It was furious.
Dark flames grew greater and fiercer from its armour, crawling over it like something alive. The heat pressed against the ruins, warping the air until even distance felt broken.
My brain couldn't keep up with it. Its behaviour, its movements, its next course of action- none of it made sense anymore.
However, the only thing I knew was this.
One of us had to survive.
I grabbed her shoulders and forced her terrified eyes to meet mine, shaking her awake.
"Stanislaus!! Look at me! Go and bring the others!"
She trembled in fear, her stubborn look completely gone now- replaced with tears and snot.
"B-but…"
"No buts! JUST GO!!"
The moment I let go, she bolted without looking back, disappearing into the burning ruins.
"There is no point in doing that," it uttered with twisted joy. "She will soon join you."
Its trident shifted.
My pupils locked onto it.
And I moved first.
(TOMB.)
The instant I called her name, she answered.
A brilliant yellow light erupted in my grip as Tomb glowed.
My vision blurred.
Tears dripped down, mixing with sweat and grime until my face burned with salt.
My legs refused to move.
I was standing there- shaking like an almiraj in front of something that had already decided the ending.
It screeched.
And laughed.
The sound rolled across the battlefield like breaking glass, like metal scraping bone.
My body trembled harder.
[Aniel.]
(?!)
[I'm here.]
(Tomb…I'll die…)
[Then don't stand there waiting for it. At least die fighting.]
I sniffled hard and tightened my grip.
Yeah.
That was it.
No miracle.
I took a stance.
My boots scraped the shattered ground, stone grinding under pressure as I lowered my center of gravity.
The air felt heavier.
The heat sharper.
My mana…almost nothing.
No agility stones. No stamina stones.
Nothing.
I came empty-handed into a war I wasn't supposed to survive.
Still, I forced what little mana I had into Tomb.
The spear flared.
Golden light surged up her shaft like explosion.
It burned through me.
Mana tore through my veins like wildfire, forcing my senses awake. My vision sharpened violently.
My feet dug in.
And I launched.
The ground exploded beneath me.
***
Her breathing shattered into fragments.
Each inhale felt like glass cutting her lungs.
The knight didn't move.
It didn't need to.
The black liquid around it moved for it, like waves crashing down on her.
Aniel sprinted straight into the inferno.
Heat clawed at her back, biting through skin and cloth, but she didn't stop.
Because she knew death was closer than ever today.
The liquid struck.
A massive wave crashed down from the sky like a collapsing ocean.
"TOMB!!"
She swung.
'KRAAAAAAAANGGGG!!'
The collision detonated across the battlefield.
Sparks and golden fragments exploded outward, lighting up the smoke like and igniting the fire to grow larger.
The tar didn't break.
It shifted.
It hardened mid-impact, compressing into blade-like shapes, twisting the strike back at her.
Her arms shook violently.
The knight attacked again.
Another wave.
Then another.
Then, the sky itself felt like it was falling.
"Ehhhhh!!"
Aniel thrust upward.
Golden mana erupted from Tomb and pierced through the descending mass.
The impact ripped the air apart.
But the force still threw her back.
She skidded through rubble, boots carving trenches into broken stone.
Her pupils shook.
Her body was about to give up.
She spun.
Once.
Twice.
Tomb screamed through the air.
KSHHHH!
TAACK!
SHHNNNG!
Tomb lit the battlefield in strobing flashes of gold and black.
She moved faster.
No rhythm.
Just survival.
The knight remained still, like it was watching something beneath its interest.
Its hand barely moved.
And yet the tar responded like a living execution.
It didn't attack her.
It closed in.
Layer after layer.
Angle after angle.
Like a cage being built in real time.
Aniel ducked under a sweeping strike.
'KRRRRRRRRRR'
But the next wave caught her mid-movement.
'BOOM'
Her body was launched.
Stone shattered on impact.
Blood burst from her mouth as she hit the ruins hard enough to break them further.
Silence filled the air for a second before her heartbeat broke it.
She forced herself up and tge pain in her body din't feel real. It was exhausting, her body on flames and her lungs were filled with smog and ember salts.
Her legs screamed.
Her spine burned.
But she still jumped.
Straight into the air.
She poured everything she had left into Tomb.
Dark navy blue mana erupted around the spear, unstable and violent, like it was trying to escape her control.
(Tomb…take it all.)
The spear shook hard.
Like it was resisting the weight of what she was forcing into it.
The air bent.
The battlefield pressed inward and the flames erupted like a volcano.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
She plunged like falling comet, leaving a tail of mana behind her.
'KRRRRAAAAAAAAAAA!!'
The ground collapsed, fragments of tears ground jolted upwards.
A shockwave detonated outward, tearing dust, fire, and debris into a rolling storm that swallowed everything in sight.
The sound rolled across the ruins like an explosion, creating an impact going further and further like a shock wave.
Aniel coughed inside the black smoke, body trembling, ears ringing, vision fading in and out.
Her eyes searched through the collapsing dust and grains.
Trying to find it.
Before it found her first.