The Moon That Bled

The moon bled red at noon.

It wasn't a slow shift. It was violent — a jolt in the sky that caused birds to scream and flee in droves. A red ring burned around the moon's edge, pulsing with heat as though it had a heartbeat. And from that moment on, the wind in Odessyus never stopped howling.

The time had come.

---

Neolin burst into the council chamber, his robes trailing energy. "It's begun," he said simply.

King Edmund, already armored, stood over a central map where dozens of glowing sigils blinked in disorder. "Which region fell first?"

Neolin clenched his fist. "The city of Velastin. Gone. Not destroyed. Erased."

Gasps echoed through the gathered generals. Frank, Kitty, Lucy, Tom, and the others arrived within moments, their faces pale.

"What do you mean erased?" Jack asked.

Neolin turned toward him. "No rubble. No smoke. Just… nothing. The glyph memory has vanished. The name still exists in our minds, but the location is gone from the ley-lines. It's as if the ground forgot it ever existed."

Tom stepped forward. "Was it Kazakare?"

"No," Neolin said. "It was one of his generals. Ashbringer cleared the southern walls of Velastin… but this? This was something more. He's begun moving. Kazakare himself."

Lucy looked toward the blood-tinted sky. "Then we don't have time."

Frank placed his hand on the table. "What's our assignment?"

King Edmund looked around the circle. "You seven are not being sent to war. You are the war. You're the only ones who can face what's coming."

---

The preparations took less than an hour.

Gone were the light tunics and training robes. The Seven now wore battle-gear tailored to their sigil types.

Tom bore a sleeveless crimson coat, lined with reinforced leather to absorb flame recoil. Lucy's robes were stitched with reflective threads of silver-glyph fabric, amplifying her echo fields. Jack wore black sigil-blended cloth that absorbed light and sound, while Peter had dual bracers etched with shadow scripts. Susan's armor gleamed with diamond plates, polished and shaped into a flowing design like crystalline armor wings. Kitty wore a lightweight sky-cloak woven with celestial filament, and Frank's coat — pale grey with streaks of forgotten runes — shimmered faintly like old smoke.

They looked like warriors now.

Not students.

---

Their destination was the city of Mirakai, a coastal region fortified with ancient Triggsen weapons. Neolin believed Kazakare would target it next, not just for strategic value — but because the first seal that once imprisoned him was forged beneath that city.

They traveled on stormriders — griffin-like beasts bonded to sigil-bearers. Fast. Quiet. Fierce.

Tom's stormrider was deep gold, eyes glowing with red fury.

"Name?" asked Peter, mounting beside him.

Tom hesitated, then smirked. "Blazeclaw."

Peter snorted. "Of course."

Kitty rode above, scanning with her sky pendant. "I see smoke. Toward the eastern docks."

Frank's voice echoed over the glyph relay. "All teams descend. Stick to formation. If Kazakare is there… no mistakes."

---

They landed just outside the main city wall — but what they saw stunned them into silence.

Mirakai wasn't burning.

It was rotting.

Structures stood in place, but melted slightly — like wax models. The sky above was rippling, like a curtain of distorted air hung over the entire region. The very truth of the city seemed to be unraveling.

"Lucy," said Susan, voice shaking. "This feels… wrong."

Lucy reached out with her glyph.

The air screamed.

She staggered back. "There are memories here, trying to hold on. But they're slipping."

Jack placed a hand on the wall. "This is the work of Kazakare's mind sigils. Reality erosion. He's twisting the ley-lines."

Tom stepped forward. "Then we anchor it. Right here."

---

As they pushed deeper into the city, distorted creatures began to crawl from alleyways — twisted civilians, their faces half-erased, bodies cracked and stitched by glowing red thread.

They moved like puppets.

And attacked like monsters.

Tom shouted, "Take them down — but don't kill if you don't have to!"

Jack darted into shadow, slicing tendrils clean from a warped beast's limbs. Lucy froze another mid-lunge using an echo loop. Kitty flew overhead, blinding two with sky-light as Susan blocked a charging brute with her diamond wall. Peter launched energy blasts of dark mist to cover their flanks, and Frank used his unknown glyphs to paralyze clusters in place.

But the waves kept coming.

And the deeper they went, the worse the creatures became.

---

They reached the central courtyard, where a massive seal was embedded in the ground — a radiant blue circle now cracking under red corruption.

Kazakare had already been here.

The air tasted like ash.

The glyphs hummed louder now, like something beneath the seal was knocking — gently… then harder.

"Help me reinforce the seal!" Frank yelled.

Lucy and Jack rushed forward, tracing stabilizers around the circle.

Tom turned, fire flaring. "More incoming!"

From the east gate, a figure walked toward them.

Massive. Masked. Cloaked in rotting shadow.

Not Ashbringer.

Something worse.

This one's body was cracked open — you could see glyphs pulsing inside its chest, stitched into its bones. It walked slowly, dragging a blade made from shattered mirrors.

Frank's heart sank. "It's a Glyph Reaver."

Kitty looked horrified. "What's that?"

"A being Kazakare built from fragments of fallen warriors — forged to erase glyph-bearers permanently."

---

The Reaver charged, moving with shocking speed.

Peter dove right. Jack shadow-jumped to flank.

Susan took the hit — barely — her shield fracturing from the force.

Frank yelled, "Do NOT let it touch your glyph!"

Lucy screamed as the Reaver nearly struck her, but Tom blasted a spiral of flame between them, staggering it.

Jack leapt from behind and pierced its neck — but it didn't fall. Instead, the Reaver pulsed, and Jack's blade disintegrated into dust.

Frank narrowed his eyes. "Its core is pure glyph disruption. We have to destroy the seal without letting it fall into enemy hands."

Kitty flew above, dove, and shouted, "I have an idea!"

She landed on the seal and lifted her hands.

"The Wings of Solamyr… awaken!"

Her pendant exploded with light — and golden symbols spread from her back like burning feathers.

The Reaver turned toward her — but Lucy activated a time echo and locked it in a loop. For five seconds… the Reaver couldn't move.

That was all Kitty needed.

She focused.

A light beam burst from the glyph seal, striking upward, and carved a sigil in the sky.

For a moment… everything went still.

Then the corruption retreated.

The Reaver screamed.

And shattered into ash.

---

The Seven stood panting, surrounded by silence.

Frank knelt beside the seal. "It's stable again. For now."

Lucy collapsed onto one knee. "That was just… one."

Tom looked at his scorched arm. "And there's more coming."

Kitty stood, golden wings fading. "I heard him."

Everyone looked up.

"Who?" asked Marcus.

Kitty didn't blink.

"Kazakare," she said. "In my mind. He said... 'You saved one city. How many more can you hold before you break?'"

No one replied.

Frank looked up at the sky.

The moon was now fully red.

And the war had begun.