Syrax glanced sideways at Lith, trying to ignore the fact that "barely standing" was doing a lot of heavy lifting for him.
"You sure you're well enough for this, buddy?" Syrax muttered, almost joking despite everything. "No offense, but you look like shit."
Lith gave a low, breathy laugh, rolling his shoulder like it wasn't actively trying to fall apart.
"None taken," he said. His golden eyes flicked forward. "Besides, you're gonna look worse pretty soon."
A crooked grin tugged at both of them at the same time. Not because it was funny.
Because it was all they had left.
Footsteps echoed.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Lukon walked toward them through the shattered throne chamber like the concept of damage had stopped applying to him. Red tendrils moved behind his back like living shadows, pulsing in time with something deeper underneath his skin. The air around him felt heavier with every step, like gravity itself was getting tired of resisting.
"I apologize, beastkin," Lukon said calmly, voice carrying across the ruined hall. "It seems my general has failed."
He tilted his head slightly, looking past them both like they were already resolved outcomes.
"Do not worry. I will reunite you with your clansmen soon enough."
Silence snapped tight.
Then Lith exhaled.
"…yeah," he muttered. "I'm not a fan of that sentence."
Syrax flexed his hand once.
"Same."
And they moved.
Together.
They didn't wait for coordination or strategy. They just went.
Syrax struck first, cutting in low with a burst of crimson energy, his movement sharp enough to split air. Lith followed immediately, his transformed body blurring beside him, claws igniting with gold and black as he came in from the opposite angle.
Two directions.
One target.
Lukon didn't move.
Not at first.
The moment Syrax's strike landed, it hit something unseen, a layered force that rippled outward and swallowed the impact without giving ground. Lith's follow-up claw strike met the same resistance, sparks of energy scattering as if they had struck solid reality itself.
Then Lukon exhaled.
The pressure hit them like a collapsing sky.
Both were thrown back instantly, Syrax skidding across fractured stone while Lith was launched into a broken pillar that exploded on impact. Dust and debris filled the chamber in a choking cloud.
For a second, nothing moved.
Then Lith pulled himself out of the rubble.
Slowly.
Syrax rose from the ground a moment later, wiping blood from his lip, eyes narrowing.
"…okay," Syrax muttered, "that was insulting."
Lith coughed once, then laughed under his breath.
"Yeah," he said, rolling his neck. "He's way more annoying than I expected."
Lukon stepped forward again, unbothered, as if the exchange had been a formality.
"Is this your resolve?" he asked. "You attack like men who still believe effort equals outcome."
He raised a hand slightly.
Red tendrils responded, curling upward behind him.
Lith and Syrax didn't answer.
They attacked again.
This time differently.
Syrax went high, forcing Lukon's attention upward with a concentrated burst of pressure and light, while Lith slid low beneath it, using the distraction to carve directly into Lukon's side.
For the first time, something changed.
The impact landed.
Not fully.
But enough to make Lukon shift.
Enough to make him turn.
"…interesting," Lukon murmured.
Then he moved.
The chamber detonated into motion.
Lukon struck Syrax first, a single motion that folded space between them and sent him crashing through the far wall. Before Lith could react, a hand caught him mid-step and slammed him into the ground hard enough to crater it, then lifted him and hurled him across the chamber again like weight meant nothing.
But this time—
they got back up faster.
Syrax emerged from the rubble, breathing heavier now, aura flaring in unstable bursts.
Lith dragged himself out of the broken floor, shoulder bleeding, teeth bared, eyes locked in.
They looked at each other once.
No words needed.
Then they moved again.
Together.
Syrax pushed harder this time, not just striking but forcing space, layering pressure and timing into Lukon's movements. Lith matched him, reading openings instead of just rushing them, using his transformed body to slip between attacks that would have crushed him moments earlier.
A strike landed.
Then another.
Not enough to stop Lukon.
But enough to interrupt him.
Enough to make him react.
And that was new.
Lukon tilted his head slightly as he blocked Syrax's next blow, then caught Lith's claw mid-air, gripping it tightly as sparks of gold and red light clashed between them.
"…so," Lukon said softly, almost curious now. "You learn."
Lith grinned through the strain.
"Yeah," he rasped. "We adapt."
Syrax surged in from the side.
"Together," he added.
Lukon paused for a fraction of a second.
Then smiled.
Not amused anymore.
Interested.
"Good," he said.
And the pressure around him deepened again.
But this time—
it wasn't a massacre waiting to happen.
It was a fight.
The chamber had stopped feeling like a throne room.
It felt like the inside of a storm that had learned how to think.
Syrax and Lith didn't slow down. They didn't get smarter about it either. They just kept pressing forward like stopping would mean accepting the ending they didn't like.
Together again.
Not coordinated in any polished sense, but instinctively aligned now. Syrax came in first, crimson aura snapping like broken lightning as he blitzed Lukon from the front. Lith followed half a beat later, moving lower, faster, aiming for angles instead of force, claws cutting in from the blind side.
For a moment it almost looked like they had him.
Almost.
Lukon exhaled once.
That was all it took.
His hand moved, and Syrax's strike was deflected without effort, redirected just enough to send him spinning past Lukon's shoulder instead of into him. At the exact same time, Lith's claw met Lukon's forearm and was caught mid-swing, stopped dead as if he had hit an immovable wall.
No strain.
No delay.
Just control.
Lukon didn't even look annoyed.
He rotated slightly, using Syrax's momentum to send him crashing into Lith's path. The two collided mid-air, twisted, and hit the ground hard enough to crack stone beneath them.
Silence flickered for half a second.
Then both boys were moving again.
Syrax pushed up first, wiping blood from his lip, eyes narrowing.
Lith was already halfway standing.
"Yeah," Lith muttered, rolling his shoulder again, "this is definitely not going our way."
Syrax didn't respond. He just stepped forward again.
And they went again.
Faster this time.
A full blitz.
Syrax created pressure from the front, forcing Lukon to guard high, while Lith darted in and out of blind spots, aiming for joints, ribs, anything that might actually register. For a brief moment the room filled with impact after impact, stone breaking under their feet, air snapping with force.
But Lukon never retreated.
He only shifted.
Parry.
Redirect.
Deflect.
Syrax's strike was caught and turned aside. Lith's follow-up was swatted away with a casual motion that sent him skidding across the floor. Another strike from Syrax, blocked again. Another from Lith, intercepted mid-motion.
It wasn't domination.
It was restraint.
Like Lukon was simply refusing to end it.
Syrax slid back, breathing heavier now, eyes sharp.
"…he's not even trying," he said quietly.
Lith spat blood onto the floor.
"Yeah," he replied. "That's the annoying part."
Lukon tilted his head slightly, as if listening to a conversation happening beneath his attention.
"This is your limit?" he asked calmly. "Two lives, one resolve split between them."
He stepped forward again.
The air tightened.
Syrax moved first this time, a sharper burst, more controlled, less wasted motion. Lith matched him immediately, closing the gap from the opposite side again. For a brief instant they synchronized perfectly, converging on Lukon from both angles at once.
Left and right.
No escape route.
Both strikes came in at the same time.
And Lukon raised both hands.
He caught Syrax's strike with one, Lith's with the other.
Stopped them both dead.
Stone cracked under the pressure, but he didn't move back even an inch.
"…predictable," he said.
Syrax grit his teeth.
Lith stared for half a second, then his expression shifted.
Not panic.
Not fear.
Just annoyance.
"Okay," Lith muttered, "this is getting stupid."
Then, without warning, he broke his own stance, scooped a handful of loose debris and dirt from the shattered floor, and flung it directly into Lukon's face.
For half a second, the chamber froze.
Syrax blinked.
"…did you just—"
"Yeah," Lith said immediately.
Lukon paused.
Just for a moment.
Dust clung to his eyes.
A flicker of irritation finally broke through his calm expression.
"…childish," he said.
Syrax's lips twitched.
Then he moved.
Lith moved with him.
That tiny opening, that fraction of disruption, was all they needed.
Syrax drove forward with a brutal burst of crimson force, and Lith followed instantly, claws igniting as they both slammed into Lukon at once, forcing him back a step for the first time.
Only one.
But it was enough to change the rhythm.
Not a victory.
Not even close.
But no longer a one-sided inevitability.
Lukon wiped his face slowly, expression unreadable again.
"…good," he said softly.
Now, the pressure around him didn't feel like a wall.
It felt like something about to respond.
A burst of dark red energy detonated through the throne chamber.
The pressure alone forced Syrax and Lith back a step, boots scraping hard against fractured stone as the air itself turned heavy and wrong. The light in the room dimmed, swallowed by something that didn't belong in any natural space.
Lukon screamed.
Not in pain.
In release.
His body warped as the transformation took hold. Bone and flesh stretched violently, reshaping into something inhuman. White, bat-like wings tore out from his back, vast and jagged, each movement scattering fragments of corrupted light. His limbs elongated, posture shifting into a predatory stance that blurred the line between man and monster. The royal form was gone.
What stood there now was something vast, unstable, and hungry.
"You couldn't hope to stop me with this power," Lukon roared, his voice layered with something deeper now, like multiple voices laughing through the same throat. "HAHAHAHAH."
The chamber trembled with his laughter.
Syrax's eyes narrowed instantly.
Lith shifted his stance.
Neither spoke.
Because the wall behind Lukon began to move.
Stone peeled away like it was never solid to begin with, revealing what had been hidden behind the castle itself. A figure suspended in mid air, encased in a massive crystal formation. The Demon Queen.
Her body was pierced through the side by a dark blade, the weapon embedded deep enough that the crystal itself had begun to fracture around it. Blood floated in slow, unnatural trails within the prison, suspended like time had stopped refusing to let it fall.
Syrax's breath caught.
"…Mother…"
The monster that was Lukon turned slightly, noticing the shift in their attention.
"Oh," he said, almost casually. "Right. That."
The crystal trembled.
Then cracked.
Syrax stepped forward instinctively, but Lith caught his arm for half a second.
Too late.
Lukon moved.
The entire crystal mass ripped free from the wall in a violent surge of dark force. For a moment it hung there, massive and glowing with fractured light, the Queen still trapped inside, eyes barely visible through the distortion.
Then Lukon opened his mouth, too wide for comfort.
And swallowed it.
The crystal didn't resist in any meaningful way. It simply collapsed inward, drawn into him as if it had always belonged there. The blade, the prison, the Queen, all of it vanished into his chest in a single horrifying moment.
A pulse of power erupted outward.
The chamber shook violently.
Lukon's form expanded further into a hulkish fo, wings spreading wider, his chest now glowing faintly with the embedded crystal core, flickering with trapped light and blood.
He exhaled slowly, savoring it.
"Now," he said, voice low and ecstatic, "with all this power… we could take this whole planet if we felt like it."
A laugh followed.
Sharp.
Unhinged.
"HAHAHAHA."
His head tilted slightly as he looked down at Syrax and Lith like they were already finished.
"Too bad," he added, smile stretching wider, "this new world has no need for you boys."