Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

The ghost’s shriek wasn’t a cry of pain—it was a signal.

The moment Nero’s lightning net sizzled around the main distortion, the very air of the rocky clearing seemed to tear. From behind boulders, from cracks in the cliff face, from the shadows under the stunted trees, more patches of deeper darkness peeled away. Dozens of them. A horde of shimmering, semi-transparent ghosts, their forms shifting between human and beastly shapes, eyes glowing with pale, hungry light. They had been lured into an ambush.

The main ghost, weakened by the net, let out another silent pulse. The horde attacked. ℯ

Khione acted first. She threw her hands out.

”Permafrost Wave!” A blast of arctic cold washed over the front line of ghosts. It didn’t destroy them, but it slowed them. Their ethereal forms grew sluggish, trailing frost crystals. It was like hitting water with cold—it just made it thicker, harder to move through. She could impede, but not destroy.

Elreth cursed, spinning her spear. She lunged at a ghost that reached for her with wispy claws. Her fiery spear passed straight through it. The flame did nothing. The ghost swiped back, and its icy touch seared her arm with a cold burn. She hissed, jumping back.

”I’m useless against these things!” she yelled, frustration boiling over.

”Then protect us from what’s real!” Nero shouted, his voice tight with focus.

As if on his command, the main ghost pulsed again. From the surrounding forest, the normal animals they had tracked all day—now with a vacant, glowing glint in their eyes—charged into the clearing. A massive boar, tusks gleaming. Two wiry forest wolves. A mountain cat, its movements jerky and unnatural. They had been possessed, turned into puppets.

This was where Elreth could fight. ”Finally!” she snarled, her anger finding a target. She met the charging boar head-on. Instead of a direct stab, she sidestepped at the last second and slammed the butt of her spear, wreathed in fire, into its knee joint. CRACK. The boar squealed and stumbled. She was a whirlwind of precise, violent motion, holding the physical frontline, keeping the possessed beasts from overrunning Khione and Nero.

Khione, from the back, switched tactics. She couldn’t hurt the ghosts, but she could protect and control the space. ”Glacial Pillars!” Sharp columns of ice erupted from the ground, creating a maze that the slower, frost-bitten ghosts had to navigate, buying time.

She shot ”Ice Darts” with pinpoint accuracy at the eyes of the possessed wolves, blinding and confusing them, making them easier for Elreth to handle.

But the real battle was Nero’s. He was a storm of motion and light. He abandoned the net, pulling his sword. The blade became a conductor for his rage and focus. ”Lightning Arc!” He swung, and a crescent of pure electricity shot from the blade, cutting through three clustered ghosts. They screamed and dissolved into foul-smelling mist.

He never stopped moving. He danced through the chaotic clearing. A ghost would swoop at him; he’d pivot and stab, a bolt of lightning leaping from his sword tip to pierce its core. He was the only source of real damage, and every ghost knew it. They swarmed him, trying to overwhelm him with numbers and their chilling touch.

He took hits. A ghostly hand passed through his shoulder, and his whole arm went numb and cold. He gritted his teeth, channeling Lightning through the limb to burn away the numbness, and kept fighting.

”Nero, behind you!” Khione’s voice, sharp with warning.

He dropped and rolled as the main ghost, having recovered somewhat, lunged from his blind spot. He came up swinging, a horizontal lightning-charged slash that forced it back.

It was a brutal, exhausting stalemate. Elreth held the beasts at bay, her spear a blur of fire and sharp metal. Khione controlled the flow of the ghostly horde with ice and barriers. Nero was the hammer, shattering them one lightning bolt at a time. But there were so many. And the main ghost, the intelligent one, kept its distance, directing the others, waiting for them to tire.

Sweat poured down Nero’s face. His prana was draining fast with every crackling discharge. He couldn’t keep this up forever. They needed a plan, and they needed it now, in the heart of the chaos.

The air in the clearing grew thick with the smell of ozone, burnt fur, and something sour—the scent of decaying magic from the ghosts. Nero’s breath came in ragged gasps. Each lightning blast was taking a toll. His arms felt heavy. The numbness from the ghost’s touch was creeping back into his shoulder, a deep, aching cold.

Elreth was tiring too. A possessed wolf had gotten past her guard, its teeth grazing her thigh before she’d incinerated its head with a point-blank fireball. She limped slightly, but her spear never stopped moving, a ring of fire holding back the snarling beasts.

Khione was the calm eye of the storm, but even her reserves were low. Her ice spells were coming slower, the pillars smaller. The ghosts were learning to flow around her barriers.

The main ghost, a shimmering vortex of darkness, hovered near the cliff. It pulsed with a vile intelligence, watching them wear down. It was winning by attrition.

Nero’s mind raced, cutting through the fatigue. Lightning hurts them, but I can’t hit them all. Khione can slow them. Elreth can fight what they possess.

A desperate idea, born from their earlier training synergy, sparked.

”Khione!” he yelled, parrying a ghostly claw with a crackling sword. ”On my mark, flash-freeze the area around the big one! Everything! The air, the ground!”

Khione’s eyes snapped to him. She didn’t question. She gave a sharp nod, already gathering her will.

”Elreth!” Nero ducked under a swooping specter. ”When the ice hits, I need your biggest, hottest fire blast right into the middle of it! Don’t hold back!”

Elreth kicked a possessed badger away, her eyes wide. ”Fire into ice? It’ll just make steam!”

”Exactly!” Nero shouted, a fierce grin cutting through his exhaustion. ”Just do it!”

He stopped trying to hit individual ghosts. He started gathering every ounce of his remaining Lightning prana. He let it build inside him, a storm contained in flesh and bone. The air around him buzzed, his hair standing on end.

”NOW, KHIONE!”