Selene, Annette, and Esther huddled close, forming a tight triangle before the pulsing circle.
The air around them filled with thick alien pressure from that world, and the ground trembled with each pulse of the widening breach.
Their faces were pale with the weight of fear, responsibility, and urgency. None of them looked sure or felt ready.
However, they were all that stood between the world and something far worse than death. Eight adventurers from.two different kingdom.
"I don't know if we can close it," Esther said first with sharp and tense voice, cutting through the swirl of noise. Her long fingers twitched with Magic energy already, itching to release something against this unknowable horror.
Selene's gaze sharpened at that. She nodded, one hand already tracing the air around the circle.
Faint sigils followed her fingers, glimmering briefly before the chaotic energy of the breach burned them away.
"She's right," Selene murmured. "This is invasive Magic. However, even if we can't close it fully, we might be able to slow it and force it to choke on its own contradictions. Like making it breathe a different kind of air."
Annette's hands trembled slightly, but her voice came steady, shaped by the divine. "My god—Oreth, Keeper of the Threshold—He speaks of such things in our scripture in the old texts, the forbidden ones. He forbade the use of portals that lead to other realms, called them breaches against the balance." She closed her eyes briefly, as though hearing a distant hymn. "He gave us rites of sealing. Not to destroy but to just contain and wrap Magic in divine law and delay the worst."
Selene turned toward her. "You can do that spell right now?"
Annette nodded once, firmly now. "It will take time. I must draw a divine ward around the breach. But I'll need the space to do it and help holding the line."
"I'll hold it," Esther said, already gripping her staff with her dominant hand, the other weaving a series of quick, brutal glyphs in the air. "I also will try the spell to create a barrier that also attack."
"Alright," Selene said, lifting her gloved hands as Esther flared with volatile energy. "We do this together. I'll reinforce your barrier with sealing sigils of my own. When you start, I'll weave delay of time into the backlash. Make it feel like every second is a day. That should buy Annette time."
They looked at each other, the two witches and a priest.
Esther bared her teeth in something like a grin. "Then let's start."
Annette exhaled and took a step back. Her hands moved slowly and reverently now, as she began to draw a large circular ward into the cracked stone floor with radiant light.
Every line glowed golden, resisting the corruption seeping out from the breach.
The air around her grew calm and sacred. As though a breath of her god had touched the space.
Selene knelt and whispered to the earth in an old tongue, carving sealing runes with her gloved hands into the stone itself, placing one at each corner of the glowing circle.
"These sigils are ancient," she whispered. "They don't destroy but bind. Even time itself can be caught if the runes hold long enough. But... It requires a lot of Magic energy."
Esther stood between them, her staff in hand and coat billowing with unnatural wind. "Let's see if these bastards like a taste of our resistance. How dare they barge into someone else's world ?!"
Then the breach pulsed again but this time harder.
A blast of dark energy erupted outward, shredding the stone like paper.
But the girls held their ground.
Selene's runes flared with defiance. Annette's ward cracked, then surged back brighter. And Esther?
Esther laughed—and raised her staff.
"You want war?!" she shouted. "Then meet the witches of this world!"
And she fired a bolt of burning violet energy straight into the heart of the breach.
When they heard Esther burst out wild and unfiltered laughing, Mark, Thorne, and Kaela froze.
The sound cut through the charged air like a crack in glass. Their eyes widened—not in awe, but in alarm—as if they were watching someone become crazy.
They had fought with Esther before, faced monsters and near-death, but they had never sae her laughed like that. Why now? Why laugh when the world was teetering on the edge of collapse?
"Is she... losing it?" Thorne muttered, hand tightening on his weapon.
"Don't worry. That's normal for her," Hund said calmly, arms crossed. He didn't even flinch.
Jan nodded beside him, voice steady. "Yeah. When most people hit their mental limit, they cry. Esther? She laughs."
Mark, Kaela, and Thorne exchanged glances, then gave small nods of reluctant understanding. It was strange but if her own teammates weren't panicking, maybe it was just her way of coping. They can't blame her.
Meanwhile, the Magic around the breach screamed louder, the chaotic energy reacting to the defiance of the three girls standing against it.
The circle pulsed violently, trying to destabilize, but they held their spell strong with everything they have.
Selene's runes burned like brands into the stone. Annette's divine ward glowed with the force of her god's will. And Esther, while laughing, stood firm at her place with her staff pulsing with volatile power.
Jan, Hund, Mark, Thorne, and Kaela could only wait now. They were powerless to interfere, their hopes riding on the trio standing between the world and annihilation.
A heavy sound slammed against the large door behind them. All five turned at once, faces pale.
Another boomong sound happened, louder this time.
The hinges groaned. Dust rained from the ceiling. Something was behind that door. And that thing was big.
It was definitely trying to get in and stop them.
"Oh, I thought we just going to stand here and wait until they done," Hund said and raise his sword.
Their time to take action finally come.