Ercale's attention snapped away from the sky the moment the new group came into view, his gaze locking onto one figure in particular. His expression tightened immediately, jaw setting as recognition hit. "You…" he said under his breath, the word dragging out through gritted teeth as his eyes fixed on Sarandel with unmistakable intensity.
Across the crater, the goddess met his stare. She did not recoil, but there was a shift in her posture, a subtle tension that hadn't been there before. Concern flickered across her face, not fear, but awareness, the kind that came from understanding exactly who was looking at her and what that might mean.
"Finally decided to join us, huh!?" Bram called out, his voice cutting across the distance without hesitation. Sarandel's focus broke from Ercale and shifted to him, her expression changing as she took him in properly.
"Bram?" she said, the name coming quieter, almost disbelieving. Her eyes moved over him, connecting the pieces. "You were the one in the wolf mask…?" The realization lingered for only a moment before she forced it aside, her expression sharpening again. Now was not the time to dwell on it.
"What's this?" King Domine's voice carried from above, his attention shifting not to the fighters already pressing him, but to the newcomers. His eyes settled on Drimus. "You're betraying us?" he asked, his tone calm, almost conversational. There was no surprise in it, no anger, just confirmation of something he had already expected.
"Sorry, King Domine," Drimus replied without hesitation, stepping forward as he drew his iron sword, the metal catching the light as it cleared the sheath. "My brother already joined them, so it only made sense for me to as well."
"So that's the Demon King?" Annabel remarked, her gaze lifting toward the sky where Domine hovered, her tone caught somewhere between curiosity and disbelief.
"He looks… scary," Clara added quietly, her honesty cutting through the tension as she watched him.
Amara said nothing at first. Her eyes were not on Domine at all. They were fixed on Ercale, her expression tightening slightly as she studied him. "That man…" she murmured to herself, something unsettled in her voice. "Why does he feel familiar?"
Samwell did not share the hesitation.
He clicked his tongue sharply, impatience written all over him as he stepped forward. "What the hell are we waiting for!? Let's kill that thing already!" he shouted, and before anyone could stop him, he was already moving, launching himself into the air and flying straight toward Domine.
"Do not just fly at him!" Prince Mark called out immediately, his voice sharp with warning, but Samwell did not slow.
"She told us he can't be hurt with magic!" Clara added, raising her voice, trying to reach him before he committed fully.
Sarandel exhaled slowly, her gaze following Samwell's reckless advance. "I suppose this is a good way of showing you all what your roles will be in this battle," she said, her tone measured, almost resigned, as she watched what was about to unfold.
Samwell surged forward through the air, closing the distance rapidly, his focus locked entirely on the Demon King. Who says I'm going to use magic? he thought, his hand already extending forward as energy gathered.
"Mana Blast!"
A dense beam of raw mana erupted from his palm, purple and violent, not shaped like a spell but forced into motion through sheer output. It tore through the space between them and struck Domine head-on, the impact engulfing his entire form in a continuous stream of power that pushed against him in a sustained blast.
"How's that, you piece of trash!?" Samwell shouted over the roar of the beam. "This is pure mana, raw power!"
The beam did not stop Domine.
Even as it struck him, even as it poured into him without interruption, his body pushed forward through it. The flames around him flared under the pressure, but his movement did not slow. In the next instant, he was already in front of Samwell, his hand snapping out and closing around his throat mid-flight, cutting off both his momentum and his voice in one motion.
"Let me tell you something," Domine said, his tone even as he held him there, the fire coating his body beginning to lick across Samwell's form. "It's not magic I'm immune to."
Samwell's body tensed as the heat bit into him, forcing him to react. A spell snapped into place around him, countering the burn just enough to keep it from overwhelming him completely.
"It's mana as a whole."
Before he could do anything further, everything shifted at once.
The wound in his chest flared violently, the pain spiking as Vilak's spell dug into it again.
Bram was already moving, launching himself upward from below, his blade drawn back for a rising strike aimed to cut straight through Domine's guard.
Ercale closed from the side, lightning snapping along his body as he drove forward through the air, his leg chambered for a kick meant to crash into Domine's flank.
And from across the crater, Prince Mark leveled himself in the air, the mechanisms in his chest plate shifting and opening as every missile he had locked into place at once, all of them primed and ready to fire in a single, overwhelming volley.