"STOP!!" Askara screamed with all the air left in his lungs. "What are you planning to do with her?!"

The figure in the three-horned mask tilted his head.

"What? Nothing. Just a friendly exchange," he said mockingly. "At least we won't kill her"

Three more masked cultists appeared beside him, their masks bearing two horns each. One of them carried Ayana, unconscious, slung over his shoulder like a prize.

"Chief," one of them asked, "we're ready to leave at any moment"

"Good." The three-horned mask stepped closer to Ayana, brushing her hair aside, lowering his face as if to smell her. "What are you going to do, Prince Askara~?"

"You bastard!! Keep your hands off her!!"

"Ohh~ Is she someone special to you, Prince?" the masked man teased. "What a pity. I can't take you too... You must be very lucky to have been born a D'Archy"

"Y-YOU... !"

The three-horned mask chuckled and straightened. "Alright. Time to go. Goodbye, Prince. Let's not meet again"

"S-STOP!" Askara tried to push himself up, but his strength hadn't returned. His body trembled uselessly.

Perhaps hearing his voice, Ayana's eyelids fluttered open. Her eyes met his, faint, tired, yet she smiled.

And then she was gone.

"...Ayana." Askara bowed his head. His voice cracked as he whispered her name. For a long moment, he was still.

Mana stirred faintly in his veins again, too late.

They were already gone.

"ASKA!" Kiara's voice broke through the haze. "I don't know what you're doing right now, but if you can move, we desperately need your power!"

Askara turned. His vision cleared, and his blood ran cold.

His siblings were barely holding on.

The Newborn Aboriginal Being now stood in its perfect form, its corrupted Mana spilling like black flame, warping the ground itself.

Litani's Gauntlet was cracked, her body bruised, yet she stood her ground.

Anggana struggled to intercept the creature's blows, his sword shaking under the pressure.

Anindha knelt behind them, her staff dim, her Mana nearly gone.

Only Kiara still held form, shards of ice swirling around her as she fired spell after spell to cover her siblings.

And above the chaos, that monstrous being roared, a sound that tore through the forest and sky alike.

"Th–This…" Askara's voice trembled. Maybe it was pride. Maybe it was the weight of failure. Whatever it was, it hollowed him.

He remembered Alice's words "Bring them back." At that time, he had answered without hesitation.

But now… he wasn't so sure.

"Big Brother… Father… what should I do?"

In that desperate plea, something stirred.

Deep within his chest, a warmth flickered, faint, then growing, spreading through every vein like fire.

Light burst from his body, flooding the battlefield. It was flame, yet not flame, warm, not searing. It did not burn; it breathed.

"…This…?" Askara blinked as the glow wrapped around his arms and blade. He looked at his hands. The light pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, and one name surfaced in his mind, "…Nāgāntaka?"

"You called?" The voice came from right beside his ear.

Askara turned, and there, perched on his shoulder like a bird that had always been there, was Nāgāntaka, small and gleaming, his feather rippling with inner fire.

Askara froze for half a second. Then, behind him, Kiara's voice cut through the storm again.

"ASKA!"

He clenched his Katana, eyes blazing. "Nāgāntaka… I don't know how you're here, but please, lend me your power"

"Well, that's the reason I'm here," Nāgāntaka replied with a sharp, amused tone.

Then, his form glowed, the warmth around Askara ignited into roaring light as Nāgāntaka's power surged into him, flooding his limbs with strength.

The ground split beneath Askara's boots, molten light seeping through the cracks as if the earth itself were awakening.

The warmth surrounding him thickened, heavy, alive, until it roared like an ocean of fire restrained by will alone.

His Katana trembled, its once-silver edge now radiant with gold and crimson light, humming with Nāgāntaka's voice.

"SwordMagic…?" Askara whispered, his eyes widening as the energy coursed through him. It wasn't just Mana. It was creation and destruction, intertwined.

"You can only use two forms," Nāgāntaka's voice warned, his tone vibrating through the air. "Light and Fire, unlike Master. If you use more than that, your body will shatter"

Askara gritted his teeth, raising his blade. "Then two will be enough to end this"

The Newborn Aboriginal Being turned toward him.

A monstrous shape of bone and shadow, its many eyes burning like voids, screeched, and the air itself rippled under the force.

Corrupted Mana burst outward, devouring trees, tearing the ground into dust.

Askara's siblings braced themselves.

Litani's gauntlet cracked further.

Anggana barely blocked a strike that cratered the earth.

Kiara screamed his name through the storm.

And in that moment, Askara moved.

Light exploded.

He was gone from where he stood, reappearing in a blur before the monster's chest. The serpent of fire coiled around him.

"SwordMagic - Light Form: Dawn Rebirth!"

He swung.

The world erupted.

A blinding arc of golden flame carved through the storm, turning black Mana into shattering shards of light.

The explosion followed a heartbeat later, a detonation of sound and heat that hurled debris skyward.

The creature screamed, its limbs thrashing wildly as its corruption peeled away, burning from within.

Askara landed hard, one knee on the cracked ground, panting, eyes glowing amber. His blade pulsed in his hand like a heartbeat.

"You burned the world with your corrupted Mana," he muttered, "now I'll burn you with my Light!" (°~°)

The monster roared in answer, its body reforming, even larger, the wounds sealing with boiling darkness.

Nāgāntaka hissed from his shoulder. "Aska! Now! Before it adapts!"

Askara's aura flared again, fire and light intertwining, coalescing into something purer, sharper. The serpent form split into two wings of molten radiance, spreading from its back.

He rose.

"SwordMagic - Unity…" The air itself bent around him, space trembling as the world filled with light. "…Solar Divider!"

He vanished.

A streak of white fire cleaved through the horizon, faster than thunder, brighter than dawn. The creature froze mid-roar, its form bisected from crown to core.

Then came the shockwave.

A wall of flame burst outward, flattening everything in its radius. The sky itself seemed to flare white for a single, impossible instant, and when it dimmed, only ash rained down.

Askara fell to one knee again, his Katana dimming, steam rising from his skin as if he'd walked through the sun.

Nāgāntaka fluttered down before him, his small body flickering weakly.

"You overdid it, Aska," Nāgāntaka muttered, voice rough but amused.

Askara exhaled shakily, his lips curling into a faint smile. "Yeah… but it worked"

Silence descended.

The battlefield was gone, reduced to glass and smoke, the last remnants of the Newborn fading into the wind.

His siblings stood at the edge of the devastation, silent, the wind carrying nothing but the hiss of cooling glass and the crackle of embers.

The light around Askara still pulsed faintly, white and crimson, like the last heartbeat of a dying star.

"You guys… safe?" Askara's voice was hoarse, barely a whisper carried by the wind. His eyes flicked toward each of them: Kiara's bloodstained hands, Litani's cracked gauntlet, Anggana's trembling stance, and Anindha, clutching her staff, barely standing.

He smiled faintly. "...Good. Then I'll… take a rest. Now-"

*Thud*

The sound was small but heavy, echoing through the ruins like a verdict.

Askara's body hit the shattered ground, his Katana slipping from his grasp, the light fading from his skin as darkness claimed him.

"ASKA!!!" Kiara's scream tore through the silence.

Litani stumbled forward, panic breaking through her usual composure. "He's not... he's not breathing right! Anggana! Anindha! Help me, NOW!"

Anggana dropped his sword and ran, catching his brother's head before it struck the ground again. "Don't you dare die on us, you idiot!"

Anindha's trembling hands glowed faintly as she tried to heal him, tears cutting through the soot on her cheeks. "His mana flow, it's collapsing! He burned everything!"

Kiara pressed her forehead to Askara's, her voice breaking. "Why… why do you always push yourself like this…?"

The snow began to fall again, gentle and soundless, blanketing the broken battlefield. The white flakes melted the moment they touched the fading warmth of Askara's aura.

And slowly, as his siblings' cries echoed into the night, the glow around his body dimmed, until only silence remained.

--------

Askara opened his eyes.

Darkness. Endless, silent, suffocating.

"...Did I die?" he murmured, his voice echoing faintly, swallowed by the void.

"You didn't die," came a voice, soft, melodic, almost too gentle for the emptiness surrounding him.

Then... *snap*

A sound like fingers clicking against eternity.

Light bloomed, slow and graceful, revealing a vast chamber of onyx and ivory. The floor shimmered like still water, reflecting countless pale lights that floated above like souls adrift.

Askara blinked, realizing he was sitting cross-legged in the center of it all. "... Where… am I? This is what we see when we die?"

"You're in my chamber, my child," the voice replied, smooth and soothing, but heavy, ancient. "And no… You didn't die. If you did, my darling wouldn't ever want to see me again"

Askara froze. That tone… that strange warmth in her words.

He turned. Newest update provıded by novel fire.net

Seated upon a throne sculpted from bone and light was a woman unlike any he'd ever seen. Her hair flowed like liquid shadow, darker than the abyss itself. Her eyes glowed crimson, not menacing, but infinite, like every drop of blood ever spilled had gathered there. Her skin was pale as snow under moonlight, untouched by mortal time.

"...Sis… Erelythe?" Askara asked hesitantly.

The woman smiled faintly, a smile that could stop hearts. "No, my child. Erelythe is… one of my faces, an echo that walks among the living. You can consider Erelythe as an avatar with a mind of her own"

She tilted her head slightly, gaze softening. "As for me… You may consider me one of your mothers"

"M-mothers?"

"Yes~" She giggled softly, the sound like bells ringing through the void. "Because your father, Taufik, is also my husband"

Askara blinked. Once. Twice. His mind lagged behind reality.

"I…" He opened his mouth, closed it again, then managed a weak, "…come again?"

The woman, Lady Death herself smiled wider, resting her chin in her palm. "I'm Lady Death, the one who keeps the souls that even gods fear to touch. You can call me Mama, okay~?"

"..."

"..."

"...Excuse me… what?"

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..

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