The air cracked with tension. Dust rose like ghosts around shattered stone. Above, the gravitational storm still howled, pulsing with residual force that warped the very sky.
But even that wasn't enough.
A low growl cut through the distortion.
"This is perfect," Ingress snarled, standing amidst the wreckage, molten-red eyes blazing. Crimson veins webbed across his ghostly pale skin. "Another freak to erase. Another mistake the world tried to forget."
His voice boomed as he broke free of Vanessa's gravitational field, wings of burning shadow ripping out from his back.
"You shouldn't exist. Any of you. But I will not fall!"
He launched skyward like a meteor, heat and fury in his wake. Gendai, Felicia, and Vanessa looked up.
"He escaped that?" Gendai breathed.
Felicia rushed to Jessie and Neve, radiant healing light pouring from her palms. "Vanessa! We need to end this now!"
Ingress raised his blade, red with corrupted essence, and unleashed a shockwave that screamed toward Vanessa.
She didn't move.
The blade struck.
And shattered.
Not a scratch on her.
Ingress blinked. Slashed again. And again. Each impact tore apart the world around her—but not her. She stared forward, unmoved, her eyes glowing with indigo death.
"Unlike my king," Vanessa said, "I don't hide what I am."
She raised a single hand, placing it gently against Ingress's chest.
"You are beneath me. And if I killed you, Kazimir would be disappointed."
"What did you say?!"
Boom.
Ingress vanished in a flash of pressure, his body sent hurling across the horizon. Mountains shattered under the force of his impact.
Vanessa turned. Her gaze scanned the battlefield, where Tyrone and Lihanna fought off Barrack in the distance.
She lifted her spear—a weapon made from Imaginary Essence, as if carved from the void between stars. Then hurled it.
"Go left," she whispered into their minds.
Tyrone and Lihanna obeyed on instinct.
The spear passed between them, then struck.
Impact.
A void burst open in Barrack's chest. The beast roared as a black hole of energy swallowed its heart. The shockwave warped light, space, sound.
Vanessa appeared behind Tyrone and Lihanna through a rift, dragging them with her back to the main group.
Kamaki blinked awake, rubbing his skull. "Holy hell… What hit that thing?"
"Vanessa," Tyrone muttered. "She's unreal."
Gendai stepped forward. "Who are you? Your energy... it's like Kazimir's. Like Jessie's."
Vanessa's gaze lingered on Kazimir's unconscious body.
"I'm a Vrasnai," she said. "A disciple of Nebula. And I serve the King."
Kamaki scratched his chin. "So... you stronger than Kazimir?"
Vanessa finally looked at him.
"No. If he's serious, I wouldn't last a second."
She knelt by Kazimir and whispered, "I warned you not to trust them. And still you fight for them. Even now."
Riah stirred nearby, her body bruised, armor cracked. Her eyes opened slowly. "Vanessa…?"
"I came to help. And to take Tyrone and Lihanna with me. They have potential."
Riah groaned, sitting up. "Then let's deal with the dragon first. Is it dead?"
"No. But it's not moving. That bought us time."
Riah stood, her armor reigniting in white flame.
"Then we move. What about Ingress?"
Vanessa turned to the mountains.
"Forget him. Kazimir's waking up."
The wind stopped. The sky dimmed. The earth murmured beneath their feet.
Felicia looked up.
Gendai stepped closer to Kazimir, heart pounding.
A flicker of lightning rippled from his fingertips.
Vanessa stepped back, eyes narrowed.
"He's here."
Kazimir opened his eyes.
No glow. Just depth. Endless. Sovereign.
The world would never be the same again.