It is coming.

In a deluge of churning waves, the water of the bay dips and collapses, while a hissing swell rises around the edge of the funnel. In the center, a roaring vortex is forming, like a furious spiral, an open mouth into the abyss. The wind has changed, carrying a scent of ozone, as a thin drizzle begins to fall. Descending from the grassy dunes battered by stinging gusts, the infantry of the Aegis begins its maneuvers, divided into four carefully ordered battalions.

From the promontory where he is stationed, Afanas observes the operations without taking his eye off the tumultuous foam. Despite the roar of the sea, he can make out some music notes: the beating of drums, the blaring of trumpets, the chirping of fifes... all the instruments by which the officers transmit their command signals.

‘Master’, Matera warns him.

The Initiate turns to his student and nods. He can sense her nervousness, but he knows she will not falter.

‘Make your mind a fortress. We won’t have a second chance.’

Matera nods, her breath quickening. Her eyes suddenly widen. As the sea sways, swelling at the center of the whirlpool like a flower blooming, the military batteries abruptly change their tune, and the ranks of foot soldiers reconfigure in a precision choreography.

It is coming.

Afanas knows full well that the Ordis doesn’t need all this pomp to communicate, as they can do so through their Gestalt. But the ongoing operation involves all the Factions, and they must be impeccably coordinated. The Axiom sappers relay messages via their radios, while cohorts of helmsmen wave their flags and banners towards other specialists in signal transmission.

Suddenly, the sea tears open with a terrible roar. The Kraken breaks through the surface, sending up plumes of water that rain down on the troops in a world-ending deluge. Its tentacles whip the air, slashing the sand as the surf crashes into the cove. The ranks of soldiers part, allowing Runic Scribes to pass. The Monolith Alterers take positions on the beach, placing their mana-crackling hands on the wet sand. Wherever they inscribe their glyphs, dikes materialize, breaking the surge and channeling its force to strip away its bite.

It’s finally here. The Leviathan that took his family. Afanas grits his teeth and clenches his fists. Soon, the reckoning will come!

Across the cove, Tocsin, Gulrang’s Alter Ego, blows his horn. From the sandy heights, he watches the chiefs of staff issue their instructions. The Axiom helmsmen wave their flags, sending hand signals towards the Ordis barges. The ships rise from the dunes’ cover, carrying archers, crossbowmen, pistoleers, and arquebusiers. The three levitating skiffs take position and encircle the monster, unleashing a dense rain of arrows, bolts, projectiles, and booming shots on the beast.

The Kraken opens its mouth and roars. Its appendages lash the air like whips, while on the ground, the troops charge. Halberds and pikes pointed at the enemy, the spearmen run across the sand. Javelins whistle over their heads towards the Leviathan’s arms. As the projectiles fly in sharp swarms, the Scribes inscribe them, and the darts ignite as they fall towards the sea monster. Like a cloud of thorns, they pierce the creature’s hide.

From the nearby cliffs, some Muna suddenly appear, channeling their Mana. Through his Irises, Afanas sees the bags of seeds that were thrown into the bay’s depths explode. A shapeless mass of roots and branches unfolds, sprouting from the deep. A chaos of vegetation pierces the waters, knotty wooden serpents that wrap around the Kraken’s arms and tentacles. Soon, the abomination is imprisoned in a web of plants.

Sigismar’s strategy seems to be working.

‘It’s time to rain fire from the heavens! Initiates, unleash your will! Bring forth the flames of the firmament!’, he shouts to his acolytes.

At his side, Matera begins to chant continuously, calling upon Mana and Ether. She starts to float, her hair waving in a fiery halo beneath her hood. With her voice, she intones Psalm after Psalm, gathering energy with each one. Ideas swirl around her, waiting to be unleashed. Her eyes glow, crackling with inner fire.

‘I’m ready, Master!’, she declares, her voice cutting through the din and the noise.

Afanas smiles as he begins his own incantation. He rises into the air and joins the circle of Mages hovering around the imprisoned Leviathan. All of them are concentrating their Mana. It is time to call down a star from the sky and reduce the Kraken to ashes! Using their hands as fiery brushes, the Mages trace complex Signs in the air to shield themselves with Sigils. Their entire beings hum with power and concentrated magic. They are ten of the most powerful Initiates of the Kadigir: Elewa, Yasti, Mathis, Biska, Asta... Ten of the most illustrious Battle Mages of Asgartha.

Senka takes flight, spreading his dark wings. Together, the Mages imbue him with power as he ascends, a dark arrow glowing ever brighter as it rises. He gains speed, as if carried by updrafts. Like reverse lightning, he streaks toward the sky. Like a spear aimed at the heavens, he lifts off as all eyes turn to him. Above their heads, the cloud cover swirls and opens violently in his wake.

There’s a flare up high, a shimmering light. Then a silent explosion scatters the clouds, sending them fleeing like frightened ghosts. Afanas exults. He finally holds the sting of his vengeance in the palm of his hand…

From the sky, a star falls, crowned in a halo of blazing flames. The comet pierces the celestial void, hurtling toward the Kraken, still thrashing… Nothing can stop it. Afanas has his victory, his reveng…

A gleam on the horizon.

What…

From the distance, a streak of light strikes the comet without warning, impaling it. Suddenly, searing pain slices through Afanas’ mind as a wave of energy courses through him. Looking up at the sky, he sees the meteor disintegrate, bursting into dozens of burning fragments. Stunned, he watches as the meteor shatters, as though pierced by a powerful spear.

He’s here. Yes, it’s him. It has to be him.

Afanas hurriedly summons a protective Sigil as a storm of blazing debris rains down around him. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Biska being smacked by a burning shard, Curcio teleporting to safety at the last moment, Mathis disappearing into the roaring waters…

The fiery rubble crashes into the sea, causing it to boil even more. But in doing so, it smashes the wooden prison the Muna had so meticulously woven. The Kraken bursts free from the remaining plant cage, releasing its tentacles. They slap the sea, sending tumultuous waves crashing onto the shore. The foaming water roars around the monster in crashing breakers. Its rage is palpable, supreme, implacable.

Its arms sweep through the ranks of soldiers, denting armor, shattering spears, and gutting shields. They crush the retreating infantry, while the merciless swell carries them off, making them disappear into the turbulent waves. With one appendage, it grabs an unfortunate soldier and hurls him against the jagged rocks like a broken puppet. With another, it strikes a floating barge, sending it spinning wildly from the impact, before it collides with another airborne vessel. Both ships crash, one into the tempestuous sea, the other onto the land.

A rain of bodies follows the one from the sky. From the cliffs, the Bravos fyrds dive into the fray. On their path, Alterers shape a broad pier to encircle the monster and block any chance of retreat. The archers and musketeers from Havre bravely take positions on the embankment. Some notch their arrows and fire, others load their guns and shoot. But the projectiles merely bounce off or stick into the creature’s thick hide.

Afanas looks to the horizon, his fists clenched.

‘Master!’, Matera screams at his side. ‘They need our help!’

But the Mage stands frozen, scanning the distance in search of the unseen assailant who has shattered all their hopes. He doesn't see the tentacle rising above him, nor the Aegis troops being annihilated below. The appendage crashes down in his direction.

‘Master! Watch out!’

Matera hastily conjures a protective barrier, placing herself between him and the Kraken's lashing arm. The magical shield shatters on impact, sending him flying back several meters, groggy and dazed. He looks around feverishly, stunned. The tentacle had struck his former Disciple, crushing her bones and body like a mere twig. She had used her body as a shield, taking the brunt of the assault. Eye wide, he watches her fall, her gaze dull and lifeless.

In a final burst of lucidity, Matera seems to chant one last spell. Afanas grits his teeth as he sees her, realizing what she intends to do. Her being begins to disintegrate as she severs all the Mana bridges binding the idea of who she is to matter. Everything that had shaped her essence and made her tangible in reality breaks, leaving behind only pure droplets of Mana. Afanas watches her disintegrate, fading away as if she were nothing more than a fleeting dream.

Again. The Kraken had stolen someone from him again. He cries out in agony, absorbing Matera's Mana, making it his own. His acolyte had sacrificed herself to give him this final spark. He must use it wisely. He draws her energy and devours it greedily, ready to redirect it toward the invincible Leviathan.

When the abomination turns toward him, he knows this will be his final strike, and he knows full well it will be in vain. Whatever happens, he will soon be at her side...

‘Come! I'm not afraid of you!’, he shouts at the Leviathan, drunk with rage.

But just as the Kraken charges at him, a colossal form slams into it, knocking it back into the cove. Amid a deluge of saltwater, Afanas glimpses a terrifyingly massive whale soaring through the air.

Kaibara.

The Kraken tries to wrap its arms around the whale, but it refuses to be ensnared, rising higher to avoid being entangled. Thousands of birds circle around it, a swarm of white specks drifting against the gray sky as it ascends once more into the clouds. But this is no retreat. Pivoting on itself, the Whale-Leviathan dives back down, its tail armed to slap the giant squid.

The impact is tremendous. Like an earthquake, it sends towering waves crashing up. All the soldiers stagger under the blow, dropping to one knee or collapsing entirely. The Kraken shakes itself off, readying for a counterattack... But suddenly, Afanas senses a great concentration of Mana rumbling on the beach. He grits his teeth and turns toward the magical source, expecting to find the Chrysanthemum Cloaked Warlock.

But it isn’t him. It's the young Bravos Alterer, the one bound to his fire cheetah. His entire being is vibrating with energy as he stands on the shore. In the palm of his hand pulses a mass of Mana of breathtaking density, an intensity that even the Mage has never seen before.

All around the young Bravos, the landscape fractures as he tears Mana from it. Mountains crack, dunes hollow out, and snowfields begin to melt. He is decomposing the world around him, disincarnating his surroundings to consume their Mana. Where he stands, the Tumult is being born and raging. Afanas gasps in shock at all the devastation.

Could it be...

A wild idea takes shape in his mind. He doesn't have much Mana left, only what Matera gave him with her ultimate sacrifice. Just enough to cast one final spell... He turns toward the horizon and curses. His Nemesis will have to wait.

Afanas focuses, his hands tracing intricate circles in the air. He performs his katas, winding streams of Mana around his arms like graceful ribbons, weaving a complex pentagram in front of him. Suddenly opening his eye, he forms a portal, a window in front of the Bravos champion...

Without hesitation, the Bravos leaps through. Passing through the dimensional tear, he emerges dozens of meters above the Kraken. Flames burst from his hand as he plummets toward the monster, leaving a blazing trail behind him...

The Kraken turns toward him, releasing its grip on Kaibara. But too late...

Explosion.

World-ending hurricane.

In deafening silence, a spark ignites, and from that spark, a storm is born.

Afanas is flung backward, buffeted by the winds, struck by a violent shockwave. He averts his eye as a searing light pierces his eyelid, nearly burning his retina. The force is so absolute that he begins to drift through the air like a blade of grass tossed in a tornado. He curls into a ball, battered from all sides by the raging winds.

When he opens his eye, he sees a plume of smoke crossing the sky where the Kraken had been just moments ago. Where the Leviathan once stood, there is now nothing but vitrified sand. The blast creates a wave that crashes onto the beach and cliffs, before receding and flooding the dried cove.

Stunned, he scans the scene, searching for the monster, before realizing it had simply been vaporized by the conflagration. Dumbfounded and incredulous, he surveys the battlefield, expecting the Kraken to reemerge from the raging waters...

But it isn't the Kraken that breaks the water's surface.

The young Bravos emerges, struggling against the churning waves. He coughs, spitting water from his lungs before another swell crashes over him. Afanas slowly descends toward him, still vigilant.

The young man flails in every direction to stay afloat. He raises his hand, swallowing water again. Afanas grabs it.