The world flickered with violence.
I stood surrounded by monsters sculpted from stone and flame, their inhuman bodies casting warped shadows through the molten haze of the Mortar Zone. My body trembled—not from fear, but from the intensity of the energy now coiling through every inch of my being.
Essence.
Not just white now.
Purple.
It swirled through me like a serpent coiled around lightning, no longer leaking wildly from my pores. It moved with me—flowed into me.
A deep breath in, and it surged through my lungs.
A deep breath out, and it pulsed through my fists.
They felt it.
The largest of them—a brute with volcanic fissures splitting its chest open like magma veins—let out a guttural roar that cracked the earth beneath its feet. It charged. Each step thundered with seismic rage.
I didn't move.
Not until I could feel the pulse of my Essence matching my heart rate.
There.
"Move."
I vanished from my spot in an instant, dashing low, the purple ripples wrapping around my calves like bands of smoke. I slammed my fist into the beast's ribcage mid-sprint, the blow detonating on contact.
BOOM.
The creature flew sideways, its molten core sputtering from the force, crashing into a jagged obsidian pillar.
The second came from behind.
Its claw swiped toward my back—but I felt it. Before it touched me. I turned with fluid speed, grabbing its wrist mid-swing. My fingers locked onto its lava-stone skin, and with a roar, I twisted, Essence surging up my arms like wildfire.
"Break—"
My knee exploded up into its chin.
"—NOW!"
The creature's jaw shattered, cracks splitting upward across its skull as I drove it into the dirt with a spiraling axe kick, Essence rippling outward in a violet shockwave on impact.
I turned again, panting.
Three more.
Still moving.
No time to think. Just feel.
I ran.
Faster than before. Faster than I ever had.
Each footstep left a glowing imprint behind me, streaks of purple smearing the ground as I darted through their formation. One swung downward—its fist the size of my torso—but I ducked under it and struck upward with an elbow cloaked in Essence. My arm howled with pressure as I hit it square in the gut. The blow didn't just knock it back—it ruptured its abdomen, dark magma spewing out in thick arcs like corrupted blood.
The second tried to flank me, its claws glowing red-hot.
Too slow.
I pivoted, my foot dragging along the earth as I launched a side kick directly into its kneecap, essence-imbued force shattering the joint with a sickening crack. The monster dropped, and I leapt upward, spinning once before driving my heel into its skull like a hammer.
It stopped moving.
Two remained.
The final ones.
They looked at each other—these creatures, if they even could look—and then back at me.
And I…
I smiled.
Not because I enjoyed it.
Because I understood it now.
The way Essence moved. The way it wrapped around intention. How it anticipated, amplified, extended.
It wasn't just energy.
It was an extension of will.
My will.
One of the monsters launched itself at me, snarling like molten metal scraping across steel. I caught it mid-air, hands pressed to its chest, and I funneled Essence through my palms—slow at first, then all at once.
"Crush."
The purple aura flared, and my arms detonated forward.
The monster didn't just fall—it exploded, its molten frame erupting into fragmented embers and shards that scattered like meteor dust across the broken stone.
One left.
It stood still, staring. Head cocked. Studying me.
I lowered my stance.
Essence crawled around my shoulders now—reptilian and sinuous. It pulsed with each heartbeat. It wanted out. I could feel the instability rising again, but I clenched my jaw and held on. Not yet.
"Come on," I growled. "Let's finish this."
It charged.
No roar. No wind-up.
Just pure fury.
It reached me in seconds—but I was already moving. Our blows collided—its fist to my forearm, my knee to its gut. The shockwave from the clash burst outward, but I didn't stop. I moved with it. Pivoted behind.
And then I channeled.
Essence spiraled down my spine into my leg like a cyclone, and as I spun into a kick, I screamed:
"IMPACT!!"
My heel struck the back of its neck—and the creature's entire upper body folded in half. Its head hit the ground before its knees did, and I slammed both fists down into its spine with all the Essence I could summon.
CRACK.
SPLINTER.
SHATTER.
It fell still.
Steam hissed off my skin as I stood, hunched over, gasping. My body felt like it had run through a thousand volts. My vision blurred.
But they were all dead.
All of them.
A long silence followed. No wind. No growls. Just the distant bubbling of the molten rivers and the eerie quiet of absence.
I dropped to my knees, panting.
Purple essence curled gently around my form, still glowing but calmer now. Like it had tasted its first battle, and was satisfied.
But something inside me wasn't.
That stillness. That quiet ache that always followed the kill.
It wasn't there.
Instead, I felt… empty.
No. Not empty.
Hungering.
A low hum began to pulse in my ears again. A dark thrum, like a war drum in the distance.
No… closer.
My fingers twitched.
My breath trembled.
Essence began to rise again—but this time, I didn't summon it.
It rose on its own.
My hands clenched into fists as the purple glow began to darken, deepening to a corrupted violet that flared and flickered like flame caught in a hurricane.
My head snapped up.
My body moved on instinct.
And somewhere deep inside…
I heard it whispering.
Something ancient. Something primal.
"More."
I stood tall. My muscles no longer shook. They burned with purpose.
The Mortar Zone still held life.
Somewhere deeper—somewhere just out of reach—I felt it.
More of them.
More monsters.
More threats.
More things that needed to die.
I took a step forward, slow at first. Essence wrapped around my body like a second skin. My hair drifted upward as if caught in a rising wind.
And then I broke into a sprint.
Not away.
Toward.
Toward the next target.
Toward the next kill.
Toward the moment I would lose control entirely.
There was no sky.
There was no time.
Only sound—a deep hum vibrating through my bones, screaming through my veins, singing in my skull like a choir of war-torn angels. The Mortar Zone warped around me, the haze burning red, pulsing like a dying heartbeat.
And I…
I was no longer me.
The ground cracked with every step I took. Purple-black Essence poured from my pores like oil fed to fire, licking at the air with violent hunger. It wrapped around my arms, flared from my shoulders, curled up my neck like tendrils of something alive.
I sprinted without direction.
Or maybe I was heading somewhere. Maybe something inside me knew where the next enemy hid.
I didn't care.
I needed to find them.
To silence them.
To end them.
A shriek tore across the burning valley—high-pitched, alien, piercing. My head snapped toward the sound, and before the echo faded, I was already moving.
Faster than before.
Faster than thought.
Faster than human.
My feet barely touched the ground. Each step exploded with kinetic release, chunks of molten stone erupting beneath me as I blurred forward.
Over a ridge.
Down a canyon.
Through the smoke.
And then I saw them.
More.
Three of them—stone-skinned demons with molten blades in place of arms, faces twisted like masks melted in a forge. Their bodies were grotesque and jagged, flickering with heat, but even from a distance, they hesitated the moment they saw me.
Good.
They should be afraid.
My eyes had long since turned white. No pupils. No irises. Just radiant orbs of unrelenting power. I didn't blink. I didn't breathe. I just moved.
I launched.
One of them reacted too late.
I hit it like a meteor, my elbow crashing into its skull, shattering it into fragments before its molten body hit the stone. Before it even finished falling, I turned midair and tore into the second—grabbing it by the throat, lifting it high, then slamming it spine-first into the ground so hard the earth split open.
Its mouth opened to scream.
I crushed its skull under my heel.
The third turned to run.
I extended my hand, and Essence obeyed like a serpent let off its leash.
"Fall," I whispered, and the ground beneath it collapsed as a spike of raw energy erupted upward, impaling it through the stomach and pinning it mid-air.
It twitched.
I leapt—high enough to meet its gaze in the air—and brought my fist down into its chest like a hammer of judgment.
BOOM.
It exploded.
And I kept falling. Kept spinning. Kept moving.
I hit the ground on one knee.
Alive.
But something inside me…
Was dying.
My skin had started to crack—light bleeding from the fractures along my arms, chest, even my face. Purple lines burned beneath the surface like lightning stuck in flesh. My breathing was shallow now, ragged, but I didn't stop.
Couldn't.
I wanted more.
A noise to my left.
Without thinking, I turned and threw a raw bolt of Essence in that direction—no shape, no control. Just fury in a solid form.
The mountainside collapsed from the impact.
A whole section of the canyon crumbled, burying a nest of creatures I hadn't even seen. It didn't matter. They were gone now.
The hum in my head grew louder.
Pain laced its way behind my eyes, but it didn't slow me down.
I felt the wind shift—and instinct told me something was behind me.
I pivoted and swung blindly, Essence extending my fist like a blade.
It wasn't a monster.
It was a reflection.
Of me.
A jagged wall of obsidian had caught my image as I passed.
For a fraction of a second, I saw myself.
I was… unrecognizable.
Eyes glowing white. Cracks tearing across my face like burning veins. Purple aura writhing off me like I'd been possessed by some ancient force.
And the expression?
Nothing human.
Just hunger.
And rage.
I blinked—and my own reflection shattered from the force of my aura flaring again.
No time to process.
Another screech rang out—this one closer. Bigger.
I turned, grinning through bloodied teeth.
"Come on."
The next wave came fast—six of them this time.
Taller. Faster. Clawed.
Their eyes burned like lanterns set in stone, and they howled as they rushed in from the eastern path.
I didn't flinch.
I sprinted straight into them.
The first creature lunged—I ducked low, Essence flaring along my spine, and I drove my shoulder into its gut before lifting it and tearing it in half mid-motion.
The blood sprayed hot across my face.
Didn't care.
Didn't blink.
I turned, caught another's arm mid-swipe and twisted—breaking it at the joint with one hand while my other fist detonated into its throat. It gurgled once before its chest collapsed under the second blow.
The third tried to pounce from behind.
Didn't matter.
I jumped backward, grabbing it mid-air, and with a savage grunt, I spun in a full rotation before slamming it headfirst into the rocks with a deafening crack.
By the time the others realized I was already behind them.
My body blurred.
One punch.
Two.
Three.
Each hit exploded with Essence behind it, forming shockwaves that threw the remaining demons into the canyon wall.
I landed, panting. Arms limp. Knees shaking.
The corpses sizzled.
And I...
I laughed.
A raw, broken laugh.
I was shaking.
Not from fear.
But from the power.
It was consuming me.
The lines of Essence on my arms began to twist now, no longer smooth—erratic, jagged, unstable.
I dropped to a knee, trying to force my lungs to work.
But my chest felt like it was burning from the inside out.
"Make it stop," I whispered to the empty air.
No answer.
Just that damn hum.
Louder now.
A pulse.
Boom.
Boom.
BOOM.
My heart beat with it.
My vision blurred again.
For a moment—I saw faces.
Scarlett.
Violet.
Faze.
Nyxia.
Then they vanished.
Replaced by flame.
By death.
By enemies.
I roared and leapt into the air again, no longer able to control what I was doing.
I needed to kill.
To destroy.
To burn the world down if it meant silence.
Essence flooded out in a wave, my body fully glowing now—white hair flaring like wildfire, skin splitting as power poured out in every direction. The Mortar Zone trembled beneath my fury.
Somewhere in the distance, more creatures crawled from the shadows.
It didn't matter how many.
I would kill them all.