The mark from the attack stained the shattered ground a deep, vivid red as the Judge stood tall over the wreckage.
Kairo—or the ancient entity floating in his body—chuckled softly. "Still hanging in there, huh?"
"Waiting for your orders, my lord," the robed figure replied.
The Judge bent down, his massive, towering figure shrinking smaller as he sank to his knees before Kairo. He pressed a hand over his chest and declared with absolute reverence, "The Fourth Wing of the Rebellion Against Heaven—the Judge—greets his Lord!"
His voice thundered across the courtyard, carrying an ancient weight that vibrated in the stone.
On the sidelines, Theo stood frozen, his brain practically short-circuiting as he listened to the words. (Revolution...?) he thought frantically. (Against... the heaven...?)
"My lord," the Judge continued, his gaze fixed on the ground. "Give your command and we shall raise our flags once again! Your name shall ring across the entire world—the Great—!"
"That's enough," Kairo cut him off, raising a hand. "The kid is still way too weak. And besides..." He looked down at his borrowed hand, watching the faint crimson light around his knuckles flicker. "...the boy's about to wake up."
"Yes, my lord," the Judge submitted instantly.
Kairo tilted his head, his eyes narrowing slightly. "So... how long have you been watching this mess go down?"
"Ever since that pathetic excuse for a lord released his beast tide," the Judge answered without hesitation. "A truly pathetic tactic. But... why do you ask, my lord?"
Kairo's expression suddenly darkened. A sharp, terrifying anger flashed across his borrowed face.
The Judge felt the shift in aura immediately and hesitated, his composure wavering. "My lord... is something the matter?"
Kairo balled his hand into a tight fist. "You were here the whole time, watching the damn show, and you didn't even think about helping?!"
Kairo brought his fist down right onto the top of the Judge's kneeled head. The strike carried no actual physical damage, but the weight behind it sent a sharp wave of guilt crashing through the massive entity.
"My lord...!" The Judge lowered his head even further, genuinely distressed. "I was only given the command to observe... I only revealed myself now because of your direct summons..."
Kairo scoffed, rolling his shoulder. "So, who's your leader now?"
"Well..." the Judge replied carefully, "it's..."
Across the courtyard, their conversation slowly faded into background noise for Jeeves.
His ears were ringing. He stared down at his severed wrist—a terrifyingly clean cut, dark blood dripping steadily onto the ruined stone. He breathed heavily, his chest heaving as the reality of the injury settled in. He looked at his bleeding wrist, then slowly turned his gaze toward Leon.
Leon was completely pale, staring at Kairo and the kneeling Judge in absolute shock. Then his eyes snapped to Jeeves, and his face twisted into frantic anger.
"Hey... HEY!" Leon shouted, pointing a trembling finger toward Kairo. "Get them! What are you doing?!"
Jeeves didn't move. He wasn't in a state to listen to orders anymore.
As the blood dripped from his arm, a memory surfaced in his mind—the very first thing he could remember. Total darkness. Nothing in sight. An endless, suffocating void... until a faint crack echoed. Then another. And another. The dense shell containing him shattered piece by piece, and stepping out into the light on the other side, the first thing he had ever laid eyes on was Lysander...
"ATTACK THEM!" Leon screamed again, his voice cracking with desperation. "Do you hear me?!"
"SHUT UP!" Jeeves roared.
Leon flinched, utterly flustered by the sudden outburst. His face flushed red with anger. "Y-You are my servant! Follow my orders or you will pay for this!"
Jeeves turned his head slowly, looking at Leon with pure disgust. "This is all because of you... you bastard. I should never have gambled on you."
"Wh... what do you mean?!" Leon stammered, stepping back.
"The Labyrinth is mine," Jeeves spat, his formal demeanor completely dead and buried. "It will be mine! I will find my origin inside it! And you aren't going to stop me!"
Leon stood stunned, his mouth slightly open as he processed the words. He desperately tried to convince himself that his loyal butler was just losing his mind under the pressure. "You... you're joking, right? Jeeves, stop joking around!"
"I am not joking," Jeeves growled, his voice trembling with years of built-up venom. "I am sick and tired of fighting for you. At the very least, Lysander was a capable leader! You aren't even that!"
Jeeves raised his severed arm, pointing directly at the ground where his lost hand lay. On the pale skin of his severed wrist, a glowing slave bracelet was still attached to the fallen limb—severed cleanly away from his body.
"And now..." Jeeves grinned, a wild, unhinged expression breaking across his face. "...I am free. And I am going to kill you!"
"Ohh?"
A voice casually drifted over from Kairo's direction, cutting straight through the tension.
"You want these Labyrinths that badly?" Kairo asked, floating slightly above the ground with his hands in his coat pockets. He glanced down at the kneeling giant. "Remind me what these things are again?"
"Yes, my lord," the Judge answered smoothly, rising to his feet. "These were built by the Divine War Resistance... right before they were wiped out."
"Wiped out? Ohh, man..." Kairo sighed, shaking his head. "I really liked those guys... So, is there one here?"
"Yes, my lord."
"QUIT YOUR SHITTING UP!" Jeeves screamed, his polite act completely shattered into pieces as dark aura flared wildly around him. "THAT LABYRINTH IS MINE!"
Kairo looked at him, totally unbothered, and shrugged. "Ohh. Okay then. You can have it."
Kairo snapped his fingers.
The Judge nodded silently. He raised one glowing hand and activated a command.
The ground violently trembled. The entire courtyard shook as if an earthquake had just struck the territory. Stone cracked, walls collapsed, and an entire section of the ancient ruins completely caved in on itself.
The ground groaned like a dying titan as the massive Labyrinth door thrust upward from the abyss, casting a gargantuan shadow over the broken courtyard.
Leon stumbled backward, his knees buckling under the sheer weight of the aura pulsing from the ancient stone—sealed by a spinning, blood-red lock formation—defied every law of magic he knew. Beside him, Jeeves stood paralyzed. His jaw hung open, his shattered madness completely choked out by pure, suffocating awe. The butler stared at the divine miracle before him, unable to squeeze a single sound from his throat.
At the edge of the collapsing battlefield, Fallon wiped a trail of blood from her chin, steadily hoisting Lord Claymond onto his feet. Claymond winced, his arm slung heavily over her shoulder, both of their eyes locked on the towering relic in stunned silence.
A few dozen paces away, Garth and Rein were desperately dragging the battered bodies of Varen and Lyra through the dust. The sudden earthquake nearly knocked them flat. Rein dropped to one knee, clutching the dirt, while Varen coughed up blood and slowly lifted his head toward the crimson sky.
Varen's pupils dilated in utter disbelief. "What the fuck..."
Farther back, at the tree line of the surrounding ruins, Demis and his group of dark elves froze mid-step. The shockwave rattled. They stared in horror and reverence at the village that was meant to be their future—and at the door that would inevitably rewrite their destiny.
The elder dark elf sank slowly to her knees, tears of ancient fear reflecting the crimson light in her eyes.
"He has arrived..." she whispered, her voice trembling in the silence. "...The Angel of Revolution."
From deep beneath the earth, a massive, towering structure erupted upward, breaking through the bedrock with a deafening roar. Debris flew everywhere as an enormous, ancient door sprung forth from the ground, locking itself into place with a heavy metallic thud.
The entrance to the Labyrinth had officially appeared.
Before anyone could move, a brilliant crimson formation began spinning rapidly across the massive stone doors, forming a distinct, glowing lock pattern right in the center.
Jeeves froze, his eyes wide in absolute shock.
Kairo landed lightly on the ground, leaning back with a cold, mocking smile on his borrowed face.
"Here," Kairo said softly, gesturing toward the sealed entrance. "Let's see what you can do..."
To be continued...