But the enemy didn't break.

The dragon unhinged its gargantuan jaw and simply swallowed Stella's blast of light as if it were a puff of warm air. It glared down at the goddess, who now barely had the strength to keep her wings beating. The creature opened its mouth again and expelled the exact same energy right back at her... only now it was far more destructive, corrupted by hellish black flames.

Stella thrust her hands forward, and a thick barrier of light sprang up to intercept the corrupted beam. Faced with such overwhelming force, the barrier shattered into fragments the second it made contact, forcing Stella to dive out of the way to avoid being incinerated.

However, the attack kept going... The beam of pure destruction was hurtling in a straight line, right toward me and Ahria.

I tried to stand and drag her with me. But my grip on the healing essence was so clumsy that I had burned through absurd amounts of energy just to seal her wounds. My legs buckled, refusing to hold my own weight.

"Neiva!" Yae screamed.

She moved in a blur of purple, trailing static electricity and pink petals, crossing the square in the blink of an eye and planting herself like a statue in front of me.

Yae thrust both arms forward. With a furious, urgent cry, a dense shield of lightning woven with petals erupted before us. She anchored her feet into the stone, bracing for the lethal impact.

The blast of black fire slammed into the wall of lightning.

Yae screamed under the crushing pressure of the counterattack. She strained so hard to hold the line that the veins across her body bulged, painfully visible beneath her skin. Her long pink hair whipped wildly in the air, charged with static from the sheer volume of Essence she was burning through. The effort was so immense that at the base of her spine, a second tail of pure energy materialized out of nowhere. From her forehead, two pairs of horns as dark as night sprouted, curving into a lethal, wicked length.

Her screams were no longer just from exertion; it was Yae sacrificing every last drop of her life to protect us. It was a sight I had never witnessed in all our centuries together. That fierce, unrelenting woman... was a true Primordial.

Just when it seemed her strength would snap under the weight of the corrupted flames, Yae dug deep into her willpower. With a final, soul-chilling scream, she threw her arms wide in a violent swing.

The electrical force violently expanded, ripping the beam of black fire straight down the middle and deflecting the destruction off to the sides of the square.

"There you are, Primordial," the dragon commented, landing a few dozen yards away, clearly intrigued. "That is, indeed, a power worthy of my recognition. But... it is still not enough of a challenge."

Yae's breath hitched. Her hair lost its spark, falling lifelessly over her shoulders. The horns jutting from her head slowly retracted, sinking back into her skull, and her energy tails dissolved into purple smoke. She was completely drained. Her body swayed, and she hit the stone floor hard, collapsing face-first.

"Yae! Yae!" I screamed, frozen between my friend's body and my fallen sister, torn over who to help first.

"Keep... healing Ahria... I'll be fine," Yae mumbled, lying motionless before her eyes rolled shut and she passed out completely.

A dry crash echoed to our right.

I turned my head and saw Stella brutally smashed into one of the remaining walls of the Ascending Cloud. The dragon had swatted her out of the air, hurling her body into the marble like a harmless insect. Her pristine dress was shredded. She was covered in blood and entirely unresponsive.

My body started trembling uncontrollably. My breathing grew erratic, and the fragile connection I had forged with my water magic shattered under the weight of my panic.

The dragon landed and took two colossal steps closer, its scaly shadow completely eclipsing my huddled form. Its eyes revealed a hollow, fleeting amusement.

"You Ts’kaveh believe yourselves powerful enough to dictate the laws of a world that doesn't even belong to you... but face true cosmic authority, and you kneel. You tremble before death. That is the absolute truth of this universe. You are nothing but 'immortal' copies of what is fragile and mortal. Because even the concept of infinity becomes fleeting when it crosses our path. And you are no exception. Your life ends here."

I tried to speak, tried to force out a defiant response, but the words choked in my throat. My body refused to obey any instinct other than sheer terror. I knew what was coming. What it had done to the warrior goddesses, it would now do to me. I was next, and I couldn't even lift an arm to fight back.

"I will grant you an end honorable enough for your legacy. You will be my next meal. You will have the ultimate privilege of giving your power some use inside my stomach," the beast promised, parting its monstrous lips into a predatory smile that offered nothing but oblivion.

It unhinged its jaw to prepare the exact same attack it had used against Ahria. A pulsing sphere materialized, and massive sparks began swirling around the magic, throwing off heat that blistered my cheeks.

Suddenly, the sky above us ripped open with an explosive boom of light.

A massive spectral sword, forged from pure white light, plummeted from the heavens. It slammed violently into the ground, forcing the dragon to recoil and cancel its spell immediately.

"You fought well, Primordials. Now, rest," a resonant, authoritative voice said, coming from right behind me.

As I tried to twist my body on the ground to see who had cast that blade from the sky and who had just spoken, the toll of recklessly burning my Essence finally hit me. My body surrendered to an irresistible weakness. I felt my eyes grow heavy and slip shut, my vision swallowed by an absolute void. My magic failed completely, abandoning me to the dark.

I blacked out.