Chelsea and Kelsea stirred awake beneath drifting clouds.

  “Where are we?” Chelsea asked, sitting up and pressing a hand to her forehead.

  “Weren’t we… being carried by a soldier?”

  “!”

  The memory hit them like a wave.

  Their gazes shifted to the ruined city—once their home, now reduced to flattened sand dunes and skeletal buildings. All that remained was a graveyard of salt and ruin.

  Turning their heads, they noticed the crystallized layer of salt beside them—the remains of the soldier who had carried them to safety.

  “Why weren’t we affected by the salt?” Kelsea muttered, clutching her head. “Why are we even alive?”

  “Are we the only ones left?” she added softly.

  Dread settled over them. Despite the devastation, Chelsea remained oddly calm.

  Looking at her sister, a strange realization dawned.

  “Our hearts stopped back there... So why are we still breathing? Why are they still beating?”

  They lifted their eyes toward the sky, confused and adrift.

  Then something—instinct or memory—pulled their gaze toward the city’s center.

  Toward the fallen castle.

  “Let’s… go?” Chelsea said hesitantly.

  Kelsea nodded slowly.

  Before they left, they knelt beside the soldier’s remains.

  “Thank you,” they whispered.

  “For fighting until the very end.”

  A solemn wind carried their words across the stillness.

  —

  “This is awful,” Chelsea murmured as they arrived at the city gate.

  The structure had crumbled. The once-imposing entrance was reduced to rubble, its massive metal doors lying flat, far from where they once stood.

  “Such devastation,” Kelsea echoed, her voice hollow.

  The destruction defied belief.

  As they made their way toward the city’s heart, they followed the ruined main road. The stone path was torn and jumbled, some sections even overlapped or shattered beyond recognition.

  “Look at this…” Kelsea murmured, pointing to a familiar storefront they used to visit.

  Chelsea said nothing, her sorrow evident.

  With every step, more salt came into view.

  They knew what it meant.

  “Have all the residents…”

  “…been turned to salt?”

  It was inconceivable. Unthinkable.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “What kind of monster can do this?” Chelsea whispered.

  “Nothing from our world, at the very least,” Kelsea answered, her voice low.

  Then Chelsea frowned.

  “Why are we so calm? Shouldn’t we be… panicking?”

  “I’ve wondered the same,” Kelsea admitted. “But I don’t have an answer.”

  She crossed her arms.

  “It feels… natural. Like we’re just… peaceful.”

  “This isn’t normal.”

  As they walked among broken homes and salt-shaped echoes of people, they felt detached from the horror around them.

  —

  They finally reached the ruins of the castle.

  The remains were buried beneath a towering heap of salt—fifteen meters high, like a monstrous monument of stone and grains of crystal.

  The sheer weight of it crushed their spirits.

  Yet something compelled them to climb.

  The salt stung their hands, tore their skin, and scorched their throats. Light glinted harshly off the jagged surface, burning their eyes. Still, they climbed.

  At the peak of the crumbling mountain, something awaited them.

  “No…”

  Kelsea dropped to her knees.

  Chelsea bit her lip, eyes locked on the one thing that stood at the summit:

  Their mother’s trident—Trishula.

  The weapon of Valkyrie Sharon stood alone among the ruin.

  All that remained of her legacy… were her daughters, and her weapon.

  “!”

  The twins woke at the same time—perfectly in sync, as always.

  “Did you sleep well?”

  They turned toward the voice.

  “Celeste…”

  “So… it was a dream?”

  It took a few moments for the haze to clear.

  “You didn’t rest peacefully,” Celeste said, stoking the fire before her. “It’s understandable, given everything.”

  Behind her, Nylon stood guard, arms crossed as he monitored their surroundings.

  These walls seem sturdy… If this cave's been standing for so long, it won’t collapse now.

  The cave they’d found was enormous—sheltered and untouched by the spreading salt. A perfect refuge.

  Nylon glanced at his reflection in the water below him and sighed.

  “This lake’s the kind of place you only see once in a lifetime.”

  Before him stretched a wide, still lake fed by towering waterfalls. Pale blue fish swam in its depths, and fireflies lit the air near the falls in shimmering, golden trails.

  Turning away, Nylon walked back to the others.

  “How’s everyone feeling?”

  “We’re fine,” Kelsea said. “Thank you for keeping watch.”

  “Of course,” Nylon replied. “It wouldn’t be right to let something happen while you were vulnerable.”

  He turned to Celeste.

  “I’m alright. I just wish I could hear something from Olivia… I hope she and the girls are doing alright.”

  Even separated, Celeste’s heart remained with her master.

  Nylon nodded in understanding. He had his own worries.

  “I wonder how the others are doing. But right now, we can’t let those thoughts distract us.”

  He sat beside Celeste, the firelight dancing in his eyes.

  “This next question might be difficult.”

  He faced the twins.

  “Can you remember anything from when Seraphina appeared?”

  “Especially the cause of the salt. If we understand how it works, we might be able to counteract it.”

  The twins exchanged a glance. A silent understanding passed between them.

  “I don’t know if it’ll sound absurd,” Chelsea said, “but… we dreamed about that day.”

  “That’s perfect,” Nylon said. “Any detail helps. I know it’s hard, but we appreciate it.”

  So the twins explained everything—the dream, the devastation, the appearance of Seraphina.

  “Does that help?” Kelsea asked quietly.

  “It does,” Nylon replied. “We still don’t understand its powers, but this is a start.”

  “All we know for sure,” he added, “is that it turns people to salt.”

  “And,” Celeste said, “it appears to be blind.”

  “Right. That grotesque form you described—covered in mouths, no eyes.”

  They began to analyze.

  “But if it has no eyes, how did it detect the Valkyrie? Could it be deaf too?” Celeste wondered aloud.

  Nylon furrowed his brow.

  “I think we can assume otherwise.”

  The twins stared, stunned.

  “What do you mean?!”

  “From Elliott’s memories,” he explained, “the creature that killed his mother mimicked her form. We assume Seraphina can do the same.”

  “Any Devourer of Purity might share that trait.”

  The twins went pale.

  Our mother’s face… worn by a monster…

  Celeste narrowed her eyes, thinking aloud.

  “Salt… hearing… the earlier attack…”

  Nylon caught the same thread.

  “I see it too.”

  “This isn’t just about finding Seraphina—it’s about understanding how it finds us.”

  “Celeste, when we go outside, we need to work together.”

  “I planned on it,” she said, already alert.

  Confused, the twins asked, “Please—what are you talking about?”

  Nylon smirked.

  “If we don’t walk on the salt… it won’t find us.”

  “!”

  The final piece clicked.

  Their mother’s last moments, standing on the salt…

  “That’s it… anything that walks on the salt transmits its presence.”

  “Why didn’t we think of that?” Chelsea whispered.

  They looked down, ashamed.

  “If we’d realized sooner…”

  “Maybe mother would’ve survived.”

  Nylon and Celeste gave them space as they processed the revelation.

  They had little time to grieve.

  Outside, their enemy waited.

  Inside the cave, the fire continued to burn—soft, steady, and defiant.