The chamber walls of the Cartenone Temple pulsed, not with welcoming light, but with a dark, insidious rhythm. The floor beneath the team vibrated, and the air thickened as if the Nexus itself had grown heavy.
"No… this isn't right," Brush muttered, scanning his HUD. Every stat flickered violently. His attack power, defense, speed — all were dropping.
Equinox's ears twitched. "It's a curse," she said, her voice sharp. "The temple isn't just testing our strength… it's forcing regression. Every guardian here can impose Level-Down Effects."
Frostbinder tried to summon her ice constructs, but they shattered under the weakened energy of her hands. RobbRox's rebuilt barriers crumbled as she tried to stack them. Even Miss Krita's glowing bristles dimmed.
"Stats falling!" FooTube yelled, streams faltering. "We're… weak… like rookie-level weak!"
Before they could recover, the shadows of the temple flickered. A new form emerged from the code mist — the second general, yet unseen, loomed ahead, smiling with twisted calm. Its presence amplified the temple's regression aura.
Brush clenched his fists, trying to summon Creation guardians, but only a single fragment appeared, trembling under the curse. He glanced at his team. "We can't rely on power. We have to use our heads, our coordination… everything we've learned!"
Equinox's hooves struck the ground, sending out pulses of violet light. "Follow my lead. Even if our stats drop, skill and precision remain."
Frostbinder adjusted her stance, gripping icy runes with precise control. "Then we adapt. If the temple wants to weaken us… we'll make it regret it."
The second general advanced, sending shockwaves of corrupted code. Each strike felt like it could erase them entirely. The team moved carefully, dodging and countering with strategy over brute force.
Brush teleported, using Interconnectivity to link their weakened attacks into coordinated bursts. Equinox spun her lance in precise arcs, her hooves leaving trails that disrupted the general's compression fields. RobbRox rebuilt protective structures in micro-bursts, while FooTube's viral streams distracted the enemy just enough to create openings.
Even cursed and weakened, the team refused to yield. Every step, every coordinated strike chipped away at the general's form, proving that skill, trust, and unity could overcome raw power — even in the face of a level-down curse.
As the battle raged, Brush's HUD flickered one last time: a warning glowed in crimson letters —"CURSE PERSISTENCE: LEVEL-LOCKED. SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON TEAM STRATEGY."
The Cartenon Temple wasn't just a challenge of power — it was a crucible, and the team was being forced to prove that even at their weakest, they were capable of standing against the domain's ancient guardian