Solari could feel herself breaking.
Not just the tremble in her limbs or the heavy ache behind her eyes — but something deeper. Something essential. Her grip on self-control was unspooling like molten wire. The ruin wasn't just infecting her body. It was seducing her fury.
The creature lunged again — a blur of twisting sinew, wires, and bone — and she met it.
With a snarl, Solari slammed both fists into the ground, lava exploding outward in radiant, pulsing rings, scorching the cracked stone like a wrathful sun breaking through hell. The air screamed with heat. For a moment, it looked like she was melting into the arena — a living core of magma, every step she took trailing rivers of searing flame.
The beast reared back, its dozens of mouths shrieking in disharmony, its slick metal skin bubbling from the heat. Solari didn't stop.
She charged — lava rolling with her, cloak-like, alive, igniting everything in her path. Her body was no longer just flesh and bone. It was elemental defiance. She leapt, fists ablaze, and brought both down onto the creature's back in a thunderous slam that shattered the ground.
The arena itself groaned.
As if trying to catch a breath as the ruin creature recoiled.
Molten fists punched through the creature's side, carving glowing slashes across its patchwork limbs. Chunks of steaming armor fell away. One of its mouths shrieked and closed permanently. Another limb twitched and went still.
She had it.
Solari roared, lava bursting from her mouth like a dragon incarnate, and grabbed its central torso. Her hands dug deep — steam and fire pouring from the wound.
"You're not real!" she bellowed, eyes molten. "You're nothing!"
But the ruin's whispers turned to laughter, voices from her past. She could remember the laughter from her cousins jeering her when she lost in their game of hot ball, the hate that night that led her to burn their phones, just so they could feel her pain. A torture she endured all her life and had to live with, just so she would not get ostracized. It had happened anyway and she her last memory of home was the night she left, having burnt their phones. Nothing else made sense. A loud howl returned her senses to the reality of their current situation. The abomination had began to split, in evolution.
It collapsed inward with a sickening lurch, dragging Solari with it, like quicksand swallowing fire. She gasped, trying to pull free, but tendrils of ruin wrapped around her wrists, her waist, her throat. The lava cooled around her skin, solidifying like ash, as if the ruin was feeding on her fury, absorbing her flame.
"No—!" she choked, arms straining against the pull.
Beneath her, the creature shuddered violently, and a pulse of ruin — black energy lined with fire — erupted upward, tossing Solari back like a doll. She slammed against a broken wall, cratering it, molten cracks hissing beneath her crumpled form.
Then came the silence.
The creature was no longer just the monster they had fought. It had changed. Reborn. Taller, sleeker, faster. Its mouths were fewer, but wider. Its limbs flexed with terrible control, no longer lurching, but stalking. A single, glowing yellow eye opened in the center of its chest — like a window into some deeper will.
Varek was the first to speak, his voice ragged.
"What… what did she awaken?"
The air felt thinner. The ruins themselves pulsed with a deeper, darker rhythm. This wasn't just a fight anymore. It was the beginning of something else. The creature's presence loomed over them, a nightmare made flesh. It was no longer the monstrous thing that had taken shape before; this was something different, insane, and much more malevolent. It was alive in a way they hadn't expected. The ruin wasn't just shaping the world around them — it was shaping them, feeding on their fears, their breakdowns. This thing, this abomination, seemed like the physical manifestation of everything the ruin had been whispering into their minds. The ground trembled beneath their feet, cracked stone shifting as if it were nothing more than dust. The creature's hollow, jagged mouth opened once more, revealing teeth that looked like rusted daggers — a massive maw that stretched too wide, hungry for more than just flesh.
Teya was the first to move. Her metallic limbs clicked, the sound like chains dragging across the stone, as she darted forward, her blades flashing in a rapid, deadly arc toward the beast's hide. She was tired. The creature responded, its form distorting unnaturally, twisting around her strikes with eerie grace. A screech, mechanical and organic at the same time, echoed through the ruins. It was the sound of twisted evolution, of an intelligence born of dark, ancient technology and something far more primal. Her blades made contact, but they were far from enough. The creature adapted like before, its body folding and reshaping to absorb the blows. A twisted claw shot out, and Teya barely managed to sidestep it, the sharp metal scraping against her metallic limbs. She cursed, her breath ragged.
"It's too fast!" she shouted, frustration and fear creeping into her voice.
Solari, who had been watching the scene unfold, now leaped into action, molten lava surging around her feet as she moved with lethal intent. She slammed her fists into the ground, sending waves of molten rock toward the creature. Her last attack as human-lava led to the creature's current form, for their victory had been short-lived. The heat was blistering, the air shimmering with raw energy, but the creature simply shrank into the ground, reforming, as if the lava was nothing more than an inconvenience. Sirel, who had been laughing erratically moments ago, now stood frozen, her arms raised as lightning crackled unpredictably from her fingertips. It was clear she was struggling — struggling to keep herself together, to keep control over the madness building inside her. Her body shuddered, the electricity surging in violent waves.
"I can't... I can't stop it!" she shouted, her voice trembling as arcs of lightning exploded from her body, some of them striking the stone around her rather than the creature.
"Stay focused, Sirel!" Varek snapped, his voice cutting through the chaos.
He moved with precision, trying to flank the creature, his exoskeleton humming with energy. With a sharp motion, he unleashed a pulse of focused electricity, but the creature's response was swift. A massive, skeletal claw shot out and slammed into his chest, knocking him back several feet.
"Dammit!" Varek's breath was knocked out of him, but he forced himself up, his body still buzzing with the aftershock of the attack.
Across the battlefield, the creature lurched forward, and its eyes — those cold, unblinking, yellow-glowing eyes — fixed on Solari. There was no mistaking it: the creature had singled her out. It wasn't just a monster; it had intelligence. It was making decisions, anticipating their moves, and it was feeding on their weaknesses again. The weight of that realization hit Solari like a ton of bricks. They weren't just fighting a mindless beast. They were fighting something far more dangerous — something that was watching them, understanding them, adapting. A deep rumbling sound emanated from the ground, reverberating through their bones. The ruin was speaking to them again. Its whispers, louder this time, were suffocating — impossible to ignore.
"You have already lost."
"This is not your world."
"The trial for the second you have failed."
Solari's heart pounded, the roar of the ruin filling her ears. She understood it now, the second gauntlet. The attacks, the hybrids, she felt it now — the creeping darkness. It was like cold fingers wrapping around her heart, squeezing. The lava she had been controlling flickered, flickered... and died. Her molten vision wavered, and for a moment, the ground beneath her feet felt unsteady, as if the very land was rejecting her. Her hands shook, the power surging through her body losing its grip, and the shadows around her seemed to swallow her whole.
No — not now.
"Focus!" Solari snapped at herself, but the shadows in her mind tugged harder.
She staggered, her vision flickering between the ruin and the hallucinations creeping in. Her molten eyes were now dimming. Teya screamed in frustration, charging again, her body moving with the speed of a blur. But the creature was waiting for her. It twisted, its form uncoiling in a sudden, violent strike. The sharp, jagged edges of its mechanical limbs slashed across her side, sending her crashing into the dirt.
"No!" Solari shouted, rushing forward, but she was too slow.
She reached Teya's fallen form, the weight of the situation sinking into her chest. Teya's metallic limbs trembled as she struggled to rise, blood trickling from the gash.
"It's too much... we can't fight it like this..." Teya's voice was shaky, but beneath the fear, there was something else — something breaking.
They're all breaking.
Solari's breath caught in her throat. She felt a sudden, chilling fear, a clear sign of something unknown nearby. Her strong inner strength seemed to break, shaking like a leaf in the wind. Her hands clenched tightly, and the molten heat of the earth's core which she wielded and had controlled spun wildly out of control. They had all been pushed beyond their limits. The ruin wasn't just a physical adversary anymore. It was slowly wearing them down — psychologically, mentally, and emotionally. The creature was not just a test of their power. It was a test of their will. Teya coughed, a deep, rattling breath. Her voice was hoarse.
"Solari... we can't... I can't... hold on..."
But Solari shook her head, forcing her mind back into focus.
"No! We will not fall. Not like this!"
She reached for her lava again — but the creature had already come close. Barely meters away, it lunged. Varek dived right before them. His eyes on them as he smiled slowly, knowingly.
"We're going to be alright!"
It didn't matter if there was truth in those words. Everything exploded in a burst of screaming metal as the ground shattering beneath their feet.