The quill began to write. Faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, and faster.
Ink flowed like a river; the page became black. Letters were birthed. The story was finished. The tale was about to come to an end.
Susie Nyx's story had been written out.
The quill deemed it so.
Her death had been forged on the blank page, created in ink. A tale that corrected the pond of fate, a tale that would lead to Rome. She would die, and nothing would be able to prevent that event. Not even Davi Hawker-
"Davi Hawker?"
In a cold stone tower, in an icy room, a hand that gripped the quill suddenly stopped writing upon the page. Adam Hawker blinked and stared down at the story he had been writing out.
"Susie Nyx will die at the hands of the Lord of Thread, while Davi Hawker fails to save her." He clicked his tongue as he read the words. "So, he's there? That's right. I guess he would be." Adam leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh as he stared up at the roof above. "I suppose I should meet him." Slowly, he closed his book and pocketed his quill. "It's about time that Adam Hawker and Davi Hawker come face-to-face."
A story that had been written out suddenly stopped. The quill was put down, and the rest of the page was left blank.
It was now time for a new tale.
***
Meanwhile, back in Daisy…
The Lord of Threads wasn't as well-known as the Ebony Knight, but many people still grew up hearing tales about him. What started as a legend in Rossum quickly spread to the rest of the world.
Most people didn't know what the Lord of Threads looked like. This was especially the case when it came to Esteria.
Despite having no idea what he really looked like, everyone in Daisy all came to the same conclusion. The elderly man who landed on the ground was, without a doubt, the Lord of Threads. This was the monster they had grown up hearing stories about. A threat that came from Rossum, which some feared could be as great as the Ebony Knight. A nightmare made real.
He looked a bit unassuming at first glance. He wore long robes that hugged his body tightly, which were made in the typical Rossum elite fashion. They were a mix between a martial arts gi and a noble's gown. His skin was old and full of wrinkles, yet he was still tall and muscular, showing a life that followed the traditions of martial arts. Any color in his hair was long gone, nothing but a grey being left behind, and he had a long beard that separated into two sections as it fell down his face. A wooden puppet, made in the image of a snake, was wrapped around his body, and he lazily petted it as he stalked forward.
Stories always depicted him as a horrible monster. A creature of unholy origin that would rip through hordes of people. Somehow, him looking like an elderly man came off as even more creepy.
Susie shivered when his eyes turned to her. They were the only part of him that wasn't normal. A pair of black, oily orbs that held no color. As those eyes met hers, the image of the old man before her flickered. It was less than a second, but for the briefest bit of time, she swore that he was gone and in his place, a mass of tentacles had appeared, all pulsating and squirting out a black, ink-like substance. The sight of that nearly made her vomit, but then, as soon as it was there, it was gone, and the old man was back where he belonged.
She must not have been the only one who saw his twisted form, as several of the citizens all screamed in horror, as did the guards. Alice's face had turned pale, and her body was shaking, while Suits was on his knees and praying.
The Lord of Threads stayed several meters away from the crowd of humans, and all of his puppets ceased their fighting. An ominous silence filled Daisy, and one hand tugged on his beard while the other scratched at the chin of his snake puppet.
"How interesting. A place like this is vastly different from the towns in Rossum." The Lord of Thread's voice wasn't loud, but it also wasn't quiet. He spoke in a casual tone, the same way a person might talk about the weather. "I imagine this town looked far better before I dropped my bombs on it. Alas, you can blame it all on her."
"M-Me?" Susie breathed out in horror as his gaze fixed on her once more, and the crowd all stared at her.
"Yes." The Lord of Threads nodded and clasped his hands behind his back. "Regrettably, your existence is one that should not be. I am afraid you were someone who should have died long ago, but because of the meddling of the Great Dragon of Roads, you have survived to see today. Tell me, do you know what the butterfly effect is?" The Lord of Threads hummed to himself and lifted a finger; a wooden puppet, made to look like a butterfly, landed on the tip of it. "The butterfly effect is the belief that even a small event can lead to something drastic happening. The world that we know was created by a series of events, one after the other. Maybe you can call it fate or destiny, but there was supposed to be an outcome, one that didn't happen. Our world changed, and we discovered why. Seven butterflies… Seven people who should have died simply did not, and so with each flap of their wings, small ripples and changes occurred. Tiny events that were never meant to be written, which spread and grew, and thus an event foretold simply became skipped over. Who knows what else your existence brings? You have become a problem that I must deal with."
Susie felt sick. A chill crawled up her spine, and her knees grew weak. That Grim Reaper robot had said something similar, but she hadn't paid much attention at the time. Hearing it come out of this old monster's mouth was something else, because she knew that even if he was wrong, he himself believed that he was right.
Susie stared out at Daisy with hollow eyes. Buildings had collapsed, the street was scorched, the wall had come down, and people were dead. Men. Women. Children. Lives all snuffed out. All because of her.
The Lord of Threads had killed her people. Weakly, she glanced back at the carriages, and her eyes met Hannah's. Her friend was in one, standing with her mother. Susie finally looked back at the Lord of Threads.
"Y-You did this all because of me? You killed so many people, just for me?"
"Yes." The Lord of Thread's hand wrapped around the wooden butterfly that had landed on his finger, and he squeezed down, crushing it. "Each flap of your wings, each moment you exist, you create a new effect and an event, and those ripple out and cause a shift in the pond that is fate. Seven of you defied death. We already killed one of you, leaving just six left. Today, when I am done, there will only be five left."
Susie shook her head and felt tears in her eyes. "You're a monster!"
"Yes."
"You're a horrible person!"
"Yes."
"Y-You're killing innocent people! Why? If you just wanted me dead, why didn't you just come and kill me?"
"This way was quicker." The Lord of Threads shrugged. "Dropping bombs meant I had a good chance at killing you right from the get-go. Of course, you survived because your existence is on a level beyond normal mortals, hence why I sent my puppets in. I am shocked you survived that wave, though. I know that the false story is trying to help you out, but I never imagined it would ensure you survived until this point." The Lord of Threads clicked his tongue. "I am here now, and Adam's story should be written out, so now nothing will be keeping you safe. Kill her."
The puppets all started to shuffle forward. Slow at first, but then they sped up, the sound of static filling the air. Susie raised her hands and was about to blast the dolls away, but she stopped.
Her shoulders grew rigid, and her arms dropped to her side as her eyes fell downcast. There was no point. She just wanted this nightmare to end.
"Row Light Ageis!" One of the puppets swung down, and Susie watched as the claws tore through the air. At the last second before the claw could meet her flesh, a barrier of light shimmered into existence. "Not on my watch!" Alice appeared as soon as the puppet's attack was deflected. She swung her fist and smashed it into the doll, hitting it hard enough to vaporize it. "No one else is dying on my watch."
"Really?" The Lord of Threads squinted as he stared at Alice. "I hate liars. Kill her."
Alice created another barrier around the crowd, but one of the Grim Reaper puppets surged forward, and its scythe easily tore through her defense. She punched it hard enough to send it blasting back, but then Alice screamed in pain as a second one rammed its scythe into her side. Pain flooded her system, but before she could even think of reacting, the third and final one was on her and stabbed her in the gut.
Both puppets tore their weapons out of her body, and her white coat was rapidly stained red. Alice gasped and felt her legs give out, and she collapsed to her knees.
One of the Grim Reaper puppets lifted its scythe and went to bring it down on her head, but before it could, an orb of golden energy smashed into the side of its head. The orb kept pushing, and the doll was shoved back, but it withstood the explosion and shook its head. The other one twisted around and glared at Susie, who began to fire off more orbs, but its scythe easily reaped her attacks and got rid of them.
"Row Earth Spike!" From the carriage, Hannah managed to dangle her wand out, and she fired out a jagged spike of rock, which knocked the puppet off balance right before it could charge at Susie.
The other guards began to fire off their own spells, and some even carried rifles that hurled bullets, but no one was able to harm the Grim Reaper puppets. All they could do was slow them down. While this happened, Suits used his metal magic to create a large ramp and bridge that went over the horde of wooden dolls that blocked the entrance.
As he did this, Susie ran over to Alice and grabbed the older lady, dragging her toward a carriage. The metal horses were all getting ready to take off, and the Lord of Threads watched it all happen with a bored expression.
"Why are they even trying?" He cocked his head to the side and tried to understand it. "They struggle on despite not having a chance to make it out of here alive. They almost remind me of…" The Lord of Threads shook his head. "No. This isn't the time to allow myself to be distracted." He chuckled and looked up to the sky above. The eye stared down at him, and his face twisted into a grin as he threw his arms out. "They wish to live, but they can not. Inyeon! Come and help me put everything back to how it should be!"
A stream of red began to spill from the eye, and it became bloodshot. It rapidly blinked, and more cracks began to fill the void above. Those cracks expanded and opened into more bloodshot eyes, all of which cried a river of ichor. Hundreds of them appeared, and the final crack began to grow, getting bigger and bigger, before it split open into the image of a screaming mouth filled with jagged teeth.
A horrible wailing noise erupted from it. It sounds like hundreds of crying and screaming babies, and the noise spilled together into a harmony of despair and demise. Blobs of flesh began to come down, forming into a tongue that was wrapped around something. The flesh got lower and lower to the ground until the tongue was able to touch it, and then it began to pulsate and twitch, pulling away, revealing another puppet.
Unlike the others, this particular puppet actually resembled a human. At first glance, one might even mistake her for a real person. She had flawless skin and a gorgeous face. Raven hair fell down her back and was tied off near the bottom, and she was dressed in a pure white bridal kimono. A lone lily flower was also tucked in her hair, and she gave off a divine beauty.
Indeed, she truly looked human, but as Susie stared closer, she was able to see the signs that proved this thing was nothing more than a construct. Where joints should have been, such as the elbows or the knees, there were gaps, with twisting wires and small plates of metal that covered them. This included places like on her fingers.
That wasn't all. She had a kind smile on her face, but her eyes were as dead and fake as they came. They didn't blink, and they didn't stare or react either. They simply were. The final giveaway was that various red strings were connected to her body, all along the joints, and those red strings went up into the air and entered the gaping mouth above.
"Hello." An extremely soft and delicate voice came out of the female puppet. Gently, she raised her hand. "Goodbye." A mass of dark energy formed at the tip of her finger, and she spoke a single spell. "Row Nuclear Blast."
And the force of a nuke went off in Daisy…
The power of nuclear fission, as well as nuclear fusion, was not something that could be replicated easily, other than by Gallenth. The process to turn chaotic mana into a pure type of mana involved altering a state of energy that went beyond the molecular level. Naturally, when energy shifted states and was forced to change its very property, this would generate a tremendous amount of force.
For most, this force happened within their inner world, which was infinite in size, and so that force would go off in a realm that could not be harmed. For those with Golden Cores, their infinite realm was filled with an endless amount of mass, and as such, the force couldn't fit and would instead occur outside of the body.
This is the process that would create the golden orbs that exploded. In actuality, those orbs were made out of compressed waves of force that would detonate upon hitting a target.
As this process became better understood by users of Golden Cores, a new magic type began to appear. One found only in Gallenth. Nuclear magic fell into various kinds of the magical field. It was part of the Fire, Dark, Light, and even Earth types of magic. It is the only type of magic that is able to exist in more than two different categories at once and also is the only type of magic that requires a specific Core, as only those with a Golden Core can have a chance to be blessed with Nuclear magic.
Already being blessed with a Golden Core is extremely rare, but to then also possess this Godly magic would be the equivalent of being the one percent amongst the one percent. It was known that Nuclear magic was potent, as it would create a massive explosive force of radiated energy that would rapidly split and heat up molecules. Even a Row-level spell held as much power as a Vow-level spell in most other fields of magic.
The power of a nuke was indeed devastating. This was the power the puppet known as Inyeon wielded. She was the Lord of Threads' strongest creation and his prized possession.
What truly made the threat of nukes dangerous, however, was the fact that Gallenth was known to have them stored up and was the sole nation that possessed them. The only reason they weren't a superpower was that one more nuclear bomb existed, one that put all the ones in Gallenth to shame, as this bomb had been handcrafted by Haru herself and was considered to be the king's greatest weapon.
A single weapon that could compete with all of Gallenth's bombs and would ensure absolute, mutual destruction.
This was the power that just went off in Daisy.
This was why the Lord of Threads was utterly shocked when the explosion went off, but everyone was still alive, and Daisy wasn't a crater in the ground.
"Why is this city still standing?" The Lord of Threads frowned. "And who are you?"
Someone new stood before the crowd. Someone who wore golden armor with black crackling lightning zapping off their form. A black oni mask also covered their face, and a long, scaled tail whipped out behind them as they gripped two spears, one in each hand.
This person was, of course, Sieg, who was already donning his Electric-Shadow armor. "Looks like I made it just in time." Sieg let out a sigh of relief. "Talk about cutting it close-"
Inyeon pointed her finger once again. "Row Nuclear Blast."
"Row Electric-Shadow Vault!"
The blast was generated, and a flash filled the town, but before the nuclear bomb could blow up, a massive bolt of lightning dropped from the sky, and just like that, the energy was gone, being dragged into the thunderbolt, where it exploded somewhere else.
The flash of light generated by the explosion was, of course, something that did move at the speed of light and therefore was impossible to dodge; however, the explosion itself was something that would have to actually travel, and it didn't move at the speed of light, being far slower.
The blast itself could travel up to twelve miles in just fifty seconds. This was impressive, but nowhere near the speed of lightning, which could travel twelve miles in under five seconds.
In other words, Inyeon's explosion was just too slow.
Inyeon let out a sigh. "You can stop it?" She sounded slightly annoyed.
"He can stop it?" The Lord of Threads said in shock.
"I can stop it," Sieg smirked.
Inyeon twisted her hand and rotated it. "Row Nuclear Sword." There was a shimmer, and a strand of twisting foul energy formed into a helix-shaped object that looked like strands of DNA that swirled around on the handle of a sword, forming into a bizarre-looking blade. "I guess I'll just flash fry you the old-fashioned way."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Sieg called out.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. Take another step, and your master dies."
Inyeon stared at him blankly, then turned to glance back at the Lord of Threads. The elderly man stood perfectly still as a person in ebony black armor stood behind them, keeping their sword pressed to the man's throat.
Davi stared back at Inyeon with an equally blank look. "Sup. Take another step, and this guy dies."
Dav and Sieg Hawker were finally working together, and both of them already knew the plan.
They just had to win.