A young man with brown hair and faint golden eyes moved through the jagged mountain range. His expression twisted between constant pain—courtesy of the head injury he'd recently suffered—and the simmering frustration of humiliation still fresh in his mind. Of course, this young man was Pierce, and a spiral of tangled thoughts and emotions raged inside him.
Before coming to Akai, he had belonged to a prominent family on one of the main worlds of the Kingdom of Man. From childhood, he trained under elite instructors and was provided the best genetic compounds to push his body to its peak—all in pursuit of becoming a Shooting Star.
He had always been the best in his classes, a prodigy who managed to remain awake for nearly ten and a half hours under the Omega Compound. And yet now, on Akai, he was constantly falling behind.
No matter how hard he pushed himself, others surpassed him. Again and again, he saw himself beneath people who came from nothing. Every failure fed into the next, making his focus slip and disrupting his battle awareness. The wounds he'd received on the journey—wounds he should've easily avoided—only deepened his resentment.
"Damn it! It's all their fault!" Pierce roared, grinding his teeth. He stomped against the ground in anger—
—and the rocky formation beside him cracked open.
Chunks of stone broke away, revealing a small white figurine that tumbled into the dirt. Startled, Pierce bent down and picked it up.
It was carved from marble, depicting a strange maiden with flowing garments and serene features. It was bizarre to see something like this on a Death World; life wasn't supposed to thrive here, let alone art.
"It must have been left behind by the ones who lived here before the planet fell," he reasoned. The thought flickered through his mind, but only for a moment. As he held the figurine, an unfamiliar sensation rose within him.
A wave of peace and harmony washed over him. His frustration, his humiliation, his anger—melting away like snow under sunlight. In their place came a sense of triumph, a quiet certainty, as if success was not only possible but assured. A deep ambition stirred in him, urging him forward with renewed clarity.
Pierce might be narcissistic and self-centered, but he was not an idiot, and he knew this feeling wasn't natural.
"An object shouldn't affect me like this," he thought. But almost immediately, another thought followed, warm and reassuring.
"It's fine. As long as I'm careful." That single justification was all he needed. He tucked the figurine into his backpack, straightened his posture, and moved on. His steps grew lighter. His movements sharper, faster, and more precise than before.
For the first time since the Star Crucible began… Pierce felt hopeful.
---
Sonic booms cracked through the jungle. The air trembled. Trees swayed and buckled as a young man clashed with a towering V-Rex. The two moved well beyond the speed of sound, generating shockwaves that rippled through the dense vegetation.
The V-Rex was enormous—over ten times larger than its opponent and far more massive than a normal variant. Yet the one dominating the fight wasn't the monster.
It was Sylar.
He rebounded off a massive tree trunk with such strength that the wood exploded into splinters. A heartbeat later, his knee smashed into the V-Rex's skull—right where he had weakened it earlier with the Dawnfire Hybrid Sidearm. The impact blasted the creature sideways, slamming it into the base of the mountain.
Sylar didn't give it a second to recover. He landed atop the beast's snout, golden light already flaring in his eyes.
Twin beams of searing heat erupted downward.
The V-Rex's eyeball burst like a ripe fruit, and the beams drilled straight through into its brain. The beast convulsed once, twice—
—and fell still.
A mechanical chime rang in Sylar's mind.
[You have reached Level 27]
A wide grin spread across his face. He had finally reached the edge of the jungle and gained another two levels in the process. But his smile faded when the system spoke again.
[Vault is over the limit. Immediate measures required before adding new entities.]
Sylar's expression turned solemn. He knew this moment would come eventually. But handling it next to the corpse of a fresh kill was a terrible idea. He sliced the heart from the fallen V-Rex, packed it, and left the clearing behind. Moments later, the sounds of tearing flesh echoed as the jungle's scavengers descended upon the carcass.
When he was finally far enough away—and once Echolocation confirmed no threats nearby—Sylar sat down, unwrapped the V-Rex heart, and began to eat.
[Strength has risen by 1]
[Strength has risen by 1]
[Vitality has risen by 1]
[Vitality has risen by 1]
Sylar wiped blood from his chin and smiled faintly. The fastest, simplest method to raise his stats was through Free Points earned from leveling. But thanks to the Omega Compound, his genome was unbound. As long as he pushed his body hard enough and provided the nutrients it needed, he could continue to strengthen himself through sheer will and consumption.
Still, he didn't allow himself to get lost in the numbers. He opened the Vault interface.
───────────────────────────────────────
[VAULT DATA]
───────────────────────────────────────
Vault Tier: 1
Capacity: 60 TP (Grade 3 entities max)
Stored Entities:
• SYMBIARCH [MYC-Σ03] – 13 TP
• THRALL [MYC-Σ04] – 0.3 TP
• FOREST RAPTOR [XB-Σ04] – 0.3 TP (×25)
• APEX FOREST RAPTOR [XB-Σ04] – 2 TP
• V-REX [XB-Σ03] – 10.5 TP
• JUNGLE CROCOLISK [XB-Σ04] – 0.3 TP (×27)
• BLOOD FLIES [XB-Σ04] – 0.1 TP (×33)
• FANG MASTODON [XB-Σ03] – 10.5 TP
• ROT EAGLE [XB-Σ04] – 0.3 TP (×11)
• ALPHA V-REX [XB-Σ03] – 11.5 TP
Note: Total TP stored: 71
This exceeds the current Vault capacity.
───────────────────────────────────────
The rise in his abilities and stats had reduced the Threat Points of the entities stored in the Vault, but eventually the imbalance caught up with him. The most logical answer would be to simply expel some of the stored creatures—but before acting on anything so drastic, it was better to ask.
"What can I do to fix this problem?"
[Host can expand the Vault by evolving the Nemesis System to the next Rank. This will increase capacity and the Grade of entities that can be stored.
Host can also sacrifice stored entities, transforming them into energy to expand the size of the Vault, increasing total TP capacity. However, this method will not increase the Vault's entity Grade limit—only its quantity capacity.
Host may also choose to expel excess entities.]
Sylar's eyes widened as he heard the second option, and an immediate smile tugged at his lips.
"How many do I need to sacrifice to increase the Vault's size?"
[Tier I Vault can be improved three times:
• First Enhancement: 30 Grade 4 lifeforms
• Second Enhancement: 50 Grade 4 lifeforms + 1 Grade 3
• Third Enhancement: 100 Grade 4 lifeforms + 5 Grade 3]
The decision was surprisingly easy. One way or another, he needed to remove several entities. If sacrificing them improved the Vault while also clearing space—and considering he wasn't relying on their mutations—there was no reason not to do it.
With a single thought, Sylar authorized the Nemesis System to begin.
[Vault has obtained its First Enhancement. Capacity has risen to 80 TP.]
[Vault has obtained its Second Enhancement. Capacity has risen to 140 TP.]
───────────────────────────────────────
[VAULT DATA]
───────────────────────────────────────
Vault Tier: 1
Capacity: 140 TP (Grade 3 entities max)
Stored Entities:
• SYMBIARCH [MYC-Σ03] – 13 TP
• THRALL [MYC-Σ04] – 0.3 TP
• APEX FOREST RAPTOR [XB-Σ04] – 2 TP
• JUNGLE CROCOLISK [XB-Σ04] – 0.3 TP (×2)
• BLOOD FLIES [XB-Σ04] – 0.1 TP (×3)
• FANG MASTODON [XB-Σ03] – 10.5 TP
• ROT EAGLE [XB-Σ04] – 0.3 TP (×11)
• ALPHA V-REX [XB-Σ03] – 11.5 TP
───────────────────────────────────────
A wide smile spread across Sylar's face as he looked at the updated list. Not long ago, the Vault had barely held two entities—now he had sacrificed more than eighty and still had plenty left. The sensation of growing stronger through his own effort was intoxicating. With renewed energy, he turned his gaze toward the distant horizon.
He had finished clearing the jungle, but there was still a vast amount of terrain left to cover. Without hesitation, Sylar shot forward like a bullet.
It didn't take long before he reached a massive canyon system. Two tremendous ridges cut across the eastern half of Akai like jagged scars. The formations resembled the exposed ribs of some colossal, fossilized creature—sharp, uneven, and menacing.
The stone walls were fractured by deep vertical cuts, narrow ledges, and shafts that descended into total, suffocating darkness. Dozens of shadowy openings dotted the cliffsides like hollow skull sockets, lending the place an eerie, haunted appearance.
Sylar didn't care about appearances. This route would let him cross a large portion of the Death World in a fraction of the time. That was all that mattered.
He stepped into the canyon—only to narrow his eyes after barely a hundred meters. Through his Echolocation, he sensed the stone beneath him begin to tremble. A moment later, massive colonies of ants—each the size of a baby's fist—erupted from cracks in the ground. There were so many that the earth seemed to ripple under their weight.
Using his gun would be pointless, and even his heat vision wouldn't be enough to reduce such dense numbers. Worse, they were fast—faster than he expected.
Instantly Sylar leapt onto the canyon wall, clinging to the stone to escape the swarm. The ants could climb too, but he was confident he could outrun them along the vertical surface.
Unfortunately, they weren't alone.
From vents in the canyon walls, swarms of gnats and fly-like xeno insects burst forth. They launched toward him in a living storm of wings and mandibles.
Sylar jerked back, but a handful reached him, their hooked jaws piercing into his skin. Using his combat knife, he sliced them apart with swift, precise strikes while retreating further up the cliff.
A deep frown creased his face. Ahead of him was a solid wall of insects thick enough to blacken the canyon.
He could escape… but doing so would mean abandoning this shortcut. It would cost him days, maybe more.
A hard, determined light flashed in Sylar's eyes.
He stopped running.
Drawing a slow breath, he focused. Ants, gnats, and flies swarmed toward him like a rolling tide of chitin. They were almost upon him when the stone beneath his feet vibrated—and then pieces of ore began to rise into the air.
Hundreds of fragments of ferrous, electron-rich mineral floated free, surrounding him in a widening circle. The shards trembled for a heartbeat—then spun with explosive speed.
A whirl of magnetic power erupted around Sylar, the fragments rotating at supersonic velocity just as the first wave of insects lunged at him.
What followed was pure carnage.
Everything that entered the sphere of orbiting minerals was shredded instantly. Limbs, wings, shells—it all became red mist under the storm of metallic shrapnel. Insects were torn apart faster than they could scream.
Sylar glanced at the field he had created and couldn't hide his awe. Psychic Power truly was incredible. "No wonder Magnetic Manipulation is Grade +2."
But there was no time to admire his work. Even if the ability felt stable, it drained him at an alarming rate. Already a faint throb was forming behind his eyes.
With the magnetic storm roaring around him, Sylar blasted forward, carving a straight path through the canyon as he annihilated every xeno insect in his way.