12 : Ashes of the gate

The battlefield smelled of burning flesh and blood

Ash rained from the sky, and the earth trembled beneath the weight of stampeding monsters. Roars echoed across the fractured horizon—some primal, others hauntingly intelligent. The monstrous horde stretched across the ravaged valley like a tidal wave, clawing and screaming, their wings blotting out the sun.

At the center of it all, Nyra stood still, her Fractured Blade humming in her grip.

The battlefield had been lost hours ago. Soldiers lay broken in trenches of dirt and blood. Power-wielders screamed through broken teeth , barely teenagers, fought alongside hardened adults, barely holding the perimeter around the rift. A few screamed commands; most just screamed.

Then she stepped in.

The sky cracked.

Nyra moved like an arrow released from a divine bow—silent, precise, unstoppable. Her cloak billowed behind her like living shadow, and her weapon shimmered as if chaos itself pulsed through its veins.

The first monster leapt toward her—a twisted griffin with stone fangs and molten eyes.

She sliced once.

It didn't fall.

It exploded.

The Fractured Blade shattered mid-swing into seven floating shards, each veering toward another beast like hungry predators. One plunged into a centipede-like titan, turning its armored hide to ash. Another pierced the skull of a screaming banshee with a hiss of steam.

And Nyra, walking through the chaos, called the blade pieces back with a flick of her hand.

Every step she took stained the ground in gore. Every movement ended lives.

Wings tore. Heads rolled. Screams became silence.

Where once the monsters overwhelmed, now they were overwhelmed.

And Nyra was just getting started.

Amid the sea of torn limbs, shattered wings, and blood-soaked earth, Nyra advanced like a storm made flesh. Her Fractured Blade danced through the air—splitting into shards mid-flight, then reforming with chaotic elegance.

What had been a slaughterhouse of humans just minutes ago now flipped.

Now, it was the monsters that screamed.

One by one, they fell—massive serpents impaled through their maws, winged beasts severed in two before they could rise, hulking brutes reduced to nothing more than twitching chunks of meat. A panther-like creature lunged at her; she didn't even turn. A shard carved its skull open in mid-air, dropping it at her feet.

Soldiers behind her began to shout.

"She's pushing them back!"

"We're winning!"

But Nyra wasn't listening to them.

She was listening to the hum of the rift—the gate to Hollow Earth that still throbbed like a wound in the world. The monsters weren't just attacking. They were stalling.

And then the wind changed.

A low hum. A thunderous quake.

The hairs on her arms rose.

From the pit of Hollow Earth, something massive stirred.

Then—like a second sunrise—a blinding red beam tore through the sky.

Nyra's eyes widened.

She had less than a second.

She raised her blade, but it wasn't enough.

BOOOOM.

The beam slammed into her like a divine hammer, most of the attack was defflect by the rotating fractured blade which was now break into fracture parts which was revolving around her to protect her from any threat but with doing that the red beam could'nt completely stop and launching her thirty meters back. She crashed into the cracked soil with a violent grunt, smoke rising from her singed gear.

Silence fell across the battlefield.

Even the monsters paused.

From the mouth of the gate… it emerged.

Not a beast.

Not a creature.

But a colossus.

It stood over thirty feet tall, its body like reptile with obsidian armor laced with glowing magma veins. Eyes like suns burned from its skull. A long, jagged crown of bone spiraled from its head, and each footstep cracked the earth. Its tail dragged behind it like a mountain's spine, twitching lazily.

Nyra groaned, forcing herself up. Her blade reformed in her hand.

The colossus didn't attack again.

It spoke.

Its voice rumbled across the battlefield like the roar of a dying star.

"This… is not your war, Chaos."

The soldiers froze, stunned that the creature could speak.

The colossus turned its head slightly toward Nyra.

"This is a children's fight… for the ground above. Let it be theirs."

"If you interfere again…"

It lifted a finger. The air distorted like glass around it.

"You won't survive the consequences."

Then, without warning, the gate behind it pulsed once—and closed on its own.

The battlefield stood in stunned silence.

Then the fallen began to groan. Soldiers slowly rose to their feet. The monsters that survived… fled.

The battle was over.

But a message had been sent.

[Scene: Aftermath – Crater Edge]

Nyra stood at the edge of the impact crater, dust still drifting from her shoulders. Her jaw was clenched, her blade dripping in monster blood.

"You alright, boss?" a voice called from behind.

She turned.

A tall figure approached through the smoke, walking like he had all the time in the world. He wore mismatched armor and a tattered coat, a faint glow tracing the symbols tattooed down his arm. His hair was silver, tousled like he hadn't cared for it in years. A curved staff floated lazily beside him, humming with restrained magic.

"Kent," Nyra muttered, exhaling. "About time."

"I like to make an entrance," he smirked. "But it looks like you stole the spotlight."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're late."

"You're still alive. I'm just on time."

He offered a half-smile, but there was tension behind it. He glanced at the now-closed gate, then at the corpses littering the field.

"That thing spoke, didn't it?"

Nyra nodded. "It warned me. Said this was a fight for the children… whatever that means."

Darius sighed, then leaned on his staff. "The Law of Depths always speaks in riddles. That was no mindless beast. That was one of the Old Wills."

Nyra frowned. "You sound like you know what's coming."

He shrugged. "I have guesses. None of them are good."

Then he looked at her more seriously.

"Listen. Before this battle, we caught a new elemental flare in India. Big one. Chaos, Earth, maybe something else. Someone's awakened. Someone strong."

"I need to go recruit them."

Nyra crossed her arms. "Alone?"

He grinned. "You're busy playing Queen of Carnage here. I'll take the quiet approach."

Nyra scoffed. "Quiet? You?"

He turned and started walking toward the transport docks.

"You're bleeding, by the way."

"It's not mine," she called back.

He chuckled, vanishing into the mist.

She watched the broken battlefield around her—the silence, the smoke, the slow flicker of burning wreckage. Her blade dissolved into fragments, hovering behind her like shadows waiting to strike.

The gate was closed.

For now.

But war had already begun.

And this time… the monsters were organized.