The ridge no longer belonged to the earth. It belonged to the sky — and the sky was breaking.
The Corrupter's wings of silence spread wide, blotting out the first honest light of dawn. Filaments braided themselves into ropes of nothing, each heavy enough to cut through sound, each long enough to lasso hope. His fused crown spun faster, shards of corrupted starlight grinding against each other until sparks bled black. Villagers fled downslope, their cries swallowed before they reached their own ears.
Andy felt the pull in his bones — gravity itself trying to bend toward hunger. Tier II steadied him, but even that form's quiet law groaned under pressure. He clenched the Oathblade, ember burning bright against the cold that had once bitten it, gale braiding tight under his heels, tide pressing steady along his ribs.
Nia pressed close to his left side, the Staff of Lumina alight with silver constellations that flickered like desperate prayers. "The sky is leaning," she whispered, voice frayed, but steady. "We'll make it lean toward us."
Aurelia leaned against his right, daggers already drawn, grin feral and hot, moonfire licking at her skin. "About damn time we showed him what a constellation really is."
The system answered with authority, not suggestion.
[Shared Resonance Form — Orion Tier III]
Participants: Andy × Nia × Aurelia
Activation: HANDS JOINED
Status: Gate OPEN
Aura Synchronization: 81% → 92%
Warning: Strain Severe | Sustain only through mutual bond
Andy lifted the Oathblade between them. "With me. Now."
They clasped hands — Nia's grip cool and steady, Aurelia's hot and unrepentant. The world tilted.
Light erupted.
It wasn't Andy's ember or tide or gale alone. It wasn't Nia's glyphs or Aurelia's moonfire. It was all three, braided so tightly that the seams vanished. His aura flared, no longer a dragon's dominance but a constellation's presence. Glyphs wrapped the Oathblade's edge like a crown of stars; silver arcs curled down its fuller and melted into the ember heat at its core. Wind braided between them, lifting their hair, setting their clothes to ripple like banners.
The villagers, those still alive, looked up and gasped. Not because the Corrupter loomed, but because three mortals burned brighter than a monster made of silence.
The Corrupter noticed too. His not-mouth bent into a smile without teeth, ribs flaring as he gathered silence into a hammer wider than the inn itself. The wings snapped forward, pulling air, pulling light, pulling certainty.
Andy did not flinch. "Resonance Severance!"
They moved as one.
Nia thrust the staff; glyphs poured through Andy's arm and blazed across the Oathblade. Aurelia's daggers split into mirrored echoes, each striking the blade's flat, moonlight bleeding into steel. Andy cut.
The Rift split the hammer in half before it fell. Glyphs erupted through the seam — Glyphstorm Prism amplified by Nia's will — and Aurelia's daggers slashed through the runes, fusing into a cross of silver. The cut carved through the silence, tearing it like wet paper.
The system rang in triumph.
[Fusion Skill: Constellation Rift — Ascended]
Effect: Null Overwrite | Crown Fragmentation (Severe)
Output: 318% baseline
The Corrupter reeled, crown shattering, three more fragments raining down, bleeding black steam into the dirt. His wings faltered, silence breaking into jagged chunks. For one terrible, beautiful second, the ridge remembered how to breathe.
"Push!" Andy barked.
Nia's eyes glowed with a thousand tiny constellations, her voice breaking into whisper-cast hymns. Aurelia laughed, wild, spinning mid-air with echoes of herself, slashing so fast the sky bled silver. Andy followed, each step grounded in the ridge's bones, each cut a law the world obeyed.
The Corrupter roared silence, but silence no longer ruled. Their bond rewrote it.
"Glyph Ascendant!" Nia cried, and runes spiraled high, wrapping the Corrupter's wings, tightening until the filaments snapped like rotten twine.
"Moonveil Crossing!" Aurelia shouted, her body splitting into three echoes, each driving a dagger into the Corrupter's ribs, each strike carving a different name into the silence: defiance, desire, devotion.
Andy raised the Oathblade high, the weapon blazing with starfire. "Constellation Severance — Final Arc!"
He cut down.
The strike tore through the Corrupter's chest, carving a glowing rift from crown to waist. Silence screamed and then failed, shattering into echoes that would never be whole again. The monster staggered, wings collapsing, ribs broken, crown cracked into shards that fled into ash.
But he did not fall.
Not yet.
The system whispered, urgent.
[Threat Level: CRITICAL]
Enemy Integrity: 37%
Corruption Surge Imminent
Warning: Resonance Form at 92% → unstable
Recommendation: Sustain bond | Push saturation threshold
Andy's knees trembled with the strain. His arms burned with weight. The aura around him flickered, as if the constellation overhead demanded more than he could give.
Nia pressed closer, her staff dissolving into light as she poured everything into him. "Don't you dare let go."
Aurelia leaned her forehead against his, breath hot, grin sharp even through exhaustion. "If you fall, I'll drag you back up. Naked if I have to."
Andy closed his eyes, drew their pulses into his chest, and breathed once more.
The stars above Orion blazed, leaning down as if watching. The ridge tilted. The world held its breath.
And the Shared Resonance Form burned hotter than any dawn.