Chap 154: Drevarus

After the strange four-eyed bird vanished without a trace, Miko hurried down the massive beam where Saeda lay writhing in pain. She had managed to blast the creature, but fear clung to her. Harbingers could still be lurking. 

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, every hair on her body stood on end.

She turned.

A vast red circle was bearing down on them, consuming everything in its path.

Terror gripped her.

Frantically, she hauled Saeda’s arm over her shoulder, trying to move. But it was too late. The crimson swarm engulfed them both. Agonizing pain ripped through their bodies as their screams echoed into the chaos.

Elsewhere, Legion watched Riven's infamous “red hole of death” surge forward—Sade's handiwork. Hopefully, the mortal he’d been toying with would meet his end in it. 

No longer needing to break the energy sphere that had imprisoned the human, Legion called his dark spirits back.

Another smaller red vortex appeared, and Legion got the message.

He returned to his true form—a tall, shadowy figure cloaked in a hood, with two burning eyes glowing beneath. With a low chuckle, he dissolved into black smoke and disappeared into the smaller vortex’s swirling center.

Zod didn’t even have time to breathe. The sight of Legion fleeing was unsettling enough, but his instincts screamed louder than reason. Then he saw it. The red hell.

It was coming fast. Too fast.

Before he could react, the fiery storm reached him. His protective energy sphere dissolved on contact, and a wave of searing pain tore through him—ripping through his clothes, peeling at his skin, and burning straight into his bones.

Panic surged through Kie. Every nerve screamed a warning as he stayed motionless on the beam. Behind him, a mass of crimson chaos surged forward—a hellish swarm devouring the vines like acid. Just touching it disintegrated the forest. Kie didn’t need more signs. He had to run.

He mustered the courage to move, but his first leap sent flashes of memories of his happy family before it all fell apart through his eyes.

It all felt like déjà vu—the red nebula. Was that... a reset? If the Harbingers left, then the elders could come and get them. But where was Tee?

His thoughts of contacting his comrades were cut short when his leg was yanked into the vortex. A sharp, stinging pain shot through his entire body. In that blinding instant, memories crashed over him. His father and brother walking away, his mother dying in a hospital bed... and then, Tee’s scream echoing in his skull.

Meanwhile, Legion wasn’t convinced the mortals were dead. They were stubborn—frustratingly so.

“You’re being pessimistic,” Sade muttered through their telepathic link.

Legion scoffed. Maybe. But they escaped with the vessel through the vortex, so it didn’t matter. Let the mortals burn.

Elsewhere, the remaining Sentinels were left behind to suffer, and worse. Without Sade holding the Sealed Bond at bay, a reset was inevitable and likely a brutal one.

“Awake!” came the deep, dark voice in her head.

Tee opened her eyes and felt metal chains around her.

Realizing she was bound once more in some dark, mountainous place, she could only assume the Harbingers were using her as bait—again. But that tactic wouldn’t work a second time. They knew by now she could pierce through invisibility chants. Her Absolute Vision wouldn’t fail her.

Still, fear tightened in her chest.

Adjusting her eyes, she didn’t see the familiar rocky cave. Instead, a sky of reddish-blue stretched above her, swirling unnaturally.

Her heart pounded like it was trying to escape her chest.

What she didn’t yet realize... was that her eyes were still pitch-black. And deep within her, a dark energy churned—alive and growing.

Unbeknownst to her, she had been relocated back to Geovalon—Dreden, the very center of the supercontinent. A place long declared uninhabitable. The air itself was toxic, the terrain savage—razor-sharp mountains clawing into the sky, deep valleys yawning beneath them like scars. It was there that Severin, the creature who brought about the Second Apocalypse had once pulled all landmasses together to feed.

Sade hadn’t noticed the moment Riven's disintegrating rift finally closed. He had already left that bloody hell behind.

The last four Sentinels lay scattered and bloodied, flesh torn, bones exposed—relieved only by the end of torment.

Darkness still hung in the air among the crisscrossing vines and towering beams… until it began to lift.

Flashes of fire burst across the void. Explosions lit the space as chaos erupted. A full reset. The Sealed Bond had not been broken.

The four telecoms suggested life signatures—nearly lifeless. Constructed from one of the rarest materials, found only at Dreden and fused with advanced sorcery tech, they barely withstood the incineration. They were on the verge of total failure.

But with the Harbingers gone, the Elders could finally intervene.

Drawing on their ancient sorcery, they descended—each creating force shields and levitating across the devastated space. The four Elders split up, each racing to a different quadrant.

They found the Sentinels in a raw, mangled state. A sight enough to make even the hardest warrior retch.

But something was wrong.

One Sentinel was missing.

The Elders had no time to search for the missing Sentinel—not while the reset raged around them. Vergants stationed at Primus struggled to hold the rift open, their powers straining as they kept the fractured zone stable. Dangerous matter—lava, jagged beams, debris—pressed in from all sides, threatening to breach the base.

Time was running out.

The Elders reemerged through the rift, each carrying the bloody remains of the Sentinels. Once all four active telecoms pinged back at Primus, the rift was sealed. But it didn’t take long for the truth to become obvious.

There were only four Sentinels.

With the reset behind them, they feared the worst.

The Commander stepped forward, his voice calm but cold. “Perhaps… it’s for the best,” he said, knowing exactly what Tee was.

Elsewhere, Tee’s heart pounded wildly, her entire body trembling. The metal chains binding her were merciless, biting into her flesh. Worse, it felt like her clothes were gone, replaced with a thin layer that hardly did justice.

 Then, with a sudden jolt, an invisible force lifted her upright. The chains heated—red-hot—scorching her skin, while molten strands slithered up from the ground, fusing into a brutal restraint.

Now bound upright in a rigid frame of burning metal, she could no longer see the strange reddish sky.

Before she could orient herself, a voice slithered through her thoughts.

“Let’s see if she can hear the darkness.”

It echoed like a whisper in her skull—male, but not as deep as Legion’s. Familiar. Calm. And somehow… more invasive than Kie. Telepathy. 

Tee stiffened. 

“In my weakened state,” he continued, “I can still draw power from even the faintest source of dark energy.”

A cold ache settled in her chest. The air thickened.

And then, he appeared—rising from ash like a phantom. First she saw the gleam of black boots beneath the split of a long dark robe. Then, higher, pale hair—white and straight—fell over eyes as black as void.

Sade, the sorcerer.

And staring directly at her.

Sade didn’t make the same mistake twice. He kept his distance that time. No more getting too close like before, when she’d nearly struck his face. With one hand raised, palm open, he began to siphon dark energy directly from her.

Tee gasped as the pull began.

The darkness receded from her body. Her eyes, once pitch-black, faded back to their usual pale shade. Her jagged claws shrank away, and her sharp teeth dulled, returning to human form. But the dark energy within her still pulsed—strong, wild, and unfinished.

That was Lilith’s signal.

Stepping forward, cool and unreadable, ready to pass on the message from the Dark Lord—words meant to be delivered before Tee’s dark side fully withdrew.

“Finally... progress,”

The deep, thundering tone belonged to only one being—Legion.

Tee turned her head as far as the restraints allowed. There he was, standing at her right—tall, menacing, and watching her with burning, unreadable eyes. On her left, Lilith stood still as stone, her own black-filled gaze locked onto Tee like a predator studying prey. The left side of her head was completely hairless, the skin scorched and blistered—an almost grotesque sight. Who could have done that?

Tee’s stomach twisted.

How had she ended up like that?

All she knew was that she was surrounded—bound, exposed, and vulnerable.

What were they going to do to her?

Interrogate her? Torture her? They’d seen the signs—her eyes, her claws. They knew.

And they wanted answers.

Meanwhile, the other Sentinels—drenched in blood, bones visible through torn flesh—were being rushed away on stretcher beds. Their moans of agony echoed through the corridors.

“Make it stop!” Zod screamed, writhing against the pain tearing through his body.

Their cries were gut-wrenching, so raw and primal that even seasoned warriors turned their heads.

Without hesitation, Elder Earvangar, the Elder in the fiery red robe, stepped forward. With a flash of light, he fired a bullet of energy into each of their heads. One by one, the Sentinels fell silent, their bodies going limp as if lifeless.

All eyes turned to Elder Earvangar.

He lowered his hand, face unreadable. “To end the pain,” he said simply.

Later, in the high-security wing of Primus, The Lieutenant and Linn stood before four reinforced glass tanks. Each tank held one Sentinel, suspended in thick, glowing liquid—an advanced cleansing solution laced with rare compounds and sorcery. Tubes ran from their bodies to control systems, monitoring vitals.

“They should stabilize soon,” the Commander said quietly.

“Then we can move them to the infirmary,” the Lieutenant added, eyes still locked on the unconscious faces inside.

But the question lingered between them like smoke.

Where was Tee?

“We should have been able to track her dark energy, to divine her whereabouts,” quoth Elder Menrith. “And yet, we cannot.”

“Aye, someone hath placed a block upon the child,” spake Elder Seriphal, the elder clad in blue. “For that cause were we unable to sense her. Naught could have been done.”

The question hung heavy in the air. Where was Tee?

She found herself encircled by the three Harbingers. A scorched Lilith, a slimmer-looking Legion and the Sade. 

Strangely, the four-eyed bird was nowhere in sight. The absence sent a chill through her. Was it lurking nearby, waiting to possess her?

Her fingers brushed her smooth teeth, a grim reminder that her appearance had been altered back to normal by whatever Sade did. Pulling energy from her as he claimed. 

Legion and Sade dissolved into ash, fading from view and leaving Tee alone with Lilith. Slowly, Lilith stepped forward, placing a cold, clammy hand on Tee’ shoulder.

A jolt shot through her. Black ash began to swirl violently, encasing her like the eye of a storm. Tee squeezed her eyes shut.

“My, my…” came a voice, smooth and cold, followed by a low, rumbling laugh that echoed from a mouth that hadn’t moved. “Someone isn’t quite what they seem…”

That line confirmed it — they’d sensed something was off. Her secret was unraveling. Panic tightened her chest.

What would they do to her?

Wait… that deep, cracking voice wasn’t Lilith’s. Was she hearing things again?

Tee snapped her eyes open but Lilith was gone.

In her place stood a man cloaked in black from neck to heel. His skin burned with a crimson hue, hair short and curled, and eyes glowing yellow like twin suns.

Severin’s human form, Drevarus. 

He loomed above her, one hand still resting on her shoulder.

“This is the closest I’ve come to this realm since my… confinement,” he said, his teeth gleaming sharp against his blood-red skin.

Tee instinctively tried to pull away, but it was useless. His grip didn’t tighten, yet she couldn't move. She had no interest in listening to whatever cryptic speech this ancient man had for her.

“Trying to break free?” he murmured, tilting his head. “Break free… from your fate?”

Then his tone shifted, quieter, almost wistful.

“You remind me so much of her.”

Tee glanced down. His feet were bare—his toenails long, jagged, and dangerous-looking, sharp enough to split bone.

That wasn’t a man.

Or maybe none of that was real.

Maybe it was all in her head.

Noticing her gaze fixed on his feet, the man finally cut to the point.

“Lilith… my daughter.”