In truth, Crimson has never changed.

She lifted the Abyssal Rift in both hands. Her crimson Magic Armor blossomed into a grander skirt. A scarlet phantom dress draped the underground city’s sky, painting it blood-red.

Her black hair took a red sheen. The long locks kept unfurling, coiling up from her waist like a ribbon of flame-silk.

“Limiters open! Armor overlay!”

Crimson spread her arms to the sky. Red sigils, like giant hands, crawled out from within her and clutched the two widening Abyssal Rifts.

“O gods of the stars, cast down your gaze.”

Her eyes held no reverence. She didn’t believe in gods. She believed in her own strength. No god would descend to smooth away disaster. Only herself to lean on.

“Let the river of stars pave a road. Let the stars turn into lanterns, leading to unknown halls…”

From the deep Abyss she saw a rising galaxy. Mana-born stars paved a blazing road, lanterns lining both sides, lighting a far door until it shone.

Mana and Abyssal Aura twined along the door’s two sides. It was Crimson’s first time standing this close to that threshold.

From within the door, unknown mutterings poured into her mind. The broken syllables sharpened, until one word swelled to thunder.

“Save…”

As Crimson chanted the Magic Spell, the mana by the door surged to embrace her. It coursed through her body, stinging every inch of skin.

She took the mana in. The murmurs flooded her mind, crowding out thought. Pain bit deep, yet she knew she had to grind out the final line:

“At this very moment… I unseal!”

As her words fell, the scarlet hem solidified. Crimson hovered in midair, and the dormant mana within burst free.

Awe tugged at Night Frost. She looked up at the phantom and was drawn in. The crimson figure filled her gaze, beautiful and strong.

But the Black Dragon in her mind seethed. It shoved at the thin crack in her psyche, its manic force stabbing her spirit. Anyone could see: it was furious.

The Crimson before them was one of those who killed it eleven years ago. With the foe at arm’s reach, rage could not be leashed.

Night Frost’s frail spirit buckled in the storm of wrath. Her mana had recovered a little, but not enough. The Black Dragon’s pressure pressed in, and she could hardly resist.

The Abyss flashed with lightning. Scarlet mana slammed against the Abyss’s own power. This place was death to linger. Night Frost ran for a safer corner of the underground city.

Under mana’s push and Crimson’s pull, the rifts slowly closed. Heavy power pressed over the seams, stitching them shut for now.

Her skull felt split. The foreign mana, wedded to the murmurs, was devouring her native power. The invader was killing the locals within.

Crimson coughed blood from deep in her chest. This release was at its limit. She forced breath, and flew toward the distant Earth Dragon Heart—the source of the second Abyssal Rift. Seal it, and the calamity ends. And she…

Crimson was Chapter Three. At a glance she saw the heart hidden in the Abyss. It was nothing like the Earth Dragon Heart. Fire wrapped it thick, and Spirit Threads webbed around it. Let prey draw near, and the threads would swarm, turning it into its manifested puppet.

The instant it saw Crimson unsealed, the distant heart and the voice in her mind both erupted in a deafening roar. Heartbeat and whisper clashed, yet also seemed to call to each other.

The two sounds churned her insides to chaos. She could no longer hold her unsealed state. The crimson skirt fragmented, dropping her back to Chapter Two.

The whisper in her ear faded, but remained. The heart’s voice receded with the sealing of her armor. Their collision left her alive by chance, and sane. She could endure a little longer.

But the Abyssal Rift ahead—she likely couldn’t seal it now…

The black rift swallowed the underground city whole. Its inverted reflection took its place. This was the city’s mirror—an Abyss centered on the Earth Dragon Heart, named the Abyss of People.

The sudden reversal sent Night Frost sprawling. Her arm and knee were skinned raw. She tore off her white T-shirt and bound the wounds.

It wasn’t her first time in the Abyss of People. She knew its trick: copy the underground city as blueprint, forge everything from Abyssal Aura.

Everything here brims with Abyssal Aura. It inherits some traits of the originals. But its essence isn’t atoms or particles. It’s compressed, congealed Abyssal breath.

Bandages here are lethal to normal folk. Use them, and they might help a bit—then the Abyssal Aura would kill you first.

“Really an exact copy…”

Night Frost couldn’t help a sigh. How did the Abyss pull off a one-to-one remake?

As the name says, the Abyss of People ties to people. Last time, it birthed the dead’s wraiths. It could happen again.

Powerful wraiths earn the Abyss’s favor. They inherit shards of life’s memory and grow stronger within. Their ceiling seems tied to the Abyss’s current grade.

This Abyss was opened by a special Earth Dragon Heart. Night Frost didn’t know the details, but an Abyss that blankets a city isn’t weak. And Chu Qing just died. This Abyss would likely favor her wraith.

Then Night Frost had to kill Chu Qing in this Abyss before she reached Chapter Three. Otherwise, no one here could defeat her.

Last time, the wraith was built on all the dead of the Twelfth District. Its strength had nearly reached Chapter Three. That bitter fight still burned in memory. This time, luck leaned her way. Fewer wraiths here. Chu Qing’s rise might stall for a while…

“Help me…”

Night Frost’s PTSD flared. Hearing that voice, she pulled two cheap frag grenades from her pocket. She scanned around and found a staffer under rubble—the one who often brought her meals.

She helped him up. He sat limp on the ground, gulping air.

“Thank you… thank you.”

“You didn’t evacuate?”

Night Frost studied him. Staff should have withdrawn with the residents. No one should’ve been left here.

“I did leave. Then a terrible heartbeat rose. The sound squeezed my heart. If I didn’t turn back, I felt I’d die…”

His nerves were decent. He didn’t show much fear. His breath steadied, though his face stayed pale.

Night Frost heard the heartbeat too, but felt none of that grip. Likely the Black Dragon Heart muted it.

“Wait—no. By that logic, most people didn’t evacuate. Even if they did, many would get dragged into the Abyss!?”

If that’s true, Chu Qing’s fuel to grow won’t be lacking. Night Frost swallowed hard. Danger was closing in.

In its tank, the Earth Dragon Heart tore free of gauges and tubes. As if alive, it drifted along the second-floor corridor toward the elevator.

It beat with rich rhythm. The thump rolled through the empty halls. Soon, the first group arrived.

Their heartbeats matched its frequency and amplitude. Fear marked their faces, yet with hearts gripped, they had to walk toward the giant heart.

Slender vessels reached out from within and plucked their hearts free, merging them into itself. Then a mass of Spirit Threads spilled from the Earth Dragon Heart, weaving them new “hearts.”

From that core, fine golden scales layered over their skin. Claws sprouted, and long tails. Like golden geckos—but anyone who knew Monsters of the Abyss would know—

These were humans mid-transformation into Earth Dragons.

The hearts swallowed into the Earth Dragon Heart began to melt their foul blood. The flow washed the Key buried deep. Rust from the Key bled into the liquefied heart.

The rust shaped arcane runes, drawing fragments of words that had flown from Chu Qing into the void. Together, they gestated a silhouette.

“Feels like… I slept a bit. Mm, not for long.”

Black hair tipped with gold. Fair skin overlaid by golden scale-armor, tracing a mature, graceful form.

She wore Chu Qing’s face. But those eyes, dyed pure gold, told the crowd she wasn’t Chu Qing.

Chu Qing’s voice screamed in her mind, bitter and furious. A heartbeat later, her will crushed it to dust.

She looked at her scaled dragon-claws. Under her gaze, they softened into human fingers.

“So this is what humans are like… mm-hmm.”

Fragments of the hearts’ owners poured into her mind, teaching her human things. Mimicking those memories, she snapped her fingers, a little stiff. The golden scales on her body slowly reshaped into a suit of armor.

She lifted the Earth Dragon Heart and set it into her chest.

The distant heart and the Key within the Earth Dragon Heart answered each other. Depth pooled in her pure-gold eyes.

“My master… I follow your guidance.”