Part 1
The distant explosions shook the ground, sending tremors that reached where Kael and Rina were hiding. The true sounds of battle—the boom of energy, the roar of engines, and the rattle of automatic weapons—shattered the solemn silence that had just been created. The fragile moment of peace was smashed to pieces.
"A third party? Who are they!?" Kael asked frantically through the headset, his eyes fixed on Lyra, who now radiated a cold, hostile aura. The miniature constellation of stars that had been dancing gently around her now spun rapidly, becoming a turbulent shield of light.
At the command post, the atmosphere shifted from awe to chaos.
"Commander! We've acquired visuals on the attacking units!" one of the operators exclaimed.
The main screen switched, displaying an image from an Order drone that had managed to get close. It showed several humanoid figures wearing advanced combat exoskeletons, colored jet-black with blood-red accents. Their design was sleeker and more aggressive than the Chrono-Gear worn by Rina and other Order units. They moved with deadly speed and coordination, disabling the Order's guard units with precise, brutal attacks.
"That's… 'Crimson Hunt'," Commander Kirana said, her tone sharp and filled with hatred.
"Crimson Hunt?" Kael repeated, not understanding.
Rina, now back in a full combat-ready stance beside him, explained quickly, her eyes never leaving the direction of the battle. "A group of mercenaries and illegal Phantasm hunters. They don't care about containment or understanding. Their only goal is to capture a Phantasm's spectral core, the 'Lunanima Core', to sell on the black market for an exorbitant price. They're notoriously ruthless and won't hesitate to sacrifice civilians to achieve their objectives."
So, they were inter-dimensional treasure hunters. And their current treasure was Lyra.
The thought made Kael's stomach churn. They saw Lyra not as a suffering entity, but as a commodity, a resource to be exploited.
In the center of the crater, Lyra seemed to sense the malicious intent directed at her. Pure rage now radiated from her sapphire-blue eyes, overpowering the sadness that had dominated her before. The stars around her shot outwards, transforming into projectiles of light that rained down on the approaching Crimson Hunt units.
A three-way battle was now inevitable. The Chronosentinel Order tried to maintain the perimeter and protect civilians, Crimson Hunt tried to break through the defense to capture Lyra, and Lyra herself now fought against everyone she deemed a threat.
"This is bad," Rina muttered. "Their attacks are uncoordinated. They'll provoke each other, and the collateral damage will be immense."
She was right. A shot from Crimson Hunt that missed Lyra hit a nearby building, causing a new explosion and sending debris raining down. Lyra's own indiscriminate counterattacks didn't distinguish between Crimson Hunt's black-and-red uniforms and the Order's blue-and-silver ones.
"Vance, can you still feel her resonance?" asked Commander Kirana, her voice tense.
Kael tried to focus, ignoring the chaos around him. It was difficult. Lyra's emotions were now a raging storm of anger, fear, and a sense of betrayal. The sad melody he had heard earlier was now drowned in a painful emotional noise.
"I... I can still feel it, but... it's so chaotic. She's angry. She feels like everyone here has come to hurt her," Kael reported. "That fragile moment... it's gone."
On the command post screen, the leader of the Crimson Hunt unit—a man in a larger exoskeleton carrying some sort of energy harpoon cannon—was seen closing in on Lyra.
"Nova-subject, in the name of profit and glory, you will be ours!" The man laughed through his external speaker, his voice rough and full of greed.
He fired the energy harpoon at Lyra.
With incredible speed, Lyra swung her scythe, deflecting the harpoon, which exploded in mid-air. But the attack was just a diversion. Two other Crimson Hunt members appeared from different sides, firing energy containment nets designed to incapacitate Phantasms.
"Damn it!" Rina cursed under her breath.
Lyra screamed—a silent scream that Kael felt directly in his soul—and unleashed a wave of energy in all directions. The containment nets were destroyed, and the nearest Crimson Hunt members were thrown back. However, the blast also hit an Order unit that was trying to evacuate some wounded personnel.
"Commander!" Rina called into her headset. "We can't let this continue. Lyra can't tell friend from foe. We have to intervene directly!"
"I know, Agent Volkov," Commander Kirana replied. "But if we attack Lyra now, we'll just be proving to Crimson Hunt that we also consider her an enemy. They'll take advantage of the chaos."
The dilemma was palpable. The Order was caught between protecting the city, dealing with illegal hunters, and trying not to provoke the very Phantasm they were trying to save.
Amidst the indecision, Kael saw something. Between the flashes of explosions and energy light, he saw the Crimson Hunt leader preparing a second harpoon shot. This time, he wasn't aiming at Lyra. He was aiming at a nearby office building where a few lights were still on—a sign that there might still be civilians trapped in its emergency shelter.
It was a vile tactic. Keep Lyra busy with a threat to innocents to create an opening.
"Rina! That building!" Kael pointed.
Rina understood immediately. "Commander, Crimson Hunt is about to endanger civilians!"
But before Commander Kirana could give an order, the harpoon was already fired.
Lyra, who also saw the threat, hesitated for a moment. Her eyes flickered towards the building, then back to the approaching hunters. Her anger and her strange protective instinct—the one she had perhaps shown for her created stars—seemed to be in conflict.
That moment of hesitation was the opening Crimson Hunt needed.
"Now!" their leader shouted. Several other members fired containment projectiles from multiple directions, aiming for the distracted Lyra.
This was the critical point. If Lyra was hit, she would be captured. If she ignored the building, innocent lives would be lost.
Kael couldn't just stand and watch. He had no superpowers, no advanced weapons. But he had something else.
"Rina, cover me!" Kael said with newfound determination.
"Vance, what are you going to do!?"
"I'm going to try and reach her again!"
Without waiting for approval, Kael ran out from his hiding spot, straight into the open.
Part 2
"KAEL!" Rina shouted in shock, but she didn't hesitate. She immediately followed, firing precise shots from her energy pistol to suppress the nearest Crimson Hunt members, buying him a precious few seconds.
Kael ran into the middle of the street, ignoring the debris and danger around him. He stopped in a clearly visible spot, between Lyra and the targeted building.
"LYRA!" he shouted, his voice small amidst the din of battle, but he poured all his focus and emotion into that cry.
Lyra, who was about to move, flinched. Her head snapped towards Kael. In the midst of her storm of anger and fear, the presence of this weak human suddenly appearing on the battlefield was a confusing anomaly.
Kael looked straight into Lyra's sapphire-blue eyes, trying to break through her emotional storm. He focused all his senses, his entire soul, on the "melody" he had heard earlier.
"I know you're angry! I know you're scared!" Kael yelled again, his voice now amplified by an emergency public address system that Rina had activated remotely. "They came to hurt you! But look at me! I have no weapon! I don't want to hurt you!"
Several containment projectiles from Crimson Hunt sped towards Lyra. Rina, with incredible acrobatic movements, managed to shoot down a few of them, but one slipped through, heading straight for Kael.
"Vance, look out!" Rina yelled.
Kael saw the projectile coming, but he didn't move. He kept his gaze fixed on Lyra, betting everything on this one chance.
Just before the projectile hit him, a miniature star that had been circling Lyra shot down with lightning speed, striking the projectile and detonating it a few meters in front of Kael. The shockwave made him stagger, but he remained standing.
Lyra had protected him. Instinctively.
At the command post, everyone gasped.
"She... she protected Vance," Commander Kirana murmured, her eyes glued to the screen.
The moment created a brief silence on the battlefield. Even the Crimson Hunt members seemed surprised.
Kael seized the opportunity. "The song you were singing earlier... the hymn of your stars... I heard it! It was beautiful!" he said, his voice sincere. "Don't let them ruin it! Don't let their hatred turn your song into a scream!"
Kael's emotional resonance was now focused like a laser, sending his sincere feelings—his admiration for the beauty Lyra created, his sadness for her suffering, and his pure desire to help her.
The storm of anger within Lyra subsided slightly. Confusion reappeared in her eyes. She looked at Kael, then at the scythe in her hand, then at the hunters who were beginning to prepare another attack.
The energy harpoon aimed at the building was getting close.
"I believe in you, Lyra," Kael said in a softer voice, but he knew she could "hear" it. "Choose your own song."
As if those words were the trigger, Lyra made her decision. She ignored the hunters for a moment, swinging her scythe in an elegant, sweeping motion towards the harpoon heading for the building. A precise cosmic slash disintegrated the harpoon into energy dust, saving the building from destruction.
Then, without pause, she turned to face Crimson Hunt, her eyes flashing with a different light. No longer blind rage, but a focused anger. The anger of a protector.
"Now!" Commander Kirana gave the order. "All Order units, focus your attack on Crimson Hunt! Disregard subject 'Lyra' for now! Assist her!"
The order was surprising, but effective. The Order units that had been on the defensive now moved forward, attacking the Crimson Hunt units from the flanks, creating chaos in their ranks.
"You're insane, Vance," Rina said, standing beside Kael, protecting him. "But it seems your insanity worked."
Kael smiled in relief, his breath ragged.
For the first time, the Chronosentinel Order and a Nova-class Phantasm were fighting on the same side, against a common enemy.
The Crimson Hunt leader swore loudly. "Damn kid! Retreat! We're pulling back for now! Mission failed!"
Seeing the situation turn against them, the Crimson Hunt units began a disciplined withdrawal, disappearing into the city's shadows as quickly as they had appeared.
After the last enemy vanished, the tension in the air slowly dissipated. Order units secured the area, while Lyra just stood still, her scythe lowered. The stars around her returned to a gentle orbit.
She looked at Kael one last time, a long, deep gaze. There was no more anger or emptiness. Only an immense exhaustion, and an un-spoken flicker of gratitude.
Then, like morning mist dispelled by the sun, her body slowly turned transparent and vanished, along with her constellation of stars. The Lunanima Rift in the sky began to close on its own.
Kael finally felt his knees go weak. He sank onto the cold asphalt, his adrenaline fading, leaving behind an overwhelming exhaustion.
He had done it. Somehow, he had made it through the storm.
But he also knew, this was just the beginning. Crimson Hunt now knew about him. And the dilemma he faced—between pacifying Phantasms and protecting them from a cruel human world—was to become his new destiny.
Rina crouched beside him. "You're a complete idiot, Kaelen Vance."
Kael turned his head, and for the first time, he saw a faint, genuine smile on Rina Volkov's face. "But... thank you."