I WAS Humanity's HOPE-Chapter 47: Eos

They didn’t wait for the boss to reach them, instead they walked into the room.

And of course it happens to be the throne room.

A shimmer rolled across the throne—ice blooming outward like a flower in reverse. From it rose a figure three storeys tall, wrought of glacier-glass and night-sky aurora. Eight antlers spiked from her crown; between them floated splinters of frozen constellations.

Twin phantoms peeled from her shadow, each burning with sub-zero halos.

Richard’s heart hammered. "One Monarch, two adds..."

Meredith planted her boots and whispered, "We got this..."

Without further to do, she stepped forward and whirled her wand.

"Glacial Crescent."

A half-moon scythe of cobalt ice peeled from empty air, sweeping across both Seraphs.

The arc bit deep, carving rime scars and slowing their flight, but with one gesture from the Monarch, frost lattices rewove the wounds in seconds.

"Fimbulwinter Mantle."

Crystals spidered over Meredith’s shoulders, armouring her in translucent plates that radiated cryogenic pressure outward—an anti-cold within cold.

Quite ingenious, that, Richard thought, looking at his sister.

Every breath beaded white on the plates before vanishing. It cost mana every heartbeat, but it let her own the temperature instead of suffering it.

"I can’t let Mer take all the spotlight," he muttered, glyphs flaring white across his forearms.

Quasar Lance.

He stabbed a hand forward; a pencil-thin beam of condensed starlight ripped from his palm, punching a molten tunnel through the closer Seraph.

The angel shrieked as half its torso sublimated.

Richard followed with two more quickly cast beams, but the monster barely managed to dodge his following attacks.

Alright, fine. Ecliptic Rift.

With a twist of the other wrist he tore a crescent seam in space behind the second Seraph. A gravity well dragged the creature screaming into violet darkness before spitting it out, armour dented and aura flickering.

The hall shuddered.

The sovereign rose from the throne, expression unreadable on that glacier face.

"Children. You have good toys."

She—*it can’t not be a woman—*lifted one arm. A spiral of razor snowflakes—each as wide as a shield—spun toward Meredith faster than arrows.

Richard’s muscles bunched as he used Burst Step.

Space warped; he blurred across thirty metres, interposing himself.

Daggers whirled, but there were too many blades of ice.

He slashed six, seven—an eighth clipped his shoulder and exploded. Shards drove through his cloak and bit flesh.

Meredith slammed both palms down and cast Glacial Crescent again, sweeping up a wall of hoarfrost that absorbed the volley’s remainder in a hiss of vapour.

"You hurt?" she gasped.

"Just scratched," Richard lied, blood freezing to ruby crust on his bicep. He pivoted. "Keep pressure on the Seraphs—I’ll deal with their Queen."

Richard noted that Light-Dancer’s Edge was active. The star-shaped hall scattered reflections from every surface as speed flooded his limbs, turning each step to a streak of silver.

He opened his attack with a Celestial Bind—glyphs blazing around his feet. Gravity spiked around the frost monarch, dragging at her colossal frame. Frost powdered from her knees as she slowed, antlers dipping.

Richard slammed home, daggers flashing. Split Gleam triggered—first strike cracked a plate of monarchal ice, its echo-strike stabbed straight for the core.

But the Boss tilted a single finger and the reflective floors defied reality... instead the echo bent ninety degrees and pierced Richard’s own flank.

Pain knifed through ribs.

Thankfully, Astral Ward flared fast enough to sponge lethal force.

He reeled, coughing steam. The Boss flowed forward, antlers scraping the ceiling. One palm descended—an avalanche in miniature.

Richard’s vision narrowed. Not fast enough to dodge—

He clasped hands at his sternum. Starlight Convergence ignited in a sphere around him—brilliant nova meeting descending glacier. The ward shattered, but so did the palm, shards tinkling across the floor like broken chandeliers.

Still, energy backlash hurled him fifty metres, sliding in a spray of blood that glittered before it hit the ice.

While Richard bled, Meredith faced twin angels of rime. Her Mantle howled around her, each pulse lowering local temperature another degree—ice blossoms climbed the Seraphs’ wings, slowing them.

"Let’s see you freeze, frost-boys."

She pointed skyward. "Rime Polaris."

A spear of super-compressed nitrogen formed above, then slammed through the nearest Seraph, pinning it to the floor in a burst of diamond dust.

The second shrieked, breaking free of her slowing aura, and hammered her with a maul of crystal. Meredith blocked with a forearm—Mantle cracked; bones did too. She bit back a scream, vision whitening.

The Seraph’s halo flared to finish her—

She answered with her best spell.

"Everfrost Cataclysm."

Everything within ten metres flashed to absolute zero. The angel froze solid mid-wingbeat, halo sputtering out. She clenched her fist; the statue exploded into glitter.

Alas, victory cost her. The Mantle guttered; mana gauge plummeted. She keeled, breath rasping in jagged clouds.

Across the hall the surviving Seraph—the one Quasar Lance had half-destroyed—pulled itself from the Rift scar and arrowed straight for her exposed back. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Richard lurched upright. Blood iced against his ribs, every breath lightning. He saw the angel dive for Meredith—she hadn’t turned.

Mirror Step—first use. In a blink he intercepted mid-air, daggers crossing. The Seraph’s blade met steel; Richard spun, leveraging Phantom Afterimage so the creature skewered a mirage.

Real-Richard jammed both daggers under its chin and ripped down. Angelic ichor hissed; the body dropped in pieces.

But momentum carried him crashing beside Meredith. She swayed, face grey.

"Out of juice," she whispered.

Richard’s gaze flicked from her cracked arm to the Monarch stalking nearer. Calculations raced. Only one card left.

"Then borrow mine."

Star-glyphs one through five detonated across Richard’s skin. 5-Star Glyph: Nova Ascension roared awake, dousing him in astral fire that lit the hall like dawn. Stats spiked; wounds knitted with molten starlight. The aura spilled over Meredith, rebooting her Mantle with stolen power.

"Ten seconds," he said, voice echoing with layered harmonics.

Meredith gripped her wand in her good hand, eyes blazing icy teal. "Then let’s make them count."

The Boss raised both arms. Pillars of mirror-ice erupted, turning the hall into a forest of blades. Each reflected a different angle of the Monarch—thousands of eyes.

Richard darted through the maze, afterimages breeding afterimages until the air was paisley with false Astralis. The Monarch unleashed a spiral of hunter-snowflakes keyed to his soul-signature; dozens of Richards died screaming soundlessly as illusions burst.

Real-Richard closed, flanked by—two of himself? Identity Fracture split him into twin personae. The illusion-self cast Quasar Lance from the left; real-self slashed from the right.

The Monarch blocked the beam with one antler—wrong choice. Daggers plunged into the earlier fracture on her torso, prying it wider. Ice sang, splitting.

Meredith, bolstered by borrowed nova-aura, chanted a word that tasted of glaciers cracking:

"Permafrost Bloom!"

Roots of living ice erupted under the Monarch, binding ankles and antlers alike. For three heartbeats the Boss was pinned.

Richard triggered Starfall Convergence—he’d never used the barely-finished sixth glyph, but there was no time like the present. The ceiling tore open to stellar night. Meteors of blue-white plasma cascaded, each strike a sun-seed.

The boss shrieked. Antlers shattered; the throne behind her dissolved to steam.

But royalty dies hard. With a bellow she wrenched free, one arm lashing. A shard bigger than a ballista bolt speared Meredith clean through the abdomen, pinning her to a column.

Her Mantle burst like glass.

Richard’s world narrowed to that red stain blossoming across his sister’s ice armour. Rage eclipsed pain. He hurled a Mirror Step—second and last—straight into the Monarch’s chest wound, emerging inside the cavity of aurora ice.

"Get out of my way," he whispered.

And detonated Starlight Convergence point-blank.

A star was born inside the Boss. Light howled from every fracture; the Monarch’s body became prism, then vapour. Shockwave hurled Richard across the hall—Astral Ward flickered, barely holding.

Silence followed, broken only by dripping meltwater.

Richard crawled toward the column where Meredith sagged. The spear evaporated with the Monarch’s death, leaving a fist-wide hole below her ribs. Too much blood.

"No no no—Mer!"

She smiled, faint. "Told... you... hard fight."

He pressed both hands over the wound. Thoughtstealer triggered on reflex, snatching the last spell imprint from the boss—Cryo-Genesis. He poured it back through Meredith as raw healing cold, knitting flesh with living ice.

Minutes felt like years. At last her breathing levelled, colour returning.

You have slain SHARD-MONARCH EOS (???). You are granted...

Richard exhaled a shaky laugh. "Figures."

He scooped Meredith into his arms; the Mirror Daggers floated, orbiting like silver satellites under Nova’s lingering buff.

A violet exit gate spiralled open where the throne had stood. Behind, the Crown-Hall crumbled, meteors still smouldering.

"Home?" Meredith croaked.

"Home," Richard promised, and stepped through the light, carrying his sister—and shards of a broken winter crown—into whatever waited beyond.

The portal’s violet radiance swallowed them whole, washing away frost and blood alike. As reality twisted, Richard caught one last glimpse of crystalline devastation through the closing rift—a reminder of their hardest battle yet.