Night poured down in sheets.

Rain lashed the jagged cliffside, running in rivulets over scorched rock and shattered roots. Neon collapsed beside S.A.B.R.E, his whole body slamming into the mud with a heavy, wet thud. His breath rasped through the helmet's cracked modulator, harsh and uneven, fogging the visor with each gasp.

His HUD flickered violently. Ghost-orange warnings scrolled across cracked glass:

Mana reserves depleted… Core temperature critical… Visual systems compromised.

He blinked, trying to clear the blur—but static danced across the visor like frostbite.

Everything pulsed with dim chaos—icons flickering, feedback hissing in his earpiece, breath clawing against the heat and fog.

Neon's gauntleted hand reached up—fumbling for the manual override.

Click. A hiss of decompression.

With a mechanical whirr, the segmented helmet unfolded—cracking along seams, retracting like a dying bloom. Rain struck his bare face—icy needles on burning skin. Blood crusted around his eyes and ears, cracked and dark with grime. As the rain intensified, it washed away the stains, mingling with sweat and pain.

His vision cleared, barely. Smoke, flame, and rain blurred the cliff into a hellscape of firelight and shadow.

Beside him, S.A.B.R.E twitched violently. Sparks sprayed from exposed joints, its limbs scrabbling at the mud. Its eyes dimmed—then flared again.

And behind them…

The Netherling lumbered forward.

---

Its body pulsed grotesquely, flesh knotting over shattered bone like hatred re-stitching muscle. It moved without rhythm, every step a defiance of death.

Neon stretched out his arm.

A faint spark flickered—then died.

Nothing. No mana.

The Netherling shrieked—metal splitting metal—and S.A.B.R.E launched.

One last desperate strike.

SNAP!

Metal jaws clamped down.

CRACK—CRUNCH.

The creature reared back with a roar. A jagged tooth tore free—ripped out mid-snarl. It spun through the stormy air, trailing dark ichor. It fell. Bounced. Vanished into a shallow puddle.

Neon tried to rise—his knees buckled. Phantom alarms screamed in his head—echoes from a dead HUD. He dropped to all fours, coughing violently. Blood splattered inside the helmet. His left arm hung numb.

The creature screamed again—closer now.

Neon's fingers clawed through mud, dragging himself inch by inch. Every breath burned. Every movement hurt.

His hand slipped—then found purchase. A root.

He dragged again.

Then saw it.

Through the ruin—the tooth. Half-submerged, glinting black.

Behind him: a snarl.

S.A.B.R.E hurled itself onto the beast’s face again—a suicide leap.

Neon lunged.

His gauntlet punched into the muck. Fingers closed on something sharp, dense, wrong.

Contact.

---

Everything stopped.

Inside the helmet—silence. Rain dulled to a whisper. Smoke hung in midair.

The glyphs came.

Cerulean. Flickering. Not from a spellbook—but older. Built into the world.

His pulse slowed. Synced with something ancient in the bone.

Not arcane. Not divine.

Alchemy.

One glyph surfaced. Resonant. Not learned—known.

His broken body trembled, but his hand moved.

No HUD. No audience.

Only him.

Only the glyph.

He traced it into the ichor-slick tooth with his gauntlet's finger. A line. A curve.

It ignited.

Azure fire spread like cracks in obsidian. The bone quivered. Folded. Reshaped.

A dagger.

Elegant. Brutal. Alive.

He rose—slow, staggering.

His armor hissed. Joints groaned. Hydraulics lifted him.

The glyph pulsed along the dagger’s edge—silent, steady.

No spells. No help.

Just the blade.

One chance.

---

The Netherling charged, roaring like thunder. Claws gouged furrows into soaked earth.

Neon braced.

Rain hammered his face—ice on fire. Streams washed blood from his eyes. His breath misted in the cold air. His muscles trembled—armor soaked in blood and mud.

He gripped the dagger. The glyph pulsed—blue, uneven, like a heartbeat.

Not elegant. Not balanced. But real.

"Please work..." he whispered.

The creature neared—towering, malformed. Bones cracked mid-sprint. Its soulless eyes locked on.

Neon slipped in the mud—sidestepped just in time. A claw slashed past.

He spun. Then plunged the dagger into its chest.

THUNK.

Resistance.

Then—

FLASH.

Cerulean fire erupted. Glyph-light carved through its ribcage like living veins.

The Netherling moaned—then screamed.

BOOM.

A shockwave blasted outward.

Black ichor sprayed, sizzling like acid.

The creature's torso collapsed. Eyes melted. Limbs convulsed.

Then—

it vanished.

No body. No bones.

Only smoke. Steam. And the stench of scorched rot.

Silence.

---

Neon stumbled. The dagger dropped.

His chest heaved.

S.A.B.R.E crawled forward—sparking. Its eye pulsed blue. It chirped—glitchy, almost a sigh.

Neon didn’t move.

He stared where the monster had stood.

Waiting.

But it didn’t return.

A tremor passed through him.

His arms dropped.

Tears spilled, mixing with rain and blood.

"...It’s dead."

A breathless pause.

"We actually did it."

A small, exhausted laugh.

Somewhere in the battered armor, a boy let himself believe the nightmare was over.

Neon and S.A.B.R.E stood in the rain, silhouetted on the cliff.

Below, the city burned.

Flames roared. Smoke billowed. Screams echoed faintly.

And in the far streets—

Netherlings prowled.

This was not the end.

Not yet.

But tonight, in the storm’s heart—

one nightmare had died.