Strolling through the halls of the spire like she owned the place, Thales noticed her because he was on guard.
Her eyes of deep violet and radiant silver, silk gold and platinum blend — that was her hair.
Hypatia "Miray."
"You. Custodian. I stabilized the most meaningful anomalies and fought off what spilled out as best as I could."
"Yeah, I can tell. Despite your composure, you look, um, not as gracious as when we saw each other earlier."
Hypatia ignored the unnecessary comments.
"So what are the details of the current situation?"
"We're dealing with a Paragon-level cultivator who appears to have high tactical acumen — and he murdered Senior Khalud without breaking a sweat."
"Paragon stage... Do we have time to call for backup? What's his current location?" she said calmly, analysing the situation.
"He was last seen in the Resonance Hall. I have no clue if we have time — not without significant casualties anyway. We've been filled with hubris, thinking no one would dare attack the Spire directly. Not since him."
Suddenly — as if they were the wind — it, appearing out of thin air, was many shadow hosts of the Legion.
"A direct attack? How ballsy," Hypatia said with a disgusted smile.
Thales thought he could exploit this situation, possibly still with a scheming mind.
I have to be careful too, in case Voidclaw shows up. Based on those lingering visions on this path, he may step forward here. I cannot afford to die.
The battle erupted in the Mnemonic Spire's heart, where memory streams glowed like rivers of light against the crystalline walls. More of the Shadow Host emerged from rifts in the air, their formless bodies shifting like ink in water.
They struck with precision — they struck with an empty passion, as if this was their ultimate mission to carry out. Their "Eclipse Strikes" scattered memory constructs into chaotic fragments. It was a vile purge, corrupting the fragments into warped memory — as if dementia were given shape.
Aletheia stood firm at the centre of the chaos, her glowing symbolic sigils spiralling outward to protect the Archive.
Her voice rang out above the din:
"Hold the line! Protect the Eternal Archive at all costs!"
Hypatia flanked her, summoning geometric barriers shaped like dodecahedrons. With a flick of her hand, the barriers launched forward — fractals like a rolling timber of logs — into the Shadow Host like it met bowling pins. The ghostly beings dissolved into bursts of void energy, only to reform seconds later.
Thales stood beside them; his chaos cultivation now honed after the Trial of Truth. His newfound powers gave him an unprecedented freedom — time could not weigh him down. With one finger, the locality of its strings was cut by this bird who moved intangibly, obstructed by naught, like a kite with no wind resistance.
He darted between the Shadow Host's strikes, weaving through the battlefield as if time itself bent to his will. His hands crackled with temporal energy, releasing bursts of time-coated attacks — looping some enemies into endless spirals of motion unfit to play in this masterful game, freezing others mid-strike.
"Call me Zagreus, the usurper of time!" Thales said with a mad grin, gripped by the lust of dominance he had over his opponents.
A sudden chill rippled through the battlefield, silencing the memory streams and dimming the Spire's crystalline glow.
A massive rift tore through the Archive's central chamber, and from it stepped Hannibal Voidclaw.
His towering form radiated an oppressive aura — the Nullity of such madness oozed degrading memory constructs and destabilized the air itself.
In his clawed hand, he held a blade pulsing with chaotic energy — larger and more twisted than before, forged by devouring the memories and essence of those he had slaughtered in earlier butchering.
Voidclaw's deep, guttural voice carried an unsettling calm:
"This Spire holds echoes of what was. But all echoes fade. And I am here to silence them."
He moved his blade, coating a glowing jam through the grounds, slicing through Hypatia's geometric constructs as if they were ribbons easily shredded. She stumbled back, her guardian — a towering fractal construct resembling a crystalline sphinx with a stellar pattern; its name was Mechkane — intervening just in time to block another slash.
The sphinx retaliated with a Harmonic Resonance, its roar destabilizing Voidclaw's Erasure Engine for a moment — stopping him from tearing the very surroundings to pieces with his organ of destruction.
"It was good to target the weaver. You, girl, are a big threat that will be dispelled — as if one is disciplining a rowdy brat."
It seems his men's earlier assault was to destabilize the memory streams — forcing our forces to focus on stabilizing these areas before a worse outcome happens.
Why does one man have it all? Hypatia thought with an annoyed expression as her guardian attempted to hold off the brutal might of this warrior.
His aura degraded the Spire's natural defences. Damn him, Aletheia internally screamed.
Voidclaw's aura coated his strikes, bit by bit chipping away at Hypatia's guardian. He then buried it deep into Mechkane, but switched his attention to Aletheia instead of pressing the advantage over Hypatia, who was stunned.
Aletheia was weaving a massive symbolic glyph to stabilize the Spire's collapsing memory streams.
With a single leap, he closed the distance — claws poised to cleave her in two, leaving his blade in the guardian.
"How many times have you failed to protect what you hold dear?" he snarled, claws glowing with void energy. "And how many more will fall because of you?"
Thales acted without thinking.
Activating Chronal Phasing, he blurred into existence between Voidclaw and Aletheia, deflecting the strike by redirecting its force into a Temporal Loop. Time itself twisted, pulling Voidclaw's claws into a repeating cycle for a few precious seconds.
"You think you can stop me with feeble tricks, boy?" Voidclaw growled, shattering the loop with a surge of chaotic energy.
Thales didn't answer — his focus entirely on keeping Voidclaw's attacks at bay. Each strike sent shockwaves through his body, but he refused to yield.
Aletheia, regaining her composure, joined the fray — her symbolic constructs lashing out to bind Voidclaw's movements.
"Zagreus, I'll purge you for this insubordination," Voidclaw said with a battle-hunger.
"You like playing with time? I will chase you through it like a ravenous beast."
He broke free — and then struck Thales with a subtle difference.
It was his Devourer's Mark.
The sigil pulsed with chaotic energy, whispering doubts into Thales's mind:
"You're nothing but a fragment. Chaos doesn't create — it consumes."
A psychological burden laid upon Thales mid-fight — this was the colour of a great apocalypse, as mind, body, and spirit were tested to their limits against such a reaper.
The Shadow Host were interfering in this battle too. To add another layer of difficulty, they created false targets — confusing not just the Spire's defenders but scattering the precise calculations of Hypatia's fragmental barriers to the wind.
Hypatia's fractured guardian collapsed in shards of glittering fractals — the remnants spinning wildly before dissipating into the chaotic air. Blood trickled down her temple, but her eyes burned with determination.
With trembling hands, she reached deep into her cultivation, summoning power she had never dared to use before.
The air around her crackled as geometric patterns began to emerge, floating and intertwining. Spiralling fractals grew exponentially, filling the room with a shimmering, celestial glow. The Astral Weaving aligned perfectly with the Spire's memory streams, channelling their energy into a massive Fractal Vortex that began to warp the battlefield.
The vortex pulsated with raw energy, its spirals expanding and contracting with a rhythm that seemed to synchronize with the universe itself. The Shadow Host, caught in its expanding radius, began to disintegrate — their fragmented forms unable to withstand the harmonized chaos.
Their dying echoes reverberated through the Spire, a haunting reminder of the destruction already wrought.
Voidclaw turned his attention to Hypatia, his Null presence surging as he stalked toward her like an apex predator. The fractals around him fractured into jagged, chaotic pieces.
"You wield chaos like a child painting over a masterpiece," Voidclaw growled, his voice reverberating with an otherworldly depth.
"But I am entropy itself. Your patterns mean nothing."
He raised his claws, which began to glow with the ominous black light of his Oblivion Claws, the air around them hissing as existence itself began to unravel.
He slashed at the vortex — and though his strikes were unable to destroy it entirely, the swirling energy began to destabilize. Hypatia's face twisted in pain as she struggled to maintain control.
"Thales, now!" Hypatia screamed, her voice cracking with strain.
Thales didn't hesitate.
Time seemed to slow as he activated Temporal Acceleration, his body blurring into motion faster than Voidclaw's attacks could follow. His movements left afterimages in the air — streaks of silver and blue weaving through the chaos.
He darted toward the heart of the battlefield, where Voidclaw's Erasure Engine pulsated like a malignant tumour, devouring everything within its radius. The air near it felt heavy, oppressive — as though it was sucking the very notions of time and space into its swirling void.
With precision born of desperation, Thales extended his hand — temporal energy coalescing into a blade-like construct. He aimed directly for the Engine's core, intending to sever its chaotic tether and destabilize Voidclaw's strongest weapon.
But Voidclaw anticipated the move.
With a guttural snarl, he extended his hand — a dark rift materializing in the space between him and Thales. The Void Binding lashed out like chains of pure entropy, wrapping around Thales mid-strike and yanking him backward. The temporal blade fizzled out as the binding dragged him closer to the chaotic rift.
"You're nothing but chaos without purpose," Voidclaw sneered.
"And chaos always devours its own."
Thales gritted his teeth, refusing to succumb.
Channeling his chaotic energy, he activated Temporal Inversion — the chains glowing with an inverted light as they unravelled and reversed their trajectory. The Void Binding snapped back toward Voidclaw, momentarily disorienting him as the energy clamped around his arm like an iron shackle.
Voidclaw, snarling with fury, raised his claws. Dark energy radiated outward as he activated his Devourer's Mark once more — a sigil of swirling chaos appearing again on Thales's chest. Its latent effects now fully awakened.
The mark pulsed with a malevolent power, sapping Thales's strength and corrupting his chaotic energy.
Thales staggered — his vision dimming as the mark's whispers invaded his mind:
"You are nothing. A fragment. A shadow. You cannot create, only destroy."
The words echoed like a relentless mantra, chipping away at his resolve.
"Thales!" Hypatia's voice cut through the noise.
Thales's head beat like a drum — thump, thump, thwack.
Despite her exhaustion, she surged forward, her fractals converging into a shimmering spear of light. She hurled it toward Voidclaw — the impact shattering the chains of the Void Binding and forcing Voidclaw to retreat a step.
Thales, emboldened by the reprieve, tapped into his Temporal Intuition — a basic ability once flawed, now allowing his awareness to expand across multiple possible futures.
In one, he saw himself succumbing to the mark's power — consumed by chaos.
In another, he saw himself mastering the mark — bending its energy to his will.
He chose the latter.
With a roar, he poured his remaining energy into the Temporal Mark, forcing it to stabilize. The dark sigil on his chest began to glow with a faint silver light as he willed it into submission — turning Voidclaw's weapon into a reservoir of chaotic potential.
"I am not just chaos," Thales said, his voice steady.
"I am what comes after. The beginning, not the end."
He surged forward — temporal energy crackling around him — and struck at the Erasure Engine.
The combined force of his attack and Hypatia's fractal constructs pierced through the vortex, shattering its core.
The Erasure Engine collapsed in on itself — sending Voidclaw flying back in a wave of chaotic backlash.
General Voidclaw staggered, his armour cracked and his aura flickering.
He glared at Thales and Hypatia, a grudging respect gleaming in his eyes.
"You've delayed the inevitable," he said, voice dark and cold. "But this Spire is already lost."
The air reverberated with the sound of shattering crystal as the Mnemonic Spire began to collapse. The once-glowing memory streams flickered erratically, their light dimming as Oblivion Rifts opened across the structure. Each rift pulsed with chaotic energy, consuming fragments of the Eternal Archive's gateway and dragging stored memories into the void.
The Spire groaned like a dying beast, its foundations buckling under the strain.
Aletheia stood amidst the chaos, her symbolic constructs fraying as the weight of Voidclaw's entropy overwhelmed them.
Her voice, sharp and commanding, cut through the cacophony:
"Fall back! Save what you can!"
The defenders scrambled to obey — some carrying fragments of salvaged memories, others shielding fleeing Mnemonics and Everspire custodians.
The air was thick with despair — the realization that the Spire, their sanctuary and beacon of knowledge, was beyond saving.
Hypatia, pale and trembling, struggled to maintain control over her Astral Weaving, but her fractals began to falter. Her guardian — a towering crystalline entity born of geometric perfection — loomed protectively over her.
One of the largest Oblivion Rifts began to expand, threatening to engulf an entire wing of the Spire.
The guardian turned its faceted head toward Hypatia — a silent acknowledgment passing between them.
"No…" Hypatia whispered, tears streaming down her face. "There must be another way!"
But the guardian stepped forward — its fractal body shimmering with radiant light. It collapsed its form into a singularity, containing the rift in a brilliant explosion of geometric energy.
The shockwave knocked Hypatia to the ground, her cultivation depleted. She let out a strangled cry as she watched her guardian vanish into the void.
Thales stood motionless amidst the chaos, the Devourer's Mark on his chest pulsating with an ominous rhythm.
The whispers of the mark grew louder, drowning out the sounds of battle:
"You failed them. You failed yourself. You are chaos, not creation. Let it end."
His vision blurred, the world around him distorting into fragmented images.
He saw the faces of the Mnemonics and Everspire custodians fleeing — their lives unravelling before his eyes.
He saw Hypatia, collapsed and broken, her hands clutching the empty space where her guardian had been.
And he saw Aletheia — her once-pristine symbolic constructs crumbling as she struggled to shield the remaining survivors.
Aletheia, despite her own exhaustion, refused to give in.
With a furious shout, she conjured a final symbolic shield — its edges flickering as it strained to hold back the encroaching chaos. She dragged Hypatia to safety, her eyes darting toward Thales.
"Thales!" she shouted. "Move! We need to retreat!"
But Thales didn't respond.
The mark's whispers held him in place — a prisoner of his own self-doubt.
Aletheia's expression hardened. "If you stand there, you'll die! And for what? For him?" Her gaze flicked toward Voidclaw, who stood at the centre of the collapsing chamber, his aura of entropy flaring with renewed intensity.
Voidclaw, visibly weakened but triumphant, smirked as he surveyed the destruction.
His voice was cold, resonant, and unyielding:
"You fought well. But you cannot save what is already lost."
He raised his claws — chaos energy swirling around them as he activated his Eternal Unmaking. A vortex of oblivion formed at the Spire's heart — a singularity of annihilation that consumed everything in its radius.
The central chamber began to fold in on itself, its structure warping as time, space, and memory were devoured.
Aletheia, gritting her teeth, threw up a collapsing symbolic construct to shield herself and Hypatia from the vortex's pull. The survivors scrambled for the exits, their cries of panic echoing through the crumbling halls.
Thales, finally breaking free of the mark's whispers, activated Temporal Acceleration. His movements blurred as he darted toward Aletheia and Hypatia, scooping them up just as the vortex's edge reached them.
"Hold on!" he shouted, his voice straining with effort.
He pushed his chaotic energy to its limit — bending time around them to create a temporary bubble of safety. They narrowly escaped through a collapsing corridor, the Spire's final moments etched into their memories.
Outside the Spire, the survivors gathered — their faces marked by despair and exhaustion.
The once-proud Mnemonic Spire now lay in ruins, its shattered remains swallowed by the oblivion rifts. Memory streams floated aimlessly through the air — their contents fractured and incomplete.
Hypatia, leaning on Aletheia for support, whispered, "It's gone… everything we fought for…"
Aletheia's jaw tightened, her gaze fixed on the smouldering ruins. "Not everything. But we've lost far more than we could afford."
Thales stood apart from the group, his hand resting over the Devourer's Mark. His expression was unreadable — his thoughts a storm of conflicting emotions.
The words of the Shadow Host member he had spoken to earlier in stopped time echoed in his mind:
"Step through if you dare. But know this: there's no returning to what you were."
He glanced at the survivors.
Then at the horizon where Voidclaw had vanished.
A decision loomed before him — one that would shape not only his path...
...but the fate of all who remained.