Day 73 Post-Impact - Dawn
Serena's power wasn't flashy.
There was no burst of light, no surge of energy, no dramatic display. She simply closed her eyes, reached into the fabric of causality, and pulled.
The Herald opened her mouth to speak another word of conversion, and a hundred tiny probabilities shifted all at once.
A gust of wind carried ash and debris from the battle into her face. Her vocal cords, strained from hours of speeches to her followers, chose that exact moment to spasm. A piece of shrapnel from a nearby explosion, deflected by pure chance, grazed her throat with enough force to break skin.
The Herald's voice emerged as a strangled rasp.
For the first time since the battle began, there was silence where there should have been music.
"Now!" Sarnav roared, and his team exploded into motion.
Ishani's light blades sang through the air, carving through the guards who rushed to protect their mistress. Her movements were poetry written in violence, each strike precise, each kill efficient. The network fed her information about enemy positions, let her anticipate attacks before they came, made her more than human. A guard swung a massive hammer at her head; she ducked under it, severed his arm at the shoulder, and was past him before the scream started.
"Left flank!" Jade's voice crackled through their earpieces. "Three more converging on your position."
Minji's illusions multiplied their numbers, created phantom attackers from every direction. The remaining guards didn't know which threats were real, which were shadow. They died confused and frightened, cut down by enemies they couldn't identify. One convert, a woman with fire abilities, tried to burn through the illusions; Minji simply made her fire appear to spread in the wrong direction, and Ishani took her from behind.
Sarnav moved through it all like a force of nature, his A-rank power fully unleashed. Every wife ability was available to him, humming beneath his skin, ready to deploy. He didn't need them all. Raw power was enough.
A guard lunged at him with enhanced strength; Sarnav Void Stepped behind him, caught the man's arm, snapped it, then threw the body into two others. Another tried to bind him with some kind of energy construct; he raised a Harmony Shield that shattered the construct on contact, then drove a Soul Crush through the awakener's chest. Blood sprayed hot across his face. He didn't slow.
"Sarnav, the main battle is turning," Nisha's voice came through the network, strained with effort. "The Hammer is down. We're pushing them back."
"Jiyeon has the western flank secured," Jade added. "Casualty rate dropping. They're losing cohesion."
The Herald's army was breaking. Without her voice to reinforce their conversion, doubt crept in. Some converts were already fleeing, their programmed loyalty insufficient against the primal fear of death.
But the Herald herself wasn't finished.
She stumbled backward, hand at her bleeding throat, eyes wide with something that might have been fear. She tried to speak again, tried to summon her power, but Serena was relentless. Every time the probability of her voice recovering increased, Serena pushed it back down. Sweat poured down the Singaporean woman's face, her whole body trembling with the effort of holding back an S-rank's ability.
Two final guards stepped between Sarnav and their mistress. Elite warriors, both of them, B-rank or close to it. They moved with the desperate courage of true believers protecting their god.
Sarnav didn't slow. He accessed Ishani's light through the network, formed blades of his own, and cut them down in two strokes. They died still reaching for him, still trying to protect their Herald.
"You can't," the Herald croaked, her musical voice reduced to broken whispers. Blood flecked her lips with every word. "You don't understand what's coming. The thing beneath the earth... it's waking. I've felt it. The seal is failing."
"I don't care." Sarnav closed the distance between them in a heartbeat, his hand wrapping around her throat. Not to choke, but to ensure she couldn't speak even if Serena's power faltered. "Your converts murdered refugees. Your army threatens my home. Whatever you believe, whatever you're working toward, ends here."
Through the network, he felt his wives. All of them, from Nisha on the eastern front to Jade in the command center, pouring their strength into him. Their love was a fortress around his mind, an impenetrable wall that the Herald's fading power couldn't breach.
We're with you, Nisha sent.
Always, Ishani added.
Finish it, Jade commanded.
The Herald's honey-colored eyes met his, and for a moment, the madness faded. He saw something almost human there. Sadness. Resignation. The acceptance of someone who had truly believed they were saving the world.
"You'll understand eventually," she whispered, blood trickling from her lips. "When the seal breaks. When it wakes up. You'll wish you'd listened."
"Maybe." Sarnav's grip tightened. "But I'll face that with my family beside me. Not as your puppet."
He released her throat and struck, a devastating Soul Crush punching through her chest with enough force to shatter stone. Her heart stopped before she could feel pain. The Herald of the Ascendancy, S-rank awakener, converter of hundreds, collapsed in the mud of a Malaysian jungle, her grand vision dying with her.
Serena fell to her knees, gasping, her probability manipulation finally releasing. The strain of holding back an S-rank awakener's ability had pushed her to her absolute limit.
"It's done," Sarnav said, his voice carrying across the battlefield.
And it was.
The effect was immediate.
The conversion ability had linked the Herald's followers to her will, a web of compulsion that spread from her mind to theirs. When that will ceased to exist, the web shattered. Across the valley, converts stumbled and fell, clutching their heads as the fog lifted from their minds. Some screamed in horror at what they'd done, memories of their actions under conversion flooding back. Some wept with relief, finally free after weeks or months of mental imprisonment. Some simply stood in confusion, looking at their hands as if seeing them for the first time.
"What... what happened to me?" a young man whispered, staring at the weapon in his hands. "I was... I was in Penang. My family..."
Sarnav turned away from the sight. Not all of those people were innocent. Some had chosen to follow the Herald before she converted them. Some had committed atrocities willingly before her power reinforced their devotion. But many had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the Herald's voice like moths in a web.
"Process them carefully," he ordered through the network. "Anyone whose conversion was involuntary gets a chance. Anyone who was following her before the conversion is a prisoner."
The four B-rank commanders reacted differently to their leader's death. Two surrendered immediately, throwing down their weapons and begging for mercy. Their conversion had been lighter, maintained through regular exposure to the Herald's voice rather than true belief. Without her, they had no loyalty to the cause.
One tried to flee and was brought down by Jiyeon's forces. Her charm ability wrapped around him like chains, making him docile, confused, easy to capture. He'd be valuable for intelligence later.
The fourth, a woman called The Hammer who had nearly killed Nisha on the eastern front, chose to fight to the death. She raged across the battlefield, her strength enhancement letting her throw soldiers like toys, until Nisha finally cornered her in a collapsed building. Nature magic buried The Hammer beneath a mountain of thorns and roots, crushing her slowly, painfully, the death she'd earned through the dozens she'd killed.
"Casualty report," Jade's voice came through the network, professional despite the exhaustion bleeding through their connection. "Harmony forces: forty-three dead, one hundred seventeen wounded. Enemy forces: estimated one hundred sixty-three dead, ninety-seven captured, the rest fled into the jungle."
Heavy losses. But they had faced an S-rank awakener and an army of over two hundred and fifty converts. The fact that any of them survived was a testament to the network's power.
"Medical teams moving in," Sana reported. Her holy light was already spreading across the battlefield, finding the wounded, stabilizing the dying. Via the network, Sarnav felt her exhaustion, her determination, her endless compassion that drove her to heal friend and former enemy alike. "I need help. There are too many."
"Ananya, coordinate the secondary healers," Sarnav ordered. "Jiyeon, secure the prisoners. Make sure none of them are still under conversion influence. Some of them might be faking recovery. Nisha, start clearing a path for evacuation. We need to move the wounded out before sunset."
Via the network, his wives acknowledged and moved to obey. Even exhausted, even wounded, they functioned as a single organism. This was what the Harmony system had built. Not just a harem, but a family that could face anything together.
Ishani appeared beside him, her light blades finally dissipating, blood splattered across her athletic form. Her eyes scanned the battlefield constantly, still looking for threats.
"You're hurt," she said, noticing a cut on his forearm he hadn't even felt.
"It's nothing."
"Let Sana look at it anyway." Her hand found his, squeezed briefly. "You did it. We did it."
"We're not done yet."
"I know." She didn't let go of his hand. "But for this moment, we won. Let me be proud of you for this moment."
He let her have it.
Sarnav knelt beside Serena, who was still on her knees, trembling with exhaustion. Her face was pale, dark circles under her eyes, her usually immaculate appearance disheveled and sweat-soaked. But she was smiling, a genuine smile that transformed her professional mask into something real.
"Told you," she managed. "Eighty-seven percent confidence."
"You did more than shift probability. You held an S-rank at bay."
"For about forty-five seconds." She laughed weakly. "Any longer and my brain would have literally melted. I could feel my neurons starting to fry. But forty-five seconds was enough."
He helped her to her feet, and she leaned against him heavily. Through the contact, even without the network bond, he felt something shift between them. Gratitude. Respect. The beginning of something deeper. Her walls, usually so impenetrable, had cracked open just slightly.
"You saved us," he said quietly. "All of us. Without you, her voice would have reached me. Would have converted me."
"Probably." Her probability sense confirmed it. "Your network bonds are strong, but S-rank conversion is stronger. I gave you the window you needed. Don't make me regret it."
"I won't."
"Good." She pushed off from him, trying to stand on her own, wobbling slightly. "Because I told you I was considering staying. This is me deciding. Officially. I want in."
"Welcome to Harmony, Serena."
"Don't get sentimental on me, can or not?" The Singlish slipped out, a sign of how exhausted she was. "Just... point me to somewhere I can collapse."
Ishani appeared on Serena's other side, helping support her weight. The two women exchanged a look, something passing between them that Sarnav couldn't quite read.
"I've got her," Ishani said. "You need to coordinate the aftermath."
Sarnav nodded, watching Ishani guide Serena toward the medical tents. An alliance was forming there, he realized. The fierce protector and the calculating strategist. It would be interesting to see how that developed.
The battlefield took hours to secure.
By midday, the worst of the wounded had been stabilized, the dead had been counted, and the prisoners had been sorted. Most of the former converts were genuinely freed, their minds their own again for the first time in weeks or months. A few remained dangerous, too deeply converted to recover. Those were isolated and guarded.
Sarnav stood at the edge of the Herald's former command tent, looking at the valley that had become a graveyard. Smoke still rose from scattered fires. The ground was churned and bloody. But it was over.
"The Ascendancy will respond to this," Jiyeon said, coming to stand beside him. Her charm ability had been crucial in subduing the prisoners, making them docile while they were processed. "We killed their Herald. That's not something they'll forgive."
"Let them come." Ishani appeared on his other side, her light blades still manifested, ready for any threat even now. Her athletic body was covered in blood, most of it not her own, and she looked like a goddess of war. "We'll kill whoever they send."
"We should prepare for political fallout too," Jade's voice came through the network. She was still at the command center, coordinating the aftermath from kilometers away, but her presence was as strong as if she stood beside them. "The Malaysian government will have questions. An S-rank died in their territory. They'll want to know who we are and how we did it."
The government. Sarnav had been avoiding that complication, focused on immediate survival, but Jade was right. They couldn't stay hidden forever. Harmony was too powerful, too significant to ignore. Eventually, they would have to deal with the larger political landscape.
"One problem at a time," he said. "First, we get our people home. Then we bury our dead with the honor they deserve. Then we plan for what comes next."
Jiyeon nodded, her strategic mind already working on multiple fronts. "I'll draft proposals for government contact. Better to approach them from a position of strength than wait for them to approach us. This victory gives us leverage."
"Ishani, I want our defenses doubled the moment we return. If the Ascendancy has other S-ranks, they might retaliate quickly. We can't afford to be caught off-guard."
"Already planning it, sayang." The endearment slipped out naturally, intimately. "I'll have rotating patrols and enhanced wards within twenty-four hours."
Via the network, he felt all of his wives. Exhausted but alive. Wounded but unbroken. They had faced an army and won. They had killed an S-rank and survived. More than survived. They had grown stronger.
Serena stood apart, watching him coordinate, her probability sense already reaching out to assess future threats despite her exhaustion. She wasn't part of the network yet, couldn't feel what the others felt. But she was here. She had chosen to stay. And soon, when she was ready, when they both were ready, she would join them fully.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[HARMONY CULTIVATION ESSENCE: +47,800][BOSS KILL BONUS: S-RANK TARGET ELIMINATED][QUEST COMPLETION: DEFEAT THE HERALD][CURRENT ESSENCE: 759,100 / 1,000,000]
[HARMONY POINTS: +8,500][QUEST BONUS: +2,000][CURRENT HP: 12,847]
[HOST ASSESSMENT: DECISIVE VICTORY ACHIEVED][THE HERALD OF THE ASCENDANCY: DECEASED][CONVERSION NETWORK: COLLAPSED][ENEMY ARMY: NEUTRALIZED][ASCENDANCY THREAT LEVEL: REDUCED BUT NOT ELIMINATED]
[NOTE: HOST HAS DEMONSTRATED EXCEPTIONAL TACTICAL COORDINATION][NETWORK SYNERGY EXCEEDED PROJECTED PARAMETERS BY 34%][RECOMMENDATION: CONSOLIDATE GAINS, PREPARE FOR RETALIATION, CONSIDER POLITICAL OUTREACH]
[POTENTIAL WIFE DETECTED: TAN WEI LING "SERENA"][COMPATIBILITY: 91%][STATUS: INTEGRATION BEGUN, BONDING RECOMMENDED WITHIN 7-14 DAYS]
The system's cold assessment confirmed what he already knew. This was a victory, but not the end. The Ascendancy still existed somewhere in southern Malaysia, licking its wounds, planning revenge. The sealed entity the Herald had mentioned, whatever it was, remained a looming threat. And now the government would take notice of the A-rank cultivator who had killed an S-rank awakener.
But for today, they had won. His people were alive. His wives were safe. And Serena had chosen to join them.
That was enough.
"Let's go home," Sarnav said.
His wives' agreement echoed through the network like a chorus, and together, they began the long march back to Harmony. Behind them, the valley smoked and bled, a testament to what they had accomplished and what still lay ahead.
The Herald was dead.
But her final words lingered.
The seal is failing. It's waking up.
Whatever "it" was, Sarnav would face it. With his wives. With his family.
Together.
[DAY 73]
[WIFE COUNT: 7/32]
[ESSENCE: 759,100 / 1,000,000]
[HP: 12,847]
[THE HERALD: DECEASED]
[ASCENDANCY ARMY: BROKEN]
[HARMONY SAFE ZONE STATUS][POPULATION: 890][WESTERN EXPANSION: COMPLETE][MYTHILI: AWAITING RETURN]
[NEXT: HOMECOMING]