He was falling.
Like he had before.
Then the same violent jerk tore through his body—the one he hadn't felt in years.
For a fraction of a second—
he saw everything.
The universe stretched open before him.
And then—
ground.
It rushed up to meet him, snapping his senses back into place.
No time to think.
No time to breathe.
A flash—
A blade of pure white light slicing toward his throat.
His body moved before his mind could catch up.
A sharp pulse surged through him—
Instinct Sync.
He vanished from where he stood—
reappearing a step back, just as the blade sliced through empty space.
A ripple of light followed the strike, cutting through the air where his neck had been a heartbeat ago.
Arynx steadied himself, breath sharp, eyes locking forward.
The figure stood there.
Faceless.
Hollow.
Silent.
Made of nothing but flawless white luminance.
Around him—
A battle unfolded.
Thousands of them.
Clashing. Moving. Fighting.
They were in the middle of a battlefield.
But there was no time to take it in.
A flicker—
A thread sliced past Arynx.
A strand of pale, cold light tore through the air and wrapped around the oncoming figure in an instant—binding its arms, locking its movement mid-strike.
The white soldier froze.
Restrained.
Virituis stood behind, one hand slightly raised, fingers barely moving.
"Now."
Arynx didn't think.
He moved.
The bound figure turned—
too late.
Arynx's hand shot out, gripping its head.
Then—
he drove it down.
The impact cracked through the silent battlefield, a shockwave rippling across the mirrored ground.
White light fractured beneath his grip—
and in the same motion—
he released it.
A burst of raw force detonated point-blank.
The figure's head shattered into radiant fragments, its form destabilizing—
then dissolving completely into drifting particles of light.
Gone.
Arynx rose slowly, breath sharp, eyes already scanning.
Around them—
the battlefield hadn't stopped.
"Sentinel Dome".
Virituis put up a barrier around them.
He held his hand out, maintaining the dome, eyes flicking toward Arynx.
A faint spark still danced around Arynx's palm—residual heat, fading.
Burstflare
A concentrated ignition of Ember that detonates from Arynx's palm in a tight, explosive burst.
Its like a bomb going of in the space of his palm.
Virituis exhaled quietly.
"Wish I had that…" he muttered under his breath.
Arynx didn't respond.
His gaze had already drifted past the barrier.
White figures clashed in perfect silence.
Blades met.
Bodies shifted.
Light fractured and reformed.
Arynx's voice cut through, low.
"What do you make of all this?"
Virituis didn't answer immediately.
"…Looks like we're in the middle of a battle," he said slowly. "Between these white constructs."
A pause.
"…but I have no idea how to complete this challenge."
Arynx frowned, watching as wave after wave of faceless figures moved in sync beyond the dome.
"Do we need to defeat them all?"
Virituis' grip on the barrier tightened slightly.
"…Probably not."
His eyes narrowed.
"But I don't see any other way."
Silence settled between them.
Arynx stepped closer to the edge of the dome.
From here—
he could finally see it.
Not just dozens.
Not hundreds.
Thousands.
An endless expanse of white figures stretching far beyond the horizon—locked in a war.
His breath hitched—just slightly.
For the first time Arynx felt it.
Not fear of a fight.
But something heavier.
"…there's too many," he said quietly.
And for once—
he wasn't talking about strength.
He was talking about impossibility.
"Well we will find out soon enough"Virituis said.
Then he lifted the dome and the white figures started coming at them charging towards them together from all sides.
"...we'll find out soon enough," Virituis said.
The words barely left his mouth before his fingers shifted—
—and the Sentinel Dome collapsed.
The barrier dissolved into thin streaks of light.
For a fraction of a second—
nothing changed.
Then—
One figure stopped mid-strike.
Its faceless head turned.
Then another.
And another.
Across the battlefield—
motion began to redirect.
Thousands of white silhouettes shifted in perfect unison, their attention snapping toward a single point—
Them.
"…Virituis—"
Too late.
They moved.
From all sides.
A surge of white light tore across the battlefield as the figures charged. No war cries. No hesitation.
Just intent.
Arynx's stance dropped instinctively, energy flaring through his arm.
"Guess that answers it."
The first wave closed in—
fast.
Blades of light cut through the air, arcs of pure luminance converging on them from every direction.
Virituis' eyes sharpened, calculating paths that no longer existed.
"…they're not fighting each other anymore."
They were fighting them.
Arynx exhaled sharply.
A grin flickered—half tension, half adrenaline.
"Good."
A pulse ignited in his palm—
heat compressing into a single point.
"Then we fight back."