Northern stood frozen, a dark grimace etched across his face as the creatures continued to descend.
Their numbers weren't as vast as the initial waves, but quantity wasn't the issue.
The true problem lurked in their nature...
Each of these Charred monstrosities falling from above was a Catastrophic Destroyer.
Their anatomy resembled the first wave of Hazardous Maelstroms, yet distinct differences marked them as something far worse.
Their skins—blackened and featureless like coal that had burned beyond recognition—gave them the appearance of living nightmares as they stalked through Lithia city's shattered remains.
From their heads twisted a single horn, slender and sharp as a dagger. Where eyes should have been, only hollow sockets gaped, somehow more terrifying than any gaze could have been.
The moment their feet touched the ground, the wind itself seemed to cower. A silence, heavy as death, blanketed the ruined city of Lithia.
Ascendant Zion stood frozen, trembling visibly as he watched the abominations. His face twisted with revulsion, skin blanching with each passing moment.
"Sage Rian... what do we do? These... they feel like Destroyers... and the pressure I'm feeling from them, they have to be at least Catastrophic... right?"
His voice quivered like a leaf in autumn wind.
Northern glanced at the Ascendant, the corner of his mouth curving upward.
"You are very right."
The handsome Ascendant stared at Northern, color draining further from his already pallid face, pupils thinning to pinpoints.
Northern's lips had indeed formed an unmistakable grin.
"Yes. Should I cry instead?"
The Ascendant shifted his weight, his limbs betraying his terror.
"Not exactly. I just expected your demeanor to be more grave. These are walking destroyers. Everyone here is doomed, including Sages. No one can battle these monstrosities."
Ascendant Zion spoke truth. Destroyers were nightmares given form. Even facing mere Maelstroms, the Drifters of Lithia had faltered and required rescue.
Bodies lay scattered across the ground like broken dolls—civilians and Drifters alike, their final expressions frozen in horror.
Soon more would join them, feeding the crimson pool that seeped into the city's cobblestone roads like hungry roots.
Northern's gaze turned vacant for several heartbeats, his eyes losing focus as if peering into another realm, one of thousand thoughts
The Charred Destroyers remained motionless, an unsettling silence hanging in the air. They twisted their necks gradually, joints creaking like ancient, rusted hinges.
The city streets stood eerily quiet—not from absence of life but from its hiding. Citizens cowered in shadowed alleys, dark corners, and within buildings, breath held tight in constricted lungs.
Northern exhaled deeply, his eyes snapping back to clarity.
"This is what we are going to do, Ascendant Zion."
As he spoke, he stepped forward. Lustrous black armor materialized around his body like liquid shadow solidifying, a sword manifesting in his grip as if plucked from the depth of the wind.
"I will deal with all of them. I want you to focus on evacuating the civilians to the Illusionary Haven."
At that moment, one abomination swiveled toward Northern, its head twitching erratically like a broken mechanism. Despite its hollow eye sockets, it seemed to fixate on something with unnerving intensity.
Northern's face disappeared behind the Night Terror Helmet, four azure eyes burning through the visor like cold stars, his twisted horn jutting forth like a crown of malice.
The creature lurched forward, launching itself with blistering speed.
But it never reached Northern.
Suddenly, the creature suspended in mid-air, frozen in its deadly trajectory.
Northern, already poised to swing his sword, faltered in confusion. A heartbeat later, recognition dawned on him as he sensed a familiar presence.
Too swift for the eye to track, something crashed into the abomination, seized it, and hurled it backward in one fluid motion.
Crimson hair blazed like wildfire against the wind as he transformed into a mere blur, materializing beside the Charred Destroyer.
His fist sliced through air with devastating precision and connected with the creature—the impact reverberating like thunder against the bedrock of the world itself.
The Paragon's face hardened into stone as he locked the abomination in place. His hands became weapons, striking from the flank and crushing into the creature's side, though its form held firm. Another strike surged upward, smashing into the creature's jaw and snapping its head backward with sickening force.
The raw power behind each blow should have launched the creature skyward. Each strike carried the weight of mountains, compressing into pinpoint devastation.
Yet the abomination remained suspended in the same space, as if chained to that point in reality. Trapped in Inertia.
A perfect target for the Paragon's relentless assault.
Strangely, the other abominations stood motionless, like statues carved from nightmares.
Northern's mind clicked with sudden realization.
'He did something...'
The Paragon had indeed enacted something, but Northern couldn't pinpoint when. The abominations had exhibited peculiar behavior from the start—only their heads rotating when they first arrived, none advancing a single step forward, with just one responding when Northern moved.
He had dismissed it as typical monster oddity. Even the rift's sudden appearance was unusual, though not entirely unprecedented. It reminded Northern of those rifts that had torn through the Dark Continent—but such reflections would have to wait.
'This pressure, this power, the shift in air, as if time itself hangs suspended. This must be it.'
Essence Manifestation.
Northern suspected it but lacked certainty. Was this truly an Essence Manifestation, or merely one of Burning Storm's talent abilities?
Yet even as a talent ability, trapping multiple monsters in a single space of motion was extraordinary.
'Oh, he's definitely powerful!'
One final blow thundered through the air, a crescendo of destruction that dwarfed all that came before.
The Paragon stepped back, his face contorted with rage as the dismantled head and body of the abomination collapsed into a heap of ruin.
He shook his hand vigorously, knuckles unbroken but bones screaming in protest.
"These bastards are tough! Tougher than anything I've ever smashed!"
Northern's eyes stretched wide with disbelief.
'He killed it with his bare fists?'
Paragon Raizel pivoted and strode toward them, the air around him crackling with heat like the aftermath of a lightning strike. A controlled tempest swirled around his form as he approached.
His gaze locked onto Ascendant Zion and Northern with piercing intensity.
"Both of you focus on moving the civilians. I will handle this. Ral, stay vigilant—if luck abandons us, the next downpour might bring Behemoths. We'll need plenty of your mistakes this time around."
The Paragon's lips curled into a savage grin as he turned toward the next trapped Destroyer, dismissing them with a casual wave while advancing toward the doomed creature.