Ceug turned to his two allies and told them to head straight for the other battlefronts. They could tell something serious had happened, but they couldn't disobey—so they left right away.
As soon as they were gone, Ceug turned to his partner, tense, and spoke seriously:
"One of ours just died... it was one of the groups Ulqui sent to deal with that Dragoness. This confirms it—some Risen Lord must've noticed something off and sent their subordinates among the Summoners in this nest."
The Ice Hawk scoffed. "How the hell did they fail to kill that half-dragon and her Spiritual Guardian with just one ring? That's real suspicious."
"I sent Ulqui to make sure she was finished… if he failed, that means the other Risen Lords worked together and put more than one mark on the Summoners to keep me from being alerted," Ceug said grimly. "If even his divine arrow didn't work… then our only advantage is that they didn't know about the fragment of the abyssal heart."
Ceug now faced a complicated situation. The plan had been carefully built over a thousand years by a Risen Lord, and it still failed. Now, he and all his allies were in serious danger—if discovered, there'd be nowhere to run. They'd be forced to abandon the galaxy, and surviving outside was impossible.
"Fuck it all," the Ice Hawk said without hesitation. "Break the seal and use the full power of that abyssal heart to kill everyone."
Ceug turned to him and shook his head.
"If we do that, everything will fall apart. Most of the Risen in this nest were created by the other Risen Lords. Refining them would leave obvious traces connecting them to the heart's owner. That would clearly violate the rules of the Celestial Shadow. They'd have every reason to gang up on the traitor and fight to the death."
"So what?" the Hawk said flatly. "They triggered their marks. That means they know about our abyssal heart now. Which means they're coming, full force, to destroy it. The owner left safeguards; when it senses its own destruction coming, it'll use those methods to bring itself back safely. You really think we're making it out alive after that?"
Ceug swallowed hard. A Risen Lord would never leave something that important in someone else's hands without guarantees. The cost might be high, but there was a good chance he could recover it.
"Let's just kill everyone in the nest," the Hawk spread his wings, radiating killing intent. "Then we destroy the abyssal heart fragment ourselves, forcing its owner to be hunted down and killed by the others. When we leave, we'll tell the allied Summoners something went wrong—they won't know the truth for a while. But… when I get back to my universe, the merits for practically killing a Risen Lord and wiping out a nest will be insane."
He smiled coldly.
"By the time I return here, I should have seven rings already, real close to solidifying the eighth. That way, we can deal with any Summoners who know too much and bury this whole mess forever. It's all upside."
Ceug swallowed again before replying quickly:
"That sounds impossible. I can barely use even 1% of that power, and it's just a fragment. I don't have the strength to destroy it afterward. If we try, the Risen Lord will be alerted and come to recover it."
The Ice Hawk smirked. "Ah… you asked me before, and I told you one day you'd understand why."
His whole body started glowing with a bright glacial light. "This is why I created that variation of my blessing. Did you really think I'd let myself be at the mercy of some bastard Risen, just 'cause he's a bit stronger than the others? I've been ready for this from the start."
"The Blessing of Absolute Freezing…" Ceug muttered, thinking. "You really can…?"
Ceug's eyes lit up. That was the greatest power of a Spiritual Guardian. It wasn't called a blessing for nothing—no matter how powerful someone was or how well prepared, blessings could flip the table out of nowhere. An unexpected variation could always pop up and break logic.
"Yes. I'll seal his mark, but it'll come at a heavy cost. Our progress with the six rings will reset completely. But the payoff will be worth it a thousand times over. We'll kill a Risen Lord indirectly, and I'll be the first in history to earn those merits."
The Ice Hawk spoke with conviction. Ceug understood instantly, and a rush of excitement overtook him.
This disaster… was actually a heaven-sent opportunity for both of them.
***
Far away, while Ceug was deciding on his next moves...
Niara and Darian returned to the third row, where Vahnu and the others had just finished off the horde of enemies.
Darian downed all the power recovery pills he'd bought before coming to the nest. They were sold at the academy, made for Spiritual Guardians — they boosted ring regeneration for a few minutes. After using every last one, he had about 10% of his ring's power back.
Niara, on the other hand, was physically fine again, but her Bloodline was completely drained. In short, both of them were in a pretty bad state to try anything.
Well... they were still weak, and no one would really believe they'd accomplished anything from the start anyway. They'd already pulled off a miracle by making it this far and coming back alive.
Darian came back because he had a little faith in that High Elder. He'd figured out a way to identify the traitors, but he didn't have the power to change anything. She probably did, though.
When the newbies saw Niara return, their eyes lit up.
"Big sis!"
She landed beside them and dropped the body of a still 'alive' Summoner she'd been carrying, not bothering to be gentle.
The slug crawled out from her clothes and settled on her shoulder. Vahnu and the others stared at the Summoner, who looked completely out of it.
Darian raised a hand, and a small glowing dot appeared on the guy's chest.
"I did my best. Luckily, this idiot was already injured, and we managed to corner him at the right time. Anyway, can you see that?" Darian pointed at the glowing dot. "That's the traitor's mark. If you use your ring's power and connect to it, like you're trying to send someone a mental message, you'll find something interesting."
Vahnu didn't hesitate for even a second. Her yellow aura flowed and touched the glowing point.
Right then, secretly, Darian activated the dark power inside the guy's body, triggering the mark.
Vahnu's eyes widened.
She could clearly feel all the traitor marks inside the nest. She could sense exactly where they were. The marks were on the Summoners, and they were all connected.
"These are the traitors..." Darian stopped mid-sentence as he saw her pull out a glowing emblem — a High Elder's emblem.
She poured all her power into the emblem without wasting time. Closed her eyes for a few seconds... and when she opened them, there was a bloody glow in them.
Vahnu turned to Darian. "All Summoners carry their emblems at all times — it's the number one rule of Celestia Academy. And the academy's Elders all know where the Summoners are, remember? I'm a High Elder, so my tracking is way more precise. Now, by cross-referencing the location of these marks with the emblem signals... I know exactly who they are."
Everyone heard that and took a deep breath.
"Ceug... this is bad... he's the strongest one and the leader of this whole push. Without him, it'll be tough to take down the nest..." — she muttered, tense. Beyond the traitors, there was also the matter of actually needing to destroy the nest.
"Without him?" Darian asked quickly. "Can you get rid of him?"
She looked at him and nodded: "This is a method created by the Academy, meant to be used against traitors in critical moments. I can detonate any Summoner's emblem. It won't kill them directly, but the explosion's designed to mess with the Mannaz Bloodline, knocking them out of commission for a while. Inside this nest, where only the Spiritual Guardian can fight and move, that's basically a death sentence."
At that moment, Darian and Niara's eyes lit up.
But...
At the same time...
The entire abyssal nest trembled.
"!"
Niara, Vahnu, and all the more experienced ones broke into a cold sweat. It was the presence of solid death closing in on them.
Right then, everyone knew.
This... was the end of everything.