The Sky of Wounded Crystal

(KRRRR-AAAA-CK—BOOOOOM!!!)

The ground wasn't just shaking; it was screaming.

"Hah... hah... hah... hah! Hhh... hhh...!"

For Arthur, a simple E-Rank Hunter whose greatest achievement had been surviving suburban-level raids, reality had turned into a kaleidoscope of agony and statics.

(Pshhh-tack! Pshhh-tack! Sss-tack!)

His boots, reinforced with polymer fibers, sank into asphalt that alternated between the incandescence of magma and the fragility of shattered glass.

(Crr-shhh! Crr-shhh! Krr-tsss!)

Each step was a gamble against gravity, which in that sector of the artificial island seemed to have forgotten its own laws.

(I have to... get out... I have to...!)

His thoughts weren't coherent prayers, but splinters of survival instinct trying to push through a constantly expanding mental white noise.

(SHRRRRRR-VROOOOM-KRRRR-SHHHHH!!!)

To his left, what used to be a luxury office complex was sucked into the sky, disintegrating into a spiral of debris that Raina's telekinesis utilized as orbital ammunition.

"Khhh... hah...! Hfffff...! Hah... hah...!"

On the other hand, to his right, the air grew thick with Lethe’s necrotic blue, making his lungs feel as if he were breathing frozen iron filings.

(Sh-sh-sshhhrrrr-st-st-st!!)

In the midst of that hell, Arthur crawled through the gap of a split skyscraper, his hands bleeding from friction against pulverized concrete.

"Heh... heh... heh...! Ah...! Hah... hah...!"

His tactical visor, a piece of Coalition technology that should have given him an edge, only displayed a series of fatal errors.

[WARNING: EXISTENTIAL COHERENCE AT 12%]

[ERROR: PSIONIC PRESSURE OUT OF RANGE]

In such a situation, the odds were stacked against him...

"Why... why did they send us here?!"

Finally, a dry sob escaped his throat as he watched a vine of rusted sapphire sprout from a crack just inches from his face.

(Ffwhip! Sss-kriii! Whip-whip! Krrrr-ikt! Ffff-shhhak! Sssssst! Cr-shhh! Kriii-ikt!)

The plant didn't grow; it simply manifested, reclaiming the matter of the ground with a speed that defied the eye.

(PSSSHHH-CRACK!)

Noticing this, Arthur retreated frantically, slamming his back against a twisted steel beam that vibrated intensely as it slowly melted.

(BWAAAAAA-HROOOOOMMM-GZZZZT!!!!)

Meanwhile, high above, the sky was an open wound.

"Don't... don't look... back! Run! Just run...!"

Because of that, he could briefly see, through the dense mist of existential vapor, the clash of two auras that made the sun look like a mere candle in the middle of a hurricane.

(ZAS-PAM!!!)

Finally, a violent crimson flash crashed into a tide of bluish darkness, and the resulting shockwave caused Arthur's ears to burst in a warm flow of blood.

"I am... I am nothing..."

His psyche, already fractured by fear, began to yield before the passive influence of the two Calamities.

(It burns! Everything burns! It burns inside... that black bile... That rage that wants to shatter my ribs!)

On one side, Raina's Wrath scorched his nerves, urging him to scream until his vocal cords tore apart.

(Why are my boots so heavy? It's like the ground is kissing me... like the earth wants me to lie down and sleep on the magma... Why am I resisting...?)

While on the other hand, Lethe's Sloth whispered that it was easier to stop fighting, that the magma floor wasn't that hot, and that closing his eyes would be the ultimate solution to all that noise.

(VROOOOOOO-GZZZZZZZT-TCH-TCH-TCH!!!)

Nevertheless, despite that, he resisted, crawling on his knees through the debris that still fell like a rain of fire, clinging to life.

"No! No! Curse you all! Curse this sky that is falling!"

But despite his efforts, reality continued to collapse piece by piece.

(PSSSHHH-CRACK-KRRSH!!!)

At that point, Arthur wasn't consciously running; instead, his body simply reacted to electrical impulses of pure terror, executing a choreography of desperate survival in a setting that no longer belonged to the living.

(MY LEGS AREN'T MINE! I'm a fleeing corpse... Leave me be! LET ME OUT OF MY OWN HEAD!)

He threw himself over an exposed steel beam, jumping toward a fragment of asphalt that levitated half a meter off the ground.

(SHRRRRRR-VROOOOM-KRRRR-SHHHHH!!!)

Beneath his feet, Lethe’s rusted sapphire ivy glided with a predatory elegance, spreading like a stain of necrotic oil.

(RUN! KILL! SLEEP! EVERYTHING IS FALLING AND I JUST WANT... I JUST...!)

Arthur watched in horror as an iron lamp post, upon being grazed by one of those vines, didn't bend or break, but instead dissolved into an extremely fine gray dust that the hypersonic wind dispersed instantly.

(Sh-sh-sshhhrrrr-st-st-st!!)

However, at the same time, the sky vomited a rain of incandescent debris as an entire skyscraper, reduced to truck-sized rubble by Raina's pressure, fell from the upper atmosphere enveloped in violet flames.

(BWAAAAAA-HROOOOOMMM-GZZZZT!!!!)

In response, Arthur performed an instinctive feint, sliding under the chassis of an overturned military vehicle as a concrete block slammed down a few meters away, kicking up a shockwave that launched him into the air.

"Ughhhhh...!!"

As a result, psionic fire licked the air, consuming the oxygen and leaving a trail of burnt ozone that tore at his throat.

(FRRR-BOOOOOMSHHH!!)

Thus, in the midst of his frantic flight, his boot snagged on a piece of electrical wiring that coiled like a dying serpent.

"Ahhh... A-aah...!"

Because of that, Arthur lost his balance.

(Thawk!)

Causing the world in his mind to spin in a violent succession of crimson sky and obsidian ground as he tumbled down a slope of jagged debris.

(KRA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!!)

Until he finally came to a dead stop against the carcass of a Coalition tank, his mouth full of blood and his vision fragmented into a thousand points of light.

(WHY DO I HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS?!)

He tried to stand up, but his arms trembled like jelly.

(... I was determined... I was supposed to be determined... Then... If that's the case...)

Looking up, with his helmet's visor shattered and reality leaking through unfiltered, what he saw was far worse than the physical destruction.

(... What are these emotions?)

About twenty meters away, a group of Coalition survivors had succumbed to the psychic collapse.

"What is... this... scene...?"

Two of them were attacking each other with combat knives, not with technique, but with an animal frenzy, tearing off pieces of skin while their faces wore empty smiles, possessed by a seething hatred.

(GRRRRR-RR-NNNNGG-FWAAAAA!!!)

Meanwhile, near them, a captain was methodically ripping off her armor plates, using her own fingernails to tear at her flesh in an act of voluntary self-flagellation, perhaps seeking to feel something real before the void consumed her entirely.

(WWUUUUOOOMMM—...—KR-KR-KRRIIIIIIIIII!!!)

And in the center of the chaos, a young recruit, barely a boy, sat atop a pile of rubble, his gaze fixed on the bluish horizon where the ivy advanced relentlessly.

"... It's all over."

Only to, immediately after, with a blood-chilling calmness, raise his service pistol and place it under his chin...

(CLICK—BOOM!!)

Only the sound of a gunshot echoed, vibrating through the air while Arthur, drained of strength, simply looked away.

(... Since it was decided... There was nothing else to do... Why...?)

Thus, the silence that filled his mind under the corrosive effects of the presence of both calamities further eroded the control over his being and, ironically...

"Why the hell did I obey?!"

That acted as a catalyst that returned his freedom in the worst possible scenario.

(BWAAAAAA-HROOOOOMMM-GZZZZT!!!!)

Above Arthur's head, and before the eyes of any trace of life that still held onto consciousness in the Virtual Dimension, the sky ceased to be a physical dome and became a wounded crystal.

(VROOOOOOO-GZZZZZZZT-TCH-TCH-TCH!!!)

The sparks floating after the clash between both calamities did not fall; instead, they drifted and burst in the air like fireworks of pure entropy, painting the firmament with strokes of violent crimson and necrotic blue that devoured one another.

"Get lost!"

"... You first."

Every time the psionic fist of Wrath connected with the absolute inertia of Sloth, reality emitted a sharp groan, a discordant note that did not belong to the musical scale of that universe.

(KRA-AAAA-CK!! — KRA-TA-TA-TA!!)

Because of that, the sky began to crumble into fragments that peeled off like dead scales.

(SHHHHHIIIIIIIII—KRA-KOOOOM!!)

At the points of greatest friction, where the auras of the two Demon Ladies merged in an embrace of total destruction, Void Cracks began to appear.

Those cracks were black, irregular wounds devoid of any trace of light, zigzagging across the firmament like lightning bolts frozen in time.

And from those fissures, the Outer Void began to seep in like a thick, silent nothingness that dripped toward the world, instantly erasing any atom it touched.

(Zzzzzzt... Bzzzzzt... VROOOOM!)

Because of that, the sunlight—or what was left of it—distorted around those cracks, curving and disappearing into an artificial event horizon.

"The sky... is falling..."

Nevertheless, despite that, Arthur, from his position among the ashes, could only watch as the stars—visible even by day due to the lack of atmosphere—seemed to tremble and go out one by one, swallowed by the darkness erupting from the cracks.

(KRRRR-WHOOOOOOOOOOO-SHHHHHHH!!!)

Meanwhile, at the epicenter of the disaster, the two silhouettes remained suspended, oblivious to the agony of the world that sustained them.

"You chose the void because you lacked the guts to move forward!"

On one side, Raina, enveloped in a storm of magma and will, unleashed bursts of heat that lost themselves in the infinite.

"... How noisy you are... You still cling to a purpose... that time will eventually erase..."

On the other hand, Lethe, surrounded by her ivy that now intertwined with the very cracks of the void, seemed to be sewing and unsewing reality with every movement of her hands.

"You...!"

"... Seriously."

The setting was no longer a city, nor even an artificial island of debris in the firmament...

(FRRR-BOOOOOMSHHH!!)

Instead, it was nothing more than a platform suspended in the middle of an abyss that carved its way through the roof of the world.

"I can't stand you!"

(—— KHIIIIIII-BOOMMM... ¡ZHYYYYYYYY! ——)

"I can't stand you."

(GWA-RHAAMMM... FHOOOOOOOOM!! — —)

As the sparks of their conflict continued to illuminate the end of existence with the cruel glow of a final performance.