"That's Acronis," Zero Dawn said. "The last Demon King, and the first Demi-god." He didn't elaborate further. He didn't need to.
Then, the landscape shifted once more.
The warm tones faded. The magic in the air vanished. What replaced it was darker, colder. The entire realm tilted toward dread. A place that didn't just look dead—it felt wrong.
Zero Dawn turned toward Lucius.
"Now," he asked, "which of those species I mentioned… doesn't quite belong?"
Lucius didn't flinch, "Wraiths."
Zero Dawn gave a slow nod. He turned away as if remembering something he didn't want to see.
"Every known species has a creator. A god. A source. Even demons, twisted as they are, came from somewhere. But Wraiths?" He looked back at Lucius. "In all my years, all my battles, all the ancient records I've read, I've never found a single mention of them, or whoever made them. Not one. And I was Emperor, Lucius. I had access to everything."
"Wraiths are like the elves or dwarves—created with a purpose. But unlike them, their purpose is absolute. Clear. To plunge this world into eternal darkness. To consume it. Not to rule it. Not to protect it. Just… to erase it."
Lucius's fists tightened slightly.
"If Verdun falls—the last of the great empires—then there's nothing left to hold them back. Nothing to stop whoever made them. And trust me when I say this…" Zero Dawn's tone dropped, serious and heavy.
"That Wraith you fought? It was a perfect assassin. Silent. Fast. Intelligent. Built for one tactic..."
Lucius didn't hesitate to answer the very next second, "hide and strike." Zero Dawn gave a grim smile, "Exactly."
"The Wraiths, they're creatures of darkness, using the legendary affinity Shadow... Though, like you had theorised, they're the false wielders... For now." Zero Dawn explained something Lucius was already on, except for the last part.
"Wait, for now? What do you mean?" Lucius asked.
"I mean, we don't know anything about them, except for a few fragments. Just pieces. Traits of their appearance, patterns in how they fight. Their anatomy? Their biology? Their mana source? Beyond that? No clue. Nothing solid. And that alone should be more than enough to assume the worst... and prepare for it."
That made sense—unfortunately. Lucius could only grit his teeth at the thought.
A false wielder amongst humans of an elemental affinity could never become its true bearer... its heir... its chosen one. That theory, once just a whisper in the dark, had now been confirmed. Zero Dawn had spoken it aloud. Which meant it was no longer just speculation—it was real.
The Wraiths... they were the false wielders of shadow. Or at least, that's what they appeared to be for now. Because if the rule that governed elemental inheritance didn't apply to them—if they were exceptions, outliers—then that meant one thing: no idea, no theory, no matter how insane, could be ignored.
They were infiltrators. Experts in rot. Not the kind you see... but the kind you feel just a moment too late.
Lucius didn't waste time. He stepped in and shared everything—his entire encounter with the Wraith. The events that led up to it. The unsettling meeting with Ahana and her daughter, Aurora. And Aurora's mention of her "father"—a visitor whose description aligned too well with what Lucius had fought.
A cold possibility took shape, that the Wraith he encountered may not have just been a random operative. It may have been her father indeed.
Zero Dawn processed this quietly. No dramatic gasp. No wide-eyed reaction. Just a stillness that hinted at a storm brewing behind his eyes. He could already see where this was going. The Nmanas... their absence had gone ignored for far too long, unfortunately. But now?
Now their silence would return with screams. With blood. With a massacre.
"The Nmanas..." Zero Dawn said slowly, "They've always been an unfortunate part of our kind. First abandoned by mana itself... then by society. Nobles and commoners alike tossed them aside—treated them like filth. No... worse than filth. Like mistakes better forgotten."
His voice dropped into something grim. Something real.
"And now, with what you've told me... it looks like someone—something—offered them a hand. A hand holding the exact thing they craved most: power, recognition? Or worse... revenge."
After a long pause, Zero Dawn continued, his tone more personal.
"If I were an Nmana... and some godlike entity showed up offering me a taste of what the Wraiths wield? I'd probably say yes, too. Most would."
He leaned forward slightly, a bitter smile tugging at the edge of his mouth.
"It's not like this entity would explain the side effects—the corruption, the chains hiding behind that power. No one ever reads the fine print when they're desperate. And people? Most of them only hear what they want to hear. The rest? They ignore. Even if it'll kill them."
Lucius agreed. If he had been born an Nmana... he'd probably accept that offer too.
What was the worst that could happen?
To the Nmanas, the worst had already happened the moment they were born, the moment mana abandoned them. Everything after that—being cast out, enslaved, beaten, tortured, and killed—was just a cruel continuation. And now, the worst wasn't on them anymore. It was coming for the ones who did this to them. The ones who treated them like disposable trash.
If even half of the rumours of what Lucius had heard about their treatment were true—how they were used as labour, how some were killed just to avoid feeding them, how others were subjected to twisted experiments—then this wasn't vengeance.
It was karma. A long-overdue reminder to the world: "Actions have consequences."
"Also," Lucius added, voice tightening slightly, "there's the awakening of one of the demonic calamities..."
Zero Dawn turned to him with a raised brow, his expression reading, What are you talking about?
Lucius picked up on it instantly. "Jormungandr," he explained. "Guildmaster of Varis, Dargan told me... the primordial creature is stirring again."
Zero Dawn blinked slowly but said nothing.
Lucius continued anyway, his tone steady. "Verdun could be in serious danger if that thing truly wakes up. Though, from what I've heard, the Lord of the Skies might deal with it like always..."
Still, Zero Dawn didn't respond. No warning. No words of caution. Just silence. A thoughtful, heavy kind of silence. And then the landscape shifted again. The battlefield dissolved. The ash, the memory, the tension—it all melted away.
Lucius found himself standing in a massive royal chamber. His eyes widened with awe. Marble floors gleamed under soft lighting, tall windows opened to views of floating gardens, and a massive bed that looked like it belonged in legends took centre stage.
Even Zero Dawn looked around, quietly stunned. Which surprised Lucius. "Wait... is this your old room?" he asked.
Zero Dawn nodded slowly, his eyes lingering across the chamber. The bed. The balcony. The old war banners were still hanging untouched.
"This brings back memories..." he murmured, voice uncharacteristically soft. He was looking at the room not as an emperor, but as a man who'd once lived here.
Lucius grinned. "It's so massive! And gorgeous! And... beautiful!"
He realised a beat too late that he'd just used two words that basically meant the same thing. Zero Dawn just gave a slow, amused nod—clearly agreeing, even if he wasn't going to say it out loud.
Then, just as Lucius began to take another step forward, the world shifted again. The royal chamber collapsed into light.
And what replaced it... stunned Lucius. It was that place. He same cold stone clearing where he'd laid down his life.
Where everything had ended.
His breath caught in his throat.
Reality crashed back in. Not a vision. Not a story. A memory—one he'd buried deep under the weight of distraction.
He stood still. No words. Just the quiet, undeniable recognition of where he was. And what it meant.
After a long pause, Lucius finally spoke, his voice low.
"Back to harsh reality, huh?"
He didn't need to look around to remember where they were. The swamped terrain, the broken trees, the blood-soaked mud. It was burned into him—the battlefield where he and Forza had faced the SS-ranked mana beast: The Chimaera.
"This is where you made your last stand," Zero Dawn said, his tone cool, almost mocking. "Where you fought with everything you had… and lost."
Lucius's jaw tightened. His fists clenched at his sides.
"First, the Valgura raid," Zero Dawn continued, almost as if listing off items on a report. "You should've died there. But that knight saved you. Credit where it's due—the strategy was clever. It worked after all. But make no mistake—you were seconds from death. Someone else pulled you out."
Lucius stayed silent.
"Then came the Wraith," Zero Dawn went on. "An entity way out of your league. It should've killed you. But it didn't—why? Maybe it was newly created. Still learning what it could do. You didn't defeat it. You survived. Barely. And only because of the mist."
Lucius's gaze dropped slightly. He remembered that night. The pain. The blur. The eye.
"You lost an eye," Zero Dawn said flatly. "Because you dropped your guard. You let yourself believe the danger had passed. You walked away from that fight maimed and without even killing the thing that almost ended you."
Silence.
"And now here." Zero Dawn gestured around the battlefield. Smashed trees. Craters. Scorched ground. "Maybe beating that Guardian Alpha made you feel invincible. You let that confidence override your instincts. You went into this—" he waved toward the swamp, "—with that little noble girlfriend of yours, thinking you could take on a Chimaera... With one eye no less."
The air between them turned sharp. Lucius's expression hardened, but he didn't interrupt.
"And look how that ended," Zero Dawn said. "Your luck ran out. Reality hit. You didn't just lose a battle—you lost your right arm. And your life."
Lucius's hands trembled slightly, not with fear, but with restrained fury. Or shame. Or both.
"But hey—congratulations," Zero Dawn added, not unkindly, but with a cold, unforgiving tone. "You killed the Chimaera. Let's hope that little victory of yours helps your loved ones survive the hell that's coming. The one they don't even see yet."