"What a waste of World Origin," Smiling Devil chortled. "Do you know what I could have done with that instead?" Some anger started to leak into his voice, making Mistress Alyra's mood lift a bit. His loss of composure delighted her. So far he had seemed to be in control, like everything was still within his expectations, but it seemed he had really not expected her to burn this rift world's Origin to trigger a World Cry.
"Hehe," she chuckled. "So that was what you were after. World Origin?" she asked with amusement leaking into her voice. It seemed she had hit the nail right on the head.
"Are you mad?" she asked when Smiling Devil refused to answer, basically affirming her deduction. "Of all things, you were after the World Origin of a rift right in the heart of our territory?"
"Ha!" Smiling Devil guffawed. "Your blind confidence in your family's power never ceases to amuse me."
"Mistress, I can assure you that not a single sign of anything happening here can be detected from the outside... Nothing at all. We're going to die here together... fading into oblivion along with the world you just killed..." He grinned wickedly, turning his head with what little strength he could muster, just to see her face as she realized her folly.
Mistress Alyra didn't give him the satisfaction he wanted. Ever since Smiling Devil first appeared, she had been trying to contact the outside, all to no avail. As the only Ryvelin assigned to this rift, she had Master access to things even the now-deceased commandant hadn't known about. There were measures and countermeasures for dire situations. Full access to the rift world's Origin was one of them, though it was meant more for show. No family member assigned to this rift had ever been forced to use it... until now. It was what had enabled her to cast a superior spell and even trigger a World Cry resonance. She had used up this little world's Origin, and regardless of the reason, she knew she'd have to answer to her family later. But for now, she had to figure out a way to get her message through.
Smiling Devil laughed. "It's no use. Your message is being blocked from the outside. Make peace with yourself... We're going down together. Me, you, and every single living thing in this fucking world."
"Have you ever seen a world die, Mistress Alyra?" he asked rhetorically, seemingly eager talk with their deaths assured. "I have. This isn't my first rodeo. My master once took me along on a similar mission to gain experience. Though it was a smaller rift... way smaller. The Origin feedback gotten was meager. After it was refined, it was only enough to push him to tier 6."
"Refined? The Umbral Tower has Origin refinement techniques?" Mistress Alyra asked with a frown.
"Oh, Mistress... There's so much you don't know..." He sighed.
"Anyway. What I was driving at is that our deaths aren't going to be pleasant. Thankfully I'm on my way out already. So it's you and everyone left." He chuckled. "I don't envy you. First, you're all going to slowly turn on each other. Your mana will go haywire as the world destabilizes. After a while even a mana barrier wouldn't be enough as the flakes falling from the sky—" Smiling Devil's grin froze, his self-satisfied look shifting into a frown as he squinted at the sky above with his good eye.
"Ho? So you noticed. Guess I didn't sell it well enough." A voice spoke from nowhere, carrying authority and a cold, condescending edge.
Mistress Alyra's head snapped up instantly. "Sister!" she called.
A silver-haired lady materialized out of thin air, appearing right between Alyra and Smiling Devil, who was shocked into silence.
A closer look revealed she was the same commander who had addressed the recruits before they entered the rift. Her regal air was still there, her pristine white uniform trimmed with silver at the edges. She looked and felt every bit like royalty.
She cast her gaze onto her younger sister, a look of chastisement mixed with a hint of care in her eyes. Alyra lowered her head in defeat and shame, but most of all, relief. Relief that she wasn't going to die. Relief that everything was now under control.
Her overclocked state had worn off a while ago. She was in no shape to do anything, so she was content to have someone to lean on.
A ghost of a smile crossed the silver-haired lady's face before it vanished like it was never there, replaced by a cold gaze that locked onto the stiff Smiling Devil.
"What? Cat got your tongue? Don't mind me and keep yapping away. I was enjoying your tales." she said coldly.
Every trace of the smug smile on Smiling Devil's face vanished, replaced by horror and despair.
"Mistress Regina... Law— Lawbearer?!" he whispered in shock. "How is that possible? We factored in everything while preparing for this... How are you here?!"
"Hmph!" She snorted as she waved a hand. Smiling Devil's good leg was sliced in half with that wave as a thin blade of ice whizzed through his leg.
"ARRGGHH!!!" He screamed in pain.
"I never asked you to speak my name." She said. "Remember that I don't need you whole to get the information I want. I have ways to keep you alive with only your head remaining."
"Haa... haa... haa..." Smiling Devil panted, stifling another scream. The cut hurt far worse than it should have.
She was the cause. She had control of the laws here. He was sure of it. But according to the Umbral Tower's intel, Mistress Regina wasn't a Tier 7 Lawbearer. Not even close. The last report pegged her as late-stage Tier 5. Even if they'd underestimated her, she should be at most a newly evolved Tier 6 Transcendent.
He was clearly stuck in a render. There was no other explanation for the extreme pain he felt, combined with the missing details of what should have been happening in a real, rapidly decaying world, he was certain his conjecture was right. But how was she capable of doing this? It was sloppy, yes. But it was still a real render. And only Lawbearers could render laws into existence, turning a section of the world into their playground.
"I guess there's no need for this any longer." Mistress Regina said as the world within twenty meters around them started dismantling like a painting made from a million jigsaw puzzles, bit by bit.
The real world that opened up before their eyes was in chaos and disarray. The sky spiraled like it was being sucked into a vacuum. Large chunks of earth floated in the far distance as gravity and other natural laws started to dismantle starting from the far reaches of the world. A deep, unsettling black void that devoured everything into nothingness crept slowly from the far distance, past the dark forest and further beyond. It was like a black border that marked the edge of the world.
This world was being erased. Its anchor had been devoured and there was nothing left to protect it from the void.