The air inside Fallow's Ferry grew heavy with an oppressive dread, the atmosphere thick with the scent of scorched earth and the metallic tang of blood.
Borin's earth shield, a hastily erected barrier of cracked stone and dirt, splintered under the shadow's relentless barrage of red beams.
King Elvis held Elis close, his weathered face etched with deep lines of worry, gray eyes clouded with fear as he searched her dirt-smudged features.
"Are you okay, my girl?" he asked, his voice a trembling whisper that barely rose above the chaos.
Elis, her delicate face marked by exhaustion and streaked with grime, nodded weakly, her green eyes glinting with a faint spark of hope. "I'm okay, Father."
Before he could offer more comfort, the dome unleashed a guttural, bone-rattling scream, and Borin's shield shattered under a final, devastating beam.
A violent explosion of dark shards erupted, the force hurling the group across the ruined village in a blinding haze of dust and debris.
Ash struck the ground hard near the rift's edge, his scarred face contorted with a sharp intake of pain, wild dark hair matted with sweat and clinging to his forehead.
He rolled to his knees, wincing as the ache spread through his limbs, and his gaze landed on a stranger a short distance away—Eren.
Eren's thin face was a cold mask, his dark eyes icy and unreadable beneath a tangle of messy brown hair, his posture rigid as if the chaos around him was beneath his notice.
Ash, still catching his breath, felt an unfamiliar surge ripple through his chest, a strange hum emanating from the rift that stirred something deep within—a newly discovered power from his essence he barely comprehended.
Rising unsteadily, he wiped blood from a cut on his cheek and glanced at Eren, his voice hesitant but determined.
"I… I think I can do something with the rift—stabilize it. Can you help me draw the shadow out."
Eren's response was a curt, "We are not partners, I don't care about what you can do." His voice was low, rough, and dripping with rudeness, his body turning away as if Ash were an insignificant insect unworthy of his time.
Undeterred, Ash took a step forward, his tone rising with urgency.
"We're all dead if we don't do something!"
Eren's head snapped back, his cold glare cutting like a shard of ice.
"Your problem, not mine," he spat, his words final as he shifted his stance, dismissing Ash entirely.
In that moment, a memory of a childhood game—running through golden fields with his friends, Noah and kevin, their laughter echoing—slipped from Ash's mind like sand through his fingers, leaving a vague, aching void he couldn't yet place or understand.
The cost of his untested power had begun, though he remained oblivious to its toll.
Before the tension could boil over into something more, the ground split open with a deafening crack, the earth groaning as if in agony.
Reaver abominations erupted from the rift—misty, ethereal forms fused with jagged crystalline shards, their red eyes glowing with malevolent intent.
Their roars shook the air, a primal threat that sent a shiver down Ash's spine as they closed in.
One charged at him, its claws slashing through the air, forcing him to roll aside, the creature's strike grazing the earth where he'd stood moments before.
Another lunged at Eren from behind, its talons aimed at his unprotected back, silent and deadly.
With no time to think, Ash threw himself forward, his body colliding with Eren's to shove him out of harm's way.
The Reaver's claws raked across Ash's shoulder instead, tearing a deep gash that spilled warm blood down his shirt, the pain searing through him like fire.
He collapsed with a grunt, clutching the wound, as Eren stumbled and turned, his dark eyes widening for a fleeting moment in surprise.
That brief softening vanished as quickly as it had come.
Eren straightened, brushing dust from his jacket, and muttered, "Why'd you do that?" His tone was cold, laced with a grudging curiosity, before hardening again.
"Fool," he added, his voice dripping with disdain, though a faint trace of reluctant acknowledgment lingered in his gaze.
Trapped with no escape route, their situation left them no choice but to fight.
Ash, grimacing against the pain, reached for his essence, his hands trembling as a faint, unsteady glow enveloped them.
He tried to Remember the rift's calm state, willing the scattered rubble to reform—small stones shifted weakly, quivering as if resisting his command.
Eren, silent and precise, unleashed a Severed Echo—his form flickered like a ghost, an afterimage lingering as he shifted a heartbeat forward, blasting the Reaver apart with a surge of blue energy.
A numbness crept up his arm, a subtle price he ignored with a clenched jaw.
Their alliance was rough, born of necessity, their movements uncoordinated but effective as the abominations fell one by one.
Elsewhere, the scattered survivors faced their own desperate battles.
To the east, Blackthorn and Borin fended off Reavers amid the rubble of collapsed buildings, Borin's broad face glistening with sweat as he summoned a smaller earth shield, his breaths coming in ragged gasps.
To the west, Lyra limped alongside Sol through the wreckage of a burning mill, her angular face twisted with pain from the beam graze on her leg, her dark eyes scanning for safety as she guided the trembling man.
To the north, Elvis, Elis, and the B.O.R.E.M. leader, Magister Claire stood by the portal bikes, the leader's stern face set with grim determination.
"It's best we leave," she told Elvis, her voice firm and unyielding. "One of our machine's still working."
Elvis, his weathered face clouded with conflict, nodded reluctantly, his hands clenching at his sides.
Elis stepped forward, her delicate features tense with resolve.
"Blackthorn and others are out there—villagers too. We can't abandon them!"
Magister Claire,the leader—dark eyes narrowed, her expression hardening. "We have no choice."
Elis's voice rose, insistent and pleading. "We have to do something!"
The leader snapped back, "We're leaving anyway," and moved to activate the portal.
B.O.R.E.M. agents stepped forward to enter, but Elis noticed a strange flicker in the energy field—a subtle distortion that set her instincts ablaze.
Without hesitation, she yanked the leader back, and the portal erupted in a blinding flash, a deafening explosion consuming the agents in an instant.
Magister Claire staggered, staring in shock, her stern facade cracking as smoke billowed around them.
Elvis and Elis froze, their faces pale, the ground trembling beneath their feet as the shadow's influence grew stronger.
Back with Ash and Eren, the rift pulsed with increasing intensity, its dark energy coiling like a living thing.
Tendrils lashed out like whips, forcing them to dodge and weave through the debris, their breaths ragged.
The shadow's voice boomed through the air,
"You can't escape from here. YOU MUST ALL DIE!!!!" its tone a chilling promise of their doom.
As the survivors staggered toward a fragile reunion, Sol, his narrow face pale with fear, "I can help… reroute the energy…" he muttered, his voice shaky but determined, stepping forward with the core held tightly.
The shadow's form shifted, its silhouette warping into a towering, multi-limbed entity with a jagged maw, its red eyes blazing with fury.
It roared, a sound that rattled the earth and shattered what little hope remained, tendrils lashing out with deadly precision.
The first tendril pierced Sol's chest, and he gasped, his hazel eyes widening in shock as blood stained his shirt, the core slipping from his hands to clatter against the ground.
Ash shouted, "Sol!" his voice breaking with desperation, but the shadow's attack was merciless.
A second tendril crushed Sven, his broad form collapsing with a final, choked gasp; a third impaled Lyra, her angular face freezing in a silent scream as she fell; and a fourth tore through Borin, his broad frame crumpling as he shielded a fallen villager, his earth shield dissolving into dust.
Blackthorn, his rugged face pale with exhaustion, tried to flee the onslaught but was ensnared by a tendril, its claws raised to deliver the killing blow, his katana slipping from his grasp.
Ash and Eren, drawn by Blackthorn's desperate cry, sprinted toward him, their footsteps pounding against the trembling earth.
Ash, ignoring the throbbing pain in his bleeding shoulder, summoned a weak Unweave, his hands glowing faintly as he severed the tendril's grip, the crystalline shards crumbling to the ground.
Eren, with cold precision, unleashed a Severed Echo, his form flickering like a phantom, an afterimage lingering as he shifted forward to blast the tendril apart with a surge of blue energy, freeing Blackthorn just as the claws descended.
The old warrior hit the ground hard, gasping for air, his gray-streaked beard caked with dust.
Exhausted but calculating, Eren triggered another Severed Echo, his body flickering again, the fading afterimage spreading like a ghostly veil to mask their presence.
He grabbed Ash with one hand and Blackthorn with the other, pulling them into a shadowed crevice behind a collapsed wall, the echo concealing their retreat as they pressed against the cold stone.
The shadow laughed, its voice a chilling echo that reverberated through the ruins.
"Another thread severed."
From the rift emerged a dark figure, its form blurred and ominous, tied to the shadow's core, its presence sending a shiver through the air as the rift's energy surged with malevolent power.
Hidden in the crevice, Ash clutched his wounded shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers, while his other hand pressed against his head, fighting the void of lost memories that gnawed at his soul.
Eren remained silent, his face unreadable, while Blackthorn coughed weakly beside them.
The trio's fragile alliance, forged in blood and desperation, hung by a thread as the threat loomed ever closer, the weight of their losses pressing down like a suffocating shroud.