Leo teleported the King of Madness, and himself, far from the others, ripping open space with a burst of creation and dragging the monster into a distant stretch of the maze. He'd used every drop of blood on the ground to fuel that massive Blood Destruction, praying it had weakened the queens enough for his friends to hold their ground. But the truth was painfully clear, he wasn't in a better position than they were.
The creature standing before him radiated a power that eclipsed anything he had faced in eight long years. It felt disturbingly similar to Lucius, an overwhelming, ancient pressure that pressed down on his bones, and back then he'd had his domain, allies, even a goddess behind him. Now he had only his sword, and a body that suddenly felt too small for the enemy towering in front of him.
He wanted to kill this monster with his own hands, but he already knew the outcome if he fought recklessly. Winning was impossible. Surviving required a plan.
He barely had time to think.
The king, a hundred meters away, blurred forward in a single step and crossed the entire distance. Leo saw only a flash before the blade split him cleanly in half.
His body dissolved into fragments of crimson light.
The real Leo appeared at the creature's right flank, unleashing a Blood Slash with every ounce of speed and force he could muster, but the king blocked it without shifting his stance, without even seeming to acknowledge the effort.
Leo leaped back another hundred meters.
He didn't waste a heartbeat. Blood surged around his blade again, coating the steel in a thick, seething aura. If he wanted to buy even a sliver of time, every swing needed to be a Blood Slash; anything less would be useless.
The king launched forward once more, and this time Leo met him head-on. Their swords collided with a shockwave that rattled the ground, and the sheer impact blasted Leo backward. Air exploded from his lungs in a harsh grunt as he smashed through the soil, barely halting his momentum before the king was on him again.
Slash after slash crashed down, each one throwing Leo across the battlefield no matter how well he blocked. His arms trembled from the force alone. It wasn't just the strength behind the blows, it was the knowledge that the king wasn't even using a single spell.
He was simply toying with him.
Ten phantoms burst into existence around Leo and rushed the King of Madness in a coordinated charge, but none made it more than a few steps. A single scorching pulse of fire erupted from the king's body and the clones were incinerated at once, erased as if they had never existed.
The king lunged again, blade sweeping toward Leo, yet his strike cut through empty air. Leo reappeared behind him, blood gathering along his sword's edge as he delivered a clean strike across the monster's back.
In that instant Leo had chained two teleports together, one to reposition the king, one to reposition himself, then he struck and the momentum of the battle shifted.
The king swung again, but Leo vanished. Another strike landed on his side. Then another. And another. The king's blade was always a breath too late, always chasing after a mirage.
Inside his Creation Dome, Leo could be anywhere. There was no direction, no distance, only will. Each blink of movement placed him at a new angle, a new blind spot, cutting the king piece by piece while staying just out of reach.
The King of Madness finally cracked.
A roar blasted from him, raw, furious, and a tidal wave of flame exploded outward.
Leo teleported back just in time, clearing the expanding blast, watching the inferno swallow the battlefield in a dome of fire. The moment it faded, Leo flashed behind the king again, aiming for the spine, but this time a massive greatsword rose to block him, catching his blade with precision.
The king's free hand snapped back and clamped around Leo's throat with terrifying speed.
Bones creaked. Pressure built. For a fraction of a moment Leo felt his consciousness dim.
Then his body shattered like glass.
Another illusion, his last safe one, vanished in the king's grip while the real Leo reformed several meters away, panting. The trick had bought him a heartbeat, but no more than that. If the king grabbed his real body even once, the fight would be over.
His mana was running dry. Teleporting this much was already pushing him to the edge. If he still had his domain, he could burn this creature with a sun like before, wipe out the entire maze if he had to. But here, that power was unreachable.
He clenched his jaw, forcing down the panic rising in his chest.
He needed something decisive. Something he could use right now.
With a single thought, his Creation Dome began to expand, wider, broader, pushing past its usual limits as the air around him hummed with strain.
…
In the shattered remains of the village, Vanessa, Dave, Ezekiel, and Liane stood in a tight formation, weapons drawn and nerves stretched thin. From the direction where the maze walls should have been, the five queens drifted forward in a slow, dreadful line. Four against five, and even if it had been one, victory was far from certain.
"I think it's over for us," Dave muttered with a crooked smile.
Liane cracked her neck, the sound sharp enough to cut through his forced humor. "If we die, the survivors die with us."
Void curled around Ezekiel's body like living armor. "Then use everything you have." He didn't wait for the queens to strike. A sphere of compressed void formed in his palm, then launched toward the nearest queen.
This one had four arms. A blade of white flame ignited in her top right hand, slicing the orb cleanly in two. The moment it split, Ezekiel vanished and reappeared behind her, trading places with his own void as if stepping through a crack in reality.
Another queen lunged from his right, but Ezekiel reacted first. A massive void imbued hand burst from his shadow, seized the charging queen by the waist, and slammed her into the ground while his dagger drove into the back of the first queen. Even with their monstrous bodies, the void-coated blade left a clear wound.
The third queen, broad, two-armed, and carrying a hammer the size of a boulder charged next. Liane intercepted her. The hammer crashed into Liane's greatsword, sending a shock through her entire frame, bones rattling, muscles screaming. But she didn't budge.
Vanessa leapt overhead, aiming to finish the wounded queen, but the moment she descended a chain shot out from the queen with eight arms, snaring Vanessa, Ezekiel, and Liane in a single steel coil. At the same time, the queen with six arms hurled six fireballs toward the trapped trio.
But just before the flames hit, all three vanished, and reappeared beside Dave. He had yanked them out with a teleport inscription etched into the pages of his spellbook.
"You saved us," Vanessa breathed.
"One mistake and we're corpses," Dave replied. His spellbook snapped open on its own, pages flipping in a blur until settling on one. Magic surged from the parchment, spilling into the air and wrapping his teammates in a dense aura, a raw, power-boosting reinforcement.
Then another page turned, and countless tiny portals bloomed across the dark sky like stars ripping open.
"Ezekiel, we go with that plan!" Dave shouted, voice cracking under the pressure. Ezekiel didn't hesitate. He raised his hand, and every portal overhead snapped open like an eye awakening.
Chains burst out in waves, streaking toward the advancing queens. The first few links shattered as the queens ripped them apart, but then the void energy seeped over the metal like ink soaking into cloth. The chains darkened, stiffened, and suddenly the queens' movements slowed. In seconds the void-forged bindings wrapped around their arms, legs, and torsos, locking all five of them in place.
Vanessa and Liane sprinted forward, their auras flaring as they reached their limit. Just as their blades arced toward the nearest queen, the chains around the eight-armed queen detonated with a sharp crack. She lunged out of the smoke, impossibly fast, and caught both women by the face. She slammed them into the ground hard enough to leave craters. Spears of condensed energy formed in four of her hands and angled down toward their hearts.
But before it pierce their hearts, Ezekiel vanished. He reappeared behind her, void exploding from his body in a violent burst. The dark tendrils wrapped around her arms, wrenching them away from Vanessa and Liane, then continued forward like a spreading net. Two more queens were nearly free when the void latched onto them and dragged them back.
"Ezekiel, no!" Dave yelled. But Ezekiel had already committed.
Backed into a corner, he unleashed the spell he had sworn to use only as a last resort, the one that consumed the caster along with anything caught in its reach. The ground shook as a vortex of void opened, pulling everything toward its center.
The two queens still trapped in chains were swallowed whole. The remaining two tore themselves loose and retreated, screeching. The eight-armed queen resisted with brute strength, planting her feet and digging her claws into the earth, but the pull was too strong. Four of her arms tore off in a spray of white blood before she finally managed to wrench herself free.
Vanessa and Liane dragged themselves upright and stumbled back toward Dave.
The void folded in on itself, shrinking to a pinpoint before vanishing with a soft crack. Ezekiel was gone, along with two queens. The eight-armed one collapsed to one knee, half her hands missing, trembling with rage.
Vanessa and Liane stared, stunned. Dave's eyes burned with fury and grief. They had been completely overwhelmed, and Ezekiel had taken the only path left to buy them a chance, giving up his life just to thin the enemy's numbers.
At that moment, Leo's creation sphere swept across the battlefield like a rolling tide.
…
Leo had only one chance with this spell. Either he created the opening he needed, or all of them would die. The king's brief hesitation a moment ago was the only reason Leo was even still standing. In the middle of a perfect charge, the monster had stopped and turned his head toward the village, as if something there had disturbed him.
That single pause bought Leo a heartbeat. He forced his Creation Sphere outward, pushing it farther and faster than he ever had. The pressure in his skull sharpened, and every strand of mana in his body stretched thin as the dome expanded.
When the spell reached farther than expected, Leo searched for his team, just a glance, just a flicker of attention, but his eyes widened. Ezekiel wasn't there. His presence, his mana, gone.
Leo's jaw tightened. Only minutes had passed since the attack began, and already another one of them had fallen. He forced the grief down, compressed it into anger, and kept pushing his dome wider.
Finally, the Creation Sphere reached where he wanted.
The king snapped his attention back to Leo. Whatever he had sensed in the village no longer mattered.
With a roar that shook the ground, the king launched himself forward. His greatsword cut a straight line through the air as he closed the distance with impossible speed.
And Leo braced himself. This was it, the moment everything would hinge on.
…
Deep in the maze, Paul hurled himself at the massive serpent and drove his fist into its skull. He had tried to retreat back toward the village, but the creature was too fast. It chased him through every corridor, refusing to fall behind. If he kept running, he would lead it straight to the people he was trying to protect, and it would slaughter all of them.
The serpent reared its head, scales scraping the plant walls. Its jaws opened wide, wider than any beast he had ever faced. That mouth could swallow the entire village in a single bite.
Paul shot upward, ready to counter with all the strength he had, when his vision warped. The maze twisted, the air folded, and in a blink he was gone.
He reappeared on solid ground far from the serpent, and in his place, right in front of the creature's gaping maw, the king of madness and his three remaining queens materialized.
The serpent's jaws snapped shut around them.