Tale of Vanguard

Serephira stood over Gravis who was bleeding from her slash. She narrowed her eyes to him

"What's your purpose here?"

Wincing through the pain, Gravis let out a chuckle.

"Always with the same damn question."

Suddenly, Serephira spotted Headmaster Veridicus who was covered in blood approaching them. Confusion filled her head as she realized—he was also a Veridonian, wasn't he? Did that make him an enemy?

With a smile, Veridicus casually tossed a vial of red liquid toward her.

"Catch."

Serephira's instinct took over as she leaped away just as the vial exploded where she'd been standing moments before.

Madam Nyx approached Serephira. She then glanced at the Headmaster, giving him a voice that was laced with disdain.

"I never thought that a world-renowned Seeker like you would stoop so low, Veridicus. Degrading yourself with such treachery."

Veridicus turned his gaze to Madam Nyx, giving her a narrowed looks. For a moment, he remained silent before he shifts his attention to Gravis, who was severely injured on the ground.

"Looks like you've failed your task, Gravis"

Gravis clicked his tongue in annoyance with a frustration that was evident as he glared at the ground. Still wincing from his injuries, he glanced at Kaelen who knelt motionless on the ground.

"That boy... he has it"

Hearing Gravis' remark, Veridicus' eyes glinted with intrigue as he looked at Kaelen.

"A strayer in this world, huh?"

He mused with a tone that was almost dismissive but carried a faint of curiosity.

Hearing them talked about Kaelen, Serephira quickly rushed to his side without a second thought, protecting his defenseless state.

Veridicus watched her with a cruel smile until his laughter ringed out, he then taunted her.

"Do you even know what you've got there, Princess?"

With a calm demeanor, Madam Nyx stepped forward and spoke up to him:

"I see now... the boy, he possesses a Dissonance"

Veridicus' expression turned to a genuine admiration.

"I didn't expect someone from this world to be aware of it."

"I thought it was just a myth..."

Serephira was clueless about the conversation they were having. Something about a Dissonance?—that is inside of Kaelen?

Veridicus' voice cut through the air, with a dark tone, he addressed to them:

"A Nihil Dissonance..." 

His gaze was fixed on Kaelen with a sinister delight.

"An absence inside of him, a weight that presses onto his soul. All of you are familliar with the concept of an Astral resonance, a delicate attunement to aetheric energy, to the stars and the heaven above. They draw upon celestial harmony, weaving their powers from the energy that dances between worlds."

He stepped forward with each of his movement making the ground beneath his feet to cracked and crumbled.

"But They do not dance with the stars, nor do they sing their songs or draw on their feeble energy. A Dissonance is not a connection, but a separation. It is not a harmony, but a discord. They are not attuned to what is; They are bound to what is not"

Serephira points her rapier towards Veridicus, who was slowly approaching her and Kaelen who was behind her. He stop in his track before he continues:

"While the Resonants cling to the spark of creation, They embrace the nothingness that lies between. The space where no light reaches, where no energy dares to flow. You see, while others seek to resonate, They seek to disrupt. In this world of noises and lights, They bring the ultimate truth—Nihility."

Veridicus raised his hand to the sky, causing Madam Nyx and Serephira to tense in caution. His voiced echoed through them for the last time.

"You may seek power in the stars. But in the end... everything fades into nothing."

With a decisive motion, he casted a grey flare toward the capital's sky that streaked upward with its dim and foreboding light. Without missing a beat, he conjured a rift beside him that pulsated with an unsettling energy, opening a gateway to an unknown void. Gravis, who was still wounded, approaches the rift and entered it until his existence was gone.

Veridicus cast one last look to Serephira and the boy behind her with a satisfied and cold mask. 

"Till we meet again."

Madam Nyx acted swiftly and immediately summoned her shadow arms towards the rift, but it was too late as both Veridicus and the rift existence has vanished.

The battlefield fell into complete silent, with only the sound of the distant echoes of the chaos that was left behind.

***

In the midst of their fierce battle, Thane and Bastia suddenly noticed a grey flare streak across the sky above the capital. The flare's ominous light cast a pall over the city, causing both of them to paused with their eyes drawn upward.

Loria and Zephyr also saw the flare with their expressions turning into a recognition of it. Loria's gaze hardened as she whispered

"It's done."

She immediately weaves an intricate patterns of illusion around herself and Zephyr, making the air around them to shimmered with her power. It then creates a faint energy that cloaked them from sight. The illusion deepened, distorting reality around them until their forms became indistinguishable from the surroundings.

"Hey, Wait!"

Bastia called out to them, but the two figures were no longer visible. Loria's illusion held strong, leaving no trace of their departure as they vanished into thin air with their escape that has been concealed by her power.

After confirming their retreats, Thane collapsed to the ground with his claymore slipping from his grasp. He lay there, struggling to catch his own breath as his chest was heaving each time he inhaled.

Noticing his condition, Bastia approached him with a slight concern.

"Hey, you okay?"

Thane looked up at her while forcing a weary smile

"Yeah... yeah, just needed to catch my breath, maybe."

He look at the princess' form, standing tall and strong despite the clear damage she had sustained on her body. With a faint chuckle, he added:

"You're a monster, you know that?"

Bastia raised an eyebrow with a smirk playing at her lips.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to a lady, you know"