The melody of blades, a dissonant symphony of steel on steel, echoed through the ravaged city once again.
This was the song of war, an anthem for refusal, for an indomitable spirit that refused to bow, no matter how many times it was struck down.
It rattled eardrums, a visceral vibration that shook the very air, a battle far from over.
High atop the guild rooftops, Raul's eyes, previously dulled with despair, widened.
"The Central Park… it's started again!"
The blood surged back into his face, a jolt of adrenaline chasing away the encroaching shadows of defeat.
"Ottar still stands," Finn breathed, his voice laced with renewed hope.
"The battle's not over yet!"
Clenching a fist as if to physically grasp victory, the Pallum hero barked orders.
"Raise the flag!" he commanded a Loki familia aide.
"Rally the strongholds! Let this cry fuel the flames of war!"
The aide scrambled, unfurling the banner of the trickster god, its colors a defiant beacon against the smoke-choked sky.
Across the city, strongholds responded in kind, their own banners snapping in the wind, a chorus of defiance.
At the frontlines of the Ganesha familia home, their patron god, his booming voice a roar of pride, saw the signal.
"The Warlord! He has not fallen!"
Shakti seized this turning tide, her allies galvanized by the news.
"Stand up! Listen to that chime! Orario will not fall while that bell tolls! Add your voices to the chorus!"
A primal cry erupted.
"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!"
The adventurers, across every faction, their wills forged into a unified roar, shook the earth. Loki, Freya, Ganesha, Ishtar, Bahamut – the titans of Orario, the greatest familias, were on the frontlines, howling their defiance.
These were the cries of the struggling, of those who yearned for greater heights, wild beasts yearning for their moment in the sun.
Even those unable to wield a blade could contribute.
They could sing, they could aid, they could heal, their collective will a potent force.
For justice resided within each of them, a burning light to consume the encroaching darkness. With the song of war as their guide, they drew their swords, raised their shields, and gripped their staffs, ready to fight once more.
"Tsk, it seems the adventurers have gained another wind. How many times has this happened already?" Mors, perched on a rooftop within the Ganesha familia's inner sanctuary, cursed under his breath.
"Heh, looks like you might need a little help after all… Zald. But before that, I should probably get rid of that pesky barrier," he muttered to himself.
Below, Adi lay broken.
Her single arm and both legs were shattered, yet she crawled, her vision blurring with pain, towards her unconscious friend, Draco.
Mors had shown a flicker of restraint, leaving her alive, and in that survival, Adi found a sliver of hope.
She felt it deep within, a revolution was brewing.
Her gaze was fixed on Draco, who was beginning to stir.
Adi's heart swelled with a desperate hope that the one known as 'Monster' to both the Evilus and the adventurers might just be the catalyst for change.
.........…..
In other parts of Orario....
"Graaaaaaahhh!"
"Stop it, Bete, you'll die!!" a girl cried out.
"Like hell I will!! You think I got any business dying out here?!" Bete yelled back.
Ignoring Selenia's cries, the wolf-boy allowed the beat of the boar man's war drums to flow through him, driving him on while the weak kneeled, subdued, behind him.
Seeing him fight so hard in the flames of self-destruction irritated a certain follower of Ishtar standing nearby.
"Samira! Aisha! Don't let that beast-boys group outdo us!!"
"Ge-ge-ge-ge-geh! Stop right there, uglie's!" Phryne cried out.
"Whoa! It's the toad!" Selenia muttered, giving some distance.
The sound of Aisha's sword, Phryne's charge, and Samira's wild blows all combined into the song of the Berbera, laying waste to any monsters that stood in their way.
Meanwhile, a horde of magic swordfighters attacked a lone group in unison.
"Four o'clock! Attack incoming!"
"Filvis! Watch our backs!"
"Dio Grail!"
The proud elf's chant produced a barrier to protect her friends.
As the fires beat against it, the barrier creaked and groaned, but held firm.
"Erisuis! Hurry! Run, run, run!!"
"Shut up! I'm the one who has to carry you! Just chant already!"
"In the name of all that is holy….I heal you! Dia Frater!!"
With Naaza handling all her other functions, Airmid sat atop the animal girl's shoulders, casting her spells.
...….
"Captain Tsubaki! Don't do it! Those spirit warriors will grind you into paste!"
"If the Freya familia falls, we all fall! So fight! Kill! Any man or woman who holds back is an embarrassment to their craft!"
Tsubaki ignored her underling's cries, flying into battle with a sword in each hand and her whole body red with blood.
"Isn't that right, Mia?!"
The dwarven proprietress swung her shovel, taking out not just a deep level monster, but also two spirit warriors in a single blow.
"You really need to ask? It doesn't matter whether you are an adventurer or a blacksmith, all that counts is that you're the last one standing!! So give him a good kick in the rear, boar boy!!" she yelled toward Central Park.
Spirits were burning.
The city was on fire.
The cries of adventurers, the verses of mages and healers, the hammer-song of blacksmiths….they all combined into a flaming inferno capable of banishing the darkness from every corner.
All directed their voices toward the center of the city, where two great men warred.
The people grasped at victory, just as that boar did.
"Look, Ouranos… This is the city of heroes."
Fels paused amid their tireless errands and looked out over the city.
They listened to its wild yet noble voice.
And, lacking eyes with which to cry, chose to add their own voice to the cacophony.
"So will it ever be, even now that Zeus and Hera are gone!"
The city believed in heroes.
It believed in the lights that lay beyond ash-gray skies.
Its people combined their strengths, their skills, their wisdom, and their magic, to ensure that good triumphed over evil.
Asfi, on the verge of exhaustion, heard the cries of the city, and a flame lit anew in her heart. "Falgar! Move our front lines forward!!"
She leaped at the monsters attacking her allies, thrust her dagger, and bathed in their ash.
Wiping it, as well as her own blood, with her arm, she did what needed to be done.
"We can't waste this flame the Warlord has lit! When it goes out, our city falls!"
"Grh… Understood! Move out!!"
Willing his battered body to move once more, Falgar did what needed to be done.
Over in the casino area, the city's song breathed new life into the war zone.
Adventurers were a wild breed; people who spent all their time in an underground labyrinth infested with hideous creatures.
It hardly came as a surprise that they had determination and drive.
Nobody knew more about surpassing one's limits than they.
To the evilus however, this mysterious resurgence was a terrifying mystery.
The adventurers new wind threw their commanders for a loop.
"Curse you, adventurers!"
"Don't they ever run out of strength?!"
After the deep-level monsters had begun to turn the tide of battle, now it seemed as though the adventurers stood a chance again.
The fight for the Labyrinth City was not yet over.
The song of battle could go on for many more verses yet.
...
"What's Zald doing in there?" snarled Valletta, watching the adventurer's flags go up across the five strongholds.
"Why is it taking so long to kill one boar?!. Cause of him, Orario's getting ideas again!"
It could not be said that Valletta underestimated her foes.
Orario had earned its name as the center of the world, and Valletta knew that better than anyone. She knew she had to curb this spike in enemy morale before it was too late, and so she turned to her subordinate and gave her next orders.
"Release all the monsters we got," she spat.
"Every last one of them!"
"A….a…all of them?" her subordinate stammered.
"But, ma'am, there aren't enough tamers to go around! If we do that, the monsters will attack people on our side, too!" the evilus squad captain spoke reason.
There were barely enough tamers to keep the monster population in check as it was, and that was with every man and woman in active duty.
But Valletta answered his concerns with only a cruel smile.
"We don't need tamers! Let them die for all I care! If a monster gets them, that means they were too weak to help us in the first place!"
"Ghhhr…! U-understood, ma'am!"
His face pale, the cultist hurried to carry out her request.
He still had his misgivings, but wasn't willing to die for them.
Valletta placed little stock in such niceties as "trust" and "comradery."
She ruled with an iron fist, and if that earned her the ire of those under her command, then so be it.
In return, the strict hierarchy worked wonders for the speed and efficiency of her leadership.
To her, the men and women in her care were nothing more than pawns, to be used and abused as she saw fit.
"Run in front of the monsters and lead them to Central Park!"
There were many ways to stop Orario from reigniting its fighting spirit, but the most effective way laid at the center of the city….Ottar and Zald's battle, the source of the ceaseless wails that the city took for hope.
Valletta lifted her twisted sword.
Her fur-lined coat fell around her legs as she aimed its tip at the white-walled tower.
"I ain't waiting for Zald, or that useless half-elf any longer! We will trash that barrier ourselves and bring down Babel, then flatten that boar bastard as well!".
........
"M-more monsters spotted!! They're heading…straight for Central Park!!"
That message was like a bomb dropping on the rooftop of the guild.
"They've reached the barrier! They're flooding in from all parts of the city, sir!"
Raul paled and stared at the hemispherical barrier in the center of town, which buzzed and sparked beneath the weight of the monsters' claws.
The horde filled the streets, converging on the barrier while preying on any adventurers who stood in their way.
"Valletta…!!"
Finn ground his teeth and cursed.
He had already caught on to his opponent's goal…..to let loose every last monster they had and concentrate their forces in Central Park.
At the Arena....
"Master Allen!, the monsters are nearing Ottar and Lady Freya!"
"Grh…!! You guys stay here; I'm heading over there!"
"M-Master Allen?!"
Allen was reinforcing the front lines alongside Tsubaki and Mia, but the moment he heard the report, he wasted no time.
He abandoned his assigned duties and dashed off towards the Central Park, leaving the poor messenger in the dust.
But he alone was not enough to turn the tide of war.
A large monster suddenly approached the barrier and turned on the mages maintaining it.
Vasiliki watched on in horror as it devoured one of them in a single bite.
"The other mages!" cried Vasiliki, spurring Eleni and Michalis to act.
"The barrier will collapse!" Asfi yelled from the distance.
"Get away from there! No!!"
Asfi screamed in vain.
She wanted nothing more than to run to their aid, but knew the moment she deserted her post, all the civilians' lives would be forfeit.
In stark contrast to her grief, the nearby Olivas chuckled with joy.
"Heh-heh-heh-heh! I like the way you think, Valletta! I think I'll join in the fun! I want to be there when this city falls!"
Leading his followers into the city center, revenge lent his own bloodthirsty hands to the cause.
It was a parade of death.
Hordes of monsters coursed down the eight main streets, converging on the central barrier.
A small collection of evilus troops watched the march from the rooftops and thanked their dark gods they weren't down there in the thick of it.
Dragon-fire, and the flames of magic swords, beat against the barrier, causing small cracks to appear across its surface.
Its fall was inevitable.
It was only a matter of time.
Nobody could reinforce the mages or so much as leave the strongholds to which they had been assigned.
Bete, Aisha, Phryne, and Samira clicked their tongues in frustration.
Filvis, Amid, and Naaza gave in to despair.
Tsubaki, Mia, Hedin, and Hegni, locked in battle with the sirens; the Gullivers, holding their own against Basram's spirit warriors….all their faces turned sour.
Eleni and Michalis also gave up on the other mages and the barrier, their only focus was getting the exhausted Vasiliki away from the center of the chaos.
Fels watched on in horror as their crystal orb fell from their hand and shattered to pieces on the floor.
"No, stop… Stopppp!!"
There was nothing the adventurers could do but rock the gray skies with their screams.
"Hyah-hah-hah-hah! This is the end, Orario!!"
Atop her rooftop, Valletta laughed wildly, safe in the knowledge her victory was close at hand.
Evil rallied in triumph once more.
The iron hammer raised, ready to come down and end the folly of justice once and for all.
The people were running out of prayers.
The adventurers succumbed to despair.
Even the gods looked on, powerless and ashamed.
All of them knew, deep in their hearts, that the end approached.
"...…"
Among them all, one man stood still, looking out over the war zone that his home had become.
Then, turning his back on his familia's stronghold, the man called out to his allies.
"Dyne."
"Yup?"
"Baha."
"You got it."
The two other veterans of Loki familia gathered at Noir's side.
"You don't have to say it," the Amazon said.
"We know what you're thinking."
"…Sorry. But let me say one thing anyway."
The old man grinned a mischievous smirk.
"It's been a real pleasure working alongside you old dogs!"
The three shared a smile, evoking memories of the first time they ever strode through the dungeon's gates side by side.
"…Guys? Where're you going?"
It was Loki who spotted them as they got ready to leave, as she watched the war play out from the mansion's bridge.
With her divine insight, she didn't fail to spot the do-or-die attitude in each of their expressions. Noir looked back over his shoulder and flashed her a smile.
"Loki… See you."
"…W-wait! Noir!!"
But the three veterans turned and vanished on the wind.
'Sorry, Loki. It's a real shameful way to go, defying our mistress like this. I hope you can forgive us.'
Noir danced across the rooftops, carving his final regrets into his heart.
The other members of the Loki familia watched on in shock as the three veterans shot off like arrows and disappeared.
Their destination…was the Central Park.
Noir's lips curled up as he prepared to unleash his sword.
"In return, I'll show you what an old dog can do!"
.........
"The Central Park is under attack from every direction!" came Raul's despair filled voice. "They're targeting our mages! The barrier won't last much longer!"
Finn swore he could hear Valletta somewhere, laughing at him.
He put his mind to work immediately, searching for a way out, but fate was not nice enough to wait for him to arrive at an answer.
"None of the strongholds can spare anyone to send help! We're doomed!"
"The horde's just too big! What are we supposed to do?"
"Even Vana Freya can't defend Babel from all sides at once! Anyone else we send in there is just going to get themselves killed!"
Finn was at a loss.
He couldn't divert any more first-tier adventurers without sacrificing the defense of the strongholds.
Finding the numbers was an impossible task, especially since Babel needed protecting from every angle.
'Perhaps if I abandon one of the strongholds and redirect the guard… No! If I sacrifice the people now, morale will drop to an all-time low! We can't suffer another loss like we had on the first night of the war. We may save Babel, but it'll all be for nothing if the city and its people are lost! Valletta still has forces monitoring the city walls. Not much, but enough to make things difficult for us!' his mind churned.
The hectic situation demanded every aspect of Finn's mind, and it was critical that he maintained the guise of the cold-hearted hero: prepared to make any sacrifice if it would bring him victory. The only choices left now were suicidal, guaranteed to cause the chain of command to crumble. But if this was the only way forward, then…
"…Hmm?"
It was at that moment, lost in thought, that Finn's wandering eyes fell on something.
"C-Captain? What's the matter? What have you seen? …!"
Raul followed his gaze and saw it, too.
To the north, three figures, making a beeline for the Central Park.
"Is that…?" he asked, shocked.
"…Noir?" Finn completed the question, equally dumbfounded, as he recognized them.
The three veterans of the Loki familia, running wildly through the streets, cutting down all in their path.
......….
"Yaaaahaaaa!!"
"Graaaaah!!"
Noir's slash drew a death cry from the monster.
He continued on through the ruins of north main street, slicing apart the parade of fiends, starting from the back.
"You got any more, Dyne?"
"Yup, picked these ones up just now."
"Well, hand them over, then!"
Dyne passed something to Noir, which he slipped under his clothes.
"Now we're ready! Let's give those monsters a blast!" yelled Baha, waving something she had snatched from the Loki familia home before their departure...the trickster's flag.
"Right, then! Off we go!" cried Noir, and Baha and Dyne joined her, disappearing into the monster horde.
"Wh-what are they doing? They've lost it!" cried Raul, watching events play out from the rooftop of the guild.
"You can't fight them alone! Come back!"
But Raul's screams went unheard by those he sought to warn.
The veterans all wore grim, determined smiles, slicing and dicing a path through the horde. "Noir…don't tell me."
Finn could guess what they were thinking.
There was only one solution to the current predicament, and Noir, Dyne, and Baha had figured it out first.
The veteran adventurers had gone on ahead, sparing Finn from the difficult decision that had to be made.
Over on the enemy side, the evilus were beginning to notice, too.
It was Olivas squad who spotted them first.
"M-Master Olivas! We're under attack!" cried a scout.
"A handful of adventurers have engaged the monsters in the north!"
"What?!" Olivas scowled.
"Those foolish adventurers! What do they hope to accomplish?"
Burning with indignation, he led his troops northward.
Meanwhile, the other adventurers saw the changing tides.
"Many of the monsters…they're heading north?" remarked Shakti, perplexed.
"C-Captain! Look!"
Her subordinate pointed to a spot amidst the horde…where a single faction's war banner flew. "…Loki familia?"
Beside her, Ganesha wore an expression of deepest regret.
"…So that's what you've chosen, brave warriors…" he said, his heart full of anguish.
Even the younger ones among them were starting to notice.
"Don't tell me…"
"…They plan to die out there?!"
All knew what the frenzied cry of the veterans meant.
"Rooooooaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!"
It was a funeral dirge sung by old warriors and meant for the new.
As they hacked a path, turning red with the blood of their foes and themselves, they left behind a comet tail of light.
They held out life's flaming torch for the next generation to take, and with it, they burned the raging shadows to ash.
"Noir!!" Finn screamed.
For the first time, and the last, he dropped his guise.
For one moment, he was not the callous commander…but a fledgling hero concerned for his dear mentors.
.........…..
"Haah… Haah… …Rrraaaaaghhh!!" Noir howled.
Losing strength by the minute, he focused all his remaining life force into a thundering roar. When did it start?
As his body weakened Noir retreated to the dark, dusty confines of his mind.
'When did it start, I wonder?'
The creeping feeling of inevitability.
'How long ago had it begun? And when did it replace the drive of youth?'
His arms were tired.
His vision faltered.
His legs, like withered trees, refused to obey him anymore.
The gods' blessings could only prolong his life so much.
Soon enough, the realities of the flesh began to sink in.
He was getting too old to be a hero.
He could hold his own for now, but another three years, and who knew?
'I suppose it's time to hand off…'
His life.
For hope.
For the next generation.
"Listen to me, all you tired old dogs out there! Let's show the little ones how it's done!"
By Noir's side, the dwarf Dyne lay down a challenge to all his peers.
With a burly arm, he lifted Noir back to his feet.
Baha patted the dust off his back and laughed a boisterous laugh.
"We're going on ahead to take all the glory!" she yelled.
"If you don't like it, then try to keep up!"
Even if they couldn't see her face, anyone could imagine the brazen smile across her lips as she invited the city's old veterans to their final feast.
"You Loki familia scoundrels…" muttered one, an animal man.
"Always trying to show us up!"
"Trying to egg us on, are ye?" growled a dwarf.
"You think we'll let you outdo us?" snarled a human.
Senior adventurers from every familia grinned and set out to uphold their pride.
Leaving the future in their juniors' hands, those old men and women each embarked on a one-way trip to the city center.
In the southern stronghold, Falgar looked on in shock as the older cohorts set off on their final journey.
"You… You're kidding, right? Don't go!!"
He tried in vain to stop them.
They all departed with a daring smile and a twinkle in their eye.
"The veterans… They're all leaving!" Asfi's eyes quivered.
It felt like she was reliving the past, watching her captain say good-bye for the very last time.
Over in the southwest, Shakti barked after her deserting subordinates.
"Where do you think you're going?! Return to your posts! Have you all lost it?!"
These were people who had defended Orario long before she became captain.
Tears formed in her eyes as she called out to them.
"Please don't leave me like the others!" she wailed.
Long in tooth and claw, these grizzled warriors hurled themselves into combat, a smile on each of their faces.
Though the monsters' breath scorched them, claws tore at them, and jaws bit down on them, their noble charge could not be stopped.
Together, they beat back the monster horde making its way to Central Park, leaving the melody of war that thrummed at its center untouched.
"…You old bastards. What are you doing here?"
Allen paused and glanced toward Noir and the others.
He had headed to the center of the city straightaway and had been fighting here ever since, yet the old men and women were no less tattered and bloodied than him.
"Sorry, Vana Freya," Noir replied with a grin.
"After this, the rest is up to you."
The old man paused only to answer Allen's question before sprinting off once more.
Allen said nothing, but his gaze wandered ever so slightly downward.
"Be seeing ya, kids! Take good care of our god after I'm gone, yeah?" came the final words of an old veteran.
"Master! You can't leave us! Masteeer!!"
An elderly human said his final farewells and left.
His disciple, too wounded to move, could only watch as his figure grew smaller and smaller.
"Don't worry, the bonds of blood will always connect us!"
"Wait! Waaaait!!"
An old beast woman mage smiled at her daughter and her apprentice, before heading off to give her life for the cause.
The stronghold walls were like the bars of a cage, preventing the young girl from giving chase. "This is the song of those whose names will not be remembered…" Hermes muttered a few sad words, like a eulogy, as he watched the city's greatest sacrifice.
"Or perhaps…this is just another page in the familia myth."
"What's the big idea?" Valletta spat, watching it all play out.
"You think a few old bags of bones are enough to stop this monster horde?"
The laughable production put a sneer on her face.
"Go ahead! Throw your lives away! It isn't going to change a goddamn thing!"
Maybe, thought Noir as the laughter of evil and the roars of crazed beasts rang in his ears.
His clothes were stained red with blood, but still he fought.
"Roaaaaaahhh!!" Dyne and Baha were just like him.
Marks of crimson ran down their cheeks, but their fists and ax could not be stopped.
They were not alone now…..all around them, many of the city's most venerable adventurers gave their lives to halt the monstrous advance for even just a single second.
To safeguard the voice of a hero.
It was just then that Olivas appeared on the scene, accompanied by his loyal followers.
From atop the roof of a building, he yelled down at Noir and the others fighting in the streets.
"Your time has long since passed, dusty fossils! Why do you continue this fruitless struggle?! You must know the horde is too great! Babel will fall!"
"Is that right? Well, you won't mind if we just delay the inevitable for a while, then!"
"And try to take as many of these monsters down with us as we can!"
Nothing Olivas said could strike fear into the adventurers' hearts.
Baha and Dyne just laughed and continued their slaughter.
"If you want to stop us so bad," shouted Noir.
"Then why don't you quit your yapping and come down here yourself?!"
"Don't tell me you're scared of a few monsters?!" he added with a taunting grin.
"Y-you feeble little man!" fumed Olivas.
"To arms, my followers! Ready your bows and magic swords!"
He raised his arm, and then…
"Attack! Kill them all!" On his signal, bolts of fire and lightning and a hail of arrows rained down.
"…Heh."
The lightning scorched Baha head to toe.
It was a fatal wound.
She dropped to her knees, a smile on her lips.
"…Ha-ha…"
The explosive flames hit Dyne dead-on.
The results were devastating.
He fell to the ground with a grin.
"Gaah!!"
Blood gushed forth as Noir was riddled with arrows.
They skewered his vitals, feathering his back.
There was no surviving that.
Yet Noir made sure to watch the last smiles of his friends.
Urged on by their final will, he roared loudly enough for the three of them.
"Raaaaaaaaahhh!!"
Then he cut down a monster, shook off the blood, and dashed forth.
Olivas and his men watched on in utter shock as Noir summoned the last of his strength and ran toward the city center.
All eyes were on him and his final mad sprint.
The last bright gleam of a soul's final moments.
It burned a memory into the eyes of all who saw it.
"Dyne… Baha… Noir…" Finn watched, too.
His predecessors, leaving to join the great march in the sky.
And Noir, who put off his departure for just a little while longer.
"Captain! You've got to send someone out there! Save them!!" Raul screamed and pleaded with tears in his eyes.
"…We can't," was Finn's answer.
His head was hung, his hair over his eyes, so no one could see his emotions.
"We have no one to send. We have to protect the strongholds and our people. Noir's insubordination has left holes in our ranks… Fixing them takes priority."
"Captain!!"
"Do not defy me, Raul. This is an order."
"No! Please! We can't! They…!"
Raul shook his head in denial.
He failed to realize how tight his captain's fists were clenched, or how much they shook.
He let the tears stream down his face, no matter how pathetic it made him seem.
"They've done so much for us! They've taught us, rescued us, watched over us! And we've done nothing for them!"
"...…" Finn did not cry.
No tears stained his face; only droplets of crimson rolled down his knuckles.
'It's not your fault, Finn'
Far away, Noir thought of what he wanted to say to the young pallum.
'We're only passing the torch'
'We've sat around, outliving our purpose for long enough. It's time we let you take over the story. This is your age. Make of it the greatest tale of heroes this world has ever seen.'
These were the words that Noir bequeathed to this city.
"Seventy years and change, huh?"
The sea of monsters turned.
Noticing the lone swordfighters who had foolishly challenged them, they let out a bloodcurdling roar.
Noir kicked off the floor and leaped high into the air.
Staring down at the endless horde, a wicked grin spread across his lips.
One hand slipped beneath his clothing.
"Nothing but trouble, every last one, yet I wouldn't change a thing about them!!"
The air roared.
A massive wave of heat surged past as an enormous explosion spread out from the point Noir landed.
It was a combination of dozens of the evilus fire-stone self-destruction devices, plucked from the corpses of fallen cultists.
The result was a gigantic vortex of flames, with a power rivaling about half of Draco's breath attack.
The last light of a dying generation, a supernova that lit up the faces of all who saw it.
Any nearby monsters were incinerated immediately; even their magic stones did not survive the blast.
When the dust had settled, not a trace remained of the first-tier adventurers who had given their lives.
Not even ashes to remember them by.
The only proof they had ever existed…was a large void in the monster horde on the north side of the barrier.
"They blew themselves up in the middle of the horde…?"
Olivas was stunned as he gazed upon the fruits of a struggle he had called fruitless.
The old adventurers had proven without a doubt the truth of their words and the strength of their wills.
"Curse you… Curse you aaaall!!"
His wild bellows joined the chaos of monster screams as they noticed the gaping hole among their number.
"Noir… All of you…"
Compared to the vastness of the monster horde, that hole was only a drop in the ocean.
They had bought a minute of time at best for the boaz at its center.
But for the adventurers who would decide this city's fate, it was a crucial win.
Loki shed no tears.
She only said a few words.
"I'm sorry… And…thank you."
Instead, it was the young man who cried.
A boy forced into a warzone where he didn't belong.
Raul's painful cries rent the city.
Elsewhere, a single chariot stopped as he heard the news of the veterans' sacrifice.
'Another one returns to dust. Another one falls by the wayside. All I ever hear is screams. Screaming's not going to save anyone. Why can't they do anything? Why are there only corpses in my wake? You guys are useless. Why can no one follow in my tracks?!' "Rrraaaaaaaaaaghhh!!"
...........
"How commendable, to sacrifice so much for a city that will soon forget your existence," a sinister voice echoed from a rooftop.
Mors paused, a soft chirping sound accompanying the crackling blue sparks dancing on his spear.
"It's just sad," he mused, the light in his eyes intensifying, "that I will have to negate all you have done."
He drew his arms back in an arc, the air around him humming with power.
"Pierce the heavens, ...….,VOLO FULGUR!!!!"
His chilling voice unleashed the silver spear.
A blinding flash, it shot upwards, vanishing into the overcast sky.
Subtle sparks of lightning bathed the clouds, painting them with the eerie glow of an impending storm.
"What is that?" a Ganesha familia warrior asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.
No one could answer before the spear delivered its judgment.
Descending like a celestials wrath, it struck the barely holding barrier in Central Park with a crackling spark.
Boom! Crackle!
The barrier groaned, trying to resist with all its remaining might.
However within a few seconds...it disintegrated into dust motes.
The mages behind it recoiled, hit by a terrible backlash.
"W…wh…what have you done?" Adi screamed from the ground, crawling on the ground, tears hot on her cheeks.
She couldn't see much from the ground, but she could hear.
And what Mors had just done was a brutal mockery of her mentors' last efforts.
Confusion filled the face of many, including Finn as no one could mentally process what had just happened...…..
It was simply a variable that adventurers had overlooked in the chaos...