RHEIN'S POINT OF VIEW
My eyes scanned the forming crowd and there they were: Allie, Kate, and Lovely, together with their praciens. Kate and Lovely looked utterly disoriented, still in their pajamas, hair in messy tangles.
"Are you kidding me?" Lovely shouted over the wind. "I was brushing my teeth five seconds ago!"
Kate groaned, clutching her blanket like a cape. "I swear if I die looking like this-"
But I couldn't focus on them for long. The sky itself was bleeding red and black as the dark clan advanced.
"Come on!" Dylan urged. We sprinted toward the high terrace of the palace to get a better view of the battlefield.
From above, the full horror of the war unfolded before us. The ground outside the palace was a sea of chaos. Our generals and knights clashing with the Deorcanen army, their weapons sparking with corrupted mnarill. And far in the distance, standing tall and composed amid the storm of violence, was their leader. He's smiling... as if all of this was unfolding exactly as he had planned.
I clenched my fists.
Some deore mnarillazas seemed to recognize me who I was. Their gazes sharpened. Then, without hesitation, they charged toward me.
A few of our knights rushed forward, attempting to form a protective circle around me, but I raised a hand and signaled them to stop.
Black energy spheres materialized in front of the approaching enemies. They hurled them toward me so I made a barrier of pure light, a luminous shield erupting between me and the incoming barrage.
The impact rang like metal against crystal.
I countered immediately. White vines burst from the ground behind them, growing rapidly and wrapping around their bodies. They have been twisted, strangling them in an instant.
But not all of them.
Some moved too fast, darting across the battlefield like shadows. One even managed to slip behind me. I felt his killing intent and spun just in time. A sword of light formed in my hand, and I drove it straight through his chest. His breath hitched before he collapsed.
"Forelody, hang tight. It's not my fault if you fall off."
"Don't worry about me."
Then the attacks came one after another.
My senses sharpened. My body moved on instinct... blocking, evading, and countering with bursts of radiant light. Blades clashed. Energy cracked. The world narrowed to heat, movement, and the burn of mnarill coursing through my veins.
After countless clashes, I could smell the metallic scent of blood coating my hands.
I glanced down... on my hands.
The blood wasn't mine. Theirs.
My breath faltered. A tremor ran through me.
I... I had taken lives.
"Rhein," Forelody's voice echoed gently in my mind, "don't let guilt consume you. Think of this as a matter of survival."
As if it were that easy...
"They're moving too fast," Dylan muttered, watching how the knights in black cloaks strikes seemed almost inhumanly synchronized. "Their energy output... it's different."
Then it hit me.
The air shifted.
The sound of battle faded into nothingness.
And suddenly, everything stopped.
The flames. The wind. The flying debris. Even the falling ash hung suspended midair like stars caught between seconds.
"The world has stopped." Dylan confirmed what I noticed.
Tyler looked around, eyes wide. "But how? That's only possible if-"
"-there are too many of them," Dylan finished grimly. "Meithi mnarillazas. So many that their combined energy density is enough to distort the flow of time itself."
He turned toward the battlefield, his voice low, trembling slightly. "But how do they have meithi mnarillazas on their side? I'm the only one left."
Audrey stepped forward from behind us, her expression pale, guilt still heavy in her eyes. "Because the Deorcanen Clan... they were the ones who destroyed the Oroses Clan."
"I am fully aware," Dylan responded.
"But you have no idea that they harvested the meithi mnarill from your people. They extracted the essence of your clan's power and infused it into their own clan members." Her voice broke. "They experimented for years, trying to find a way to fully incorporate those meithi mnarill into the deore mnarillazas, creating hybrids." She glanced at Justin. "Brother Justin was not aware of this. It's a long-time experiment done in the darkest shadows of the clan. Only the leader and his deceased father and a few scientists know about this. I only knew about this recently as well when he convinced me to be their spy."
The truth hit like a blade through my chest.
Dylan's face turned cold, unreadable. "They used my clan... as fuel for their own power."
The time-stilled world began to tremble.
Is this his rage?
As the sound of battle reignited, the roar of warriors and the screams of power unleashed, I realized something terrifying: This was not a fight for territory anymore. It was a fight to decide which side would remain standing when the world itself stopped turning.
'You have the power to return to the past and change it. His power and me. You can use me.'
The voice of the Juelaetornulus Ruihnas echoed again inside my mind, sharp and unwavering. It pulsed like a heartbeat within my chest, urging me to do something.
My hands trembled. "There's no other choice left, Dylan," I said, my voice low but firm. "You once told me your clan has no right to alter destiny. But what if that rule was never meant to be followed? Let's break it. Not all laws are right." I met his eyes. "This world... everyone in it... we all deserve to live."
He stared at me for a long, breathless moment. Then, with a quiet nod, he reached for my hand.
Forelody and Tyler seemed to understand what we're trying to do so they flew away from our shoulders.
Our praciens were telling us something as we stepped back, but their voices faded behind the roar of the raging storm above. In the next instant, I released my mnarill and teleported us away, straight to the outer cliffs of the Deorcanen Clan's territory.
The air there was frigid. The towering structure loomed before us, veiled in shadows and lightning. Black spires reached toward the sky like claws trying to rip open the heavens.
Dylan glanced around warily. "The Dark Palace," he muttered. "Why here?"
"Because this is where everything began. And this is where we'll change it."