The ash tongue leapt.
Aurelia didn't stop; she refused to. Her body bent wrong around the lattice's shimmer, knees screaming as she forced the angle. The Moonpiercer left her hand like a silver curse and cut a crescent that barely skimmed a rune's edge. The bolt kissed the pulse sidelong.
It split. One half tattered itself in the outer ring. The other half bled its hunger into smoke. The cart stood. The wounded lived.
Aurelia grinned through grit, sweat shining on her jawline. "Invoice me later," she said, voice ragged but satisfied.
The villagers didn't cheer. They were too afraid to believe yet.
Andy dropped from the air-step like a falling promise. His boots hit hard, the Oathblade singing with ember, tide, and gale braided tight.
"Dragon's Vow," he breathed.
It wasn't a skill name in the system; it was something older. His aura swelled—not louder, not brighter, but heavier, promising violence if anyone but him touched the ridge. The Corrupter's attention snapped away from the villagers and fastened to him like a wolf recognizing another predator.
[Dragon Resonance]
Output Bias: Threat → 18%
Stability: High
The wrong wings flared. The Corrupter's mouth peeled into a smile too narrow for any mercy. "Yes," he said, as if pleased.
Shadows folded down around him. A dome swelled—a Null Prayer, thick silence where spells forgot their letters.
Nia felt it at once. Her runes guttered, light peeling off them like rain off wax. Glyphstorm faltered. The lattice sagged to its last stored pattern, trembling at the seams.
Her breath hitched. For the first time, the staff felt like just wood and crystal.
But she wasn't only staff. She was bond.
Her eyes flicked to Andy, then Aurelia. She pressed her palm flat against the Staff of Lumina and whispered across the link, not aloud, not with sigils, but with faith.
Do not forget me.
The bond answered.
[Constellation Technique Unlocked — Whisper Cast]
Requirement: Dual bond pathway + High trust
Effect: Limited-magnitude spellcasting inside silence fields
Runes flickered back to life, faint as candlelight under fog—but present. A narrow ward sutured itself over the children at the cart. Another glyph brightened in Andy's blind spot, catching a husk blade meant for his side.
"Still here," she murmured.
Andy slid under the Corrupter's swing, air ripping along his cheek. He angled the Oathblade down and wrote three truths in a single stroke—fire for mark, water for permanence, wind for delivery.
"Triune Severance."
The edge shaved a ribbon of shadow straight off the Corrupter's core. Black light flailed like moths caught in glass. The wrong wings hitched, their rhythm broken.
For the first time, annoyance touched the Corrupter's face.
"You carry two cores," he said, eyes bright with malice. "How many more will you steal?"
"Enough," Andy replied, and made it a vow instead of a number.
Nia's Whisper Cast stitched quiet wards around the villagers. Aurelia rolled her shoulders, daggers bright again thanks to the bond's gift.
[Shared Inventory — Auto-Resupply]
Trigger: Ammo < 15% | Tonics < 1
Latency: 0.09s
Moonpiercer bolts shimmered back into Aurelia's quiver. A tonic blinked into Nia's hand, cool glass under her fingers.
The tempo steadied. Breathing steadied.
The Corrupter swept his wrong blade in a wide scythe, shadow rolling under the lattice like a tide meant to drown choice. Nia's jaw locked. She could either shrink the dome—save those closest—or widen it, and risk thinning it to paper.
"Breadth," she whispered again, and her lattice ballooned, ragged at the edges, but enough to cover the stragglers. Her eyes said what her mouth didn't: she hated the choice.
Aurelia read it, stepped wordless into the gap, twin daggers catching shadow like nets spun of moonlight. "I'll patch what you drop," she said, and her grin made it sound easy.
The bond pulsed.
[Constellation Sync — Orion]
Nia ⭐ 85% | Aurelia ⭐ 77%
Tier II Combined: 58%
Status: Momentum Held
Andy's eyes never left the Corrupter. He saw it—the half-breath stutter every time the monster drained from husks. For that instant, the wrong blade became honest steel.
He raised the Oathblade, ember flaring along its length. "On the drink," he called, voice calm as gravity.
Aurelia's bowstring hummed. Nia's lattice leaned.
The Corrupter's wings spread wide. Shadow poured from his ribs like cathedral bells tolling doom. Breath gathered in his throat, too vast, too final—Cathedral Breath, a cone meant to erase ridge and villagers both.
The ridge itself seemed to shrink back, waiting.
[Crisis Event Detected]
Recommendation: Dual-Channel Sync (Mage + Huntress)
Form: Maintain Tier II
Window: 3.2s
Tier II Combined: 60%
Andy planted both feet, Oathblade raised.
Nia's hand found his shoulder.
Aurelia's step slid into place at his right flank, daggers low and eyes shining.
The world went white-black. The breath came.
And the ridge braced itself to see if vows could hold.