Chapter 537: The Hunt Inside the Soul

Luke sprinted across the rooftops of the tutorial capital. Even knowing the place wasn’t real, a strange nostalgia clung to him. The city, the stone buildings, the moonlit roads… all of it was nothing more than an illusion shaped from his own soul. He had no idea how long he’d been inside that mental space, or whether time flowed properly here. So he tested things. The first discovery came fast, and it was the most obvious. His system menu wouldn’t open.

“I can’t track stamina, mana, or even see my damn HP bar,” he muttered.

Annoying, but not surprising. He hurled a knife at a nearby building.

[Witch’s Thread activated]

The blade struck stone, thread shot outward, and he swung himself forward, leaping across rooftops. Another knife, another thread, another arc through the air. At least his skills worked here. That alone was a blessing. He landed atop one of the tallest buildings in the capital, right at the center of the city. If the Spectral Beast had manifested somewhere inside his soul, it would choose a place that meant something to him. A memory. A scar. A moment that marked him.

He understood now what a Spectral Beast actually was. Not a monster, not a summoned creature, not something he forged… but an aberration. A life-devouring entity from a dimension at the edge of the multiverse. They could never enter the physical plane alone; they needed a host to corrupt, a vessel to take root inside. And when they succeeded, what emerged was a nightmare in the shape of a beast.

Luke had built a core to force open a dimensional breach. He had invited that thing in. Now he had one task left: dominate it.

“My options are the site of the third mechanism, the cave where I learned botany, or the castle.”

Three memories. Three anchors. Three likely lairs. The mechanism site was closest, so he headed there first. The place was empty. Still. A quiet ache settled in his chest. It reminded him of Allison. More than he expected. He glanced toward the castle, but when he turned his attention toward the distant direction of the cave, something brushed against him. A presence. A predator’s attention.

A beast… yes, that was the strongest tug.

He moved instantly, crossing streets and rooftops, until he reached the mouth of the cave. And froze. The whole interior was drenched in darkness. Not normal darkness, something heavier. Something alive. Shadows leaked out like smoke, swallowing the ground around the entrance.

Luke summoned his knives.

[Burst Throw activated]

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

Two blades shot into the cave like bullets. The explosions boomed loud enough to rattle dust from the trees. He hurled more knives, collapsing stone, smashing walls. The entrance crumbled under the barrage. A low, thunderous roar answered him.

Luke smiled. “So you really are in there.”

Darkness burst outward, flinging rubble across the forest. Something massive launched itself at him.

[Teleport Pentagram activated]

The world flickered. He reappeared above the cave with a perfect line of sight and immediately threw another knife at full power. The blade slammed into the swirling mass of black mist. Another impact followed. Then another. But the darkness only expanded. It swallowed the ground, the trees, the sky.

Luke sprinted between trunks as the shadows surged behind him. “What the hell, was it supposed to be this huge?”

Something rose from within the darkness. A towering column of black fog, blooming upward like a mushroom cloud after a nuclear blast. Dozens of pale eyes opened across its surface. All smiling. All silent. All wrong. It looked like a thousand grinning faces carved into smoke.

Is that the beast’s skill?

If so… then the real body was hidden deep inside that monstrous cloud.

The black cloud swept forward, devouring everything in its path. Luke stopped and raised both hands. Just as the cloud was about to crash into him, a powerful wind blasted outward from his body. It became a clash of sheer will. He pushed into the swirling darkness, dragging himself step by step as if something immense were yanking him backward. The cloud tightened around him. Faces twisted with rage surfaced within it, pouring out even more power.

Luke kept moving until he reached the cave entrance. Focusing every shred of strength, he unleashed a will stronger than the creature’s, forcing the entire mass of darkness to compress and surge into the cave. A roar thundered out. A streak of black lightning shot toward him, but it didn’t break through. His will shaped itself into a shield, and the blast scattered against it. The two forces kept testing each other, the monster’s power rising with every roar.

Each step felt like trying to push a mountain. The ground trembled. Reality cracked around the edges. He couldn’t see anymore; all he could do was focus on moving forward. Maybe a day passed. Or hours. He had no way of knowing. All he glimpsed was the silhouette of something formless and dark.

On his final step, his hands struck something solid. Something black, shrinking under the pressure. A roar of pain erupted. The Spectral Beast curled inward, struggling to flee, but it had no escape. With a shout, Luke threw everything he had into one last push. The darkness compressed, collapsing into itself until it became a single black sphere. Then, all the chaos went still.

He stared at the floating orb. A Spectral Beast core.

“I did it.”

He looked down at himself. Sweat. Pale skin. Hunger twisting in his stomach.

How long has it been?

The fight felt like it had just begun, yet also like it had lasted for days. Time made no sense here. From within the dark sphere, two white eyes and a glowing white mouth appeared, contorted in fury, then vanished. A black thread snaked out from his abdomen and connected to the core.

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[Your skill Wraith Form has been destroyed]

[A Second Core is being absorbed into your soul]

“I mastered it. The Spectral Beast is mine now.”

The core, still tethered by that black thread, was pulled straight into Luke’s body. Then laughter rippled through the air. Luke scanned the darkness, trying to pinpoint the source.

“You really thought it would be that easy?” a voice asked, disturbingly familiar.

Something descended from the dark sky. A creature with four wings and two glowing blue eyes.

“You thought I’d give up after all this time, demon?” It was… the Midnight King.

Is this real? How is this even possible?

“I’m very real,” the archangel said, wings beating. “And you should never have used my eye to forge that core.”

***

Angie stared at her interface, chewing on her lower lip. Her master had given her an order and a single piece of guidance: she alone would choose the evolution for her Valkyrie class.