The desert screamed.
It began as a tremor so subtle that the inhabitants of Khepra dismissed it as another shifting dune. Tea cups rattled across café tables. Windowpanes hummed. Flocks of birds erupted into the sky in chaotic spirals before abandoning the oasis altogether.
Then the wind changed.
A hot gust rolled through the city's eastern districts, carrying not the familiar scent of dry sand, but something older—dust that had lain undisturbed for millennia.
Emergency sirens wailed.
"Unidentified URA surge detected!"
Operators inside the Knight Association's Regional Command scrambled between holographic displays as crimson warning symbols bloomed across every screen.
"Source?"
"Thirty kilometers east of Khepra!"
"URA density rising!"
"It just doubled!"
A silence settled over the command center.
"...It doubled again."
The central display projected the surrounding desert.
Except it was no longer desert.
Golden dunes rippled like water.
Entire hills shifted against the wind, converging toward a single point beneath the earth.
One analyst swallowed.
"Is... is the terrain moving?"
Before anyone answered—
The ground exploded.
A pillar of sand erupted into the heavens with enough force to punch through the cloud layer.
Buildings in Khepra's eastern suburbs shuddered.
Windows burst inward.
Car alarms screamed in unison.
The shockwave reached the city seconds later.
Residents poured into the streets.
Thousands stared toward the horizon.
The desert had become a wall.
A colossal storm stretched from one end of the horizon to the other, swallowing sunlight until the afternoon resembled twilight.
Lightning flickered inside the swirling sand.
Not blue.
Gold.
Ancient ruins, long buried beneath the dunes, clawed their way to the surface.
Broken obelisks.
Half-collapsed temples.
Weathered statues whose names had been forgotten by history.
The desert itself was remembering.
Then...
Something stood.
At first, people mistook it for another ruin.
A mountain.
A cliff face.
Until it moved.
A massive arm emerged from the storm.
Then another.
A broad chest carved with glowing geometric lines.
The head rose last.
Not human.
Not beast.
A regal lynx-like visage crowned with a ceremonial headdress formed from compacted stone, obsidian, and endless rivers of flowing sand.
Golden eyes ignited beneath its brow.
The Sand Sovereign had awakened.
"Category Titan confirmed!"
The command center erupted into motion.
"Notify Imperial Headquarters!"
"Dispatch every available Knight!"
"Activate evacuation protocol for Khepra!"
"Get me the E.V.A. Division!"
Across the city...
The first casualties weren't caused by the giant.
They were caused by the desert.
Roads buckled.
Entire intersections liquefied into sinking dunes.
Apartment buildings tilted as their foundations disappeared beneath flowing sand.
Panic spread faster than the storm itself.
Then the ground split open.
From beneath the streets poured a tide of black scarabs.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands.
The insects surged through alleyways like living rivers, consuming concrete barriers, traffic lights, abandoned vehicles—anything left in their path.
Children screamed.
Parents ran.
Military vehicles attempted to establish barricades before being swallowed beneath the endless swarm.
Elsewhere...
The asphalt bulged.
Then burst apart.
A creature nearly fifteen meters long erupted from beneath the road.
Its countless legs churned through the sand with horrifying speed.
A dune centipede.
Its armored body glistened like polished sandstone as it lunged directly into an evacuation convoy.
The lead transport disappeared beneath the creature's coils.
Soldiers opened fire.
The rounds disappeared into the storm.
Knight Association Headquarters
Emergency Operations Center
The situation board illuminated almost every district in crimson.
"Multiple biome organisms confirmed."
"Scarab swarms spreading through the southern wards."
"Dune Centipedes attacking evacuation routes."
"Civilian casualty estimates climbing."
"Sandstorm visibility below twenty meters."
An officer looked toward the tactical commander.
"Where's Strike Squad Two?"
"Already deployed north."
"Strike Squad Five?"
"Responding to an S-Class breach."
"Commander Hayate?"
The room fell quiet.
"...Unavailable."
No one elaborated.
Everyone already knew.
Another crisis.
Somewhere worse.
A young communications officer adjusted her headset.
"We have confirmation."
The room turned.
"E.V.A. Unit Blade Maiden has accepted deployment."
Relief washed across exhausted faces.
For a brief moment.
Because everyone understood what that announcement truly meant.
If one of the Empire's six E.V.A. units had been called...
This wasn't merely a disaster.
It was a war.
Another transmission interrupted.
"Sir!"
"What now?"
"We've identified the nearest available Knight squad."
The tactical display shifted.
Six blue markers appeared on the map.
The commander narrowed his eyes.
"...Squad Four."
"They're only forty-three minutes away."
Silence.
One veteran officer frowned.
"They're still too inexperienced."
"They're also the only elite squad within operational range," another replied.
"We don't have anyone else."
The commander stared at the spreading crimson across the map.
District after district vanished beneath advancing sand.
Hospitals.
Schools.
Residential blocks.
Every minute they waited meant more people trapped.
He reached for the communications console.
"Patch me through."
The line connected instantly.
"Squad Four."
His voice carried the weight of someone making a decision he wished he didn't have to.
"You are being reassigned effective immediately."
A satellite image of the towering Sand Sovereign filled every display.
"Your destination is Khepra."
The giant took its first step.
Even through a screen...
It felt impossibly large.
The rear cargo ramp of the Imperial dropship groaned open.
A wall of blistering desert wind tore through the bay, carrying enough sand to sting exposed skin despite the aircraft cruising nearly three thousand meters above the battlefield.
No one spoke.
Below them...
Khepra was dying.
Smoke curled from collapsed districts.
Entire streets had vanished beneath rolling dunes.
Military convoys snaked through the city, constantly changing course as the roads disappeared beneath them.
Far beyond the eastern wall...
The Sand Sovereign strode through the storm.
Even from this altitude, its footsteps were visible.
Every step sent rings of sand rippling across the desert like waves spreading across water.
Nathaniel rested both hands against the edge of the ramp.
"...It's bigger than the briefing."
George folded his arms.
"It usually is."
A warning chime echoed through the cargo bay.
TACTICAL DISPERSAL INITIATED.
Red deployment zones illuminated across a holographic map.
Six circles.
Six different parts of the city.
George immediately frowned.
"...We're being split."
The command officer standing near the cockpit nodded.
"We don't have the manpower to keep you together."
The hologram expanded.
Each district flashed with its own emergency designation.
District One
Civilian evacuation failure.
District Two
Scarab swarm exceeding containment.
District Three
Dune Centipede breach.
District Four
Hospital district under siege.
District Five
Collapsed transit sector.
District Six
Eastern containment line.
The officer looked each Knight in the eyes.
"The E.V.A. pilot will engage the Category Titan."
"Our priority is keeping civilians alive."
He pointed toward the map.
"You are not hunting the Sovereign."
"You are preventing everything else from reaching the people."
Another alarm sounded.
"Thirty seconds to deployment."
George stepped forward.
"We know the drill."
His voice remained calm despite the chaos unfolding beneath them.
"Protect civilians first."
"Stay mobile."
"If communications fail, continue the mission."
He looked around the bay, meeting each member's eyes.
"Nobody plays hero."
A faint smirk crossed Nathaniel's face.
"Pretty sure that's our entire job description."
A few quiet chuckles broke the tension.
Even Shirou rolled her eyes.
George couldn't help smiling.
"...Just come back."
The laughter disappeared.
One by one, the deployment lights turned green.
OLIVER NARITE
—District Three.
The floor beneath him opened.
Without hesitation, Oliver saluted once before stepping into open air.
His figure vanished into the roaring sandstorm below.
RIA BERGSCHRUND
—District Four.
She adjusted her gauntlets.
"See you all after this."
She leaned backward and disappeared through the second drop hatch.
SHIROU LIVINROCK
—District Two.
Already wearing her breathing apparatus, she simply gave a silent thumbs-up before gravity claimed her.
Three gone.
Three remained.
The tactical display updated.
Red sectors continued spreading.
Nathaniel watched another neighborhood disappear beneath advancing dunes.
"...This is getting worse."
"It will," George answered.
"Which is why we don't have time to think about it."
Another light flashed.
GEORGE STINEY JR.
—Eastern Containment Line.
George paused at the hatch.
"Nathaniel."
"Hm?"
"Trust your instincts."
Without waiting for an answer...
He stepped into empty sky.
Nathaniel watched his squad leader disappear into the storm.
Now only one deployment light remained.
NATHANIEL ALDERMAN
Assignment:
District Five.
Mission Priority:
Protect evacuation corridor Sigma.
Expected Threat Level:
Extreme.
The aircraft banked sharply.
The open hatch now overlooked the city's western districts.
Nathaniel could already see movement.
Not people.
Thousands upon thousands of black dots poured through the streets like a living river.
Scarab swarms.
Farther ahead—
Something enormous burst through an apartment block before diving beneath the sand once more.
A dune centipede.
The pilot's voice crackled over the intercom.
"Green light."
Nathaniel tightened the straps of his combat suit.
He took one last glance toward the distant silhouette of the Sand Sovereign.
Somewhere beyond that storm...
Blade Maiden would soon arrive.
His fight, however...
Was here.
He stepped forward.
Gravity vanished beneath his feet.
The wind roared in his ears as Khepra rushed up to meet him.
The sky tore open.
Five figures descended through the sand-choked atmosphere like meteors.
Nathaniel angled his body downward.
Most Knights would have slowed their fall.
He accelerated.
His muscles tightened as Kinetic Muscle began feeding on the sheer momentum of his descent.
The faster he fell...
The more energy it had to steal.
The city rushed upward.
Wind screamed against his armor.
The evacuation corridor below had already collapsed into chaos.
A tide of scarabs poured between abandoned vehicles while civilians fled in every direction.
A soldier looked up.
"...What the—"
Nathaniel clenched his fist.
Impact.
The street exploded.
Concrete burst upward in a perfect circle as Nathaniel drove into the intersection like an artillery shell.
The shockwave overturned abandoned cars and launched thousands of scarabs into the air.
Deep beneath the crater...
Kinetic Muscle drank in every joule of force generated by the collision.
Stored.
Compressed.
Ready.
Nathaniel rose from one knee.
Cracks radiated beneath his boots.
"...Good."
He thrust one hand toward the surrounding swarm.
"HELLCHARGE X KINETIC-MUSCLE CONCUSSIVE-FLASHBURN!"
A cyan wave erupted from his body.
Hellfire rolled outward in a perfect expanding ring.
The air ignited.
Scarabs caught within the blast instantly blackened.
Their chitin cracked.
Then burst apart under the overwhelming heat.
The streets became rivers of burning insects.
Hundreds...
Then thousands...
Reduced to ash before they ever reached the evacuation line.
Behind him, terrified civilians stared in stunned silence.
One little girl lowered her hands from her ears.
"...A Knight..."
Nathaniel didn't answer.
His eyes were already searching for the next wave.
Because he knew...
There would always be another.
Several kilometers away—
George Stiney Jr. stepped from the dropship.
He didn't fall.
His body dissolved.
Brilliant arcs of blue-white electricity consumed his form before exploding outward into a descending bolt of lightning.
The sky cracked.
BOOM.
The lightning struck directly into the center of a scarab infestation surrounding an overturned maglev transport.
Thousands of volts surged through the swarm.
Scarabs convulsed before collapsing into smoking heaps.
The bolt lingered.
It wasn't natural.
Electricity crawled across the streets like living veins.
Streetlights flickered.
Traffic systems rebooted.
Emergency beacons that had gone dark moments before suddenly reignited one after another.
Entire city blocks lit back up.
Inside an abandoned hospital—
Backup generators roared to life.
Ventilation systems restarted.
Emergency lighting illuminated corridors that had fallen into darkness.
Military communications towers surged back online.
Civil defense sirens resumed blaring across the district.
The bolt condensed.
George stepped calmly from the fading electrical discharge.
His body crackled with residual current.
He extended one hand toward a disabled armored carrier.
"Come on..."
The engine sputtered.
Coughed.
Then thundered back to life.
Nearby soldiers stared.
"...He restarted it."
George gave the driver a nod.
"Get those civilians moving."
The driver didn't need to be told twice.
As the convoy accelerated away, George looked toward the horizon.
The Sand Sovereign towered over the storm like an ancient god.
"...Bryce."
His voice was almost lost beneath the wind.
"Hurry."
Because the biome...
Was only just beginning to wake.
//before deployment briefing//.
The cargo bay of the Imperial dropship was unusually quiet.
Normally, deployment briefings were filled with chatter.
This one wasn't.
Every Knight aboard understood what the crimson classification stamp projected across the briefing table meant.
CATEGORY TITAN INCIDENT
The holographic display shimmered.
A rotating three-dimensional image of the Sand Sovereign materialized above the projector.
Nearly sixty meters tall.
Semi-humanoid.
Digitigrade legs.
A broad torso wrapped in shifting bands of stone and flowing sand.
Its head bore the unmistakable likeness of a ceremonial lynx wearing a pharaonic headdress.
Golden glyphs pulsed beneath its constantly reforming body.
"Designation," the briefing officer began.
"Temporary codename: Sand Sovereign."
"No known historical records match this organism."
"No biological tissue has been identified."
"It appears to be a synthetic construct composed primarily of silica, vitrified stone, and highly condensed URA-infused sand."
The hologram shifted.
Footage from surveillance drones played.
One missile impacted the creature's shoulder.
The entire arm exploded into a cloud of sand.
Half a second later...
The missing limb flowed back into place.
Another clip.
A heavy rail cannon punched directly through its chest.
The hole simply collapsed inward before sealing itself.
A third.
An artillery barrage.
The dust cleared.
Nothing.
Not even superficial damage.
"Our analysis indicates conventional destruction is ineffective."
"It does not regenerate."
The officer paused.
"It reconstitutes."
"The surrounding desert functions as an external reserve of material."
"As long as sufficient sand remains within its operational radius..."
He looked around the room.
"...it can continue rebuilding itself."
George folded his arms.
"So we're not fighting a monster."
"We're fighting the desert."
The officer nodded once.
"Correct."
The display expanded again.
Red icons erupted around the Sand Sovereign.
Thousands of them.
"Further reconnaissance has confirmed the existence of secondary biome organisms."
The room darkened as recordings began.
A black river surged through abandoned streets.
Royal Scarabs.
The insects stripped an armored personnel carrier to its skeletal frame in under twenty seconds.
Next.
A dune erupted.
A centipede longer than a passenger train burst upward before dragging an entire convoy beneath the sand.
Another recording.
Winged silhouettes emerging from the storm.
Glass-bodied avians.
Another.
Humanoid figures slowly forming from drifting dunes before charging military lines.
The officer stopped the footage.
"The Sovereign is the apex organism."
"The biome itself is the primary threat."
The tactical map of Khepra appeared.
Every district flashed a different shade of red.
"Current evacuation progress..."
Only forty-two percent.
A heavy silence settled over the bay.
Not because the number was low.
Because everyone knew what it meant.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians were still inside the city.
The image vanished.
A new profile appeared.
A young woman.
Bright red hair.
Verdant green eyes.
Calm expression.
Below her portrait:
BRYCE PITCH
Age: 19
E.V.A. Unit: Blade Maiden
Several members of Squad Four exchanged glances.
"Nineteen..." Oliver muttered.
"...Same age as us."
A quiet silence followed.
It wasn't surprise.
It was disbelief.
Nathaniel studied Bryce's profile for another moment before exhaling through his nose.
"She pilots one of the six..."
George gave a small nod.
"Yeah."
"No special treatment."
"No shortcuts."
"No second chances."
"If you're chosen..."
He looked back at the hologram of Blade Maiden.
"...it's because you're already among the strongest Knights in the Empire."
The room fell silent again.
Not because Bryce was nineteen.
But because someone their own age carried the responsibility of an entire strategic weapon.
The briefing officer continued without missing a beat.
"Pilot Pitch is the youngest E.V.A. operator in Imperial history."
"Graduated from the Royal Knight Academy at the top of her class."
"Recorded mission success rate: one hundred percent."
"Confirmed Titan eliminations: three."
"Major biome suppressions: eleven."
"Civilian survival rate under her command exceeds ninety-seven percent."
Nathaniel folded his arms.
"So she's a prodigy."
George shook his head.
"No."
His eyes never left Bryce's profile.
"She's one of the six."
That sentence carried more weight than every statistic displayed beside her name.
Only six.
Across the entire Azeroth Empire.
Chaos had become organized.
Not because the biome had weakened—
But because the Knights had arrived.
Across Khepra, six battles unfolded simultaneously.
Every district had become its own war.
Southern Suspension Crossing
Steel screamed.
The eastern support tower had already collapsed.
Thousands of civilians were still stranded on the opposite side as the suspension bridge slowly twisted toward the river below.
"IT'S GOING!"
"RUN!"
Several support cables snapped in succession.
Then...
The bridge stopped.
Not because its weight had disappeared.
Because something else was carrying it.
Dozens.
No—
Hundreds of crimson chains erupted into existence beneath the bridge deck.
Each link shimmered with metallic veins of dark iron wrapped in pulsating blood.
They wrapped themselves around fractured support beams.
Around snapped suspension cables.
Around entire sections of collapsing roadway.
Every chain pulled upward.
Holding.
Supporting.
Refusing to yield.
Standing beneath the impossible weight...
Alucard Haemo planted both feet into the fractured asphalt.
His forearms trembled.
Blood streamed from cuts along his fingers before weaving directly into the chains themselves.
"Move!"
His voice thundered across the bridge.
"Nobody stops moving!"
Military trucks accelerated past him.
Parents carried children.
Paramedics wheeled the injured across a bridge that should have collapsed minutes ago.
Every passing second demanded more from him.
More blood.
More concentration.
More strength.
The chains groaned.
Alucard gritted his teeth.
"...Come on..."
Hospital District
A crimson beam lanced across the skyline.
It sliced cleanly through three charging scarabs.
The insects simply ceased to exist.
Ria Bergschrund never lowered her rifle.
Instead...
Her eyes changed.
The world lost its colors.
Buildings became transparent silhouettes.
Heat bloomed everywhere.
Hundreds of civilian signatures glowed orange and yellow beneath collapsed structures.
Enemy organisms burned bright white against the cooler surroundings.
"Command."
She spoke calmly into her communicator.
"I've identified twenty-three civilians trapped beneath Saint Aster Medical."
Another shot.
A scarab climbing toward a shattered ambulance exploded into molten fragments.
"Eight more beneath the eastern parking structure."
Another beam.
A centipede's foremost eyes burst apart.
The beast recoiled violently.
"Dispatch engineering teams to my markers."
She was already searching for the next heat signature before the previous one had been acknowledged.
Every squeeze of the trigger meant another family lived.
Old Market District
Concrete slabs floated into the air.
Not explosively.
Carefully.
As though lifted by invisible hands.
Shirou Livinrock stood perfectly still.
Her eyes remained closed.
The battlefield around her faded into silence.
She wasn't listening to explosions.
She was listening beneath them.
Tiny sounds.
Scraping.
Weak knocking.
The muffled sob of a frightened child.
Her fingers moved rapidly.
Military Sergeant Elias knelt beside her, watching every gesture.
His eyes widened.
"Three survivors!"
He immediately keyed his radio.
"Three survivors beneath the northeast corner!"
Shirou's hands continued moving.
The sergeant translated without hesitation.
"One adult!"
"Two children!"
"Structural collapse is unstable!"
The slab rose another meter.
Dust poured downward.
A little girl became visible through the opening.
She looked upward in disbelief.
Shirou smiled softly.
Then gestured again.
The sergeant didn't even need to think anymore.
"She's saying..."
He swallowed.
"...Don't be afraid."
"We've got you."
The children were pulled free moments later.
Around them...
The battle never stopped.
Scarabs continued pouring through the streets.
Shirou opened one eye.
Gravity shifted.
An entire delivery truck lifted from the ground before crashing sideways into the advancing swarm.
The impact flattened dozens instantly.
Without speaking...
She returned to listening.
Someone else was still trapped.
Western Evacuation Corridor
The highway had become a graveyard.
Abandoned vehicles stretched for kilometers.
Panicked civilians ran between them as an endless tide of scarabs consumed everything left behind.
Oliver Narite stepped into the center of the roadway.
Darkness spread beneath his boots.
Not a shadow cast by the sun.
A living shadow.
It expanded across the asphalt until it formed a perfect circular disc nearly thirty meters across.
Another identical shadow bloomed several kilometers away inside the military evacuation zone.
The circles matched perfectly.
Same diameter.
Same shape.
Only then did they connect.
The darkness rippled.
A tunnel of absolute black linked the two locations.
"Move!"
The first convoy accelerated.
One after another, buses, ambulances, military transports, and terrified civilians disappeared into the shadow.
Less than a heartbeat later, they emerged safely inside the evacuation perimeter.
A stunned transport driver glanced into his rear-view mirror.
"...We're already here?"
Oliver ignored him.
Maintaining two gateways of that size demanded constant concentration.
The shadows quivered around their edges.
He couldn't afford a mistake.
Not with thousands of people passing through.
Then...
The scarabs arrived.
The swarm surged toward the fleeing civilians like a tidal wave.
Oliver's gaze shifted.
"So..."
The evacuation portal dissolved.
Instantly.
The shadow beneath the insects expanded.
A second, perfectly matched circle formed high above an abandoned industrial yard.
The leading edge of the swarm vanished into darkness—
Only to rain from the sky moments later.
Thousands of scarabs crashed into concrete.
Many shattered instantly.
The survivors barely recovered before another pair of shadows appeared.
The circles closed together.
The space between them vanished.
Hundreds of scarabs were simply... erased.
Cut apart by collapsing dimensional boundaries.
A violent tremor shook the highway.
The asphalt erupted.
A massive dune centipede burst from beneath the road, roaring as it lunged toward the fleeing convoy.
Oliver didn't flinch.
Another pair of equal-sized shadow circles opened.
One beneath the centipede.
The other suspended high above the battlefield.
The creature's own momentum carried it through.
It emerged hundreds of meters overhead, twisting violently as it realized—far too late—that there was nothing beneath it.
Gravity finished the rest.
The impact echoed across the district.
Oliver allowed himself a single breath.
The shadow circles trembled again.
He could feel the strain building.
Large portals were never meant to remain open indefinitely.
Especially not while thousands of lives depended on them.
"Keep moving!" he shouted, raising another pair of identical shadow gates.
"I can hold them... just keep moving!"
District Five – Evacuation Corridor Sigma
Three Hours After Initial Contact
"Evacuation status?"
The radio hissed beneath layers of static.
"...Eighty... percent..."
"...Repeat..."
"...Eight-zero percent complete..."
Nathaniel allowed himself half a breath.
Eighty percent.
Almost there.
Then another dune exploded.
A six-meter dune centipede erupted from beneath the shattered highway, jaws snapping toward the last convoy still crawling through the corridor.
Nathaniel was already moving.
His fist collided with its mandibles.
BOOM!
The impact folded the creature's skull sideways as Kinetic Reverb cycled through his arm.
The stored force rebounded through his muscles before he redirected it into a second punch.
Then a third.
Each strike hit harder than the last.
The centipede never touched the ground.
By the time it landed, its armored head had become an unrecognizable mass of shattered stone-like chitin.
Nathaniel didn't watch it fall.
Another swarm was already on him.
Scarabs.
Thousands.
They surged over abandoned buses, military barricades, and collapsed storefronts like a black tidal wave.
"...HellCharge."
Cyan fire ignited across his arms.
Heat distorted the air.
He drove both fists into the pavement.
A torrent of infernal flame erupted outward, racing through the streets in branching rivers.
The first wave of scarabs simply... disappeared.
Their shells glowed cherry red before collapsing into brittle ash.
Those behind climbed over the burning remains without hesitation.
Nathaniel clicked his tongue.
"Persistent."
The swarm answered by surrounding him from every direction.
Perfect.
Dark cyan tendrils burst from his forearms.
Caustic Resin.
The tendrils lashed outward with frightening speed, weaving themselves around three charging centipedes at once.
They struggled.
The bindings only tightened.
Acid hissed.
Steam erupted into the air.
The resin began eating through their armored exoskeletons.
One centipede shrieked.
Another snapped violently at the restraints.
Neither escaped.
Nathaniel yanked backward.
The creatures collided headfirst with one another before collapsing into a tangled heap that continued dissolving beneath the corrosive resin.
He didn't bother finishing them.
They were already dying.
A large small house sized piece of debris of a skyscraper lay overturned nearby.
Nathaniel flicked his wrist.
Resin tendrils wrapped around the vehicle.
With a violent pull, the debris tore free from the asphalt.
He swung it overhead like an enormous meteor hammer.
The truck whistled through the air.
Then—
CRASH!
It carved a path through the advancing scarab horde, crushing hundreds before skidding across the boulevard in an eruption of sparks and flame.
Nathaniel released the tendrils.
No wasted movement.
No wasted URATSU.
Everything served two purposes.
Sometimes three.
His breathing had grown noticeably heavier.
Sweat soaked through the collar of his combat suit.
he had cracked open two jade light capsules.
The regenerative energy running through his body had long since shifted from repairing injuries...
...to simply keeping him operational.
His muscles burned.
His forearms ached from repeated impacts.
The constant cycling of Kinetic Reverb had begun bruising even his reinforced skeleton.
Still...
He kept moving.
Another centipede burst from beneath a collapsed apartment building.
Number twenty.
Nathaniel met it head-on.
One burning uppercut launched the creature into the air.
Before it could recover—
A resin tendril caught its tail.
He pivoted.
Using the beast's own weight against it, Nathaniel spun once...
Twice...
Then released.
The massive creature became a living projectile.
It slammed into an approaching scarab tide with enough force to collapse the façade of a nearby office block, burying thousands of insects beneath concrete and sand.
Silence lingered for barely a second.
Then the dunes moved again.
More scarabs.
More centipedes.
Endless.
Nathaniel glanced toward the evacuation corridor.
The final civilian transports were still moving.
Good.
That meant he couldn't stop.
According to his count he was at
Royal Scarabs Neutralized: 4,387
Dune Centipedes Eliminated: 20
The numbers meant nothing.
Not while the desert was still advancing.
Nathaniel rolled his shoulders.
Cracks echoed through exhausted muscles.
He drew another slow breath as cyan flames rekindled across his fists.
"...Come on."
The dunes answered.
They rose once more.
Nathaniel smiled.
Not out of enjoyment.
Out of relief.
His sensory field swept across the approaching tide one final time.
No heartbeats.
No trapped civilians.
No friendly signatures.
Only the biome.
"...Finally."
The cyan glow burning within his irises intensified until it resembled twin stars against the dust-filled sky.
His gaze shifted.
Two hundred meters away.
A battered roadside gas station leaned precariously beneath drifting dunes.
Most of the structure had already collapsed.
Its underground fuel reservoir remained intact.
Nathaniel extended one hand.
A localized field of influence spread outward.
The asphalt trembled.
Cracks raced across the forecourt in every direction before converging above the buried storage tank.
Then—
The earth erupted.
Thousands of liters of fuel, still contained within the cylindrical reservoir, burst free from the ground.
Concrete and twisted piping rained across the boulevard as the massive steel cylinder floated into the air.
Scarabs continued charging.
Centipedes surged between them.
None possessed enough instinct to retreat.
Nathaniel raised his opposite hand.
Cyan URATSU condensed above his palm.
The flames compressed.
Smaller.
Denser.
Brighter.
The air screamed as impossible temperatures folded inward upon themselves.
The sphere pulsed like a miniature sun.
Hellcore Catalyst.
The surrounding heat distorted the battlefield.
Even grains of sand beneath it began melting into glass.
Nathaniel inhaled slowly.
Then...
He threw.
The condensed sphere streaked through the air like a comet.
At the same instant, the suspended fuel reservoir hurtled toward the heart of the biome.
The two met.
Silence.
For the briefest fraction of a second...
Nothing happened.
Then the world turned cyan.
The Hellcore Catalyst pierced the reservoir.
The compressed fuel detonated instantly.
A pillar of fire consumed the boulevard.
The explosion expanded outward with overwhelming violence, swallowing entire city blocks in a rolling sphere of incandescent flame.
The shockwave ripped apart dunes, overturned abandoned vehicles, and hurled scarabs into the sky by the thousands.
Centipedes caught near the epicenter were torn apart before their remains vaporized within the inferno.
The advancing tide simply...
Stopped existing.
Nathaniel crossed both forearms.
Dark cyan resin erupted from his gauntlets, weaving together in layered crystalline sheets.
Each translucent wall locked seamlessly into the next.
A towering barrier formed around him just as the blast wave arrived.
WHOOOOOOM!
The explosion slammed into the resin bulwark.
The crystal groaned.
Cracks raced across its surface.
Flames poured around both sides like floodwater striking a cliff.
Molten debris hammered against the barrier.
Nathaniel planted his feet.
The pavement beneath him fractured under the force.
For several long seconds...
The city disappeared behind roaring fire.
Then...
The pressure eased.
The resin wall dissolved into glittering cyan fragments.
Nathaniel lowered his arms.
Before him stretched a corridor of devastation.
Hundreds of meters of battlefield had been scorched black.
Sand had fused into shimmering fields of glass.
The remains of countless scarabs lay scattered across the vitrified ground.
Even the surviving centipedes hesitated at the edge of the newly forged wasteland.
Nathaniel exhaled slowly.
"...That should buy us a few minutes."
His visor chimed.
Evacuation Progress: 84%
He barely had time to register the number.
Far beyond the curtain of smoke...
The dunes began moving again.
The battlefield vanished beneath a second sun.
A pillar of brilliant cyan erupted over District Five, punching through the sandstorm and climbing high enough to tear open the cloud cover itself.
For a heartbeat...
Night became day.
The light washed across Khepra.
Across the desert.
Across the ancient ruins buried beneath shifting dunes.
Every soldier.
Every civilian.
Every Knight.
Stopped.
Southern Suspension Crossing
Alucard instinctively turned his head.
The cyan flash reflected across the countless blood-and-iron chains supporting the bridge.
"...Nathaniel?"
Even from kilometers away, he could feel the heat roll across the city.
Hospital District
Ria lowered her rifle for the first time in nearly an hour.
The infrared display inside her visor saturated white.
"...That idiot..."
Despite herself...
A small smile appeared.
"He actually found a way to clear the corridor."
Old Market District
Shirou shielded the rescued children with a gravity barrier as the shockwave rolled overhead.
Her eyes widened.
She knew that energy.
Sergeant Elias looked toward the distant cyan column.
"...Your teammate?"
Shirou nodded once.
Slowly.
Western Evacuation Zone
Oliver's shadow gateways flickered.
The cyan light danced across the black surfaces like reflections upon still water.
The final convoy emerged safely through the portal.
Oliver looked toward the horizon.
"...Don't overdo it..."
Twenty kilometers east...
The Sand Sovereign stopped walking.
The massive lynx-headed construct slowly turned.
Its golden eyes settled upon the distant cyan pillar burning above Khepra.
For several silent moments...
Nothing moved.
Even the surrounding dunes seemed to hesitate.
Then...
The Sovereign raised one arm.
The desert answered.
Kilometers of sand surged upward into the sky.
The ground itself disappeared as entire dunes spiraled around the giant's outstretched hand.
Heat.
Pressure.
Compression.
Sand darkened.
Then melted.
Molten obsidian spread through the forming mass like black veins.
Layer upon layer compacted together beneath impossible force.
The sphere continued growing.
One hundred meters.
Two hundred.
The surrounding air screamed beneath the heat.
The enormous projectile rapidly compressed.
Larger became smaller.
Denser.
Harder.
Until the colossal mass had become a single elongated round of black glass and superheated stone.
Its surface glowed with molten cracks.
Its tip shimmered white from sheer temperature.
The projectile hovered above the Sovereign's palm.
Golden glyphs illuminated along its forearm.
The giant drew its arm back.
Twenty kilometers.
It did not matter.
The Sand Sovereign wasn't throwing.
It was launching.
The atmosphere ruptured.
The obsidian round vanished.
A thunderclap arrived seconds later.
District Five.
Nathaniel frowned.
His danger sense exploded.
Every instinct he'd developed over years of combat screamed the same command.
MOVE.
His head snapped eastward.
At first...
He saw nothing.
Then the horizon distorted.
A thin black line raced toward him.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
The air behind it burned.
Buildings along its flight path shattered from the pressure wave alone.
Windows exploded outward before the projectile had even reached them.
"...What?"
For the first time since the battle had begun...
Nathaniel's confidence disappeared.
Far above Khepra—
An Imperial heavy transport roared through the skies.
Inside...
Bryce Pitch stood alone near the open deployment ramp.
The violent turbulence barely stirred the loose strands of her crimson hair.
Her verdant eyes remained fixed upon the towering silhouette of the Sand Sovereign.
The pilot's voice echoed through the cargo bay.
"Pilot Pitch."
"We've entered deployment range."
A mechanical chime answered.
SPINAL SYNCHRONIZATION INTERFACE
ONLINE
Bryce rolled one shoulder.
The implant running along her spine pulsed beneath her combat suit.
She stepped toward the edge of the ramp.
Below her...
The desert stretched endlessly.
Then...
The cyan flash illuminated the world.
Bryce blinked.
"...That wasn't in the briefing."
Before anyone aboard could respond—
A black streak erupted from the Sand Sovereign's position.
It crossed kilometers in moments.
Its trajectory wasn't aimed at the city.
It wasn't aimed at the military.
It was aimed at a single Knight.
Bryce's expression sharpened.
"The Sovereign..."
She watched the projectile carve a burning scar through the atmosphere.
"...changed targets."
Without another word...
She stepped into open air.
Nathaniel's expression froze.
The world slowed.
His enhanced senses locked onto the object streaking across the horizon.
Not a missile.
Not artillery.
A superheated obsidian lance.
Its black surface glowed with rivers of molten orange as atmospheric friction wrapped it in a roaring sheath of fire.
Twenty kilometers.
It had crossed half the battlefield in moments.
Its pressure wave alone pulverized buildings beneath its flight path.
Nathaniel's heartbeat thundered in his ears.
...It's targeting me.
The realization hit harder than any punch.
His pupils constricted.
Adrenaline flooded every fiber of his body.
His nervous system ignited.
Cyan arcs danced across his skin.
MOVE.
His instincts screamed.
He couldn't.
Not fast enough.
Not anymore.
Not...
Without her.
A memory flashed through his mind.
Golden light.
Weightlessness.
Speed beyond reason.
Arete.
Nathaniel grit his teeth.
"...No..."
Beneath his combat suit, metallic fibers erupted into motion.
The beginngs of his bio armor hidden beneath his clothing erupted from skin and blood unfolded like liquid steel, as it began to race racing across his torso, shoulders, and limbs.
Layer after layer interlocked over his body.
The incomplete shell hadn't finished forming before—
A translucent sphere of compressed kinetic influence erupted around him.
Every ounce of force Kinetic Muscle had accumulated during the last three hours surged outward into a defensive mantle.
It wasn't enough.
He knew it wasn't enough.
Still...
He kept building.
HellCharge exploded from the vents along his forearms.
Then his calves.
Then the soles of his boots.
Twin cyan infernos erupted behind him like rocket exhaust.
The cracked highway beneath his feet liquefied beneath the heat.
Nathaniel leaned forward.
Every thruster firing at maximum output.
Every muscle screaming.
He wasn't trying to outrun it anymore.
He was trying to steal...
One more second.
One more meter.
One more chance.
"Come on..."
His URATSU churned violently inside him.
He remembered the feeling.
That impossible warmth.
That overwhelming brilliance.
The day Arete had wrapped him in golden radiance.
He reached for it.
Not the memory.
The sensation.
Compressing every remaining reserve of URATSU toward the center of his body.
Denser.
Hotter.
Brighter.
"Again..."
The cyan energy folded inward.
Pressure mounted.
His veins burned.
Tiny sparks flickered between strands of cyan.
Gold.
For a heartbeat...
The golden light returned.
Not whole.
Just fragments.
Tiny motes dancing through the cyan like stars trying to be born.
Nathaniel's eyes widened.
"...Yes..."
The sparks intensified.
Orange plasma blossomed around the golden embers.
Hope surged through him.
"Come on!"
He forced more URATSU into the reaction.
More.
More.
MORE.
The glow faltered.
The gold dimmed.
Orange replaced yellow.
The unstable plasma hissed violently before collapsing into scattered embers that drifted harmlessly into the wind.
Nothing remained.
The cyan returned alone.
Nathaniel stared in disbelief.
"...Why..."
Another pulse.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
His breathing became ragged.
"Why isn't it working...?"
He had done everything the same.
He remembered the pressure.
The flow.
The compression.
Every detail.
Every instinct.
Every sensation.
So why...
Why couldn't he ignite it?
The obsidian projectile continued closing the distance.
Its roar drowned out the world.
Nathaniel looked up.
The burning mass now filled the sky above him.
For the first time in years...
Nathaniel Alderman felt utterly powerless.
The sky split apart.
A streak of emerald and silver descended from above like a falling star.
The burning obsidian lance was less than two kilometers from Nathaniel when—
A colossal blade flashed.
The impact echoed across the entire desert.
SKRRRAAAAAANG!
For an instant, the impossible projectile changed course.
A quarter of its mass sheared away beneath the strike.
Molten obsidian and blazing sand scattered across the heavens like volcanic rain.
The remaining three-quarters never stopped.
Bryce's verdant eyes widened inside the Neural Core.
"...Too late."
The projectile screamed past Blade Maiden's shoulder.
Straight toward District Five.
Nathaniel never saw it arrive.
Only light.
A blinding white-cyan horizon consumed his vision.
Then...
Impact.
The world disappeared beneath a deafening detonation.
The obsidian round struck the earth with enough force to erase several city blocks in an instant.
The stored kinetic energy released all at once.
The ground folded inward before exploding outward.
A crater bloomed across the district.
Buildings disintegrated.
Roads were ripped from their foundations.
Superheated obsidian shattered into millions of razor-edged fragments that scythed through the city faster than rifle rounds.
Molten glass rained from the sky.
The air itself ignited.
The shockwave tore through Khepra like an invisible tidal wave.
Windows shattered kilometers away.
Military vehicles rolled onto their sides.
Scarab swarms were obliterated without distinction.
Even the dunes flattened beneath the blast before surging skyward again.
A towering mushroom of sand, fire, and black volcanic glass climbed into the heavens.
Twenty kilometers away...
The Sand Sovereign watched.
Its golden eyes narrowed.
The corners of its stone-carved muzzle slowly rose.
It smiled.
Bryce hovered silently above the expanding cloud of destruction.
The sensors flooding her vision struggled to penetrate the wall of heat and pulverized stone.
"..."
No life signs.
No terrain.
No battlefield.
Only static.
For the first time since entering combat...
She hesitated.
"...What..."
She had been seconds too late.
Her fists tightened around Blade Maiden's controls—not controls, but sensations flowing through the neural link as though they were her own hands.
The Sovereign had deliberately ignored her.
It had chosen Nathaniel.
Bryce's expression hardened.
"...Not again."
She turned.
The giant construct was already moving.
Blade Maiden accelerated.
Despite standing nearly twenty meters tall, the E.V.A. crossed the desert with startling speed.
Its footsteps barely sank into the sand.
Synthetic muscles contracted with explosive precision as Bryce closed the distance.
The Sand Sovereign welcomed her.
Its colossal arm swept downward.
Blade Maiden slipped beneath the strike.
From both forearms, sleek mechanical housings unfolded.
Segments of Mage-Steel erupted outward.
Growing.
Extending.
Locking into place.
Twin colossal blades materialized along each arm until they stretched nearly the length of Blade Maiden itself.
Bryce crossed both weapons.
Then struck.
Two brilliant arcs flashed across the desert.
The first carved through the Sovereign's ribs.
The second severed deep into its shoulder.
The giant reeled.
Except...
No sand flowed to repair the wounds.
Instead—
The severed surfaces burst into vibrant green.
Roots erupted from within the cuts.
Thick vines forced themselves through compacted sand and fractured stone.
Branches spread through the Sovereign's body with astonishing speed, weaving through its interior like veins searching for a heart.
Every grain of sand touched by Bryce's blades began changing.
Silica became living cellulose.
Stone softened into bark.
The lifeless construct was being forced to sustain life against its own nature.
The roots tightened.
The vines spread.
Entire sections of the Sand Sovereign's arm seized beneath the expanding forest growing inside it.
Bryce drove both blades deeper.
"Let's see..."
Blade Maiden's emerald channels flared brilliantly.
"...how well you regenerate..."
The vines exploded outward.
"...when I turn your desert into a forest."
The blast rolled on.
A storm of molten obsidian.
Fire.
Sand.
And pulverized concrete.
Nathaniel's body had long since disappeared within it.
Hurled away like a ragdoll by the force of the impact.
No one saw where he landed.
No one could have.
The explosion had swallowed everything.
The radios erupted.
"Nathaniel!"
"District Five, respond!"
"Alderman!"
Only static answered.
A harsh, broken hiss.
Then...
Nothing.
His signal vanished.
Miles away, George instinctively stopped.
His communicator emitted a single tone before the connection died completely.
The screen flashed.
CONNECTION LOST
George's jaw tightened.
"...Nathaniel?"
Silence.
Ria immediately switched frequencies.
"District Five, this is Bergschrund."
"...Respond."
Nothing.
She tried again.
"...Nathaniel."
Only static.
For the first time that day...
Her voice carried uncertainty.
Oliver's expression darkened.
His shadow gate flickered for a moment before stabilizing.
"...Come on..."
He knew Nathaniel.
If he could answer...
He would.
Alucard looked toward the towering cloud still rising over the western districts.
"...Damn it..."
Even from where he stood, the heat rolling across the city felt like opening the door of a furnace.
Shirou's hands froze.
Sergeant Elias looked down as her fingers began moving.
"...She wants to know if they've re-established contact."
The communications officer shook his head.
"No."
"...Nothing."
Shirou slowly lowered her hands.
High above the battlefield—
Blade Maiden's sensors swept across District Five.
There was no visual.
No thermal lock.
No identifiable target.
Only an ocean of superheated dust and molten debris still churning from the detonation.
Bryce clenched her jaw.
She couldn't search.
Not now.
The Sand Sovereign was already moving again.
If she disengaged...
It would reach the city.
She forced herself to turn back toward the giant.
"...Live."
It wasn't an order.
It was a hope.
Then Blade Maiden accelerated once more.
Far beneath the drifting smoke...
Far from every battlefield...
Far from every surviving radio...
Nathaniel became aware of only one thing.
Pain.
Not sharp.
Not burning.
Everything hurt too much to distinguish one sensation from another.
His remaining eye trembled open.
Darkness.
The world refused to focus.
His ears rang endlessly.
He tried to breathe.
His chest barely obeyed.
Then...
A translucent window flickered into existence before his vision.
It didn't belong to the outside world.
Only he could see it.
The white lettering stabilized.
MAX REGEN
A second line appeared beneath it.
CRITICAL STRUCTURAL FAILURE
Another.
VITAL SIGNS: STABILIZING
His blood-covered silver eye reflected the pale light of the hologram.
Somewhere inside the ruined remains of his body...
Something awakened.
The white glow in his iris brightened.
Just enough...
To remind death...
It hadn't won yet.
Nathaniel coughed.
A thick stream of blackened blood splattered across the obsidian beneath him.
"...Ugh..."
Every movement felt wrong.
His arms trembled violently as he planted a charred hand against the glass-like ground.
The holographic window lingered in the corner of his vision.
MAX REGEN
COMPLETE
The white glow faded.
Immediately...
The exhaustion crashed into him.
His muscles became lead.
The constant ache of torn flesh had vanished, replaced by a deep, all-consuming fatigue that settled into his bones.
He let out a tired laugh.
"...Well..."
He slowly pushed himself upright.
"...There goes today's regeneration."
His knees almost buckled beneath him.
The ability had done its job.
It had kept him alive.
Nothing more.
Every reserve it possessed had been spent.
Nathaniel looked down at himself.
His combat suit had ceased to exist.
Only the tattered remains of his trousers still clung to his waist, scorched black and hanging together by little more than stubbornness.
His skin, though restored from the brink of death, remained an angry crimson from the burns.
The memory alone made him wince.
"...Getting burned alive..."
He rubbed the back of his neck with a shaky hand.
"...Still hurts."
Heat continued radiating from the battlefield.
The obsidian beneath his bare feet remained almost too hot to stand on.
Even the air shimmered.
He drew a slow breath.
Then frowned.
"...Empty."
He reached inward.
Almost nothing answered.
His URATSU reserves were dry.
The battle.
The Hellcore Catalyst.
The attempted ignition.
MAX REGEN.
Everything had taken its toll.
"I need to make more..."
His voice was little more than a tired mutter.
"There isn't enough left."
Nathaniel finally lifted his gaze.
District Five...
Was gone.
No highway.
No apartment blocks.
No gas station.
No evacuation corridor.
Only an endless plain of black volcanic glass stretching toward the horizon.
Far in the distance...
The clash of titans continued.
Blade Maiden darted around the Sand Sovereign with impossible speed, emerald trails carving through the desert as colossal blades flashed against stone and sand.
Even from kilometers away, every collision echoed through the ground beneath Nathaniel's feet.
"...Guess everyone got out..."
He allowed himself the smallest smile.
It had been worth it.
The smile vanished.
A sensation.
Not from his augment.
Not from his senses.
Instinct.
Nathaniel slowly turned his head.
Someone...
Was watching him.
A natural obsidian outcrop overlooked the ruined district.
Standing atop it, untouched by the lingering heat, was a lone woman.
White hair.
Long enough to sway gently despite the still air.
Skin so pale it almost seemed carved from ivory.
Minimalist black clothing traced with glowing crimson lines that pulsed faintly beneath the drifting ash.
The same crimson patterns continued across the exposed skin of her neck, arms, and face, as though light itself had been woven beneath her flesh.
Behind her, enormous white tendrils unfurled with slow, deliberate movements.
They drifted through the air like living banners, each one marked with the same elegant crimson circuitry before curling back toward her body.
Her crimson eyes met his.
Nathaniel's breath caught.
"..."
Nothing.
His senses found nothing.
No heartbeat.
No URATSU.
No life signature.
No presence.
If he closed his eyes...
She ceased to exist.
Yet when he opened them...
She was still there.
Watching.
Calmly.
Curiously.
As though she'd been expecting him to stand.
A chill ran down Nathaniel's spine despite the oppressive heat.
"...You..."
Recognition struck him like a punch.
The diner.
Knight Association Headquarters.
The strange woman who had silently watched him from across the room before disappearing without a trace.
The face was unmistakable.
"...It's you."
She didn't answer.
She only tilted her head ever so slightly.
Then...
She smiled.
The woman stepped down from the obsidian ledge.
She didn't jump.
She simply walked.
Each step carried her effortlessly across the fractured glass as though the blistering heat beneath her bare feet simply didn't exist.
Nathaniel never saw her accelerate.
One moment she stood nearly thirty meters away.
The next...
She was within arm's reach.
Every instinct screamed at him to move.
He couldn't.
Not because his body refused.
Because his mind was trying to understand how she'd crossed the distance without his senses registering a single thing.
She looked him up and down.
Her crimson eyes lingered over the scorched skin that MAX REGEN had only barely restored.
Then she smiled.
Softly.
Almost proudly.
"Call me..."
She raised one finger to her lips.
"...Vernalit."
The name hung in the hot air between them.
"I think you'll get used to it."
Nathaniel's expression hardened.
"...Who are you?"
Instead of answering...
She looked back toward the distant battlefield.
Blade Maiden's emerald arcs carved through the Sand Sovereign while pillars of sand erupted with every exchange.
A quiet laugh escaped Vernalit's lips.
"You like the havoc I caused?"
She asked it so casually that Nathaniel almost thought he'd misheard her.
His jaw clenched.
"...You."
"The Sovereign."
"The biome."
"That was all you?"
She simply smiled wider.
Without shame.
Without pride.
As though she were discussing the weather.
She stepped even closer.
Close enough that Nathaniel could smell the faint scent of rain carried impossibly through the burning desert.
"There's a great deal of URA saturated throughout this place now."
She slowly spread her arms toward the ruined district.
The vitrified landscape.
The lingering inferno.
The countless remains of biome creatures.
"The battlefield is practically overflowing with it."
Her gaze returned to him.
"So..."
She leaned forward conspiratorially.
"...do what you do behind closed doors."
Nathaniel frowned.
"What?"
"Absorb it."
She chuckled.
"Fill yourself back up."
A playful glint crossed her crimson eyes.
"Then go help your friends."
The suggestion sounded almost... encouraging.
As though she genuinely wanted him to recover.
The contradiction unsettled him far more than open hostility ever could.
She laughed quietly.
Then reached up.
Nathaniel instinctively flinched.
Too slow.
Her hand gently cupped his cheek.
Warm.
Not cold.
Not inhuman.
Just...
Warm.
His breathing caught.
She blinked.
"Oh..."
A hint of surprise crossed her face.
"I forgot."
She tilted her head upward.
"You got taller."
Nathaniel's eyes widened.
Only now, standing this close, did he realize just how tall she actually was.
She stood nearly seven feet in height, her posture relaxed, forcing even him to look slightly upward despite his own stature.
The glowing crimson lines tracing her pale skin pulsed faintly beneath the desert sun.
Her enormous white tendrils swayed lazily behind her like curious living creatures.
Vernalit's smile softened.
For the briefest moment...
It almost looked nostalgic.
Her crimson irises searched his face.
Nathaniel found himself unable to look away.
Silver met crimson.
Then...
His breath stopped.
The red around her pupils slowly darkened.
Until the whites of her eyes vanished completely.
Black sclera swallowed them whole.
Within that darkness, her crimson irises burned like embers.
Nathaniel felt something ancient staring back at him.
Not hostile.
Not kind.
Simply...
Unfathomably old.
"...Who..."
His voice faltered.
"...What are you?"
Vernalit's smile never faded.
She gently withdrew her hand from Nathaniel's face.
"Oh..."
Her voice was almost affectionate.
"You'll know..."
She took a single step backward.
"...when you're ready."
Nathaniel's brow furrowed.
"Ready for wh—"
"...Akumo."
The name struck him harder than the explosion had.
His pupils shrank.
"...What did you just call me?"
Vernalit only smiled.
Then the tendrils moved.
They didn't lash.
They simply... appeared.
One wrapped around his waist.
Another coiled around his chest.
Three more bound his arms before he could even think to resist.
The pressure was instantaneous.
His ribs creaked.
Nathaniel's feet left the ground.
"What—"
The white tendrils tightened.
His muscles locked beneath the crushing force.
"...LET GO!"
He ignited the last wisps of HellCharge he could muster.
Cyan flames burst across his forearms.
The tendrils ignored them.
Resin erupted from his palms.
The corrosive secretion hissed...
...then dissolved into nothing before touching their surface.
Nathaniel's eyes widened.
Impossible.
Nothing ignored his Resin.
The tendrils constricted further.
Thin crimson edges emerged along their surfaces.
Sharp.
Surgical.
One by one they traced across his arms, chest and back.
Not deep enough to maim.
Just enough for blood to bloom.
"Hngh...!"
Fresh cuts opened across his body.
Blood ran down the alabaster coils.
Vernalit watched with detached curiosity.
"There we are."
The crimson circuitry along her body brightened.
The world became unbearably heavy.
Nathaniel felt it before he understood it.
URA.
Not his own.
Something immeasurably larger.
Violent.
Ancient.
Wild.
The tendrils pulsed.
And forced it into him.
Nathaniel screamed.
Every cell in his body convulsed.
The foreign URA tore through his pathways like a flood bursting through a narrow canyon.
His veins burned.
His heartbeat became thunder.
His vision dissolved into white.
The pressure was unbearable.
It felt as though another sun had been stuffed inside his chest.
"No—!"
His knees buckled in midair.
The tendrils held him upright.
More.
More.
MORE.
His exhausted reserves, empty only moments before, were overwhelmed by the torrent.
He couldn't contain it.
Couldn't shape it.
Couldn't even breathe.
"What..."
His voice broke into a gasp.
"...are... you... doing...?"
Vernalit giggled.
The sound was strangely innocent.
"Helping."
She tilted her head.
"You wanted more energy."
"I merely saved you the trouble of collecting it."
The tendrils suddenly relaxed.
Only for an instant.
Then every coil snapped forward simultaneously.
Nathaniel's body became a projectile.
The sonic boom shattered the obsidian beneath Vernalit's feet.
He tore across the desert faster than artillery fire.
The battlefield rushed toward him.
Ahead—
Blade Maiden's twin Mage-Steel blades clashed against the Sand Sovereign as roots erupted through its torso.
Bryce's emerald-lit warform drove the colossal construct backward another step.
Neither giant noticed the streak hurtling toward them.
Nathaniel crashed through the lingering dust cloud like a meteor.
Still wrapped in fragments of crimson-white energy.
Still struggling to comprehend the single word echoing inside his mind.
Akumo.
Behind him, standing alone atop the obsidian ridge, Vernalit watched the collision course with quiet amusement.
"...Show me," she whispered to no one.
"...what you'll become."