Calvarix, the Bone King, did not walk.
He descended—
his skeletal frame coiling through the mist,
chains dragging behind like rusted wings,
each link engraved with the names of the forgotten.
He didn't roar.
Didn't speak.
His presence alone pressed on their minds like a crushing weight.
> "He's not just big," Lucia murmured, chain tightening in her fist.
"He's… remembered. This thing was a player once."
Saylor watched as the god's massive head tilted.
Not at them.
At the Wheel above—
as if acknowledging its master.
Or mocking it.
---
The mist twisted, thickening around the edges of the platforms.
The air vibrated with a deep pulse.
> [WARNING: GOD PRESENCE ACTIVE]
[Field Instability Level: Tier 2]
---
Brant cracked his knuckles.
Kinetic energy shimmered across his arms.
> "I'm not waiting to die like Nathan."
Lucia snapped her blood-chain taut.
> "Then don't die stupid. That thing's watching the Wheel. It knows something we don't."
Saylor stepped back slightly, lowering his stance.
Not to flee.
To feel.
To let the Glitched Mimetic Spin hum.
It didn't just copy powers.
It adapted to intent.
To threat.
To god presence.
And Calvarix radiated all three.
---
Calvarix raised his right arm.
It bent wrong—too many joints—
and from beneath his ribcage, a second arm unfolded, holding a chain tipped with a spike of charred bone.
He launched it at Brant.
---
> "MOVE!" Lucia shouted.
Brant detonated himself sideways with a kinetic burst.
The chain missed his head by inches and shattered part of the platform behind him.
---
Lucia's chain lashed forward, anchoring into the edge of the next stone slab.
She launched herself like a flung dagger,
landing just above Calvarix's shoulder and wrapping her chain around his clavicle.
The Bone King did not flinch.
---
> [Lucia Payne: Blood Thread Skill Evolving…]
[Trigger: Direct Chain Connection to Higher Entity]
Lucia's arm went rigid.
The chain breathed.
---
Saylor felt it:
an echo inside the god.
A memory.
Not his own.
> A girl's voice, crying.
A promise made in blood.
"I won't lose. Not again."
Lucia gasped—
her eyes flickering white for a second.
---
The Bone King moved.
Not fast.
Inevitable.
He grabbed Lucia with one skeletal hand the size of a coffin.
She dropped her chain just in time, falling backward as Brant blasted the god in the chest.
The kinetic explosion rippled through Calvarix—
but didn't stop him.
---
Instead, the Bone King turned to Brant.
He raised his crown—
and it split into three jagged pieces.
They rotated above his skull, glowing faintly.
---
> [CROWN PULSE CHARGING: 18%… 37%… 61%…]
> "What the hell is that?!" Brant shouted, shielding up.
Lucia rolled to her feet.
> "That's not just a power. That's a system override."
Saylor felt it too—
a pressure bending the rules around them.
The gods weren't just powerful.
They warped the Field itself.
---
> Glitched Spin adapting…
Unique Signature Detected: Crown Pulse
Mimetic Defense Pattern Mapping… INCOMPLETE
Saylor's fingers twitched.
Not enough data.
Not yet.
---
The Bone King launched forward.
His bones didn't creak—they sang,
an echo of every player he had devoured.
Brant slammed a kinetic wall between them.
The wall cracked.
---
> "Lucia—go now!" Brant roared.
She didn't argue.
Lucia sprinted, chain whirling, and leapt again.
She aimed not at Calvarix—
but at the Wheel above.
Her chain caught a protrusion—
swung her behind the Bone King.
Brant's shield shattered.
The god struck.
Brant went flying—
slammed into the stone so hard the platform spun slightly on its axis.
---
> [Player Health Critical — Brant Mullen: 12%]
Lucia landed behind Calvarix.
> "NOW, Saylor!"
Saylor Riftstepped.
His form blinked out and in again behind the Bone King's left leg.
He didn't strike.
He placed a hand against the god's bone—
and let the Mimetic Spin drink.
---
> [RIFTTRACE SUCCESSFUL]
[NEW PATH UNLOCKED: Bone Thread Substructure]
Calvarix twitched.
Saylor vanished again—
reappearing next to Brant's broken form.
> "Get up."
Brant coughed blood.
> "Told you… I don't die easy…"
---
Lucia rewrapped her chain around Calvarix's ribs,
and this time, it glowed red.
The Bone King turned—
and for the first time, hesitated.
---
Saylor saw the opening.
He whispered:
> "Crownless gods fall first."
And launched a Riftstrike directly into the god's spine.
The Bone King arched backward—
his three-piece crown stuttering mid-rotation.
Lucia pulled tight.
Brant used his last ounce of power to spike a kinetic detonation into the god's chest.
---
The Bone King collapsed.
Chains cracked.
Bones fractured.
His crown fell in pieces.
---
> [GOD DOWN: CALVARIX, BONE KING — STATUS: PURGED]
[REWARD TRIGGERED: 2 TICKETS ISSUED]
Two slips floated from the Wheel.
Lucia caught one.
The other—
Saylor reached for it.
Then paused.
Brant's hand was already outstretched.
---
Saylor looked at him—broken, bleeding, grinning.
He could take it.
Or he could let it go.
Just this once.
He let it go.
---
The Wheel above creaked.
And for the first time—
it spun without being touched.