Chapter 6 — When the Four Stand
From the rooftop, Jinhai stared down through the haze; through firelight, falling ash, and the brutal choreography of UNEX's advance.
He saw the moment Zevran Vale raised his hand…
The battlefield changed.
Troops moved without hesitation. Warframes reoriented like they shared a spine. Drones danced into geometric patterns, scanning the wounded and marking the dead. No cries. No calls for retreat. Only precision. Obedience.
To most, it looked like salvation.
To Jinhai, it felt rehearsed, like the city was being absorbed.
He exhaled slowly, frost curling from his lips.
"Do you see it?" he murmured, not to Soryn, but maybe to himself. "That's not leadership. That's control."
Soryn didn't answer, too focused, too attuned to the enemy rising again below.
But Jinhai's eyes never left the masked figure.
That smooth helm, etched in ancient symbols, hiding whatever passed for a soul beneath.
He remembered the first time he saw Zevran, the whispers that followed. The way even high-ranking officers straightened their backs in his presence. Like their bodies remembered something their minds denied.
Now, watching him twist a serpent beast mid-air with a flick of the wrist… Jinhai understood.
Zevran didn't lead by inspiration. He didn't protect.
They feared him.
Like the world was his board. And everyone else, just pieces to move.
***
Elsewhere, far from the front lines, in a glass-tower sanctuary nestled above the UNEX central district; Kira Sol smiled for the cameras.
"Hope," she said, standing before a crowd of citizens and livestream drones. "That's what binds us. Even in the darkest hours."
Her voice was smooth, rich with warmth. She wore the polished-white uniform of a UNEX ambassador, robes stitched with circuit-thread, her hair swept into a dignified braid. Behind her, a massive hologram displayed the live footage of the Medusa Beast… and the soldiers fighting below.
"My heart aches for our people," she continued. "But rest assured, our heroes are there. Your children. Your neighbors. And I promise you this; UNEX will not falter."
Applause followed. Civilians watched with wet eyes. She bowed, palms together in the traditional unity salute, and stepped away from the podium.
The moment the cameras dimmed, her expression dropped like a mask unclipped.
She walked briskly down a corridor, flanked by her aides. One tried to speak, something about sector 12's casualty list, but she raised a single finger.
"Later."
In the war room, a young Solborn technician stood waiting, wings dim but unblemished, eyes wide with anticipation.
"Ma'am," he said, voice steady. "You requested my resonance profile?"
Kira turned from the holo-display, her expression soft, almost maternal.
"Yes. I've reviewed your metrics."
She stepped closer. "Your harmonics are rare. Precise. The kind that changes outcomes."
The boy straightened, proud. "Thank you, ma'am. I… I'd be honored to serve wherever needed."
She smiled, brushing a stray lock of hair from his forehead, a gentle gesture.
"You already have."
Before he could respond, a soft hiss escaped from the injector in her palm.
The needle had already pierced his neck.
His breath hitched. Wings stuttered mid-fold, glowing erratically.
He collapsed, gasping, arms twitching, eyes locked in silent confusion. A dim halo of light flickered at his spine… then vanished.
Kira let the injector fall into a disposal tray.
Two black-suited operatives entered the chamber behind her.
"Catalog his harmonic profile," she said to a nearby aide. "Have engineering integrate it into our resonance sequence."
"But… Commander," the aide hesitated. "He's; "
"Expendable," she replied. "We'll make another."
She didn't look back.
As the door shut behind her, Kira exhaled, smoothed her uniform, and reached for her comm.
"Patch me into the relief broadcast," she said. "I'd like to offer a prayer for the victims."
***
The Medusa stirred.
Its tendrils writhed in agitation as its coiling head reared upward. The flaming eye in its abdominal maw flared to life, pupil dilating, heat spiraling outward in seething rings.
Jinhai felt it before he saw it.
A charge in the air. An ache in his bones.
Like the world itself was about to be cut in half.
Then came the scream, an overwhelming pressure.
A gravitational howl that dragged the light toward its center.
From deep within its belly, the beast unleashed its wrath.
A blinding beam, not flame, not energy, but some twisted fusion of both, erupted skyward, carving through the city like a divine scar.
The first carrier exploded mid-hover, reduced to slag and evaporating flesh.
Civilians below vanished, turned to shadow in the light.
Even the Medusa's own serpent spawn were not spared, liquefied where they stood.
The beam swept wide.
It grazed the Haven Hotel, turning half the structure into sizzling debris.
Just below, the searing light tore across the platform where Soryn had stood seconds before; had she hesitated, even a breath, she would've been vaporized.
Jinhai shouted, wings flaring, white-blue and jagged with feathers of flickering blue fire so cold it steamed, as he launched upward grabbing Soryn just before the platform beneath her collapsed.
They rose into the sky together, she was cloaked in emberlight, Eclipse in hand; the trailing crystals of refracted frost from Jinhai's wings.
Far above, the heavens opened again.
But this time… the light was different.
From the eastern sky came a choir.
Low at first, harmonic, dissonant, then building.
Then they came.
Ecclesia Callei, descending like a storm of faith.
Judicators in radiant armor poured from celestial carriers shaped like inverted cathedral spires. Their descent was wordless, a silent storm of glass-winged zeal. Each one shimmered with etched scripture; their wings refracting light like stained glass mid-battle hymn.
And at their front, three figures broke the sky:
Ezekan, cloaked in flowing silver robes that seemed untouched by gravity, moved like a shadow cast in mirrored light. His helm bore no visor, only a smooth, reflective surface where a face should be. In it, the battlefield mirrored back, distorted. Watching everything. Revealing nothing. A half-wreath of thorns glowed faintly at his brow, not gold, not metal, but some living whispering light.
To his right, Archcleric Damarion Hale descended with golden wings and outstretched arms. His robes rippled with inked prayers, every fold alive with kinetic scripture. Where he passed, the air shimmered with psalms. Filial resonance glowed across his bare scalp in looping sigils, and his lips never stopped moving, not prayers, but commands encoded in soul enegy. Behind him trailed a halo of control-glyphs, geometric constructs woven from light and memory, orbiting like tactical runes. His voice didn't bless. It rewrote.
To Ezekan's left, Judicator Sister Malith landed hard, no grace, only weight. Her armor was a deep crimson lacquered with jet-black runes, every joint spiked or serrated. Chains coiled at her hip like living metal vipers, occasionally snapping with sudden divine recoil. Her helm resembled the skeletal face of a drake, fanged, horned, archaic, and beneath it, her voice crackled like a broken vox-line.
"Cleanse the rot. No mercy."
The moment Ezekan's feet touched ground his voice thundered and projected through resonance fields that blanketed the district.
"O faithless beast," he declared, hand lifted toward the Medusa. "You have brought corruption to sacred earth. By decree of the Ecclesia Callei, we deliver judgment."
He gestured once.
The Judicators struck in unison.
Spears of light, resonance scripture, wings of fire, all hurled at the Medusa's torso.
The beast reeled but did not fall. Its tendrils lashed outward. Buildings collapsed under the shockwaves.
And then…
Ezekan turned his gaze directly at Soryn.
His helm tilted. His aura sharpened.
"Another Draconian presence confirmed," he said to Malith, voice flat. "There. Beside the Deepwell agent. Soryn of the Veiled Flame. They appear to be allied."
Malith's hand moved to her chain. "A monster."
Archcleric Hale hesitated, brows furrowing. "She fights the Medusa…"
"She is the same," Ezekan replied calmly. "One beast conceals another."
Judicators shifted formation, wings fanning wide, weapons angled.
Jinhai saw them coming before they even moved.
"No," Jinhai muttered. "Not now; "
The air turned blinding. A bolt of scripture-charged resonance streaked toward them. Jinhai dove, shielding Soryn with a frost-shell, the blast hammering against the barrier.
More came. A dozen Judicators descending in a spiral.
Behind them, UNEX forces still reeling from the Medusa's blast now spotted Soryn mid-air, her flaming spear unmistakable; her Draconian aura undeniable.
Another order was given.
This time from a different ship, cold, clipped, mechanical.
"Targets confirmed. Jinhai of the Deepwell and a Draconian female. Engage and contain."
Now both factions were coming for them.
Soryn spun midair, Eclipse ablaze. "They're surrounding us."
Jinhai's wings flared, and his voice hardened.
"We're left with no choice. We fight our way out."
The skies cracked with light and ruin.
Below, UNEX vanguards scrambled for cover, their formations buckling under the shockwave. Civilians screamed as entire city blocks collapsed into flame. Cerberus warframes staggered and fell, limbs melted. Omega troopers ignited midair. Ecclesia clerics scattered, some vaporized, others shielding with golden resonance too late.
And above them all, the Medusa loomed, maw still glowing, belly split wide like a wound of fire.
Jinhai spiraled upward, wings of frost-fire arcing against the blackened clouds. He turned midair, scanning the chaos, no allies, no clarity. Only enemies closing in from every side.
Soryn's voice rang out, sharp, resonant, unyielding.
Her dragon's fang pendant began to float and undulate. Light burst from its surface, not fiery, but reverent, a resonance older than flame. The glyph ᚾ'varak burned into the air, its spiral spinning slowly; a breathless rhythm building beneath the bones of the world
"Ignis!" she cried, voice sharp as steel and fierce with command. "To me!"
The air warped.
With a sudden blaze of light, a breach tore open below them. From within surged Ignis, a celestial beast of flame and scale; part dragon and part storm. His wings unfurled in a wave of searing wind, his serpentine body glimmering with living fire and glowing embers. Eyes of volcanic lava and fury locked onto her with unspoken loyalty.
Soryn leapt; Eclipse blazing in her hand.
She landed atop him in one fluid motion, her spear spinning into a ready grip as the beast roared, spiraling upward. Fire trailed in their wake, a comet forged of vengeance and war.
Below, the battlefield churned.
Ecclesia clerics, spotting the Draconian flare in Ignis's form, opened fire. Radiant bolts of hymnlight lanced skyward. "Judicators, mark the corrupted!" shouted Archcleric Damarion Hale, his golden wings flaring wide as he began directing whispered glowing sciptured glyphs toward Soryn.
"Blasphemer!" cried Sister Malith, eyes blazing. "That is no Filial, she rides a spawn of flame!"
Judicator squads broke formation and ascended in pursuit, their halos burning, blades drawn in holy wrath.
But UNEX wasn't far behind.
Zevran's gaze followed Soryn with cold calculation. A sharp gesture from his gauntlet, and the NEXUS units pivoted.
"Target designated anomaly: execute," he said, voice transmitted in layered command tones.
Dozens of soultech rifles locked on. Pulse cannons flared.
And suddenly Jinhai was between them. Their backs were against the wall. He was left with no other choice.
He raised his left hand and pressed two fingers, index and middle, to his forehead.
Filial resonance ignited in his core, and he guided it upward, channeling the surge through neural pathways like molten light. It reached his cerebrum, flooding his mind in a sudden, searing clarity.
His body reverberated; THUMP–THUMP.
The pulse of a soul caught between control and collapse.
Time slowed.
The world stretched thin around him, details suspended like threads of glass.
He scanned the battlefield:
Soryn, riding beside him on Ignis, her crimson hair a banner in the wind. UNEX carriers circling in from the left, disgorging soldiers mid-descent. Ecclesian Judicators to the right, wings of scripture and light flaring wide. Below, ground units, drones, glyph-strikes, arclight beams, flaming scripture, all edging closer, frozen mid-breath.
Jinhai inhaled, slow and cold.
He had tried.
Tried to keep the casualties low. Tried to spare the city more scars.
But this…
This was beyond repair.
How am I going to explain this to the master, he thought.
A quiet, bitter thought. Not out of fear, but regret.
He lowered his hand.
And let it begin.
"Enough."
Jinhai's voice cracked like thunder across the battlefield.
He raised his arms wide, as if to embrace the chaos itself. In his right hand, Icefang gleamed, its edge humming with restrained power. His left hand clenched, then opened, and Filial resonance surged from his core flooding outward.
Blue flame erupted from his palm, soft at first, then brighter. Brighter.
The pressure spiked.
Flames turned white, devouring color, distorting heat.
And then, he ignited it.
A shockwave pulsed from his body, spiraling outward in all directions. The flame solidified into a massive frozen field, a dome of crystallized air and soundless force that enveloped the battlefield.
But he was precise.
Soryn and Ignis remained untouched, at the eye of the storm.
Time fractured.
Projectiles stalled midair, encased in rime.
UNEX and Ecclesian troops locked in flight dropped like shattered marionettes, weapons suspended and stripped of momentum.
And then, release.
Time snapped back to natural law.
Soldiers screamed as they hit the ground. Ice cracked beneath bodies that hadn't yet realized they were broken. A blizzard spiraled in the wake of the field, snowflakes shimmering in the void left behind.
But Jinhai wasn't done.
He pressed his palm to his chest, forcing resonance into every cell of his being. His body blazed white, an angelic corona bursting from his frame, wings of radiant energy unfurling in silence.
Then, he vanished.
No sound. No blur. Just absence.
A breath later, he reappeared at the far edge of the battlefield, standing still beneath the falling snow.
Silence reigned.
The remaining troops, those still outside the frozen radius, turned, confused.
Then, one by one, they fell.
Split open. Frozen. Dying before they understood why.
Their bodies crashed to the ground in pieces, limbs fracturing into brittle shards, breath stolen before it could become a scream.
Soryn guided Ignis into a slow aerial circle, her eyes fixed on the Sky below, on him.
Steam still curled from the broken bodies. Snow danced between columns of smoke. The battlefield, once a thundering crescendo, had collapsed into near-sacred silence.
And there stood Jinhai, framed in frost, breath calm, armor glowing dim beneath his skin.
"Still too merciful," she murmured under her breath, lips curling faintly. "But beautifully done."
Ignis rumbled beneath her, not in protest, but in recognition.
She tilted her head, watching him reorient himself, wings still faintly flared, stance wide but steady. The flare of resonance that had rolled off him moments ago still shimmered faintly across the battlefield, like afterlight from a star already dead.
You were always the weapon they feared, Jinhai.
But this… this was art.
She didn't call out to him. Not yet.
The time for reunion hadn't come.
But her eyes followed his every movement.
And for the first time in days, the doubt inside her eased, just enough to let in something dangerous.
Hope.
Zevran Vale stood motionless atop his command carrier, visor dimmed, brows furrowed.
Frost clung to the edge of his gauntlet where the resonance wave had licked past. He hadn't moved when the first soldiers fell. He hadn't flinched when the ice took the sky.
Now, his hand hovered over the comms interface.
"What the hell was that," he muttered. Not a question. A warning.
To his right, Judicator Sister Malith hissed, tension threading her voice. Her helm shifted as she scanned the frozen carnage below. The serpent-chains at her hip uncoiled like they sensed prey again.
"He shattered our formation. Breached concord. That wasn't defense. That was execution."
Beside her, Archcleric Damarion Hale narrowed his eyes, lips moving in silent calculation. The glyphs orbiting him flickered erratically, not with fear, but anticipation.
We cannot let him dictate the rhythm of the battlefield, the thought passed silently between them, carried on encrypted Ecclesian resonance.
Zevran's jaw tightened.
"Ready second wave."
The command transmitted in pulses; UNEX and Ecclesian alike flinched, receiving it in their neural relays. Carriers reoriented. Judicators spread their wings. The line began to shift.
Then; A pressure ripple.
Subtle. Low.
And growing.
The Medusa reared again, its massive frame twisting, and from its maw gathered another flare, a second pulse of annihilation.
And still, the factions fought.
He turned to Soryn as Ignis coiled around them in midair, shielding her from a bolt of gold.
"We're not out of this yet, I'll draw them off," Jinhai said, voice hoarse.
Soryn gritted her teeth. "You won't last alone."
He gave a tight smile. "Then stay close. Let's end this."
The sky was tearing itself apart.
Jinhai flew aside Ignis, his hand wrapped around the dragon's neck just behind Soryn, who stood braced at the saddle spine with Eclipse raised. The flame-tassel snapped violently in the wind. Around them, the air was a storm of gunfire, holy light, and boiling ash. The Medusa loomed above it all, a mountain of writhing black flesh and snapping tendrils; its body blotting out the stars.
UNEX drones surged toward them in aggressive phalanxes. Their wings weren't made of feathers or flame, but blades. Gleaming, retractable blades. A squad of Omega troopers in soul-rig armor flanked the swarm, shoulder cannons locking onto Ignis mid-flight.
Below, Ecclesia Judicators rose in twinned formations, wings of white-gold unfurling in perfect synchrony, their swords glimmering with sacred radiance as they sang war-hymns into the sky. A volley of resonance-laced javelins came next, each one whistling with righteous fire.
Jinhai now stands tall on Ignis's back, eyes locked on the incoming tide.
He drew Icefang.
The sword shimmered in his grip, not glowing, not gleaming, but refracting. The blue-white edge bent the light around it, sucking heat from the air. Frost coiled along his arm like a living gauntlet.
He jumped.
Wings flared wide behind him, searing blue flame that burned cold, too cold. Vapor trails exploded as he launched upward. The world below blurred into smoke and shrieking metal.
The Cerberus Warframe fired, a hulking mech wreathed in steam and burn-scarred plating, its cannon blast ripping through concrete like paper. Jinhai spun midair, letting the plasma streak past, then closed the gap and drove Icefang clean through the machine's reinforced visor. The suit seized. He twisted the blade once, a hiss of frost, a flash of internal rupture, and a body fell outward. Limp.
More UNEX units converged. Jinhai didn't stop.
He banked left, wings flaring in a tight spiral, then dove through the incoming formation. Icefang lashed outward, two drones split apart in a bloom of crystal shrapnel. He rose again, streaked with steam and ash, and crashed into the nearest Judicator with brutal precision. Their radiant blade met his. Light meeting cold. He shoved forward, overpowered them, and brought his wing across like a blade. The impact sent them hurtling down in a trail of broken feathers and cracked armor.
Soryn followed through the gap, Eclipse raised, Ignis roaring beneath her like a living comet. His wings beat once, a concussive thunderclap that shattered a UNEX flier's stabilizers mid-turn. Plumes of volcanic heat streamed from his jaws, scorching the air as he surged forward, eyes blazing like twin embers carved from the earth's heart.
Soryn swept her glaive across the sky, carving a scar of flame through a UNEX formation and setting two drones ablaze before they could regroup. One detonated midair, the other spiraled into the side of a carrier trailing smoke, with both exploding mid air.
Ignis twisted beneath her with impossible grace, a beast of scale and storm, refined by the fire of countless battles. The fire in his veins wasn't wild. It was precise. Obedient. Deadly.
Soryn turned, shouted something, but it was lost in the chaos.
In the distance, the Medusa moved.
Its bulk shifted, enormous tendrils cracking like leather whips. One clawed limb reached downward, descending toward the wreckage of Chinatown. Sparks trailed from its jagged nails. The limb swung toward a UNEX carrier vessel, then kept falling, toward Soryn.
Jinhai didn't hesitate.
He pulled hard on the air, wings cracking behind him, and shot upward. He cleaved through the massive claw with a howl; Icefang glowing white-hot with compressed resonance. The tendons froze. The joint shattered. The severed limb fell away, dragging bloodless shadow and ash with it.
The Medusa howled in pain.
The sound wasn't just a roar, it was a gravity quake, a pulse that cracked windows and made the air taste like metal.
Jinhai hovered above the battlefield, breath ragged, eyes blazing.
Below, the Medusa's maw widened once more, energy coalescing in its abdominal eye, heat spiraling inwards like a dying star.
It was aiming at her.
Soryn, still astride Ignis, had just turned to face the next wave, unaware the monster was charging a second annihilation beam directly in her path.
He wasn't going to make it in time.
And then.
The sky broke.
Three streaks tore across the upper atmosphere, one silver, one gold, one red, like comets made of vengeance.
They hit like prophecy fulfilled.
The silver blur smashed into the Medusa's upper back, a colossal impact that severed another limb with a deafening crunch. The gold struck next, diving into the creature's side with a thunderclap, cracking ribs like stone pillars. The red blur dove straight at its head; two whirling sabers flashing like the hands of a clock gone mad.
The Medusa reeled.
Its face, if it could be called that, buckled inward. Serpent tendrils spasmed and fell limp.
Jinhai turned, already knowing. Deepwell.
The silver-clad warrior landed beside him, wings broad and steady, his ash-gray armor etched with Filial glyphs glowing faintly along the seams. His presence calmed the chaos, not with force, but sheer gravity. His face was hard. Weathered. Calm as stone.
Kael Thorne.
The Shield. The eldest.
"You always start without us," Kael said, voice even, low, deliberate. His gaze swept the field, measuring it, as if he were already calculating the next move.
Jinhai laughed, breathless. "You always take your time."
Another gust split the clouds, golden light trailing.
The next figure hit like a flare, resonance cracking the air as he landed. Taller than Jinhai. Grin like sharpened lightning. Twin sabers buzzed beside him like orbiting suns.
Riven Caelus.
The Spear. The nova.
"Missed the warm-up, huh?" he barked, already bouncing on his heels. "Thought you'd save me a few heads."
Jinhai nodded toward the spasming Medusa. "You can have what's left of the tail."
"Tail?" Riven scoffed, twirling one blade, the other already pulsing. "Screw that. I'm going for the heart."
A third presence settled near, quieter than the others, yet no less powerful. He arrived in a ripple of stillness more than force, hair tied back, eyes distant and strange. The air shifted around him like it knew him.
Sylas Vey.
The Dreamer. The youngest.
"Something's wrong," Sylas murmured, voice soft and surreal, as if hearing something no one else could. "Not just pain. It's pulling. Like a song that doesn't end. Like gravity, learning how to speak."
He winced, right hand over his talisman. "If we don't anchor soon, we all fall in."
Kael placed a hand on his shoulder, steady, grounding. "Then we stop it. Together."
Jinhai's chest swelled.
They were here.
His brothers. Late, always late, but never absent when it counted.
He looked to Kael, voice half-laugh. "What took you so long?"
Kael gave the faintest smile. "We waited until the odds were unfair."
Jinhai grinned, real, full, despite the storm.
Then came a new voice; Soryn, rising beside him astride Ignis. Her eyes met his, then slid toward the three.
"Friends of yours?" she asked, voice even but edged with curiosity.
"Family," Jinhai said. "The only kind that matters."
The four of them hovered for a beat, wings spread, blades drawn, locked in unspoken synchrony.
Then they surged forward, a storm of steel, frost, flame, and fate.
No words needed.
Just war.
—END CHAPTER 6—