Seducing the Guideverse With My System — Raising an Anomaly [BL]

Chapter 116: _Not Ordinary

"You... are not meant to be here."

For what felt like an eternity after those words echoed through the cave, no one could speak or even breathe too loudly. Everyone tried hard to believe they didn’t hear that right. That they didn’t hear the core of an anomalous Rift... talk.

Even Ambrose didn’t realise when his eyes began dancing around, searching for someone, anyone else who would’ve probably said that.

But they were standing right before it.

The veins crawling across the core’s form shifted, the entirety of the mass twitching. "You aren’t... part of the recycling system." That voice thundered again. "Humans."

Devon was naturally the first to break the silence. "Did that thing just fucking speak?"

"I mean," Viktor chimed, "unless I’m officially losing my mind and we didn’t all hear that, then yeah. It did."

"Fascinating." Valentine’s expression shifted into one of pure intrigue, making Devon and Viktor turn their heads to him. "It seems to understand the context of what it’s saying too. A close replication of true sentience—if not exactly that."

Ambrose was too busy running analytics with the system to cut the Necromancer a look. ’Help us out here. This thing... is just a giant mass of aether energy and the dead essences of creatures. Right?’

[If you want to go the basic route, then yes. More technically, it’s the culmination of life force, incomplete beast matter, aether and the consciousness of fallen beasts.]

’Of course it’s more technical,’ Rose didn’t try arguing. ’What rank? It’s definitely beyond S-Rank and Valentine said it’s—’

[Close to being a proper SSS-Rank threat. Yes. That will be correct.]

[I can confirm that it’s indeed the heart, brains and power source behind the entirety of this Rift. Meaning if it’s able to get destroyed...]

Ambrose’s eyes lit up.

The Rift would crumble with it!

’So all we need now,’ he thought to himself, ’is a plan. Maybe—’

The sudden drop in air temperature around him made him pause. He inclined his head to his right in horror, shifting back when he saw Viktor’s arms stretched toward the core.

Two powerful blasts of frost shot out, striking the core with enough force to send dust, snow and debris flying.

"Viktor—!" His scolding stuck in his throat as Devon also stepped forward, fingers blazing with yellow flames.

Ice and fire converged in a twin blast, the thermal overload pulsing through the air and either melting or freezing the ground around them.

This extended for several seconds, the pressure sending cracks through the cave. It was only when both men felt worn out that they stopped.

Viktor doubled over, resting his hands on his knees. He snapped his neck to Gabriel and Valentine. "What? You two have decided to save your asses and let us do all the work?"

Gabriel was about to speak but Valentine beat him to it.

"Did you really think for a second that a core which we now know ABSORBS and recycles aether, would get scratched at all by your attacks?"

The words were like a bomb, making Viktor’s eyes bulge. He snapped his neck back to the core, breath hitching as the fog from the blast slowly cleared.

Once it did, all they saw... was the core, throbbing like a snake that just got fully fed. Its veins glowed even brighter. The incomplete bodies no longer dissolved back into the mass—instead gradually crawling out.

"Y’all just fed that thing." Ambrose trembled, shaking his head. "Shit—we have to get out of here."

"And let that thing create something worse than the Leviathan and the humanoid combined?" Gabriel gave him a disapproving look. "No. We need to end this."

"What we need to do," Devon, still short of breath, cut in, "is go back as fast as we can. Call in reinforcements who can help us destroy this thing."

Valentine sniggered. "And what do you think they’ll do? Blast it harder?"

"We at least have to try something instead of standing around."

The arguing turned to background noise as Ambrose squinted. His mind flowed through everything they knew about the Echo Rift’s core.

Since it had already gotten to the stage of a dungeon break, it didn’t have a fixed ’boss’ whose defeat would close the Rift. If anything, the core itself might be the closest thing to a boss.

And now they couldn’t defeat it because their attacks and powers were powered by aether. So, destroying it wasn’t an option. At least, not conventionally.

’If we want to bring it down,’ his breathing stilled. ’It won’t be about destroying it. We’ll have to...’

His eyes widened, the words slipping out before he could stop them. "... Override its main function."

All heads turned to him as one. Gabriel especially had his mouth parted for a good moment.

"What did you say?"

Ambrose repeated himself, this time lowering his voice. "This thing works by absorbing and recycling aether. Imagine if something or someone hijacks that function. Disrupts the aether flow."

Devon’s frown deepened. "Disrupt? Like... maybe halt it completely or redirect it entirely—"

"Like a Guide?" Viktor and Valentine said in unison, both exchanging a glance. Everyone appeared to be catching on with what Ambrose was saying.

Gabriel’s expression darkened almost instantly.

"Exactly like a Guide," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. Then his head snapped up. "But not this Guide."

The weight of his words settled heavily as all eyes shifted—inevitably—to Ambrose.

There was a beat of silence.

"No." Gabriel’s voice cut through it. "Absolutely not."

Ambrose blinked. "Gab—"

"You’re barely holding your own against Viktor’s instability, and you want to interface with that?" Gabriel pointed at the core, his tone rising. "You’ll get overloaded in seconds. Your mind will collapse before you even make contact."

"That’s if it doesn’t absorb him first," Devon added under his breath, clearly unsettled.

Ambrose’s jaw tightened. "It’s our only option."

"No, it’s a suicide attempt."

"Look at it!" Ambrose snapped, pointing past them.

The core had begun to change again.

The veins pulsed erratically, dragging more and more matter toward their centre. The half-formed bodies no longer collapsed—they fused.

Layered over each other. Limbs knitting into limbs. Something... building.

And the pressure. It spiked.

Even Valentine’s smirk had vanished. "It’s accelerating," he murmured.

A low, reverberating sound rolled through the cavern.

Then the voice returned. Clearer this time. "You persist... in inefficiency." The mass convulsed. "You were never meant... to interfere."

The veins lit up—

—and then they moved.

Dozens of them ripped free from the walls with wet, tearing sounds, snapping through the air like whips of living light.

"MOVE!" Gabriel shouted.

Chaos erupted.

A glowing vein shot straight for Devon—he barely rolled out of the way, heat flaring from his palms as he burned through another mid-air.

Viktor conjured a wall of ice, shattering three incoming strands. But a fourth pierced straight through his shoulder. A sickening sound followed.

The ice Prince choked, body jerking as the vein pinned him back, lifting him slightly off the ground.

"Viktor!" Devon’s voice cracked.

The vein pulsed like it was drinking.

"Get it off!" Viktor snarled, frost erupting wildly around him, but the moment it touched the vein, it got dragged inward—absorbed.

"Shit—shit—!" Ambrose didn’t think or wait.

He bolted.

"AMBROSE, WAIT—!" Devon shouted after him.

Too late.

Ambrose weaved forward, barely ducking as a vein lashed toward his head. He slid under another, heart hammering as the air screamed around him.

"Valentine!" Gabriel barked.

"I see him." The Necromancer stepped forward, shadows snapping to life.

Skeletal hands burst from the ground, grabbing onto several veins, slowing them just enough.

"Cover him," Valentine added, almost lazily.

Gabriel gritted his teeth, space warping as he redirected two incoming strikes away from Ambrose’s path.

Devon followed, flames roaring as he burned through another cluster.

"Go, go!" Ambrose didn’t look back or stop.

The closer he got, the louder it became.

The pulsing. The whispers. The noise.

Until finally he reached it.

The mass loomed before him, writhing, alive. That forming thing within it twitched—almost aware.

Ambrose hesitated just for a second.

Then he raised his hand. "Fuck it." And pressed it against the core.

Sound exploded in his head.

Screams. Roars. Thoughts that weren’t his. Countless voices, layered, crushed together—dying, reforming, dissolving.

Ambrose gasped, his body locking as the aether surged through him like a flood. Blood trickled down from his nose.

His vision blurred but he held on, forcing the connection deeper.

"Come on..." he rasped. "Just... a little—"

A voice slipped into his head before he could finish.

’You are... not ordinary.’ The presence coiled tighter around his mind. Curious. Hungry.

’What... are you?’