The troll, corrupted by the energy of chaos, stood monstrously in the centre of the battlefield. A black mist pulsed around him, distorting the air and warping the ground. Facing him, Eric stood motionless for a moment... then slowly drew his sword.
A heavy breath swept across the field.
His blade burst into flames, a concentrated, dense fire, like a living flame held in place by sheer will. Around the flame, electric arcs crackled, swirling in spirals around the steel like lightning snakes. Eric's body was then surrounded by flashes of lightning. His mana expressed itself freely.
He disappeared.
No... he had accelerated. To a level where even Max, renowned for his inhuman reflexes, could only perceive streaks of light.
In that instant, the gravity field deployed earlier trapped the troll: gravitational forces crushed him to the ground, limiting his movements. The monster screamed, his body completely covered in blackish chaos. It tried to seal this chaotic energy in a barrier to defend itself... but it was too late.
With a single movement, Eric struck.
A flash of fire split the air. The shockwave shook the space around them. The troll's head was severed cleanly. No... split in two, as if fire and lightning had divided the universe itself.
The body fell heavily. Max, thinking it was over, approached... but his warrior senses alerted him.
It wasn't over.
Chaos boiled. A demonic artefact, a black necklace adorned with a jade eye, began to twist around the troll's carcass.
Then, in a silent explosion, a wave of magical knockout was released.
Around them, the orcs collapsed one by one, their blood freezing, their skin turning to stone. Even the golden champion, haloed with divine energy, fell to his knees. His body was slowly absorbed into a vortex of black snow, a frozen storm of nothingness.
Eric turned his head towards Aérien, who was fighting at the other end of the field. With a dark look, he whispered:
-"I'll take care of it."
-"Things are getting complicated. I have to take care of this. Before certain people realise...' "
Eric's gaze remained cold, but his fingers tightened on the hilt of his sword.
Aérien approached the troll's head, now lifeless, and gave a brief order:
-"Lucinda, Max. Go. Now."
The ground shook.
In the heart of the battlefield, something was beginning to form.
A sphere, black as nothingness, pulsed slowly, filled with an energy foreign to this world. It seemed alive, breathing pure chaos. Around it, the ground cracked, trees died instantly, curling up as if burned from within. The air became dry. Then icy. Then empty.
There was nothing left. No breath, no light. Just this core of destruction.
Eric narrowed his eyes. He understood what was happening. And it wasn't natural.
He turned quickly to the others:
-"Back away. Leave immediately!"
But Max remained frozen, petrified, unable to take a step. His gaze was fixed on the sphere, unable to look away.
-"Max, move!" roared Erian. "If you stay here, you'll be absorbed. You'll die."
Still no reaction.
Eric then turned to Erian, his gaze hard and cold.
-"You too, Erian. You have to go. Now."
Erian's face tensed and he clenched his fists.
-"I can help you. I won't leave you alone."
But Eric replied sharply:
-"No. You'll only get in my way. You, Max, the others... you'll all be swallowed up in seconds. This isn't a normal fight anymore."
A flash of lightning shot behind him.
-"Trust me... and go. That's an order."
His eyes were shining. His mana was rising. He was about to enter another state.
Yann and François exchanged meaningful glances. Their furrowed brows betrayed their concern. Then, almost in unison, they closed their eyes and slowly nodded their heads. They understood. There was nothing more to be done here.
-"Max, Lucinda... let's go immediately,"Erian ordered calmly, without taking his eyes off the battlefield.
Max hesitated. His fist trembled, his gaze shifting from Erian to Eric, then to the growing vortex of chaos.
-"I can't... leave him alone..."
But Yann looked him straight in the eyes, and with a simple, slow but firm nod, he made it clear that it was a necessity. Not a choice.
Lucinda gently pulled Max by the arm. Little by little, everyone nodded. In silence. Their throats tight. They backed away.
They left.
Eric remained alone, standing facing the phenomenon. The ground was devoured by balls of black leaves, entangled with strange roots, as if nature itself were twisting under the effect of chaos. Pulsating cocoons gradually formed, hinting at an abominable gestation.
He sighed.
'Hah... I should have known. My life was getting too quiet. Too calm. '
He looked up at the dark sky, then murmured, almost wearily:
'Wherever I go... there will always be trouble."
He closed his eyes.
A breath shook the air.
When he opened them again, his pupils had disappeared.
His eyes had become completely white, pure, bright, immaculate.
A bolt of lightning tore through the ground around him. His body was surrounded by a swirling, almost liquid aura of lightning. Lightning snaked across his skin, around his weapon, in his hair.
He murmured in a breath that was almost prophetic.
'It's time... to end this.'
Erian, Max and Lucinda ran. They ran without stopping, without looking back. Their only mission now was to get out of the forest.
But the further they went, the more horror unfolded around them.
The trees were dying. One by one. Withered. Dried up. The earth cracked and drained of life. Even the wind seemed to die.
Everything was dying in their wake. Even the ground.
Max began to panic.
'If this is it... if this is chaos... then the world is over. Completely ruined.'
His mind was racing.
'If that thing touches me... I'll become a puppet of those demons. Controlled. Possessed or dead and destroyed.' '
He clenched his teeth.
'How have these creatures not already wiped out the entire continent?!'
Lucinda ran without saying a word. Her face was closed, her gaze hard. The former frivolous light in her eyes was gone. Replaced by determination and lucid fear.
She had seen too much, endured too much.
Erian, on the other hand, seemed almost calm. He was running, yes, but without panic. A strange confidence floated around him.
He whispered:
'He'll make it.'
There was no doubt in his voice.
-"It's Eric. He's not like us. He never has been."
Meanwhile...
Eric stood alone, facing the abomination.
His gaze was empty. No fear. No hesitation.
His pupils had disappeared.
His eyes were bright white, as if made of pure light.
Around him, lightning roared. Arcs shot out in all directions. Tongues of fire slowly swirled around him like comets in orbit. His blade... had turned white. Incandescent.
It was more than a weapon.
It was an extension of himself.
Lightning pulsed through it. Fire roared within it. Every movement left a trail of pure light in the air, a succession of flashes and flames intermingling.
He raised his head. His eyes fixed on the sphere of chaos.
He raised his blade.
He pointed it.
And whispered, in a barely audible breath:
'Flash. Two sections.'
A white flash split the air.
A piercing sound. As if the universe itself had been sliced in two.
The sphere was cut in two.
Where the blade had passed, a perfect line of fire and lightning was imprinted in space. Then... the disintegration began.
Tongues of fire and lightning burst forth from the sphere, devouring it from within.
Then...
BOOM.
A gigantic explosion.
The sky itself seemed to shake.
The blast swept everything away. Even the mountains in the distance trembled. The sound was sharp, clean, perfect. Not a scream, not a dissonant note.
Just... silence after the end.
Eric moved forward. Slowly. Alone. Walking through the still crackling energy field. The ground crunched under his feet. Around him, lightning still struck, fragments of fire danced in the air, like fireflies from a world on fire.
He said nothing.
But in the shadows, Max, who had stopped a few metres away, watched him.
He was frozen. Unable to move.
He whispered:
-"That's... not human."
Lucinda joined him, her eyes wide.
-"What... was that?"
But it was Erian who answered, without taking his eyes off Eric:
-"That was... the Judgement."
And Max, in a low voice, halfway between fear and fascination, whispered:
-"Eric... who are you really?' "
Seraphine was talking quietly with Lucas, her voice soft and calm as usual. They were sitting on a bed of dry grass, surrounded by the apparent calm of nature.
But suddenly, the air changed.
An invisible, oppressive wave.
A terrifying energy descended upon the world like an icy chill running up the spine. Even the wind fell silent.
Lucas felt it.
His breath caught in his throat. His eyes widened, and instinctively he turned his head towards the forest, where the pressure was coming from.
His skin bristled. Goosebumps rose on his arms.
'What... what is this energy?' he whispered, staring, confused.
Seraphine froze. Her expression changed suddenly.
'No... not that...' she whispered, almost imperceptibly.
She recognised that feeling. That aura. That chaos.
She had felt it before. Long ago. When the witches talked about falling stars and dark winds.
But this time... something was wrong.
She sensed something else.
Another energy.
Powerful and explosive, an energy she knew by heart.
She closed her eyes for a moment. She concentrated.
And she felt it clearly.
-"Eric...?" she said, in a low voice. It was a question, but also a call. Like a prayer.
Then she turned quickly to Lucas, trying to regain her composure.
-"Darling... are you all right?"
Lucas, still confused, looked away from the forest and forced a small smile.
-"Yes, I'm fine, Mum."
But even he knew that wasn't true.