A storm of fractured memories churned around them. Hikari and Lila sprinted through Amanda's subconscious domain, a world torn apart by grief and reshaped into something barely recognizable as reality. Streets twisted and folded into themselves, a labyrinth of contradictions where paths led nowhere and alleyways spiraled into oblivion. The skyline was jagged and broken, shifting as if the city itself was alive and writhing in agony.
Time no longer obeyed its natural flow. Flickers of Amanda's past bled into the present—distorted shadows of her family standing in doorways, their faces blurred like smeared ink on an old photograph. A birthday party frozen mid-laughter, the colors drained into sepia, the cake melting into blackened sludge. The echoes of forgotten lullabies drifted through the air, their notes warping into something hollow and wrong. The deeper they ventured, the more the air thickened with the weight of unspoken sorrow, a crushing force that whispered of something worse than death—oblivion.
Hikari propelled herself into the air with her telekinesis, scanning the warped skyline for any trace of Amanda or Lirael. Yet, even from above, the landscape remained an endless sea of distortion—nothing beyond twenty feet was clear, the rest melting into an abstract blur, as if reality itself was rotting away. She hovered back to Lila's side, frustration tightening her grip.
"No use," Hikari muttered, her voice edged with impatience. "Can't see anything past twenty feet."
Lila exhaled sharply. "Damn. I guess she doesn't want us finding her that easily."
"So if we can't see further, how the hell are we supposed to find her true core?"
"I think we should—"
A sudden howl tore through the air. A presence—vast, cold, and hungry—made itself known.
From forty-five feet above, a concentrated blast of dark matter screamed toward them, a mass of writhing entropy collapsing the very fabric of space around it.
Lila's instincts flared. "Hikari!"
"I see it!"
A surge of something primal—something electric—rushed through Hikari's veins. It was instantaneous. Her pulse hammered against her ribs, the world sharpening into perfect clarity. Her body felt weightless, yet thrumming with unnatural energy. Move. Now.
A cyan glow ignited around her, flooding the space with raw psionic energy. Lila staggered as the sheer force of Hikari's power pulsed outward, the air itself distorting as if space were bending beneath her will. The supernatural pressure was suffocating—an oppressive storm of force, surging from deep within Hikari's very core.
With a flick of her wrist, a shimmering cyan barrier erupted around them, a psychic shell forged in an instant. The dark matter blast slammed into it with the force of a collapsing star. The resulting shockwave ripped through the decaying landscape, reducing entire sections of Amanda's subconscious world into void—erased, as if they had never existed.
Hikari's breathing quickened. She could still feel it—the rush, the raw exhilaration flooding her muscles, sharpening her mind, pushing her beyond her limits. It was familiar, yet distant, like something buried deep within her waking self, waiting for the right moment to claw its way to the surface.
And for the briefest second, a thought slithered into her mind.
That felt… effortless.
Lila turned to her, wide-eyed. "Hikari… your power just now—"
But before she could finish, the ruins around them groaned and shifted, reality twisting in on itself once more. The battlefield was far from over.
Lirael hovered thirty-five feet above them, her raven-black hair flowing like liquid ink, shifting and whispering as if alive. Her dull silver eyes held an abyssal emptiness—a reflection of the despair she nurtured. Swathed in robes woven from shadow, her attire flickered like a living void, adorned with intricate symbols that pulsed faintly. Her skin, pale as moonlight, bore faint rune-like markings, silent testaments to the horrors she had both witnessed and wrought.
She smiled—a slow, terrifying curve of the lips.
Hands resting on her hips, she gazed down at Hikari and Lila with the amusement of a puppeteer addressing her marionettes.
"Ah, my sweet apostles," she cooed. "It seems our little game has run its course. As delightful as it's been, I'm afraid it's time we brought this to an end~."
Hikari didn't hesitate. She thrust her hands forward, Psionic Conduction flaring to life as ninety-five blades materialized in an instant. With a snap of her fist, they shot toward Lirael like a storm of psychic daggers.
Lirael flickered aside, the blades slicing through empty air.
Hikari was already moving.
^If I can truly do anything with these powers… then let's see if I can push my body beyond its limits.^
She crouched low, psychic energy surging into her legs like a coiled spring. The ground cratered beneath her as she launched skyward, the sheer force detonating into a shockwave.
Midair, she twisted—momentum and raw power coalescing into a single, devastating kick.
Her foot smashed into Lirael's face.
The impact sent Lirael hurtling backward, but she righted herself with an effortless twist, hovering once more. She ran a thumb across her lip, her silver eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
^Hmph.^
^This one…^
^I expected her to be stronger than the others, but this?^
^She's adapting. Growing. Every second.^
Lirael exhaled, her smirk returning—but colder now.
"No more holding back, then."
Lirael's fingers snapped, a sound sharp enough to slice through the thick tension hanging in the air. From the horizon, thirty-five feet above them, a presence emerged.
At first, it was but a shadow on the skyline. But then it took form—a grotesque, incomprehensible entity, an abomination that seemed to have been torn from the deepest, most primal fears of the human mind. The creature was a floating assemblage of death—three skeletal heads, suspended like ominous relics, each one suspended over a writhing core of undulating, liquid darkness.
The skulls hovered above it like a twisted crown, jagged teeth jutting from broken jaws, eyes sockets deep and empty, glowing with a cold, hollow light. Twisted horns curled from their brows—sharp and unnatural, as though the creature itself was an aberration against the natural laws of existence.
The mass of its body was a fluctuating black vortex, constantly collapsing inward and expanding outward in a sickening dance—like something alive, yet so alien that it seemed to be struggling against its own nature. The very essence of its being was fluid, constantly shifting, as if it were a living paradox. Dark tendrils lashed from the core of the beast, snapping through the air, their presence warping reality itself, leaving the atmosphere thick with dread.
Every inch of space around it seemed to choke, suffocating any semblance of light or hope, as if the creature were a living embodiment of despair. The very air felt wrong—like it was being torn apart by the sheer presence of this thing. A dense fog, heavy with malevolent energy, began to settle, draping over everything like a suffocating blanket.
For the second time in her life, Hikari felt something cold and unrelenting crawl up her spine—true fear. Not the thrill of battle, nor the usual adrenaline coursing through her veins. This was something darker. Something ancient. Something primordial.
Her heart pounded like a drum, each beat seeming louder than the last, every breath she took dragging itself through the oppressive air. Her legs trembled—uncontrollably. Her hands were stiff, frozen. The nightmare before her was too much, too grotesque to be real. It was like staring into the abyss itself, watching the face of pure destruction manifest before her eyes.
She barely registered Lila's hand on her shoulder, grounding her. The touch was the only thing tethering her to reality, a small lifeline amidst the abyss of terror swirling around them. Hikari focused on it, drawing strength from her presence, but it didn't change the suffocating weight of the creature above.
Lirael's voice broke the silence—sweet, almost sing-song in tone, as if mocking their horror.
"Isn't he cute~?" she cooed. "My little pet. I call him… the Harbinger of Oblivion~"
The creature responded in kind, its first head opening wide, revealing rows of jagged teeth that glistened with malice. The air around it crackled with energy—dark, terrible energy—as it began charging.
A sickening hum filled the air, an ominous ripple in the atmosphere, like the world itself was holding its breath. The creature's mouth stretched wider, its dark energy intensifying. Hikari could feel the weight of it—the darkness—pressing against her very soul, draining the air from her lungs.
And then it happened.
The dark matter blast erupted from its mouth, a blinding pulse of pure destruction, rushing forward like a wave of night itself. Time seemed to slow as the blast hurtled toward them, a point of no return.
Hikari's body locked—frozen in terror—as she felt the pulse of dark energy racing toward them, closing in with an inevitable finality. Her heart screamed. Her mind screamed. She couldn't move—couldn't escape. She was powerless before it.
A fraction of a second. The pulse was almost on them. The universe seemed to bend and stretch, the air around them growing thick with death.
And then—
A flash of light.
Elias shot through the air like a bullet, his silhouette cutting through the darkness. The ground shuddered beneath their feet as he appeared between them and the blast, throwing something toward them. The glyph seemed to shimmer as it hurtled through the air, splitting into two.
Before Hikari could fully comprehend what was happening, the glyphs hit her and Lila, embedding themselves like cold, invisible brands.
The dark matter blast collided with them, its fury like the strike of a collapsing star—but it didn't touch them. It passed through them as if they were made of air, the intense energy rippling harmlessly past.
Hikari's heart raced, still thrumming with panic, but the blast was no more. The oppressive weight of fear slowly began to loosen its grip, even as her mind struggled to process what had just occurred.
Elias landed lightly beside them, holding a cigarette with a bored expression, as though he had just taken a casual stroll through a battlefield.
"Glyph of the Lost Future," he drawled, the smoke curling around his words. "It prevents a target from ever achieving a specific outcome. In that instant, I used it on you two. Kept you from getting hurt. Pretty cool, huh~?"
Hikari's breathing was shallow, her eyes wide, still in shock. She tried to speak, but no words came—her throat tight, her mind struggling to catch up with the terror she had just faced.
Lirael's voice slithered through the air, dripping with malice, her lips curling into an almost mocking smile. "How sweet, our little occult boy is back~"
Elias emerged from the depths of the darkness, his disheveled raven-black hair whipping wildly in the wind. The breeze barely touched him, as though the very air around him feared to make contact. His icy-blue eyes glowed like the frozen heart of the universe itself—cold, unyielding, and fathomless, as if they could pierce through every illusion, every layer of reality. His gaze was not just cold, it was absolute, like staring into the abyss where all things—hope, light, meaning—ceased to exist. Every movement of his lean, athletic form was deliberate, calculated. Even his breath, rhythmic and precise, felt like part of a grand, incomprehensible design.
He tilted his head slightly, his words spilling out with a dark, almost bored finality. "I already knew that last attack wouldn't kill you. You're a witch, after all. To destroy you would mean eradicating your true core—the thing that makes you… you." His tone was flat, disinterested, but the weight behind his words was suffocating, like a glacier slowly grinding its way toward the earth, relentless and uncaring.
Lirael's expression flickered, her dark eyes narrowing, her mouth pulling into a thin, venomous line. "Oh, how nice. Did you come to finish me off yourself~?" Her voice held a sickly sweetness, a playful edge to it that barely veiled the threat beneath.
Elias' lips barely twitched into the smallest of smirks, the glint of amusement flashing in his eyes like the cold bite of winter. "No, no, of course not. I came here to fight that." He pointed a finger, his hand steady as a serpent's strike, toward the Harbinger of Oblivion, looming above them—a swirling, twisting mass of nightmare incarnate. The sheer size of it, the suffocating weight of its presence, was enough to make the world feel like it was cracking beneath its terrible gaze.
"After all," Elias continued, his voice casual, but his eyes dark with the knowledge of what he was about to face, "I know it would be too easy for me to beat you." The words were like a gauntlet thrown at Lirael's feet—too easy.
The insult landed, and the air shifted instantly. Lirael's expression twisted into something truly terrifying, her eyes burning with a furious hatred that seemed to burn the very air. She snarled, her words venomous, "You cocky little human! I wonder how tough you'll be once your world is drowned in despair!"
With a sudden, violent flick of her wrist, Lirael disappeared into the shadows, melting into the very darkness that seemed to respond to her will. The Harbinger of Oblivion, a behemoth of swirling destruction, began to hum with dark energy, the very ground trembling beneath its weight, preparing to unleash its terrifying power upon them. The atmosphere thickened with a cloying sense of dread, every breath Hikari and Lila took now laced with the stench of impending doom.
Elias flicked his cigarette to the ground with a casual disregard, the ember sizzling out in the oppressive air. His voice, however, was sharp, cutting through the rising tension like a blade. "Hikari, Lila. Her true core lies in The Heart of the Weeping Cathedral."
Hikari blinked, her voice shaky, a mixture of disbelief and confusion flooding her. "The what?" The words barely escaped her lips, each one heavy with the weight of the surreal nightmare unfolding around them.
Elias didn't bother looking at her, his attention fully focused on the chaos around them, his tone calm as ever, "At the very center of Amanda's subconscious lies the Weeping Cathedral—a twisted, shadowed replica of the once-grand structure that now serves as Lirael's stronghold. It's a place steeped in grief, a reflection of all that she's lost… and everything she plans to destroy."
Lila raised an eyebrow, the tension in her stance barely masked by her usual cool demeanor. "How do you know all this?"
Elias didn't answer right away. Instead, he gave a slight, almost imperceptible smile, his voice dipping lower, laced with quiet confidence. "Sigil of the Unchained Mind. It prevents mind control, illusions, and reality-warping from affecting the user. When you've seen what I've seen… you learn to protect yourself from the things that shouldn't be. And what's going on in that cathedral?" He paused, his eyes sharpening like a hawk's, focused on a target far beyond the present. "It's beyond anything you can imagine."
Lila hesitated, her eyes flicking between Elias and the looming Harbinger of Oblivion, its shadows seeming to claw at the edges of their reality. She nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Fine. We'll trust you."
She turned to Hikari, her voice softer now, the weight of their situation settling in. "We just have to go. Now."
But just as she spoke, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble, the distant sound of Lirael's voice echoing through the abyss. "You think you can stop me? This world is mine to shape, to twist, to consume."
The Harbinger of Oblivion's eyes blazed with an unholy light, and the air around it crackled with malignant energy. Its body began to distort further, pulling the very darkness around it into itself, gathering power for the final strike.
Elias' eyes narrowed, his fingers twitching as if preparing for something far darker, far more dangerous. The atmosphere pulsed with the feeling of inevitability—of a terrible end that was drawing near, one they couldn't escape.
The Harbinger surged forward, its tendrils lashing out like living shadows, and in the instant before the world seemed to collapse into chaos… everything stopped.
For a split second, time hung in the balance, the silence deafening. Hikari felt her heart stop, her breath trapped in her chest. She turned to Elias, her gaze searching for any sign of certainty.
And then, from the shadows, Lirael's laughter echoed, a soft, chilling sound that sent a shiver crawling up Hikari's spine. "You're too late," she purred. "The end is here. And you will never escape."
The final words echoed through the air, hanging in the silence like a death sentence. The world was waiting, holding its breath for what would come next—would they survive? Would they make it to the cathedral?
And as the darkness surged toward them, Hikari realized—they weren't just fighting to save Amanda anymore. They were fighting for their very souls.
To be continued…