By the time the fourth day dawned, though in the Longest Nightfall, "dawn" was a word that held no meaning, Vastarael and Elyonari stood atop a cliff of cracked granite, staring down at a stretch of land that should not have looked the way it now did.
Below them lay the Southern Village. Or… what used to be it.
Elyonari's mouth slowly parted.
"No…"
It was gone. The cozy network of wooden homes, of thatched roofs nestled between fields of herbal cultivation, was no more. In its place now stretched a vast obsidian-colored plain. Black haze shimmered above the ground like it was being exhaled from something unnatural.
But the part that made Elyonari's blood run colder than any snowstorm ever could was what stood on that plain. They covered the land like ants swarming a fallen god.
Krepsunas. Hundreds of thousands of them.
A tide of inhumanity stretching beyond the horizon as if awaiting a silent command. Their forms varied from tall and skeletal, bloated and writhing, others with lips cracked open like fissures. And yet, they all pulsed with a single power, synchronized by the will of something that defied reason.
"All half a million of them," Elyonari whispered, clutching her bow tightly, her knuckles pale.
The silence was broken by a low, vibrating chuckle. Then it grew deeper and heavier. It echoed off the mountains and reverberated through the bones of the land.
"I was wondering when you'd show up."
The haze in the plains darkened and then rose. Something vast began to stand, as if the very darkness was taking shape. Only the vague silhouette of something with far too many limbs and antlers, wrapped in black mist, could be made out.
"You are the ones that have been slowing me for four years."
Elyonari flinched.
"Four years," the Frozen God snarled. "Four years of carefully cultivated infection. Four years of planting seeds in minds, letting them grow into perfect husks. I was building my feast. And you, Vastarael Richinaria, kept ruining my pantry."
Vastarael stepped forward slowly.
"Not my fault you store your pantry in pathetic meat bags."
The voice laughed again more feral this time.
"Do you think you're clever, Aeterium? Two and a half years you and that little army of yours, 'Insignia,' was it? You slaughtered Infected Krepsunas to make your army stronger. Your sword was too precise. You figured it out. I know that now. But it doesn't matter."
The laughter died. Silence fell for a beat.
"I am awake now."
The weight of those words sent a pressure wave through the cliff. Stones cracked beneath Vastarael's boots.
"I will kill every being that set foot in this cursed region. And then… I will find Erna's corpse and tear it apart again. Then her eight little children. And then I will hunt the gods who allowed this world to hold me."
The mist thickened and the very air began to distort.
"But before all that, I will kill the insect who forced me to awaken early. You, Vastarael Richinaria. You who would dare to trap my army. You should have kept your mouth shut. I hear everything in the Fallen Bridge you know"
The plains rumbled and the Krepsunas began to twitch. Elyonari turned slightly, her voice shaking.
"Vastarael… the plan… it's over. He heard it. He knew."
But before the dread could root itself deeper, she heard something.
Vastarael laughed.
It was soft at first. But then it grew into a rich, amused chuckle that rolled into full-on laughter, echoing louder than the god's voice before.
Elyonari blinked, stunned by his sudden action. "What...?"
Vastarael clutched his sides for a moment, wiping a tear from one eye with the edge of his thumb.
"Oh... oh that's hilarious."
The plains went silent. Even the Frozen God's shade froze, his voice laced with confusion and rage.
"Why do you laugh?"
Vastarael straightened. Because this was Vastarael Richinaria. Because nothing ever went unaccounted for. Because not even gods got to hear everything.
He looked over his shoulder at Elyonari with a grin that was half-insanity and half-mad genius.
"He thinks that the plan was to trap his army and kill it at once."
Her eyes widened. "Wait—"
Vastarael turned back to the god, his sapphire and golden irises glowing, his Mystic Eyes flaring to full.
"That plan? That was the decoy."
Vastarael's laughter died down as he gazed down at the endless legion of Krepsunas crawling like a blanket of rot upon the plains of the Southern Village.
"Let me explain something to you, Forgotten one."
"..."
He said as he took a step forward, standing on the edge of the cliff as if the earth itself was his stage.
"Each Krepsuna rank mirrors something in Spheraphasians. You… at the Forgotten Rank… hold a gift that mirrors that of gods. The power to command, dominate and have lesser beings bend before your will."
His glaive appeared in his hand that shimmered over the battlefield.
"But something happened on Dimensium, didn't it? You were infected too. You became something worse than a god. A parasite. You don't command Krepsunas, you corrupt them. You consume them to feed yourself. Sentient, Infected… it doesn't matter. They all serve you in the end."
There was silence then he continued.
"So I made a decision. Two and a half years ago, I entered the Fallen Bridge to do what no one else would."
He looked at Elyonari for a second, then turned his gaze back to the frozen battlefield.
"I came to exterminate your entire food source."
He pointed Calimostria downward. His Mystic Eyes zoomed forward through the field, blinking past fog, bodies, and bones. and focused on the figures standing amidst the frontlines.
Zarvana, Seyna, Raika, Kezren and Veyn.
Familiar faces twisted beyond all recognition. Now… they were empty shells, Infected Krepsunas and puppets for the god who defiled their will. Elyonari gasped. She recognized them too. Her hand clenched her bow, grief flickering in her heart. But Vastarael… didn't flinch.
"They were doomed either way. You'd break out eventually. It's better to kill them like this, when they are no longer themselves."
The Frozen God laughed again, but there was tension under the sound now.
"You think your little vendetta matters? You've led yourself right to death, Vastarael Richinaria. You're standing in front of five hundred and thirty thousand of my children. Even with your reputation, even with your fancy glaive, even with your Aeterium blood, this is suicide. You cannot kill them all."
"Who said I was going to fight? You've been so obsessed with watching me, listening and monitoring every word I said in the Fallen Bridge."
He stepped back, held up one hand, and twirled Calimostria once behind his shoulder.
"But tell me something… if it took me four days to travel from Central to here, a distance I could cross in one, what do you think I was really doing for two and a half years?"
Then… Vastarael clapped twice.
A ripple spread across the southern area. And then, they appeared.
Glowing lines of blue and green and gold carved deep into the snow beneath the Krepsunas.
Tens of thousands of Runes, some the size of buildings, others so small they only hummed beneath boots.
Elyonari's mouth parted.
The entire southern part of the Fallen Bridge—the whole southern sector—had been turned into a singular weapon.
"You thought I just wandered the bridge for four years killing your babies. But I was drawing."
The runes pulsed like a heartbeat, casting a glow into the storm-black sky.
"Runes can last for years if you pour enough energy into them. I spent a whole year just preparing the south. I took a year using your Infected Krepsunas to improve my army's power to Third Phase Ascender stage right here. And you know why?"
He held up a single finger.
"Because this… is where your horde would die."
The haze above the Krepsunas seemed to stutter.
"You see, I knew what this Epoch Cycle was for the moment I set foot on the Isles. We weren't brought here to wander, or to grow strong, or even to survive. We were brought here to kill you. To end you."
Elyonari turned to him, stunned.
"You knew... even before?"
"I suspected. So I prepared because eventually, you'd awaken. And when you did, you'd come for all of us."
He raised both arms now, Calimostria held high, eyes ablaze.
"So, no. I'm not fighting your army."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"I'm erasing it."
He turned his head slightly toward Elyonari and gave her a soft smile.
"Get behind me."
He snapped his fingers.