CHAPTER 1123: NOTHING

The being’s movement was slow but deliberate. When he raised his arm, every warrior on the rampart tensed at once. The instinct burned into them through countless battles screamed one thing, that it was an attack.

The air thickened, the sound of rain dulling under the sharp hum of gathering Magic.

Adrius’s jaw tightened. His eyes locked on the figure as droplets ran down his face, merging with the sweat that already dampened his brow.

He could feel the pressure of the overwhelming power radiating from that entity in the sky. But he did not allow himself to falter.

His heart pounded violently, threatening to show the fear that gnawed at him. But no matter how much that fear clawed at the edges of his mind, he could not show it. Not here, in front of them.

"Don’t worry," Adrius said, his voice enhanced by Magic to carry through the storm. "I’ve already erected the barrier."

The words spread through the line of defenders. Mages steadied their hands, archers reloaded their bows, and knights lifted their shields higher.

The tension remained but their fear began to dull. Adrius’s presence alone was enough to remind them why they had survived countless battles before and they will also survive this one.

The figure in the air suddenly drew lightning into himself. Bolts split the sky and struck his body one after another, merging into a single blinding radiance around his body.

The sound was deafening and shaking the stone walls beneath their feet. And then, the lightning began to dance across his skin like living veins of light. It was a sight that was both mesmerizing and horrifying.

Adrius felt his gut twist. "He’s absorbing the storm’s energy... that means he’s its master."

Then the being pointed directly at the battlements.

A heartbeat later, the world erupted.

Bolts of lightning shot down in rapid succession and became a flurry of destruction so fast that even trained eyes could barely follow.

They struck Adrius’s Magic barrier with an explosion of light and thunder. White-blue and blinding sparks scattered through the rain in front of them.

The barrier shimmered under the onslaught, its runes blazing so intensely that several of them cracked.

The sound was also almost unbearable. It was a chain of detonations that tore through the air. Warriors and Mages flinched, some raising their arms to shield their faces as the brightness seared their eyes.

However, Adrius didn’t blink. His enhanced sight cut through the blinding light, allowing him to see what others couldn’t see.

He saw that the figure was still there. He was calm, almost serene, watching the chaos he unleashed with a faint smile.

That smile sent a chill through Adrius’s spine. It wasn’t the grin of arrogance or madness. It was worse. It was a smile of certainty. The kind of smile one wore when they knew the outcome of a battle before it even began.

He clenched his teeth. "What is that thing?!"

The barrier trembled under another impact. Cracks of light raced across its surface, and Adrius could already feel the strain pressing against his control.

But he knows that he couldn’t afford to let it fail.

—

Inside the tower, far from the walls’ chaos, Lysander still sat hunched over a pile of records and tomes.

The echo of thunder rattled the shelves, but he barely noticed.

His eyes darted across old parchment again and again with desperation to find even a single mention of a being who could command storms like this.

But there was nothing. He had reread every archive of known gods, spirits, and elemental entities. Every page ended with the same blank or inconclusive passages.

His hand trembled as he slammed another book shut.

"Nothing... damn it!" he hissed under his breath.

He looked toward the window and seeing the flashes outside were no longer distant.

The storm was raging close. He could hear the faint roar of impact even through the walls and lights through the window.

His master was already in battle. There was no time left.

Lysander stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor. He knew Adrius had told him to keep looking and identify what they faced right now.

But what good was knowledge when the enemy was already tearing down their gates?!

"Just like the forest god that time," he thought bitterly. "We searched endlessly and it wasn’t in any record. Because it came from another world! Only Erend capable of defeating it."

His pulse quickened as the realization settled in. If this storm-being was the same as that forest god, which was something ancient, foreign, and forgotten, then no amount of reading in their records would help them now.

He turned and strode toward his own bedroom as the tower trembled under another distant strike.

He entered his room and started looking for his gear. His staff, the enchanted cloth armor tailored for his spells, and the sigil rings he always wears when fighting.

Sliding the last of them onto his fingers, Lysander exhaled, his frustration shifting into resolve.

"If I can’t find its name, then I’ll just have to fight it, right?" he murmured.

Outside, lightning was flaring even brighter. Lysander opened the window and flew there.

—

Lysander flew through the rain, the wind whipping his cloak behind him as he darted between sheets of water.

From above he could see small groups of curious townsfolk huddled under awnings, their faces tilted up toward the sky as if the lightning were some spectacle rather than a death sentence.

He clenched his jaw and dove lower.

"Get inside or you’ll die!" he shouted, his voice touched with a sharp practical charm of Magic that carried across the storm.

The command vibrated through the air, and he saw heads snapped down and eyes widening with sudden fear.

People dropped whatever they held and bolted for shelter, doors slammed, shutters banged closed. The ground emptied as if a hand had swept the crowd away.

Lysander shook his head and angled toward the ramparts where Adrius and the defenders strained against the onslaught.

The lightning made the sky strobe. The flashes painted the world in stark white and deep shadow. The flashes also revealed the figure still floating above the field.

He landed beside Adrius with the soft thud. Adrius did not look at him. His eyes were fixed upward.

"Did you find anything?" he asked without taking his gaze from the sky.

"No." Lysander’s words were flat. "There’s nothing in the records. It’s not listed. Nothing matches its pattern."

Adrius grunted. He tightened his grip on the haft of his staff until his knuckles whitened.

"I knew it," he thought.

"Then we fight."

"Yes." Lysander answered, plain and quick.

A brief silence settled between them, filled only by the torrential percussion of rain and the echoes of the lightning strikes.

Around them the soldiers readied themselves.

—