Chapter 89: The End of Oheyo
The city was burning.
Not a single district.
Not a single street.
The entire city.
Smoke rose into the sky.
Buildings collapsed.
Magic towers crumbled.
People screamed.
And everywhere—
There were demons.
Not summoned creatures.
Not monsters.
Not beasts.
Demons.
Creatures covered in black flesh.
Creatures with too many limbs.
Creatures with mouths where mouths shouldn't exist.
Creatures whose very presence made people uncomfortable.
Alice felt sick just looking at them.
"What the hell are those things..."
Raj whispered.
One of the creatures lunged toward a fleeing civilian.
Before it could reach them—
A mage blasted it apart.
The creature exploded into black mist.
Only for another to crawl out from a nearby alley.
There were too many.
Far too many.
The city guards were fighting.
The military was fighting.
The adventurers were fighting.
And they were losing.
Everywhere Alice looked—
People were dying.
The city she had admired only hours ago was collapsing before her eyes.
A massive explosion erupted in the distance.
A tower.
One of Oheyo's famous mage towers.
The structure cracked.
Then slowly collapsed.
The sight left Alice speechless.
That tower had stood for centuries.
And now it was gone.
Taai grabbed her shoulder.
"We need to move."
Alice nodded.
The three immediately started running.
They moved through side streets.
Avoided the larger battles.
Stayed away from the demons whenever possible.
Not because they were cowards.
Because they were hopelessly outmatched.
They had trained for years.
Yet compared to the monsters roaming Oheyo—
They were still weak.
Another explosion shook the ground.
Then another.
Then another.
The city was literally tearing itself apart.
As they rounded a corner—
They saw something horrifying.
A group of cultists.
Standing in a circle.
Chanting.
A massive magic circle beneath their feet.
And in the center—
A portal.
Dark.
Violent.
Unstable.
The portal pulsed.
Then something emerged.
A giant claw.
Followed by an arm.
Then a horned head.
The demon that emerged towered over nearby buildings.
Raj nearly stopped breathing.
The creature roared.
And the sound alone shattered nearby windows.
"What the hell is that?!"
Nobody answered.
Because nobody knew.
The cultists immediately started cheering.
Praising.
Worshipping.
The demon raised one hand.
Then casually smashed an entire building.
Stone exploded.
People disappeared beneath the rubble.
Alice felt her hands shaking.
This wasn't a raid.
This wasn't an attack.
This was annihilation.
Taai grabbed both Alice and Raj.
"We're leaving."
For once—
Neither argued.
The three sprinted away.
Behind them—
The giant demon continued its rampage.
Several minutes later—
They reached a higher district.
And finally had a clear view of the city.
The sight froze all three.
Oheyo was dying.
Fires everywhere.
Demons everywhere.
Cultists everywhere.
The city's defenses were collapsing.
And in the center—
A massive battle was taking place.
Even from this distance—
They could feel it.
A pillar of light erupted into the sky.
Then another.
Then another.
The clouds split apart.
The earth trembled.
Alice immediately recognized what that meant.
Vaan.
Someone was fighting Vaan.
And there was only one person capable of doing that.
Brennan.
Alice clenched her fists.
"Brennan..."
The sky flashed.
Blue.
Gold.
White.
The same colors as the circuits.
For a brief moment—
Hope appeared.
Maybe.
Maybe he could win.
Maybe—
A roar interrupted her thoughts.
Not from the demons.
Not from the cultists.
From something else.
Something far away.
Something underground.
The ground beneath Oheyo suddenly shook.
Violently.
Then cracks appeared across entire streets.
Buildings tilted.
People screamed.
The earth itself was breaking apart.
Taai stared toward the center of the city.
"What did they do?"
Nobody knew.
But they soon got their answer.
A cultist ran past them.
Completely ignoring them.
The man was laughing.
Actually laughing.
"The archive!"
he shouted.
"We found it!"
"The archive exists!"
"The Prophet was right!"
More cultists followed him.
Running toward the center of Oheyo.
Toward whatever Vaan had been protecting.
Alice's stomach sank.
The cult hadn't attacked randomly.
They weren't here simply to destroy.
They wanted something.
Something Vaan had.
Something important enough to start a war.
A war that had already killed thousands.
The city shook again.
And then—
For a brief moment—
Everything became silent.
The demons stopped moving.
The cultists stopped chanting.
Even the fighting seemed to pause.
As though the entire world was holding its breath.
Then a blinding light erupted from the center of Oheyo.
Alice instinctively covered her eyes.
The light continued growing.
Brighter.
Brighter.
Brighter.
And for the first time since arriving—
Fear truly entered Taai's voice.
"Alice."
She slowly looked up.
Toward the center of the city.
Toward the source of the light.
And realized something horrifying.
The light wasn't coming from the cult.
It wasn't coming from the demons.
It wasn't coming from Vaan.
It was coming from Brennan.
And it was still getting brighter.