Echoes of the Forsaken.

The wolf lunged from the right, the panther from the left, no one wanted to be trapped between those two beasts. Gaius simply laughed, raising both hands and hurling compressed fireballs toward them.

A massive explosion erupted the moment the spells struck the ground, ripping through everything in their path. The blast sent the wolf, unprepared for the detonation, hurtling north, while the panther, though able to defend itself, was slowed and roared in defiance. Their massive bodies slammed into the ruins of the village, scattering debris in all directions.

As the battle began, Viser instinctively pushed the children back, his body moving before his mind could process. His hands lifted, mana surging through his body as he cast defensive spells in rapid succession.

earth Walls erupted from the ground, rising like a protective barrier. They twisted and circled around him and the children, forming a half-dome. The light vanished. Darkness swallowed them whole.

Then, the world trembled. The shockwaves of the explosion started hitting the shell. Dust rained from the ceiling, filling the air with the scent of crumbling stone and fresh destruction. The walls shuddered under the relentless assault.

"Gather up!" Viser's voice rang through the darkness, sharp and commanding.

His other hand moved swiftly, weaving another spell. Panels of glowing light flickered into existence, shimmering like thin sheets of glass. Through them, the battle outside was laid bare.

The first panel showed The old emperor droving the panther east with his attacks, passing a few miles south of the ruined orphanage. The children inside felt the tremors intensify, the ground quaking beneath them before the vibrations gradually faded as Gaius pushed further away.

Locked in a vicious clash, his movements were both fluid and ruthless, each strike carried the weight of centuries of mastery. The world burned around them.

Flames roared, an insatiable inferno consuming the air. But gravity was meaningless, with rocks and uprooted trees hurtling toward the beast, only to miss their mark. Reality warped with every strike, each impact forcing the panther further east, its massive frame driven back against its will.

The ground beneath its limbs shuddered and cracked before melting into seething lava. But the beast did not retreat. It bent the molten earth to its will, lashing out with fiery tendrils like whips. Its three tails coiled and lashed, not just for balance but to command the very battlefield itself.

With a guttural roar, it sent the lava surging toward Gaius, a molten tide of fury. Its cold, piercing gaze held no fear, only rage. It did not appreciate the old emperor's relentless assault.

Meanwhile, the wolf was surrounded by the eight humans, each moving in perfect coordination to keep it contained. Their spells illuminated the battlefield, turning everything into a chaotic storm of elements. Tornadoes howled, lightning crashed from the heavens, and swords of flame carved through the air. One of them used teleportation to distract the beast, while an other raised ice barriers to defend against its attacks, different powers clashing and intertwining in a desperate struggle to keep the creature at bay.

But even with all that combined might, the wolf was relentless. Shadows devoured their attacks, swallowing spells whole as if feeding on their power. Its shifting form drank in the darkness, twisting the shadows into a weapon.

They couldn't just watch the beast, they had to be careful of the shadows beneath them, Tendrils of living darkness slithered and struck, aiming to trap them, to hold them still just long enough for the wolf to strike. One mistake, one moment of hesitation, and the hunt would end in blood.

The two battles had split. One raged southeast near the shell before going even further east, it was clear that both Gaius and the panther wanted to let a distance from the others.

The other battle, unlike the first, was slowly pushing northwest, where the wolf remained uninjured, the eight humans still attacking from all sides.

Just a little farther from both battles, and right in the middle between them, lay the rock shelter Viser had built, aside the orphanage's ruins, unable to withstand the shockwaves it was destroyed.

Viser started stretchinf his senses to their limits, scanning the ruined village with a desperate need for understanding.

Hope clung to him like a fragile thread, fraying with every second. Maybe, just maybe, he could still find one of them alive. His eyes darted through the wreckage, searching, pleading, then the dust settled.

His breath hitched. His heart clenched.

The village was gone.

What remained was devastation. Scorched ruins stretched before him, charred bones of buildings still smoldering under the dim twilight. The air hung thick with the suffocating stench of blood and smoke, sinking into the earth like a funeral shroud.

And then, he saw them, the bodies.

Men, women… children, evrywhere

Lifeless. Broken. Extinguished.

Panic surged through him. His senses flared wildly, sweeping across the ruins, refusing to accept what lay before him. He searched, frantically pushing past debris, ignoring the stinging smoke, reaching for something, anything. Until, at last, he found them.

They were huddled together where a small wooden road used to be, hidden behind a towering clock.

At first, he didn't recognize them. Not by their faces. There were too few of those left intact. Instead, he knew them by what remained—scraps of familiar clothes that were burning, scattered toys, tiny severed limbs.

The ones he had raised, guided, and loved as if they were his own.

Tiny hands that once reached for him with trust, now forever still.

Bright eyes that once danced with laughter, now empty and cold.

Gone.

Denial. A breathless, suffocating void. Then the weight of grief, pressing, crushing—before it all burned away into something else.

Rage.

"GAIUUUUUUUUUUUS!!!"

The scream ripped from his throat, raw, wild, shaking the very air. The children near him flinchedcovering thiere ears, Roan's eyes wide with terror, but he barely registered him.

A storm of fury crashed through viser's heart, violent and all-consuming. It wasn't just anger, it was something deeper, something primal. His breath came in ragged gasps, his chest heaving like a man drowning in fire. His vision blurred, red creeping in at the edges. His fists clenched so tightly his nails pierced his palms, blood trickling between his fingers.

"I will kill him" Viser bited his lips.

"Even if it's the last thing I do"

His entire body trembled, not with fear, not with grief, but with a wrath so vast it threatened to rip him apart. It's been years since he felt this cind of rage, He needed to break something, to tear the world apart until it matched the ruin inside him.

But there was nothing left to destroy.

His burning gaze finally locked onto Flavia. Beneath the fury, sorrow lurked, cold and heavy. He didn't need to say it.

There was no chance. No one had survived. Not her parents. Not anyone in that village.

The screens didn't display the village, he had made sure of that. And of course he wouldn't tell her. Not yet, anyway.

He forced himself to breathe slow, steady. He had to calm down. He still had five children to protect. Charging out in blind fury wouldn't change anything.

He wasn't strong enough, he was just a Dominus.

His fists tightened at the thought, but he pushed it down. One thing at a time.

His gaze fell on the children still with him. His son Nemsus stood closest, worry etched into his face. Viser rested a hand on his head, his touch firm but gentle.

"Don't worry," he murmured. "We'll be okay."

Nemsus didn't ask anything as if he didn't want to know.

Then viser he turned to

Delilah and Nero didn't say anything ,even without showing them what happend they knew just by looking at him. He could see it in their eyes.

Nero looked at his sister a little sadness, yes. But not grief. Not devastation. It wasn't the look of someone who had lost a family member more like a bet. Nero made sure to not show that to viser, he didn't want him to know that even after all the effort after all this time viser still failed at making them humans,

Bero had thought, hoped, that they had finally started to care. That they had changed, but no, they hadn't.

The only ones he and his sister were able to love was viser and nemsus.

Nero exhaled sharply, forcing all that down.

"Fuck it i am who i am"

Roan and Flavia were huddled near the wall, their small frames trembling. The second youngest of the group, Roan, barely thirteen now, he and Flavia looked like they were on the verge of breaking. Their wide, tear-filled eyes darted around, struggling to process the horror around them.

Viser knelt beside them, placing a steadying hand on their shoulders. His voice was calm, firm, grounding them in the present. Only when their breathing steadied did he rise, turning toward the first screen.

Gaius and the white panther filled the view, locked in their relentless battle.

This time, they stopped moving. But the world didn't.

Most the ground was in the sky , torn apart and weightless. It was on fire, burning in unnatural hues. And in the center of it all, the two of them stood, two forces of destruction, unleashing everything they had against each other. Fire, explosions, rocks, trees, the air, time, gravity, raw power—every strike reshaped the battlefield, each clash sending ripples through reality itself.

On the other battlefield, it was different.

The wolf didn't move at all.

It didn't have to.

The shadows did. His, theirs, the trees, they twisted and stretched, shifting with a life of their own, striking, smothering, tearing. And all the while, his six glowing eyes remained still, watching. Calculating.

The eight warriors around him were in constant motion, dodging, countering, trying to land a blow. The battlefield was an explosion of color, too bright, too fast—a storm crashing against an enemy that never had to lift a claw.

It was Nero who spoke. "Care to explain?"

Viser let out a slow breath, his gaze still fixed on the flickering screens of light. "This shell will protect us for now. As long as they don't get too close." His voice carried the weight of experience, steady but laced with tension.

"As for the battle… those eight men out there are Sages. I can only recognize two of them. Duke Tiven of House Ronne and Duke Victry of House Mars. I fought beside them once, when I was younger."

With a small movement of his hand, Viser shifted one of the screens, focusing on one of the men. An old but imposing figure came into view,

A tall man, his face deeply scarred, his hair pure white. Sparks of lightning crackled around him, illuminating his weathered features. Yet, despite his age, he stood like a man in his prime, his body radiating raw energy. He moved with inhuman speed, flickering across the battlefield in blinks, likely using a space rune to teleport.

Between his sudden movements, his attacks rained down, lightning bolts cutting through the night, striking the monstrous creature with relentless precision. He wasn't trying to kill it. He was distracting it, giving the others an opening.

Another screen shifted.

A younger man, looking in his forties, came into focus. He was much smaller in build compared to the first, with brown hair and sharp, calculating eyes. His attacks were different, shadows coiled around his body like living creatures, darting toward the monster in rapid bursts.

The look in his eyes was unmistakable—greed.

He wasn't just fighting, he was watching, waiting, measuring—looking for an opportunity to take something for himself.