Radahn stood apart from the others. His quilt was torn, eyes glowing faint white under the dead sky.
The battlefield stretched before him, filled with clashing war cries of Hunters, vampires, and skeletons eating reality like regular breakfast. He exhaled slowly, letting the wind pull his hair back.
"Fine," he muttered, raising his hand. "Let's make this fair."
Two scythes appeared, crossing mid-air before dropping into his grasp. One was pure obsidian, sharp like the edge of despair itself; it purred with a red hue each time it tasted blood.
The other was woven from starlight fluid, bending like molten glass, its blade changing shape with every swing.
Each had a rule.
The Obsidian Scythe, "Reaper's Pact," could only be used when Radahn's health was below half. It burned his own life to double his power and split his shadow into six more afterimages that fought beside him.
The Starlight Scythe, "Heaven's Curve," could only be wielded when he wasn't touched for a full minute. It drew energy from wasted life force around it, letting him move faster than light, each swing cutting through time alongside flesh.
Both were together deadly if used correctly.
He spun them once, feeling the resonance.
The hundreds of skeletons, wearing shattered armor swiftly charged at once.
Radahn vanished from one pace no another.
His afterimages spread like ghosts, each one cutting through a different line. The Obsidian Scythe burned through bones, each strike leaving trails of black dust in the air. The Starlight one sang as it moved, glowing silver arcs tearing through dozens before the light faded.
Every swing of his was perfect, sharp, clean.
"Come on," Radahn said quietly, pivoting as he cleaved another. "You're all the same code, eskinned deads."
Then the ground trembled. A shadow covered him with massive wings blocking what remained of the light.
When Radahn looked up, his heart stilled for a moment.
A Vampire Dragon, colossal, its body stitched with red veins pulsing like lava.
Its scales were black as oil, eyes red and wide, breathing out clouds of mist that turned nearby skeletons into liquid. Two horns twisted backward, and from its mouth dripped a single stream of boiling blood.
It looked down and roared loudly, deeply shaking the space lightly.
Radahn's eyebrow twitched. "Big one?"
The dragon's chest expanded and then a beam of blood fired from its mouth, wide enough to swallow a mountain.
Radahn leaped back, his Starlight Scythe glowing brighter time by time.
The beam split in half, sliding past him, exploding into red storms behind.
He didn't stop moving. The dragon's claws came next, slamming into the ground. Each paw strike created a crater, shockwaves throwing bodies away. Radahn dashed through the crowd, sliding along one of the dragon's wings, cutting through its tendons. The scales shattered like glass.
The dragon screamed, tail whipping back where he blocked it with his Obsidian Scythe, sparks flying over. The clash threw him across the field. He rolled, landed, and dug his weapon into the ground to stop.
He was grinning. The Starlight blade dimmed, and the Obsidian one flared up.
His veins glowed red. Six shadows ran out from his body, all wielding scythes of pure black light. Together, they rushed at the monster.
The dragon fired another beam, but Radahn teleported mid-step, appearing under its neck. His shadow doubles followed, slicing through its chest and wings in unison.
Blood erupted, raining down in glowing drops.
Radahn looked up, hair sticking to his face, his grin fading into focus.
The dragon's jaw opened again, preparing one last blast.
Radahn threw his Obsidian Scythe up and caught it backward.
"Let's end this."
He jumped. His shadows merged with him mid-air, forming one blazing figure. The scythe cut across the sky in a clean diagonal strike and blade met the dragon's mouth, cut through its skull, neck, and spine in one smooth swing.
The beast fell apart, blood and fire bursting out, its body breaking into ashes before hitting the ground.
Radahn landed, sliding on one knee, breathing slowly. The world was silent again except for the faint hiss of starlight dripping from his blade.
"Next," he whispered, eyes lifting toward the next wave of monsters coming from the dark horizon.
Fahrenheit's fury burned and spread like he could kill his friends to avenge his friends. His eyes glowed brightly crimson, blood crawled under his skin violently.
The air around him vibrated with hate. The battlefield reeked of iron and smoke. Bodies of Vera's avatars scattered, dissolving one after another into faint golden dust.
Fahrenheit stood among the fading light, his jaw clenched, eyes trembling with rage. "You all are just scumbags fearing the unknown!" he muttered, his voice cracking into a snarl. "Sonia died…. and this is what I get!?"
He stretched his hand outward. The blood mist that soaked the battlefield gathered into claws, swirling around his arm like snakes. Then, with a swift pull, he clenched his fist snapped off every Vera avatar in his way. Their bodies burst apart silently into a red haze, the mist quietly spiraled back toward Fahrenheit's palm.
The glow from his eyes dimmed into an eerie force and emotion. "Rest? No! there's no rest for any of you." He raised his hand again, the blood forming a massive blade behind him, made entirely of liquified fury. He pointed it toward the bunker in the distance. "Next…. I'll erase your last hope."
Not far away, Xamin stood still amidst the chaos, his long black coat fluttering. His face was blank, focused, eyes glowing with geometric symbols. He wasn't angry but he was calculating the battlefield. Every movement on the battlefield existed as lines and probabilities in his vision.
He whispered, "Wind pressure…. force reaction.… gravity angle.… offset thirteen degrees…." His tone was soft but frighteningly precise.
He raised one hand toward the bunker, and space itself bent. A cube-like distortion formed in front of him, folded layers of light, energy and shattered vectors compacted into one shining sphere. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he released it.
A sphere of warped destruction clashed through the ground, sucking sand and corpses into its spiral as it flew. It left a vacuum trail, the shockwave behind it louder than thunder.
The bunker shook.
Before it could hit, something in the ear murmured, A faint shimmer of rotating spiral energy collided with the distortion and redirected it upward, splitting the clouds open. A massive column of fire shot into the sky, vanishing into the void above.
Xamin's eyes narrowed. "Hmm.… deviation not predicted. Who is that honourable person I guess....?"
Before he could finish, a shadow stepped through the darkness.
It was Elior. His face half-lit by the dying red light, coat torn, dust on his cheek. His eyes locked directly on Xamin, calm but unreadable.
Xamin tilted his head slightly, scanning him. "Elior, King of Failure," he murmured. "Didn't think you'd stand between me and the end of this chapter."
Elior didn't reply immediately. He walked forward slowly, each step leaving deep impressions in the dirt. His hands were still relaxed by his sides.
"You're smarter than the others, aren't you?" Elior said finally, voice low, almost respectful. "That makes you more dangerous."
Xamin gave a faint smile. "Flattery doesn't work on me. All does is what logic does." He cracked his neck slightly, the sound sharp as snapping wood. "You can't stop the inevitable. The Overseer's will flows through every vector now. You're standing on borrowed time."
Elior's eyes didn't flinch. "Then I'll buy more time."
Two different kinds of power met eachother. Elior was quiet, grounded presence and Xamin was calculated chaos and collided without a single move being made.
Xamin took a step forward. "I'm curious," he said, almost politely. "How long do you think you can last against precision?"
Elior replied, "Long enough to make you regret trusting your numbers."
Xamin smiled not wickedly, but like a scientist about to prove a theorem.
"Then let's test that hypothesis."
Inside the bunker it was silent for now.
No one dared to speak. The low hum of the backup lights, flickering in the corners like tiny dying suns.
They were all waiting for dawn.
Grace sat near the narrow window, wrapped in a blanket, pale and worn but awake. Her eyes wandered over the cracked horizon outside. Nothing moved, yet her chest felt heavy and uncomfortable. The night itself was exhaling against the bunker walls but not with wind.
Grace rubbed her arms slowly. The temperature became colder again.
Her heartbeat began to pace up for no reason.
She whispered to herself, "....Something's here."
A thunderous explosion was heard from outside. The floorboards were shaking, dust raining down from the bunker's ceiling. Everyone jolted upright, eyes wide in terror.
Outside, the earth itself was rising.
She felt something wrong, a presence....
All of a sudden,
A single shockwave blasted upward, sand and debris twisting into a massive spiral. The night wind howled like a broken siren as something fell through the storm. A burning mass of mixed flesh and black light, crashing into the plain just meters from the bunker.
The ground split. The crash sent out a pulse strong enough to fling pebbles against the windows.
When the smoke cleared, Grace saw it and her body refused to make any movement.
The creature stood on four uneven limbs that constantly shifted, reforming bone and muscle as if it couldn't decide what shape to take. Half its body shimmered like liquid shadow; the other half glowed faintly with pale green veins.
Two heads, one slightly smaller, one grotesquely merged along the jawline, faces flickering between Sassy's soft features and Vincent's stern, scarred visage.
A long spine of crystal and cartilage pierced through its back like a crown, and its eyes were familiar.... no, the eyes that used to belong to Sassy. Those eyes blinked out of sync, leaking smoke instead of tears. Its chest pulsed with a rhythm not its own, echoing in the air like a distant heartbeat that didn't match time.
Grace's lips trembled. She could barely breathe. "A…. Demikruel," she muttered, voice low.
Grace's eyes filled with horror and recognition. "It's them.... Sassy and Vincent.…"
The thing twitched, its double mouth grinding as it lifted its head toward them. The fused voice that came out was a broken chord, one tone trembling above the other.
"....G—grace…" it rasped, both familiar voices distorted into something inhuman.
Grace stumbled backward, clutching the wall for balance.
She alerted everyone, "Everyone.… stay behind me!"