Lusian remained on the front line.
The waves never stopped. Carnivorous semihumans, blessed soldiers… one after another, without rest.
He could not retreat or abandon the line, or everything would collapse on top of his people.
And then, after bringing down several soldiers…
In front of him, the air no longer felt like air. It was heavier, as if something were squeezing it from every direction. Each breath became a little harder, as though the world itself no longer wanted to let him continue.
Walking toward him, the hero had grown tired of waiting while watching his men fall. The demon had to die… and he would be the one to claim the glory.
Valerius, the Saint of Iron, advanced without losing rhythm. His divine armor shone and the mace spun in his hand with every step, making the ground tremble.
—Demon… today you die.
Beside him stood Icarus, the Eye of Judgment, bow in hand and a calm smile on his face. Ever since receiving the divine blessing, he had started believing himself invincible.
The order had been to wait until the enemy weakened… but to him, there was no point in waiting any longer.
The battle began.
Valerius attacked head-on, pressuring without giving him space.
From behind, Icarus released arrows that did not follow a normal trajectory: they appeared exactly where Lusian was about to move or react, forcing him to keep track of both of them at the same time.
Between the front and the rear, Lusian did not have a single safe point. And that forced him to make mistakes.
And to make the situation worse, descending from the sky came Caelum, the Spear of the Firmament.
—Idiots… you ignored the order. You were supposed to wait.
—Shut up. The glory is mine. This evil creature will fall by my hand.
Lusian felt the pressure becoming more and more unbearable.
Every step backward was dangerous. If he gave ground, the line would break.
The exhaustion from hours of battle was already beginning to show. His body no longer responded the same way. He had used too much mana, enough to leave behind a fatigue that would not disappear simply by continuing to fight. His breathing was no longer clean. His body had small delays, almost imperceptible… but they were there.
And that was not the worst part.
The worst part was the divinity.
He felt it close, as always, like a tool ready to be used… but this time he was not calling it. Not after the last time.
That instant when he lost control.
That emptiness.
That second when he stopped being himself.
His fingers tensed without him ordering them to.
"Not now…"
It was not a complete thought. It simply appeared.
And the world answered.
The air changed. The heroes felt it immediately: something heavier than themselves was pressing down on them.
Valerius did not hesitate for even a second. He refused to yield and attacked first.
The Saint of Iron advanced… but the darkness around Lusian materialized instantly and hurled him away, as if the world itself had rejected him.
Lusian was not only fighting outside, he was also fighting inside himself.
That divinity… the inheritance of Kheris… he did not fully understand it. He knew it strengthened him, that it did not depend on mana, that it was something else entirely. Something that pushed him beyond his limits.
But he did not know what it truly was.
And that was the worst part.
He did not know if that darkness would eventually take control of him… and destroy his soul.
The battle continued.
The demon's sudden increase in power completely changed the rhythm. The heroes, now pressured, activated their divine blessings to the maximum.
Caelum attacked ferociously with his spear, giving no room to breathe.
Valerius returned, somewhat embarrassed after having been repelled earlier, and positioned himself beside Caelum to support the assault.
Icarus continued firing arrows, but this time they did not have the same effect. The darkness stopped them cold, as if they had struck a wall. It was humiliating… like snow melting against stone.
The heroes attacked. They hit him, but nothing changed. They could not stop him. He did not react.
The darkness was like armor, absorbing everything as if damage did not exist.
Only one thought appeared in the minds of all three heroes at the same time.
Monster.
He's a monster.
The demon. The evil one.
On the other hand, when Lusian attacked, he did it simply. Directly. Heavy blows that sought no technique, only results. As if every strike wanted to end the fight at once.
But the exhaustion in his body and mind kept growing.
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
—Fine…
Because his body was no longer at its best.
And from the ground, black spikes suddenly burst forth, impaling Icarus's legs. The divine armor prevented them from piercing all the way through, but the impact was brutal. Without it, he would have died impaled on the spot.
Two left.
Icarus, the Eye of Judgment, screamed in pain.
The soldiers around them, who had kept their distance out of pure horror toward Lusian, recovered some courage and rushed toward him. They surrounded the fallen hero and dragged him away from the battlefield immediately.
Lusian tried to deliver the finishing blow, but Valerius and Caelum blocked him instantly.
The impact stopped him.
Lusian clicked his tongue.
—Annoying… can't you calmly wait for your turn?
—Demon, you are a ruthless being!
—Really… was I the one who crossed another continent to invade? You people have some nerve.
Valerius did not know how to answer. He only gritted his teeth and attacked with his mace.
And for the first time in that battle, he hesitated.
He did not fully understand his enemy's power. Maybe he had been reckless. Maybe he should have obeyed the order to wait.
Lusian took a step.
The heroes attacked together.
Valerius entered first, heavy and direct.
Caelum followed with the spear, searching for an opening at the exact moment.
Lusian took advantage of the slight disorder between them. He used Valerius's attack when the mace came crashing down and, in that instant, turned and counterattacked toward Caelum.
Blood burst out.
The divine armor failed to completely stop the blow, but it reduced it enough to prevent a fatal wound.
But Valerius launched another strike that forced Lusian to step back half a pace.
That was when he started losing rhythm.
It was already obvious: using the divinity had a cost on his body. Or at least, using it consciously. Every time, it weighed more heavily on him.
But the real problem was something else.
If he let the darkness take control of his body, he did not know if he would be able to recover afterward… or if something worse would happen.
One of Valerius's attacks struck him directly and forced him to stop for the first time.
The ground cracked beneath his feet.
Caelum, still wounded, appeared once again in that dead angle, attacking from the perfect position to force Lusian's body to stop before he could respond.
Lusian gritted his teeth.
Too much.
He had used too much mana.
And now his body was beginning to react too late to everything.
Another pressure came down on him.
Both of them at once.
Valerius closing the distance.
Caelum cutting off every escape.
And then it happened.
The air went dark.
It was not a sudden change. It was as if something within space itself had simply ceased to be available.
The darkness emerged from Lusian without him calling it.
Not like before.
Deeper.
Heavier.
The mana changed.
It became denser, purer… as if everything around it had been forced to acknowledge him.
The heroes felt it instantly.
They did not think it.
They knew it.
Danger.
Valerius stopped for half an instant.
Caelum stopped moving for the first time.
It was something more primitive.
The kind of sensation you do not think about… you survive.
That second when the body has already decided to flee, even if pride refuses to allow it.
Something screamed inside them: get away from that or Die.
That was what stood before them.
Then, Lusian roared.
The pressure remained there.
Too strong.
The two heroes stepped back, one step after another. It was not something they chose.
Valerius tightened his grip on the mace. Caelum moved again.
Lusian looked at them.
And understood something simple.
He could not continue like this.
His body could not keep up with the pace.
The divinity was still there… pushing from within, as if waiting to break the limit once more.
But if he used it again, he did not know if he would return to himself afterward.
Not now. He breathed. And the darkness lowered.
It did not explode or vanish all at once. It simply… shut down, obeying its owner's will.
As if someone had closed something inside him.
For an instant, the world became heavy and normal again.
And that was enough.
Valerius sensed it first.
—Now!
Caelum charged straight in, spear forward.
Valerius closed the angle from the other side.
Lusian tried to move, but it was too late.
The spear struck his side.
It did not pierce all the way through, but it forced his body to twist.
Valerius took advantage of that instant.
The mace came down.
The impact sent him backward.
The ground shattered beneath his feet.
Lusian coughed out air, retreating another half step unwillingly.
Lusian blocked one of Valerius's blows with one arm while using the other hand to deflect the spear.
After several attacks, Lusian crashed against one of the roots of the Mother Tree.
His arm hung limp.
His breathing was unstable.
The darkness inside him no longer roared.
It only whispered: "Release me…"
Valerius took another step.
The armor was cracked. His left arm no longer responded properly after the earlier pulse. But he remained standing.
He raised the mace calmly, as if the result had already been decided.
—Even monsters bleed —he said.
Lusian did not answer.
He had no breath to waste.
Thunder was not there.
Not by choice, but because something had removed him from the battlefield. A strange blockade, as if space itself had separated him from the fight. He tried to move, but he could not break through it.
Lyra and Silas had him contained. It was not brute force, but environmental control. They were removing any possibility for him to act.
For the first time, Thunder was useless.
Only trapped.
And then the ice shattered everything.
The air exploded in a white burst.
Icarus's blockade failed for a fraction of a second.
It was enough.
Adela appeared between Lusian and the heroes.
Her eyes locked onto him for only an instant.
The blood.
The wounds.
The destroyed arm.
And something inside her broke.
The temperature dropped instantly. The ground began covering itself in frost as an unnatural cold spread across the battlefield.
Adela took a step forward.
—I'm going to kill you.
She screamed it.
And that was precisely why it was even more terrifying.
The Ice Tiger appeared above Valerius like an avalanche.
The impact was brutal.
The mace flew from his hands while tons of ice and force crushed him against the mountain.
Valerius tried to resist.
Tried to hold his ground.
He could not.
The ice was not just cold. It was total paralysis. His body stopped obeying him as if it no longer belonged to this world.
Adela did not even look at him.
She was already beside Lusian.
She quickly knelt down.
—Don't move.
She tried to cover Lusian's wounds with both hands, as if hiding them could somehow make them disappear.
But the blood kept slipping through her fingers.
Tears began falling from her eyes without her being able to stop them, slowly running down that small and beautiful face that always tried to stay proud in front of him.
Lusian gritted his teeth from the pain.
—Thank you… Adela.
She froze.
Only for half a second.
As if her mind had stopped functioning after hearing those words.
—…he thanked me —she whispered quietly, her voice trembling—. I arrived late…
Lusian breathed heavily before looking at her again.
—You're my heroine… you arrived in time.
Adela's eyes widened completely.
And the tears began falling even faster.
She helped him sit up a little.
The battlefield remained in chaos around them.
But here, at this point, everything was contained once again.
Adela raised her gaze.
—Now then —she said—. They won't interfere anymore.
The cold spread.
The two heroes barely managed to react.
The Ice Tiger was enormous. It had already spent a large portion of its strength, and both it and Caelum were injured.
Valerius was the first to understand.
—Fall back!
There was no glory.
No pride.
Only instinct.
The two of them leaped backward almost at the same time as the ice exploded where they had been standing a second earlier.
The mountain trembled.
Columns of frost pierced through the rock and the air filled with white particles.
Valerius raised his arm to shield himself, but even so, the cold began climbing over his divine armor.
And for the first time since arriving at the front…
the two heroes could do nothing but run for their lives.