“What exactly does tha—”

Before he could finish, the Matriarch abruptly turned on her heel and started walking.

“Come along. We’ll talk as we walk.” She commanded.

Her tone made Elias’s eye twitch. But he wasn’t in much of a position to complain. The others followed without hesitation, some casting him menacing glances. With a quiet sigh, he followed.

“Again, what exactly did you mean by ‘cleverness’?”

She glanced back for a moment and said. “It’s simple, really—”

It turned out that for the past three centuries, this planet had been left to fend for itself. But instead of slowly withering away into rot and obscurity, it thrived.

Once, Heaven had been a legendary proving ground—a brutal training planet where potential Champions of the universe honed their strength. From reckless, Tierless mortals to ambitious Tier One seekers, all had been drawn here by one thing: doubled essence.

It was the place to go if anyone wanted to grow stronger, faster.

But everything came at a price.

“The difficulty.” He muttered.

“Indeed.” The Matriarch replied with slightly narrowed eyes. “The peak of the native beasts was always two existence tiers above the strongest champion candidate.”

Hesitating for a moment, he swallowed. “And I’m assuming that’s changed?”

Desippe stopped in her tracks and turned her head directly at him. “Tier Five.”

“Y… You mean—?”

“Yes.” She said as she turned to continue her march.

He felt his stomach drop.

His mind raced as he thought of the implications. He was barely a second-tier being thanks to his adaptation skill. And technically, he was still Tier One.

A cold sensation crawled down his spine.

Tier Five.

That wasn’t just strong. That was untouchable.

He knew the gap between tiers wasn’t linear—it was exponential. Tier Two could crush Tier Ones without trying. Tier Three could start twisting reality itself. Tier Four… those were the monsters that shaped battlefields.

But Tier Five?

Beings like that usually changed whole swaths of land without even lifting a single finger. And when they killed… they erased.

He hurried to catch up to her as he clenched his already closed fists—making the metal around them groan. “So you’re telling me that there are things out there that can kill me if I get just an inch too close?”

Desippe didn’t immediately answer. Instead, she turned to study him for a moment.

Not with amusement. Not with pity.

With calculation.

Finally, she spoke. “It’s worse than that.”

His muscles tensed. “Worse how?”

She tilted her head slightly. “They don’t just kill. They consume. They adapt.”

His breath hitched.

She continued. “They have risen to the peak of this menagerie of a planet, so adapting is what they are best at.”

Elias felt something cold settle in his gut.

“Survival of the fittest dialed up t—”

“Don’t forget the essence.” She added.

His brow furrowed. The essence?

Then it clicked.

“The doubled essence…” he muttered.

Desippe nodded. “It doesn’t just apply to you… and it isn’t just doubled.”

His pulse quickened. If the beasts here were already Tier Five, and they had access to doubled essence…

No. That wasn’t what she meant.

His throat felt dry. “What do you mean it isn’t just doubled?”

She paused for a moment—as if in contemplation.

“It would be better if I show you.”

Suddenly, she turned to one of the bigger warriors walking by her side—a brute with scars all over its body.

“Show him.” She commanded.

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The warrior extended its arm toward him and flexed. For a moment, the air around it shimmered—not with heat, but with something deeper. Something ingrained in his very being.

Essence.

But not just one. Two distinct energies swirled in the air—one was clearly his. The other… wasn’t.

“We do not know how it happened exactly.” The Matriarch said as she walked closer. “But this is the result of around three centuries of neglect.”

“Doubled essence and… merging?”

He stared at the shifting essence, his stomach twisting into knots.

Doubled essence was already insane. But merging?

That was something else entirely.

He watched as the warrior flexed his fingers, the energy around his arm pulsing. The two distinct forces twisted, bled into each other—syncing.

That shouldn’t be possible. Essence didn’t work like that. It was personal, intrinsic. It was supposed to reject foreign energy, maybe even cleanse it—not fuse with it.

Elias exhaled sharply. "You're telling me things here don’t just get stronger… they absorb each other?"

Desippe nodded. “Some call it evolution. Others call it corruption.” She gestured to the warrior’s arm. “But we call it inevitable.”

He clenched his jaw.

Not only were there Tier Fives on this godforsaken planet, everything else was also—

“Wait. The Tier Fives… what happens if they merge?” He asked, his voice slightly shaking.

Desippe didn’t answer right away. Instead, she let the silence stretch, the weight of his question lingering in the air.

Then, without a word, she turned and started walking again.

He hurried after her. “And?”

She sighed. “And we don’t know.”

He ran in front of her—stopping her in her tracks. “You don’t know? Or you don’t want to tell me?”

Her eyes flickered to his bloody weapons before locking onto his own. “It hasn’t happened yet,” she admitted.

The knot in his stomach tightened. “But you have to have theories… right?”

She exhaled, almost reluctant. “Of course we do.”

He narrowed his eyes. “And?”

Without warning, she snapped her fingers and both of his makeshift weapons imploded—along with his hands.

“GAH!” He screamed as he quickly backed away a few steps. Metal and pieces of his flesh dropping to the ground.

“You would do well to know your place, human.” She said as she walked past him—not even looking him in the eyes.

He clutched his mangled hand, biting back another scream. Pain shot up his arms like fire, but he forced himself to keep walking.

The Matriarch didn’t spare him another glance. The others barely even reacted.

It was a warning.

He sucked in a breath, forcing himself to focus. He was about to speak again when he realized—he couldn’t.

His throat locked. His lips wouldn’t move.

“I will not be answering any more questions.” The Matriarch said flatly. “If you want more answers, you’ll have to do something for us first.”

Elias breathed in slowly, calming himself and forcing himself to move despite the fire crawling up his arms. His hands—what was left of them—throbbed with sharp, pulsing agony. Skin, muscle, and bone were already regenerating, but slowly. A bit too slowly.

‘She must’ve done something.’ He thought, as he tried sensing for whatever it was.

At first, there was nothing. Just pain. Just the sluggish crawl of his cells knitting themselves back together. But he didn’t give up. He concentrated, pushing his will deeper into his own flesh, searching—until he finally found it.

Mana.

Her mana.

It was like nothing he’d ever felt before. It clung to his cells, pressing down like an invisible weight, dulling his regeneration—not stopping it, just… suppressing it.

‘Odd…’

He stopped walking, closing his eyes. He focused all his will on the foreign mana, nudging at it, prodding it with his own. Trying to understand it.

But it moved like liquid smoke, slipping through his grasp.

Elusive.

‘It feels almost like trying to hold… water?’

He frowned. ‘Water…? No. Not exactly. There’s something else.’

This moved like water, but it didn’t settle. It seeped through his grip, slipping away the moment he tried to grasp it.

Even mana influenced by the Law of Water didn’t behave like this. Not to mention that his mana was supposed to be fighting it off. But this? It wrapped around his cells. Heavy. Smothering. Not fighting him—just… holding him down.

‘I need to try something else.’

Instead of the forceful prodding, he tried weaving his mana through it. Slow and careful.

It shivered.

His pulse quickened. ‘It reacted.’

This wasn’t just a passive force. It followed a pattern.

Elias pressed further, threading his mana through the weight pressing down on him. The strands of suppression were layered—woven in intricate loops. Too precise to be natural.

‘There!’

A knot.

His mana brushed against it, and the pressure over his cells twitched. It didn’t break, not fully, but it loosened. His regeneration kicked up—only slightly, but enough to feel.

He exhaled slowly.

‘That’s it.’

Desippe’s suppression wasn’t invincible. It had rules. Structure. And if it had structure… it could be unraveled.

A slow grin crept onto his face.

‘Let’s see how she likes it when I start pulling—’

“Good.”

Her voice came, interrupting his thoughts.

“You’re a fast learner.”

He opened his eyes to find her directly in front of him—looking at his hands with interest.

“You’re going to need to be for what we want you to do.”

Without letting him reply, she looked at two chucklers off to the side and commanded. “Carry him. We’ve wasted enough time.”

He couldn’t even protest before he was unceremoniously carried like a sack of vegetables.

‘Ugh.’ He sighed internally. ‘I hate this.’

----------------------------------------

While Elias was dealing with the chucklers, Lexia had just arrived on an entirely different planet. She stepped out of a tear in space and took a moment to look around.

It was dawn, and the morning air was fresh and crisp.

She closed her eyes briefly, savoring the rare moment of peace.

With a deep breath, she felt reinvigorated. "It’s all about the little things." She said with a smile.

But she couldn’t afford to linger. She had come here for a reason—to meet someone.

She sent out a pulse of will that traveled all across the planet, felt only by the most powerful beings. It was common courtesy to announce oneself when arriving on someone else’s territory after all.

Then, with a quick jump, she shot into the sky, disappearing in the direction of the capital.

A few seconds later, she arrived in the sky above it.

“Impressive as always.” She remarked as she gazed at the city.

The capital stretched beneath her where towering spires of obsidian and gold loomed over the city, their surfaces lined with glowing runes that pulsed in a steady, rhythmic pattern—almost alive.

Bridges hung suspended in the sky, connecting floating platforms where figures moved with quiet purpose.

Lexia took it all in.

She had been here before, but the sheer scale of it never failed to impress. This wasn’t just a city—it was a fortress. A statement of power.

Her gaze drifted lower. The streets pulsed with movement, but there were no civilians. No merchants. No wasted space. Every person walking these roads had earned the right to be here. Warriors. Mages. Crafters. All scholars in their own right.

“We have been expecting you, goddess.”

A voice said from behind her.

She looked over and saw a figure materialize. Stepping out of nothing as if reality had folded to accommodate his presence. Cloaked in deep blue, a mask covering the lower half of his face, he carried himself with a quiet ease.

Lexia tilted her head. “Not bad. I almost didn’t notice you.”

“Yes.” The figure said flatly.

She clicked her tongue. “You guys are never fun, are you.”

“Yes.”

She sighed. “Okay, take me to him, then.”