I sucked in a harsh breath.

My lungs were dry; the air was hot; it felt as though I'd inhaled a dense cloud of smoke, and I began to hack up a painful cough.

On instinct, I raised my arms to cover my mouth, but only one followed my whim.

Ahh, yeah, the arm is gone...

I came back to myself rather quickly, and amidst the droplets of sweat running off this body and the pain wracking my nerves, it quickly became apparent that there wasn't any major injury—except maybe getting too close to the fire and wrecking my lungs a bit.

"You- you're back; are you okay?"

So that's what that feeling is?

Rena's gentle but anxious voice came from my side, and I suddenly became aware of the shoulder holding up my armless side, keeping me from dropping onto the tattered ground.

As my eyes focused, I noticed she was trying to force a calm expression.

She's obviously been biting her lips, and her eyes look... slightly puffy.

I found myself a little at a loss.

How do I even comfort someone?

Lifting my knee and planting a foot on the ground, I began to carry my own weight.

I reached forward and gently pushed Rena's shoulder away, allowing her to relax.

"Hah, I feel like this has happened too often now... I'm fine, though. Thanks."

I smiled, trying to lighten the mood, but she didn't see it; instead, she looked at the ground and straight through it, as if she couldn't bear even looking at me.

"We should get moving."

Standing as I spoke, I held out my arm to her.

She looked up at me, her expression hardly changing, but it did look a little more forced. She reached forward and grabbed my forearm, so I did the same and pulled her to her feet.

A soft sigh then met my ears.

Hah, I'm inevitably just shooing her away... But what else can I do? I'll only outpace and outgrow her; I obviously don't age in the same way as the other Demons do either.

I feel quite reluctant, but I still think it's the best course of action.

Though it's not wrong to say that I'm not okay, I definitely have felt weaker since I used my magic to such an extreme; well, maybe not weaker per se, besides the missing arm, but my awareness feels... lighter, more distant, and the same movements as before are taking more of my concentration away.

My time in this body is probably running out; I can tell that at least.

It could be the contract, the doctrine, or overexertion; I just don't know, but I'm confident I don't have as much time to help her as I expected to.

"It's ok..."

Her usually soft voice was a little croaked and monotone.

"You've done more than enough for me."

My breath caught in my throat; it was like she read my mind.

Shocked, I opened my mouth to speak, but something yanked my attention away.

Rena seemed to sense it too, and we rapidly looked to the surrounding trees in search of that feeling's source.

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"What is..."

Instantaneous and deathly cold, a sudden, dense wave of energy passed through the two of us, causing all of my hairs to stand on end; it was like being pushed into an icy lake.

I pulled myself out and recaptured my awareness, but an awful blood rush almost made me collapse to the ground. Stumbling, I barely managed to catch Rena before she fell over herself, clearly having experienced the same sensation.

Without saying anything, I picked her up and jumped through the treeline into the open space adjacent to the village.

Rena climbed onto her two feet again, but neither of us had the mind to say anything.

There, rising high into the sky, was an immense pillar of... smoke? It was eerily silent, but the sight alone bellowed with the boundless might of a terrible volcano, with endless streams of pure black pouring out from the earth across the horizon I could see and snaking around the primary pyroclastic flow.

It surely can't reach up endlessly...

As if on queue, the smoke slowed... No, it hit some kind of resistance; the sky pushed back, and now it's spreading outward.

The pure black mass arched, kilometres in the air, like a great tidal wave ready to consume the world.

This is insane!

Before even a breath had passed, the darkness consumed the sky.

Faint trails of light still pierced through; it clearly wasn't thick enough yet, and the glow of the trees provided some flimsy sense of comfort.

Not too far away, I watched this manifestation of darkness slither through the treeline and pour into the open space, seeking to transform the whole world into some kind of eternal night.

Perhaps a wave isn't too far off...

The trees croaked, branches snapped in all directions, and the dense tidal forces of the smog uprooted the plants.

Like a gushing flood, it hugged the ground and swept towards us.

The way the ground seemingly vanished into a bottomless, ever-growing pit was horrifying, creating the illusion that the world was being sucked through some sort of event horizon.

Then, without care for my thoughts, I went blind—the light above and the light of the trees had been totally consumed.

It suddenly struck me just what was going on.

"Blindness Mirage..."

Rena clung to my hand, and I kneeled down to lower my mass as the magic gushed over us in waves.

Rena sucked in a panicked breath at the frigid caress of the ever-present blindness, but she seemed placated by my lack of any severe reaction.

The fact that I'd said its name seemed to make her relax as well.

I never thought it was this kind of spell... It's far too extreme—the way it expands endlessly without diffusing in the slightest—it must be some kind of ridiculous tactical magic.

I continued to dig my feet into the ground and resist the force of the diverging blindness.

Fortunately, we're in an open area, so it's spreading around us with less force.

Just as I was getting used to it, a strange sound entered my ears, and I turned my head, thinking its source was right next to me.

I focused on it instinctively, searching for its true origin.

Perhaps sound is the only thing that can make it through this spell, maybe even a little too well.

Rena squeezed my hand; she seems to be hearing it too.

It grew louder, clearer, and progressively more direct as seconds passed.

What is it? It feels like it's burrowing into my brain...

The smoke abruptly slowed and stagnated, prompting me to turn and look around.

There... a hole in the darkness piercing the veil directly, like a otherworldly bridge of light, to take you to the afterlife.

But that's not the afterlife... that's the Angel outpost.

The darkness seemed to push back with greater fervour as the hole grew larger; it swarmed the skies and licked at the edges of the light like some abyssal entity had been birthed into the world.

The outpost became a beacon; it was the only light that could pierce through the veil.

Just when it looked as if even that would vanish, the noise changed.

It grew deeper and deeper, louder and louder, growing waves upon waves upon waves into the resounding cry of a war horn.

That bubble of light pulsed with each wave, and the darkness sprang back and forth in a game of tug of war.

However, each time its energy seemed to wane, and its pressure diminished in intensity.

The stones on the earth shook, and the trees vibrated near us.

Without warning, the mirage swept back across the sky, and the full weight of the bottomless baritone bore down on my ears.

Windows shattered, the trees bent at unnatural angles, and a torrent of leaves and branches were torn away and kicked up into the sky.

I covered Rena's ear, prompting her to cover the other.

But it seemed for naught as we were bombarded by the gust of energy and thrown back across the ground, tumbling.

Feeling that they could pop out at any moment, I closed my eyes tight.

That's their counter? It's even worse!

However, the sound then vanished, and only a horribly sharp ringing remained.

I squinted my eyes open.

It's... gone...

The ground had cracked, houses had fallen apart, and older trees had shattered under the pressure of the shockwaves.

A muffled scream in the distance drew my gaze, and we both looked over on instinct.

Several people had climbed out of a collapsed cluster of homes.

Some were lying dead on the ground, and children clutched weakly to their parents while bleeding from their ears; none looked unscathed.

Startled, I turned to Rena, who'd cleverly wrapped herself with her wings when we flew back.

I began to breathe again and looked back to the Angel outpost still floating, untouched, in the sky.

Was that all really necessary?!