---
Kai coughed grit. "If you're after snacks, rib roast enough. Let me go. One day I will repay your favour."
It chuckled. "Bold. Though your taste may improve the meal." It tapped his breastplate where the Ruler-Core stigma glowed faint through shell. "What is this?"
"Birthmark," Kai lied.
The Mantira hissed suspicion, but before it probed further, heavy footfalls echoed. From a side tunnel lumbered a hulk twice Mantira's size, a Granite Gallog, four star rank turtle titan dragging the stolen rib slab across a shell like sled. Mantira clicked greedy, waving it deeper.
Kai seized window: interrogator away, aura leash momentarily eased. Internal voice of the System chimed inside his mind.
A thin ribbon of emerald code flickered across Kai's vision, bathing the stone walls of the Mantira's lair in sickly light.
[Ding! SYSTEM UPDATE: Threshold for Third-Star evolution reached. A catalytic deed is required.
QUEST: AVENGE BETRAYAL, CLAIM THE THREE STAR RANK.
