Alexia watched Paul and Iralian clash at close range, their movements too fast for most eyes to follow.
Behind her, the portal trembled as it slowly began to close. They needed more time.
She focused on the fight. Paul had shown a sharp surge of strength earlier, but she could see it fading now. His movements were still precise, but the intensity behind them had dropped.
She had no easy options left.
Within her domain, she had relied on three primary trump cards.
The first was the Loop. It trapped an opponent inside a repeating sequence, giving her the time to study every ability they possessed. Most of her enemies had fallen to that alone. But the void had proven different. Iralian adapted too quickly, and the loop lost its advantage.
The second was Damage Swap. She could transfer her own injuries onto her opponent, turning the tide of battle in an instant. That, too, had failed and she could use it only once.
Iralian's third eye could see through most illusions too. Now, only a few tools remained. Shifting Realities. Direct mental interference like Fear and control spells that targeted the mind rather than the senses.
And beyond all of those, Her last trump card.
Paul shot past Alexia, thrown away by a thick beam of void that carved through the air and sent him tumbling into the distance.
Seeing that, Alexia brought both hands up and crossed them in front of her chest. Her aura shifted at once. Power gathered tightly around her body, and the muscles in her arms and shoulders tensed and swelled under the pressure of it.
Iralian did not slow down. She rushed straight at Alexia and brought one of her swords down in a direct vertical slash aimed at her head.
Alexia lifted her wrist to intercept.
The blade struck her skin and stopped. It didn't cut. It didn't even leave a scratch. Iralian's eyes widened.
Alexia's eyes shone with a deep golden light, and the same glow covered her entire body like a solid layer.
Alexia pulled her fist back. The force of her aura pushed her long black hair upward, strands lifting and floating around her head.
She punched forward.
Iralian reacted fast. Her other three arms moved at once, each bringing a sword in front of her to block. The blades met Alexia's fist and shattered on impact. Fragments flew outward before they could even fall.
The punch continued through the broken void and struck Iralian in the chest.
A blast of golden light burst out from her back. The force hurled her backward through the air until she slammed into the ground far below.
Alexia remained where she stood, her body still wrapped in golden light.
This was her last power.
She had turned her illusion inward and cast it on herself. By deceiving her own body, she forced it to become what she needed it to be.
…
Arthur hovered in the sky with the massive sword suspended above him, shining like a second sun. As the weapon finished forming, four additional wings unfolded from his back. These wings looked faint and translucent, a clear sign that they came from the Creator's power, not his own.
Across from him, Thomas watched in silence for a few seconds. Then he raised his lance. The remaining void around him, along with the void rising from the ground below, gathered overhead and began to take shape.
In moments, a dark sword equal in size to Arthur's, formed above him.
The pressure from the two weapons met in the space between them, pushing against each other before either had moved.
Arthur spoke quietly to himself. "Father, I'm going to borrow the name of your spell."
Both of them lowered their hands at the same time. The swords moved forward.
As his blade advanced, Arthur said, "Judgment Day."
The tips of the two swords collided. A powerful wave burst outward from the point of impact. Clouds scattered in all directions, and lightning began to fall across the sky. The shockwave spread far enough to reach the ground below.
Dirt and loose stone lifted from the ground and streamed backward under the force of the shockwave. Trees far in the distance bent as the wind tore past them.
Arthur and Thomas both held their hands forward as if pressing against a solid wall. Their arms trembled from the strain. Their mouths opened as they shouted, forcing more power into the clash.
Arthur's mind filled with the faces of those who had suffered because of Thomas. All the people of kingdom of light, all the paladins and his father. He fixed his gaze on the man in front of him.
"This is for my father, for the people of Aetherra, and for the entire kingdom!"
He pushed harder.
Light and void ground against each other for one more second. Then Arthur forced his hand forward. The void sword cracked and broke apart under the pressure.
Thomas had only a brief moment to react before the tip of Arthur's sword reached him. The blade hit him and continued downward.
When the sword struck the ground, no explosion followed. Instead, a wide wave of light rolled outward across the land for several seconds before fading away.
On the ground below, Thomas had lost all his power. He stood on the edge of death. His body began to fade, dissolving slowly from the feet upward.
When the fading reached his face, the corner of his mouth lifted into a faint smile.
Then he disappeared.
…
Briva and the others stared toward the distant battlefield when a powerful gust of wind slammed into them. They raised their arms to shield their faces as dust and loose debris rushed past. The wind howled for several seconds.
Then a sudden burst of light flared in the distance, bright like a rising sun, and faded just as quickly.
Briva kept her hands pressed to her chest. Worry and hope filled her eyes as she stood there in silent prayer.
…
In the northern part of kingdom of light.
"No one can escape my power," Iason said, still laughing.
The laughter cut short.
A hand burst through his chest from behind and pushed out through the front.
Iason's eyes widened. He looked down at the blood covered hand, then turned his head slightly.
Leo stood behind him.
"How…?" Iason coughed, blood spilling from his mouth.
He looked forward again. The Leo who had been standing there began to fade, dissolving into a mist the color of blood. The glowing marks vanished from that fading figure and reappeared on the real Leo behind him. At the same time, Leo's sword lifted from the ground and drifted toward them through the air.
"Your phantom can't be this strong," Iason said, struggling to speak.
Leo twisted his hand slightly and Iason coughed out more blood.
"I can place my mark on a phantom," Leo said. "I knew someone like you would try something. I just didn't know what. So I hid inside one of the gaps and waited."
He glanced at the marks that had returned to his skin, their glow steady again. "If only I could put these on all of them…"
Iason's hand snapped up and clamped around the arm still piercing his chest. His grip tightened with surprising strength. A thin, bloody smile spread across his face.
"Do you think that was all I could do?"
With his free hand, he fumbled inside his coat and pulled out a small vial. His fingers shook, but he managed to bring it to his lips and swallow the contents in one motion.
The change began at once. His skin lost its color and turned transparent like glass. A bright light kindled inside him, outlining his ribs, spine, and the pulsing shapes of his organs. The glow intensified with every second.
"Now I'll show you my final trick," Iason said, his voice trembling but determined. "I'll burn all my mana and my life to destroy you."
Leo pulled on his trapped arm, trying to free it. The muscles in his shoulder and forearm strained, but Iason's grip held it in place.
"It will be an explosion bigger than anything this world has ever seen," Iason said.
Thorn, still wrapped in blood, shot forward toward him, but it struck an invisible barrier that came out of nowhere and stopped dead. The air around them didn't ripple. It simply held.
"As long as you're trapped inside this space, none of your powers will work," Iason said. "This place can kill even gods."
Leo tried again. He forced mana into his spells, into creation itself, but nothing responded. Not even the smallest effect. His abilities refused to activate.
Far away, Nikolaus grabbed Aerwyna and stepped into a gap, vanishing from the immediate area.
The light inside Iason's body grew brighter and brighter until it filled everything around him. Leo's eye widened.
Then it detonated.
A massive explosion erupted upward, fire tearing through the clouds and spreading across the sky. The blast ripped outward in all directions, flattening the earth for kilometers. The ground trembled violently as the shockwave rolled across the land again and again before finally fading into silence.
…
Luciana was moving back with the army when the explosion reached them. The sound came first, sharp and distant, then the shockwave followed a second later, tearing across the land.
She reacted immediately. Blood rose from her body and formed a solid barrier in front of the soldiers. The shield absorbed the force as it hit, holding firm against the pressure of the blast.
After a few seconds, the wave passed.
Luciana lowered the blood shield.
In front of them, the land was devastated. The ground was broken and scorched, stretching into ruins as far as they could see. Nothing remained intact.
Her gaze shifted north. She stared at the horizon, trying to imagine what kind of battle could create destruction on this scale.
And in that moment, every soldier standing behind her thought the same thing.
…
Nikolaus stepped out of the gap and dropped Aerwyna onto the ground. She landed on one knee, steadying herself immediately as her gaze snapped toward the horizon.
"What the hell is your brother doing?" Nikolaus asked, staring at the distant explosion that was still fading in the far distance.
Aerwyna's lips pressed together for a brief moment before she answered. "He exploded himself."
"What?" Nikolaus began, but cut off as a sudden surge of mana rippled through the empty space in front of them. The air warped, as if something was forcing reality open from the inside.
A gap tore open.
Leo stepped out.
His right arm was gone completely. The edges of the wound were scorched and still smoking. Thin trails of smoke rose from his body in uneven streams, and burn marks spread across his torso and shoulder. Despite the damage, he stood upright without hesitation.
"It's a good thing he likes to talk," Leo said calmly, "or I would be dead right now."
In the final moments before the explosion, he had cut off his own arm and forced himself through spatial gaps, retreating just far enough to escape Iason's range of control. Even then, the edge of the blast had caught him.
He exhaled slowly, as if checking that he was still alive. Then the corner of his mouth lifted into a faint smile.
"Shall we continue?"
Seeing this, Aerwyna suddenly placed her hand on Nikolaus's back.
Nikolaus let out a sharp, pained scream. His body twisted as if something inside him was being forcibly pulled apart and reshaped. At the same time, something was drawn out of him and transferred into Aerwyna's hand.
"What are… you… doing?" Nikolaus said, his face filled with shock.
"There's no need for both of us to die here," Aerwyna replied calmly. A gap opened behind her, and she stepped into it without hesitation, vanishing from the battlefield.
Nikolaus remained in place for a few seconds, frozen in disbelief. Then his body continued to change. His flesh warped and expanded as corruption spread through him, overtaking what remained of his form and soul.
Leo watched the transformation for a moment. Then he raised Thorn.
The sword expanded rapidly into a massive blade, and blood surged around it, wrapping itself along the weapon's length.
He brought it down.
"Blood Calamity."
The strike split the corrupted monster in half.
Leo didn't stop there.
"Blood Destruction."
A second surge of blood erupted outward in a violent explosion. The remaining traces of the creature were completely erased from the battlefield.