Nyx had been waiting for two days. Two long days of nothing but silence and the occasional glance at Seia, who seemed to be growing more restless by the minute. The fox girl's desire for action was palpable, and Nyx couldn't blame her. Both of them had been stuck in limbo after the chaos of the last mission, and it was clear Seia's body had been craving movement. Nyx, on the other hand, still wasn't fully recovered. If her sensei found out that Seia was fighting while Nyx wasn't at her peak, it could cause distrust. Not the time for that.

Finally, Shiroko's text came through on Momotalk—Meet me in the desert, Abydos.

Seia squealed in delight at the message, her excitement practically jumping off the screen. The two of them set off toward the desert, careful not to make too much noise as they passed through Kivotos. They couldn't risk Yume getting any ideas.

The desert was dry, empty, and hot, but in the distance, they could see Shiroko—waiting, her usual calm demeanor shattered only by the subtle tension in her posture.

"Yume will be here soon," Shiroko said without looking up. Her tone was strangely confident, but Nyx could see the undercurrent of worry in her eyes.

Sure enough, a rift opened up in the air, the familiar "Void" energy swirling around it like a storm. Out of it stepped Yume, her dark giggle filling the air.

"I see Shiroko has brought reinforcements," Yume purred, her voice dripping with malice.

"Not a chance you're getting out of this, Yume," Nyx said, stepping forward, her voice steady but with a growing fire beneath it. "You think you can control everything, but this ends now."

Yume laughed, low and menacing. "Oh, Nyx," she said, her smile growing wider. "The delusion of power. Annihilation is not as strong as you think."

Nyx's hands clenched into fists. The weight of her annihilation form was at her fingertips, and she was ready to unleash it. But when she tried to tap into it, nothing happened. Confusion washed over her as she tried again, but still, no change.

Before she could even process the situation, Seia lunged in front of her, her eyes blazing with determination. "I'll handle this!" she yelled, her salvation form shimmering in the desert light.

But Yume was faster than the eye could follow. In a blink, she was in front of Seia, her leg snapping out in a brutal roundhouse kick that sent the fox girl crashing into the ground.

"Seia!" Nyx shouted, panic rising in her chest.

Shiroko reacted instantly, pulling out her gun and aiming at Yume. But Yume just summoned her scythe in one fluid motion and swung it with lethal precision. The blade slashed through the air, cutting Shiroko across the chest. The impact sent Shiroko stumbling back, blood splattering on the sand.

"No!" Nyx screamed, rushing to her friend's side.

But there was no time to dwell on it. Yume was already moving, and before Nyx could even raise her rifle, Yume was in front of her, swinging her scythe in a blur of motion. Nyx dodged the first strike, only to be blasted by a flurry of punches and kicks, each one knocking the wind out of her.

Nyx gritted her teeth, refusing to back down. As Yume's next punch came in, Nyx caught her leg, using it to flip herself up. Her right fist connected with Yume's jaw in a brutal uppercut, sending the dark figure staggering. Nyx didn't stop there. She swung her rifle around, using the butt of it to slam into Yume's face with a force that caused the ground beneath them to crack and shake.

The impact was so powerful that it sent waves of destruction outward, shattering glass in nearby buildings. Dust billowed into the air like a fog of war.

Back at Abydos High School, Hoshino felt the ground tremble beneath her feet. She stepped outside, her eyes narrowing as she tried to make sense of the disturbance.

Meanwhile, Nyx and Yume were locked in combat. Yume summoned her rifle, aiming it at Nyx, and fired. Nyx dodged the shot and grabbed the weapon mid-air, ripping it from Yume's grasp. With a roar of fury, Nyx drove a punch into Yume's face, but Yume was already reacting, her free hand parrying the blow.

Frustration welled up inside Nyx as she summoned her black threads, but Yume was too quick. With a swipe of her scythe, she sliced the threads apart like they were nothing.

It hit Nyx then—the realization. Yume was too fast. Every time Nyx tried to use her annihilation form, Yume was there, preventing it. Had Yume done this before? Had she prepared for this fight in ways Nyx couldn't anticipate?

Before Nyx could make sense of it, pain lanced through her shoulder. She gasped, looking down to see Yume's scythe buried deep in her flesh. Blood spilled onto the sand as Yume giggled, the sound like nails on a chalkboard.

"Trying to fight back, huh?" Yume taunted, twirling the blade with a wicked grin. "That won't work."

Nyx called out to Genisis in her mind, but there was no response. Her thoughts were clouded with pain, and her body felt heavy.

As she struggled to stay on her feet, a voice broke through the chaos.

"Yume..."

Yume froze. Her gaze snapped toward the source of the voice. There, standing just outside the battlefield, was Hoshino. The girl was frozen in shock, her eyes wide in disbelief at the carnage unfolding before her.

"Sempai..." Hoshino whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of confusion and fear.

Yume's gaze softened for just a moment before a cruel smile twisted her lips. "Ah, Hoshino... So you've finally arrived."

Hoshino's voice trembled as she called out, her heart racing. "Yume, why are you doing this? How... how are you alive? We thought you were gone!"

Yume's eyes flickered with something dark, an emotion flickering for a moment before her face hardened. "Enough, Hoshino," she hissed. "You'll suffer just how your precious 'Sempai' has."

With a vicious roar, Yume rushed at Hoshino, her scythe raised high, gleaming with deadly intent. Hoshino's hands flew to her shield, summoning it just in time to block the incoming strike. The blow landed with a resounding crack, sending a shockwave through the desert. But the shield held strong for only a moment before Yume's ferocity shattered it. With a flick of her wrist, Yume slammed the shield out of Hoshino's hands, sending it flying into the sand.

"Stop! Please!" Hoshino cried out, falling to her knees as she reached out for the discarded shield. "This isn't you, Yume! You don't have to be like this—"

Yume's laughter was cold and hollow. "Silly and kind Yume died a long time ago," she sneered. "You should have known that by now."

Nyx, seeing her friend plead, couldn't stand by any longer. "Yume, stop this!" she shouted, her voice tinged with desperation. "This isn't the way!"

But Yume's focus shifted back to Hoshino. Without a moment's hesitation, she lunged again, scythe in hand, intent on finishing what she had started.

Hoshino's breath caught in her throat, and as Yume's weapon descended, she shut her eyes, waiting for the inevitable strike. The feeling of cold steel didn't come. Instead, she heard a muffled sound, a desperate gasp. When she opened her eyes, her heart skipped a beat.

Seia was standing in front of her, her body impaled by Yume's scythe. Blood began to pour from the wound, staining the sand beneath them. Hoshino's voice faltered, her hands shaking as she reached out, but Yume was already there, her expression wild with fury.

Without a word, Yume gripped Seia by the neck, lifting her off the ground like a ragdoll.

"NO!" Hoshino screamed, her feet moving before she could even think. She reached out, trying to stop Yume, but the dark figure turned her head, a wicked smile spreading across her face.

SNAP.

The sickening sound echoed across the desert as Seia's neck was broken. Her body went limp in Yume's grasp.

Hoshino fell to her knees, her voice dying in her throat. She stared at Seia, her eyes wide, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Yume threw the lifeless body to the ground like a broken doll, the sound of Seia's body hitting the sand seeming to echo for eternity.

The world seemed to stop in that moment. The desert was silent, the wind carrying the stench of death.

Then, Yume's laugh rang out, cruel and unhinged.

OST Playing: JX1DX1 FORSAKEN Chase theme

https://youtu.be/3skjCeuqHak

Nyx's heart stopped as her eyes locked onto Seia's fallen form. Her entire world crumbled in an instant. The loss was too much to bear, the weight of it crushing her like an avalanche.

"Seia..." Nyx whispered, her voice a broken breath. "Seia..." Her tone grew louder, more frantic. "SEIA! SEIA! SEIA!"

Her voice broke, echoing across the desert in a primal scream of anguish. The sound was so deafening that it cracked the air around them. Buildings miles away shook, windows shattered, and the earth trembled beneath their feet.

The air around Nyx crackled with energy as her body began to change. Her clothes shifted, turning a dull gray as the colors of her attire darkened, her very being infused with a darkness that was never meant to be. Her halo, once pristine, fractured, the pieces of it floating around her like shards of broken glass.

Her eyes... Her eyes were no longer those of the person she once was. They were hollow, her pupils replaced by broken, scattered hearts—symbols of the destruction she was about to unleash.

Seia... The name echoed in her mind, over and over, as her hands trembled with the power that surged through her.

"SEIA!" Nyx screamed again, her voice cracking with raw emotion. "SEIAAAAAAAA! DON'T LEAVE ME, SEIA!!!"

The ground beneath her cracked open as the Annihilation energy coursed through her veins, her entire being vibrating with the force of it. The air hummed with the intensity of her emotions, each heartbeat amplifying the destruction around her.

Her scythe materialized in her hands, crackling with dark energy. This time, there was something different about it—something more sinister. As she gripped the weapon, it seemed to pulse with the raw power of the very universe, ready to rip through anything in its path.

Nyx didn't care anymore. She didn't care about control. She didn't care about the consequences. All that mattered was the unbearable pain that radiated from her heart.

"Seia..." she whispered one last time, her voice barely audible through the screams of destruction.

She raised her scythe, and the desert itself seemed to bend and twist around her. Everything in her path would fall. And nothing, not even Yume, could stop it.

The air shimmered, rippling with raw, unchecked power as Nyx moved. She was no longer the same person. The grief, the rage—it had consumed her, and she was now a vessel of destruction. The world around her bent and twisted under the weight of her power, as if it was trying to escape the devastation she was about to unleash.

Without a warning, Nyx shot forward, faster than the eye could follow. Her scythe crackled with the dark energy of Annihilation, the air itself tearing apart in her wake. Yume had no time to react. The slash was so fast, so violent, that it was less like a cut and more like the world itself splitting. Her stomach—no, her entire body—was torn open in a single, fluid motion. The force of the strike was so powerful that it seemed to cleave through space itself.

The only thing left in its wake was a streak of dark red lightning, flashing like a dying star across the broken sky.

Yume's body crumpled as the world around her disappeared. She was no longer in the desert. No longer in the real world. Nyx had brought her to a dark space, a place of nothingness. It was a void, an empty realm where the laws of reality didn't apply, a reflection of Nyx's pain. The world here was a mirror of the chaos inside her—empty, broken, fractured.

Yume stood in the center of it, dazed and bleeding, but she couldn't feel the pain anymore. Not like Nyx did.

And then she heard it.

The wails. The cries.

The Wails of a God.

The Weeping Child of Annihilation, of Darkness.

The voice was cold, hollow, yet brimming with a sorrow so intense that it felt like the very air around Yume was suffocating. Nyx's voice echoed in the empty space, broken and filled with anguish.

"Why..." Nyx's voice cracked, trembling as if each syllable carried the weight of her entire soul. "Why... why did you do this to us? Why did you do this to her?"

Yume's body shook as if the question itself had struck her deeper than any blow. She could feel Nyx's grief seeping into her bones, but it wasn't enough to stop her. She was a monster now, and she had to keep going. She had to finish what she started.

But Nyx wasn't finished yet.

Before Yume could react, Nyx was on her again, her body a blur of motion. Her fist connected with Yume's face, a punch that felt like the wrath of an entire storm. Blood sprayed from Yume's mouth, but she barely had time to recover before Nyx kicked her in the face with a force that sent her sprawling back.

The next blow came in quick succession. Nyx's fists rained down on Yume's face, each strike harder and more vicious than the last. The sound of bone meeting flesh echoed through the void. Yume's vision blurred as she struggled to keep her footing, but Nyx wasn't letting up. She slammed her body into Yume's, knocking the air from her lungs, and then threw Yume to the ground with a force that shattered the ground beneath them.

Yume groaned, her body cracking under the weight of the impact, but before she could recover, Nyx was on her again. Her fist came down like a sledgehammer, each punch landing with bone-crushing force. Nyx's eyes were wild, tears streaming down her face as her rage exploded outward. Every hit, every strike was an expression of the unbearable grief she was carrying.

"Why?!" Nyx screamed again, her voice filled with pure, unrelenting rage. She was no longer the calm, collected person she had once been. There was nothing left of that Nyx. She was gone, replaced by a storm of fury and loss. "Why did you take her from me?!"

Nyx's blows were relentless. They were fueled by the grief of losing Seia, the heartbreak of everything she had lost, and the unbearable emptiness she now felt inside. Each punch was a message. Each strike was a cry for justice. But none of it mattered. It wouldn't bring Seia back. It wouldn't undo the damage Yume had caused.

And yet, Nyx kept fighting.

She didn't know what else to do.

Yume's body was battered and bruised, barely able to keep up with Nyx's ferocity. Her vision was spinning, and her breaths came in ragged gasps. But she refused to let herself break. She couldn't. She was too far gone now. Too consumed by the darkness.

Then, Nyx stopped. Her body trembled, her hands shaking as she stared down at Yume. She was panting, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. For a moment, there was silence.

The only sound was the ragged breathing of both of them, echoing in the void.

Yume slowly lifted her head, her eyes filled with a twisted mix of pain and rage. "You're... you're nothing more than a child, Nyx," she spat. "You think this is going to fix anything? You think this will bring her back?"

Nyx's eyes narrowed, her lips curling into a snarl. "You don't understand anything, Yume."

And then, without another word, Nyx grabbed Yume by the throat, lifting her off the ground. Her scythe materialized in her other hand, crackling with Annihilation energy as she brought it down toward Yume's heart.

But before the strike could land, Yume's eyes flashed with a desperate, defiant gleam. She wasn't done yet.

In a final act of defiance, Yume threw her own scythe at Nyx, the blade gleaming with dark energy. The two weapons clashed, the sound of metal on metal ringing out in the void.

The force of the collision sent shockwaves through the dark space, ripping apart the ground beneath them and tearing open the very fabric of the world around them. The explosion of energy sent both of them flying backward, crashing into the abyss.

For a moment, there was silence again.

Nyx stood, her body shaking with exhaustion, but her gaze was unwavering. She looked down at her hands, bloodied and raw from the violence. And yet, even now, the grief and rage still gnawed at her. Seia was gone. There was no bringing her back.

But Yume was still standing. And Nyx wasn't done yet.

With one final, broken cry, Nyx lunged at Yume once more, determined to finish this. Determined to make her answer for what she had done.

The sun was low on the horizon, casting an eerie glow over the battlefield, its light spilling across the shattered landscape, mixing with the bloodied remnants of the clash. The air hung thick with tension, the faint echo of Yume's laugh still reverberating in Nyx's ears. But Nyx's heart wasn't there anymore. It had been torn apart long before the battle began.

As Yume loomed over her, the barrel of her rifle pressed to Nyx's bloodied forehead, the cold steel felt like the inevitable end. Nyx's body, battered and broken, barely had the strength to stand. Her strongest forms had been exhausted, her power overwhelmed. Death was no longer an uncertain future—it was as certain as the rising sun. She could feel it. It was coming for her.

But still, there was something left. A whisper of a thought, a glimmer of a choice. She had to do something—but what?

Her eyes locked with Yume's. Those cold, hollow eyes stared into her soul, empty but filled with an anger that could erase worlds. Nyx's voice, hoarse from the pain, broke the silence.

"Do you really miss Hoshino-senpai?"

Yume paused. For the briefest moment, she froze, her expression unreadable. Nyx could see the flicker of something behind those eyes—something human, something raw. A faint hesitation, a crack in the armor that Yume had built around herself. It was enough.

The words came, rushed and filled with anguish.

"Yes... OF COURSE I DO, DAMMIT! SHE WAS TAKEN FROM ME BY THOSE DAMN GEHENNARS!! AND YOU—YOU'RE TRYING TO PROTECT THEM!!"

The anguish in Yume's voice was unmistakable. It cracked like glass, the fury and grief mixing together in a volatile cocktail. Nyx's chest tightened, her breath coming in ragged gasps, but before she could process what was happening, Yume surged forward. A knee slammed into her stomach, knocking the wind from her lungs, and sending her crashing into the wall. The impact rattled her bones, but her mind remained sharp. She couldn't fall now. Not yet.

Yume's voice pierced the air, fury and pain laced in every syllable.

"DAMN YOU, NYX, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE. GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Without another word, Yume appeared before her in the blink of an eye. The rifle came up, and a series of shots rang out, tearing through Nyx's flesh. The force of the bullets felt like the world itself was collapsing in on her. Blood sprayed from the wounds as her halo shattered, the golden light fracturing like glass. She could feel herself slipping away, falling into the abyss.

But there was something in her. A flicker. A scream that had been buried deep inside her soul. She refused to let it end like this.

Yume's figure wavered in Nyx's blurry vision, exhaustion and victory in her stance. Her voice was low, almost whispered, but it carried with it the weight of everything she had lost.

"I did it, Hoshino... I—"

The words hit Nyx like a slap to the face. Hoshino's name—her Hoshino, the woman Yume had lost. The woman Nyx had fought to protect, and now she was gone. But that thought didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.

In the space of a heartbeat, something changed. Something deep inside Nyx's core. Her halo, shattered and broken just moments before, began to flicker. A dark light filled the cracks, creeping through her, shifting and expanding. Her FAMS-V1, lying nearby, glowed faintly as she summoned it to her hand.

In that instant, Nyx's eyes shot open, and for the first time in what felt like forever, her gaze was clear. Her vision sharpened, and everything around her fell into focus. Her halo, now fractured and black, pulsed with energy, darker than before. The shadows around her thickened, the air itself growing cold and heavy.

"Next time, go for the heart. No, the head."

With a swift, fluid motion, Nyx raised her FAMS-V1, aiming it directly at Yume's head. In a heartbeat, she pulled the trigger.

BAM.

The first shot echoed through the ruined landscape, a deafening crack of thunder. Yume's body jerked back with the force of the bullet, but she didn't collapse. Her eyes were glazed with exhaustion, but they flickered open again, still filled with that undying defiance.

Nyx didn't hesitate. She fired again.

BAM.

Another shot rang out, but Yume didn't go down. She was still standing, battered and bleeding, but she was still there. A warrior to the end. Her body shook with the effort to stay upright, but she didn't move. Her eyes were dull with fatigue, but her spirit wasn't broken. She couldn't be. Not after everything.

Nyx fired one more time.

BAM.

This time, Yume's body went limp. She staggered, her hand dropping the rifle, but she didn't fall. Her head tilted back, her gaze fixed on the sky as if she was finally ready to let go.

And then, something shifted in the air. The world around them stilled. Silence descended like a blanket over the chaos.

Nyx's breath came out in ragged gasps, her body trembling with exhaustion. She lowered her FAMS-V1, her grip slackening as the weight of her actions began to settle in. She had fought—no, destroyed—Yume in a way that felt like it could never be undone. But there was nothing triumphant about it. There was only the hollow ache of loss.

Her voice broke the silence, hoarse and raw.

"Seia... Seia..." Her voice was a whisper at first, a desperate plea that grew louder and louder with each utterance. "SEIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!"

Her scream ripped through the air, a raw, agonizing cry that echoed across the broken landscape. The world seemed to tremble in response, but Nyx didn't care. The pain, the rage, the emptiness—it was all consuming.

And as her cry reverberated into the distance, the last piece of her humanity, the last shred of herself, slipped away into the darkness.

For the first time in a long while, Nyx wasn't sure who she was anymore.

But one thing was certain. Seia was gone. And nothing, not even death itself, could bring her back.