Time fractured.
Cyan's body slammed into the wall with a thunderous crash, stone shattering beneath the impact. The sound rolled across the ruins like a funeral bell, echoing again and again until it became meaningless noise. He slid down helplessly, leaving a smear of blood against broken stone, his limbs refusing to respond.
His vision swam.
The world tilted, smeared into pain and static.
Through the haze, he saw her.
Aris—broken, bloodied—dragging herself across the ground toward him. Her armor was cracked, scorched, soaked dark with blood. Each movement was slow, agonizing, yet deliberate. Her breathing was ragged, uneven, a desperate rhythm clawing against death itself.
In… out… in…
The sound anchored him. A prayer spoken through pain.
Footsteps echoed.
Measured. Calm.
Aria walked toward them like an executioner strolling to a scaffold, each step resonating through the ruined chamber. The air thickened around her, vibrating with a suffocating pressure that made Cyan's skin prickle and his chest seize.
"After ten years of searching…" she said softly.
A pause.
"It finally ends."
Her voice carried something worse than cruelty—certainty.
The hairs on Cyan's neck stood on end.
Energy gathered in Aria's palm. Earth groaned. Lightning screamed. A blade formed—jagged stone fused with crackling electricity—its presence bending the air, swallowing light. The sheer weight of it made Cyan's stomach churn, his instincts screaming run even as his body refused to move.
Then—
Light.
A colossal pillar of radiant blue descended from the heavens, piercing the battlefield like divine judgment. The ruins were drowned in brilliance. Between Aria and the siblings, five hundred translucent circles bloomed into existence, hovering in layered formation. Ancient symbols ignited within them, rotating slowly, humming with power older than memory.
The air filled with ozone.
With whispers.
Not voices—intent. Soft, endless murmurs that soothed and terrified all at once, as though reality itself was being lulled into stillness.
A voice followed.
Calm. Warm.
Dangerous.
Ninrir: "Begone, demon."
The words carried irritation—but beneath it, something vast and unmovable, like a mountain deciding it had tolerated enough.
The sound vibrated through the air, a low harmonic hum that made Aria's skin crawl.
Aria laughed.
"Well, well, well," she said, eyes gleaming. "The goddess finally shows herself."
Her sword pulsed, veins of deep red light throbbing through it like a living heart.
Ninrir: "Rejoice while you can," the voice replied, softer now. "You do not understand what you have stirred."
Aria tilted her head, amused.
"A new Archon, then. Figures." She grinned. "I've been wondering—why someone of your stature would take such an interest in a human."
Silence answered her.
Not weakness.
Restraint.
Aria clicked her tongue. "No answer? Sigh… that's the best part." Her eyes burned with excitement.
"Nothing compares to breaking a newborn Archon. Don't you agree, Mother of Light?"
The air shifted.
Pressure crashed down like a collapsing sky.
Ninrir: "You have nerve," she said, her voice cracking like distant thunder, "to crawl beneath me like this."
The circles flared.
"The next time you move behind my back, I will erase you—utterly. And not even your father will stop me."
Aria's smile faltered.
Just slightly.
"My father has nothing to do with this," she snarled. "Bitch."
The air screamed.
Storm tension coiled tight—one breath away from annihilation.
Ninrir: "I don't care," she replied flatly. "Leave."
The five hundred circles blazed brighter, miniature suns threatening collapse.
Aria scoffed.
"Tch. This isn't over." Her voice dropped, venomous. "One day, you'll reap what you've sown, Goddess of Light."
She vanished in a vortex matrix.
The light vanished with her.
The circles dissolved.
Silence rushed back in.
Aris exhaled shakily as she collapsed onto her back, rain beginning to fall—slow at first, then heavier. Each breath she took sounded stolen.
Ninrir: "Thank you, child," she said gently. "And… I am sorry."
A faint smile tugged at Aris's lips as she stared up at the night sky. Stars shimmered weakly through smoke and drifting ash. Ninrir's presence faded, leaving only moonlight and wind brushing softly through her hair.
Crickets chirped.
Thunder rumbled far away.
Then the rain came in earnest.
Heavy.
Relentless.
Like the sky itself was mourning.
As if every drop carried the weight of 375 stolen lives.
One drop struck Cyan's face.
His eyes snapped open.
Red.
Ruby-bright.
He groaned and forced himself upright, every movement screaming agony. His vision wavered, but his will refused to break. The smell of wet soil filled his lungs—earthy, grounding, real.
He staggered to Aris.
Collapsed beside her.
His hand pressed against her shattered mail, glowing faint blue as healing aura spilled out—weak, trembling, stubborn.
Warmth spread.
Uselessly.
ORION: "Wound un-healable. Damage accumulation increasing. Survival probability reduced by sixty-nine percent."
Cyan didn't hear it.
Or pretended not to.
Rain soaked his hair, streaking down his face—mixing with tears he hadn't realized were still falling. He ignored his own mangled body. All that mattered was her.
Aris lifted her scorched, bloodied hand and wrapped her fingers weakly around his.
"C-Cyan…" she whispered.
He broke.
Sobs wracked his body as the rain hammered down, droplets striking her armor with hollow metallic echoes.
"Listen to me," she said softly. "I don't have much time. Promise me… you'll live with pride."
"No!" Cyan screamed, voice cracking apart. "Shut up—just shut up and let me heal you!"
His aura surged wildly, draining him beyond reason.
The rain swallowed his cries.
And the night watched in silence.
END OF CHAPTER 17