Chapter 130: The Survivors’ Nightmare

As Sakolomé sank deeper into his thoughts, the creature was overwhelmed by the coordinated assaults of Bakuran, Grafay, Nairo, and the others. Only Salomé remained by his side.

She fell to her knees, grabbed her brother's arm, her face ravaged by tears.

Salomé (voice trembling):

— Big brother... what's happening to your body?... It looks like it's... fading away...

Sakolomé, breathing weakly, raised his eyes to her. His smile was gentle, but tragically silent. In his mind, he whispered bitterly:

"This is embarrassing... Some of my physical organs no longer function at all..."

Rivhiamë (calm but grave):

— Do you understand now why I insisted so much on the transcendence of the body... Do you want to speak to him telepathically?

Sakolomé:

— Yes... I prefer to avoid frightening him further...

A faint gleam passed over Salomé's forehead. By Rivhiamë's will, Sakolomé's inner voice was gently projected into her mind.

Sakolomé (telepathically):

— Salomé... don't worry about me...

Salomé straightened up, eyes wide.

Salomé:

— Huh?... What...?

She stared at him intently. His lips had not moved, but she had clearly heard him. Sakolomé, still smiling despite the swirls of green light and the cracks running across his skin, simply nodded.

Sakolomé (in his mind):

— I'm just tired. I just need to rest a little... It'll be fine.

Salomé gripped his arm tighter, tears welling on her cheeks.

Salomé:

— But your body... your body is evaporating like Jacob's... You're disappearing!

Sakolomé (calmly, to reassure her):

— It's nothing, little sister. It's just... a release. Nothing to worry about, okay? I'm fine...

Rivhiamë (internally, almost pained):

— You're lying to her... You're literally dying, young man...

Sakolomé:

— I know... But if I collapse now, she will collapse with me. I want to leave her a memory of strength, not panic...

Meanwhile, a few hundred meters away, the fight against the creature continued fiercely. Attacks flew, screams and impacts distorted the atmosphere as if the whole world wanted to collapse.

Yuki, focused, shouted:

— Atomic Barrier!

A dome of compressed energy burst forth, trapping the creature in a narrow magnetic field, slowing its movements. The entire team organized to try to neutralize it.

But none knew that meanwhile, the hero of their battle... was slowly fading.

A barrier made of atoms violently surrounded the creature, vibrating with unstable energy.

But with a single roar mixed with pure rage, the creature broke it with one blow, as if it were an empty shell.

Yuki had no time to react.

The creature lunged at her, teeth clenched, claws raised.

Grafay (shouting):

— My turn!!!

His arms swelled, becoming huge, massive, rocky. He grabbed the creature in a titan's grip, holding it with all his strength.

But the creature, without slowing down, pierced his palms with a lightning strike. Grafay screamed in pain, released his grip.

It leapt, pouncing on him like a furious beast.

Ramos (raising his hand, focused):

— Constraint!!!

An invisible force froze the creature, suspended in the air, trembling.

It slowly turned its head toward Ramos, eyes injected with fire... and broke the constraint like a toy.

It leapt again.

But Sally appeared in a flash of red and black, slicing its head off with a clean strike.

The creature's head flew through the air...

But the body, still moving, grabbed one of Sally's swords and plunged it into its belly.

Sally spat blood, recoiling from the impact.

The creature regenerated its head in a flash, ready to finish her with a second strike.

Bakuran appeared just in time, striking its back.

A light blow, but enough to make it release Sally.

The creature growled, turned toward Bakuran with fury.

But already, black thorns sprouted from the ground, fiercely entwining it.

ErMut (voice rumbling):

— Come on! You're going to die, yes!!!

At a distance, Sakolomé watched the scene, still lying down, weakened but attentive. His gaze grew serious.

Sakolomé (internally):

— Poor baby demon... At this rate, he must be downright terrified. All these assaults... he's just defending himself, pushed to the limit...

But the telepathic connection with Salomé was not broken.

Salomé (hearing in her mind):

— What did you just say, big brother?

Sakolomé (mentally, calm):

— This creature... this demon is just a baby. It took form by absorbing Grijan's body. It doesn't attack to dominate. It does it because it's afraid. It wants to survive, that's all...

Salomé (shocked):

— A baby?!

She watched the creature break ErMut's thorns with a roar, then...

She let out a piercing scream, a sound wave so violent it knocked everyone to the ground.

One by one, the fighters fell, stunned, crushed.

Salomé (dismayed):

— You mean... that monster we've been attacking all this time... is just... a baby?!

Sakolomé:

— I was shocked too. But it's the truth. It was born barely a few hours ago... It feels everything, especially hostility. And it acts accordingly.

Salomé (understanding):

— But then... if we stop attacking it... maybe it will calm down, understand that we no longer want to hurt it?

Sakolomé:

— No... It's too late for that. With these demons, once a creature is identified as a threat, peace no longer comes through words. It wants peace, yes... but absolute peace. And for that, it wants to kill you all. So it will never be afraid again.

Salomé (shaken):

— But then... what can we do?

Sakolomé (internally, grave):

— Personally, I don't want to kill it... I want to save it. But for that, we must first crush it... dominate it. And only then... extend a hand.

He clenched his fists, eyes fixed on the battlefield.

— The problem is that even all together... we're still too weak. Even combined, it surpasses us. The only real advantage we have... is our combat experience. Apart from that... it's superior to us in every way.

Salomé glanced at the creature, breath short, hands trembling.

Its aura, even wounded, was frightening. Intimidating. Almost overwhelming.

It looked like a living nightmare.

Sakolomé (mentally, to Rivhiamë):

— Rivhiamë... Tell me. What can I do to save Sally, now?

Rivhiamë (dark):

— …You can do nothing. It's too late. Unless she immediately stops using that demonic mana, on all levels. She must cut herself entirely off from Sy666. Mentally. Spiritually. She needs a total cleansing of consciousness. If she no longer thinks of him, the egregore will lose its power and can no longer anchor in her. But at this stage...

Sakolomé (shouting inside):

— Damn...!

Meanwhile, Sally continued to face the creature.

Around her, everyone lay on the ground. Exhausted. Shattered. Out of the fight.

But she... she kept going.

Tireless. Unbreakable. Inhuman.

Her body gleamed with dark red mana, charged with black electricity.

She advanced, a sword in each hand, empty expression, piercing gaze.

Sally:

— Die... damn it!!!

She lunged at the creature, their weapons clashing violently.

The creature used its claws to counter, tried to grab her by the neck—

But Sally dodged, performing several backward jumps, supple and quick.

Rivhiamë (coldly observing):

— This esoteric demon mana... makes her immensely powerful. She can even rival this creature, already weakened by the cosmic attack in space...

A silence. Then, darker still:

— But at what cost? She's risking her life. The more she uses this mana... the more her soul fades.

Sakolomé (desperate):

— Can you let me speak to her telepathically? Just once!

Rivhiamë:

— It's impossible.

Sakolomé (shocked):

— Why?!

Rivhiamë:

— The esoteric demon has locked everything down. It lets no one in. It has closed all connections. It wants no interference.

Her voice turns icy.

— Currently, there are only two beings in this body... Sally, and him. And him... he's savoring his feast.

Sakolomé (furious, teeth clenched):

— …What a bastard!!!

Sakolomé, breath short, eyes tired but full of determination, turned to his sister kneeling beside him.

— Rivhiamë... he murmured inwardly, Let me talk to her. Quickly.

Rivhiamë:

— Alright. Telepathic connection established.

Sakolomé (telepathically to Salomé):

— Salomé, listen carefully! It's urgent!

Salomé (surprised, in her head):

— Yes, big brother?

Sakolomé:

— Shout at Sally to stop fighting immediately! To stop using that cursed mana! If she continues, she'll be lost forever!

Salomé (taken aback):

— What?!

Sakolomé (shouting in his mind):

— DO IT!!! NOW!

Salomé jumped up, face soaked with tears, then screamed with all her might:

— SALLY!!! STOP!!! DON'T FIGHT ANYMORE!!!

On the battlefield, Sally, in the middle of the fight with the creature, paused her attack briefly.

Her gaze met Salomé's. A broken smile, full of painful melancholy, appeared on her tired face.

— It's too late... I can't turn back...

Salomé, heart pounding wildly, felt a chill run down her spine.

She didn't understand everything... but one thing was certain: something terrible was about to happen.

Without thinking, driven by an instinctive impulse, she rushed into the fight.

Sakolomé (in his head, frantic):

— Salomé, no! Where are you going?! Come back!! Don't go!!!

But it was too late. Salomé leapt into the heart of the battle, where Sally and the creature exchanged titanic blows.

Salomé tried to strike the creature in the back.

But the beast dodged with a fluid and brutal movement...

...and struck her with an inhumanly violent backhand.

BOOM!!

Salomé's body crashed to the ground, rolled several meters, bouncing like a disjointed doll.

She spat a gush of blood, unable to move.

Sakolomé (shouting, panicked, terrified):

— NOOOOO!!! SALOMÉ!!!

His cry echoed in the soul of all those present.

Bakuran (face twisted with anger, tears in his eyes):

— You monster... HOW DARE YOU HIT MY LITTLE SISTER!!!

He charged straight at the creature, chaining powerful blows and furious shouts.

But the creature parried everything. And at the right moment, it grabbed Bakuran's arm, squeezed it...

CRACK!!!

Bakuran screamed in pain, his arm hanging, broken clean.

Time seemed to freeze.

Nairo, Grafay, ErMut, Yuki, Ramos...

All stood frozen, horrified, powerless witnesses to this foretold massacre.

The creature abruptly released Bakuran, letting him collapse, gasping, his arm hanging and broken.

It raised its still intact hand, ready to slit his throat with a simple swipe.

But — Swang!

Sally darted like lightning and, with a precise gesture, cut off both its arms.

Black blood splattered into the air.

The creature let out a piercing roar, a mixture of pain and pure hatred.

Its gaze turned to Sally, filled with such deep hostility it seemed to shatter matter itself.

Sally, unfazed, brandished her blood-stained swords, and struck the creature's chest full force.

It staggered, recoiling from the strength of the blow.

Lying on the ground, breath broken, Sakolomé watched the scene with horror:

— What... what a nightmare...

A little further away, Grafay tried to get up.

His muscles trembled, his strength abandoned him.

He fell back to the ground, forehead in the dust, spent.

The others — Nairo, Ramos, Yuki, ErMut — also struggled to stay conscious.

Their bodies, their souls, everything in them screamed: Stop.

But the fight... continued.

Sally, panting, stood upright.

A funeral sigh escaped her lips.

— You've already done too much...

The world seemed to freeze.

The scenery faded around her, replaced by an empty domain, like a cosmic theater.

Her steps slid on the void, she twirled her swords in a choreography of macabre grace.

— Dance of Death.

— Embody the cutting concepts.

In Sakolomé's mind, Rivhiamë's voice burst out, worried:

— Damn...

— What is it?! Sakolomé replied, alarmed.

— She... Sally is about to impose a concept. She's not just going to strike the creature. She's going to embody an idea, carve it into reality with the blade. It's conceptual magic — and it's way too soon for her!

Sakolomé's eyes widened with terror.

— No... That means she's going to use... all her mana?!

— Not just that. She's going to sacrifice everything. This attack is a condemnation. Sy666 will devour her entirely. It will be her last action as herself.

Sakolomé screamed inside, his throat too raw to make a real cry:

— DAMN IT!! This is a nightmare!

In a final spasm, Sakolomé tried to get up, driven by panic.

But CRACK.

His arms broke, disintegrated, collapsing like luminous sand, carried away by the invisible wind of residual mana.

He fell back, crushed, annihilated, unable to move, unable to speak.

All he could do...

...was watch.

And before him, in this theater of shadows and fire,

Sally danced.

Her silhouette gradually faded into the black and red aura of the demon within her.

Her whole being screamed her determination...

...and her fate.