Radiant Verdict had left Malgoryth moving only because the power sustaining a Demon God had not yet surrendered to the damage consuming his body. Residual holy fire crawled across his chest and abdomen as he forced himself to stabilize in the air, while the wounds opened by the Bloodfang Reapers continued leaking dark blood through sections of armor that had been burned apart. His remaining right arm hung lower than before, the forearm trembling beneath incomplete layers of spatial reinforcement that appeared and vanished around the wrist whenever he tried to support Ghorvath. The axe remained in his hand, but the fingers around its haft were no longer holding it through physical strength alone.
Noctis gave him no time to recover from Radiant Verdict. Genesis Step carried him through the reforming Bloodfang storm while Sanguinastra took shape in his hand, and the clone approached from Malgoryth's other side as scattered blood rebuilt the portions of its body damaged by the previous attack. Malgoryth saw both of them closing and tried to force another rift into existence, but the holy damage spread through his demonic pathways faster than he could stabilize the spatial structure. The opening twisted, shrank, and collapsed before his body moved more than a few inches toward it.
The failure brought fear back across his face, although he buried it beneath a snarl and raised Ghorvath before Noctis entered striking distance. The axe moved slower than it had even moments earlier, forcing Malgoryth to supplement every part of the swing with spatial pressure while the injured wrist struggled beneath the changing weight. Noctis did not meet the weapon head directly and instead shifted inside its useful arc, allowing Sanguinastra to slide against the haft while Bloodfang Reapers attacked the hand and forearm supporting it. Malgoryth released a short burst of demonic force to clear the blades, but the diversion gave the clone enough time to drive a blood-forged weapon into his exposed flank.
Malgoryth twisted away from the clone and caught the weapon with his elbow rather than allowing it to enter deeper. The impact tore damaged flesh along his side, but he used the contact to shove the duplicate backward while Ghorvath came around toward Noctis again. Noctis stepped beneath the returning axe, struck the haft near Malgoryth's fingers with Sanguinastra, and immediately withdrew before the Demon God could redirect the weapon through another short spatial distortion. The repeated pressure on the same hand forced Malgoryth to rebuild the reinforcement around his wrist for the third time within several breaths.
He understood what they were doing.
The realization made him change the way he held Ghorvath. Instead of extending the weapon and allowing its weight to pull against the damaged wrist, Malgoryth brought the axe closer to his torso and shortened every movement, using his shoulder and upper body to carry more of the load. The adjustment reduced the range of the weapon but allowed him to keep Noctis and the clone from simply striking the hand whenever they wanted. He drove the haft into the clone's chest, kicked it away, then released a compressed spatial burst toward Noctis that forced Genesis Step before Sanguinastra could reach the arm again.
The Bloodfang storm closed the space created by that burst. Blades crossed Malgoryth's back and legs while he tried to turn, and although several were destroyed by demonic pressure, others cut through the already weakened protection over his thigh and ribs. One Reaper drove toward the wrist from below, and Malgoryth had to use Ghorvath itself to knock the blade aside, forcing the injured hand through an angle that made the reinforcement around it fracture visibly. He corrected the weapon before it could slip, but the movement confirmed what Noctis had already learned from watching the arm fail throughout the battle.
The clone returned before Malgoryth could create another opening. A blood-forged spear entered toward the shoulder carrying Ghorvath while Noctis attacked the lower haft from the opposite side, and the Demon God had to turn his whole torso because the wrist could no longer redirect the axe quickly enough by itself. The combined pressure made Ghorvath tilt away from his centerline, and Bloodfang Reapers attacked the exposed fingers immediately. Malgoryth released enough demonic power to destroy the closest blades and forced the weapon back into position, but the spatial reinforcement around his hand had become visibly denser than the power protecting the rest of his body.
Noctis saw the imbalance and stopped attacking Malgoryth's torso entirely. Sanguinastra struck the haft, withdrew, and struck again from another angle while the clone alternated between the elbow and the back of the hand. Every movement required Malgoryth to protect the same failing limb, and every surge of spatial power directed there left another region open to the Bloodfang storm. Cuts accumulated across his legs and abdomen until dark blood ran continuously beneath him.
Malgoryth tried to end the pattern by attacking the original Noctis with everything the arm could still support. He forced several spatial transitions around Ghorvath's head and drove the axe through an altered path that brought the blade down beside Noctis instead of along the original swing. Genesis Step carried Noctis away before the weapon landed, but Malgoryth followed with another distortion and redirected the axe toward the position where he expected Noctis to appear. The prediction came close enough that the edge scraped across Nocthyrael's crimson armor before Noctis shifted again.
The near hit gave Malgoryth enough confidence to commit farther. He forced the wrist reinforcement thicker and sent Ghorvath through another altered path, accepting Bloodfang cuts across his back because stopping to defend against them would have broken the attack sequence. The clone entered from behind and drove a blade toward the elbow, but Malgoryth kicked backward and caught the duplicate in the abdomen before the strike reached the arm. He followed the kick with a spatial burst that tore through part of the clone's torso and pushed the surrounding Reapers away.
For several seconds he regained the aggression that had carried him through earlier stages of the battle. Ghorvath struck from changing directions while Malgoryth used his legs and shoulders to compensate for the weakness in the forearm, and Noctis was forced to use Genesis Step repeatedly instead of simply remaining inside the axe's reach. The Demon God accepted additional wounds each time the Bloodfang storm entered around the exchanges because landing one decisive hit on the original mattered more than preserving a body already damaged beyond ordinary recovery.
Noctis recognized the commitment and allowed it to continue.
He gave ground just enough to keep Malgoryth spending power through Ghorvath, never retreating far enough to suggest an actual loss of control. Each spatial redirection required the Demon God to reinforce the weapon arm before the transition could complete, and each follow-up forced damaged pathways to carry another surge before the previous strain had settled. Blood Memory had already shown Noctis how much of Malgoryth's spatial control had once been distributed through healthier structures, making the current concentration around the right arm increasingly inefficient.
Malgoryth forced another overhead strike through a short distortion and came down with enough power to fracture the air beneath Ghorvath. Noctis Genesis Stepped aside at the last moment, while the clone reformed the section of its torso damaged earlier and closed from behind. Malgoryth tried to pull Ghorvath back before the duplicate reached him, but the wrist failed to rotate cleanly under the weapon's weight. The delay lasted only a fraction of a second, yet that was enough for the clone to seize the lower haft with both hands.
Malgoryth immediately pulled.
The clone pulled the other way.
The contest lasted barely long enough for Noctis to reach them. Sanguinastra struck the spatial reinforcement around Malgoryth's wrist with enough precision to disrupt the portion supporting the fingers without cutting through the flesh beneath it. Ghorvath dropped several inches before Malgoryth forced the support back into place, but Bloodfang Reapers were already driving toward the exposed hand.
One blade cut across the back of his fingers.
Another entered the forearm.
A third struck the support around the wrist before Malgoryth could redirect enough power to stop it.
The Demon God roared and released a point-blank blast that tore the Reapers apart and threw the clone away from Ghorvath. Noctis shifted through the edge of the burst rather than resisting it, then returned with Genesis Step before Malgoryth could fully close his fingers around the haft again. Sanguinastra hit the same weakened region, and this time the spatial reinforcement separated long enough for the actual hand to bear the weight of Ghorvath.
The fingers opened.
Malgoryth caught the weapon again before it fell more than a few inches, wrapping spatial pressure around his own hand like an external fist. The improvised grip closed around the haft, but it lacked the flexibility of the support he had used earlier and made every movement of Ghorvath slower. His expression tightened as he tried to pull the axe back toward his body.
The clone returned with Radiant Chains.
Golden-white links wrapped around Ghorvath's haft and pulled in the opposite direction. Another chain caught Malgoryth's forearm just below the elbow, preventing him from following the weapon with his body while Noctis struck the external grip around his hand again. The spatial pressure holding his fingers closed broke apart, and for the first time since Ghorvath had entered the battle, nothing remained between the axe and gravity except Malgoryth's damaged flesh.
His grip failed.
Ghorvath left his hand.
"Malgoryth!" The name that escaped him was not directed at anyone, and the sound broke into a hoarse snarl as he lunged after the weapon before it moved beyond reach. His fingers brushed the haft once, but the Radiant Chains around Ghorvath tightened and dragged it farther while the chain around his forearm prevented the shoulder from following. The clone added another restraint around the weapon itself as Bloodfang Reapers surrounded it from several directions, carrying the axe away through the storm.
Malgoryth tried to tear the chain from his arm and immediately took a Bloodfang Reaper through the thigh. The blade entered deep enough to interrupt the movement before he destroyed it, and two more Reapers attacked the same leg while his attention remained on Ghorvath. He blasted the nearest constructs apart and reached toward the disappearing axe again, but the weapon had already been drawn too far for his hand to matter.
Noctis did not pursue Ghorvath.
He watched Malgoryth.
The Demon God turned toward him with the remaining arm empty for the first time in the battle. The spatial reinforcement that had previously supported the weapon still flickered around the wrist out of habit, but without Ghorvath there was nothing for it to carry, and the damaged hand shook visibly as Malgoryth closed the fingers. Dark blood ran from the forearm and dripped from the fingertips.
Malgoryth attacked anyway.
He drove the shoulder forward and released a concentrated spatial blast from the palm, forcing Noctis to shift aside before the pressure could strike the chest. Malgoryth followed with a kick aimed at the ribs, then another when Noctis moved around the first, using the legs and torso more aggressively now that the weight of Ghorvath no longer restricted his balance. The clone entered from behind, but Malgoryth spun and caught it across the side with his heel, breaking part of the blood-forged body before turning back toward Noctis.
The loss of Ghorvath had made him less powerful but temporarily more mobile. He no longer needed to protect the failing grip or compensate for an axe too heavy for the damaged arm, allowing him to use his legs, shoulders, and direct spatial pressure with more freedom than he had possessed during the final stages of the weapon duel. Noctis adapted immediately, abandoning long weapon engagements and shifting Sanguinastra into shorter blood-forged forms whenever Malgoryth tried to close.
A kick passed through the position Noctis had occupied before Genesis Step moved him behind the Demon God. Malgoryth twisted toward the displacement and released a spatial burst from the elbow, but the clone attacked from the other side before he could finish turning. Bloodfang Reapers crossed low around both legs at the same time, forcing him to jump rather than allow the blades to cut through the knees.
Noctis met him in the air.
A blood-forged blade struck across the ribs and opened another wound through armor already weakened by Radiant Verdict. Malgoryth answered with his forehead, catching Noctis across the face before Genesis Step could completely remove him from the exchange, then drove the heel of his foot toward the clone as it entered from behind. The duplicate took the kick through the abdomen and broke apart around the leg, but its blood remained attached to Malgoryth instead of scattering away.
The blood hardened around his ankle.
Malgoryth felt the restraint and immediately blasted it apart, but the delay allowed several Reapers to enter around his back and remaining shoulder. One cut across the upper arm while another pierced the outside of the thigh, and a third drove toward his abdomen before he destroyed it with spatial force. The constant accumulation of wounds kept taking away whatever mobility losing Ghorvath had briefly restored.
He tried another rift.
The opening appeared unevenly beside him and immediately wavered under the disruption still running through his demonic pathways. Malgoryth forced more power into it, but the spatial structure refused to settle cleanly enough for him to trust his entire body to the transition. He abandoned it when Bloodfang Reapers began filling the exit and instead released a broad demonic shockwave around himself.
The blast cleared several yards.
Malgoryth tried to use the space.
The clone reformed inside it.
Radiant Chains erupted before the Demon God completed his first step.
One chain caught the damaged right forearm and pulled it across his torso, while another wrapped around the upper arm and shoulder. Two more caught the waist and chest, followed by restraints around both thighs and lower legs. Malgoryth reacted with enough force to stretch several chains immediately, but the previous fight had already stripped away much of the power he had used to threaten the bindings in Chapter 921.
He twisted his torso and forced one leg several inches against the restraint.
A Bloodfang Reaper entered through the exposed thigh.
The blade passed almost completely through the muscle before Malgoryth destroyed it, but the interruption allowed the clone to shorten the Radiant Chain around the same leg. Another restraint wrapped the ankle while the chain around his waist tightened enough to stop the hip from rotating freely. Malgoryth pulled his remaining arm outward, and another group of Reapers attacked the opening beneath the shoulder.
One pierced the upper arm.
Another entered the side beneath the ribs.
Malgoryth destroyed them and tried to turn toward the clone, but the chain around his chest prevented enough rotation to face the duplicate directly. He released spatial distortion against the links instead, twisting the region around the restraint until several sections began cracking under the combined demonic and spatial pressure. The clone reinforced the chain before it failed, and Bloodfang Reapers struck the opposite side of his body while his attention remained committed to the restraint.
The pattern from the previous chapter returned, except Malgoryth had far less strength with which to fight it.
He broke one chain around the waist and received another before he could move more than a few inches. He damaged the restraint around his right leg, only for the Bloodfang storm to drive a blade through the thigh while the clone replaced what he had weakened. The right arm became almost useless once the chain around the forearm tightened across the earlier wounds, leaving Malgoryth with enough movement to strain but not enough to generate meaningful force.
Fear returned completely to his face.
"Noctis."
The name came out differently from the curses he had thrown earlier. There was no challenge in it, only the awareness that Noctis had stopped treating him as an opponent who needed to be fought at equal distance. The clone continued tightening the Radiant Chains while Noctis remained several yards away, standing in his normal crimson armor as the Bloodfang storm circled around the restrained Demon God.
Malgoryth pulled again.
The chains held.
He tried to lift one leg, but the restraint around the ankle and thigh prevented the movement while another Bloodfang Reaper drove through the calf. He destroyed it and forced spatial pressure outward from the entire lower body, stretching the holy restraints enough to shift both feet several inches before the clone reinforced them again.
Noctis watched without speaking.
Malgoryth tried harder.
The chain around the damaged arm cut deeper into the injured flesh as he pulled, and the spatial reinforcement around the wrist returned instinctively even though Ghorvath was no longer there. He redirected that power against the Radiant Chain and cracked several links, only for a Bloodfang Reaper to drive through the forearm while the protection around the rest of the arm weakened.
His body jerked.
The chain tightened.
Another restraint crossed his chest.
Malgoryth looked past Noctis toward the Bloodfang storm and then toward the direction where Ghorvath had been taken. The axe remained visible in the distance, wrapped in holy and blood-forged restraints that kept it suspended far outside his reach. Whatever connection remained between weapon and wielder was not enough to bring it back through the prison Noctis had built around it.
Malgoryth lowered his head briefly, then gathered demonic power for another attempt.
The Radiant Chains brightened.
A new presence began forming behind him.
At first Malgoryth reacted as though the clone had added another restraint, but the holy pressure continued growing beyond the chains and gathered into a vertical structure larger than his own body. White-gold radiance spread upward and outward behind him, hardening into a massive cross whose horizontal arms extended far enough to frame his restrained body from shoulder to shoulder. The lower section descended beneath his feet while the upper portion rose above his head, its surface built from concentrated sanctity rather than physical material.
Malgoryth stopped pulling.
His eyes moved toward the light behind him even though the chains prevented him from turning far enough to see the entire structure.
Recognition reached him anyway.
"Radiant Crucifixion…"
Noctis's expression did not change.
Malgoryth looked back toward him, and the fear that had been visible since Radiant Verdict deepened when he understood that another of Aurelion's techniques was standing behind him. His remaining hand flexed against the chain around the forearm, and his legs pulled instinctively against the restraints as if the body had decided to escape before his mind fully processed what Noctis intended to do.
The clone tightened the Radiant Chains.
Malgoryth was dragged backward.
His back struck the white-gold cross with enough force to send holy light across its surface. The chains across his waist and chest spread outward and fixed themselves to different portions of the cruciform structure, while those around his thighs and lower legs pulled the limbs down along the vertical section. The restraint around his surviving right arm drew it outward across the crossbar, forcing the injured shoulder open despite the damage already accumulated there.
The missing left arm prevented the posture from becoming symmetrical. Radiant Chains instead crossed the severed stump, upper chest, and remaining portion of the left shoulder, pressing that side firmly against the cross without inventing a limb that was no longer there. Malgoryth twisted hard enough to make the chains flare, but the cross itself gave him nowhere to move because every restraint now pulled his body directly into the holy structure behind him.
"No."
The word escaped quietly at first.
Malgoryth forced more demonic power into his body and pulled again, harder this time. The chain around his right arm stretched, and the shoulder shifted several inches from the cross before the clone strengthened the restraint and dragged it back. Bloodfang Reapers attacked the exposed side during the effort, cutting across the ribs and thigh before he destroyed them.
"No!"
The second shout came louder.
Noctis began walking toward him.
The crimson plates of Nocthyrael reflected the white-gold light from Radiant Crucifixion as he approached, but nothing about the armor itself changed. No holy mantle replaced the crimson, no Templar form appeared, and no angelic transformation softened the predatory silhouette moving through the Bloodfang storm. The sanctity belonged to his arsenal now, not to his appearance.
Malgoryth saw that too.
He pulled against the chain around his right arm and tried to curl the hand toward his body. The holy restraint kept the limb stretched across the crossbar, though the fingers still moved enough to close into a fist. Malgoryth gathered spatial distortion around the hand and tried to fold the region between palm and torso, but the damaged pathways left by Radiant Verdict made the structure unstable.
Noctis stopped in front of him.
The clone extended one hand.
A white-gold spike formed above Malgoryth's right palm.
His eyes widened.
The hand jerked against the chain.
"Wait."
The spike descended.
It passed through the center of the palm and buried itself into Radiant Crucifixion behind him, fixing the surviving hand directly to the crossbar. Malgoryth screamed and pulled reflexively, but the movement only drove the spike harder against the wound while sanctity spread through the hand and wrist. Spatial power gathered around the palm in an attempt to dislodge the weapon, yet the clone tightened the chain around the forearm and kept the limb flat against the cross.
Malgoryth tried to kick forward.
The restraints around his legs stopped both feet before they gained more than a few inches.
A second holy spike formed over the right foot.
Malgoryth twisted the ankle desperately and tried to draw the leg upward, but the chain around the thigh pulled in the opposite direction while another restraint held the lower leg against the vertical section of the cross. The spike drove through the foot and entered the radiant structure beneath it, sending another surge of holy power through the leg.
The left foot followed.
Malgoryth tried to shift his weight even though the cross supported most of his body now, forcing the remaining leg sideways in an attempt to avoid the descending point. The chain around the ankle corrected the movement before the spike arrived, and white-gold metal-like radiance passed through the foot and fixed it beside the first. With the surviving hand and both feet physically impaled into Radiant Crucifixion, the chains no longer carried the entire burden of holding him in place.
Malgoryth's breathing became ragged.
He stared at Noctis.
"What are you doing?"
Noctis did not answer.
The question had not sounded like a demand for information anyway. Malgoryth could see enough of the crucifixion around him to understand what was happening, and the fear in his voice came from realizing that the hand and feet were only the beginning. He pulled once more against the palm spike and immediately stopped when the movement widened the wound.
Noctis raised his right hand.
Holy power gathered above the crimson gauntlet.
The light lengthened into the shape of a spear.
Malgoryth watched the weapon become solid in Noctis's grip and began struggling again before the formation was complete. The chains across his chest, waist, legs, and surviving arm tightened in response, while the holy spikes through his hand and feet prevented him from using the little movement the restraints still allowed. Bloodfang Reapers circled closer but did not attack yet, leaving the restrained Demon God with a clear view of Noctis approaching with the spear.
"Noctis."
There was no anger left in the name.
Noctis stopped within arm's reach.
Malgoryth tried to draw his body sideways, but the chain across the torso held him flat against the cross. Noctis placed the point of the holy spear against the Demon God's right side beneath the ribs, adjusting the angle slightly until the weapon aligned with the torso rather than the crossbar behind him.
Malgoryth looked down at the spear point.
His breathing stopped for an instant.
"Noctis, wait."
Noctis drove the spear through him.
The weapon entered beneath the ribs and passed through the side with enough force to bury its point deep into Radiant Crucifixion behind him. Malgoryth's body convulsed against every restraint at once, and the scream that tore out of him carried enough demonic power to distort the air around the cross. The holy spear remained embedded, sanctity pouring continuously into the wound while the chains prevented his torso from pulling away from the shaft.
Malgoryth forced spatial power around the spear and tried to displace the section passing through him. The distortion formed unevenly and immediately collapsed when the holy energy inside the weapon disrupted the same pathways that Radiant Verdict had already damaged. He twisted instead, trying to shift his ribs away from the spear despite the chains around his chest, but the movement only dragged the wound around an object fixed firmly into the cross behind him.
Noctis stepped back half a pace.
Malgoryth continued twisting.
His surviving right shoulder lifted from the cross by several inches as he used the arm for leverage despite the palm spike holding the hand farther out along the crossbar. The movement widened the wound in the palm and pulled the arm against the chain around the forearm, but it gave him enough space to begin rotating the upper torso away from the spear through his side.
Noctis watched the shoulder move.
Another holy spear formed in his hand.
Malgoryth saw it.
"No."
He tried to force the shoulder back toward his chest, but the palm remained nailed to the crossbar and the Radiant Chains prevented the arm from collapsing inward. Noctis placed the second spear against the front of the remaining right shoulder, close enough to the joint that Malgoryth understood exactly what would happen if it passed through.
He pulled against the palm spike anyway.
The hand did not come free.
Noctis drove the second spear through the shoulder and into Radiant Crucifixion.
Malgoryth's upper body slammed back against the cross as the weapon fixed the shoulder in place. Holy light spread from the new wound through tissues already damaged by Bloodfang attacks and Radiant Verdict, overwhelming the demonic reinforcement Malgoryth tried to gather around the joint. The combination of palm spike, shoulder spear, side spear, chains, and foot spikes left almost no part of his body capable of generating meaningful leverage.
His head dropped forward.
For several breaths, Malgoryth did not struggle.
Dark blood ran down the side spear and across the white-gold surface of the cross before the surrounding sanctity burned much of it away. More blood dripped from the shoulder and palm, while residual holy fire continued crawling across the burns Radiant Verdict had left over his torso. The contrast made the Demon God look smaller than he had at any earlier point in the battle, despite the enormous power still compressed inside his god-level body.
Noctis remained directly in front of him.
Malgoryth raised his head slowly.
His eyes moved from Noctis to the Bloodfang storm surrounding the crucifixion.
Understanding reached him before the blades moved.
"No…"
The first group of Reapers entered from the sides.
They did not attack randomly. Several concentrated on the right arm stretched between the palm spike and shoulder spear, cutting across the biceps, forearm, and damaged wrist while the holy restraints prevented the limb from recoiling away from the blades. Others attacked the thighs and calves around the spikes fixing both feet, opening long cuts through flesh that was still trying to regenerate from earlier impalements.
Malgoryth screamed and released demonic power through his body.
Several Reapers shattered.
The cross held.
The blades returned to blood and spread around him while another wave entered from different angles. One group cut across the abdomen and flank while others attacked the back where the body met the cross, using narrow paths between the restraints rather than striking the holy structure itself. Every cut added more of Noctis's blood to Malgoryth's wounds, and every destroyed Reaper simply returned material to the storm surrounding him.
The Demon God tried to gather enough power to blast the entire crucifixion apart. Dark energy surged through his torso and pushed against the Radiant Chains, making the cross brighten where demonic force met sanctity. The spear through his side and the spear through his shoulder burned hotter under the pressure, sending holy power deeper through the same pathways he was trying to use to resist.
The attack never reached the strength he intended.
Bloodfang Reapers cut across the abdomen while the demonic power was still gathering, opening multiple wounds through the region carrying the surge. Another group attacked the thighs and remaining arm, forcing Malgoryth to redirect enough of his strength into defense that the larger release collapsed before it could threaten Radiant Crucifixion itself. The clone immediately tightened every Radiant Chain the moment his outward pressure weakened.
Malgoryth sagged against the cross.
The Bloodfangs continued.
They cut deeper along the remaining arm without severing it, opening the flesh around the shoulder spear and palm spike while the holy weapons kept the limb stretched. Several Reapers crossed the thigh in repeated paths, each attack cutting through tissue that began repairing almost as soon as the blade passed. The regeneration that had once allowed Malgoryth to survive terrible wounds now worked against him by continually presenting new flesh to the storm.
He realized it after several cycles.
"Noctis…"
The vampire remained silent.
Malgoryth's eyes lifted toward him, then toward the Bloodfang Reapers repeatedly carving through the same regions. The regeneration around one thigh closed part of a cut only for two Reapers to cross it again from opposing directions, while another group reopened the flesh around the right forearm after demonic energy partially restored what had been damaged there. The holy spikes and spears prevented enough movement to protect anything properly.
"Stop."
Noctis did not.
The clone maintained the chains.
The Reapers continued cutting.
Malgoryth gathered spatial distortion around his torso and tried to move only the flesh surrounding the side spear rather than displacing his entire body. The technique shifted the region by less than an inch before the spear's sanctity destabilized it, and the failed distortion made the wound tear farther along the ribs. He tried again around the shoulder and achieved even less.
Noctis watched every attempt.
Malgoryth's power was still substantial enough to destroy individual Reapers and damage sections of Radiant Chains, but nothing he did affected enough of the execution structure at once. Breaking one restraint would still leave the spikes through his hand and feet. Damaging a spike would leave the chains and embedded spears. Attacking the cross meant exposing himself to the Bloodfang storm while trying to overcome sanctity with pathways that Radiant Verdict had already damaged.
His struggles gradually became shorter.
The Reapers did not slow.
Blood ran across the cross faster than the sanctity could burn it away, coating portions of the white-gold structure in dark streaks before evaporating into smoke. Malgoryth's body repeatedly tried to rebuild itself between attacks, but the combination of holy damage and constant cutting made each repaired section weaker than the one before. His remaining arm trembled along the crossbar while the shoulder spear prevented the joint from collapsing under its own weight.
Noctis finally raised one hand.
The Bloodfang storm did not stop entirely, but the blades closest to Malgoryth pulled away from the body and returned to wider orbits around the crucifixion. The sudden reduction in cutting gave the Demon God enough relief to lift his head and draw several deeper breaths, though every movement of his chest pressed against the spear buried through his side. His eyes followed Noctis's raised hand with the wary desperation of someone who had already learned that pauses only meant another stage was beginning.
Noctis looked upward.
Malgoryth followed his gaze.
At first there was nothing above them except the damaged battlefield and the distant distortion left by divine combat. Then white-gold lines began appearing high overhead, thin enough to resemble cracks of light before they curved into the first enormous circle. Additional lines branched away from it and connected to smaller rings, geometric intersections, and luminous patterns that spread outward across the sky.
Malgoryth stared.
The first circle rotated.
A second formed within it.
Then a third.
The structure expanded until it dwarfed Radiant Crucifixion beneath it, filling a vast region above the battlefield with layered sacred geometry. White-gold script appeared along the rotating rings, not as ordinary written language but as compact divine patterns whose meaning existed in the relationships between the symbols, while branching lines connected one layer to another and fed light toward the center.
Noctis remained beneath it in crimson armor.
The growing radiance reflected across Nocthyrael's plates and traced gold-white highlights along the blood-red surfaces, but his armor did not transform and no Templar appearance replaced it. He remained the same vampire who had fought Aurelion and Malgoryth from the beginning, standing beneath an increasingly immense holy formation that obeyed him anyway. That contradiction seemed to disturb Malgoryth almost as much as the crucifixion holding him.
The Demon God looked from the formation to Noctis.
"What is that?"
Noctis did not answer.
More rings unfolded overhead.
Several rotated in opposite directions while geometric patterns crossed between them, building a layered formation whose center gradually aligned with the radiant cross below. The holy pressure increased with every completed section, and the spikes through Malgoryth's hand and feet began responding before the formation had even finished assembling.
The spear through his side brightened.
The shoulder spear followed.
Radiant Chains glowed along their full lengths.
Malgoryth felt the change before he understood what connected them. His eyes dropped toward the spear through his ribs and then returned to the enormous formation above, while the sanctity running through the execution structure grew stronger without Noctis touching any of it. The entire crucifixion had begun resonating with the formation gathering overhead.
"No…"
Malgoryth pulled against the spikes again.
His right palm tore around the radiant point but remained fixed to the crossbar. Both feet strained against their own spikes while the chains around his legs prevented enough motion to slide them free, and the shoulder spear held the upper body firmly against the cross despite the desperation returning to his movements. The Bloodfang Reapers began closing toward him again as soon as he struggled.
The outermost ring of the holy formation locked into place.
Another ring continued turning within it.
The center above Radiant Crucifixion brightened.
Malgoryth stopped pulling long enough to stare upward, and the fear on his face deepened when he realized that everything Noctis had done to him so far had only been preparation for whatever the formation was being built to deliver. Around the cross, thousands of Bloodfang Reapers tightened their flight paths while Noctis lowered his hand and watched the white-gold geometry continue spreading across the sky.