Back in Gaisen's domain, the air felt wrong.
Not just heavy—but watchful.
Lea stood still beside the towering frame of Altopereh's Orbiton. The machine was active—its systems faintly humming, panels flickering with dim, unstable light—yet it did not move. It simply stood there, like a corpse that refused to fall.
Dark hues bled slowly from the fractures across its body.
Not oil.
Not energy.
Something deeper.
Something that didn't belong to any machine.
Lea's gaze narrowed beneath the shadow of her hood. She had seen damaged Orbitons before—seen them broken, shattered, reduced to nothing more than lifeless metal—but this… this was different. The damage was not just structural. It was corruptive.
As if something inside was trying to claw its way out.
She didn't move closer.
Instead, she watched.
Waiting.
Listening.
The wind whispered through the jagged cliffs of the domain, carrying with it a low, distant vibration. It wasn't sound—not entirely—but something closer to pressure. A shift in the balance of Tartarus itself.
Lea exhaled slowly.
Then turned.
Not toward the Orbiton—but toward Gaisen.
The massive dragon lay coiled among fractured stone formations, its wings partially folded, its breathing slow and heavy. Even in its weakened state, it radiated presence—authority over this domain, over the skies, over the very gravity that held the floating pillars in place.
Lea stepped toward it carefully.
"You need to rest," she murmured under her breath, though she knew the creature understood more than words.
But before she could take another step—
The ground trembled.
Violently.
The sudden jolt threw her off balance, forcing her to brace herself against a jutting rock as the entire domain shuddered like a living thing struck at its core.
Lea's head snapped toward the horizon.
A wall of white.
Not clouds.
Not mist.
A storm.
A blizzard so dense it erased the world behind it, devouring the landscape as it advanced. It didn't move like natural weather—it crawled, deliberate, suffocating, as if the cold itself had intent.
Lea's voice dropped to a whisper.
"…No."
Behind her, Gaisen stirred.
The dragon let out a low, rumbling growl as it forced its massive body upright, claws digging into stone for support. Its wings twitched, tension rippling through its injured form.
It felt it too.
Not just the storm.
But what was inside it.
Lea clenched her fists.
"Tartarus…" she muttered, "…you never change."
Because she understood.
This wasn't coincidence.
This was instinct.
The unwritten law of this realm.
When a Domain Ruler weakened…
The others came.
From the far edges of the domain, the air shifted again—this time not cold, but burning.
Lea turned sharply.
And her eyes widened.
From the opposite horizon, a wave of heat surged forward, distorting the very air. The ground cracked under its approach, frost instantly melting into steam as the environment itself struggled to survive the collision of forces.
Two presences.
Two rulers.
And Gaisen…
Was not ready.
Lea didn't hesitate.
She sprinted forward, her cloak snapping violently behind her as she launched herself upward, landing against Gaisen's side before climbing swiftly onto its back.
"Up," she said sharply.
The dragon didn't need to be told twice.
With a thunderous beat of its wings, Gaisen launched into the crimson sky, rising above the fractured terrain of its domain. The floating stone pillars trembled beneath the force of its ascent, snow cascading off their edges as the sky itself seemed to recoil.
From above…
The scale of the threat became clear.
The blizzard had already breached the domain's edge.
And within it—
A shape moved.
Massive.
Silent.
Watching.
But Lea's attention was ripped away as the heat surged again—stronger this time.
Closer.
She turned—
And saw it.
Already inside the domain.
Albatros the Searing.
Lea's breath caught.
"How—"
There had been no transition. No warning. One moment the horizon burned, and the next—
It stood there.
As if it had always been part of this world.
The ground beneath Albatros cracked and split, unable to withstand its presence. Molten veins spread outward from its feet, glowing bright beneath the fractured surface as heat poured into the environment like blood into open wounds.
Its form was… wrong.
Not just monstrous—but unsettling in ways that defied logic.
Its body was a mass of deep crimson flesh, layered with raw, sinewy muscle that shifted unnaturally beneath its surface. Dark veins pulsed visibly across its limbs, glowing faintly as if something inside it burned hotter than the world itself.
Its arms were long—too long—bending at unnatural angles before ending in elongated, talon-like fingers. Thick, dark liquid dripped from them, hissing as it struck the ground, burning through stone as if it were nothing.
Encasing its upper body was a grotesque shell of bone-like armor.
Pale.
Jagged.
Alive.
The structure curved outward from its shoulders and spine, forming horn-like protrusions that framed its head like a crown of death. The armor didn't look grown—it looked forged, as if something had been forced into shape around it.
Its face…
Barely visible.
But what could be seen was enough.
A single, narrow eye glowed from beneath the bone structure—burning red, sharp, aware.
And below it—
A grin.
Too wide.
Too knowing.
Behind it, a skeletal spine-like structure rose from its back, each segment exposed and jagged, twitching slightly as if reacting to the world around it.
Lea felt it.
That presence.
Not just power—
But hunger.
Albatros lifted its head slowly.
And looked up.
Directly at Gaisen.
For a moment…
Everything stopped.
Then—
It roared.
The sound tore through the domain like a physical force, shattering nearby rock formations and sending shockwaves through the air. The sky itself seemed to ripple under the pressure.
And behind it—
The world erupted.
A massive volcanic explosion tore through the ground, molten fire bursting upward in a violent column that reached toward the sky. Lava spilled outward in all directions, consuming everything in its path as the domain itself began to warp under the influence of a second ruler.
Ice cracked.
Stone melted.
The very laws of the domain began to break.
Lea gritted her teeth, gripping tightly onto Gaisen's back as the dragon roared in response, its wings spreading wide against the chaos below.
"Two…" she whispered.
Her eyes shifted toward the advancing blizzard.
Within the storm—
Something moved again.
Slower now.
Closer.
The cold intensified, even at this height, biting through the heat like a blade.
Because Tikadello the Frozen…
Was coming.
And this time—
Gaisen would not be facing them alone.
It would be hunted.
Lea's grip tightened.
Her voice dropped, calm—but edged with urgency.
"We don't win this," she said.
Gaisen didn't respond.
It didn't need to.
It already knew.
Below them, fire consumed the land.
Ahead of them, ice devoured the horizon.
And somewhere between the two—
A battlefield was about to be born.
One that would decide the fate of a Domain.