The structure collapsed.
Amid the rubble, Igyris and Khaelis vanished.
Flames devoured everything in sparks of annihilation.
Explosions.
Screams.
And—like Hell itself had drafted soldiers—a squad of mercenaries poured in from every side, escorted by a fleet of tactical drones, killing anything that dared to breathe.
Pure chaos—destruction only a well-armed terrorist cell could unleash.
They were led by a face known to the upper elite, commanding those men like the alpha of a pack of starving wolves.
At the forefront of the ruin—
she stood: the guide of chaos.
> "The tragic, sorrowful mirror of the world boils in fury, set to destroy it."
A woman advanced, sparing the "innocent" when she could, yet aiming her heavy plasmatic weapon at precise points of the building. And more than anything—familiar faces, seeing her features, trembled before being cut down by her searing shots.
Specific targets.
And those who still clung to life in that crumbling structure witnessed ruin: the demon she had become and what she now represented.
Revolution.
Powermagi's grip faltered.
And in their minds a single name flared—horrified, they recognized it:
"Reixys."
And in that instant was born the terror of their own creation.
— NO… IT CAN'T BE!!!
— IMPOSSIBLE! HOW—?!
— THAT DEMON DARES SHOW HER FACE?!
Amid the destruction, the high elite of society screamed and quaked at the sight before their eyes.
It was as if Destruction itself had chosen a guide.
Her eyes burned with more than rage:
there was purpose.
There was fury.
Strapped to her back, a colossal weapon—known only as the "Ace," a walking nightmare.
— "Damn… cursed mission. We're meddling with the damn upper elite… shit."
— "Yeah… well, the pay's too good to refuse. Let's just… get it done. Keep the bloodshed minimal. Heh."
— "As if we give a damn… But that weapon on her back—what a freak. Maybe… if the girl dies, we can get our hands on it."
— "That girl's crazy… and that other lunatic, the guy on the big screen… hell, two mad bastards… this Reixys—what does she think she'll gain by dragging the noble blood into self-destruction… pure selfishness."
The chatter of jackals.
The greed of rats.
They spoke while spreading chaos.
Orders were clear: do not kill those not on the list.
But the mercenaries didn't care—and Reixys made no effort to stop them.
Blood of the mutilated spread wider; screams of agony echoed.
Smoke, flames and debris swallowed everything.
No sign of counter-attack.
Meanwhile, Khaelis—dazed—struggled to his feet.
The chaos painted a canvas of fire before his eyes:
flames, drones, bullets, mercenaries—a vortex of destruction.
PURE INDIGNATION.
His heart filled with the purest celestial rage.
He saw before him filthy pigs chasing a revolution in the foulest way.
The system was rotten, but these men—worse still.
With fury and a thirst for justice, the noble heart demanded purification.
> "Within my crusade I refuse to stain my hands and the blade of ShadowStorm with innocent—or filthy—blood.
But here… this hell demands cleansing and expurgation.
Let the rats fear the blue flames of ShadowStorm—
swallowed by the storm and the slashing black rain of Justice."
He leapt.
Slid through the wreckage like a streak of living fire.
A dancing specter.
A murderous thunderbolt seeking to purify blood-stained skies.
Dust disintegrated in his wake.
Those clouds never saw the thunder coming—
and so they would be punished.
No purification for such corruption.
Only extinction.
— "Cursed are the rats hiding here. If you dare to meddle with my sacred mission… you will be rewarded.
With my fury."
And he cut.
Cut the air.
Cut through dimensions.
Blades shredded silence.
Death came without sound—without honor for those who would never understand it.
To those vermin, only an invisible flash—without warning.
His precision: inhuman.
His calm: disturbing.
Igyris, meanwhile, lay charred—
flesh burned and crumbling.
Yet he still breathed.
Agony consumed the disfigured body.
With lungs of smoke and coal, he searched for air.
A nostalgic image to him: it made sense, though it shouldn't.
He sought air—
and felt alive again.
Unexplainably, the pain recalled something ancient: memories of a distant, cursed past.
A tragic irony for someone who had no idea who he was.
In that broken body, green veins pulsed with arcane spasms.
As if flames and curses had fused.
As if the Arcane itself had reacted unnaturally—
regenerating rather than consuming.
It was not his own.
It was something more.
Every particle of Arcane energy Khaelis released into the air reacted to Igyris's body.
Khaelis advanced after a silent massacre that erased several lives—a death they would never even dream of.
Serene.
Before him stood the author of this hell.
His eyes locked on her in the distance.
He understood her motives—yet it was still unforgivable.
Like a feather, he shifted: a blue flash landing softly before the woman who commanded the carnage.
— "Reixys. So it is you behind these heinous crimes…
Your collapse is complete, I see.
It falls to me… to eradicate this threat."
Honored, sincere words slipped from his lips.
There was no satisfaction—only duty.
ShadowStorm began to sing.
Runes ignited.
Blades multiplied in spirals—
a clock of death turning to the rhythm of fate.
The mercenaries' gunfire was nothing but whispers before the storm.
Like a stream of water flowing through them, the noble Khaelis beheaded them.
The figure spreading chaos soon recognized Khaelis.
She saw the determination in his eyes to end it all.
She knew who he was—felt no fear.
Reixys felt only savage satisfaction: Khaelis was one of the highest symbols of the Noble Houses.
This was her chance to bring him down, to prove something, right there.
— "LOOK AT THAT, I SHOULD HAVE GUESSED! THE GREAT KHAELIS KAIWEN!
THE SHINING STAR OF HOUSE KAIWEN!
BRINGING YOU DOWN WILL BE A TROPHY WORTH KEEPING, HUH?!"
Khaelis surged like thunder, intent on ending everything with a single strike—
one cut to the neck, no more pain, death or destruction.
A clean, honorable finish.
But suddenly—ZHOM… PII!
Something halted him, freezing muscle fibers mid-motion.
In that instant, his chance to finish it vanished.
Reixys leapt out of range.
She drew her final card: EdelZerar B—
a colossal missile-launcher designed to drain Arcane from the air and hurl it back as condensed death.
Her chance to strike at everything the cursed nobility represented.
— "Any last words, Kaiwen?"
Khaelis, unshaken, answered:
— "Humph… so you copied this.
The name is EdelGear, isn't it?
This abomination…
I was told it was linked to you, Reixys.
But remember: in your hands it is nothing but a cheap imitation…
Filthy.
Insignificant.
Like your crusade."
ShadowStorm tilted left.
Runes gleamed like constellations.
FISH — The Beautiful Shining Water Lock—a clean slash.
Space itself tore.
— SPARDUS.
An ancient chant.
A tornado of translucent blades erupted—
the strike of a Warrior Avatar.
Before Reixys could even fire, a swift flash bound their minds for a heartbeat—there they traded words:
— "IT'S OVER FOR YOU, REIXYS.
DIE IN THE DISHONOR OF YOUR HOUSE."
— "HA! MY HOUSE?
I'M NOT ONE OF THE RATS YOU BOW TO, DAMNED ONE!
YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE WEIGHT I CARRY!
NO IDEA WHAT BURNS INSIDE ME!"
She fired.
The shot ripped reality.
EdelZerar drained the Arcane—but Khaelis's essence resisted.
The impact shook the earth.
Explosion.
Silence.
Then—FASH.
Blood sprayed.
Khaelis had triumphed.
The blade had found flesh.
Reixys fell to the ground, body carved by countless cuts.
In less than a second—defenseless—the noble Khaelis already stood behind her, shaking and cleaning ShadowStorm of her blood.
— "It's over, Reixys.
Just another stain… on a corrupt house."
— "Argh… go to hell, bastard… I'm just getting started."
The blade rose—
an act of mercy or of justice.
The final stroke to end it all.
But… something stopped him.
— "Arrgh… this is… an Altruist Negation Seal?
Arcane-negation tech…
You have no Arcane?
A generator?! That stone on your belt… perfect.
I just need to destroy you before you trigger another barrier."
Again his killing strike was thwarted.
A technology unlikely in terrorist hands: DDC, from Powermagi itself.
Capable of absorbing raw Arcane—even noble—and dealing with divine weapons like ShadowStorm, copying its signature and deflecting the attack.
A blow was unleashed.
ShadowStorm glowed with pattern—
a slash so pure it disintegrated oxygen.
To kill: his sole intent.
The arcane barrier countered—
a crushing shockwave.
Khaelis's noble Arcane flared, and the DDC absorbed it, confusing ShadowStorm.
Meanwhile…
Igyris.
Curled in on himself.
Skin burned—but felt no pain.
Almost invigorating—like watching a beloved old film.
Black-green embers pulsed through his body.
Skin rebuilt and fell away in grotesque cycles.
Agony.
Pure.
Unrestrained.
His body could not endure.
His mind screamed.
Every good feeling he had was erased in a flash—replaced by simple, pure, irrational despair.
— "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!
MY SKIN! IT'S FALLING OFF!
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! ARGHHH!!!"
His body fused in cycles—flesh, bone, skin—
pain beyond imagining.
Then it burst.
In the center of his chest—
an ancient pain.
He screamed.
The scream ripped the world.
Black aura consumed him—
thick, vile, clinging.
As if a demon drained the life from everyone, it filled hearts with terror.
Suffocating.
Khaelis froze.
His suspicions confirmed.
A real demon stood before him—
imminent danger to every living thing.
— "So it's true…
This is no Arcane.
It's a Curse.
A profane god…
I must destroy him—"
But there was no time.
Another enemy stood there.
Reixys, near death, triggered the compressed explosive device on her back.
A silent blast swallowed Khaelis the moment his attention slipped.
BOOM.
Khaelis was hurled through wall after wall.
Gone.
Silence.
The noble lay out of the fight.
— "DID YOU LIKE THAT, YOU BASTARD?!" she screamed, spitting blood.
Reixys staggered—her pride shredded by humiliating defeat, yet relieved she hadn't been cut down—
until… pure terror.
The scream of that demon devoured everything like a heavy, damp shadow.
Reixys's heart was seized by a primal, nameless fear.
— "An… accursed…" she whispered, trembling.
Igyris—or what was left of him—roared.
An immeasurable pain engulfed all: vomiting, raw nausea, irrational fear.
As if shadows fled from Hell itself.
The black aura spread.
Bodies rotted where they stood.
Souls were drained.
Venom.
Curse.
Living hell.
— "SHIT, HE'S CURSED!
FIRE! MAKE IT STOP!
WHATEVER IT TAKES!"
She screamed.
Once the woman who had brought this place to ruin and faced the wielder of ShadowStorm without fear—
now her legs shook uncontrollably, seized by nausea and an unimaginable dread of what roared.
— "KILL HIM! NOW!"
Panic swallowed the mercenaries.
Machine guns roared, targeting the demon.
But nothing happened: bullets had no effect.
Those nearest began to rot—
within seconds, their flesh like animals in full decomposition.
Green flame spread.
Ammunition ran dry.
Hope died.
Then it stopped.
For a heartbeat.
— "Huff… huff… what the hell was that? That wasn't in the contract…"
One of them vomited.
— "I know… fuck… he's cursed. Just kill him fast—we can't stop—"
Reixys's words were cut short by terror.
Then—a golden light.
From the unconscious body of Igyris,
a sacred light—terrible and beautiful—shone.
— "No… it can't be… that's…"
She recognized it.
Reixys saw something leaking from that charred body.
And she shuddered.
She knew what it was.
Knew what it meant.
But here?
In this hell?
The golden light swallowed everything.
Igyris awoke.
No headache.
No nausea.
No itching.
He felt… good?
The place was different.
A base—far more degraded.
Ugly enough to hurt the eyes.
He was shackled.
Old explosive-plasma cuffs…
Ah, the good old days.
But he did not understand.
— "Well, well… the guy with the green flame's awake.
The bastard who made my whole crew run for their lives. Hah!
That's nice, man. You're like… a ghost?
Probably shouldn't even exist. Incredible."
A woman approached, rubbing her hands.
He lifted his eyes to her.
— "Hah… nice, babe.
Thanks for the hospitality.
But this ghost talk's kinda weird.
You saved me from that monster but left me chained…
Where's my amulet…?
Heh… c'mon, tell me your name, sweetheart."
Ironic.
Not waiting for an answer.
As someone who speaks just to break the silence.
— "You're almost funny…
for someone who shouldn't exist.
But just so you know, you filthy sewer rat…"
She kicked him in the face.
Three teeth flew.
— "I'm the bitch who's going to destroy the world."
It was only Tuesday.