Leo no longer fought with restraint. His every move carried the precision of a predator and the cruelty of a god who’d grown drunk on power.
The ground beneath them had beco a frozen wasteland, roots turned brittle, trees shattered into glass-like splinters. Glain’s breathing grew shallow, his robes torn and stained with frostbitten blood.
"You’ve lived long enough, old man," Leo said coldly, gathering divine energy in his hand, a swirling mass of blue-white light that humd with destructive intent. "Let grant you peace."
Glain lifted his staff weakly, the wood trembling as he tried to summon another spell. But his body betrayed him. His vision swam, and for the first ti in decades, he felt the weight of age truly pressing down.
So this is it, he thought, to fall not by ti, but by arrogance.
Leo’s attack reached its peak, the frozen light expanding like a miniature sun. "Farewell, Druid."
The blast fired blinding and absolute.
But before it could reach its mark, a burst of crimson light intercepted it. The explosion split the air, sending shards of frost and fla scattering like teors. When the dust cleared, Leo’s eyes widened.
Rafael stood between them, his magnetic wings torn and trembling, one arm raised to shield Glain. His body was scorched, bleeding, yet his eyes were fierce with defiance.
"Enough!" Rafael roared, his voice cracking with pain. "You won’t touch him!"
Leo tilted his head, almost amused. "You again? You couldn’t even stand monts ago."
Rafael’s chest heaved, but he didn’t back down. "Then I’ll stand on broken wings if I must."
Glain’s voice was weak but steady behind him. "Rafael... you fool... you’ll get yourself killed."
Rafael shook his head, still keeping his stance firm. "No, old man. You’ve carried us long enough. It’s our turn now."
Leo’s smirk returned, cruel and gleaming. "How noble," he said, his tone dripping with mockery. "But in the end, it’s all aningless."
He raised his hand again, divine energy gathering once more. The air scread under its pressure.
Rafael braced himself, light igniting across his wounded form. ’Even if I can’t win... I’ll buy him a chance.’
Leo’s blast fired. Rafael t it head-on, his barrier cracking, shattering but holding long enough for Glain to whisper an incantation.
Vines erupted from beneath the frozen earth, infused with Glain’s lifeforce, wrapping around Leo’s legs and arms. The god’s eyes widened in surprise for just an instant long enough for Rafael to tackle him, the impact sending both crashing into the ice.
Leo snarled, shattering the bindings instantly, but the mont had shifted.
For the first ti in the battle, he looked at them not as insects but as obstacles.
The air around them began to distort, tal fragnts, shards of armor, and even droplets of Leo’s frozen energy trembled midair. Rafael stood tall despite his wounds, his wings glowing faintly as arcs of silver lightning danced across his skin. The ground beneath his feet vibrated, iron particles rising and spiraling like a storm.
Leo narrowed his eyes. "What is this...?"
Rafael clenched his fist, and with a deafening pulse, the entire battlefield warped. Every trace of tal, bullets, blades, even the tallic veins in Leo’s armor was drawn toward him like a gravitational collapse. "[Magnetic Field : Collapse Zone]!" he shouted.
The force was imnse. The tal around Leo twisted and bent, his own armor groaning under the pull. Leo’s expression darkened, irritation flickered behind his godlike composure. "You think tricks like that will bind ?"
He extended his hand, and the air shimred. Water began to condense around him, mist swirling into razor-sharp streams that flowed unnaturally fast. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the liquid solidified into thousands of hovering needles, each glowing with blue energy.
"Let’s see your magnet hold against this," Leo sneered.
The needles fired in a torrent, the velocity tearing through the air. Rafael raised both arms, manipulating the magnetic field, tal debris converging around him to form a rotating barrier. The needles struck, exploding into steam and fragnts, but several pierced through, grazing his arms and wings. Blood streaked the air.
Glain, watching from behind, could feel the power balance tilting again. ’He’s forcing Leo to adapt... good. Keep pushing him, Rafael.’
But Leo wasn’t done. The water around him began to vibrate at high frequency, glowing with pure white light. He opened his palm, gathering that energy into a single point.
"[Photon Resonance : Divine Shot.]"
A blinding beam erupted from his hand, cutting through the air like judgnt itself. Rafael’s magnetic barrier lted instantly, the tal around him turning red-hot. He barely managed to twist aside, the beam grazing his shoulder, but even that was enough to tear through flesh and armor alike.
Rafael scread, landing hard, smoke rising from his wound.
Leo approached him slowly, the ground freezing beneath each step. "You forced to use this form," he said, his voice calm but laced with contempt. "Be proud, mortal. Few ever see it before they die."
Rafael coughed blood but managed a faint grin. "Good... at least now I know you’re still human enough to feel anger."
Leo’s eyes glowed, his divine composure cracking for just a mont. "Anger? No, insect... this is divine purge."
He raised his hand again, ready to finish it,
but Glain, now fully channeling his remaining energy into the earth, whispered an ancient incantation.
The ground beneath Leo rippled. Massive roots surged upward, glowing with erald light, coiling around his legs like serpents. The impact of the spell forced him to halt his movent, if only for a heartbeat.
And in that brief pause, Rafael gathered the last of his strength, magnetic energy flaring once more, pulling in every scrap of tal nearby. His voice cracked with fury and resolve—
"Then let’s see if a god can withstand pressure from the earth itself!"
The tal storm imploded toward Leo’s position, rging with Glain’s roots. The fusion of nature and magnetism shook the battlefield, light and shadow clashing in a burst that split the sky.
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