One moment she was thirty meters away, surrounded by copies. The next, she was beside Krad, her staff slamming into Han's face with enough force to send the Cursed Queen stumbling backward three steps.
Han touched her cheek, fingers coming away with a single drop of silver blood. For the first time since the battle began, she looked surprised.
"You... made me bleed."
Kora didn't respond with words. She simply attacked again, her staff moving in patterns that defied her class, her training, her very nature. Each strike carried the weight of desperation and love... for Dani, for her fallen captain.
"Radiant Judgment!" she screamed, and her staff erupted with holy fire.
The blast caught Han full in the chest, sending her crashing through her own throne.
[ Damage Dealt to Han: 0.003% ]
It was nothing, a scratch, less than a scratch.
But it was something.
"Kora!" Dani's voice cracked with emotion. "I'm with you!"
The tracker surged forward, her hands weaving patterns of binding magic far more complex than anything she'd used before. "Chains of Absolute Tracking, Execution Mode!"
Spectral chains erupted from every mirror simultaneously, all converging on Han from a thousand different angles. The Cursed Queen tried to dodge, but Dani's magic didn't track movement... it tracked existence. As long as Han existed in this space, the chains would find her.
They wrapped around her arms, her legs, her throat, binding her with the weight of certainty itself.
"Impossible," Han gasped. "You're just Level 215. You shouldn't be capable of this level of---"
"Shut Up!" Kora's staff slammed into Han's exposed ribs. Something cracked. "Radiant Lance!"
Golden light exploded from the point of impact, burning through Han's midnight robes and scorching pale skin beneath.
[ Damage Dealt: 0.007% ]
Still nothing.
Still not enough.
But they weren't stopping.
---
Fifteen Seconds Earlier
When Dani had seen Krad's wrists shatter, something inside her had broken too. Not her will, not her determination... her fear.
She'd been terrified this entire battle. Terrified of dying, of failing, of letting down Captain Valdris's memory.
But watching this kid... this brave, stupid, impossibly stubborn kid, scream in agony while still trying to protect them?
The fear vanished.
All that remained was rage.
And in that moment of absolute clarity, she'd felt something unlock inside her. A reservoir of power she didn't know existed, fueled not by mana or technique, but by pure, crystallized emotion.
---
Present Moment
Kora and Dani fought like women possessed. Every strike, every spell, every desperate attack carried the weight of their grief, their love, their absolute refusal to watch another person die.
Kora's staff work was flawless, no longer the careful, measured strikes of a healer, but the brutal efficiency of a warrior who'd lost everything and had nothing left to lose. Each impact sent ripples through Han's domain, the Mirage Palace trembling as reality struggled to contain their fury.
Dani's binding magic evolved with each casting. The chains became tighter, more complex, more inescapable. She was pulling on every lesson Captain Valdris had ever taught her, every technique she'd perfected over eight years of service.
"Your magic tracks certainty," Valdris had once told her. "The more certain you are of your target, the more absolute your binding becomes."
And right now, Dani had never been more certain of anything.
This monster had to die.
"Seven-Seal Binding!" Her hands moved faster than thought, weaving a spell formation that should've taken five people to cast. "Eight-Seal! Nine-Seal!"
Chains of light wrapped around chains of shadow wrapped around chains of pure crystallized will. Han struggled against them, her immense power straining the bindings, but Dani poured everything she had into maintaining them.
[ Mana: 3% ]
[ Mana: 1% ]
[ Mana: 0% ]
Dani collapsed to one knee, blood streaming from her nose, her eyes, her ears. Burning through your entire mana pool in thirty seconds would kill most mages. She could feel her organs beginning to fail, her brain starting to hemorrhage.
But the chains held.
"Radiant Nova!" Kora's staff exploded with her ultimate technique, every remaining drop of mana condensed into one apocalyptic strike.
The blast caught Han directly in the chest.
For one perfect, crystalline moment, hope bloomed.
Then Han's white eyes blazed with terrible light.
"Absolute Domain"
The Mirage Palace expanded, contracted, inverted. Every mirror shattered and reformed and shattered again in an endless cycle. And from each broken reflection, power poured into Han like water into a vessel.
She broke Dani's chains. Not gradually... she simply decided they didn't exist, and the universe obeyed.
"You made me try," Han said, her voice carrying a note of what might have been respect. "For that, I'll grant you an honorable death."
She raised her hand.
[ Mirage Execution ]
Time seemed to slow.
Krad, barely conscious on the ground, watched through pain-hazed eyes as Han's attack formed. It was beautiful in its terrible simplicity—a blade of compressed reality that would erase whoever it struck from existence itself... and it was aimed at Kora and Dani.
"The people who chose to fight beside me... no!!!"
The word tore from Krad's throat, carrying every ounce of desperation, of denial, of absolute refusal.
The Moon Eater responded.
[Mythical Beast Awakening: 15%]
Silver light erupted from Krad's body, not the gentle glow from before, but something violent and hungry. His broken wrists healed in an instant, bones snapping back into place with grotesque popping sounds.
His eyes... both eyes, blazed pure silver.
When he stood, his movements were wrong, too fluid, too predatory... this wasn't a teenage boy's stance. This was an ancient predator preparing to hunt.
"Touch them," Krad's voice boomed with inhuman resonance, "and I'll devour your soul."
Han's attack halted mid-formation. Her white eyes widened as she sensed the power now radiating from Krad's small frame.
"The Moon Eater," she whispered. "You're letting it---"
Krad moved.
He crossed thirty meters in a blink, his fist slamming into Han's sternum with force that cratered the floor beneath them. The impact sent the Cursed Queen flying through seventeen mirrors before she crashed into the far wall hard enough to crack dimensional barriers.
[Damage Dealt to Han: 10.3%]
Actual damage.
Real, measurable damage.
"Impossible," Han gasped, pulling herself from the crater. "You're still only Level 150. Even with the Moon Eater's power, you shouldn't be capable of---"
Krad was already there, his follow-up kick catching her in the ribs. Blood, silver blood, sprayed from Han's mouth.
[Damage Dealt: 18.1%]
"Silence," the Moon Eater's voice roared through Krad. "Your domain means nothing to a being that devours Gods."
And it was true.
Han's Mirage Palace, her absolute domain where she controlled every aspect of existence was being eaten. The mirrors weren't just breaking now... they were dissolving, consumed by the silver light pouring from Krad's body.
Han created more copies, dozens, hundreds, thousands.
Krad raised one hand.
"Endless Consumption."
Every copy within fifty meters simply ceased to exist, drawn into an event horizon of hungry darkness that orbited Krad's palm. The technique didn't destroy them, it ate them, adding their power to his own.
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Current Level: 300]
"Stop this!" Han screamed, genuine fear creeping into her voice for the first time. "The vessel can't contain that much power."
But the Moon Eater didn't care.
It had been sealed for ten thousand years. Had waited in darkness and hunger for millennia. And now, finally, it had a chance to feast.
Mist struggled to his feet, his body broken but his mind clear. He could see what was happening. Could see Krad's humanity burning away with each second the Moon Eater remained in control.
"Krad!" he shouted, his voice hoarse. "You have to stop! Remember your promise!"