Endless Evolution: Last Star

A strong coffee aroma emanated from two cups of freshly brewed coffee. Adam was sitting at the same table across from Silvana, enjoying some chocolate chip cookies.

There were several cookies on the saucer in front of Silvana as well, but she hadn't touched them yet, nor the coffee. She was checking something on her tablet with a serious expression.

The party had ended a few days ago - a small part of that time Adam had spent hanging out with his family, but the rest had gone into preparing for the next mission.

Sure, Fall Hill Prison, defeating Prago, uncovering The Will, and talking to Narata, Silvana, and Tron had taught him a lot, but none of it could increase his pure power.

In the end, only in Dead Lands, could the Phantom grow stronger. Adam understood and was delighted to be going on his first mission in a long time.

"So, who's my target?" Adam asked, taking a sip of coffee.

Silvana placed the tablet on the table, showing a picture of a monster.

Adam's gaze fell on the image of a massive stingray, but strangely, it was not in the water but high above the ground. The monster had a long, broad tail and oddly enough - six wings as if forged from metal.

"It's a Six-Winged Iron Stingray, Purple Threat Level, Red Book." Silvana explained, "A few weeks ago, a cascade of anomalies appeared in this region, they suddenly disappeared, and soon this monster showed up."

Adam nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"The Missions Department wanted to place an order for that monster a week ago because it made the region too dangerous. However, I explained the situation and persuaded them not to place the order and give you time to deal with it."

"I see... How strong is it? I mean, is this monster in the ranking?" Adam waved his hand. After defeating the North Keeper with Alexia, he didn't want to fight relatively weak opponents.

Adam was sure that he needed to raise the difficulty level, or at least stay at the same level to progress further.

Silvana closed her eyes for a while before replying:

"Normally, this particular Essence Monster that absorbed the lightning artifact would be rated as a Top 15-20. However, since there was a cluster of anomalies and thus the central artifact was quite powerful, this Six-Winged Iron Stingray is a bit stronger. Maybe Top 12."

Adam smirked.

"Good. It's certainly not a North Keeper, but it sounds pretty tough, too."

Silvana set the tablet aside and took a bite of a cookie.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, but... This mission will be a little different than all the others."

"Hmm?" Adam gave her a questioning look.

Silvana sighed, "Unless you count the fight with Brass Puppet, this will be your first solo mission. You won't even have the Harvesters with you, they'll come later to gather materials."

Adam was confident in his abilities, but he quickly realized that they had a big problem.

"Is something wrong?" Silvana raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at him intently.

Adam scratched his cheek shyly.

"Well... I'll have to drive there alone, I don't mind, but I don't know how to drive..."

"Hahaha." Silvana giggled, covering her mouth with her palm, such a reaction wasn't typical for her.

Adam frowned. He didn't understand what was so funny about that. His family didn't have money for a car, he had nowhere to get that skill.

"Don't worry. You won't have to drive anywhere." Silvana waved her hand.

Adam tilted his head in confusion.

"Since it's pretty far away and the mission is pretty important, the missions department has assigned a fighter specifically for you. Don't get too excited, it's just for this mission." Silvana calmly explained.

"Cool! That way, I'll be there very soon!" Adam clenched his fist with an excited expression.

Silvana nodded, finishing her cookie.

...

The next day, in the early morning, Adam headed towards Fort Norton, striding towards the fighter takeoff pad.

Oddly enough, this time, it was Lang as well - the pilot that had brought Adam and Silvana to Bastion Radon.

"Oh, it's been a while, hasn't it?" Lang waved his hand, smoking a cigarette.

Adam nodded.

"As far as I know, only the powerful and influential Phantoms have their own pilots. Is it really just luck that we've met again?"

Lang shrugged nonchalantly, "I guess. Sometimes, coincidences are crazy. I've seen stranger circumstances than this in my life."

Then, Lang threw away his cigarette and waved his hand.

"Come on. We're scheduled to leave in five minutes, let's not waste any time. And..." Lang paused, "Be ready. We're likely to be attacked. I've passed through that region more than once, the monsters there are pretty aggressive."

Adam nodded with a confident look. He realized that this was even more likely in his case, as he was a Naturalborn Phantom.

...

Lang checked all the sensors, waited for the command, and took off heading for Rusty Ruins. However, the Six-winged Iron Stingray was not in the Rusty Ruins, or rather not exactly in that area.

Their fighter was flying towards the border of the Rusty Ruins, where this area crossed with another, more distant and complex one - Salt Village.

Despite its name, it wasn't just a single, small village in the middle of the wasteland. Salt Village was a vast area covered in thick layers of salt and sparse ruins protruding from the ground.

In some ways, however, Salt Village was like Rusty Ruins, for the closer it got to the center, the more structures and dangerous monsters there were.

Adam didn't have to worry about encountering something stronger than Purple Threat Level, because the Six-winged Iron Stingray was only a hundred meters away from the border of the Rusty Ruins.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Suddenly, many red dots appeared on Lang's radar - the monsters were getting closer.

"Adam!"

"Yeah, I got it. Well, I guess I won't even have to fight against them." Adam smirked, glancing at the dozen monsters of medium strength. Previously, he would have needed to destroy each of them individually, but now he had another option!

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Adam's eyes flashed as his aura rapidly expanded to become a snow-white flame, consuming everything around him.