The Third Calamity: Starfall.

A spell from myth. Its power, immense. Its damage, incalculable. In terms of devastation, it was a scale which the Hyades Republic had never experienced before. Even if all the mages on the planet gathered together, they couldn't cast a spell as destructive as Starfall.

If the Demon Cult succeeds in their plan, the entire capital would be doomed. No, it would spell the beginning of the end of the Hyades Republic. Humanity's fragile alliance would fracture apart as warlords and dictators would arise. The Republic, which united humankind for thousands of years, would crumble, giving rise to dozens of independent countries.

And that fracture would be what the Demon Cult would use to entrench themselves into Hyades.

Yue had seen that firsthand, and that was the main reason why Amon and Yue created Eldorin in the first place. To defend humanity before the Demon Cult could begin its invasion. And the Eldorin Knights were answering their call.

"This energy sure is repulsive…"

Yeon frowned, narrowing her eyes at the grotesque ziggurat built from human sacrifices. The demonic energy radiating from it was vile, its stench almost unbearable. Beside her, Carmen Solaris—the Commander of the Black Dragon Order—struggled to suppress her nausea. She, too, was repulsed by the sight, yet her heightened senses detected something Yeon could not: the dense concentration of mana sealed within the Magatamas that sustained the ziggurat.

"Urgh… This Magatama invention of theirs is a travesty against nature! To think that they can make something so vile!"

"Let's destroy it!"

Yeon, ever the impatient lady, raised her dainty arms and was ready to bloom an ice flower that would end the ziggurat once and for all. However, before she could do so, a gaunt hand held her back, forcing the Witch of Oblivion to click her tongue.

A sickly tall man stood before her, his skin pale as moonlight, his long black hair hanging in disarray over sharp, sunken features. His violet eyes gleamed faintly beneath heavy lids, cold and calculating. Though his posture was slightly hunched, giving him an appearance of a feeble man, Yeon knew better than to be deceived.

His presence might have been faint, almost ghostlike, but his power was anything but. This was Verso's brother, the Inverse Warlock, whose mastery over the arcane rivalled hers. Though she was unaware of the man's full potential, she knew he was a being capable of matching her in strength.

"Recto, what are you doing?"

"... if you destroy the ziggurat now, we'll have to deal with the rampaging souls. Are you going to clean it up?"

"Hoh? You're in a position to order me around?"

Yeon bit her lip and questioned the not-so-friendly warlock. Although he too was a member of Eldorin, Yeon rarely interacted with the man, for he was more suited to covert operations and worked closely with Bane, Renee and Maelle, the intelligence branch of Eldorin.

"No, but I don't wish to cause a scene. Especially when time is tight."

"So what do you propose?" Carmen asked, breaking the tension, as her authority was the only one neither of them questioned.

"Let me deal with the ziggurat… During our intelligence operations in the past, I had always been responsible for them."

"Go for it."

Carmen didn't protest and allowed Recto to do his thing. While Yeon was somewhat dissatisfied, once Carmen, the highest-ranked person here, spoke, she took a step back and allowed Recto to run the show.

Recto gave a silent nod and stepped toward the grotesque ziggurat overflowing with human sacrifices, his violet eyes glinting with detached indifference. The dark hollows beneath his eyes made him appear perpetually exhausted, yet not a trace of weakness escaped him.

Behind him, a vast, shadowy form began to stir. The air thickened as a colossal apparition, an ethereal shade, took shape, its presence radiating primal terror. A true warlock to his core, Recto commanded the darkness with effortless authority. The shade let out a low, otherworldly roar as tendrils of arcane shadow burst forth, wrapping around the ziggurat.

The entity began to feed, not by devouring flesh or bone, but by seizing the corrupted essence within. It appeared to be consuming the demonic mana that seeped from the sacrificial altar. Yet, it was doing something far more sinister: refining it, transmuting the vile energy into something paradoxically radiant—an imitation of divinity born from blasphemy.

'A fallen deity… Just like Verso's.'

Yeon's expression tightened as she watched Recto devour the ziggurat with pained ease.

Unlike Verso's fallen deity of light, Recto possessed a fallen deity of shadow.

The fallen deities weren't spirits, and neither were they actual gods. They were just divinities that failed to ascend. Thalassa, the previous ocean divinity, was only able to retain its divine status because it lived in a different age altogether. In the age of humanity, where only one Goddess reigned eternal, divinities were a concept long forgotten.

But some entities tried to defy the natural order.

Former spirits, false idols, and even some mad humans who attempted the impossible.

Recto and Verso's deities were false idols. Idols that had been worshipped by a forgotten cult that failed to attain divine status. But, rather than fade into nothingness, these two deities clung to two brothers, cursing them for their lifetimes by making them their lead priests.

Verso was chosen by the Deity of Light, whose divine radiance was too pure for mortal eyes to behold. As a result, he was cursed with eternal blindness, his sight forever seared away by the brilliance of the god's proper form. Yet from that curse blossomed power: an unparalleled mastery over light magic, allowing him to bend illumination itself to his will—far beyond what any mortal magician could conceive.

Recto, in contrast, became the vessel of the Deity of Shadow. His burden was no less cruel. The god's essence robbed him of sleep and dreams alike, for whenever he closed his eyes, only nightmares awaited. In return, he gained dominion over the darkness—an unholy command of shadow magic so profound that it redefined what it meant to be a warlock.

Where Verso embodied divine radiance, Recto was the abyss that devoured it.

The Demon Cult once targeted the two brothers for their unique talents and were almost turned into mindless puppets that did the Prophet's bidding. However, Amon and Yue saved them from their wretched fate, and they've been helping Eldorin to combat the Demon Cult since then.

"Hoh? Reinforcements, huh? They never learn."

As Recto was continuing his destruction of the ziggurat, Carmen sensed dozens descending upon them. As they'd expected, the Demon Cult were sure to bring reinforcements to protect this valuable asset. Like with every stronghold they'd targeted, once the low-levelled cultists were taken down, their superiors would come running.

In a few seconds, Carmen and Yeon came face-to-face with the cultists. Many of them were just initiates, but there were a few with stunning amounts of demonic mana.

"Five Acolytes and two Deacons? Not enough to get my blood pumping."

Carmen lamented the level of the cultists as she cracked her neck. Yeon instinctively stepped forward, hoping to end the battle with one large spell, but she was stopped by Carmen's imposing hand.

"No, didn't you hear the chap? If you act, you may cause the souls to run amok. Let me handle this."

"... sure."

Yeon shrugged as she retreated. While Carmen's words were logical, she could feel the battle hunger within the Commander's words. Due to Yeon and Recto's absurd abilities, Carmen didn't have to lift a finger thus far. And as the Commander, she shouldn't be experiencing combat on the frontlines.

But…

"Heh, I've been itching to try this!"

Ever since their last mission together, Carmen had been constantly training under Amon's guidance. There wasn't any pride in lowering herself to ask a junior for advice, for she had seen Amon's immense growth rate. Not to mention, after Yval, the Golden Dragon Progenitor, had imbued her mana into Amon, his bloodline far surpassed hers, a super-inheritor.

And all that time, Carmen had been training in one thing…

"Dragon form!"

Carmen's slender, amazonian frame began to transform, her body radiating golden light as draconic features emerged. Flames of pure gold flared across her skin, and her limbs became encased in glimmering dragon scales, each one harder than steel. Her golden eyes narrowed, their pupils slit like a predator's, and in that moment, she resembled a dragonoid poised for battle.

Around her, seven blazing suns orbited in perfect harmony, their brilliance so intense that the darkness of the stronghold was utterly banished. The air trembled under the sheer force of her aura, and the pressure she emitted was so fierce that every cultist facing her fell to their knees, fearful that the War God before them would reap their lives.

Had Amon or Alrock been there to witness it, they would have been both stunned and elated. Carmen now stood at the very threshold of condensing her Eighth Sun, a feat that only one had achieved in this era: Alrock Solaris, the Solaris Lord himself.

"Die!"

Moving faster than sound, Carmen crunched her hand into a claw and sliced the kneeling cultists' bodies like they were made of tofu. The weaker cultists were killed before they knew what hit them, but the stronger ones did attempt a resistance.

The Deacons, especially. Only beneath the Vicars and the Apostles themselves, they were demonic humans with plenty of power. Just one alone was capable of destroying an entire Knight Squadron. Yet, before they could show a slice of their powers, Carmen's Dragon Form had already pierced through their hearts, burning them from the inside out.

As Yeon watched Carmen wreak havoc as she pleased, she sighed internally and thought:

'Hah… The damage you cause will be no less than mine.'