The two beasts Venedix had struck now writhed on the ground in pain—twitching and convulsing.
Yet they were not dead.
Instead, thick strands of pure black eidra coiled around their wounds—slowly mending the gashes and restoring their torn flesh.
Venedix's attacks which were devastating—were being undone before her eyes.
It seems that the beasts do not fall to normal eidra-based strikes.
Venedix's eyes sharpened as she shifted her gaze toward the recovering creatures.
"Mhm," she muttered, her voice low, narrowing her gaze as if piecing something together.
From their invulnerability, to their strength and to the color of their eidra—which was pure black.
"I see now."
In a blink, she vanished into thin air—before reappearing directly above one of the beasts—still in the middle of regenerating.
*Thud!
With a large thud, Venedix stepped onto the beast, her heel sinking deep into its chest,
*Crack!
cracking it—forcing a guttural wail from the creature as it writhed beneath her weight.
"You are of something pure," she said coldly, driving her sword down into the beast's chest with brutal force.
The blade sank deep as crimson lightning sparked through the wound.
"Pure black… you are a child of the void eater—Ikrax."
Her sword crackled with raw power—but this time, it wasn't the usual crimson lightning that surged along its edge.
Instead, arcs of golden electricity surged across the blade, radiant and violent, humming with a deeper intensity—yet something controlled.
It pulsed with a presence that felt older…
Something pure—like the eidra akin to the beasts.
*Crack! *Boom!
The golden eidra surged into the beast's body, erupting from within like a raging storm.
*S-Skreee! *SKREEE!!!
The creature convulsed violently, its form buckling and trembling under the overwhelming force—until it finally bursted apart into a cloud of black dust, disintegrated entirely as the particles was swept by the air.
Mezra's eyes widened in realization.
"Prime Eidra…" she whispered under her breath.
Wasting no time, Venedix blinked again, appearing beside the next beast still in the midst of healing.
*Slice!
With a single, precise strike, she finished it off—its body like the rest—erupted into black dust that scattered into the air like ash on the wind.
The final beast around the area—the third beast stood frozen.
It trembled at the sight of what it had just witnessed.
That glow—that energy Venedix wielded—it was Prime Eidra.
The rarest and most powerful category of eidra.
The eidra that only belonged to those who had been chosen and loved by eidra since birth.
It was not something gained by sheer skill—it was something innate—a gift of fate.
You had to be born with it
An inheritance of the very eidra that coursed through the blood of those chosen by the universe itself.
This was no ordinary force, it was the essence that shaped the most powerful warriors across the galaxies, their potential boundless and their strength was unrivaled.
It was an energy that allowed them to transcend the limits of mortal combat, an ever-flowing river that could never be contained or exhausted.
To wield it was to be connected to something beyond comprehension...
to stand at the pinnacle of power itself.
It was also the only force capable of truly destroying beings of pure eidra—like the children of Ikrax.
Creatures born of malice, built to consume, spread, and dominate.
If they were to be Left unchecked, they could infest and conquer entire planets—even galaxies.
Ikrax, the Void Eater, was but one of the many terrifying beasts that roamed the dark depths of Maw's Deep.
A creature of unimaginable power, it hunted relentlessly, infesting planets and spreading its offspring across thousands of planets.
Each of its child carried with it the potential to devour and absorb even more eidra, drawing in the energies of entire worlds—to bring it to their parent—Ikrax.
And now one of it stood alone—cornered and terrified at the sight of Venedix—a mortal that was loved by eidra.
Not stolen nor borrowed like the beasts.
But something innate.
She was chosen.
*S-Skreee!
In a flash of panic, the beast blinked away, fleeing in desperation.
But Venedix was even more faster.
*Crackle!
She intercepted it mid-blink, her movement an instantaneous blur of electric gold and crimson.
Her two swords plunged deep into its back,
*Slash... *Crack!
then tore outward in a powerful cross-slash.
*Skreee...
The beast's shriek was brief, silenced instantly as its body unraveled into black dust, vanishing without a trace.
The moment the three beasts fell, a sudden shift rippled through the battlefield.
The paralyzing pressure that had gripped the army loosened all at once—soldiers gasped for breath, some collapsing to their knees while others were clutching their weapons in disbelief as the weight that had pinned them vanished.
"W-We can move now!"
"Quick—get the medics to lady Mezra!" One commander exclaimed.
Venedix stood still for a moment—then turned, her footsteps steady as she approached Mezra—who lay propped beside a rock which was already being surrounded by medics—one injecting to what seemed to be a numbing agent towards her calf as they treat her broken ankle.
"Urgh…" Mezra grunted, her breath ragged. "Elder sister—Merilyn is still—"
"I know," Venedix cut in, her voice calm yet sharp—eyes narrowing as she tilted her head westward.
"And I must now go."
The wind from that direction howled unnaturally—rising, shifting, disturbed.
Venedix's eyes narrowed further.
The air felt wrong.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue, her frustration audible, before dashing toward the west.
Her cloak fluttered behind her, and the ground cracked beneath her steps as she accelerated—chasing the storm that brewed ahead.
On her way forward, Venedix caught sight of Erenhold—his chains coiled tightly around the same beast she had just faced earlier, binding it completely.
*Skreee!
The creature thrashed and shrieked, but the chains held firm, as it wrapped around the beast's body.
With a flash of movement, Venedix lunged—her sword a crackled golden as it pierced clean through the beast's head.
A final screech escaped its maw before it exploded into black dust.
Erenhold approached Venedix with a nod—gratitude for helping him.
"Good," Venedix said, "Come with me."
Erenhold gave a single nod and joined her—both now sprinting westward with urgency.
As they ran, Venedix's sharp eyes flicked toward something on the bloodstained field—a body lying motionless in the dirt.
Evaan.
Her gaze lingered for just a second, eyes narrowing, jaw clenching—but she said nothing.
Instead, her focus shifted to the sky above the western horizon.
The clouds were swirling violently, dyed in an crimson color.
"There's Merilyn," said Venedix, her voice sharp
*Boom!
before bursting forward in speed toward the rising chaos.
She and Erenhold sprinted across the torn landscape until a colossal crimson cyclone emerged on the horizon—its spiraling winds tearing through the land, uprooting trees and shattering boulders.
*HOWL!
Thousands of already-dead atroxians spun violently within the storm, their twisted forms caught in the relentless current.
Venedix's legs tensed as she accelerated, her body flashing forward like a bolt of lightning. She charged straight toward the cyclone, her eyes narrowing against the violent gales as she pushed deeper and deeper into the roaring spiral of wind and death.
As she moved deeper into the chaos, Venedix could hear it—Merilyn's voice, torn between fury and anguish, her cries carried by the raging wind.
*ROAR!
The cyclone screamed around her, a vortex of raw emotion and elemental force, until at last, she reached the eye—the very heart of the storm.
*ROAR!!!
There, the winds circled violently, slicing through the air with deafening roars.
At the center, a beast lay torn apart, its limbs scattered and twitching across the bloodstained ground—yet each piece slowly inched back together, black eidra stitching the creature whole once more.
Yet Merilyn was filled with rage as her form—Galevryn—released powerful currents around her and her weapon.
With each swing of Zaepherax, she unleashed another wave of lacerating wind—slashes of pure eidra fury—tearing at the beast
again and again and again and again—her fury never satisfied.
Her arms swung in rage, one after another, each strike fueled by anguish and fury.
Merilyn's teeth gritted as tears streamed down her cheeks, her heart heavy with the memory of her children and husband.
"Die… Die!... DIE!!"
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
She screamed, her voice breaking the air as she unleashed wave after wave of lacerating wind, each one cutting deeper into the beast before her.
Venedix's gaze shifted to the ground, her eyes narrowing at the sight—the eviscerated parts of Merilyn's children, scattered across the earth, their small forms a haunting reminder of what had Merilyn lost.
"You must rest now Merilyn." Venedix muttered under her breath.
Then, in a flash, Venedix's focus shifted.
With a single, powerful blink, she closed the distance to the beast, her sword tearing through its core with a final strike.
The creature's dark form crumbled into dust, vanishing into the winds.
Before Merilyn's violent gusts could reach her, Venedix instinctively blocked them,
*BOOM!
Her crimson energy crackled as it dissipated the wind assault that was sent towards her by accident.
Merilyn's eyes widened in realization as the overwhelming rush of emotion overtook her.
"E-Elder sister…" she stammered, her voice trembling.
Her form—Galevryn—once filled with the fury of the crimson wind storm, began to fade, slowly returning to her normal state.
She took a few unsteady steps forward, her body swaying before collapsing to her knees.
The sight before her was grotesque—the severed heads of her children, laid bare before her.
Her hands, trembling uncontrollably, reached out and gently cradled them.
Her breath hitched in her chest as she pulled them close, holding them against her body, her cries growing louder with each passing moment.
Her wails echoed through the cyclone, a mother's grief pouring out into the world in a torrent.
Venedix, standing silently nearby, sheathed her sword, her gaze softening as the violent winds around them began to die down.
The once fierce cyclone now faded, leaving only the haunting calm that followed in its wake.
All that remained was Merilyn's heart-wrenching wail—the cries of a mother who had lost everything, her husband, her children, her family.
The battlefield, now eerily silent, bore witness to her anguish.
Some soldiers later said that Merilyn's cries reverberated across the land.
Her grief, raw and powerful, filled the air with an unshakable sorrow.
It was a sound that left the soldiers feeling both terror and rage in equal measure.
The victory at Chasmratt, the conquest they had fought for so long, now felt hollow.
The Zerafhon Empire had opened a path, but at a terrible cost.
The empire had won, yet it had also lost, its victory tainted by the death and cruelty.
*End of flashback