The ridge was no longer ridge; it was a wound stretched open to the sky.
The Corrupter Tier III raised his silence wings, and the air itself bowed. Where the feathers should have been, there were braids of absence — cords of nothing woven so thick they bent light. His fused crown spun once, each shard shrieking in a voice too old to still hurt. The ribs of wrong-light in his chest pulsed in arrhythmic bursts, like a star bleeding to death in public.
Villagers scattered toward caves and treelines, but their voices didn't follow them. The monster had stolen even that.
Andy planted his feet where stone cracked under weight and let Tier II breathe across his shoulders. Gale braided beneath his heels, tide pressed his ribs, ember burned his chest. His aura resisted, steady, but the silence gnawed at it like frost chewing through a roof beam.
Nia's staff shone pale silver, runes swirling frantic across its head. "The world bends too far," she said, voice tight with strain. "It won't hold long."
Aurelia spat blood from the corner of her mouth and laughed, not kindly. "Then we break it before it breaks us." She flicked her daggers up, both gleaming under a dawn that had forgotten its purpose.
The system chimed, no longer calm, but clipped like a general.
[Threat Surge — Corruption Field Expanding]
Dominance Field: Total (90%)
Stability: Collapsing
Recommendation: Shared Resonance Form → Sustain
Warning: Prolonged strain risks fracture
Andy set the Oathblade across his chest, its edge dimmed by weight but still humming ember. "With me. Both of you."
They clasped hands — Nia's cool, Aurelia's hot. Shared Resonance Form flared to life, constellations threading his veins with light, moonfire licking his bones.
The Corrupter exhaled silence.
It wasn't breath; it was memory undone. Ridges cracked like cheap pottery. The inn imploded as if ashamed to stand. A pine that had survived a hundred winters toppled, turned to ash before it hit the ground.
Andy roared against it — not sound, but law. The Oathblade burned brighter, glyphs stitched along its fuller. Tier II strained, but for a heartbeat it held.
Then the silence thickened.
The system whispered with pain.
[Aura Contamination — Andy: 72% ↑↑]
Symptoms: Ember instability | Gale disruption | Resist chance falling
Mitigation: Bond Pulse Required
Andy's knees trembled. Cold burned his left shoulder again, deeper this time. Ember sputtered.
Nia pressed her palm against his chest, blood trickling from her nostril. "Stay." Her glyphs wrapped around his failing ember, stitching fire with light.
Aurelia shoved harder against his back, breath ragged, voice wicked and desperate both. "Don't you dare fall. I'll kill you if you do."
The bond pulsed.
Warmth rushed through his ribs. Moonlight braided with silver glyphs, both feeding ember until the fire stopped sputtering and roared again. The frost melted. Andy inhaled clean.
The system snapped its verdict:
[Bond Pulse ↑↑]
Resonance Output: +31%
Aura Contamination: Purged
Status: Stable
Andy raised the Oathblade high. "Vector Prism!"
Nia's glyphs spun into the blade, shattering into star-shards that lined the edge. Aurelia slashed her daggers across it, pouring moonlight into the runes. Andy cut downward — and the sky opened.
The silence wall cracked, silver spilling through the seams. The Corrupter reeled, crown tilting, three ribs flickering dim.
But instead of stumbling back, he did something worse.
He reached down with his wrong hand and touched the ridge.
The mountain screamed.
Cracks spidered out from under his palm. Soil blackened, trees withered, boulders crumbled into soot. From the fractures rose figures: corrupted villagers, half-formed beasts, shadows wearing old faces. The ridge itself was being remade into army and altar.
The system's chime arrived like a drumbeat of dread.
[Corruption Surge — Stage II]
Field Status: Total Corruption (100%)
Enemy Aura Absorption Efficiency: 70% ↑
Recommendation: Unlock latent element — EARTH
Condition: Resonance + Oathblade + Bond Threshold
Andy's hand burned where it held the Oathblade. Not from ember. From something deeper. A voice low as tectonic shift touched him: You've heard fire. You've heard tide. You've heard gale. Listen deeper.
The ground quaked. His aura flared. His heel sank into a fissure that wasn't fracture but invitation.
Nia gasped, feeling it too. "Andy… the earth."
Aurelia's eyes widened, but her grin returned sharper. "Took you long enough."
The Oathblade shook, glyphs splintering along its length. A new edge grew — rough, jagged, brown-gold light crawling along the steel. The hum deepened until it wasn't hum at all but the sound of mountains groaning awake.
Andy exhaled, voice steady as rock. "Terrafang — Earthen Shackles."
The ground erupted. Stone pillars burst from fissures, coiling like serpents, lashing around the Corrupter's limbs. The silence wings strained, but the stone held, dragged down by the weight of the world itself.
The ridge stopped screaming.
The system glowed clean for the first time since dawn.
[Elemental Mastery: EARTH Unlocked]
All four elements attained.
Draconic Oathblade — Elemental State: Complete.
Status: Ascension Triggered.
Andy stood taller, aura steady, four elements braided into a mantle no silence could unmake.
The Corrupter thrashed, crown sparking black fire, wings shredding shadows, but the stone held. For the first time, the silence sounded afraid.
Andy lowered the Oathblade until its point touched cracked earth. "All four. Now."
The ridge tilted. The sky leaned. And the world prepared to meet something it had never seen: a Dragon-Phoenix born of balance.