Chapter 63: Mythic X Mythic

The Ruins didn’t get any less strange the deeper they went, passages branching and doubling back on themselves in ways that made Logan increasingly grateful for whatever internal compass his Mothership carried.

Billy scouted ahead on foot, wheel humming low against the stone, while Solveig kept pace a few steps back with two of his split knights flanking him on either side. Duskross rode point overhead, ship form drifting slow through the wider passage ceiling, sensor-lights along its spine sweeping steady arcs through the dark.

They found the next real resistance about twenty minutes in, a nest of something that clung to the ceiling in clusters, wings folded tight against segmented bodies until the first of Duskross’s sensor sweeps woke the whole colony at once.

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[ Voidwing Harriers x8 ]

Level: 40 | Tier-4 | Epic

```

Duskross peeled off from the ceiling the instant they dropped, ship form already banking hard into the first wave.

Starfall Cannon!

A beam of collapsed starlight tore through the lead Harrier clean, and the creature simply ceased to exist in the middle of its own dive, its momentum carrying nothing but scattered ash the rest of the way down.

Three more scattered wide to avoid the follow-up shot, and Duskross shifted mid-flight instead of chasing them down in ship form.

Form Switch!

The hull folded and reshaped in the space of a single heartbeat, humanoid form landing hard on a ledge jutting from the passage wall, wings already flaring out from its back as blades instead of feathers.

Blade Wing Sweep!

Both wings swept out in a wide arc, and two of the three Harriers came apart mid-air, wings and bodies both, the third barely peeling off in time to avoid the same fate.

Gravity Well Anchor!

A field of distorted space bloomed out from Duskross’s position, and the last Harrier’s wings simply stopped working the way they were supposed to, dragged down and pinned against the passage floor before it could recover.

Down on the passage floor, Billy and Solveig had their own problem to deal with, a trio of heavier things that had come crawling out from a side passage the second the Harriers started dying overhead.

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[ Ruin Bulwarks x3 ]

Level: 40 | Tier-4 | Epic

```

Void Fracture!

Billy’s blades tore straight through the lead Bulwark’s armored plating like it wasn’t even there, the fracture spreading a crack through the whole front half of its body before it even registered being hit.

Astralwind Manipulation!

Solveig channeled it straight into his next swing, and the greatsword came down faster and sharper than it had any right to, cutting clean through the second Bulwark’s raised guard and the creature underneath it in the same motion.

Gravity Rim!

Billy’s wheel pulled the last Bulwark in against its own will, dragging it straight into a follow-up strike it never had the footing to properly brace against.

With both groups clear, the same telltale pattern of light bloomed against the passage wall a short distance ahead, gold lines tracing themselves into a shape before the storage slab beneath it ground open.

This one held something different from the usual scatter of materials. A single object sat alone in the compartment, a thin band of dark metal that looked more like jewelry than equipment.

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[ Gale-Reach Sigil (Relic, Rare) ]

Grants a 1% Attack boost for every meter traveled before a hit connects. Applies to all allies within a 1-kilometer radius.

```

Logan turned it over once, already running the math in his head. Every meter closed before a strike landed meant more damage behind it, and that applied to every single ally standing anywhere near him. Reaper’s Stride alone could turn this into something absurd.

He slid it onto his wrist without hesitation.

```

[ Gale-Reach Sigil equipped. ]

```

Back aboard the Mothership, Synthia had already spread the haul from the Stalker cache across her workbench, sorting through Tier-4 materials with the same quiet focus she brought to everything.

’This vein of crystal pairs well with the resin.’ She turned a shard over in the light, runes drifting slowly across her own skin as she worked through the possibilities. ’A ring, maybe. Something for close support.’

Anvil’s Awakening!

Three of her smaller tools stirred to life on the bench beside her, tiny constructs of wire and metal that immediately set to work sorting and prepping materials faster than her own two hands could have managed alone.

She worked the crystal down to a fine setting while her helpers kept pace beside her, grinding resin into paste, sorting ore by purity, laying each component out in the exact order she’d need it.

By the time the ring finally cooled, it carried a faint pulse of its own, dark metal banded with a thin vein of the crystal she’d started with.

```

[ Ember-Bound Signet (Legendary) ]

Grants a passive HP regeneration aura to all allies within 100 meters.

```

Synthia held it up to the light, the same quiet satisfaction she always carried settling a little deeper into her expression. Another piece finished, another small edge added to whatever came next.

Back in the Ruins, Logan looked at the passage stretching on ahead of them, deeper and darker than anything they’d cleared so far.

’Let’s keep going.’

...

Three hours passed by before Logan came out of some other side of the ruins.

’There was no boss. I guess the bosses will be at the real nasty place of this game. The hive. Good thing I got three relics. Now I can afford to dive in there with some more confidence.’

Total Tower Points earned: 12,300

Total Eliminations of Players: 12

Tower Relics earned: 3 ( 1 Rare, 1 Epic, 1 Legendary )

Logan reached level 40, and his class reached level 24.

Level 20 class skill selection wasn’t saved.

He already picked an active skill called Grim Devouring Slash. A very unique skill.

[ Grim Devouring Slash ]

Cost: 250 Mana.

Effect:

—> An ethereal slash that passes through everything, and everything it passes through is reduced by 50%, as in, their size, speed, range, power, everything lowers to 50% of their original parameters.

"Alright, folks. Gather up." Logan stopped before the summoning circle.

[ -1000 Tower Points. Mothership upgraded to level 2. Size: 250 meters —> 500 meters. ]

The ship doubled in size.

[ -1000 Tower Points. Summoning Circle upgraded to level 2. ]

"What’s the party about? I can feel deja vu when I look at your eyes, boss." Billy rolled around Logan. "Shit! I know!"

Logan laughed. "Good boy. We are going to do something awesome."

"For starters, I think you know who you pair with perfectly, right?" Logan grinned.

Billy looked at Duskross.

Duskross looked at Billy.

Duskross tilted his head, confused. "I don’t understand."

"Ye fool! We bout’ to be merged! Time to evolve." Billy grinned.

"Oh."

"Milord, Billy was watching TV." Solveig sighs. "And he’s been imitating different ones of those people ever since."

"Ye fool! You should do that, too!"

"No."

Synthia chuckled. "Ye fools."

Logan smiled and, without further ado, he accessed his talent.

[Merge Initiating. Max Potential igniting for Mythic x Mythic merge.]

’Oh, this is something new.’ Logan’s eyes glimmered. ’I did wonder what the result of Mythic x Mythic would be. Looks like there’s something special in store.’

’Oh, this is something new.’ Logan’s eyes glimmered. He’d wondered what a Mythic-on-Mythic merge would actually produce. Looked like there was something special waiting on the other side of it.

Light didn’t just gather this time. It folded in on itself, Billy’s own shape and Duskross’s both dissolving into the same point of gravity before anything actually reformed.

When it finally let go, something stood on the deck that wasn’t quite either of them anymore, and wasn’t entirely something new either. But it was something Logan entirely didn’t expect, and it just made him more thrilled.