Clyde and Asqa stepped through the portal and into a new Ruin. The area they were stepping in now cloaked in burning wind and shimmering heat. This was a desert.
Jagged rock formations pierced the endless desert and sandstorms loomed in the distance like sleeping titans.
The air crackled with residual magic that somehow still dense and the scream of distant beasts echoed across the dunes.
Without a word, the two moved forward.
They didn’t need to talk anymore after arriving at this kind of environtment. They just need to kill.
The monsters came quickly immediately after sering them. A hulking, crusted things made of sand and bone charging at the., their limbs jagged like shattered bladea of esrth. Clyde was the first to engage.
He drew his bew sword, the Dusksorrow.
The blade slid free with a soft hum, as if in mourning. The muted crimson edge shimmered under the harsh sun and the violet lightning-veins pulsed as if waking from slumber.
Clyde vanished in a blink with his sleed. The desert wind barely caught his motion before he reappeared behind one of the creatures then slashing upward in a clean arc.
There were no explosion or grand burst of energy. Just a clean precise strike.
The monster froze then shuddered, slowed unnaturally. Its movements faltered as if its limbs had grown heavy. It was the Lethargy which was the Dusksorrow’s passive and it had triggered.
Clyde pressed the advantage.
He send another step and another cut. His eyes remained focused while his lips sealed.
Every second that passed in silence sharpened the sword’s edge. The Silent Elegy trait bloomed to life making his slash grew heavier, faster, and more devastating.
When a larger beast leapt at him, Clyde pointed the blade downward and muttered only one word internally
A wave of shadowy dusk burst from his blade in all directions, smothering the monsters in melancholy energy.
Their movements slowed. Their morale visibly dropped as their limbs sagged. The oppressive silence that followed made it worse.
They tried to flee because they feel the fear. But Clyde did not let them.
By the time Clyde stopmovibg a second later five corpses lay in the sand, unmoving, their bodies drained of fight.
Dusksorrow dimmed, whispering in his hands like a sigh of relief.
"Huh,this is nice indeed," Clyde finally muttered under his breath. And the bonus faded, but the work was already done.
Not far from him, Asqa was in motion as well.
She think that she didn’t hold a wand now to channel her magic power and skills.
Lunaris Chord glowed faintly on her wrist, the runes pulsing in sync with her heartbeat. As a pack of sand-runners closed in on her she raised her hand and swept it through the air like conducting a silent orchestra using her new skill she had got long time ago but never used.
A wave of pale-blue crescent blades erupted from thin air, slicing clean through the enemies with ease.
Asqa danced backward, never staying still because she knows the effect of her bracelet, the wind tugging at her robes as she moved.
Every spell she cast left behind glowing sigils on her enemies—marks from Moon-Silk Resonance—and those marks sapped their speed, dragging them into slow-motion as she continued her barrage.
One beast that faster than the resr lunged at her but Asqa didn’t flinch.
She flicked her wrist and Nocturne Veil responded.
A crescent-shaped barrier shimmered into existence, orbiting her like a glowing satellite.
The monster’s claw slammed into it and bounced off, absorbed entirely by the radiant shell.
The moment it staggered, she leapt sideways—still moving. Five seconds passed.
The bracelet pulsed and another Silent Crescendo activated.
Her next spell exploded forward like a tidal wave of light and sound. A streak of compressed moonlight that hit the monster square in the chest. It didn’t just fall but disintegrated.
Asqa exhaled, her fingers still glowing faintly.
Clyde, now standing beside her again, gave her a short nod.
"Getting used to it?" he asked.
She smiled, the wind whipping her black hair around her face.
"Yeah this is nice. I’m not going back to a wand again," she said.
And with that, they turned to face the next wave together.
Graemory sat alone in her room, the lights dimmed to near darkness. Her senses reached outward. She scanned every corner of the hallway, the windows, even the roof and founf no presences.
Only then did she lean back into her chair and exhale slowly.
She closed her eyes, focusing inward. The connection she once shared with Clyde had weakened over time. But it was still there.
She reached for it like touching a thread in fog. And then she whispered into the void of thought:
"Clyde, it’s me. Meet me at the mansion soon. I can’t say more right now."
The message slipped from her mind like smoke through cracks. That was all she could send for now.
Her back pressed against the high chair once more as she turned her gaze outside, where her troops drilled in the courtyard below.
The sharp sounds of command and steel echoed faintly through the glass, but she barely heard them.
A heavy pressure lingered in her chest—an unease she couldn’t explain. It wasn’t fear. But something was shifting.
Something was coming.
On different place, Archangel Michael stood in his private room. He held a sealed scroll in his hand, from one of his agents, embedded near Gabriel’s side.
The contents were brief. But troubling.
"Morvius met with Gabriel and Uriel. Discussion centered on an operation targeting the anomalies. Plans are active."
Michael’s brow furrowed. The World Bureau Director moving in concert with two Archangels?
He set the scroll down and stepped to the edge of the sanctum, peering out over the swirling veil between planes.
"Did they found Clyde?" Michael asked to himself. "Hmm... Did he finally make mistake after all this tme?"
Archangel Michael also start to feel unease. They were close to the finale but if they really find Clyde now things could become bad.