CHAPTER 302: A PURGE, NOT A WAR

Nyxa stood on a rocky ledge just above the blast zone.

Her eyes reflected the swirling flames and broken stone below.

Her drones hovered around her, sending data streams into her spine-linked jacks.

Thin energy threads moved from her fingers, linking her to the interface hovering in the air.

Flames burned low in scattered patches, and smoke rolled through cracked walls and collapsed towers.

What was once a base was now rubble, heat, and silence.

"Chaotic ether levels," Nyxa muttered.

She waved a hand, sending her drones deeper into the wreckage.

One flew close to the ground, scanning the blackened marks along the surface.

Another hovered higher, mapping out the impact radius.

Her visor displayed constant data.

"There’s no sign of life," she whispered.

"No movement. No traces of battle formations."

She looked down, eyes narrowing slightly.

"This wasn’t an invasion... it was a purge."

She stepped forward, careful not to step into any unstable ground.

One of the drones pinged.

Nyxa paused and extended two threads toward it.

Images flashed. Melted runes, flame veins ruptured from below.

"High chance of self-destruction," she said quietly.

"Triggered from the inside."

She stood still for a few seconds, watching the distant fire flicker.

Her fingers moved again, pulling open a different feed.

This one didn’t come from the field.

It came from her backdoor hack into the Hero Association’s data net.

Lines of information scrolled through her vision.

"...Flame God Cult revival activity... minor reports from Trial Division... unofficial sightings... incomplete."

She read slowly, scanning each file.

"No names. No confirmed members. Only whispers."

She tilted her head slightly.

"So... was this the Flame God Cult?"

Another drone beeped. She turned to it.

It displayed traces of sacred flame, mixed with unknown ether signatures.

"Too refined for accident. Too powerful for ordinary followers."

She walked a few steps, her needle-arms still hidden beneath the fabric.

"Could this be the work of the Hero Association?" she asked herself.

"No... no proper authorization logs. No large units deployed. No orbital scans."

She paused.

"Then who?"

Her eyes focused on a strange marking burned into a piece of stone.

She bent down and touched it lightly with a thread.

It responded with a faint pulse. Some hidden energy was left behind.

"Hm."

She stood back up and looked out toward the smoke again.

"Someone wiped this place off the map. Not for victory... but for message."

She disconnected the thread and closed the drone feeds.

"Report complete. No confirmed identities. But..."

She glanced toward the sky.

"...this was not random."

She turned, ready to leave the scene.

But just as she stepped back, one of her drones sent a sudden ping just before powering down.

She paused.

"What?"

She quickly reactivated the feed.

The drone’s vision blinked back online. Static crackled for a moment, then cleared.

Onscreen, a group of figures was moving across the rocky slope toward the ruined base.

Nyxa narrowed her eyes.

She zoomed in.

"Uniforms... Hero Association."

But the system gave her nothing when she tried to pull their identification.

No names. No class records. Not even movement logs.

She frowned.

"No data? These aren’t normal scouts."

She tried again. Still blank.

"These are hidden-class heroes. Their files are sealed."

She watched them carefully.

One of them paused and scanned the air with a device, while another checked a map on a small tablet.

"This changes things..."

She stayed quiet, her drones now watching from higher up to avoid being seen.

---

Meanwhile, the hero team advanced quickly across the blackened ground.

There were four of them, fully geared, light armor fitted for movement.

Their capes bore no names. Their ranks were not marked.

Only their badges confirmed them as part of the Hero Association.

One of them, a sharp-eyed woman in silver-blue armor, spoke first.

"This is the place. Confirmed Flame God coordinates."

A second hero scanned the area.

"No movement detected. The whole base looks... gone."

A third hero knelt down, brushing some ash off the stone.

"Recent destruction. Heat is still active. Within the last hour, maybe two."

The fourth tapped a wrist comm.

"Control, this is Recon Unit 4. We’ve arrived. The old cult base is destroyed."

"Repeat. It is destroyed. It’s not usable anymore."

A voice came through the comm. "Copy."

"Continue scanning. Check for lingering ether. Report if you find traces of cult presence."

The lead hero gave a small nod. "Understood."

They spread out carefully, stepping through scorched rocks and broken walls.

Bits of ruined structures were half-buried in the earth.

Sacred flame residue still burned along some of the edges.

"Hard to believe this was standing just yesterday," one of them muttered.

The one scanning the ether stopped and frowned.

"High flame energy. But it’s mixed... corrupted, maybe?"

"Someone didn’t just destroy this. They burned it down with intent."

The silver-blue armored woman nodded slowly.

"This wasn’t a collapse. It was erased. Someone wiped this place out completely."

The others stayed quiet.

The air felt heavy.

One of them scanned the area again, eyes on a small screen.

"Wait... I’m getting something."

The reading blinked on the device.

"There’s someone nearby."

The lead hero’s eyes narrowed. "Show yourself!"

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then a figure stepped out from behind a broken wall.

It was a woman with pale gray hair tied in a sharp braid, wearing a sleek bodysuit with faint glowing lines.

Thin threads of energy floated around her fingers.

The heroes instantly recognized her.

"...That’s the Web Mistress."

"Nyxa Valmire," one of them muttered. "High-ranking officer of the Beastkin Brood."

They took one step back and raised their guard.

Nyxa didn’t speak. She just stared at them.

She had seen their scans. She had watched their movements.

And now they were face-to-face.

No words were said.

But both sides began to move.

To the heroes, it was clear.

This base had been destroyed by the Beastkin Brood.

To Nyxa, it was just as clear.

This place had been burned down by the Hero Association.

Neither side trusted the other.

But no one made the first move.

Not yet.