Wave after wave, primal after primal ca at Vivian like an unending tide. At this point, she had been battling the primals for half an hour, yet she barely showed any signs of fatigue.
Her movents were still just as fast, if not faster than, and precise as when the battle began.
"Is this the power of a mythic rank?" Commander Ajax, still standing on the top of the wall, said.
"Wh... What kind of a monster is she?" Commander Voss stuttered.
Vivian was taking down not only Gold tier primals but multiple platinum tier without breaking a sweat.
The ground around her was completely covered in ash, charred earth and so platinum tier primal cores.
She had deliberately not burnt those because she planned to give them to Reid and his friends.
Vivian knew that Reid also liked forging so these would be the perfect gifts.
{I sense a massive surge of energy up ahead} the phoenix suddenly said.
"I sense it too" Vivian said, gathered the cores into her inventory and took to the skies.
The closer she got to the energy surge, the more primals she encountered. Turning them all to ash, she continued moving forward and soon enough, she saw it—
The cause of the energy surge was a rift floating mid air.
The space around it was being distorted and bent. From within, waves of primals exited and beyond the rift, Vivian could see the faint outline of what seed like mountains.
"That’s where they’re coming from?" Vivian asked in surprise.
She had only seen sothing like this once before and that was when Reid had sohow forced the shard of Malrath to return to its source.
{Yes,} the phoenix responded. {And if that rift is open here, it ans soone intentionally created it.}
Vivian frowned, her gaze narrowing. The first suspects that ca to mind were the sa ones responsible for summoning Malrath—the Cult.
Reid had inford her about how Malrath was summoned because of a group that called themselves the cult.
They had only managed to summon a shard of him—a fragnt of his being, and even that had nearly destroyed the entire city, so another portal opening was nothing but bad news.
"Is there a way to close it?" She asked as she kept dealing with the primals exiting.
{I don’t think so} the phoenix pause for a while before adding {not from out here anyway}.
"So you’re saying I have to enter the rift if I want to close it?" Vivian asked.
{Yes,} the phoenix answered {I can sense the anchor point within the rift and it’s... moving?}
"Then I have no choice," Vivian said,
{Yes but—} before the phoenix could advise against entering without knowing what was beyond, she had launched herself towards it.
Vivian’s flaming golden form streaked through the primals, the weaker ones turning to ash rely from the intense heat she radiated.
{Vivian, wait!} the phoenix called, but it was already too late as Vivian had already entered the rift.
As she passed through the rift, reality seed to shatter and distort for a mont.
She felt as if she was swimming against the currents of a wave, but that didn’t stop her from passing through.
A mont later, she completely passed through the rift and the first thing she noticed was the land around her.
It seed like she was in a valley of so sorts but that’s not what really got her attention, Neither was it the endless amount of primals eyeing her like a predator does its prey.
No.
Her attention was pulled upwards. The sky above was painted black, almost like the night sky but Vivian knew better.
But what was even weirder was the sky was cracked, shattered even, just like glass.
Beyond the shattered sky was nothing but the void. But Vivian didn’t get the chance to focus on all that because soon enough, the primals surrounding her attacked.
Vivian didn’t have to do anything, she just transford fully into flas and increased the heat she emitted.
The attacking primals didn’t get a chance to retreat as they were all soon turned to ash.
"Point towards the anchor" Vivian said when the last primal was turned to ash.
{It’s directly ahead} the phoenix said {but it’s still moving.}
"Alright, let’s get this over with and return," she answered and floated up "we don’t want to worry Reid."
With that, she flew towards the direction the phoenix felt the anchor.
Soon enough she caught up, and the reason why the anchor was moving was revealed.
Covered in a black cloak and riding on what looked like a primal was a human... Or that’s what Vivian thought anyway.
{That’s the anchor} the phoenix pointed out.
With a nod, Vivian imdiately stopped mid-air and aid her spear at the cloaked figure, throwing it, the spear streaked through the air leaving a trail of flas behind.
The figure already seed to be aware of the incoming attack and before it could land, a wall of earth tried blocking it.... tired.
It seed that the cloaked figure had underestimated Vivian’s attack or perhaps they just overestimated themselves, but the earth wall was not enough to stop the incoming spear.
The spear passed through the earth wall like hot knife through butter. Luckily, the wall had successfully diverted the spear’s path so it was only able to hit the primal, completely turning it to ash.
The cloaked figure fell off and rolled in the dirt but quickly recovered and started running forward, almost as if it’s salvation was just a step away.
Vivian narrowed her eyes. "You’re not getting away," she muttered.
She approached the figure at high speeds, almost reaching it, but before she could a bolt of lightning descended from the black skies, crashing directly into her.
The running figure suddenly stopped and turned to her, a grin on its face as it said,
"Gotcha."
________
----Minutes before Vivian entered the rift----
"She’s out of sight sir" the personnel with the binoculars reported.
Reid frowned, even though he knew his mom was strong—one of the strongest, in fact—he couldn’t shake off the growing sense of unease.
This was only increased by Evo’s sudden report.
[The primals are coming from a rift] she inford.
’A rift?’Reid asked, confused.
[I’ve been reading a strange surge of energy since we got here and it matched the one Malrath was summoned from] Evo explained.
Reid’s expression darkened, was the cult trying to summon Malrath again?
He had seen the destruction caused by it the first ti and he wasn’t willing to let that happen again.
The wave of primals suddenly stopped and the previous dust clouds were no where to be seen.
’Did Mom close it?’ he asked.
He was familiar with the process of closing a rift, having done it before alongside Elizabeth, so if his mom had already closed it this quickly, it either ant one of the primals was the anchor or the one responsible was just standing there, waiting.
[No, the rift is still open] she reported [it seems she’s dealing with the primals from within.]
Reid’s fists clenched as he processed Evo’s words. She’s inside the rift? Alone?
He took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm of worry building in his chest. His mom wasn’t reckless. She was tactical, experienced, and a Mythic-rank.
But still, entering a rift without knowing what lay beyond was dangerous, even for soone like her.
He imdiately turned to the commander and reported, "Sir, there’s a rift opening just ahead. That’s where the primals are coming from."
"A rift?" Commander Ajax muttered, then asked, "How far is it?"
"About a mile ahead, Sir," Reid repeated what Evo had told him, before adding, "and my mother just went inside."
______
Back inside the rift, Vivian groaned as she moved out of the crater ford by the lightning.
The attack had surprised her, not in terms of its damage but the fact that it caught her off guard.
"You survived that" a booming voice sounded from above "impressive."
The praise didn’t sound like one, it felt like a human being surprised at an ant surviving a stomp from them.
"Hahahaha" the cult mber let out a laugh as he looked at Vivian "you’re the only obstacle in master’s path right now and I have the honor of making this obstacle disappear."
His words made Vivian frown, not at the ntion of a certain Master, but due to the fact that the cult sohow knew that she was at the military base.
Before she could get the chance to ask anything, a massive shadow passed above them.
Looking up, Vivian spotted the owner of the previous voice and her attacker. The primal landed by the cloaked figure’s side, sending dust and debris flying.
"et my master’s pet," the figure sneered. "The storm dragon, an ancient beast awakened for a single purpose, getting rid of —"
SPLAT!
Before the figure could complete whatever he was saying, the dragon swatted him like an annoying bug, causing the cultist to explode in a bloody shower.
"I. AM. NO. ONE’S. PET." the dragon growled, its voice dripping with contempt.
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