The Capricorn Knight let out a guttural scream, his matte-black armor leaking steam as he pushed his mana core to the point of melting. He was the last of the "Solar Eclipse" squad, and the shame of losing his comrades to a "Null" had turned his discipline into suicidal rage.
"I will take you to the grave with me!" the Knight roared, slamming his gauntlets together. "Earth King's Domain: Granite Sepulcher!"
The mountain itself seemed to obey. Massive slabs of obsidian and granite rose from the cliffs, slamming shut around Solan like the jaws of a prehistoric beast. Within seconds, Solan was encased in a tomb of solid rock, thirty feet thick.
Mina, watching from behind a jagged ridge, gripped her brass device so hard her knuckles turned white. "Solan! Get out of there! The pressure is increasing—it's a hydraulic crush!"
Inside the darkness of the stone tomb, Solan didn't panic. The silence was absolute. He could feel the Void Corruption at 18% creeping toward his shoulder, a cold, numbing sensation that made his heart beat in a slow, heavy rhythm.
Is this the end of the 'Third Son'? a voice whispered in the back of his mind.
"No," Solan whispered back, his orange eye illuminating the cramped space. "This is just the beginning of the feast."
He didn't swing his sword. He placed both hands against the inner walls of the stone tomb.
"Law of Devouring: Molecular Decay."
The black glass of the Fang of Ophiuchus began to hum at a frequency that shattered the crystalline structure of the granite. The rock didn't break; it disintegrated into fine grey dust.
Outside, the Capricorn Knight was preparing a final spear of light to pierce the tomb. Suddenly, the massive stone structure didn't explode—it simply evaporated.
Solan walked out of the cloud of dust, his cloak tattered but his gaze unshakable. He used Phantom Step not to close the distance, but to appear directly inside the Knight's guard.
SHLICK.
The Fang of Ophiuchus didn't hit the armor. Solan used his new Mass Manipulation (stolen from the Libra) to make the tip of his blade weightless, allowing it to bypass the heavy plating and pierce the Knight's collarbone.
"Your armor is strong," Solan whispered into the Knight's ear. "But your soul is brittle."
[INITIATING FINAL DRAIN: CAPRICORN ESSENCE]
The Knight's body stiffened. The white light of the Capricorn star was sucked into the black blade, leaving the armor as an empty, hollow shell. Solan pulled the blade out, and the Knight collapsed, unconscious and powerless.
As the dust settled, Solan noticed something glinting inside the broken chest-piece of the leader's armor. It wasn't a mana core. It was a Black Box—a mechanical device marked with a seal that Solan recognized from his own world's history: a stylized Ouroboros.
"Mina," Solan called out, his voice sounding hollow. "Look at this."
Mina ran over, her eyes widening as she scanned the device. "This... this isn't Star-Magic. This is Pre-Covenant Tech. The Kingdom isn't just using the stars, Solan. They're using the technology of the 'Ancient Ruin'—the world that existed before the Twelve arrived."
Solan looked at the device, then at his own blackened hand. The connection was becoming clear. The 13th Constellation wasn't just a fallen star; it was the bridge between the old world of machines and the new world of magic.
[NEW ITEM ACQUIRED: ENCRYPTED OUROBOROS DRIVE] [VOID CORRUPTION: 20% (STABLE)]
"The Purge Squad was just the distraction," Solan realized, looking toward the dark forest ahead. "The Kingdom is hiding something far worse than a few knights."