Nexus was engulfed in golden light. Spiritual energy overflowed, covering the entirety of the region. The dragon above sensed the change and shifted for the first ti in a millennium. Its once dull eyes now shone with life.
Mora and Aquan struck at the sa ti. Aquan shifted like a ripple, causing reality itself to bend. Mora shone with moonlight as a celestial figure appeared behind her. The two circled Lusica, who was beginning to lose his self and soul.
The golden light arrived at the crucial mont before the two sides clashed. It slipped between them, like fabric sliding over another, and turned into an absolute wall.
Arthur was no longer a single creature, but an entity of vast golden light washing over the others. So felt their wounds heal, while others felt their regrets fester. No one, however, could deny the beating ache in their hearts.
Mora and Aquan shared a glance, realizing the source of this light. However, they didn't dare to hesitate on whether to save their comrade or not. They rushed forward, but then, everything ceased to move.
Arthur beca the sole figure moving within the plaza. His figure of pure molten gold seed to cause the surroundings to shift aside. No one could move or talk, but they bore witness to the man's feat.
"I cannot let you hurt him," Arthur said to the two seekers from Moonlight Guild. "But I will make sure that he hurts no one else."
Golden light erupted.
Then dimd.
And then, nothing.
Life resud.
Arthur was gone.
Lusica disappeared.
The seeker collapsed.
And the crowd remained frozen in fear.
In the far distance, in a mountain that held no seekers, only fleeing spirits, two figures collapsed to the ground—one of them golden and slowly reshaping itself, while the other flailing in a nightmare of darkness.
Arthur rose to his feet and stared at Lusica, whose shape was now in tatters. He scread and scattered before his eyes, losing form and mind at the sa ti.
"Leave …" Lusica said through agony. "I don't want your pity. I took it once, but never again."
Arthur was silent.
Lusica had every right to feel this emotion toward him.
Alka was just a nightmare to him, but it was everything to the people he had touched while he was there. Epiphanies brought more harm than good, in the end, but Arthur needed to rember what happened.
The world needed to rember.
And fight.
"You can hate forever, Lusica," Arthur said as he crouched and seized the man's flailing legs. "But I will make damn sure that you don't fall into the darkness."
The screams faded as the two disappeared into a hidden cave. Darkness and golden light erupted in flashes, clashing against one another. Spirits fled the nearby fields, fearing for their existence, while Nexus was recovering from the aftermath of Arthur's actions.
Ali and Tiara rushed away amidst the fleeing crowd. Everyone panicked after what happened, but for a different reason than the golden light. The dragon was descending from the sky above Nexus, hovering above it like imminent death.
The Green Dragon had not changed its course ever since the First Contract. It circled around all the major cities of the Infra-Layer, where seekers could ascend to the Earthen Layer. It was a protector and safety chanism against the breach of abyssal spirits across layers.
The earlier eruption of golden energy caused a change across the Spirits Realm. The guardian of the Infra-Layer descended to Nexus, circling around it with overbearing pressure.
As the lord of the city was currently absent, all seekers sought to flee the city before 'Judgent' befell them. The abyssal seekers began screaming as their souls shattered under the pressure the dragon emitted.
"I thought the Guardian of Judgent would descend tomorrow," Aquan said as he raised the unconscious seeker, whose soul had been tainted with darkness. "Was his spiritual energy that great?"
"A spiritual energy that could freeze all movents within the Spirits Realm is enough to bring down the guardian," Mora answered as her moonlight danced around the seeker. "This boy will be fine, but… his wounds are a problem."
"This isn't the ti for riddles, Mora," Aquan said with a frown. "Is he going to make it?"
"He will, but it requires ti. The problem is that his wounds are restructuring his soul into sothing less human and more… abyssal. If we fail to reconstruct his soul, he will be no better than an abyssal spirit."
Aquan paled. "You an that abyssal seekers could turn others into abyssal spirits?"
"Let's not think about such a possibility," Mora said with trembling lips. "Just thinking about it… sends shivers down my spine. We need to find the two of them as soon as possible. Regardless of who Arthur is, we need to eliminate the threat he is trying to protect."
Aquan nodded, and the two of them carried the seeker away. At the sa ti, they alerted the others about what happened. A manhunt began for Arthur and Lusica, combing through all the nearby regions of Nexus.
Ali and Tiara heard the commotion, and chose to flee and hide instead of letting themselves get caught up as Arthur's friends. Their fears were confird when the Moonlight Guild began looking for them. The Moonlight Guild looked everywhere, but they couldn't find the two.
Far above the bustling city, Ali and Tiara grabbed each other's arms to navigate their escape. They floated away from the city and the seekers who couldn't fly after them. Their escape route, however, was cut short by a mighty guardian.
The dragon stretched across the heaven and earth. Its head was as big as a mountain range, with a single eye capable of carrying Nexus. Ali and Tiara felt like specks of dust beside an astral being with unfathomable might—and they were right.
The Green Dragon didn't even look at them. It circled around Nexus, its pressure enough to shatter souls. However, it allowed their escape as if not noticing their presence. For the first ti, the two seekers felt lucky that they were insignificant.
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