They were taken in one by one.
Bound.
Silent.
No resistance.
The room was sealed—transparent walls, observation from the outside. No doors visible. No exits.
Only a system.
Only a process.
Levi stood still, watching.
He didn't speak.
Didn't ask.
Because he already knew—
this wasn't recovery.
This was extraction.
The first one was brought forward.
The ice user.
His body was restrained at the center.
Something was placed against his chest.
A device.
Thin.
Precise.
It pierced in.
The reaction was instant.
"No—!"
He forced his system to respond.
Cold surged from his body.
Frost exploded outward, coating his skin, locking his muscles, trying to preserve himself.
Freeze.
Preserve.
Survive.
But it didn't work.
The ice cracked.
Then melted.
Not from heat—
but from something deeper.
His body began to break apart.
Layer by layer.
Energy stripped.
Structure collapsing.
His scream didn't last long.
Because his mouth dissolved before the sound could finish.
At the center of where he had been, a core formed.
Small.
Dense.
A faint blue glow.
Mist drifting from its surface.
Cold.
Alive.
The second formed heavier, denser.
When it appeared, the air itself dipped.
Pressure.
Weight.
The third was unstable.
It flickered.
Split.
Multiplied.
Then collapsed back into a single point.
Three cores.
Three systems.
Three lives condensed.
They were placed in front of Levi, Kraith, and Nyxara.
Velkar stood behind them, silent.
Watching.
Measuring.
The Axian above spoke.
"This is what remains."
A pause.
"This is what you will use to evolve."
Levi stared at them.
Not the light.
Not the power.
But the feeling.
There was something familiar.
Something too close.
BOOM.
The wall shattered.
No warning.
No signal.
Just impact.
The fire user stood there.
Breathing hard.
Eyes wide.
Unstable.
"You think—"
his voice cracked,
"you can turn me into that?"
He moved.
Too fast.
Three cores—gone.
In his hand.
"Keep dreaming."
He swallowed them.
All three.
Silence.
Then his body reacted.
It started with a tremor.
Then a pulse.
Then rupture.
His veins lit up from the inside.
Cracks formed across his skin.
Light poured out.
Not controlled.
Not stable.
His body expanded.
Muscles tearing, reforming, distorting.
Bones shifting.
Rewriting.
Fire burst from his shoulders.
But not alone.
Cold seeped through the flames.
Weight bent the floor beneath him.
His presence distorted everything.
Overload.
Axian warriors moved instantly.
Weapons forming.
Shapes shifting.
"Dừng."
The leader raised his hand.
They stopped.
He looked at Levi's team.
"If you eliminate it—"
His voice was calm.
Flat.
Final.
"You will not proceed with further trials."
A beat.
"You will be accepted."
No one answered.
They didn't need to.
The creature roared.
Not human anymore.
Not controlled.
It moved.
Kraith reacted first.
Always.
He stepped forward.
CRASH.
His body slammed into the ground.
Pinned.
Nyxara was forced down.
Velkar dropped to one knee.
Gravity.
Levi stood at the edge.
Far enough.
Unaffected.
For now.
The floor beneath them froze.
Thin at first.
Then spreading.
Cold.
Weight.
Fire.
All at once.
Levi moved.
Not thinking.
His hand shifted.
Metal around the room tore loose and shot toward the creature.
It stopped mid-air.
Crushed downward.
"…Not that."
Levi's eyes sharpened.
He remembered.
The cave.
The hollow beneath his feet.
Not the object.
The space.
He stepped hard.
Listened.
Empty.
"Không phải tạo ra…"
He exhaled slowly.
"…là kéo lên."
His hand dropped.
The ground responded.
CRACK.
A spike erupted upward.
Not metal.
Stone and steel fused together.
It pierced the creature's side.
A scream burst out—violent, inhuman.
The pressure broke.
Kraith surged up instantly.
He tore off his shoes.
Bare feet hit the ground.
Spikes extended from beneath his skin.
Mutation.
Grip.
He vanished.
Speed.
He struck again and again.
Drawing its attention.
Nyxara moved.
No hesitation.
She pulled Velkar with her, ran up the wall, then dropped—landing on the creature's back.
Levi moved again.
This time cleaner.
Two spikes.
Then three.
Pinning both legs.
The creature collapsed to one knee.
Its back split open.
Smaller forms crawled out.
Copies.
Weaker.
Unstable.
"Not as strong!" Velkar shouted.
Nyxara engaged immediately.
Tearing through them.
Velkar followed.
Controlled.
Precise.
Kraith circled.
Fast.
Always moving.
Then he saw it.
"Trán nó!"
Three cores.
Embedded.
Levi looked up.
Locked on.
Nyxara was already moving.
Climbing.
Dragging herself upward.
"I found it!" she shouted.
Levi didn't answer.
He raised his hand.
This time, no hesitation.
The ground beneath the creature trembled.
Then erupted.
A spike—clean, sharp, perfect—shot upward.
It slammed into the first core.
Shattered.
The creature screamed.
Second.
Break.
Third—
CRACK.
Silence.
The massive body collapsed.
Folding inward.
Shrinking.
And there, at the center—
the fire user.
Back to his original form.
Barely standing.
He looked at them.
At Levi.
A weak smile.
"You said…"
his voice was quiet now,
"…there would be sacrifice."
Levi's eyes narrowed.
"Then take it."
Light compressed.
Then—
BOOM.
Everything went white.