesitated.
'Go back or move forward?'
His feet refused to retreat. The deeper part of him, the part that kept him curious about Shatterveil, the part that the golden-haired man talked about this place, urged him forward.
He took a step.
Then another.
As he walked, the silence broke.
He could hear far too many sounds all at once.
"What is happening here..."
He perceived whispers, screams, laughter, gunfire, explosions, and more. They overlapped, creating an unsettling cacophony.
It was like walking through broken memories that weren't his. Each sound jabbed at his mind, trying to turn him around.
But he kept moving. Gritting his teeth. Breathing evenly.
He passed the 100-meter mark.
Then 200.
By 300, he was sweating, not from exertion, but from pressure.
The flame was only ten meters ahead now. Now, as he could see it clearly, the flame wasn't a candle.
It floated above a stone altar. Its shape was sharp and ancient, like something built before time had a name.
And on the altar was a symbol.
Raith stepped closer, squinting through the dim light. The symbol looked similar to his Mark. Not exactly the same, but you can mistake it with a glance.
The symbol reminded him of what the golden-haired man said, "Find the thing that matches your Mark. It won't look obvious. But it's there."
"This is it," he whispered.
His head throbbed.
The air felt thick.
He lifted his hand, inch by inch.
The flame pulsed once, then again, like it sensed him. Before he could even touch the flame, Raith's vision blurred. He stumbled. His knees buckled, but he kept his hand raised.
'What... is... happening...'
Pain coursed through his chest. Heat rippled up his arms. His bones felt like they were boiling.
He dropped to one knee. But he didn't stop. He pushed forward.
His fingertips brushed the flame.
And then, he could hear a voice echoing inside his mind. It was cold, robotic, and a bit... ancient.
[Absorbing... the Flame of God.]
The words appeared like a notification before his eyes. His body convulsed, and the world around him disappeared.
Blinding light surged through every cell. His Mark flared, causing his veins to glow like molten rivers beneath his skin.
Symbols flashed before his eyes. Unknown runes, intricate patterns, and circuits of golden energy appeared.
Then came the next notifications, clear and crisp like system prompts from a forgotten world.
[God Essence absorbed.]
[Two God Essences detected.]
[Requirements for activation of the God Mode have been fulfilled.]
[Activating… the God Mode.]
Raith wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
His hand trembled as his body lifted an inch off the ground. And then, silence.
The flame vanished, and the altar dimmed.
Raith fell forward. His forehead hit the stone floor. He was now unconscious.
The room fell silent. In that stillness, something lurking in the dark, far away, took notice.
It didn't move, but it opened its eyes.
"You... have... awakened..."
It was waiting and watching.
The God Mode had been activated, and now, Raith's life was about to take a new turn.