The moment Jay's boot touched the floor, runes ignited.
The heat surged violently.
The silver mantles flared as the runes sewn by Taiga pulsed, repelling the infernal temperature.
"The mantle's holding!" a player shouted in relief. "We can take it!"
Amun-Rael rose from the throne. The movement was fluid.
"Visitors…" His voice came from the entire hall, perfect and emotionless. "You bring disorder into my sanctuary."
He descended the steps of light.
"I am Amun-Rael. The Eternal Order. And you, creatures of blood and emotion, are the error I must correct."
Marcus stepped forward and drew his longsword. The ordinary steel looked dull beside all that gold, but the hand holding it was steady.
"He thinks he's a god. Let's show him he bleeds. Attack!"
The battle began.
Before they could strike, Amun-Rael's spear came down in a devastating vertical arc. Jay raised his shield on instinct.
"IRON WALL!" a tank beside him shouted, bracing his body against Jay's. A third warrior joined them, and the frontline absorbed the initial blow. The ground cracked beneath their feet from the impact.
Amun-Rael didn't hesitate.
He pulled back the spear and spun, raising the solar shield at the exact moment.
Arrows and magic slammed into the golden disk. The metal absorbed everything with a dull sound and, in a flare of runes, reflected part of the attack at impossible angles, as if the hall itself bent to his will. Arrows ricocheted through the air, some passing dangerously close to the backline.
"He's reflecting!" an archer shouted. "It's not just defense!"
"He's too fast for the tanks to surround!" Ethan yelled, hurling orange fireballs to create openings. "Marcus, he needs a mobile target!"
"Leave it to me!" Marcus broke away from the shield wall.
He sprinted along the flank, boots sliding in controlled movements across the shining floor. Amun-Rael noticed. The golden helm tilted slightly.
"A brave insect."
The thrust came fast, aimed at Marcus's chest. A simple strike, but with the force of a train.
Marcus didn't block. He knew the old sword would shatter on direct impact.
At the last millisecond, he twisted left. The spear tip grazed past his ear.
Marcus used the opening and slashed at the knee of the armor.
CLANG.
The blade scraped against divine metal, sparks flying, but failed to pierce deeply.
Amun-Rael pulled back the spear and swept it horizontally, as if to cut Marcus in half.
"Die."
"Not now!" Marcus slid beneath the shaft, striking upward as he passed and hitting the underside of the boss's greave.
Amun-Rael charged shield-first like a battering ram. The solar disk crashed down, trying to smash Marcus into the floor. He barely rolled away, feeling the hot wind of the shield and hearing the stone crack where it struck.
The boss tried to stomp him. Marcus rolled again and sprang to his feet.
"Sienna, now!" Marcus shouted, retreating.
Sienna opened her grimoire, eyes glowing.
"Come on, my dears… get him!"
The magic circle flared, and a massive wolf appeared, howling. It didn't attack head-on. It leapt onto Amun-Rael's back, claws digging into the golden cape, trying to throw him off balance.
"Begone!" Amun-Rael spun, grabbed the wolf by the neck, and hurled it away.
But the distraction worked.
Marcus rushed in again.
The exchange accelerated.
Amun-Rael attacked with brute force and divine speed. Marcus responded with dodges, deflections, and surgical counterattacks. He used the sword not to stop the spear, but to guide the boss's power into empty space.
Amun-Rael brought the spear down from above.
Marcus struck the side of the shaft, redirecting it into the floor and pinning the tip into the shining stone.
Amun-Rael tried to pull it free, but Marcus stepped on the embedded blade.
The boss was disarmed for a brief instant.
Marcus spun and delivered a kick to the golden chestplate, followed by two quick slashes, one at the helm and one at the torso.
Sparks burst.
Amun-Rael answered with the shield: a short, brutal strike that didn't cut, but crushed.
Marcus dodged as best he could, feeling the vibration run to the bone, and was still forced backward.
The boss used the opening and released a shockwave.
Marcus slid back, landed on his feet, panting, sweating… and smiling.
The hall seemed to hold its breath.
Amun-Rael wrenched the spear free with a violent pull. He didn't attack immediately.
He stopped.
The robotic, divine posture faltered for a moment. He tilted his head, studying Marcus with unsettling focus.
"That style…" Amun-Rael's voice changed, the monotone giving way to acidic curiosity. "That stubbornness in the blade. That irritating way of flowing around death."
Marcus wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, sword held high.
"What? Surprised a human doesn't break so easily?"
Amun-Rael let out a short, dry laugh.
"Surprised? No. Merely remembering." He began to circle, ignoring the other forty-nine. His solar eyes were locked on Marcus. "You remind me of a worm I crushed long ago. A general of this kingdom. I've forgotten his name… centuries have passed."
Sienna's heart skipped. She clutched her grimoire and exchanged a quick glance with Jay.
The general.
They knew.
"He fought like that too," Amun-Rael continued, twirling the spear as if it weighed nothing, the solar shield held as part of his body. "Full of hope. Full of technique. He danced around my spear at the castle gates. The only mortal who ever made me sweat during the conquest. He killed many of my soldiers. It seemed like he would never tire."
Marcus frowned. That way of fighting… he had absorbed it from Akashin's memories without realizing. He was repeating the samurai's movements, adapted to his own sword.
"And what happened to him?" Marcus taunted.
Amun-Rael stopped. He looked at the sharp tip of his spear with cold pride.
"The obvious. Order always wins." The boredom in his voice was worse than rage. "I wore him down. Pierced him with my spear. And when I was about to drive this lance into his throat and end the war right there…"
Amun-Rael made a dismissive gesture.
"A little woman threw herself in front of him. A queen. She impaled her own chest on my blade to save the soldier."
Time froze for the core group.
The flashback exploded in their minds with brutal clarity: Dalia running, Akashin's scream, the blade piercing bodies.
It wasn't an accident.
The weapon that killed Dalia was right there, gleaming in that thing's hand. And the murderer told the story like a bad joke.
"It was pathetic," Amun-Rael continued, wiping an imaginary stain from the golden metal and resting the solar shield on the floor, heavy and humiliating, as if it were nothing more than an accessory. "She dirtied my weapon with that useless blood. And the general? Instead of fighting, he cried over the corpse. I didn't even bother finishing him. I simply left him there… cursed, to guard the bones of the woman I killed."