Vastarael and Elyonari stepped through the final rocky veil of the Mountain of Illusions and emerged beneath a sky that was still cloaked in stars. Despite it being morning, it was still nightfall, for this was the first day of the Longest Nightfall.
Their boots crunched against fresh snow as they staggered down the rocky incline that opened onto a wide valley beyond the mountain range. They both exhaled at the same time, their breath visible. Elyonari placed her hands on her hips, still bandaged beneath her robes, her shoulders lifting and falling with exhaustion.
"We actually made it. No traps. No more illusions. No beetles. That's too weird. It's never this easy."
Vastarael didn't answer immediately. He was staring at the mountain behind them. His fingers curled into fists.
"Something's not right," he murmured.
Elyonari turned toward him, her silver hair fluttering softly in the wind.
"You're feeling it too, huh?"
He nodded slowly, eyes still locked on the mountain.
"We fell out right at the base and not a single Krepsuna followed. We were not chased. No echoes. Just... silence."
She sighed and crossed her arms.
"Should we head back to find Zarvana, Raika, and the others?"
"We told them before. If we get separated, we regroup in Central."
Elyonari bit her lip, nodding reluctantly.
"Still... this feels off. Everything feels off."
He didn't say it but he agreed. Every instinct in him was screaming that something was happening in Central. Something that was very, very wrong. Still, he looked back at the Mountain of Illusions.
"That mountain. It shouldn't exist."
"I know but we're in the past, remember? Nothing we do will permanently change anything. That place will exist no matter what."
"I still want to destroy it."
"So do I," she admitted.
But she was right. The moment they left the Epoch Cycle, time would flow again, and everything would revert.
So he turned away with clenched teeth and burning resolve.
"Let's go."
And then, the clouds above twisted and the sky split like paper.
A radiant, sonic burst exploded through the valley, followed by a streak of white tearing through the atmosphere. It descended fast. The winds exploded outward as it landed with a shockwave just a few meters from them, blasting snow into the air.
Vastarael's eyes widened.
"No way…"
When the storm of snow settled, standing amidst the mist was Biolumine. She was a flying horse this time. Perched on its back were Shimmer and Runner.
"DAD!"
The two girls leapt off Biolumine's back and ran through the snow. Their outfits were messy, their hair tousled and eyes wide with both relief and terror.
"SHIMMER? RUNNER?!"
He dropped to one knee as they collided into his chest, hugging him tightly, sobbing into his cloak. He wrapped his arms around both of them.
"What are you two doing here?! You're supposed to be in Central!"
"It's collapsing!" Shimmer screamed, her small hands clinging to his shoulder pads. "Dad, the Fallen Bridge is collapsing!!"
A silence dropped like a hammer. Elyonari froze. Vastarael's expression shattered.
"What?"
Runner looked up at him with trembling lips.
"We... we escaped with Biolumine but it started breaking apart. Central's shaking. We flew out and tried to find you—"
He held both of them tightly, thinking deeply. The Fallen Bridge was made of Primofrost, a Primordial Element, which is beyond time and decay. To destroy it, you'd need its antithesis.
You'd need Neverfire, a flame born from nothingness, a primordial entropy. If something was shattering Primofrost, then…
It wasn't just some catastrophe. It wasn't even a natural disaster. It was an extinction-class event. Someone—or something—was attacking the very fabric of Erna Isles.
Vastarael didn't hesitate. He rose up, picked his daughters up in his arms, and looked at Elyonari.
"Get on," he ordered.
Elyonari didn't waste a second. She ran toward Biolumine and leapt up, landing behind him. She didn't even bother grabbing onto anything. She simply wrapped her arms around his torso and braced herself.
Vastarael clicked his tongue. "Fly, Biolumine. Let's go to Central immediately."
Biolumine didn't need more. The creature erupted upward in a shockwave of wind and thunder, wings spreading wide as sonic booms tore the air apart.
They ascended and broke the speed of sound.
The world below blurred into a streak of midnight blue and silver frost. The wind lashed at them violently but they didn't feel it. All Vastarael could think of was Central.
His army...
And the terrifying realization that someone out there could destroy Erna Isles.
He held his children tighter and he whispered to Elyonari, his voice trembling.
"I don't think we're ready for what we're about to see."
------
Central was now a silent, frostbitten corpse.
It had begun as a retreat mission.
The army of Insignia, 600 elite warriors had arrived expecting to camp and wait for their master to arrive. Instead, they found a graveyard frozen in motion.
The sentient Krepsunas that once lived in Central now warped and disfigured, crawling upon limbs that didn't belong to them, screeching in static-like voices, twisted by an infection that had no name.
They looked… human, or what remained of them after it had been shattered, spliced, and resurrected by some blasphemous will.
Arms that extended too far, jaws that stretched past their ribs and eyes with no end, with layers and layers of irises and no minds.
Ferris Harrowshard downward with her obsidian greatsword as it cleaved through four corrupted Scavenger Ranked Krepsunas at once. Their torsos shattered as blood splashed in patterns against the frozen ground. She turned on his heel and slammed the flat edge of the sword against another beast, its head pulping with a disgusting squelch.
"Where in the Bridge is Master?!" She bellowed.
"Too late to wonder now!" Chrysanthemum spun in midair, hands flowing with Mystic Circles, conjuring a spiraling lance of energy beams that shot forward and obliterated a trio of Krepsunas in a single explosive spiral. Their shrieks ended in silence as their deformed corpses evaporated.
"Beneath us!" Her voice cracked.
Chains erupted from the ground.
They wrapped around the neck of a creature crawling on all fours, one with hundreds of fingers on its back and yanked it upward, strangling it in midair. The chains twisted, snapping its malformed limbs with the sound of dried branches breaking.
Arletta, stood behind it, her feet, her face blank. She tilted her head. merely observing.
The three of them stood in a circle, their backs to one another. They were the last of Insignia's leadership and the only ones standing.
The entire army, Zarvana's husband and guards were all dead. Unlike Insignia who were immortal and could go back to the Spire due to their Bane, Zarvana's husbands were permanently dead.
Around them, Central burned but not with flame. Frozen fire rose from the city, Primordial in origin, blue and deathless. The buildings crumbled inward.
"WHERE ARE THEY?!"
Ferris shouted again, smashing another abomination with a backhand swing, his muscles splitting beneath her own pressure.
Insignia was gone.
Five hundred soldiers had died in under ten minutes.
The remaining ninety-nine had been vaporized in a single detonation of cursed plasma that left a crater fifty meters wide. Their bones had melted and only three remained protected in its center, protected by Chrysanthemum's barrier, summoned in the last possible second.
And the fourth? Vienna, their cook.
She stood between the three, clutching a sword, her eyes wide and trembling. Her weapon was shaking in her hands not from fear of death, but from the unbearable knowledge that everyone she fed… was gone.
After all, she was just like Chrysanthemum and Chainless. At the end of the day, if she died, she would die permanently.
"We're done," Ferris muttered, breathing heavily.
Even she, made from enchanted bones and reinforced muscles grown from training, was fading.
Arletta tapped her chains together once.
A goodbye?
Chrysanthemum whispered a final incantation under her breath, glowing petals rising from her shoulders, as though she were choosing her last words in silence.
And Vienna closed her eyes as the horde of hundreds of Scavenger-Ranked Krepsunas charged.
And then, reality was cut. And from within it…
Everything froze.
Even the Krepsunas stopped, their bodies twitching in confusion, sensing something that had no place in existence.
A foot, wrapped in sapphire aura, touched the crater. A voice came after.
"…Did I miss something?"
Ferris blinked. Chrysanthemum gasped. Vienna dropped her halberd. Even Arletta took a step back.
There, standing in the air above the crater, his coat tattered, his glaive resting over his shoulder, holding his daughters…
Vastarael Richinaria had arrived. And he was very, very angry.