Upon hearing the voice, Mira's heart faltered, her breath stopped with her mouth agape, with her mind now in a state of shock. Lyria contorted her facial muscles and, with a sense of knowledge and understanding, raised her right hand and slapped herself on her left cheek.

  Brennan, who was just watching on the sidelines, had a small drop of sweat slide off his cheek. Despite his worries, he focused on what he could do and thus, he gripped his axe tightly with both hands, and lowered his core muscles and faced the frozen Stygians in front of them. Deep within him, an unbearable emotion came flooding through his veins, which was only offset by his discipline and experience.

  Mira's vision suddenly snapped awake as she fell chaotically to the ground. With such intense pain, she gritted her teeth, confused, but then as things started to slowly fall into pieces, she snapped back. With a new focus and clarity, she rose to her feet and gazed at Lyria who had her eyes streaming with tears.

  With her eyes darting nervously, trying to avoid attention. Having had enough of it, she tightened her right fist into a ball and hammered her right thigh, which did the job.

  "Thank you, cousin!" She said as she immediately pivoted in the opposite direction. From her vantage point, she could see the crimson light being emitted by the Ironside. It was unceasingly moving, as if it was just standing there menacingly, merely observing them, which immediately gave her some goosebumps.

  Nevertheless, she moved forward and nodded her head, realizing that apologizing now would waste even more time. She rummaged through her mind, scanned the surroundings, tried to identify potential points of conflict and, lastly, triangulated where the hell they actually were.

  This was all happening as the pitter-patter of the black rain continued to huddle together the Stygians as well as creating new ones. When she finally remembered and found her answer, she immediately raised her right hand, with the index finger stretched out, and with a clear and firm voice she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  "Over there!" At the same time as she was screaming, it was cut off, as thunderous sound echoed through their surroundings, temporarily cutting off the pitter-patter of the black rain overhead.

  A radiant light flashed through their eyes, like cerulean flames that could not be extinguished by the corruption of the black rain. Slowly but surely, it roared with such intensity, it immediately dissolved any Stygians that were unfortunate to touch it. Its crimson, black ichor stained the earth with such death that it turned the ground aghast with burning flesh and dissolved tissues.

  But then it did not stop there, as contrary to her thoughts of amazement, another deafening sound came erupting from the Ironside.

  "By the northern star!" Brennan, who had his wolf's ears flattened over his skull, exclaimed in shock.

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  Nevertheless, Mira felt a throbbing emotion deep within her bones, as if something within her was changing, or becoming understood. "Such beautiful technological capacity." She muttered under her breath, just in time for smoke to start arising from the ground that erupted, now filled with crimson, black liquid.

  The Ironside then moved, its crimson eyes turned right to left, and with a deep command it uttered. "Lead now!"

  Mira, understanding what was happening, immediately took the lead, with the crimson eyes carefully following and analyzing her hands and bodily movements.

  "Lieutenant, we have so far been able to maintain the percentage of power at 18 percent." Vigil gleefully said as he hummed through the entire communication systems. "My research analysis shows that every time we kill a Stygian, our energy reserves seem to fluctuate upwards."

  Altair then fell into a deep contemplation, with his hands moving on autopilot, something he acquired after spending years with the Ironside. "As if we are harvesting them?" He said with a puzzled smile, but then he continued. "Wouldn't that mean we could gain this atmospheric energy by passively absorbing it, and killing these so-called Stygians or, in my very own words, Abominations?" He said as his smile started to grow bigger and bigger.

  Upon hearing Altair, and in full agreement with him, Vigil whirred happily through the communication systems. As newly formed nodes within his codes started to expand and connect even more frequently. Unbeknownst to Vigil, his computing power is increasing by an order of magnitude as time passes by.

  "Yes, yes!" Vigil said. "In fact, if my hypothesis from earlier is correct. Then that would mean we could manufacture more weapons and upgrades to the Ironside without you having to leave the Ironside." Vigil continued.

  Altair raised his head, his ears slightly moving with great interest, as relief slowly started to come back within him. Yet, that would not last for long, as the interface in front of him started to billow with crimson light.

  "Vigil?!" Altair questioned as he dashed both of his hands into the console. "What is that?!" he said, as four bright unknown biological signatures erupted a few hundred meters in front of them.

  Vigil screeched through the communications panel, a forbidding emotion coming through his codes, as if it was trying to edge him. "Research analysis confirmed it is a Stygian. They have the same biological signature, but they seemed to be vastly different?!" Vigil said, his voice going in and out. "What is this? Homo sapiens and Neanderthals moment?" Vigil tried to humour, but it did not work.

  "I don't think this is the right time for th—" He was cut off, as the frozen Stygians around them started to regain their footing, and so thousands of biological signatures suddenly appeared once again on his sensors.

  "Oh, fuck!" Altair and Vigil simultaneously screamed at the top of their lungs, and for Vigil, his codes.

  Mira stared in front of her, with her eyes wide, and a ball stuck within her throat, as anxiety rose to its maximum. Lyria beside her suddenly dropped her staff, but Brennan supported her and grabbed the staff before it struck the ground.

  "It can't be…" Lyria said as both of her irises were contracting in and out due to shock. "Are they supposed to appear at this time of the year?"

  "Yes they could…" Mira said, her eyes never leaving the humongous beast in front of them. "As long as there is a strong enough of a black storm, they could appear."

  Brennan gave the staff back, his heart loudly pounding, as he too gazed back up. "It's been a long time since I encountered one." He mournfully said, then continued, "Nightmares…" He let the words drift into the air.