--- A few hours earlier, near the ruined village ---
The aircraft knifed through the clouds, black against an even darker sky. Inside, the lights turned green, and the aircraft slowed down right as the hatch hissed open.
"Drop now." a calm voice said in their ears. "You two Vanguards from Division One, you're on the ground in twelve seconds."
Two silhouettes stepped into the wind and jumped. The woman fell first, a railgun already in her hands. At the last second, she aimed straight down and pulled the trigger. A brutal red beam shot right into the earth, the blast slowing her fall just enough for her to land on one knee.
Her partner came down a second later: He held a greatsword taller than his shoulder, edge glowing a fiery orange. As he fell, he dragged the blade along a pine from crown to root. The tree split cleanly in half, stealing most of his momentum before he hit the ground.
The man exhaled once. "Lighthouse, Division One on site" he said, scanning the horizon with his eyes. "Nothing too weird yet..."
Static scratched through their earpieces, then a familiar female voice came through. Cool, sharp, slightly amused – as always.
"Alteea here. Copy, Division One. You're at ground zero of the anomaly, but I still don't have any other signals on it. Be careful… And try not to erase the entire treeline this time..."
The swordsman glanced at the split pine just behind him. "No promises" he muttered.
The village lay ahead of them... Or what was left of it: Collapsed roofs still burning in slow orange waves, smoke still crawling into the air. No movement, and a strange silence.
"Fortitude scans said six, maybe seven" the woman said. "That's pretty high..."
The warrior lifted his sword into a ready stance. "Then it must be here somewhere."
The two walked forward in a slow pace. The greatsword's orange edge glowed brighter now, and the railgun hummed under the woman's grip, red lines slowly pulsing along its rings.
Alteea spoke again, her voice buzzing for a split second. "Reminder: you were not sent just for a Nyx. The anomaly we picked up wasn't standard - it had a human pulse, with some kind of Nyx signature attached to it. It spiked once, then vanished."
"Human with a Nyx signature, huh?" the woman frowned. "That's not funny."
"I'm not joking" Alteea replied. "Eyes open."
The man slowed down. "Something feels weird." he said quietly. "There's no-"
He never finished the sentence. A Nyx appeared from behind a broken doorway, already leaping towards the man, impossibly fast.
Claws swept across his back, without even giving him time to react. Metal screamed as the man's thin armor split open like paper. Heat burned across his spine.
The woman planted her foot, railgun already pointed toward the Nyx, but she pulled the trigger a second too late, missing by a hair.
The beam ripped a molten line into the forest beyond, turning wood into smoking coal.
"Ooh, I got a signal, yayy!" Alteea snapped in their ears. "Reading fortitude five-point-eight. That's your guest, don't let it touch you again."
"Trying..." the warrior grunted, but the Nyx was already rushing him.
He met it head-on - sword glow climbing from orange toward a warm yellow. He raised it above his head, and swung with all his might.
The Nyx blocked with its claws, but the impact sent a shockwave across the street, shattering the nearest windows.
Sliding back a step, the man shifted his stance and slammed his greatsword into the ground. Dirt and ash exploded upward, confusing the Nyx for a split second.
That split second was enough - he stepped in and sliced off one of its limbs.
The Nyx screached, its jaws actually opening for the first time – the black, teeth-like structure blended in perfectly with its face, but now they looked at least as long as a finger.
The severed arm started growing itself back before it even finished falling to the ground.
"Oh, that's cute" Alteea muttered in the earpieces. "Your Eon multiplier sits at forty-one percent, by the way. Do you want the railgun overcharged or are we trying to be gentle?"
"Overcharge it" the woman said, gripping her railgun harder.
"Aaalright! Restriction's off, don't blow up too much."
Lines along the railgun brightened, the burgundy shade turning redder, a flawless glowing gem powering the weapon. The rings around the barrel began to spin, faster and faster. A low vibration crawled into the air. Ash and leaves lifted off the ground and hovered.
The Nyx slammed into the man again, claws raking across his shoulder. A few blood drops splashed on the ground. His answer was something like a planted heel and a punch to the creature's head so hard, the impact sent it skidding along the dirt, before it caught itself on a broken wall and stopped. For a moment, it froze, like it was surprised by the man's strength.
"Fifty-eight percent" Alteea mumbled. "Your Luminite railgun is past safe. Just don't die and we'll call it even."
The woman didn't answer - the railgun screamed as the charge peaked. Rings spun so fast they became a blur, and the air in front of the barrel warped.
With another grunt under the insane pressure, the trigger clicked.
A beam erupted from the barrel, turning energy into a straight line of red light.
The beam carved through the Nyx's center, through the wreckage behind it, and into the distant treeline. Trees vanished where it passed, reduced to dust and empty air, the ray disintegrating everything it touched.
After a second, silence crashed back in.
The Nyx was gone.
Only slow-falling particles remained, each speck shifting from black to ember to a soft gold before fading.
The man lifted his sword, its glow slowly dimming, blood dripping from the torn edges of his armor.
The woman lowered the railgun, barrel smoking, hands shaking.
"Target neutralized" she said, breathing hard.
"Division One, I just logged a very high-energy discharge" Alteea said. "Status?"
"That was her, don't blame me!" the man replied. "I'm a bit scratched, but weapons stable. Village… Completely gone, there's no other vital signature around."
The last gilded particles of Nyx remains drifted down, like ashes. The woman quietly watched them fall, with an empty look on her face.
"Alteea" she said quietly. "About that anomaly...?"
Alteea didn't answer right away. "When I first saw the spike, I thought it was the Nyx" she said finally. "It wasn't - human heartbeat, like it felt terrified. And on top of that, carrying a Nyx signature. I can't categorize it, though. Never seen a reading like it before... "
"So it was just an error?"
"No. The signature was definitely strong. I don't know how strong, but it went past our graphs. Can't even calculate the fortitude, it slipped any known Eon frequency..."
"Then what even happened!? We risked our lives for nothing!?" The man snapped.
"No. It vanished completely, without a trail. No decay, nothing. Don't blame me, it's not like it's my fault."
"So where is it now?" the woman asked.
"If I knew…" Alteea sighed, "I wouldn't be asking you to return home. Last known location was that village, heading straight here. But then it just disappeared."
The man looked past the ruins, back towards Neoshima.
"Something survived and escaped, huh?" he said. "And whatever it is, it's still out there, huh, Alteea?"
The comms fell silent. For some time, none of them spoke, and Alteea gave no answer.
Then, after a few seconds of static, her voice came through.
"If I were you," Alteea muttered, "…I wouldn't want to see it."