Lucien moved before dawn touched the stone.
The path toward the primary mine wound through layers of the mountain like an old scar that refused to close. It was not a single tunnel but a network of passages. So were natural, others were carved with patience asured in centuries.
The Lithren had given him everything they had.
They provided maps etched into stone plates and elder records passed down not through writing alone, but through spatial markers and cues only their race could perceive.
The records detailed routes that curved away from Alloykin patrol lines, dead zones where Astrafer interference blinded foreign senses, and narrow passages where tal bodies struggled to pass without destabilizing the surrounding veins.
Lucien accepted the records with care.
Still, he did not intend to act blindly.
The Spatial Compass is functional in this world. That alone reduced uncertainty.
It confird the elders’ work. Their maps were not guesswork. They were precise.
...
Before he left, Lucien ensured the Lithren would not be exposed in his absence.
He constructed a formation array deep within their settlent. It folded perception, masking presence. To outside senses, the cavern would appear collapsed, empty, and inert.
He then turned to Rurik.
Lucien handed him resources without ceremony.
He gave him several blueprints drawn from his Craft Feature. So were designed to improve daily life. Others focused on survival and structural reinforcent. He also provided more complete and advanced designs for automatons.
Along with the blueprints, Lucien supplied materials suited for a creator’s hands. tals of various grades. Refined components. Stabilized cores.
Rurik’s hands trembled as he received them.
Among the resources were tal drops from tal Gargoyles. Each carried a density and purity far beyond anything native to this world.
And among them was one piece that made Rurik freeze.
Living Alloy Essence.
He stared at it in silence.
In that mont, Rurik understood.
The Living Alloy Essence was not rely superior to Astrafer. It existed on an entirely different level. The mont his fingers brushed against its surface, he could feel the difference. Its structure was alive, adaptive, and complete in a way Astrafer could never be.
Only then did trust truly take root. Soone who could give him sothing far greater than Astrafer would have no temptation toward it at all.
Lucien said nothing. He only nodded once.
He had already made his decision.
He wanted the Lithren to beco his people.
Through Divine Sense, he had seen their nature clearly. They were a genuine race, shaped by suffering but not defined by it.
And that was enough.
...
As Lucien moved, a thought surfaced unbidden.
’If Living Alloy Essence were refined by an Alloykin... what would they beco?’
Would their bodies gain true fluidity? Would tal cease to be limitation and beco expression?
The thought ended there.
Lucien had no intention of answering that question.
Legendary drops were not tools to be tested on slavers.
•••
The mountain changed as he advanced.
The terrain grew harsher.
Then Lucien saw it.
The patrol zone.
It lay along the outskirts of the primary extraction site where natural caverns widened into reinforced corridors. Support pillars of fused stone and tal lined the path.
Three figures stood at the edge of the corridor.
Alloykins.
They were tall and broad-shouldered. Their fras were refined beyond ordinary proportion
Their skin no longer resembled flesh layered with tal. It had beco sothing far more intricate.
Astrafer refinent had reshaped them into living conduits.
Their bodies shimred with a deep, celestial sheen like fragnts of a night sky sealed beneath polished crystal. When they moved, the light around them bent subtly.
They were beautiful.
And unmistakably unnatural.
Their faces retained symtry, almost elegant. Their eyes glowed softly, reflecting perfectly regulated internal currents. The energy within them flowed without turbulence.
Astrafer had synchronized flesh, tal, and intent into a seamless whole. There was no strain in their movents and no hesitation in their transformations.
Lucien activated Divine Sense.
Their aura was dense and imnse. Yet its color was unmistakable.
Murky. Stained.
It carried the resonance of exploitation carried out knowingly, of dominance maintained without doubt or regret.
From their aura alone, he could tell they were powerful. A faint pressure hinted at the presence of their domains.
Ascendant Realm.
All three of them.
Lucien released a slow breath.
He remained concealed, observing.
The patrol moved with exacting efficiency. Their steps followed routes carved into the land long ago. Their awareness swept the surroundings in patterns.
Lucien did not rush.
He shifted a single stone along the mountainside and let it fall.
The sound echoed sharper than it should have, amplified by the hollow strata beneath the surface. It carried like a signal, artificial and out of place.
The Alloykin reacted imdiately.
All three turned as one. Their senses flared outward. Their awareness locked onto the disturbance.
"Check it," one of them said.
The one at the front moved. His aura marked him as the weakest among them, within the third stage of the Ascendant Realm.
Lucien withdrew deeper into the stone.
He waited.
The patrol split exactly as the Lithren records predicted. The Alloykin entered the narrow passage, unaware that the resonance around him had already shifted.
This was a dead zone.
Astrafer interference thickened here, distorting foreign perception. The mont the Alloykin crossed the boundary, his awareness dulled.
Lucien moved.
Divine energy surged silently, wrapping around the Alloykin like a closing fist. The pressure did not announce itself.
The Alloykin stiffened.
"What—"
His domain erupted outward in reflex.
Lucien was already prepared.
The instant the domain expanded, Lucien released Decay.
It did not explode. It seeped.
Decay crawled along the Alloykin’s domain, corroding the expansion at its root. It collapsed inward with a violent recoil, snapping back into the Alloykin’s body.
Pain flashed across his expression.
Before he could shout... before he could signal the others, Lucien folded space inward.
The Alloykin vanished.
Lucien followed him into his Divine Energy Core.
Inside, the world changed.
The Alloykin staggered as his senses failed to anchor. The environnt around him was vast and absolute. His domain attempted to assert itself again and failed instantly, crushed beneath a higher authority.
The Alloykin’s eyes widened.
"A human?" he said, forcing his voice to steady. "What is this place?"
Lucien’s lips curved into a faint smile.
"My world," he replied calmly. "And your deathbed."
Lucien did not wait.
He appeared behind him.
Morphis answered his call, flowing into his hand and reshaping itself into a blade. Divine energy wrapped around it, compressing its edge into a line of annihilation.
Lucien struck.
The blade descended cleanly toward the Alloykin’s neck.
tal hardened instantly. Astrafer reacted without delay, flooding the Alloykin’s body with synchronized reinforcent.
The strike bit deep but did not sever.
The Alloykin stumbled forward, shock etched across his face.
Lucien clicked his tongue softly.
"So it is stronger than I expected."
The Alloykin straightened.
"You know Astrafer," he said, voice edged with threat. "You do not belong here. Release now."
Lucien did not answer.
Instead, his body changed.
Scales erged along his arms and shoulders. His spine elongated slightly as his muscles condensed with terrifying density. Horns curved back from his temples as heat and pressure radiated outward.
Dragon Beast Mode.
The Dragon Soul Core within Morphis resonated.
Morphis responded.
The blade dissolved, reshaping itself into a massive mace. Scales ford along its surface, mirroring Lucien’s own. The weapon pulsed with a deep, predatory rhythm.
Lucien lifted it easily.
"If cutting does not work," he said calmly, "then force will."
The Alloykin barely had ti to react.
Lucien moved.
The first blow landed squarely against the Alloykin’s chest.
The impact did not ring. It thundered.
Astrafer absorbed the force, distributing it flawlessly through the Alloykin’s body. But even perfect synchronization had limits. The ground beneath him fractured as his body was driven downward.
Lucien did not stop.
The second strike shattered the Alloykin’s footing. The third collapsed his balance. Each blow ca faster than the last, guided by perfect control and overwhelming strength.
The Alloykin tried to counterattack. His arm moved. It never completed the motion.
The mace struck again.
Bone and tal scread together.
"You cannot," the Alloykin snarled, blood spilled from his mouth. "This world belongs to us."
Lucien’s eyes were cold.
"No," he replied. "You claid it."
The final blow fell.
Lucien brought the mace down with both hands. Divine energy and draconic force converged into a single point. The Alloykin’s Astrafer skin flared brilliantly for a fraction of a second, then shattered from within.
Its body... collapsed.
Only when the cube drop appeared did Lucien finally confirm the Alloykin’s death.
Silence followed.
Lucien stood over the remains. Dragon Beast Mode deactivated as Morphis dissolved back into its original form.
He exhaled once.
The fight had been decisive, but the ssage was clear.
Astrafer was powerful.
The Alloykin were not invincible.
And Lucien would not give them the luxury of a prolonged war.
He returned to the physical world, but his form was no longer the sa.
Lucien had already transford into the very Alloykin he had slain using the Law of Reflection.
He turned his gaze toward the direction of the remaining patrol.
The plan had begun.
And it would not stop with one.
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