In the middle of the white hell, around the massive dark abyss that had opened, there was no sound except the howling of the wind.
For Lypin and Bianca, frozen on the hatch of the submarine, time seemed to have stopped. Deniz's earth-shaking attack had crushed not only the ground, but also the last fragment of hope inside them. Deniz stood at the edge of the abyss like a colossal monument, the mana flowing around his gauntlets mixing with the freezing air. The gladiator turned his back with the cold composure of an executioner who had finished his job.
"Let's go pull him out of there," said Deniz as he took his first step toward the submarine."I told him he couldn't beat me. He's just causing trouble for me! Stupid Architect! I need to keep you alive!"
But before Deniz's boot could touch the ground for the second time…
From the depths of the dark abyss came a thin whistling sound that tore through the pitch-black darkness.
The temperature suddenly changed.
The snowflakes hanging in the air evaporated before they could even touch the ground.
Deniz froze in place.
Slowly, he turned his head over his shoulder toward the pit.
At the bottom of the pitch-black abyss, a tiny green spark flickered.
Then that spark grew.
And exploded.
FWOOSH!
From meters beneath the earth came the sound of a rocket engine igniting. From the dark void of the abyss, a pillar of blinding emerald-green flames shot upward.
And at the very center of that column of fire, rising into the air with massive flame thrusters blasting from the soles of his feet…
…was Hope.
His black leather armor was covered in dust and dirt, blood was leaking from his left leg, but the deadly gaze in his emerald eyes had not shifted even a millimeter.
As he rose into the air, defying gravity, he extended the scythe in his hand toward the dark pit and, with every breath in his lungs, shouted that ancient word that shook the bottom of the ocean.
"AWAKE!"
This wasn't just an ability activation.
It was an absolute command given to the army of the death king.
As Hope's voice echoed off the walls of the abyss, the dark pit transformed into something like a liquid swamp. The ground began to bubble and melt from the heat.
When Hope landed harshly on the snow beside the edge of the abyss, nightmares began to pour out of the massive void behind him.
[HIDDEN CLASS TRAIT: AWAKENING OF SOULS]
First, Obsidian Alpha pulled itself upward, hooking its long razor-sharp claws over the edge of the abyss.
Immediately after it, Alpha's army followed.
Ten Bonebreakers covered in bone armor climbed out of the pit, shaking the ground.
None of them had living bodies.
They were made entirely of pitch-black darkness, yet Hope's green soul energy pulsed through their veins, and their eyes locked onto Deniz with a predatory emerald glow.
Deniz frowned as he looked at this horrifying army before him.
His mocking mask had disappeared, replaced by pure irritation and anger.
"Seriously…" said Deniz, clapping his gauntlets together with a heavy metallic sound.
"…I'm really starting to get annoyed!"
"Rip him apart," Hope whispered.
The soul army charged forward with absolute loyalty that knew no fear.
Obsidian Alpha accelerated like a black bullet, slicing through the wind and slipping directly into Deniz's blind spot. Its claws struck the gladiator's armor, leaving scratches and sparks.
At the same time, two Bonebreakers leapt onto Deniz's shoulders and tried to devour him.
BAM! BAM!
Deniz blocked the blows with his arms.
The ice beneath his feet cracked under his weight.
"Get off me, you damn zombies!" roared Deniz as he smashed one Bonebreaker with a right hook, instantly shattering its spirit body into fragments.
But Hope knew very well that this army could not kill Deniz.
That was never the plan.
Hope stood calmly at the edge of the battlefield, leaning on his scythe, pushing his ability to its absolute limit as he analyzed every muscle movement, every mana flow, and every shift of weight in Deniz's body.
[ARCHITECT SIGHT]
His earth magic makes him incredibly durable, Hope calculated silently.
But before every attack he has to plant his right foot firmly into the ground.
The mana flow in the joints of his armor is weaker.
Heavy. Clumsy. He relies entirely on brute force.
"Stop sneaking around behind me, freak!" shouted Deniz.
He grabbed Obsidian Alpha by the throat, slammed it into the ground, and crushed its skull under his foot, turning it into a cloud of green smoke.
"Hope! Are you just going to hide back there and watch?!"
When Deniz saw the remaining eight Bonebreakers jump him simultaneously, he took a deep breath.
The yellow earth mana in his eyes flared.
He slammed both gauntlets violently into the ground.
[ANCIENT EARTH: WAVE OF DESTRUCTION]
A massive seismic shockwave exploded outward from Deniz.
Snow, ice, and earth were blasted into the air.
Every Bonebreaker caught in the shockwave shattered instantly, dissolving into green mana and vanishing into the air.
The soul army had been completely erased from the battlefield with a single attack.
Deniz stood up, breathing heavily.
As the smoke around him cleared, his eyes locked directly onto Hope, who stood ten meters away with his hands in his pockets.
"Instead of hiding behind others and sending them after me like a coward…" Deniz roared as he took an angry step forward.
"…fight me one-on-one! Try being an honorable warrior for once, coward!"
Hope tilted his head slightly.
On his face appeared the most irritating, arrogant smile possible.
The kind of smile that showed he didn't take his enemy seriously at all.
"You just spoke with the stupidity of a gladiator," said Hope.
His voice was colder and more superior than the freezing storm around them.
Deniz paused.
His brows furrowed.
Hope slowly grasped the handle of his scythe and looked at him almost with pity.
"A King who commands a powerful army…" Hope said, emphasizing every word.
"…why would he fight a weak soldier one-on-one?"
Those words echoed in Deniz's mind.
A weak soldier.
For a man who had spent his entire life spilling blood in the arena, becoming the strongest shield of the kingdom…
No blade had ever stabbed his pride so deeply.
The veins in his neck bulged. The yellow mana in his eyes spilled out uncontrollably.
"You…" Deniz growled, his voice trembling.
"…you call me a weak soldier?! A weak soldier?!"
Deniz clenched his fists with enough force to crack the ground beneath his feet.
"I'LL SHOW YOU WHO'S WEAK, YOU ARROGANT BRAT!"
Gathering all his mana into a single lethal strike, Deniz launched himself toward Hope like a massive cannon shell.
This attack was far deadlier than the one that had opened the abyss moments ago.
But the mocking smile on Hope's face did not move even a millimeter.
He simply raised his right hand slowly.
The green flames in his eyes burned brighter than ever before.
Then two words slipped from his lips.
Two words that would break the rules and change the course of the battle.
"AWAKE! IGNIS!"
The world stopped.
Deniz's charging body froze in mid-motion as he felt the horrifying, impossible heat distortion spreading through the air.
This was not a shockwave.
This was pure apocalypse.
The space in front of Hope changed the laws of climate completely.
First, pitch-black smoke burst outward.
Then a blinding green explosion of light.
The temperature rose so suddenly, so unbelievably high that the endless snowstorm covering the battlefield vanished entirely.
Not just the snow.
The thick ice beneath Deniz's feet, the frozen soil beneath the ice, even the pale grass that hadn't seen sunlight for years were instantly scorched and reduced to gray dust and ash.
Within seconds, the white frozen hell had transformed into a massive volcanic crater of scorched black earth stretching for kilometers.
And from within the smoke…
A colossal silhouette rose.
Ignis.
The man who burned the ocean.
An old enemy.
Now standing there as an absolute ally.
But this time his body was not made of red flames.
It was made entirely of Hope's soul energy.
Emerald-green fire.
The endless weariness in his eyes was still there, but the black hole in his chest now pulsed with a green energy core.
The moment Deniz saw this towering figure, his feet instinctively stepped backward.
His breath stopped.
His pupils shrank in fear.
Impossible…
He summoned that monster… as a soul?!
Ignis slowly cracked his neck, green smoke drifting from his shoulders.
He looked around at the scorched wasteland, then up at the gray sky.
"You summoned me on a bad day, kid," said Ignis.
His voice was dry, tired, and rough.
He stared at the cloudy sky for a long moment.
"So… I won't see the sun today either."
Hope stood behind Ignis, leaning on his scythe.
His expression softened slightly, as if speaking to an old companion.
"That gladiator in front of you…" Hope said, pointing at the horrified Deniz.
"…is standing in our way. I have to protect Lypin."
"If we remove that obstacle, I promise you…"
"…I'll find those Sakura trees for you."
"And I'll release your soul beneath their falling petals, so you can finally rest in peace."
Ignis slowly turned his head toward Hope.
On his stone-like face, shaped by thousands of years of suffering…
Something appeared that had not been seen for centuries.
A smile.
A real one.
Tired, but genuine.
"I trust you, Architect," said Ignis quietly.
Then he slowly turned his head toward Deniz.
The smile vanished instantly.
The stone mask returned to his face.
The green flames across his massive body ignited into a violent storm.
The absolute destruction that could boil oceans was now mixing with the oxygen of the surface world, becoming a thousand times more deadly.
Deniz raised his trembling gauntlets.
He called upon every last drop of his earth mana.
But the ground beneath his feet was already melting and turning to glass under Ignis's aura.
"So you're a tank, huh…" said Ignis as he began walking toward Deniz with heavy earth-shaking steps.
The green flames in his eyes burned directly into Deniz's soul.
"Let's see…"
"…how long you can stand against these flames…"
"…before you melt."
This was the battle between an eternal monster engulfed in emerald flames and the kingdom's agent, the champion of the arena struggling to stand against him.
The real fight…
had just begun.