Lucent Harmony II

The Abyssal Tide Serpent was beyond anything I had faced before.

It towered over us, coiled like a storm given form, its body undulating through the air with unnatural grace. Each shift of its massive frame sent tremors through the sand, cracking the few crystalline spires that remained intact. The mana radiating from it was overwhelming—thick, electric, suffocating.

I had fought powerful beasts before. I had stood in battles where magic and steel clashed with terrifying intensity. But this… this was something else.

I could feel the other adventurers behind me faltering. Some were still holding their ground, gripping their weapons with grim determination, but others were already taking slow steps back, their instincts screaming at them to run.

I tightened my grip on my staff and took a breath, steadying myself. "Hold the line!" My voice rang out over the battlefield, cutting through the chaos. "We cannot let it advance!"

The serpent's glowing eyes flickered toward me. A moment later, it reared back, its entire body tensing.

It struck.

I barely had time to throw up a barrier before the sheer force of its lunge sent me skidding backward. My boots carved trenches into the sand, the impact rattling my bones. The barrier held, but just barely—the cracks that spiderwebbed across its golden surface told me everything I needed to know.

I wouldn't last.

Not alone.

I pressed my comm link, my pulse hammering against my ribs. "Navir, status report!"

Static crackled for a second before his voice cut through. "Bad. Real bad. We're losing ground. That thing—" He hesitated, then swore. "Rachel, we just got word—Arthur was hit."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "What?"

"Displaced—Serpent threw him halfway across the battlefield—"

"Is he alive?" My voice was sharp, urgent.

"He was moving. But he's alone."

Arthur. Alone. Injured.

I clenched my teeth, my mind torn between instincts. If I left now, the adventurers would falter. But if Arthur was hurt—

The serpent let out a deafening screech, the ground beneath me vibrating with its fury. It was charging another attack. A concentrated sphere of water mana began forming between its fangs, twisting and writhing like a captured storm.

No time.

I pushed mana into my core, feeling my Gift surge to life. Golden light unfurled behind me, the familiar weight of my celestial wings pressing against my back. My vision sharpened, the battlefield slowing to something I could grasp, something I could control.

But even with my Gift, I knew the truth.

I couldn't hold it back forever.

Even at my strongest, even with my spells, my barriers, my Light magic—I wasn't enough. Not against something like this.

I needed something more.

I needed—

A wave of mana slammed into the battlefield.

It was so sudden, so immense, that my body reacted before my mind did. I turned instinctively, my breath catching in my throat.

The air itself had changed. Thickened. Supercharged with something vast, something raw and untamed.

For a split second, I thought another six-star beast had emerged. That the worst-case scenario had arrived.

But then my eyes found the source.

And I froze.

Arthur.

Standing atop a fractured crystal spire, silver light crackling around him like living electricity.

This—this wasn't the Arthur I knew.

The weight of his mana pressed against me like a tidal wave, thick enough to distort the space around him. His azure eyes glowed in the dim light, the power radiating from him suffocating in its intensity. He exhaled, and the air trembled, the sheer force of his presence drowning out even the serpent's suffocating aura.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't think.

This wasn't possible.

Arthur was strong. Talented. A tactical genius. But this—this was something different. Something on an entirely different level.

I felt the adventurers behind me reacting, their voices caught somewhere between awe and disbelief. Someone whispered something—maybe his name, maybe a curse—but I barely heard it.

Because I understood exactly what had happened.

He awakened his Gift.

He had to have. Nothing else explained this. No normal human, no matter how skilled, could release this kind of raw energy without a Gift. It was too innate, too natural, too much a part of him.

Arthur had stepped beyond his limits.

And I was here to witness it.

The battlefield stilled.

Even the Abyssal Tide Serpent hesitated.

Arthur stood there, gazing down at us, his face unreadable. His mana flared and twisted, the silver light wrapping around his arms, coiling in controlled arcs.

I barely had time to process it before he moved.

One second he was on the spire. The next, he was beside me.

I sucked in a breath, barely registering the speed at which he had closed the distance.

"You're alive," I whispered, half in disbelief.

He smirked slightly, but his eyes were sharp. "Not the easiest fight I've been in."

I didn't know what to say. His presence—his power—it was overwhelming. But I didn't have time to dwell on it.

'Amazing.'

That was the only word my mind could grasp as I stared at Arthur's form, wreathed in silver light. 

When a Gift awakened, mana changed, adapted—became something uniquely personal. My own was golden, no matter which element I used. Cecilia's burned crimson, vibrant and dangerous. But Arthur's? His mana was silver, bright and fluid, shifting like quicksilver in motion, a force of pure potential. 

And he wielded it as though he had always been meant to. 

"I can't beat it alone," he said, eyes locked onto mine, steady despite the chaos still crackling around us. 

For a moment, my vision betrayed me. His form blurred, and another memory imposed itself—a different battlefield, a different boy. 

Lucifer. 

The first time he had truly shown his power, when the world had gasped and declared him the greatest talent of our generation. I remembered the way he had stood, proud and unshaken, the weight of expectation settled on his shoulders as naturally as breathing. 

"Rachel," Lucifer had said to me then, his voice like a prophecy. "Be my light." 

Words that would make any girl's heart flutter. 

But they hadn't made mine. 

Because I wasn't naive. 

Lucifer's eyes held no warmth, no affection—only expectation. He didn't see Rachel Creighton, the girl, the friend. He saw the Saintess. A title, a role, a piece of the grand machine that would carry him to greatness. 

He was the Second Hero. The world had already decided. And I, as the Saintess, was supposed to illuminate his path. 

But I didn't want to. 

I didn't want to be an accessory to someone else's legend, a guiding light chained to the purpose others had assigned me. I wanted to be more than a reflection in someone else's story. 

That was why I had chosen Arthur instead of Lucifer at the Freshman Ball. A small rebellion, maybe, but one that mattered to me. 

And now, again, my instincts screamed at me. 

Trust him. 

I met Arthur's gaze. There was no expectation in those silver eyes. No prophecy. No demand. 

Just a simple truth. 

He couldn't do this alone. 

"Then let's do it together," I said. 

And for the first time in a long, long while, I felt like I was choosing my own path.