"BOOM. BOOM."
The two drop pods slammed into the ground, sending tremors racing across the rocky terrain. A heartbeat later, their metal hatches hissed open.
Captain Benjamin stepped out calmly, brushing a bit of dust from his uniform as though he had merely taken a brief elevator ride. Sylar, however, staggered out of his pod with trembling legs, nearly collapsing as a wave of nausea surged through him. His stomach clenched violently, and for a moment, he genuinely thought he might vomit.
"Hahaha! Good. You managed not to puke on your first landing. Impressive," Captain Benjamin said with a chuckle, nodding approvingly.
Sylar didn't share the amusement. It took him several seconds of deep breathing before the spinning in his head faded enough for him to stand straight. The moment he looked somewhat stable, Benjamin's expression sharpened, his voice shifting to a serious, commanding tone.
"From this point on," the captain said, "the Star Crucible begins."
The words hit Sylar like a bucket of cold water. Every trace of dizziness evaporated as his mind snapped into focus. This wasn't just another training day. Even if it was technically a military test, Shooting Stars were not ordinary soldiers—they were elite weapons, made to battle nightmares born from impossible worlds. Whatever tests forged them would not be kind.
Benjamin nodded again, satisfied by the determination settling in Sylar's eyes. "Good. Take this seriously. I trust your abilities, but anything can happen here. Normally, half of all recruits die during the Star Crucible. And of those who live…" He gave a grim shrug. "Even fewer complete it."
Sylar swallowed, but there was no fear, only determination in his gaze as the captain continued.
"Remember: Akai is a Death World. A place hostile to all life. Everything here can kill you." His gaze sharpened into a blade. "Be ready. Be smart. And never hesitate."
Sylar bowed deeply, allowing the cold, ruthless mindset he had used in Arcade to flood back into him. He felt his heart steady, his breathing slow, and the fog of hesitation disappear.
"You need to reach the Starting Zone," Benjamin said. "It's nine kilometers (six miles) from here. And because we arrived later than the others, you have three hours left to get there."
Sylar tilted his head, almost confused. Nine kilometers? He could sprint that in ten minutes, even at a casual pace. Three hours would've been overkill.
Benjamin caught the flicker of confidence on the boy's face and smirked. Then he lifted a finger and pointed behind Sylar, toward the sky.
Sylar turned.
His eyes widened.
A colossal mountain loomed before him—so tall its summit was swallowed by thick, gray clouds. It wasn't shaped like a normal mountain either. It rose straight up like a titanic stone pillar stabbing into the firmament.
"Of course," the captain said, amusement in his voice, "when I say nine kilometers, I mean vertical. The Starting Zone is on the plateau at the top. You need to climb it. And soon night will fall. According to our data, it gets extremely cold here—cold enough that even I wouldn't want to stay out."
Sylar's blood ran cold. If a Grade 2 lifeform considered the temperature dangerous, then for normal humans, it would be instant death. Even for him, a Grade 3, such temperatures would be lethal if he weren't careful.
He stared at Captain Benjamin for a moment, then clasped his hands together and bowed deeply. Without hesitation, he turned and launched himself forward, sonic booms cracking behind him as he disappeared across the barren ground.
Benjamin watched him go, a glimmer of hope and expectation flickering in his eyes. Once Sylar was out of sight, he closed the boy's pod and returned to his own. Moments later, both pods ignited their engines and shot back into the darkening sky.
Sylar noticed them leaving, but he had no time to dwell on it. His attention was fixed entirely on the towering mountain ahead.
Up close, it was even more monstrous. Its sides were nearly smooth, like a giant cylinder had erupted upward from the planet's crust. There was no slope, no gradual incline—just kilometers of vertical stone.
Sylar didn't waste a single second. Planting his feet firmly, he gathered his strength and jumped with everything he had. The ground cracked violently beneath him, and his body soared hundreds of meters into the air. At the peak of his jump, he thrust his fingers forward, stabbing them into the rock wall as easily as if it were soft clay.
He exhaled sharply, then began to climb.
His fingers pierced the mountain's surface without resistance, and with every movement, he ascended several meters. His speed was astonishing, and for a while the climb felt almost effortless.
Then the sun dipped below the horizon.
Night fell.
Sylar's eyes widened as the temperature plummeted with terrifying speed. The air around him went from frigid to lethal within minutes, plunging well below zero and still dropping. Frost formed instantly on his hands and forearms. The stone beneath his fingers grew slick with ice.
Even worse, he was already over seven thousand meters (4.3 miles) above the ground. A fall from this height could kill him, even with his reinforced body.
His fingers were beginning to go numb.
Clenching his teeth, Sylar forced himself upward, trying to generate internal heat through motion. But it wasn't enough. His body began to shiver uncontrollably, making his grip less stable, his ascent slower and more dangerous.
He scowled. Shivering would only worsen the situation.
Normally, shivering was an involuntary reflex—part of the body's natural thermoregulation. Impossible to stop consciously.
But Sylar was no ordinary human.
The Omega Compound had unlocked new depths of control within his body. The genetic restraints once limiting him had been erased.
He focused.
Slowly, the shivering began to diminish. Yet, just as he went down that road, an idea arose in his mind.
"Instead of trying to diminish it," he thought, eyes gleaming with a fierce light, "why not take it in the opposite direction?"
The light burning in Sylar's eyes only grew stronger as he focused inward. Instead of suppressing the shivers ripping through his body, he amplified them. The trembling surged beyond anything natural, and within minutes his entire body burned an intense, scorching red. Steam hissed from his skin, melting the frost that had formed along his arms.
[New Innate Ability Obtained
Mutation: Hyperthermic Tremor Control (Grade +4)]
[Adaptability has risen by 5 points]
A wide smile spread across Sylar's face as he read the words. The Omega Compound truly had pushed him beyond the boundaries of humanity. His genome now possessed the flexibility to awaken abilities that ordinary lifeforms couldn't even dream of.
Of course, none of this would have been possible if his Vitality and Adaptability hadn't already been incredibly high.
"The Omega Compound could open the gate, but my body needs to be strong enough to walk through it," Sylar murmured with satisfaction.
He continued climbing with renewed confidence. The killing cold was no longer a threat; he simply elevated his internal temperature until the air around him felt almost warm. Twenty minutes later, the peak finally came into view. With a single explosive leap, he propelled himself several hundred meters upward and landed cleanly on the plateau at the mountain's summit.
His eyes narrowed immediately.
The plateau was enormous, large enough to hold a small city. And judging by the structures before him, it once had.
A massive stone fortress dominated the center of the plateau, its walls dozens of meters in height. Far more striking, however, were the thousands of young men gathered near the entrance—muscular, tall, and hardened, each radiating the aura of someone who had survived the Omega Compound.
"Other recruits," Sylar muttered, instinctively raising his guard.
Sharing the same trial didn't make them allies. Once they became Shooting Stars, they would be brothers and sisters in arms—but until then, they were only strangers competing for survival.
Sylar advanced calmly toward the entrance of the colossal stone structure. Dozens of recruits glanced his way, assessing him with cold eyes.
Every single one of them had survived the Omega Compound's transformation. In any other setting, so many people succeeding was impressive. But across a galaxy with trillions of lives, thousands of potential super-soldiers weren't all that surprising.
After a brief evaluation, Sylar ignored their gazes altogether, found an empty spot along the outer wall, and sat. There were still more than an hour before the time limit ended. No sense wasting it.
"System," he whispered.
The interface opened instantly before his eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NEMESIS SYSTEM INTERFACE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[HOST STATUS]
───────────────────────────────────────
• Designation: Sylar Bright
• Species Line: Homo Ascendens
• Rank: 1 – KINDLER
• Titles: Bane of Necrasys
• Level: 20
• Vault Capacity: 15.5 / 60 TP
• Entropy Debt: 24 % (Safe)
• Free Points: 30
• System Access: Basic – Status | Quests | Vault | Mutation
───────────────────────────────────────
[CORE ATTRIBUTES]
───────────────────────────────────────
STRENGTH (STR) 77 ---> 97
AGILITY (AGI) 99
VITALITY (VIT) 81 ---> 111
COGNITION (COG) 56 --> 69
INTEGRATION (INTG) 44
WILL (WIL) 33 --> 50
ADAPTABILITY (ADP) 49 --> 74
Derived Values:
• Combat Efficiency Rating (CER): 246
• Evolutionary Potential (EP): 138
• Survival Index (SI): 161
• Cognitive Feedback Threshold (CFT): 119
───────────────────────────────────────
[INNATE ABILITIES]
───────────────────────────────────────
• Mutation: - Super Strength (Grade +4)
• Mutation: - Echolocation (Grade -3)
• Mutation: - Hyperthermic Tremor Control (Grade +4)
• Psychic Power: – Magnetism Manipulation (Grade +2)
• Genetic Power: – Heat Vision (Grade -2)
───────────────────────────────────────
[VAULT DATA]
───────────────────────────────────────
Vault Tier: 1
Capacity: 60 TP (Grade 3 entities max)
─ Stored Entities ─
▫ SYMBIARCH [MYC-Σ03] (15 TP)
▫ THRALL [MYC-Σ04] (0.5 TP)
───────────────────────────────────────
[MUTATION SLOTS] 3 / 3
───────────────────────────────────────
• Metabolic Surge (Grade +3) [5% ED]
• Tendon Bloom (Grade -3) [10% ED]
• Chitinous Sheath (Grade -3) [9% ED]
───────────────────────────────────────
Sylar exhaled slowly, pride warming his chest. Thanks to his mutations, his Strength, Vitality, and Adaptability had skyrocketed. His Cognition had improved through the mental challenges aboard the ship, and his solitude-driven training had solidified his Will.
"These stats… they're worthy of a Grade 3 lifeform."
The smile on his face widened. He had come far—far enough to stand among monsters.
Satisfied, Sylar closed the interface and leaned back against the cool stone. He needed to rest—to gather every ounce of strength for what was coming.
Time slipped by quickly.
And then, right as the final seconds ticked down, a deep rumble echoed through the plateau. The massive stone gates of the fortress shuddered—then slowly began to open.
Sylar opened his eyes.
"It begins."