Hinesia tried to stand, clutching her bleeding side. Her knees were trembling. The pain was unbearable but what stood before her was far worse.
Phaser's body—no, what was left of it—was encased entirely in glistening black crystal. Vines crawled from his back and chest, spreading outward in all directions.
A man nearby had barely managed to crawl from the rubble when a vine stabbed clean through his chest. His eyes went wide. His veins darkened immediately as his skin began to crystallize. He was lifted off the ground, suspended midair like a puppet, before his body disintegrated into black dust.
The dust that had once been him was absorbed into the base of the crystal network, feeding the central figure in the middle of it all.
It was feeding Phaser.
The horror only multiplied. Hundreds of thorned crystal vines erupted from the ground, latching onto anything that moved. Survivors who had been lucky enough to escape the first wave of debris now found themselves skewered. One by one, their bodies convulsed before turning pitch-black. The vines wrapped tighter, draining the Xana from their bodies until they fell limp. When they dropped… they didn't stay dead.
The corpses began to twitch.
Their eyes turned void-black. Cracks spread across their skin like glass breaking from within. And then like an infection. they stood up again, mindless, their bodies glowing faintly with that same corrupt Flux.
"Fluviums…"
Hinesia gasped, stumbling backward, nearly tripping over a slab of broken concrete.
She turned her eyes back to Phaser. He was still standing or rather, floating slightly above the ground, his feet never touching the shattered street. His head hung low and from beneath the crystal encasement, his eyes flickered with faint streaks of silver light.
He looked at her. Just for a moment. The voice that came from him wasn't his. It was layered and distorted, like multiple beings speaking at once through a broken machine.
"Hinesia… run…"
The sight froze her in place. His lips didn't move. His eyes were lifeless. Yet the voice echoed directly into her mind, hollow and desperate.
"Phaser…"
She took a step.
Immediately, three vines whipped toward her, slicing the air like blades. She barely managed to roll away, the tips grazing her leg and burning through her pants. When she looked down, the skin had turned faintly gray, like it was already being corroded. She gasped and stumbled backward.
"Phaser, stop! It's me!"
But the vines didn't stop. They lashed again, striking walls, tearing through corpses and wreckage alike, spreading further across the streets like an expanding plague. Every vine that struck something living drained it and fed it all back to him.
He was dying and his Flux was trying to keep him alive by any means necessary.
She felt a soft touch on her shoulder.
Her entire body flinched. She turned around instantly, summoning an earthen shield out of reflex and froze.
It was Anastelle.
She stood there amidst the chaos, untouched by the falling ash, her long commander's coat fluttering gently in the corrupted wind. Her expression was calm, but her eyes were filled with deep pain.
"World Commander Anastelle? Y-You—how—"
Anastelle's gaze locked on the black crystal storm surrounding her son.
"I was already on my way when the Fluve Field appeared. I had a feeling something like this would happen. Who knew that those three Fluvehearts the Frostclave Stag would make his Concept Flux this strong..."
Hinesia's legs gave way, and she fell to her knees.
"He's suffering! Look at him! You have to do something!"
"I know. He's in excruciating pain right now, Hinesia. The Concept Flux only activates when a Fluxer's life is in immediate, catastrophic danger."
Hinesia's heart pounded. "Then stop it! Please!"
Anastelle slowly shook her head. "I can't. Not yet. If I interrupt the process now, it might kill him."
The words sliced through Hinesia's mind like a blade. "So you're just going to stand there and watch him suffer?!"
Anastelle turned her gaze toward her, and for a brief moment, Hinesia saw the faint shimmer of tears in the woman's eyes hidden by her cold voice
"You think this is easy for me? The Concept Flux is not like any ordinary Flux. It's a reflection of the Fluxer's core nature. Phaser's is one of Sealing and Absorption. It's reacting to the near-fatal damage he took and doing whatever it can to keep him alive."
The air pulsed violently again. The vines shuddered, spreading further. A nearby survivor screamed as one pierced his chest and began draining him dry.
"Right now, it's absorbing every source of Xana it can find either living or dead to repair his life force. The Fluviums you see are the result of Flux Corrosion. His power is consuming them faster than their souls can handle. Only Phaser can reverse it."
Hinesia covered her mouth with her hands, shaking her head.
"This is insane…"
"It's cruel but that's the nature of Concept Flux. It's pure instinct, not reason. It will destroy everything around him if it means keeping him alive."
The ground quaked violently. Cracks split open along the streets as the crystal vines grew even faster, devouring the ruins. The light emanating from Phaser's body intensified. In that light, Hinesia could see his silhouette trembling.
"He's in there. He's still fighting it…"
Anastelle nodded slowly. "He is. But he's losing."
She took a deep breath and stepped forward, her boots crunching against the cracked pavement. The vines reacted immediately, whipping toward her but each one stopped just short, as if frozen in midair. The air around her rippled like heat waves. Her presence distorted the flow of Xana itself.
"Stay here, Hinesia. If you go any closer, the vines will pierce your heart before you take another step."
Hinesia reached out instinctively. "Wait, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to subdue him."
She walked forward toward her suffering son. Her boots crunched on the fractured asphalt. She stared at the blackened form of her son, half-encased in the crystal vines that still pulsed with stolen Xana.
"Concept Fluxers of the Argemenes are bound by traditions made centuries ago. We are forbidden to invoke our Flux without purpose, forbidden to upset the balance."
The vines trembled, reacting to her words as though they recognized her authority.
"But, there are two exceptions. One, if the Concept Fluxer's life is in extreme danger. When death is seconds away, the Flux acts on its own to preserve its wielder."
Her eyes flashed to a crimson hue.
"And two…"
She snapped her fingers.
The vines that had once towered like monuments of death exploded outward, fracturing in brilliant bursts of red and black. The crystals that had impaled the ground shattered into dust, breaking apart in a thousand radiant shards that scattered across the air. The pressure of her Xana radiated outward. Everything that had been warped by Phaser's Concept Flux simply ceased to exist under her command.
"The second exception is if the Tradition is temporarily lifted by the Ruler of the House of Argemenes. And I am that Ruler."
The remaining vines hissed, thrashing wildly, as if in defiance. Anastelle walked through them without hesitation. Each one that came close shattered before it could touch her, disintegrating in a flash of red light, turning to dust before falling at her feet.
Hinesia could only watch, frozen in awe and fear. The sheer force radiating from Anastelle was monstrous. Her presence bent the world around her. Even the corrupted world of the Fluve Field couldn't hold itself together. It wavered, flickered and began to tear at its seams.
Anastelle reached Phaser. His body was still suspended, half turned to black crystal. His hair was tangled with shards of obsidian. She placed her hand gently on his chest. The vines recoiled as if screaming.
The crystals shattered like brittle glass.
Every piece of crystal exploded into fine particles, filling the air with a storm of shimmering dust.
The light turned white and for a brief moment, everything went silent.
Anastelle's cloak whipped violently in the ensuing shockwave as the last of the vines disintegrated. Phaser's body dropped. Anastelle exhaled slowly, relief flickering across her face before fading back to composure. Then, she waved her hand.
All the shattered crystal fragments around them began to move. They rose from the ground, swirling in a spiral, forming a radiant sphere around her and Phaser.
"Crimson Cycle."
The shards turned scarlet.
A single beam of crimson light erupted from beneath her feet, shooting upward through the sky and piercing the heavens themselves. The very walls of the Fluve Field that had The air warped. The horizon cracked. It was as if reality itself couldn't bear her presence anymore.
The crimson light expanded outward, fracturing everything around them like glass under a hammer. The Fluve Field's false atmosphere shattered, revealing the real sky beyond. Clouds rushed in, lightning split the heavens and the suffocating black haze of the corrupted domain collapsed into nothingness.
The debris was still there, but the air was clean again. The distortion was gone. The Fluviums and the vines were all erased as if it had never happened. Only the faint red glow beneath Anastelle's feet remained, slowly fading away.
Anastelle knelt beside her unconscious son.
His body had returned to normal... mostly. His skin was covered in blood. His veins were faintly glowing in a silver hue as residual Xana still pulsed through them. She brushed a strand of his hair from his face.
"Why did you make your Concept Flux stronger, Phaser? You were already unstable as is."
The crimson beam finally faded into the dusk sky, leaving behind nothing but the echo of her power and the haunting realization that Anastelle Argemenes wasn't just a ruler by title.