The spiral staircase rose through a vortex of red storms; glyphs and faces screamed from the walls. Each step pulsed beneath their feet like a heartbeat. At the midpoint, Kid Saint waited, knives crossed. Lacolone murmured, "He's blocking the path alone." Maya's voice trembled: "No… he's not alone. Look at the shadows." Every stair hid a blade.
The team spread into formation, each body glowing with the five Pillars. Thunderbrand lightning arced over Valgor's fists. Jessica spun her pistols, Driftform flickering around her legs. Salah's Veilward bloomed into a gold-red dome above them. Maya's Whispercall scanned the boy's aura — impossible density. Five Pillars, one heartbeat.
Kid Saint floated upward, knives orbiting like planets. "You think five Pillars make you saints?" His knives flashed with Riftquake and Driftform symbols fused together. Maya gasped, "He's blending Pillars seamlessly…" Lacolone's reply was sharp: "Then so will we." Knives cut between dimensions.
He dove, blades carving shockwaves through the air. Lacolone met him mid-flight, katana unsheathed but reversed, blocking the impact. Blue and red sparks exploded across the step. Valgor punched a Riftquake into the staircase, creating distance. Jessica fired a hail of Whispercall bullets. First strike: no blood, only thunder.
Thousands of spectral knives appeared, each a fragment of a stolen soul. Salah's Veilward dome cracked and shattered. Maya healed him mid-hit, veins glowing green-scarlet. Valgor absorbed knives with his new gauntlets. Jessica slipped through Driftform, firing from impossible angles. He attacked like a rain of broken promises.
A flash consumed Maya — visions of their deaths across countless timelines. Tears blurred her eyes, but she steadied herself. "Not this time." Healing pulses erupted, stitching wounds mid-fight. Kid Saint's eyes narrowed. "You're rewriting causality." Her grief became her weapon.
Lacolone dropped his katana; it hovered behind him like a phantom. He fought barehanded, a blur of Driftform and Thunderbrand strikes. Kid Saint blocked, his knives vibrating from impact. Lacolone used Veilward mid-punch, reversing force into the boy's body. "This pressure… who are you?" The student glimpsed the master.
Jessica's pistols glowed with all five Pillars at once. Her bullets became shifting orbs of light. She leapt, flipped, and fired downward like rain. Kid Saint crossed his knives, deflecting most — bleeding light anyway. "This is for my future arm." Every shot rewrote her fate.
Valgor slammed his fists into the staircase, turning steps into floating debris. Riftquake pulses tore knives from orbit. "Your blades can't cut the quake." Kid Saint staggered for the first time. Salah boosted Valgor's power with Veilward's radiance. The hammer learned to be a storm.
Then the Kid vanished — Driftform speed beyond sight — reappearing behind Maya with knives at her throat. Lacolone was already there, intercepting mid-move. A scarlet shockwave sent all three tumbling. "Enough games," Kid Saint hissed. The child showed his teeth.
He stopped moving, knives spinning slowly. "Humans polluted the world; I'm cleansing it." Lacolone's eyes burned. "Cleansing or caging?" Kid Saint's reply was cold. "Freedom is chaos; Elito brings order." Maya snapped, "Order built on stolen dreams." Their words cut deeper than the knives.
The team's stamina faltered; their auras flickered. Jessica reloaded with trembling hands. Salah coughed blood but kept chanting his prayer. Valgor's gauntlets cracked. Maya's healing slowed. Hope thinned like a torn veil.
Eden stepped forward, palm glyph glowing. He placed his hand on the staircase — it stopped pulsing. Kid Saint froze. "That mark… where did you get it?" Lacolone's command was calm: "Use it." Weakness hid the counterweight.
Maya channeled her healing into Eden's glyph. The sigil expanded, forming a new Pillar above the stairs. Kid Saint's knives vibrated uncontrollably. "No… impossible." Lacolone charged through the opening. The door cracked under its own lie.
The team's strength surged anew. Jessica's bullets ricocheted with perfect Whispercall control. Valgor struck the staircase's edge, sending shards flying. Salah re-established the Veilward dome, wider and stronger. Kid Saint retreated up the stairs. Desperation transmuted into defiance.
He landed on a platform of scarlet veins. "Enough… you've proven yourselves." His knives dissolved into black smoke. "Beyond this step lies Elito's throne. Come if you dare." He left an invitation carved in blood.
The team collapsed, gasping for breath. Maya patched wounds with trembling hands. Jessica's arm flickered again — a vision of loss. Valgor looked upward toward the throne chamber. Salah whispered, "This was just the gatekeeper." And yet hope flickered.
At the top of the staircase, an enormous door of scarlet glass opened slightly. Inside, a silhouette stirred — Elito's true form, tendrils like constellations, a crown of shifting eyes. In the foreground, the heroes barely stood.
They had survived the knives.
Now awaited the King.