The air trembled with static as the collapsed facility groaned under the pressure of two opposing forces. Nano-filaments shimmered faintly in the air like broken glass caught in moonlight. Alya stood at the forefront, boots anchored on fractured stone, her cannon braced at her shoulder. Behind her, the Stellaris squad formed into a loose crescent: Kaylin with his nano-elemental bow drawn, Lyrein flexing gauntleted fists that hummed with kinetic charge, Thane's blade gleaming like liquid silver, and Lila's orb floating silently around her hands.
Across the area, the shadow figure appeared.....an obsidian silhouette wreathed in violet aura. Its masked face revealed nothing, but the curved blades unfurling from its elbows gleamed like hooked crescents meant to carve reality itself. At its chest pulsed a glowing sphere, with miniature satellites orbiting it in slow, patient rhythm. Alya's gut twisted. That core was no mere weapon...it was the nexus of something beyond human craft.
"Steady," she ordered, her voice carrying over the crackling air. No one questioned.
The figure didn't advance. It simply was, a gravity around which fear spiraled. Then the mini-spheres shot outward in sudden arcs, impacting the ground in bursts of compressed force. Shards of pavement exploded upward. Kaylin loosed an arrow of flame before the debris could fall. It arced true but a casual twist of the figure's arm split the projectile, scattering fire across the plaza like embers.
"Formation delta!" Alya snapped.
Lyrien surged left, gauntlets crashing together to form a shockwave that intercepted the next barrage of spheres. Thane moved opposite, blade flashing, deflecting one sphere mid-flight, redirecting its impact into an already-ruined building. Dust and stone cascaded down, obscuring half the battlefield.
The figure moved then, gliding more than running, curved blades carving arcs that forced Lyrien back. She blocked with her gauntlets, sparks shrieking as metal ground against metal. Kaylin rained arrows...lightning and fire but each was cleaved aside or shattered by the orbiting spheres.
Alya's cannon roared. The recoil drove her boots deep into cracked stone, but the shell hurtled forward like a comet. It struck the figure square in the chest exploding with searing force. The blast drowned the area in light and dust.
Silence.
Then, through the smoke, the shadow emerged unburnt, its aura flaring stronger.
Alya's jaw clenched. It absorbed the impact.
"Shift focus! Break its rhythm! "
Thane moved in with blinding speed, his blade weaving arcs of silver. The figure met him stroke for stroke, elbow-blades slashing in a style machine yet precise. Their clash rang like steel screaming. Lyrien joined, gauntlets hammering in brutal rhythm, forcing the figure to pivot between them.
For a heartbeat, Stellaris had momentum. Kaylin's frost arrow struck the ground, spreading ice beneath the figure's feet. Lila's orb swelled with light and detonated a gravity pulse, dragging the figure slightly off balance.
"Now! " Alya barked, cannon already primed.
The shell slammed into the figure's flank, detonating with enough force to topple a tower. This time, the shadow staggered. Its spheres spun erratically.
The squad pressed harder.....five against one, synergy in motion. Kaylin's elements bent the battlefield, Lyrein's fists pummeled, Thane carved, and Lila's orbs manipulated the flow. Alya stood back, orchestrating, her cannon firing only when openings were carved by her team.
For a moment, victory didn't feel impossible.
Then the figure's aura flared black-violet, and the spheres snapped into formation around it. With a sound like a collapsing star, they expanded outward, a wave of pure concussive force.
The entire squad was hurled back. Alya's spine rattled as she hit stone, cannon sliding from her grip. She forced herself upright in time to see Lyrien crash through a wall, Thane embedded into fractured pavement, Kaylin gasping as his bow flickered, and Lila bleeding at the lip while her orbs spun weakly.
The figure advanced.
Alya spat blood, forcing her legs to move. "On me! " she shouted, her voice raw. "Together! "
The team rose. Bruised, battered, but unbroken.
They charged.
Kaylin wove flame and lightning into a storm of arrows. Lyrien ignited her gauntlets, striking with detonations that shook the area. Thane's blade blazed brighter, every swing a desperate gamble. Lila's orbs spun faster than ever, dragging debris into violent whirlwinds.
Alya led, cannon locked on target, every shot thunderous.
The figure danced through it all, its movements impossibly precise. Blades deflected steel and flame alike. Spheres countered every opening. For every strike Stellaris landed, the figure returned threefold.
Still... they didn't falter. Because Alya's voice was there: guiding, commanding, anchoring.
"Thane, left flank! "
"Lyrien, brace! "
"Kaylin...stagger its footwork now! "
"Lila...lock it down, three seconds! "
And for three shining breaths, they moved as one organism, Stellaris in full unity.
The shadow figure halted. For the first time, its aura flickered. Alya felt it...pressure shifting. "We're close."
She raised her cannon, charging its core to maximum. The barrel glowed white-hot. The team carved an opening, forcing the figure still for a fraction of a second. Alya fired.
The shell screamed across the area. It struck the glowing sphere in the figure's chest.
The explosion tore the place apart.
Silence. Dust. The acrid taste of ozone.
Alya coughed, vision blurred. Her ears rang. Slowly, she focused and her heart froze.
The shadow figure stood unbroken. The glow of its core pulsed brighter than ever. Alya realized with sinking dread: the cannon shot hadn't shattered it. It had fed it.
The figure lifted one hand. The spheres aligned above its palm, then collapsed into a single point of annihilating light.
Alya's instincts screamed. She stepped forward, raising her arms, ready to shield her squad even if it killed her.
But the blast didn't come. The light dissolved. The spheres dimmed.
The shadowed figure stepped forward, its cloak whispering against the broken earth. With a deliberate motion, it lifted its hand to its hood and pulled it back, unveiling the face beneath.
The Stellaris froze, every breath caught in their throats. The air itself seemed to recoil. It was a face they had seen before... once human, once full of light but now twisted with power and shadow.
"Aevin." Thane's voice cracked, his eyes widening as though the ground had betrayed him. "But... you are dead."
The figure gave a low, humorless chuckle. The dark aura that draped his form pulsed with quiet violence, then settled into calm stillness. "Aevin, huh? Haven't heard that name in a long time." His eyes narrowed, like daggers finding their mark. "But it doesn't matter. Aevin. The dark figure. Call me whatever you wish. Neither name binds me any longer."
His gaze slid, sharp as a blade, to Alya. There was no mistaking the intent there.....it was not the look of a man, but of a storm poised to break. Twin curved blades slithered forth from his arms, glowing faintly, then lashed outward. They struck Alya's limbs with cruel precision, cutting pain deep into her body before she could even mount a defense.
The Stellaris surged forward, desperate to intercept, but they were battered and weakened from the previous battle. Their wills were strong, but their bodies lagged. Kaylin, with a roar that clawed past his exhaustion, forced himself into the fray. He charged at Aevin with reckless courage but Mot-Suna intercepted. Her metallic frame blurred, her blow landing with seismic force. Kaylin crashed into the dirt, broken and still.
Aevin tilted his head slightly, watching Alya as she fought to stay upright. His voice was calm, but beneath it simmered a hunger far more terrifying than rage. "You are... fascinating, Alya." His gaze pierced into her with an intensity that no blade could match. "Helixia has never set its hopes upon one like yourself. Since your arrival, the nation has shifted. The Seven Shadows were once believed to be the messianic guardians, but compared to what the outside world worships, they are nothing but sparks in a storm."
Alya, pale and trembling on the ground, forced her head upward. Her right eye clenched shut against the pain, her vision swimming. The weight of his words gnawed at her, but confusion bled across her features.
Aevin's voice grew darker, his words reverberating like a curse through the fractured ruins. "This name has been, and will always mean, one thing. One destined. The Last Silence. The name itself is forbidden in most nations. Ancient tribes whispers it prophecy in fear. They say one will come whether a man or woman, none can say. The one so powerful that he very world shall tremble. That one... is called Viv."
The air seemed to chill at the utterance. Even the shadows recoiled. Alya's battered body stirred, her trembling lips forming broken words. "W-what…? Viv ? What is that supposed to mean?" Her voice cracked, drenched with disbelief and pain.
Aevin's scarlet gaze locked on her, unreadable and yet filled with a fanatic's conviction. "The details are veiled even from me. But the myth exists for a reason, Alya. Somewhere, that being exists. And I shall be the one to find them.....and to set them free."
Alya staggered, forcing herself upright, blood trickling down her face. Her fists clenched though her strength was waning. "Stop spewing riddles and nonsense. If the world itself has failed to unearth this Viv, then what makes you think you, a coward hiding in shadows, could?You are nothing compared to that myth. Nothing but a phantom drunk on illusions. If you believe you are destined to change the world...then you are lost in an infinite dream."
Her words, sharpened with defiance, pierced Aevin's calm. His eyes widened, rage igniting like wildfire. He raised his right hand, the air around it convulsing as a massive violet sphere swirled into existence fracturing into orbiting shards of miniature suns. The ground quaked beneath its gravity. With a roar, Aevin drove his arm downward, and the sphere detonated in a blinding cataclysm.
The ruins convulsed, flames and debris consuming all. Alya and the Stellaris were flung helplessly, their bodies struck down by the force of his wrath. Smoke and dust cloaked the battlefield.
From within that suffocating storm of ruin, Aevin advanced, his curved blade splitting open with serpentine precision. He raised it high above his head, his aura convulsing with murderous certainty. "Now… time to die." His voice was venom incarnate.
In one swift motion, his blade descended. Alya's head was severed from her shoulders, crimson scattering across the stones. Her body slumped, lifeless, as Aevin wiped the spray from his face with the fold of his cloak. His expression was cold, absolute. Victory was his.
And yet…
Aevin blinked.
His blade was still suspended in the air. Alya's body lay intact before him, her head untouched. He froze, fury and confusion twisting his features. Impossible. He had seen her die. He had felt the strike. He had tasted her blood upon the air. But before him, she yet lived.
Again. He struck, cleaving her neck in a crimson arc only to find her standing whole, unbroken, as if reality itself had unraveled around him. He staggered back, bewildered. His blade trembled in his grasp.
"What trickery is this…?!" Aevin snarled, his voice shaking with uncharacteristic uncertainty. His fury surged, but beneath it was something he despised more than anything.
From the fractured silence, a voice emerged calm, resolute, yet carrying a weight that bent even shadows. "I would not simply stand by… and let you kill her."
Aevin whipped his gaze around, his eyes narrowing. Mot-Suna's metallic wings flared as she ascended swiftly, scanning the air, seeking the source. Her sensors strained against the dust-choked haze.
And then through the broken haze, a figure stepped forth. Cloaked in light, the dust parted as if unwilling to touch him. The glow of a fragment pulsed on his chest, golden and unyielding.....the Chrona Shard. It burned with the power of eternity itself.
From the smoke walked Ivo.
Aevin froze, his rage tempered by shock. His voice faltered, almost human in its disbelief. "You…"
Ivo's crimson eyes, colder than blood, locked onto him with predatory calm. Each step forward rang like a verdict. His presence distorted the air itself, time fluttering at his command. The golden glow of the shard pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, defiant and eternal.
He stopped mere paces away, his gaze unblinking, his voice a blade sharper than any steel. "…Because I need her."