‘I guess that’s what drove the monsters away. What sin does the world have to commit to anger the four suns?’ Syllis thought indifferently.

Syllis had been in stressful situations many times before, due to her years on the outer ring of Asanoch. There was not an event so catastrophic, but she did not have the time to ogle or get flustered.

Two ephemeral crows cried out as they gently flew down to the ground from above. They had emerged from two equally as ethereally terrifying tears in space. Green flames flickered from their flesh-dripping bones.

“Everybody, get on!” Aura yelled, watching to make sure everyone got on.

“Let me get on first!” Clyde spoke to Syllis. Emergency rang out in his voice.

Syllis and Clyde hurriedly got onto their crow. Clyde sat in front, grabbing onto a couple of extended bones as though they were a pair of reigns, or perhaps a set of chains, binding this fiend.

“Do you really think your horse riding knowledge applies here?” Syllis furrowed her brows slightly, scrutinizing Clyde’s optimistic belief.

“Does it matter? We both lack any training in riding these abominations, or am I mistaken?” Clyde’s voice was laced with a passive-aggressiveness.

Syllis had still not gotten used to this aspect of Clyde. He was usually lighthearted, even during their spars.

‘To see him so panicked and manic… It’s almost disappointing.’ Syllis frowned slightly before looking around, confused at their lack of movement.

Aura turned around, grabbing Korman. He was entranced, mesmerized by the four suns.

“Wake up!” Aura screeched, causing Korman to jolt.

Korman’s mouth quivered slightly at the pull back to reality, he reluctantly turned away from the suns and towards Aura.

“Get on…” Aura’s voice trailed out, she had wanted to say a lot more than this, but that could wait.

Once Korman and Aura got onto their matching, ephemeral crow, they set off. Syllis wrapped her arms around Clyde’s waist and Korman did the same to Aura’s.

Syllis turned around to see the sun’s torturing of the sky. Searing pain, all over the purple sky. The flickering white flames that voraciously swallowed this sky had no compassion. The brief tips of the flames that withered away before catching flame again almost looked like tears. The sky was crying.

Korman’s face looked dejected, and somewhat out of place. He did not look horrified, or like he regretted his actions. It seemed like he had no clue how to feel.

‘Is this emotional shutdown? Is Korman in shock already? The fable has only started…’ Syllis smiled in a self-deprecating manner.

The secare nymph had not chosen to enter this fable rift, she had advised against it. In the end she had been essentially blackmailed into following her friends inside. She had accepted the contract to enter into Clyde’s first fable with him under the guarantee that there would be adequate preparations, this had been a clause in the contract.

Syllis would have been completely in her rights to remain outside of the fable, but the upper class had ways of suppressing a nymph with no reputation.

The slightest bit of recognition she had was her attitude, that of a crazed battle maniac that would do anything in a fight. This personality was not the sign of a trustworthy person, Clark would have been able to use this and have Syllis incriminated.

The burning sky hollered, crying out in a symphony of crackling and sizzling. It was like the sky was crying out for help, but they could not heed its call. They could not save the sky, only use it as a warning.

“Syllis, how close is it?” Aura inquired calmly.

It was strange, Aura was usually hot-headed, needing Korman to reel her back. Her strengths did not lie in people. So it was peculiar for her to be so calm in this situation.

Syllis noted this and tried to measure the distance of the four suns’ wrath. It was difficult to pinpoint, there were several factors for this.

The first was the sheer distance between the suns and Syllis, which was incredibly far. This was easily discernible by just how long the flames had taken to cast the sky aflame. The suns had been in line of sight with the sky for—what Syllis assumed to be at least—several hours, based on how slowly the bottom of the four suns have moved. The distance was hardly noticeable.

The second was the amount of flames and the lack of differing color. All of the lines of flames that spread across the sky were nearly pure white with some slight red coloration near the tips. This made it incredibly difficult to understand which flames were closer and which were further while they were constantly overlapping each other.

The last reason was that these flames were high up, spreading across the sky while they had just started spreading downwards.

Syllis’ eyes followed the strings of flame, her eyes moved upwards as they got closer to herself.

“Somewhere around twenty to fifty kilometers most likely.” Syllis gave Aura her incredibly rough estimate.

“That’s not the greatest.” Aura held back her urge to laugh at their scenario.

“Alright, Syllis. You’re going to have to speed us up.” Clyde spoke directly, withholding his aggressive tone this time.

Syllis nodded, despite Clyde’s inability to see her.

Aura opened a series of tiny rifts in front of the two crows. Small, ephemeral maggots emerged from them and stuck together with the crows’ feet, forming a sort of shoe.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Syllis focused intently, pushing out any outside influence. She distanced herself mentally from the burning sky and her hatred of Clyde. Conjuring ice in front of them was a uniquely challenging problem, but Syllis had solved harder problems.

A faint line of ice appeared a hundred meters away, it glimmered as it was propelled towards the feet of both crows.

In a split second, their speed almost tripled. They had gone from the jarring ride atop the incredibly fast crows pushing off of the ground, to a calmer, more serene experience of resting atop the crows that gracefully glid across the sheets of ice.

That was until they reached the end of the currents sheet. The crows had nearly lost balance multiple times, transitioning to Syllis’ next sheet, which only took a maximum of five seconds.

It was difficult for Syllis to form a single continuous sheet. Instead, she opted for multiple sheets which allowed her to manifest them more easily, as well as make them even to glide on.

Syllis noted in her mind that this was an area she needed to improve on. It was not the highest necessity though, her sheets of ice gradually improved the more dire their scenario became.

The flames grew louder and more volatile the closer they got to Syllis and her companions. They sounded voracious and hungry as crackling sounded. The tips of the partially red, white flames flickered as if they were reaching out towards prey that continuously stayed just out of reach.

“How close!?” Aura yelled at Syllis, her voice finally exuding her natural hot-headed quality.

Syllis did not need much time to calculate the distance. Conjuring her sheets of ice became more refined the more she made them and allowed her more time to focus on their surroundings. She had long known how close the flames were.

“Within five kilometers!” Syllis’ voice exuded the same panic that Clyde’s and Aura’s held.

Korman remained silent, like a traumatized child in the center of a battlefield. He even reached to cover his ears a couple of times, only pulling back out of fear of falling off, at which point he would latch back around Aura’s waist.

“Crap, there’s no cover anywhere!” Clyde’s voice was the most rushed out of all of theirs. It was unclear whether he thought his decision to be a mistake or was on the path to accepting their fate.

“Keep pushing ahead!” Syllis yelled, frantically thinking of a solution as the flames neared one kilometer of them.

Syllis’ breath seethed through her teeth as she turned her head towards the absentminded boy behind Aura. “Korman.”

He did not respond, his head remained fixed on the back of Aura’s beautiful, long and pin-straight black hair.

“Korman!” Syllis hollered, causing the man to look at her wide eyes. “That’s better, you got any mutations that can hold one thousand pounds of ice?”

The secare nymph spoke with a crazed smile.

‘This is the act of a lunatic, trying to fight the sun! Though, what can I do when sanity only gets me so far? It is only insanity that will allow me to remain sane in the future.’

Korman manifested an entire set of bulky, fur-covered arms. He had not revealed them to anyone before. They looked like arms that were ripped from a titan and hidden away for a thousand years.

‘That will do…’ Syllis praised Korman inwardly as she began conjuring the massive shield of ice.

In reality, she was not fighting the sun, but staving off the flames. Yes, fire melted ice, but it took time to do so. These flames were voracious and all-consuming, melting even the very sky and leaving behind discolored burns. Though, who was to say Syllis’ ice was not equally as tenacious? It was a gift given to her by a god after all, whether she wanted it or not.

Gradually, ice built outwards from a small point in the sky. As the flames approached three hundred meters, Syllis’ shield had been entirely built. It extended upwards and covered the overtop and behind the two crows like a hood.

The crows had to be brought closer together to minimize the area Syllis needed to cover and Korman’s muscles strained. He grunted as he supported the titanic shield’s weight all on his own.

Syllis could only minimally help, she needed to focus on the sheets to maintain their speed. She could only help with the occasional ice pillar on her side to lessen the impact and give Korman a semblance of rest for but a moment.

The flames had crossed the threshold. They were now within twenty-five meters and began fighting against Syllis’ shield of ice. They immediately began piercing the dense shield as if it was not even an obstacle, only a distraction.

Syllis smiled crazily again as she seized the constructions of the ice sheets for the crows to glide across.

Clyde briefly looked back to see if something had happened, he then looked ahead again, a worried expression on his face.

Aura had not reacted. She was incredibly busy this entire time, it was only through gritted teeth that she could speak the few words she had. Piloting both crows simultaneously was massively taxing on her mind and while Clyde’s control over the left one could lessen the impact slightly, it was only enough to speak her few words.

Syllis focused the entirety of her energy into the shield. She quickly mended the holes each and every time the flames cut through.

They were engaged in a fierce battle of territory. What had more control wavered, it shifted from Syllis to the flames.

That was until her mind began hearing the whispers and her vision started to double.

‘Ahah! Damnit, I need some more time… This cannot be happening so quickly. Hah…’ Syllis cursed her weak mental strength, despite it being stronger than all of her companions.

The corruption spread, tickling a variety of different sectors of her brain. Coryzan tugged at her power, siphoning large amounts of her ability to produce ice.

“No! Give me more. I need more, I need it now!” Syllis cursed out the source of her twisted abilities.

Korman and Clyde looked at her in momentary shock, sharing worried glances before looking back ahead. Both of them had a job to do and could not worry about Syllis.

Aura was not faring any better. She had been muttering to herself for the last ten minutes and occasionally raising her voice.

‘Haha! This is bad, terrible, oh very terrible! Our combined mental strength is dwindling. We… W-we are going to die.’

The reparations being made to the shield of ice suddenly stopped allowing the flames to burst through as it fell to the ground, shattering.

It was unclear to the group whether Syllis herself had seized her bond or if the infection had rendered her unable to use it. There was only one thing that was clear, they were about to die.

Syllis herself knew this truth long before them. They were never going to beat the sun, let alone four, or live to tell the tale. Clyde had been the reason she was able to live, and he was also the death of her.

‘Curse you Clyde…’ Syllis thought inwardly as she chuckled outwardly. She had voluntarily dropped her shield of ice. There was at least five minutes longer that she could have used her bond, but it did not matter, she could not see a way out.

The way Syllis saw it, she might as well live her last moments with as much sanity as possible, to enjoy it to the fullest. Sure, she might feel more pain, unnumbered by the euphoric sensations of her mind being stolen from her. However, she would be able to reminisce.

As the flames gripped at their black coats, all four group members grit their teeth in agony, especially Syllis.

Syllis was almost certain that her bond gave her an inherent weakness to the heat, and her nymph lineage might have amplified this fact.

Every second was pure agony as the bottom of their coat and top of their hood became charred. The only reason they were still alive was they were only being harassed and burned by the tips of the flames.

Clyde turned around, fearing he would wait too long, he addressed everyone with a gripping sincerity.

“I’m sorry everyone, for killing you.”