As the next wave forced its way through the Void Gate, reality itself seemed to strain under the pressure. The swirling mass of dark energy expanded outward, distorting the air as creatures spilled through in a frantic, clawing heap—
bodies colliding and tramping over one another in a desperate urgency to enter the world.
Mariah and Nyx didn't hesitate. They moved in perfect, practiced synchronization.
Mariah's ice surged outward in a controlled, crystalline burst, anchoring the advancing horde in place as frost consumed them mid-stride. In the same heartbeat, Nyx's arrows rained down from above—precise, explosive, and devastating. They detonated across the frozen mass, tearing through the second wave before it could fully form.
Then, for one brief, fragile moment, there was stillness.
Then a crushing wave of killing intent slammed into all three of them from the direction of the forest. Nyx's breath hitched in her throat; Tessa's entire body went rigid, her lightning flickering nervously; Mariah's eyes snapped toward the treeline.
Jeremiah.
In the distance, a massive pillar of earth suddenly erupted, tearing upward through the canopy like a spear piercing the sky. It held for only a second before a streak of deep, predatory crimson light carved through its center. The structure was split clean in half, collapsing in a violent, thundering cascade of stone and debris.
Tessa's eyes widened, her voice barely a whisper against the rising wind. "What the hell is going on over there?"
Even from Nyx's elevated position, the treeline obscured the source of the carnage. She could see the aftermath—the falling stone and the lingering red glow—but the combatants remained ghosts in the dark.
Mariah forced her attention away. She had to. The killing intent from the woods was terrifying, but the Gate was still pulsing, its hunger far from satisfied.
By Alliance standards, this was a mid-to-lower tier breach—dangerous, certainly, but not yet catastrophic.
It was the kind of anomaly that escalated in measured waves rather than a singular, world-ending surge.
That meant one thing: Time.
Mariah's glasses flickered as her analysis finalized. Two more waves. At most. But from here on, the threat level would climb exponentially.
Tessa wiped a streak of dark blood from her cheek, her lightning flickering erratically around her knuckles. "Where the hell are the reinforcements?" she gritted out.
Their comms crackled with Nyx's demanding voice. "What was that explosion? Who is Jeremiah fighting out there?"
Mariah pressed her hand to her ear, her gaze never wavering from the churning violet Gate. "We don't know," she replied, her tone sharp but controlled. "The enemy wore the same demon mask as the Annex incident." She paused, her jaw tightening. "Trust me, Nyx—I'd love nothing more than to go help him. But we can't move. Not yet."
Her eyes hardened as she faced the Gate fully.
The next wave was beginning.
The first of the VoidSpawns tumbled out, scrambling over the frozen, shattered remains of their own kind. Their movements were frantic and uncoordinated as they clawed their way onto the battlefield.
Mariah exhaled a long, steady breath. "Focus. From here on, we improvise." She glanced at Tessa. "You ready?"
A sharp, eager grin spread across Tessa's face, lightning snapping violently across her shoulders. "Oh, I've been ready."
Mariah nodded once, her expression going stone-cold.
The Gate pulsed again, a heavy thrum that vibrated in their bones. Voidspawn poured out first, followed quickly by the Void Fiends—larger, faster, and more predatory. Then, the Dreadspawn stepped through.
It was massive, its hulking form forcing its way out of the portal and towering over the rest of the horde. It was a grotesque fusion of a bear's bulk and a crocodile's armored length. Thick, jagged plating ran along its spine, and each heavy step cracked the frozen ground beneath its weight.
The Dreadspawn's head turned slowly, its eyes gleaming with a spark of genuine intelligence amidst the madness. Under its gaze, the horde shifted. They weren't just charging anymore; they were forming a rank, responding to its presence.
"...It's controlling them," Tessa muttered, her stance widening.
Mariah felt the shift too, but she also felt something worse: her own limits. Her mana reserves had dropped dangerously low after the repeated use of Absolute Zero. Her breathing was heavy, and her muscles ached from the strain of forcing such high-level output in rapid succession.
But she didn't hesitate. "One more time," she whispered to herself.
She stepped forward, extending both hands. The moment the wave crossed the halfway point, she unleashed everything she had left.
A forest of jagged ice spikes tore through the earth in every direction, impaling the advancing creatures from below while simultaneously manifesting in the air above. They dropped like a storm of frozen spears, pinning the horde to the scorched ground in a brutal display of geomancy.
Mariah's face went deathly pale. That final push had drained the well dry.
"Now!" she screamed.
Nyx didn't miss her opening. She released five arrows in a single, fluid motion. Each one found its mark with pinpoint accuracy, detonating in rapid succession. The explosions tore through the impaled horde, thinning their numbers and shattering the Dreadspawn's front line.
Tessa burst forward in an explosion of mana, weaving through the jagged forest of ice with a predator's fluidity. Her polearm hissed through the air, bisecting a Void Fiend mid-stride before she slammed her boot against a frozen spike and launched herself into the sky.
Lightning erupted.
A violent discharge detonated from her frame, frying every Void-creature in her radius as she descended like a falling star. She hit the ground hard, the impact rattling her teeth, and found her mark: the Dreadspawn.
The beast was stunned, a jagged arrow from Nyx having already buried itself deep into its primary eye. The shaft exploded, showering the ice in black ichor, but the monster roared, its armored bulk refusing to fail.
Tessa's grin turned wild—unhinged.
"I'm glad that didn't kill you," she whispered, her voice crackling with the static of raw adrenaline. Her stance shifted, and the lightning around her began to condense, turning from a flicker into a blinding, blue hum. "Because I'm going to enjoy this."
The battlefield bleached white.
A streak of brilliant azure tore across the frozen earth as Tessa peaked her speed, closing the distance in a heartbeat. She became a lightning-slicked blur that defied the friction of the ice beneath her.
As the Dreadspawn swung a massive, plated limb to swat her, Tessa leaned into a low-angle slide, passing beneath the creature's guard. With a violent kick against a protruding ice spike, she redirected her momentum upward, spiraling into the air with the jagged grace of a cyclone.
At the apex of her leap, she spun her entire weight into a singular, horizontal arc. The blade of her polearm hummed with a discharge of lighting mana In one decisive, thunderous motion, the Dreadspawn's massive head was separated from its shoulders. The cauterized wound hissed as the mountain of meat collapsed, the beast dead before its head even touched the frost.
Tessa landed heavily atop the carcass, dropping to one knee as she gasped for air. Her chest heaved, the cost of that final surge written in the trembling of her hands. Across the clearing, the stragglers of the horde were finally silenced, impaled by the last of the lingering ice formations.
Mariah collapsed shortly after, her knees hitting the frost as her breathing turned ragged. The blue glow in her eyes had faded to a dull, exhausted brown. She was completely spent.
Then, the silence was broken.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The sound was slow, measured, and infuriatingly deliberate.
Mariah's expression shifted instantly from exhaustion to pure annoyance. She forced her head up, a dry scowl forming on her pale face.
Right on time. The Alliance reinforcements had finally arrived.
Mariah's head snapped toward the sound of the clapping—and then she froze.
Standing at the edge of the cooling battlefield, untouched by the gore and frost, was a small, composed group. At their front stood Eric Rover. He wore a warm, almost charming smile that felt entirely out of place amidst the severed limbs of Voids creatures.
"That," Eric said lightly, giving one final, punctuated clap, "was truly amazing." His eyes flicked between the exhausted women, gleaming with genuine appreciation. "You all are splendid fighters. Truly."
Tessa's face twisted instantly. She didn't bother hiding her contempt as she leaned on her polearm. "Yeah? Splendid?" she spat, her voice raspy from the adrenaline. "Then where the hell was that energy five minutes ago when we were being buried?"
Eric scratched the back of his head, letting out a small, sheepish laugh that did little to soothe the tension. "Ah… yeah, about that. We actually arrived just as you were finishing up," he admitted with a casual shrug, gesturing toward the headless Dreadspawn. "Honestly? We felt like we would've just gotten in your way. You had it handled." He turned his smile back to Tessa. "Though that last strike? Beautiful. Cinematic, really."
Tessa just stared at him, her eyes dead and unimpressed. "I don't like this guy," she muttered under her breath.
A soft thud sounded behind them as Nyx dropped from her perch with controlled, feline grace. She approached with her bow at her side, her sharp gaze sweeping over the newcomers with clinical suspicion.
Mariah forced herself to straighten, fighting the trembling in her knees. "Eric Rover," she said. Her voice was steady, but her body held a faint, awkward stiffness. There was history there—recognition shadowed by a clear, lingering discomfort.
Eric's smile widened as if they were old friends at a cafe. Behind him, his squad stood in a loose but disciplined formation. He gestured toward a woman positioned slightly offset, her silhouette elegant against the moonlight.
"Amaya Kohana," he introduced. She had mahogany hair resting neatly along her back and held a sniper rifle with the kind of effortless familiarity that suggested it was an extension of her own arm. Her green eyes scanned the battlefield, looking more intrigued than horrified.
To Eric's right stood a mountain of a man. "Kazan Noboru."
Kazan didn't speak. He gave a single nod. He seemed like a wall of muscle, with dark close-cropped hair and eyes like deep earth.
The atmosphere shifted, the relief of reinforcements clashing with a new, prickly tension.
"There's still one more of us," Mariah said, her voice dropping an octave. "Fighting in the forest."
Eric didn't look surprised; if anything, he looked amused. "Yeah, we noticed. Hard to miss mana pressure that insane," he replied easily, tilting his head toward the treeline where the red static had recently flared. "Don't worry. We already sent one of ours in to help out."
Tessa blinked, and Nyx's shoulders lowered a fraction of an inch. A quiet breath escaped Mariah—a rare, genuine moment of relief.
"Good," Tessa muttered, finally letting her guard drop.
The moment was severed by the Gate. It pulsed with a violent, subsonic thrum that made the ground groan. Dark energy spiraled outward, thicker and more suffocating than the previous waves. Something massive was clawing its way through the rift.
Eric's expression shifted. He was still smiling, but the edges had gone razor-sharp. He stepped forward, rolling his shoulders as a subtle, golden mana began to coat his skin.
"Alright," he said, his eyes locking onto the widening tear in reality. "From here on, we've got it."
A faint, crushing pressure filled the air—the hallmark of a high-tier squad. He glanced back over his shoulder at Mariah and Tessa, his calm certainty acting like a physical barrier between them and the Gate.
"You two? Fall back. Get some rest. You've done more than enough."
Behind him, Kazan stepped into the light. With a low hum of mana, he summoned a massive, runed shield—a defensive artifact built to weather tsunamis—while his other hand gripped the haft of a massive axe.
Amaya hoisted her rifle and caught Nyx's eye with a brief, professional nod. "Come with me. We're taking your perch."
Nyx hesitated for a heartbeat, looked at Mariah, and then nodded, following Amaya back toward the heights.
Just like that, the battlefield changed hands.