The world split apart in light and shadow as Saphira's wings erupted in a tidal blaze, each feather a burning sigil that scoured the crawling darkness beneath her.

Raphaeline, wreathed in violet infernal fire, mirrored her from the opposite side, both of them descending upon Nyxaria like twin comets of flame and ruin.

And Nyxaria welcomed them.

The Corrupted Abyssal Monarch raised a hand. Threads of darkness, thin as spider silk, strong as creation's bones, shot outward in a fractal weave.

They caught the flames and the infernal light, splitting them into a thousand shards that cascaded harmlessly into the black void all around them.

Nyxaria's voice, melodic and fractured, echoed across that very void as she spoke, "The more things change, the more they stay the same. Still rushing in headfirst, Saphira. Still all heat, no grace."

Saphira's eyes burned like dying stars, "And you're still all talk, Nyx."

Once she finished speaking, Saphira vanished, and a split second later, the air exploded as she reappeared directly behind Nyxaria.

Her first was cloaked in golden flame as Saphira punched through the veil of shadow.

The blow struck true, or should have, but Nyxaria's body dissolved into mist. The world inverted around Saphira as a thousand black threads wrapped her limbs, hurling her into a spiraling descent through fractured space.

Raphaeline moved before she hit.

Her wings cleaved through the air, each beat sending crescents of demonic flame searing through the Abyss. "You always were the clever one, Nyx," she growled. "But you forget who sparred with you and taught you how to fight,"

The flames struck true, burning away Nyxaria's projection, and for a heartbeat, Raphaeline saw her. The real her.

Standing calmly amidst the chaos, her once-silver hair now a flowing cascade of dark mist. Her eyes, one silver, one void black, flickered with something like pain.

"Raph," Nyxaria said softly. "You shouldn't have come here."

"Don't you dare call me that," Raphaeline spat, voice trembling with rage and sorrow, "You, You sold your soul to them. To the Abyss!"

Nyxaria tilted her head, a sad smile curving her lips. "No, I simply… accepted what this world already was. I saw the truth. The Abyss doesn't destroy, it liberates."

"Liberates?" Saphira's voice boomed through the dimension as she tore free from the shadow threads, her aura flaring bright enough to turn the black sky gold, "You call this liberation? Look around you, Nyx! You've turned beauty into rot, dreams into madness!"

Nyxaria raised her arms, the shadows around her pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat. The entire realm seemed to breathe with her. "And yet, in this rot, there is peace. No pain. No struggle. The Abyss accepts all."

"Acceptance without will is just oblivion!" Raphaeline snapped, "You're nothing but a puppet now!"

For the first time, Nyxaria's expression hardened. "I am no one's puppet."

Nyxaria snapped her fingers, and the air fractured. Space tore open behind Saphira, vomiting forth chains of living shadow that lunged like serpents.

Raphaeline reacted instantly, forming a demonic circle beneath them and summoning spears of violet flame that ripped through the approaching tendrils.

But Nyxaria was already in motion.

Her form shimmered, splitting into multiple afterimages that darted across the battlefield, each releasing torrents of shadow-laced magic. Stars of corrupted light fell like meteors, forcing both women to dodge and counter.

Saphira spun through the chaos, her wings leaving trails of solar flame that burned through the darkness. "You've improved," she admitted grimly, deflecting a spear of void energy with a pulse of pure mana. "Back then, you could barely match either of us for five minutes."

"Back then," Nyxaria said, appearing behind her, voice like velvet laced with steel, "I was weak, I was a loser. Now with the Abyss, you're no match,"

A whisper of black light grazed Saphira's cheek. Her blood hissed on contact, glowing gold.

Raphaeline roared, unleashing her full infernal aura. The air cracked, runes of ancient Demon script spiraling outward as she launched forward, her palm striking Nyxaria's chest.

"Abyssal Detonation!"

The explosion was cataclysmic. A wave of violet fire consumed half the battlefield, sending molten fragments of corrupted space flying.

For a moment, just a moment, it looked as though they had won.

Then Nyxaria stepped out of the flames, her robes untouched, though her expression had darkened. The black veins running across her skin pulsed violently, spreading like cracks in a mirror.

"You always did have a temper," she said softly, raising her hand. "Let me show you what true despair looks like."

The entire dimension screamed.

Tendrils of darkness erupted from the ground, transforming into spectral figures, the twisted echoes of fallen beings. Elves, demons, angels, all long dead, now reborn as Abyssal wraiths. They surrounded the trio, their hollow eyes filled with grief and hatred.

Saphira clenched her teeth. "She's binding souls now? You've sunk even lower than I thought."

"They begged for release," Nyxaria whispered, her voice suddenly almost… tender. "I simply gave it to them."

"You killed them."

"I saved them."

Saphira's aura flared in fury, the heat of her power bending the air. "Then I'll save you, too, even if it means burning you out of existence!"

She dove.

Her wings folded, body streaking through the void like a comet. The ground shattered beneath her descent, and when she struck, the explosion illuminated the entire plane. Nyxaria's threads snapped under the force, and she was sent reeling backward, straight into Raphaeline's trap.

The Demon Princess was already chanting, her voice weaving through the flames, "By covenant of flame and void, Chain of Severance!"

Massive chains of violet energy shot upward, wrapping around Nyxaria's arms, torso, and neck. They glowed with infernal light, symbols of the old Demon Kings, spells designed to bind even the strongest beings.

Nyxaria screamed, her voice distorted into a dozen tones as the Abyss within her resisted.

"Hold her!" Raphaeline shouted.

"I'm trying!" Saphira shouted back, hands outstretched, flames reinforcing the bindings.

For a heartbeat, one trembling, fragile heartbeat, the Monarch was pinned. Then her silver eye opened fully.

The runes binding her disintegrated.

Saphira's pupils shrank. "That, That's impossible!"

Nyxaria's voice came like a whisper carried by the end of time itself. "You think the Abyss would allow such simple magic to chain one of its own?"

Her hand rose. The black sun above them flared, and then fell. A sphere of darkness, condensed and spinning, dropped from the sky, impacting the battlefield like a meteor.

The explosion threw everyone apart, Professors, allies, even the terrain itself collapsing under the weight of that power.

Saphira clawed her way out of the debris, coughing as blood ran down her chin. Her wings flickered. Raphaeline appeared beside her, battered, her horns cracked but her eyes still blazing.

Nyxaria hovered above them, shadow robes torn, hair drifting weightlessly in the void. Her smile had faded now, her face cold, distant, and tired.

"You two always were stronger than the rest," she said quietly. "That's why the Abyss wanted you."

Raphaeline spat blood. "You'll never have us."

"Oh, I don't need to," Nyxaria said softly. "All I need… is to make sure you can't protect the little ones, because we WILL have them,"

Her eyes flicked upward.

And through the tears in space above, faintly, terrifyingly faintly,  Saphira could feel the pulse of Albedo's battle in the mortal realm, the students' mana signatures flickering like candles in a storm.

Nyxaria smiled again, faint and cruel.

"The Abyss feeds on despair," she whispered. "Let's give it a feast."

Before either of them could move, her form dissolved into shadow, vanishing into the fabric of the dimension, her voice echoing all around them.

"Try to save them… if you can."

***

Meanwhile, back with Albedo and the others, things began to feel strangely silent. For the first time in what felt like hours, the relentless screaming of corrupted beasts… stopped.

The monstrous vines that had been thrashing against the fractured barricade froze mid-strike, their twisted bodies twitching as if caught between life and death.

Albedo's pulse hammered in his ears. His breath came in ragged bursts as he forced one last pulse of mana into the barrier's runic web. The recursive walls shimmered, held, then steadied, the entire dome glowing faintly with golden-blue light.

"...It's— it's working," Elara gasped, voice trembling, "They're… stopping?"

Miranda didn't answer. Her hands hovered above the central nexus of runes, eyes wide as she watched the battlefield go still. Only the distant crackle of mana storms and the scent of ozone lingered in the air.

Celeste's tail flicked once, tension still coiled like a spring. "No," she muttered darkly. "That's not how these things stop. Something's changing."

Albedo said nothing. His body felt like lead, mana burned, limbs aching, mind sharp despite the exhaustion. His Source Code still pulsed in his vision, runes shifting like a living algorithm, and yet… something was off.

His eyes flicked to the center of the field. The corrupted roots that once connected to the Monarch's buried core were now retracting, almost as if pulled by something deeper underground.

And then… a sound.

A low, harmonic hum rippled through the air, soft at first, almost imperceptible, until the world itself began to vibrate. The light warped. The sky bled into shadow and colorless light, twisting into a spiraling void.

Miranda stumbled back, clutching her head. "This frequency! It's not Abyssal… it's something else!"

"Something's hijacking the plane," Morgana whispered, shadows instinctively coiling around her as if seeking shelter.

The ground beneath them cracked, glowing with sigils none of them recognized.

"Brace yourselves, "Albedo said sharply, but he couldn't finish his sentence as a wave of energy tore through the battlefield.

Every rune, every shield, every thread of mana shuddered and dissolved as light swallowed them whole.

Elara screamed their names as the world folded inside out.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing.

Then,

Silence.

When sight returned, it was to a place that wasn't a place. A vast, endless expanse of shifting light and void , a realm suspended between dimensions. Fragments of shattered worlds floated in the distance like islands adrift in eternity.

Lucian blinked, disoriented, clutching his blade. "What… the hell is this?"

Morgana turned, her shadow magic warping strangely here, unstable. "This isn't the Abyss…"

Miranda touched the air, it rippled like liquid glass. "I can't anchor us. Every coordinate I try folds back on itself."

Celeste growled lowly, flames sparking across her arms. "Then we fight our way out."

But before she could move, a soft whisper slithered through the void, ancient, familiar, laced with both sorrow and malice.

"Welcome, children of light…"

The voice reverberated in their skulls, carried by a presence that chilled even Albedo's blood.

"We've been waiting for you."

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