CHAPTER 3

The cloud of darkness dissolved in the radiance of the Angel of Order. Her light was almost blinding as she descended, an army of angels unfurling behind her like a vast, incandescent tapestry.

Finally, Se'mudara spoke. "World King, what have you done?"

"Tried to eliminate a pest,"

Matrix replied, hands clasped behind his back, subtly channeling power.

Just then, Moyin crawled from the crater Matrix had created, radiating newfound strength.

"I see we have a visitor," she purred, levitating back onto the battlefield as her assistants regrouped around her.

Se'mudara's jaw tightened, a rare display of shock crossing her face. "You possess the lost pendant… H-how?"

"Well, let's just say there was a little killing… and stealing. Long story short, it's mine now, and there's nothing you can do about it," Moyin snarled.

"Do you even comprehend the danger you wield?" Se'mudara demanded, her voice echoing with righteous fury. "I command you to relinquish it now!"

After a moment of chilling laughter, Moyin retorted, her voice laced with venom.

"Look, Se'*, the world has changed, and power has shifted. Your commands carry no weight here anymore."

Se'mudara shuddered at those words, her eyes hardening with rage.

"Fine, I'll make you," she declared, raising her arms. A long, great sword woven from shimmering motes of light materialized in her grasp. Almost like a whisper, her voice reverberated, "Mudarians, battle."

I assure you, that's the wrong approach,

Matrix thought, but didn't attempt to voice the sentiment. Se'mudara was the most intractable being he'd ever encountered; she would always act according to her own inflexible will. It was the primary reason Matrix refused to work with her. Even though they had more or less the same aim; to keep all realms at peace, but he was failing at it, they both were.

The Mudarians were clones of Se' herself – fragments of her very being. They possessed a measure of sentience, but obeyed only Se'mudara, and on this day, they had been commanded to destroy.

The Mudarians surged forward as one, a wave of silver and righteous fury hurtling toward Scarlet Dust. They numbered over two hundred, and within a blink, they were upon her.

Moyin casually waved her arm, leaving a scarlet trail in the air. The trail faded, giving the appearance of a failed attack, until a rain of scarlet blades erupted from within the Mudarian ranks. The unexpected assault shredded a significant number of them. Se'mudara stumbled, white motes of light trickling from her nostrils. This momentary disorientation shattered the cadence of her attack, rendering it useless as the remaining Mudarians were swiftly overwhelmed by Moyin's assistants. The Mudarians were extensions of her, after all, and she felt their destruction on a visceral level.

General YS, the strategist, grasped a critical detail and struggled to establish mental contact with Matrix.

My liege… he began.

I know. Something's wrong,

Matrix interrupted, his gaze unwavering.

She's growing stronger still.

"Felt that, didn't you?" Moyin said, schadenfreude almost palpable.

Se'mudara leaned heavily on her sword, rising to her feet once more. Her lips moved, and the air thrummed with power.

"You cannot kill that which does not truly live to begin with."

She raised her sword high above her head and plunged it into the earth. A tremor coursed through the ground, and the shattered Mudarians began to reconnect. A severed arm joined a torso, and the upper body locked back into place. Within seconds, the army was on its feet again. But the Scarlet Dust and her generals hadn't been idle; they had plunged into the fray, wreaking havoc amidst the resurrected ranks.

No matter their efforts, however, as long as the sword remained embedded in the earth, the Mudarians would continue to rise.

Scarlet dust seemed to realize this, too, launching a scarlet orb-like projectile toward Se'mudara, whose radiance was noticeably dimming. Matrix's Barryons collided with the projectile mid-flight, engulfing it. Instead of a follow-up attack, Moyin merely leveled a deep scowl at Matrix before plunging back into the seemingly endless battle.

It wasn't as if she had a choice. If anything, she should be grateful Matrix hadn't joined the fray.

Matrix, however, decided to cease his own fire. He knew where this skirmish was headed, and his involvement would change nothing. He could have ordered the raging Saint to stand down, to approach the situation with logic, but Matrix knew better. Se'mudara always insisted on doing things her way. Matrix would let her exhaust herself while he planned his next move.

Two scarlet, snake-like figures coiled around Moyin's arms as she moved with the practiced grace of a fluid and eerily beautiful goddess. Suddenly, those figures lunged forward like spikes. The closest Mudarian jerked her head back, narrowly avoiding the sharp tips, creating only a few inches of space. But then, the spikes exploded into a cloud of scarlet dust, taking the Mudarian's head with it.

Saint Se'mudara winced.

The other arm was not idle. The snake-like figure coiled around another Mudarian's neck, choking the life from it. But then, something strange occurred: the Mudarian suddenly dissipated. Not just that one, but every Mudarian on the battlefield vanished.

Moyin immediately understood what was happening. She turned her gaze to Se'mudara in the distance, seeing her dangle the lost pendant from her fingertips. Only then did she realize the angel's aim from the beginning had been to retrieve the bracelet. It seemed one of her abominable Mudarians had surreptitiously removed it while she was busy dealing death.

"Looking for this?"

Se'mudara said, tossing the pendant down and piercing it through with her sword. It shattered easily, like brittle glass. Matrix felt a primal urge to stop her from destroying such an artifact, but he suddenly paused, his frown deepening.

Almost simultaneously, Se'mudara stated, "It's a fake."