The Five Evolution

『"Knowledge is currency. But leverage is power."』

For a long moment, nobody moved. The silence in the cavern was so complete that Amara could hear the oxygen still hissing from her mask.

Medics in hazmat suits stood frozen beside overturned equipment and half-packed evacuation cases.

Finally, she forced herself to speak, her voice hoarse. "Fine," she said flatly from her stretcher. "Talk."

The hooded Apostle tilted his head, as if surprised by her directness. "Direct. I appreciate that." He clasped his hands together politely. Somehow, the gesture felt like a threat.

"You don’t really understand what’s happening here. What you’re actually fighting against," he said. "The Institute has kept you compartmentalized, feeding you information in bite-sized pieces."

He began to walk slowly, his footsteps echoing. "The truth is, we’re not your enemy. We’re simply... pragmatic. We use methods your organization finds distasteful."

"Then why—" Amara asked, a frown now on her face. "Why send me that message? Why—"

The Apostle raised a hand gently. "Not yet," he said, and something in his tone made it clear the conversation was over on that topic. "There are other priorities."

Amara’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t press. Not with everyone’s lives in his hands.

"We’re on the same side, you know," he continued while slowly pacing. "At least broadly speaking."

"Uh-huh..." Hiro muttered.

"No offense," Ethan said carefully, "but you freezing my friend solid isn’t really helping your argument." He gestured toward Raj who was encased in blue ice.

The Apostle tilted his head in Raj’s direction. "Mm. Fair criticism."

"Yeah," Amara said, growing impatient. "So why don’t you spare us the drama and tell us—"

Before she could speak further, the sound of a sharp intake of breath, followed by a low groan interrupted the moment.

"Ahh... that bloody fucking dream..."

Everyone turned.

Dante slowly sat upright against a broken piece of machinery, rubbing the side of his head with a grimace.

"I was winning too," he muttered. "Then somehow my pants disappeared and there I was, fighting a Malice in my boxers..."

He blinked. Then saw the Apostle, and his expression immediately darkened. "...you."

The Apostle sighed softly. "And there goes the peaceful discussion."

Dante pointed accusingly. "You did that shit! You gave me that weird-ass dream!"

"Hm." The Apostle pulled out a silver pocket watch and checked the time. "As expected. Nocturne never lasts very long on monsters like the two of you."

A few meters away, Yelena groaned from the ground as she stirred constantly within the coffin of shadow that kept her immobilized.

Dante cracked his neck loudly while standing up. "Last time you caught me off guard." Blue energy exploded outward from his body as Requiem materialized in his hands.

"This time?" Dante grinned dangerously. "Let’s run it back."

"Dante," Ethan called, staring at the hooded figure. "Maybe you should rethink whatever it is you’re about to do."

Dante shot Ethan a grin as well. "It’s all good," he said to him, and he was off.

BOOM.

He launched forward without hesitation, cratering the ground beneath his foot as he swung Requiem through the air in a wide horizontal slash—

—and missed.

The Apostle leaned backward with an almost lazy grace as the axe-guitar passed inches from his nose, the strike whistling through empty air.

Dante reversed the strike immediately and pivoted, bringing the weapon around for another sweep, but missed again, the Apostle slipping sideways with minimal movement.

Dante pressed forward, delivering a series of upward thrusts and diagonal slashes, but the Apostle kept evading smoothly.

Weave.

Pivot.

Weave again.

It felt like he was dancing through the attacks rather than dodging them.

Sparks ignited across the cavern as Dante chained blows together faster and faster, each strike capable of splitting diamonds.

Yet none touched him, moving just enough to avoid contact.

"Hm," the Apostle mused while slipping beneath another slash. "Aggressive. Loud. Emotionally unstable." The Apostle’s tone was thoughtful, like a man evaluating merchandise.

"Shut the hell up!" Dante roared and brought Requiem down vertically, cratering the ground in the process.

Jumping backwards, the Apostle was already in the air, finally creating distance and landing beside the silent figure. The one who hadn’t spoken a single word since their arrival.

Two black elegant daggers appeared in the Apostle’s hands. They were shaped like fangs with golden outlines and a skull beneath the hilt of each blade.

The Apostle examined one blade, then without hesitation, dragged it across his own forearm. It was barely a scratch as a thin line of blood welled up. But the effect was instantaneous.

A surge of energy rippled through the Apostle’s body like he was being supercharged and buffed. His movements became sharper. His breathing steadier.

"What the hell..." Hiro whispered.

"Oh, fuck," Dante whispered, realizing what was going on.

"Dragon Fang," the Apostle said, staring at the blades before exploding forward, moving at a speed that made Dante’s earlier reflexes look pedestrian.

The first dagger slash came so fast it was nearly invisible, but Dante parried with the body of his guitar, the impact sending vibrations up his arms.

Again. And again. And again.

The Apostle’s twin daggers became a blur, each strike precise, calculated, searching for weaknesses.

Dante held the Requiem in front of him like a shield, parrying desperately, his feet sliding backward with each impact.

Then the Apostle found an opening.

He twisted mid-strike and one of the daggers found Dante’s leg, just above the knee. Slashing just deep enough to graze him. However, a graze was all he needed.

Dante felt it immediately, a spreading numbness, a weakness that flooded through his limbs like ice water. His speed dropped, his strength faltered, and the world suddenly felt heavier.

"What—" he gasped, but the Apostle was already spinning. The side kick that followed was like a cannon blast.

Dante raised his Requiem to block, and it worked, the guitar came up in time to intercept most of the impact.

But most wasn’t enough. The remaining force drove him backward, his feet leaving the ground entirely, and he smashed into the cavern wall with enough force to crater it.

Fractures immediately raced across the surface of Requiem and Dante’s eyes widened.

"Shit," he muttered, right before his weapon broke apart into glowing blue fragments with a sound like a tuning fork snapping.

Then it simply vanished, returning to his spiritual essence.

After that, Dante dropped to the ground, gasping for breath, the weakness inflicted by the dagger still coursing through him.

The Apostle stood motionless for a moment, then turned back to the group and exhaled as his twin daggers disappeared.

"Hm," he murmured, straightening his cloak. "I guess that’s the end of that."

His eyes drifted toward the Five. "It’s a shame I can’t add your weapons to my collection," his eyes narrowed. "Or we wouldn’t be having this conversation."

Behind him, the silent Apostle finally spoke.

"Enough." His voice was low, calm, and enough to make Ethan’s fingers clench into a fist from hearing it.

Amara’s eyes moved toward him again. He also had the same posture Ethan used when he was trying not to look angry. Except colder.

The Collector sighed dramatically. "You’re no fun."

Then he turned back toward the group and casually pointed at the massive incomplete awakening machine deeper within the cavern.

"Oh, before I forget," he said, "destroying the core triggered its self-destruct sequence."

Hiro’s face was drained of color. "What?"

The Apostle opened his pocket watch again with a soft click. "You have approximately..." he checked the ticking hands. "Five minutes."

His smile widened. "I strongly recommend not being here when that happens."

Immediately, several medics went into panic mode.

"Oh shit—"

"MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

"PACK EVERYTHING!"

While they packed up with haste, the Collector’s gaze shifted toward Maya’s unconscious body. "And you may wish to prioritize that one," he added softly.

"And you may wish to release our friend," Amara said from her stretcher, her eyes shifting to where Raj strained against the ice that encased him.

The Collector tilted his head, considering her. Then, with a soft smile, he snapped his fingers and ice shattered across Raj’s body.

"Thank you," Amara said, keeping her expression neutral as Raj stumbled forward, free.

He was quickly caught by Hiro, his body shivering.

"S-s-son ova b-b-bitch..." he spoke through chattering teeth.

The Collector walked back toward the center of the chamber, his gaze sweeping across all of them. "This is where we bid you adieu."

He bowed, raising his head slowly before adding, "just so you know, the Malices you all fought today were prematurely summoned. Do well to remember that when you celebrate your ’victory’."

"Let’s go," the silent one said—the second time he’d spoken, his voice eerily similar to Ethan’s but with a different cadence and weight.

And then they were gone, moving with a speed that made them vanish into the darkness within seconds.

In the background, the medics kept scrambling, one of them already helping up Dante to his feet. As for the five of them, no one said or did anything for a moment.

Then Hiro blurred toward the machine. A sonic boom cracked through the cavern as he vanished and reappeared beside it.

His eyes widened instantly. "Ohhhh, shit," he said, looking back at them. "This thing is absolutely gonna blow! We need to go, like right NOW!"

One of the medics immediately activated his comm. "We need emergency evacuation NOW! The self-destruct on the awakening device has been activated!"

Everyone moved at once. Medics scrambled to gather equipment, shoving instruments into containment cases. Someone was securing the stabilization tubes around Maya’s stretcher.

The shadow that had held Yelena evaporated, and she collapsed to her knees, snarling but unhurt as a medic came to check on her.

"Everyone moving!" one of the senior medics called out, already pushing Sophia’s stretcher toward the exit. "We’re abandoning this position. Fall back to secondary extraction point!"

Sophia blinked slowly from her own stretcher. "...is Raj still a popsicle?" she asked with a tired, worried look on her face.

Raj, running next to her bed on wheels stared at her. "No?"

"Oh." She nodded slowly. "Cool."

Amara was secured onto her stretcher, and suddenly they were moving—running, actually, through the cavern with equipment clattering and medics shouting coordinates to each other.

Ethan stayed beside her stretcher, keeping pace even as his eyes remained fixed on the path the silent Apostle had taken.

"Did you..." Amara had to ask, her voice low beneath the chaos around them. "Did you know that other guy?"

Ethan didn’t answer immediately. His jaw tightened. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet, meant only for her. "No."

But his expression told a different story. Curiosity. Confusion. And something that might have been recognition, waiting for a truth he wasn’t ready to name.

The cavern around them kept on rumbling softly as the countdown continued its relentless march toward zero.

Behind them, deep within the cavern, white light began leaking through the cracks in the incomplete machine.