Three days had passed since Rinako's victory over the shadow-titan, and the true devastation was finally becoming clear.
The Great Plaza, heart of commerce for over one thousand years, was now nothing more than a circular crater filled with melted glass that had once been cobblestones. The sight was grotesque in its perfection, a mirror-smooth bowl reflecting the broken sky above, where merchant stalls and ancient fountains had once welcomed visitors from across the realm. The Royal Academy's eastern wing had simply vanished, leaving behind only a jagged outline in the earth where centuries of knowledge had been housed
Bodies lay everywhere. Some were intact, preserved by the strange energies that had swept through the city. Others had been reduced to essence-shadows burned into walls and pavements, dark silhouettes that marked where people had stood when the attacks began. The smell of death mixed with the acrid tang of discharged essence, creating an atmosphere that made even seasoned warriors gag.
Maya worked tirelessly in what had once been Memorial Park, using her ability to replay the final words of the dying for their families. It was grim work, but necessary, too many had vanished without trace, consumed by shadow or simply erased from existence. Around her, the wounded lay in neat rows organized by severity of injury. Some bore physical wounds from flying debris or beast attacks, their bodies wrapped in essence-infused bandages that glowed faintly in the dim light. Others suffered from something the healers were calling "essence shock," a condition that left victims staring blankly at the sky while their souls struggled to process energies too vast for mortal comprehension.
"Thirty-seven thousand confirmed dead," she murmured to herself, her hands trembling as she wove another echo into existence, a merchant's voice telling his wife he loved her, preserved in sound and memory as his body had been consumed by shadow. "And that's just from the outer districts. They're still digging in the noble quarter."
A healer approached, his green robes stained with blood and essence residue. "Maya, we need you in Section C. We found a family trapped under rubble for two days. The daughter... she's asking for her parents, but we can't find them anywhere."
Maya nodded wearily, already knowing what she would find. Another echo to preserve, another final message to carry to those left behind. The work was breaking her heart piece by piece, but someone had to bear witness. Someone had to ensure that the dead were remembered, that their final moments meant something.
The truth was becoming impossible to ignore: Astralyn was no longer invincible.
In the upper levels of Cloudspire Tower, one of the few noble district buildings that had survived the assault relatively intact, an emergency council meeting was underway. The chamber buzzed with voices raised in fear, anger, and barely controlled panic as representatives from every major house and guild demanded answers that no one seemed able to provide.
"A thousand years!" Lord Vextros of House Ironward slammed his fist on the table, the impact sending ripples of light through its essence-infused surface. His usually immaculate appearance was disheveled, his ceremonial robes bearing tears from his own efforts in the rescue operations. "A thousand years of perfect peace, and now this? Where were the warning systems? Where were the ward-monitors we've spent fortunes maintaining?"
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the chamber. Lady Miraeth's voice cut through the noise, sharp with accusation. "The ward-barriers held against the Tide Wars, the Essence Storms of the second millennium, even the reality fractures during the Great Convergence. Now you tell us they simply... failed? Without warning? Without cause?"
Master Jorik Vayne, commander of the city's defensive forces, stood slowly from his position near the great windows that overlooked the ruined capital. He was still wearing his battle-damaged Wave-steel cuirass from the defense of the harbor district, and his weathered face bore fresh scars from three days of fighting creatures that should not have existed. When he spoke, his voice carried the weight of a man who had watched his carefully maintained defenses crumble like sand.
"The creatures didn't break through our barriers," he said grimly, his words falling into the chamber like stones into still water. "They found gaps. Spaces between the ward-lines that shouldn't have existed, weaknesses that our most sophisticated detection systems never registered. As if someone who understood our defenses intimately had been... preparing."
The silence that followed was thick with implications no one wanted to voice. Suspicion crept into every glance, every exchanged look between the assembled nobles.
Lord Chancellor Aldeus, the King's chief advisor and one of the few virelians permitted to speak for the Crown in official matters, cleared his throat nervously. His age-spotted hands shook slightly as he leaned forward. "Master Vayne, are you suggesting this was an act of... sabotage? That someone within our own walls orchestrated this catastrophe?"
"I'm stating facts, not making accusations," Vayne replied carefully, though his eyes swept the chamber with barely concealed suspicion. "Those ward-barriers were inspected last month by our most senior essence-architects. Master Kellan himself certified them as flawless. The resonance patterns were perfect, the anchor points stable, the detection grids operating at maximum sensitivity. Yet something found weaknesses that our greatest minds couldn't detect."
Lady Syenna of House Dawnbreaker leaned forward, her golden eyes reflecting the unease that filled the chamber like a tangible presence. "Then we're saying one of two things, aren't we? Either our defenses were never as strong as we believed... or someone wanted them to fail."
The words hung in the air like a curse, and more than one council member found themselves glancing suspiciously at their neighbors. If the attack had been orchestrated from within, then any one of them could be complicit. Trust, the foundation upon which their civilization had been built for three millennia, was cracking as surely as the city's walls.
Lord Vextros's face darkened with rage. "If there's a traitor in our midst, I say we interrogate everyone with access to the ward-systems. Use truth-sight, essence-probes, whatever it takes."
"And tear apart what's left of our government in the process?" Lady Miraeth shot back. "We can't govern through paranoia and suspicion."
"We can't govern at all if we're all dead," Vextros replied coldly.
The argument that followed grew heated, with accusations flying and old grievances surfacing. It was exactly the kind of division that would weaken them further, and everyone present knew it. Yet none seemed able to stop the spiral of mistrust that was consuming the chamber.
While the nobles argued and pointed fingers, a very different meeting was taking place in the depths of the Concordium, the sacred crystal hall at the heart of Virelios where lies were impossible and truth shone with its own light. The walls themselves pulsed with an ethereal radiance that made deception physically painful, ensuring that only honesty could exist within its boundaries.
The six Trueborns sat in a circle of throne-like chairs that had been carved from single pieces of living starlight, their forms casting no shadows in the otherworldly illumination. Each was a god in their own right, beings who had transcended mortality so completely that their very presence warped reality around them. Between them floated a three-dimensional map of Astralyn, its surface marked with thousands of tiny red flames, each one representing a confirmed casualty from the attack.
Yunrei, his eyes reflecting calculations that spanned centuries, spoke first. His voice carried harmonics that suggested vast temporal awareness, as if he spoke from multiple points in time simultaneously. "The synchronization was too perfect. Seven different breach points, all activated within seconds of each other across a city spanning hundreds of square kilometers. These weren't random animals following instinct, they were directed with military precision."
"By what?" Mizuko's blue hair rippled like water as she gestured toward the tactical display, her movements causing small waves of cosmic energy to radiate outward. "I've felt the currents of every ocean, traced the flow of essence through every stream and sea in our realm. Nothing I've sensed had the intelligence to coordinate an assault of this magnitude, let alone the tactical sophistication to exploit weaknesses we didn't know existed."
"Nothing you've sensed that belongs to our reality," Tsuyari corrected, his silver eyes holding depths that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. "We've always assumed the Beyond was simply... empty space. Unexplored territory waiting for our attention. But what if we were wrong? What if we've been so focused on our own realm that we missed signs of intelligence from outside it?"
Yureina, catching the truth-light and throwing it back in patterns too beautiful for normal eyes to fully process, leaned forward with growing concern. "You're speaking of entities that exist beyond the boundaries of Vilaris. Intelligence from outside the framework of reality as we understand it."
"I'm speaking of what the evidence suggests," Tsuyari replied as shadows that shouldn't have been able to exist in the truth-light began to gather around his feet. "We've been so focused on governing what we've built that we've forgotten to watch for what might be watching us."
Kurojin, silent until now, spoke in a voice like mountains grinding together. His massive form seemed to drink in the light around him, creating pools of darkness that spoke of unimaginable depths. "The timing troubles me more than the method. Why now? What has changed in our realm or beyond it that made this moment favorable for such an assault?"
It was Rinako who provided the answer that chilled them all. Her pink eyes held memories of her battle with the shadow-titan, visions of a creature that had spoken without words and fought with intelligence that grew more sophisticated by the minute. "Because something has been taken. Something they needed." Her gaze found each of her fellow Trueborns in turn, carrying weight that made the air itself seem heavy.
Yunrei's temporal senses, attuned to the flow of cause and effect across vast spans of time, suddenly focused with laser intensity. "There's something else. A disturbance in the timestream that I've been tracking for months. Small at first, barely detectable even with my abilities. But growing stronger, more complex."
"What kind of disturbance?" Mizuko asked, her connection to the cosmic tides allowing her to sense the ebb and flow of great events across multiple dimensions.
"Someone, or something, has been altering the past. Not major events, nothing that would cause paradox cascades or reality fractures. Just... small changes. Subtle adjustments to the flow of history that would be virtually undetectable unless you knew exactly what to look for."
The implications settled over the chamber like a shroud. If someone had been manipulating history itself, then everything they thought they knew about recent events might be suspect. The missing boy from Silverstone. The sudden interest in Beyond Order expeditions. Even this attack might be connected to alterations in the timestream that had been building for months or years.
Deep in the student quarters of the Zenkai Dojo, Kairo sat on his narrow bed and stared at the formal notification that had been delivered to each student personally. The parchment felt heavier than it should, as if the words themselves carried physical weight that pressed down on his chest.
Your training schedule has been revised effective immediately. Combat classes now begin at dawn and continue until dusk. Essence development sessions are mandatory and will be conducted at maximum safe intensity. You are advised to prepare mentally and physically for accelerated advancement.
Note: Due to current circumstances, the traditional safety restrictions on essence overload have been relaxed. Students showing exceptional adaptation to high-intensity training may be fast-tracked to advanced tiers ahead of normal schedules.
Be aware that this level of intensive development carries inherent risks. Essence burn, spiritual exhaustion, and in rare cases, complete power destabilization are possible side effects. However, given the current threat level, these risks are deemed acceptable in service of rapid capability development.
"They're scared," Takumi said from the bed across from him, The glow pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, a sign that his essence was still agitated from the intensive training. "I've never seen the Masters scared before, but they are now. Master Renji's hands were shaking when he handed out these notifications."
"They should be scared," Sayaka replied quietly from where she sat by the window, her violet eyes watching the reconstruction efforts in the city below. Teams of earth-essence wielders were working to clear rubble from the main thoroughfares while water-essence users tried to wash away the stains that marked where people had died. "I've been analyzing the tactical reports from the attack that they let us see. Those creatures, the Verythra, they weren't just powerful. They were learning. Adapting to our techniques in real-time, developing counters to abilities they'd never encountered before."
Kairo felt a chill that had nothing to do with the evening air filtering through the broken windows. "You're saying they were intelligent enough to evolve during combat?"
"I'm saying they might be intelligent enough to evolve between combats," Sayaka corrected, her analytical mind working through the implications with frightening clarity. "Every warrior they faced, every technique they observed, every defense they tested, all of it could be information they're using to prepare for the next attack. Each encounter makes them stronger while we... we just lose people."
The implication hung in the air like a toxic cloud. If the Verythra could learn from their attacks, then each subsequent assault would be more dangerous than the last. Eventually, they would develop counters to every technique, every ability, every strategy that Astralyn's defenders could bring to bear.
"So we get stronger faster than they can adapt," Takumi said, his fists clenching as his essence began to flare with determination. The air around him shimmered with heat as his fire-based abilities responded to his emotional state. "We push ourselves harder than we've ever pushed before. We break every limit, shatter every boundary."
"And hope we don't burn ourselves out in the process," Kairo added quietly, already feeling the weight of what was being asked of them. They were students, barely past their first year of formal training. Now they were being asked to accelerate their development to levels that typically took decades to achieve safely.
Outside their window, the city burned with the light of a thousand repair efforts, but it was the darkness beyond the walls that truly worried them.