Laughter still lingered in the courtyard.
Tea cups were half-empty.
The Go board was mid-game.
Lucifer giggled softly in Azelar's hands while Esdeath stared at the sky like it owed her answers.
Then—
The air shifted.
It wasn't violent.
It wasn't loud.
It was wrong.
Rayon's smile faded first.
Nyk's hand froze over the board.
Christine's fingers tightened around her cup.
And Isis—who had been laughing just moments ago—suddenly went still, eyes sharpening as white light flickered faintly behind them.
"…You feel that?" Nyk asked.
Rayon didn't answer. He didn't need to.
Azelar exhaled slowly.
"The Abyss," he said. "It's echoing."
Christine stood up.
"Then something woke up."
Isis nodded once.
"Or something remembered."
The three of them didn't waste time.
Shadow folded.
Space bent.
And they were gone.
They appeared above a distant landmass—far from Isola Krein.
Namgum.
A harsh continent of jagged stone, dense forests, and ancient valleys. A place where civilization never fully rooted itself. The barbarians of Namgum had lived hidden for generations, surviving through strength, instinct, and tradition.
But today—
They were being dragged into the open.
The sky burned red with distortion.
Monsters poured from ruptures in the land—creatures long erased from records and myths. Beasts that should not have existed anymore.
Drakes.
High orcs.
Malformed horrors shaped by forgotten eras.
Isis looked across the battlefield, eyes glowing softly.
"When the Abyss awakens," she said calmly, "it draws back what time tried to erase."
Christine felt it now—the pull in the air, the density of ambient power returning.
"When darkness remembers," Christine murmured, "existence is forced to change."
"And the world pays the price," Nyk finished.
Below them, barbarian warriors fought desperately—axes chipped, shields cracked, bodies pushed past their limits. They weren't weak.
But they were being overwhelmed.
A young barbarian boy stumbled backward, frozen in terror as a massive drake lunged toward him, jaws opening wide—
The world snapped.
The drake's head split open mid-motion.
No explosion.
No warning.
Just absence where its skull had been.
Christine stood in front of the boy, gun lowered at her side, eyes steady.
"Go," she said firmly. "Save your people."
The boy stared at her for half a heartbeat.
"…Thank you," he whispered.
Then he ran.
The sky darkened.
A dragon descended from above, its roar detonating through the forest. The shockwave flattened trees, tore soil from the ground, and sent barbarian warriors flying.
The dragon inhaled—
But it never exhaled.
Nyk was already there.
His fist slammed into the dragon's skull with a sound like a continent breaking.
The creature vanished from the air, crashing into a distant mountain so hard the peak collapsed inward.
Nyk cracked his neck and grinned.
"Babe," he said casually, glancing toward Christine. "I got this one."
Before Christine could respond, the ground trembled again.
A wave of high orcs surged forward—larger, armored in bone and rage, eyes burning with corrupted will.
They rushed toward Isis.
Isis smiled.
Softly.
"Solvithar."
White light bloomed around her—pure, clean, and absolute.
Entropy.
The orcs didn't scream.
They didn't resist.
In seconds, they unraveled—bodies breaking down into dust, then nothing, erased not by force, but by inevitability.
The battlefield went quiet.
For half a second.
Then—
The air twisted again.
Larger silhouettes emerged from the ruptures.
Heavier presences.
Stronger, older monsters pushing through the thinning veil.
Christine exhaled and raised her hand.
Her gun materialized, metal humming as unfamiliar runes slid into place.
Isis rolled her shoulders, white energy intensifying around her as her smile widened—not cruel, not reckless—
Excited.
"Looks like," Isis said lightly, stepping forward, "the next wave's mine."
Above Namgum, the darkness thickened.
And the hunt had only just begun.