Nephis ignited her Soul Flame. The Crimson Blight within her viscera surged, attempting to choke the fire before it could reach her limbs, but she was a Demon — now possessing three Soul cores. The sheer intensity of her flame forced the essence to obey.
By burning all three of her soul cores to their peak, she forced her body to knit together. Her shattered arm reset with a grim, sickening crack of mending bone.
Before the Legionnaire could deliver a finishing blow, it was forced to pivot. Kai's arrows descended from the sky like silver streaks. The Disaster lifted a crimson-bandaged arm, smacking the Ascended shafts aside with the casual indifference of a man brushing away insects.
Nephis did not wait for it to turn back. She lunged.
She was the only soul present equipped with a Transcendent weapon of the Seventh Tier and a charm of the Sixth. Clad in her asymmetrical white armor — a Transcendent Armor of the fourth Tier, she was the only one capable of standing in the eye of this storm.
The Sleepers scrambled to maintain a circle, their faces pale. The sound of Sanguine Verse clashing against the Legionnaire's aspergillum was a constant, deafening ring of steel on stone. Nephis was being overwhelmed.
Every strike she parried sent a jar of force through her spine that threatened to turn her ribs to powder. She could not spare the focus to augment her blade; every drop of her flame was diverted into her own muscles simply to keep her fingers from snapping under the pressure.
The world grew darker. A suffocating presence fell over the ruins, and even the Nameless Sun appeared to dim, casting the sky in various shades of bruised red.
Nephis was hurled backward. She collided with one of the twelve Sleepers, the force carrying both of them through a ruined wall in a spray of stone and dust.
She rolled to her feet instantly, her hands already glowing with the light of her aspect as she reached for the downed warrior.
'It is not as strong as the Southern Disaster. It is a… Corrupted Beast?'
The realization brought a cold clarity to her mind. She healed the Sleeper with a frantic burst of heat and rushed back toward the sounds of the struggle.
The legionnaire was a single entity, but it felt like a hundred. Nephis understood then that this beast was merely one part of a greater whole. A single Legionnaire of a legion.
She skidded to a halt.
Before her, Tessai was in the shadow of the aspergillum, the massive mace descending toward his skull. Above, an arrow was already in flight, aimed at a gap in the creature's crimson-wrapped armor. Nephis knew the shot would fail; a mere Ascended arrow would never pierce those ancient bandages.
'It is not insurmountable. It is a single soldier, not the true source. If I can reach the main force, we can kill it.'
Her logic was clinical. The Disaster at the Bright Castle had been a Corrupted Devil, a mountain of flesh and poison.
This? This was human-sized and solitary. If they lured it back to the catacombs, the sheer volume of attacks might find a weakness.
The thought brought a small, sharp smile to her face as she intercepted another blow meant for Tessai. She was forced to roll across the uneven ground to dissipate the momentum.
'No. I do not need to retreat. I have a… sister I can call upon.'
Ki Song had bestowed her with eight Transcendent Memories. She had given Seishan four, but she retained five. Three were equipped, and a fourth sat as a gem upon her wrist.
The fifth was an Ascended Tool of the Third Tier. She had intended to give it to Seishan but had hesitated, holding it for an emergency precisely like this one.
It was called [Silent Crow].
The memory took the form of a black bird with crimson markings. It was currently circling high above the devastation, a silent witness to the carnage.
Nephis needed to send a mental command to the creature, to bridge the distance and bring the Handmaidens , the Hunters, and remaining Castle Guard to this spot.
But the Legionnaire gave her no room to breathe. The mace swung again, a blur of silver and red that demanded every spark of her attention.
Nephis could not summon the memory. The Legionnaire practically ignored the others, focusing its singular, dark intent on her. It lunged, ramming her with its armored shoulder. She raised Sanguine Verse to block the impact, but the force was a physical landslide.
Her elbow shattered on impact. She gritted her teeth against the agony, forcing her flame to knit the bone together once more. She was burning through her reservoir; the battle against the crimson blight within her body was as draining as the combat itself.
"Tessai, Gemma, Kai! Get me a ten-second opening!"
Gemma and Tessai exchanged a grim look but offered no verbal reply. They charged toward the Disaster as it prepared to strike Nephis down.
She moved with a fluid, unnatural swiftness, escaping the Legionnaire's mace by a hair's breadth. The creature tilted its helm as if confused by her speed, then pivoted, bashing Gemma directly into Tessai with a single, sweeping motion. Neither could match her tempo; she was augmenting her physical form fourfold, drawing upon the concentrated power of her newly formed Demon Core.
'Come on, come on!'
The black crow descended from the murky sky. Nephis took another series of blows to keep the beast's eyes on her, spitting blood as the vibrations rattled her ribs. The pain was a cold, sharp thing, yet it paled in comparison to the strikes she had endured from the Southern Disaster at the Bright Castle. That creature had sent her through stone walls like a bullet; this one merely threw her across the dirt.
High above, Kai nocked another arrow, his eyes wide as he measured the creature's movements.
'It is more like a Fallen Devil than a Corrupted Beast. It has only its fighting style and overwhelming force!'
Kai loosed the shaft. Nephis dashed toward the Legionnaire's flank as it reacted to the arrow. This time it caught the shaft with its hand. Below it, Nephis's blade slashed across its waist, infused with incandescent Soul Flame.
The Disaster reacted. It staggered for a mere second, looking down at its waist as if confused, then turned a visor full of silent malice back toward Nephis.
'I think you made it angry!'
Gemma thought this while struggling to find his footing, but Nephis was focused on her success. The crow had landed on her shoulder.
She whispered a sequence of instructions into its ear before the bird took flight, heading south toward the catacombs.
"Everyone on your feet! We must hold out until the others arrive. If you can move, we are taking this battle south!"
The eight remaining Sleepers scrambled to obey. Four of their number already lay as broken heaps in the ruins, slain in the mere seconds it had taken Nephis to be occupied by the debris.
It was a battle of two. Only Nephis and the Disaster possessed the pace to truly engage.
'No… I have Kai.'
Kai repositioned himself, letting loose a relentless stream of arrows. The Legionnaire was forced to deflect the rain of steel, its focus fractured.
Nephis realized then that despite being a Corrupted, and thus possessing a defense equal to her Transcendent armor, even its hide was weakened. It appeared unable to utilize essence effectively.
'Can it not regenerate Soul Essence…?'
A typical Nightmare Creature possessed a bottomless pit of essence, but this thing seemed to be faltering. It had not been this way when the battle began.
Nephis lunged. Her flames ignited the air around her blade, and she clashed with the aspergillum — only to be pushed back once again.
But she did not fly. She planted her feet and cracked the ground beneath her, absorbing the weight of the blow.
She had withstood it!
A wave of confidence rose within her. She fell into a low crouch, feeling the mace tear through the empty space where her head had been a fraction of a second before, and then lunged away as the ground exploded in a spray of dust.
The Legionnaire could not focus entirely on one opponent due to Kai. It could have leapt into the air, but due to its current state, such a thing required a build-up of force it did not possess.
Nephis would never give it the chance.
The Legionnaire did not get the opportunity to pull the arrow from the gap in its armor as a white, flashing light tore into its arm. Augmented by her entire reservoir, her blade dug into its wrist. The creature reacted violently, snapping its metal fingers around her sword.
Nephis did not struggle. Instead, she lifted her feet, kicking off the creature's chest while dismissing the memory. Due to her charm, she was growing stronger with every drop of blood she lost, and she had already shed quite a lot.
'Truly… I'll need to thank auntie when I see her again. This charm is the only reason why I'm still alive.'
She leapt several meters back, allowing Kai's arrow to pierce the newly opened gap in the creature's wrist. Nephis called upon her memory as the Legionnaire reached back.
But this time… It gripped its aspergillum and threw it at her like a javelin.
Nephis screamed in the silence of her mind.
'Crap—!'
The aspergillum shot through the air with the velocity of a projectile. Because the weapon possessed a spiked base, it pierced her abdomen with sickening ease, the force of the impact launching her backward. She became a ragdoll suspended in the air until her flight was abruptly terminated by a jagged, fossilized structure that resembled a petrified tree.
The impact forced a torrent of blood from her lips. Her midsection was a visceral ruin of red, yet she immediately forced the white radiance of her aspect to illuminate the wound. However, the mend was agonizingly slow.
Fortunately, the strike had propelled her significantly closer to the catacombs.
Unfortunately, Nephis understood that the main force would require several more minutes to bridge the distance. Even Seishan, possessing the telepathic link of the Silent Crow, could not transcend the physical limitations of the Shore.
The tool relied on six crows functioning within a specific range to relay messages via a passive bridge. Consequently, Nephis estimated a minimum of eight minutes before reinforcements could arrive.
'Ah…'
She looked up and found the Legionnaire already upon her. It was a weakened Corrupted Beast, yet its humanoid dimensions granted it a speed that was nothing short of predatory.
Nephis watched as the shadow of the silver mace loomed over her, certain that the end had finally arrived. From the distance, she heard the frantic, distorted echo of Kai's voice.
"C—Cover—!"
Neither her mind nor her body could track the meaning until the scream sharpened.
"COVER YOUR EARS!!"
In that instant, a specialized arrow struck the Legionnaire's helm. A discordant, high-frequency wail erupted from the shaft, forcing the creature to recoil.
It clutched its ceramic-plated head, the armor vibrating from the sonic assault. This brief reprieve allowed Gemma to sprint through the dust, scooping Nephis up in a desperate carry. He rolled away from the blast zone, his voice a frantic bark.
"Tessai, now!"
The Legionnaire shook off the disorientation just as Tessai's Ascended axes descended. Since the attack originated from its blind spot, the creature had no time to parry. Both axes crashed into its back, striking a section where the plating was thin and the crimson bandages were frayed.
Under normal circumstances, such steel would never penetrate a Transcendent hide. However, the creature was in a state of advanced degradation.
The axes bit deep into the silver-wrapped flesh. Tessai followed the strike with a brutal kick, driving the monster into the petrified tree before lunging for a second blow.
Though… he was too slow. The Legionnaire ducked low, pivoting with a fluid grace that ended in a crushing backhand strike.
Tessai was launched sideways, skipping across the ground like a stone on water. Gemma watched with wide eyes as his comrade hit the tree and slumped into a heap. He could only pray Tessai's dormant physical augmentation was enough to keep his heart beating.
The Legionnaire did not linger. It turned its visor back toward Gemma and Nephis, charging with the momentum of a bull.
Nephis shoved Gemma aside, the white flames already closing the worst of her abdominal wounds. She attempted to evade by arching her back, letting the mace whistle through the space she had occupied a heartbeat before. Without hesitation, she plunged her blade into the creature's leg, only to be met with a retaliatory kick.
The blow caught her off-balance, slamming her into the dirt.
"Kekw—!"
Before she could recover, a second kick lifted her from the ground. The Legionnaire spun in a blur of silver and tattered red, delivering a full-force horizontal swing with its mace.
The impact shattered her ribcage. A splinter of bone pierced her lung, grazing the edge of her heart. Her arm was reduced to a fine powder of bone and essence, and the left side of her face became a mask of gore.
Nephis was hurled through the ruins once more. As she tumbled through the grit, irradiated by her own healing light, the Legionnaire used the tree as a springboard. It closed the distance before she could even draw a breath.
A fist crashed into her stomach, rupturing her internal organs. She coughed up a flood of blood. The legionnaire then gripped her hair, preparing to crush her skull with its knee.
Suddenly, the whistling of an arrow cut through the air. The Legionnaire twisted toward the sound and hurled Nephis directly into the path of the incoming projectile.
Kai watched in horror as his own arrow pierced Nephis's back. Her body collided with his mid-air, the force knocking him backward. He caught her, his body straining against the momentum.
"Oh crap—!"
He caught a fleeting glimpse of the silver soldier in the sky beside him. The creature had expended its remaining essence in a singular, desperate leap to reach the archer.
The mace was already descending. Kai had no time for a coherent thought as the weapon struck. A blinding, white-hot agony bloomed across his back, and the world began to spin.
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
His Ascended armor shredded into ribbons of white sparks before vanishing entirely.
Eventually, the two warriors crashed into a high, crumbling tower near the catacombs entrance. They struck the stone wall with a thud that left a spray of crimson against the ancient masonry.
Neither moved. Nephis lay battered and broken, her asymmetrical armor stained black with blood. Kai was motionless, his body twisted at an unnatural angle.
Slowly, Nephis's hand twitched. She reached out, her fingers brushing against Kai's palm as he lay face-down in the dust. She ignited her flames, a flood of relief washing over her as she felt the flame take hold.
He was clinging to life by a single, fraying thread.
Nephis let out a strangled scream, the sound tearing through her throat. She was effectively dying herself, yet her physiology as a Nephilim proved far more resilient than that of a common human. She was not human in the same sense as the others; there was a reason she had survived the Legionnaire's crushing strikes even when her flame was not actively mending her flesh.
The process of healing Kai was swift, as the crimson blight did not plague his system. However, the archer remained deep in the dark of unconsciousness. Nephis could mend the fractures in his body, but trauma of the mind and skull required a different kind of respite.
Leaving Kai upon the dust-covered floor, Nephis dragged herself toward the stone wall with a single functioning hand. The rest of her body was a map of shattered ivory and torn red. She summoned the blessing of her white flames, pushing the essence into her own marrow. The process was agonizing and significantly longer than the one she had performed for Kai, but she managed.
She leaned against the ancient masonry, her breath coming in shallow, jagged gasps. She summoned Sanguine Verse back to her hand, the blade having been cast into the sky when she was broken by the mace.
'Enough time… should have passed… right?'
The silence was unsettling. She could neither see nor hear anything from within the confines of the ruined tower. She did not know if the struggle outside persisted or if the remaining Sleepers had been slaughtered alongside Gemma.
Her premonition was brief, though. As if manifesting from the thin air itself, the Legionnaire appeared before her and Kai. Nephis looked up from her slumped position, meeting the cold, impassive stare of the silver visor.
The creature tilted its head with curiosity. Nephis felt a ghost of a chuckle in her mind.
'Just what is so interesting about me?'
She wondered if the abomination was waiting for her to rise, or if it possessed some twisted, residual sense of honor that forbade it from striking down a broken foe.
Instead, the Legionnaire seemed to be engaged in an internal struggle. It lifted its aspergillum with a slow, jerky motion, its armored arm visibly trembling as if fighting its own commands.
Eventually, the struggle ended. The mace was hoisted high.
Nephis watched as the world appeared to slow. The heavy silver weapon began its descent toward her skull. However, the deceleration was not a mere trick of her dying mind; the fabric of time truly stretched and thinned—
"I leave you alone for all but one hunt, and this is the state you end up in?"
Before she could process the anomaly, a firm arm wrapped around her waist. The world became a blur of accelerated motion. Someone gripped her tightly, springing from wall to wall with a speed that defied the eye. They surged out of the tower as the upper structure was obliterated by the Legionnaire's strike.
Nephis remained dazed, her ears ringing from the percussion of the explosion. She did not hear the shouting from the ruins above, but she recognized the familiar, piercing verdant in the eyes of her savior.
'Caster…?'
It was indeed he. Caster had arrived.
"Let's get you two back to the entrance. Everyone is already there!"
His voice was rushed, carrying an edge of urgency. He gathered both Nephis and Kai, igniting his Aspect to its limit despite the physical toll it exacted on his aging body.
He vanished into the ruins, a blur moving toward the safety of the main force.
—
Prior to the outbreak of the struggle, deep within the humid darkness of the catacombs, Seishan stood coordinating the efforts of the Handmaidens and the Artisans led by Kido. One might have assumed she was focused on the logistics of the camp, but her mind was elsewhere, drawn toward the sister she had not known existed until a few days prior.
It was an impossible situation to parse. She had endured nine years on these cursed shores, believing her family had simply forgotten her to the tide of time. Then, a girl with striking white hair and hollow gray eyes arrived to tell her she was adopted by Ki Song. Nephis had even carried Transcendent Memories meant specifically for her.
Seishan had frozen upon hearing that revelation. It indicated that her mother had not abandoned her, though a small part of her still felt the sting of resentment that no Saint had scoured the Dream Realm for her sooner. Nevertheless, the fact that Ki Song had altered four Transcendent Memories for her was undeniably heartwarming.
Nephis had shared news of her other sisters. Revel was still immersed in her… "books", and Hel remained the perennial troublemaker. Eunbin was preparing to challenge her Third Nightmare — a thought that moved Seishan to silent prayer for her safety. For the first time in years, the crushing weight of isolation had lifted.
However, navigating a relationship with Nephis was a separate trial. The girl was family, and Seishan treated her as such, but Nephis had recently lost her closest companion. Seishan remembered the girl, Cassia — the blind, delicate blonde who had been a light in the Dark City.
As the eldest of the Song sisters, Seishan took it upon herself to pull Nephis from her hollow state. She was practiced in the art of comfort, and she had succeeded where others had failed. Nephis was finally eating, prompted by the mere sight of Seishan passing by, lest she receive another stern elder-sisterly lecture. The Sleepers — and even Gunlaug — had found amusement in the way the formidable Changing Star scrambled to appear functional whenever Seishan approached.
Yet, Seishan knew the recovery would be slow. Nephis was not accustomed to such visceral loss. Though she had been taken in by Clan Song at ten, the memories of her original clan's decline were likely faded and distant.
These thoughts were interrupted by the weight of a familiar bird landing on her shoulder. The Silent Crow opened its beak, re-voicing a frantic, distorted message.
"Shan…! Please, gather everyone and join me! I can't hold out against the Disaster for long—"
The recording cut off, but Seishan was already in motion. White sparks coalesced around her form as she summoned her gear.
Beneath the asymmetrical dress of [Lost Scarlet] armor, she gripped [Flowing Malice], a Transcendent weapon of the Seventh Tier. The [Pulsing Hunt] charm thrummed against her chest as a necklace. Like Nephis, she possessed a [Seed of the Beast] embedded in her wrist — a Transcendent egg that would one day hatch into a powerful Echo.
She sprinted through the Artisan's quarters, nearly toppling a row of worktables.
"GUNLAUG!!"
The golden-haired man was nearby, nearly dropping a bowl of soup as the shout echoed through the chamber. He scrambled to his feet as Seishan closed the distance.
"W-What? Can a man not eat in peace—!"
"There is a Disaster outside! The hunting party is engaged! Gather everyone and MOVE, dammit!"
"Very well—!"
Seishan did not wait for the rest of his confirmation. She sprinted toward the tunnels, shouting over her shoulder.
"Handle the main force! I am going ahead!"
She ignored Gunlaug's subsequent yells, racing toward a recently constructed room. The makeshift door crashed open before she could reach it, revealing Caster's verdant gaze. He had heard the commotion from a distance.
"Where?! Do you have a location?"
He spoke with the confidence of one who had already faced a Disaster and survived to tell the tale. Seishan shook her head, breathless.
"I do not know the exact coordinates. The party was heading toward the ruins nearby for a Fallen Monster. You will have to scout the perimeter!"
Caster gave a single, sharp nod and vanished into a blur of speed. Though he had not yet used his Aspect, his saturated Soul Core allowed for a pace that far outstripped any normal Sleeper.
Effie was also arming herself, stepping out into the familiar ruins she knew by heart. Seishan followed, joined by a gathering tide of hunters and the remnants of the Castle Guard. Within minutes, over one hundred combatants were surging toward the northern ruins.
—
Nephis felt firm arms wrap around her. She was met by Seishan's worried expression, Effie's grimace, and the visible relief on Gunlaug's face.
"You all made it…"
Effie smirked, though the expression did not reach her eyes.
"Of course we did, princess. Are — are you mad?! Why didn't you run the moment you caught a glimpse of it?"
Seishan looked at her, unimpressed.
"As if a Sleeper can run from such an abomination..."
"Fair point. But still!"
Seishan brushed Nephis's blood-stained hair out of her face. The girl was battered and appearing somewhat dazed. Upon confirming that Nephis was mostly in fighting condition, Seishan turned her gaze toward Kai's unconscious body, which was being carried by a nearby hunter.
"Is he…?"
Nephis was helped to her feet. She leaned on Seishan for a long moment and shook her head.
"No. Kai is not dead — just unconscious. He took the brunt of a blow in my stead. Though he nearly did die."
Her eyes widened then as she finally processed the sight around her. Over a hundred Sleepers had gathered, at least one hundred and thirty in total. Multiple voices yelled over one another, shouting orders and prepping for an engagement. They were nocking arrows, stretching their limbs, and preparing to face a horror of the same caliber as the one that had destroyed the Bright Castle.
Nephis grabbed her sister's arm, her voice hoarse.
"I-It's a Corrupted Beast. This Disaster called the 'Anointed Legion' is not as threatening as the last one. I was able to fend it off for a short while, but I was still overpowered. However, now that everyone is here…"
Seishan looked confused for a moment.
"Why didn't you use the 'Conduit' given to you by Mother?"
Nephis let out a dry, rattling chuckle.
"It was not giving me any time for that. And I am not proficient at channeling it yet."
Seishan sighed.
"I shall teach you, provided we survive this."
By then, Nephis was able to stand on her own. She looked down and saw formless crimson liquid with shimmering runes coiling around Seishan's arms.
"Is that for the [Flowing Malice]?"
Seishan nodded.
"It is blood that takes any shape I desire. Truly, it is an upgrade from that heavy mace."
Caster returned then, carrying Tessai's unconscious body over his shoulder with Gemma at his side. He yelled out with earnest intensity.
"It will be here in two minutes! Prepare yourselves!"
Gunlaug and Effie moved to flank the sisters. Behind them, an Echo of a Spire Messenger shimmered into existence. To their left was an Echo of an Awakened Devil, and to their right, a Fallen Beast. It was a welcome sight, yet Nephis still felt the force was insufficient to face a Disaster.
Gunlaug was adorned in Ascended Armor and gripped a bastard sword, an Ascended weapon of the Third Tier. Effie held an Ascended spear and an Awakened shield. Caster drew his Jade Jian, his armor now that of an Ascended rank. He walked beside Nephis, eyeing her before speaking as the ground began to rumble.
"Compared to the Disaster we fought before, do we actually possess a chance? I saw it clearly; it is a Corrupted human, or a Nightmare Creature molded in the image of one."
Every Sleeper looked at Nephis with a mixture of despair and hope. She gave a confident nod.
"It is a Corrupted Beast, and it is far weaker than the Southern Disaster. I have already wounded it twice. It does not appear to heal. My own guess is that the seal that bound the Disasters has weakened it significantly. It cannot even regenerate essence. It feels more like a Fallen Devil than a Corrupted abomination."
Gunlaug smiled at that.
"So you are saying we do not need to worry about complex abilities? It is slowed and cannot mheal itself end? That is perfect."
Nephis nodded.
"Indeed. I will take the front with Seishan and Effie. The three Echoes will lead the offensive with us. You and Caster guard our flanks. Everyone else must circle it and loose their arrows when the opening appears."
Gunlaug nodded.
"Understood. Let us try not to die today. I would at least like to fell one of these bastards before meeting my end!"
Effie let out a long sigh.
"Just one calamity after another…"
Nephis looked at the gem embedded in her wrist, then at Seishan's.
"It is a shame they have not been born yet. A Transcendent Echo would be fair right about now."
Seishan offered a fond, tired smile.
"If we survive this, perhaps we shall see them."
At that moment, every head snapped toward the north. Seishan immediately triggered her transformation. Her limbs elongated, her spine twisted, and her grey skin took on the rough texture of a shark. Her eyes rolled back, revealing a second pair of vertical pupils surrounded by a sea of red. Her jaw unhinged to showcase rows of terrible fangs.
Nephis's body emitted a brilliant white radiance as the footsteps of dread approached. The rumbling ceased as a single figure walked through the petrified ruins.
The soldier was a vision of tarnished silver, its plate and weapon wrapped in those tattered, fluttering crimson bandages. It walked with its aspergillum resting across its shoulder, held casually with one arm. It appeared pristine and commanding, a veteran warlord standing upon a field of children. Despite their numbers, the air felt heavy with the possibility of defeat.
The Legionnaire surveyed the army of one hundred and fifty Sleepers. It did not show a sign of surprise. Its gaze circled the ruins, taking in the archers and the vials of shimmering potions.
Finally, its visor locked onto Nephis, it's most worthy opponent on these cursed shores.
A subtle, rasping laughter emitted from the silver helm.
The Disaster took a step forward, and the front group matched the movement. Nephis's illuminated white eyes stared into the creature's visor. Then, the Legionnaire spoke in a voice that sounded like grinding stone and old wind.
"Ah… oh accursed flame that you are, perhaps you can truly do it, alongside your comrades. Set me free… if you can, set me free… so that I may walk within the echoes of that grand field of dawn…"
Nephis offered no reply.
The Disaster lunged forward. The ground at it's feet all but turned to dust.
Arrows rained down in a lethal curtain. Nephis, nearly ablaze with white heat, surged forward side by side with Seishan and the Echoes.
The Sisters of Fire and Blood collided with the Anointed Legionnaire, and the earth groaned under the force of their clash.