CHAPTER 358: CORNERED AT ALL SIDES

The land trembled beneath Lila’s feet as she raced through the jagged mountain path beyond the Hybrid border. Her breaths came sharp and ragged, her once-pristine robes now smeared with dust, blood, and ash. Trees bent away from her passage as if sensing the volatile current of power that clung to her skin. Her amethyst eyes, gleaming faintly with the mark of prophecy, darted left and right. Her escape had carved a line of fury across the Hybrid territory—sneaking past guards, blinding them with foresight, then incinerating obstacles with Lyseria’s crimson flames that danced unnaturally, singing the very air.

She was no longer hiding. She was fleeing in full flight.

The sky above her churned strangely, the clouds folding in upon themselves like an ancient eye slowly blinking open. There was no mistaking it—something was watching.

Lila stumbled to a halt at a broken ridge, the terrain ahead opening into a wide, cracked plateau littered with shards of obsidian rock. She glanced back.

Silence.

But then, a tear in space snapped open above her, clean and golden-edged like a divine wound in the sky.

From the portal, figures descended.

Seven in total.

Clad in robes too elegant for war, yet armed with spears sculpted from the Conceptual Laws themselves, the Celestial Soldiers moved with synchronized grace. Their faces were ageless, features serene—but it was the silence they brought with them that chilled Lila more than anything. Not even the wind dared move.

They hovered just above the ground, golden halos suspended behind their heads like eternal crowns. Their leader—taller, robed in glimmering sapphire with twin axes bound by celestial chains—lifted a single hand.

"By the mandate of the Twelve Concepts, you are summoned, Lila, Seer of Lyseria. Submit, and you will not be harmed."

Lila’s heart thudded.

She flared her mana instinctively. A surge of heat burst outward, her prophetic eye glowing with a radiant violet blaze.

"I don’t belong to the Concepts. You’re not dragging me anywhere," she growled, extending her palm.

The land split beneath her. A geyser of fire twisted up in a cyclone, encasing her figure as her legacy awakened once more. Her voice echoed from within the blaze like a chorus of prophecy.

"If I must fall, then I will burn my path in the heavens."

Without hesitation, the Celestial Soldiers moved.

Two circled from the flanks, weaving a binding net of light while the others raised their weapons. Blades of time, spears of gravity, bows formed from stillness itself—each conceptual weapon aimed not to kill, but to capture. They surged at her from every direction, dancing through space as if it bent to their will.

Lila held her ground.

A psychic shockwave exploded from her forehead as her Seer’s Eye unveiled glimpses of their near future. She twisted, dodged, and retaliated with precise bursts of mana-laced fire, each movement guided not by reaction—but foresight. For a brief moment, it looked as though she could dance between them forever.

But the Celestial Soldiers adapted.

Their leader broke rank, wielding his chained axes like comets. Lila’s flame barriers cracked. Her breath faltered. Her vision flickered. The Conceptual weight of their powers began to smother her senses.

A heavy blow from the axe’s gravitational chain struck her shoulder, hurling her back across the plateau. She skidded, coughed blood, and looked up as the spear of stillness soared toward her, the world around it seemingly frozen.

Then, like a thunderclap breaking the heavens—

BANG!

A massive, golden shield slammed into the path of the spear, shattering it with a divine clang.

"Sorry for being late. It was pretty hard to pin point your location"

Lila blinked.

Beside her stood Charlotte, her cloak torn, her eyes sharp and full of steel. Her massive shield pulsed with an aura not of prophecy, but unbreakable will.

"Wha....?" Lila muttered in shock and surprise before she got interrupted by three more portals opening beside her.

A second later, three figures descended like thunder.

From the sky came Vlahoviç the Iron Spear, landing with such force the earth cratered despite his old age. His frame stood tall, his spear longer than most men, veins bulging with reinforced mana and what seems to be internalized steel laws.

To his right appeared Camilia the Ice Queen, her steps leaving trails of frost despite the burning land. Her robes fluttered with blizzard-like grace, and behind her floated dozens of crystalline blades, each sharp enough to slice mana threads.

And in the shadow behind them stepped Bowen the Dark Saint, clad in black vestments with silver crosses, his eyes hollow and unsettling. A saint not of light—but of silence, death, and inner abyss. He gave no words, only raised his hand as shadows unfurled around him like a living tide.

"You’ll not have her," Vlahoviç said, planting his spear into the ground.

Camilia’s voice followed, calm and regal. "She is one of us. From Eldoria. She comes with us."

The Celestial Soldiers paused, assessing. They were not designed to fight mortals like these—but they had orders. And the presence of these elite Pacesetters Pillars— which seems to be warriors on the level of high archons—wasn’t to be underestimated.

Bowen’s voice finally emerged, dry as paper. "Come. Test our convictions."

The leader of the Celestial Soldiers lowered his axes, contemplative. But the decision had already been made. Golden runes lit up across the soldiers’ armor.

The battle was on.

Charlotte blocked the first descending strike with her shield, hurling the attacker away with raw power. Vlahoviç roared and surged forward, spinning his spear like a storm, locking two soldiers in a deadly clash. Camilia raised her hand, and a glacier erupted from the ground, encasing one of the Celestials in a coffin of ice that hummed with spatial lock.

Bowen whispered a forbidden prayer—and three shadows sprang from his body, latching onto the limbs of another Celestial and draining his mana.

Amidst the chaos, Lila stood slowly, breathing hard as Charlotte helped her upright.

"You... all came for me," she whispered.

Charlotte offered a small smirk. "Of course we did. The Commanding General ordered it. But I would’ve come even if he didn’t."

"Yeah right. But I would still move right behind you if you did so, she is my most precious student after all" Carmilia suddenly said with a light smile on her face which Lila noticed.

Lila’s gaze first rested on Carmilia as a deep warmth wrapped all around her when Carmilia said that, before it drifted to the battlefield, to the war being waged over her fate.

The flames in her blood pulsed once more.

"Then I’m not running anymore," she said. "I’ll stand and fight."

Charlotte grinned, shield at the ready. "That’s the Lila I know."

Together, they rejoined the fray, mortal and seer, shield and flame—standing against heaven’s decree.

And in a tacit understanding and sync, the four formed a bulwark around Lila — holding the Celestial battalion at bay with power only a few in the Human Territory had ever witnessed before.

But they were running out of time.

Camillia suddenly shouted, "They’re regenerating faster! Their concept laws are thickening!"

Lila’s eyes pulsed again. "More are coming... too many paths are narrowing—" she paused, her knees shaking. "We won’t hold."

That’s when it happened.

Without warning, the heavens above ripped open once more.

But it wasn’t the Celestials this time.

A new, jagged dimensional scar split the skies — dark purple and obsidian-black in tone. From within marched in terrifying forms with spiraled horns, gnarled limbs, and armor made of living stone. The air became slimy with chaotic mana. At the forefront were the Chaos Twins, smiling with teeth too many and eyes too wide.

Lila’s heart sank.

"Labyrinth-borns..." Charlotte muttered, lowering her shield slightly as the pressure in the air doubled.

From the left ridge came another rumble — dust clouds trailed over the desert-like hills. Tall, armored silhouettes in sleek white-silver armor emerged. Humanoid, beautiful, flawless. Their presence alone bent the air like a celestial psalm.

"The Hybrids," Bowen spat. "Of course, they’d come."

Led by none other than Lord Vanarion, the head of the Hybrid Race, his long pale hair danced in the air, his four wings half-unfurled as he floated down beside the Celestials.

The battlefield froze — caught in a fragile balance.

"Hand over the girl," Vanarion spoke, his voice smooth yet soaked in superiority. "She is of Lyseria’s bloodline. She belongs with the divine."

The Celestials said nothing, but their swords and spears remained raised — aligned in silent agreement.

The Chaos Twins merely laughed. "Oh, we don’t care who gets her, we just need her alive. Endless sends his regards."

Lila’s eyes burned, not with fear — but resolve. "I... I won’t be taken. I’m not someone’s tool..."

Charlotte pressed her shield to the ground beside her. "Then we protect you. To our last breath."

Vlahoviç slammed his spear into the ground and entered a stance that pulsed with ancient qi. "Let them all come."

Bowen melted into the shadows. "We fight in hell today."

And Camillia, with blood on her lips, raised her hand — unleashing a massive blizzard of forbidden ice mana, sending jagged frost surging toward the incoming Hybrid and Celestial forces alike.

The battle resumed — three sides now at war, each clashing over one girl, one destiny.

But deep down, even Lila knew — this was no longer about her fate alone.

This was the prelude to a war of legacies, gods, monsters... and truths not meant to awaken.