I. The Timeless Guardian
The air in the cave was so dense and oppressive that it hurt to breathe. The dome of stellar crystals vibrated with contained energy, and the blue light, reflected across a thousand facets, made the space seem to shift in size with every heartbeat.
The Hermit remained seated, impassive, his eyes like fractured sapphires. When Kael attacked, the distance collapsed: a single step brought the old man in front of the warrior, a withered palm raised toward the Destructora.
—"Palm of the Immovable Mountain."
The greatsword clashed against the bare palm, and the sound was that of a shattered bell. An invisible shockwave rippled through the cave, vibrating the crystals and tearing away splinters of energy. The force of the impact shredded the air and cracked Kael's armor, launching him against the living rock.
The elder didn't even blink; a flick of his wrist sent Kael flying, coughing up blood.
—"So noisy..." the Hermit murmured. "Is this how the South challenges its elders? Your brute force is an insult to this sanctuary."
Eris, her eyes burning with white fire, advanced without fear. The atmosphere became scorching around her, yet the flame devoured the air and stone without igniting a common fire.
—"Absolute Zero Lotus..." Violeta whispered, ready to act.
—"Flame of Eternal Ruin!" Eris shouted, sending a column of black and white fire forward. The air vibrated with pure destruction, disintegrating dust and crystal alike.
The Hermit smiled. —"Fire without control."
He blew a breath, and a wave of compressed Qi swept the attack away: the fire vanished before touching him, as if space itself had swallowed it.
—"Here, nothing burns without my permission," he declared, each word seeming to seal reality.
Violeta felt a tug in her heart. She tried to open an escape portal, but the spatial pressure was absolute. The cave's crystals, anchored by lines of energy, sealed the space like a prison.
—"They are anchors..." she murmured in awe. "Star Iron fixes reality. This cave is a dimensional cage."
Elara tried to flank the Hermit, daggers in hand, but her attack found no flesh: space simply curved, leaving her rolling at Eris's feet, dazed.
—"Not even stealth will save you. Here, the world is mine."
II. The Sisters' Assault
Kael, gasping, tore himself from the rock, fresh blood mixing with dragon energy. The mental link vibrated.
—"We can't win with blows," he growled. "Violeta, can you break the cage?"
—"I can't open a door," she replied, her voice strained, "but maybe... I can break the wall itself."
Violeta extended her hands, her fingers tracing the flow of space and cold. Her pupils turned into two blue fractals, lines of frost and stars spiraling within. The Hermit turned to her, his lips curled in a sneer.
—"Do you think you can defeat eighty years of cultivation, child of winter?"
Violeta responded with her own art. —"Astral Frost Prison."
The air became a white haze. Out of nowhere, a dome of blue ice with silver veins erupted. It wasn't just ice; it was slowed and distorted space. The Hermit tried to move, but every step grew slower, every gesture heavier, as if time itself were freezing.
But the elder smiled and released a vibration of Qi that cracked the prison, fragmenting the frost and returning the air to normal.
—"Space and Ice... interesting, but not enough."
—"Then let's try something else," Violeta whispered, sweat coating her forehead. "Dimensional Fracture Mirror!"
A wall of translucent ice filled with fissures rose before the Hermit. The elder launched a Qi palm, which was absorbed by the ice and reappeared right at his side, forcing him to dodge his own attack. For the first time, he frowned. Eris seized the confusion and danced around him, each step leaving behind marks of black and white fire.
—"Incandescent Dance of Judgment."
She moved at such speed that only a trail of burning scars remained in the air. Where Eris struck, the crystal melted and crumbled. A blow nearly touched the Hermit's shoulder; he spun around, surprised.
—"Not bad..." he admitted. "But you are still a flame, and I am the one who puts out fires."
With a gesture, spatial energy compressed Eris, slowing her movement. The air became dense and cold, her fires struggling against the suffocation. But Eris, stubborn, gritted her teeth.
—"Decaying Core Explosion."
A sphere of fire and ruin formed between her hands and exploded, releasing a wave that distorted space, weakening the Hermit's formation and creating fissures in the crystal anchors. The cave emitted a high-pitched sound, as if space itself were screaming in pain.
III. The Limit of Hope
Kael did not miss the moment. With a roar, he used his Forbidden Art:
—"Life Devourer: Martyr's Roar!"
He burned his own blood, the energy turning red and dense as magma. He lunged at the Hermit in a suicidal tackle, pushing him toward the dry pond at the root's origin. The Hermit, now enraged, raised his fist to crush Kael. The pressure made the floor creak, and the entire dome vibrated.
—"Die, insect!"
—"NOW!" Kael screamed, spitting blood into the old man's face, blinding him for an instant.
IV. The Leap into the Void
Everything happened in seconds.
Violeta, drenched in sweat and blood, pulled an Unstable Rift Core from her ring and hurled it into the center of the cave. Her trembling hands invoked the last of her ice and space Qi.
—"Absolute Zero: Singularity Cage!"
A beam of blue ice covered the core, stabilizing it in the split second before the explosion. But the gravitational implosion was released: a black rift tore open in reality. Space shrieked, crystals shattered and were swallowed, and the air became a vortex of frost, void, and heat.
The Hermit, cunningly, dug his feet into the ground, his crystal skin cracking under the pressure. —"You are insane! You'll kill us all!" he shrieked, staring into the abyss.
Violeta, nearly collapsing, turned to the group and enveloped them in a sphere of Eternal Ice, protecting them from the brutal vacuum. Elara grabbed Kael, who was barely holding on, and Eris surrounded her sister with protective fire, countering the extreme cold.
—"Hold on!" Eris shouted.
—"Only... we... are leaving," Violeta managed to say, blood dripping from her eyes and nose.
Kael let go of the Hermit and allowed the suction to drag them into the rift while the ice sphere shielded them. With a thunderous roar, the rift collapsed in on itself, and the group vanished from the plane.
V. The Hermit's Echo
Outside, the mountain shook. The crater left by the implosion was perfect—a polished sphere that had devoured everything: rock, cave, roots, and beast. At the bottom of the void, the Crystal Hermit, covered in bleeding cracks and coughing up blood and fragments, stood alone.
He rose, furious, and looked at the empty sky.
—"MORNINGSTAAAAAR!" he roared, his voice vibrating with a promise of vengeance. "I have seen your destiny... and it shall be ruin!"
His word rose, crossing the Sea of Beasts like a curse.
VI. Epilogue: Crash Landing
Hundreds of miles away, the ice sphere fell from a broken portal and crashed into the mud of a purple swamp. Kael emerged first, coughing up black mud.
—"Violeta..." he stammered, seeing his sister pale and unconscious.
Eris, still wrapped in white fires, evaporated the moisture from her clothes and knelt beside Violeta. Elara checked the twin's pulse with trembling fingers.
—"She's alive... but her spiritual core is empty. The forced use of the singularity left her in a coma."
Violeta's spiritual compass spun wildly, broken. Kael looked at the jade box: the Star Dragon Root was still there, intact. He collapsed onto his back, staring at the purple sky through tentacle-like branches.
—"We made it..." he whispered, between tears and pained laughter. "But I don't know where we are... and without Violeta, we have no path."
Eris hugged her twin. Elara looked at the hostile surroundings, fear in her eyes. They were lost, wounded, and broken. But they had won. And in the wind, the Hermit's promise echoed:
"The price of the root has not yet been paid. Winter and the void shall fall upon the Morningstar lineage."
The group, exhausted, could only move forward. But that night, under the purple moon and poisonous mist, they swore that neither ice, nor fire, nor the ruin of space would ever separate them.
Exclusive Techniques
Violeta (Ice + Space)
Dimensional Fracture Mirror: Creates walls of translucent ice interlaced with spatial rifts. Projectiles or attacks touching the ice are absorbed and can reappear at another point.
Astral Frost Prison: Encloses enemies in a dome of ice reinforced with spatial energy patterns; time and movement within are distorted.
Absolute Zero Lotus: An ice flower that freezes an area at a molecular level, "anchoring" anything trapped in its radius.
Nebula Trail: Violeta slides between fragments of frozen space, teleporting short distances and leaving a trail of cutting frost.
Eris (Fire + Destruction)
Flame of Eternal Ruin: A black flame with a white core that decomposes matter and Qi, disintegrating barriers on contact.
Decaying Core Explosion: Concentrates destructive fire in a sphere that detonates, weakening the foundations of enemy techniques.
Ash of Oblivion: An area attack dispersing incandescent particles that consume the "memory" of objects and techniques, erasing persistent effects.
Incandescent Dance of Judgment: A flurry of zigzag attacks leaving scars of fire and destruction that burn even inside shields.
[End of Chapter 94]