Deep beneath the earth, where light had long been forgotten, the void trembled.
Two beings descended without warning.
The first was an old man, his body suspended in midair, bound by an indescribable substance that looked neither like matter nor energy. It shimmered faintly, as though reality itself had been folded into chains. His golden teeth clattered as he struggled uselessly.
"Y–Young Master…" he cried, his voice hoarse with desperation.
Nearby, a veiled lady manifested beside Myrell. Her presence was quiet—too quiet—like a blade hidden beneath silk.
The old man's gaze shifted, and his breath caught.
He saw her.
A woman in red lay nearby, her body riddled with wounds, blood soaking into the fractured ground beneath her.
"Riessa—!"
The old man screamed, his voice cracking as he thrashed against his restraints.
Above them, unseen eyes seemed to observe.
The veiled lady slowly surveyed the underground chamber.
"Good preparations," she said calmly.
Her gaze flicked toward the old man.
"Stop shouting, dog."
She walked past him without another glance.
"They are not dying anyway."
Her steps carried her toward Veer's body.
He lay broken—no, destroyed. His flesh had been sliced into countless microscopic fragments, his form reduced to something that barely resembled a living being.
With a casual wave of her hand, the bound puppet vanished.
The air tore.
Void cuts rippled outward, and the puppet reappeared directly above Veer.
As the puppet's hollow gaze met Veer's lifeless eyes, thin, translucent strings emerged from its body.
They descended.
The strings stitched.
Piece by piece, Veer's shattered body was pulled together. Micro-sliced flesh rejoined with terrifying precision, bones aligning, organs reforming, blood flowing back into vessels that had ceased to exist moments ago.
The puppet seem to slowly lose some of its strength as the runes bound it more tightly as it emitted a scream.
Life was being forced back into him.
The lady then looked at the lady in red as she muttered,"A supreme interweaved soul hah.....Amazing...."
She gently touched the lady and red as she healed.....
Meanwhile the old man suddenly stopped screaming and paused as though he was unsure what he heard.
The he said loudly,"What !What do you mean.....?"
"She she is my ..."
The veiled lady just gave him a glance and didn't say anything.
The old man kept asking and screaming....
The veiled lady turned and flicked a small vial toward Myrell.
He caught it instinctively and drank without hesitation.
Power burned down his throat.
Her voice echoed throughout the underground, layered and distant, as though spoken by countless mouths at once.
"The transaction is complete. I will take them and the puppet—and prepare them in the dungeon."
She paused, then laughed softly.
Looking toward an unseen distance, she added,
"All the best… in your effort."
Suddenly, her expression shifted.
She tilted her head slightly, as if listening.
"…The Headless Church is already here."
With that, she vanished.
The puppet—now bound in glowing runes—the injured Veer,the woman in red and the restrained old man disappeared alongside her.
A whisper lingered in the void.
"Also… goodbye."
Myrell remained alone.
He coughed violently, blood spilling from his lips as he stared at the empty space they had left behind.
"Oh… the great prophet. The great messiah…"
His voice trembled.
"I have done everything you told me…"
The shadows stirred.
Bodies embedded within the darkness writhed. One of them twitched—then stood.
It stepped forward, its features slowly revealed.
Myrell's pupils shrank.
Something unseen occurred.
His body shattered.
Not exploded—separated. Piece by piece, his existence was dismantled as if dismantled by invisible hands.
At the center, an emerald rune crystal remained.
A hand reached out and grasped it.
"One collected…" a voice murmured.
.....
John and his team were moving at full speed.
The city around them was already unraveling.People were in panic. Clearly they already had an inkling of what was happening.
Nyelle stirred, her consciousness returning as she struggled to raise her head. She was still drowning in the last scene she saw before falling unconscious.
"John… before I lost consciousness…" she said hesitantly. "I think I saw someone disappearing with Noelle. She looked… terrified."
John did not slow.
Sythris fell into step beside him, her gaze sweeping the city.
""She deserved that."
There was no hesitation in his tone.
Then his tone hardened.
"I'm more worried about Caria. She was guarding the walls. If Eleana led the army…"
Marvis clenched his jaw.
The horses marched forward.
"I hope she's alive."
At the rear, Sethsi watched John and Sythris in silence, her thoughts tangled and restless.
The walls had fallen from where they arrived.
Around them, people poured from homes and shattered streets.
Mothers clutched crying children to their chests, faces pale with terror as they ran barefoot across blood‑stained stone. Old men were dragged along by trembling hands. Some carried what little they could—blankets, cracked icons, rusted swords that would never be used again.
"O king protect us"
"Just now at that restaurant everyone died...suddenly help..."
John and Sythris looked over to see the famiiliar restaurant area.
Sythris said,"John...this..."
Sethsi completed the sentence ,"This..lingering aura I ahve never felt before
Many people had already understood the war wasn't in their favour atleast.In many parts blue mages and supportin bronze knights were placating people..though it was not working much.
Some stood silently at their doorways, staring at the sky as though waiting for judgment. A few simply sat on the steps of their homes, sighing softly, unwilling—or unable—to abandon the places where they had lived their entire lives.
Fear did not move everyone the same way.
John watched it all without stopping.
Then he hurled a small object into the air.
It exploded into countless fragments—crystal crackers infused with Eva's power.
His amplified voice spread across the city.
"To all Drudar citizens—!" John's voice rang out, amplified by the shattered air itself. "An unknown phenomenon is spreading across the city. The dead are rising, and hostile constructs have appeared without warning."
His voice did not waver.
"These are not enemy troops. This is a supernatural disaster."
"By royal decree, all civilians are to abandon the outer districts and take refuge inside the castle immediately. Follow the knights' guidance. Do not linger."
"If you value your lives—move. Now."
People started to panic even more as Sythris said angriligy ,"Who told you to do this ,John.."
She was going to say more but the bound princess suddenly started laughing....
Sythris and others looked back as as she said,"My brother is gone.....but you guys are clueless...."
"Hahaaa.."
"Tha....."
Suddenly a flying sword went through her mouth...
"Her voice was gone..."
Everyone was dumbfounded as John said,"We can listen to her rambling later....."
As the horses moved ahead muffled scream of that princess ranged in the air.
Sethsi pondered deeply as Sythris said nothing more.
As they were reaching the walls one of the golden knights suddenly screamed as he said...."Captain Caria is there.."
In distance it seemed a lady in blue was down surrounding her a few knights everyone seemed dead around her.Only her body was moving faintly.
John seemed to get petrified as a muffled laugh escaped from the princess.
Sythris said in a deep tone,"I will fetch her..."
"You guys go ahead with John.."
John seemed moving slowly with head down as the rest tried to console him and they slowly moved.
Marvis said,"She is not dead..let Sythris bring her...."
"We will help the citizens go to the castle...."
"I can feel its energy growing again......."
as he looked back.
As the rest of the group went ahead with John's dark eyes, Sethsi's pondering look, Marvis looking around with horses
Sythris went to fetch Caria....who should have been near walls but what was she doing here .....
Sythris pondered...
.....
Meanwhile, Near the knights' quarters, a medical chamber lay sealed.
Inside rested Eleana, Kerin, Lythria, and the remaining members of the team.
Kerin exhaled sharply.
"You all wait outside," he said. "I need to speak with Lythria."
The others nodded and left.
As the door closed, Kerin collapsed to his knees.
"You saw it, didn't you?" he whispered.
Lythria placed a hand on his shoulder as her face came into his view.
"Yes. It was him. That was his power."
She hesitated.
"But what can we do?"
She straightened.
"I'll wake Eleana. At least… she'll be on our side."
After Kerin left, Lythria stood alone beside Eleana.
As she examined the wound, her eyes darkened.
"So they really are involved…" she muttered. "It all makes sense now."
Her lips curled faintly. She remembered the fight before as she muttered,"I hope you survived this.."
Her thoughts went back to the blue knight as she muttered
"I didn't think even she is connected to this."
The room suddenly flooded with yellow light.
As strange murmurs echoed ,Lythria closed her eyes.
At last she said "Void Healing." The room filled with a foreign dense spirit energy.
She pressed her fingers against Eleana's forehead.
"Father said this would restore someone to their peak."
Formless spirits manifested—shapeless, soundless—circling the chamber as Eleana's wounds healed.
The void dissipated as Lythria muttered,"The more consious you are the less you suffer from void....."
She suddenly coughed out blood.....
Moments passed.
Eleana's eyelids twitched.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
.......
At the same time, beyond the fallen walls of Drudar, darkness crawled like insects across the land.
A colossal hand lay exposed within the shadows.
A woman caressed it gently.
A sword spiraled from the sky and landed in her grasp.
She was majestic—graceful—her presence a stark contrast to the devastation around her.
At her feet lay the corpse of the Breavan prince.
"Merissa… William…" she whispered.
"So you truly betrayed me."
Her gaze turned toward Drudar.
"I should never have trusted the words of a man who betrayed his own blood."
Footsteps echoed.
Clayren had arrived her sword glowing with emerald light.
The Queen laughed softly.
"So that's how it is…"
"The Breavan Ascension didn't even get a proper introduction."
She laughed again.
The sky blackened.
Her form dissipated.
"I lost," her voice echoed. "But atleast I will secure the future."
Darkness gathered.There was a buzz as the hollow insects congreated together to form something huge towering the skies.
A colossal figure emerged.
It had two eyes.
And no head.
A Headless One—far larger and more terrifying than anything Veer's team had encountered.
"I will use everything you provided," the Queen's voice resonated.
Thousands of strings erupted from the entity. Again they connected to the undeads.
The dead rose.
They crawled toward the figure, merging with it, becoming part of something far worse.
The darkness roared.
A massive hand of shadow formed its head, gripping a gigantic yellow sword.
"The Coiling Drake Rampage."