Shockwaves spread outward from Vamina as magic circles began layering over each other, one atop another, forming an intricate pattern that started swallowing the entire space.
The air trembled.
The floor groaned.
Even Arthur’s expression shifted.
His eyes narrowed.
"...What now?" he muttered, genuinely surprised by the sudden, overwhelming distortion in the air.
Then—
Everything changed.
Space itself rippled.
The walls wavered like reflections on disturbed water.
Arthur felt the shift in mana imdiately.
Through his talent, Crown of Sorcery, he could see the structure of the spell more clearly than anyone else.
’Teleportation magic... on a massive scale,’ he realized.
But even with that insight—
He still couldn’t pinpoint where it was going to teleport them all.
His eyes followed the flow of mana.
He saw it.
The magic circles were drawing in energy from everyone present in the auction hall.
Not just from the mages—
From everyone.
Even beyond the hall’s walls, faint threads of mana were being pulled inward.
The magic circle was getting bigger.
Broader.
Hungrier.
At the center of it all—
The infant dragon lying on the ground convulsed slightly.
Mana was rapidly being absorbed from its body.
Its scales dimd.
Its breathing turned ragged.
It had beco the main source of fuel for the ritual.
Arthur clicked his tongue.
’They’re using that dragon as a battery...’
The teleportation sequence intensified.
The ground shook.
Symbols beneath everyone’s feet began to glow faintly.
At the sa ti—
All of Vamina’s summoned beasts and Boby’s shadows moved.
As if they had received a single command.
They all attacked Arthur and Julia at once.
Ogres charged.
Wolves lunged.
The dragon, barely conscious but forced by residual commands, rose weakly.
Shadows surged like a black tide.
Arthur’s eyes hardened.
"Activate Berserk," he said.
A cold, chanical response echoed in his mind.
[BERSERK MODE ACTIVATED]
[ALL PHYSICAL AND NTAL STATS INCREASED BY 500%]
[PAIN PERCEPTION GREATLY REDUCED]
[REACTIONS, FOCUS, AND AGGRESSION SHARPLY ENHANCED]
A violent rush of power exploded through his body.
He felt it instantly.
His muscles tightened like coiled steel.
His senses sharpened.
Colors beca clearer.
Movents slower.
’Good,’ he thought. ’I have to finish this now.’
He clenched his fists.
He could feel it—
The sheer surge of strength.
As if he could rip apart anything in front of him.
He inhaled once.
Then shifted his breathing.
"Lightning Breathing," he whispered.
Electric tension built up inside him.
In the next instant—
He moved.
Arthur’s figure vanished.
To everyone else—
He beca almost invisible.
Only faint afterimages and shockwaves hinted at his movent.
Then—
The slaughter began.
He appeared beside one ogre.
His claws and fists tore through its neck.
The head flew into the air.
He was already gone before the body hit the ground.
He appeared near the wolves.
One strike.
Two.
Three.
Wolves fell with broken skulls and shattered spines.
He moved between beasts, shadows, and spell circles with terrifying precision.
Summons fell one after another.
Vamina’s eyes widened.
She bit down on her lip and continued summoning, her magic circles spinning faster.
New beasts ford.
Every ti one fell—
Another appeared.
Beside Arthur—
Julia fought relentlessly.
Her movents grew sharper, more refined with each exchange.
She stepped past a lunging wolf and shattered its jaw with a kick.
She dodged a swipe from an ogre and smashed her elbow into its throat.
But even she could see—
This wasn’t enough.
Her eyes narrowed.
She took a low stance, feet spread, hands open.
"Valmont family martial arts..." she whispered. "Fourth Form."
Her aura shifted.
"Ruptured Sequence."
She moved.
Her body blurred as she closed the distance to one of the larger ogres.
Her hands and feet struck its body in a rapid chain of blows—
Chest.
Ribs.
Throat.
Kidneys.
Jaw.
The hits landed so fast they almost overlapped.
For a mont—
Nothing seed to happen.
The ogre just stood there.
Then—
All the damage landed at once.
Boom.
Its body twisted unnaturally.
Bones shattered from the inside.
Its chest caved in.
Blood sprayed from its mouth as it was lifted off its feet, thrown backward by the combined force of all the strikes detonating together.
It crashed into the ground and didn’t move again.
Julia turned, breathing hard, her eyes already fixed on the next target.
She used Ruptured Sequence again.
A series of rapid, clean hits—
Followed by a single, explosive mont where everything broke at once.
Beasts fell.
But more kept coming.
Julia frowned, glancing toward Vamina for a second.
"Just how many does she have...?" she muttered. "It’s the first ti I’ve seen soone using powers like these."
She dodged another beast and shattered its neck with a spinning kick.
"She really is on another level... must be an A-ranker," Julia said under her breath. "But it’s still impossible to carry almost an army around with you."
While she spoke, Arthur tore through several of Boby’s shadows with his claws.
They collapsed under his strikes—
Only to distort—
And reform.
The sa shadows stood back up.
Their forms twisted—
Then stabilized again.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
"What the hell...?"
Shadows sward him once more.
Then—
His system’s voice echoed in his mind.
[Host, as long as the boy controlling them still has mana, they will keep resurrecting.]
[You can only weaken and destroy them properly with light-aligned magic. Most of them are still low-rank shadows—light spells will work effectively.]
Arthur clicked his tongue.
Inside his mind, he answered:
’Got it.’
He took a breath.
Mana flowed through his arm.
In the next second—
Light flared around his hand.
A pale, concentrated glow engulfed his fingers and claws.
He lunged forward and struck the nearest shadow.
The light burned through it.
The shadow didn’t just tear—
It dissolved.
Fading completely instead of reforming.
Arthur’s eyes lit up.
"It’s working," he said. "Good thing I also learned so spells while training with Yuna."
He moved again.
Each strike was wrapped in light.
Shadows he destroyed with that glow didn’t get back up.
One by one—
The black tide began to thin.
In an instant, Vamina’s army started falling apart.
Beasts were collapsing one after another.
Shadows were being torn down and erased by Arthur’s light-infused strikes.
Sakura’s gaze shifted toward Olivia and Boby.
Olivia was still unconscious, resting against a wall, her breathing shallow but stable.
Boby’s face, however, was drenched in sweat.
His breathing was ragged.
Anyone could see he was pushing himself far beyond his limits to maintain his shadows.
His mana was running dangerously low.
The darkness around his feet flickered.
So of the shadows behind him wavered as if they might collapse at any mont.
Sakura coughed, a sharp pain stabbing through her chest.
Blood stained the corner of her lips.
"Damn... just how hard did that bitch hit ," she muttered.
While Arthur was busy tearing through beasts and shadows, Vamina finally managed to find a mont to heal.
She thrust her wand toward Sakura and unleashed a spell.
This ti—
It connected.
Warm, golden light enveloped Sakura’s body.
Bones nded.
Bruises eased.
Her breathing steadied.
The worst of the pain faded, though traces of fatigue still lingered beneath her skin.
But even as the spell worked—
Vamina could feel it.
She was reaching her limits too.
Her mana pool, already drained by repeated summons and high-level spells, was almost empty.
She glanced at Sakura, her eyes still wide with disbelief.
"Just what the hell kind of monsters are these two...?" Vamina whispered. "Anyone else would have surrendered by now."
Sakura wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
"I get where you’re coming from," she said quietly. "But I already warned you not to underestimate them."
She drew in a slow breath.
"But forget that. What’s done is done."
Her eyes sharpened.
"Tell —have you secured him?"
Vamina nodded and lifted her wand, pointing toward the far side of the hall.
There—
Several of her summoned beasts stood in a tight formation, forming a living barricade.
In the middle of that circle—
Jas lay, still unconscious, protected on all sides.
"And Arthur?" Sakura asked.
As Vamina shifted her wand slightly, it beca clearer—
More beasts and shadows had moved strategically, hemming Arthur in, cutting off escape angles as the magic circles beneath them brightened.
Sakura nodded.
"Good," she said. "Now I just need to pour all my mana into the magic circle... and all of them will disappear from here."
Her fingers tightened on her bow.
Then—
She looked at Vamina.
For a brief mont, her expression softened.
"I’m sorry, Vamina," Sakura said quietly.
Vamina blinked.
"Sorry? For what?"
Before Sakura could answer—
Sothing massive hurtled toward them.
Boom!
A mountain of flesh slamd into the ground nearby.
Dust and debris exploded outward.
Sakura lost her balance and fell to the floor again, coughing as she shielded her face.
When the dust slowly cleared—
She turned her head.
What she saw—
Didn’t surprise her in the slightest.
Arthur stood there.
His clothes were stained with blood, his eyes cold and sharp.
In his hand—
He was gripping Vamina by the throat.
Her legs dangled in the air as she struggled desperately, clawing at his arm, but his grip didn’t loosen at all.
Around them—
The crushed, broken bodies of the beasts that Vamina had summoned were scattered.
They were the ones that had been hurled toward Sakura.
"What did you think?" Arthur’s voice echoed through the hall. "That would be enough to stop ?"
Sakura stared at him for a mont—
Then smiled faintly.
"I knew it wouldn’t be," she said.
Inside her vision—
System ssages flooded her sight.
[PATH OF FATE ALTERED IN YOUR FAVOR]
[MINOR FUTURE CORRECTION SUCCESSFUL]
[REWARDING HOST FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTION]
Lines of text scrolled rapidly in front of her eyes.
[ 250 FATE POINTS]
[NEW FUTURE BRANCHES UNLOCKED]
[INCREASED CLARITY FOR SHORT-TERM VISIONS]
A big, satisfied smile ford on Sakura’s face.
Then—
A sound cut through the air.
SCHLK.
Arthur’s eyes widened slightly.
He felt it.
A blade—
Tearing through his stomach from behind.
Warm blood spilled down his abdon as the sword pierced cleanly through him while he still held Vamina by the throat.
His grip tightened unconsciously.
He turned his head slowly.
Behind him—
Stood Jericho.
His hair now gray.
His body older.
But his eyes—
Still sharp.
Still dangerous.
Jericho held the sword with both hands, his teeth gritted, pushing the blade in deeper.
In a low voice, he looked past Arthur’s shoulder toward Sakura.
"Everything... has gone as you predicted, Sakura," he said. "With this... I’ve fulfilled my task."
Across the hall—
Julia saw it.
Her eyes widened.
Her heart lurched.
"Arthur!" she shouted, her voice cracking.
She ran toward him, her face full of raw worry.
Sakura watched the scene calmly.
"Yes," she said softly. "You did a splendid job, Jericho."
Jericho managed a faint smile.
It lasted only a second.
Because—
In the next mont—
Arthur’s free hand moved.
His claws dug into Jericho’s skull.
Then—
With a burst of brutal force—
He crushed it.
Boom.
Jericho’s head exploded into blood and bone.
His headless body swayed for a heartbeat—
Then collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Blood spread slowly across the floor at Arthur’s feet.
Arthur stood there.
Breathing heavily.
Vamina still in his grip.
Blood pouring from the wound in his stomach.
But—
He hadn’t fallen yet.
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