The valley trembled, not from an earthquake, but from the sheer weight of malice. Black flames coiled around the Dreadlord's blade like living serpents, dripping sparks of infernal fire that hissed as they touched the fractured stone. Every step the monster took sent a web of cracks through the earth.
I stood my ground, forcing my breath into a slow, rhythmic cycle. My palm still throbbed with a numbing heat from the previous resonance strike. It had stripped his armor, but it hadn't been enough.
Across the crater, Kageno wiped a smear of dark blood from his chin. With a sickening crunch, he jerked his shoulder back into its socket.
CRACK.
"Great," he muttered, his voice raspy but steady.
"That thing's regeneration is adapting," I said, never taking my eyes off the demon. "It's evolving. Every time we break it, it grows back denser."
The Dreadlord tilted its head, its molten eyes flaring with a predatory light. "You humans amuse me," it said, the voice vibrating in our very marrow. "But now…" Its sword lifted. The flames surged violently. "...I will end this game."
The demon vanished in an instant making the sound barrier didn't just explode. A wall of black fire tore across the battlefield as the demon vanished. I twisted my body, the heat of the passing blade singeing the air out of my lungs.
BOOOOM!
The valley split. A flaming trench, hundreds of meters long, was carved into the bedrock. I skidded backward, my boots smoking as they tore furrows into the dirt. Before I could find my footing, a gauntleted fist appeared in my vision.
CRACK!
The blow shattered my ribs and launched me like a kinetic slug. I tore through three massive stone pillars, shattering them into dust before slamming into the mountainside.
"Shadow Step!" Kageno's voice rang out through the debris.
He flickered behind the demon, his twin blades humming as they cut toward the center of the demon's chest.
CLANG!
The Dreadlord didn't even turn. It spun its elbow with mechanical precision, smashing into Kageno's sternum. He was sent tumbling across the valley floor like a ragdoll, coughing blood as he dug his blades into the earth to stop his momentum.
"…Yeah," Kageno spat, his spiral tattoos beginning to pulse a dangerous crimson. "This thing is definitely serious now."
The demon began to walk. The atmospheric pressure grew so heavy it felt like walking through deep water. Dark lightning began to condense into a sphere of pure entropy around its blade.
'If that lands,' I thought, 'the entire valley becomes a memory.'
"Oliver," Kageno breathed, standing at my side.
"Yeah?"
"…You thinking what I'm thinking?"
I nodded. We had to risk it all. The Dreadlord swung. A massive wave of demonic energy roared toward us like a collapsing mountain of shadow.
"Kageno, move!"
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion swallowed the world. For several seconds, there was only white noise and heat. When the smoke cleared, we were kneeling in a massive, glassed crater. Kageno's combat jacket was gone, his torso covered in blood that ran over the black spirals on his skin.
The Dreadlord stood perfectly unharmed.
"You fought well," the demon said, lifting its sword for the final execution. "But this ends now."
"Hey!"
The voice cut through the silence. Three figures were sliding down the broken ridge which were Kael, Sinata, and Ria.
Kageno's expression went cold. "…Kael. Why did you bring them back?"
Kael stopped, raising his hands defensively even as he panted for air. "I didn't! I tried to stop them!" Ria glared angrily.
"You think we're just going to sit there while you idiots die?!" Ria screamed, her mana flaring.
Sinata stepped forward, her hand on the hilt of her katana, her eyes sharp despite her injuries. Kael rubbed the back of his head. "They were… uh… very hard to convince."
Kageno stared at them. Then, he let out a short, sharp scoff.
"…Tch. Idiots."
"Hah...Ahahahahaha!!!" The Dreadlord laughed a deep, monstrous sound. "So more insects have returned to die."
It's sword flames flared brighter.
Very well, come. Let me crush you all together!"
Kael slammed his foot down, and veins of reinforced metal surged through the earth. Sinata spun her blade into a low draw-stance. Ria's energy began to burn. All five of us stood together.
"Alright," Kageno twirled his blades, his voice returning to a freezing calm. "New plan. Oliver, you break the core. The rest of you… don't let him touch you."
The battlefield exploded into a synchronized dance of death. The Dreadlord unleashed a flurry of claw strikes, each creating shockwaves that could level buildings. Kageno and I led the charge, parrying and redirecting the heaviest blows, while Kael and Ria provided metallic cover.
Suddenly, Sinata vanished in a blur of lightning. Her breath slowed and controlled.
"Third Form: Lightning Strike!"
Horizontal and vertical slashes erupted across the demon's torso in several cardinal pattern in a very fast rate. At the same moment, Kael and Ria launched their specialized metal shards spikes designed during their retreat to pierce high-density armor. The Shards of metal pierced Varakhan's skin, coiling and twisting across his chest as they burrowed deep in search of his core. He tried to reach for the blade he'd dropped which was lost to the shock of Sinata's relentless slashes but Ria and Kael gave him no opening. They piled on heavier, reinforced metal to suppress his movements, knowing the Varakhan commander possessed the kind of insane strength that could shatter their hold if they lost focus for even a second which is a suicidal act on their path. Sweat stinged down their eyes and prickled down their faces as they channeled every ounce of their mana to keep him restrained. With a synchronized roar, Ria and Kael forced the metal shards to rip outward and expose his vitals. The chest cavity swung wide, but the space where the core should have been was nothing but hollow shadow.
"NO...no way! Kael exclaimed in shock.
"There's nothing?!" Ria screamed as she realized the efforts had been in vain.
The chest cavity was empty. The core was gone.
Kageno and I stared with shock wondering how the core we saw a while ago wasn't there anymore and the dreadlord is still standing alive without it.
'Or don't tell me it can_!'
[AFFIRMATIVE. THE VARAKHAN COMMANDER CAN FREELY SHIFT ITS CORE TO OTHER HIDDEN BODY PARTS TO PREVENT ANHILATION.]
"Tsk!" I clicked my tongue. 'Sage, what's the play?'
[SUGGESTION: UTILIZE TEAM MEMBERS CAPABLE OF SHIDAN TECHNIQUES. CHANNEL SIMULTANEOUS ENERGY BEAMS FASTER THAN THE ENTITY'S REGENERATION RATE. THIS WAY, THE DREADLORD'S INVINCIBILITY BECOMES USELESS]
'Yes. I see there's a way out of this mess now. I can't use the molecular resonance strike for now since it might be a little ineffective against him.' I muttered and searched over for Sinata who was standing nearby and I suddenly remembers she is a Teir-7 elite.
'Sinata,' I called out. 'Can you pull off a Shidan?'
"Yes," she replied, her face pale. "But it'll drain my body off stamina. If we're doing it together, I'm in."
The Dreadlord, now thoroughly enraged, let out a roar that shattered the remaining stone pillars. He wasn't holding back anymore.
"ABYSSAL CATASTROPHE!"
He stabbed his sword into the earth. The domain manifested instantly. The sky turned black, and our shadows began to rise like sentient smoke. Seven massive spheres of compressed infernal energy which were miniature black suns, floated into the air.
"Perish!"
The spheres fall like apocalyptic meteors. Which resulted to massive explosions. Craters formed scattering all around. Shockwaves destroying terrain making the battlefield become a hellscape.
We all froze in shock not knowing what to do since we simply cannot block it. But through sheer instinct, we all dodged. I redirected some of the spheres. Sinata and Kageno destroyed the spheres mid-air while dodging. We all gave ourselves nod while doing our best to evade each of the spheres split up. It becomes a chaotic survival sequence.
'God sage? What do I do now?' I asked desperately as the spheres we destroyed kept coming back and falling down on us like meteors.
[The solution to stop the Dreadlord's domain lies from the sword stabbed on the ground. Once the sword is disrupted, the attacks and domain weakens.]
'Thanks for the info sage.' I said inwardly.
[You're welcome.]
I smiled to myself while narrowly evading some of the attacks. I gave a look at Kageno who also stared back at me. I gave him an eye sigh. He nodded and sprinted forward towards the dreadlord, doing his best to dodge any dodgeable dark energy sphere.
He lunged at the Dreadlord, keeping him busy with a suicidal flurry of strikes. Kael formed a massive metal shield to protect the girls from the shockwaves, while Ria targeted the falling meteors with mana bullets.
As Kageno kept delivering flurry of strikes, The Dreadlord got tired of his persistent attacks and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him into the air. "Enough, human! Why do you try so hard? Do you think you all have enough power to defeat me?"
Kageno spat blood directly onto the demon's visor. "Yeah I do. As long as you're not a god…nothing makes you special. You're just a target is killable." He said with a taunting dark smile playing on his lips.
I seized the opening. I executed a Zero-Point Strike directly into the ground near the sword. The vibration disrupted the energy flow, causing the final meteor to detonate prematurely in the sky. I grabbed the demonic hilt and snapped it with a resonance-enhanced kick and immediately backed away.
The Dreadlord froze in shock, taken back by my smart moves.
"You… outsmarted me again human?! How unforgivable!" He roared and sped towards me with rage.
I gave a darkish glinting smile.
"Got you."
Three charged beams converged from three directions. The Dreadlord tried to pivot, but it was too late for him. He was caught in the crossfire of the squad's ultimate techniques.
"RISHO-BLUE!"
"PHIDO'LEMADO!"
"LAZA'NIMPO!"
Blue, red and yellow beams synchronized at the same time, hitting with the sound of a dying star.
VROOOOOM-SKRRIIIIIII!!!
The triple-convergence of heat and mana was too fast for the demon's shifting core. It didn't matter where the core was hidden, the beams obliterated every single cell of the dreadlord's body simultaneously. He was completely obliterated. No traces, no blood, only ash scattered into a scorched, glassed landscape.
Silence fell. One by one, we collapsed.
Kageno hit the ground the hardest. He had tanked the most hits and used his Shidan technique twice. He was gasping, his lungs straining for air.
"Kageno!" I shouted, dragging my broken body toward him with desperation.