Not long after, Kevin, Reen, and Kevastine emerged from the tangled streets, each coming from slightly different paths, until the ruined city square came into view. And horror welcomed them.
Their eyes rose, and the breath seemed to leave their bodies.
The colossus of bone towered above the city square, its frame scraping the smoky heavens. Its body was a twisted architecture of ribcages, femurs, and skulls all fused together, an abomination masquerading as form. The air around it rattled with the sound of shifting joints, like mountains grinding together.
Kevin froze. His voice slipped out in a mutter as he shoved past Reen, disbelief weighing every word.
"This… this wasn't how I left the city square."
The world itself seemed to bleed. Blood streaked across the stones, rivers of crimson pouring between cracks.
Smoke stung the air, thick and bitter, choking every breath. Screams and shrieks cut through the haze, sharp and jagged, rising and falling like the city itself was wailing in agony.
Reen didn't wait for an explanation or an invitation. His casual indifference burned away in an instant. His expression sharpened, every line of his face set in steel. His hands slipped free of his pockets, molten energy already thrumming through his veins, making the air ripple with heat.
In a flash, he ran toward the colossus, his boots shattering fragments of bone and glass beneath him. The ground cracked as he accelerated, molten sparks bursting at his heels. He tore past Kevastine, whose eyes remained wide, his body rooted in place.
For once, the grin was gone.
Kevastine stared upward, wide-eyed, the shadow of the towering colossus reflected in his gaze.
"Wait!" Kevin's voice cracked as he sprinted after Reen, his words nearly lost in the chorus of shrieks and bone-grinding echoes. His legs pumped, fear and desperation driving him forward as he tried to close the distance.
Kevastine cursed under his breath, teeth biting into his lip hard enough to draw blood. Shadows shivered at his feet as he forced himself into motion, but he refused to follow directly. He veered off, taking a darker, narrower route.
Every alley was a trial.
Magma split the streets, glowing rivers crawling out from deep cracks in the earth. Heat scorched his skin, the stench of sulfur clinging to every breath. He vaulted across fissures, his boots striking stone with precision.
At one gap he had to spring sideways, feet hammering against the wall in a frantic run for twelve steps before flipping free and landing hard on the other side. His breath was steady, but his jaw clenched, every leap was a heartbeat away from death.
The glow followed him, shadows stretching long against the flames as if chasing him.
Finally, he broke free of the alleys and into the open square.
The sight struck him like a blade to the gut.
The colossus still loomed, shaking the ground with every ponderous shift, but Kevastine's eyes weren't drawn to it first. They were locked on the figure by a collapsed building, half-buried in rubble and shadow, – Ms. Reyna.
She sat slumped against the stone, her grey coat shredded and soaked through with blood. Two pointed bone spikes jutted cruelly from her chest, pinning her where she sat like a hunted animal. A dagger was driven deep into her hip, the steel glinting faintly under the burning sky. Blood streamed down her side, pooling at her hand as she pressed weakly against the wound.
For the first time, Kevastine's chest tightened. The commanding woman who had barked orders with unshakable authority was now gasping through clenched teeth, her life bleeding out into the dirt.
Kevin was the first to reach her. His footsteps skidded through the rubble as he dropped low, panic raw in his voice.
"Ms. Reyna! Are you okay?"
Her hand snapped up, blood dripping down her wrist as she forced her voice into a command.
"Stay back!" Her tone was sharp enough to freeze him mid-step. "Focus on evacuating the people. Get the students away from that thing, it's drawing bones from itself."
Kevin blinked, startled. His eyes flicked up, and his breath hitched.
The colossus shuddered in the distance. Its massive frame groaned as ribs cracked and split, bones sliding free of its own body with wet crunches. Lengths of skeletal matter dripped down its sides, twisting and rejoining as jagged spikes, then tumbling into the square like falling spears. Every motion was a grinding symphony of marrow snapping and sinew tearing.
Kevastine's gaze tracked the horror, but it wasn't the monster that caught him. His eyes shifted lower, narrowing as he noticed Reen.
The pink-haired Exo-hunter was sprinting straight toward the thing, his speed tearing lines into the broken ground. Heat shimmered in his wake, his hair flaring like a banner of firelight.
Ms. Reyna's eyes widened when she caught sight of him. Her voice rasped, furious and terrified all at once.
"Wait, is that Reen? What the hell is he doing?!"
On the field, Reen's body shifted mid-stride. He snapped his right hand to his side and pointed, his index finger and thumb pressed together in sharp precision. The ground beneath him trembled in response, as if answering his call.
Kevastine's lips twisted as he muttered under his breath, voice low with disbelief.
"Is that idiot crazy?"
Beside him, Ms. Reyna's voice cracked, her shout tearing at her throat despite the blood pooling in her chest.
"No, Reen! This is no place to summon your spirit outside! They'll devour it!"
But Reen had never been the type to listen.
His eyes narrowed, the faint pink drowned beneath a burning glow. His pupils flared like embers as fire licked the edges of his gaze. His voice dropped, sharp and steady, almost gleeful.
"Boo Claw… I've got you a dance partner."
The ground beneath where his thumb and index pointed convulsed. Cracks split the cobblestones, magma bleeding upward in glowing veins. The air shuddered with heat, waves of shimmering distortion bending the square like glass.
From the molten earth tore a monstrous shape, humanoid in form but colossal, its body draped in what looked like a cloak woven of living flame. Magma dripped constantly from its shoulders and arms, splattering onto the stone with sizzling pops. Each drop burned holes deep into the ground, smoke hissing upward.
Its roar ripped the square apart. A sound so massive it rattled lungs, a throat-busting bellow that forced even the colossus to pause mid-step. The creature reared back, towering nearly as tall as the bone giant before it, its burning frame flickering like a volcanic god given flesh.
It roared again, louder, and hotter. The flames of its cloak lashed outward in waves, painting the smoke-filled sky blood-red and orange. The air itself seemed to scream.
Kevin froze, his breath catching in his throat as he stared at the towering figure of flame. His voice cracked, dazed and horrified.
"He… he summoned Boo? His father?!"
The words hung in the smoke like a curse.
Ms. Reyna's eyes widened, her bloody hand trembling against the dagger at her hip. Her voice slipped into a whisper, barely audible, but heavy with recognition.
"How could I forget… Reen is half Netherkin. He was never going to listen."
The truth clawed its way into the open.
Reen's story was not the simple tale of a gifted hunter. His spirit, what he had called forth was not just a weapon, it was not just a contracted entity. It was his blood, his father. The truth burned in the magma-draped figure now roaring against the bone colossus, its molten cloak writhing like a living inferno.
And Ms. Reyna, bleeding out on the ground, had only spoken the fact aloud.
Boo Claw moved with a speed that betrayed its size, its molten cloak flaring as it scaled the Colossus of bone like a predator climbing prey. Each jagged rib and towering femur cracked under its flaming grip.
The sound was unbearable: SNAP, CRUNCH, SPLINTER – as the giant's frame was torn apart piece by piece. Bones as thick as towers fell loose, tumbling into the streets below like white meteors.
The molten earth spirit hurled them aside as if they weighed nothing. Each strike left the colossus staggering, its groans echoing like mountains collapsing.
Beneath them, Reen surged forward, his body a blur of speed, molten sparks bursting in his wake. He skidded into position, dropping low, his voice booming with command as his hands locked together, fingers folding tight, both index fingers stabbing downward like ritual blades.
"Boiling Pool of Syna Volcano!"
The ground answered instantly.
A fissure screamed open at the colossus' feet, veins of fire bursting outward in all directions. Flames poured upward, spilling into the square like the belly of a volcano had been ripped open. The cobblestones glowed red, then crumbled away, collapsing into a yawning pit of molten death.
In seconds, an entire pool of magma spread across the square, its surface bubbling and frothing. Bones that tumbled into it hissed violently, dissolving into sludge with a stench like burning marrow.
And then, in the blink of an eye, the Colossus itself was dragged into the molten pool. Its massive form plunged into the boiling inferno, the bone structure glowing white-hot as flames licked every joint, every crack. Steam and ash erupted skyward, blotting out what little light remained.
The city shook with its roar, a shriek of rage and agony that tore across the ruins like a storm.
Kevastine's body moved before his thoughts could catch up. His boots hammered the stone as he sprinted toward the chaos, his voice cutting sharp through the roar of magma.
"You numb nut!"
He flung his arms wide, shadows clinging to his frame as frost erupted from his hands. "Snow fall of the north." He muttered
In an instant, ice blossomed outward, spreading across the scorched ground in a sweeping wave. A white-blue perimeter cracked into existence, frost racing like a living thing across rubble and shattered streets.
The flames fought back, hissing furiously as they clashed against the cold, but the ice held its ground.
He carved out a sanctuary, encasing the battlefield in frozen layers while carefully skirting around bodies; the dead and the dying, the students still running, those desperately swinging their weapons. Not a single living fighter was touched by his frost.
But with ice came another problem.
Boots slipped, bodies staggered. Cries went up as students lost balance, skidding across the frost-slick surface. One fell hard, sliding dangerously close to the magma's bubbling edge before being dragged back by a comrade. The battlefield turned into a deadly paradox, ice against fire, both threatening to consume.
Kevastine's jaw clenched. "I had no choice." With Reen boiling the square alive, if he hadn't cooled the air, everyone nearby would have burned before the colossus even fell.
Above, Boo Claw blazed like a living star. The spirit moved in violent flashes, its body folding and reappearing in streaks of fire.
Each step was devastating, every time its molten frame struck the ground, a Netherkin was left writhing, split open and burning. Their ashen skin cracked, their twisted faces dissolved into charred ruin under its molten touch.
The square had become a vision of apocalypse; flame, ice, bone, and blood colliding in one suffocating storm.
Kevastine adjusted his frost with a flick of his wrist. The smooth ice shifted, jagged ridges forming across its surface, turning it into rough footing so the students could move without slipping. He darted forward, his breath a thin mist in the heat-strangled air.