Monarch was thriving, as usual. The suns continued to revolve around it, gaining far more speed when they disappeared from atop one of the entrances of the underworld, the continent humanity resided on.

  It took just a thought for Kassavin to facilitate the humans like that.

  The three moons, the domain of the Goddess of Peace, hummed in a pleasant symphony of mana that soothed the turbulent waves of Monarch's endless oceans, preventing an untimely end from befalling the little humans.

  It was a serene planet if one could ignore the unlimited number of monsters roaming the surface, the skies, and the depths, both underwater and underground.

  That semblance of peace was shattered rather abruptly.

  Kassavin's eyes shot open as a colossal torrent of mana poured out of them, stopping the passage of time for the entirety of Monarch.

  Only two things remained moving. Kassavin and a tendril of raw, compressed Chaos.

  Chaos was the name given to an invading reality, the reason for the ever-increasing levels of mana, the extremely high number of monsters, and the fall of many a galaxy at the edges of the universe.

  Which was why it was very alarming when the parasitic realm dared to act so boldly near a Soul Nexus.

  Kassavin's mind honed on the slippery tendril in a split instant without moving an inch physically, the abomination rending space in its path with no regard for attracting the horrors beyond the absence of reality.

  Anger surged in the Kassavin at the blatant display yet try as he might the tendril escaped all his attempts to stop its path, replacing his anger with uncertainty.

  This is no probing attack…

  Kassavin's attempts at teleporting it away were swiftly countered as the space mana was distorted beyond recognition, warped into small packets of chaos that further enabled the tendril to teleport ahead instead of hindering it.

  The increasing amount of time mana didn't seem to matter to it either, bypassing the slowed current entirely by pushing forward in the in-between.

  Kassavin realized something was truly wrong when the 'tendril' resisted the full power of his domain, somehow still pushing forward albeit at a much lower speed.

  He had already requested assistance from The System and by extension, Mana.

  There is something very strange happening here. Where is it even going?

  The System existed throughout most of the universe, both everywhere and nowhere at once. It was its domain, able to reach anywhere from anywhere.

  Reality darkened as the rebuff from the System forced the tendril to reveal its true form, a hideous tentacle with writhing flesh and veins of solidified black Chaos slithering on its surface. It was gigantic in size, able to sweep mountains with ease, though that was the norm with beings of Chaos.

  Far more worrying was the source. The tentacle was still connected to the parasitic reality through an extraordinarily durable and enhanced portal, fully stable despite opening in another reality.

  Kassavin left the tentacle to The System, for its fate was sealed now that it had been detected. He focused his efforts on the portal connected to the realm of Chaos, leaking the foul force onto their reality like maisma, to nip the problem in the bud.

  The tentacle did something Chaos had never done before and attacked The System directly. Kassavin didn't know why it was resorting to such futile tactics till he was unpleasantly surprised again.

  An extreme burst of Chaos came through the portal, smashing past Kassavin's domain and attempts to close the portal to empower the efforts of the tentacle.

  It still seemed a redundant course of action till the chaos warped, infecting a portion of The System's outer defenses. The burst of Chaos was spent completely as the tentacle wormed its way through the domain of The System, not even trying to corrupt it in the single-minded pursuit to an unknown destination.

  Both Kassavin and The System's efforts to destroy it were ignored completely, the mass of chaos sacrificing its mass and integrity in a suicidal charge to a connection of the system, formed with a particular sentient being.

  It gave one final push, bypassing the natural countermeasures of The System by corrupting them at key points, and entered the soul of the being on the other end.

  Lev's soul.

  That was when Mana itself acted, descending on the paused Monarch just before the human's soul could be corrupted. Time stopped for the entire universe, halting even Kassavin's efforts to help.

  The fabric of space trembled as three apex existences battled for control yet the tentacle still did not back down as the portal behind it was snapped shut, cutting it off from the source of its power.

  It did not stop as the full might of Mana pushed it back, its body slowly disintegrating into mana itself.

  A faint, incomparably smaller puff of Chaos was all that could reach the boy's soul before it dissolved completely.

  To Lev however, that was more than enough to be lethal.

  His soul instantly started to warp, an instant away from ruining the ongoing evolution before the iron will of Mana clamped down on it, preventing it from distorting further.

  A single drop of unfathomably potent life mana was infused into the soul, thoroughly cleansing the chaos and further enhancing the soul past its original limit.

  Just like that, the danger had passed, all in less than a single second. The flow of time returned to its natural state as if nothing had transpired, and every being in the universe except Kassavin remained oblivious to the monumental event that had just taken place.

  Kassavin had observed the scene in silence, having never seen something like that ever happen before. Mana and Chaos constantly clashed but never to protect something so… small.

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  Chaos did all of that… to corrupt a human evolving for the first time?

  That made absolutely no sense to him. Why would Chaos, an entire invading realm, try to end a mere human like that?

  What could possibly spook it to this degree? What even is special about humans?

  Kassavin turned his attention to the humans of Monarch, thoroughly oblivious to the events a second prior. They were all so small and fragile.

  Frankly insignificant.

  They are not bound to a single element, which is not that uncommon. Even if the reincarnator reaches the absolute apex of his kind's potential, he will still be limited to the same tool that many races already have.

  Time and Space are two types that would be a great boon to him, but many already have them. Even higher, there's life and death. Neither is of any threat to Chaos.

  The highest mana types are Creation and Oblivion but many divinities have that too. Why, then, did it react-

  …

  For a human to accomplish that… surely not.

  Yet the idea refused to leave his vast mind. It had taken root like the corruption of Chaos itself, somehow cementing itself as a fact.

  It didn't help that it was likely the true explanation.

  The more Kassavin thought about it, the more ridiculous yet believable the theory seemed.

  His mind, usually calm like a still lake, spun at the speed of light. More and more, he was starting to believe what could be possible.

  The endless possibilities made him physically move beyond opening his eyes for the first time in countless thousand years as Kassavin graced the world with the sight of his perfect pearly white fangs in a wide grin.

  I should do my part to facilitate it too, then.

  ****

  Lev woke up shivering like prey caught in a predator's jaws, cold sweat running down his back and eyes refusing to focus on what was in front of him.

  What… is going on…

  His mind hazily tried to take stock of the situation, barely noting the warm hands holding him. With an effort of will, Lev forced his eyes shut and took deep breaths, like he always did in such situations.

  For several minutes, he focused on his thundering heartbeat and the sound of his breathing. The arms warped around him were still there, and Lev was starting to realize his head was also on something soft.

  Probably Orianna. I can't even blame her for worrying this time, what the actual fuck is going on.

  When his shivering was reduced to occasional tremors running through his body, Lev opened his eyes again. The suns were still high in the air, exactly where they were before he initiated the evolution.

  Orianna was looking down at him with deep, palpable worry in her eyes. Lev still couldn't quite hear her properly. The other two were nowhere to be seen.

  "Talk… me… Lev,"

  Lev blinked for a few seconds before the world came into focus with a suction noise as his brain caught up.

  "What's wrong, Lev. Can you hear me?"

  Only now did Lev realize the world seemed to be awash in a fiery orange color. Several fire soldiers, each three meters in height, were surrounding them.

  "I'm fine," Lev croaked out, his voice a little deeper than before. Come to think of it, his body felt weird too. "What's going on,"

  "I am asking the same," She commented, helping him sit up. "This is not very standard, Lev. People don't suddenly grow after an evolution."

  What? Grow?

  Only now did he realize his clothes were slightly tighter, the nature of the fabric still making them feel normal. He was taller, a little over five feet now.

  His legs were still thin for his stature but not as skinny as before. There was some meat on them that came from… where? Same for his long arms that were more defined than he expected them to be. How had he just grown up without any prelude or indication?

  He was still looking over himself when Alec and Sherron returned with Diana in tow. The latter's healing skill washed over him instantly, finding nothing wrong with his body or soul.

  "He's … fine?" Diana commented, thunderstruck. Memory at Master rank was vastly improved, so she definitely noticed his growth.

  Sherron and Alec were similarly rooted on the spot too, staring at him with mouths hanging open. The soldiers had also vanished.

  "Lev?" Sherron called out, gently.

  "Yeah?" Lev replied, similarly carefully.

  "What the fuck?"

  "I haven't the foggiest."

  "That is not an acceptable answer," Sherron whispered while his mentor had no qualms about moving up close. For the first time, Alec grabbed Lev and checked for any injury or deformation from multiple angles but there was none.

  Lev had just aged a year or so as if that much time had actually passed.

  "Why does this keep happening to me," Lev spoke with a nervous chuckle, his panic spiking again at the slightly different voice coming out of his mouth.

  "You will need to come with me," Diana declared, leaving no room for argument.

  Lev had no problems with that, wanting to confirm he was completely fine too.

  "But, what even happened?" Alec asked, now sitting down with him.

  "I don't know," Lev honestly replied. "I remember starting the evolution and then waking up like this."

  Oh fuck, the evolution.

  It took all his willpower to not dive into his notifications and think about the situation at hand.

  "My questions were about how to help humanity as a whole and how to survive on Monarch," Lev changed the topic to something that made more sense, only to be met with even more bad news.

  "For the former, keep leveling. For the latter, We… can't?" Lev muttered in disbelief. "That can't be right. Surely we can survive."

  Nobody corrected him. "We just have to find somewhere safer and slowly build our forces. Surely there's more than a few methods for assured survival."

  Lev desperately looked at everyone present, hoping for someone to say something.

  "You knew?" Lev slowly breathed out, shoulders sagging in defeat.

  "That the answer will be the same as always? Yes," Sherron spat, bitter for the first time in all the time they had spent together.

  "You wanted me to see for myself?" Lev hazarded a guess about why it had been kept from him.

  "There was a small chance that you might come back with a different answer," Orianna softly whispered. "Otherwise, we just wanted you to know what we will be standing against."

  "Guaranteed extinction?"

  "No," she shook her head. "We have many ways to ensure the survival of a few if the worst comes to pass. The real task is to keep the cities standing and thriving,"

  Lev wanted to say something but held his tongue. These people had been fighting for humanity for centuries now, yet they still believed survival to be a dream.

  It just didn't make sense.

  He would have to make it make sense, then.

  Not a lot of choices to go with, Lev mused with a hollow chuckle. On one hand, they could bang their head against a supposedly impossibly durable wall. The System at least believed so.

  On the other hand, they could just roll over and die. That was a choice so ridiculous that it was simply not a choice.

  That was always the plan, anyway. To go beyond what was considered possible. To save as many lives as I can and make life generally better.

  Nothing had truly changed, just a few words from an important being telling him the impossible was more impossible than they suspected.

  That was fine.

  He would fight. Giving up was not an option, nor did he believe he ever could. It would take a single moment of need for him to change his mind, anyway. Lev would much rather be prepared for such inevitabilities instead of being forced to fight.

  That was his desire, his will.