[Realm: Uhorus]

[Location: Verdantis]

[Outskirts]

The wind howled across the snowfields with enough force to bend the sparse trees scattered across the distant hills, carrying frozen sheets of snow through the air in violent spirals. Visibility should have been poor. Any ordinary person would have struggled to navigate more than a few meters ahead.

General Mai continued forward regardless. Her martial arts sandals pressed deep into the snow with each step, the long half ao dai beneath her attire whipping violently behind her. Strands of violet hair lashed across her face, yet her gaze never once shifted. It remained fixed ahead.

The deeper she moved into the blizzard, the quieter the world became. There were no shrieks, clawing, or any maddened horde of Abyssal Creatures throwing themselves forward without thought.

Only the storm.

("Abyssal Creatures of this kind are considered the weakest entities within the deeper layers of the Abyss...") Mai mentally repeated the information to herself once more, not because she had forgotten it, but because repetition grounded her thoughts. ("Mindless, relentless, and disposable. They drown nations beneath numbers because individually they are insignificant.")

Her eyes shifted briefly toward the distant sky.

The tears overhead still pulsed through the blizzard, black cracks hanging above the world. Yet they looked weaker now. The dark liquid that had endlessly poured from them earlier had slowed to nearly nothing. Some merely twitched weakly in the heavens, as though exhausted.

("When fodder no longer suffices, the Abyss creates something else.")

Mai’s jaw tightened slightly.

She knew that pattern.

She remembered it far too well.

The memory clawed at the edges of her mind. A ruined nation with screaming soldiers and civilians. Something enormous moving through the haze while entire squads disappeared around it. She could still remember the smell more than anything else. Rot and blood.

The General exhaled slowly through her nose.

"No," she muttered quietly to herself. "Not now."

But memories did not disappear simply because they were inconvenient.

The storm thickened ahead of her. Snow swirled violently across the landscape, obscuring the hills and valleys beyond. Yet Mai could feel it now.

That foul energy, oppressive enough that even breathing felt slightly uncomfortable.

Her pace slowed.

The snow beneath her crunched softly as her hand clenched into a fist.

"There..." she whispered.

Against the endless white landscape, it stood out immediately, a blot of black in the snowstorm.

At first glance, it resembled a lone knight standing motionless in the blizzard. Towering and broad-shouldered.

But the longer Mai stared at it, the more wrong it became.

The armor was jagged, as though forged from countless layers of sharpened rock forced together without care for symmetry. Massive spiked pauldrons curved outward from its shoulders in monstrous protrusions. Heavy gauntlets hung at its sides, the fingers ending in claw-like points. Thick plates layered across its torso and legs, every inch of it pitch black.

It was not painted black, nor was it dark steel. This was black in the same way the tears were black.

Violet lines pulsed beneath the armor in geometric patterns, crawling across its body like veins, the designs shifted every few seconds, rearranging themselves into unfamiliar symbols before changing again.

And then there was the helmet, a massive helm with only a single narrow slit where eyes should have been.

Within that slit glowed a dim violet light.

Mai stopped completely.

The thing had not moved yet, it merely stood there amidst the storm.

Watching.

("Abyssal Creatures that manifest in response to strong resistance...") Mai’s fingers slowly tightened into a tighter fist. ("Abyssal Wardens.")

The title alone made her stomach twist slightly, most people had never seen one.

The Warden remained motionless for another moment before it turned toward her ever so slightly.

It was a minute movement, barely noticeable, yet within that small shift was recognition. The violet slit within its helmet narrowed, the geometric patterns crawling beneath its black armor pulsing with greater intensity as if responding to something gathering around General Mai.

Snow drifted violently around them.

The storm seemed hesitant to approach the space between them.

Mai inhaled slowly through her nose, steadying the rhythm of her breathing. Her stance shifted, her feet grinding softly against the snow as she lowered her left hand into an open palm near her waist while her right extended outward before her in the same manner.

("Ordinarily, killing the Abyssal Warden would end this.") Mai’s eyes remained fixed on the towering creature ahead of her. ("The surrounding Abyssal Creatures would scatter afterward... just like back then.")

Her brows furrowed faintly, the memory surfaced again without permission. To a battlefield drowned in blonde and darkness.

People screaming.

An Abyssal Creature stronger than the rest collapsing beneath overwhelming force before the remaining Abyssal Creatures fled into the darkness like startled vermin. That battle had felt catastrophic at the time, now it felt even worse.

("But this is different.") Her jaw tightened again. ("This is not a singular breach. This is not an isolated incursion.")

Her gaze turned upward briefly toward the tears hanging beyond the blizzard. The Abyss was no longer scratching at the walls of their world; it was tearing them open.

("Even if I kill this thing, all it will do is buy us time.") That realization settled heavily in her chest; she understood very well the scale of the disaster unfolding around them.

Thin strands of golden energy slowly began weaving around her body. It was faint and elegant, but impossibly dense. They curled around her arms and shoulders like threads of sunlight, the snowflakes drifting near her dissolved before they could touch her.

Then color appeared beneath her feet, a single patch of green. Tiny blades of grass pushed through the frozen earth below her, trembling softly before spreading outward in a slow circle. Life extended across the snow for several meters around her position, vibrant green in the endless white landscape.

The suddenness of it was almost unsettling, and the Abyssal Warden reacted immediately.

The creature’s massive body vanished, the explosion of force beneath its feet shattered the frozen earth apart and unleashed a violent gust toward her, snow erupting outward in every direction.

It was fast, far too fast for something so large.

Yet Mai did not move immediately. The towering black figure materialized before her in the next instant, one enormous arm already swinging downward in a devastating punch that distorted the air around it. The pressure behind the strike tore through the storm.

Mai shifted only slightly as her body slid backward across the snow by mere inches as the massive fist passed directly in front of her face.

The force split the earth behind her with a deafening shockwave erupted outward, sending snow spiraling violently into the sky.

Mai’s eyes sharpened as both of her hands shot forward instantly.

Her palms slammed against the Warden’s armored forearm, the impact alone sent vibrations up her arms, the weight behind the creature’s attack immense enough that the ground beneath her cracked apart.

Yet she held firm, then her hips rotated at the perfect time. The massive Abyssal Warden suddenly lost balance, its own momentum betrayed it.

Mai twisted sharply, pivoting on her heel as the gigantic creature lurched over her shoulder with shocking ease despite the absurd difference in size. Snow exploded upward as the Warden’s enormous body lifted partially from the ground.

Then Mai completed the throw.

The towering creature crashed over her completely, flipping through the air before slamming violently into the snow-covered earth behind her hard enough to rupture the landscape.

But she was already moving, the General pivoted instantly, one foot sliding across the snow as her open palm lashed forward toward the creature’s abdomen.

Her strike looked almost gentle until it connected.

A golden ripple burst outward across the Warden’s armor the moment her palm touched it. The energy spread through its massive frame in concentric waves before detonating internally.

The creature’s colossal body launched backward, it tore through the air like a projectile, crashing through a massive boulder in the distance with enough force to reduce it into exploding fragments of stone and snow.

The shattered remains scattered across the plains.

The Warden’s body continued further still before finally colliding against the frozen ground hard enough to crater it violently, snow erupted skyward as the earth trembled beneath the impact.

For a brief moment, silence returned, Mai exhaled softly through her nose.

But she did not relax, not even slightly. Her stance remained stable, golden QI still alight around her body in thin streams as her sharp eyes stayed fixed on the massive crater ahead.

("That did not do much.") Her expression hardened. ("As expected.")

The snow within the crater shifted, then black energy burst upward violently. The Abyssal Warden rose slowly from the destruction.

Chunks of shattered stone slid from its armor as the violet lines beneath its black plates glowed brighter than before. Cracks spread across sections of its abdomen where Mai’s strike had connected, yet the damage was already repairing itself.

The surrounding air distorted again, from pressure.

The Warden’s head tilted slightly once more.

It took much more to kill a monster.