The air warped long before the attack manifested.
Minami felt it first—a subtle distortion, like the world itself recoiling. Life Essence around her trembled, pulled toward a singular point where corruption thickened unnaturally.
Ashen stood at the center of it all, rot energy coiling around his arm like a living shroud. His expression was calm. Too calm.
"Rot Technique," he said, voice steady, almost reverent.
"Spears of Demolition."
The ground split open.
From ruptures in space itself, countless spears erupted—jagged, asymmetrical constructs of condensed rot. Each one hummed with destructive intent, vibrating as though eager to tear flesh, mana, and soul alike.
They hovered for a fraction of a second.
Then they fired.
"Minami—!" Valx shouted.
The spears tore through the air in a deafening barrage, aimed directly at Minami and the Five Steps of Saytar, leaving trails of decayed reality in their wake.
"Move!" Minami ordered, already shifting her stance.
But before the battlefield could fully respond—
"Shadow Arts: Obscure Domain!"
The Gorgon triplets cried out in perfect synchronization.
Darkness exploded outward.
Not shadow—absence. Light was devoured. Sound warped. Direction vanished. The world collapsed into an all-consuming void where distance became meaningless.
Ashen's lips curled faintly.
Within the Obscure Domain, even mana perception was smothered. Ashen moved freely, rot spears adjusting mid-flight, guided by his will alone.
"he can't see us ," Yun murmured. "he can't react."
Or so he believed.
A pressure built suddenly at the heart of the darkness—but it did not come from his enemies.
Ashen frowned.
"Tch… troublesome."
He raised his hand instead.
"Luminous Orb."
A blinding sphere of pure radiance ignited at his command, swelling violently before detonating outward. Light tore through the Obscure Domain like a divine blade, ripping shadows apart and forcibly collapsing the technique under sheer, overwhelming brilliance.
The darkness screamed as it dissolved.
The battlefield reappeared—scorched, fractured, and trembling beneath the sudden return of reality.
Ashen staggered back a half-step, rot energy flickering as the abrupt backlash rippled through his form.
"Tch—"
But the spears had already been released.
Two broke through the fading light.
"Fei!"
"Yun!"
The impacts were brutal.
A rot spear pierced Fei's side, lifting her off her feet before slamming her into the ground. Another tore through Yun's shoulder, embedding deep as decay surged outward like poison unleashed.
Black veins spread instantly.
Fei gasped, clawing at the earth as pain unlike anything she'd known tore through her body. The rot burned—not hot, but corrosive, eating at flesh and mana alike.
Yun dropped to one knee, breath hitching as his arm began to numb. "So this… is rot energy…"
Ashen observed them with detached interest.
"Efficient," he said.
His gaze shifted back to Minami.
Rot energy surged again, flowing into his hands and reshaping itself—elongating, sharpening—until twin blades of decay extended from his arms.
"Elythra's goddess," Ashen said, voice low.
"You are next."
He vanished.
The distance between them collapsed instantly. Rot blades cleaved toward Minami's neck with lethal precision.
CRACK.
"Frozen Blood Arts: Jab Lock!"
Ashen froze mid-motion.
Crimson frost surged upward, encasing his arms and legs in hardened blood-ice. The sudden immobilization disrupted his mana flow violently, rot energy screeching as it resisted containment.
Valx stood firm, teeth clenched, blood running freely from his nose. "You're not moving."
Ashen snarled, rot surging against the ice.
"Break it!" he barked to himself.
But he didn't get the chance.
"Now!" Minami commanded.
Shadows blurred in.
"Shadow Technique—Incomplete Form: Spad Onslaught!"
Kai and Nei struck from opposite sides, their movements sharp, ruthless. Shadow slashes detonated one after another, carving into Ashen's frozen form. The technique wavered—unstable, incomplete—but sheer volume overwhelmed precision.
Cracks spread across the blood-ice.
Ashen roared, rot flaring violently. "Insects—!"
Minami stepped forward, golden light faintly blooming in her eyes.
She raised her hands.
"Take. Bring. Recreate. Offset."
The world trembled.
Life Essence surged from every direction—drawn from the land, the air, the lingering echoes of battle. It condensed violently around Ashen.
"Megaton Celestium."
The blast erupted.
A catastrophic collision of vitality and force slammed into Ashen from all sides, crushing, burning, rewriting the space he occupied. The ground collapsed inward as a column of light exploded skyward.
Ashen's voice echoed from within the maelstrom.
"Do you really think this is eno—"
He cut off abruptly.
Something was wrong.
Yun and Fei stood together, hands pressed to their wounds. Rot energy writhed violently beneath their skin, no longer spreading—but being pulled.
"Drain what is within us," Yun growled, veins bulging.
"And burst it forth." Fei's voice trembled—but held.
Mana spiraled chaotically.
"Combo Spell: Redirective Blast!"
The rot was ripped free.
Agony tore through them as corruption was forcibly expelled, fused with explosive mana in a desperate, violent synthesis.
They fired.
The blast slammed into Ashen mid-recovery, rot colliding with rot before detonating from within.
Ashen screamed.
His body was hurled backward, armor cracking, rot destabilizing violently as he crashed through scorched terrain.
Minami didn't hesitate.
She drew her blade.
"Rage on, oh great elemental flame."
Fire answered.
"Self-Made Spell: Deep Crimson Burn."
Flames roared to life along the sword, burning so intensely the air distorted around it. Minami vanished in a flash of heat.
She reappeared directly before Ashen.
The blade pierced his chest.
"GRAAAH—!"
Crimson flames exploded outward, consuming him completely. Rot shrieked as fire devoured it, purification and annihilation colliding in a blinding inferno.
Valx raised his arm one final time.
"Time to wrap it up."
"Blood Arts: Crimson Judgment."
A massive sword formed above him—blood compressed to lethal density, humming with finality. Valx hurled it with everything he had left.
The spear pierced straight through the flames.
Through Ashen.
Silence fell.
Ashen's body flickered.
"Well fought," he said calmly, even as his form unraveled. "Truly."
His eyes glowed faintly as he faded into ash and light.
Around them, the spirit and elemental finally ceased fighting, hostility draining away like a broken spell.
Nei exhaled. "…That was too much."
She looked down.
"…What's that inscription?"
Carved into the scorched earth was a glowing sigil—ancient, deliberate.
A voice echoed from it.
Cold. Amused.
"The tree that spreads its branches around Elythra has been compromised."
The light pulsed.
"What are you going to do?"
A pause.
Soft laughter followed.
"This is going to be entertaining."
The inscription dimmed.
And the silence left behind was heavier than any blow they had survived.