Ten Miles outside of Kuoh
The skies above Darkened with unrelenting pressure, a presence with unnatural fury had arrived. Rain clouds hovered above like a storm ready to devour everything. A immense aura that clawed at the edges of light like a beast long imprisoned. It was something ancient, something malevolent, and it had come not to herald a storm, but to be the storm.
The earth trembled beneath the city's foundations. Ancient ley lines normally dormant veins of magic flared beneath the soil like they were recoiling from something foul. The streets themselves groaned, whispering of a terror not seen since the old wars.
He was here.
A evil dragon. Son of The Fallen Personification of drought.
Vritra.
Through The Rift a jagged scar split open in the sky purple and black lightning slithering across its edges as if the heavens themselves were being peeled apart. From the rift emerged a form so vast it made skyscrapers look like toys.
Vritra. Black scaled and massive, his body stretched through dimensions like a serpent of shadow. He his wings massive, but he didn't need them. The void moved with him, cradled him like a crown. Fire not red, not orange, but void born trickled from his claws as he tore through the dimensional veil with contempt.
Behind him came his spawns.
Vicious Monsters crept about.
Grotesque hybrids of dragons, demons, and nightmares. Winged abominations with too many eyes, serpentine horrors with metallic jaws and shrieking maws, quadrupeds with molten spines. They weren't an army they were a plague.
And they all moved with a single purpose.
Total Destruction.
"Kuoh," Vritra snarled, his voice so deep it caused windows to shatter across the city, "will burn for your arrogance. And with it, the sun child who dares to challenge my dominion."
The Phoenix Estate War Room
Riser stood atop the balcony of the war room. His golden eyes stared unblinking at the darkness spreading across the sky. His cloak billowed in the sudden gust, flames flickering from his pauldrons.
Below, his peerage stood, armored, armed, and ready.
"I felt it before the sky changed," Riser said, his voice low, reverberating with barely contained power. "Vritra or show I say his spawn had arrive. This isn't a skirmish. This is war."
Milim, floating in mid air with her arms crossed and her baby shadow dragon curled on her shoulder, snorted. "About damn time. I was getting anxious."
Artoria knelt beside her lion familiar, her helmet under one arm. "We'll hold the city. But what about the humans?"
Riser turned to Kaijin. "Evacuate them. All of them. Activate the sanctum protocols. Barrier grids go up now. Prioritize the schools, the shrines, and the central blocks. This is our war to fight to prove that nothing in the face of my power can stop me."
Kaijin nodded. "Already on it. The leyline temples will hold if I reinforce them personally."
Merlin stepped forward, the wind tugging at her long violet robe. "The dimensional rift is growing faster than expected. If he breaches the city's core"
"He won't," Riser cut her off. He stepped forward, flames lighting in his palms. "His children are yours. He is mine."
A heavy silence fell.
Daryun, ever the loyal knight, stepped forward, his glaive gleaming. "Your orders are clear, my lord. We fight. For Kuoh. For our home."
Thalia grinned, twirling her spear. "Let's crack some skulls."
Merlin placed a hand on Riser's shoulder. "Even gods feared The original Vritra, you know, who knows if his son has reach his level or surpassed it."
Riser turned to her, his eyes fierce but warm. "I'm not a god, Merlin."
His smile flared like dawn. "I'm worse for him a Phenex that refuses to die."
Kuoh The Battlefield Awakens
The first wave hit like a tidal surge.
Vritra's spawn Raced into Kuoh, hissing, howling, screeching. Streets cracked beneath them. Buildings groaned. Light flickered.
Then came the flames.
White fire erupted around the city's most important locations, engulfing it in radiant light. Protective barriers forged from demonic energy and Phenex fire shot upwards, encasing them in a shimmering dome. Riser's Phenex Domain activated in full.
From the roof of his estate, Riser Standing still, his body alight with solar fire.
"You came to my city," he called out, his voice carrying through the storm, "now face the sun you so fear!"
From the outskirts of the city, Vritra emerged, the air warping around him.
"You dare speak light to me, child?" he bellowed. "I am the abyss that devours stars!"
"And I," Riser roared as white fire wings burst from his back, His axe sword in one hand "am the fire that gives them light."
Their collision split the sky in two.
Streets of Kuoh The rest of his Peerage Strikes
Artoria led the charge down the boulevard, her blade blazing as her lion pounced onto a shadow beast. She cleaved its wings clean, then swung her sword in a radiant arc that bisected a second monster.
"For my king!" she roared, eyes glowing.
Thalia zoomed past, her thunder hawk unleashing bolts of electric fury. "You ugly bastards picked the wrong city!" She twirled her spear and speared three enemies in one strike, riding the storm like a Valkyrie.
On the rooftops, Kaijin anchored himself with a stomp, raising his warhammer. Runes activated beneath him as leyline energy surged into his weapon. "I won't let you corrupt our roots!" With a mighty swing, he shattered a charging beast into shards.
Above, Merlin floated with elegance. "Let me show you why I'm Merlin my kings Queen," she hissed, casting a rune circle that pulled several dragons into the air and then crushed them with a descending pillar of cosmic flame.
On the street below, Daryun was an unstoppable machine every strike of his glaive severed limbs, wings, and heads. "Hold the line!" he bellowed.
Nago was a juggernaut, charging through enemies with enchanted armor, each step shaking the ground. "NO ONE GETS PAST ME!"
And then, amidst the chaos
"WHEEEEEE!"
Milim.
Laughing with glee, her aura exploded in a whirlwind of violet and pink. She hurled a massive energy sphere into the sky, obliterating a whole squadron of shadow wyrms.
"You wanna touch my Riser?" she yelled, grinning manically. "COME THROUGH ME FIRST!"
Above the Battle Phenex vs. Void
In the sky, Riser and Vritra clashed like titans.
Riser's axe staff Kaijin's finest divine weapon blazed with the heart of a dying star. Each strike forced Vritra back, splintering the void around him.
"You are but a candle in my storm!" Vritra screamed, darkness billowing from his mouth.
"I don't need to outlast you," Riser spat back, "I just need to incinerate you."
He was wounded but healed just a fast as it appeared. His armor cracked. His breath steady. But his eyes, his will burned hotter than ever.
"You're afraid," Riser said, circling him. "You see it, don't you? The flames you can't consume. The light you can't extinguish."
Vritra paused for the first time, his claws twitching.
Riser rose higher, golden light pouring from his wings. His form began to shift heat radiating so intensely the air itself warped. His body shimmered with white fire, solar plasma outlining his frame.
True Phoenix Form.
Incomplete.
But rising.
The city watched in awe from the holograms as the sky ignited.
On the streets, the peerage held strong.
In the skies, the dragon faltered.
And at the heart of it all bloody and unyielding stood Riser Phenex continually healing like the damage didn't affect him.
The governor of Kuoh.
The Phenex of a new age.
And as the Darkness consumed everything, He stood casting his light upon the battlefield, one truth burned brighter than all else.
The sun was not falling.
It was just beginning to rise.