"Step back!" Gregory commanded.
The soldiers of Umbria hesitated, gripping their rifles and halberds tightly as the three Nova Genesis mercenaries advanced through the temple gate. Zuno's cold gaze didn't waver, while Jaxx cracked his neck and Kate quietly took aim, her magitech rifle humming.
"I said fall back!" Gregory's voice boomed this time—imbued with subtle magic. The men and women obeyed without question, retreating to help evacuate the townspeople.
Gregory's robes rustled in the wind as his aura flared—an ethereal light woven with ancient codes and incantations. The runes on the stone floor around him began to glow.
He raise his palm as magical circles formed midair. "If you think this old man is an easy mark, you are making a fatal mistake."
Zuno's smirk didn't falter.
Then, without warning—
Boom.
Jaxx leapt forward, swinging his axe down like a meteor. But Gregory shifted, gracefully dodging and countering with a blast of kinetic magic that hurled the giant back.
Kate fired. Plasma rounds shattered against a barrier of light.
Zuno dashed in, blade crackling. He was fast—almost inhumanly so—but Gregory predicted his moves, parrying with a conjured staff of crystalline energy. Sparks of light and sound filled the courtyard.
Each clash tested Gregory's limits—but each strike from him landed with calculated power.
Minutes later, Jaxx lay unconscious, his axe broken. Kate, pinned to the wall by vines of energy, hissed in frustration. Zuno knelt, coughing blood, blade cracked.
"You were warned," Gregory said quietly, standing tall among the wreckage.
---
Meanwhile…
Guided by Eva's AR navigation, Akira weaved through narrow ravines and winding paths. The terrain shifted from rocky wilderness to busy trade roads. The ruins of Virelyn came into view: once a city of splendor, now a chaotic sprawl of tents, guild banners, smog, and flickering neon signs.
Hovercrafts zipped past decrepit towers. Bards and information brokers shouted over one another. A techno-mage chanted in a forgotten tongue while a merchant sold suspicious artifacts to an orc.
Eva's voice chimed. "You have arrived."
Akira parked the magitech hoverbike behind a crumbling stone wall and wrapped it with a camouflage cloth. Pulling up his hood, he stepped into the crowd.
"Excuse me," he asked a lizardman merchant. "Do you know someone named Selene Kaelis?"
"Try the Dustfire Tavern," the merchant hissed. "If she hasn't killed anyone yet today."
But before Akira could move, three men stepped in front of him.
Rough-looking, eyes glinting with greed, weapons half-drawn.
"You there," the leader barked. "Nice ride you parked out back. Hand over the key."
"I don't have one," Akira replied.
"We're not asking."
The three thugs closed in—
CRACK.
A gust of wind. One thug slammed into a stall.
WHAM.
Another was swept off his feet, knocked into the mud.
The third hesitated—until a cold female voice cut through the noise.
"Touch him again, and you lose more than your pride."
Akira turned.
A tall, elegant elf woman stood there—white cloak fluttering, blade still humming with kinetic energy. Her silvery eyes locked onto his.
Selene Kaelis.
---