The icy silence that descended over the ruined valley felt heavy and almost tangible. The lingering frequencies of Beat’s spiritual music vanished in a single instant, as if the earth itself held its breath.
At the edge of the burned forest, where the black tree trunks stood out like charred skeletons against the gray sky, stood King Solomon. His imposing stature cast a long, royal shadow across the flattened mud. The heavy fabrics of his cloak barely fluttered in the still air. Beside him stood Faustus. His posture was rigid and faultless, his gaze calm and ice-cold, without a single trace of emotion on his sharply chiseled face.
Solomon allowed his royal eyes to slide slowly over the ruined terrain. He saw the smoldering crater where the purple-black smoke still rose, the shattered boulders, and the group of young heroes standing there as if they had just spent an afternoon in a village square.
“SO?!”
The king’s voice cracked through the valley like a thunderclap. It was no ordinary question. It was a manifestation of royal will that made the rocks vibrate and caused the loose pebbles to roll across the ground.
Everyone on the field froze. Miki and Ren, only twelve years old and still full of adrenaline from their bizarre game, instinctively shrank back behind each other. The rest of the young warriors stood there as if they had been caught with their hands in the candy jar. No one dared to breathe.
Faustus took one step forward with an inquiring look, ready to analyze the situation professionally and coldly. But before his boot could touch the ground, the situation exploded completely. The pent-up tension turned into a chaotic storm of voices in which everyone began shouting at the same time.
“It was a tactical move!” Nyx shouted, while her fingers drew intricate magical patterns in the air to prove her point. “The spatial displacement of the ice walls forced the rearguard into a direct retreat!”
“LET ME TELL IT!” Vulkan roared. With a wild sprint, he leaped forward, as if he had never been severely wounded. He pushed Silarias aside without ceremony. “Those guys came crawling out of the ground! Sil thought he was a boss, but I kept that entire flank clean!”
“YOU’RE PUSHING ME ASIDE, VULKAN!” Silarias yelled over him, yanking Vulkan’s shoulder grip loose with a powerful sweep. “He tapped ME on my shoulder! It was my confrontation!”
On the side, a fierce bickering broke out among the girls. “Jane, you jumped far too early!” Lila called out with her hands on her hips. Jane lashed back fiercely: “Too early?! That Panthera Hellbeast wanted to take Nyx’s flank, I saved the whole formation!” after which Nyx shouted in between again about how it had straight up gone down.
Meanwhile, Apollo and Beat stood on an elevated rock. Apollo poured a cool drink into a wooden cup with a relaxed smile and offered it to Beat with a laugh, as if they were sitting as spectators at a theater performance.
On the other side of the field, however, things went completely wild. Ren and Miki had gone totally crazy from the built-up tension and adrenaline. Ren activated his speed technique and shot into the air like a rocket, while Miki discharged an explosion of fire energy beneath her feet and leaped straight at him. The two twelve-year-olds launched themselves from different directions at insane speed through the air, wildly gesturing and screaming.
“I pulled off that SAW technique!” Ren roared mid-flight.
“And I threw you dozens of meters up!” Miki yelled back, while their bodies headed straight for a frontal, crushing collision mid-air.
Solomon and Faustus looked at each other. The king let out a deep, heavy sigh. He shook his head slowly and extended his right hand. With a fluid, razor-sharp movement, he clawed his fingers together. A gigantic, golden Time Sigil lit up in the palm of his hand.
“SILENCE!!”
The world froze instantly.
The soundwave was completely wiped away. The wind stopped blowing, the rising smoke particles remained motionless in the air, and the entire group was locked in time. It was a bizarre spectacle. Vulkan hung halfway through a wild swing, Silarias stood bent toward the ground with his mouth wide open screaming, and Lila and Jane hung still in a heated argument.
But the most extreme sight was up in the air. There hung Ren and Miki, motionlessly chained in time. They floated meters above the ground, their bodies angled in a wild leap, their heads mere millimeters apart right before the hard impact. The golden-yellow aura of the time barrier enveloped them. The pressure of Solomon’s magic was heavy as lead, but the two twelve-year-olds squeezed a small movement out of their faces with immense effort.
“Soft discharge…” Ren stammered very thinly through the magical barrier, his eyes wide open as he stared at Miki’s face hanging millimeters from his own.
Miki’s eyes turned toward him with a strained giggle, her voice soaked in the pressure of time. “Thanks… hehe.”
King Solomon walked with calm, stately steps between the frozen figures. He looked up at the two floating children, reached his arms into the air, calmly grabbed Ren and Miki by the back of their collars, and pulled them out of the collision line with his magical power. He pushed them floating half a meter apart so they wouldn’t slam into each other once time started running again.
Then he walked over to Silarias and Nyx. He looked at them intently, held out his finger, and spoke two words: “You two.”
With a golden flash, the time freeze was lifted on Silarias and Nyx alone. The rest of the group remained motionless like statues around them, including Ren and Miki who were still weightlessly suspended in the air.
Silarias and Nyx looked at each other quickly. Adrenaline was still coursing through their veins, but they knew better than to come to Solomon with reckless stories.
“King Solomon, listen,” Silarias began, his voice raw and full of adrenaline as he tried to get his breathing under control. “The Hellverse warriors were scattered across the entire terrain. Many of them have already fanned out far across the land, some perhaps far beyond the borders. Only those youths and a recon unit remained behind. But that leader… that figure was different.”
Faustus stepped closer. His eyes narrowed. The playful energy vanished instantly, making way for an ice-cold, analytical focus. “Tell me exactly what happened when he stood before you, Silarias. Omit not a single detail.”
Silarias took a deep breath. The memory alone made the hair on his neck stand on end. “He folded space itself. Out of nowhere, he stood right in front of my face. I tensed all my muscles, my Bansaday power flared in my veins… but he did nothing. He just looked at me.”
“What did he look like?” Faustus asked in a low, penetrating voice.
“He was a visual monster,” Silarias whispered, as the images flashed beneath his eyelids once more. “His skin wasn’t human; it was like liquid, dull obsidian where a dark red, fiery glow seemed to burn deep beneath the surface. He wore no armor, for his own flesh was the armor. And his eyes… they weren’t ordinary pupils, but two burning, golden-yellow slits that looked straight through my soul. The presence around him made the air so heavy that the oxygen was squeezed out of my lungs. And then… he touched my shoulder. Very dryly. Very calmly. As if he were placing a mark.”
Faustus stiffened. His pupils shrank to tiny pinpricks. He stared at the thin circle of gray ash on the ground and then looked at the exact spot on Silarias’s shoulder.
Wait a minute… Faustus thought to himself, as an icy chill sliced down his spine. The High Overlord of the third Hellverse depth?! A direct marking from the crown prince of the Infernals?! That’s impossible… he would never personally appear on a union field… unless he’s searching for the Vessel.
Faustus looked at Solomon and gave a tiny, barely perceptible nod. The situation was far more dangerous than they had initially thought.
Solomon understood the signal immediately. He raised his hand again and snapped his fingers in the air. The golden Time Sigil dissolved and the entire group fell back into reality with a loud racket. Vulkan stumbled forward, Jane and Lila started shouting again mid-sentence, and Miki and Ren dropped onto their feet with a soft thud, exactly half a meter apart from each other.
“SILENCE!” Solomon roared, his voice filled with unquestionable authority.
Everyone shut their mouths instantly. Solomon looked around the circle, from the sweaty faces of the youths to the tired eyes of the veterans. His stern gaze changed slowly. A warm, deep pride appeared in his eyes.
“You do not half understand what you have just accomplished,” Solomon spoke, his voice now carrying and full of respect. “We are here… at the university. The barriers are broken, the Wards have come together. You pulled it off.”
A shock of disbelief went through the group, followed by a few hesitant, joyful smiles.
“No, but LOOK AT EACH OTHER!” Solomon called out, spreading his arms wide. “THIS YOU OWE TO YOURSELVES AND EACH OTHER! You are the treasures of the Ward!”
Those words hit like an emotional wave. It resonated deep within the core of every warrior present.
On the side, Silarias and Vulkan stood shoulder to shoulder. Their muscles were still tense, but their eyes began to glisten. They stared straight ahead, trying to keep themselves grand and unbothered.
“Mate…” Vulkan muttered under his breath, clenching his jaw tightly to push down the lump in his throat. “If you go… I go too. Always.”
“I know, man,” Silarias whispered back, his voice trembling with pent-up emotion. “I know.”
Nyx caught the conversation. She turned her head and looked at Valeria. Not a single word was needed. Within a single second, memories flashed through their minds. The dark, imprisoning caves where Valeria had been held, the desperate rescue operation, the constant bickering between Silarias and Vulkan over who was truly the strongest, the life-and-death struggle with Abaddon… everything they had been forced to sacrifice to stand right here.
A single tear rolled down Valeria’s cheek. Nyx could no longer control her emotions either. The two girls burst into tears simultaneously and threw their arms around each other’s necks.
The ice was broken. On the other side of the circle, Jane, Aurelius, and Lila began to sob openly. The raw tension of the past few weeks, the constant survival on the edge of death, melted away in a wave of pure release and joy.
In the middle of this emotional release stood Nicola. He looked around, his analytical brain completely disoriented by this sudden outburst of human sentiment. What kind of…? he thought to himself, adjusting his glasses.
Before he could finish the thought, he felt a warm hand clasp around his. It was Lyn. She looked at him with a soft, genuine smile on her face, streaks of soot and gold dust still on her cheeks.
“Just enjoy it, Mr. Professor,” Lyn said softly, her voice full of warmth. “No, but Nicola… really, thanks for having my back. Always.”
Nicola stared at her for a second. The chilly, detached attitude of the scientist melted away. A rare, genuine smile appeared on his face. “You’re right… but I should thank you, Lyn. Without a lamp, there is no light.”
Silarias and Nicola looked at each other through their tears and emotions. The absurdity of the situation struck them, and they both burst out laughing aloud.
“Man, look at them,” Silarias laughed, pointing at Beat and Apollo. “Let’s tell them that emotions are meant to be shown, that they don’t have to be ashamed…”
Silarias and Nicola turned toward the boulder where Beat and Apollo were standing.
The plan to reassure them crumbled instantly. Beat was on his knees weeping loudly, his hands covering his face, while Apollo stood bawling like a small child with fat tears rolling down his cheeks.
In the middle of their crying fit, Beat and Apollo looked up. They saw Silarias and Nicola standing there staring, realized how ridiculous they looked, and burst into a roaring laugh with tears still rolling down their cheeks. The entire valley filled with the liberating sound of laughing and crying friends.
Then King Solomon’s voice cut through the air once more.
The king stood on the elevated rocks, his gaze fixed tightly on the distant horizon where the sky was slowly turning an unnatural, dark purple.
“In the university, there is no time to relax!” Solomon’s voice echoed, cold and relentless. “The barriers of the world are thinner than ever. SO BRACE YOURSELVES! What I am about to explain to you now is crucial for the survival of everything we hold dear…”
The laughter died down. The tears dried up. Silarias looked down at his shoulder, where the invisible pressure of the Hellverse leader still lingered.
The storm was not over. It was only just beginning.