Tatyana stopped right in her tracks, assailed by a visceral violation of her survival instincts.

  What is…?

  At nearly the same time, a suffocatingly dense darkness surged violently around Edmond. It happened so fast that by the time she could even wonder what it was, he was no longer visible. Now, his surroundings gave way to numerous jets of unending black, twisted and bent in their sheer force as they reached out for any direction.

  Never stopping, never weakening, not even as they seemed to touch the sky itself.

  “Pull back!”

  One of them almost grazed Sirhan’s massive suit, in what would have no doubt caught the nearby Abel up in the same danger. The beaming shine of Fei-hung’s Empyreus must have slowed it down just enough for them to dodge, but it was a close call nonetheless. Hildegard turned around, and for the first time none of the four traitors seemed able to keep their calm.

  “These id readings are abnormal; it has to be Veltis’ power.” Sirhan’s mechanical voice stated as a scanner-like light flashed from his helmet’s eyes.

  “Didn’t you say he wasn’t able to use that, Fei!?” Abel followed with a frantic tone, more concerned than accusatory.

  But Fei-hung, despite his hidden face, was obviously struggling over a way to answer.

  “… He shouldn’t have, but maybe the battle before this changed something. Bryyor’s id and some of mine are spread far and wide, and with the rift spiraling gathering more and more power, there’s the chance that some reaction…”

  He stopped talking. Probably no one could find it in themselves to keep speaking once they saw what poured from above.

  Rain. Heavy, thick rain. A pitch-black rain that further spread the bottomless darkness across the ground it splashed on.

  Tatyana reflexively covered herself with a simple, easy to maintain prana shell, but some of the drops still managed to touch parts of her clothing and skin.

  They hurt.

  She wiped it off with a quick ripple from her silverish, translucent shield, but it was a mere after-thought as her attention was fully occupied by the source of the rain.

  A sky horribly infected with the same black that tainted the ground, only to a much greater extent. Not the usual darkness of the night, but something alien and uncanny that made the former seem truly beautiful in comparison.

  Pure black heavens, pure black land, and the pure black downpour to link them together. A picture of disaster that could only compare to General Marinca’s showing, or even some of what she had witnessed during the Second Calamity.

  The bursting jets had begun to recede from their unseen altitude at some point, whipping and bending like chains in a whirlwind as they were forced back into their source. A source that became gradually smaller, but clearly no less massive for it.

  All of that darkness which had spread itself ‘thin’ was merely being compressed into another, denser form. A shape more like a body with every passing moment, with limbs, a head, and a size that ended up acceptably human.

  But that was where the similarities ended. The being resulting from such a process reminded her of the transformed Hellbound more than anything else.

  The black that surrounded, or perhaps constituted it was viscous in many parts, making for a form that looked unstable overall. The solid parts it retained were irregular aside from the claws tipping its hands, covering sparse amounts of its torso, head and somewhat overlong limbs in an asymmetrical, constantly shifting manner.

  More of the dark substance spurted and receded at random around its silhouette, like tendrils that sometimes hardened into horns before suddenly collapsing. There was no mouth, and no other facial features to speak of until finally, a large pair of opaque gray ‘eyes’ shaped just as unevenly manifested; the only trace of what may remain within.

  After all, its actions did not hint at any sort of complex ego. An animalistic showing at best, its head moved like a curious bird’s might, twitching fast and out of sync with the rest of its body.

  However, if a single trace of personality could still be found in the deformed beast, it would come from its blatant focus on one single target.

  “Mondi…?”

  A clearly unnerved Hildegard asked with an almost pleading voice, likely knowing the futility of her attempt.

  Edmond may have formed the core of the strange being staring at her, but it was not him. That much Tatyana was alarmingly aware of.

  … But even if it meant agreeing with Hildegard, she could not give up hope. She had told Edmond again and again that he could count on her for help, so even if he had fallen into such deep despair, she would still—

  “▃▃▄▄▂▂▃▅▅!?”

  The alien creature… No, Edmond writhed all of a sudden. He thrashed and squirmed, his hands reaching painfully for his neck, his chest, his limbs… All places where spell circles of the same design had suddenly appeared.

  Tatyana instinctively took half a step forward in concern, but stopped as she took a better look at the violently shining glyphs.

  Are those…?

  She could not reach a real answer before one, then three, and finally seven bursting shots completely blocked sight of not only the spell circles, but Edmond himself.

  “…!”

  Tatyana tried to retreat, but with their speed, the blowback from the explosions still brought her to her knees. Suppressing a grunt with all her might, she turned toward the only possible source of the blast.

  “What the fuck was that!?”

  Hildegard’s three allies arriving by her side, berated by her enraged voice.

  “This is no longer your fight. If Veltis’ rampage is in play, then we’re all in danger!”

  Fei-hung replied without missing a beat, his tone more anxious than when Hildegard threatened his very life. How much did he know about this phenomenon?

  The dust and smoke cleared up suddenly, not naturally but from what seemed to be the raw force behind Edmond’s struggles. As he became more visible, the only noticeable change was that the spell circles across him had lost most of their light.

  Which was to say…

  “… I didn’t expect that attack to do much, but nothing at all, even when it was distracted...”

  He still did not allow any of that displeasure to slow him down at all. Without delay, Fei-hung raised a hand and Empyreus’ ‘feathers’ shone brightly.

  Almost as if the gesture was a signal, Edmond moved properly for the first time. And if not for Empyreus’ time-slowing field up ahead, Tatyana did not know if she could have followed him.

  In a single leap, even the black-stained ground several meters away from him cracked and parted, while the distance between him and Fei-hung’s group shrank to almost nothing. But the brief delay from Empyreus was all they needed to respond.

  Abel extended an arm and a strange glow flashed around his wrist, starting the manifestation of something large and X-like by his hand. Still, it was Sirhan who drew the most attention when most of the metal pieces on the back of his machine quickly rearranged at, around and above its shoulders in the form of two slightly different, yet equally enormous gun barrels.

  Light then blazed within them, unleashing twin blasts of prana in an electric blue color that brutally propelled Edmond far into the air.

  One rampaged and swirled destructively, leaving a blazing trail as it continued its path through Edmond and into the sky, but the other one was different. It remained stuck, malleable, similar to whatever tool they had used to seemingly imprison Hellbound.

  Edmond struggled within the elastic, yet luminous prana, but failed to free himself before it pulled him down to the ground, responding to the descent of its corresponding cannon.

  “Clean!”

  Tatyana only noticed Abel’s presence then, still floating from a dozen-meter high jump, and loading an arrow-like projectile into the X-shaped, quite literal ‘crossbow’ affixed to his wrist. From the dreadfully complex prana structure charged within, it appeared he had intended to take advantage of Sirhan’s setup all along.

  A horrible chill ran down Tatyana’s back at the thought of Edmond receiving such a shot.

  I can’t let that hit him. Even if it takes me out for the rest of the week, maybe I can snipe Abel from here with Areadbhair and—

  She was ready. She could manifest her Crown once more, but time was not her friend.

  The terrible arrow was unleashed, as fast as it was deadly. She felt the lance solidifying in her grip, but it would take too long to prepare and shoot an adequate counter.

  She soon realized there had never been any need for it, however.

  A shockwave with a painfully low noise reached all the way to her. The power behind such an impact was obvious, but why would an arrow designed to pierce through its target generate such an effect?

  The answer became quickly apparent as she took a better look. At the stopped arrow… and at what had stopped it.

  Part of Edmond’s ghastly form had solidified in a very particular manner. Near his shoulder, a black-fanged, frightful maw had parted at some point, biting down on the arrow to stop it.

  Only when it clamped down more strongly, shattering the projectile, did Abel seem to snap out of his disbelieving trance. He was far from landing back on the ground when Edmond thrashed around brutally, his chest suddenly giving way to a colossal, distorted blade that burst through and freed him from Sirhan’s shot.

  A blade coming from another, larger jaw opened on his chest.

  Abel’s expression was tinged with genuine fear, and understandably so. He had jumped for a better vantage point on what he thought was a sure hit, only for it to become the worst position he could be in.

  He would fall back down. And once he did, Edmond would be free to brutalize him. It was what everyone likely expected.

  Everyone, except for Edmond himself. The giant jaw on his chest crunched as he stood back up, cracking some fangs and the jutting blade off as he rushed for the other three enemies, caving the ground on his path while ignoring the falling Abel.

  With his actions so unexpected and nonsensical, Tatyana could not blame Fei-hung and the others for their delayed reactions. Especially when Edmond moved so fast that only the strident impact made her aware of his new position.

  Fei-hung and Sirhan flew aside like pebbles under a bull’s charge, many new cracks spreading through their armors. An amount of damage that was… surprisingly low, and yet Edmond still did not pursue them.

  With a clawed hand upraised, his alien look remained on the same target as before. Hildegard.

  The small delay from tackling Sirhan and Fei-hung on his way allowed her to react, but there was no action she could complete in such a small amount of time. Her dodge was insufficient, and Edmond’s claw reached her shoulder with frightening force, enough to further the destruction in a line of several dozen meters behind the girl… though it did not.

  Instead, the unharmed Hildegard’s crimson aura swelled tremendously for a moment, then condensed around just one of her arms. When she punched forward, Edmond was flung straight to and through the end of the crater in the blink of an eye, piercing a hole in the solid rock that was soon covered partially by what crumbled afterward.

  All he cares about… is her.

  His straight-forward and predictable movements, ignoring the chance to bring down another enemy, the fact his eyes had not dared look at anything else… The reason was painfully obvious now.

  He would protect himself and get rid of particularly bothersome obstacles, but Edmond had long since abandoned battle in favor of a chase. Catching Hildegard was not only his priority, but rather the only goal that remained in whatever mind he still possessed.

  Now, it was three people rather than one who had survived due to that.

  “Is—it out?” Sirhan asked, the mechanical component of his voice notably compromised as he struggled to stand back up, sparks and metallic screeching resulting from the process.

  “… At most, he probably felt like one of his own punches hit him.” Hildegard replied dryly, her hand trembling as she gazed into the torn wall of the crater.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “In that case, fighting head-on is useless. We’ll have to trap it and then go through the rift. Sirhan, Abel, I need you to—”

  “Already on it!”

  Abel’s voice came as a surprise after all that had transpired. After being ignored by Edmond, he seemed to have landed without issue and arrived by his group before Tatyana noticed.

  The three of them aside from Hildegard quickly ran about a third of the distance to the hole in the wall, then spread out as he loaded something different into his cross bow. Not only was it a new type of arrow, but there were several of them now.

  They flew like comets, leaving trails of luminous thread that only became brighter in response to the glow of Fei-hung’s Empyreus, as well as unique waves spreading from Sirhan’s cannons.

  The empowered arrows did not enter the pit, but rather pierced the rock around it in an evenly distributed perimeter. The threads of light they had left behind remained and started to swirl, intertwining with each other around a center that connected them all before spreading a thin veil across the gaps.

  Edmond had made his way out of the pit around that time, but his movements were slower and more languid. There was no doubt that Empyreus’ power was being used on him, but even that seemed to be working a little too well, especially considering the movements Edmond had proven capable of. It only got worse from then on, however.

  So much slower, painfully stagnated as the glowing threads continued to wind together, finally running out of length. Once that happened, it was the arrows themselves that moved, ripping through stone while drawing steadily closer to one another.

  The next effect inside the barrier did not go unnoticed. As its boundaries shrank, the contents could not help but compress, causing Empyreus’ power to magnify. Edmond’s form became more and more detached from the flow of time outside, to the point the sight of him and his immediate surroundings distorted in bends and ripples.

  A cyan tint had tinged the barrier’s insides, growing purer and denser with each passing second. Once the barrier covered less than a meter beyond him, the possibility that Edmond might stop moving entirely felt very real.

  … Maybe I could even…

  For just a moment, that is.

  “Is that enough?”

  “Just a little further…”

  Tatyana almost yelled out to warn them, but found her voice stuck in her throat as if by a will of its own.

  She wondered if it was a mistake to keep silent, even if they were hateful enemies. To not remind them that if she had managed to retain her normal perception within Empyreus’ influence, it was very likely this Edmond could as well.

  And that just like the previous time, he would try anything he could to break out.

  “… No way…”

  Fei-hung seemed to notice at the same time as her that at some point, many more jaws had appeared across Edmond’s body.

  Their placement was irregular, as were their sizes and even the layout of their fangs. What remained uniform among them was the jet-black, bubbling substance within, on the verge of overflowing.

  Something primal seemed to make her very heart shake as she recognized the sight, making her grip Areadbhair tightly to prepare any protection.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Did it fail!?”

  Abel and Sirhan showed great frustration as they stepped back. Too little, too late.

  “It did not. The trap worked, it was pretty much still for a moment, but it then got so much faster all of a sudden and—”

  The ear-splitting echo of something shattering drowned out Fei-hung’s voice. If not for it, the destruction of the time-slowing barrier may have gone unnoticed, as any traces of it had been swallowed up by the time anyone looked back.

  Dense, bottomless rays of jet-black spread in every direction, like a star of darkness was suddenly born. The ground burst away, the air itself felt suffocating as it turned scorching-hot, and the edges of the crater split like a broken vase.

  Tatyana held onto Areadbhair as tightly as she could, piercing it on the ground with one hand on its hilt and her opposite forearm behind its body. Forced to her knees, she felt the skin on them tear further as she was forced back through the strongest defense she could muster.

  She could see nothing, hear nothing. Everything disappeared, leaving only resignation behind. Surviving or perishing was out of her control now.

  “▅▅▃▃▄▄▂▂▃…”

  In the end, she was fortunate. So lucky that not only she lived on, but without much injury beyond those on her knees; certainly nothing that could prevent her from witnessing the wasteland around her.

  Areadbhair did not shame its status as a Crown in the slightest, having protected her well from the nightmarish cataclysm, but that was not at all the case for her surroundings. She had no idea how much the crater had expanded, whether in its width or its depth, but what she could see around her was an entirely plain, somewhat concave surface. Not even debris remained.

  Fei-hung and the others… She only noticed them afterward, still alive. The former was on his hands and knees, with perhaps three quarters of his beautiful armor melted and crushed in equal measure, and traces of charred blood visible across the newly made gaps. With even Empyreus having lost much of its light, he clearly did not have any more fight in him. Still, he was somehow in better shape than the other two.

  Abel was in one piece, but only barely it appeared; his cross bow was charred and broken, just like much of his body was. He had probably only survived due to Sirhan’s efforts, who had taken the clear worst of the blast. Both of his machine’s legs were missing to an extent; one below the knee and the other by the mid-thigh, while its right arm had been torn from its very base. Even worse was that most of its front plates had crumbled away, exposing the man himself, covered in the dried remains of dampening fluid mixed with blood, barely attached to the suit by the stumps of his four limbs.

  Only Edmond and Hildegard still remained standing, engaged in a brutal hunt.

  Tatyana was amazed that the blonde’s sorcery had still shielded her from such a catastrophic event, but it was obvious that she was only delaying the inevitable.

  Hildegard was not only resilient, but also faster than Tatyana herself. Still, she was far from a match for the current Edmond in that regard, and he caught up to her before she could even circle the crater’s new extent.

  While her reactions were likely strained to their limits, a proper read on the moves she had already seen could compensate. She turned around and placed both hands on the ground, just before Edmond’s clawed grasp reached her. Those maroon eyes were not even on him as she unleashed a radiant, crimson burst that brought his charge to a sudden and absolute stop, followed by a violent push much like her punch from before.

  “▃▃▂▂▃▂▅▅▅!”

  This time though, Edmond continued his claw’s swing until it reached the black ground. Not only did his fingers dig into it, but so did his full hand and half of his forearm, causing the pushback to lessen and then stop much earlier than intended.

  “—!”

  Hildegard had resumed her retreat immediately after her spell, but her own reaction made it beyond obvious how little that meant.

  Edmond dove forward, this time using three of his limbs for propulsion rather than just two. His remaining arm pulled back, ready to reach for her once again with a twisted blade now jutting out of his forearm.

  But he lunged forward too early, even for the blinding speed at which he moved overall. He may graze Hildegard with his hand, but only the black blade would actually touch her. Her sorcery would prevent it from hurting her, he would be no closer to pinning her down.

  But before Tatyana could ponder further on what might happen next, she saw the blade break under the bite of the jaw around it, then fly off toward Hildegard.

  The scarlet aura around her disappeared almost instantly from the impact, but Tatyana only realized the full implications of that once Edmond’s claw grazed her back, severing much of her blonde hair below the shoulders.

  At the crucial moment, his other claw was more than ready.

  Edmond grasped Hildegard’s head, her face to his palm as he brought her down on the ground, the two of them sliding with enough inertia to practically make it explode.

  Her protection works automatically, but her offense cannot. So a completely unexpected hit will simply have its force dispersed, creating a temporary gap. And then…

  The dust cleared up without much delay, revealing an image of ruthless success.

  Blood dripped down Hildegard’s head, staining her collar as she dangled with her face still in Edmond’s tight grasp. Feet barely grazing the ground, only her hands managed to somewhat move on their own, still forming fists as if her last bastion of resistance.

  “I… I see how it is… Mondi…”

  Her voice was heavy, loaded with so many emotions it was difficult to pinpoint the main one.

  As dreadful as such a display was, it failed to remain the standout phenomenon for long. As against any and all expectations, there was something that got Edmond to let go of Hildegard.

  “▂▂▃▂▃▃▅▅!?”

  Without warning, he buckled under enough force to make the ground under him dip. Down on his knees, head on the ground, Hildegard managed to slip away from his grasp.

  The air itself looked distorted, bent and compressed, in a way quite dissimilar to the prison built by Fei-hung and his allies. A rough ‘bubble’, only half sticking out of the ground, continued to press down on Edmond while not leaving Hildegard unaffected, but instead causing her to rise as if a feather in the wind.

  Now floating, her body followed the direction of a colorless, barely noticeable ‘path’. It was far from the only one, as Tatyana noticed Fei-hung, Sirhan and Abel undergoing the same process without resistance.

  The direction they headed to being…

  No way.

  … the rift to Nox, now fully open in Tatyana’s view. A sight that caused an indescribable apprehension to take over as she further noticed something else within it.

  Something responsible for retrieving the four traitors, something fathomless which had forced even the current Edmond down. Something with a dark silhouette that could just barely be made out, but which Tatyana did not know if she truly wished to identify.

  She recalled Fei-hung’s words about their ‘means’ to stay in Nox. If they had somehow enlisted the help of such an ally, her earlier disbelief would turn out quite foolish.

  Edmond still had plenty more to give, however. The pressure around him was enough to crack several of the jaws across his body, twist the less solid parts of the viscous black and even bend the very structure keeping him whole. But even so, he crawled out from the newly formed pit against the force trying to push him deeper in.

  “▃▃▂▂▃▂▃▅▅▅!”

  He slipped free, moving freely once again as the colorless force crushed the ground. Still, as fast he was, the force adjusted its area of effect in an obvious path toward him, somehow still a match for his movements.

  Barely eluding its influence, Edmond chased desperately after the one thing he refused to look away from. Hildegard, who alongside her accomplices, had just barely reached the rift thanks to the strange force.

  Only Fei-hung and her could stand back up at this point, however weakly. And out of the two of them, it was only Hildegard who found herself looking back at the crater, meeting the gaze that so tenaciously clung to her.

  A concerning amount of blood still ran down her forehead and ears, but her somber eyes somehow drew the most attention after everything that had happened. Then, the rift began to close.

  There was no delay to Edmond’s jump, and its speed was beyond compare, but it was also now that the colorless force could aim its full efforts toward him.

  The many ‘paths’ converged into one, pooled onto Edmond even faster than he could move. A distortion that seemed to tear space itself asunder descended upon him, bringing his ascent to an increasingly closer stop.

  Still far away from Hildegard, his inability to reach her a foregone conclusion, he reached a clawed hand out with all his might. An alien, hideous hand which only retained the most human of despair as Edmond’s body stopped at last, then began to be forced back.

  Away from the closing rift, and further away from the onlooking Hildegard. A portal which had once measured several meters in its span was now small enough to hide her legs below the knees.

  But before it closed completely, Hildegard moved again. Her eyes shifted slightly, as did one of her shoulders when its corresponding arm arose… and reached out with her own hand.

  Before one more second passed, Edmond had brutally crashed back on the ground, and the rift to Nox had closed, sealing the view of anyone who had stood behind it.

  It was…

  … over.

  Tatyana’s shoulders slumped down in unintentionally cruel relief. She exhaled, her look remaining where the rift had once been until she heard Edmond stand back up.

  While turning to him, she briefly noticed the portable prison where Sirhan had locked Hellbound up. He must have tried to protect him too during Edmond’s outburst, but then left him behind? Was there some gap in knowledge or intentions between them and their mysterious ally?

  It was a significant concern, but ultimately temporary. What took over Tatyana’s attention right after and to the greatest extent was, of course, Edmond. Much like her, he found his gaze upon the place where the rift had been. Unlike her, he did not even try to look anywhere else.

  Far from it, he did not even move. Not a twitch, not a sound. His silhouette was like a statue under the jet-black rain.

  If there was one feeling that festered within her as she witnessed that, it would definitely be simple heartbreak.

  Edmond…

  It was too much. Not only the fact that she had left, but that even such a change from his part could not prevent it.

  Indeed, that change had affected his mind as much as his body, but his nearly lifeless reaction only served to further prove that he was still Edmond at his core. She could not fathom the extent of his sorrow at this defeat.

  Still, he did not rest or so much as slump back. He remained standing, staring at the exact same spot as if waiting for the smallest, most miserable chance he might see her again. If such an opportunity existed, he could not afford to waste it, and so he fought to maintain his current form.

  Against a time limit that had to exist, against his body’s own integrity that was no doubt terribly endangered by the transformation, and most visibly against the spell circles around his body, on the verge of breaking with only around half of their light remaining.

  Tatyana had recognized their structure since quite some time ago. A sorcery profile belonging to her older brother and Edmond’s handler, Alexander Nesterov. And it was that knowledge, alongside the sight of the glyphs’ deterioration, that made her realize the huge mistake she had made.

  Yes, the sorcery pattern on Edmond was beyond familiar to her. Enough so that when he was briefly weakened by Empyreus’ empowered barrier, she could have joined in and enhanced its attempts to suppress the strange power. Those four were despicable, but they only intended to trap him at that point, so it was very likely that Edmond’s transformation could have been safely forced back…

  … But she chose not to.

  As harrowing as Edmond’s change had been, as much of a danger as it may have presented to not only the enemy, but also herself… She wanted him to have a chance. To win against such unforgivable people, to let loose and give them what they deserved, come what may.

  Doing right by all the people who had been hurt today, and who knows how many more during the lead-up to now. A result that was simply fair at its worst, and outright justice at its best. Edmond himself would be happy with it too, she told herself; was that not a superhero’s ideal conclusion?

  Besides, Alexander is a genius knight. Tatyana may have the utmost confidence in her competence, but she held no delusions of being a match for her brother when it came to sorcery. She had been genuinely confident that his suppression spell would eventually get things back in control.

  That’s… no excuse.

  But in the end, that was still her selfishness speaking. And that selfishness now threatened to keep Edmond in this state for good, until he burned out under the alien power.

  Not even as a rampaging monster or an unthinking disaster, but as a stupid, pitiful boy who cared too little for himself.

  Was that not how things started between the two of them?

  … Wait. That’s right. This is not the first time.

  Such thoughts had invaded her mind before. The day after she first met his masked self, when Kloel trapped her in her bedroom for her own safety. Away from the boy who, due to her actions, was vulnerable to the greatest danger.

  What happened back then was still fresh in her mind.

  Am I really so stupid? Why am I just wallowing over a mistake? Again, when it’s so obvious that I can just…

  … fix it. Take responsibility; for that was just how capable she was.

  The boy before her would not perish like this, as something far from the superhero he wished to become. Even if her genius brother’s sorcery was insufficient, it did not matter in the slightest.

  For what was a mere genius compared to a Crowned One?

  Tatyana closed her eyes, then exhaled as she lifted Areadbhair back up.

  The spell circles are coming undone, but the base structure is still holding up for the moment. If I can strengthen that foundation while weakening the demon...

  Conceptually, this much was a simple matter for her. Areadbhair’s prana was just about the best empowerment the spell could use, and its unique abilities could allow her to target the demon’s essence while mostly bypassing Edmond himself.

  In practice, though? That last part was quite complicated. Per her earlier guess, Tatyana could indeed unleash one last shot from her lance, but it was not an attack of the magnitude needed to affect a demon of the caliber Edmond had shown.

  The one thing that could do the job was not what she had thought about when talking about her remaining strength. Frankly, it was not something she had ever considered using more than once a week, let alone in a single day.

  If she let it loose now…

  … I don’t need more excuses. Edmond… You’re not done here. We’re not done here.

  And let’s be honest, who better than me to save the superhero when he needs it most~?

  “Tathlum Airgeadlámh!”

  The silver lance on her hand descended, matched by a lance of unrivaled light from the sky.

  Tatyana felt her body break at that moment. As if she was no longer a living being, but a gun barrel made to shoot a cannonball of magma again.

  There was no way she could remain standing after that, and even the vision that let her know of her fall was fading fast.

  She saw the darkness that made up Edmond’s changed form shrink, then splinter like an eggshell. Numerous cracks spread across like a spiderweb, leaving the resulting fragments to crumble and vanish into the ground that was recovering its normal appearance.

  Then came Edmond; battered, powerless, as if a mere husk that had surrendered in both body and mind. His eyes still barely open for a moment, it was not long before they gave out.

  As did Tatyana’s in near unison.