Thud!

Ophis slowly put the unconscious Raphael on the ground, leaning her on the wall as she glanced back, seeing the collapsing of buildings had stopped… she looked in the direction to see if Fallen Camazotz was still there, but to her disappointment, no, he seemed to have disappeared for some reason.

"Tsk." She clicked her tongue as she turned her focus to the sky, where the blue energy beam was still pouring into the sky and moving.

Suddenly,

Grrllll!

A guttural, animal sound rattled from her core. Pain stabbed through her belly. She doubled over, "No… Not now," Ophis whispered, clenching her stomach, feeling intense pain in her stomach. Her pink eyes glowed as she crouched down in the middle of the ground. The pain was a growling pain, as if she had not eaten for years or something. Her fangs protruded fiercely, dripping with saliva as her throat turned wet and hungry.

"Arrh!" She groaned, feeling a deep, shit hunger. She wanted food… She needed blood!

Her eyes instantly turned to Raphael. With dripping saliva, she walked towards Raphael and stared at her neck, those veins pulsing under her skin. Ophis gulped her wet throat as she parted her lips, ready to plunge her teeth into Raphael's neck.

Her saliva dripped on Raphael's neck.

So hungry!

So much pain!

Yet…

"N-NO!"

A painful voice came from Ophis's mouth as if something was trying to stop herself from doing this. Ophis's hungry eyes flinched before blinking as she stared at Raphael one last time before lying on her as she closed her eyes.

"Don't worry, big sister."

She muttered as her once elegant and curvy body started to shrink… like as if time itself reversed for her only, as she returned to… small, cute Ophis lying on Raphael's lap.

The hunger faded, replaced by exhaustion.

Both of them turned unconscious and stayed still, and if any enemies saw them now, they could easily kill them off, that vulnerable they were!

If Leo knew this, he would surely give them an earful of words to make them realise what they were doing in the middle of a war.

Clang…

A metallic boot scratched on the ruined asphalt as... Fallen Pride appeared. Her cold eyes stared at the end of the ruined street before walking forward. As she got past Raphael and Ophis's vulnerable position, she barely glanced at them, as if she didn't even care to kill them off using this chance, just moved forward… to find what made the Darkness Energy scared off!

Meanwhile,

A mass of shadow, darker than night itself, slid through the city streets, swallowing light as it moved. Wherever it went, the world changed... walls cracked, neon signs shattered and guttered, windows webbed with fractures. Once, these streets had buzzed with light and sound; now, only ruin remained where the void passed.

It was as if something was unfolding within that living shadow, but no eyes could catch the truth. Anyone staring into the black would see nothing—no shapes or faces, only endless night.

As it was moving faster between streets as it was moving randomly or… literally searching for something.

Then, as it turned into another street... a horde of black, sticky humanoid monsters.

These monsters groaned and moaned, moving without purpose, their voices echoing through the empty street. But now they paused, every head snapping toward the wall of darkness.

They sensed it!

For a moment, the horde quivered, moans growing sharper, panicked. Suddenly, as if an unspoken order had passed among them, they began to scatter—turning away, fleeing with jerky, frantic movements.

Are they scared?

Were they… afraid? Even these twisted, mindless things knew fear, it seemed.

What the heck?

The creatures' moans became wails, a chorus of terror as they rushed down the shattered road, scrambling over one another to escape. Their sticky forms stretched and snapped, black sludge trailing behind them.

They were fleeing the darkness as if it were the only thing in existence that could end them for good.

The Darkness instantly moved towards them… even faster than before, as if it saw what it had been searching all this time or something.

The monsters shrieked, flailing faster, sliding and oozing in their mad rush.

The darkness pressed closer, nearly overtaking them as they reached a broken intersection. For the first time, the horde split—some darting left, others right, the rest lunging forward.

The void followed the central group, ignoring the others. The monsters' faces twisted in horror, their shrieks bouncing off the ruined buildings.

In a moment, the darkness swallowed them whole. It was almost absurd—these monsters, terrified, as the void consumed them in mere seconds.

And in the next second, it moved forward, revealing devastation: shattered pavement, buckled street lamps, windows punched through with nothingness and...

Bodies of humans?

Across the ruined asphalt were bodies.... dozens of human shapes slumped together as if something puked it out.

Only the bodies of humans remained, nearly a hundred, sprawled on the ground, their skin and clothes soaked in a strange, thick, transparent fluid that glistened like oil under the city lights.

Not only that, their bodies were covered in old wounds like deep claw marks slashed through flesh and bone as if a bat monster attacked them, and some bodies bore puncture wounds at the neck, their skin pale and empty, as if all blood had been drawn out... as if a weird blood sucking monster sucked them completely and… Others were missing limbs entirely, bitten or torn away as if something big munched them off.

As the bodies were nothing but motionless and dead when,

Cough, Cough

A cough, someone gasping under the heap of corpses.

From beneath the pile, a figure struggled upright, coated in the strange fluid.

"W-Where am I—FUCK!" he screamed when he saw the pile of dead bodies. Not only him, but a few others, covered in saliva and small old wounds, stood up with confused and horrified expressions.

"W-What's going on here?"

"Where are we?"

"W-What are these dead bodies?"

"M-MOMMY!"

Their voices trembled, each face pale with terror. Some staggered to their feet, hands shaking, eyes darting between the corpses and the ruined city around them.

Suddenly, they saw the building begin to shudder, bricks groaning overhead. Before they could run for their lives,

"HELP ME—!"

Thud!

"Huh?" The woman blinked, dazed, as she found herself standing on a bridge.

Not only her, but the others too looking around in disbelief. One by one, they realised they were all standing on the bridge.

"Am I losing my mind?"

But as they looked over the edge, they still saw those dead bodies, sprawled across the ground below.

"OH MY GOD—"

Before panic could set in again, a police officer stepped in front of them, his face expressionless,

"Everyone, calm down. It's just a dream," he said.

Without waiting for their reaction, he snapped his fingers at his subordinates. The officers moved in, swift and silent, cuffing the trembling survivors and pressing needles into their necks... sedatives hissing.

Eyes grew heavy, and Limbs sagged. Each victim slumped to the ground, unconscious. The officers carried them, one by one, to waiting ambulances.

The police officer lingered, staring at the dead bodies with a blank, cold stare. He glanced up at those still alive as they were loaded into the ambulances.

The entire road was blocked. Only ambulances and his team were allowed inside. Yellow warning tape wrapped around the bridge, fluttering in the breeze. Above, a helicopter circled, as if waiting for orders from this single, unmoving officer.

He sighed, the sound almost lost in the wind. "So many lives… May you rest in peace," he murmured softly, waving a hand as another team began collecting the dead.

Meanwhile, he turned to the railing and stared out at the spectacle unfolding before him... something magical, impossible, happening in real time.

The once-destroyed province, scorched and dead, now glowed furiously with lights. Buildings twisted and fell like dominoes, beautiful and terrible all at once.

His eyes drifted up to the sky, where a blue beam was being shot up from the ground. If one looked carefully, the beam wasn't just a pillar... it was moving, almost as if it was drawing something across the clouds.

Meanwhile,

Step… Step…

"Azrael?" Valra's voice echoed as she stepped into the ruined street... nothing left but craters, shattered black chains, broken buildings, and flickering lights.

Just what happened here? She wondered.

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