After waking Ayden up and ensuring his physical state was stable, the atmosphere among the Prodigies remained tense. Tae was lowkey pissed off—not just from the sheer fatigue of maintaining a multi-universal shield all morning, but because the sanctuary had come far too close to absolute ruin.
Without saying a word, Tae turned on his heel and headed inside. The rest of the brothers followed silently, making their way down into the subterranean levels of the compound until they reached the High-Technology Meeting Room.
The room was massive—a sleek, pristine hub of polished obsidian glass walls, holographic projectors, and hyper-advanced tactical interfaces powered directly by the compound's clean-mana grid. As the heavy blast doors sealed shut behind them, the brothers settled around the central obsidian roundtable.
Tae stood at the head of the table, resting his hands on the sleek surface, his golden eyes cold and focused.
"Alright," Tae began, his voice cutting cleanly through the quiet hum of the room. "Joseph, Diego. Start from the beginning. Explain who Karai is, where she came from, and why her energy felt like a literal extinction event."
The Origin of the Second Calamity
Joseph stepped forward, adjusting his glasses as his Ocular Logic Grid flickered, syncing his mind to the room's main holographic display. A massive, spinning blueprint of a corrupted, dying multiverse materialized above the center of the table.
"Karai isn't just a powerful threat," Joseph explained, his tone strictly analytical. "She's a living anomaly. Countless eras ago, in a deep sector of the outer multiverses, an entire cluster of universes underwent a catastrophic collapse. Instead of dissolving into null-space, the decaying matter, dark magic, and dying soul-signatures of billions of worlds condensed down into a single point of origin."
Diego leaned against his chair, twirling a translucent amber soul-arrow between his fingers as he added his perspective.
"Out of that dark singularity, Karai was born," Diego said grimly. "She is the physical manifestation of a dead multiverse's last breath. That's why her aura feels so sickening. She doesn't just use dark energy—she carries the phantom weight of trillions of dead stars inside her. That's how she rose to the No. 3 spot right below the Prime Clone and the Walker."
"A living graveyard," Ethan muttered, crossing his arms as his dark eyes locked onto the hologram. "No wonder my atomic vision couldn't find a normal molecular structure on her. She's held together by pure void-binding magic."
Logos System Diagnostics
Tae tapped his temple, addressing the divine consciousness bound to his soul. "Logos. Run a full combat and threat analysis on Karai. Output audio for the room."
A smooth, synthesized, ethereal voice instantly echoed throughout the high-tech chamber, emanating directly from Tae's glowing golden pupils as a detailed schematic of Karai's scythe and magical reserves projected onto the table:
[LOGOS SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[SUBJECT: KARAI – CALAMITY INDEX: RANK 3]
"Analysis complete. Target possesses a specialized magic classification designated as 'Null-Void Decay.' Her primary weapon—the Void Scythe—is imbued with condensed multiversal rot capable of severing high-level spatial tethers, temporal locks, and structural divine armor.
"Furthermore, target utilizes an ancient stealth passive known as 'Ethereal Coating,' which allows her to mask her dimensional footprint from external radars, including high-tier ocular prediction systems. Her combat style blends hyper-agile martial forms with sudden spatial phase-shifting. Caution is advised: direct physical contact with her scythe risks permanent soul-degradation unless countered by high-grade divine essence or immediate temporal reversal."
"Great," Marcos sighed, resting his chin in his hands. "So she's fast, invisible to tracking, cuts through space, and carries a scythe that rots your soul. Just an everyday Tuesday for us."
"And she cocky as hell," Jax added, his solar aura humming faintly. "She was treating all of us like a warm-up drill."
The Anomaly of the Walker
Tae waved his hand, clearing Karai's file from the hologram, replacing it with an enigmatic, shadowy silhouette.
"Karai is one problem," Tae said, leaning forward on the table. "But there's something else that doesn't add up. The Walker."
The room fell quiet. The brothers exchanged confused glances.
"Think about it," Tae continued, his golden eyes narrowing. "We all know how the Walker operates. He's usually charismatic, extremely cocky, arrogant as hell, and loves talking down to everyone in that smooth British accent of his. Every time he shows up, he makes a whole theatrical production out of it."
"Yeah," Kd chimed in, leaning back in his leather chair and puffing a cloud of cigarette smoke toward the ceiling. "He usually stands there smiling, tossing out clever insults, acting like he owns the entire dimension."
"Exactly," Tae said sharply. "But today? He pulled up out of nowhere, didn't say a single word, shot a beam of pure void-annihilation straight into Karai's back, stood alongside us in silence, and then dipped the second she vanished. No jokes. No charismatic speeches. Nothing."
Tae tapped his temple again, projecting a series of hidden, ancient files from his Logos Vision directly into the air.
"I think the Walker and Karai have a past," Tae stated flatly. "A deep one. He didn't come to save us—he came because she was here. Whatever history they have, it's personal."
"That's terrifying," Rashad noted, pulling up his tactical HUD to cross-reference energy signatures. "If the two strongest entities below the Prime Clone have personal history, this entire sector is sitting on a powder keg."
The Confrontation: Tae vs. Ayden
Tae closed the projected files, his eyes slowly shifting across the table until they landed dead on Ayden.
Ayden was sitting quietly, his arms folded, staring blankly down at the obsidian glass table. The backpack Rashad had used to neutralize his chaotic mana was resting on the floor beside him.
Tae's jaw clenched. The frustration he had been holding back since the morning finally boiled over.
"Ayden," Tae said, his voice dropping into a dangerously stern tone. "What happened out there?"
Ayden didn't look up. He stayed dead silent, shifting slightly in his seat.
Tae slammed both palms onto the table with a loud CRACK that echoed like thunder through the high-tech room.
"AYDEN. ANSWER ME." Tae barked, his golden eyes flaring with raw divine pressure.
Ayden let out a heavy, tired breath, still refusing to meet Tae's gaze. "It's nothing, Tae. Drop it."
"Drop it?!" Tae shouted, stepping out from the head of the table. "YOU LET HER GET INSIDE YOUR HEAD WITH A FEW WORDS! YOU COMPROMISED US! YOU COMPROMISED THE ENTIRE OPERATION! AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, YOU COMPROMISED THE KIDS SLEEPING IN THAT ORPHANAGE!"
Ayden's head snapped up, his own eyes flashing with cosmic violet sparks as he stood up from his chair, matching Tae's posture. "You don't understand, Tae! You weren't the one who had every single bone in your arm pulverized by the Clone! You don't know what it felt like when she grabbed that exact spot and brought all of it back at once!"
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR EXCUSES!" Tae snapped back, stepping right into Ayden's face. "We are the Prodigies! We are the line of defense for this entire universe! When an enemy steps foot on our ground, you lock that trauma down and you kill them! You went completely rabid, fought your own brothers, and forced Kd to waste his energy putting you down while a calamity was standing in our front yard!"
"I SAID YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!" Ayden roared, shoving Tae back by his shoulders!
Tae didn't hesitate—he caught himself, pivoted, and swung a heavy left hook right toward Ayden's jaw! Ayden slipped it using his Philly Shell stance, throwing a rapid body shot that slammed into Tae's golden barrier!
The high-tech meeting room instantly descended into chaos as the two brothers began actually throwing hands right across the conference table!
"Hey! Woah! Break it up!" Rashad yelled, reaching for his tactical gear.
Before Ethan, Marcos, or Diego could even step between them, a dark, suffocating wave of Pandemonium Chaos Energy flooded the room.
BANG!
Kd slammed his drawn Katana into the center of the obsidian roundtable, shattering the reinforced glass down the middle. Crimson lightning violently arced across the walls as Kd's terrifying monarch aura pinned both Tae and Ayden in place.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Kd growled, his voice carrying a dark, demonic echo that rattled the high-tech steel beams above.
Tae and Ayden froze, both panting, their eyes locked on each other, but neither moved another inch under Kd's overwhelming pressure.
Kd slowly unsheathed his katana, his crimson eyes glowing through the dark smoke. "We are not doing this today. Tae, pull your head out of your ass—Ayden hit his breaking point, and yelling at him isn't fixing the breach. Ayden, lock your mind back in. You dropped the ball, now pick it back up. We have work to do."
Tae wiped his lip, taking a step back and straightening his jacket. Ayden gritted his teeth, sitting back down in his chair and crossing his arms without another word.
The Target Locked
With the argument forcefully silenced, Joseph stepped back up to the damaged console, sliding his fingers across the holographic interface.
"Kd's right," Joseph said calmly. "We need to prioritize. Karai masked her spatial frequency with void coating, making her impossible to track right now. But the Walker didn't mask his."
Joseph tapped a command, and the hologram shifted, zooming out from their local sector to display a massive dimensional coordinate map. A bright blue beacon began pulsing steadily in a distant, neutral rift dimension known as The Glass Sanctuary.
"I just pinged his energy signature," Joseph announced. "The Walker is currently resting in Sector 7-G. If we want answers about who Karai is, how she bypasses our barriers, and what their connection is... he's our only solid lead."
Tae took a deep breath, setting his focus back to 100%. "Alright. Everyone heal up, gear up, and prep for dimensional deployment."
The room immediately sprang into action:
Tae closed his eyes, his Divine Buddha Essence washing over his body to completely purge the remaining physical stress and mana fatigue from his multi-universal shield.
Kd channeled his Pandemonium Vitality, instantly closing the bruises from his fight with Ayden while re-wrapping the silk grip of his cold steel katana.
Ayden sat silently, calling upon his Galactic Time-Reversal to fully restore his physical reserves and clear his mental fatigue, resetting his condition back to peak fighting shape.
Joseph, Ethan, Diego, Marcos, Jax, and Rashad checked their respective gear, locking down their eye powers, recalibrating their weapons, and strapping on their high-tech tactical gear.
Within ten minutes, all nine Prodigies stood side-by-side in the center of the deployment hall—healed, fully re-energized, armed to the teeth, and locked in with absolute lethal focus.
Tae looked across his brothers, his golden eyes burning bright.
"Alright boys," Tae said, drawing his Logos Katana halfway. "Let's go find the Walker."
With the dimensional coordinates locked into Joseph's system, the Prodigies prepared for transport. None of them needed fancy portals or dimensional ships—at their level, moving across the multiversal canvas was a matter of pure conceptual shift. They could all technically travel at the speed of thought, but every brother had their own signature element they preferred to ride.
"Alright," Joseph said, adjusting his glasses as his Ocular Logic Grid computed the optimal dimensional vector. "Following this path takes us directly into the void rifts of Sector 7-G. Stay on my stream."
In an instant, the team initiated their movement:
Tae dissolved his physical form entirely, converting his body into weightless, divine light that pierced straight through the dimensional fabric.
Kd smirked, his body collapsing into a roaring column of pitch-black, chaos-infused lightning that crackled and ripped open space with a deafening thunderclap.
Ethan unraveled his physical mass into a swirling stream of sentient Dark Matter, expanding and gliding effortlessly through the sub-atomic voids.
Jax flared into a blinding beam of condensed solar photon radiation, riding a localized sunbeam that blasted through the rift like a solar flare.
Joseph took to the sky under his own gravitonic flight, his grey ocular grid mapping the geometry of the route in real-time.
Meanwhile, on the ground level of the rift, Ayden, Rashad, Diego, and Marcos surged forward on foot. Ayden warped space around himself to move at the absolute speed of thought, while Rashad ignited his tactical clean-mana thrusters, running side-by-side with Diego and Marcos, who channeled their kinetic momentum to match the insane pace.
Even while transformed into raw elemental concepts, their voice tethers remained linked across the void.
"Look at all of you," Ayden chuckled over the psychic link, his starry form effortlessly skipping across dimensional folds. "Converting into light, lightning, and dark matter just to travel? Y'all are lazy as hell! Just run!"
"Shut up, Ayden," Kd's voice rumbled out of the black lightning stream. "Some of us like traveling in style. Besides, your 'speed of thought' still had you getting caught by my kicks earlier."
"That was a tactical withdrawal, big guy!" Ayden shot back.
"Focus up, everyone," Tae's voice echoed like a ringing bell from the weightless light stream. "We're approaching the Glass Sanctuary."
The Glass Sanctuary & The Ambush
The rift split open, and the nine Prodigies coalesced back into their physical forms simultaneously.
They materialized inside The Glass Sanctuary—a desolate, forgotten dimension constructed entirely of floating, crystalline mirrors that reflected dead star systems. In the center of a massive, cracked quartz amphitheater sat a solitary, high-backed obsidian throne.
Sitting casually on the throne was The Walker.
He looked relaxed, leaning his head on his hand, but the subtle, unnatural tremor in his aura gave him away. Before he could even lift a finger or utter a single word—
PHASE.
Tae materialized directly in front of him.
Tae hadn't just moved fast; he had light-phased into the Walker's immediate personal space. The pristine edge of Tae's Logos Katana was resting dead against the Walker's throat, pressing lightly enough to cut a microscopic line into his skin. Tae's lotus eyes burned with lethal, unyielding coldness. He was not playing around.
In the exact same microsecond, the rest of the brothers formed a terrifying, menaced circle around the throne:
Kd stood on his left, his icy star katana drawn, black lightning snaking up his arms.
Joseph hovered directly above, his Ocular Logic Grid spinning in overdrive, locking the Walker's temporal coordinates so he couldn't phase out.
Ethan lowered his hands, dark matter clouds swirling at his fingertips ready to dismantle the Walker's atomic structure.
Diego had his translucent amber bow pulled to full draw, a soul-locked arrow pointed straight between the Walker's eyes.
Marcos, Jax, Rashad, and Ayden locked down every remaining line of sight.
The Walker blinked, looking down at the cold steel against his throat, then slowly raised his eyes to scan the bloodthirsty line of brothers surrounding him.
A slow, familiar smirk spread across his face, and when he spoke, his classic, smooth British accent returned—though there was a faint, jagged edge to his tone that wasn't there before.
"Well, well..." the Walker drawled softly, leaning back into his throne despite the blade at his neck. "If it isn't the Director and his lovely little brigade of gods. You know, Tae... a normal greeting usually involves a handshake or perhaps a polite inquiry about one's health. Not a piece of cold steel pressed against my jugular."
"Shut your mouth, Walker," Tae said, his voice flat and dangerous, not budging the blade an inch. "You're going to answer our questions. And if you give us even a fraction of a lie, I won't hesitate to take your head."
The Walker sighed, raising his hands in a mock gesture of surrender. "Alright, alright. Put the sword away, mate. I'm complying. I have no interest in fighting all nine of you today—especially not when my hands are already full."
The History of Two Calamities
Tae slightly eased the pressure of the blade, but kept it hovering an inch from the Walker's neck. "Start talking. What is your connection to Karai? And why did you pull up to our compound acting like a silent ghost?"
The Walker's charismatic smirk faded slightly, replaced by a rare, solemn expression. He looked down at his own gloved hands, which were faintly trembling with a subtle dark void resonance.
"Karai and I go back centuries," the Walker began, his British cadence measured and heavy. "Long before the Prime Clone ever attempted his crusade. As you know, Karai was born from the carcass of a dying multiverse. But what you don't know is that when she first emerged into the outer void... I was the one who fought her."
The brothers listened intently, their ocular abilities scanning the Walker's heartbeat and soul lines to verify his truthfulness.
"She was wild, hungry, and unrefined back then," the Walker continued. "We clashed across three empty dimensions. It wasn't a war of hatred—it was a war of absolute dominance. I managed to defeat her back then, driving her back into the deep outer sectors. But in doing so... I made a fatal mistake. During our final clash, her Void Scythe nicked my core. She left behind a trace of her Null-Void Decay deep inside my essence."
The Walker pulled back his high collar slightly, revealing a jagged, obsidian scar pulsing faintly near his neck—the same dark, rotting frequency they had felt from Karai earlier.
"For centuries, I've had to suppress that decay," the Walker admitted, a dry, bitter laugh escaping his lips. "It's why I've been acting... off. Why I was quiet when I showed up at your yard today. The moment Karai stepped into your universe, the decay inside me began to resonate. I didn't come to your compound to help you, Tae. I came because if she devoured your universe and absorbed your power, the decay inside me would have fully ignited and erased me from existence. I attacked her to protect my own skin."
The room fell into a heavy silence.
Tae glared down at the Walker, his divine golden eyes reflecting the truth in his words.
"The last time I saw you," Tae said coldly, his voice echoing in the crystalline amphitheater, "was when you helped us seal the Prime Clone inside Joseph. When that war ended, you vanished. I knew where you were... but I didn't come back to hunt you down and kill you as a courtesy for your help against the Clone. I let you live, Walker."
"And I am deeply, incredibly grateful for your restraint, Director," the Walker replied smoothly, inclining his head. "Truly. Which brings me to why we are all standing here."
The Walker leaned forward, looking past Tae's blade to address the entire group—Kd, Joseph, Ayden, Ethan, Diego, Marcos, Jax, and Rashad.
"Karai is stronger than she was centuries ago," the Walker stated flatly. "She has spent the last few eras devouring entire realities in secret. Her 'Ethereal Coating' kept both Joseph's radars and my own senses blind until it was almost too late. Right now... none of us can defeat her alone. Not me in my suppressed state, and not even you, Tae, while you're busy protecting the infinite multiverses from collateral damage."
The Walker stood up slowly from his throne, stepping right up to the edge of Tae's katana.
"I am proposing a formal alliance."
The brothers' eyes widened slightly.
"An alliance?" Kd scoffed, his black lightning flaring. "With you? We barely trusted you during the Clone War."
"You don't have to trust me, Demon King," the Walker purred, his eyes flashing with a sharp, tactical glint. "You just have to recognize mutual survival. Karai wants to devour this entire universe. She wants your Pandemonium Realm, Tae's Buddha Essence, and the souls of every child in your orphanage. I want her gone so I can purge this rotting decay from my chest once and for all."
The Walker held out his hand toward Tae, his British accent smooth as glass.
"My knowledge of her ancient magic, my void abilities, and my tracking experience... combined with the absolute, terrifying might of the nine Prodigies. We team up, we hunt her down, and we put the Rank 3 Calamity in the ground forever. What do you say, Director?"
Tae stared into the Walker's eyes for a long, suffocating moment. The blade of his Logos Katana didn't tremble by a single millimeter.
Behind him, Joseph stepped up, his grey ocular grid humming soft blue lines as he analyzed the Walker's internal decay mark. "Tae... as much as I despise his existence, his assessment is logically sound. Karai's void coating makes her invisible to standard dimensional tracking. His internal mark acts as a physical tuning fork to her energy signature. We need him to pinpoint her exact location before she strikes again."
Kd took a slow drag of his cigarette, blowing a cloud of dark chaos smoke into the cold air. "Yeah. We don't like it, but working with this snake beats letting that bitch sneak back into our yard and touch the kids."
Diego, Ethan, and Rashad nodded in silent agreement.
Tae closed his eyes, taking a heavy, measured breath. Slowly, he lowered the edge of his blade from the Walker's neck, sheathing his Logos Katana with a sharp, heavy CLICK that echoed across the Glass Sanctuary.
"Fine," Tae said, his voice dropping into a tone so terrifyingly cold that even the crystalline mirrors around them began to crack under the pressure.
Tae stepped closer, pressing his face inches from the Walker, his golden, multi-pupiled eyes flaring with pure divine wrath.
"Reluctantly... I agree. But know this, fool—if you betray us, if you step out of line, or if you put a single one of my brothers or those kids in the orphanage in danger... I won't hesitate to decapitate you right where you stand."
Tae reached out, grabbing the Walker by his high collar, pulling him down until their eyes were locked.
"You think Karai marked you? You think that little patch of rot on your chest is suffering? If you cross us, Walker, I will personally tear your soul apart piece by piece. You will wish she had marked you a billion times over before I'm done with you."
The Walker's signature charismatic smirk faltered slightly. The sheer, oppressive weight of Tae's threat wasn't a bluff—it was a absolute promise. He slowly nodded his head, his British accent stripped of its usual bravado.
"Understood, Director. Crystal clear."
Without another word, Tae reached out into the empty space in front of him. His hand physically gripped the fabric of reality itself, his knuckles turning white as he violently tore open a massive, glowing golden dimensional rift right through the air!
"Move," Tae commanded.
The nine Prodigies and the Walker stepped through the rift, instant-teleporting back to the high-tech subterranean hub beneath the orphanage. The spatial tear sealed behind them with a heavy thud.
As the group spread out across the high-tech meeting room, Tae leaned against the shattered obsidian roundtable, his golden eyes fixing straight onto the Walker.
"Alright, Walker," Tae ordered, crossing his arms. "Start talking about this mark. You said Karai left a piece of her Null-Void Decay inside your chest during your fight centuries ago. Explain how that seal actually works, how it's affecting your power, and how we use it to track her down before she comes back for the Prime Sector."