An arrogant smile on his face, Miasma shrugged.

"That's what happens to traitors."

Through the eyes of the beasts, Miasma saw the disaster happening to the three ex-Apostles in great details.

"I can leave the rest to this thing. We have somewhere else to go, and what better timing than right now?"

Glancing toward a rift in space, his showed all of his teeth with a distorted grin that would bring shivers to anyone seeing it.

Miasma approached the portal, and jammed his hand right in. Similar to his previous attempt, the portal began to reject him, as it recognized an unauthorized individual trying to break in.

'Not this time.'

He jabbed his other hand inside, before forcefully pulling its edges further away from each other.

'You're really going to make me work for it, huh?'

His smile disappeared, replaced with struggle. For a few minutes, Miasma did everything to not waste this opportunity, working on stabilizing the rift.

Corrupted fumes released from his body began to flow toward the portal, corrupting its power bit by bit.

'It's working. Almost there!'

His grin returned when he noticed his efforts starting to show results. The rift opened wide, creating sparks of light and spots of darkness around it.

The world itself cracked around it, as Miasma continued to break into Horizon.

*Crack*

"Haaaah!"

Using his incredible strength, he pried open the portal. Large fissures in the surroundings began to pull air inside them, as Miasma dropped his shoulders in exhaustion.

"Breaking in is a success. As expected, I won't be stopped by a mere portal."

The portal looked stable, with no risk to close shut anytime soon. It looked large enough to fit five people side-by-side, which made Miasma even happier.

He looked behind him, glaring at his forces composed of a few hundred Corrupted Lords, two cloaked figures, and a Corrupted Warrior.

"What are you waiting for? Get in there and wreak havoc."

Hearing his order, they ran inside the portal without looking back.

"Kill everyone you see."

"But leave Orion to me."

Followed by his three followers, Miasma, possessing the Apostle Layla, entered Horizon, Orion's home.

~

"Florian! Eric!"

Kamala caught Florian, who fell backward onto her. Eric stabbed his war hammer into the ground, and looked at his bleeding arm.

Shards of rocks exploded everywhere following the shield's destruction, and only began to rain down.

"I'm... fine!"

"Same..."

Florian wobbled slightly, trying to compose himself through the pain. He looked at his right side, and noticed a large hole leaking blood.

'Shit! The pain is atrocious!'

He looked at Eric, who ripped a piece of fabric from his shirt, before trying to wrap it around his bleeding arm.

"Eric... wait."

His friend glanced toward him, taking notice of his worse condition.

"Your stomach..."

"No problem, it missed my vitals. Forget about it, give me your arm."

With Kamala holding his back, Florian walked closer to him. His hand began to release incredible heat, as lightning sparks erupted around it.

"Place that thing in your mouth. It's going to hurt."

Watching the serious expression in his eyes, Eric placed the piece of fabric in his mouth, and gave him his arm.

"Sorry."

Florian tightly grabbed Eric's injured arm with his hand.

A loud sizzling noise overwhelmed their earring sense, as Florian cauterized his wound with lightning.

"!"

Being the muscle head he was, Eric endured the pain without emitting a sound, only glaring at him by instinct.

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The smell of burned flesh hanged in the air, until a few seconds later, Florian removed his hand.

"How's that?"

With a smug face mixed with pain, he looked at his friend.

"It fucking hurt!"

Eric spat the piece of cloth out of his mouth while glaring at Florian. Then, he looked at his arm, and nodded.

"The bleeding has stopped. It doesn't hurt as much, though. Thanks."

Moving his arm around, he confirmed that he had recovered some mobility.

Before he had a chance to glance at him, Florian already began to cauterize his own wound. His pained scream echoed through the battlefield as he had no way to divert the pain.

Kamala hugged his back as he gritted his teeth during the whole process. But even as the pain was greater than anything he ever felt so far, he kept his mind working.

'It's nothing compared to what Orion went through.'

'The suffering he went through, the death he experienced.'

Florian clenched his side even harder. The memories of his battle against Julian came flooding back, as he pictured his breathless friend in the arms of a sobbing fairy.

'This is nothing!'

His tenacity overcame the pain. As he inhaled some air after closing his wound, he looked at the beast flying above them.

'We've fallen in that trap splendidly. What a mess...'

He opened his eyes and squinted at the light sphere in the air.

'Here it goes.'

Eric and Kamala noticed movement coming from the sphere once again. Unfortunately, they weren't in a position to avoid attacks.

Two radiant wings spread from each side of the beast. It stretched wildly, as its elongated neck revealed itself from the sphere's inside.

Its piercing yellow eyes fell on the three, before it shrieked once again.

"PIAAAAAAA!"

The sphere of light surrounding it then started to be absorbed inside its body, showing its luminous plumage.

This creature, ever magnificent as it was, appeared to be formidable. Its long feathery tail stretched behind it and wavered in the wind, releasing particles of light as it moved.

It was as brilliant as the sun.

Lost for words, they could only stand there, in awe, facing this incredible creature.

Then, shimmering light spheres appeared in front of its wings. As it flapped them, beams of light flew in all directions.

The earth itself fractured from the unfathomable power. Setting ablaze the battlefield from its continuous outburst of magic, and consuming all corpses in holy fire.

In the middle of this chaos, Kamala transformed. Her body, enveloped in a thick layer of sand, covered the group in a thick sphere of sand and rocks.

Using her wind magic as a way to create breathing air inside the sphere, she sighed.

"We've been fooled."

"Huh?"

Eric looked at her, perplexed. At that moment, Florian removed his hand from his side, and straightened while catching his breath.

"It is exactly as she said. Haven't you noticed?"

"Noticed what? Tell me, don't play riddles. I was too focused on defending."

Florian placed his hand on his breast pocket, pulling out his blue glasses. With a swift and precise movement, he placed them on his nose, before releasing a sigh of relief.

Cold air released by the glasses appeased his mind. He closed his eyes for a moment, before being reminded of the situation by a beam of light hitting the protective shell.

"The corrupted cores. Normally, they are supposed to crumble into dust unless me use magic, right? That's why we always sent a magi to recover the cores."

"Yes. That's how it's done."

Agreeing with him, Eric nodded. It was no mystery, as they kept gathering cores for the 'Ceremony' held each year.

"We killed thousands of corrupted, some of them were reduced to ashes by May, but..."

Florian looked at Kamala.

"Black cores were scattered everywhere on the ground. That's an unusual situation to be in."

"The question is, 'why?' now."

Finishing her sentence, Florian walked around while holding his side. Kamala stared with worry, but quickly pushed her emotions to the side, as she could see that he was at least out of danger.

*VRRRRRRRR*

The sound of a beam of light shattering the earth made the three stop and wait anxiously.

"Kamala, are you alright?"

He asked for two reasons. The magic needed to block those strikes was no laughing matter, and her previous attempt using the Elemental Mastery, where she lost consciousness.

The sand enveloping her was slowly beginning to cover her face, which indicated to him that she was probably struggling to control her power output.

"I'm fine."

She looked away for a split second, before looking back at him.

'I won't be able to hold it much longer.'

The frown on her face gave enough answers for the two to understand.

"Huh?"

"Eric?"

Putting his ear next to the wall, he listened for a few seconds.

"There are no sounds outside."

"Really?"

"I'm positive."

Kamala nodded, before slowly removing the shell protecting them.

What welcomed them turned out to be a nightmarish scenery.

"Wha-"

"Don't breathe! Kamala, disperse the air!"

Florian turned to Kamala with panic on his face. Urgently, she used her wind magic to cover them.

The air was choked full of corrupted dust. Molten earth heated the place, and large craters replaced the flat terrain they began their defense over.

"Now I get it! The cores!"

"They were used to create this situation!"

Kamala exclaimed, perplexed. There was no sign of corpses nor dark cores.

The beams were used to destroy any trace of the fallen beasts, as well as break the core into dust, that was floating in the air.

'Who thought of this? Was it Miasma? Or this thing?'

A spiral of wind pushed the dust away, while they looked for the culprit of this disaster.

"Where did it go?"

"..."

"Nowhere..."

Pointing in the air, a drop of sweat trickled down Eric's forehead.

The radiant bird appeared to have remained exactly where it was before. As the three stared with anxiety, the beast opened its beak.

Dust in the air began to get sucked into its mouth in a swirling motion.

"Stop it now! Don't let it absorb the corruption!"

Shouted Florian, forcing every ounce of strength in his body to move. Eric took out his gun, and aimed at the bird.

Kamala lifted her arm in front of her too.

*Bam*

Eric shot a freezing bullet at its left wing, while a column of dust rose from under it, ready to pierce its body.

Florian closed the distance between him and his target, while gathering a dangerous amount of lightning magic all over his body.

The purple veins on his body glowed wildly, warning him of the danger, but he ignored it.

He felt a weigh growing on his feet, slowing him down.

When in position, he aimed both hands toward the bird from a very close range, and fired everything he had accumulated all at once.

*BRRRRZZZZZT*

A beam of lightning branched out in every direction. It traveled instantly, scorched the ground under its path, and ionized the air.

And at the same time, it engulfed the corrupted as it was absorbing the corrupted dust. All three attacks touched their target in an incredible blast.

Florian was thrown back a large distance away, barely capable of keeping his consciousness working.

The left side of his glasses cracked from the shock, while blood dripped from his nose from the excessive use of magic.

A groan escaped his mouth, as the ground came closer and closer.

'Is that it?'

He closed his eyes, and braced himself for the end.

However, expecting a rough landing, he was surprised to be fine.

"I guess it will need a bit more for it to die."

When he opened his eyes, he saw May holding him straight.

"Mind leaving the rest to me?"

"Sure... I'm too injured to do anything else anyway."

He smiled dryly while trudging away, exhausted.

"..."

May glanced at his back, before she looked forward, toward a bright light in the sky.

"Who would have guessed Orion sharing his light element with the world would cause this..."

She approached Kamala and Eric with determined steps, to end this war once and for all.