Cannibal opened the zipper and saw what was inside. His deford mutant mouth stretched from ear to ear into a twisted smile. His reddish-brown eyes shone like he was looking at treasure.
The bag was filled with canned food, so at, and even sweets. The packaging was also clean and intact, utterly out of place in this wild prison, stirring nostalgia for the life he once lived.
Since arriving in this place, he had survived on bugs. He often had to fight chickens just to get a share. He also did not have access to drinking water. He had to collect droplets that gathered on the Mother Tree's leaves, waiting for them to form slowly before licking them off or catching them with his hands. This kind of reward was enough to make him forget all the hardships he had endured until now. It was enough to drown out the part of him that still rembered freedom.
Without wasting any ti, he tore open a can with his uneven but still strong nails. He began eating its contents with dirty fingers, shoveling it into his mouth and savoring the divine taste like it was a miracle.
With every bite, he failed to notice that he was losing his sense of freedom and his plans for the future bit by bit. The promised rewards now occupied his mind, transforming him into a proper slave more quickly with each mouthful.
After retrieving his focus from his Sanctuary, Adyr summoned his wings to depart.
They erged first as pure white bones extending from his shoulders. Then they beca covered, one in white feathers and the other in black.
After his evolution, his wings did not appear drastically changed. They only seed slightly larger, and they felt more powerful and durable, like the structure beneath the feathers had been reinforced.
Slow, gentle wingbeats were enough to lift him off the ground. His body rose swiftly into the sky, and the wind caught under his wings with ease.
Before he could beat them again to move forward, a sensation pricked his senses. He felt as though sothing was watching him.
It was not vague paranoia. It was a clear pressure on the edge of his awareness.
He turned his gaze toward the source of that feeling and spotted a small gray tallic device hovering in the distance.
It was far away, forcing him to squint and focus carefully to identify it. Bit by bit, its shape beca clear to his eyes.
"The way they can monitor without even noticing" Adyr chuckled, sounding more amused than irritated as he recognized it for what it was: a Human-made drone.
He was not offended; instead, he found it natural. During his evolution, even though he could not rember much of the process, he knew he must have caused quite a commotion.
Since the location was close to Human territory, it was only natural that drones, or even STF or PTF units, would be dispatched to investigate.
As he suspected, a mont later sothing else caught his attention.
This ti it was sothing larger than a drone.
A hoverjet erged silently from the clouds, a black mass of tal moving like a silent hunting falcon. It glided with controlled nace rather than raw speed.
As it approached, it slowed down. Once close enough, it turned sideways midair toward Adyr. The side door opened with a slow chanical sound, tal parts locking into place.
When the door fully opened, a small group of soldiers in exoskeletons ca into view. Massive rifles were aid directly at him, barrels steady and fingers ready, as if they were prepared to tear him down the mont a single order was given.
At the center of this small but elite STF squad stood a smaller figure.
She wore a black uniform. Her ponytail of crimson hair flowed behind her in the wind. Her burning red eyes fixed on Adyr with surprise and a slight frown as she spoke.
"Adyr?" Dalin Ravencourt asked in an uncertain tone. She studied a body that felt familiar yet strangely different, as if the outline matched but the presence did not.
Adyr answered without hesitation. "Yeah, it's ." His eyes swept over the soldiers and the equipnt they carried. He took in details automatically: the spacing, the posture, and the readiness.
The exoskeletons alone looked intimidating, thick, and reinforced around joints and torso. But the massive rifles gave Adyr a sense of threat. It was clear that whatever ammunition they fired would be quite dangerous.
As soon as the soldiers heard confirmation that the target they were assigned to eliminate was actually their ruler, the rifle barrels lowered. Their postures shifted into a formal salute, sharp and disciplined.
"You look different," Dalin said. Her frown eased, though the surprise remained as realization settled in. "Did you rank up? To Rank 4?"
Having just reached Rank 3 herself, she had believed she was finally catching up to Adyr. The idea that he had already reached Rank 4 made her confidence waver again, like the gap had opened right back up.
"Yes," Adyr replied calmly. He beat his wings and stepped into the hoverjet's cabin, moving as if the rifles had never been pointed at him.
"How?" Dalin asked, struggling to accept it. She kept her eyes on him while he casually folded his wings and slid into a seat in the crowded cabin. The strange, rich scent that ca with him spread through the space, cutting through sweat, tal, and fuel, making her emotions feel even more unsettled.
For her, leveling a single talent to Level 4 had already been incredibly difficult. It required countless restless days in VR rooms.
The fact that Adyr already possessed a Level 5 talent made her question what she herself lacked. What she had missed. What he had found.
Adyr did not answer her question. He could not explain that his rapid progress ca from a solid foundation built in a previous life. So he calmly changed the
subject.
"Were you out on patrol?"
Dalin realized he was avoiding the question, but she chose not to press further. "We were searching around for the territory of a Rank 3 Spark that lives
underground."
She looked down through the hoverjet's opening toward the wide unnatural clearing in the forest below. "We ca here after realizing that a forest that existed just yesterday is now completely gone."
She turned her gaze back to Adyr. "So you were the reason after all."
It was clear from her words that they had not witnessed the gates opening during his evolution. They had only arrived to investigate the sudden disappearance of a large section of forest.
Adyr could not rember much about what happened during his evolution. He only recalled fragnted images of the gates, and he wanted to ask what they had seen, but he realized they had not witnessed anything that could fill in the
gaps. So he simply said, "Yeah. Sorry for worrying you."
Then he added, "Can you drop off at headquarters?"
He had things to discuss with Henry. He also wanted to check on the Lunari Practitioners, so while he was already inside a hoverjet, he decided to make use of the free transport.
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