The battle on the surface was no longer the greatest threat…
But what moved beneath it.
The clash between Maximilian and Violet continued, yet something in its rhythm was broken. The strikes were fast, precise… but empty. As if driven by force, not will.
Maximilian lunged again, his blade cutting through the air toward her.
Violet stepped back half a pace, barely deflecting the blow.
"Get a hold of yourself!"
For a moment—
He stopped.
Something flickered in his eyes.
A vision—
A city consumed by flames.
A gate… older than anything he had ever known.
And his hand… reaching toward it.
He froze.
"I…"
His voice dropped.
"I was the one who opened it."
Elsewhere—
Marley stood within her illusion. Warmth surrounded her. Familiar faces, filled with perfect affection.
Too perfect.
The same sentence repeated.
The same tone. The same smile.
Her eyes slowly widened.
"This isn't real."
She stepped forward—
The ground beneath her cracked like glass.
"Love doesn't trap you… and it doesn't repeat itself."
She raised her hand—
Then pushed the illusion away.
It shattered.
She returned to reality violently.
Her breath was uneven. Her body heavy.
Her hand moved to her neck—
And stopped.
A parasite.
Black. Pulsing.
Attached.
Her eyes snapped up.
Everyone…
Was infected.
Below—
Shadow arrived.
There was no beast.
No form.
Only a massive, pulsing presence—like a heart—threads extending from it, reaching upward, connected to everyone above.
He stepped closer.
"This isn't feeding…"
He whispered.
"It's a network."
A pulse answered.
Then a voice—
Everywhere.
"Conflict refines the result."
Shadow stilled.
"You are not being drained…"
A pause.
"You are being rewritten."
He reached out—
But an unseen force repelled him violently.
He stepped back.
"It can't be destroyed directly."
Above—
Marley regained her footing and shouted:
"Cut the parasites! They're controlling you!"
Her voice cut through the chaos.
For a moment—
Maximilian paused.
He looked at her… then at Violet.
Conflict burned in his eyes.
"If I was the beginning…"
He said quietly.
"Then I might be the end as well."
He moved—
But this time, not blindly.
Precisely.
Violet understood instantly.
She moved with him—not against him.
A synchronized strike—
Targeting the parasite connected to him.
At the same moment, Marley acted—focusing her power to sever the black thread attached to Zak.
He screamed—
Then collapsed to his knees, as if waking from a deep abyss.
One by one—
They followed.
Not fighting each other…
But what bound them.
The threads recoiled.
But they did not vanish.
They gathered.
Into one point.
The ground trembled violently.
From the converging mass—
A form emerged.
A towering entity—
Woven entirely from those same threads.
A central parasite.
A single glowing eye pulsed at its core.
Its body shifting with unstable energy.
Shadow's voice echoed faintly from below:
"That's the node… destroy it, and it ends."
Maximilian stood beside Violet.
For the first time in days—
They were in sync.
"One strike."
He said.
She nodded.
They moved.
Violet's chains erupted, binding the creature in place.
Locking its movement.
In that exact moment—
Maximilian struck.
A burst of white-gold light tore through the darkness.
A silent explosion—
Then stillness.
The entity collapsed.
The threads dissolved.
Bodies fell.
Breathing.
Alive.
But—
Below—
The pulse remained.
Slower.
Deeper.
As if what they destroyed…
Was only a fragment.