CHAPTER 444: AND INVADED

The chair where Dante sat blurred at the edges. His voice carried through the distortion, low and steady. "Remember, resist. Or you’ll scatter."

Then the circle swallowed me whole.

The world collapsed into a prism.

Color was no longer color but shards that screamed as they bent around me, a kaleidoscope of tearing light.

The sensation hit instantly like hooks ramming into every nerve, pulling me apart. My arms stretched, then shrank, then multiplied into ghostly outlines before snapping back. My skin blistered in places, streaks of black tearing across it as if reality itself were scratching me raw.

My chest convulsed under the weight. Breath caught, and I felt my body shiver on the edge of breaking.

I forced my jaw shut, holding back a growl. "Now it’s up to you, body. Handle this."

The thought grounded me.

I recalled my new passive and its effects of adapting to any situation and stress on the body. And it reacted instantly.

The black streaks shuddered, then dulled as my skin shifted. A silvery-gray sheen crawled across my arms, chest, and face, subtle at first, then solid like metal being forged under pressure.

The channel screamed louder. Fissures of space cracked open around me, jagged black rifts snapping at my frame like jaws. One slammed into my shoulder. My body bent with it, bones twisting unnaturally for a second, then rebounding. Another fissure clawed at my leg, leaving a trail of blood before the silver sheen swallowed it, repelling the tear.

A laugh escaped my throat, short and dry. "So you are keeping up."

I shoved my hands into my pockets. Letting the chaos throw itself at me.

The channel hissed and groaned. Each tear that touched me was a sharp sting, sometimes drawing a thin line of blood, but never breaking deeper than skin. The silver-gray flesh rippled with each impact, adjusting, redirecting, learning.

For the first time since stepping into the circle, I allowed myself to breathe normally. The distortion wanted to scatter me into dust, but it couldn’t. I simply stood there, shoulders straight, while the universe tried to shred me.

A final rift split open, its pressure enough to make my ribs creak. My skin bent with it, curved like a bow under strain, then snapped back, throwing the fissure off.

Moments later, the kaleidoscope of colors collapsed inward.

My boots struck the ground. The ground was damp, uneven, slick with something that reeked faintly of rot.

The silence lasted only a heartbeat.

Then the world shook. A roar, deep and furious, ripped through the air from somewhere behind me. I didn’t need to see it to know, I was in the abomination zone. And already, something knew I had arrived.

I turned, my eyes narrowing, and finally saw the source of the roar.

It was a creature shaped like a humanoid, but its body was made entirely of gnarled tree matter.

Its dark brown bark looked rough and ancient, with cracks running across it like scars. Thick clawed hands twitched, as if itching to tear something apart. Its glowing eyes stared straight at me, its frame nearly matching my size, though the way it shifted on its feet made it seem more beast than man.

[Tilia Curcus – Level 283]

The name floated before my eyes, and the thing growled again.

I raised my hand, my voice steady and calm.

"Come here, baby."

The moment the words left my mouth, I activated the Law of Polarity. The pull was immediate and brutal—the creature’s body lurched forward, dragged against its will.

It flew toward me, its bark-skin screeching as if protesting the force dragging it in. Its neck collided with my palm, the impact sharp and final.

From beneath me, shadows stirred. Dark tendrils burst out of my own shadow and coiled up around the creature, wrapping its legs, arms, and even its mouth in a web of constriction. It thrashed, but the more it struggled, the tighter the shadows clamped down, until its movements grew jerky and desperate.

I watched it calmly.

"I’m in a hurry," I said, my tone almost apologetic. "I was thinking of taking you as a pet, you’re leaking interesting spatial fluctuations. But... I already have Knight. So you’re late."

With that, I brought my other hand down hard against its head. The smack cracked like thunder, and the creature’s body gave one last twitch before slumping. Knocked out cold, it collapsed to the ground in a heavy thud.

I extended a finger toward it. Space bent and twisted at my will, rippling above my fingertip like disturbed water. I released it, and waves of spatial ripples shot out in all directions, cutting into the ground around the unconscious creature and layering the area with invisible distortion.

"This should do it," I muttered.

Then, without delay, I let my perception bloom outward. It expanded fast, rushing past the trees, the mountains, the broken terrain. My senses stretched wide, further and further until I was drinking in the entire zone and beyond it.

Shapes filled my awareness. Hundreds of abominations roamed freely, their twisted forms prowling, feeding, hunting. But what caught my attention more were the humans roaming around as well.

A grin tugged at my lips. The air tasted different here, thick with danger and the unknown, and I could already feel the excitement crawling through me like lightning.

This world was alive, hostile, ready to kill me at every step and I was ready to walk straight into it.

"Perfect," I whispered.

My body shifted at my command. My height lessened by a few inches, my features adjusting smoothly as though molded by invisible hands.

My once sharp emerald eyes turned a calm shade of blue, my messy hair darkened into a deep brown, and my muscle mass trimmed down. Even my face grew older, more worn, lined in subtle ways that dulled my presence.

The reflection I felt in my mind’s eye was plain, ordinary, utterly forgettable.

"As ordinary as it comes," I said softly.

That would leave only grandmasters capable of scanning me and identifying my level but if any grandmaster crossed paths with me, they wouldn’t be left alive anyway.

With that, I turned in the direction where my perception had picked out the humans. My body lifted into the air with ease, and I shot forward, flying straight toward them.