ENTER Online

"She's paralyzed by grief," Queen Hania said, her own tears flowing freely. "She can't see past the pain to find her strength."

"Then we have to help her see it," Asteria said, her divine form flickering with determination.

Queen Hania began to glow with warm light as she called out across the arena. "Hanan! Remember why you fight!"

But Hanan couldn't hear her. The corrupted memories were too strong, the guilt too overwhelming. She knelt in the center of the arena, defenseless and broken, as Ferah prepared to deliver the killing blow.

"Death Arrow," Ferah commanded.

The spectral Bruwa drew back her bow, and the arrow that formed was made of pure death magic. It pulsed with the malevolent power of the Red God, designed to not just kill but to corrupt the soul of its target.

"Goodbye, sister," the spectral Bruwa said, her voice a hollow echo of the child who had once laughed in a garden.

The arrow flew.

Time seemed to slow as the death arrow approached. Hanan looked up through her tears and saw the spectral face of her sister, twisted by necromantic magic into an instrument of destruction. But for just a moment, less than a heartbeat, she saw something else.

Deep in the spectral Bruwa's hollow eyes, there was a flicker. A tiny spark of the real Bruwa, trapped and screaming silently for help.

"I want to be brave like you someday."

The memory came unbidden, pure and uncorrupted. Three-year-old Bruwa's voice, full of love and trust and hope for the future.

"I love you, Hanan Sister."

Another memory, this one from their last day together before the corruption took hold. Bruwa, barely eleven, clinging to her sister and whispering words of love as their world fell apart around them.

"I'll always be here to take care of you. That's a promise."

Hanan's own voice, making a vow that she had never broken, not even when death separated them.

The death arrow was inches away when Hanan's dormant bloodline power finally awakened.

DING!

Light exploded from Hanan's body, not the harsh glare of magic but the gentle radiance of starlight. Her silver hair began to glow with inner fire, and her emerald eyes blazed with the power of a thousand suns.

The death arrow struck the light and simply... stopped. Not deflected, not destroyed, but held in place by the sheer force of Hanan's love for her sister.

"Impossible," Ferah gasped, her confident demeanor cracking. "No one can stop a death arrow with emotion!"

Hanan rose slowly, her body surrounded by a corona of starlight. When she spoke, her voice carried the weight of absolute certainty.

"You're wrong," she said, her power building with each word. "Love isn't weakness. Love is the strongest force in the universe. And I love my sister more than you could ever understand."

She gestured, and the death arrow crumbled to dust.

DING!

HANAN'S SYSTEM INTERFACE - AWAKENED

Level: 267 (Bloodline Awakening)

Class: (Rare) Mage/Fighter

Title: Starlight

Health: 25,000/25,000

Mana: 50,000/50,000

New Ability: Guardian's Light (Infinite when protecting) Purification Beam (Cleanses corruption) Bond (Connection transcends death)

"You want to use my sister's soul as a weapon?" Hanan said, her voice growing stronger. "Then let me show you what happens when you threaten family."

She raised her awakened staff, and it transformed into a spear of pure starlight. The weapon hummed with power that made the arena itself tremble.

"Guardian's Light!" Hanan called out.

The light that erupted from her spear wasn't directed at Ferah, it was aimed at the spectral Bruwa. But instead of harming the necromantic construct, it began to cleanse it, burning away the corruption that bound her sister's soul.

"No!" Ferah screamed, pouring more power into her necromantic control. "She belongs to death now! She belongs to me!"

"She belongs to herself," Hanan said, her voice filled with fierce love. "And she belongs to the family that will never abandon her."

The spectral Bruwa began to change. The hollow emptiness in her eyes was replaced by confusion, then recognition, then joy. The necromantic bindings that held her soul were melting away like ice in summer sun.

"Hanan Sister?" the spectral Bruwa whispered, her voice no longer hollow but filled with wonder. "Is... is that really you?"

"It's me, little star," Hanan said, tears streaming down her face. "I kept my promise. I never stopped taking care of you."

But even as the sisters were reunited, Ferah's rage reached volcanic proportions. Her succubus form began to expand, growing to monstrous size as she channeled more power from the Red God.

"If I can't have her soul," Ferah snarled, her voice now layered with divine harmonics, "then I'll destroy you both!"

DING!

FERAH'S SYSTEM INTERFACE - CORRUPTED FORM

Level: 445 (Divine Corruption)

Class: Avatar of Rage

Title: Divine Harvester

Health: 55,000/55,000

Mana: 75,000/75,000

New Ability: Jealous Fury (Grows stronger when others show love) Corruption Field (Spreads jealousy and hatred)

Corruption Level: 99%

"You think your love is special?" Ferah roared, her voice shaking the arena. "You think you're the only one who has ever cared about someone?!"

She raised her hands, and the air around her began to warp with corrupt magic. "Corruption Field!"

The attack was beyond anything she had used before. It was the concentrated pain of every rejected love, every broken heart, every moment of abandonment turned into a weapon of mass destruction. The spell didn't just target Hanan, it targeted every person in the arena who had ever loved someone.

In the stands, people began to scream as the jealous magic tore through their minds, turning their happiest memories into sources of pain. Krad doubled over as he was forced to relive every moment his father had disappointed him. Queen Hania gasped as she experienced the agony of watching her people suffer. Even Asteria staggered as the attack struck at her love for mortal free will.

But Hanan's newly awakened power flared in response to the threat against her loved ones. The starlight around her intensified, creating a protective dome that shielded the arena from the worst of Ferah's corruption.

"Purification Beam!" Hanan called out, her spear launching waves of cleansing light that cut through the corrupt magic like a sword through shadow.

The spectral Bruwa, now free from necromantic control, raised her own ethereal bow. "I won't let you hurt my sister!" she declared, her voice ringing with the same determination that had once made her want to be brave.