The Zorains—seventeen in total—were chosen acolytes of the Dark Edge Empress. Her personal enforcers. Each a blade forged in her will, each marked by a unique color and codename.
Among them, the Zorain of Gold was known as Corvus. An upper-middle ranker. Feared not for overwhelming power, but for his precision.
He was supposed to be escorting the Kralscell of Corruption from
So why was he here?
He shouldn't be anywhere near this city—let alone stepping into the chaos alongside CGA Rangers. Had they already uncovered the truth about Sifo Ren's identity? But in that form... no. That should've been impossible. Sure he has the same knightly design but Sifo Ren's model is completely different from his original armour husk.
"Dammit!"
Sifo Ren clawed his battered, mechanical body from the rubble of the collapsed street. Metal feet scraped against shattered concrete as he forced himself upright. His right arm lifted, servo-joints whining, weaponized compartments now hissing open.
"So it was you, Corvus!" he snarled, locking sights on the cloaked figure in the distance. "I owe you for Deymar—for locking me in with those data-demons!"
[Skill: Laser — Hellfire Mode!]
A barrage of searing red lasers burst from Sifo Ren's gauntlet. Each bolt was precise, unrelenting, forcing Corvus onto the defensive. The golden-cowled warrior raised twin daggers that shimmered with ethereal gold, deflecting the onslaught with near-impossible finesse. Sparks shrieked as the blasts ricocheted off steel, carving through walls and sending civilians screaming.
"Run! Some lunatic's fighting in the streets!"
"AHHH!"
"Justice Lords, help us!"
Panic cracked through the city like a fault line. People scattered—vanishing into alleys and broken storefronts.
"Clara! You alright?" Ben's voice snapped me back. He helped me up, his hands trembling as he noticed the blood streaking my cheek, the red blooming across my jacket.
I winced, clutching my shoulder. A shallow cut—deep enough to slow me down. "It's nothing."
He didn't believe me, but he nodded anyway. "What do we do now?"
"It's coming," I said, tapping the hidden panel beneath my sleeve. A faint chime confirmed the beacon had been sent—encrypted and silent. "We just have to survive. Try to help Sifo... though I doubt it'll matter."
Sifo Ren moved like a machine built for annihilation. Weapons unfolded from his spine and torso—lasers, micro-rockets, concussive cannons. The street lit up like a warzone. Corvus answered with green fire channelled through his golden daggers, slicing the missiles mid-flight, flipping through wreckage, moving like wind between ruin and flame.
"Is this what Exalted battles look like?" Ben whispered, stunned. His voice trembled beneath the thunder of devastation.
I didn't answer at first. My eyes locked on the two gods of war tearing the city apart—block by block, breath by breath.
"Yes," I said finally. "And they're only seventh rings."
Ben swallowed. That meant they weren't even at the peak. Nowhere near Twilight Tier.
The power scale for mortals was simple—bronze to platinum, five rings. But Exalted?
They transcended.
Mystic. Fabled. Mythos. Twilight.
I was barely a Mystic. A sixth-ring sequencer who didn't even deserve the title. A fledgling, watching a divine storm rip through my world. And even now, they were holding back. If either of them went all out, this city would've been a crater minutes ago.
Sifo Ren had once been more. An eight-ring sequencer. A legend who nearly stood with the likes of Strife and Wukong. But that was before. Before his body was broken. Before the techniques and materials to fix him were lost to time.
Me?
I was just a mechanic. A builder. I didn't even know how to fight. But I still had tricks.
[Aspect: Iron Ant Queen — Manifestation!]
My soul construct exploded into reality—a titanic steel insect with grinding mandibles and segmented limbs. It slammed into Corvus, driving him backward through smoke and steel. For the first time, he faltered.
Sifo Ren didn't waste the opening. A brutal hailstorm of high-calibre rounds tore across Corvus' frame, burning away cloth and skin.
Still... it wasn't enough.
[Aspect: Corruptive Wolf — Claw Strike!]
A demonic cry erupted from Corvus as his soul construct lashed out—white crescents slicing through the air like god-fangs. My Ant Queen shattered. Pain screamed through my body as the soul link snapped. I dropped to my knees, coughing blood.
My body felt like glass. Cracking from within.
"Soul Strike?! Clara! Are you—?"
"I'm fine," I croaked. "Just... hold on."
Sifo Ren's eyes turned crimson. Shoulder compartments split open, mini-rockets primed.
[Skill: Bombardment — Realm Bomber!]
Dozens launched—each with tracking instincts sharper than a viper's fangs. Corvus darted between them, but the barrage boxed him in. Each blast flattened buildings, cratered roads. The final two struck him clean, hurling him down the street and straight through a freight truck.
Corvus hit the ground hard.
Then rose.
He grabbed his dislocated jaw and snapped it back into place. "You're still a pain, tin can. Even in this pathetic state."
"Still not enough?" Sifo Ren muttered, rage simmering. His mechanical spine split open one last time—revealing a compact railgun radiating nuclear heat.
[Skill: Plasma Railgun — Electro Fire!]
The beam carved through the city like divine punishment. It punched into Corvus' chest, launching him hundreds of meters, crashing through the final steel wall like a meteor.
Sifo Ren staggered, steam pouring from his back. Warning lights screamed across his HUD. "Core failure... Systems at 43%. Damn it..."
Yet even now...
"Urgh..." Corvus rose again, crawling from the rubble as white energy stitched his body shut. Skin burned. Chest mangled. Still shirtless. Still standing. His golden cowl untouched.
"Devils are always more resilient than they deserve to be," Sifo Ren growled. "That should've at least incapacitated you, Raum's inheritor!"
Then the sky broke. The Mercury—my ship—descended from the clouds. Its side door yawned open mid-hover.
"Quick! Onto the Mercury!" I shouted, grabbing Ben and stumbling toward the ramp.
Sifo Ren glanced once at Corvus, then turned. He moved fast—leaping onto the ramp and lifting me up as if I weighed nothing. "Rest. You've done enough."
I nodded, blood on my lips, heart pounding. Ben scrambled in behind me. But Sifo Ren didn't move.
He stared down the broken street.
"That should've killed him..."
Corvus was drinking in souls. Screaming phantoms dragged from the air into his skin, absorbed through his burns. His wounds healed with each stolen breath. Then he moved. Flawless. Relentless. His feet tore into the pavement, closing distance with divine fury. His eyes burning with emerald hate.
"Mercury!" Sifo Ren barked. "Activate cloaking. Get us out of here!"
Engines flared. The ship rose, cloaking field shimmering around it.
But Corvus wasn't done.
[Skill: Devil's Sorcery — Raum]
[Aspect: Corruptive Wolf — Outer Influence!]
He raised his hand, drawing a glowing sigil in mid-air. Then stomped the ground.
White stitches from his own skin slithered into the pavement. A heartbeat later, the street ruptured—massive, writhing white veins bursting forth like serpents, coiling around the ship's wings and hull.
An anchor. Dragging us back to earth like divine punishment.
The ship's thrusters screamed in protest, straining against the eldritch grip of Corvus' summoning. The veins clawing from the street held tight, and inch by inch, the Mercury was being dragged back to earth.
Then, a thunderclap split the air.
[Skill: Autumn King's Conquest — Ekrix Gauntlet!]
A streak of orange-silver light tore through the city like a divine arrow, rupturing each building it passed before slamming into the demonic tendrils with a blinding burst of amber lightning. The veins shrieked and recoiled, their grip on the spaceship severed in a crackling flash that sent ripples through the ruined street.
Ben, losing his grip on the side of the ship, slid down the ramp as the spaceship was tossed around by the shockwave distracting Sifo Ren while I didn't even notice Ben had fallen. Too busy holding onto my seat trying to stay on.
"Who—?" I gasped, my eyes sweeping the scorched haze once the spaceship's autopilot reoriented itself.
A figure emerged through the smoke.
Strife.
His long coat billowed with every step, the ticking of unseen gears echoing faintly from the strange gauntlets encasing his forearms. The [Ekrix Gauntlets]—forged from his own body, built to detonate kinetic strikes with clockwork precision, amplifying each blow tenfold.
"Human!" Sifo Ren barked, alarm flaring in his tone as he spotted Ben lying on the tarmac. "Damn it! Traveler, the boy fell!"
Strife raised a single brow, his calm gaze flicking to the robot knight then down to Ben clawing himself up from the floor. "I've got him." He said assuredly. "Get Clara to the others before her soul fractures completely."
Sifo Ren didn't argue. "Mercury, cloak mode. Get us out of Strife's way."
The ship shimmered, folding into invisibility as it began to rise—leaving the battlefield behind.
***
[Stigma: Equal Correlation — Sequence 7.3]
"Urgh... sorry, Uncle T," Ben muttered, brushing soot from his jacket. "Not the reunion I had in mind."
As a knight's helmet grew out from beneath my skin and hair i chuckled, saying, "No one plans for this kind of mess."
His eyes sparkled. "Still, it's fun! Gramps is going to lose his mind."
"Oh, he's absolutely going to want my head on a stick." I flexed my fingers, channelling aether into the gauntlets along my forearms. The air around me shimmering in anticipation as a mad excitement rushed across my face. "Let's give this devil a little more than he bargained for!"
[Skill: Sephiwrath — First Gate of Yesod!]
Tattoos blazed to life across my arms and neck—golden-orange ink laced with silver-cyan flare, igniting as the transformation consumed me. My body surged with coiled force, the atmosphere distorting around me.
Ben blinked in awe. "What is that?"
"A limit breaker," I said, grinning through the pressure.
Across the battlefield, Corvus raised his emerald eyes, hatred glowing beneath his hood. "[Traveler on a journey]! You dare violate your pact with
I shrugged. "The agreement stands—so long as I don't kill you, [hell-king: Carrion Of The Empty Court]. Let's not forget, you've benefited far more than me, brother."
"I am not your brother!" Corvus screamed. His golden daggers ignited in green fire, slashing at the air. "You're a mockery! A homunculus! Not even a flimsy or simple human!"
Ben leaned in, deadpan. "Why does he make your coolest traits sound like insults?"
I laughed. "Hah! Because I am cooler than him."
[Aspect: Taken Devourer — Fang]
A black tear split the air beside me, oozing malevolent intent. I reached inside, gripping the void, and pulled free a weapon wrapped in silence and death.
Sigrid.
An obsidian-handled sword, cased in layers of white, amber, and grey alloy—ancient, alive, thrumming with energy. One of my three main weapons—and the only one not made from my body. A relic of the first Kralscell, reforged to survive my full power.
"Follow my rhythm if you don't want to get crushed, Ben."
I launched forward, boots cracking the ground, a comet of amber lightning. Corvus met me head-on, his flaming daggers flashing. But he didn't expect the weight behind my strike. Sigrid, still sheathed, crashed down like a war god's hammer, forcing him to his knees.
He snarled, twisted free, and unleashed a storm of slashes. I weaved through the assault, dodging each swing with deliberate grace. Then spun, driving my sheathed sword in a brutal arc toward his spine.
He ducked—and narrowly lived.
The wake of the swing alone sent a torrent of unfocused aether slicing across the street, erasing buildings in its path like paper. Silver-orange sparks scattered like dying stars.
Corvus gasped, his face pale beneath the hood. He'd felt the pressure. Even sheathed, Sigrid was a monster.
"Even with the [Stigma] limiting you to my level..." he panted, "you're still as outrageous as ever."
Before he could counter, Ben slipped in from the side and punched him in the jaw. A mortal strike—more of a shove—but it bought a heartbeat. I didn't waste it. My Ekrix Gauntlet slammed into Corvus' spine with a kinetic detonation. He reeled, coughing blood.
Ben followed through, landing a second blow to Corvus' chest. No damage. But it kept the momentum—and that was all I needed.
Corvus lashed out in fury, a cyclone of golden-green blade arcs. Ben barely escaped a fatal hit as a shadowy black hand reached from the void and yanked him out of harm's way before tossing him back onto the ruined street a safe distance 50-meter's away form the sudden storm.
I reappeared beside him. "Nice form. But remember—he's a Mythos-grade Exalted. That's just below Twilight. He's a Seventh Ring Sequencer powerhouse. You? Second Ring mortal. Only reason the city still exists is because he's holding back—and I'm spending half my focus shielding you."
Ben gritted his teeth. "Understood. What's the rhythm?"
"Quick. Loose. Impactful. Think pressure and flow."
Ben's fists reignited with frenzied yellow flames, a wild grin stretching across his face. "I see it now. Let's dance, Uncle."
I flipped Sigrid into a reverse grip, helmeted smile matching his. "Keep up."
Together, we launched forward. A storm of amber lightning and mustard fire. One a living weapon. The other—flame-born resolve.
And Corvus? He braced himself as the chaos surged forward. His blades ready. His heart burning with hate. "You really are mad to breach to breach your contract with the Kralscell of Corruption like this!"