The high fog thinned as Vastarael pierced through the skies above the oceans, his body alight with the runic glow of Paina Tes, his Mystic Circles of Flight, spiraling behind his back. A landmass revealed itself. It emerged not from the horizon but from the mist. It was an island partially submerged in water.
Hidden to most, it had no name. The oceans refused to claim it and the maps never dared to mark it. The only whisper he heard in all his months of passive research labeled it as a mutant pocket of evolved and mutated sirens and mermaids. Vastarael didn't care for the full history. He didn't want to know. All that mattered was the mission passed to him to eliminate the Tenth Oceanic Beast and all who dwelled with him. Women, children, elders, cradles, corpses, everything and everyone.
He had done enough digging to know that they weren't misunderstood beings. These weren't the tragic kind of predators that killed for survival. These monsters were butchers and raiders of sea-bound cargo vessels. As Richinaria's Dynasty Monarch, he had seen reports of gutted hulls, crates floating on red waves and entire crews of seafaring traders devoured to the bone. Literally. Anqerise's coastal systems had suffered billions in loss, not just currency but infrastructure and safety. It was the kind of decay that could crumble a continent if left unchecked.
This island was their sanctuary and breeding ground. And now, it would become their grave.
The skies above him roared quietly yet no thunder followed. Only rain began to fall like the world itself had begun to weep for what was coming. Vastarael stopped in mid-air, his Paina Tes circles freezing in perfect alignment.
"Array of Sapphire."
From the void above, hundreds of mystic circles ignited, each one spinning and overlapping with gleaming geometric complexity. The Sapphire Array was his first perfected system of destruction, unleashed from silence.
"It's unfortunate that I must use you as a test run."
Dozens of sapphire spikes over ten meters long fell first, piercing through the fog. Sirens screamed, their echoing wails cut short as the circles above rotated again. Homes of coral and bone shattered. Vastarael had calculated every trajectory. Nothing would escape. No scream would ripple past the fog. Not one life would be spared.
Vastarael did not look at the carnage yet. Below, the mutant clans began to retaliate. Tridents launched. Sonic pulses blasted into the air. Water bullets, acidic sprays even prayers screamed from crumbling homes. The Sapphire Array adjusted instantly. It unleashed giant sapphire crystal meteorites falling at terminal velocity.
They decimated the island like it was nothing. The rest of the mutant clan, what few survived, fell to their knees, begging and crying. They thought that the gods had finally decided to punish them for the atrocities they were doing.
One of the young ones reached out with a voice that sounded like a human girl's.
"Please, we didn't—"
The last sapphire meteorite struck, turning the entire place into dust. A final, massive circle formed under the clouds as silence prevailed.
Vastarael deactivated the Array. The mystic circles flickered out one by one, like stars being snuffed from the sky. He hovered there for a long moment, letting the weight of what he'd done settle in.
[You have killed 12,994 Mutated Sirens. Only one survivor remains.]
He saw the notification and scoffed.
"That must be the Tenth Oceanic Beast. Well, that Array didn't cost me much energy though. Who knew that aligning all my Divinities with my Pinnacle and Base Tethers would actually reduce my energy output by half?"
Vastarael landed softly, his boots crunching over what used to be bones. His white hair blew calmly against the blood-wet wind.
He raised his hand.
From the mountain of corpses of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, warriors and infants all twisted in death, a divine pulse echoed outward. One by one, the souls were pulled from their bodies.
Almost thirteen thousand voices shrieked, cried, begged and cursed. Soul after soul, writhing in golden light, was consumed by the air above him, forming into a blinding orb. Its glow cast long shadows on Vastarael's form as he looked up, admiring his work. His lips twitched into a faint, satisfied smile.
"Efficient as always."
Then came the Control Circle. He tapped his foot lightly and it materialized with a high-pitched ring. The massive soul orb collapsed inward, streaming into the center of the Circle like water pouring into a divine engine.
It activated.
Tens of thusands of spectral voices cried out at once. Pure anguish echoed from the Circle as the souls were split, reformed, twisted and stretched. They were suffering. It was an awful, perfect suffering.
Vastarael's eyes shimmered. He chuckled under his breath, then raised his voice.
"Come out, you coward. I know you're alive. I didn't kill you yet. That entire Array? That was to send a message to you."
He looked around the carnage, stepping past a half-melted sea-cradle, once used for siren hatchlings. He rolled his shoulders and stepped closer to the center of the island. The Circle behind him crackled louder and the soul-screams became more defined. Some were begging and sobbing. One voice cried out for a daughter. Another kept screaming the name of a lost sibling.
Vastarael didn't flinch.
"I am torturing your people even in death. Their souls are breaking. Every second they scream, the pain is ten times worse in physical form. You can't save them, but you can end it."
He opened his arms slightly and spoke in q diplomatic and almost mockingly reasonable voice.
"Come and fight me in a one-on-one battle. I won't cheat. I won't escape. I won't run."
He raised his hand once more. The Control Circle began to pulse and the screams intensified into a chorus of despair. Some voices couldn't even scream anymore.
"I swear on Spheraphase's name that I will release them all into a peaceful afterlife. I will even bless their passage myself. But if you don't and stay hidden like the bottom-feeding coward I know you are, then I'll make this worse. I'll amplify their pain. That's right. I'll make every soul hear every other soul's pain and feel it for eternity."
He took a deep breath and looked up into the fog.
"I don't want to do that. So come out."
A long silence prevailed. Then, finally, a deep, ancient voice echoed around the destroyed island..
"Enough."
The air trembled. A pressure shifted across the ruined island. The waves around the shore stilled as if even the ocean itself had frozen in dread.
Vastarael's grin widened.
"There we go. I knew you would come to talk."
He lowered his hand but the Circle didn't stop. The screams continued.
"Oh, don't worry. We'll get to that deal... after I decide you're worth it."