Chapter 59: Silken Sonata
Sebastian’s boots skidded against the dirt as he came to a stop in the middle of the clearing. The ground was torn and uneven, trembling beneath the monstrous weight of the obsidian-coated mammoth barreling toward them. The creature’s roar rippled through the forest, shaking branches loose and sending a wave of dust through the air.
Sebastian glanced back at Annalise, who was already gasping for breath, sweat glistening on her forehead. "Annalise," he said, voice steady despite the chaos, "I need thirty seconds."
She blinked. "What—what do you mean thirty seconds!? That thing just evolved!"
He didn’t answer. He just gave her that infuriatingly calm smile.
"Sebastian, don’t you dare—"
"Sorry, you’re faster than me when it comes to stalling," he said casually, and before she could react—
He grabbed her by the wrist and threw her forward.
"SEBASTIAN, YOU PSYCHOPATH!" she screamed, twisting midair as she landed hard on the cracked ground.
Sebastian exhaled slowly, planting the Glassblade into the dirt. Mana began to rise around him like steam, black and blue currents swirling together as he poured every ounce of power he had into the weapon.
Behind him, Annalise pushed herself up, fury blazing in her brown eyes. "You absolute lunatic!"
The mammoth roared again, its tusks gouging trenches through the earth as it charged straight for her. Annalise’s instincts flared, her hands snapping upward as mana threads burst to life from her fingertips.
"Fine!" she shouted, glaring at the oncoming beast. "You want thirty seconds? You’re getting thirty seconds, you suicidal bastard!"
Her mana surged crimson, vivid and alive, pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Silken Sonata—Third Form: Crimson Nocturne!"
The air around her shimmered, then exploded into motion. Hundreds of crimson-hued threads erupted from her hands, slicing through the air in a flurry of light and movement. The strings sang as they moved, a haunting rhythm that pulsed like music itself.
They struck the mammoth head-on, wrapping around its massive legs, tusks, and neck in an intricate web of glowing silk. Each strand throbbed with red light, spreading an eerie radiance across the clearing.
The mammoth bellowed and thrashed, but something was wrong. Its movements slowed, its charge faltering mid-step. It strained, muscles bulging, but the threads didn’t give.
Then the illusion took hold.
To the mammoth, it still felt like it could move freely. It could see itself lunging forward, trampling the girl, and crushing everything in its path. But reality refused to obey. Its body no longer listened. The rhythm of its energy had been silenced, its limbs locked by invisible music.
Crimson Nocturne was not merely binding; it lied.
Third Form – Crimson Nocturne: A snaring performance that halts the rhythm of battle itself. The user releases a flurry of crimson-hued threads that wrap around enemies, binding limbs and freezing energy flow. Illusions overlay the bindings with false freedom; victims believe they can still move until their bodies refuse to obey.
Annalise gritted her teeth, every vein in her hands glowing as she maintained the spell. "Let’s see you move through this, you overgrown rock cow!"
The mammoth’s tusks twitched helplessly, its obsidian skin cracking slightly under the tightening binds.
Behind her, Sebastian’s mana reached its peak. Black mist coiled around him, ice fractals blooming at his feet, and faint blue flames began to flicker in his eyes.
Sacha’s voice trembled in his mind.’Papa, Sacha feels weird... Sacha is hungry.’
Sebastian smirked. "Good. Let it eat."
The Glassblade pulsed with mixed power, death mana, Sacha’s frost, and his own soulflame merging into one unstable, swirling vortex of annihilation. The air warped around it, frost and decay spreading outward in equal measure.
Annalise felt the sudden shift and glanced back, her bindings trembling under strain.
"Sebastian, whatever you’re doing, make it quick!"
He didn’t answer.
The blade screamed with energy, its surface fracturing under the pressure, light bleeding through the cracks.
And in that moment, Sebastian whispered, "Thirty seconds, huh? Let’s make them count."
Sebastian’s entire body tensed. The clearing quaked beneath his feet as mana roared around him, black and blue flames devouring the air, frost spreading in jagged veins through the dirt. The mammoth strained against Annalise’s bindings, its obsidian armor cracking under the crimson threads, its roar shaking the heavens.
Sebastian raised the Glassblade, his voice cutting through the chaos like a knife.
"Nyxian Dirge—Fourth Form: Hollow Thrust!"
The world stopped.
For a fraction of a heartbeat, even the wind seemed to hold its breath. Then—
He hurled Sacha.
The blade left his hand with a thunderous boom, the air warping around it as if reality itself were being bent to make way. The pressure shattered the sound barrier, leaving a sonic ring of frost and shadow in its wake.
The distance between Sebastian and the mammoth didn’t exist anymore. Space folded, collapsed, erased.
The sword wasn’t flying. It was appearing.
One moment, the Glassblade spun through the air, trailing ribbons of blue frost and black flame. The next, it was already buried deep in the mammoth’s chest.
The world caught up an instant later.
The air detonated.
A shockwave tore through the clearing, uprooting trees and sending shards of ice and bone flying. The mammoth’s bellow turned into a wet, gurgling scream as its obsidian armor fractured like glass. Then its chest burst open—a horrific explosion of flesh, blood, and dark energy.
The beast’s heart, lungs, and bones disintegrated into steaming chunks, dissolving into black ash before they even hit the ground.
Annalise was thrown back by the blast, barely shielding herself with mana threads as chunks of frozen gore rained down around her.
Sebastian stood unmoving, one hand still outstretched, his hair whipping wildly in the backlash wind. His voice came low, reverberating with grim satisfaction.
"Pierced straight through the soul."
The Glassblade shimmered in the distance, lodged halfway through what was left of the monster’s chest, black and blue mist leaking from the wound.
’Papa threw Sacha really far!’ came Sacha’s cheerful voice in his head, oblivious to the carnage.
Sebastian let out a shaky laugh, breath fogging in the cold air. "Yeah... that’s kind of the point."
The mammoth took one last staggering step forward, half its body gone, the other half already turning to frost, and then collapsed, the impact shaking the forest one last time before silence finally fell.