This fight wasn't going to be easy. Even now, with everything I had, the gap was too vast.
Even with my Unity. Even with my perfected swordsmanship. Even with my True Domain compressed into myself, transforming into something beyond its original limits—the level difference was suffocating.
And the only reason I was still standing was because of Rachel.
If not for her, I would have already died a hundred times over.
She was keeping me together, knitting my body back every time it broke, restoring the strength I was burning through like wildfire. And the others—Seraphina, Rin, Cecilia, and Sun—they had done everything they could to slow him down.
But Vorgath Ironmaw refused to fall.
His molten astral energy clashed against my golden aura, warping space between us. Waves of sheer destruction radiated outward, turning everything in our wake into rubble.
This wasn't just a battle.
This was a cataclysm.
And now, I had to end it.
With everything I had.
Back when I trained under Art, I had pursued one thing with relentless determination—the absolute refinement of my mana, and by extension, my astral energy.
With Astral Manifestation, I had pushed my energy to a level resembling an inferior, lesser form of divine energy—a force exclusive to Divine-rank beings.
That was the foundation of my True Domain.
A Domain forged not just through mastery, but through the Harmony of my three Gifts and the culmination of my understanding of the sword.
But now—I had evolved it even further.
I had taken that Harmony and forced it into Unity, crushing the very essence of my True Domain down to a singularity, binding it to myself.
It was destructive.
A fusion that should not be possible.
Even with my body's regeneration, it was being torn apart. My very existence was being consumed by the force I had unleashed.
And yet, Rachel's healing kept me alive.
Her golden light intertwined with my golden astral energy, stabilizing me just enough to keep moving forward.
And against me, Vorgath Ironmaw stood unyielding.
His Immortal Slayer form was truly monstrous.
He had defeated Sun Zenith, Seraphina, Rin, and Cecilia, crushing them all with overwhelming force. He had broken my True Domain twice.
Even without Infernal Armis, it would have been a difficult battle for him to defeat Sun Zenith alone. But now—he had surpassed reason itself.
And yet—
I still had a path to victory.
It was razor-thin. Unforgiving.
But I would take it.
Because if I didn't, then this world would burn.
And I refused to let that happen.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Valen swallowed hard as he watched the battle unfold above him. Two beings locked in combat, their power bending the very fabric of the sky. Every clash of sword and axe sent shockwaves through the air, each strike carrying enough force to shatter mountains.
"Just watch," a soft, almost amused voice murmured beside him.
Alyssara Velcroix.
She sat in the sky as if it were a throne, legs crossed, arms resting lightly on her knees, her jade eyes glowing with lazy amusement.
Valen clenched his jaw as Charlotte appeared beside him, exhaling sharply.
"She's toying with us," Charlotte muttered, running a hand through her fiery red hair, her emerald eyes narrowing at Alyssara.
"She is," Valen admitted, "And we can't do anything about it."
It was maddening, watching from below, knowing that Alyssara was capable of ending this at any moment—but choosing not to.
Instead, she watched.
She watched as Arthur, against all odds, continued to push forward.
Valen's black eyes shifted back to the battle, watching the golden glow of Arthur's astral energy surge against the molten devastation of Vorgath's Infernal Armis.
"Arthur has reached a new level again," Valen murmured.
"Quasi-Radiant-rank," Charlotte noted, eyes keen. "He's clinging to it by the edge of his fingernails. It's only possible because of his absurd talent—and the Saintess behind him keeping him together."
Valen exhaled. "His actual breakthrough to low Radiant-rank is going to take even longer now. But it was necessary. Vorgath Ironmaw is just that strong."
Charlotte didn't argue. She knew it too.
Arthur and Vorgath were now fighting as equals.
For the first time in this entire battle, Arthur wasn't losing.
His sword moved in perfect synchrony with his wings of light, each movement bending space itself as if he were carving the world apart with every step. Vorgath's axe met him blow for blow, the sheer force of their fight creating explosions in the air, the world groaning under their clash.
Arthur's breath was ragged, his body pushed to the very edge of its limits, yet his eyes never wavered. His wings of golden radiance stretched wide, each feather pulsating with raw astral energy, sending ripples through the fractured sky. Opposite him, Vorgath Ironmaw loomed like a storm given form, his molten crown dripping liquid carnage, his Ruin Axe humming with the promise of annihilation.
The world around them twisted, their sheer presence warping space as they clashed again—sword against axe, radiance against destruction.
Arthur darted forward, his movements impossibly fast, like a streak of golden lightning cutting through the air. His sword sang, carving through the waves of molten devastation Vorgath unleashed with each swing of his axe. Sparks flew as steel met steel, each impact sending shockwaves across the battlefield below, uprooting trees and cracking the earth.
Vorgath snarled, his muscles bulging as he raised his Ruin Axe high, black and crimson energy gathering at its edge. He brought it down in a single earth-shattering swing, cleaving through the air with enough force to tear apart mountains. Arthur twisted mid-air, tilting his body just enough to let the axe barely graze past him, slipping through the narrowest margin of safety.
He retaliated instantly.
Nyxthar flickered, its blade blooming into ten phantom edges, each one formed from a different element of astral energy. Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Lightning. Ice. Light. Dark. Time. Space.
Vorgath barely had time to react. Arthur's sword danced.
A whirlwind of slashes carved through the battlefield, each one slicing through Vorgath's infernal aura, sending ripples of divine force through his molten defenses. Yet, even with Arthur's speed, even with his precision, the Axe King endured.
With a guttural roar, Vorgath surged forward, swinging his Ruin Axe in an unstoppable arc. The force ripped apart the heavens, sundering Arthur's golden afterimages and sending shockwaves through the sky. Arthur spun, barely able to block, his arms screaming under the force of the blow.
He gritted his teeth. Not yet.
Not until it was perfect.
Rachel's golden magic poured into him from below, knitting his body together as fast as it was breaking apart. His wings of light flickered—unstable, yet unyielding.
Arthur's movements sharpened, refining, adjusting—closing in on perfection.
And then—he found it.
The Fifth Movement.
His strongest technique.
The culmination of his everything.
Vorgath sensed it.
His grip on the Ruin Axe tightened, instincts screaming. His molten eyes locked onto Arthur—only for him to vanish.
No—he didn't vanish.
He moved beyond sight.
A step into something greater.
The world slowed. The battlefield became a frozen tableau, locked in time for a single, agonizing instant.
Vorgath swung on instinct.
His Ruin Axe cleaved through the heavens, splitting the sky apart, tearing through dimensions—but he had already lost.
Arthur reappeared behind him.
Nyxthar gleamed in his grasp, wrapped in layers of ten elemental astral energies, black rifts of dark astral energy lacing between them like cracks in reality.
Vorgath's molten eyes widened.
And Arthur swung.
A single, perfect strike.
The Ruin Axe shattered.
His molten crown cracked.
The energy of the Infernal Armis howled, collapsing in on itself.
And then—he fell.
The First Calamity, Vorgath Ironmaw, plummeted toward the ground like a dying sun.
Arthur exhaled, his body trembling, vision dimming. He watched for only a second before his own wings faltered.
His body had reached its limit.
He, too, fell.
Golden light fading—toward the waiting earth.