The world erupts. The surrounding core turns red, melting like blood. The air flickers and shines, pulsing with the Slime Queen's mana. The ground shakes beneath us. Streams of mana surge through the air, thick and clear.
The Queen pours in far more mana than Rei ever did. The flare in her hands shifts from clear to red, then blue, then blinding white. I cannot tell if it is from the heat or the sheer power she forced into it.
"Seraphina," Iso shouts, as if he knows exactly where she is. "Everyone else, aim for the gems on the crown!"
A single flare of white light bursts into the air like a call to the heavens.
BANG.
The sound echoes through the chamber.
A dragon-shaped bullet of ice streaks across the air. It glows faintly in the dim light. Its eyes burn a ghostly blue as it pierces through the flare.
The ice dragon hits its mark. A corrosive frost coils around the molten core. The core grows hotter and whiter, trembling violently.
Calder jolts to his feet, drawing his dagger. Adrian follows, his sword gleaming. They rush the Slime Queen, their blades slicing through her translucent body. Each cut stains her form purple. The Queen writhes and screams.
Rei leaps forward. Flames erupt from her feet as she hurls fire into the Queen's body.
The Queen tries to dodge, but they are faster. Her body splits apart into several segments. Smaller crowns appear atop each copy, each glowing with different colors. I realized what Iso meant.
When she splits, each clone can only use certain elements depending on how many copies she creates.
Reyna faces the one of earth and ice. Her fire burns through the Queen's body. She reaches into its chest. She grabs the small glowing core inside, and crushes it in her hand.
Calder fights the one of water and ice. He moves quickly, cutting through the liquid limbs as steam fills the air.
Adrian faces the one of light and fire. His strikes are clean, powerful, relentless. He seems almost renewed, less worn than before.
Teruki lowers the barrier now that the lightning rain has stopped.
The main Slime Queen struggles to reform. Her split bodies tremble as they crawl back toward one another.
Then Seraphina appears beside me, calm and radiant.
"Eternal_Snowfall," she calls.
Snow begins to fall from the core. Slow and silent at first. Each snowflake shines with a soft blue light as it lands. A wave of cold spreads outward, cooling the air until every breath feels crisp and sharp. Frost gathers beneath our feet, and a faint glow surrounds Seraphina and the rest of us. Strength fills our limbs, our blows grow heavier, and even the flow of mana feels cleaner and more precise.
Seraphina joins Adrian, her presence steady and bright beside his relentless swings. The Queen they face splits in two again, both halves roaring as they try to reform around them. Seraphina steps forward, raising her hand. "Absolute_Zero."
The air freezes. The heat drains from the room in an instant. Frost creeps up the walls and across the Slime Queen's body. It cracks the creature's outer shell. Even the molten glow of Adrian's blade dims under the cold. But the Queen's ice-born half manages to rejoin, sealing itself back together. The team pulls back as steam and frost swirl violently around them.
"The cores hold the magic element type," Adrian mutters under his breath. "Very clever."
The Queen's body begins to glow again. "Torrential_Avalanche!" she roars. Seraphina's snowfall halts midair. A wall of water and ice surges outward. Reyna and Seraphina dodge with effortless grace, their movements fluid and synchronized.
Calder and Adrian click buttons on their swords. Before the mechanism activates, Viri plants her hand on the ground, raising a thick earthen barrier. The Queen crashes through it a second later, hurling shards of stone in every direction. Spears of light rise from the ground, piercing through Teruki's weakened barrier and flooding the chamber with blinding brilliance.
Teruki collapses, her body limp. Yuto rushes to her side. He uncorked a health potion and carefully poured it between her lips. The glow fades before it takes effect.
"She's not waking up!" Han says quietly.
Han kneels beside Teruki, resting a hand on her shoulder. The Slime Queen lunges toward him, tendrils of mana twisting into a spear.
Shino moves first. Her hook shoots out, wrapping around the Queen's arm and yanking hard. The impact ripples through the arena, a shockwave bursting from where the hook strikes.
Shino pulls herself in, drawing a dagger from her side. She slashes across the Queen's body.
The cuts leave trails of dark purple ooze.
She tries to pin it down. The creature's form ripples and slips through her grip like water.
One of the split slimes lunges toward Viri. Gerald steps in. The shield flaring with green energy. The other half strikes at Iso and I, slamming the ground with an earth-empowered blow.
A barrier appears out of nowhere. It shimmered like glass.
The Queen's attack collides with it. The world flashes purple. The slime's body twists, melting and deforming from the sudden feedback.
I flinched. There's a faint sting in my pocket. I reach down and feel the warmth of the watch Selene gave me.
Iso turns to me, eyes narrowing. "Why you? Why did Selene choose you?"
Before I can respond, the Queen straightens, a distorted laugh echoing through the chamber.
"I've been too lax."
Her form ripples as she jolts backward, energy building for the next stir.
"Eternal_Avalanche."
The storm swirls with mana, and from its heart, other spells begin to take form.
"Eternal_Snowfall."
The flakes glow faintly, spreading frost across the ground. Then, one by one, the Queen mirrors Seraphina's words with twisted echoes of her own.
The Slime Queen raises all of her crowns, and the air itself begins to vibrate. Each gem flashes with a different color.
"Crimson_Storm."
Waves of molten fire spiral outward. It scatters embers across the arena. Adrian dashes forward. He cuts through the first surge while Seraphina shields him with a wall of ice. The ground burns where his boots land.
" Infernal_Pulse."
A beam of red energy erupts from the Queen's mouth, slicing through the air like a cannon. Rei dives aside, rolling through the heat. Her katana glows white as she counters with a fire strike of her own, cutting through the beam before it reaches Calder.
"Blazing_Surge."
Columns of flame erupt beneath the fighters. Calder grabs Rei's wrist and pulls her clear as the ground explodes behind them.
"Tidal_Burst."
A massive wave forms from the Queen's slime body. Han braces himself. Shino wraps her hook, while Gerald drives his axe into the floor. Together they anchor the front line, water rushing around them in thick torrents.
"Aqua_Veil."
A translucent sphere of water surrounds the Queen, blocking Iso's thrown blade. It floats harmlessly off the surface, deflected. Maki puts Teruki over her shoulder. They run from the assault.
"Depth_Crusher."
Pillars of pressurized water shoot up from below. Viri slams her hands into the ground, raising an earthen dome to block the attack. Water bursts around them, but the group inside stays dry.
"Frost_Bullets."
A storm of ice shards sprays across the arena. Adrian slashes through them, his sword glowing gold. Sparks fly as the blade meets ice.
"Glacial_Spear."
A massive spear of ice forms above Rei. She leaps sideways, the spear piercing the spot she stood a moment ago. The ground freezes instantly, spreading frost through her boots as she lands.
"Ice_Ciper."
Shards of frozen mana drift through the air. They glow faintly before bursting apart in violent waves. Each explosion ripples with freezing energy. The shards crack the ground and coat it in frost.
Seraphina raises her hand, her aura of cold expanding to shield herself from the blasts.
The shards continue to rain down on Maki. She dodges the shards. Yuto passes her an arrow. She tries to take aim but the pressure forces her back, her breath turning white.
A shard sliced through Yuto's bag. Many more slammed into the bag as it fell.
Yuto's bag bursts open as an explosion lands nearby. Glass vials shatter, powders mix in a swirl of smoke and frost, reagents scattering across the floor. The chemicals react violently.
Golden, white and purple flames flash for a moment before freezing solid. The air hums with unstable mana, the battlefield trembling under the storm of magic.
"Terra_Crunch."
Yuto glances at the chaos around him and mutters, "This is not what I meant by controlled alchemy."
They sprint as the air begins to vibrate with heat and pressure.
BOOM.
The ingredients ignite all at once
The blast ripples through the cavern. It tore through walls and sent a shockwave of fire and frost in every direction.
"Stone_Spire."
Columns of jagged rock erupt from the ground, splitting the group apart. Iso flips over one with a burst of mana, landing hard but steady. Gerald thrusts his spear through another, shattering the stone to carve a narrow path.
The ground trembles, cracks spreading beneath their feet. The floor gives way in chunks until Han slams his sword into it. The earth steadies beneath them, trembling but holding.
Barely.
"Seismic_Roots"
Thick vines of stone crawl from the ground, wrapping around Adrian's legs. He cuts them loose, flames trailing from his blade.
"Thunder_Rain"
Bolts of lightning pour down from above. Teruki's barrier hums to life again, thin but strong, shielding the others as sparks scatter.
"Volt_Lance"
A spear of lightning darts toward Viri. She raises a wall of earth, the bolt shattering it into glowing dust.
"Storm_Break"
A massive vortex of ice and lightning tears through the center of the arena. Rei and Calder run around its edge. They slash the Queen's body while trying to avoid being pulled in.
"Solar_Ray."
A beam of pure light shoots across the field. Adrian blocks it with his sword, mana flaring bright gold. The light burns his hand, but he holds firm.
"Radiant_Flare."
The Queen's body splits open, releasing blinding light. Seraphina squints through it, freezing the air around her to dull the glow.
"Divine_Eclipse."
A false sun rises above the arena. Everything is cast in golden shadow. For a heartbeat, it feels like the entire world stops moving.
"Shadow_Bloom."
Dark vines ripple out from the Queen's slime, spreading like living shadows. They lash toward the group. Iso grabs my arm, pulling me back as Viri's earth wall bursts up between us and the darkness. Gerald braces his shield against the wall as the Queen slams through it again, roaring in fury.
Steam, smoke, and shards of light fill the air. The entire arena becomes chaos. A storm of every element colliding at once.
"Stay together!" Gerald shouts. His shield glows red, pulsing with power.
But the Queen only laughs. Her many eyes burn with color.
I squint, trying to see through the haze. Adrian looks toward something I can't make out.
"Spear_of_Everfrost(effect: Instant, Stagger, HealingBlock)"
The Queen raises her hand. A spear of ice materializes in the air. It's sharp and gleaming.
It shoots forward. Too fast to react.
It strikes Adrian in the side of the head.
The spear hits the left side of his head. The sound is sickening. Ice shatters.
Red splashes across the floor?
Blood splashes across the floor.
Adrian staggers. He clutches his face. Blood runs down his arm.