CHAPTER 165: DOWN

Then more were yanked upward.

Screams filled the air—raw, terrified, uncoordinated.

"Aaargh!"

"What’s happening?!" one of them cried, his words cut short as his body lifted from the ground, limbs flailing uselessly against the invisible force.

All around him, other goblins followed, some clawing at the dirt, others grabbing onto anything within reach—stakes, weapons, even their comrades—but it was useless.

The pull was relentless.

"Don’t panic!" the general roared, his voice cutting through the chaos, though even he sounded uncertain.

But then he felt it too—the unmistakable tug at his armor, the weight of his own body shifting as the air around him pulled harder.

His eyes widened, muscles straining as he fought the drag of the unseen current.

"Goddamn it!" he spat, slamming his foot down with a snarl.

Frost erupted from beneath his boots, spreading rapidly across the ground in jagged veins of blue-white ice.

The frozen tendrils anchored him in place, biting deep into the earth until it cracked under the pressure.

He crouched slightly, extending both arms outward, sending the frost surging farther, branching toward the goblins around him.

The ice reached them within seconds, climbing up their legs like living chains, locking them to the ground.

For a brief moment, the rising stopped.

Dozens of goblins clung desperately to the frozen surface, their screams softening into heavy, panicked breaths.

"Smart," I muttered under my breath, watching from above.

But even that came with a cost.

The strain was visible—legs trembling, muscles twisting beneath their skin as they fought against the pull. The ice held, but their bodies didn’t. Groans of pain echoed through the valley as joints popped and tendons stretched too far.

They wouldn’t last long.

Then the general looked up at me—his glare sharp and burning with fury, veins standing out against his neck as he strained to keep himself and his soldiers anchored.

I stood there, motionless, watching their struggle from above like a silent spectator to their slow undoing.

But I wasn’t just watching them.

My gaze drifted past the chaos to another figure—Ingrid.

The coward had already slipped beyond the pull of the collapse, retreating toward the treeline at the far edge of the camp. Even from this distance, I could see the panic written all over his face, the wild desperation in his movements. He was running, saving himself, just as I’d expected.

At the same time, new flickers of light began to bloom across my vision. System windows, one after another, cutting through the haze.

Ding.

[You have leveled up]

[You have killed a Chosen]

[You have killed a Chosen]

[You have leveled up]

[You have killed a Chosen]

The messages kept coming in rapid succession, stacking over each other like an endless litany of death. My eyes traced them without emotion as the fault expanded, the pull intensifying, grinding through everything that remained within its reach. The screams below began to fade—first muffled, then gone entirely—swallowed by the roaring silence of the collapsing space.

Then I heard a sharp gasp beside me.

I turned my head quickly.

Ariel was struggling, her claws digging into the rock as her body leaned forward against the pull. Her flames flickered wildly, scattering into ember trails that were instantly drawn toward the rift.

Ariel wasn’t immune to the pull—none of my allies were.

The fault didn’t distinguish between friend or foe; it devoured everything within its reach.

"Damn it!" she hissed, claws scraping for grip as the wind roared around us. With a burst of flame and a growl, she turned and bolted back toward the cave entrance, her body flickering in and out of heat haze.

"You madman!" she shouted over the noise, her voice echoing off the cavern walls. "Are you trying to kill us?"

I frowned slightly, not taking my eyes off the rift. "Us?"

She paused only long enough to glare at me from the mouth of the cave, her tail bristling.

"If you die, I die! Did you forget that, idiot?"

Ah. Right.

I had.

Her words pulled a reluctant smirk from me, though it faded as my attention returned to the battlefield below.

The general was still there—stubborn, determined, glaring up at me through the chaos. His entire body was now coated in thick ice, a crystalline armor that kept him anchored to the trembling ground. Frost crawled outward from his feet, gripping the earth in jagged layers. Even from this height, I could see his breath fogging heavily, every exhale a struggle against the crushing pull.

But the goblins he’d tried to save weren’t as fortunate.

Their legs were locked in ice, but the rest of their bodies fought desperately against the vacuum.

Their torsos bent backward at impossible angles, muscles straining, tendons snapping under the pull.

Their screams blended into a single, terrible sound—half agony, half defiance—as the force tried to tear them apart.

"Eli!"

The roar cut through the chaos like a blade. Deep, guttural, filled with fury.

The goblin general was staring up at me, frost clinging to every inch of his body, his breath steaming in the cold air. His eyes burned with a rage that almost matched the storm raging around us.

"Get down here!" he bellowed, voice shaking the air.

I tilted my head slightly, meeting his gaze through the swirling distortion, and let out a slow exhale:

"With pleasure."

Then I stepped off the cliff.

The wind screamed past my ears as I fell, the pull of gravity competing with the unnatural force of the collapsing fault behind me. The world blurred into streaks of motion until the ground rushed up to meet me. I bent my knees slightly and let the impact carry through my body.

BOOM.

The earth shuddered under the force of my landing.

Dust and shards of ice erupted outward in all directions, the sound echoing across the valley like a thunderclap. Cracks split through the frozen ground, spiderwebbing beneath my feet and spreading toward the goblins clustered nearby.

The shockwave shattered parts of the ice barrier the general had conjured, freeing several goblins who had been half-frozen in place.

The rift eagerly accepted the broken bodies, swallowing them whole without hesitation. Their screams vanished the moment they crossed the event’s threshold, leaving behind only silence and the faint echo of the collapsing air.

I straightened slowly, lifting my gaze toward the general.

He hadn’t moved an inch, still anchored to the ground, still glaring at me through the mist and shards of ice drifting between us.

"Alright," I said quietly, the faintest edge of a smile curling at my lips:

"You wanted me down here."

The general’s voice...