Chapter 42 — Burning Sanity
The storm above the Red Desert had become a battlefield for monsters.
Lightning split the sky in violent veins of white as Nark and Sera clashed with the Dreadwrym high above the dunes. Their bodies streaked through the clouds like twin comets, ether burning around them in savage halos. Every movement cracked the air with thunder, every collision shook the storm itself.
But the beast refused to die.
The Dreadwrym was enormous—far larger than either of them had first realized. In the chaos of the storm its full size revealed itself piece by terrible piece. Its body stretched through the clouds like a living mountain range, scales layered like overlapping shields forged from ancient iron. Each one deflected their attacks with brutal indifference.
Blasts of ether struck the creature again and again.
Explosions ripped through the sky.
Yet when the smoke cleared the damage was laughable.
Thin scratches.
Tiny scars etched across scales older than cities.
The beast roared in rage and dove upward, vanishing into the thick grey clouds where its colossal form became nothing more than a shifting shadow.
"Damn it!" Sera snarled.
They both hovered in the storm, breathing hard, lightning flickering around their bodies.
"Every time we push it back it runs!"
"Not running," Nark muttered.
She stared into the clouds.
"Repositioning."
The storm answered her.
A thunderous roar rolled through the sky.
The clouds split open.
The Dreadwrym came screaming down from above.
Fire exploded from its jaws.
A river of burning ether spilled through the sky like molten sunlight. The attack carved through the storm clouds and slammed into the desert below with apocalyptic force. Entire dunes ignited into pillars of flame.
Nark and Sera scattered apart as the inferno swept between them.
The heat was suffocating.
Sera wiped ash from her cheek and scowled.
"Okay," she growled.
"That's enough."
Her aura sharpened violently, compressing into a razor edge of blazing red and blue light.
Then she launched forward.
The air detonated behind her as she accelerated. Her body became a streak of fire racing straight toward the beast.
The Dreadwrym opened its jaws again.
Too late.
Sera shot directly into its mouth.
Her aura expanded outward like a blade.
She tore through the monster's throat.
A long crimson scar opened along the inside of its maw as she ripped through flesh and scale like a comet drilling through a mountain.
The beast shrieked.
But it did not die.
Its enormous tail whipped through the air with horrifying speed.
The impact was catastrophic.
The tail slammed into Sera mid-flight and sent her hurtling across the sky like a broken arrow.
Her body spun violently.
For a moment she lost control of her flight.
And that was dangerous.
Very dangerous.
If she hit the sand—
The storm's ether disruption would collapse her transformation instantly.
She would fall powerless.
And the Dreadwrym would finish the job.
"NARK!" she shouted as the ground rushed up toward her.
But Nark was already moving.
She surged forward with explosive speed, ether blazing around her like a supernova. Her trajectory curved sharply toward the beast's massive wings.
"If the scales are too strong," she muttered to herself.
"Then we break what keeps it in the sky."
Her hands ignited with crackling red energy.
She charged.
The Dreadwrym sensed her approach.
Its body twisted through the clouds with serpentine grace.
Its tail snapped again.
The strike caught Nark across the ribs.
The world exploded.
She was hurled sideways across the sky, tumbling uncontrollably toward the desert below.
The red sand rushed upward like an executioner's blade.
Nark gritted her teeth.
"Not today!"
She twisted mid-air, forcing ether through every nerve in her body.
The fall slowed.
Her descent curved.
Just before she hit the ground she redirected the momentum and blasted back upward like a missile.
The air cracked as she shot skyward again.
Rage burned in her chest.
She began firing.
Blast after blast of ether roared toward the Dreadwrym. Explosions detonated along its body in violent bursts of light.
The creature barely seemed to care.
If anything, the attacks only made it angrier.
"HEY SERA!" Nark shouted.
Her voice echoed through the storm.
"We take out the wings!"
She dodged a snap of the creature's jaws.
"Then we figure the rest out!"
Sera wiped blood from her lip and grinned wildly.
"Now that sounds like a plan!"
But the Dreadwrym was not a mindless beast.
It understood.
The monster's golden eyes narrowed as it sensed their intent.
Then it inhaled.
The air itself seemed to bend inward toward its maw.
Ether condensed inside its throat like a forming star.
"Uh oh," Sera muttered.
The beast unleashed hell.
A beam of pure ether erupted from its mouth.
The attack carved across the sky like a divine blade. The Dreadwrym swung its head violently, sweeping the beam across the battlefield.
Where it struck the desert—
The sand melted instantly.
The entire surface turned to glass.
Rivers of molten crystal spread across the dunes like frozen lightning.
"NARK!" Sera yelled.
A beam sliced past Nark's shoulder.
She barely dodged.
The heat alone blistered her skin.
The girls exchanged a glance across the storm.
No more talking.
No more planning.
Both of them vanished.
Two sonic booms ripped through the air as they accelerated beyond the speed of sound.
The Dreadwrym's wings flared open.
Lightning gathered along their edges.
The electricity lashed outward in violent arcs.
But Nark and Sera ignored the pain.
They moved like twin ghosts weaving through the storm.
In.
Out.
Around.
Through.
Their bodies blurred across the sky as they began tearing through the creature's wings.
Ether blades carved into the leathery membranes. Each pass shredded another section. Blood sprayed across the clouds as the massive wings slowly became tattered ruin.
The girls moved like mad seamstresses ripping apart a tapestry.
Slash.
Dash.
Turn.
Strike again.
The Dreadwrym screamed in fury.
Lightning erupted wildly around them but the two girls refused to stop.
Another slash.
Another tear.
The wings began to fail.
The enormous beast struggled to maintain altitude.
Its body dipped.
For the first time—
The monster began to fall.
But dying beasts were the most dangerous.
The Dreadwrym twisted violently in mid-air.
Its jaws opened.
And it lunged.
The maw was enormous.
From the inside it looked like a cavern filled with jagged stone pillars.
Thousands of teeth.
Rows upon rows of them.
Sera barely had time to react.
The jaws snapped shut.
The sound was sickening.
For a moment the storm fell silent.
Then something fell from the beast's mouth.
Nark stared.
Her mind refused to understand what she was seeing.
Sera's upper body tumbled through the air.
Her legs were gone.
So was most of her torso.
Blood poured into the sky like crimson rain.
"...Fuck," Sera whispered.
Her voice trembled with disbelief.
She stared down at what remained of her body.
Normally, a mage in Overcharge would heal instantly.
But they had used Whispers.
The command that strengthened their power had erased their healing.
There would be no regeneration.
No miracle.
This was the end.
Sera began to fall.
The Dreadwrym fell with her, its shredded wings failing completely.
The desert rushed upward.
But Sera was smiling.
"Well," she muttered weakly.
"If I'm going out…"
She gathered every remaining drop of ether inside her body.
The power compressed inward like a collapsing star.
"…I'm taking you with me."
High above her—
Nark screamed.
The sound tore out of her like something dying.
"No."
Tears blurred her vision.
"No no no no—"
She shot downward like a falling meteor.
Red lightning erupted around her as rage pushed her past her limits.
Below her Sera's body began to glow.
The ether inside her compressed further.
And then—
It detonated.
The explosion swallowed the sky.
A sphere of annihilating energy erupted from Sera's body, consuming the falling Dreadwrym in a violent storm of fire and ether.
But Nark did not stop.
She plunged directly into the explosion.
Her body pierced through flame and shockwaves as she dove straight into the monster's open jaws.
Inside the beast's throat she unleashed everything.
Her ether erupted outward.
Not as a blast—
But as a forest of burning spikes.
Thousands of spears of blazing energy exploded through the Dreadwrym's body from the inside out.
The creature's roar shattered the storm.
Then silence fell.
The colossal serpent crashed into the Red Desert like a dying god.
The impact obliterated the landscape.
A tidal wave of sand, blood, fire, and shattered flesh erupted across the horizon. Lightning rained down from the storm as if the sky itself mourned the monster's fall.
And then—
Darkness.
Night eventually came.
The storm faded.
The desert grew quiet.
The Dreadwrym's corpse lay sprawled across the sand like the carcass of some ancient titan. Its body was torn open from within, its blood soaking the dunes in rivers of black and purple.
The surrounding land had become a crater of glass and ash.
The battle had shattered the island.
Four days passed.
The war continued elsewhere.
But here—
Nothing moved.
The carcass rotted beneath the merciless sun.
Thousands of players had died across the desert.
Only a few thousand remained alive.
And among the ruins of the battlefield…
Something stirred.
Deep within the ocean of gore spilling from the monster's corpse, a figure sat slumped against a broken spine.
Nark.
She was covered in blood.
Red.
Purple.
Black.
Some of it belonged to the beast.
Some of it belonged to her.
And some…
Belonged to Sera.
In her arms she held what remained of her friend.
Her expression was empty.
The kind of emptiness that came only after crying so long that even grief grew tired.
Her tears had dried days ago.
Her soul felt hollow.
Silence surrounded her.
Finally she spoke.
"Duck."
A small holographic duck flickered into existence beside her.
Its cheerful voice sounded painfully out of place.
"It is currently the ninth day of the Wister War."
"Time: 10:13 AM Galactic Standard Time."
"You have four days remaining."
The hologram vanished.
Nark leaned back against the shattered spine of the dead god.
She stared up at the empty sky.
And slowly—
She exhaled.