The fighting at Eralsa hadn't let up — Horris and the Sunhonghin Imperial Kingdom locked in a brutal, grinding struggle against the Southern Alliance, with casualties already climbing into the hundreds. But that same day, far from the chaos of that battlefield, something just as unsettling was unfolding near the city of Vladimuskov in Elion.
A massive Gate of Abaddon had torn open in the sky above the city, and fiends were pouring out of it by the hundreds, dropping toward the streets below.
Deikher stood watching it alongside Byron, both of them tracking the gate's slow, pulsing expansion.
"That's not good. Not good at all." Byron's voice was tight. "These gates keep getting more and more unpredictable."
"Is Lady Sora still at the hideout?" Deikher asked.
"Should we call her in to help close it? I think the two of us alone might manage it." Byron said.
"Shame Haein's not around for this one." Deikher's gaze stayed fixed on the sky. "Hope she, Vincent, and Kei are holding up all right out there."
"Relax." Byron cracked a small grin. "Once we heard that report on Kei's death turned out to be false, I figured those three would be just fine, whatever they're dealing with."
A man in a black cloak and mask approached them as they spoke — Cero, the Fabled Class's lead intelligence scout.
"The King of Elion's already ordered a full evacuation of Vladimuskov. The Governor's following through on it now." Cero reported, brisk and efficient. "Shall we get started with the plan?"
"Is the military already engaging the fiends?" Deikher asked. "We need them holding the line while we work."
"Some units stationed nearby already rallied to keep them from breaching the city limits."
"Then let's not waste more time." Deikher's jaw tightened. "Every minute we sit here, more people die."
"I'll get the engine running." Cero said, already turning to head for the aircraft he'd built himself.
Far from that chaos, out on a snow-covered plain, another set of eyes watched the same gate from an impossible distance — the man in the conical hat, seated beside a crackling bonfire, sharing a simple meal of toasted fish and cloudberries with an old man across from him.
"What in the world is that?" the old man asked, squinting toward the horizon. "Another one of those Abaddon gates?"
"Afraid so." The man in the hat rose slowly, brushing snow and ash from his clothes. "I need to get moving. Iona's a faraway land, after all."
"Iona?" The old man's brow furrowed. "What business do you have there?"
The man in the conical hat offered nothing but a quiet, knowing smile before turning and walking off into the white.
Back in Iona, the empire kept fighting to hold its territory against the SAT's advance. In Kyungsuk, the Iron Lotus and White Tigers divisions were locked in combat with the Sixth Commander's forces when a Gate of Abaddon tore open without warning, unleashing fresh chaos into the middle of the fight. What remained of the town by the time the dust settled was still impossible to say — the disaster there was still unfolding.
Over in Hokaishin, under the protection of the Shadow Falls division, the village came under assault from Ursa's forces — the Second Commander's battalion — only for the sudden arrival of pirates out of Xebec Isles to throw the entire engagement into ruin, leaving the village devastated from both sides at once.
Ursa's battalion, over fifteen thousand strong going in, was forced to pull back after losing more than half their number to the combined pressure of the empire's forces and Bartholomew Grimm's fleet striking from the water. Bartholomew retreated as well, down to just two surviving warships after losing three others in the exchange.
Catastrophe was unfolding on every front, all at once, all across the world.
Back on the shore at Eralsa, the fight between Scorpio and Kei still hadn't slowed, both of them locked in a punishing back-and-forth of rapid strikes.
"This guy just doesn't get tired," Kei thought, the observation passing silently between him and Fenral. He landed a clean hit against Scorpio's leg and followed it with a quick triple throw — daggers aimed at his neck, chest, and skull — all three deflected off his saber in one smooth motion.
"You're getting faster the longer we go, huh?" Scorpio said, already answering with a series of air slashes fired off in quick succession.
Kei deflected each one, steel ringing against pressure.
"We've been at this a couple hours now." Scorpio planted his saber into the dirt and leaned his weight against the hilt, almost casual about it. "I'll give you this — for someone your age, you're a real pain to deal with. What's your name, kid?"
Kei did not answer, ignoring his question entirely.
Fenral's voice cut through the silence in his mind instead. "There's no version of this fight where you outlast him, Kei. His body, his prana structure — I can read it clearly through your eyes. Something built like that could fight weeks without slowing down. You can wound him, sure, but if he heals it back in an instant, the wound might as well not exist. Even with everything I've given you, you've only barely managed to edge past him in speed. His durability's still well beyond yours."
A shout rang out from behind Scorpio — a SAT soldier, breathless, urgent.
"Commander Scorpio! Orders from the kings — full retreat, now! All operations are being called off!"
"Huh?" Scorpio let out a long, disappointed sigh. "Cowards, the lot of them." He glanced back at Kei, something almost like respect in his expression. "Lucky for you. Seems our goal here's already been met — thousands dead, mission accomplished, apparently."
"Who said anything about letting you leave?" Kei's glare sharpened, cold and absolute. "Don't kid yourself. You're not walking off this battlefield."
Scorpio's grin widened. "One last dance, then. Think you've still got the legs for it?"
They closed the gap in the same instant, blinking toward each other and trading blows faster and harder than before, both of them finally throwing everything they had left into it.
Scorpio's air slashes came wild and unrestrained now, wide enough that they started catching soldiers still fighting in the distance. What remained of both armies had no choice but to break off from each other entirely, scrambling clear of the shoreline just to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of the two men still locked in combat.
Kei dropped his temperature hard, a cryo spell spreading fast beneath Scorpio's feet, ice climbing up his legs while a thick, cold mist rolled in around him, choking his line of sight. It didn't slow his reflexes any, though — when Kei blinked in behind him for a killing stab to the neck, Scorpio still caught the strike on instinct alone, driving his saber back into Kei hard enough to send him skidding across the sand.
Scorpio surged forward next, flame licking up along his saber as he brought it down in a brutal diagonal cut — the blow shattered one of Kei's daggers clean in half. But Kei used the same motion to hurl his remaining blade straight into Scorpio's arm, catching him clean, and closed the last of the gap in the same breath, driving raw anima into his fist until it hummed with thirtyfold force.
The punch landed square on Scorpio's jaw, shattering teeth on impact and sending him tumbling hard across the sand toward the water's edge.
But Scorpio's sheer toughness exacted its price in return — the force of the blow snapped bone in Kei's own hand, his whole arm flushing an angry, swollen red, pain dropping him hard to his knees.
Scorpio just smiled through his own busted mouth, blood running down his chin. As the war advisor kept shouting for him to fall back, he called over his shoulder, "We'll meet again, kid. This was really fun."
Kei tried to push himself up to chase him down, but an imperial guard caught his arm, holding him back. "Please, sir — let them go for now. Too many of our people need help. Better we spend what time we've got saving them than chasing those monsters."
Kei let out a long breath, forcing himself to calm down, his gaze drifting to Vincent and Yejin, both still held safe inside the ice he'd wrapped them in. "You're right," he said finally. "Let's save them."
And with that, the fighting at Eralsa finally came to an end. What remained of the SAT forces broke for their warships and fled the coastline, leaving the wreckage of the battle behind them.
Far south, in the city of Lapiz Carite, in the region of Warmuth, the Four Kings of the Southern Alliance Treaty had gathered around a long table, the mood in the room anything but celebratory.
"Have our forces pulled back yet?" King Garley Rakusta asked, his voice crooked and thin, the sixteenth king to sit the throne of Ladros.
King Bedula Rojg, the ruler of Mabia, let out a bitter laugh from across the table. "I still can't believe I lost over ten thousand men on this campaign. Hardly seems fair, wouldn't you agree, King Griffin?" His eyes cut sideways, sharp and accusing.
"I understand the weight of your loss, King Bedula." King Griffin kept his tone measured, respectful, eyes lowered. "But every kingdom here lost something today. None of us wanted this outcome."
Clink.
The sound of a spoon tapping against a wine glass cut through the tension, drawing every eye toward the head of the table.
"I don't see how that loss concerns the rest of us any less than it concerns you, King Bedula." The voice was calm, unhurried, and somehow far more unsettling for it. "This is our alliance, isn't it? Your losses are shared losses. All of ours."
"Ah — of course. You're quite right." Bedula forced a laugh, quickly folding under the weight of that stare. "Hahaha."
The mysterious king rose slowly from his seat, turning to study the massive map pinned to the wall behind him, tracing the borders of nations with his eyes. "Our plans are moving forward exactly as intended." He swirled the wine in his glass once before draining it in a single, unhurried motion. "Soon enough, not even the Sunhonghin Imperial Kingdom will be able to stand against what we're building."