[Tower of Trial – Second Floor – Heart of the Mist]
The battlefield had quieted for one terrible moment.
A silence more dreadful than screaming.
The Awakened stared upward at the beast that defied understanding—Kalygra, the Eater of Realms.
Its body stretched across the skies like a dark comet of hunger and madness. Its hundred legs writhed with predatory grace, and from every joint and plate, ethereal mouths whispered forbidden truths in languages long erased by time.
Then—chaos.
—SKREEEEE—BOOM!—
The centipede-beast crashed into the ground like a divine meteor, reducing a hundred-meter radius to black glass. Survivors near the impact zone disintegrated, screams cut short, bones turned to dust before they could rise.
And with its screech, the fear wave began.
System Warning: Status Infliction – FEAR LV. 9
Some Awakened may suffer panic, paralysis, hallucinations, or system disruption.
Thousands screamed and fled. Others curled into fetal positions, their minds caving under the pressure of Kalygra's presence. A few snapped entirely—attacking friends, falling to their knees, or walking straight into the mist like moths to a flame.
—
[Cliffside Command Center – UR Elite Position]
"A fear-type multiversal entity?" Dmitri Volkov growled, shielding his eyes from the flickering illusions. "Are you kidding me?"
"It's real," Xenovia Kael whispered, eyes wide with silent terror. "I felt it trying to erase my soul. Not just kill. Erase."
"We need a coordinated strike!" Chloe Wu barked, calling up a tactical interface. "Isolate the heart. There must be a core!"
"There," Aya pointed at the beast's spine. "Four red segments glowing in intervals. Could be anchors or organs."
Kaito, standing silent, flicked his fingers.
Light spheres appeared at his shoulders—six of them, gently orbiting.
Aya noticed and raised a brow. "You've never made six before."
"Not in public," he replied coolly.
---
[Field – Frontlines]
Dev Rajan's foot stomped down on the cracked skull of a Bone Wraith. "We can't get near that thing!"
Meera's golden flames danced across her hands. "Then we burn a path!"
The duo charged into the madness—Meera becoming a phoenix streaking through corpses and monsters alike, Dev following with seismic tremors, cracking the land open and swallowing undead by the hundreds.
Above them, Pakistan's Aamir and Faisal rode storm winds, chaining lightning into massive ion blasts.
Russia's Anya Petrova froze entire legions with a wave of her fingers, while Dmitri shattered them like glass with gravity pulses.
The battlefield lit up—UR and SSS powers unleashed without restraint.
But nothing touched Kalygra.
Every beam, every strike, every spell—phased through it.
"It's not in our plane," Chloe Wu realized aloud. "It's partially… astral!"
Elijah Voss chanted in Latin, eyes glowing. "I'll begin a spiritual anchor. Buy me three minutes!"
"Three minutes is a lifetime in this mess!" Faisal roared, launching a spear of thunder into a Drava Gnasher trying to flank the mages.
---
[Inside the Mist – Hidden Battle]
Kaito and Aya moved as one.
Monsters parted before Aya's twin blades, her body a ballet of destruction. She moved like a queen of war—elegant, precise, deadly.
Kaito walked behind her casually, light spheres darting around to shield, destroy, or bind anything that got too close.
They didn't speak. They didn't need to.
Their bond had grown. Their movements, synced.
But then—Kalygra noticed them.
A sudden void opened beneath their feet.
—BLINK!—
They dropped into a personal nightmare realm—a domain within Kalygra's mind, where time and logic bent to its will.
---
[Kalygra's Nightmare Core – Pocket Reality]
Black space. Infinite stairs. Mirrors showing twisted versions of themselves—dead Aya, smiling Kaito with bloody hands, a world on fire.
Aya clutched her chest. "This… this is my fear. I… I failed. Everyone died…"
Kaito looked at his reflection. It was him—laughing in a throne of corpses, unmasked, godlike.
"You enjoy hiding," the mirror Kaito whispered. "But what happens when she sees you?"
The real Kaito stared at it. Then smiled faintly.
"I'm not afraid of me," he muttered—and raised a finger.
—BOOM!—
A light sphere imploded, deleting the mirror realm entirely.
They crashed back into reality, both gasping.
"You okay?" Kaito asked.
Aya looked at him, her breath trembling, but then she smiled. "You broke a fear entity's illusion like swatting a fly."
"You broke it too," he said softly. "You didn't let it win."
They turned their eyes upward again.
Kalygra writhed in pain.
The first core had become visible—glowing red, pulsing violently.
"The illusion broke part of its control," Elijah said over global comms. "NOW!"
---
[Global Command – Full Offensive]
Chloe Wu: "All UR and SSS focus fire on the revealed segment!"
Leonardo Takashi: "Shield units protect the casters! Do not let Kalygra reset!"
Dmitri: "Formation Alpha. We take it down one core at a time."
—
And the war began in earnest.
Ten thousand Awakened reorganized. The weak fell back. The strong surged forward.
Air forces took to the sky. Ground troops unleashed their abilities in sweeping arcs.
From the top of the cliff, Meera raised her hand—and the sky lit gold.
From the frontlines, Aya dashed forward—and her blades turned red-hot with divine fire.
From the rear, Kaito—still smiling—let his sixth orb rise into the sky.
"Time to get serious."
He snapped his fingers.
And the sky opened.
---
To Be Continued…