Free Web NovelChapter 47: Saga 47: Collapse
Kael’s Black Hole ability had never been tested at anywhere near this scale before, and as space itself began folding inward around his outstretched palm, he understood immediately, viscerally, why the system had called it unlucky as a genuine possibility rather than a distant, theoretical outcome.
The creature sensed the shift instantly, thrashing with renewed, desperate violence, some primal instinct recognizing the trap closing steadily around it even as Claire’s wards finally buckled fully, releasing the last of their containment in a shattering wave of frost and light that sent her collapsing to her knees, utterly spent.
"Kael, whatever you’re doing, do it FASTER!" Sylvia’s voice carried real fear now, swords descending in a relentless barrage meant to buy him the precious seconds he desperately needed to finish the spell.
The gravity well expanded steadily, space visibly warping at its edges, light itself bending unnaturally around the collapsing point in ways that hurt to look at directly. The creature’s massive form began, slowly, inexorably, being drawn toward the center, obsidian flesh stretching and distorting under pressures no living thing should have ever survived, let alone endured.
"It’s working!" Harriden gasped from below, watching the spectacle unfold even as he shielded fleeing stragglers with the last of his shadow doubles.
But the creature wasn’t finished yet. In its final, desperate throes, it unleashed a shockwave of raw miasma outward in every direction at once—a last, dying effort to drag something, anything, into oblivion alongside itself before the collapse finished.
Kael felt the pull the instant before it hit, Quitax Barrier snapping up on pure instinct, but the wave was too broad, too total in its reach, catching Sylvia at the edge of her flight path and hurling her directly toward the collapsing gravity well’s leading edge.
"SYLVIA!"
Every ounce of Indomitable Vitality in his body screamed at him to hold the spell steady, to finish what he’d already started—but he didn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second, didn’t even consider letting the spell complete without her. He threw himself after her instead, wrapping his arms around her body a heartbeat before the gravity well fully collapsed, using every remaining scrap of mana he possessed to anchor them both firmly against the pull.
The creature vanished entirely, folded into a single point of impossible density that simply ceased to exist, taking with it three centuries of buried nightmare in complete, absolute, ringing silence.
For a moment, nobody moved at all, the sudden absence of the creature’s roar leaving an almost physical void in the air, ears still ringing from the violence of the collapse. Smoke drifted lazily across the ruined courtyard, and somewhere in the distance, the sounds of the wider battle across the capital seemed to be finally, slowly, winding down as well.
Kael and Sylvia hit the ground hard, mana utterly spent, every muscle screaming in protest, but alive—both of them, miraculously, unmistakably, gloriously alive.
[Threat neutralized, finally. Also, you’re an idiot. Also, I’ve never been more relieved in my entire artificial existence, and I don’t even have a heart to feel relief with. Also, don’t you ever do that again.]
’No promises. You know that.’
[I know. Doesn’t stop me from asking anyway.]
Around them, the courtyard lay in utter ruin, smoke curling upward from a hundred small fires, but the crater where the creature had stood moments before was empty now, silent, the immediate threat finally, truly gone.
Claire staggered over first, dropping to her knees beside them, checking Sylvia’s pulse with shaking hands before allowing herself to breathe properly again. "She’s alive. You’re both alive. I genuinely thought—" She couldn’t finish the sentence, pressing a hand over her mouth instead.
"We’re okay," Kael managed, voice hoarse, every muscle in his body screaming from the exertion. "Barely. But okay."
Yuki arrived moments later, sliding to a stop beside them, cowboy hat long lost somewhere in the chaos. "Please, for the love of everything, never do that again. My heart cannot survive another stunt like that one."
"No promises," Kael repeated, managing a weak, exhausted smile despite everything.
Harriden knelt beside the group last, shadow doubles finally dissolved entirely, his own reserves spent down to almost nothing. "Threat’s gone. For now, at least. We should get everyone to safety before whatever’s left of the smaller monsters regroups."
Sylvia stirred against Kael’s chest, eyes fluttering open, still hazy from the impact.
"Did it work?"
"It worked," Kael said softly, brushing hair away from her face. "You’re safe. We’re all safe."
She let out a shaky breath, something between relief and disbelief, and let herself sink back against him for just a moment longer before forcing herself upright, hunter’s instinct already reasserting itself despite the exhaustion.
"The others," she said, scanning the ruined courtyard. "We need to check on everyone else."
"Already on it," Claire said, though she looked barely capable of standing herself.
"Adian’s coordinating with the Six Brigades on casualty counts. It’s—" She stopped, unable to finish the sentence, unable to voice the number even in fragments.
"How bad?" Kael asked, dread pooling in his stomach.
"Bad. Really bad. We saved the capital from something far worse, but we didn’t save everyone. Not even close to everyone."
The weight of that settled over the group in heavy, exhausted silence. Yuki sat down hard on a chunk of fallen masonry, cowboy hat forgotten somewhere in the rubble, staring at nothing in particular. Harriden remained standing, but his usual composure had cracked, shadows flickering unstably around him like his own control was fraying at the edges.
"We did what we could," Sylvia said finally, voice hoarse but steady. "That has to count for something. We can’t save everyone. We can only save who we’re capable of saving, and fight like hell for the rest."
"Doesn’t make it hurt less," Claire said.
"No," Sylvia agreed. "It doesn’t. But we don’t get the luxury of falling apart right now. There’ll be time to grieve properly once the wounded are tended to and the fires are out. For now, we need to help however we still can."
Slowly, painfully, each of them found the strength to rise, gathering what remained of their reserves, and made their way toward the sounds of continued chaos still echoing from the market district, ready to give whatever they had left to give.
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End of Chapter—
