The civilians around Ryke clawed at their ears, some even collapsing to their knees, while some rammed their heads into the walls nearby, but everyone was shivering and muttering something incomprehensible .
The guttural roar from earlier hadn't simply scared them— no it had invaded them, their mind tearing it into the fragile seams.
But Ryke stood in the midst of this chaos..... strangely untouched.
As he saw this his stomach churned for sure— but other than that nothing. No madness like these people crawled to him, no craziness burrowed behind his eyes, if anything, the world felt… sharper to him... almost too sharp.
Just then, before Ryke barely had time to process, the air in front of him ruptured, and the pressure of it threw him and people around him everywhere.
Something slammed into the street with such force that the ground caved inward like soft clay. The impact blasted dust, shards of stone, and fractured pavement everywhere. Some unfortunate people became the victim— impaled and crushed by those stones and shrapnels.
Ryke also staggered back, shielding his face with both of his hands. Even though he was not that unlucky, he did not remain unscathed. Some shards and fractured pavements got him.
These tore his shirts and pierced his arm. The blood gushing out of his forearm as a major vein was cut.
"Arghh..." A pained muffle came out from his mouth.
His head slowly turned to the front while clenching his teeth, as he took out the pierced forearm slowly while holding it through the other hand with great pain. And when the haze began to settle… he saw it.
A creature from beyond the Wave.
Body made from twisted cylindrical segments. As trumpet-like limbs spiraling with holes form it. The membrane-bound joints refracted the light like diseased glass, while dozens of apertures pulsing across its hide.
Ryke's breath hitched when he saw the creature. His brain immediately screamed with familiarity and— terror....
'No way....no way...it's that thing.. but why is it in so early..'
He had fought this model in the game. Not in the early cycle, nor in the mid cycle.
It was a late-game nightmare— A raid-level entity.
A Nulith...
His mind spiralling into thoughts filled with terror.
'It shouldn't be here. Not now. Not like this... '
Even when he was in terror, time didn't stop. The Nulith in his front leaned close, as its many apertures turned toward him. It then exhaled, but what came was not pressure or anything per se.
But something more archaic.... Like the sound of forbidden.
"…verd-suul… taeshan… why…"
But Ryke, who heard it, blinked in confusion.
Because he understood it.
Not as a translation like in the game. But as a meaning.
The Nulith's apertures flared again with the same forbidden words.
"…Why does a Nulith.... of the Emotion Spectrum exist here… And.... why is it… so pathetically.....weak?" His broken words reached the ears of Ryke.
Ryke froze as he heard the Nulith speak.
His mouth opened without knowing why, as the understanding gnawed upon him, "I'm… a what?"
He— A Nulith. And even an Emotion-spectrum class.
But then his mind clicked all at once. He now understood the meaning of the Nulith in front of him.
The Nexus— the illusory core inside him. And the strange sensitivity he'd felt after aligning the threads.
And abilities to see the flames of the people's emotion, the power provided to him by the Nexus, he should have known it. As it was the basic ability of Nuliths of emotion spectrum.
And now that he knew, he realized how terrific it is.
Emotion-spectrum Nuliths weren't just rare. In the game, they were horror incarnates.
Terrifying, unstable, and concept-level beings whose weakest form rivaled the strongest Nuliths— entities that could twist entire areas out of their sanity.
Regular Nuliths were already a paradoxical monster born from the darkest edges of the Aeon.
They were being shaped by the collective fear. But they hunted the inverse of it for their evolution, stripping the inverse while giving the lives of the fear they were born.
But Emotion-spectrum Nuliths— they were different. They didn't consume fear.
They embodied it....Amplified it. While Weaponizing its meaning.
And the Nexus of such one had embedded inside him.
Again the Nulith loomed closer, its voice or similar scraping against the air.
"…This Wave is..... nothing. It....is... A veil.....distraction..... Me came.... for you. As Me sensed... you.... days ago."
Ryke's blood chilled as he heard it.
'Days ago?'
As his mind put together the timeline, he reached the only moment that would fit—
— the moment when he aligned with the threads of the old Ryke's memories. At the same time when he aligned with the Nexus.
He swallowed the saliva. "…So that night…"
The Nulith's apertures widened.
"…Your presence...Incomplete...Unformed.
But... Me knew.... unmistakably one of us."
Ryke's heart pounded. Thrill and terror tangling his existence. But a part of him—buried, and reckless—whispered...
'Hahaha..... So I am not just some background NPC anymore.'
But before he could speak, the Nulith shifted again.
Its body tensed, the segments cracked as the trumpet-like limbs spiraled more but closer.
As if it sensed something was approaching, something that even made this hideous before him cautious.
Then its apertures rotated toward the sky—just as a pressure slammed into the street behind Ryke like a meteor.
It was like a black shadow streak, landing in a crouch that cracked the pavement beneath.
'Oh my fucking!!again?? How many pavements will be destroyed today??' Ryke thought, momentarily forgetting the peril of his.
And just as the dust spiraled outward in a perfect circle, the silhouette of a man became visible from the cloud.
His figure was obviously tall and shoulders broad, while draped in a long coat that was flickering in the distorted winds.
A curved greatsword slung across his back, glowing faintly with a quiet and murderous pulse.
This person was none other than Ashhart.
The same laid back person conversing with Marshal Vaerin at the northern border a while back, and—
— And the strongest Weaver currently present in the Varinholt.
But for Ryke, who could see unique flames around people, his presence didn't feel human. It felt like a blade was given flesh.
Ryke heard the whisper from everyone in the city, and the theories about him— a mercenary, a runaway noble and a cursed survivor... but almost no one knew the truth except Grand Marshal and the HavenLord.....And he himself.
The "lone independent Weaver" identity was his persona but it was also a mask..A mere convenient lie.
Ashhart postures himself between Ryke and the Nulith, his head slightly lowered. Though the oppressive aura rolling from him didn't flare violently like before... Instead it sharpened, compressed into a murderous calm, solely targeting the Nulith.
Then he spoke without looking back.
"Kid..... Move."
Though Ryke didn't move instantly. That was not the same for Nulith— its apertures pulsed.
"…Harbinger-class Weaver… intriguing. But irrelevant." It said in the same forbidden words, meaningless to anyone but Ryke, due to the Nexus inside of him.
Ashhart lifted his head slightly, his eyes glinting in a muted silver. With no fear...no hesitation and not even a tiny speck of emotion.
He then muttered, "Harbinger Class..... What's that?"
It was just two simple words, though it made Ryke behind him surprised absolutely.
"Y..you understand, what is it saying?" Ryke spoke while stuttering.
Ashhart turned his head at him, his emotionless silver eye focused briefly on him before returning to the Nulith in front.
"Not quite, but I can understand anything and everything that directed at me." Ashhart said. "It is one of my perks."
The Nulith seeing this growled again.
"Aesh'laan... theru... vhal-ren… tol-suun suul'vherd.... shai'aor.... fal-kaar."
"Stronger.... distracted... Presence..." Asshart muttered again, before laughing out loudly as he understood the intent.
"Pfft..haha…haha…..hahaha…"
After a couple seconds, his laugh slowly receded, "Hahaha....haha.."
Ashhart looked at the Nulith, a knowing smile stretched across his face, "Ohh.. you are insulted because I got distracted in your presence."
Then suddenly his entire laid back posture vanished, and his presence sharpened again, "You himself said I am stronger, so... Why the hell would I care about you— A mere creature beneath me."
Asshart waited for a brief second before continuing again..
"But as you are getting impatient, let me free you from this your...." he scanned it for a second, "accident rather than the evolution of yours."
"Come at me with everything, you got." The voice of Ashhart filled with absolute confidence echoed all around the destroyed environment.