Kallisto, how much Ether do I have left?
[Warning: Your reserves are critically low. Utilizing a Unique Skill's sub-skill—specifically Gate Weaver's teleportation—at only Tier 3 has severely drained your capacity.]
Sigh. Alright. I have to be careful.
"Arthur, what's the plan?!" I called out over the roaring wind, sprinting upward on my invisible spatial platforms while he flew beside me.
"I don't know!" Arthur roared back, his massive draconic wings beating heavily against the storm. "Let's catch up to him first!"
As we closed the distance, a part of me was desperately hoping Sera would step in and do something. Pushing this monster into the sky wasn't just about having the high ground; it was a tactical decision to keep the fight away from the ground and minimize the collateral damage to Blackwater Roost. It was the right move, right? I questioned myself. Maybe. Hopefully.
But more than anything, I couldn't understand what was going on with Sera. He was an Angel. A Tier 8 conceptual powerhouse. I vividly remembered him casually erasing a massive Leviathan from existence with a literal flick of his finger. So why was he hesitating now? Was it because he sensed I absorbed the Sin's Stele? Was it because of that 'Authority' artifact?
Whatever it is, I can't worry about it right now. I have to figure this out first.
High above us, the Devil—now a fully evolved Tier 5 Demon Lord—halted his ascent. He unfurled a massive, grotesque pair of wings woven from pure, undulating darkness, stabilizing himself against the turbulent sky.
"You dare do this to me?!" he shrieked, his eyes burning with absolute malice.
He raised both hands, and the ambient shadows instantly condensed into a barrage of jagged, hyper-dense spears. With a violent, sweeping motion, he launched them down at us like artillery fire—five aimed directly at Arthur, and five tracking straight for me.
I can't afford to use Thought Acceleration right now, I calculated rapidly. It burns too much Ether.
Instead, I raised my hand and activated Sky's Limit, attempting to fold the space directly in front of me to bounce the projectiles away into the sky. But I had severely underestimated the sheer density of a Tier 5 attack. This wasn't the pirate captain's magic.
The spatial barrier warped, groaned, and then violently shattered.
It didn't even slow them down. Three of the dark spears tore straight through my defense and violently impaled my left shoulder.
"Gah—!"
The sheer, agonizing pain short-circuited my brain for a terrifying second. My vision blurred as the dark Ether burned at my torn flesh. Hot blood splashed heavily onto the invisible platform beneath my boots, and I stumbled backward, desperately struggling to keep my footing in the empty sky.
"Shit, shit, shit!" I cursed through clenched teeth, my voice barely a hiss over the roaring wind.
The agonizing burn of the dark Ether radiated from the three jagged spears impaling my left shoulder. Before my evolution to Tier 3, my innate Shadow Weave would have instantly mitigated the damage, melting the dark constructs and stitching my flesh back together. But I had sacrificed that ability to the Sea of Concepts to anchor my Unique Skill.
Now? I was just a mortal bleeding out on an invisible platform thousands of feet in the air.
I looked up, gritting my teeth against the blinding pain. Arthur had managed to weave through his volley of spears. With a thunderous beat of his draconic wings, he closed the distance to the Demon Lord in a blur of crimson embers.
"Die!" Arthur roared. He pulled back his fist, channeling a massive amount of superheated, golden Ether into his scales, and threw a punch carrying enough draconic might to shatter a mountain.
But the moment his fist connected, the air around the creature violently warped.
A dome of compressed, undulating darkness flared to life. The Tier 5 shield didn't just block Arthur's strike—it absorbed the kinetic energy and violently reflected it back at him. A massive shockwave exploded outward. Arthur gasped as the sheer force bounced him backward, sending him tumbling out of control through the stormy sky. He plummeted for several meters before violently snapping his wings open to stabilize himself.
The Demon Lord wasn't going to let him recover.
"Pathetic lizard!" the creature shrieked, raising his clawed hand.
The shadows around Arthur instantly coalesced into dozens of razor-sharp chains. They shot through the sky like vipers, aggressively seeking to bind the dragon's wings and drag him down to the ocean. Arthur unleashed a desperate torrent of Crimson Annihilation fire, melting the front line of chains, but the Demon Lord just kept spawning more, forcing Arthur into a frantic, high-speed evasive maneuver through the storm clouds just to stay alive.
We were severely outmatched in raw output. The Demon Lord's Ether reserves seemed bottomless, while mine were circling the drain. I was struggling just to keep my spatial platforms active.
My vision began to swim. The blood loss was getting critical.
Think, Lucian. Think! I yelled at myself. If I didn't have Shadow Weave to heal the wound, I had to find another way to isolate it before I passed out.
An idea hit me. Event Horizon... a reverse application!
I dropped to one knee on my invisible platform and focused what little Ether I had left directly onto my ruined shoulder. Instead of projecting a spatial barrier outward to block an attack, I folded the fabric of space inward, wrapping it tightly around my torn flesh and veins.
"Gahhh—!" I screamed as the spatial pressure crushed against my exposed nerves.
I created a localized, airtight spatial lock directly over the wound. It was excruciating, but it effectively put the damaged tissue into a state of absolute spatial stasis. The blood instantly stopped flowing. The spears were still lodged inside me, and moving my left arm was entirely out of the question, but I wasn't going to bleed to death anymore.
Breathing heavily, a cold sweat dripping beneath my mask, I forced myself to stand back up. I gripped the hilt of Bad News tightly in my right hand.
Above me, the Demon Lord was laughing maniacally, his arms raised like a conductor as he summoned a massive, spinning halo of dark blades aimed directly at Arthur's blind spot.
"Arthur! Break right!" I screamed, forcing my exhausted legs into a sprint. I needed to shatter that shield, and brute force clearly wasn't going to cut it.
I kept my eyes locked on the spinning halo of dark blades forming above the Demon Lord. My body was at its absolute limit, and brute force wasn't going to pierce that Tier 5 shield.
Kallisto, what should I do? I asked internally, panic starting to bleed into my thoughts. We can't break through!
[Notice: The target is too strong for your conventional Pathway attacks. However, you have not yet utilized your Authority over your Cenotaph.]
Huh? What does that mean?
[Initiating forced mental dive into the Cenotaph of Pride.]
Wait, wait, explain—!
The roaring ocean wind, the pain in my shoulder, the stormy sky—it all vanished in a fraction of a millisecond. My consciousness was violently yanked from my physical body. When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the center of my mindscape, surrounded by the suffocating, deep blue expanse of the Cenotaph.
A new, massive holographic screen flashed directly in front of my face.
[Displaying Domain Authority & Abilities:]
[Current Authority Held: None (Tier 3)]
Cenotaph Battery: Can be utilized as an external backup, providing near-infinite Ether corresponding to your current Tier.
Domain Skill: Dominator of All Pride.
LOCKED: Access to the deepest currents of the Sea of Concepts (Requires higher Tier).
LOCKED: Godhood (Requires the accommodation of a full Conceptual Authority).
I stared at the glowing blue text, completely flabbergasted.
What the hell is this?! This is completely new!
[Affirmative. You did not know this information because you did not ask.]
I didn't ask because I didn't know it existed, Kallisto! I shouted mentally, pinching the bridge of my nose in sheer frustration.
[Yes.]
What do you mean, 'yes'?! I sighed heavily, shaking my head. Fine. Whatever. But what am I even supposed to do with this newfound knowledge right now? I'm in the middle of a boss fight!