Amanda watched as Leo turned, his full attention now on the massive, shattered body of the frozen titan. Seraphina gripped her reclaimed swords, her knuckles white. A strange ease settled over Amanda, a quiet confidence just from him being there.
The peace was broken by a voice from the huddled group of elves.
"Leo?" an elf healer asked, his voice trembling. He squinted at Leo's back. "Is that the same Leo... the one who broke our sacred veil?"
Another elf, a warrior, shook his head. "He has the King's rune. That cannot be the same one."
A third elf chimed in. "No... I saw Queen Seraphina whisper to that Leo, earlier. I am sure he was a human. With black hair."
The murmurs grew and snagged Amanda's attention.
She glanced over the horizon, past the golden dome, toward the edge of the forest.
Her breath caught. A sharp gasp.
Where the shimmering, invisible wall of their sanctuary should have been, there was nothing. Just open air. The sky.
The Elderglade's Veil was no more.
"He... he removed our sacred protection?"
"No Elven King would do that."
"Did you even see those despicable limbs that came out of him?"
The elves' voices rose, shifting from relief to a new, uncertain fear.
Amanda looked back at Leo.
He had his head turned just a bit, looking back over his shoulder. She saw him smiling, a small, unreadable expression.
He turned back to face the battlefield. His voice was quiet, almost to himself, but it cut through the murmuring.
"So Caelir and the others were right."
Above Leo's head, the air warped and shimmered, forming a blazing, golden crown that pulsed with a soft light. At the same time, a flowing cape of see-through cloth unfurled from his shoulders. It moved and breathed like a living thing, shimmering with the light of a thousand distant stars.
The murmurs instantly dissolved.
A collective gasp of awe rippled through the elves.
Even with the solid white mist covering everything, they could see it clearly. The titan's massive form was moving. Its shattered, crystalline bulk was slowly, impossibly, ascending. It was pushing itself up from the ground, its oppressive presence returning, a dark shape rising within the white cloak.
The elves' awe turned back to terror. But before they could panic, one after another, they dropped to one knee.
Amanda stared at Leo's back. The golden crown. The starlight cape.
It's the same, she thought, her heart pounding. Just like what happened at the Astral Arena. When he defeated the Dragon Lord.
A moment passed.
Leo faced the rising titan.
Then, his aura erupted outward.
It flooded the arena, spilled past its walls, and kept going, rushing out beyond the forest itself.
The white mist vanished and dispelled in an instant, obliterated by the wave of power.
The battlefield was clear, leaving the slowly rising shattered form of the titan in full display on the battlefield.
Amanda watched Leo start to move forward.
He took a few more steps, his starlight cape flowing behind him. Then he jumped.
Vanished and reappeared.
Instantly, he was above the colossal frozen monster.
Amanda heard his shout, clear and powerful, ringing across the cleared battlefield. "I will end this long nightmare. Rest now, you weary souls!"
Leo swooped down, diving headfirst directly at the giant.
As he fell, he murmured to himself, the words almost lost in the rush of air.
"Take that abysmal creature into the darkness…"
Then his voice roared.
"Void Predator!"
Two dark limbs burst from his back and launched themselves at the giant. But as soon as they took form, they dissolved into motes of dark light.
A notification then appeared and pulled Leo's focus.
[System Notification] Unable to use Void Predator while the Elf King title is equipped.
His forehead knitted as he read the message.
Shouts finally reached him over the wind. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Amanda frantically shouting, waving her arms animatedly. The rush of the wind made him unable to hear her until a loud groan at his front made him snap back.
But it was too late.
The giant's mountainous arms were already flying toward him.
The hit was perfect. He crashed. Bounced. Skidded. A wake of small craters marked his furious, uncontrolled path.
Amanda's breath hitched for a moment. She watched Leo's body crash into a distant tree with enough force to send shivers through its trunk.
But the panic did not come. Years of living with him, of seeing him survive the impossible, told her something her eyes could not.
He was okay.
She reached up, her fingers pressing against the rune on her chest. The same steady warmth she felt at her awakening flooded her senses.
Amanda took a deep breath, a calm settling over her features. The golden dome shattered, breaking into a million golden pieces that drifted away like glittering dust.
She raised her right arm, aiming her open palm toward the giant.
The entire forest shuddered in reply.
Trees thick as castle spires moved. They crept like serpents, their massive forms sliding over the ground before bursting upward. The living wood slammed against the frozen titan, holding both of its giant arms on either side.
A deep grumble followed, vibrating through the soles of their feet.
Thick roots erupted from the deep earth. They coiled around the giant's lower body, wrapping it in a woody prison and pinning the colossal monster in place.
Amanda heard Seraphina's voice roar through the clearing, cutting through the groans of the trapped giant.
"Follow your new Queen's attack! Show them the might of the Elves!"
The arena boomed as the elves retaliated. A surge of renewed morale flooded the battlefield. Magic circles bloomed below the mages, their light bright and sudden. Warriors snatched their weapons from the ground and thrusted forward, a wave of steel and fury.
Amanda saw Seraphina glance at her one last time, leaving a quick and short nod.
Seraphina then turned back, her body blurred, and disappeared in the wind, leaving only a fading crimson trail in the air.