Return of the Legendary Runesmith-Chapter 546 - 545- Disaster subdued

"What?!" Annabelle gasped, her brows knitting tighter as Nytharos revealed the reason behind Elana’s strange behavior that morning.

"Yes," Nytharos replied with a slow nod. "When I divided my soul, one fragment was taken back to heaven. My brothers sealed it inside a secure vault, meant to be used against me if they ever needed to weaken me."

Ariana struggled to piece it together. "But aren’t you part of the mortal world now? How can they still interfere with your soul fragments?"

As far as she knew, it was an unbreakable law that the deities could not interfere with this world, no matter how dire the situation became. Even during the great war, they had been unable to confront Darkness directly. Instead, they chose to bless a select few, naming them Apostles, and sent them to fight in their stead.

Nytharos explained calmly, "I exist in a strange predicament. I live among mortals, yet my origin marks me as a God. Because of that, I can be killed by either."

Ariana let out a dry scoff. "Guess you got the worst deal."

Nytharos neither showed grief nor indulged in self-pity. His voice lowered, steady and restrained. "You may call it the consequence of defying my elders."

Annabelle and Ariana exchanged a brief look before Ariana asked, "Then why did you? You were the only one absent during the magic sealing ritual."

According to the records they had studied, after the Great War every world suffered devastation so immense that the deities chose to seal the very source of the crisis.

Independent magic.

Many believed, especially those who refused to worship the Gods without question, that the residents of heaven had grown fearful of the power mortals displayed during the war. Afraid of being challenged, they chose to strip humanity of its greatest resource.

At the time, the trauma was still raw. People had witnessed countless deaths. Cities reduced to ash. Nights without sleep. Stomachs that knew only hunger. In such a state, it was easy to believe the decision had been made for their own good.

No voices rose in protest. That mindset settled into something natural, something unquestioned. Survivors passed it down to their descendants as truth.

And so, for centuries, no one dared question the sealing ritual. Even now, a thousand years later, people still lower their voices before speaking of it in public.

Nytharos kept his gaze on the ground for a few moments before speaking. "There was someone who made me see things differently. Not as a participant in the chaos, but as an observer. That shift granted me knowledge beyond the limits of what I once possessed."

"Was it Darling?" Annabelle asked, her lips curving with teasing certainty.

Nytharos shook his head.

Ariana had expected that answer. Avirin might have been a legendary figure in those days, but Nytharos had once been a God, an ancient existence that may have preceded the world itself.

A faint smile touched Nytharos’ lips. "I believe Adrian will tell you soon enough whose voice changed my perspective. For now, I must take my leave."

Annabelle huffed softly. In the end, it was connected to her Darling after all.

Just then, Ariana called out, "Wait. You said Elana, and possibly Annabelle later, could be controlled by them. How are we supposed to stop that?"

Nytharos’ figure was already fading, his form dissolving into faint light, yet his final words still reached her.

"Adrian knows. Tell him not to delay any longer, or the price will be severe."

And with that, the fallen God vanished, leaving only the two women in the quiet room.

The raven-haired woman turned sharply to Ariana. "What did he mean? Does Darling truly know how to remove divinity from someone?" He had only recently insisted that nothing imprinted upon a soul could ever be erased.

Ariana said nothing.

Should she really tell her the method?

....

"This is frustrating!" Iris growled as she skidded across the icy field, clutching the shattered remains of her weapon.

Adrian clicked his tongue in irritation, glancing at the chambers of his revolver. Empty. Every last one. He still had two hundred bullets in reserve, but what was the point? Nothing they threw at this thing made a difference.

The moment mana touched the mutant plant, it burned away as if devoured.

Weapons were useless. Rage was worse. Every strike only seemed to provoke it further.

The melted zone around the plant continued to expand, devouring the frost inch by inch. Elana was not faltering yet, but the strain was visible. She had begun pouring more force into maintaining the spell, pushing harder to keep the balance from collapsing.

Adrian understood one thing with painful clarity.

This would not last much longer.

That was why he said to Iris, "Step back."

Iris did not question him. The moment she saw him rise into the air, arms spreading wide, she retreated without hesitation.

His revolver had already vanished into his inventory. Now, mana gathered around him like the blizzards they had barely held back moments ago, spiraling in dense, violent currents.

Soldiers scattered. Those unable to move were dragged away by their comrades.

For a brief second, Adrian’s eyes went blank. Frost crept along his fingers as four magic circles manifested, locking into position around the target.

The battlefield fell into a strange, suspended silence.

THUNK

Geysers of freezing shockwaves erupted from all directions at once, slamming into the plant.

"KHIEEK!"

The screech tore through the air as the plant thrashed wildly.

Adrian frowned at the resistance, at the way it tried to push back against the encroaching cold. He closed his eyes and sharpened his focus.

More waves followed. Then more. Relentless. Each impact layered frost upon frost, spreading at a furious pace.

The mutant plant was swallowed in white.

But it did not last.

A violent tremor shook the frozen mass. Cracks webbed across the ice, thin at first, then jagged and glowing.

Then it exploded.

Mana burst outward in a savage pulse, shattering the frost into glittering shards. From within, molten light surged. Magma bled through ruptured bark, pouring down like veins of liquid fire. The ground hissed as ice met heat, steam erupting in blinding clouds.

The roots reacted next.

They did not merely spread. They multiplied.

Thick tendrils punched through the earth, splitting stone as if it were brittle glass. They coiled, writhed, and outgrew themselves, each second birthing more mass, more length, more reach. The battlefield buckled as the roots tore through the frozen terrain, overturning slabs of ice and earth alike.

Elana’s jaw tightened as the heat wave crashed against her spell.

Adrian’s eyes snapped open.

Without lowering himself, he shifted from brute force to sorcery. The four magic circles rotated, their symbols rearranging. A second layer formed beneath them, complex and precise. Instead of striking, the next wave pressed down.

Pressure.

Invisible, immense, crushing.

The air itself thickened as Adrian forced the surrounding mana to compress around the plant, suppressing the eruption. Frost no longer attacked randomly. It bound. It infiltrated. It forced the magma to cool before it could surge freely.

The roots slowed.

But they did not stop.

A deep rumble came from beneath the ground, heavier than before. The plant abandoned defense.

It chose annihilation.

All the glowing veins along its trunk pulsed at once. The roots retracted violently, not in retreat but in gathering. Mana from the surrounding area was dragged inward, siphoned in a vortex that bent the air.

Adrian felt it immediately.

It was condensing everything into one strike.

The earth split.

A colossal root, thicker than a tower and coated in magma, erupted upward like a volcanic spear aimed straight at the sky. Heat distorted the air. Mana screamed around it.

Just as Adrian prepared to retaliate, a cold voice brushed past his ear.

"Step back, Professor."

A calamity clad in white descended from above.

Elana now stood before the plant, her spear resting in her left hand.

The mutant creature’s attention shifted entirely. It locked onto her, abandoning all else. She was the one presence it could not ignore.

The swollen stem pulsed violently, on the verge of bursting.

Elana moved first.

She drove her spear straight into the bulging core.

KHRIK

Frost erupted from within.

Not from the outside. Not layered over bark. It bloomed inside the creature’s veins, piercing through its structure and forcing it to convulse.

Elana inhaled slowly and rose higher as a hill of ice surged beneath her heels. The spear remained embedded, splitting the plant’s body as she ascended, carving a clean path upward through wood and magma.

Above, the colossal root that had pierced the sky began to fall.

It descended toward her like a burning pillar.

Elana did not move.

But the mana around her did.

Her armament flared, silver and merciless. Blue energy extended the spear’s length, forcing its tip through the opposite side of the stem. Frost now riddled the creature entirely.

She arched her back slightly and leapt.

The frozen corruption had already spread through every channel of its body.

The falling root adjusted midair, angling directly at her.

Elana raised her spear above her head and hurled it.

The root twisted, attempting to evade.

The spear changed direction.

SQUELCH

It pierced clean through.

Magma burst outward in a violent spray as the spear tore through the molten core. The plant released a screech so shrill and hateful that soldiers collapsed to their knees, hands clamped over their ears.

Elana did not falter.

She seized her weapon again, ripping it free. Midair, she spun once. Before her boots even touched the ground, the severed root crashed down behind her with a heavy, final thud.

Her feet landed softly.

She turned.

The plant trembled.

Though alien in nature, something primal radiated from it. Everyone present felt it.

Fear.

Elana narrowed her eyes. She lifted her spear once more, then drove its blunt end into the ground.

THUNK

A freezing shockwave erupted outward.

In an instant, frost consumed what remained.

The disaster stiffened. Then it collapsed.

Dead and gone.

°°°°°°°°

A/N:- Thanks for reading. This month is tough, sigh.