The sun bled across the horizon.
A sickly red flooded the valley, staining dry earth and stone with the color of warning. Every breath carried dust, the scent of blood, and fear. The nine heroes knew it—their time was running out.
Eldric raised his sword to the sky."NOW!!"
The call reverberated far beyond the valley. The gods' blessings trembled, even in distant capitals, resonating through the heroes' bodies like chains of invisible fire. Their veins burned with borrowed power. Every muscle quivered. Every bone strained under divine pressure.
Melaina roared, wrapped in a living sun that scorched the air. Branor unleashed storms, each bolt tearing at the earth like reality itself being ripped apart. The earth twins raised walls of living stone—colossal structures groaning under their own weight. The water priestess convulsed the dry valley with impossible tides, while the wind archer shredded the air with gusts that ripped grass from its roots.
For a moment…
the world itself seemed ready to crush them.
But Lusian walked.
Every step cast shadow. Every movement of Dainslein split reality. Every breath he took was judgment.
Emily fell to her knees, bleeding, black roots spreading beneath her feet, entangling the blessings the gods had granted. Every strike that fell upon her—lightning, flame, force—was weakened, corroded by the curse binding her to both gods and Devil alike. Her eyes burned with fury, fear, and defiance as black blood dripped onto the earth like cursed ink.
Elizabeth raised her hand, illusions forming—power capable of shattering mountains. But she held back. Every deflected strike fractured reality itself. Her heart pounded like a war drum. She knew that if she unleashed everything before Lusian… she would lose him—and he would see the truth.
Dayana laughed, death dancing in her hands. Corpses rose and fell again and again, buying seconds, marking the rhythm of judgment.
Adela rode her white tiger, exhaling frost that froze bodies in an instant. Every enemy that dared approach became a statue—only to shatter into glittering fragments under the tiger's next charge.
Thunder moved through the chaos, intercepting lightning and projectiles, appearing wherever death was about to fall. Each discharge lit the valley like miniature storms, tearing sky and earth alike.
The summoner, wounded, released his celestial beasts—
—but Dainslein moved like a dark wind.
A single horizontal line cut the air.
The beasts fell in perfect halves. Then the chains. Then the summoner.
All of it ended before they could understand.
Eldric shouted orders no one heard. Melaina condensed her flames into a blinding white star. Branor descended with a thunder that split the earth. The twins sealed the battlefield in a prison of living rock, trembling under divine pressure.
And then—
the sun vanished.
Not a slow sunset.Not a fading light.
It simply went out.
The sky closed like an iron coffin. The gods' light was swallowed by the night Lusian claimed as his own. The valley fell beneath a shroud of absolute darkness. The air grew heavy—dust, sacred ash, and residual electricity clinging to every breath. Each hero felt it at once:
the battle was no longer theirs.
Emily lifted her head, her black roots glowing faintly in the void. No faith could sustain them. No blessing could restrain the Devil. Only fear… and territory.
Elizabeth closed her eyes, containing her power as reality bent around her. Her heart screamed, but her mind understood—the world was no longer under the heroes' control.
Lusian stepped forward.
The night leaned toward him.
His yellow eyes burned—not with emotion, but with dominion.
Absolute dominion.
"Finish it," he murmured.
The wind died. Gravity seemed to warp. Shadows stretched—
and the night finally claimed what belonged to it.
The valley was dead.
There was no salvation left.
The True Arrival of Night
The shadows did not grow.
They rose.
As if the ground itself remembered they belonged to it.
The dust in the air stilled. The wind died. Sound suffocated. Every breath felt too loud, as if it echoed across the entire valley.
The heroes tried to call upon their blessings.
The lights flickered.
Like candles in a tomb.
A voice emerged from the darkness—deep, unyielding:
"I told you… to finish quickly."
Dainslein gleamed.
Not with light.
With absence.
Lusian stepped out of the crater. His clothes were torn, his skin marked by black lines slowly closing. But his eyes—
they were living eclipses.
The night itself bent to his breathing.
Eldric tried to rise.His sacred blade dimmed.His prayers went unheard.
"What… are you?"
"Tired," Lusian answered, his voice dragging the weight of centuries behind it.
Branor charged first, roaring, wrapped in storm.
Lusian raised his hand.
The lightning obeyed.
The bolts turned—piercing Branor's heart. His body hung suspended, illuminating the night for a single eternal moment… before falling dark.
Melaina unleashed her final star, white and blinding.
Lusian walked toward it.
The flame dimmed as it neared Dainslein—as if fire itself remembered darkness came first.
The blade pierced the flame…and then her chest.
The earth twins tried to bury the battlefield beneath living stone.
The ground answered Lusian first.
Two black spears rose from their own shadows, piercing their throats at the same instant.
The archer loosed one final rain of sacred arrows.
Thunder appeared above him, roaring like condensed thunder itself.
Electricity tore through armor, bone, and prayer.
The body fell, smoking.
The water priestess tried to flee.
Emily lifted her gaze.
Her curse bloomed.
The water rotted midair, collapsing into sludge that devoured the woman's flesh as her screams drowned within her own prayer.
The summoner begged.
Dayana smiled.
Her hand pressed against his chest—his heart beating under her control. Then she tore it free… only to place it back, still beating.
Terror filled his eyes as his body remained conscious.
Eldric remained kneeling.
His sword planted into the ground.
His light nothing more than a fractured echo.
"I… do not regret…" he whispered.
Lusian looked at him.
For a moment, he did not strike.
He simply watched—as if weighing faith against inevitability.
"I know."
Eldric raised his sword one last time.
Light exploded in a final flash—beautiful…
and useless.
Dainslein fell.
The head of the Hero of Light rolled softly across the darkened grass.
Silence consumed the valley.
Only the faint cracking of ice from Adela.Only the restless corpses moving under Dayana's delighted control.Only Emily's ragged breathing, as darkness brushed even against her curse.Only Elizabeth's silent terror… witnessing how far Lusian had strayed from anything human.
Thunder approached and rested its head against his shoulder—as if recognizing an equal in dominion.
The night calmed.
Like a satisfied beast.
Lusian looked up at the empty sky.
There was no fear. No emotion. Only territory.
"They'll send more…"
He did not sound concerned.
He sounded… resigned.
The entire valley seemed to hold its breath. Every shadow, every stone, every tree leaned toward him.
The hunt was not over.
The world had been marked.
And Lusian knew it.