Chapter Sixty-Eight: Movie Montage

  Adrenaline hit him hard, sharpening his senses. The first head lunged with terrifying speed, and Jace dodged, the air from its snapping jaws brushing past his throat. Too close. His sword clanged against another head, the impact vibrating up his arm, but there was no time to register the pain.

  The Hydra reared up, coiling itself for another strike. Without thinking, Jace triggered Soul Step. The world... flickered, faded. Colors bled into shadow, sounds vanished, and suddenly everything felt distant, thin, like a dream you could almost wake from but never quite did. He took a step. His foot brushed a leaf, but it didn’t move, just held in place as if suspended in time.

  He stood by a tree now, only a few feet away, and with a quick exhale, he returned to the real world. The noise rushed back in—a cacophony of snapping branches, the hiss of the Hydra, the pulse of his heartbeat loud in his ears.

  A glance at his Aether bar made him wince. Ten percent gone. Just like that. He hadn’t even stayed in the Other World long. Good to know—also terrifying.

  Soul Step, he thought again, vanishing just before the third head could tear into him. He reappeared behind the Hydra, driving his blade into its flank. The beast roared, all its heads snapping toward him in fury.

  Jace moved like a ghost, dodging and weaving, every movement calculated for survival. His breath came in ragged bursts, the forest around him a blur of chaos. Bind, he commanded, shadowy tendrils erupting from the ground, wrapping around the Hydra’s necks. For a heartbeat, it was restrained—before the creature shattered the binds with raw, terrifying power.

  Gritting his teeth, Jace struck again, severing one head with a fiery swipe, immediately searing the stump with his Shard. No new heads. Not yet.

  His muscles screamed, his vision blurred with sweat, but he kept fighting. Soul Walk, he whispered, merging with the Hydra’s aura. He could feel its rage, its pain—mirrors of his own turmoil twisting in the creature’s essence.

  One of the Hydra’s heads lunged at him, jaws snapping shut with a sickening clap. Jace barely sidestepped, firing a moonlight bolt in retaliation. The Hydra hissed in pain, but the wound healed as two new heads sprouted where the old one had been.

  “Fantastic,” Jace growled under his breath, desperation creeping into his movements. He darted around the Hydra, launching attacks, conjuring binds that barely held for more than a moment before the beast’s strength shattered them.

  He needed a new approach—fast. Channeling every scrap of energy he had left into the Moonstone Shard, he unleashed a concentrated blast, heating the moonlight to a searing brilliance. It struck the Hydra’s stumps, halting the growth of new heads—slower, this time. Progress.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  Fatigue clawed at him, his aether dangerously low. The Hydra’s relentless assault wore him down, pushing him to the brink. Soul Mend, he cast, healing his wounds as they reopened.

  Then, with horrifying speed, a head struck. Too fast. Jaws clamped down on his left arm, and with a sickening crunch, it was gone. The pain hit like a sledgehammer, sharp and overwhelming. Blood poured from the wound as Jace dropped to his knees, the world spinning around him.

  “Well... this sucks,” he gasped, the pain a cruel, constant reminder of just how bad things had gotten.

  Pain threaded through his every nerve, but hope flickered in the darkness. Small. Fragile. But alive. Jace seized it, clinging to that ember like a drowning man to driftwood.

  Jace ran through his Abilities in his mind. Shadow Cloak, no, too costly. Run, maybe? Soul Step away?

  Then the voice came again, sharper this time. More insistent. A thought, not quite his own but undeniably there, urging him.

  Breathe, Jason. Find the Bond. The connection. Use it.

  He took a shuddering breath, every inch of him screaming to stop. But stopping wasn’t an option. Not anymore.

  Summoning the last of his strength, Jace triggered Soul Sense, then Soul Tether—an invisible thread weaving him to the Hydra’s core. His breath caught. The creature’s essence rippled back toward him, a force of nature, ancient and seething. It wasn’t just raw power; it was rage, coiled and knotted in every sinew of its being.

  But the Hydra wasn’t invincible. Not anymore. It had already bled for this fight, and spent too much of itself. Still, it pushed back against him, resisting, as the other creatures had done. But this time—this time, Jace didn’t fight it.

  He sat still, letting the energy swirl around him like a storm. He didn’t push or force the connection. He simply listened. Letting his mind drift into the beast, he felt it in a way he hadn’t before, felt its hate, its endless hunger. But beneath that, deeper still—something more.

  It shifted.

  Jace focused, directing every last drop of his stamina into his Aether, converting it, feeding it to the connection, pouring himself into the Hydra’s essence. The creature recoiled, its vast form trembling for just a moment. That moment was all he needed.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He felt it then, at the core. A knot of darkness. Pure and simple. A kernel of hate, so old it had forgotten why it even existed.

  And then, the bond snapped into place. Partial. Imperfect. But it was there. The Hydra stumbled, the connection weakening its defenses for the first time.

  The world around him shuddered.

  Soul Tether — Partial Success

  You have established a limited connection to the Hydra.

  Partial access to abilities granted.

  Jace exhaled, a bitter grin spreading across his face. Partial was good enough. For now.

  Jace felt the surge of power as his hand began to regenerate, the Hydra’s life force intertwining with his own. It was like fire flowing through his veins, burning but healing at the same time. The Hydra’s formidable essence merged with him, its legendary healing factor now his to wield.

  Tether, one of the first abilities he’d learned back in the trials with Hades, shared the target’s healing between them. Jace had used it before, but never like this. The Hydra snarled, sensing the violation of its power, but Jace was unyielding. He flicked off Soul Bind and struck, then reactivated it immediately. The bond held firm, and for the first time, Jace had a real advantage.

  He allowed himself to take a hit, feeling the impact, then instantly triggered the bond, siphoning the Hydra’s healing abilities to mend his wounds. Then he’d cut the connection, strike again, and turn it back on. It was a delicate dance, a constant balancing act between offense and defense, with both his and the Hydra’s aether flowing in a dangerous loop. The beast could no longer sprout new heads—their power was split. But the drain on his aether was brutal, and Jace knew he couldn’t keep this up for long.

  Dodging the Hydra’s strikes, Jace practiced his footwork, moving with precision. His xiphos flashed in and out of the chaos, not as effective as his Soul Step, but good enough. With the tether active, every hit the Hydra landed on him rebounded on itself, a cruel feedback loop of damage. Jace would deactivate the tether just before striking, reactivating it to heal each wound.

  The Hydra roared in frustration, its injuries piling up, its movements becoming sluggish. Jace’s attacks grew more fluid, his strategy more refined. He focused on sword strikes, conserving every drop of aether for the constant toggling of Tether. Through Soul Sense, he could feel the Hydra’s aura, a rhythm he began to anticipate, allowing him to dodge its strikes before they even landed.

  But as his aether drained, his healing factor sputtered out. Every breath felt like fire in his throat, hoarse and raw, his body barely hanging on. Words were beyond him now. He had nothing left but instinct.

  The Hydra, now weakened, made one last sluggish lunge. Jace seized the moment, summoning the last of his strength. With a series of precise, brutal blows, he struck at the base of its chest. The creature’s roar tapered off into a weak hiss as its colossal form crumbled, disintegrating into motes of light.

  Jace collapsed to his knees, panting, his vision swimming. His body ached, but the battle was over. His left hand, now fully regenerated, flexed with newfound strength.

  The oppressive tension lifted, replaced by the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind. Jace allowed the Moonstone Shard to sink back into his skin, its once-bright glow fading now that the immediate threat was gone.

  In the days that followed, his life became a relentless cycle—the few classes he considered essential, then more combat training in Zone Two, and the constant grind for EXP.

  Jace felt like he was stuck in a hero’s montage, only this one didn’t have the triumphant music or the guarantee he’d make it out alive. But Jace was determined to grow stronger, to find his way in this crazy world, to go the distance.

  He continued spending his Society Points, bringing the Fields closer and closer to Silver. Things were looking up. Even Reginald was becoming somewhat useful.

  With the latest upgrade to Rank Five, Reginald gained three assistants: glowing white orbs of ghostly light. Not quite “alive,” but efficient. Together, they turned the underground crypt from a dungeon of doom into something more... homey. It had gone from Tales from the Crypt to Phantom of the Opera with a dash of old-world charm—cozy, in a creepy way. Like if Dorian Gray, Dracula, and Frankenstein had decided to become roommates.

  Every moment grinding his skills, then spending the EXP in his lab, felt like a step toward something greater, and soon enough, the promise of his Third Star loomed closer.

  It happened in the midst of an ordinary afternoon, the weight of progress creeping up on him as he worked, unnoticed at first. Jace stood in the alchemy lab, wiping sweat from his brow, his fingers stained with streaks of vibrant green and gold. The dimly lit space buzzed with the familiar scent of simmering herbs and the occasional burst of multicolored light from bubbling cauldrons. His focus was honed, his world reduced to the batch of Flavor Savor potions before him, still lacking that elusive final spark to push them from good to extraordinary.

  And then, everything changed.

  He leaned over the cauldron, watching as the thick, iridescent liquid swirled lazily, its scent a delicate mix of roasted almonds and honey. Close—but not enough. His hands moved almost on instinct, plucking a handful of sun-dried lavender petals from the rack beside him. Not too much. A pinch—just a touch.

  The petals hit the potion with a hiss, dissolving instantly into a cloud of shimmering mist. The liquid changed, deepening into a rich amber, and Jace felt the air around him shift. The air in the lab felt heavier, like the room itself had paused mid-breath, bracing for whatever came next.

  His heart raced.

  “Come on,” he muttered, stirring the potion slowly, eyes locked on the changing color. “Just one more nudge.”

  Suddenly, the cauldron glowed with a fierce inner light, as if ignited from within. A wave of energy washed over him, warm and sharp, tingling against his skin. The air hummed, alive with power. The potion bubbled once more, then went utterly still.

  And then—Ding!

  The sound wasn’t heard so much as felt, a deep reverberation that shook his bones, sending a ripple of awareness through his very soul. His vision blurred for a heartbeat as a flood of information surged into his mind. His rank—his essence—had shifted. The barrier he had been pushing against shattered in an instant.

  For a heartbeat, the room blurred, edges melting into a shimmering veil of silver and light. An ethereal glow seeped into the air, wrapping around him like a living pulse. Suddenly, he was lifted from the ground, his feet no longer tethered to reality. Shadows swirled like smoke, entwined with shafts of brilliant light, spinning in a delicate, chaotic dance around him. His body felt weightless, caught in the grip of something vast and unseen, as if the very fabric of the world was shifting, unlocking something deep within him. The glow intensified, radiating from his core, and he could feel it—a surge, like power awakening, shimmering in tandem with the light.

  When his feet touched the ground, everything had changed ever so subtly.

  His mind was sharpened, his senses expanded, and with them, his understanding of the delicate art of alchemy deepened. He could feel it. The essence of ingredients, their true nature, how each interacted within the cauldron—he saw it all now with a clarity that had eluded him before. The expected notification appeared.