Endless Evolution: Last Star

Adam's silhouette moved farther away, disappearing behind the iron buildings and heading for the entrance to the Salt Village grounds under Romeo's gaze.

For some reason, he couldn't stop staring at Adam, even after a while when he completely faded out of sight.

'Romeo! Wake up! You're still in Dead Lands!' a stern female voice boomed in Romeo's ear, bringing him to his senses.

"Agh... Yes, I'm here. Sorry, I got distracted." Romeo muttered, scratching the back of his head.

Then, he stepped aside while the others recovered and discussed what had happened. Romeo sat down on the massive piece of metal, folded his hands together, and stared at the floor thoughtfully.

Soon, the Harvesters joined their squad, after all their main target - Prime Firebreathing Trinadon was defeated,d and they had to gather materials.

'Romeo... Are you alright?' The girl, his Operator, asked in a worried voice.

Romeo nodded, looking at the rusty dust flowing through his fingers, "Yeah... I just need to think. Leave me alone..."

"..."

...

After about half an hour, the Harvesters finished their work and were ready to head back. Everyone was already seated in the trucks except Romeo, who was staring deep into the void.

"Hey, Romeo, are you coming?" Irene asked with a frown on her face.

Romeo looked at her, seemingly with a slight hope in his eyes.

"Don't you have anything to say...?" Romeo muttered.

"Hmm?" Irene raised an eyebrow in confusion, "What are you talking about? Do you want to deconstruct the mistakes made during the fight? We'll get to that later." Iren waved her hand nonchalantly.

At that moment, Romeo's eyes grew darker.

"I see..."

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Then, he happily smiled with narrowed eyes or rather tried to do so. In fact, his smile was infused with grief and pain, making his facial expression radiate an eerie aura that made Iren shudder.

"In that case, I'm leaving the Light Rain squad."

"What...?" Iren's eyes went wide, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I came here because of one special person, but... now in this squad, there's no one special left for me anymore." Romeo muttered, while his gaze quickly changed.

Then, he jumped off the piece of metal and headed towards the truck where no one was.

"Wait! Let's discuss this!" Irene exclaimed, reaching out a hand to Romeo's shoulder.

Slap.

Romeo slapped her palm sharply, causing her fingertips to be covered in a thin layer of ice.

"Don't you dare touch me?" Romeo's eyes filled with hatred, becoming as sharp as deadly blades, "Sooner or later, someone will die because of you, or the decisions you make or the words you say..."

Romeo didn't say anything else.

Iren just stared, baffled at her hand and Romeo walking away. She felt strange, not understanding what she had done wrong and why today was one of the worst days for her...

'Romeo... Are you sure? You were a good squad.' The girl asked, realizing what her Phantom was feeling right now.

"Yes. Adam Vinter... He's right. What I was doing was not just naive and stupid, but pointless. My job is to kill monsters and protect my Operator... If Iren prevents me from doing that, then I don't need her." Romeo muttered, placing his hand on the truck, about to get in the driver's seat.

Though his words were confident and his mind had made up its mind long ago, but his heart wasn't ready yet, a little more time was needed.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Bitter tears sprang from Romeo's eyes, while he frowned, clenching his teeth tightly, trying not to cry, but obviously, he couldn't.

At that moment he lost control of his power and clutched the iron door of the truck like a piece of paper, crumpling it with ease.

Perhaps only Phantoms could be weak and powerful, pathetic and confident at the same time.

...

"Here we are." Adam uttered, looking at his target - a Six-Winged Iron Stingray.

The huge creature that must have floated at the bottom of the ocean was now hovering high in the sky, above the salty peaks that covered the long-weathered stone cliffs.

Obviously, this was not the monster's natural habitat, the Six-Winged Iron Stingray was here because it had recently absorbed a powerful artifact from a cascade of anomalies.

Perhaps Six-Winged Iron Stingray continued to absorb possible energy or waited for other anomalies to appear to absorb them as well, it wasn't certain.

However, the fact remained. Iron Stingray was now in this region and had to be eliminated.

Normally, only a large squad would be allowed to take on such a dangerous monster, because Iron Stingray was much stronger than Firebreathing Trinadon.

However, Adam was in a special situation. He had proven that he could kill strong monsters even alone - he had Elemental Root, and most importantly, he needed this monster.

If Adam wanted to develop his artifact, he simply required Lightning Essence.

'Adam, don't forget that though Essence Iron Stingray is lower in the ranking than North Keeper, that doesn't mean this fight will be easy.' Silvana said seriously. She knew that Adam was rational, but no one was immune to overconfidence after a streak of success.

Protecting Adam from his own pride was one of Silvana's tasks, among hundreds of others...

Essence Type was dangerous because such monsters were initially exceptionally good at controlling their energy, but once they absorbed the artifact, their capabilities were pushed to a whole new level. This was especially true of their destructive power.

North Keeper might have been faster and stronger, had a wider arsenal, and could defeat almost all Purple Threat Level monsters in battle, but... it was all about the number of possible mistakes.

Iron Stingray could be exposed to many attacks, literally dozens, before being killed, while for North Keeper, a single powerful attack would be enough.

"Silvana, how much damage do you think I can take?" Adam asked, not shifting his gaze away from the majestic being - from the six iron wings sweeping through the wind currents.

'I don't know, but thanks to Elemental Root, it's definitely not going to happen that you die in one attack. However, if I were you, I would do my best to dodge every attack. If you have a chance to avoid damage, you should use it, no matter what.'

Adam nodded as his eyes sparkled.

A silver needle appeared in his hand, the snow-white light reflecting off the salt crystals covering everything around him.

It seemed that Iron Stingray had only noticed Adam now, or the monster was ready to accept Adam's challenge.

"WOOEHOOO!" Iron Stingray made a strange sound, both peaceful and threatening, before electrifying its wings.

At the same time, the sky thickened, gathering into storm clouds that covered a vast area - so vast that an entire small city could fit there.

Adam gulped.

Iron Stingray hadn't done anything yet, the monster was just getting ready to attack, but Adam already felt the forgotten emotion he'd last experienced during Eclipse. Adrenaline filled his body, and unwillingly, a slight smile appeared on his face.

"Yeah... This is it, now I feel like I'm back. That I'm in Dead Lands!" Adam exclaimed while dozens of lightning bolts rained down on him from the sky as if to welcome him and Iron Stingray was his first guest.

Whooooooooooooosh.

Adam rushed forward, using - Lightning Step - Second Trait of his Artifact. Electric discharges covered his legs, allowing him to move quickly and nimbly.

Sure, the battle against Essence Monsters was a big problem for active artifact users like Adam.

His Third Artifact Trait was useless against Iron Stingray, the monster wouldn't just take no damage, it would absorb Adam's attack and use that energy against him.

However, Adam had an extensive arsenal, he had something to fight against any opponent.

Lightning bolts would strike right next to Adam, leaving craters in the salt wasteland, but none of the strikes were able to reach him. Thus, Adam quickly made his way to the peaks covered in salt, climbing up them.

"Alright. It's time to bring you down to earth!" Adam exclaimed with a burning flame in his eyes, bouncing off the highest peak.

Then, his needle shuddered, going into the first grip only for Adam to throw it forward, straight at Iron Stingray.

However, Adam's goal was not to pierce the monster's head and end the fight in one motion, he realized that was impossible.

So, he decided to take this opportunity to tie the thread and needle around one of the monster's six wings, which he did without difficulty.

Iron Stingray didn't immediately realize what had happened as the monster thought Adam had missed. The understanding came only when Adam jumped off the salt peak, but it was too late...

Adam pulled his needle sharply downward, stretching the thread to its limit, plunging into the monster's wing and soon cutting it off, with perfect precision, like a surgeon with a scalpel.

...

In the heat of battle, Adam didn't notice it, but several silhouettes were watching him, with NEPs on their wrists, but they were different from his one.