The Glorious Evolution

Velmira shattered the lower half of her mirror with a roundhouse kick and sent its fragments to join them.

Wherever they passed, the ordinary glass turned reflective, each piece connecting to the mirror dimension!

The Ribsplitter stopped advancing.

”Get rid of them!”

He slashed through a cluster beside his head, only for the broken pieces to separate and hover around him again.

Velmira spread her fingers. The fragments scattered above the army and between its ranks, gathering outside every doorway the nightcrawlers could reach. Their reflective sides turned toward the enemy.

The upper half of her mirror shifted into a large circle, which she aimed at the Blood Hunters.

”Sadik, Rasin! Assault Totems and ranged attacks... Into the mirror!”

”Form up!”

The Blood Hunters gathered behind the receiving mirror while their nearest teammates covered the approach. Totems shaped like wooden weapons appeared in their hands, followed by the light of their own abilities as they prepared to fire.

Naima used the opening to lower the woman and her children from the broken window. Her vines guided them behind the rose, where the other rescued citizens were taking cover.

The youngest boy had both hands pressed over his eyes, his small body shaking whenever another nightcrawler screeched.

Naima crouched beside him while her vines closed the gaps around the civilians.

”Open your eyes, little one. Don’t be afraid.”

He shook his head.

”They’ll eat us...”

”They won’t touch you.”

Something struck the vines in front of them. Without leaving his side, Naima drove a thorn through the creature’s head and threw it back into the street.

”Look.”

The boy slowly lowered his hands as Velmira brought hers down.

”FIRE!”

BOOOOM!

Spears of sunlight vanished into the main mirror alongside a barrage of the Blood Hunters’ attacks...

Then, the entire street lit up!!

Golden lances, spears, arrows, and swords burst from the suspended glass, piercing the nightcrawlers from the sides, from above, and even from the fragments hovering between their legs!!

The front ranks collapsed before they could reach the defenders. Those turning to flee received the next volley from behind!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The boy forgot to cover his eyes.

Thousands of fragments flashed in succession, filling the dark street with sunlight fireworks!

A huge centipede reared above the army, reaching for the mirrors overhead... Three golden lances pierced its belly, and its body burst into flames before falling apart into ash!

”Keep firing!” Velmira ordered coldly. ”Don’t give them room to run.”

Sadik and Rasin led their squads in repeated volleys while she moved the fragments past overturned vehicles and broken walls, directing their attacks into the nightcrawlers’ hiding places.

The children watched with their mouths open.

Those horrifying creatures... were running away?

”Show them no fear, little one,” Naima continued in a solemn tone. ”For they thrive on it.”

One of the Tier 3 beetles shielded himself, stumbling toward an open doorway as sunlight burned through his black plates.

”Inside! Get inside!”

He shouted at the others... alas, Velmira turned a cluster of fragments toward the entrance, and the next volley forced them back into the open, where sunlight pierced their damaged shells from both sides!

Whoa...

The boy’s heart thundered as he watched their bodies crumble across the road.

Farther up the street, the Ribsplitter had abandoned his army... his serrated hooks sliced into a building’s wall as he pulled himself toward the roof, desperate to escape.

Naima caught his trailing leg with a vine.

He twisted and sliced it apart, but the delay was enough for Velmira to turn a mirror toward his exposed chest.

”Sadik!”

A concentrated beam vanished into the receiving mirror and erupted directly in front of him!

He crossed his hooked forelimbs over his chest, but as a nightcrawler, he could never block sunlight with mere flesh.

Before the children’s widening eyes, the nightcrawler who had called them his meals burned until nothing remained of him but ash!

”She got him!”

The youngest boy’s shout came out before he realized it.

His sister joined him, pointing toward the creatures fleeing along the walls.

”Get them!”

”Miss Velmira! Behind the cart!”

More children joined in, their voices rising above the bombardment as fear gave way to excitement... Naima remained beside them, her vines guarding the rose while they cheered for the Blood Hunters at the top of their lungs!

Velmira heard them.

She checked the street below. Only scattered groups remained, hiding among the wreckage or attempting to crawl away with their damaged limbs.

”Save your totems!”

The Blood Hunters stopped, and the last sunlight volley flashed through her mirrors.

Velmira turned her palm toward the remaining nightcrawlers.

Every fragment rotated edge-first.

”Glassway Arts: Severance!”

SWOOSH!

Thousands of glass fragments shot forward together!

They swept through the wreckage, pierced armored joints, and cut through the nightcrawlers... before the creatures could recover, the fragments following behind drove into their exposed hearts.

Shells split apart along the street. Bodies fell from the walls, while those trying to hide behind their dead were pierced along with them!

In less than a minute, not a single nightcrawler remained alive.

Hundreds had flooded the avenue... Now, ash and broken shells covered the road, and the children’s cheers echoed across the cleared intersection!

Velmira lowered her hand.

”Good work,” Naima told her captains. ”Sadik, take your squad down the next street with Velmira. Rasin, hold here until the Response Corps closes the Gates.”

The Blood Hunters moved at once.

Velmira drew the fragments out of the wreckage and gathered them around her as she headed toward the next wave of screams.

Naima rose as the boy’s mother took his hand.

”Stay with her,” she told him.

He nodded, still watching the crimson coat disappear past the intersection.

Public Safety officers guided the rescued citizens along the cleared route, while Naima received another breach report... then two more.

She looked up at the black sky.

They could clear street after street, but the Stygian Gates would keep sending more nightcrawlers into the capital.

That canopy blocking the sun had to come down.

...

In another district, the warning reached Hicham just as the last evacuation vehicle left the intersection... The reservoir wall was destroyed, and the water pouring through the breach was heading toward two of the roads his people were using!

The first damage report had arrived during the blackouts.

Unfortunately, the nightcrawlers had reached the maintenance road before the repair crews, leaving the weakened wall to endure the pressure alone.

Now, entire sections were breaking loose, tumbling down the slope alongside a maintenance truck whose driver was still trapped inside.

Hicham opened the recording as the flood reached the lower bank... before it could swallow the waiting vehicles, its leading wave rose into an enormous, dog-like head!

The water spirit caught the truck between its jaws while several others emerged along the slope, forcing the flood away from the occupied roads.

On the remains of the reservoir wall, High Chancellor Gideon Valemont stood in his black robe, his small, hunched figure almost hidden by the spray.

Under his control, the elemental spirits divided the torrent into separate streams and guided them toward open ground.

One lowered the truck beside the officers while another blocked the water threatening to spill over the bank, giving the workers enough time to clear the eastern drainage channel.

’Thank god...’

Hicham was relieved to see the High Chancellor handling the situation... he knew no one else would have handled it better than him, as the breach was wide enough to flood a quarter of the capital, putting the safety of thousands of citizens in its path at risk.

A second report appeared beside the recording.

The Lightbound Intelligence Office had found the source of the dark canopy... black vapor was rising from an idol on the roof of a western storage hall, where a blood-red werewolf stood among several hired fighters.

Hicham recognized the blood-red werewolf and his chained weapons immediately.

”Fang.” He gritted his teeth.

He figured out at once that Bishop Na’thir was behind this organized attack on their home region.

It wasn’t just him... Ysara, Naima, and the Chancellor reached the same assessment the moment their eyes fell on Fang.

”Ysara, Hicham... work with the Governors and destroy the Vile Totem,” the High Chancellor instructed over the command channel. ”The captains will hold the routes.”

”Understood.”

Hicham left without drawing another squad away from the civilians.

From the neighboring warehouse, Ysara had counted four mercenaries around the idol and another two guarding the Stygian Gate inside the hall.

Fang sat on the roof’s ledge while the Vile Totem kept emitting the black vapor behind him... he appeared relaxed and bored as he watched the destruction across the capital unfold, with explosions and screams resounding nonstop.

Meanwhile, a few Solarbound Governors remained in position in the neighboring building... they had them fully surrounded, and yet, Fang didn’t show an ounce of dread.

The Governors were ordered to wait for Ysara and Hicham for support, even though Fang shared the same rank as them... he was that frightening in real life.

Once Hicham reached the opposite ledge, she sent him the positions of their people, Fang, and the Tier 5 mercenaries hovering inside the building.

’Create a disturbance to keep him occupied,’ Ysara requested while manifesting the Nightmare Dagger.

The strange blade reflected none of the portable lights shining across the street. She kept it close to her side and waited for Hicham to make his move.

She didn’t have to wait long.

A sharp whistle pierced through the noise around the storage hall.

Fang looked up... and found a rain of frosted spears descending toward him!

Hicham hovered on top of one, his navy coat whipping behind him as more spears formed around his outstretched arms... Each was as long as a man, with a dense, bluish core visible through the ice!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...

The first volley converged on Fang and the idol, which was pumping darkness into the sky.

”Bring it on!”

A thrilled expression crossed Fang’s face.