The air felt thick and suffocating as each breath Aralynn took became laboured. The red system windows flickered dangerously in front of her.
[Warning: Advent Monster, Farmland Basillisk, has called for aid.]
[Advent, "Ruckus in the Farmlands", has evolved into Main Story Advent 1/3, "Hints of an End".]
[Due to the arrival of Main Story Monsters, Harbinger Basillisks, you have been caught in Status Effect: Pressured.]
Advent? Main Story? The only part I get is Pressured… my heart feels like it's about to explode.
She turned to Perona. "Perona? What does this mean?"
"No idea," Perona replied. "I've never seen anything like this before."
The rest of the party looked just as clueless.
"For now, though, it might be good to prepare for battle." Perona glanced at the last of the messages as ripples of earth began to form at the center of the square. "It looks like we have company."
Two titanic geysers of shattered stone, dirt, and soil erupted from the ground. Out from the depths crawled two similar monsters like the one before.
There were some differences: the shells of the monsters were smooth and jet black, their eyes a gleaming yellow. Their scales were a pale cream white while great amber horns that twisted like haloes jutted backwards.
The main difference, however, was that they exuded an intense pressure as they emerged that almost pushed Aralynn to the ground.
Aralynn was forced onto all fours from the sheer pressure as the monsters took in their surroundings, the entire city shaking with every single step they took. Aralynn felt tiny in comparison, her wings almost like a funeral shroud as they laid by her side.
The party struggled for air, their chests constricting as the sheer presence of the new monsters drained the strength from their bodies. Dread coiled through them like a centipede crawling beneath the skin, each step a reminder of their helplessness.
Soon it was clear that they weren't facing enemies they could fight, or even touch. These monsters belonged to an existence beyond their own.
It was the same message again:
[Due to the arrival of Main Story Monsters, Harbinger Basillisks, you have been caught in Status Effect: Pressured.]
Every time Aralynn tried to raise her head, pure unbridled force shoved her back down.
As the monsters clawed forwards, each thunderous step made Aralynn's body shake. Her breath had been completely crushed out of her body. Her vision began to swim and pain wracked her chest as she became unable to breathe.
[Main Story balance has been disturbed.]
[Gods have received the plea and began their descent.]
Gods?
Almost immediately after reading the system message, Aralynn felt an embrace gently wrap around her.
「 "It's been a while, my child." 」
Who?
She would've turned and looked but she was still being pressed into the ground.
「 "I've been watching you ever since you were little, though our first meeting was after you pulled that stunt to save your friends during your escape from the Devil's Hand casino." 」
It clicked. You're that woman from my dream while I was unconscious on the beach, Aralynn thought, barely being able to connect her thoughts to string together a sentence.
The voice chuckled as a soft hand traced Aralynn's visage. Like before, it was exceedingly gentle, like a feather tickling her skin.
「 "I'm glad that you remember me, little one. There's nothing more that I'd like than sitting down and clearing this all up, but it appears you have more pressing matters at hand." 」
As if to punctuate this point, the monsters roared. Thunderclouds gathered overhead, the rumble shaking the city. Aralynn cringed as just the cries of the basilisks alone caused pain to racket in her chest.
However, light carved through the darkening clouds.
A blazing white star streaked across the sky, dragging ribbons of light in its wake. Four more followed—one a soft pastel pink, another royal blue, a third a deep verdant green, and the last a suffocating umbral black.
The stars plummeted, collapsing into pebbles that struck the earth around the party.
The white star chose Aralynn. It plunged into her chest, and for a heartbeat her entire being exploded with brilliance, light forming cracks in her skin.
[Limit Shatterer Lv. 1 has evolved into Embodiment of the Messenger!]
[Firearm God's Blessing Lv. 1 → Firearm God's Blessing Lv. 2 (Apostle)]
The crushing weight vanished from her shoulders, and her lungs filled as though for the first time in days. Heat surged through her chest and down her limbs as Aralynn grasped Objection.
Her wings had sharpened into a new form as her feathers crystallized into light, decadent scales that clinked like steel in the wind. They glinted like long, dangerous blades.
They spread across her entire body, crawling up her neck and chest like living armor. Her eyes, once clear, had become pits of darkness seething with majestic green flame. The tips of her hair shimmered as if they had been dipped in molten emerald.
A halo of wispy green aura floated above her head and her tail feathers converged into the shape of a draconic tail.
Aralynn wasn't the only one.
Perona's hair, skin, and eyes had turned a glacial white. Instead of a halo, a veil of crystallized music notes drifted in orbit around her, glowing with unseen rhythm as nine star motes floated in a crown on her head.
Hadarai's aura blazed. Azure fire whipped around him as the runes on his robes pulsed, his armor reforged into archaic plates crowned by a cobalt-scaled helm.
Grango's bow glowed with living green light. An aura bloomed around him like a forest in spring. A crown of leaves encircled his head, and an ornate hunting horn now hung at his side.
Amon was once more cloaked in shadow, but his ribbons had become ragged, dripping with dark navy like drowned banners. Water sloshed endlessly around him as if pulled from the abyss. In his grip, the rapier-lance shivered, carrying the breath of an unseen storm.
Then, an archaic, resonating choir of combined voices spoke:
「 PURGE THE LAND, OUR APOSTLES. WE LEAVE THE HARBINGERS IN YOUR HANDS. 」