Silent warning

Orion's intuition screamed at him—it wasn't a mere coincidence. The sinister spark of dark magic had materialized precisely when he was poised to land the final blow on the undead wyvern. An ominous alignment. A deliberate act. Someone out there was harnessing the same malevolent magic that had invaded their home, the very force that had torn Lisa away from him. The realization settled into his bones like ice.

A slow, seething rage ignited within him. His fingers curled into a fist, blood seeping from where his nails bit into his palm, and the mana surging within him responded like a tempest alight with fury. But even as his anger flared, he remained focused. Where others would have lost themselves in blind wrath, Orion sharpened his emotions into a weapon. He did not rage; he became more precise. More ruthless.

And in that moment, everything fell into place. The wyvern's peculiar hesitation in attacking. The uncanny coordination of its magical strikes. The way it had resurrected after being run through the skull. It had all been too methodical, too unnatural.

Orion's gaze darkened. The wyvern, formidable as it was, was no more than a puppet. And where there was a puppet, there was a puppeteer. Someone was watching this battle, orchestrating events from the shadows. Whoever they were, they had made a grave mistake in revealing themselves to him.

As soon as the sinister magic had flared anto existence, the wyvern reacted instantly. Its massive wings unfurled, and it let out a roar. Orion wasn't about to let that happen.

He moved swiftly, inscribing the final rune in the place. Immediately A sharp, crackling energy coalesced as the enchantment took hold. Frost spread like veins of ice along the wyvern's wings, creeping with merciless precision. The beast roared, straining against its restraints, attempting to rise higher into the sky. But the more it fought, the more the ice latched onto its form, freezing it in place.

The wyvern let out a thunderous screech, it had used the draconic magic again. Soon its fiery core burning hotter in desperation. Its horns elongated, flames surged across its body, melting the frost that clung to its scales. Orion narrowed his eyes. The creature's survival instinct was formidable, but desperation alone would not be enough.

And then, as if the heavens themselves intervened, the runes glowed and a powerful suction force erupted. The air shifted, a silent yet voracious vortex swallowing all ambient mana. The wyvern's flames flickered and died, vanishing as though extinguished by an unseen force. Panic flared in its eyes.

Orion simply stared at the paniced beast. With a final surge of magic, the runic circle activated, expanding outward in a luminous spiral. A frigid wave surged upward like maelstrom, forming a massive pillar of cold that consumed the wyvern in a final, merciless embrace. The sky shimmered as snowflakes drifted downward, casting an eerie silence over the battlefield.

When the storm dissipated, only the frozen silhouette of the wyvern remained. A magnificent statue of death, its wings caught mid-beat, its eyes wide in frozen defiance. The once-raging beast now stood as nothing more than an icy monument, a reminder of the battle that had unfolded.

Orion exhaled heavily, his breath misting against the cold air. His body ached, exhaustion creeping through his limbs, but he refused to show weakness. Even as his hands trembled, even as a sudden fit of coughing racked his chest, he forced himself upright. There was no time for frailty.

He stepped towards now still beast, placing his palm against the frozen surface of the wyvern's corpse. White mana flared at his touch, spreading across the ice in delicate fractures. His gaze shifted toward the distant horizon, toward the unseen enemy that he knew still lingered. The presence had faded, but he knew they were watching, the necromancer that had controlled this wyvren. 

Whoever had sent this abomination against him would see this. Maintaining his cold, emotionless gaze, as if issuing a silent warning, Orion exerted a faint force. A wave of sound resonated through the icy sculpture, causing it to shake, the crackes snaked through the icy sculpture before ultimately shattering into a cascade of sparkling frost. In an instant, the once terrifying wyvern vanished, leaving no trace of it's existence behind.

Orion's eyes remained fixed on the distant horizon, a palpable anger simmering beneath his mask. Yet, he acknowledged the futility of confronting the force behind the undead wyvern. In his current state, it would be a reckless march towards his certain death. So Despite the depth of his anger, he tempered it with a reluctant sense of rationality.

A silence settled over the city of Elsmere. No more roars of the wyvern. No more screams of panicked citizens. Only the quiet hum of residual magic and the distant crackling of burning debris remained. Orion turned, surveying the wreckage. Homes had been leveled, streets torn apart. Survivors emerged from hiding, their faces pale with shock and exhaustion. Some murmured prayers of gratitude. Others simply stared at him, fear and awe intermingling in their expressions.

With a deliberate yet silent departure, Orion faded from the scene, leaving behind a battlefield devoid of the tyrannical menace that once roared within the streets of Elsmere.