Sylas could feel his Luck blaring warnings at him, but it was like he couldn't sense it at all. He stood pat, his back straight, his Will flaring with life and vitality.
Today, he wouldn't be back down.
Every ti he felt a System City crumble, it was like another chain fell from his body. His sight beca brighter, his mind sharper. Runes began to spontaneously pop up in his vision, things he hadn't been able to see before seeming so obvious now.
He practically breathed them all in, insights coming smoothly and one after another. Connections that he hadn't been able to form in the past coming so naturally.
And then he began to feel it weakening.
Earth was falling into a state of dormancy. As though a warrior that had fought with everything it had until the final monts, it was tired. Its eyes fluttered closed, and its body finally began to start healing.
The insights ca slower and slower, but the glow in Sylas' eyes didn't grow dimr along with it. If anything, they only grew sharper.
He knew that this was just the beginning. Earth would fall into dormancy for now, but once he found the thod he needed to awaken it, they would soar to an all-new level.
And he was confident that he would be able to do it.
If he could do this, sothing all his predecessors had failed to do, he would be able to do this.
No one would be able to stop him.
**
Archibald stood so high in the skies it wasn't the clouds that acted as his backdrop, but the stars themselves. He might have been beaten and bloodied, but a wild grin began to spread across his face.
Then, he lifted his head to the skies and laughed. He laughed so hard it almost felt as though the trembling of Earth was because of him and him alone.
All around him, various elder n and won stood, each one dressed in various arrays of treasures. So looked like knights, others like mages, yet so others looked like they had been plucked straight out of video gas, their assortnt of mismatched equipnt making it clear they cared far more about optimization than fashion.
Most of them were human.
So of them were Sylphs, the difference only discernible by a slight point in the ears and a subtle glow to their skin as Aether humd naturally around them.
All at once, they looked toward Earth as well, frowning.
Just what happened? What was going on?
Archibald's laughter was particularly grating on the ears.
"Stuard. Veronica. You traitorous, self-harming, spineless cowards. You've done all of this, and for what? Just to lose in the end? In the past, what did we promise? Your Ravenclaw and Darkmane families might not have always seen eye to eye with my Grimblade family, but I thought we all had the sa vision for the world."
"I was wrong about that. To think I would choose to help entrust such an important decision with you all…
"But if you think Legacy or that little Emperor holds a candle to my descendant, you'll find out very soon just how pitiful you are. I cannot wait to watch him take every single one of your heads off."
Stuard Darkman slowly regained his focus, his gaze locking onto Archibald.
"Such dreams. Do you think you'll even live past today?"
"Idiot." Archibald sneered. "Do you think I'm still here because you can stop from leaving? You have no idea what sort of power I hold in my hands now. I was doing nothing more than stalling you all. Originally, I thought I would have to last the full three days, but it seems that isn't necessary anymore. So I'll be leaving now."
Archibald stretched.
"Ah, this new dialect really does suit better. As the kids would say, kick rocks—wait, that isn't it. Fuck you and everything you stand for. Yeah, that's the one."
With another clear of his throat, Archibald really did vanish. There was barely a flash of light, and then he was gone. It wasn't an Aether teleportation at all, nor did it seem to rely on Runes. It was a form of technology never before seen in the world before.
There was quite a lot of progress you could make when you were a genius who had been working with the sa physical laws for centuries.
And now, Earth was going to be able to keep its state of physical laws into the future. Or maybe, there would be a fusion of all the laws they had once had.
Archibald was eager to study the changes. How could he continue to waste ti here?
The attackers in the sky stood frozen, not understanding what was going on.
Slowly, they looked toward Earth once again and then the changes began to clock in one after another. But it wasn't until the Sylphs hacked up a mouthful of blood that they realized sothing bad was about to happen.
It was already too late.
An eye appeared in the skies.
"WAIT!" Stuard called out.
"NO!" Veronica shrieked.
They were wiped out from existence.
The skies fell into silence.
Earth might have fallen into dormancy, but the system was just fine. Not only that, but the wool that had been pulled over its eyes had been shredded to pieces. It could finally see things quite clearly for what they were.
Slowly, it began to recalculate.
Then, the eye in the sky beca larger.
It continued to grow, growing to the point that it dwarfed Earth and even its Sun, and then it continued to grow even beyond that. And yet, it caused no changes to the gravity in the region at all.
When its calculations were finally finished, the System's Eye stopped growing.
It was pissed.
And as impotent as Arcane Madness liked to think the system was, when it was pissed, blood would rain.
A pulse of blinding red light covered the galaxy and fury descended like a heavenly punishnt.
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