Trouble arrived before Zerathul did.
I noticed it in the way the noise around us changed. The laughter from the nearby bars grew uneven. The roars from the arena dulled, as if attention had shifted. Footsteps began cutting through the terrain with purpose, not wandering or drunk, but asured and deliberate.
Primus noticed it at the sa ti. His posture adjusted, weight settling into his stance without a word.
Whatever Zerathul had set in motion, it was already close.
I didn’t move.
I remained seated near the fire, one leg crossed over the other, a heavy cup resting loosely in my hand. The drink was bitter, sharp, and hot enough to burn most throats. I barely tasted it. Lana sat opposite , her posture stiff, her eyes flicking past my shoulder again and again as if she could already sense what was coming.
The first demon didn’t bother with words.
He ca in fast, grandmaster-level, blade already swinging, fire trailing behind his movent in a wide arc ant to force reaction.
Primus t him head-on.
Flas detonated outward as Primus surged forward instead of back, his body wreathed in roaring fire. His sword struck once, twice, three tis in a single fluid sequence, each movent accelerating into the next. The demon didn’t even finish registering pain before his body was cut apart and thrown back into the darkness.
More followed imdiately.
Not a mob. A formation.
Grandmasters, all of them, moving with coordination. They didn’t rush blindly. They tested angles, flanked, tried to box Primus in while others aid past him.
None of them acknowledged .
Primus beca motion.
He didn’t hold ground. He flowed through it. Fire blasted from his limbs with every step, propulsion and weapon both, sending him skimming across fractured stone, rebounding off pillars of obsidian, cutting through attacks before they could converge. Flas snapped outward with each strike, chaining between bodies, disrupting timing, burning through defenses.
A demon tried to grapple him from behind.
Primus twisted mid-motion, fire erupting from his back in a concussive blast that shattered ribs and sent the attacker flying. He didn’t even look to see where the body landed.
Another ca in low, spear aid for his legs. Primus vaulted over it, inverted mid-air, blade carving downward as gravity caught up. The spear and its wielder split cleanly as fire followed the cut a heartbeat later.
I took another drink.
Lana’s breathing had quickened. She watched the fight unfold with wide eyes, hands clenched in her lap.
"They’re not stopping," she whispered.
"No," I replied calmly. "He put a bounty on my na."
Her head snapped up. "What?"
"Nothing subtle," I said. "Enough to make every ambitious grandmaster within range think tonight is worth dying for."
As if on cue, another wave arrived.
Primus t them without hesitation. His movents were no longer just precise. They were brutal. Firestorms erupted around him as he advanced, heat hamring into the ground with each step, collapsing terrain, forcing attackers into predictable paths that ended in his blade.
But numbers mattered.
Two new presences entered the field, heavier, denser, their Essence folding inward with practiced control.
Transcendents.
That was when I finally moved.
I didn’t stand.
I simply raised my hand.
Essence answered.
The world froze.
Fire hung in the air, mid-eruption. Lightning halted in jagged arcs, suspended inches from flesh. Demons stopped where they were, weapons half-swung, expressions locked between rage and realization.
Even Primus stilled, fire crawling across his body like a living thing suddenly restrained.
Lana gasped. Essence began seeping from her skin.
It leaked out of her like smoke, drawn toward by my will. Her eyes widened as she felt it, her breath hitching as sothing deep inside her responded whether she wanted it to or not.
"What are you doing?" she whispered.
I didn’t answer.
I snapped my fingers.
Every demon dropped.
Unconscious bodies hit the ground in unison, the sound echoing across the frozen battlefield like a single, heavy breath being released.
Then I pointed.
Far away, beyond the firelight, a scream tore through the wilderness.
Sothing ca flying through the darkness, tearing through stone and buildings alike before crashing into the ground near my feet hard enough to crater it.
Zerathul.
He tried to rise.
He didn’t get the chance.
Primus was already moving.
He crossed the distance without flourish, fire trailing behind him and drove his hand straight through Zerathul’s chest. The demon convulsed once as Primus closed his fist, crushing the heart within.
Zerathul went still.
Lana scread.
She surged forward, instinct overpowering thought, but her body locked mid-motion, frozen in place as her own Essence betrayed her. Panic flooded her eyes as she realized she couldn’t move. Couldn’t even scream properly anymore.
I leaned forward slightly.
The Abyss Core stirred within my Dawn Core, its pull aligning with my will. I reached not for her body, but for what lay beneath it.
Her laws.
For the first ti I was going to try to snatch soone’s comprehension directly instead of fragnts.
Resistance slamd into imdiately. Violent. Desperate. Lana’s body arched as blood stread from the corners of her eyes, her scream tearing free at last, raw and horrifying.
Primus didn’t stop . He simply watched.
I connected deeper, directly involving my soul. I had this idea after using the abyss core on the battlefield and it finally clicked into place after I heard about the rune master stuff. I reached into my soul, reinforcing the pull with my own Essence, Absolute threading through the Abyss Core as it began to tear.
Runes surfaced from her skin.
Translucent. Fiery. Twisting free from her like living things dragged into the open. They hovered around her, spinning wildly, burning brighter as her level plumted in sharp, uneven drops.
Her scream broke into sobbing gasps.
I increased the pressure.
More runes tore free.
Her Essence collapsed inward, then fractured, then stabilized at a lower equilibrium. When it finally stopped, when the pull no longer t resistance worth acknowledging, she sagged, barely conscious.
Her level stopped at 242. Dropped from a transcendent to a grandmaster.
The runes drifted toward and vanished into the Abyss Core, absorbed without ceremony.
I released my hold.
The world resud.
Fire crashed into stone. Bodies lay scattered across the battlefield. Primus stepped back, wiping blood from his arm, his expression unreadable.
Lana collapsed to the ground, shaking, empty.
I stood at last.
"It’s done," I said.
Primus nodded and picked up Lana.
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