Chapter 580: Arin And Fidelia.

Standing at the edge of the Abyss gateway, the second figure blinked twice, trying to process the scene before her.

Her eyes swept across the battlefield, taking in the countless beasts charging toward the ruined defensive wall, and the soldiers desperately trying to hold their ground.

"How could this be?" she muttered, shock dripping from her voice.

She had just returned from the Abyss and the last thing she expected upon finally reaching the surface was a massive beast tide attacking the city.

Her eyes narrowed as she caught sight of a figure moving through the tide.

The swordsman.

His body moved with uncanny efficiency, every swing of his longsword precise.

A massive beast charged and only for it to meet a sword strike.

Dead.

Another rushed from the side and he turned slightly, cutting it down before it could even reach him.

There was no wasted movement, no unnecessary strike, no hesitation. Every blow was enough to kill.

The woman watched him for several seconds, her shock deepening.

Who is that?

Her gaze shifted toward the defense base in the distance, and the sight immediately changed her expression.

The wall had been destroyed in several places, blood splattered across the ground and staining the once-sturdy structure to a dark red.

Soldiers carried injured comrades on stretchers while medics rushed between them.

Her expression turned solemn.

She looked back at the swordsman, still fighting alone, already forcing the tide backward. And without hesitation...

Whoosh!

She vanished from her spot.

The soldiers on the wall barely registered her movement. Only a gust of wind swept across the battlefield before she reappeared several hundred meters away, directly before a massive beast that resembled a giant lizard.

The creature stood more than three meters tall, its body armored in thick scales that caught the glow of the surrounding thermal weapons.

Two blades appeared in her hands.

The lizard roared, jaws opening wide, and raised a claw to crush her. But before it could react, she moved.

Slash!

Two flashes of light crossed the air, and the beast’s head separated cleanly from its neck.

Blood sprayed skyward like a fountain, and the enormous body stood a moment longer before collapsing.

Boom!

Dust rose across the battlefield.

She didn’t pause to admire the kill as she was already moving toward the next target.

Whoosh!

Her figure flashed again.

A beast lunged at her from behind; she twisted her waist, avoiding its claws by a narrow margin, and both blades moved at once.

Slash!

Its chest opened, blood pouring across the ground before it even hit the earth, and she had already moved on.

The soldiers on the wall stared in disbelief.

They had seen the swordsman’s strength. Now they were witnessing the woman’s, and she was no weaker.

A beast like the giant lizard with its scales hardened like forged metal, would have withstood repeated strikes from powerful weapons with ease.

Yet she had taken its head off as though its defenses didn’t exist.

"Another monster..." a soldier muttered.

"What?"

"I said another monster! Look at them!"

Everyone turned.

The swordsman cut through the tide from one direction while the woman tore through it from the other, neither concerned by the numbers surrounding them.

They simply moved.

One strike, one death.

Another strike, another corpse.

The beasts roared as they tried to encircle the two, but the outcome never changed.

Every time a group closed in, one of the figures would appear in their midst, a flash of light would follow, and then blood, and then corpses.

The General stood frozen on the wall, his eyes following them across the battlefield. He had commanded his soldiers through what felt like an eternity of fighting.

Watched his men struggle, watched beasts tear through formations, watched soldiers die trying to keep the creatures from reaching the wall.

Now two awakeners had stepped onto the field and turned the entire situation around.

He slowly lowered his weapon, hardly believing what he saw.

"This..." His voice trailed off.

He had no words for it.

The soldiers around him were equally stunned, watching the two figures move through the tide with a grace that made them wonder if their eyes were playing tricks.

The swordsman moved like something out of legend, his blade flashing continuously as he cut through everything around him.

The woman was no less terrifying, her twin blades slicing through scale, flesh, and bone without ever losing momentum.

There were moments when dozens of beasts closed in around one of them, and the soldiers would hold their breath, certain they’d finally been trapped, only for the beasts to collapse one after another and the figure to emerge from the blood and keep moving.

"What level are they?"

Nobody answered.

The soldiers had already reached the point where the strength on display was simply beyond understanding.

Even the General could only watch.

The tide that had seemed endless minutes earlier was shrinking fast. Bodies littered the battlefield, blood pooling in the cracks of the ground, and the beasts’ fearlessness began to falter.

Some stopped charging.

Others turned back toward the gateway, their survival instinct finally overpowering whatever had driven them forward.

The battle had transformed entirely.

The defenders were no longer fighting to survive. They were spectators, watching two people unravel the beast tide that had nearly destroyed their base.

In under half an hour, the remaining beasts were fleeing in every direction, some toward the forest, some back toward the gateway, others simply running without any clear direction.

They were desperate to put distance between themselves and the two awakeners.

Whatever ferocity had driven them forward was long gone, replaced entirely by the instinct to survive.

The soldiers watched the last of them vanish into the distance and a deafening silence settled over the battlefield.

The thermal weapons were quiet.

Rifles lowered.

The medics paused, looking out at the field. Even the General said nothing.

The two awakeners stopped as well.

The swordsman lowered his longsword and the woman lowered her blades.

Both stood amid the corpses of countless beasts, blood covering the ground around them, their clothes stained with blood..

For a moment, neither moved.

Then the swordsman raised his head, and the woman did the same.

Their eyes met across the battlefield, and both froze, their expressions shifting almost in unison.

Shock, disbelief, and then excitement.

The swordsman’s eyes widened.

"Fedelia!"

At nearly the same time, the woman stared at him in disbelief.

"Arin!"