"Ahria! Ahria!" I screamed, my vocal cords tearing through the smoke and despair.

"You're impossibly stubborn, you know that?" Yae said, grabbing my hand with a strained smile. "I'll help you... because the only thing worse than losing you is knowing I abandoned you first." A hot tear traced down her cheek—a face that had always been a mask of rigid confidence.

Love. That was my sister's love for me. The courage to face the end of the world just to stay by my side, even staring death in the face.

I was terrified. My legs felt like lead, each step demanding everything I had left. I didn't want to become dragon prey, crushed in their claws, but the thought of Ahria left behind, alone, because we weren't there when she needed us... that was the most horrifying vision of all. I couldn't bear living with the knowledge that she died alone, waiting for the comfort of someone she loved.

After fighting our way through the panicked crowd, we finally broke clear. Blood, fire, death, and absolute ruin... that was the new Hyperion.

"Ahria!" I screamed again, but my voice was swallowed by the fierce crackling of the fire.

Seeing the main square—the place where we used to gather in peace—reduced to ash and celestial blood, my legs finally gave out. I dropped to my knees on the shattered stone.

My eyes flooded with tears, my heart breaking under the crushing weight of fear. Who were we kidding? We wouldn't even be safe in our own homes. Chances are, our home was already a pile of rubble by now.

My chest ached with a grief much deeper than my body could express. My long blue hair spilled over my shoulders in heavy, tangled cascades.

"Neiva... remember how you used to talk about us entering the palace of Hyperion?" Yae confessed, kneeling in front of me, her own face streaked with tears. "For centuries, we never had the chance to make a difference. But today, when Hyperion truly needs us, we can give it our all. I thought that if I always protected you, you'd never have to see the ugliness of this world. But you were always so curious, weren't you? I thought I was teaching you something all these years, but in the end... you're the one who taught me how to be better. So, wipe those tears. Let's go find Ahria and protect our home."

She wiped my tears away with gentle fingers, her gaze incredibly warm. It was as if I could finally see the person hiding behind that imposing mask all this time.

"That's not fair. You're crying too," I laughed through my tears, reaching out to wipe the wetness from her cheeks.

"I know, I'm a hypocrite," she laughed, pulling herself up.

For that brief moment, the world around us seemed to stop. It wasn't a goodbye. It was a declaration of war against the invaders.

Yae offered me her hand. This time, no masks, no secrets. I took it. This time, I was going to protect my sister, my friends, and everyone I loved.

A wall collapsed next to us, kicking up a storm of cloud-dust at our feet.

Yae and I sprinted fearlessly through the blood-soaked streets. Dragons circled the skies, spewing jets of black flames across the city. They weren't just slaughtering; they were having fun, playing with the destruction. Some gods tried to fight back and defend the realm with everything they had, but they fell in vain, crushed by the sheer power of the beasts. Others died just looking for comfort and shelter. And, incredibly, the Greater Gods from Hyperion's palace still hadn't shown up. What were they doing? Planning a counterattack, or cowering behind their golden gates?

"Neiva! That's... Ahria!" Yae yelled, pointing desperately at a fallen, bloodied figure ahead of us.

Ahria lay sprawled on the ground, a deep gash tearing through her arm, severe burns covering her pale, fragile body. She looked at us and managed a weak, exhausted smile. The moment her white eyes fluttered shut, the colossal dragon hovering above slammed onto the ground right in front of her, unhinging its massive jaws.

A pulsing energy began to gather deep in the monster's throat. It warped into an incandescent sphere, swelling larger and larger, with particles of flame spiraling around it in a destructive vortex. The wind whipped up violently. The dragon spread its armored wings to brace for the recoil, and the air pressure became crushing.

The beast spat the sphere.

The ensuing explosion shattered the square, kicking up a dense curtain of dust and debris that forced me to shield my face. The shockwave leveled everything in its path. But the force of the blast wasn't the worst part; the worst part was seeing blood splatter across the ground from the blind impact. Ahria... was dead.

"Ahria..." I murmured, my voice breaking as I searched for her body through the thick dust.

Suddenly, the dust cleared completely, torn apart by a divine force, and a new figure revealed herself. An angelic being with long blonde hair and blinding wings...

It was... Stella!

She had scattered the debris with a beat of her light-wings, raising a luminous barrier to intercept the fireball before it could disintegrate Ahria.

"What would you do without me?" Stella asked, glancing over her shoulder with her typical confident arrogance.

"Stella!" Yae exclaimed, relief pouring from her voice.

The dragon recovered from the recoil of its canceled attack, raising its massive frame with a furious, imposing glare. Stella's barrier had only frustrated it, and now the beast was hungry.

"Ts’kaveh, believing dreams hold more power than true authority... No matter, little bird of light. I will make a feast out of you," the creature growled, its cavernous voice rattling the stone beneath our feet as it glared down at her.

"How dare you, you arrogant pile of scales?!" Stella shot back, a blinding aura of light erupting from her eyes. "I'll turn you to dust and let the wind take you!"

The dragon took flight, tearing through the skies and chasing Stella through the clouds of Hyperion. Stella flew against the wind current as fast as she could, furiously attacking a creature impossibly larger than her. The blasts of light she fired seemed to do nothing against its armored shell. The disproportionate size of the monster's wings allowed it to close the gap with every beat that shook the air itself.

"We can't just stand here and watch," Yae stated, her gaze fearless.

Yae closed her eyes. A long fox tail forged from purple energy materialized at the base of her spine. Sections of her pink hair came alive, rising to form two fox ears, while her pale eyes sparked with pure electricity. She wasn't just exuding an electrifying aura; she was gearing up to bend the thunder and raw energy currents to her will.

"Can you use your powers to heal Ahria?" Yae asked, never taking her eyes off the dragon hunting Stella high above.

"H-heal? I can barely use my powers to move a cup! Let alone heal someone's wounds!" I replied, panic clawing at my voice.

"I know you can do it, Neiva. I believe in you," she said, aiming her index finger at the dragon. "Now go!"

I sprinted toward Ahria's limp body. She had been thrown by the air pressure when Stella canceled the dragon's attack. I reached her, and the sight was horrifying. Deep lacerations covered her arms, torso, legs, and even her face. Her breathing was shallow, barely there. Ahria's skin wasn't cold like the wind currents she used to weave; it was cold with the direct, icy grip of death.

I dropped to my knees beside her, pressed both hands against her chest, and squeezed my eyes shut.

I tried to dive deep into my own essence. In the darkness of my mind, I managed to picture a small sphere of water. It was tiny, barely there, as if begging to be left alone. Just like me, it was afraid—insecure and retreating. I tried to bend it, to force it to flow as an extension of my will, but the sphere just wobbled side to side, as if telling me no.

I opened my eyes. The deafening crash of blows between Stella and the dragon ruled the skies. The storm around us had settled slightly. The clouds wept less because they were now under Yae's control. Lightning no longer struck at random; it lashed directly at the dragon. Yae was burning through her power to dominate Hyperion's atmosphere and force the thunderbolts down on the scaled beast.

They were all doing something useful... except me. I had to shake the fear off my back and try. Just try! And if it didn't work the first time, keep trying until it did. Ahria's life depended on it.

I closed my eyes again and focused. I begged the water to answer me, to accept me as part of it. I repeated the call. Over and over, forcing the energy outward, until a new sensation prickled at my fingertips.

When I opened my eyes, a soothing blue aura was radiating from my palms, with small ripples of water swirling around me. My water Mana—which healed simply by being near—was finally flowing. The wounds on Ahria's body slowly began to close, the tissue knitting together as if the cells had missed being whole.

"N... Neiva..." Ahria mumbled, her pale eyes fluttering open.

"Ahria, relax. Everything's going to be okay," I said, forcing my best smile to try and give her some comfort.

"Thank you for coming back..." she whispered. A small smile touched her lips before her eyes drifted shut again, yielding to exhaustion.

"Hang in there. We're here for you," I promised, brushing my friend's pale cheek.

I refocused intensely on healing her wounds. The sensation of channeling that energy felt liberating. It was calming and... complete. As if every gap in my soul had been filled while the healing magic rushed through my veins.

Above us, the spectacle was terrifying. All I could see was Stella's glowing silhouette dodging and battling the colossal entity. The dragon spewed jets of flame so dense I could feel the heat roasting my face all the way down on the ground. Every beat of the creature's wings felt like it was happening right next to my ear. I couldn't fathom the terror and the sheer weight of responsibility Stella must be feeling, facing down something so imposing. Her exhaustion was obvious; her movements of light had grown sluggish, her spells visibly weaker.

"Entertaining, you Ts’kaveh are. But it's a waste of potential in such a weak race," the dragon mocked, its voice booming as it cornered Stella.

"You won't be saying that when your wings stop beating!" she fired back.

Stella stopped dodging. Suspended in the air, she began channeling a pure solar charge. The sun finally broke through the moon's overlap in the sky, feeding the goddess. Her light-wings retracted for a split second, and her body erupted in an incandescent glare that felt like it could ignite the air itself. The sun illuminated that forgotten realm once more.

When Stella snapped her wings back open, a miniature projection of the sun itself flared to life behind her back. She threw her arms wide, and several golden runes began to spin around her. They formed a runic phrase: Burn by the Eternal Sun.

An immense blast of light was unleashed. The luminous impact was so staggering it leveled nearby buildings in the realm, kicked up debris, and knocked the grounded entities off their feet. Even Yae lost her balance from the atmospheric pressure, forced to halt her lightning assault.