CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 55: STEEL AND STONE

Two days after the battle in the Black Forest, Evon sat in a small café in Prague, stirring his coffee and watching the morning news on a wall-mounted screen. The anchor was discussing increased Hunter patrols across Europe, but Evon wasn’t really listening. His mind was elsewhere, tracking the faint resonances left by the three remaining Black Force leaders.

His phone buzzed. Commander Jaun’s voice came through clearly.

"Morning, Evon. How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a truck," Evon replied, taking a sip of his coffee. "But I’m fine. Maria’s purification took more out of me than I expected."

"That’s understandable. You essentially performed an exorcism on a corrupted S-rank Hunter. That kind of spiritual work is exhausting."

Evon nodded, even though Jaun couldn’t see him. "Any word on the remaining three?"

"Actually, yes. We’ve had some luck tracking Kenji Nakamura. You remember him—the earth specialist from Osaka. Intel suggests he’s holed up in an old mining complex in the Czech mountains, about two hours from your current position."

"A mining complex?" Evon raised an eyebrow. "That’s pretty on-brand for him."

"Our sources say he’s been there for weeks, corrupting the local geology. The surrounding area has become unstable—sinkholes, random earthquakes, that sort of thing. Local authorities evacuated the region three days ago."

Evon finished his coffee and stood up. "Send me the coordinates. I’ll head there now."

"Evon, wait. This one might be different from the others. Kenji was always known for his defensive capabilities, even before the corruption. He’s had time to prepare."

"I understand," Evon said, walking out of the café into the crisp morning air. "But I can’t let him have more time to dig in. The longer we wait, the stronger his fortifications become."

"Fair point. Be careful out there."

"Always am."

The drive through the Czech countryside was peaceful. Rolling hills, small villages, the occasional castle on a hilltop. It was hard to believe that somewhere ahead, reality was being twisted by a corrupted former Hunter.

Evon spoke quietly to himself—or rather, to the four sealed goddesses resting in his soul realm.

"How are you all holding up?"

Naia’s voice came first, as always calm and reassuring. "We’re fine, Evon. Your soul provides good shelter."

"I can feel the earth trembling ahead," Sythara added, her draconic presence stirring with interest. "This one has been busy."

Lyria’s flame flickered with concern. "The corruption in him runs deep. He’s not just twisted—he’s becoming something else entirely."

Veyra’s analytical tone cut in. "Defensive specialist, earth-element primary, fortress magic secondary. Expect layered obstacles and environmental hazards."

"Got it," Evon murmured. "Any suggestions?"

"Don’t try to break through his defenses directly," Veyra advised. "Find the weak points. Every fortress has them."

The first sign that something was wrong came about a kilometer from the target site. The road simply... stopped. Where asphalt should have continued, there was only a massive crater filled with twisted metal and stone formations that defied physics.

Evon parked his car and continued on foot.

The landscape grew more distorted with each step. Trees grew sideways out of cliff faces. Rocks floated in mid-air, slowly rotating. The ground beneath his feet felt unstable, as if it might give way at any moment.

"This is definitely Kenji’s work," he said to himself.

As he crested a hill, the mining complex came into view—and Evon stopped in his tracks.

What had once been an ordinary industrial site was now a fortress of living stone. The original buildings had been absorbed into massive towers that spiraled upward like organic growth. Walls of fused rock and metal stretched between them, covered in glowing runes. And at the center of it all, a dark spire that pulsed with corrupted earth magic.

"Kenji!" Evon called out, his voice carrying across the twisted landscape. "Let’s talk!"

For a moment, there was only silence. Then the ground began to shake.

A section of the nearest wall crumbled away, and Kenji Nakamura stepped through. He was barely recognizable as human anymore. His body had fused with stone and metal, making him nearly three meters tall. His face was a mask of granite with glowing red eyes, and his arms ended in massive fists of compressed ore.

"Evon Wang," Kenji’s voice rumbled like an avalanche. "I wondered when you’d find me."

"I’m here to offer you the same choice I gave Maria," Evon said, drawing the Blade of Fate. "Surrender and let me purge the corruption, or fight and risk destruction."

Kenji laughed—a sound like boulders grinding together. "Maria was weak. She held onto her humanity. I embraced what I became."

"And what’s that?"

"The mountain’s will made flesh. The earth’s anger given form." Kenji raised his massive fists. "Do you know how long I’ve been preparing for this fight?"

"Long enough to make a mess of the local geography," Evon replied. "But not long enough to become unbeatable."

Kenji slammed his fists into the ground, and the entire complex shuddered. Stone spikes erupted around Evon in a ring, but he was already moving, using Sythara’s draconic agility to leap clear.

"Phase one," Kenji announced. "The outer defenses."

The walls of the fortress came alive. Cannon-like protrusions emerged from the stone, launching volleys of compressed earth and metal shards. Evon danced between them, using his Eyes of Fate to predict their firing patterns.

But this was just the beginning. As Evon advanced toward the fortress, the ground itself began to fight him. The earth rippled like water, trying to swallow his feet. Stone hands reached up from below, grasping at his ankles.

"Clever," Evon muttered, channeling Naia’s water essence to make his steps lighter, allowing him to literally run on the surface tension of the liquefied stone.

He reached the base of the nearest tower and began to climb, using Veyra’s magnetic manipulation to find handholds in the metal veins running through the rock.

"You think height will save you?" Kenji’s voice echoed from everywhere at once. "I AM the mountain now!"

The tower began to bend inward, trying to crush Evon against its own surface. He leaped to another tower, then another, always staying one step ahead of the crushing stone.

From his vantage point atop one of the spires, Evon could see the entire complex spread below him. His Eyes of Fate activated, showing him the flow of corrupted energy through the fortress.

"There," he whispered, spotting a concentrated node of power in the central spire. "That’s where you’re really hiding."

He leaped from tower to tower, closing in on his target. Kenji tried to stop him with waves of stone projectiles, but Evon deflected them with the Blade of Fate, its multiple elemental resonances allowing him to counter each attack.

Finally, he reached the central spire and drove his blade into its side. Lyria’s True Fire began to melt through the rock, creating a gap just wide enough for him to squeeze through.

Inside, he found Kenji’s true form—not the stone giant outside, but a man-sized figure suspended in a web of mineral veins, his consciousness distributed throughout the entire complex.

"Impressive," Kenji said, his voice now coming from the figure before him. "But this changes nothing. You’re still inside my domain."

The walls began to close in, but Evon was ready. He activated Destiny Prison, creating a bubble of slowed time around himself and Kenji, separating them from the crushing stone.

"Your fortress is impressive," Evon said, raising his blade. "But it’s also your weakness. You’ve spread yourself too thin."

"What do you mean?"

"You’re not just controlling the stone—you’ve become part of it. Which means when I purge your corruption..." Evon smiled grimly. "The whole thing comes down."

### The Purification

Kenji’s eyes widened as he realized what Evon meant. "You’ll be buried with me!"

"Maybe," Evon replied. "But you’ll be free."

He drove the Blade of Fate into Kenji’s chest, but instead of the violent purification he’d used on Maria, this time he channeled all four goddesses simultaneously. Naia’s water to wash away the corruption, Lyria’s fire to burn away the darkness, Veyra’s energy to stabilize what remained, and Sythara’s power to reshape what was broken.

Kenji screamed—not in pain, but in release. The corruption that had fused him with the mountain began to dissolve, and with it, his connection to the fortress.

The complex began to collapse.

"Go," Kenji whispered, his form already becoming more human. "I’ll try to control the fall, but I can’t hold it for long."

Evon nodded and activated his escape route—a combination of Sythara’s flight capability and Veyra’s speed enhancement. He burst through the collapsing spire like a comet, racing against the cascade of falling stone.

Behind him, he heard Kenji’s voice one last time: "Thank you."

Evon stood at a safe distance, watching the ancient mining complex collapse into itself. Where the fortress had stood, there was now only a smoking crater and the distant sound of settling stone.

He activated his comm. "Commander Jaun, target three is down."

"Any casualties?"

"Just one," Evon said quietly. "He chose to go with his fortress."

Evon turned away from the ruins and began walking back toward his car. Two targets remained: Elena and Ahmed. And somewhere out there, Yena was still waiting.

The hunt continued.

________