With these words Teros vanished from sight—and before Xavier could even react, he found his right arm severed from his body. The young man couldn’t even follow what had transpired; all he noticed was a sliver of black energy separating the limb from his body before Teros’ corruption reduced the arm to nothing at all. The result was a cold sensation where his arm once sat, before searing heat erupted at the shoulder from which it was severed. Like Jayce before him, his body reacted with a geyser of unformatted energy, as Khaaos’ vast powers were no longer adequately sealed within his braver form. Teros grinned as he erected another barrier to protect himself from the violent spray of blue flames, which seemed to destabilize the very fabric of reality as they spewed forth. Interestingly enough, this uncontrolled eruption of Khaaos seemed much more difficult for Teros to deal with. While he had almost effortlessly shrugged off most of these youngsters’ attacks until now, the amount of effort that he had to exert to protect himself from Xavier’s uncontrollable energy was visible on his face.

With a loud growl, he pushed through the torrent of uncontrolled Khaaos, closing the distance between himself a Xavier before mustering the energy to slap the young man away. Nikolai gasped as he watched Xavier’s semi-conscious body be hurled, under the influence of Teros’ backhand, into a crowd a Xelot knights who were instantly reverted by the powerful discharge coming from his body.

“Damn it.” He muttered, still shaking off the attack from minutes earlier. “You alright, Jayce?” He inquired, but received just a pained groan in reply. “Cover me, while I go stop Xavier’s discharge.”

Another grunt from Jayce preceded Nikolai summoning his energy into himself, covering his body with the armoured shell of his Aegis before sprinting off in the direction of Xavier. Jayce could barely stumble to his feet at this point, and Roun seemed dazed some metres away from him. Luckily, Teros’ attention seemed far away from the youngsters.

Instead of attempting to finish them, Teros made his way towards his prize, a fact that was not lost on the Xelot forces.

Deacon immediately dispatched his most powerful knights to the area, but with a single wave of his hand Teros reduced them all to nothingness. Not even Marshack could muster the energy to stop this deity as he re-entered the fray. Re-emerging onto the battlefield, one of the most powerful men on the planet was dispatched in a single blow as Teros trod ever closer to the spatial distortion. With no one left to stand against him, Teros rested his hands on the almost solid reverberations of space and time that constituted the Stone Henge phasic gate. All Roun and Jayce could do was watch powerlessly as he poured his corrupting energy into the anomaly. Strangely enough, he didn’t seem to be trying to pass through the gate. No, that was not the plan of this legendary Destroyer. These guardian hosts had become all too well aware of the fact that he did not need to flee—his plan therefore had to be something far more sinister. All present watched as unfathomable energy poured out of Teros and into the gate, which served as a conduit between Tera and Oya, causing it to expand the already towering structure exponentially as it was fed.

In seconds the thin sliver of distorted space-time grew to encompass the enter battlefield, and there was no stopping its spread. Metres away, it had taken much of Nikolai’s remaining strength to stem the bleeding of energy from Xavier’s shoulder, leaving the Geon host mostly spent while Xavier was completely incapacitated. Roun and Jayce had finally made it to their feet, but they soon found that the fusion of their world with Oya had left them with another problem just as big as Teros.

Roun growled as his augmented senses were bombarded by the stark reality of a fused world. The full potency of wild magic filled his senses, dancing playfully around the zeta and Ki that permeated Terra normally. But inside this magic, he could also sense the unfettered code of the true haima’sa.

The sensation sent a cold shiver down his spine.

“We need to get out of here.” Roun muttered over their comm link.

“What’s going on Roun?” Nikolai inquired, as the battles raged on around them.

“I can sense haima’sa—and a lot of them.” He replied.

“That’s definitely not good.” Nikolai muttered. “Xavier’s out of commission, he’s not going to be any help.”

“It doesn’t matter—we can’t stop Teros here anyway, but Jayce and I can at least cover you and the remaining Xelots while you clear out.” Roun replied.

“Yeah, with our combined power, we should be able to draw their ire long enough for you and the Xelots to get out of Avalon—this place is already lost.” Jayce chimed in, still slightly groggy from Teros’ last attack. “We’ll regroup in Merricent, wait for us there.”

Nikolai gritted his teeth, as he tried to come up with alternatives but finally, he simply conceded.

“Fine, we’ll meet you there.” He sighed. “Be safe.”

These were his last words as he mustered the last ounces of Geon’s strength and hoisted Xavier onto his shoulder.

“Deacon, we need to get out of here.” He stated, to the equally reluctant Commander of the Xelot knights while Roun and Jayce summoned the powers of their guardian spirits one more time.

“Fine.” With a light growl, Deacon conceded. “All Xelots, retreat. Odessa is lost.”

The command pained him, but even with the brevity of their battle with Teros and his forces, he had to admit that there was no other choice.

“Nikolai—” He started “—retreat to the base with my men, transports will be waiting. I need to retrieve the Lord Paladin.”

Nikolai just nodded in return, before turning and making his way towards the Council’s fortress.

Hours passed…

By the time that Roun and Jayce made it back to the small, island-nation of Merricent, the thin veil that separated this tropical Terran paradise from its Oyan counterpart had already been pealed back. Where once, two nations occupied this space—separated temporally thanks to the splitting of the worlds by Dias so long ago—the Merricent Empire and Kingdom of Malaikin now found themselves abruptly crammed into the same tight space in this newly reformed Gaea. The results were catastrophic, and this catastrophe led to chaos.

As Roun and Jayce materialised in the now congealed kingdom, they were greeted by this chaos. Even with gold flames leaking from his left eye, Roun could see the effects of Teros’ machinations. Rather than preparing for his inevitable assault, the Merricent and Malaikin forces were now preoccupied with each other, each fending off the perceived invasion of a foreign force. The youngster’s scoffed at the situation. They’d jumped from one war, straight into another.

“Damn it.” Roun coughed violently, spewing golden flames from his tattered throat as he spoke, leaning against Jayce just to keep himself upright.

“We failed.” The Dias host responded, leaking red flames from about his body as he did and struggling to hold onto his feint grip on consciousness.

“Not yet.” Roun shook his head, drifting in and out of consciousness himself. “Not as long as we’re still alive.”

And alive they were, albeit barely.