The chamber trembled as Virgos pivoted on the tips of his boots, chains lashing around him like living serpents.
Sparks erupted wherever metal met metal, arcs of flame lingered from artillery heat igniting momentarily in the smoke.
Virgos's twin-bladed scythe spun in endless motion, a fluid extension of his body and even the five of them.
Henry, Arcee, Cagaro, Blyke and Caius... found themselves adjusting constantly, reacting rather than attacking.
Virgos did not attack with brute force. He moved with a surgeon's precision, anticipating their responses before they fully formed.
When Blyke lunged left, a chain whipped around his legs, pulling him off balance without actually making contact.
When Cagaro pivoted to flank, Virgos spun the scythe above his head, chains whipping outward, forcing Cagaro to leap back and barely avoid the barbed edges.
Henry observed carefully.
Virgos attacked not with predictable patterns but with calculated improvisation, bending space subtly around the scythe's arcs, forcing the others to constantly recalibrate timing and distance.
Arcee moved closer, trying to read openings, only to have a chain whip across her path, cutting the way where she intended to step.
Caius, usually composed, tightened his stance as Virgos' scythe struck near enough to make him flinch. Yet the attacks were precise, never lethal.
Virgos broke their coordination without breaking them outright.
Blyke gritted his teeth, trying to coordinate with Henry and Cagaro but the fluidity of Virgos' movements kept them a step behind.
Virgos laughed lightly through the haze, a sound both exhilarated and terrifying.
"You have all grown" he said, spinning through another series of slashes, "but growth is meaningless if you cannot adapt in real time."
The five of them shifted in unison, dodging, countering, retreating. Virgos' dance of blades tore through their strategies, reshaping the battlefield with every motion.
The chains snapped outward with a metallic roar as he swung the twin-bladed scythe in a wide circle.
The chains extended mid-arc, multiplying the reach. Henry barely ducked as the blade passed over his head, slicing a steel console behind him clean in half. Sparks burst across the chamber.
Before the metal even hit the floor, Virgos yanked the chain back and reversed the momentum. The scythe blade shot forward like a harpoon.
Caius caught the chain with both hands for a split second, boots grinding against the floor as the force dragged him several meters before he twisted aside and let it rip past.
Virgos was already making next move.
He vaulted off the chain itself, using the tension like a spring. The scythe spun above him and crashed downward toward Arcee.
She rolled under the strike just as the blade cleaved into the metal platform, carving a glowing trench through the artillery floor.
Blyke charged from the flank. Virgos flicked his wrist.
The chain wrapped around Blyke's arm mid-punch and violently redirected his momentum, slamming him shoulder-first into a support pillar hard enough to crack the plating.
Cagaro rushed in the opening. Virgos smiled.
The scythe separated along its chain length and both blades shot outward simultaneously.
One blade sliced low toward Cagaro's legs while the other curved upward like a crescent.
Cagaro flipped over the low strike but the returning chain cracked across his ribs mid-air, sending him skidding across the floor.
Henry lunged through the chaos.
Virgos rotated his body once, just once and the chains exploded outward in a spiral storm.
The twin blades carved luminous arcs through smoke and fire, smashing consoles, ripping artillery frames apart, forcing all five fighters to leap back as the steel floor split under the impact.
The chamber rang with the sound of metal screaming. Virgos landed lightly at the center of the devastation, chains spinning lazily around him like orbiting blades.
"One at a time," he said calmly. "Or all at once."
The chains snapped tight again.
"And I will still keep you here."
Blyke steadied his breathing, eyes narrowing as he studied Virgos.
The chains circled the man like restless serpents but beneath the spectacle Blyke saw something else—something really trying to tell.
"You're not an Impaired," Blyke said suddenly.
Virgos tilted his head.
Blyke wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and gave a short laugh. "Yeah. I see it now. Your movements are precise but your body doesn't carry the same pressure we do. Your baseline is more human."
Arcee glanced sideways at him.
Blyke continued, voice sharper now. "You are just buying time. You can't hold five of us forever."
Virgos did not look offended. Instead, he smiled faintly. "Perceptive." he admitted.
The chains slowed their orbit, the twin blades glinting in the firelight.
"But you misunderstand the point."
He stepped forward, calm despite the destruction around them.
"You are still thinking in terms of winning and losing. Survival and fear of unknown."
His voice softened slightly. "That world you are fighting for is already broken. It devours its own people. It breeds suffering as naturally as breathing."
His gaze passed over each of them.
"Roland will change that."
Blyke frowned.
Virgos continued, almost gently. "When the new world is formed, all chaos will end. The contradictions disappear. War, corruption, endless cycles of grief… gone."
He lifted the chained scythe slightly.
"You could all live there. Together. Without this constant struggle."
His voice carried genuine conviction.
"I promise you that."
Henry stepped forward. "We won't."
Virgos looked directly at him. "Why?"
His tone was not hostile. It was genuinely curious.
"You fight to preserve a world that curses its own existence. People starve, betray each other, destroy everything they build."
His eyes hardened slightly. "Why defend something so fundamentally flawed?"
Henry answered without hesitation.
"Because struggle is not a flaw."
Virgos' brow creased.
Henry continued calmly. "You may believe removing conflict will create peace. It won't. If we exist, struggle exists. Thought creates disagreement and desire creates friction. Life creates uncertainty no matter where we go."
He gestured toward the ruined chamber.
"Erase those things and you do not create peace. You will create just a void."
Virgos' grip tightened on the chain.
Henry's voice remained steady. "And silence is not living."
A quiet tension filled the burning room.
Virgos exhaled slowly.
"Then," he said, lifting the scythe again, "we truly stand on opposite sides of the future."
Out of nowhere, suddenly, Caius moved without warning.
His strike came like a sudden fracture in the air, a direct charge aimed straight at Virgos.
The blow cut through the smoke with lethal speed, forcing Virgos to pivot sharply as the attack tore past his shoulder and smashed into the steel floor behind him.
Virgos slid backward a step, chains already spinning into motion again. His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Well" he said calmly, "that was abrupt."
Caius did not answer.
Virgos tilted his head, studying him. "So you changed sides."
The words carried no accusation. Caius remained silent, shoulders squared and steady.
Behind them, Henry glanced at the others. He understood instantly. Arcee nodded once. Blyke and Cagaro were already moving.
"Go." Henry said quietly.
They rushed past the battlefield without hesitation, heading deeper into the damaged corridor where Roland had vanished. Their footsteps faded quickly through the burning chamber.
Virgos did not stop them.
His attention remained fixed on Caius.
"So that is how it is." Virgos murmured.
The chains slowed slightly around his scythe as he spoke. "You listened to your heart after all."
Caius finally raised his head. His voice was calm but firm. "Fight me."
Virgos' eyebrow lifted faintly. "That is all?" he asked.
Caius stepped forward, fist lifting into a position.
For a brief moment, Virgos studied him in silence. Then he gave a quiet sigh, though there was something respectful in it.
"You always were the quiet one." he said.
The chains tightened around the scythe handle as he rolled his shoulders once.
"Very well."
The metal links rattled sharply as the weapon spun into motion again, blades flashing through the burning air.
Virgos stepped into his stance.
"If this is the path you chose," he said calmly, "then come and show me how much that heart of yours has changed."
Caius did not answer. He straightly hopped in the battlefield. The distance between them vanished in an instant as the battle truly began.