Vaelis arrived like a falling star.
Her blade flashed, tearing through the skeletal horde with brutal efficiency. Bones exploded, mana shattered, and the battlefield was drowned in echoes of steel and screams long since forgotten.
Then—
Everything stopped.
A pressure unlike anything before crushed the air.
From the shadows emerged a colossal figure, its crown of bones scraping the dungeon ceiling.
The Skeleton King.
Kael's eyes burned crimson.
"Vaelis," he said quietly, "don't hold back."
She nodded.
The Draconic Mark ignited on their bodies, scales of light spreading across their skin as raw power erupted.
"Now!"
They launched forward as one.
Far deeper within the dungeon…
The world itself trembled before Ignivar.
The divine monster raised its arms, and reality broke.
Lava geysers burst from the ground like screaming dragons. The earth shattered into violent fractures. Blades of compressed wind howled through the air, slicing stone as if it were flesh.
At the center of this apocalypse—
Talis walked.
Unhurried.
Untouched.
His grimoire hovered before him, pages turning on their own, glowing with ancient symbols.
"Is this all?" he asked, his voice calm enough to be terrifying.
Ignivar roared, its body of molten earth surging forward.
A direct strike.
A killing blow.
Talis vanished.
In the next instant, he stood behind the monster.
"You missed."
He leapt.
The impact of his fist was absolute.
CRAAAAASH.
Ignivar was driven into the dungeon floor, the shockwave obliterating everything nearby. The walls collapsed. The ground caved in.
Talis raised his hand.
Darkness answered.
A sphere of pure annihilation formed, devouring light, sound, and mana itself. The dungeon screamed as it was dragged into the void.
"Be erased."
He released it.
The explosion swallowed Ignivar whole, tearing its divine flesh apart.
Yet—
From the smoke and flames, the monster rose again.
Broken.
Burning.
Furious.
With a deafening roar, Ignivar struck the ground.
The dungeon convulsed.
Entire floors collapsed. Adventurers across the labyrinth were thrown to their knees.
"That power…!"
"A divine-class presence?!"
"We have to move—now!"
Talis hovered above the destruction, his cloak fluttering like the wings of a fallen angel.
He looked down.
Disappointed.
"You're weak," he said. "A shadow pretending to be a god."
Ignivar screamed and charged.
Talis sighed.
"I'll show you," he whispered, "the absolute summit of magic."
Mana exploded outward.
"Domain Skill — Sanctuary."
The grimoire plunged into the earth.
The world shattered.
They stood in hell.
A blood-red sky burned endlessly above a land of ash and ruin. The air itself reeked of despair. This was not an illusion.
This was a domain.
Ignivar froze.
Talis closed his eyes.
From the void before him, a colossal black mass emerged—silent, infinite, unstoppable.
In desperation, Ignivar unleashed everything.
Countless earthen spears erupted from the ground, launched like divine judgment.
They never reached their target.
The black mass advanced.
In a single heartbeat—
Ignivar was erased.
No explosion.
No scream.
No remains.
Existence itself rejected him.
Silence fell upon hell.
Talis opened his eyes and exhaled slowly.
"…As expected," he murmured. "You were never the real Ignivar."
The domain collapsed.
The dungeon returned.
Talis turned his back to the battlefield, his presence still weighing upon the world.
"Next time," he said softly, "send the real one."
And he walked on.