The sun rose over the Southern Archipelago not with a gentle glow, but with a blinding, tropical heat that turned the lagoon's white sands into a shimmering furnace. Jeather lay there for a long time, listening to the rhythmic lap of the tide and the distant, melodic cries of paradise birds. For the first time in weeks, the constant hum of the Saltwind Academy's mana-conductors was gone, replaced by the raw, untamed frequency of the natural world.
But the silence was an illusion. In his mind, the Status Window was a storm of flickering icons and urgent red text.
[System Warning: Realm Stability at 79%.]
[Alert: Massive energy influx from 'Cold Storage Annex' is stressing the Void Fracture.]
[Incubation Progress: Kin Egg (Rift-Type) – 1.4%. Estimated time to hatch: 72 Hours.]
Jeather sat up, rubbing the grit from his eyes. Cora was already awake, standing at the edge of the treeline. She had traded her torn academy cloak for a simple tunic she'd scavenged from her spatial ring, her eyes fixed on the horizon where the sea met the sky in a seamless blue line.
"We can't stay here," she said without turning.
"The Chrono-Slide leaves a temporal wake. It's faint, but an Adjuster with a high-tier Chronos-Beast will track the ripples to this lagoon within six hours."
Jeather stood, feeling the ache in his muscles. His "Calculative" mind was already running permutations. "Six hours is enough to vanish. But we need a place where the mana density is high enough to mask the incubation of thirteen eggs. If that Kin Egg hatches in the open, the spatial spike will be like a flare in the dark."
Cora finally turned, her expression grim.
"There's an island three chains to the west. The locals call it The Choking Emerald. It's a jungle so dense with primal mana that electronic and mechanical sensors fail within a mile of the coast. It's dangerous—untamed Silver and Gold-tier predators—but it's the only place we can go where the Aethelgard satellites can't see us."
"A jungle of primal mana," Jeather mused. He looked at his hands, then inward at the [Abyssal Throne]. "Astrael is a Nature Evolved Demon. He'll be in his element there. Let's move."
As they began the trek across the shallow reefs toward the west, Jeather slipped his consciousness into the Beast Habitat Realm. The transition was jarring. Usually, the realm was a place of structured peace, but the massive intake of the Aethelgard vault had turned the [Cold Storage Annex] into a site of localized chaos.
The twelve experimental eggs were vibrating in their nutrient vats, their combined mana signatures clashing like discordant chords. In the [Void Fracture], the Mutated Rifthound was standing over the Kin Egg, its fur bristling. It let out a low, guttural growl as Jeather approached.
"It is hungry, Master," Astrael said, appearing from the shadows of the twisted, obsidian trees. "The Kin Egg is drawing mana not from the realm, but directly from the Rifthound. They are linked. If the hound weakens, the egg will stall."
"I can't let that happen," Jeather said. He looked at the [Iron Foundry], where Saxum was busy sorting through the mechanical scrap they had brought back.
"Saxum! I need you to build a stabilizer. Use the brass plates from the Behemoth and the core-shards the Otter found. We need to channel the excess mana from the other twelve eggs into the Rifthound's fracture."
Saxum stopped, his metal skin soot-stained. "Jett want me be... battery-man? I can do! I make big pipes! Mana go whoosh!"
"And the newcomers?" Velkaria asked, drifting down from the [Frost-Veined Spire]. Her sovereign aura was the only thing keeping the temperature in the center of the realm from skyrocketing due to the Foundry's heat.
"The Mercury Mimic is already trying to eat the Otter's shell collection, and the Singularity Jelly is making the gravity in the Tidepool... unpredictable."
Jeather sighed. "The Mimic and the Jelly are juveniles. They need boundaries. Velkaria, you and the Weaver take charge of the three newcomers. If the Mimic shifts, freeze it. If the Jelly pulls too hard, the Weaver ties it down. We're a faction now, not a petting zoo."
By midday, the lagoon was a memory. Jeather and Cora arrived at the coast of the Choking Emerald. The island didn't look like land; it looked like a wall of vertical green fire. The trees were hundreds of feet tall, their roots tangled into impenetrable fortresses that dipped into the surf. The air was thick, smelling of rot, sweet nectar, and raw power.
As they stepped onto the damp, mossy soil, Jeather felt a familiar ping.
[Environment Match: Primal Jungle.]
[Buff Active: Nature-Aligned Beasts gain +10% Recovery.]
[Debuff Active: Spatial Rifts (Rifthound) cost 20% more Mana due to thick atmospheric density.]
"Keep your guard up," Cora whispered. "The predators here don't just eat your flesh. They eat your mana."
They hadn't walked half a mile before the first resident introduced itself. From the canopy above, a Vine-Strangler Serpent dropped. It wasn't organic; its scales were made of hardened emerald bark, and its tongue flickered with green electricity.
Jeather didn't even reach for a card. He simply snapped his fingers.
Out of the shadows of his own cloak, the Ice Abyss Weaver manifested. In this humid environment, the Weaver's frost-mana reacted violently. As the serpent lunged, the Weaver fired a web that didn't just stick—it flash-froze the moisture in the air, creating a jagged bridge of ice that pinned the serpent to a tree trunk.
Jeather walked up to the struggling creature. His collection instinct tingled, but he shook his head. "Too common. We're looking for the heart of this place."
Deep in the interior of the island, they found it: an ancient stone plaza, half-swallowed by the roots of a tree that pulsed with a golden light. This was the Heart of the Emerald, a natural mana-well.
"Here," Jeather said. "The density here is high enough to hide a hundred hatching eggs."
But they weren't alone. Standing in the center of the plaza was a figure that shouldn't have been there. A tall, slender man in a white lab coat, looking completely out of place in the primal jungle. He was holding a tablet, calmly recording data as a Gold-tier Jungle King Gorilla sat submissively at his feet.
The man looked up, his glasses reflecting the golden light of the tree. He didn't look surprised. He looked disappointed.
"Jeather Vale," the man said, his voice smooth and devoid of emotion. "You've caused quite a bit of paperwork for the Aethelgard board. I am Dr. Aris, Head of the Incubation Division. And I believe you have some of my property."
Jeather felt his blood turn to ice. An Adjuster was one thing, but a Founder-level scientist was another level of threat entirely.
"Your property?" Jeather asked, his hand moving to the card that held the Basilisk. "I don't see your name on the souls of these beasts."
Dr. Aris smiled, a thin, clinical expression.
"Names are for individuals. We deal in blueprints. That Rifthound you're so fond of? Its DNA was mapped in my laboratory. The Kin Egg you stole? It's the second half of a binary weapon system. If you hatch it here, without our stabilizers, you won't get a beast. You'll get a localized black hole."
"He's lying," Cora hissed, her butterfly wings flapping frantically. "He's trying to stall for reinforcements!"
"Stalling is unnecessary," Aris said. He tapped his tablet. "I'm simply waiting for the synchronization."
Suddenly, the twelve eggs inside Jeather's [Cold Storage Annex] began to scream. Not a physical sound, but a psychic shriek that tore through Jeather's mind.
[System Warning: External Override Detected!]
[The Aethelgard Vault Eggs are acting as Mana-Siphons!]
[Stability dropping: 79%... 65%... 50%...]
"You didn't just steal eggs, Jeather," Aris said, stepping forward as the Gorilla stood up, its eyes glowing with the same mechanical yellow.
"You stole twelve Trojan horses. And now, I'm going to use your own Habitat Realm to dismantle you from the inside out."
Jeather went down on one knee, clutching his head. The internal stress was immense. If the stability hit 0%, the realm would collapse, expelling all his beasts into the physical world in a chaotic explosion of mana.
"Jett! Jett! The toys are hot! They hurting the walls!" Saxum cried out.
Jeather forced himself to breathe. He looked at Aris, then at the golden tree. His mind raced through the data. If Aris was using the eggs as siphons, there had to be a frequency. A link.
"Astrael!" Jeather roared in his mind. "The [Abyssal Throne]! I'm giving you full control of the Realm's core! Burn the siphons!"
"Master, if I do that, the experimental eggs will be destroyed," Astrael warned.
"Do it! I'd rather have a pile of ash than a Trojan horse!"
Inside the realm, Astrael stood. His nature-evolved demonic mana surged, turning from green to a scorched, infernal black. He plunged his hand into the floor of the throne room.
[Skill: Abyssal Purge Activated.]
The twelve experimental eggs didn't just stop screaming—they detonated. The nutrient vats shattered as Astrael's flames incinerated the artificial DNA within. The energy from the explosion was massive, but instead of letting it tear the realm apart, Jeather channeled it.
"Saxum! Transfer the Purge mana to the Kin Egg!"
Saxum, standing at his makeshift battery-station, grabbed the pipes. The raw, violent energy of twelve dying "Trojan horses" was funneled directly into the Void Fracture.
The Kin Egg didn't just pulse; it shattered.
A pillar of violet light erupted from Jeather's chest, blasting Dr. Aris and his Gorilla backward. The jungle itself seemed to bow as the spatial pressure doubled, then tripled.
Out of the light stepped a creature that looked like the Rifthound's shadow made flesh. It was sleeker, its fur made of literal starlight, with six eyes that saw through the dimensions.
[System Notification: Kin Egg Hatched!]
[New Beast Identified: Void-Sovereign Hound (Gold Tier).]
[Trait: Spatial Anchor. (Stability Restored to 95%).]
The new hound didn't growl. It simply looked at the Jungle King Gorilla, and the space around the primate's legs folded. The Gorilla let out a confused roar as it was suddenly teleported three hundred feet into the air.
Jeather stood up, his eyes glowing with a cold, violet fire. He looked at Dr. Aris, who was staring in genuine shock at his tablet, which was now showing "Error: Connection Lost."
"You talked about blueprints, Doctor," Jeather said, his voice echoing with the combined power of his roster. "But you forgot one thing about writers. We don't follow the script. We rewrite the ending."
Dr. Aris backed away, his calm facade finally crumbling. "This... this isn't according to the data. A Gold-tier hatchling from a siphoned purge? It should be dead!"
"It's not dead," Jeather said, stepping forward as Astrael and the two Hounds flanked him.
"It's hungry. And I think it wants to see what the 'Head of Incubation' tastes like."
The Choking Emerald shook with a roar that wasn't from a beast, but from the very soul of a man who had finally stopped running.