Night had fallen over Antiqua. The coastline was quiet now. Far behind him, the underground ring still echoed with distant celebration and Alpha II was somewhere inside the city talking far too excitedly with Disharmonious about combat and the strange honor of surviving a fight that had initially looked impossible.
Vastarael had left her there without concern because he knew she was safe enough in Antiqua for the time being, and because once in a while he liked walking alone. The beach was dark. The tide was low and the wind carried the salt of the sea through his long white hair as he moved slowly along the shore with his hands in his cloak.
He had not been walking for long before he felt it.
Vastarael stopped midstep and let out a soft scoff. His sapphire eyes shifted toward the darkness beyond the surf and his voice remained as calm as ever when he finally spoke.
"I did not expect the leader of the Overlord Ravagers to come see me personally."
The answer came from the dark.
"And I did not expect you to notice me so easily."
Vastarael tilted his head and used Soul Vision. The soul behind him was saturated with K-Virus to the point of absurdity. It was dense enough that even from a distance he could tell the man was far closer to Phantasm status than anything ordinary should allow. That alone was enough to narrow it down. He took one slow breath and looked at the place where the voice was coming from and spoke with mild irritation.
"Your soul carries an absurd amount of K-Virus. You're practically one step away from becoming a Phantasm yourself. That's not something you can hide from me."
A low chuckle followed from the darkness.
"Still as unpleasantly sharp as ever, Vastarael Richinaria. You really are the number zero threat of both the Krepsunas and the Mopherian Pantheon. You really do live up to your reputation."
Vastarael gave a small, unimpressed sigh.
"I am flattered to have a special rank. I suppose that means Narisva is number one."
That made the unseen man laugh again, deeper this time. The figure stepped forward into the faint light spilling over the beach from the distant city, revealing a man dressed with almost absurd neatness for someone who carried that kind of pressure.
He wore a black suit tailored perfectly to his frame, a crimson tie hanging sharply over his chest and polished shoes that somehow looked spotless despite standing near the ocean. The dark fabric made him look elegant rather than threatening at first glance, which was part of what made him more unsettling.
He smiled.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am The Last Iridescent but you can call me Iridescent."
Vastarael's expression remained calm, though the faintest narrowing of his eyes suggested that he was paying attention now. The man in the suit spread one hand as if offering a formal greeting at a dinner party.
"I am the leader of the Overlord Ravagers, which is the strongest Krepsuna group in Spheraphase. After the last one died, the position naturally fell to me. Someone had to keep the remnants from tearing themselves apart, so I took the role and made sure the survivors had a direction."
Vastarael's mouth curled faintly.
"I thought the Phantasms existed to take over the world."
Iridescent gave an easy shrug.
"Most people do."
"And?"
"And most people are wrong in interesting ways. By the way, the one who killed the Phantasms was Erna. Or rather, Asenane, if that is the name she answers to now."
That caught Vastarael's attention at last. His body went still enough to be noticed by someone like Iridescent, who immediately smiled wider as if he had just found the exact note he wanted to strike. He took one step closer to the shore and continued speaking with the same casual tone as before.
"That is true. Asenane is the one who killed every surviving Phantasm that mattered. The others were broken, scattered, and reduced to scraps but the important ones that actually held the future of the Krepsunas together? She erased them. Not alone, of course. She made the K-Virus with one of the strongest Phantasms of that time. Those two together caused enough ruin to change everything."
Vastarael's gaze narrowed even further. Iridescent noticed and chuckled softly.
"The Asenane you know now is adorable compared to the monster she used to be and yet you still chose to love her. That was a mistake, by the way."
"You speak as though you know her personally."
"I do. Better than you do, in certain ways."
Vastarael's expression did not change, but the silence that followed made it obvious he was listening carefully now. The man in the suit folded his hands behind his back and paced lazily along the edge of the shore.
"Allow me to tell you this. The old Phantasms were a phase of history that only appear when a world becomes too comfortable with its own monsters. The K-Virus was never just a weapon either. It was a way of ensuring that power stopped belonging to one side alone. Your world likes pretending history is clean and meaningful but most of the time it is only violence inheriting violence."
Vastarael gave a faint, almost tired exhale.
"That sounds like something someone would say after spending too much time around parasites and zealots."
"It is. Thankfully, I am both practical and honest."
He stopped walking and turned, allowing the moonlight to catch the hard edge of his jawline and the red glimmer in his eyes. Then, with the same casual cruelty he had used from the beginning, he added.
"You seem disappointed that I only came here to talk. You probably expected claws, blood or a dramatic attempt at assassination. I can do those things if you insist, but I prefer first meetings to have a little more conversation. It makes the eventual tragedy much more memorable."
Vastarael looked at him for a moment, then actually scoffed.
"You really think this is a tragedy?"
"No. I think this is the beginning of one. I wanted to see whether the number zero threat still remembered the shape of the world before the world started pretending it was safe."
"And now that you have?"
"Now I know that your love for Asenane is the most interesting mistake you ever made."