House of Amarin

"When I open the door, you will have to move fast! Camyu will know it the moment I make my move and will do everything in her power to keep us out." Somia explained, looking into Erias's eyes, who nodded with a soft smile.

"Worry not, I won't hold back. This is it... this is what I waited for so long!"

"Don't look back." Somai warned him, "Got it?"

"I don't need to! I know all will be right! All the Realm Keys have found their owner by now, and they will make it easier to keep her in place so nobody goes anywhere! This includes you too, so don't try to leave, got it?"

"We'll see." She nodded softly, and before Erias could do anything, she began touching the otherworldy tentacle and opening an entrance for Erias and Arcus.

There was no time to hesitate, and the two brothers, unifying their mana, burst in, blowing the fabric of sub-space open. Inside, multiple Grandmasters welcomed the pair, fighting them back with combined elements, all of them standing at the same level as Erias or Arcus.

"They have proficiency in four elements! Brace yourselves!"

Camyu's voice echoed within the minds of the loyal Sect Members as she hurriedly turned to modify the laws of the Sub-Realm, wanting to cut the two invaders off from using their strongest one: fire. Arcus was breathing out black flames, creating a curtain of fire in his original from when it happened. To his surprise, his spells suddenly stopped working, losing their effectiveness and disintegrating without harming anybody.

"Switch!" Erias shouted, blocking an incoming electric spell for his brother, using darkness to shroud themselves before it suddenly cracked like glass and fell apart.

"Just as we expected!" Arcus groaned, blocking attacks with his wings, letting his superior scales absorb the impact, swinging his tail to slam against another cultivator. "She is interfering with our elements!"

"Let's see if she can handle more people!"

"Not good..."

Soon, Camyu's attention had to be split amongst half a dozen other points as dragons and mages flooded her home, opening up multiple entrances and forcefully tearing them apart. She wanted to curse but couldn't as her mind had to focus on constantly varying the laws within the sub-realm. Meanwhile, on the outside, the giant tentacles began to detach themselves from Meriath, just as they expected. 

She knew this was trouble, but she wasn't panicking yet. Her plan was simple and aimed to separate themselves from the primary realm, halting any further interferences. After she managed to seal their home, they could slowly deal with the invaders. They were willingly walking into a trap, and she would-

"What?!"

Her thoughts could no longer continue as multiple tendrils stopped listening to her commands. Something was interfering with her control, but that should be impossible. With splitting her attention, still meddling with the mages fighting the loyalist Golden Claws, her ethereal wolf form appeared outside, in the middle of the raging storms of No-Space. 

"Not fair..." What was stopping her were not ordinary warriors but people with Realm Keys. Their influence was what kept her from fleeing, locking her tentacles in place like unbreakable handcuffs. "If you think you can keep me here like this... you are mistaken! I am no longer part of your world! You can keep those that steel has some attachment then!"

"RUN!" Somia appeared next to Rinzen, who was one of the people outside, holding down one of the tendrils of the Golden Claw with her Realm Key. 

By the time Somia's warning reached Rinzen, she was already backing out, flying towards a different tentacle, not looking back, not even when hearing the loud crunch. Camyu wasn't playing around, sensing the danger she was in, so she decided that sacrifices had to be made. One of the freed 'hands' came down, severing her sealed tendril, dismembering herself just so she could escape. The act not only severed part of her 'soul' but also people inside of that part of the sub-realm. Anybody with a subconscious attachment to Meriath was left within a crumbling space.

"Not good, she is going to try again!" Somia shouted, warning the others

"Damn it!" The others cursed, seeing a different tentacle rise to the air behind the clouds of No-Space, moving to sever another connection.

"Focus your rings on it!" 

Once again, it was Rinzen who acted first, recognizing Lia's voice the moment it reached her ears. 

"Finally!" Lucian laughed, watching as Lia and Reyra appeared from the clouds. With all of the Realm Keys present at once, Camyu had no chance to act.

The tentacle was frozen in mid-air right before it could slam down against itself. It was no longer willing to react to her thoughts; worse, it was being drawn forward and locked into place, trying to tie the Golden Claw's realm to Meriath's physical presence. 

"We had an agreement!" She appeared closer to them, looking at Lia, her eyes reflecting deep hatred and anger.

"It is the first time I see any emotion in you!" She answered with a laugh, "And yes. We had... and now I am betraying you."

"Where is your honor?!" 

"Honor?" Lia and Reyra asked, looking at each other before answering in the same tone at the same time, "Towards the ancients, we have none!"

What happened next was out of both Camyu and Lia's calculations. It seemed the presence of all the six Realm Keys had an unforeseen effect. The development of keeping the Golden Claw's home locked began a kind of merger, returning everything to its supposed place. By the time they noticed it, it was too late.

Those who were outside were forcibly drawn back to Meriath as they watched the cloudy, dark sky be filled with lightning strikes once again while an octopus-like giant sub-realm was returned from No-Space into Meriath. If the once floating island of the Academy was huge, now they had a whole continent above them. The change was also noticeable inside, where the battles were still ongoing. The fact that they could freely use their elements already told them something big had happened, not to mention the constant tremblings and the multiple cracks visible on its artificial sky. 

"What the hell is going on outside?" Arcus coughed, and the answer came from Erias's bracelet. It was his first time hearing Hajna's voice being so worried. 

"The whole thing has been returned to Meriath... it is huge! If that thing crashes down, we are doomed!"

"Shit! Retreat! Quick! Out!"

It was sudden, unexpected news, sending the invaders to scramble as Meriath was much more important now. They had to stop it from falling and injuring their home any further. It was already cracking apart; it wouldn't survive another impact.

"Let them go!" Camyu ordered the remaining loyalists, "This was unexpected but a boon! We are leaving! And stop thinking about home! I am your home! Your feelings are making the Realm Keys have an effect on us!"

On the outside, the multiple hundred suction cups opened up, inhaling like a whale, drawing in the cosmic energies covering Meriath's sky, slurping it up. It didn't take long for the first rays of the sun to shine through the opened cracks, returning after almost a decade.

"It's trying to escape!" Erias shouted after the rest escaped from the opened cracks, looking up at the sky and watching the open Realm Gate appear. 

"What now?" Lia asked, just as unsure as the rest, observing the surreal image as the Realm Gate grew in size to accommodate the whole Sub-Realm above their head.

"If we let it go... they will come back." Erias whispered, already determined of his choice.

"Then we have only one choice! Use the Realm Keys to keep it here! Everyone else, attack it with everything you have! We need to break it up into pieces; there is no other way!" Lia shouted, being the first to race up to the sky and give chase. 

It wasn't just Lia who flew high; many others who had been watching until now joined her, rising up from the ground. All over Meriath, those who currently were or once were a Misfit flew up to the sky, attacking the closest part of the giant abomination, followed by anyone capable of casting a spell.

Camyu was focused on escaping, and even though the Realm was resisting her with all of its might, there was one thing that gave her an advantage. She was no longer part of it. Since her 'death' and her soul almost being the dinner of Lumamon, she was stuck in an existence that was part of nothing. Stuck in a state of limbo. She was only granted the similarity of life when her Mother fused her soul and bound it to the separated Sub-Realm of their Sect. She became the Golden Claw and, in turn, became something that 'lived' inside Meriath but was no longer part of it.

"The Sect... Will survive!" She groaned as the tentacles stretched forward, going through the Realm Gate, refusing to be pulled back. By now, all her thoughts were on escaping and surviving. She was the Sect, and only she mattered; nothing else counted. It was the teaching of the Golden Claws. It was the truth.

"Why do I have a sense of deja vu?" Lucian asked, twitching his eyelids, making Lia snort, as it was the same feeling she got.

"She is more resilient than we thought! That bastard slurped up a ton of energy; we won't be able to hold it in here!" Shouted Lakhmu over their bracelet, and he was right. What they were achieving was only risking tearing the sky apart. It barely just got healed, and it could be catastrophic. 

"Damn it! Let... let her go!" Lia cursed, not wanting to repeat the same events that had happened with Lumamon. She was ready to accept defeat when a sharp laughter echoed from outside.

"Oh? What is this?"

A massive, violet, electric hand reached in from nowhere, clamping down on the escaping Camyu, pulling it out like a kid finding a cool-looking pebble in a river. 

"Mom, you are mean! You didn't tell me it was happening! Luckily, I felt something was wrong and came rushing over! Can I eat it?" By then, a second voice joined the first, and this one was familiar to Lia's ears. She recognized it as the one she had met in Hajna's destroyed home. 

"Haaah... I didn't want you to go wild here. Anyway, if you are already here, then be useful! Keep it safe for now!" There was no answer, only a loud, gulping noise, and the people of Meriath could see a pair of purple eyes looking down at them from the other side. "Wait here!"

The eyes grew smaller, and a few seconds later, a figure stepped through the Realm Gate, wearing black and purple, her long, silver hair tied into a ponytail. 

"No wonder you guys were obstructed after reopening." She chuckled, taking deep breaths, "Your world had been desynched from the time of the Cosmos. How long have you been couped up? Thousands of years? You are lucky your home is ancient and could withstand it! Newer ones would have been ripped to shreds!"

Nobody had answers as it was the first time anyone had seen and felt someone different, someone who was born in a completely unknown world, arrive before them. The aura she was exuding made them uncomfortable, and even Erias thought it was best to remain cordial. 

"My name is Lia!" She spoke first, flying forward, stopping a few meters away from the short girl, looking back at her Mother, comparing the two with a bit of irony and a half-smile hanging from her face.

"Ren." Came the swift reply, scanning Lia's body with a tinge of interest in her eyes.

"She is the one I told you about! She is a good one, Mom!" Traveled the other alien voice from the outside, making Ren nod to herself.

"What about the others? I can't sense the old bastards anywhere." Ren questioned them, her senses sweeping the deepest part of Meriath, penetrating into the core of No-Space.

"Dead." Lia answered proudly, steeling herself. "We killed them! The last one wanted to escape, and you just caught her. For that, I'd like to thank you! You are... an Immortal, yes?"

"Mhm. So they died... that was unexpected!"

"..."

"..."

It was deadly silent, not just up in the air but around all of Meriath. Even if people didn't know what was happening, they felt it was important. They felt like being before their judge, waiting for the final sentence. 

"Well!" Ren chuckled, stretching a hand out towards Lia, grinning widely, "Welcome back to the Cosmos! I hope this time around, we won't need to try and kill each other!"

"Ah..." Flinched Lia, looking at her hand but then grabbed ahold of it, shaking it, "Y-yeah... me too!"

"Mhm." Ren nodded happily, scanning her mismatched eyes, "You have a good constitution... I can't wait for you to grow stronger and have a spar with you! Your eyes have the flame that was missing from your elders. I'm always happier when friends emerge from a realm instead of enemies, ahaha!"