The wave hit like a tide of nightmares.
Christine moved first.
She stepped forward, eyes cold, expression unreadable—and the world slowed around her.
Her gun hummed.
Not with power.
With judgment.
She raised it and fired once.
The bullet didn't explode.
It decided.
A massive horned beast was struck mid-charge—and instantly froze, its body outlined in pale light. Symbols flashed over its flesh like a verdict being written.
"Unfit," Christine said flatly.
The monster collapsed inward, erased from existence as if reality itself rejected the idea of it ever being alive.
More came.
Christine leapt into the air, coat fluttering, gun pointed downward. Every shot landed with impossible precision—each one a sentence passed, a crime answered.
Around her—
Isis danced.
White entropy flared around her body like a living halo. She stepped through the battlefield with calm grace, fingers brushing the air.
Where she passed, time unraveled.
A towering beast swung its club—
And aged ten thousand years in an instant.
Its muscles withered.
Its bones turned brittle.
Its roar became dust.
"Entropy isn't destruction," Isis said softly, eyes glowing. "It's truth."
She raised her hand.
"Solvithar—Collapse."
A wave of white energy expanded outward, not violently, but inevitably. Monsters caught within it didn't explode—they ended, their existence reaching a natural conclusion whether they wanted to or not.
But still—
More kept coming.
Far above, Nyk slammed the dragon into the ground again.
The creature tried to rise.
Nyk didn't let it.
He drove his fist straight through its chest, ripped out its still-beating heart, and caught it mid-air.
"Sorry," he muttered. "Need this."
He tore a vial from his pocket, collected the dragon's blood with practiced ease, and stored both away.
For Rayon.
Then he looked around.
The monsters weren't stopping.
"…Yeah," Nyk said, eyes narrowing. "This ain't normal."
Darkness remembering itself could call forgotten beings back—but this?
This was too focused.
Too sustained.
"There's a source," he muttered, vanishing in a blur as he plunged back into the fray.
"Babe!" Nyk shouted while tearing through another wave. "Find the source! I'll hold them off!"
"On it," christine replied instantly.
Christine rose higher into the air, hovering above the battlefield. She tilted her gun downward—not at the monsters—
But at the ground beneath them.
Her eyes narrowed.
"…There," she said.
She fired.
The shot didn't hit flesh.
It pierced the land.
The earth split open, revealing something buried deep beneath Namgum—
A black chain, embedded into the world itself.
The moment it was exposed—
Reality shuddered.
Back on Isola Krein—
Rayon stiffened.
His smile vanished.
Something pulled at him.
Not summoned.
Recognized.
"…So that's where you ended up," he murmured.
He stood.
"Azelar," he said calmly. "Babe—I'll be back soon."
They nodded. No questions.
Darkness folded.
And Rayon arrived.
He stood in the middle of the battlefield as monsters froze mid-charge.
They saw him.
And they recoiled.
A raven descended from the void, landing gently on his shoulder.
Its eyes were infinite.
Its presence unbearable.
Azathot—the Endless Dreaming Void, given thought by the Abyss itself.
The monsters could see Azathot's true form.
And they understood.
They did not attack.
They trembled.
Christine and Isis finished them swiftly. Judgment and entropy erased what remained.
Silence fell.
Nyk dropped down beside Rayon, grinning.
"What's good, bro?" he said. "Didn't you say we should handle it?"
Rayon chuckled lightly.
"My bad, lil bro."
He stepped forward and grasped the chain.
The moment his fingers touched it, the Abyss responded.
"…Yeah," Rayon said quietly. "This was the source."
Nyk nodded. "Figured."
Rayon looked at the chain more closely, understanding blooming instinctively.
"…One of my artifacts," he said. "From the Upper Realms."
He frowned.
"The Black Chain of the Abyss."
Unbreakable.
Absolute.
Able to bind anything.
"…Which means," he added slowly, "something's gone wrong up there for it to end up on Averis."
He wrapped the chain around his right hand.
It dissolved into him.
Black markings spread from his wrist upward—flowing chains etched into his skin, climbing toward his shoulder like living ink.
The artifact had returned home.
They returned to Isola Krein soon after.
The mansion felt peaceful—almost deceptively so.
Rayon looked up at the sky.
"…Soon," he said. "We'll be going to war."
Azelar joined him. "The Monarchs and the Destroyers?"
Nyk cracked his knuckles. "Yeah. And I want a piece of that."
Christine crossed her arms. "Hmph. Just don't end up dead."
Nyk laughed, pulled her into a hug, and kissed her cheek.
"Relax, babe. My bro's basically god. We'll be a'ight."
Rayon sighed.
"What am I gonna do with you, Nyk…"
He headed inside.
Nexus was there, calm and radiant, feeding Lucifer while Esdeath watched the room with those slowly rotating black-star eyes.
Rayon sat beside her.
"You alright?" he asked gently.
Nexus smiled. "Yeah. I'm healed now. They're stable."
Rayon relaxed.
He lay down beside her.
For now—
Peace remained.
But the Abyss had remembered itself.
And the world would never forget again.