As soon as my fingers touched the golden card, a blinding light erupted outward.

Even my body felt like it was dissolving as if I was turning into dust in slow motion.

And then,

[NEXUS EVOLUTION QUEST IS COMPLETED]

[BEGINNING THE EVOLUTION]

The words echoed through my head.

I didn't wait. I popped open the vial in my hand and gulped it in one go.

[The Crimson's Tear].

The crimson liquid slid down my throat and a second later the burn hit as if I had just swallowed lava.

Then came the sound.

Crack.

Crack-crack-crack.

My bones started snapping one after another, like dry twigs getting stepped on.

A golden glow covered my whole body as I felt the Draconic Heart in my other hand starting to melt and merge with me slowly.

The veins in my body glowed up like they were about to explode.

And through the change, through the breaking and reshaping,

I could see every small detail in my body vividly.

Every nerve.

Every twitch of a cell.

Every thread of blood flowing through me like light.

It was as if I had grown thousands of eyes within my own flesh, each one stalking every small change like nosy neighbors peeking through their curtains, desperate for gossip.

Creepy as hell? Yeah.

But that wasn't the worst part… because for some reason I felt like every cell was laughing at me.

Yeah, that's exactly how it felt.

My body had never felt so clear.

I felt no pain whatsoever… So I figured, might as well sit back and enjoy the fireworks.

The first thing to go was my heart.

It detonated in my chest like a star tearing itself apart—supernova style.

Not that I have ever seen one, but hey, if I'm going to watch my own heart explode into bits, I might as well be poetic about it.

And I am pretty damn sure that a star's explosion would look exactly like this.

In an instant a new heart began to take shape, I could see it clearly.

Glowing blue and red lines formed through my chest. At their center, a metaphysical heart of swirling golden flame took form with hints of blue and crimson.

I could feel something foreign, the essence of the Draconic Heart, spreading over the flames, creating flesh around them.

It wrapped the fire like a cage as if my body was desperately trying to contain what should never have been born inside it.

When it was done, a perfectly ordinary and human-looking heart pulsed quietly in my chest.

But I knew better, I could feel the flames hidden behind the flesh.

I didn't waste time overthinking what it meant, because I instinctively understood the flame was some evolved version of affinity.

I didn't even know why it had lodged itself in my heart when it should have belonged in my core.

But the answer came fast.

Because the next thing to explode… was my core itself.

It shattered violently, as if the golden flame had looked at it, judged it unworthy and cast it aside.

And this time… pain exploded with the core.

Because it hurts like hell.

I didn't understand the math here.

When my literal heart exploded, I felt nothing. But the moment my core cracked apart, suddenly I was screaming inside my own skull?

What kind of fucked up cosmic logic was that?

Still, I clenched my teeth as my mana started running rampant in my body.

And then, mercifully, my heart answered.

From it burst countless metaphysical icy threads, shooting outward like tree roots.

They spread through my body, reaching into every inch of flesh, binding the rampaging mana before it could rip me apart.

Then the veins began to anchor themselves, forming strange terminals at the key points in my body.

My solar plexus.

My throat.

My head.

My palms.

My feet.

Each terminal glowed with light as the threads converged, feeding into them before surging back toward the heart… as if my entire body was being rewired into one vast, living circuit.

These "terminals" or whatever the hell they were, weren't just some anchors.

They pulsed like my core.

Not as strong, sure but close enough to feel like miniature versions of it—mini-cores scattered through my body.

I couldn't be sure yet… but damn, every part of me wanted to test them right away.

The mana kept flowing continuously from my heart to every one of those terminals without a stop.

Wait a minute…

Where the hell is my skill?

I didn't see it, the card I had refined into my core.

Ember Sense.

Don't tell me it got blasted apart along with the core…

No. No, that couldn't be.

It had to be somewhere.

I shoved the thought aside, worrying about a skill was just useless when my body was exploding at different parts.

The next change hit my circulatory system.

Each pulse of my heart pushed blood through my body, and with it, the veins and arteries began to thicken.

I could feel them hardening, strengthening with every beat… but beyond that, nothing magical.

No flashy new trick.

Just raw reinforcement.

Through all of this, one thought kept bugging me.

Where the hell was my Death Authority?

Has the timer already run out?

Did it even do anything… or had it slipped away without me noticing, laughing at me from the dark?

I had already felt the Dragon's Heart fusing with me.

And I could even feel the Crimson's Tear tearing me apart in the outside world.

But the Authority of Hel was missing through it all.

Tsk… I hoped it would at least have some effect.

Or maybe it did…

I could feel it, the evolution pressing toward its final step as my mana and the golden glow surged up into my head.

Please don't explode.

But life, being the bitch it always is, decided to screw me over anyway…

…and my mind detonated before I could even scream.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

And I lost my consciousness.

—

When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in my body anymore.

The world around me was wrong.

Everything was red.

I recognised this damn space.

The Trickster's Domain.

That same chaotic nowhere-place where I first met that smug bastard.

It was the same as before.

I was just floating around because apparently gravity had filed for divorce. Another failed marriage to add to the list.

And right in front of me, like some kind of cosmic prank, sat a single table… and two chairs.

Seated on one of them was a gorgeous woman with violet eyes and hair white as snow.

And, yeah… a chest big enough that I suddenly understood why gravity walked out on me. She was probably jealous.

Morvana.

The bastard Trickster had actually taken her form—Morvana, the damn principal of Noxvalen.

His eyes glittered with that same mischievous glint as he laughed…

"Hah…. Ha… ha…"

… and, of course, the laugh made the borrowed chest bounce, mocking gravity itself like the joke was on me.

"So, Rael…" he muttered, his voice dripping with mockery. "Do you like this form better? After all… you did enjoy her pillows quite a bit when you 'accidentally' fell on her."

"Hah…. Ha… ha… Hah…. Ha… ha…"

He started laughing.

But my expression shifted.

This bastard… didn't he say he was dead?

So, how the hell was he here?

No… worse, how the fuck did he know about the accident?

And why was he saying it like it hadn't been a coincidence at all?

I swear, I had never felt the urge to punch anyone more in my life.

He was like that toxic best friend your girlfriend swears you don't need to worry about… except this one had cosmic cheat codes and my sanity in his back pocket.

Still, I forced myself to keep my composure and walked toward him slowly…

I didn't count on Heavenly Principles this time…

Because after what I saw with Hel, I knew this bastard wasn't someone I could afford to screw around with.

I didn't waste time spiraling about whether he wanted to hijack my body or kill me out.

If he wanted me dead, I wouldn't be standing here.

And the fact he hadn't lifted a finger yet… Well, that told me all I needed to know.

He didn't have bad intentions.

Or worse, he wanted something else.

Or maybe… maybe he was just being whimsical, like his damn name.

And that was the part that scared me most.

You can bargain with malice.

You can fight against hatred.

But whims?

Whims will burn your house down just to see what color the smoke makes.

So I pulled the chair back and sat down across from him, letting a smile curl on my lips like I was greeting an old friend at a bar instead of some cosmic psychopath taking the form of a woman.

"How do you know about the accident?" I asked, my voice steady and casual as if we were just two guys making small talk about the weather.

The Trickster's shoulders shook before the sound burst out of him.

"Pwahahahahahahahaha!"

His—or hers—dammit it was confusing, violet eyes gleamed with mirth that didn't belong in this place.

"You know, Rael… this… this right here, is exactly why I picked you as my successor. You're just so damn interesting."

He leaned back, his lips curling in a grin.

"I'll tell you everything you need to know."

His smile softened into something dangerously playful.

"But first…" he lifted a hand, and with a snap, a steaming porcelain cup appeared between us. "…do you want some tea?"

—

Author's Note:

Hey guys!

Just to clear things up, Rael's mind exploding was part of the evolution process. He didn't actually die again 😂 Relax, the poor guy's still kicking (well… sort of).

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.