Date: January 11, 2018 | Time: 3:35 AM

Location: The Mother’s Layer — Chasm Interior

Perspective: Celia

It can’t be anyone but him.

My grip on the pitch-black scythe tightened until my knuckles turned white. The voice transmitting through the Aether-Vox was distorted, stripped of its usual mocking cadence, but I wasn’t stupid enough to be deceived.

Who else would magically appear and help us ’win’? It had happened too many times.

He promised. He looked me in the eyes and promised he wouldn’t interfere.

He promised he would let me grow on my own.

And yet, here he was. Not just interfering, but directly declaring war on the very entity I had just decided to protect.

It was so out of touch, so ruthlessly pragmatic, that it made the black thorns of my aura flare in absolute defiance.

"All non-essential personnel, evacuate the cave immediately," Sylvia’s voice echoed through the cavern, snapping me back to reality. "The situation is volatile. We cannot risk the subterranean Ash Bomb detonating with a full Vanguard presence."

"Evacuate?" Cid Valthor scoffed, slamming his staff into the slush of the Blood Sea. "Like hell I am. That’s an S+ Rank Calamity. I’m killing it, and I’m taking the loot."

"Don’t be an idiot, Cid," Tiara snapped, stepping out from the retreating crowd of mercenaries. "If we go against a direct Guild command of Requiem, our payment drops to zero. Breach of contract. It’s a massive loss and a colossal waste of time. I’m not dying for free."

Cid’s eye twitched. He looked at the Mother of Despair, then back at his party member.

Money and time always won with him.

"Fine," Cid spat, lowering his staff. "Rengar, Tiara, Silas. Get out of here with the others. But I’m staying."

As Cid’s party retreated up the chasm walls, Navina turned to her own Crimson Eclipse members.

"Uri, Bram, go check on our wounded," Navina ordered, her blue eyes scanning the cavern. "Wren, Aris, Pryce... stay with me. We’re helping Sylvia."

"Understood, Guildmaster," Wren muttered, drawing his daggers as he moved to Navina’s side.

The cavern emptied quickly, leaving only a fractured remnant of the raid party.

Me, Cid, Lucas, Alina, Navina, and her elite trio.

"Alina," Sylvia called out over the comms, her voice tight with authority. "I need your help. We have to secure the perimeter and force Lucas down. A tactical retreat is the only logical course of action."

Alina kept her head down. She didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she slowly walked toward Sylvia’s designated rallying point, her amethyst blades gleaming in the dim celestial light.

"Alina?" Sylvia asked, a hint of uncertainty bleeding through.

Alina stopped halfway. She raised her head, her purple eyes locking onto the Aether-Vox relay.

"I told you a long time ago, Sylvia," Alina said, her voice a calm, calculating murmur. "We work as dual leaders. We share the burden. But I will always make my independent decisions based on the variables presented."

She turned her back to the exit, stepping firmly to Lucas’s side.

"And here... I believe you’re wrong, Sylvia."

"Alina!" Sylvia gasped, genuine shock breaking her composure. "You are fighting your own guild! Do you have any idea what you’re doing? If that Ash Bomb goes off, the promethium radiation will poison the water table! It will kill thousands over the next few decades!"

"If we let the Mother of Despair live," X’s voice cut through the Aether-Vox, sharp and analytical, "within a few months, the Suffocating Domain will fluctuate. Cursed monsters and grotesque variants will crawl out of this crater. They will flood the bridges and slaughter the neighboring villages again and again. You are trading a guaranteed massacre for a delayed one."

"That is a probability, not a certainty!" Sylvia countered, her voice ringing with desperate, emotional logic.

"We are a guild. Our duty is to protect lives now, not execute grieving entities based on statistical paranoia! The radiation from an Ash Bomb is irreversible. It strips the land of its mana. It rots the soil. If we kill her, we trigger a permanent ecological disaster just to satisfy a bounty."

"We can contain the crater! We can build a perimeter and walls! But we cannot un-detonate a warhead!"

Sylvia sounded entirely convincing. It was the right choice. It was the human choice.

But he doesn’t care about humanity.

"Your logic is flawed, Sylvia," X replied.

"You are factoring in emotion, which artificially inflates your perceived value of containment."

"Excuse me?" Sylvia snapped.

"Let’s look at the economics," X continued, his tone chillingly detached.

"The half-life of weaponized promethium is roughly 12 years. The radiation will indeed seep into the groundwater. Based on historical data from the War of shifting tides, the mortality rate of secondary promethium exposure is 4.2%. Over a 40 year period, considering the population density of the three surrounding villages, the radiation will result in approximately 240 casualties."

The cavern fell dead silent.

"Now," X said, "let’s look at your own Guild reports. Over the last 5 years, before the Mother of Despair even began actively expanding her domain, rogue cursed variants from this crater killed an average of 72 people annually along the trade bridges. If you contain her, the perimeter will inevitably leak. Over that same 40 year period, at the current rate of escalation, the death toll from monster attacks will exceed 3,000."

"You... you can’t just boil lives down to a spreadsheet," Navina whispered, horrified.

"I can, and I just did," X stated. "By killing the Mother and detonating the bomb, the net lives saved over 40 years is approximately 2,760. Letting her live will cause thousands more to die."

"The numbers do not lie."

He’s insane.

I tightened my grip on the scythe, my aura flaring into a violent storm. He had taken Sylvia’s moral high ground and completely dismantled it with cold, hard arithmetic.

"Lucas. Alina." X’s voice dropped to a command. "Eliminate the target."

Kai..you’re cruel.

I kept my eyes locked on the space between Lucas and the Mother of Despair. I knew my Kai better than anyone. I remembered the encounter with Kiel. I remembered his actions in Levinton, the slaughter during the grotesque war, and his flawless navigation of the labyrinth of fairies.

Every single time, he had always come out on top.

Why? Because of his quick thinking and his overwhelming ability to fight.

But he is not here.

He wasn’t physically standing in the crater. He could only monitor the situation through the relay, just like Sylvia. He was relying on raw data and the visual feeds from Lucas and Alina.

So, if I were to make him unable to think... I will win.

A slow, chilling smile tugged at the corner of my lips. I will bring chaos to this battle.

Suddenly, the cold, detached static of X’s open channel abruptly cut off.

"I severed X’s connection," Sylvia broadcasted over our localized Aether-Vox, her voice laced with heavy relief. "I’ve locked him out of the primary command channels. But I couldn’t cut Lucas and Alina’s lines. He has encrypted control over those specific devices."

"That’s fine," Navina said, stepping forward, her Archflingers whirring as it charged. "Once we apprehend those two, we will win."

"Exactly," I murmured.

Just then, Lucas tilted his head. He seemed to hear something through his earpiece—a private directive from the ghost himself. A slow, arrogant smirk spread across his face.

I let out a heavy, exaggerated sigh, spinning my pitch-black scythe in my hand.

"Your way of living is embarrassing, Lucas."

Lucas chuckled, the sound echoing off the icy walls of the crater. With a swift flick of his wrists, he materialized his light daggers. The ambient light around him warped, bending to the aggressive gravity of his Flow.

"Oh, is that so?" Lucas replied, his eyes narrowing with a sharp, calculating glint.

"It seems too much attention and delusion is making a donkey think she is a lioness."

I stared at him, my expression unmoving. "Your audacity must be on sale this year."

Lucas didn’t wait. He moved instantly, tapping into his Lightstep to cross the distance in a fraction of a second.

He aimed a low, sweeping slash at my legs, meant to cripple, not kill.

Pathetic.

"Curse of the Damned," I commanded.

A thick wall of living, cursed thorns erupted from the ice beneath my heels, catching the blazing light dagger just inches from my skin. The impact threw off a shower of golden sparks and black ash. The thorns immediately wrapped around his blade, attempting to siphon his mana.

"Too slow!" Lucas shouted, abandoning the dagger and leaping backward. As he flipped through the air, he raised his hands. "Celestial Magic: Heavenly Prism!"

Four glowing, translucent mirrors materialized in the air around me. Lucas summoned a new bolt of condensed light and fired it at the first mirror. The beam ricocheted, multiplying in intensity with every bounce, creating a deadly, inescapable laser grid aimed directly at my center.

Creative, but lukewarm.

I didn’t even flinch. I whipped my arm outward, my cursed chains rattling from beneath my dress. "Ashen Fire!"

Igniting my scythe into fire, I swung it, shattering the mirrors and breaking the laser grid before it could connect.

The resulting explosion sent a shockwave of heat through the cavern.

"Is that all?" I mocked, my voice slow and gravelly as I walked through the fading smoke. "I expected a feast, Lucas. You’re barely a snack."

Lucas landed smoothly, skidding across the slush of the Blood Sea. He didn’t look bothered. He looked focused.

"Your weak from all angles, Celia," Lucas retorted, his hands glowing with a sudden, freezing chill. "Your turn is coming soon."

He slammed his palms onto the slush. "Composite Magic: Hallowed Neutrality!"

A massive wave of absolute zero ice rushed toward me, aiming to freeze my chains and my scythe in place. The spell was brilliant—it targeted the ambient moisture and the cursed blood, turning my own environment against me.

"A caged bird, chirping about victory," I hissed.

I leaped into the air, spinning my scythe to create a whirlwind of black mana that shattered the incoming ice wave. Mid-spin, I locked my eyes onto him.

"Withering Touch."

I launched three chains coated in toxic, sapping thorns directly at his chest. Lucas’s eyes went wide. He tried to dodge, but the chains tracked his movement. One grazed his shoulder, instantly turning his overcoat grey as it drained a chunk of his stamina.

He gritted his teeth, stumbling back. He quickly cast a minor fire spell to cauterize the curse mark, his smirk fading into a scowl.

"You practiced all those years just for that?" I asked, landing softly on the frozen ground. I pointed my scythe at his throat.

"You’re just the loser in this story, Lucas. Give up, before I correct your pathetic life."

"Not a chance," Lucas spat, his daggers glowing with an even brighter, blinding light as Alina suddenly moved to flank him, her amethyst blades humming.

But she wasn’t aiming for me.

Alina blurred past us, her eyes locked entirely on the Mother of Despair. She was using Lightning Flow to enhance her synaptic speed, moving like a phantom toward the calcified core.

"Stop!" I yelled, pivoting to launch my chains.

A sudden flash of white celestial light blinded me. A condensed mirror materialized right in my blind spot, slamming into my elbow with the force of a wrecking ball. The joint popped, the bone cracking under the pressure. I gritted my teeth, instantly flooding the area with cursed mana to forcefully snap the bone back into place and knit the tissue. It took less than a second to heal, but a second was all he needed.

Lucas stood directly in my path, his dual daggers spinning.

"Eyes on me, Queenie," Lucas taunted.

Across the slush, Alina closed the distance to the Mother, raising her blades for an Absolute Zero Cut.

"Not on my watch!" Cid Valthor roared.

The ground beneath Alina erupted. Three massive Shadow-Golems, forged from dark cursed mana and jagged bone fragments, burst from the ice, swinging colossal fists.

Alina didn’t even blink. She shifted into Heavenly Stance: Flowing Retribution, her body becoming entirely frictionless as she redirected the kinetic force of the first golem, cleanly slicing its arm off before side-stepping the second.

"I’ve hated you since the exact second you opened your mouth at HQ," Cid snarled, his skeletal staff glowing with sickly violet mana as the third golem slammed its fists down, sending a shockwave that finally forced Alina to slide backward. "Now I finally get to crush you!"

Before Alina could regain her footing, a barrage of plasma fire rained from above.

Navina descended, her Arcflingers blazing. The speed was incomprehensible. She fired a volley from a Plasma Rifle, dismissed it into particles, summoned an Ionized Frost Shotgun to shatter the rebounding ice, and swapped to dual elemental hand cannons—all in the span of a single breath.

12 switches a second.

Alina’s purple eyes widened slightly. She initiated Phase-Shift Repulsion, her blade vibrating to create a rejection-shield that deflected the plasma, but Navina was already in her guard.

The Golden Guildmaster didn’t just shoot. She manifested twin sabers of hard-light and clashed directly against Alina’s amethyst blades. Sparks of gold and purple illuminated the cavern.

"You’re fighting me in melee range?" Alina noted, her voice an eerie, emotionless calm as she parried three rapid-fire strikes.

"I’m a sword saint too, even if I use ranged weapons," Navina shot back, her blue eyes blazing. "I don’t just stand in the back!"

The exchange was a masterclass in lethal efficiency. Alina used Ocean’s Embrace to slide around Navina’s furious, high-risk assaults, countering with pinpoint thrusts. Navina met every thrust by instantly manifesting a tiny, dense shield of earth magic, then point-blanking a wind-bullet at Alina’s chest. Alina leaned backward, allowing the bullet to graze her cheek, and swept her leg in a Falling Lotus vortex to break Navina’s balance. Navina used the momentum to backflip, firing a spread of lightning as she created distance.

Both Sword Saints landed meters apart, breathing heavily. Alina and Lucas had been pushed back.

I took the momentary lull to rush toward the Mother of Despair.

The colossal beast was hunched over, her silver blood pooling around the calcified ’Baby’ she cradled in her arms. Her skeletal hands trembled as she stroked the core.

"Thank you... little one..." the Mother rasped, her voice echoing directly into my mind, laced with an ancient, unbearable sorrow. "Please... let me heal..."

"How long?" I asked softly, my guard still up.

"I need... a fraction of the clock to turn over halfway..." the Mother whispered.

15 minutes. I deduced the old-world metric instantly.

I turned my back to her, facing the retreating forms of Lucas and Alina. My mind raced. Kaiser is right now gathering information. I knew his methods. He was analyzing Navina’s switch rate, Alina’s mana reserves, my healing speed. He was building a perfect equation to execute us.

I cannot allow that. I will bring chaos. I won’t let him baby me anymore after breaking his promise like that.

"Cid!" I called out, not looking away from Lucas. "Assist me against him."

Cid scoffed loudly, wiping a smear of blood from his cheek. "Why the hell would I help a bitch like you?"

I kept my voice dead calm. "Because your cursed necromancy and erratic summons add unpredictable variables. You create too many problems. A creative, fast-thinking, arrogant fighter like Lucas cannot adapt to pure chaos quickly enough."

Cid paused, looking over at Lucas, who was currently spinning a dagger of pure, arrogant light.

"I’ve always hated the celestial ones anyway," Cid muttered, raising his staff. "Sure. Fine by me, bitchy."

I ignored the slur and looked over at Navina. "Ready?"

Navina turned her head, her blue eyes meeting my red ones.

"Throw!" I commanded.

I hurled my pitch-black scythe across the cavern directly at her. Navina didn’t hesitate. She reflexively dismissed her current weapons and manifested her twin Arcflingers, tossing them through the air toward me.

I caught the guns. She caught the scythe.

"We’re going to bring an end to this," I said, the cold metal of the firearms feeling alien, yet thrilling, in my grip.

Navina gave the massive, cursed weapon a test swing, the black thorns humming in resonance with her own mana. "It seems even reflexively I’m entering into your chaos. Well... a scythe is a good change of pace."

Without another word, I leveled the Arcflingers and immediately shot at Lucas.

He brought up a celestial mirror on instinct. The plasma rounds slammed into the glass, shattering it into a million glittering pieces, but the impact forced him to stagger.

"Exactly," I said, a cruel smile forming on my lips.

"Oh, wow," Lucas laughed, shaking out his wrist.

"Look at the two delusional besties telling each other ’exactly’."

"Defend the Mother," Sylvia’s voice crackled urgently over the comms. "Hold them off! Only a little longer, they won’t have the time!"

Just then, I saw it.

Lucas and Alina both paused, their eyes subtly widening. They were hearing something through their private Aether-Vox channel. A directive from the ghost.

"Ahahahah..." Lucas started to laugh. It wasn’t his usual arrogant chuckle; it was a genuine, victorious laugh.

He pointed his dagger at me. "Celia, always remember you’re someone’s reason to smile."

I narrowed my eyes.

"Because your plan, and yourself, is a joke," Lucas sneered, dropping into a combat stance. "Be ready. The trash gets picked up right now. I won’t lose to someone like you."

"We’ll see about that, clown boy," I hissed, raising the Arcflingers.

Alina adjusted her grip on her amethyst blades. "The plan is risky, but we will do it, X. Just let us know the timings."

They have a plan now? I thought, my aura violently erupting around me. That’s fine. I will crush it to pieces with every bit of chaos I bring.

"Let’s go, bro," Lucas said to the empty air, his celestial magic flaring like a miniature sun.

"It’s time to show the true meaning of victory."