The forest vibrated with each of Lumian's breaths. Among the splintered trunks, the earthy humidity, and the echo of distant beasts, four figures moved in a deadly game. The Awakened were not like common hunters. Their calculating gazes, their silent steps, and the way they reacted even to the slightest movement from Lumian made them predators of an entirely different level.
Lumian knew that facing all of them at once meant certain death… even for him.
But he advanced anyway.
---
The first Awakened—the one with an Aspect—moved first. His eyes lit up with a bluish glow, and the air around him began to stir as if the world itself were breathing differently. An invisible vibration expanded from his body.
"Gravity increased," murmured one of the others, smiling.
Lumian felt the air grow heavy, the ground pulling on him as if it wanted to swallow him whole. Each step weighed dozens of extra kilos. His muscles protested… but did not stop.
The man moved forward, creating a spatial distortion that bent the nearby trees. For any other creature, it would have been an instant KO.
But Lumian did not step back.
He lunged forward.
The Awakened man's eyes widened.
Lumian, forcing his muscles against the multiplied gravity, advanced like an animal fueled by sheer stubbornness. The ground cracked beneath him. His body trembled. But he reached his target.
With one hand, he grabbed him by the torso.
"What—?" the man managed to say.
Lumian lifted him as if he weighed nothing.
And smashed him into the ground.
The impact opened a crater. The force dispelled the gravitational distortion in a shockwave. The entire forest seemed to exhale.
Lumian didn't wait.
He threw him upward with such force that his body vanished into the treetops, lost in the nighttime darkness.
---
The second arrived before Lumian could fully straighten. He was fast. Too fast. He didn't use an Aspect or manipulate the environment. His ability was pure technique. Every movement was precise, calculated, perfect.
The sword grazed Lumian's skin. Just a shallow cut. But the swordsman smiled.
Lumian understood why.
The blade had pierced his monstrous skin. Even if only slightly… it pierced.
The man spun, moving like a lethal dancer. The sword flashed among the shadows, aiming at joints, weak points, exposed tendons. Every strike targeted something vital.
Lumian backed away, growling.
The swordsman pressed even harder. He jumped onto a fallen trunk and dropped down in a vertical slash aimed at the base of Lumian's neck.
The blade descended—
But Lumian moved his arm with wild reflexes.
He grabbed him by the head.
The swordsman didn't even have time to react.
A sharp, dry crack marked his end.
Lumian let the body fall and exhaled heavily, covered in steam and fury.
Silence. Then thunder.
A strange silence settled for a few seconds. Heavy, almost expectant.
Until the forest trembled.
BOOM.
Lumian turned.
The last Awakened walked between the trees.
The one with the hammer.
His weapon was so large and heavy that a normal human would need both hands… and still wouldn't be able to lift it. But he swung it with insulting ease.
Every step made the air vibrate. Not because of the hammer's weight.
Because of the spiritual pressure surrounding him.
"Seems the others couldn't handle you," he said in a deep, amused voice. "Admirable."
Lumian growled, filling his lungs with dense, dangerous air.
The hammer wielder smiled.
"Come on, beast. Show me what you're made of."
The man charged without warning. He didn't run: he advanced like a train incapable of stopping. The ground cracked beneath each step, roots tore up, trees shook.
Lumian dodged the first hammer strike by a margin so small he felt the shockwave tear chunks of skin off him.
The crater left behind was three times larger than the one made by the Awakened with the Aspect.
Lumian moved to the side, trying to slip into his guard, but the man swung the hammer in a wide arc that forced Lumian to leap back.
BOOM.
Another crater. Rocks shattered into razor-sharp fragments.
Lumian lunged, trying to enter the hammer's blind spot where the weapon lost its advantage.
He succeeded.
But the man expected it too.
With a cruel smile, he lifted his knee and slammed it into Lumian's stomach at point-blank range. The impact was so brutal it expelled air and blood from his mouth.
Lumian staggered back.
"You're tough, beast. I like that."
The hammer rose again.
Lumian roared and charged again, zigzagging this time, using trees as cover. The sound of impacts chased him.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
Each strike destroyed another trunk. Each uprooted tree became shrapnel.
Lumian burst from the debris.
The hammer descended.
Lumian dodged.
The hammer rose again.
Lumian leapt onto his arm.
He held on.
For an instant, they were locked, strength against strength. The ground beneath them trembled as if it would collapse.
"Interesting…" the Awakened whispered, leaning closer, his face inches from Lumian's.
Then he twisted his wrist.
Lumian immediately let go.
The hammer fell.
This time, it didn't miss.
The impact was devastating.
The blow struck him directly in the torso.
Lumian didn't feel pain at first. Only a muffled sound, a dull hit that made his ribs vibrate.
Then came the internal explosion. The air was ripped out of him. His whole body folded around the hammer.
And then he was thrown backwards.
Not tossed.
He was pulverized backwards by sheer brute force.
He flew through trunks.
Splinters.
Branches.
Rock.
Another trunk…
Everything turned blurry, noise, darkness—nothing else distinguishable.
His body lost form as it flew, spinning uncontrollably, wrapped in dust and fragments of the forest.
Until finally—
CRASH.
Lumian's beastly body hit the ground, sprawled, barely conscious.
---
He tried to stand, but the movement triggered an internal spasm, as if something inside him shifted where it shouldn't. His vision blurred for a few seconds.
The Awakened with the hammer watched and laughed.
"You're an interesting monster. Strong. Intelligent. Dangerous." He inhaled, examining him like a damaged piece of art. "Your body will be useful. Yes… very useful. And your core… oh, your core will be the key to completing the first wall. The city will be safer, and you… well… you'll cease to exist."
Lumian clenched his four fists. His breathing grew slow, deep.
"I won't give him my core."
"I'll give him nothing."
The Awakened took another step and raised the hammer.
Then it happened.
The child came out of hiding.
Small.
Barefoot.
Just a trembling bundle in the dark.
He planted himself in front of Lumian as if his fragile body could stop a mountain-sized hammer.
Lumian's eyes widened in horror.
"No…"
The Awakened blinked, confused at first. Then his face twisted into absolute disgust.
"You control a child?" he spat, revolted. "What kind of parasitic abomination are you…?" He raised the weapon without hesitation. "Don't worry, little one. You'll be free from its control soon."
Lumian extended a hand, barely a centimeter, too slow, too late.
A shadow descended.
A single blow.
The world seemed to freeze.
The child fell.
Without making a sound.
Lumian stopped breathing.
Thoughts ceased to exist for an instant.
The Awakened looked at the tiny body and clicked his tongue.
"A shame. I suppose it had to be done. Now, beast… you're next. I need to kill you quickly before the others arrive for the ritual."
The hammer began to rise again.
Lumian lowered his head slowly.
A low, deep sound—impossible to confuse—began rising from deep within him: a growl that was neither animal nor human. It was something else. Something held in too long. Something that hurt.
His vision stopped shaking.
The pain vanished.
Not because his body healed, but because his mind simply stopped caring.
"He killed him."
Lumian felt a tearing fury erupt from the deepest part of his chest. Seeing the child die awakened something inside him.
He wondered why the boy's death affected him so much, but he no longer cared. At this point, he only wanted to kill the bastard.
Lumian summoned a memory.
The memory: [Funerary Punishment] —a necklace with a pendant manifested around his neck.
Lumian activated his Aspect: [Final Assault]
The explosion of adrenaline was so brutal that his wounds burned, his bones cracked, and his blood surged as if the world were about to explode. The fury amplified everything: strength, speed, instinct. A monster forged of rage and pain.
Lumian roared, a sound that echoed through the entire forest. Birds fled. Shadows vibrated.
The Awakened with the hammer raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? So you still had something left…" he smiled. "Come, beast. Show me your true face."
Lumian didn't wait.
He launched himself with such violence that the ground exploded beneath his feet. The air compressed around him. The Awakened barely had time to raise the hammer to block.
The clash made the earth crack.
"Tsk…" The man slid backward several meters, leaving a trench behind him. "Where did this strength come from…?"
Lumian didn't think. He didn't reason. He only attacked.
Fists like meteors.
Claws tearing armor.
Charges that broke entire trees.
The hammer wielder began defending with both arms, finally forced to get serious.
CLANG
CLANG
CRACK
The hammer clashed against Lumian's blows again and again, each impact sending vibrations through the nearby trunks.
"Damn beast!" the man snarled, retreating as dents formed in his armor. "I didn't know you could do this!"
Lumian advanced like a rabid animal, taking devastating blows without stopping. The hammer shattered ribs. Broke an arm. Tore chunks of skin.
Lumian roared louder.
It didn't matter.
Nothing mattered anymore.
Only killing him.
The Awakened finally stepped back several paces, breathing heavily.
"You're… incredible, beast. But this is where it ends."
He threw the hammer aside.
Lumian stared at him, animalistically confused.
The man raised his hand.
An axe appeared, summoned from a burst of electricity. The blade was wrapped in lightning that snaked along his arm into his body.
"So you survived my hammer. Let's see if you survive this."
His entire body filled with electricity, as if he were the core of a storm.
In an instant, he was gone.
He appeared before Lumian.
Too fast.
Too sudden.
Lumian saw only a flash.
A perfect arc. A shining line. A swift slash.
And then…
Everything went silent.
His vision rotated slowly. The ground spun.
The world flipped.
Because his head was no longer attached to his body.
---
The Last Will
Lumian, conscious for one final second, felt the abyss swallow him. Life slipped away from his mutilated body.
But before the darkness consumed him…
The amulet on his neck burned.
[Funerary Punishment — Activated]
A golden spark ran across his neck, down to the bloody stump.
And then…
The wound Lumian received
became the enemy's wound.
The enemy's wound
became his.
But since Lumian still had his head attached…
And the Awakened did not…
Reality reversed.
There was a flash.
And Lumian felt his neck again.
His body.
His breath.
He was whole.
The Awakened's head, however, dropped to the ground with a dull thud. His body, still charged with electricity, collapsed lifeless.
The Funerary Punishment amulet disintegrated into thousands of golden sparks that floated for a moment before fading.
Its purpose was fulfilled.
And Lumian was alive.
Lumian let out an euphoric victory roar upon defeating the Awakened.
"I avenged you, kid," he thought.
As he calmed down, Lumian collapsed onto the ground, exhausted. His enemies were dead, his opponent was dead, and he felt every wound and every pain filling every gram of his being.
"I'm tired," Lumian thought.
At that moment, the spell whispered:
[You have killed a human Awakened, name unknown]
[You have killed a human Awakened, name unknown]
[You have killed a human Awakened, name unknown]
[You have killed a human Awakened, name unknown]
[You have killed a human Awakened, name unknown]
[You have killed a human Awakened, name unknown]
[You have killed a human Awakened, name unknown]
[Awaken, Lumian. Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for your evaluation…]