Climbing through the narrow gap in the wall, Rintal and Areday emerged into a vast, dark hall.The cathedral was enormous — its air was stale and cold, and a silence lay over it as if the world itself had forgotten this place.
It had once been holy:
Tall gothic arches rose into the darkness,
twisted, spiral columns held up the ceiling,
above, shattered stained-glass windows still hung, once filtering starlight into the hall,
broken marble crosses lay scattered across the floor,
and behind the altar, a statue of a winged angel stood — its wings broken, its stone face streaked with black mold like dried tears.
The cathedral was both the house of God and a mausoleum of death.The red moon's light slanted through the broken windows, casting blood-colored shadows across the ruins.
Areday whispered softly:
— "It feels like… God's grave."
Rintal couldn't answer.The seal on his arm was pulsing harder and harder,as if something inside — or outside — the darkness was answering it.
The air went still.
Something arrived.
A deep, earth-shaking voice split the silence:
— "I've been waiting for you."
Rintal and Areday turned almost at the same time.
Gnatzstepped out of the dark.
Not as a man.Not as a warrior.He moved like fate itself finally catching up to them.
He came from the direction of the red moon's light, so at first, they only saw his silhouette —a giant, with a greatsword resting on his shoulder.
Blood-red light flashed in his eyes.
Every step echoed.Every motion made the stones tremble.
— "The seal is too loud. Too… hungry," he growled.
The seal on Rintal's arm throbbed in painful response.
Areday whispered:
— "Brother… he's been… following us the whole time?"
Gnatz nodded slowly.
— "When you touched the outer wall… I felt it already.The Antichrist is approaching."
He stepped closer.He slowly lowered the greatsword from his shoulder.The sound was like a mountain splitting in half.
— "I expected more strength. Pathetic."
Areday stepped in front of Rintal.
— "Rintal… get ready."
Gnatz stopped, gripped the greatsword with both hands, then tilted it to the side like a man preparing to cleave a tree in two.
Then… he smiled.
It was an empty, dead, predator's smile.
— "Let's dance."
The cathedral floor cracked when he charged.
Despite his size, Gnatz vanished from their sight with inhuman speed.
One blink—and he was gone.
Only the sound remained:
BOOOM.
The column behind them exploded.
Areday jumped back.
— "BROTHER, I CAN'T SEE HIM!"
Rintal's breath quickened.The seal trembled
— "He's… suppressing his presence."
A black blur slammed into the floor beside Rintal.The marble shattered completely.
Gnatz slowly lifted his head from the debris.
— "Too slow."
Rintal charged, swinging his blade at Gnatz's chest.
Gnatz caught the strike with one hand.He only said:
— "Weak."
His other fist lashed out.
Rintal flew like a ragdoll and crashed into a broken pew.
Areday leaped at Gnatz from behind, both daggers drawn.
Two blades — two shadows — one swift flash.
CLANG.
Gnatz blocked with the flat of his greatsword, then stepped back with impossible speed for a man of his size.
He moved like a black lightning bolt.
— "At least you're faster," he said — and vanished into the half-darkness.
The cathedral dimmed.
Gnatz hadn't simply hidden —his presence itself became unreadable.
It was as if he had turned off his own existence.
Areday panted:
— "Brother… is he a human?."
Rintal pushed himself to his feet, blood running down his face.
— "I know."
The seal flared red — but now it seemed more like a warning than a blessing.
A moment…a tiny shift…
The next second, Gnatz was behind Rintal.
No sound.No footsteps.
Only death.
The greatsword was already falling like a sentence:
— "Die."
Rintal dove aside; the blade only sliced off his cloak.
A deep fissure split the ground where he'd just been.It looked like a meteor had struck.
Rintal sprang up, activated the seal, and a surge of red energy blocked and reflected the next strike.
Gnatz stopped.Truly paused for a heartbeat.
— "Hmm… that's something."
Areday moved instantly.
Three throwing knives flew —all three aimed perfectly.
Gnatz moved so fast that the blades passed by him,as if the air had let him step somewhere else entirely.
His appearance glitched through reality like a broken frame in a film.
— "Not enough."
With the seal, Rintal broke the distance in an instant.This time, he landed a hit.
Gnatz's eyes flashed.
— "Oh?"
Rintal threw himself at him with everything he had —using the poisoned blade he'd once used against Loran.He drove it into Gnatz's shoulder.
Gnatz looked down at the wound.
Then…
…smiled.
— "Finally."
He spun the greatsword one-handed.
A storm-force gust tore through the cathedral, lifting the marble slabs off the ground.
The real fight had just begun.
The spinning sword whipped up a hurricane.The cathedral floor couldn't withstand it — tiles ripped free and rose into the air as if yanked up by invisible chains.
Rintal and Areday were thrown upward with the shockwave —their bodies flung like debris as stone and dust spun around them.
Areday twisted mid-air, reaching for a wall to soften his fall when—
Gnatz vanished.
Just a flicker. A dark vibration in the air.
The next instant:
Gnatz appeared from nowhere and grabbed Areday by the leg mid-air.
Areday's face contorted in fear and pain.
— "NO—!" Rintal shouted, trying to use the seal to reach him,but he was too late.
Gnatz yanked Areday down in a single brutal motion—
BOOOOOOM.
The cathedral floor cracked as Areday slammed into it.The air was driven from his lungs; the stone split beneath him.
He hadn't even managed to rise when Gnatz lifted his boot…
…and stomped down.
Stone shattered.Areday screamed in agony.
"AAARRRHHH—!"
Gnatz just laughed.
— "So fragile… and he thinks he's strong, this little thief."— "I'll stomp your guts out, you little rat."— "DO YOU HEAR ME? I'LL STOMP YOU HOLLOW."
That sound…
That was what broke Rintal.
As if someone had thrown burning coal onto the seal on his arm.
The red symbol erupted in light.
Rintal's body shuddered.His eyes widened, then flooded with blood-red glow.The seal on his arm spread wider — new lines, new symbols flaring to life,like a demon that had slept for years and finally woke.
Areday was still on the ground, gasping, trying to push himself up, but Gnatz loomed over him like a living shadow.
Rintal felt his world narrow into a tunnel.He didn't just want to fight.
He wanted to kill.
His gaze went black around the edges.His heartbeat turned into slow, heavy thunder —the rhythm of a hunter closing on its prey.
He growled, but his voice no longer sounded human.
— "I'll kill you… I'll kill you… I'll kill you…"
Gnatz looked up.
His eyes narrowed.
— "Finally."His voice held something like pleasure.As if he had been waiting for this.
— "Come then, Antichrist."
Rintal vanished.
He didn't run.He didn't jump.
He simply wasn't there anymore.
Gnatz's instincts whipped his blade sideways.
The air split.
Rintal appeared behind the greatsword, descending like a whirlwind, his blade wrapped in surging red seal-energy.
The impact:
KRRRRAAAASHHHH.
Every stained-glass fragment left in the cathedral exploded outward at once.The walls shook.The broken angel's head toppled from its shoulders.
Gnatz slid backward — for the first time in the fight.
He held the greatsword with both hands — his strength was terrifying, but now Rintal's power was finally on par with his.
The seal flooded Rintal in swirling red energy, coiling around him like burning serpents.
Gnatz laughed — a low, demonic laugh.
— "Now this is fun, little rat."
And then hell broke loose.
Rintal moved like light.Every strike carved a red arc through the air.
Gnatz moved like shadow.Despite the sword's size, he danced as if gravity no longer applied.
From Areday's point of view, it was just two black-and-red lightning bolts crashing into each other again and again:
floors erupting,
columns shattering,
the angel statue collapsing into rubble,
the air warping and trembling, like space itself was being bent.
Every impact shook the cathedral like a small earthquake.
Gnatz gained the upper hand for a moment and brought the sword down.
Rintal blocked with the seal — the light flared so bright it was like a star had ignited between them.
The force of the blow hurled them both backward.
Gnatz spun in the air, brought the greatsword forward again — and vanished into the darkness.
Rintal knew what was coming.
And he smiled — a crazed, bloodthirsty smile.
— "Come on…" he whispered.
The next second, he was gone too.
The seal's red light left a streak in the air —Rintal seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once.
He struck toward Gnatz's right.
The greatsword swung to the side — their weapons collided,thunder booming through the hall.
One of the cathedral's side walls cracked open.The broken angel's chest split down the center.
Rintal moved again immediately.The seal dragged and yanked him forward, guiding him —his body no more than a puppet in the grip of his own power.
Another flash — he was behind Gnatz.A crimson half-circle traced the space as his blade cut toward Gnatz's back.
Gnatz didn't even look.He took half a step forward and swung the sword backward, blindly, over his shoulder.
CLANG.
The impact was so strong Rintal's arm went numb.The seal shrieked across his skin.
— "Fast…" Gnatz growled.— "But still… predictable."
Rintal wasn't listening.
There was no reasoning left in his eyes — only a single purpose:
Tear apart the thing that had stood over his Twin.
He vanished again.
This time, three flashes:
from the left,from the right,from the front.
Gnatz blocked all three directions at once.The greatsword spun around him like a collapsing star —every strike Rintal aimed at him burst into sparks.
Areday lay on the ground, trying to push himself up.His chest burned, his bones protested, but his eyes followed every movement.
— Brother… this isn't you anymore… he thought.
Rintal dragged the power even higher.
The seal began to sweat blood.It looked as if dark, deep-red liquid was seeping from beneath the lines.
Another charge.
Now his movement wasn't merely teleport-like —red energy coiled around his legs and arms like tendrils,granting him more than a human frame should handle:
he kicked off the wall,
twisted mid-air,
attacked from the ceiling,
slammed his blade into the floor so hard stone erupted around them like shrapnel.
Gnatz disappeared from sight again and again.
He wasn't teleporting.
He was suppressing his presence so completely,melting so deeply into the shadows,that each reappearance felt like the darkness itself had spat him out.
One moment, his sword crashed down from above,the next, he cut from the side,then simply stood still —and the air around him exploded like a shockwave.
Rintal kept up only by reflecting blows with the seal.But even with the seal's reflection, Gnatz's raw strength allowed him to hold his ground without being pushed back.
Rintal knew: one mistake from here could be fatal.
Even so, he saw an opening — just once.
His blade slipped past the greatsword,leaving a red line across Gnatz's chest.
Cloth tore.A thin red cut opened on his skin.
Blood.
Gnatz looked down at the wound.
And laughed.
— "You're not completely worthless anymore."
The next instant, he vanished —and Rintal was smashed from the side.
It wasn't a slash.
Just a shoulder-check.
But it hit so hard that Rintal flew across the cathedral,crashed into a column, and snapped it in half.
He stood again, coughing, spitting blood.
The seal screamed on his arm:
"More. More. Kill them all.""Watch, adapt, evolve."
— "I won't… stop…" he gasped.— "As long as… I breathe… I won't stop…"he muttered."The next one… will be the false one, right…?"
The seal asked.
Gnatz approached slowly.
— "I like that."His eyes narrowed.— "But you're still weak. Not the one we're waiting for."
He could feel the poison spreading through his body now.A normal man would already be dead —for him, it was only a dulling weight.
Rintal roared and let go of the last restraint.
The seal's light became a pillar of red flame around him.The floor beneath his feet began to melt; tiny fractures crawled outward, as if the castle's structure itself couldn't bear this power.
His vision warped.
He no longer saw the church.No longer saw the angel, the altar, the broken crosses.
He saw only one shape:
Gnatz.
A black stain in a red world.
He kicked off the ground.
The stone collapsed beneath him as he launched forwardlike a cannonball fired at point-blank range.
The greatsword and the seal's light collided head-on.
Every shard of glass left in the cathedral roof blasted outward.
Outside, on the castle's upper levels, the fetus-spirits scattered from the shockwave.The Pack Leader howled, feeling the clash of energies — and knew exactly which way to go as it battled Xnaider.
Inside the hall, everything turned red for a heartbeat.
Then…
Silence.
A long, stretched-out moment of stillness.
Dust settled slowly.
In the center of the cathedral yawned a deep crater.Cracks stretched out from it in a web across the entire floor.
At its edge, Rintal knelt.Panting. Shaking.
The seal's light withdrew.Its red flames faded,as if something was forcing itself back into its cage.
His arm burned.Every breath felt like knives cutting him from the inside.
Opposite him, only a few paces away, stood Gnatz.
Leaning on his greatsword.
Cuts marked his chest, shoulder, and arms.His blood was dark — nearly black.It flowed slowly down his armor.
But his stance was steady.
His eyes were still cold.
He drew in a deep breath and exhaled.
— "Is that… all you have for now?" he asked quietly.
Rintal looked up at him.
In his eyes, the last sparks of the seal's red light still flickered.
His body refused to move.If he tried to stand again, he would simply collapse.
By now, Areday had dragged himself up on hands and knees,slowly limping toward Rintal.
— "Enough… it's enough…" he whispered. — "Brother… it's over…""Please, stop…""This power drags everyone into the grave with it…""I TOLD YOU, I WOULD GIVE MY LIFE FOR YOURS ANYTIME…""WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, I HAVE TO ATONE FOR MY SINS…"
Gnatz watched them in silence for a while.
He slowly lowered the tip of the greatsword to the floor and drove it into the stone.
— "I could kill you now," he said simply.There was no hatred in his voice.No rage.Just fact.
— "My weapon… would split your seal in half. You too. And the future you're dragging behind you."
He looked up at the broken ceiling.The red moon's light crawled across his scarred armor.
— "But Rayuka wants something else."
His gaze returned to them.
— "He wants to see you when it has fully awakened inside you — that thing that would make even Christ himself flinch."
He stepped closer to Rintal.Each step boomed in the broken stone.
He looked down at him, and for a moment it seemed like he would strike now.
Rintal's hand clenched around his weapon's hilt by pure instinct.His whole body screamed in protest, but he was still ready to die fighting.
Then Gnatz bent down.
In one motion he grabbed the arm branded by the seal, squeezed, and lifted Rintal by it.
The pain was like white-hot iron driven straight into his bones.
Rintal screamed.
"AAARRRGHHH—!"
For a heartbeat, the seal's lines broke apart,as if they were about to shatter —then reformed, more tangled, darker than before.
Gnatz let him go.
— "In time, it'll hurt much worse," he said.— "And if you start believing that your power makes you more than human… you'll snap like everyone else."
He stepped back.
Ripped the greatsword from the stone and set it on his shoulder.
He looked them over one last time.
— "Thanks to my senses I realized Xnaider's in trouble with the wolf. I value his life more than that of two thieves — even if it means going against my orders," he muttered.
Then, louder:
— "You'll reach the summit," he said.— "The only question is… whether you'll still be human when you get there."
He turned and walked toward the collapsed archway at the opposite end of the cathedral.
As he left, his voice echoed back through the hall one last time:
— "Run, thieves. Fate will catch you anyway."
After a few steps, the shadows swallowed him.
He was gone.
Nothing remained of him but slow-dripping blood on broken stone,the cracked angel statue,and two gasping, wounded twins.
Silence returned to the cathedral.
Areday slowly sank down beside Rintal.
— "Brother…" he said, looking at him in pain — but alive. — "We're… still here."
Rintal stared up at the ceiling — at the red streaks of moonlight.
The seal on his arm pulsed dully.It didn't scream anymore.
It only… waited.
— "We have to go higher…" he rasped.— "Even… higher…"
Areday smiled, though his face was all blood and dust.
— "Then… let's move. Before that monster changes his mind."