As the world around them twisted, Scarlett felt the air thicken, as if bracing for so profound upheaval. The stone chamber where they had stood began to dissolve at the edges, its walls bending, splintering, and re-forming until an entirely new landscape stretched out before them. They now stood atop a tall hill, overlooking a vast valley with a sprawling city at its heart.
The city was a labyrinthine array of towering buildings carved from white marble and cold grey stone. Arched bridges spanned wide spaces, while spires reached skyward with a near-audacious elegance. It was a tropolis of staggering scale, at least by this world’s standards, its architecture reminiscent of the ancient designs of the Rising Isle and the grand edifices of the Ascendant Court in Elystead.
In other words, a Zuverian city.
White rifts dotted the streets and surfaces, hovering like open wounds in reality, their edges faintly shimring. Although the city appeared solid, nearly tangible, these fractures gave it an eerie quality, like fleeting glimpses into an unsettling void that gnawed at its fringes. No signs of life moved within its walls.
A deep, thunderous hum filled the air, resonating through the ground beneath their feet. Scarlett’s gaze lifted. Above the tallest buildings, that sa indistinct form from before lood — an enormous, shifting grey mass, impossible to fully perceive. It coiled and unfurled, erging from a web of rifts that tore the firmant asunder.
Its sheer scale almost defied comprehension. The entity’s form pulsed with disturbing energy, warping the landscape around it as though poised to devour the city below.
Beside her, Scarlett heard several sharp intakes of breath.
“A Zuverian city…” Gaspar murmured, his tone low and full of disbelief as his wide eyes scanned the ancient cityscape. “How can this be?”
Scarlett didn’t respond. Her attention was fixed on the being above. While she disliked admitting it, there was a primal part of her that clawed at her to turn and flee, that scread that this being was nothing like facing her ‘counterpart’. She could feel, in her very core, that it was truly sothing aberrant.
“Are we…supposed to fight that?” Allyssa’s voice wavered, the tremor in her words betraying the fear and uncertainty.
Scarlett watched as tendrils of dark grey energy spiralled from the Anomalous One, crashing across the city with the force of a thousand teors. Where they landed, the dark shapes twisted and writhed, morphing into new forms — so resembling real creatures but distorted, others entirely unrecognisable. These monstrosities began slowly prowling the streets.
There was sothing about this scene that seed…familiar. Her eyes narrowed.
…She’d seen this before. Back when she first encountered Thainnith’s remnant and received his inheritance. At the ti, she’d glimpsed fleeting visions. One of them showed this exact mont: the Anomalous One descending upon the city.
So, this had happened before. An actual event from history? Why would the Anomalous One re-create a mory like this specifically? If Scarlett understood mories correctly—which she wasn’t sure that she did—they drew from sothing outside this world, so form of collective record of all that had transpired. Was the Anomalous One perhaps using this mory because it was one of the few that allowed it to manifest in this form?
“Yes,” she finally said, steadying her own voice in response to Allyssa’s question. She drew a slow breath, then added, “That is what we are ant to fight. If we do not stop it now, we may lose any chance we have.”
The problem was that she couldn’t say how they were ant to fight it yet.
“What is that?” Gaspar asked, his gaze now fixed on the gargantuan shadow in the sky. “…How can such a thing even exist?”
“It is the entity that the Hallowed Cabal sought to release — the Anomalous One,” Scarlett replied. “…Though this is only a fragnt. A re shard. If it were more…” She let her words trail off.
Gaspar looked at her, confusion written on his face. “Anomalous One? I have never heard of it.”
“I am not surprised,” she said simply, choosing not to elaborate further.
“And what do you intend to do, now that you are here?” the other Scarlett asked beside her.
Scarlett spared her doppelganger a single glance before returning her focus to the Anomalous One. Its shadow seed to corrupt the streets below, and more of its tendrils stretched beyond the city, inching towards them.
Even if she poured every ounce of her magic out, exhausted every last reserve of mana, she wasn’t certain she could leave so much as a scratch on this thing. The Anomalous One was simply too vast.
“How many of you can still fight?” she asked loudly, equipping her [Crown of Fla’s Benediction] along with the rest of her gear. She looked at Gaspar and the remaining Isle wizards. Those still standing appeared dazed, their eyes locked on the Anomalous One with expressions of defeated apprehension. Gaspar and Magister Penney exchanged somber looks before Gaspar barked at his wizards to pull themselves together.
“Few,” he answered grimly, his gaze seeming to linger warily on the circlet Scarlett wore for so reason. “…We have little mana or strength left. A handful of us can still cast, but don’t expect much.” A brief scowl ford on his face. “…Not even from .”
Scarlett frowned, then scanned her own party. Allyssa looked tired, but she was at least alert. Shin gave a small nod, sword and shield in hand. Fynn was still unconscious, and Rosa lay slumped on the grass, offering an apologetic smile.
“I’m sorry, Scarlett,” the woman said softly. “I barely have any left in .”
Scarlett’s eyes stayed on her for a mont before returning to the looming threat. “…So be it,” she muttered, watching as several of the Anomalous One’s ‘minions’ landed across the hillside, their bizarre forms creeping and crawling closer. “What we have will simply have to suffice.”
Raising a hand, she summoned a cage of fla around one of the creatures, a monstrous amalgamation resembling a bear with two deford heads. Within monts, it was reduced to ash. Yet, as the remains fell, so of the particles simply…reford. It was as if its essence defied the very concept of destruction, immune to the rules of common sense.
Scarlett unleashed another surge of fire, scorching it again and again until, at last, it seed to learn its lesson and stayed as ashes. But that was just one. Across the hillside, dozens more advanced, while the city below teed with countless others. Their slow, deliberate movents might have made them manageable in smaller numbers, but at this scale, brute force alone was futile.
Her eyes swept the area until she spotted one of the Anomalous One’s rifts etched into the ground ahead. She channelled her flas, focusing her energy on the rift in an effort to seal it. Yet as her magic surged forward, the rift pushed back with an unexpected force, its resistance nearly catching her off guard.
“This is not one of your mories,” the other Scarlett remarked, her tone calm, almost indifferent. “You will not be able to simply break it.”
Scarlett glanced at the other version of herself, irritation flaring montarily before she redirected her focus to the advancing creatures. She spread her flas wider, slowing their progress as she tried to think of alternative approaches.
“You did not have to follow the others here,” the other Scarlett continued, observing her efforts. “You could have remained safe.”
“And allow that thing to establish its foothold?” Scarlett retorted.
She didn’t fully understand what it would an for the Anomalous One to take control here, to seize command of the Hall of Echoes, but she knew it could be catastrophic. If there was a chance to stop it, it was now, while the entity was still in its formative state.
A guttural sound split the air as one of the creatures before them suddenly shifted from its lumbering crawl to a frenzied, erratic sprint, as though it had just learned to wield its limbs properly. Scarlett imdiately focused on it, unleashing a precise burst of fire that engulfed the creature. She followed with sharp, slicing blades of water, cleaving through its form. But even as she managed to destroy it, others began to adopt the sa unpredictable speed, flowing forward with alarming agility.
Scarlett’s flas expanded, spreading to cover most of the hillside in an effort to counter the creatures’ chaotic movents.
A sudden eruption of shattering glass burst nearby as one of Allyssa’s vials exploded, creating an icy torrent that froze three creatures in their tracks. A heartbeat later, Shin charged forward, shield raised high as he slamd into another beast, his sword gleaming with a silvery light.
Gaspar, Magister Penney, and a handful of their wizards joined the fray, casting a flurry of spells. Fire, water, and other elents rained down on the creatures, with barriers of rock rising to impede their progress. Scarlett t Gaspar’s gaze, noting the tension on his face as he fought to cast his own spells, and gave him a nod.
Conjuring more flas, Scarlett combined her fire with Allyssa’s ice to immobilise and impale several creatures. Yet even under her and the wizards’ continuous assault, few of the monsters truly perished. They seed impervious to death unless Scarlett expended far more mana than she was comfortable with on any single one. Still, at least for now, they were keeping the creatures at bay.
As the battle dragged on, the sky above grew darker, an oppressive grey spreading like ink across the heavens. The tallest structures within the city were distorting even further as the Anomalous One’s presence deepened its hold, appearing as though viewed from a haze.
“What’s it doing?” Allyssa’s voice pierced through the clamour of spells and fighting.
“I do not know,” Scarlett replied, watching the unnatural scene.
“Do we need to stop it?”
“Most likely.”
“How?”
Scarlett hesitated. “…That, I have yet to determine.”
“Oh? And you, who were so confident?” her counterpart cut in, arms crossed. “Now here you stand, uncertain how to extract yourself from the very predicant you so eagerly entered.”
Scarlett turned, eting the other Scarlett’s gaze. The woman hadn’t lifted a finger to help, but she also hadn’t interfered. She simply observed, as if the chaos unfolding around them was a re spectacle.
“…I am Scarlett Hartford,” Scarlett declared. “Regardless of which version of stands here, past or present, there will never co a day when I do not stand resolute in my chosen course. That is part of who I currently am.”
The other Scarlett regarded her in silence, then inclined her head with a slow nod. “That, at the very least, I can respect.”
A series of deafening crashes echoed as more of the Anomalous One’s tendrils slamd into the hillside, their forms quickly rising as more monsters advanced towards Scarlett and her allies. Scarlett was once again forced to turn her full attention to the battle, falling into a tight rhythm with the others as they worked to repel the creatures. Yet with every passing mont, she could feel the Anomalous One’s hold tightening on the mory, its presence bleeding through the scene like ink on parchnt. If it fully overtook this mory, she doubted there would be any reclaiming it. The Anomalous One would anchor itself here, gaining a direct connection to the Rising Isle through the Hall of Echoes.
As she fought, a thought nagged at the back of her mind. When she received Thainnith’s legacy, she had glimpsed a vision of this scene. But it hadn’t been quite like this, had it? One detail stood out, distinctly different.
From experience, she knew that creating a mory didn’t grant its creator absolute control. If anything, a mory was more like a stage production — a structured reenactnt woven from events that had once transpired, drawn from sowhere beyond this world. While deviations could occur—she’d seen that with Vail’s unexpected appearance—mories generally seed to follow a defined course, a narrative that sought to play out as intended.
So even if she couldn’t break this mory, maybe…just maybe, she could buy so ti by steering it back to its proper path.
Turning to Gaspar, she spoke quickly. “I need a mont. Hold them at bay for as long as you can.”
The man’s brows furrowed. “What are you planning?”
“There is no ti for explanations.”
He hesitated, then gave a tight nod, signalling to Magister Penney and the other wizards. Together, they stepped forward, forming a line of defence as determination hardened their expressions despite the exhaustion written across their faces. Scarlett could see them drawing on the last dregs of their strength as they prepared to shield her.
Wasting no ti, Scarlett turned her focus inward, shutting out the chaos of the battle. At the sa ti, her eyes searched the grey-streaked sky, scanning the rifts scattered across it like scars. Her gaze settled on one huge rift dominating the horizon, stretching from one end of the city to the other. Drawing deeply on her mana, she conjured a wave of flas and directed them towards the rift, pushing her power as far as it would go.
The rift resisted her influence, recoiling against her magic. Even as she tried tapping into the strange, intangible connection left behind by Thainnith’s legacy—that echo of the Anomalous One’s own power—she couldn’t force it to yield. Gritting her teeth, Scarlett adjusted her approach, releasing the forceful grip of her magic and instead gently nudging the rift, trying to coax it open rather than forcing it to surrender.
She wasn’t sure how much ti passed, but eventually, the resistance softened. The mory itself seed to respond, aligning with her efforts. The rift widened, revealing even more of the endless, blank whiteness beyond. Her flas suffused the opening, casting it in a deep crimson light. Reaching deeper, Scarlett sought a connection she wasn’t even certain existed. When she found it, relief surged through her.
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A torrent of mana left her, mingling with sothing powerful and imnse that she couldn’t even begin defining. The rift expanded further, and within its depths, a colossal silhouette began to take shape — indistinct at first, like a creature caught in the liminal space between worlds. Gradually, its form grew more defined, consolidating into enormous wings that unfurled like the arms of a slumbering titan.
And then, from the heart of the rift, a dragon erged.
Its massive body stretched across the sky, each scale a gleaming slab of iridescent hues that glinted like fractured crystals. Its underbelly glead with a pearly white brilliance, and its jaw parted in a silent roar that vibrated through the air. Horns spiralled from its head like obsidian spires, and its molten eyes blazed with an ancient light. Spines the size of towers lined its back, and as it spread its wings, it blotted out what little light remained, plunging vast swaths of the city into shadow.
Had the Anomalous One not been so imnse, Scarlett might have doubted that any single creature could grow to such an unimaginable size.
“Is that…?” Gaspar’s voice trailed off as he and everyone else stared at the dragon in stunned silence.
Scarlett nodded. “Olgolzkreh, Lord of the White. An ancient dragon — and the one that will one day co to be known as the ‘Dragon of Devastation’.”
Now, with this, the scene mirrored the vision she’d once seen.
Scarlett spared a glance at the unconscious Fynn. Perhaps it was just as well that he wasn’t awake to witness the battle about to unfold.
The dragon launched itself at the Anomalous One, roaring with a force that shook the city’s very foundations. When the two behemoths collided, the warped cityscape below seed to stabilise, if only montarily. Olgolzkreh’s fangs tore into the Anomalous One’s amorphous form, forcing it to recoil in a twisting mass of dark energy. For the first ti, Scarlett saw the Anomalous One falter, even if only slightly — a small victory that nonetheless kindled more than a flicker of hope within her.
Allyssa tore her gaze from the surreal sight and stared at Scarlett in disbelief. “Did you just…summon the Dragon of Devastation?”
Scarlett looked at her, then at Rosa. The bard appeared just as stunned as the rest.
…If they made it out of this, she had a feeling her reputation was going to grow far more annoying to manage. She would need to do sothing about that.
“I…I am at a loss for words,” Gaspar murmured, shaking his head as he looked between Scarlett and her doppelganger. “Who—no, what—are you?”
Scarlett t his gaze evenly. “I am Scarlett Hartford.”
Another roar split the air as Olgolzkreh and the Anomalous One clashed, their impact rattling the ground beneath. The dragon’s claws raked deep into the entity, exposing patches of squirming grey void beneath. The creatures advancing on Scarlett’s party slowed, so faltering completely.
But even as the dragon fought with a power beyond almost any mortal’s reach, the Anomalous One seed to recover, retaliating with equal force. Tendrils of dark-grey energy erupted from its mass and from the rifts in the sky, winding around the dragon’s wings and attempting to pierce its scales, even as the Anomalous One’s presence warped the space around it and gnawed at the dragon’s essence.
Olgolzkreh wrenched free, rearing its head back to unleash a torrent of icy fury. The breath swallowed the Anomalous One, flash-freezing the ground below and leaving pockets of jagged craters in its wake. Yet, despite the devastating power, the Anomalous One was barely affected. Its amorphous form absorbed the frozen parts of its body as it retaliated, tendrils lashing out towards the dragon.
“A valiant attempt,” the other Scarlett said. “You continue to surprise with your skill in wielding borrowed power. Nonetheless, this alone will not be enough. The outco of today’s events was decided long before now. rely restoring what once was will not alter that.”
“…I suspected as much,” Scarlett replied under her breath.
While Olgolzkreh would without a doubt survive this battle, she’d doubted the dragon could truly vanquish the Anomalous One. Watching the titanic struggle unfold, the land trembled beneath their feet as waves of force rippled outward. The dragon’s gleaming scales deflected many of the Anomalous One’s attacks, but as the fight drew on, the outco was becoming evident. In a war of attrition, the Anomalous One would inevitably prevail. Whatever damage Olgolzkreh inflicted, the entity simply regenerated. Worse still, while the Anomalous One’s influence had slowed with the dragon’s arrival, it was slowly creeping ever outward, its tendrils growing thicker and more nurous each ti they ensnared the dragon.
Below, the creatures that had stalled eventually began to move again. Scarlett turned her focus back to defending their group. Waves of fire and water rose up to fend off the creatures, but she felt the strain of her earlier efforts. Bringing Olgolzkreh into this mory had drained her. She couldn’t afford to expend much more magic.
Gaspar and the other wizards were in similar states. Many had already collapsed from overexertion, while those still standing were visibly struggling to cast even basic spells. They were holding on, but this couldn’t continue.
To truly change the course of events, they needed sothing more. More than Scarlett could muster with her own power or Thainnith’s legacy. But what?
Hints of despair tugged at the edges of her thoughts, creeping in like shadows, but Scarlett refused to let them take hold. She combed through every possibility in her mind. Her gaze briefly flickered to Olgolzkreh, the dragon’s roars cutting through the air as it clashed with the Anomalous One.
If there was a way, she would find it. She had to. Call it responsibility, instinct, or duty — whatever it was, the burden was on her. To ensure they all saw it safely through this.
Suddenly, a brilliant red blaze lit up a distant section of the grey-tinged sky. Gaspar shouted a warning, and Scarlett’s strained mind registered a streak of crimson fire hurtling towards them like a falling star. Reacting instinctively, she raised her hands, attempting to summon a barrier before it was too late — but before she could, the fiery streak struck the ground in front of them.
A shockwave of living fla exploded outward, consuming the hillside in an instant. The fire surged like a ravenous predator, sweeping through the Anomalous One’s creatures. They disintegrated into ash almost instantly, the flas devouring even the lingering traces of their forms. Smoke billowed upward, casting a strange, spectral glow over the battlefield.
The sudden, destructive force left everyone stunned. Scarlett stared, her gaze tracing the path of the attack to a distant hill. There, erging from one of the white rifts, were faint, shadowed figures.
“Always…these unpredictable elents,” the other Scarlett muttered beside her.
The air shimred before them, a ripple forming as space itself seed to part. Through the tear, a vision of an ashen sky with flas licking a boundless horizon could be glimpsed. Three figures erged from it.
The first was a tall woman in pristine white robes, her face obscured by a deep hood. Beside her stood a man with combed auburn hair retreating slightly at the temples, his bright green eyes sharp and his beard neatly kept. He carried an intricately carved staff. At the forefront was a woman dressed in dark robes, her raven-black hair falling in straight locks past her shoulders, with a stark streak of white above her left temple. Her pale green eyes, touched with faint lines and shadows, held an intensity that felt almost piercing. Two beauty marks adorned her skin beneath her right eye. She carried a dagger that seed forged from molten lava, its blade glowing faintly.
Scarlett stared at the woman. “…Arlene.”
The woman’s pale green eyes t hers, and a small, knowing smile ford on her lips. “It looked like you could use so help,” Arlene said lightly. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”
Her words were punctuated by another booming howl from Olgolzkreh as the dragon continued its fierce battle with the Anomalous One.
“In all my years, I have never seen a spectacle quite like this,” the man behind Arlene spoke in a asured, dignified tone. His gaze swept over the city and the chaotic clash above. “An ancient dragon, here? And hovering over a genuine Zuverian city?” He shook his head slowly. “Where in Ittar’s na are we?”
Scarlett’s attention shifted to him, and recognition dawned. It was Delmont.
“While I certainly understand your interest, Delmont, I’d say this is far from the best ti for answers,” Arlene said without looking at him, stepping forward to assess the battlefield.
Delmont glanced at her, studying her face for a few seconds. For the first ti, Scarlett noticed the age etched into his features. He looked several years older than Arlene now, a reversal of how she rembered them.
“I suppose you are right,” the man finally replied. His gaze held an odd mixture of relief and sorrow. “…I’ll consider myself fortunate just to see you like this again, Arlene. It has been far too long.”
Arlene’s smile softened, genuine warmth lighting her expression as she turned to him. “It has. Though it seems you’ve aged far more than you had any right to. And when did you start losing your hair?” She gave him an appraising look. “Elisa must have had quite a bit to say about that.”
Delmont’s brow furrowed slightly as he touched a hand to his temple. “…At least I haven’t gone grey like a certain sister of mine.”
“White, actually,” Arlene said with a chuckle. “But fair enough.”
The exchange had the attention of everyone around them. Scarlett’s party, along with the wizards, simply stared. Gaspar appeared particularly shaken.
He turned to Scarlett, stepping closer to her, his voice almost a whisper. “Are my ears playing tricks on , or did she just call him…Delmont?”
Scarlett simply nodded, most of her attention still on Arlene. Questions and concerns swirled through her mind, but she tried holding them back, knowing there were more pressing matters at hand. It wasn’t easy, though.
“Impossible,” Gaspar murmured, seemingly mostly to himself. “He looks exactly like… And that spell earlier — not even my father…”
Scarlett stepped forward. “Arlene…” she began. “…Are you—”
Before she could finish, Arlene’s attention shifted to the white-robed figure that had arrived with her. The figure’s gaze was turned skyward, watching the battle between Olgolzkreh and the Anomalous One.
“This looks dire, wouldn’t you agree, neth?” Arlene asked.
Scarlett blinked, pausing at hearing the na. It was unfamiliar to her, at first. Then, a notion—an image—sprang forth in her mind, courtesy of the legacy.
“…I never expected to witness such a sight again, yet here it is,” the robed woman said in a thin, almost lancholic voice. Her focus fixed on the dragon’s gargantuan form. “Olgolzkreh will not erge victorious today. Iradartis will fall once again. Events of the past seem determined to repeat themselves…perhaps with graver consequences this ti.”
Scarlett stared at the woman, then at Arlene. “…What did you call her?”
The robed figure—neth—turned towards Scarlett with graceful yet almost otherworldly movents. The hood obscured most of her face, but Scarlett caught a glimpse of pale, nearly translucent skin frad by elongated, pointed ears, with delicate, arching brows and a pair of milky white eyes, unfocused and distant.
“Impossible…” Scarlett breathed. “How…?”
A Zuver. The woman was a Zuver. But they were supposed to be gone, with only three left — no, that wasn’t it. It wasn’t just that neth was a Zuver. Her na. That na belonged to one of the divinarchs, the near-mythic beings who had once ruled among the Zuverian civilisation.
neth’s lips quirked in a faint, curious smile. “And who is this, Arlene?”
Arlene eyed the ‘divinarch’ briefly, then looked at Scarlett. “She is my student.”
For a mont, Scarlett was genuinely speechless.
“Your student?” neth’s eyebrows rose slightly, surprise flickering across her otherwise serene expression. “I never imagined you would take on a student.” Her clouded eyes remained on Scarlett. “You are a difficult one to see,” she said thoughtfully. “But…you have been touched by Thainnith? I cannot fathom how that ca to be, yet… It gives hope.”
Scarlett’s gaze darted between the woman and Arlene, her mind racing to process all the implications here. Even more questions burned within her, countless thoughts vying for her attention to the point where she couldn’t settle on a single one to voice.
“Not to intrude,” Allyssa began, her tone a blend of bewildernt and urgency. “I don’t really understand what’s going on, but you’re here to help, right? If so, can you…help us with that?” She pointed to the Anomalous One as its shapeless limbs and tendrils entwined around one of Olgolzkreh’s wings.
neth turned to Arlene, a gentle smile now gracing her lips. “Such a straightforward child. Unfortunately, my days of direct intervention are long past. But…” She gestured towards Arlene and Delmont. “My friends, however, are more than capable.”
All eyes shifted to Arlene, who had returned to surveying the battlefield with the calm determination of one preparing for an oncoming storm. Across the hillside, new creatures began to erge from the thickening grey haze that bled from the Anomalous One. Almost as if stirred by these newcors, they moved with a renewed ferocity.
Arlene’s voice pierced through the rising tension. “Delmont,” she said without turning. “I will need so ti. Can you hold them back?”
Delmont gave her a long, careful look, then nodded. “Yes,” he replied. “…Though I would appreciate it if you could answer a few questions after this, if that’s possible.”
“…We shall see.”
Delmont raised his staff, gripping it with both hands. With one deft motion, an array of fiery runes ignited around their group, weaving into an intricate lattice of protective flas. At its center, a set of rotating glyphs flared in a series of controlled explosions, and with each, a creature ignited in searing bursts. The execution looked deceptively simple, almost mundane, but the sheer force of the magic drew audible gasps from the wizard onlookers, Gaspar among them.
Arlene glanced back at neth. “Are you ready?”
The robed woman inclined her head. “I am.”
“Wait,” Scarlett interjected. “There is sothing I must know.”
Arlene turned to her. “…I know you have questions,” she said, with a hint of regret colouring her tone. “Believe , I wish I could answer them all. But right now, as things are…” Her gaze shifted to the battlefield, where the Anomalous One’s tendrils were binding one of Olgolzkreh’s wings and snaking towards their group.“…No. there isn’t ti.”
The tendrils slamd into Delmont’s net of runes and flas, which contracted and flashed in response, incinerating the attacking limbs. anwhile, more and more creatures surged forward, but Delmont layered additional spells that continued to repel them.
As Arlene held Scarlett’s gaze for a mont longer. “I cannot say whether I was ever a good teacher. In all honesty, I may have only added to your burdens in ways you do not even realise.” A rare, sober expression softened her features. “It’s remarkable that, after deciding to carry the weight of everything I left unresolved—along with so much else—you still stand here with the sa determination. Do you yourself even comprehend how much it is that you force yourself to bear? And you do so with more strength than I could have ever had.”
Scarlett looked at her. The way Arlene spoke… It was as though she actually knew of the things Scarlett had done outside Freyadow, which…she shouldn’t.
More questions burned at the forefront of Scarlett’s mind, but Arlene continued, her voice quiet but firm. “Just this once,” she said, with what might actually have been a warm smile touching her lips, “release yourself from the idea that you must handle everything yourself. This ti, leave it to . It’s the least a teacher can do for her student, particularly one as stubborn as you.” She inhaled deeply, the air around her humming with energy. “I’m not quite saying goodbye, mind you — but if you wish, you may think of this as a final lesson.”
neth stepped forward and placed her palm on Arlene’s back. A soft, ethereal light radiated from her palm, its glow spreading outward. More gasps left the surrounding wizards, and even Scarlett was surprised. She was terrible at perceiving these things, but it seed to her that the woman was starting to channel mana into Arlene — a feat that Scarlett had heard was supposedly impossible.
Arlene closed her eyes and began casting her spell. Quiet, deliberate words fell from her lips. Words of power. Each word was an arcane key, unlocking a strange energy that grew stronger with every utterance.
Scarlett quickly realised what was happening. It was sothing she recognised, after all, even if she had never truly witnessed it firsthand. The sheer magnitude of the magic being woven was almost tangible.
The Anomalous One, too, seed to sense the gathering power. Its attacks redoubled, its colossal form releasing Olgolzkreh entirely to focus on this new threat. More tendrils lashed out in greater numbers, hamring against Delmon’s fiery defences with relentless force. Runes flared, resisting the strikes, even as Delmont grit his teeth and poured all of his mana into the barrier.
The urgency of the situation spurred those standing still into action. The Isle wizards, Scarlett’s party, and even the exhausted Gaspar joined the fight, throwing every last reserve of strength into fending off the advancing creatures and buying Arlene ti. Scarlett herself worked to conserve what remained of her mana, drawing upon the remnants of Allyssa’s ice to create spears of water that pierced one creature after another.
Arlene’s chanting grew louder, her voice imbued with a primordial power that seed to defy the limits of the reality around them. Or, rather than defying, they reinforced that reality, as if by so hidden, unspoken law. Slowly, gradually, flas began to spiral around her hands, expanding outward in large arcs, their heat shimring in waves as neth continued to feed her mana. The flow of power beca so intense that it was visible even to the untrained eye — a brilliant, blinding stream of energy connecting the two won, making Scarlett question exactly how much mana the Zuver woman held within her.
A thunderous rupture echoed as Olgolzkreh completely broke free from the Anomalous One’s grip. The dragon roared, releasing another massive blast of frost that cascaded across the sky. But the Anomalous One ignored the dragon now, focusing its full attention on Arlene. Its massive form twisted violently, a rain of shadowed tendrils shooting towards her.
Through it all, Arlene continued her spell. High above, the spiraling flas she had summoned converged, forming a single, blazing star that pulsed with a radiant orange light. The heat it radiated was so intense that it warped the air, distorting the space around it. Complex runes etched themselves into the fiery core, patterns so intricate they were impossible to make out.
The Anomalous One unleashed a final, frenzied barrage, clashing endlessly against Delmont’s spells. With each subsequent impact, the barrier was pushed further and further, nearing its limits. Dark energy churned and reford in a relentless cycle, clawing at the edges of the spell, desperate to stop what was coming.
And then, with a single, resolute word, Arlene released her spell.
A blinding curtain of power unfurled as countless fiery arcs burst forth from the blazing star above, flooding the sky with a brilliant inferno of red and orange. The flas spiralled and surged, twisting through the air like molten rivers, lting and scorching everything in their wake. Even the very air seed to ignite, and for a fleeting mont, it felt as though the heavens themselves had unleashed a final, unstoppable force — a cataclysm of fire that devoured all.
And it all descended upon the Anomalous One.
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