Amanda: "Cancel boost."
Like glass meeting hammer, the twisted domain—Amanda's subconscious, hijacked by Lirael—shattered. Reality cracked. Power vanished. That obscene 300x amplification Lirael had leeched off Amanda? Gone in an instant.
Lirael: "Wha—what's happening!?"
Amanda took a step forward, voice cold and steady.
Amanda: "I took back what was never yours."
Lirael:
"Why?! After everything I've done for you?! When the world abandoned you—I stayed. I gave you purpose when no one else even looked your way. I protected you, nurtured your pain, made you strong. And this is how you repay me?"
Hikari pushed to her feet, raising a hand between them. Her voice cut sharp like broken glass.
Hikari: "You're not touching her again. You've done enough damage. Amanda… want to finish this?"
Amanda's expression didn't waver. Her eyes were hollow galaxies. No anger. No pity. Just the void.
Amanda: "You didn't care about me. You just wanted control. You fed on my grief like it was yours to own."
Lirael: "Amanda, please, I—"
[CUT TO:]
Amanda's hand rose.
She knelt. Pressed her palm to the crumbling ground.
Amanda: "Hollowing Touch."
BOOM.
The domain split wide—fissures tearing across the surreal, decaying landscape. The cathedral groaned as if mourning its own collapse. The twisted dreamscape of grief and memory couldn't hold any longer.
Hikari didn't wait. She grabbed Amanda and Lila with a burst of telekinesis and launched into the sky just as the Weeping Cathedral began to implode—its obsidian spires crumbling inward like a dying god gasping for air.
The Despair Loop screamed beneath them, caught in its own unraveling, memories snapping like brittle wires. The Void at the center—Lirael's heart of nothingness—gaped wide, hungry, collapsing in on itself.
Lirael.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
A piercing wail ripped through the collapsing domain as Lirael's form twisted and contorted in a final, desperate bid for survival. Her flesh cracked apart like shattering porcelain, reforming into a grotesque, eldritch abomination. Eight gnarled arms erupted from her back, each ending in jagged, clawed appendages that pulsed with sickly, violet veins. A multitude of bloodshot eyes blinked open across her malformed skull, each one burning with unfathomable rage and desperation.
"BRING BACK MY POWER SOURCE!"
She lunged forward, her massive, misshapen body distorting space with sheer force. The air around her crackled and warped, the pressure of her presence alone sending deep fractures through the ground beneath her. Before she could reach the trio, however, a barrage of negation spears—jagged, obsidian constructs radiating pure nullification—ripped through the air with the sound of splintering reality itself.
SHHK! SHHK! SHHK!
The spears impaled Lirael's monstrous frame in multiple places—torso, limbs, even some of her writhing eyes. A distorted shriek tore from her throat as the spears didn't just wound her—they devoured her. The essence of her form, the very concept of her existence, was being erased as the shards burrowed deeper, unraveling her flesh like a tapestry being violently unwoven.
Lirael.
"WHAT!?"
Her wild gaze darted toward the origin of the attack, and what she saw made even her heart seize with shock.
Standing amidst the wreckage, bathed in the eerie glow of the disintegrating domain, was Elias Ravenscroft, the Occult Scholar.
A thin smirk played across his lips as he adjusted his glasses, the lenses gleaming ominously in the dim light. His gloved hands were still outstretched, residual wisps of negation energy flickering between his fingertips.
Elias.
"Sorry, Despair… but your manipulation and destruction stop here."
Before Lirael could react, before she could even process her rapidly deteriorating state, the trio was already moving.
Hikari, Lila, and Amanda shot into the sky, propelled by Hikari's telekinesis. To any onlookers, they were nothing but a streak of cyan light carving a blazing path through the fractured atmosphere.
Hikari.
"NOW!"
The trio punched through the barrier of the domain, and the sensation was akin to shattering through glass. The air outside was thick, sluggish—as if reality itself was struggling to reassert itself after the sheer warping influence of Lirael's existence. But they made it out.
Amanda, eyes alight with unearthly power, extended a trembling hand toward the decimated remains of Long Island City.
Amanda.
"Oblivion's Lament."
A ripple of silence passed over the world.
Then—a cataclysmic eruption of violet energy lanced downward, screaming through the air like a dying star. The very sky seemed to weep as the blast hurtled toward the earth, twisting and spiraling like a living entity seeking to consume all in its path.
The instant it touched the ruins of the city, reality itself recoiled.
The explosion wasn't just an obliteration—it was an unraveling.
A 250-meter radius was instantly consumed in an expanding wave of absolute nothingness. Buildings, streets, vehicles—they didn't burn, didn't shatter—they simply ceased to be. The once-standing skyscrapers of Long Island City crumpled like dried husks before they, too, were erased. The roads fractured outward like spiderwebs before being swallowed into oblivion, the very memory of them vanishing as though they had never existed.
The shockwave wasn't just powerful—it was cataclysmic.
A violent pulse of force ripped outward from the epicenter, flattening everything in its wake. Even distant structures—those miles away—buckled under the sheer pressure, their glass windows exploding into razor-sharp fragments that rained upon the lifeless streets. Cars were launched into the air like weightless toys, twisting and warping mid-flight before being reduced to unrecognizable heaps of metal.
The river bordering the city was not spared. The shockwave displaced the water so violently that a towering, monstrous wave surged outward, crashing into distant boroughs with devastating force. The very tectonic plates groaned, cracks splitting the earth deep below the surface, sending tremors rippling across the landscape.
And at the heart of it all—where once a city stood—there was only a void.
A gaping, abyssal scar in the earth, where even the laws of reality seemed hesitant to reassert themselves. The edges of the crater shimmered with residual tendrils of violet, as if space itself was still unraveling, still struggling to comprehend what had just occurred.
Above, Hikari, Lila, and Amanda hovered in stunned silence, their forms outlined against the chaos below.
Hikari squinted at the obliterated landscape below, her voice carrying a blend of shock and dry disbelief.
Hikari.
"Did you really just do that..?"
The wind howled past them, scorched air brushing her cheeks. Her eyes didn't leave the gaping, reality-warped crater Amanda had just carved into the earth. Her tone sharpened, teeth gritting slightly as she turned to Lila.
"Lila, you've been in the supernatural world longer than I've even known what a curse mark was. Be honest with me—how normal is it for a ten-year-old to pull off something like… that?"
Lila didn't answer at first. She couldn't.
Her gaze was locked downward, pupils trembling as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing. Not just the environmental carnage—but the aura Amanda left behind. It wasn't just powerful. It wasn't even just divine.
It was wrong.
Like the world itself had been rewritten in a single moment… and reality hadn't caught up yet.
Lila.
"…No. Never."
Her voice was barely a whisper, like she was afraid the wrong word might bring the entire sky crashing down.
"This isn't just 'strong.' This is on a level I didn't think humans—even gifted ones—could reach. What she did… that wasn't power. That was finality."
She tore her eyes away from the wasteland below, her expression unreadable.
Lila.
"I thought she'd be volatile, sure. Emotionally unstable. Grief-driven necromancy can warp the soul. But this…?"
Her voice trailed off as a low rumble echoed from the city's remains—or what was left of it. The very air around them was distorted, like the laws of physics were still trying to figure out how to behave after Amanda's attack.
Lila.
"She didn't just cast a spell. She invoked Oblivion. And Oblivion doesn't borrow power. It replaces reality."
Hikari glanced over at Amanda, who hovered nearby in eerie silence, her tiny frame dwarfed by the cosmic pressure still radiating off her. Her eyes were glazed over, still glowing faintly—like she wasn't all the way back from wherever her mind had gone during the blast.
Hikari.
"…And she still looks like she just woke up from a nap. What the hell is she?"
Lila didn't answer.
Because deep down, she didn't know.
And that scared her more than anything.
Hikari gently lowered herself to the ground, guiding Lila and Amanda down with her telekinesis. The world felt still, like the air had been sucked out of the city, leaving behind only the echo of destruction. The remnants of Long Island City were barely recognizable—ruins smoldering under the weight of Amanda's overwhelming power.
Lila stood motionless for a moment, her gaze scanning the wreckage. She felt it, too—the oppressive weight of what had just unfolded. This is nothing like the stories I've heard…
Lila.
"…This really is something."
She turned her eyes to Amanda, who stood quietly, as if nothing had happened. As if the carnage around them didn't even faze her.
Lila.
"Amanda… how did you do that?"
Amanda shrugged, a dull confusion in her eyes, her voice barely above a whisper.
Amanda.
"I… I don't know. I've always had these powers… for as long as I can remember."
Lila frowned, sensing the weight of Amanda's words—the truth buried beneath the surface, an answer that wasn't quite an answer.
Lila.
"You've always been able to… do this?"
Amanda nodded slowly, her eyes distant as though she wasn't sure whether she was talking to them or to herself.
Amanda.
"Yeah. But I never knew any of this was real. I didn't even know Lirael was a monster."
The air grew heavy with the silence that followed.
Elias.
"Well, she sure as hell was. A powerful one at that."
Before the trio could even process his sudden appearance, Elias Ravenscroft stood there, as calm as ever, his eyes sharp and calculating. He always seemed to appear just when the tension was at its peak. This time, though, there was something different in the way he looked at Amanda. Almost… intrigued.
Elias.
"I've read about the Witch of Despair before, but…" He let out a low whistle, his gaze never leaving Amanda. "I didn't expect her to be this powerful."
Hikari spun on her heels, narrowing her eyes at him.
Hikari.
"When the fuck did you get here?"
Elias gave a slight shrug, his expression a mix of amusement and something darker—a glimmer of understanding that only someone like him would have.
Elias.
"Don't worry about it. But Amanda…"
He stepped closer, the air around him subtly shifting, the faintest shimmer of reality warping under his gaze. With a quick, almost imperceptible motion, he activated the Sigil of the Warden's Gaze—a complex symbol glowing softly across his palm.
Elias focused, his eyes narrowing as they met Amanda's. Through the sigil's power, his perception cut through the veil of illusion, revealing the raw, terrifying essence of Amanda's aura.
Elias.
"…Wow."
The words barely left his lips before his voice dropped into a low, contemplative tone.
Elias.
"It's almost like she's… death incarcerated."
He could see it now, the gravity of Amanda's power. It wasn't just supernatural; it was an entire realm of destructive potential wrapped in a child's body. Her presence wasn't just oppressive—it bent the very fabric of space around her, distorting reality with every breath. Elias wasn't just seeing her for what she was. He was seeing what she could become.
The silence stretched on.
[CUT TO: OUTSKIRTS OF TOKYO]
Far from the devastation of Long Island City, a different scene was unfolding. At the edge of Tokyo, the skyline flickered under the weight of unseen forces. A man in an all-black suit with dark sunglasses stood, staring out over the city as though expecting something—or someone.
The man's voice was low and unyielding.
???:
"Esper 026, step forward…"
From the shadows, a figure emerged—a girl with unnaturally pale skin, hair as white as snow, her presence almost too still, too calm for the chaos around her. Her eyes, glowing with an orange, otherworldly energy, pierced the night. The ground beneath her feet crackled with raw psychic energy, swirling and shifting like a storm waiting to break.
Her voice, when she spoke, was colder than the night air.
Esper 026.
"…Understood."
Her psychic energy flared, a surge of power that sent shockwaves through the very air, as though reality itself recoiled from the force she was about to unleash. The sky seemed to darken in response, the city below an insignificant backdrop to the storm she was about to summon.
[CUT TO: LONG ISLAND CITY - SMOLDERING RUINS]
Back in the ruins, Hikari stared down at Amanda, her thoughts racing. The city around them was nothing but a scorched skeleton of its former self, the remnants of lives and livelihoods erased in a single burst of overwhelming energy. The wound was deep—too deep to ignore.
But it wasn't just the destruction that weighed on Hikari. It was the feeling that something even darker was creeping closer. The dread that even this moment of triumph over Lirael was just the calm before the storm.
Hikari.
"What the hell happens now?"
Lila's eyes narrowed, and she placed a hand on Amanda's shoulder, offering a rare moment of comfort. She didn't know the answer to Hikari's question, but something inside her knew—this was only the beginning.
Amanda's quiet, almost blank expression suggested she wasn't even aware of the storm brewing around them, or perhaps she was just too exhausted to care.
Amanda.
"I don't know…"
Her voice was small, barely audible, like the child she still was beneath all the power she wielded.
END OF ARC 2