Malgoryth had already begun forcing another rift open when Noctis turned away from Aurelion's imprisoned god-core. The golden sphere remained suspended behind him beneath overlapping Abyssal Binding Chains, Sovereign Chains, and blood-forged restraints, its light pulsing through the gaps without gaining enough movement to escape, while farther ahead the Demon God continued retreating through the Bloodfang storm with Ghorvath held in his only remaining hand. The damaged right forearm was wrapped in dense spatial reinforcement from wrist to elbow, and every adjustment of the axe made the distorted support around the limb tremble under the load. Noctis watched him for a moment, then started forward through the air while the clone approached from another direction and thousands of Bloodfang Reapers continued circling through every open route around Malgoryth. "You're next."
Malgoryth's attention snapped toward him, and his gaze flicked once past Noctis toward Aurelion's bound god-core before returning to the vampire advancing through the storm. Fear crossed his face before anger buried most of it, and he poured more power into the rift he had been forming, trying to force the exit beyond the thickest concentration of Reapers. The clone reached the spatial structure first and drove a blood-forged blade through one of the sections keeping it coherent, while several Bloodfang Reapers entered the destination from the opposite side and turned the intended escape into another killing field. Malgoryth abandoned the displacement before committing his body and brought Ghorvath around in a violent sweep that shattered the clone's weapon, tore through most of its upper body, and scattered blood through the air as he tried to create enough room to deal with Noctis alone.
The opening lasted only long enough for Noctis to use Genesis Step. Sanguinastra appeared in his hand as he emerged beside Malgoryth's injured arm, and instead of attacking the torso he drove the lance toward the reinforced forearm, forcing the Demon God to jerk Ghorvath inward before the point could reach the wrist. The correction transferred the weight of the axe through an arm that was already being held together by spatial support, causing the reinforcement around the joint to flare while Malgoryth fought to maintain his grip. Three Bloodfang Reapers converged on the same region before the movement settled, and although he shattered two with a short burst of demonic force and twisted away from the third, the surviving blade cut through the outer reinforcement and opened another wound along the forearm.
Noctis did not chase the fresh blood immediately. He shifted Sanguinastra into a broad Bloodfang sword and struck the lower haft of Ghorvath, forcing Malgoryth to pull the axe backward to prevent the weapon from being turned against his own wrist, while another cluster of Reapers attacked the flank exposed by that movement. One blade cut across the ribs before Malgoryth released enough spatial force to drive the group away, and he used the recoil to create several meters of distance, hoping to convert the separation into another route out. Nocturne appeared in Noctis's free hand instead of another close-range weapon, and the first shot struck the reinforcement around Malgoryth's wrist while the second forced Ghorvath across the chest, leaving the third to land against the already injured ribs. Malgoryth absorbed the impact and retreated again, only to find the Bloodfang storm shifting into the space behind him before he could establish another clean direction of movement.
Dozens of Reapers crossed the line he had chosen, so Malgoryth drove Ghorvath through the first wave and released a broader spatial pulse that scattered the next. Blood from the shattered constructs spread through the same region instead of disappearing, and before he could exploit the temporary opening the clone began reforming inside those droplets, first as a torso and one arm, then as a more complete figure pulling additional blood back toward itself. Malgoryth recognized what was happening and immediately struck the partially formed body with concentrated spatial distortion, tearing through one side before the lower half had fully returned. Noctis used the distraction to Genesis Step into his flank again, Sanguinastra entering beneath Ghorvath while Malgoryth blocked with the haft and forced him away with a point-blank burst that cost him the moment he needed to create another stable escape.
The clone continued rebuilding while Malgoryth shifted his grip on Ghorvath and stopped retreating for the first time since Aurelion's death. He drove forward instead, using shorter attacks that placed less strain on the wounded wrist and opening small rifts around the axe head rather than around his entire body, changing the direction of Ghorvath after each commitment so Noctis could not simply read the initial swing and move aside. Several Bloodfang Reapers cut him during the advance, but Malgoryth accepted the wounds when taking them allowed the weapon to remain on Noctis, and for several exchanges the tactic worked well enough to force Genesis Step repeatedly. The fourth redirected strike nearly caught Noctis across the torso, but instead of retreating again he stepped inside the altered path and placed Sanguinastra against the haft close to Malgoryth's hand, turning the weapon sideways while two Reapers attacked the reinforcement around the elbow.
Malgoryth released the rift before the strain could travel farther through the arm and tore Ghorvath free, then expanded demonic force around himself hard enough to clear several Reapers and throw the recovering clone backward. The brief opening gave him enough room to gather far more power into the axe, layering several spatial routes around Ghorvath until the air surrounding the weapon distorted in overlapping directions and the damaged forearm shook beneath the reinforcement required to hold everything together. Noctis did not interrupt the preparation, and Malgoryth committed fully, sending Ghorvath through one rift after another so the same attack emerged from different directions around him while sections of the Bloodfang storm were torn apart by the redirected force. The clone attempted to enter one of those routes and lost most of its upper body before it could reach him, while Noctis used Genesis Step through several converging strikes and caught the final descent near the haft with Sanguinastra and a second blood-forged weapon, allowing the impact to slide across both while his body moved outside the center of the blow.
Malgoryth followed immediately, refusing to let the attack end with a single failed sequence. Ghorvath reappeared from the side, then above, then from below, each transition forcing Noctis into another adjustment while the surrounding storm was repeatedly scattered and the clone's reforming body was broken apart again before it could fully return. The final strike carved a broad fracture through the air beyond Noctis and forced both him and the clone away from the Demon God for the first time since the hunt began. Malgoryth remained at the center of the distorted region with Ghorvath raised, breathing heavily while dark blood ran from the thigh, flank, back, and forearm and the spatial reinforcement around his wrist flickered unevenly under the weapon's weight.
The Bloodfang storm began returning almost immediately, and the clone's scattered blood was already drawing back together when Noctis steadied himself several dozen meters away. He looked over the destruction Malgoryth had created, then back at the Demon God, and a slight smirk appeared. "Is that all?" The taunt struck harder than the damage around them suggested it should, because Malgoryth had just committed more power than he could comfortably replace and still had not cleared enough room to escape. His face tightened as anger rose over the fear again, and he forced Ghorvath higher despite the tremor running through the injured arm. "I'm not dying here."
He tried to prove it by opening another rift before the storm completely closed, but the clone reformed enough of one arm to attack the spatial structure from behind while Noctis dissolved Sanguinastra and brought Ruin into his free hand. Malgoryth replaced the damaged section and shifted the destination farther away, only for Ruin to strike another part of the route while Reapers flooded the intended exit and turned the displacement unstable before he could enter it. He abandoned the attempt and attacked instead, driving Ghorvath through the clone's incomplete torso before reversing toward Noctis, but the original had already reformed Sanguinastra and caught the axe close to the haft rather than the head. Bloodfang Reapers attacked the legs and injured arm while the weapons remained engaged, and every defensive adjustment forced Malgoryth to spend more of the same power keeping his damaged wrist capable of carrying Ghorvath.
He destroyed the clone again during the next exchange, severing the head and tearing through the torso before using a spatial pulse to scatter the blood farther apart, but Noctis did not treat the loss as meaningful. He stayed inside Ghorvath's useful arc and continued attacking the damaged arm while the storm filled whatever space the axe could not cover, forcing Malgoryth to spend more strength on defense than he was gaining from the temporary absence of the duplicate. When another wound opened beneath the spatial reinforcement and blood ran down the arm, Malgoryth saw Noctis's attention move to it and reacted before Devour or another Bloodfang could exploit the fresh flow. "Don't." Noctis did not answer, and Malgoryth released a burst between them to create distance while sealing the wound more aggressively.
The scattered clone began reforming behind him, but this time it did not produce another weapon. Golden-white radiance gathered around its arms as the returning blood shaped the rest of its body, and before Malgoryth could turn fully, Radiant Chains erupted from several directions and wrapped around the remaining forearm below the elbow, the upper arm and shoulder, the torso beneath the missing left arm, the waist, and both legs. Another chain wound around Ghorvath's haft close to the hand and pulled the weapon inward, reducing the little space Malgoryth still had to use the axe effectively. The holy restraint struck his demonic body immediately, forcing him to divide power between resisting the sanctity pressing against his flesh and maintaining enough spatial reinforcement around the damaged arm to keep Ghorvath from tearing itself out of his grip.
Malgoryth responded with raw strength and demonic force, pulling against several chains at once until the restraint around his waist stretched and the one around his thigh shifted several inches. The movement opened the outside of his leg, and a Bloodfang Reaper drove through the exposed muscle before he gained another inch, forcing him to destroy it with a pulse that allowed the Radiant Chains around his waist and forearm to tighten further. He twisted his torso and strained against the chain crossing his chest, only for another Reaper to enter beneath the ribs and a third to pierce the upper back where his movement had pulled the demonic reinforcement thin. The blades burst back into blood when he destroyed them, leaving controlled blood across and inside the wounds while the clone maintained the restraints without giving him enough freedom to step away.
He tried using Ghorvath to break the chain around his forearm, shifting the lower portion of the haft against the holy links and forcing the weapon outward despite the restriction. Several links cracked under the pressure, but the attempt transferred the weight of the axe through the damaged wrist and made the spatial support around the joint buckle, allowing a Bloodfang Reaper to pierce the forearm through the weakened reinforcement. Malgoryth screamed and destroyed the blade, and the hand holding Ghorvath loosened enough for the axe to drop several inches before he restored the grip with another layer of spatial force. The clone immediately tightened the restraint around the arm and added another chain across the upper torso, leaving Malgoryth with even less room than before.
His next attempt focused on the waist restraint, and he succeeded in breaking it after forcing enough demonic power through the links to overwhelm the sanctity inside them. The sudden release allowed his torso to twist farther than the restraints around his shoulder and legs permitted, and that movement exposed the lower abdomen just long enough for two Bloodfang Reapers to drive through it from different angles. Malgoryth destroyed them and tried to use the brief freedom before the clone could respond, but another Radiant Chain replaced the broken one and tightened around his waist while the restraints around both legs prevented him from turning the partial release into actual movement. The more violently he fought the chains, the more consistently the Reapers found the same openings his body created.
The struggle continued until Malgoryth understood that he was no longer fighting for space but for inches. He could strain against the chains, damage them, and occasionally break one, but each success exposed another part of his body while the clone simply replaced whatever restraint had been lost. Bloodfang Reapers kept attacking the thigh when he tried to brace his legs, the ribs when he twisted his torso, the back when he pulled forward, and the remaining arm whenever he attempted to lift Ghorvath. He began using localized spatial bursts instead of the axe to destroy the nearest blades, but every burst directed away from the Radiant Chains allowed the restraints to tighten further around the body.
Only after several failed attempts to free the weapon arm did Malgoryth notice that the real Noctis had stopped attacking him directly. The original remained beyond Ghorvath's restricted reach while the clone and Bloodfang storm kept him trapped, Sanguinastra lowering before dissolving from Noctis's hand as he watched Malgoryth struggle against the chains. The Demon God's eyes narrowed when Noctis made no move to close the distance, and the unease already visible on his face deepened when the vampire finally spoke. "Enough of this."
Divine power began gathering around Noctis, and Malgoryth pulled against the Radiant Chains instinctively before the structure had fully formed. At first the holy concentration looked like another use of Noctis's own divine abilities, but the flow quickly settled into a sequence Malgoryth had seen many times while fighting beside Aurelion, compressing through the same judgment structure rather than spreading through the battlefield. His struggle stopped for barely a heartbeat as recognition overtook everything else, and fear became plainly visible on his face despite the rank he carried and the power that had made him a Demon God. "Radiant Verdict... how?!"
Noctis did not answer. The divine power continued building while Malgoryth's hesitation turned into panic, and he flooded his entire body with demonic force before throwing it against every restraint at once. The chain around one thigh broke first, but the movement pulled his waist violently against another restraint and exposed the side of his abdomen, allowing a Bloodfang Reaper to drive through it before he could use the partial freedom. He ignored the blade and kept pulling until the chain across his torso cracked as well, only for another Reaper to enter through the back and a third to strike the remaining shoulder while the clone reinforced the damaged restraints.
Malgoryth stopped trying to preserve the arm after that. He poured more spatial power into the wrist than the damaged flesh could safely carry and forced Ghorvath upward against the chain around the haft, cracking several links while the restraint around the forearm tightened in response. The weapon shifted enough for him to raise the axe head several inches before a Bloodfang Reaper pierced the same forearm near the earlier wound, breaking part of the spatial reinforcement and opening his fingers around the grip. Ghorvath slipped, and Malgoryth had to rebuild the artificial support around the hand simply to keep the weapon from being pulled away by the chain.
Noctis continued forming Radiant Verdict without hurrying, and the longer the technique took shape, the less controlled Malgoryth's attempts became. He broke another waist restraint and immediately received a replacement, tore part of the chain from one leg and was impaled through the thigh before the foot could move, then twisted his upper body hard enough to damage the restraint across the chest only for Bloodfangs to enter through the ribs and back. Dark blood ran freely down his armor while holy light from the chains continued burning through the damaged demonic reinforcement, but he kept fighting because remaining still meant allowing the technique in front of him to finish.
He tried spatial distortion directly against the chains next, twisting the region around one restraint in an attempt to pull several links out of alignment while forcing demonic power through the sanctity inside them. The clone adjusted the chain rather than releasing it and added another restraint around the same leg, while Bloodfang Reapers attacked whichever parts of Malgoryth's body lost reinforcement when his spatial power shifted toward the distortion. One blade drove through the flank, another entered the thigh, and a third struck the damaged forearm, forcing him to redirect power back into his body and allowing the chains he had nearly broken to tighten again.
The trap became impossible to misunderstand. Remaining still left him bound while Radiant Verdict continued gathering, but struggling created openings for the Reapers, and using too much spatial power against either threat weakened the reinforcement keeping Ghorvath in his hand. Malgoryth chose to struggle anyway, breaking another restraint around the torso and forcing his body several inches forward before the clone replaced the chain and pulled him back into nearly the same position. "Damn you…" he growled through clenched teeth, breathing harder now as blood continued running from the wounds accumulated during every failed attempt to escape.
Noctis watched without responding. Blood Memory supplied the internal sequence Aurelion had used for Radiant Verdict while Genesis Vessel and Noctis's own divine power adapted the technique to a body and energy system different from Aurelion's, preserving the execution structure without requiring him to imitate the dead god's manner of fighting. The familiar holy pressure increased around him, and Malgoryth's eyes remained locked on the forming technique even while his body continued straining against the restraints.
The Demon God made one final attempt to overpower everything at once. Spatial pressure expanded from his body and forced several Radiant Chains outward, cracking one around the waist and stretching another across the torso while nearby Bloodfang Reapers were blasted into droplets. For several moments his raw strength began winning enough ground to shift his body inside the bindings, but the clone held the restraints around both legs and the remaining arm while Noctis's blood returned through the same space the blast had briefly cleared. The Reapers came back in through the openings created by the stretched chains and drove through the thigh, flank, abdomen, back, and shoulder in rapid succession, forcing Malgoryth to turn demonic power inward to destroy them before they remained embedded too deeply.
The moment he did, the Radiant Chains tightened again. The clone replaced what had broken and pulled the remaining arm closer to the torso, while the chain around Ghorvath's haft shortened enough to drag the weapon down and force more of its weight through the damaged wrist. Malgoryth found himself almost where he had started, except the wounds were deeper, the hand supporting Ghorvath shook visibly beneath failing reinforcement, and the holy pressure surrounding Noctis had advanced much closer to completion.
He lowered his head briefly and tried to breathe through the pain before lifting it again toward Noctis. Fear had completely displaced the earlier anger by then, but he still fought the chains because he understood exactly what would happen if Radiant Verdict finished while he remained trapped inside them. He pulled again, was impaled again, destroyed the blade, and pulled once more, repeating the cycle because there was no better choice left to him. The clone maintained the restraint without speaking, while the Bloodfang storm kept turning every movement into another wound.
The divine pressure around Noctis finally changed as the technique reached its last stage. Malgoryth felt the transition and abandoned any attempt to conserve Ghorvath, driving every remaining reserve of demonic and spatial power through his body and forcing the chains outward hard enough to slide the clone backward through the air. The restraint around his waist snapped, followed by one across the torso, and his body lurched forward before a Bloodfang Reaper drove through the abdomen and another pierced the thigh. He ignored both and continued pulling until the chain around the upper arm began to crack, but the clone reinforced it while more Reapers entered through the gaps created beneath the raised shoulder.
Ghorvath lifted despite the arm shaking beneath it. The remaining restraint around the weapon arm pulled in the opposite direction, transferring the strain through a wrist that had already been cut, pierced, and repeatedly overloaded, while spatial reinforcement around the hand flickered hard enough to make the fingers appear almost disconnected from the flesh supporting them. Malgoryth forced the axe higher anyway because Radiant Verdict was now complete in front of him, and the sight of the finished technique stopped whatever remained of his attempt to hide the fear on his face.
Noctis looked at him through the holy radiance.
"Time to die."
Radiant Verdict descended while the clone held the remaining restraints in place. Malgoryth raised Ghorvath as far as the chains permitted and forced every surviving layer of spatial reinforcement around the weapon and damaged arm, meeting the leading edge of the divine attack with the axe head while his legs, torso, and shoulder remained restricted. The collision tore through the outer spatial defense and sent holy force down the haft into the injured wrist, forcing Malgoryth to brace against the chains rather than step away from the pressure.
He roared and pushed Ghorvath higher, but the Bloodfang storm continued attacking because his attention and remaining arm were committed entirely to Radiant Verdict. One Reaper pierced the thigh, another entered beneath the ribs, and two more drove through the back where his body pulled against the restraints. Malgoryth destroyed them with a burst of demonic force, but the diversion weakened the reinforcement around Ghorvath long enough for Radiant Verdict to drive closer.
He restored the support and took another series of Reaper strikes in exchange. The clone tightened the restraint around the arm each time Malgoryth tried to change the axe's angle, preventing him from redirecting enough of the attack to escape its center. Every defensive choice consumed more of the power keeping the wrist functional, and when a Bloodfang Reaper finally pierced the forearm through one of the weakened spatial lines, his fingers opened involuntarily around the haft.
Ghorvath dropped several inches.
Malgoryth forced the hand closed through external reinforcement and tried to raise the axe again, but the chain around the weapon arm tightened and pulled the elbow closer to the torso. Radiant Verdict passed the edge of Ghorvath before he could recover the lost position and struck the demonic reinforcement across his chest directly, spreading through wounds already opened by the Bloodfang Reapers and forcing his remaining power into violent resistance.
The chains prevented him from being thrown clear.
Holy force engulfed the restrained Demon God and burned through the damaged pathways along the ribs, abdomen, shoulder, and thigh while Malgoryth tried to wrench backward against restraints that still held his legs and torso in the center of the attack. The spatial reinforcement around the right arm collapsed almost completely, leaving Ghorvath supported only by the last forced grip around the fingers while the weapon ceased providing meaningful protection against the technique.
Malgoryth screamed as Radiant Verdict continued passing through him. The chain across his torso eventually shattered under the combined holy pressure and the force of his struggle, followed by the restraint around the waist and then one leg, but the failures came only after the attack had already held him in place through most of its strongest concentration. When the final restraint around the shoulder broke, the remaining force threw him backward through the air while residual holy fire covered his body and several nearby Bloodfang Reapers burned apart in the same release.
Noctis maintained Radiant Verdict until the complete execution structure had passed through Malgoryth, adjusting the technique through his own divine control rather than reproducing Aurelion's motions exactly. By the time the holy concentration began weakening, the technique had already been reconciled with Noctis's own power system, leaving the recognizable structure of Aurelion's execution attack without requiring anything from the imprisoned god-core still hanging behind him.
Malgoryth emerged from the fading radiance still moving backward, smoke and residual holy fire running across much of his torso while the wounds opened by the Bloodfang Reapers had burned wider under the divine impact. His remaining shoulder hung lower than before, the thigh and abdomen bled freely, and the spatial reinforcement around the right forearm flickered in incomplete fragments rather than the dense support it had carried earlier. Ghorvath remained in his hand, but the axe dragged noticeably below its former position and the arm shook throughout the effort required to keep it raised.
He tried to stabilize himself with another rift and failed when the holy damage running through his demonic pathways disrupted the forming structure. A second attempt lasted slightly longer before collapsing as well, and by the time he gathered enough power to consider a third, the Bloodfang storm had already begun reforming from the blood scattered by Radiant Verdict. The clone rebuilt damaged portions of its body while moving toward his back, and Noctis lowered his hand as the last of the divine attack faded before using Genesis Step to close the distance again.
Malgoryth saw him coming and forced Ghorvath upward despite the ruined forearm. The weapon reached only chest level before the arm refused to lift it higher, while the first reformed Bloodfang Reapers entered striking range from the sides and the clone continued approaching from behind. Noctis formed Sanguinastra during the final approach and did not slow, leaving Malgoryth with the axe shaking in his only hand and no clear route left through the storm.