Rowan lifted one finger.
The box containing the Saint's ashes tore free from the ground and shot toward his hand.
Adrian Crowe's pupils shrank.
So close.
Too close.
"You're dead!"
Crowe abandoned all restraint.
He had once stood on the threshold of a higher existence.
He was no ordinary elite.
Even if this radiant figure looked terrifying, Crowe refused to believe anyone could simply overwhelm him without a fight.
A pair of decorative wings meant nothing.
Crowe thrust his hands forward.
Reality warped.
A massive bronze door materialized in the air, its surface engraved with shifting, incomprehensible sigils.
The door creaked open.
Beyond it lay endless darkness.
Countless distorted eyes opened within.
From the void, skeletal arms surged outward, clawing toward Rowan, trying to drag him into the abyss.
Rowan regarded the scene with mild disappointment.
"That's it?"
He raised his hand.
"Greater Spell: Fairy Radiance."
A colossal pillar of pure light descended from above.
The bronze door was swallowed whole.
Screams echoed across Tingen.
Within seconds, the door collapsed and vanished as if it had never existed.
Crowe staggered.
"Light…?"
The attack resembled the holy techniques of the Sun Path.
But far stronger.
Absurdly stronger.
If his opponent were on the same tier as him, this should have been impossible.
Only one explanation remained.
Higher than me.
Fear flickered.
The ashes were already in Rowan's grasp.
Crowe turned.
Escape.
Immediately.
He still possessed his reality-altering quill.
With patience, he could try again someday.
Rowan snapped his fingers.
"Did I say you could leave?"
The floor liquefied into a flawless mirror.
The hall, the monster, Crowe, and the Night Watchers were all pulled inside.
A vast mirrored world unfolded.
Rowan stood at its center.
Crowe's mind reeled.
Sun-based magic.
Mirror-domain control.
Completely incompatible systems.
What was this thing?
The black infant that had fully emerged from Megose's body let out a furious hiss.
Crowe shouted, "Work with me or we both die!"
The infant hesitated.
It despised Crowe.
This human had forced its premature birth.
But survival came first.
It nodded.
Across the mirror world, Captain Dunn staggered to his feet.
He seized the silvery strand from Cohen.
"We'll hold the creature. You finish Crowe!"
Rowan smiled.
"No need."
"Greater Spell: Fairy Law."
Light erupted.
Not blinding.
Not scorching.
Absolute.
The mirror world turned white.
Two screams cut through the silence.
When the light faded, both Crowe and the black infant lay crumpled, barely alive.
Rowan calmly produced a small nesting doll and opened it.
Runes flared.
Both figures were pulled inside.
Sealed.
Rowan closed the doll.
Silence returned.
Dunn, Miles, Leonard, and Cohen stared.
They had prepared to die.
Instead, the battle had ended in seconds.
They did not know what had truly happened.
Only that the nightmare was over.