"Alright, I believe we have rested enough." Elliot said, standing with a stretch.

"Its only been like two minutes…"

Jason and Elliot ignored Cecilia's whine, and the brown-haired teen looked over to the other. The two shared a sigh as they gathered their thoughts, looking up at the hole above them.

Even from this distance, all Jason could see was the outlines of the vent pipe along with the purple smoke that cascaded from it nonstop. He frowned as the shadowy figure disappeared into the vent at some point.

"Do not worry," Elliot came up to him, patting his shoulder as if to reassure him. "We will defeat this obstacle and help these people."

"Not what I was thinking, but sure. How are we getting up there, anyways?"

"I can blow us up there!"

Jason ignored the psycho. He saw Elliot do the same, but the blue-haired Delver turned his attention to the struggling figure in Cecilia's hands.

"Are we bringing a civilian with us? That would not be advisable; the Eurithos' meld would only put that controlled civilian in more danger."

"Huh, why? I can't jus' leave Milana. As much as I love them, grandma Mari won't like it if I bring them back exploded."

Elliot blinked, confused. Jason palmed his face as he stepped between the two. "Let's just get this over with. Can you move with Milana?"

"Mhm!"

"Then, just bring them. I'll take the lead—"

"As is my duty, I'll go first— hm?"

Jason frowned as both he and Elliot said they'd go first. He pointed at the other teen's face, focusing on the purple wisps in his eyes that refused to fade. "You're still affected by the smoke."

"I— This isn't as bad as…" Elliot's voice grew soft, like a kid who was told he couldn't do something. "I can tough it out."

Jason shared a glance with Cecilia. The redhead just gave him a thumbs up.

"No, its too dangerous." He hid a sigh when he saw Elliot slump where he stood. Mentally, Jason went over his interactions with the teen, wondering if there was a way to convince him. "We need you for a more important role."

"More important?"

"Yeah, uh," Jason looked around, and then grinned as he pushed Cecilia in front of him. "You need to protect her while I take it on."

"Her?" Elliot's face scrunched up, eyeing the struggling hybrid in Cecilia's grip.

"…yes. Her bombs are useful."

Cecilia jumped up excitedly. "Really?!"

Elliot squinted at Cecilia. "Really?"

Jason sighed, wondering how stressful Oliver's job at being a leader was. "Yes, let's just… let's just get this fight on with."

"Yeah! Gonna go kill stuff!"

"If you are in danger, I will move to help." Elliot said, and Jason just nodded, wishing to end the topic.

With their little strategy meeting over, Jason looked up at the hole in the ceiling. His gaze trailed down to the nearby walls that were covered by chittering rats. He frowned as he saw how high up it was, knowing they needed to scale the wall to get up.

Looking back at the sputtering device, Jason pursed his lips. It sparked a few times, but he nodded when it didn't look like it was going out anytime soon.

"Can you clear a path?" Elliot asked suddenly, eying up the wall nearest to them. "I can take the device with the… gang member."

"Her name is Cecilia." Jason said. "And yeah, how fast should I go?"

"As fast as you can."

Jason grinned, feeling his heart race in his chest. He shook his arms and legs as mana started to flow through his body. The warmth of the energy loosened up his muscles as he focused on the horde of rats around them.

He didn't need to worry about a conversation, nor did he have to care about what to say to the people around him anymore. Jason knew he shouldn't lose himself in the moment of the fight, but before he knew it, he already did.

The rats on the walls clambered over each other, writhing in a mass of bodies and fur. There were a couple of hybrids that stalked the borders of the device's range, but they were too far away to worry about. So long as Elliot followed behind him, Jason figured they could ignore most of the mutated civilians.

Jason took a breath, refilling his mana reserves.

He shot off a second later. The concrete floor cracked as he pushed off, and momentarily, the world seemed to blur. Jason regained focus as rats simply exploded when he ran through them.

Like a hot knife, Jason tore through the horde like it wasn't there. Blood was slick against his skin and feet, but he pushed through and slammed into the wall with a thunderous boom.

The housing block shook as he collided with it, shaking off the rodents that clambered on its surface. They rained down on Jason in a chittering frenzy, but the teen ignored them as they scratched and bit his leathery skin.

He focused on his fingers, filling them with more mana than before. Jason's fingers dug into the metal walls with ease, and he slammed his feet into the walls in the same motion, ripping up his shoes and making footholds.

The rest was easy. He pulled himself up, practically throwing himself upwards and creating a series of holes in the wall as he went up. The rats swarmed him in the meantime, clambering over his body like some kind of living blanket. They bit at his skin, clawed at his eyes, and tried to reopen the small wounds across his arms and legs.

However, not one got through. Their teeth were more liable to break than his skin.

Jason pursed his lips as he felt his Innate talent in action. According to Luciano's information, Dragon Eater's were associated with adaptation with an emphasis on combating one of the most dangerous creatures humanity has ever faced. The teen only now could see that fact.

One conflict was enough to resist the swarm.

He stalled his ascent at the revelation and leaned away from the wall, supporting himself with one hand and his feet. The rats poured in around him, biting and clawing at him to no avail.

A chuckle built up in the back of his throat.

There was a shift in the air as the rats chittered and fell off of him or scattered away. Jason looked down to see that Elliot and Cecilia had caught up, and the two were now staring at him with raised eyebrows.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"Yer being freaky, Bello. Laughing while covered in killer rats is a new crazy."

"… did you breathe in any smoke?" Elliot asked from behind Cecilia.

Jason hid the blush on his cheeks. "Let's just go."

With Elliot's device, the rats parted around them like waves on a stationary rock. Jason paved the way upwards as he opened up holes in the wall with his hands and feet for Elliot and Cecilia to use. Soon, they reached the hole Elliot had torn open in the ceiling of the floor they were on.

Jason felt a little apprehensive as he stared at the purple smoke that flowed out of the hole. He took a breath of clean air before he pushed off the housing block they had climbed up, leaping over to the edge of the hole and hoisting his body up into the tunnel of the atmospheric stabilizer.

Almost immediately, Jason gagged as the stench hit his nose like a punch to the face. Rot and waste clogged the air to such a degree that the teen questioned how anyone could have missed the situation.

The brown-haired teen pulled up his shirt and took sharp breaths through his mouth, trying his hardest not to throw up in his mouth. At the same time, he took the time to look around the vents that he remembered Lee had complained about before.

The cylindrical vent was barely large enough to fit a single person in, and Jason had to crouch slightly so that the top of his didn't hit the top of the vent. On the walls and floor was some slimy film that reminded him of a snail trail. Probably built up with the presence of the Eurithos' nest. A thin grate served as level ground, suspended above the lower curve of the vent, that Jason appreciated as he would've hated to slog through the slimy corridors.

Elliot and Cecilia also came in shortly after Jason made sure there was no nearby danger, and the trio stood within the vent. Jason frowned as he saw the device in Elliot's hands continue to put out sparks.

"How about we leave that by the entrance?" Jason asked, pointing at the roving horde below.

"Sounds good. Do you know where to go?"

Jason pursed his lips and looked over to the vent on the other side of the hole. Purple smoke coated the lower part of the vent, flowing just above the grate that served as a walkway. He gestured in that direction.

"Probably that way."

Cecilia chuckled. Elliot also looked amused, but the blue-haired teen schooled his smile as he realized he also agreed with Cecilia.

As no one disagreed, they creeped through the vents at a snail's pace. Jason paused every now and then to try and sniff the air for any scents, but he was forced to cover his nose and mouth as the smell got worse the deeper they went. Cecilia continued to carve burst Runes into a couple of pebbles she had stuffed into her pockets, and Elliot looked focused enough that Jason felt he should keep quiet as well.

Thankfully, Cecilia broke that silence.

"Soooo, what're we dealin' with?" she asked, stuffing a rune-inscribed pebble into an inner pocket.

"Shush," Elliot glared at the redhead. "We're trying to be stealthy. It would be best to not let this fight drag on."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I agree, but we're fine noise-wise." Jason said. "The horde hunted through scent, and I doubt we are that noticeable in this… place."

"Even still, this is the Eurithos' nest. We shouldn't be too lackadaisical."

"I'm super serious!" Cecilia said.

Jason ignored her. "Regardless of her, I think it would be worth it to explain what we're looking at. That creature didn't look that hurt from you."

Elliot clicked his teeth shut, and in the low light, Jason could see the other teen's cheeks carried a dusting of embarrassment. "I– it's not what it seems. I could not bring out my strength appropriately, and I didn't have time to gather the trait's to counter the Eurithos' ones. If I had a couple more days, then–"

"I don't care about that." Jason said. "This meld or whatever. Explain that and any other abilities you saw."

"...right, I apologize. The hybrid I fought seemed to house the main body of the Eurithos, and those civilians were… horrifically mutated by the creature into a monstrous entity." Jason saw Elliot clench his hands hard, and the brown-haired teen noted that the conical growths on Elliot's wrists extended a bit. "I admit that I tried to kill the abomination, but it used nearby rats to heal any damage I dealt almost instantly. Its why we need to stop it from unleashing its rudimentary mana domain; to cut off the fuel to its meld ability."

"I see. Then, I need to know if you have any ideas for what release hand signs I need to–"

Jason cut himself off, almost snapping his neck with how fast he turned around.

However, the teen was too slow. A clawed hand was already at his side by the time he turned, so he could only brace himself as its fingers gored into his side.

Jason felt a hot flash of pain in his side as he slammed into the side of the vent. A breath was strangled from his throat as, before he could react, whatever had attacked him had pounced on him again.

A clawed hand swept at his eyes, and Jason slid down the wall, watching as its nails carved into the metal vent like wet paper. Before he could study his opponent, his instincts screamed at him to move.

He pushed off the floor of the vent hard enough to feel the metal bend under his fingers. His strength was enough to send him into the air as he slipped through the creature's attack, and he reached the top of the vent in less than a second, using his fingers to dig into the metal and pull his entire body up. He flipped around –still clinging to the ceiling– just in time to hear the familiar screech of metal being ripped open.

Below him, he caught the hunchback form of his attacker. Like Elliot had described they were undoubtedly an abomination. Jason already had an idea of how the Eurithos' meld worked based on the human-rat hybrids they had encountered, but the teen really underestimated just how far the ability could go.

The creature was clothed in strips of fabric that covered it like some sort of cloak, but Jason could see through the numerous holes in the cloth to know its tortured existence. Its skin was pale and body was bony, like it hadn't eaten in months. Open sores could be seen across his torso and back from where purple smog drifted out of. Two pairs of arms covered in dirty fur removed themselves from where Jason had previously been, and Jason frowned as he saw its fingers looked like they were broken, bleeding from where it made contact with the metal.

The air around it grew darker for a second, and Jason smelled the hint of earthy tones as it turned. The rudimentary mana domain disappeared into the creature, entering its distended belly as its broken fingers healed with a sickening snap.

Jason nearly threw up as he got a good look at its face. Through patches of long, wispy hair he could make out two faces that fought for space on one. They were twisted around each other with one grotesquely large eye on one side of its head and the others were placed around where its other eye should have been on its cheeks and forehead. Its mouth was where one would normally be, but it… extended further, splitting open its cheek in an upwards slant and filled with sharp, inhuman teeth.

It jumped at Jason with a scream that sounded more like a cry of pain. This time, Jason was ready for it, and he braced against the ceiling, kicking out with both his feet right before it came upon him. At the same time Jason felt its chest collapse, the abomination's claws dug into his skin, and Jason held back a scream as its fingers tore bloody furrows into his legs when it fell.

Jason fell with the creature, hitting the ground beside it. He sucked in panicked breaths as he tried to fill his body with mana.

It was at that moment that Jason's mana veins twitched, and a brown rudimentary mana domain enveloped him.

"Be careful!" Elliot's yell came too late.

The earth element mana was absorbed back into the belly of the abomination, but instead of healing, purple smoke burst out of the open sores across the creature's body. Jason tried to get away but failed as his legs healed too slow.

The purple smoke swallowed him and he choked on it.

Jason immediately lost focus. His sight went blurry, and his limbs grew heavy; every movement suddenly became a chore. At the back of his mind, he noted that he had fallen to his knees at one point as something warm gushed from his stomach. Something was clawing at where he felt warm, but he couldn't feel anything beyond a dull sensation.

Just as fast as the loss of feeling came, it was dispersed by a fiery explosion.

Jason was sent head over heels, colliding with the ceiling and walls like some kind of pinball. He barely felt the impacts, though, and only started to feel his fingers and hands as a wave of pins and needles went through his body.

His blurry sight came back glacially, and as he blinked, he recognized Elliot and Cecilia who stood over him. Elliot's tall frame was punching at the mutated abomination, doing little to no damage as his fists mainly served to blow away the purple smoke that tried to encroach them. Cecilia kneeled next to him with bloodied hands, and Jason felt a distant pain in his stomach as she pressed something against him.

"...llo! Bello! Ya need to breathe! Fill yer body with mana! Come'on, Bello! Don't you dare–"

Jason groaned, cutting her off as he tried to sit up. Pain flared from his stomach, and he winced as he sucked in a breath full of mana. His mana veins twitched as he forced that mana into his body, alleviating the numbness of his body and bringing back a deluge of pain.

A hiss of pain whistled through his teeth as he looked down at his gored stomach. He knew the purple smoke was some kind of addictive substance, but actually experiencing it gave him a new perspective. A type of opioid that prevented him from feeling much.

"Glad you could make it!" Elliot yelled from above them. As Jason's eyes adjusted, he could see the roving mass of rats that Elliot pulped with every swing of his fists.

Jason blinked as he tried to sit up again, groaning as his healing stomach stopped him again.

"Don't move too fast, Bello. Yer stomach was about to be removed a second ago, so just sit still and heal."

"I can–"

"Stay down, Jason!" Elliot cut him off. "Focus on your rudimentary mana domain, so that we can deal with this smoke! With this many rats, we would be able to deal any lasting damage without your mana domain!"

Jason frowned but sat back down. He went through the release hand signs, fumbling through the odd movements of his fingers. However, he could barely concentrate as he took in the chaos around him.

Cecilia was forced to throw her bombs every second, taking deep breaths every time. The atmospheric stabilizer's vents were already cramped as it was, and the inclusion of the horde of rats only made things worse. The small creatures scrambled over the walls and ceiling as well as each other as they mindlessly continued their suicidal charge.

The intermittent bombs shook the vents, and Jason could see how sections of the vents started to groan and sag. The horde of rats would then fall through holes that Cecilia's bombs created, but that did little to slow them down. Hundreds of rats still reached them as Elliot swatted them away.

Jason bit his lips as he stared at the real danger– the purple smoke that followed the horde of rats. He furiously went through different combinations of the release hand signs, feeling annoyed the longer he couldn't sense anything from his mana veins.

"Try the cycles of promotion!" Elliot yelled, breaking Jason's concentration.

"The what?"

"Its the–" Elliot cut himself off as the abomination had started to move again. Its previous injuries had healed up, and Jason saw it rush through the crowds of rats. What took most of his attention was how the rats it had stepped on were absorbed into its skin, sinking into its flesh as if they had fallen into a body of water.

The abomination met Elliot in a flurry of wild swings. Its four arms swung like mad, and the teen was forced to cover his face and chest as it carved bloody lines across his skin. Just as Jason believed Elliot was overwhelmed, Elliot shoved the abomination away from him, punching it with one of his wrist spikes. The spike broke off of Elliot's wrist as the abomination was sent flying into the horde of rats.

Jason narrowed his eyes on the abomination as he saw how the spike slowly sunk into its shoulder, disappearing beneath its skin in a way similar to the rats. He guessed that whatever beast Elliot was using was countered by the Eurithos' ability.

Elliot clicked his tongue, keeping his eyes on the abomination as it got up again. "Listen closely, Jason, the cycles of promotion are described as the path of creation. Tower corp did research on elementless mana as it doesn't conform to the theory of Five Agents. You can't just rely on your mana to do the work like people with singular elements, and you need to give it spiritual direction as well. The cycle of promotion is the path of the Five Agents that– Guh!"

The abomination rocketed through the horde of rats again, tackling Elliot as hundreds of rats fell on them. Cecilia's explosions surrounded them for a moment, clearing their area from rats.

The vent creaked and groaned, and Jason felt the floor shudder beneath them. The teen barely had a second to realize what was happening before the floor of the vent gave way to a torturous squeal of metal.

Jason felt weightless as he fell, and it was like time slowed down. He narrowed his eyes as he saw Elliot grapple with Eurithos' host– an earth element rudimentary mana domain extended out from its distended belly. Above them, a deluge of rats and purple smoke cascaded down on them. Cecilia frantically threw Burst Rune-primed pebbles at the horde above, but that would only buy them a few seconds.

He realized how dire their situation was immediately.

As the earth element mana was sucked into the abomination, Jason weaved his own release hand signs. He tried to imagine what Elliot meant, and he imagined what each hand sign was supposed to represent.

However, he knew that the cycle of promotion and generation was not for him. Dragon Eaters were never depicted as creatures of creation; they were warriors, fighters who were sent out against threats.

He started with the one hand sign he had seen plenty of times by the people around him. The element he had experienced firsthand: fire– hands steepled like a prayer with his thumbs tucked between his palms. Then, fire would be doused by water– fingers interlocked and palms facing each other, forming a cup. Earth would obstruct water– hands clasped together with interlocked fingers. Earth was then depleted by wood– both palms face down with one hand atop the other, fingers spread. Finally, Jason finished with the other hand sign he could never forget.

He copied Balakrishna's hand sign for metal release– palms facing him with his fingers locked together bar his pointer fingers, where they only touched fingertips. A metal that tore through wood.

It took a few seconds to think of and complete the hand signs, and by that time, Jason's back had collided with the floor below. He gasped in pain, but he grinned as he felt the mana veins near his heart twitch.

Jason felt the mana escape him faster then he could think about it. A dull white mana expanded around him, escaping from him in all directions. The purple smoke that tried to escape the abomination as well as the purple deluge from above were blown away immediately as if they had come in contact with a typhoon.

Elliot and the abomination crashed next to Jason and Cecilia a second later. The other Delver had made it such that the abomination hit the floor first, and Jason saw how its legs had been shattered with the fall. However, where it previously could heal immediately, Jason saw how a brown mana tried to come out of its skin only to be forced back inside the second it came in contact with his dull white mana.

Forceful mana. Jason mused as he remembered Julius' innocuous statement when he got his Innate talents checked.

Despite the setback, the abomination was still able to heal its legs, but Jason could see how its distended belly lost a bit of its volume. Elliot also capitalized on this, continually breaking its arms and legs to force it to use its stored reserves of mass. Cecilia also worked around them, tossing her pebbles at the falling and nearby rats to prevent them from helping it.

"Finally…" Jason sighed, feeling the tension leave him.

Then, Jason saw his dull white rudimentary mana domain disappear.

"Dammit, what now?!"

He snapped his head over to Elliot as the other teen stood over the spasming body of the abomination. It continued to absorb the mana around it, and Jason sucked in a breath, realizing that even the atmospheric mana had dwindled a couple levels lower than normal.

Instantly, the teen recognized the phenomenon. Delver Awakening. He had experienced something similar as his body restructured itself to better fit the Innate talents that inserted themselves into the Delver's body. With how much mana was being cycled through the abomination, it was weirder that they hadn't awakened earlier.

"Ah! Gah! Gahah!" The abomination's massive mouth continued to growl and yell as Elliot stared at it.

"Please… survive…" Jason caught Elliot's whisper, and he realized that the other teen hoped that the abomination awakened an ability to save themselves from their current situation.

In that moment, Jason knew Elliot would risk his and everyone's life to save one more person. Elliot was like him in that they both moved in the moment, uncaring of the future consequences. Jason wondered if Elliot even thought about the risk that a Delver under a Eurithos' control would entail. Such a situation might threaten everything Jason fought to protect.

A brief thought filled his mind; where his parents were twisted into the rat-human hybrids he had fought before. A twisted life.

In that moment, Jason stood up, ignoring how he stumbled over to Elliot.

"What are you doing? You're injured, Jas–"

Jason fell over the distended belly of the abomination, using the last bits of mana in his body to rip their stomach open. Elliot's panicked yelled fell on deaf ears as he reached into the awakening Delver's belly, tearing out a wriggling mass of purple tentacles.

The Eurithos looked small and weak. A bulbous body devoid of any eyes, and only several long and small tentacles that wrapped around his fingers, trying to dig into his skin.

Elliot's sucker punch knocked him back on the ground.

"Why'd you do that?!" he yelled.

Jason just held out the Eurithos to Elliot. The brown-haired teen's attention was mainly locked on the body in front of him. His actions had inevitably made the awakening fail, and even worse, he could tell that the twisted man would definitely die.

Elliot continued to yell at Jason, and the teen took it as he finally rationalized that he had killed someone in the hopes that it would protect his family. He wondered if it got any easier.