After a few hours, Lia was discharged from the medical ward. She insisted that Myles carry her to their bedroom, even though she was perfectly fine. Myles wasn't particularly against the idea.
"You know, I can tell you're perfectly fine," he said, smiling at her as she pretended to fall asleep in his arms. "But... I'm not against holding my lovely girlfriend close."
Lia tried to ignore him and buried her face in his chest.
Just then, they both felt a chilling wave of Criole. To Myles, it felt like what he imagined an approaching horde of zombies or a swarm of mindless demons might feel like. Lia, however, knew exactly what was coming.
They were creatures called Brents, ancient beasts of unknown origin. Individually, they could be dealt with easily, but they never moved alone. The most terrifying thing about them was that they seemed to share a single conscience. Though intelligent and capable of individuality, they acted like mindless beasts when hunger took over. They devoured everything—flesh, plants, even Criole—and wherever they appeared, they brought disaster and destruction. The real question was, how did they get here?
Domain First is on a planet mirrored off Earth's cosmic presence, and its builder, Allyser, was very proud of it. It was originally meant as a gift for a boy she had fallen in love with in her younger days. He was a human scientist distraught over humanity's impending doom caused by their carelessness with Earth's resources. She named the planet after the first title he came up with for a project he was working on. The most important feature, however, was that although it sat within a system of planets and a galaxy of stars under her command, it was impossible to find unless someone tracked the planet's specific criole wave. The only people with access to this information were her children, who helped rule over the galaxy.
"Julian, you will purge these things from this planet this instant." Allyser is livid; the swarms desecrate the land. Her criole waves thicken, and the air around her grows heavier. Birds fall from the sky, suffocating under the pressure, and guards collapse to their knees. Everyone knows what they must do.
Julian, on his way to purge the creatures, is soon followed by his children and by the remaining guards who can still move. Rai seems the most motivated to destroy the beasts; her rage nearly matches her mother's, which makes Julian slightly nervous.
"I see you are done pretending," Myles tries to joke with Lia as they face the swarm side by side. Their number is uncountable, yet Myles has a strange sense of confidence. He feels as if this issue can be dealt with easily. Lia does not feel the same, which confuses him. Terrene appears behind him. "Hey," she says, looking at him and then at Lia, "look, defeating them is not the issue; it is our mother we are worried about. This planet is very important to her, and if anyone does anything to destroy it, it hurts her a lot."
Terrene teleports to the centre of the swarm of brents before her and unleashes a disintegrating spell that affects only the brents within its radius. Her move triggers the rest of the family. Rai releases a barrage of spells she has been preparing. Kaelen, now fully red-haired with one strand of blonde on her forehead, rampages through the swarm, ripping the beasts apart in a bloody frenzy. Strangely enough, the sight excites Myles a bit.
"Thia, found anything?" Kaelen asks, holding a hand to her ear.
Thia, far from the rest and deep within the swarm, searches for their source. She is accompanied by Daena and a few new faces, as well as two familiar ones: Throg, a tall, powerfully built man with an intense smile and an even more intense punch, and Vielle, a slender yet well-endowed woman who moves with grace and poise. Her sharp gaze matches her even sharper scythe. They are the same individuals who attacked Myles a few months earlier.
"Well, of course, I have found the source of the swarm. It seems getting to it is going to be the issue."
"What, why?" Kaelen asks, already sounding irritated.
"Well, they are not running out of the portal; they are pouring out of it. It is taking my children everything they have just to keep their numbers under control."
Kaelen's eyebrow twitches. "Listen here, dear little sister, you have the facilities and abilities required to do more than that at your disposal." She pauses. "Do you mind telling me what is stopping you from using that power?"
Thia sighs. "I have not grasped full control." She says it quietly, almost shyly.
Kaelen calms down. "Listen to me, it does not matter if you bite more than you can chew. Your older sister will be right behind you to stop you from choking." She cuts the line and stops moving.
"Everyone, stand clear!" a guard shouts, noticing the shift in her posture.
Soon, she is surrounded by criole lines, thick and hot enough to warp the air around her. She sprints forward at sound barrier-breaking speed toward Thia's signal.
A similar scene unfolds at Thia's location. Daena shouts at her siblings, "Mother is going to try it, move."
On cue, Thia sits up and balls her fist. Only a small amount of criole is used this time. As she thrusts her fist forward, Kaelen appears and tries to hold it back. The force from the punch creates an instant vacuum. No air, no matter, nothing remains except her sister, Kaelen, of course.
Suddenly, the portal is visible, and Daena leaps into action and closes it immediately. A heavy presence vanishes from the field, and everyone reacts at once; even Allyser's heart seems to drop. The missing presence is Rai. Was she dead? That is what everyone thinks.
Kaelen looks at her younger sister with pride. If she had not arrived in time, the force would have been enough to rip Thia's hand clean off. Even knowing this, Thia did it anyway. Now their attention shifts to the missing presence, and there is no time to celebrate.
Kaelen dashes off to investigate, while Thia remains behind to deal with the stragglers."We tried to stop him, even she couldn't." The man in Terrene's hands lets out his final breath. Kaelen arrives just in time to hear his last words. Terrene turns toward her, tears flooding her eyes, her whole body trembling. The sight freezes Kaelen where she stands. In an instant she shifts forward, closing the distance between them.
"What happened?" she forces out, barely able to form the words.
"He took, he killed..." Terrene grabs at her hair, shaking. "He tried to save her, them, and he killed, he killed, he killed."
Kaelen grips her sister and shakes her. "Who? You are not making sense. Is Rai dead? Who did this?"
"Blue man..." Terrene whispers weakly. "It is my fault, I was holding back."Before Kaelen can respond, Tema emerges. His form is nothing like before. His pink fur has twisted into hard, charred black scales, and his horns blaze with blue and purple flames. His presence is heavy and violent. In a single heartbeat, every brent left behind is obliterated.
Julian appears beside Terrene, swift and silent, and knocks her out. "Just like her mother." He gives Kaelen a sombre, almost exhausted look, then vanishes. Kaelen stares in the direction he came from. The battlefield looks barely touched, far too clean for the chaos she expected. Her father must have been fighting someone who could keep him occupied. Only two people had ever managed that for more than six minutes.
"Blue man..." she murmurs, her voice shaking as rage spreads through her body. Her hair turns golden blonde, glowing with heat. "Relax, rage will not get her back." She pushes herself into motion and runs across the field, hunting for any remaining threats.
But she stops in her tracks at the sight ahead.Lia, head slashed open, blood trailing down her face, limbs twisted at unnatural angles. Kaelen's hands begin to tremble uncontrollably. The pain in her chest is almost unbearable. Verdure clutches Lia, crying, unable to stop what comes next.
Kaelen bolts toward the portal. She tears it open."Sebbeh, you will die."The portal snaps shut the moment it forms, and Kaelen's presence vanishes from the planet.
Myles lies broken in a pool of his own blood. The floor beneath him is cold, hard, unforgiving. His wounds do not close. He groans, coughing up more blood as he tries to move. His vision swims. He sees a bed, a strange chandelier overhead, and green lighting outlining the room's edges.
The door opens. The presence entering makes his heart pound in terror. The power they carry feels like Rai's, but heavier, colder, far more oppressive. Their criole has no warmth. Instinctively, Myles clutches his chest. There is a gaping hole there. When he finally lifts his head, he sees the figure clearly. Pale blue skin. A bloodied fist at his side.
Panic floods Myles as memories crash back into him. The panic shifts into fury. His breath turns short and hot. Blood spurts from his chest while his flames struggle to keep him alive.
"What did you... do... to her..." he chokes out, every word shaking, his anger clinging to the last of his strength. He speaks of Lia.
Everything goes black. Sebbeh crushes Myles' head beneath his foot.