Chapter 273: When The Night... Falls (2)

HUMMMMM!!!

As Liliana fell, she drew the artifact Luna had given her from her divine ring—the miniature Dark Hold that housed both factions she had made on Kalpa and Cylas.

The moment it slipped from her grasp, the artifact defied gravity, hanging suspended above the world.

In the breathless hush, it began to shiver—then expand, its surface rippling with veins of black light.

A sudden, overwhelming wave of divine power burst forth behind Liliana as she kept plummeting, the Dark Hold unfurling and swelling into an immense, sprawling castle.

It consumed the skies with an almost devouring intent, blocking out all the light the sun gave.

Where once a whitish light danced, a bruised and eerie twilight now stretched across the land.

Darkness poured out like sentient ink, spreading over mountains and forests, winding along rivers and engulfing cities, until the entire supercontinent of Loreua lay smothered beneath a single, vast, creeping shadow.

All across the world below, creatures of every shape and size tilted their heads skyward, eyes wide with wonder.

From bustling cities to quiet valleys, a strange mix of awe and fear rippled through the air, settling over the land like a heavy, electric fog.

In the streets and across the fields, people stopped mid-step; farmers’ hands lingered over half-pulled roots, artisans’ tools slipped from their grasp with a dull clink, and children’s laughter faded into uneasy silence.

They tilted their heads skyward, one hand raised to shield against the darkness where the sun had disappeared, their eyes mirroring the restless shadows twisting overhead.

"What’s... happening?" A man said, with a bubbling sense of dread rising.

"Father... has the emperor done something?" His daughter asked as they both stood frozen on a sidewalk.

----

Far away on jagged ridges, dragons stretched and slid from their long-kept lairs, scales rasping over stone with a deep, muffled rumble like thunder rolling beneath the sea.

"This... realm doesn’t feel right," one of them murmured, voice low and uneasy.

They flared their nostrils, drawing in the scents carried on the wind, while their golden and crimson eyes narrowed, sharp with suspicion, tracking the slow, ominous dimming of the sky.

From kingdoms to the wilderness, confusion drifted in like mist, but before any answers could take form, darkness spoke in its own way, spilling from the sky in waves, swallowing both questions and hope.

HUMMMMMM!!!!!!

In that instant, high above the world, the castle doors swung wide, unleashing a flood of figures that spilled out in staggering numbers.

They spilled from the shadowed sky like a storm of madness—armored, winged figures diving fast, blades flashing in the dim light, faces set with fierce resolve or lit by eager, manic smiles as they swept down toward the earth.

Humans, angels, and countless other beings fromLiliana’ss sprawling two-world alliance rushed forward in unison, their weapons gleaming in the final, sickly rays of the fading day.

All the while, the world below could only watch as the skies turned into the opening scene of a battlefield, the air heavy with war cries.

Panic swept through streets and fields—shopkeepers left their stalls mid-shout, parents clutched their children and dashed for shelter, and soldiers scrambled to regroup.

But not everyone fled.

A young woman with a long scar along her jaw gripped her spear tightly and called out to her comrades.

"We must stand tall until the Empire arrives!"

Some leaped skyward, divinity flaring at their fingertips, blades igniting in bursts.

And in moments, they collided with the invaders in desperate flashes.

RRROOOOAAARRRR!!!!

Dragons erupted from the mountain caves, their wings pounding the air with rolling thunder, roars tearing through the night sky.

Yet even their towering forms seemed diminished beneath the swirling tempest of bodies above.

The world felt like it was unraveling, as every heartbeat felt like a toss-up between fleeing and fighting.

--

At the forefront of the descending tide, Liliana raced toward the Empire, her crimson cloak snapping in the wind.

She lifted her hand, her voice cutting sharp and clear through the chaos rumbling below and behind her.

"Members of the Dark Hold... kill anyone who moves""

Her voice cut through the air, cold and unyielding, leaving no space for hesitation or mercy.

The reply rose as one, firm and resolute—some calling out to the Goddess of Eternal Grimoires, others from Kalpa’s ranks hailing the Red Lady—as they surged forward, descending upon Loreua like the coming of a second night.

She paused above the capital, scanning the streets below.

"Where’d that boy run off to?" she muttered, her eyes narrowing.

HUMMMMM!!!!!

In that moment, she didn’t have a second to spare to even think about finding Melvin—and not that it would have mattered anyway.

As long as he wore the Dreamer’s Mask, he was nothing more than a fleeting ghost.

Hovering high above the Main Capital of Loreua, she watched as the Domain began to transform before her eyes.

Snow first drifted down like a soft, fine dust—gentle, almost mesmerizing—before thickening into something that felt inevitable.

Within moments, frost raced wildly over every stone and spire, until the capital looked as though a raging blizzard had swallowed it.

Fountains froze mid-arc, their shapes becoming glassy sculptures that caught what little light remained.

In an instant, the warmth of the world was gone....

And the Empire lay wrapped in a shroud of ghostly white, every sound muted, every movement slowed.

Liliana continued hovering above the capital in that stolen silence and watched the beginning of a massacre.

In an instant, figures were caught mid-step, mid-shout, mid-swing; frost raced up their necks and through their hair in a blinding white flash, freezing their heads just moments after they were severed.

The bodies didn’t collapse like corpses but froze into perfect, eerie ice sculptures, their final expressions preserved in chilling detail.

Severed heads turned into solid blocks of ice, suspended mid-fall until the cold consumed them completely.

The count rose at a terrifying pace.

Entire streets fell silent in bursts too quick for the eye to follow—a market lane, a barricade, a courtyard of soldiers freezing mid-motion, transformed into neat rows of pale statues in the space between one heartbeat and the next.

In the span of a single heartbeat, the entire Eastern Region of the capital was wiped out.

What moments before had been bustling streets, towering walls, and the warmth of easy camaraderie was now nothing more than a frozen wasteland—people caught mid-motion, sealed forever in ice.

Liliana exhaled, her breath escaping in a faint mist that crystallized almost instantly in the crushing, absolute cold.

"What...?"