The raging subterranean storm provided no cover for Lynder's bruised ego. False Void clung tightly around his body while the abrasive current stripped stone from the cavern walls, and through the roar came another archaic command from Skelly Mom that he recognized only after the moment to use it had already passed.
"You are too slow," she scolded.
"I am trying to translate!" Lynder argued as the storm finally thinned enough for him to see the Sixth Witch again. "You are requesting spells that are exceptionally old." A fresh Anbokal formation opened above him before he could say more, three translucent bands rotating around a dense core of blue fire. Skelly Mom barked, "Ishren-Va!" and this time recognition came quickly enough. Lynder snapped two fingers toward the lowest band, split it with a narrow lance of concentrated mana, then folded the upper pair inward, causing the core to discharge harmlessly as it collapsed.
Another attack arrived almost immediately. The Sixth Witch crossed one wrist over the other and sent a broad silver lattice racing through the air, its visible surface carrying lightning while a second layer of pressure rolled beneath it. "Qel-Torai!" Skelly Mom ordered. Lynder remembered before the final syllable had faded, casting a thin rotating wedge that entered the lattice edge-first, peeled the lightning away from the hidden pressure layer, and forced both halves into opposite directions until they detonated against empty stone.
"Oh-ho," Lynder said, recovering some of his confidence. "Perhaps I am not entirely hopeless after all."
The Sixth Witch answered by changing nothing that he could immediately see. Her next spell resembled the same silver lattice, down to the angle of its approach and the lightning crawling across its surface, so Lynder began shaping the same counter from memory. "Stop!" Skelly Mom shrieked. "That one is false, target the empty space behind it!"
Lynder twisted his unfinished spell aside and struck several feet beyond the visible lattice instead. A hidden anchor flashed into existence at the point of impact, but he had already committed too much force to the wrong direction. The silver decoy dissolved while a delayed crescent of compressed air tore free from beneath it, clipping his shoulder hard enough to spin him across the sky before his False Void caught and erased the remainder.
By the time Lynder steadied himself, the Sixth Witch had begun enjoying the new game. One hand traced a bright red circle in front of her while the other remained hidden behind her back, and three different spell surfaces appeared in staggered succession. Skelly Mom called for a counter to the rear structure. Lynder complied, watched the layer collapse, only for the Witch to release the spell early and convert the ruined middle layer into a burst of black needles that forced him into an emergency True Void shield.
"This is getting entirely too complicated," Lynder complained, dropping the shield before it could drain more mana. "I am translating names I have not used in eight centuries while she is disguising one spell as another, delaying activations, and changing which layer matters halfway through the cast." He dodged a narrow beam of white heat and pointed irritably toward the Witch. "My own magic is already inherently hostile to other magic. Why am I reproducing ancient counters when you could simply tell me where the weak point is and what kind of response will break it?"
For the first time since the sandstorm, Skelly Mom went quiet.
Lynder's expression shifted, half because he felt danger in the silence, and half because an old memory surfaced. "Actually... are you familiar with Shade Code?"
A rich peal of laughter rolled through Lynder's earpiece. "Shade Code? I may know a thing or two about it. The more interesting question is why a brat like you would know anything at all."
"My mana is not what it was in my youth," Lynder admitted. "Without Roy, these days I favor narrow, high-density attacks over wasteful displays, and False Void typically consumes far too much power to answer every spell thrown at me. I needed something more efficient." His eyes remained on the Sixth Witch as she began circling at a greater distance. "Eventually, my search led me into one of the old vaults deep down in the Sanctum's oldest cathedral. There were fragments there. Enough to study."
"So you stole scraps from the dead and taught yourself a system you barely understood," Skelly Mom said. "How industrious."
"I prefer to think of it as preserving endangered scholarship." Lynder shifted sideways when the Sixth Witch tested him with a narrow bolt of green fire, but he let False Void erase it rather than attempting another archaic counter. "Besides, the legends were convincing. The Noonshade Empress defeated the First Witch using Shade Code because she lacked the raw power to face her directly."
"The hell she did!"
Lynder's eyebrows rose, more amused by the reaction than suspicious.
"Whatever ridiculous history books you have been reading should be burned," Skelly Mom continued. "The Noonshade Empress did not require Shade Code, and she was not weaker than the First Witch. Besides, she scarcely used Shade Code for most of their battle."
A slow smile spread across Lynder's face. "So you know a bit about their fight, do you?"
Several seconds of silence followed before Skelly Mom released a long, irritated sigh. "Roy... perhaps you do need to explain things to me twice."
From the Fireside Ascent came Roy's immediate reply. "Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking."
Lynder chuckled under his breath, but another layered formation was already gathering around the Sixth Witch's hands. "Whatever secrets you're trying very badly to keep, we can revisit them later. Right now, I need speed. My magic already breaks other magic. If you can use Shade Code to tell me how to react, where the failure point is, and what kind of structure I'm looking at, I can handle the rest."
"Very well," Skelly Mom replied. "Tell me what you remember."
Lynder kept both hands ready as the Sixth Witch's layered formation continued to grow. "Three-part commands. Reaction first, vector second, nature last. The opening sound tells me whether to protect, counter, or vacate. Everything after that narrows the method, direction, shape, and type of magic."
"Crude, but sufficient. Do not wait for the entire command before moving. The first syllable begins your response, the second places it, and the third tells you what weakness to exploit. If you stand there translating every sound into words, I will simply watch you die."
The Sixth Witch thrust both palms forward. A three-dimensional volume of searing fire expanded from a narrow point into a vast, homing mass that curved toward Lynder from across the cavern.
"Phay-Lan-Mo!"
Recognition moved through him before conscious translation could catch up. Protect, sustained solid. Long-range, frontal volume. Material fire. Lynder raised both hands and formed a dense double layer of False Void at an angle. The incoming mass struck, compressed against the first barrier, then broke across the second as the tilted surfaces bled its momentum apart and scattered the remaining fire into harmless streams.
No frustration showed on the Sixth Witch's face yet. Her right hand dropped toward the ground while the left remained extended, and a broad spatial distortion opened beneath Lynder so quietly that the air above it only seemed to tremble.
"Vhi-Yn-Ri!"
Vacate and nullify. Area below, three-dimensional. Reality distortion.
Lynder cut the output beneath one foot and let his own platform collapse while a pocket of True Void opened through the forming anchor. The gravity trap lost its center at the same moment he displaced upward, leaving him several yards above the warped region as the spell folded uselessly into itself.
For the first time, the Sixth Witch's expression tightened. "You really do know your history, runt."
Lynder almost answered, then visibly thought better of it and kept his mouth shut.
"Good," Skelly Mom praised softly through his earpiece. "Good boy."
Lynder immediately puffed out his chest, a ridiculously smug smile spreading across his face. "Oh, I… I like that."
"Hey, Lynder, focus," Roy called from the Fireside Ascent. "Stop hitting on my mama. Also, Mama is married."
"The heart wants exactly what the heart wants," Lynder replied, sending a narrow crescent of dark energy toward the Sixth Witch when she tried to close the distance.
"You literally stole that from the movie we watched the other night," Roy accused.
"A true genius gathers techniques that work from an infinite number of places."
"You took that line too!"
Tranquility's voice entered the channel before Lynder could defend himself. "Captain, your core mana reserves are approaching sixty-seven percent capacity. This tactic is proving highly effective. Continue extending the engagement for as long as possible."
High above them, the Sixth Witch abandoned her pursuit and rose toward the cavern roof. A colossal ring of shadow opened behind her while yellow lightning crawled around its circumference, and jagged fractal crystals began locking into the orbit one after another. As the ring tilted toward Lynder, thick chains of concentrated magic gathered within its center, each carrying a different spell structure before winding through the others into a single expanding formation.
Skelly Mom's laughter rolled across the comms, lower and darker than before. "Now this is genuinely interesting. Listen closely, little guildmaster. What comes next repeats a very old story, and I assume even your mangled modern education preserved some version of it."
Studying the giant annulus as its internal layers continued to assemble, Lynder narrowed his eyes. "Based on the structure, it resembles the legend of the cursed empress battling her mother, the First Witch."
"Oh, yes," Skelly Mom drawled. "What an absolutely nasty woman that empress was. I can scarcely bear to think about her."
"It has admittedly been a few centuries since I read that particular account," Lynder said, bracing himself on the invisible platform as the enormous ring continued to gather power.
"Then forget it," Skelly Mom replied. "The popular story is a lie."
Lynder's attention shifted from the Sixth Witch for the first time. "A lie?"
"The Second Witch published it deliberately. She wanted every future enemy of the witch line to believe they possessed the answer to that sequence." Skelly Mom's voice lost its amusement as the fractal crystals accelerated around the annulus. "Follow the recorded counter through the final strike and you die. It does not matter what spell is thrown at you. The sequence itself places you exactly where the killing blow expects you to stand."
Behind the Sixth Witch, the colossal ring locked into place with a concussive pulse that shook dust from the cavern roof. Thick chains of condensed spellwork twisted through its center, disappearing beneath one another so rapidly that even Lynder could no longer tell which layer would release first.
"Listen carefully," Skelly Mom ordered. "I will guide everything before the final strike through Shade Code. When that last attack comes, you will do nothing. No shield, no displacement, no clever little void trick. You will stand still and look her directly in the eye."
"That is an unusually specific request when discussing my possible death."
"While you are standing there, charge the strongest attack you can manage," Skelly Mom continued, ignoring him. "Something unpleasant with that True Void silliness of yours. Let her believe the final sequence has blinded you, and when the truth reveals itself, hit her hard enough that I can enjoy her expression."
The Sixth Witch completed her incantation. Shadow flooded through the center of the annulus, yellow lightning braided around it, and the first colossal beam erupted toward Lynder with enough force to turn the surrounding air white.
"Vhe-Lan-Xa!"
Lynder moved on the opening syllable and by the time the rest of the code reached him, his body had already slipped from the beam's path. The roaring column missed by several feet before smashing into the cavern wall behind him.
The first beam did not explode against the cavern wall. Its shadowed core flattened across the stone, bent at a vicious angle, and came screaming back toward Lynder's exposed spine before the impact had finished echoing.
"Phi-Men-Xi!" Skelly Mom called. Lynder turned into the returning attack and raised a compact wall of True Void behind his shoulder. The beam struck off-center, lost the dark lattice holding its structure together, and burst into yellow sparks that raced past him on both sides.
From the spinning annulus came a third attack, thin enough to disappear among the drifting debris until it changed direction and snapped toward Lynder's head. "Vhe-Fat-Xa!" His body dropped on the opening sound, allowing the beam to skim above his hair and carve a glowing line through the cavern ceiling.
The Sixth Witch vanished before he could recover his footing. Skelly Mom shouted, "Kha-Fun-Ri!" and Lynder drove one arm above his head, condensing a narrow spike of shadow around the point indicated by the code.
Less than a heartbeat later, the Witch reappeared in a plunging strike. Her arcane barrier impaled itself against the waiting counter, and the collision sent a shockwave through both of them hard enough to rattle Lynder's teeth. Surprise crossed her face before she tore herself away and teleported hundreds of yards toward the cavern wall.
Every remnant of spent magic still hanging in the air reversed course. Broken lightning, fragments from Lynder's shields, discarded beam residue, and pieces of the failed spatial trap swept toward the Sixth Witch's raised hands, where they compressed into a growing sphere whose outer surface churned through the colors of the attacks that had created it.
"This is the final strike," Skelly Mom said, her voice suddenly quieter. "Remember what I told you. No shield. No displacement. Do not answer it."
The Sixth Witch hurled the gathered sphere directly at his chest, and the entire cavern seemed to disappear behind its approach.
Every survival instinct Lynder possessed demanded action. True Void was already gathering at his fingertips, ready to become a barrier or a path of escape, but he forced his arms to remain loose at his sides and stared across the incoming glare toward the distant Witch.
"Do nothing," Skelly Mom repeated as the apocalyptic mass reached him, and Lynder obeyed. The roaring sphere washed over his body without heat, pressure, or resistance, leaving him standing untouched inside a storm of dead light while the attack's brilliance concealed whatever the Sixth Witch expected to kill him next.
The dead light thinned just enough for Lynder to see the real attack. A hair-thin seam of compressed space tore through the position several yards above and to his right, precisely where the published counter-sequence would have sent him. Had he followed the legend, the false sphere would have blinded him while that nearly invisible strike split through his displaced body.
For the first time since the battle began, the Sixth Witch looked genuinely lost. Her eyes moved from the untouched elf to the empty space where he should have died, and whatever certainty had carried her through the sequence vanished from her face.
Lynder had already finished charging his answer. Pitch-black True Void compressed around one fist until the surrounding air seemed to recoil from it, and he launched himself across the cavern before the last traces of dead light could fade.
"Castration: Absence!"
His fist drove into the Sixth Witch's abdomen. The True Void packed around his knuckles collapsed through the point of contact, punching past the outer layers of her defense before a raw pocket of absence opened inside the remaining structure. Her body folded around the impact as the corrupted pillar beneath her feet disintegrated.
"Concraze!"
Hundreds of smaller void collapses erupted across her torso in overlapping waves. Each one struck a different point in the defenses already weakened by the first blow, forcing cracks through the layered barriers faster than they could repair themselves. The final chain burst against her chest and sent the Sixth Witch tumbling through the air, trailing fragments of broken spellwork behind her.
A wild laugh burst through Lynder's earpiece. "Oh, look at her face! That story has been waiting thousands of years for someone foolish enough to trust it, and she still believed it would work."
Lynder steadied himself on a fresh platform of False Void and watched the distant Witch struggle to recover. "I will admit, that was extraordinary. Even if the Noonshade Empress possessed only half the First Witch's power, Shade Code would have allowed her to contend remarkably well."
"Contend?" Skelly Mom repeated, and the laughter vanished beneath sudden disbelief. "You still do not understand what you are using."
Lynder's smile faded slightly. "Apparently not."
"Oh, you are a fool," Skelly Mom said as her laughter returned. "With Shade Code, even a child could dismantle some of the strongest attacks contained within the First Tome. I am certain you found the system nearly useless against most opponents."
Lynder considered that before giving a quiet laugh of his own. "Indeed, I did. Against improvised spellcraft, altered structures, or anything sufficiently personal to the caster, the code often became little more than an interesting relic."
"Of course it did. Shade Code was created specifically to defeat the First Witch. Her spells do not wander from themselves merely because another hand casts them. The same structures return, the same weaknesses remain, and the same answers continue to break them." Satisfaction crept into Skelly Mom's voice. "A child who can follow instructions would be enough."
"A child?" Lynder asked. "I somehow doubt that."
"Roy," Skelly Mom called out sadistically, "the boy with the staff. Sever the link he has between you and the Void Mage and push him onto the field."
"Absolutely not," Roy replied. "He's a kid."
Rava's uneasy voice came from behind him. "I can't turn around without breaking the rules, but y'all are very obviously talking about me, and I'm getting scared."
"Don't be scared. Nobody is pushing you anywhere." Roy switched himself and Skelly Mom onto a private channel before his tone hardened. "What the hell are you thinking?"
"I have seen the boy," Skelly Mom answered quietly. "The instant I know he is going to die, I will call him to me. I will put him to sleep and place him safely in bed before anything can harm so much as a hair on his head. I implore you, Roy. Let me show this so-called Sixth Witch what she is."
Roy watched the distant battlefield for several seconds. "How about he intercepts one attack? One. And he stays on the platform."
A long groan rolled through the private channel. "If you are truly that frightened, then fine."
"Rava, you're up," Roy announced.
"I'm what!?" Rava yelled back.
Several surviving drones broke from their search patterns and turned toward the Fireside Ascent. Harmony adjusted their positions until one camera held Roy at the front of the glowing platform while another framed Rava, who Roy brought forward, with the Sixth Witch recovering in the distance. Once the broadcast feed went live, Roy stepped forward and raised one arm. "Oh, how dreadful this moment must be for you. The Sixth Witch. Last of the great witch line. Distant kin to the Immortal Family itself, or so I'm told. I swear, just hearing the title sends chills down my spine."
As Rava stepped toward the platform's brink, Roy's countenance hardened. "Well, that fear would be true if you had offered anything genuinely terrifying. The first mage you fought held her true strength in reserve. The second, though a guildmaster, ranks below the top four fighters on our roster. We prolonged this conflict simply because keeping you engaged serves our interests far better than killing you outright."
Roy pointed toward the fourteen-year-old boy beside him. "Now look carefully. A child steps forward. He is neither a legendary warrior nor an ancient guildmaster. He, and he alone, will stop your strongest attack."
The Sixth Witch did not wait for another word. Her hand snapped toward Rava, but the spell had barely begun to form before an unseen force struck her wrist aside and sent the gathered mana recoiling through her arm. Confusion replaced fury as she tried to raise her hand again, only to stop midway through the motion.
Through the obscurement veil inside the portal, Roy caught a pale sweep of Skelly Mom's long hair shifting from white toward blonde while traces of gray fire stirred behind the haze.
"Tell her there will be no edge erasing of children today," Skelly Mom said through the private channel. "Fight like your mother fought, and her mother before her, and hers before that. Make them proud."
A wicked grin grew on Roy's face as he turned towards the cameras again. "Tricks? Please, Sixth Witch, have some honor. Don't go erasing the edges of one's being because a child frightened you. Stand there as a witch and fight as your mother would have demanded, as her mother would have demanded, as every woman who carried that line before you would have demanded. Make them proud," Roy said before pointing at Rava. "And when you're ready, let the whole world watch a boy break you."
A pitch-black spear formed above the rising Sixth Witch's rage filled aura. Wrapped inside an elaborate cage of pale light was four orbiting circles that rotated at different speeds around the shaft of the spear. She released it toward the Fireside Ascent without another word.
Skelly Mom entered the team comm, her voice now tender, motherly. "Young boy, look at the pattern. Do you see the four circles?"
Rava swallowed hard as the spear crossed the cavern. "Y-yes. I think."
"Use any spell you please, provided it strikes hard and moves quickly. Hit all four points clockwise, beginning from the top."
Four spheres of light appeared around Rava, narrowed into arrows, and fired. The first shot missed its target and vanished past the approaching spear. Zehrina began to put up a precautionary Navi'N barrier around all but Rava.
"Again," Skelly Mom said gently. "No matter, you will get it this time."
Rava recast before the spear could close half the remaining distance. Four new arrows launched in rapid succession and struck the orbiting circles from the top, then right, bottom, and left.
The pale cage lurched sideways around the black spear. Its circles lost alignment, rattled against one another, and dragged the central shaft into a violent oscillation before the entire structure tore itself apart. The resulting shockwave rolled across the Fireside Ascent and knocked Rava onto his backside, but he remained otherwise unharmed.
Across the cavern, the Sixth Witch couldn't so much as take a breath. Her eyes stayed fixed on the boy sitting on the glowing platform, and the fury that had driven her attack disappeared beneath bafflement as she tried to understand how a frightened child had just dismantled her spell.