Everyone together attacked on Vael. Vael laughed and he spread everywhere his mana. His mana freeze the time. All were frozen. Their body couldn't move. Then Vael's mana strings started attack on them. It injured everyone and sucked their mana energy too.
The battlefield fell silent.
The storm of mana and strings had ended, and so had hope. They all were heavily injured. Vael didn't kill them. He just played.
Every one of the Twelve had fallen. Not dead but broken. Caldra burned from within, clutching her shattered staff. Zeron lay in a heap of blood and bone. Kaelin, crawling with glass embedded deep in her skin, barely kept her eyes open. Layra was limp beneath cracked stone, vines twitching feebly around her.
Seroi knelt, trembling, still pressing a palm against the mana dome protecting Ren. His mouth tasted of iron. His vision blurred. His heartbeat slowed.
Even the Mage King had fallen to a knee, his blade planted into the earth to hold himself upright. Magic bled from his pores, soaking the air.
Above them floated Vael.
Unscarred. Smiling.
"Ah," he said, "What a waste of fine talent. Look at all of you. Legendary guardians of a fading age. And now, mulch for the roots of a better world."
He raised his arm.
A tendril formed massive, spiraling with silver-black mana.
"Let's start with the flower girl."
Layra.
She groaned, trying to lift her head. Her vision swam. Blood from her scalp drenched her shoulder. Her pink mana sputtered around her.
The tendril descended.
★★★
In Ren's mana sea. We saw Ren.
Ren drifted in his inner mana sea.
Abyss.
Dark. Cold. Silent. Empty.
He floated deep in his mana sea, where no light ever reached. No surface above, no bottom below. A vast abyss of nothing. He slowly slowly fell in to it. Deep so much deep.
His body did not move. His thoughts did not form. He had no senses. No awareness. Only silence and a pressure that felt like it would swallow even time.
And yet, something shimmered.
A spark. A whisper. A thread of thought.
"...Master?"
Nyxa.
Her form coalesced in the darkness. A streak of shadow, like smoke shaped into a girl. Her eyes glowed with faint violet fire.
She reached toward him. He didn't respond.
"No... no, no, no, no," she whispered, panicked. "Please... not like this. You can't die. You can't. You're Ren. You're my master! You can't end here, not after everything!"
She pressed her head against his chest. There was no heartbeat.
Her voice broke.
"Don't go where I can't follow... Please. Wake up."
★★★
Within Ren's frozen mind, something stirred.
A memory. A voice.
Faces.
Watson laughing, handing him food, party, dance after their first exams.
His mother, brushing dust from his face when he was too little. A little Ren. Cute and innocent.
Seroi standing before him, shield raised.
The council. Layra's smile. Kaelin's teasing. Zeron's quiet nod. Lark's endless laughter. His three master's memories. Their teachings. And more than that moments with Yato.
His village. His home in city.
Their screams. A burnt city. People's screamed.
His failure. Everyone's betrayal. The hidden truths that Vael told.
A whisper echoed in the dark of his mind.
"So this is it? After everything... you lie down here?"
A figure formed from shadow and memory. A past self. Taller. Cloaked in deeper power.
Eyes like collapsing stars.
It spoke again.
"You're really going to let that creature kill them all? Let it end like this? I'm not like that. You're not like that."
Ren whispered in his mind.
"But I'm not strong enough. I lost. I failed."
The figure stepped forward. Power bled from it.
"I destroyed gods. I shattered worlds. I recreated stars from will alone. I am not power. I am the source of power. I am you. And you are me."
It touched Ren's forehead.
"Remember. Return to the Void."
In the sea, Ren's body twitched.
A ripple.
A wave.
Then
Mana exploded.
Black-blue mana fog twisted around him. Energy that bent space coiled around his arms. His eyes snapped open, blazing like twin abyssal suns.
Nyxa staggered back, shielding her face.
"Wha... what is this?! What happens with you master?!"
Ren rose from the depths, floating upward.
His aura tore through the abyss, splitting the ocean of mana apart. He breached the surface.
★★★
Back on the battlefield...
Vael's tendril hovered inches from Layra's neck.
Her eyes closed. A silent tear slid down her cheek. Evryone's hope was over. They wanted to do something but they couldn't did anything. They all were exhausted and near to collapse.
Then... Like a hope. Like a light in darkness that guided you towards the true direction.
A voice echoed across the land.
A single word.
"Dark Abyss Manuscript."
The world froze.
Vael's eyes widened. Evryone listened this words. But no one able to move to see what spoke. But through voice some of them understood.
Vael's body flickered.
A second later, he began to vaporize. Like mist caught in wind.
His tendrils evaporated. His body disintegrated from the inside.
But he laughed. Laughed like psycho.
A low, pleased, satisfied sound.
"Finally... finally, my plan worked. They have come... they've returned."
He smiled, one last time.
"Let the true game begin."
Then, he was gone.
Not a single cell remained.
Silence.
Only stunned faces. The Twelve barely conscious. The Mage King breathing hard, still kneeling.
Seroi, barely alive, whispered, "...Ren...?"
From the side of the battlefield, where darkness swirled and lightning cracked the heavens, a figure stepped into the light. A dark mist surrounded his body like they part of him.
Ren. Ren Calder. Unknown for the world. Unknown for him also.
His eyes glowed black and blue. His body wrapped in arcane energy, wisps of the abyss swirling around him like loyal hounds.
He stood.
Alive.
Changed. His whole body regenerated. All his wounds healed.
His eyes turned into red. Through his red eyes black red mana smoke seen.
He told only one word.
" Heal "
Then through his body mana surrounded the whole battlefield and evryone started to heal.
Evryone felt fresh like nothing happened.
After evryone healed than Ren's eyes closed and turned into normal blue eyes. And he slowly slowly fell towards the ground. To save him from impact Seroi ran and caught him.
But we saw that in space outside the planet Qiyun. A large army of the ancient civilization stood. Waited for the broke of protective shield. And their wait over. The cracks appeared then they widened.
Crack!
The shield that protects planet Qiyun from outside threats was now broke.