The void portal tore open in a silent ripple, giving way to a realm drenched in unnatural twilight.
Alexa stepped through first, her dark golden hair flowing like strands of molten tal, her eyes blazing with the sa hue. The pulse of energy radiating from her made the very air ripple.
Anastasia followed, her presence commanding yet asured, her violet eyes sweeping the strange landscape with curiosity.
Abaddon erged next, void coiling around his tall fra as he moved with effortless grace. Zara, hesitant but composed, stepped out after him. Shez followed last, lingering slightly, her ghostly figure watching the surroundings with a predator's calm.
The world around them was silent.
The skies hung low, oppressive with shifting shades of gray, as if painted with ash and storm clouds threatening to break yet never doing so. The ground beneath was cracked, pale, and dry like forgotten earth untouched by life for centuries.
But it wasn't real.
Alexa exhaled softly, raising her hand.
A pulse of dark golden energy rippled out from her palm, washing over the bleak landscape like a slow-moving wave. The illusion peeled away—not shattered but gently unraveled, revealing the truth beneath.
The veil lifted.
Anastasia blinked as reality corrected itself. Zara staggered half a step back, her senses overloaded with the shift in perception.
Before them lood a massive, ancient fortress.
Once majestic, now decrepit. Stone towers with weathered banners flapped in a windless void, the walls cracked but pulsing faintly with residual magic. The entire structure felt... wrong. As though it resisted being perceived.
"Where... where is this?" Zara's voice was uncharacteristically soft. For all her travels, all her conquests, she had never seen such a place. Worse, she couldn't even sense its true location.
"One of the unknown zones of the mortal realm, Zara," Anastasia answered, her arms folding beneath her ample chest.
Zara blinked, stunned. "Unknown zones?"
Her mind raced. Dangerous zones were rare, places where reality twisted—filled with monsters, traps, and wild energies that defied logic. But unknown zones? They were another matter entirely.
Zones so far removed from mortal comprehension, so distorted, they couldn't be found or entered by will alone. One had to stumble into them by accident. At least for normal people.
Yet Abaddon had casually opened a portal to here casually.
"Which one are we in, exactly?" Anastasia turned to Alexa, narrowing her eyes.
Alexa didn't respond imdiately. Her gaze stayed locked on the fortress, her golden irises smoldering with quiet intensity.
"The least dangerous, really," she finally murmured, though the way her voice echoed held a weight far beyond re words.
It was as if the land itself listened.
"Miss," Abaddon intoned, bowing slightly towards Anastasia. "This is the place where that man is hiding."
Anastasia's lips curled. "So, we're here to...?"
Alexa's golden eyes narrowed further.
"This was my first mission in my life. Pyris took once—when he was dealing with a mber of Sly Mines."
"He's busy now. If I don't finish what we started, these pests will bring more trouble than we can afford... especially with what's coming next, sister-in-law."
Anastasia's smirk softened ever so slightly, but there was no warmth in it—only curiosity and understanding.
Alexa stepped forward.
And stomped.
The ground cracked beneath her bare foot, a ripple of dark golden energy surging from her body in a sweeping arc. The earth trembled.
The fortress trembled.
A do of golden-black light erupted around the entire structure, encasing not only the fortress but the land itself. Magic surged, binding the area in an unbreakable barrier as the do pulsed once more—before fading into near invisibility.
A seal.
An impeccable one.
Even Zara could feel the barrier lock reality into place. There would be no escape. She feared the current Alexa was even stronger than Pyris himself!
Alexa's voice rang out, cold and absolute.
"Abaddon—capture Silas and that vampire. I want them alive."
Abaddon bowed.
"Shez—detain everyone else. Unconscious. But don't touch a certain dragon if you find it." Shez inclined her head, vanishing into the void.
Your next journey awaits at My Virtual Library Empire
Zara stared, still processing the sheer authority Alexa exuded. "They could handle this alone, Alexa. You know that."
Alexa's smirk widened seeing Alexa already going to the fortress too.
"I know. But I want to get my hands dirty to finish the mission I started. And besides—"
Her body tensed, the golden aura sharpening around her like a blade.
"I need to stretch."
And with that, she blurred forward, a golden cot streaking toward the fortress. Anastasia chuckled, folding her arms. "Show-off."
_____
Inside the fortress.
Cries echoed through the damp, cavernous halls.
The clash of steel rang out—briefly—before being silenced by the sound of bodies hitting the stone floor.
Abaddon was a storm.
A black and violet blur toying with them...
The ten ard figures surrounding him barely had ti to react. One lunged—only for Abaddon to vanish, reappearing behind him, a single backhand sending the man crumpling into the stone wall with a sickening crack.
The next ca from the side, swinging an enchanted glaive—Abaddon caught the blade mid-swing, shattering it with a twist of his wrist before driving his knee into the attacker's chest.
Ribs snapped.
Three more rushed him together.
Fools.
Abaddon's shadows expanded, tendrils of violet energy wrapping around their throats, yanking them off their feet. They hung suspended, gasping for air as he turned his gaze to the last four.
The phantom spoke, voice low. "Co closer... make it worth my ti."
They fled.
Outside, Anastasia shook her head, lips curling.
"Amateurs."
_____
Dragomir Skalethorn sat in a high-backed chair of dark mahogany, the dim, sickly light from the grey skies outside filtering through the cracked window of his chamber. His sharp, draconic features were illuminated by the pale glow of the tablet in his hands, his golden eyes narrowed as he scanned line after line of reports.
Docunts detailing Sly Mines' activities, failed operations, and proxy withdrawals scrolled endlessly.
The vampire countess had abandoned them. Several other agents were missing. The network was unraveling-but not entirely broken.
Tomorrow night. That was when everything would end.
The culmination of years of careful scheming.
He had thought their setbacks were nothing more than misfortune. Had assud Pyris' intervention as Petne Chaos was a freak occurrence.
But fate was rarely so kind.
A soft voice broke the silence like a whisper of velvet laced with steel. "Long ti..."
The words echoed softly, but they were everywhere-behind him, around him-saturated with authority and venom. A pulse of dark golden light blood at the door, illuminating the stone floor.
Dragomir's head snapped up, his draconic instincts flaring.
There she was.
No mistaking her.
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