The ridge no longer felt like ground. It felt like a question waiting for an answer.
The crowned Corrupter hunched in his false man-shape, ribs glowing with stuttering starfire. Threads jittered in the air around him, snapping like leashes pulled too tight. The villagers inside Nia's shrinking hoop clutched hands, eyes wide at the shape of something that shouldn't exist.
Andy stood one step forward of both women, Oathblade alive in his hand. Tier II still wrapped him, but quieter now, sharper—an edge rather than a flood. Nia's fingers pressed his chest, Aurelia's palm dug against his back. Their bond wasn't theory anymore. It sang.
The system was careful this time, as if afraid to break the moment by being too tidy.
[Shared Resonance — Stable]
Participants: Andy × Nia × Aurelia
Synergy Output: +28%
Fusion Technique: AVAILABLE
Candidate Skills: Glyphstorm Prism + Starlight Guillotine + Constellation Rift
Andy's breath fogged white. "We meet him level. Not higher. Not lower. Level."
"Equal footing," Nia echoed, her voice bloodied but steady. She lifted the staff; glyphs flared like stars called into a constellation. Silver circles stitched themselves through the hoop and reached toward Andy's blade.
"Fine," Aurelia grinned, spinning both daggers until they blurred. "But I'm taking the prettier half."
The Corrupter didn't wait. He stepped, and distance collapsed. His crown spun; filaments lashed forward in a storm meant to erase shapes. Silence rode their backs like a commander sure of victory.
Andy cut the space open. "Constellation Rift." The Oathblade carved a seam through the breathless dark. Gale rushed through, pulling the filaments sideways. Nia poured glyphs into the seam—Glyphstorm Prism—and the line filled with rain of silver runes, each sparking like a fuse. Aurelia was already moving, laughing with her mouth closed, diving through the seam with a pair of silver arcs.
"Starlight Guillotine!"
The daggers crossed at the apex of the Rift, a moonlit X that crashed through the glyphs. Runic shards clung to the arcs, turned into teeth of light, and rode the daggers into the Corrupter's ribs.
The system's voice shuddered with the force of the choice.
[Fusion Skill Activated]
Designation: Constellation Severance
Components: Glyphstorm Prism + Starlight Guillotine + Constellation Rift
Effect: Vector Disruption | Crown Fragmentation | Null Inversion
Output: 212% baseline strike
The strike landed.
The Corrupter convulsed, crown rattling as three fragments cracked loose and fell into the dirt, bleeding black steam. The ribs flickered, the not-breath staggered. For the first time, the absence looked injured. Not annoyed. Hurt.
The ridge felt it too. Stones sighed, relief threaded into their old patience. The hoop brightened. Villagers found their throats and shouted, sound ragged and real.
Aurelia twisted her landing into a slide, daggers dripping with fading silver glyphs. "Pretty enough for you?" she called back, smirk painted with blood at the corner of her lip.
Nia didn't smile, but the silver in her staff burned steadier. "Efficient."
Andy planted his feet and held the Oathblade across his chest, catching the echo of their clash. The air smelled of hot iron and pine sap, smoke from something that wasn't fire.
The Corrupter staggered two paces back, and the villagers dared to hope.
Then the not-mouth widened.
The crown rotated faster. Broken fragments on the ground shook, then dragged themselves back into orbit like satellites too ashamed to stay fallen. The ribs lit again, brighter, pulsing wrong light like a star coughing.
Andy felt the pressure shove at his shoulders. Nia leaned harder against his chest, Aurelia's palm dug deeper between his shoulders. The bond pulsed warm, steady, louder.
The system whispered—not a chime, but a suggestion written in their bones.
[Constellation Sync — Orion]
Nia ⭐ 98% | Aurelia ⭐ 96%
Tier III Progress: 41%
Fusion Technique: Repeatable (with strain)
Status: Enemy adapting | Hold formation
Andy lifted the Oathblade until the edge caught every bit of light still willing to shine. "Again," he said, voice iron.
Nia's staff thrummed, glyphs circling his aura like patient stars. Aurelia spun her daggers, grin wider, reckless and holy.
"Equal footing," Andy repeated.
They stepped forward together.
The Corrupter roared silence, and the ridge braced for another chapter of war.