It didn't work completely. She was too powerful, her existence too firmly anchored.

But it created a moment of disorientation. A fraction of a second where she questioned her own position.

The Transcendents used it.

Casmir created a spatial distortion beneath them and they fell through several platform levels simultaneously, bypassing the entire section where Thalassa blocked their path. They emerged four levels lower, momentum maintained, still plunging downward.

Deacon gasped, coughing a spray of blood into the rushing air. That Truth manipulation had cost him dearly.

"I can't do that again," he wheezed painfully. "Not against a being like her."

"You won't have to!" Finn shouted over the wind. "We should be close—!"

His words were cut mid-sentence as a templar suddenly blurred into his peripheral vision, clinging to the walls as they plummeted past. Then more appeared below, crouched on platforms as they passed by.

Tsk. Finn hissed. They had been lying in wait, staggered throughout the descent simply to slow them down. If it were just a few templars, it would be a non-issue, but with the numbers Finn could see — at least a hundred — he knew they might achieve their objective.

He immediately prepared himself to unleash Invalidation wantonly, but before he could even do anything, Yara charged ahead of the group.

She dove into the throng of Templars, her Resilience concept making her mass immovable — a human meteor. The first templar tried to block her; he shattered on impact, exploding into a mess of gore and shredded metal armor.

​A second templar swung a golden sword. The blade struck Yara's shoulder and bounced off without leaving a mark, her Resilience making her impervious to anything short of overwhelming divine authority. She plowed through every templar in her path through sheer kinetic force, all while Ailin's unconscious form remained secured to her back.

The rest of the Transcendents followed in her wake, using the opening she'd created.

Above and behind, Himothy was still trading blows with Nocturne. Finn caught glimpses of their fight. Lightning against shadow, Glory against divinity.

Himothy succeeded in stalling Nocturne's chase, but he took a massive hit that sent him hurtling several levels below. He used that momentum to break away, launching himself into a stabilized freefall after the group.

​Nocturne snarled at Himothy's retreating figure before dissolving into shadow to give chase. Thalassa followed, even more incensed than the Shadow divine at the Transcendents who had slipped through her grasp.

The pit continued descending. Four hundred feet deep. Five hundred.

"There!" Casmir shouted, pointing at the bottom.

Finn spotted it before Casmir even called out.

The breach.

It looked totally different from the one on their own world. Unlike the large World Tear, this was much smaller. More... refined. A perfectly circular opening in reality, with edges sharp as razorblades, emitting no light but somehow visible anyway.

"Casmir, start doing your thing!" Thalia barked.

"On it!" Casmir was already emanating spatial vibrations, trying to resonate with the breach to open it up for a direct entry to their world.

Are we actually going to make it… so easily? Finn thought darkly as the breach drew nearer.

A part of him feared for the worst now that they were at these final moments… now that the finish line was within sight.

Something will go wrong…

Finn hadn't finished the thought when a scream tore through the air from above.

His head snapped around just in time to see Tavian falling in an uncontrolled plummet. Dead.

Nocturne had reached him first and tore a hole in his chest with a shadow-bladed attack.

"TAVIAN!" Yara shouted.

The sight made the group hesitate, nearly stopping their descent despite agreeing not to do just that.

Saying it and seeing it happen before your own eyes were two different things.

Finn felt himself instinctively try to stop his fall and land on a platform to retaliate in indignation. And he hadn't even known Tavian too well.

He was able to stop that reflexive anger and continue onwards, but two other Transcendents had a harder time doing the same.

Yara, who had called out Tavian's name. And Himothy, who was closest to Tavian when Nocturne's attack hit. Yara's cry was understandable, she knew Tavian better than most others here. But Himothy's indignation was purely from seeing a companion die before his eyes.

They made to move, but Thalia's roar stopped them from doing anything rash.

"Stop and act now, and you might never leave here ever again! Yara! Don't forget your promise to keep Ailin safe!"

Her words seemed heartless, but the deep emotion behind her voice — the fury, the indignation, the pain and guilt, made Yara and Himothy, along with every other Transcendent, know that she felt the same way as them, but chose to continue onwards regardless.

It was that emotion-thick voice that made Yara close her eyes and continue falling along with the others. Himothy also gritted his teeth and did the same, staring forward resolutely.

Their collective unhesitation made Nocturne and Thalassa pause mid-pursuit, surprised.

"They didn't even try to save him," Thalassa said with something like respect in her voice.

"How resolute," Nocturne murmured, watching them as they neared the breach. "They are certain of escaping…"

"Which means they know how to breach that anomaly…" Thalassa finished the train of thought. Her eyes found Finn specifically, and she licked her lips with a dark grin on her face.

"Let's stop them now, shall we?"

Both divine beings surged forward with renewed intensity, no longer holding back. The speed with which they moved suggested all they had been doing before was a play.

Within a split second, they both appeared at the bottom, just as the Transcendents landed in scattered formation.

"No more running," Thalassa said simply, and immediately attacked. This time with intention to kill.

Her lightning spear multiplied into seven copies, each one carrying enough power to level a city block. They launched simultaneously from different angles, creating a cage of destruction moving at near-imperceptible speeds.

But somehow, the Transcendents were still able to react.

Himothy roared, meeting the first spear head-on. "Glory Declaration: I Cannot Fall!"

The spear struck him square in the chest and stopped.

Thalia's Order imposed structure on three spears, forcing them into predictable trajectories that the group could dodge.

Finn activated [Invalid] on the fourth, making the divine certainty that it would hit, fail. The spear veered wildly off course.

Casmir created spatial distortions around the fifth and sixth, channeling their path to another direction.

In a split second of quick reactions, Thalassa's attack was negated entirely.

But not without cost. The abruptness of the attack had driven the Transcendents further away from the breach.

And before they could even think, Nocturne moved next, phasing like liquid shadow, appearing behind Yara. Nocturne had quickly identified her as a weak point, seeing as everyone tried to protect her subtly because of Ailin, who was strapped to her back.

His shadow-blade manifested silently, aiming directly for Ailin's exposed swollen head.

"Truth: Your blade is not real!" Deacon roared, learning from his last Truth declaration and directing his intent at the blade itself.

The weapon flickered, half-real for a crucial moment, before phasing through Ailin's body harmlessly.

Nocturne's eyes widened. "What sorcery—"

He didn't finish his statement when Yara spun with impossible speed and caught him in the ribs with her Resilience-enhanced fist. The impact sounded like a thunderclap, sending the divine being sliding backward.

The Transcendents regrouped, forming a defensive cluster with Yara and Ailin at the center.

They were all breathing hard now. All showing signs of strain.

But they were fighting. Holding their ground against the two divine beings through sheer coordinated effort.

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