The sound of blades clashing rang throught the gray Sky.
Lanni was sent crashing againsy ground. She forced herself to her sleep.
Ash drifted down like black snow as Lanni and Sephiss circled one another, their eyes locked from a dozen paces apart. Fires still raged in the distance, but here, in this ruined street, the only heat was the tension between knight and elder.
Lanni's breath came slow and steady, her wolf-etched blade trembling faintly in her hands.
What is this power...? she thought, her gaze narrowing on the old man before her. He increased the weight of my moon sword as if it were nothing... he's clearly far beyond his prime, yet he outmaneuvered my Wolf Sword. And those thorns... how does he make them rise from the ground itself?
She growled under her breath, frustration bubbling in her chest.
Across the field, Sephiss gently summoned Damon's Penalty once again. The pages fluttered open as if carried by a phantom wind, stopping on a chapter he'd yet to reveal.
That book... Lanni realized, eyes flicking to it. It must be the source of everything. The weight. The thorns. All of it...
Sephiss glanced up, his many-wired form shifting in the firelight. "As I said before, trying to understand my philosophy is impossible. But let me pose you a question, Lanni."
His voice grew low, unsettlingly calm.
"How can a monster be real?"
The ground split apart as the air above them warped and twisted. A portal yawned open — and from its depths, something unspeakable crawled into the world.
A massive creature, its entire form woven from living wires, dragging itself forward with unnatural grace. One enormous, blood-red eye dominated its face, unblinking and hateful. Its presence was suffocating, the Abi aura it radiated sent a cold shiver through the entire district.
Lanni's breath hitched. "What... is that?"
"This..." Sephiss extended his hand toward the beast. "...is Damon."
His eyes sharpened.
"Penalize. GO."
The creature shrieked, a sound that made even the buildings quake, and lunged with murderous hunger.
"Wolf Sword!" Lanni roared.
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Her body dropped to all fours as she sprinted forward, instincts overtaking discipline. She moved like a predator now, leaping, sliding, twisting as Damon's wire-limbs lashed through the air around her.
One swung overhead, she dove beneath it. Another stabbed forward, she vaulted over, slashing mid-air as sparks and torn cables sprayed around her. Her movements were no longer human. She was the wolf.
"No doubt," Sephiss mused, watching her without a hint of worry, "Benkage naming you First Knight was well deserved. To outrun Damon is... quite impressive."
Lanni skidded across the debris and launched her blade in a single, precise throw. The sword spiraled through the air and pierced Damon's eye, burying itself deep in the crimson orb. The creature let out a piercing scream, its body thrashing wildly.
"Now..." Lanni whispered.
She threw her head back and let out a howl that shook the sky, a roar of primal rage. The sonic wave crashed into Damon like a tidal force, shattering its wire body piece by piece. The monster writhed and screeched in agony.
"Pay attention," Sephiss sighed.
A spear materialized in his hand, drawn directly from the pages of Damon's Penalty. With one swift throw, he launched it like a bolt of divine wrath.
The spear slammed into Lanni's side before she could react. The impact tore her from the air, sending her spiraling into the ground with a thunderous crash.
Sephiss exhaled heavily. "I told you... you should pay attention."
Lanni gasped, pain ripping through her ribs as she struggled to her knees. Damon's body continued to crumble from the effects of her howl, its withering form scattering into ash. As it disintegrated, the page that had summoned it vanished from Sephiss's book, erased as if it never existed.
Slowly, shakily, Lanni stood. She gripped the spear embedded in her side and ripped it free. Blood poured down her armor, staining the street beneath her. Her knees buckled, and she used her sword to hold herself upright.
Sephiss tilted his head, a small grin creeping across his face.
"You know... this would have gone very differently if you and your fellow knights had just complied."
"Bullshit," Lanni spat, her voice trembling with pain and rage. "You would've killed us eventually."
"Oh, that's not true." Sephiss's tone softened,disturbingly gentle now. "Look at the Artimancers. We train them, house them, allow them to exist. As long as they understand their inferiority."
He stepped closer, each word colder than the last.
"Believe it or not, Lanni, every authoritarian order requires people like you. Weak, unremarkable, obedient. What is capitalism without the poor? What is a crown without peasants to bow before it? Zoners like you, you're necessary. Necessary to build the world the royals deserve."
Lanni's eyes widened in disgust. "You're going to bring thousands of people to their deaths."
"Yes," Sephiss said simply. "But it's necessary. Other Skylands are advancing, Arkvine, South Yago, West End, Black Rock, their rulers dream of conquest. To survive, we must evolve. We must refine society through hierarchy, set the bar higher for what we call 'standard.' Zoners can no longer be the standard. Royals will become the new measure of humanity."
His voice lowered to a reverent whisper.
"Once the Zoners are gone, the King will reconstruct this land into a paradise, cities built only for the elite. For thinkers like myself. For those worthy of shaping destiny."
Lanni stared at him, her chest heaving. "Why... why are people like this?" Her voice cracked, raw with anguish. "Why do you believe that suffering is necessary? Why is cruelty always dressed up as logic?"
Tears welled in her eyes, but she did not let them fall. She tightened her grip on the Wolf Sword, blood dripping from her palm.
"I won't let you get away with this. Even if it costs me my life... I'm taking you with me."
Sephiss's grin faltered, her tone had shifted. Her intent was real now.
Lanni raised her blade. "I don't have enough Abi left for my third sword... but that's alright."
Blue Abi surged across the wolf blade, its aura freezing the air around it.
"Wolf Sword — TUNDRA!"
Frost exploded from the edge of the blade, coating the ruined street in ice. Her breath plumed like smoke as she lowered into a stance that would decide everything.
And for the first time, Sephiss's ancient eye twitched, not with arrogance, but with attention.
To be continued...