Chapter 76: The Titan’s Mask

’That thing...’

Ren’s mind raced back to the tactical briefings Evelyn had delivered at the round table before their departure.

’It’s the Apex Aberrant... the titan-class siege monster that broke through Evelyn’s Skyblade barrier and spearheaded the slaughter of the upper districts!’

The massive creature let out a low, guttural growl that vibrated through Ren’s very ribs, resting its colossal, clawed hands on the ruined stone walls as it prepared to crush him into red paste.

The Apex Aberrant slammed its gargantuan, leather-skinned foot onto the center of the coliseum, causing a violent earth tremor that blasted Ren ten paces backward. Ren skidded through the loose rubble, scrambling backward on his hands and knees as the eighteen-meter monstrosity dragged its full, terrifying mass over the shattered perimeter walls.

ROAAAAAAAAR!

The titan unleashed a deafening roar that pierced the high-altitude winds, the sonic shockwave rattling the ancient stone pillars and forcing Ren to clamp both hands over his bleeding ears.

Slowly, the creature lowered its grotesque, four-eyed head toward the ground. Its glowing red irises locked onto Ren’s bruised form, its split lower jaw spreading wide to reveal rows of razor-sharp, yellowed fangs dripping with acidic saliva. Ren sat frozen in the dirt, staring up at the terrifying maw in stunned silence, his chest heaving as the shadow of absolute death swallowed him whole.

Then, without warning, the monstrous titan began to shrink.

Ren’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief as he witnessed the impossible phenomenon.

The eighteen-meter Apex Aberrant began to contract rapidly, its thick, leathery hide folding in on itself like melting wax. As its height plummeted—from eighteen meters down to twelve, then six, then three—the grotesque monster’s jagged bone plates, extra limbs, and crimson eyes dissolved into fine, misty black smoke. The terrifying beast was compressing, refining its grotesque biological mass into a human silhouette.

Ren watched with a gaping jaw as the dark smoke dissipated into the cold mountain air.

Standing in the crater where the massive beast had been just seconds prior was a towering, muscular man. He wore a heavy, dark travelling cloak wrapped tightly around his broad shoulders, its deep hood pulled low over his forehead to shadow his upper face. Beneath the hem of the hood, a pair of sharp, golden-brown eyes bored into Ren with a cold, piercing intensity.

The realization struck Ren like a physical blow, causing his pulse to spike violently.

"A... a human?" Ren stammered, his raspy voice barely a whisper against the wind. "What the hell is going on here...?"

The titan-class Apex Aberrant—the exact same apocalyptic monster that had breached the capital’s sacred sky barriers, crushed the royal knights beneath its boots, and spearheaded the slaughter of the Starlight Kingdom—was not an indigenous demon or a mindless beast born from dark magic.

It was a human being.

"Hahaha!"

The sharp, melodic sound of Velista’s laugh cut through the stunned silence. The rhythmic clicking of her high-heeled boots echoed across the stone floor as she strolled out from the settling dust, coming to a halt behind Ren.

Spurred by pure survival instinct, Ren pushed himself off his knees, turning slightly to raise his double-bladed Void Sickle into a high defensive guard. ℯ

The strategic layout of the ruined arena had turned disastrously hostile in a fraction of a second. The mysterious hooded man stood fifteen meters to his front, while Velista lingered fifteen meters behind his back.

He was completely trapped in an inescapable crossfire.

’Dammit... trapped in a two-front pincer,’ Ren swore internally, his eyes darting back and forth between the two entities with hyper-focused vigilance. ’One-on-one against Velista was already pushing my body past its absolute limit. If both of them jump me at the same time, I’m dead before I can even execute a single dash.’

He felt like a wounded stag cornered by a dragon and a dire wolf. A single misstep would result in his complete annihilation.

"You look utterly flabbergasted, Ren," Velista purred, her purple eyes crinkling with sadistic delight as she rested her own war scythe casually against her hip. "Is the sight of an Apex Aberrant shedding its skin really that traumatic for you?"

Ren kept his jaw tight, his grip on the cold hilt of his weapon tightening until his knuckles turned white.

His mind raced through the tactical implications. Did Evelyn, the High Council, or the Royal Guards have any inkling that the highest tier of Aberrants were actually mutated human defectors? Or was this a deeply guarded secret reserved exclusively for the inner circle of the Heretical Dark Faction? The sheer concept of a human transforming into an eighteen-meter siege engine was inherently unnatural, implying a level of monstrous bio-magical experimentation that defied standard alchemy.

’Did Velista and her faction figure out a way to forcibly convert human hosts into living biological warheads...?’ Ren reasoned, cold sweat dripping down his temple.

"Don’t bother burning your tiny mortal brain over the technical details," Velista taunted softly, reading the unexpressed questions written across his tense face. "I have no intention of explaining our dark alchemy to a walking corpse. What matters right now, my dear other half, is that you have nowhere left to run."

She paused, tapping her chin with a pale, manicured finger as if a sudden, playful thought had just entered her mind.

"However... I’m feeling surprisingly generous today," Velista sneered, her tone shifting into that of a bored monarch setting up a gladiator match for her own entertainment. "I’ll give you a single path to survival. If you want me to let you walk out of these ruins alive, you simply have to beat him in a one-on-one duel."

She gestured toward the towering, hooded man standing opposite them.

"If the two of us continue our little spat, the exponential escalation of dark divinity will tear this mountain peak apart and destabilize the local atmosphere," Velista explained with a theatrical sigh. "You wouldn’t want this precious little world to break so early, would you? So let’s make it simple. Fight my finest creation."

Ren narrowed his eyes into razor-sharp slits, analyzing the dark queen’s underlying motive.

’What is this crazy woman playing at? Is she using this hooded guy to test the absolute operational limit of my Nyx bloodline, or is she just trying to wear me down until my body breaks under the seal pressure?’

Uncertainty gnawed at his chest, but logic quickly took control of his combat instincts.

Refusing her terms meant facing both Velista and the mutated titan simultaneously—a scenario with a zero-percent survival rate. Furthermore, continuing a direct confrontation with Velista would force him to draw even deeper upon the Dark God Nyx’s dormant authority, spiking his Nyx Seal far beyond its current ninety-two percent threshold and risking total mental override. Fighting her subordinate allowed him to manage his stamina, test the limits of his fused abilities, and look for an opening to escape the mountain entirely.

Sometimes, taking a step back into a staged arena was the only way to secure a future victory.

"Fine," Ren declared, his voice dropping into a low, cold register as he leveled the tip of his Void Sickle at Velista. "If I beat your pet, you let me leave this mountain untouched. Deal?"

"Of course," Velista replied smoothly, her pale lips curling into a deceptive, sweet smile. "I always keep my word to my darling other half. Win, and you walk free. Lose... and I personally harvest your soul from your warm corpse."

Despite the chilling threat hanging in the air, Ren didn’t flinch. He gave a firm, resolute nod. "Deal."

"Magnificent!" Velista giggled, taking several graceful steps backward until she reached the crumbling outer edge of the coliseum, leaning against a fallen stone pillar to watch the show.

She cast a cold, sharp glance toward the hooded man. "Apex... slaughter him for me. Do not dare disappoint me. He may carry half of my original essence, but his control is unrefined and clumsy. Show him the fruits of your training."

The hooded man didn’t speak. He simply took a heavy step forward, shifting his stance into a grounded, brutal hand-to-hand combat posture. His golden-brown eyes gleamed with an unsettling, lifeless focus from beneath his hood.

Ren took a smooth step forward, lowering his center of gravity as he brought his double-bladed scythe into a diagonal strike vector, his dark purple and crimson aura sputtering softly around his boots.

"I’ll be taking the signal, then!" Velista announced cheerfully from the sidelines, raising three pale fingers into the air.

Ren’s eyes locked onto the hooded man’s shoulders, analyzing his muscle tension, foot placement, and center of mass. *I have to win this fast. Velista might be an absurd monster who claims to use only a fraction of her power, but this guy... this guy is built of blood and bone. He can be killed.*

Still, an underlying wave of annoyance washed through Ren’s chest as he realized the sheer absurdity of his current situation. ’Two grown men with apocalyptic powers, being forced to battle each other like circus dogs just to satisfy the whims of a psychotic dark goddess... Disgusting.’

"Three!" Velista shouted, her voice echoing across the quiet ruins.

Ren took a slow, deep breath, regulating his oxygen intake as his heart hammered against his ribs. *Focus, Ren. Win the duel, break the perimeter, and survive.*

"Two!"

The hooded man’s aura suddenly spiked, a dense, dark grey kinetic pressure rolling off his shoulders and cracking the cobblestones beneath his leather boots.

"One!"

Ren shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, the dark-crimson aura around his arms flaring to a razor-thin edge.

"Begin!" Velista’s delighted laughter chimed out.