Magical Soul Parade

The Queen recognized this fact and decided to go all out. She pulled the demon closer, her white flames roaring as she began to weave a cage of solidified fire around its limbs. Her red dragon dove down at the same time, using its massive claws to pin the demon’s legs to the ground. They were working together to anchor this particular iteration so it wouldn’t spawn again.

This is my chance…

Althea saw the opportunity… and she didn’t waste a single second. While the Undying Flame and her dragon tackled the demon, she began to chant her Order Declaration.

Her voice was low and resonant, carrying a weight that seemed to anchor the very air. She wasn’t just speaking; she was projecting a command onto the fabric of reality. She intended to turn the whole surroundings for miles into a zone that was dead still with order.

She didn’t know the exact mechanism of the Holy Son’s powers, but she knew her logic was sound.

If she could balance everything out within the area and remove all fluctuations of energy, the Holy Son would definitely lose his primary advantage. He wouldn’t even have the opportunity to use his “unlimited” ability because there would be nothing for him to manipulate in the first place.

She would turn the battlefield into a vacuum of stillness where only her will remained.

Althea began the higher-tier invocation, her voice taking on a layered quality, as if several versions of herself — from the young girl that was Althea, to the ancient Order Bearer Thalia was, and now to the Apotheosis that was the both of them — were speaking in a perfect, haunting unison.

“Origin within the Axis.

Symmetry within the Plane.

One from the Infinite.

Stillness before Motion.

Absolute before the Fluid.

Immutable Stasis…

With every line, the environment reacted in turn. The frantic flickering of the Undying Flame’s white fire began to lose its heat and its movement, the tongues of flame hardening into crystalline structures that resembled shards of orange glass.

The smoke that had been billowing from the scorched earth simply stopped rising, hanging in the air like a series of grey, unmoving pillars.

The demon, trapped in the Queen’s grip, found that its very cells were beginning to seize. The chaotic, recursive evolution that had been driving its growth was being forced into a state of terminal equilibrium.

The “Order” in the air was becoming so dense that the chemical reactions required for change could no longer occur.

Althea took a slow, measured step forward. Her eyes were no longer human… they had become twin voids of white, reflecting a world where nothing moved and nothing changed.

“…By the authority of the First Concept, I declare the reign of the Stillness,” she whispered, her voice echoing across the blackened plains as she let out a soft, final breath.

“… Dead Calm.”

In an instant, within a radius of several miles, all motion ceased.

The wind died mid-gust. The red dragon’s wings, which had been beating with a thunderous force, froze in an arched position, the beast suspended in the air as if it were a statue held up by invisible wires. Even the blue blood dripping from the demon’s wounds stopped falling, hanging in mid-air as perfect, stationary spheres.

​The battlefield had become a silent, monochrome portrait of a war. Within this zone of Dead Calm, Althea moved with a terrifying, smooth grace, the only thing in the world still permitted to exist in time.

She turned her eyes toward the Holy Son, striding up his pedestal and towards him with her sword leveled at his throat, ready to see if his “unlimited” nature could survive a world where change was forbidden.

With a perfect, graceful calm, she pressed the Errant sword forward at his bare throat—

But to her utmost surprise, she saw his golden eyes move.

Without wasting time she jabbed forward to end his life in one go, not pausing to think about how he had managed to remain mobile at all. But the more she pushed forward, the more space her sword pushed into, as if the distance between herself and his body was not mere feet but a vast, immeasurable chasm.

The Holy Son rose to his feet, gazing down upon her like a father who was impressed with the feat of his child, but was now about to show her just how truly little it counted for in the grand scheme of things.

Althea didn’t relent though. She pushed the Errant sword forward more, her eyes now wild with intent to kill. It was here and now. There was no other chance to do this if not here.

Her will burned bright, urging the Errant sword to go all out with her. The sword glowed a bright green, pulsing with all traces of error within it.

Together with Althea’s order, she activated the contrasting effect and let it loose on a scale she never previously had before.

The attack wiped the fatherly smile off the Holy Son’s face, and for the first time, true fear coloured his face in that moment.

He could feel the attack destabilising the unlimited chasm of space between him and Althea. The effect was wreaking utter havoc, the incongruence of error and order joining together in a mishmash was too great a fallacy for his own unlimited concept to remain stable.

He let out a fearful roar, immediately grabbing Althea by her shoulder in a tight grip, and releasing a terrifying surge of energy, this time without holding anything back.

In an instant, a flood of energy suffused Althea. Coupled with the fact that she was in such close proximity, the energy was so dense that it had a physical weight, pressing against her Somatic Transmutation with a force that made her very marrow ache.

Within the frozen vacuum of the Dead Calm, where nothing was permitted to move, a vibration began to hum — something that shouldn’t have been possible in a world of absolute order.

The air around the Holy Son’s grip started to shiver, the stillness of the field cracking as his unlimited output forced reality to acknowledge his presence.

Then the trembling grew even more violent. The world itself began to shake and warp.

Through the flood of energy bombarding her body and soul, Althea watched with vacant, wide eyes as the horizon behind the Holy Son started to pull inward.