Chapter 238: Essence Versus the Unknown

I narrowed my eyes and let my thumb brush gently over his forearm. Something felt wrong beneath the skin—like something was alive inside, moving.

Without warning, I summoned a thin blade of hardened water and made a shallow cut just above his wrist. Black blood oozed out sluggishly. But it wasn’t just the blood.

A wisp of black smoke curled out from the wound.

My eyes widened.

I leaned in and studied the smoke, my Psynapse stirring in interest. The mist was light but it carried a strange weight, like hunger. I reached into my channels and drew out a thin thread of violet Essence—barely a wisp—and guided it into the cut.

The moment it touched the blackness inside his arm, something snapped.

My Essence was attacked.

The black smoke surged forward like a starving predator, wrapping around my Essence and tearing into it. My bond with the violet thread pulsed with resistance, but the smoke was relentless—devouring everything.

I sat still, stunned.

It ate my Essence.

I pulled my hand back, not out of fear but fascination. What kind of energy could devour pure Essence?

I licked my dry lips and tried again—this time inserting a little more. Same result. The smoke lunged, consumed, and grew darker. I could almost feel it becoming stronger after feeding.

I wasn’t done yet.

This time I focused, channeled a steady stream of Essence through my fingertips, and sent it coursing into Steve’s arm. As it filled the inner channels of his withered limb, the black smoke surged up to meet it but now my Essence wasn’t a snack. It was a wall.

They clashed.

The Essence and smoke collided in a slow-burning storm, each refusing to retreat. The corruption pulsed, coiled, and hissed, but it couldn’t consume everything this time. A perfect stalemate.

Then came the next test.

I activated one of my techniques—[Revert].

The Essence already entangled with the black smoke responded instantly to the command.

The effect was immediate.

A section of the black smoke shimmered, shook violently, then began to dissolve. It let out a strange, soundless scream as it vanished from existence. But I didn’t get to feel relief.

The rest of the black smoke went berserk.

It launched a full-scale assault on my Essence like a cornered animal. My connection trembled under the pressure, threads of violet burning away faster than I could replace them.

My jaw tightened.

This wasn’t going to work in the open. I needed more control.

I lifted my left hand and muttered:

“[Absolute Domain].”

A pulse spread from my palm, and in the next breath, Steve’s arm was sealed inside a sphere of violet light. I narrowed the boundaries—just large enough to include the decay but small enough that I could influence every particle inside.

Then I froze space.

The smoke halted mid-surge, trapped like insects in amber. I activated [Psynapse Overdrive], and the world sharpened into slow motion.

My thoughts sped up—tens of thousands of connections lighting up in my mind as I studied the composition of the smoke. My Essence hummed, weaving between smoke particles as I marked their origin and trajectory.

I targeted the densest clusters and used [Revert] again.

Twenty percent of the smoke shattered instantly, scattered like burned ash. The Domain flickered slightly, but held. Encouraged, I poured more Essence inside—doubling the amount, then tripling it. My Psynapse danced with the expanding wave.

More smoke dissolved.

Now it was fifty percent.

Then seventy.

Then ninety-eight.

The remnants fought with suicidal aggression, writhing against my domain. I locked my gaze on the final cluster—just one percent—and compressed it, folding my will around it.

A crystal formed, an ice cube, small as a fingertip, suspended in a swirl of violet Essence.

I slowly pulled it out of the wound, isolating it from Steve’s body.

As soon as it left, I clenched my fist.

The cube shattered in midair, releasing a wisp of harmless smoke that vanished under my will.

I turned my attention back to the wound.

Black blood still dripped from the cut but now I could see the color beginning to shift.

The corruption was gone.

Fresh red blood surged into the wound, pushing out the dead liquid. The dry bark texture on his arm slowly softened. Color began to return to the skin, not fully but enough.

I let out a slow breath, finally pulling my hands back.

Steve’s arm… was healing.

But I had lost nearly twenty percent of my Essence storage just fighting that thing inside him.

I let out a slow breath, my gaze drifting toward Ana’s wing—and my heart sank. Her condition was even worse.

I closed my eyes and let my channels open. Slowly, I began absorbing ambient energy to replenish my drained Essence.

As I waited, I thought about what I’d just discovered.

That black smoke… it wasn’t just some corrupted Essence. It was something else entirely.

First, it behaved like Essence—fluid, adaptable, and reactive. It could clash with mine, even devour it.

Second, it didn’t just eat Essence—it fed on life itself.

Third, if left alone, it would keep spreading—slowly, silently, unstoppably.

And finally… I remembered what it could be.

A guess I didn’t want to believe.

Everyone knew about them.

The Eternals had two primary weapons they used against the people of the universe, Abominations and Phantoms.

Abominations were brutal, mindless, and overwhelming. But Phantoms… they were something else entirely.

And what I had just faced inside Steve’s arm—how it devoured Essence, how it fed on life itself—

It matched everything I’d heard about them.

I wasn’t certain yet, but if my guess was right… then this wasn’t just corruption.

It was the mark of a Phantom.

My heart pounded in my chest as the weight of the deduction settled in. I clenched my jaw, unease curling in my gut. If I was right… if this really was a Phantom’s doing… then our chances of survival had just taken a sharp dive.

I took a slow breath, forcing myself to focus.

‘I need to treat Ana—fast—and figure out exactly what happened.’

I mentally retraced every step I had taken while dealing with the black smoke in Steve’s arm. And the more I thought about it, the more one thing became clear:

My method worked but it wasn’t efficient. Not even close.

I opened my eyes with a slow exhale, feeling the Essence flow settle in my channels again. My gaze shifted to Steve, still unconscious but breathing steadily now. I raised an eyebrow and let out a dry chuckle.

“I leave you alone for a little while,” I muttered, nudging his uninjured shoulder, “and you go and get cursed by smoke that eats life. What, the usual monsters weren’t exciting enough?”

I glanced at Ana next, her wing still motionless. My smile faded for a second, but I tried to lighten the mood. “Looks like I’ve got two full wings now,” I whispered. “You’re down to one and a half. I’m officially the better flyer.”

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!