Binding the Phoenix Anting to the structure was no simple blacksmith's procedure; it was a visual symphony that set the very heavens ablaze. King Solomon stood with his hands resting on the stone railing of the balcony, his gaze fixed firmly upward.
"Look," he whispered, his voice heavy with awe. "It begins."
Above the castle, the sky exploded. Hundreds of roaring, blazing birds of pure fire shot through the clouds like luminous projectiles. They dived at screaming speeds, heading straight for the stables. With loud, hissing impacts, the firebirds slammed into Apollo's two horses.
The transformation was immediate. The previously purple, flashing flames of their manes turned a deep, intense blood-red. Their tails lengthened, transforming into elegant, glowing feathers that spewed sparks with every movement. Beneath their massive bodies, their heavy iron hooves fell away; in their place, razor-sharp, agile, claw-like feet burst out of the star-steel.
At the same time, the power within the mechanical mounts escalated. The two legendary Soul-Bound gems hovered vibrantly into the air, embedding themselves deep into the beasts' foreheads. The Soul Gem fused seamlessly into the first horse, while the Spacer Gem sank into the second with a blinding flash of light. The visual contrast was breathtaking: the space surrounding the mounts began to ripple and warp, as if reality itself was stretching just to bear their immense weight.
Under the influence of these overwhelming forces, the entire Bastion seemed to awaken. It was no longer an immobile castle. The massive walls expanded and contracted in unison—a slow, mighty pulsation that vibrated through bone and marrow.
The Bastion was breathing.
Everyone stood jaw-dropped, staring at the spectacle, until Nicola suddenly pointed toward the north. In the distance, as far as the eye could see, flocks of birds burst from the treetops in pure panic. They were fleeing. Shortly after came the sound: a heavy, rhythmic thundering that made the earth quake. A miles-long trail of splintering, falling trees approached their position at a terrifying pace.
Solomon, Silarias, Faustus, Nyx, and Jane exchanged a glance of instant recognition.
"THE BERSERKER!!" they shouted in unison.
Solomon acted immediately. "Stay back!" he roared. Luminous, golden time glyphs erupted across his arms, forming an impenetrable, mystical barrier to protect the group. But the king missed one critical detail: with lightning speed, Silarias and Nyx had already slipped right past his lines. They were standing side-by-side on the front line, far outside the safe zone.
From behind the barrier, Faustus began to scream in furious panic, his hands slamming against the glowing wall. "SIL!! What the hell are you doing?! I can't reach you!"
The thundering stomps were deafening now. With a final, destructive crash, the prehistoric caveman erupted through the treeline. His eyes were completely consumed by a pitch-black, corrupted haze. Before Nyx could gather her powers, the Berserker launched himself into the air with a brutal, towering leap. He came down like a meteor, landing squarely on the exact spot where Silarias stood. The ground shattered into a massive cloud of dust and debris.
"NO!" echoed in chorus from behind the barrier. Tears welled up instantly in the eyes of Miki and Jane. This had to be the end. No one could survive a direct impact like that.
But Solomon looked up, his eyes wide with shock. "WHAT IS THIS?!"
Across the entire battlefield, dozens of small, blinding novas of blue and orange light suddenly erupted. Silarias wasn't dead. He was everywhere and nowhere all at once. He was teleporting, materializing, and dematerializing at a frantic, uncatchable pace, flashing directly in front of the roaring giant's face.
With a final flash, he appeared right outside Solomon's barrier. He turned halfway back toward his panicked uncle. "FAUS! I heard what mom can do… what we can do…" His eyes ignited with a divine, golden radiance. "I KNOW WHO I AM NOW!"
Silarias shot back into the fray. As he flashed from point to point, his body began to mutate under the influence of his awakened heritage. A fiery, blazing mane erupted from his neck, and two glowing horns sprouted from his forehead. His furry tail vanished, giving way to a fluid, razor-sharp devil's tail that glowed like hellfire. The Berserker swung his massive claws to swipe him out of the air, but his brutal strikes met only empty space. Miss. Miss.
"My turn," an icy, echoing voice resonated across the field.
Nyx stepped forward and activated her awakened form. Her hair exploded into a fluid, silver radiance that floated weightlessly through the harsh storm around her like glowing water. Her hands turned an eerie, terrifying black, pulsating with a cold, ravenous void energy that rippled the surrounding air. At the same time, the ice-earring in her ear reacted with a hissing, freezing force. A thick, icy mist rose around her temples before a razor-sharp, frozen crown materialized directly on her head with the loud crack of splintering glacier ice. The look in her eyes shifted into pure, cold, and merciless royalty.
She tapped her foot against the air. The Berserker froze mid-motion, as if gravity itself had rejected him. With a mighty wave of her hand, Nyx unleashed a silver shockwave across the battlefield, slamming the giant flat onto his back with a deafening crash.
Growling, the caveman shook off the impact and launched himself at Nyx with claws bared. Silarias reacted instantly. Flashing in front of her, he took the full force of the blow. The Berserker's raw power chopped Silarias straight in half—a fatal karate chop that severed his torso from his legs.
Yet mid-air, before the blood could even spill, Silarias grabbed his own lower body with his demonic claws. The wounds sealed themselves with a hissing sound of pure energy. Muscles, bones, and scales melted back together in an instant.
Silarias burst into a wild, booming laugh. "OHHH, THANK YOU, HERITAGE! HAHAHA!"
He hovered weightlessly in the air as his fists ignited with a divine, golden aura. "BATHALAS VOLUNDR!" he roared.
He drove one heavy, earth-shattering cross after another straight into the Berserker's face. With every impact, vivid, psychedelic visions flashed from the giant's mind straight into Silarias's consciousness. He was seeing the caveman's past.
"Nyx, don't do anything until I call you, please!" Silarias yelled over his shoulder, his fists still hammering away at the giant's guard. "Something's not right here… I can feel something in him! This isn't what it seems… I think I can actually change him!"
Nyx's voice resonated powerfully across the ruined field. "How, Sil?!"
Silarias dropped from the air, his eyes blazing pure orange as he launched himself like a living missile straight at the giant's chest. "BY BEATING IT OUT OF HIM!"
Behind the barrier, the entire group went dead silent. Jane looked at Aurelius with wide eyes, her mouth half open. "Did he… did he actually just say that?"
Aurelius stared straight ahead, his arms crossed. "Yes. Plain and simple, yes. Somehow, this is actually working."
Ren and Miki tugged on Faustus's coat. "Why on earth would punching someone help?!"
Faustus looked down at them with a blank, utterly childish expression. "To be completely honest, I have no idea."
Meanwhile, Silarias set his feet firmly into the torn earth. He didn't yield a single inch. He kept delivering blows—left hooks, right straights, vicious uppercuts—a non-stop barrage of pure, untamed power straight to the caveman's face. The more Silarias struck, the brighter his own body glowed. The heat was so intense that every step he took left deep, burning footprints of pure fire in the ground.
With every landing blow, the vision in his mind grew clearer. Silarias saw the truth. This caveman came from an ancient era, a tribe living in deep caverns that housed a corrupted god. The tribes brought sacrifices to this dark entity in exchange for wealth, good harvests, and prosperity. Until the corrupted god took over the boy's mother. In her madness, she went so far as to abandon her own child, Uktar, in the depths of the cave.
The god demanded fifteen children to initiate into his dark experiments. But as soon as he had them, he betrayed the tribes, wiping them out with devastating plagues and meteors. The children were psychologically broken and subjected to twisted experiments. Uktar was one of the very first victims who unlocked an Anting through these trials. He managed to escape, but when the ice age swept over the world, he was frozen deep beneath the glaciers. Only the overwhelming life force of his Etherheart Anting had kept him alive through the centuries of frost.
"Enough!" Silarias roared, his voice filled with a deep, empathetic rage. "CATASTROPHE BATHALA!"
With a loud, grinding crunch, massive, pitch-black pillars shot straight out of the earth. They slammed together around the Berserker, forming a heavy, unyielding cage. The giant was pinned, but the black, corrupted haze in his eyes finally began to clear under the purifying impact of the blows.
"NYX, NOW!" Silarias yelled.
Nyx didn't hesitate for a second. She launched herself over the pillars, landing nimbly on the giant's massive shoulders, and slammed her pitch-black hands onto the back of his head. "LIFT!"
Her eyes flashed with a blinding, silvery light. At the same time, bright, purifying rays of light erupted from the Berserker's eyes and Nyx's own. The dark energy was violently purged from his body. The giant let out a final, bone-chilling cry before slumping limply.
Nyx and Silarias leaped backward in a synchronized, fluid movement. Nyx immediately activated a smaller barrier around the two of them and her father to shield against any lingering residual energy. The thick, black clouds of smoke slowly cleared, revealing the result.
The massive, prehistoric caveman sat quietly on his rear in the middle of the crater. The terrifying monster was gone. He looked around with the innocent, confused eyes of a young puppy—understanding nothing of the situation, but with a deep, instinctive loyalty shining in his massive eyes. He gently lowered himself onto his stomach and rested his head against the ground.
Behind the barrier, the eyes of Faustus, Nicola, and King Solomon widened simultaneously.
"Sil…" Solomon breathed out, awe in his voice. "He is bowing as low as he can. Out of pure respect."
No one moved until slow, measured footsteps echoed across the dirt. Silarias, still in his awakened form, walked straight up to the giant. Without a shred of fear, he dropped to his knees and lay flat on the ground right in front of the caveman, mimicking his posture exactly.
The Berserker looked up. A childish curiosity lit up his gaze. What was happening? He tried to speak, but because he didn't know the language, only incomprehensible, babbling sounds rumbled from his massive chest.
Silarias cut him off with a broad, warm grin. "Ha… now we're equals, right?" He looked ahead and laughed out loud.
The effect was magic. The giant leaped to his feet, heavy as a mountain, completely hyped up. He shot into the forest at breakneck speed, only to burst back out a few seconds later, shattering the earth beneath his feet. Before Silarias could react, the giant scooped his massive hands beneath him and lifted him off the ground in one swift motion.
Behind the barrier, Aurelius and Jane immediately drew their weapons, thinking the giant was about to crush Silarias. But their fear instantly turned to utter bewilderment.
"YEEEEEEE!" Silarias cheered, throwing his arms in the air out of pure joy.
The caveman laughed with a deep, booming voice, throwing Silarias dozens of feet into the air, catching him cleanly, and bouncing around like a giant, overjoyed kid.
Ren and Miki couldn't contain their excitement any longer. They burst right through Solomon's barrier and sprinted onto the field, determined to join in.
"Meet the friendly giant, UKTAR!" Silarias shouted while soaring through the air once more.
Upon hearing that specific name, the giant froze. Tears welled up in his massive eyes, and he nearly dropped Silarias from sheer shock. That name… he hadn't heard it in ages. Wiping away his tears, he looked down. There stood Ren and Miki, their little hands stretched out hopefully toward him.
"I'M MIKI!" the girl shouted with a beaming smile.
"NO, ME FIRST! I'M REN!" Ren yelled over her, puffing out his chest to make himself look big.
Uktar looked down at the two tiny creatures, his lips trembling with pure happiness. With the utmost gentleness, he extended his massive, calloused finger and gave their little hands a shake, while a deep, overjoyed laugh rolled across the clearing.
The golden time glyphs on King Solomon's arms faded slowly, and the massive, impenetrable barrier dissolved into nothingness with the sound of shattering glass. The razor-sharp tension that had hung over the battlefield like a suffocating blanket gave way to an awkward, almost surreal silence. The smoke rising from the deep crater smelled of scorched earth and the cold, icy vapor of Nyx's void magic.
Faustus was the first to move. His breathing was still fast and shallow, his heart hammering against his ribs like a madman. He had just watched his nephew get chopped in half, watched the blood freeze mid-air, and witnessed how the boy's insane heritage had restored everything in a fraction of a second. Without looking back at Solomon or the others, he marched toward Silarias with long, aggressive strides. His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were white.
"What in the absolute hell were you thinking?!" Faustus roared, his voice cracking with pure, unfiltered adrenaline. He stopped a meter away from Silarias, who was still half in his awakened form, his fluid devil's tail swaying slowly over the ground. "You charged in like a complete idiot! You were literally chopped in half, Sil! Do you think this is a fucking game?!"
Silarias didn't look angry. The blazing mane around his neck began to dim, and the two glowing horns on his forehead receded gently back under his skin. He looked down at his hands, which were still humming with a faint golden glow.
"It wasn't a gamble, Faus," Silarias said, his voice surprisingly calm and deep. "It wasn't an impulse. The moment that giant hit the ground, the moment the impact turned the world black, I heard them. I really heard them."
Faustus knit his brows, his rage slowly giving way to confusion. "Who? What did you hear?"
"The lion," Silarias answered, lifting his gaze to meet Faustus's eyes directly. "The Bansaday Flying Lion. And the curse… the Divine Curse I've been dragging around like an anchor all this time. They didn't speak in words, but in pure, raw knowledge. They showed me that giant's mind. They showed me his mother, the caves, and the abuse by that corrupted god who demanded fifteen children just to tear them apart mentally and physically for experiments. But they showed me something else, too. Something about us."
Faustus stood deathly still. Behind him, Jane and Aurelius held their breath, listening to the revelation of the boy who, until recently, had been a complete nobody.
"The lion and the curse… they explained it all to me through his mother and our lineage," Silarias continued, his voice dropping softer now, but carrying an intensity that vibrated through the air. "They made me realize that the constant, lightning-fast flashing and teleporting I was doing… that doesn't belong to Nyx's void element at all. It isn't shadow magic. It's purely my own divine heritage. My own power."
Silarias took a step forward. The orange glow in his eyes was gone, replaced by a deep, mature look that Faustus had never seen in him before. There was no arrogance in his posture—only a raw, accepted reality.
"Now I'm just like you…" Silarias whispered, a faint but genuine smile touching his lips. "…Cousin."
The words hit like a sledgehammer. Faustus's eyes widened. His mouth parted slightly, and the armor of the cool, nonchalant warrior he so carefully maintained suddenly cracked wide open. Emotion hit him all at once. The realization that he was no longer alone in bearing the weight of this massive, destructive heritage—that his nephew now stood beside him as an equal—brought a sudden wave of tears to the corners of his eyes.
Not here. Not now. Don't show it,
Faustus thought in a panic.
His eyes glinted with moisture, and before the first tear could roll down his cheek, he abruptly turned his head away. Curling his fist over his mouth, he began to cough forcefully, loudly, and terribly awkwardly, making a desperate attempt to suppress the lump in his throat and mask his tears as a sudden tickle.
"Cough! Cough! Damn it… that dust cloud from earlier went straight into my lungs," Faustus grunted casually, quickly rubbing the moisture from his eyes with the back of his hand. He turned back around, his face still a bit flushed, but his voice back under control. "Nice story, Sil. But don't you ever do that again, or I'll chop you in half myself."
The emotional tension was abruptly shattered by a sound that resembled a tearing tectonic plate. A deep, low, terrifyingly drawn-out rumble vibrated through the stone of the castle and the cracked earth beneath their feet.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUMMMMM.
Everyone instinctively ducked. Aurelius gripped his sword once more. "What is that?! Are there more coming?!"
Silarias burst out laughing and pointed toward the crater. "No. That's just Uktar."
The colossal prehistoric giant was still sitting on his massive rear, but his huge hands were now resting flat against his gargantuan belly. His deep brown, puppy-like eyes looked at the group with a pleading gaze. His stomach had just produced a sound capable of triggering a minor earthquake. The ancient berserker was starving.
The logistical chaos that followed was completely absurd. Within fifteen minutes, the entire personnel of the Bastion was mobilized to raid the pantry. Sacks of grain, whole salted hogs, barrels of dried meat, and baskets full of vegetables were dragged outside by the soldiers.
Uktar sat in the grass just outside the castle walls, his massive legs spread wide. He pinched an entire salted hog between two fingers as if it were a small cocktail snack and popped it whole into his massive jaw. The loud, crunching sound of bones being ground into pulp echoed across the grounds.
Miki and Ren sat a safe distance away on a fallen log, watching in absolute awe. Nicola stood a few meters away with her arms tightly crossed, her sharp gaze fixed on the colossus's every move.
Jane tried to carefully step closer. She raised her hands in the air and began making absurdly large chewing motions with her mouth. "Yummy? Is it yummy?" she called out in a loud, clear voice, as if talking to a toddler. "You. Eat. Good?"
Uktar stopped chewing mid-bite. He looked down at Jane, tilting his massive head. His heavy brows knitted together. Swallowing the mass of meat in one giant gulp, he opened his mouth and emitted a series of deep, guttural sounds that didn't resemble any known language. "Grar-uh… Bwoh… Ngggh."
"He doesn't understand a word," Ren concluded dryly, poking the dirt with a stick. "He talks like he's got a mouth full of rocks."
"He can't talk at all," Silarias said, walking over with an apple in hand. "Mentally, he's like a young child. He doesn't understand the words—he only understands energy and intent."
As Silarias spoke, Uktar's gaze suddenly shifted toward Nicola. The woman was still standing motionless, her face a mask of cold, analytical seriousness, her right hand subtly tapping against her left elbow.
Uktar opened his large eyes, set down the barrel of dried meat, and began to slowly pull himself up. The soldiers stepped back in alarm, but the giant did nothing aggressive. To everyone's absolute astonishment, he attempted to mirror Nicola's exact posture. He crossed his massive, scar-covered arms tightly over his broad torso, tried to press his heavy jaws into a perfectly straight, emotionless line, and began tapping his giant, log-like finger gently and rhythmically against his elbow. He looked as though he were experiencing a deep philosophical crisis, tilting his massive head at the exact same angle as hers.
Faustus couldn't suppress a loud, short snort. "Hey Nicola, looks like you found your twin brother. He just has a bit more back hair."
Miki giggled and began to clap. "Look! He's copying Aunt Nicola!"
Nicola didn't move a muscle. She stared at the giant caveman who stood there like a grotesque, towering caricature of herself. She kept her cold, unblinking gaze fixed on him for at least ten seconds, while Uktar bravely tried to maintain his imitation without losing his balance.
Lowering her arms, Nicola let out a deep, pragmatic sigh and said in a completely flat, deadpan voice, "Mm. We will revisit this later."
"We need to check the upgrades now that the Bastion has stabilized," Solomon said, breaking the comedic mood as he turned toward the stables located just outside the main gate.
The entire group walked toward the stables, passing close to the fort's massive outer walls. The visual transformation of the mounts was even more impressive up close than from the balcony. Apollo's two horses were no longer normal beasts; they were mythical engines of flesh, star-steel, and pure fire.
Their manes consisted of roaring, deep blood-red flames that radiated intense heat without scorching the stone beneath them. Their tails had transformed into elegant, fluid feather-tails that left a trail of sparkling, fiery sparks in the air with every sway. Where heavy metal hooves had once been, razor-sharp, agile clawed feet now extended from the star-steel, engineered to grip any imaginable terrain. In the forehead of the left horse, the Soul Gem pulsed with a deep, inner radiance, while the Spacer Gem in the right horse constantly warped and rippled the air around its skull.
"The synergy between the Phoenix Anting and the gems has tethered the mounts directly to the foundation of the buildings," Jane explained, keeping a safe distance from the claws. "If we want to make any structural changes to the Bastion, we have to route the energy currents through the mounts."
As they stood there beside the castle's massive outer wall, Solomon began outlining the tactical adjustments. "If we reconfigure the rooms on the north side and the defensive works…"
He didn't get any further.
It was as if the Bastion had literally heard them. The towering stone fortress suddenly began to vibrate violently. A deep, mechanical and organic rumble rose from the bedrock. The stone blocks, which had lain motionless upon one another for centuries, began sliding smoothly past each other as if made of liquid rubber.
With a massive, deafening shock, the entire castle expanded outward. The sound that accompanied the transformation was so absurd, so loud, and so deep that it sounded as if the fort had just let out a massive, unashamed burp.
BURRRRRRRP-CLANK!
Immediately after, thick, suffocating clouds of smoke billowed out from every stone joint, window, and battlement. The gray and white vapors rolled over the grounds in waves, reducing the group's visibility to zero in an instant.
"Cough! What in the world is this?!" Faustus yelled, pulling his coat over his mouth.
"Stay calm!" Solomon shouted, though he too was shielding his eyes.
As the wind slowly cleared the thick smoke, everyone's jaw dropped. The visual escalation was breathtaking. The Bastion was no longer the same. It was bigger—much bigger. The towers reached yards higher into the sky, and the outer walls had grown thicker, more massive, and far more imposing.
Solomon marched toward the central control mechanism embedded in the outer wall. With a determined look, he activated the mechanism to test what this "breathing" castle could truly do.
The effect was instantaneous. The heavy stone walls shifted with terrifying fluidity. The interior space of the fort expanded flexibly and then contracted in unison, pulsing to the rhythm of the breathing horses in the stables. Rooms adjusted themselves, corridors lengthened and shortened on command.
The Bastion was no longer a dead, static fortress of cold stone. It had transformed into a living, breathing, and mobile stronghold. An unyielding anchor from an ancient age, ready for whatever was coming next.