Venae sensed the precise moment when his son's life force fully vanished. His remaining fist clenched so tightly that his knuckles bled beneath his robe. The primal, agonizing urge to tear his gaze from the sky and collapse beside Illinos's lifeless body in the dirt was almost irresistible.
But he was a Chieftain. And at this moment, succumbing to grief would only lead his people to death.
Even the breathtaking celestial aurora of the Nirvana ritual illuminating the night sky could not distract him from the unfolding desperate battle above the shattered village.
"How strange..." Venae murmured, his narrowed eyes scrutinizing the oppressive spiritual pressure emanating from the Silver Void Guardian. "It is at the Peak of the Divine Realm, just like us. Yet its sheer physical strength and mana density are incomprehensibly formidable. Is this merely the dread of Void Magic, or is something even more monstrous at work...?"
High above, Ellomon transformed into a swirling vortex of shadow to flank the beast. He rematerialized directly behind it, twin shadow-blades in hand, bringing them down in a vicious, crossing arc intended to cleave the monster in half.
But before the dark blades could connect, the beast violently exploded into a swarm of jagged crystal shards, narrowly evading the lethal strike.
The entity didn't merely dodge; it weaponized its own dispersion. The cloud of silver shards instantly reversed its momentum, shooting directly toward Neihina, who was perched atop a watchtower, providing covering fire with her crackling electric bow.
The speed of the crystallized swarm was simply too fast for a Lightning User, whose cast time was typically slow.
Seeing her impending doom, Venae instantly gathered a vortex of wind magic around his legs, preparing to launch his battered, one-armed body into the sky to intercept the barrage.
But there was no need.
Ragina, still grounded and desperately trying to heal the wounded, thrust her hands upward. A massive, towering shield of highly pressurized water materialized just in time, absorbing the kinetic impact of the hundreds of piercing shards. The shield held long enough for Neihina to activate her electric static maneuver, her body dissolving into a flash of blue lightning before rematerializing safely on the rooftop beside Venae.
"Are we just meant to be completely powerless against it?!" Neihina gasped, her chest heaving as they both watched the floating shards seamlessly reassemble into the terrifying, towering form of the Void Guardian.
"We have to execute an Elemental Fusion," Venae stated coldly.
Neihina's eyes widened. "That's not an option."
"We don't have a choice."
"It is literal suicide, Venae! What if the synchronization fails? How are we meant to survive the backlash with barely any mana left in our cores?"
"At this rate of attrition," Venae replied, his voice devoid of hope, "I don't think survival is an option either."
Neihina remained silent, her mind racing as she contemplated if an Elemental Fusion was truly their absolute last resort. It was a forbidden, theoretical technique that demanded two opposing elemental forces to be forced into perfect unity to deliver a devastating, localized cataclysm.
Naturally, such a feat violently defied the very laws of the cosmos. Water will always extinguish fire; earth remains immovable in the face of wind. To fuse two opposing elements required not only the supreme comprehension skills of a Divine Stage cultivator but also a colossal reserve of mana to maintain the volatile, highly explosive state until the elements reached a perfect, artificial harmony.
"Against a foe this fast..." Neihina whispered, her voice trembling. "Do we even have the time to stall until the fusion is complete?"
"Ellomon will buy us the time."
Neihina snapped her head toward him. "You can't mean..."
"He is a Tribe Leader," Venae said, his golden eyes hardening into stone. "He has always known that one day, sacrifices would have to be made for the survival of the Clan."
Neihina didn't just hear his words; she saw the absolute, crushing conviction behind them as her gaze flickered past him, landing briefly on the ruined, lifeless corpse of his only son.
"...Very well," Neihina said, raising her crackling electric bow one last time. "Then let us make sure those who have fallen tonight have not done so in vain."
With Neihina committed, only one remaining participant needed to be brought into alignment.
Despite Ellomon's status as a respected Tribe Leader, he was known for being the most withdrawn among them, always favoring the shadows over standing in the sun with the rest of the Clan.
Perhaps it was merely the isolating nature of Shadow Magic, and not Ellomon's true character that made him this way, Venae pondered with a heavy heart. He deeply regretted not having taken the time to truly understand his brother-in-arms.
Amidst the burning ruins of the Azure village, Venae realized there was much he could have approached differently in his long life.
He could have been a more attentive father.
A more devoted husband.
A more effective leader.
Venae released a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. "Why am I dwelling on this now?" he murmured under his breath. Shaking his head, his golden eyes regained their fierce determination. He looked skyward and bellowed, "Ellomon! Hold the creature at bay!"
High above, Ellomon momentarily paused in his evasive maneuvers, his dark eyes meeting Venae's.
Though no more words were exchanged, each understood the weight of that command. Venae had been observing from the ground, but Ellomon was the one engaged in combat with the monster. Who better than him to know that merely "delaying" a beast of this magnitude meant his survival was nearly impossible?
Venae felt the oppressive tension thick in the air, his heart racing as he anxiously awaited Ellomon's response.
He didn't have to wait long.
Ellomon gave a solemn nod. Without hesitation, his gaze returned to the crystalline beast. The Shadow cultivator charged forward, morphing into a tempest of dark blades, prepared to give everything in a final, desperate effort to secure a future for the Phoenix Clan.
"Ellomon..." Neihina whispered, her voice filled with sorrow. Her grip on her electric bow tightened until her knuckles whitened.
Violent, crackling blue lightning began to course across her body as she drew an immense amount of raw mana from her core.
She wasn't alone in generating power. Venae stepped forward, placing his firm hand on her shoulder, channeling his Wind mana directly into her pathways as she pulled back the crackling bowstring.
A volatile surge of opposing Air and Lightning mana erupted outward, whipping the debris around them into a localized storm. At the center, a small, blinding arrow, forged from the forced harmony of the two elements, began to take shape with violent intensity.
---
Meanwhile, seated comfortably on a sturdy branch just outside the treeline of the Azure Clan Village, Morgal swung her small legs back and forth with ease. She hummed a soft, melodious tune, seemingly undisturbed by the cataclysmic battle unfolding behind her.
Though one might have expected her luminous eyes to be fixed on the life-and-death struggle of the Chieftains, they weren't. Instead, her gaze was on the hundreds of weaker Phoenix Kin below, who were being hurriedly led away from the chaos of the plaza.
A dark, insistent urge to attack the fleeing vulnerable ones clawed at her mind. Had she still been under the command of the Silent Blade Clan, these little ones would have already met their end.
"So many little souls to devour..." she murmured with an exaggerated pout.
It required all her self-control to resist. It wasn't out of fear of them—none of these mortals could even begin to fathom her True Divinity power, and no one would be the wiser if she decided to unleash it. However, Raiking had explicitly instructed her to minimize civilian casualties.
She let out a long, theatrical sigh. "My restraint better be worth it, you troublesome void man."
Raiking's previous "bullying"—as she had come to perceive it—still lingered in her thoughts. While seeking absolute, deadly revenge against the God of Death was entirely out of the question, there were numerous petty ways to retaliate.
"Perhaps I should add sugar to his soup?"
She covered her mouth with both hands, stifling a dark, melodic giggle at the prospect of spoiling his meal. Her imagination didn't stop with just one mischievous plan against the "evil void man." Her mind quickly spiraled into a whirlwind of childish schemes for enacting her grand justice.
Engrossed in her entertaining plotting, she completely forgot about the desperate, world-shaking battle occurring in the village, leaving the Chieftains to fend off her mindless puppets while the frightened survivors fled into the night.