Chapter 19: The Scourge Spreads

News bulletins screamed across every screen, every radio wave, every corner of the globe.

“Three hundred thousand dead, no survivors.”
“The enemy of humanity revealed.”
“International coalition formed to stop the scourge.”

Capitals convened emergency meetings. Generals barked orders. Scientists scrambled to understand the impossible. But the truth was grim — nothing prepared them for a power like Aria’s.

In the vast command center beneath Geneva, screens flickered with satellite images showing vast areas in ruin, cities silenced in smoke and ash.

Ren stood beside Aria’s projection — a cold, unyielding figure scanning reports. He turned away, rubbing his face. “They’re mobilizing everything. All the world’s armies. Tanks, jets, nukes.”

Aria’s voice was calm, almost amused. “They fight with weapons made for flesh and bone. I am no longer bound by such limits.”

He searched her eyes, finding no softness. “At this rate, billions will die.”

She shrugged, cold and distant. “So be it. They will be my fuel for the war to come.”

Across continents, from sprawling megacities to remote villages, the pattern repeated.

Chains emerged from the earth, ensnaring every living thing. Torture devices summoned — brutal and merciless.

Masses screamed as flesh was torn, viscera spilt and minds shattered.

Armies advanced but were picked apart like paper under Aria’s might.

Each fallen soldier, each crushed rebellion, each destroyed city granted her more power. She drank it in like a dark ocean, her mana swelling beyond all reckoning.

In a battered war room, a coalition commander slammed his fist on the table. “We need a new strategy! Conventional warfare won’t stop her.”

A scientist, pale and exhausted, spoke quietly. “She draws strength from pain itself. We must sever that source... somehow.”

Meanwhile, Ren wandered the desolation left in her wake, doubt gnawing at him.

He approached Aria in the sanctum, shadows clinging to his expression. “Are you sure this path will bring you what you want?”

Her eyes gleamed with cold fire. “The Entity waits at the summit. Answers. Power. Truth. I will not falter.”

“But at what cost?”

She smiled—half cruel, half tragic. “Everything. And yet, nothing is lost. This world must be cleansed.”

Ren sensed a slight sadness in her voice.

As the sun set on a broken earth, the first waves of the Unseen’s higher army began to stir—silent, inevitable, a darkness waiting beyond the horizon.