Great sections of earth broke free and slid toward the ravine, pulled by gravity and destabilised by Katrina's shockwave. The edge widened, fissures opening deeper and deeper as the structure beneath the Whispering King's footing began to fail.
And it shouldn't have been possible.
In any other place, any other battlefield, the terrain would have held. As she was only an Awakened, Katrina's strongest attack would not have been enough to cause such damage.
But this section of land was already broken, maybe not on its surface, but beneath the snow and frozen dirt, its stone was scarred by the collapse of the seventh bridge – when its anchors had been torn free from the wall and ripped through the surrounding stone, leaving hidden fractures deep within the stone.
There those wounds had waited for something to push them over the edge, to tip the scale of stability and cause a landslide.
Now Katrina had given them exactly that.
The fractures opened across the surrounding area, spreading like veins of ruptured stone beneath the surface as the weakened foundation finally gave way. Entire slabs of earth began to shear off and tilt into the ravine, dragging everything above them closer to collapse.
Including the Whispering King's footing.
As it began to fall into the ravine, the Whispering King threw out one last, desperate attack toward its nemesis. It lashed out at Lauri with a final killing strike – an instinctive, furious attempt to end the fight before it was swallowed by the collapse.
But the Ascended was gone.
Lauri had already vanished from its reach, displaced in a flash of light, leaving only empty air where he had stood moments before and in his place, Lucky unleashed the remainder of his legion, having kept them back whilst Lauri was attempting to fend off the Corrupted Tyrant.
What was left of them descended into the broken ground like a tide, pouring down after the Whispering King as the ravine walls gave way beneath them. Echoes, battered and dwindling, threw themselves forward without hesitation, following their target into the yawning ravine below.
All of them fell together into the vast pit of glowing cyan light.
Lauri watched as the Whispering King fell into the ravine.
A chill ran through his body as their eyes met for the briefest possible moment – something old and perverse staring back at him through the cyan glow. Then the Tyrant was gone, swallowed by the collapsing abyss and the roaring mist below.
Lauri turned sharply to Lucky and Katrina, breath still ragged from the fight. For a moment, it looked like he was about to scold Lucky for the reckless plan – his expression tight, voice already forming sharp words as he moved towards him – but then Lauri exhaled.
"…Good thinking, Lucky."
He admitted instead, a reluctant edge of respect slipping into his tone.
"We had no chance of killing the Whispering King, so taking it out of the fight was a good call… I can't believe that actually worked."
Lucky grinned, though exhaustion was clear on his face, which had gone pale.
Seeing this, Lauri tilted his head to the side.
"Is something wrong? We've won, haven't we?"
Lucky scratched the back of his head sheepishly, his grin faltering.
"It's nothing… just… that vertical attack it did… I think I underestimated how much essence I had left."
He paused.
"And I used up what was remaining of it to force enough luck into the outcome so it would miss, the first time in my life I've been struck by essence exhaustion… Can't say I like how it feels..."
For a moment, Lauri opened his mouth to respond, but Katrina cut in first.
"Why…"
Katrina, still catching her breath, weakly raised a hand and pointed over the ravine.
"Why are they just standing there?"
Lauri followed the gesture.
His expression shifted immediately.
The remainder of the Whispering Legion was still there.
The Pawns and Rooks stood motionless on the far side of the ravine, their attention fixed on the group like an unbroken sea of silent witnesses.
Suddenly, their victory didn't feel like one anymore in Lauri's mind.
"Because their King hasn't given them the orders to attack."
Lauri turned away.
"We need to get back to the Rhino before that bastard claws its way out of the ravine."
Katrina breathed a sigh of relief, her relief lasting about two seconds before she looked at Lauri, her expression dropping as her lips trembled. She started to speak – eyes flicking toward his left side, toward what she had just noticed.
But Lauri was already moving.
Activating [Light Dash], he moved.
The area was littered with the corpses of Pawns and Rooks – what remained of Lucky's Legion's devastation strewn across the shattered ice. Beside a broken heap of Rooks lay the Festering Alpha. Its massive body was wrecked, legs utterly destroyed by the Whispering King's earlier kick, its grotesque form twitching weakly as its regeneration sluggishly attempted to stitch it back together.
Disgusting fluids leaked steadily from its wounds, hissing as it ate into the dull armour around it, melting metal into warped slag that dripped into the snow. Even now, the creature still breathed – ragged, uneven, stubbornly refusing to fully die.
Lauri approached his Echo.
Standing over it, he looked at the Festering Alpha with a brief flicker of disgust, memories surfacing in his mind of fighting through its pack, of the Fetid Hounds and Festering Mongrels, all trying their best to snuff out his soul, of how close they had come to reaching Ascended Sunless' convoy.
How many would have died if they had broken through?
For a moment, his gaze hardened.
Then another thought followed.
How many would have died had the Whispering King beaten them here?
The Festering Alpha may not have been a decisive factor in their victory; an Ascended Tyrant could never hope to win against a Corrupted Tyrant in a battle of strength.
But it had bought them the most precious resource one could ever ask for on the battlefield.
Time.
The weight of it all settled in his chest for a moment.
And then, Lauri smiled.
"I appreciate your help. You can go rest up now."
Lauri dismissed the Festering Alpha; the Echo would undoubtedly be healed in no time, its own regeneration enhanced by the innate regeneration Echoes experience within their owner's Soul Sea.
Taking a deep breath, Lauri suddenly felt a cold chill run through his body.
Weakness followed immediately after.
His legs felt strangely light beneath him, his balance subtly off as though the world had shifted half a step to the side. Frowning faintly, Lauri shook his head and ignored it. There were more important things right now.
Turning, he made his way back toward the Rhino, where Vick was still crouched beside Danse, desperately weaving threads of essence through the wound in his chest.
For the first time since the fight ended, genuine worry gripped Lauri's chest.
Was Danse even still alive?
Then he heard it.
A low groan.
Relief flushed through Lauri as he came to a stop in front of them.
"Vick, is Danse okay?"
Vick looked up the moment she saw him approaching, her expression immediately twisting into alarm.
"Lauri, you're–"
Lauri cut her off immediately.
"I'm not important right now, Vick. Is Danse okay?"
Vick stared at him for a moment like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Lauri, sit down."
"How bad is Danse?"
"Would you stop talking for one second and look at your–"
"I can do that after you answer me."
Tilting his head to look at Lauri, Danse forced himself upright and shouted hoarsely:
"LOOK AT YOUR DAMN ARM, MAN!"
Lauri blinked in confusion.
Then he laughed.
"Oh yeah."
He said casually, finally glancing down.
"My hand went kinda numb near the end there. I think the Whispering King caught my arm or something. Vick, if you could patch it–"
He stopped talking.
Because his arm wasn't there.
Where his left arm should have been was only a ruined stump, cut off below the elbow, pouring blood down the side of his bodysuit.
Slowly, almost absentmindedly, Lauri raised what remained of the limb and stared at it blankly. Blood gushed steadily from the wound, spilling between torn fabric before dripping heavily onto the snow below.
The cold feeling from earlier finally made sense.
It was blood loss.
"Oh."
The world went dark as Lauri collapsed.