The frozen wasteland held its breath.
Eryndor stood like a primordial force carved from the ice itself. His messy hair framed a face etched with quiet fury, his thickened frame radiating an aura that warped the air around him.
The five Emperors — Kai, Raizen, Nerissa, and Sylvara — had barely recovered from dodging the hellish "Abyssal Wolf's Eclipse Rend." Darius had taken a glancing blow earlier and was still shaking it off. They spread out instinctively, but uncertainty flickered in their eyes for the first time.
Ellie watched from her slumped position against the tree, her broken sword forgotten in the snow. Blood still dripped from her lips, but a spark of hope ignited in her chest. Brother…
Kai recovered first, orange flames roaring back to life around his body. "Who the hell do you think you are?!" he roared, launching a barrage of flaming spears toward Eryndor.
Eryndor moved with terrifying calm. He blurred between the attacks, the wolf spirit snapping at stray flames and extinguishing them in shadows. Raizen followed up with lightning-fast spear thrusts, each one distorting gravity and leaving afterimages crackling with violet energy. Eryndor dodged effortlessly, grabbing one spear mid-thrust and using its momentum to spin Raizen into Nerissa's incoming tidal wave. Water and lightning clashed chaotically, forcing both Emperors back.
Sylvara summoned a forest of thorned vines that erupted from the ice, seeking to entangle and drain him. Darius charged like a living mountain, his fists capable of pulverizing peaks.
They fought as a coordinated unit overlapping in a symphony of destruction. Yet Eryndor weaved through it all. His dark radiant echoes mixed with primal wolf strikes created devastating counters. One punch sent Darius skidding back dozens of meters, cracking his armor. A sweeping kick dispersed Sylvara's vines into frozen shards. The Emperors were struggling — truly struggling — against a single man whose presence grew more oppressive with every passing second.
Then Darius saw an opening.
The Emperor of Titans roared and delivered a devastating overhead smash with both fists. Eryndor raised his left arm to block. The impact was cataclysmic. Bone shattered. Flesh tore. Eryndor's left arm was severed at the shoulder and went flying through the air in a spray of blood, landing with a sickening thud in the distant snow.
Kai let out an aggressive laugh, flames flaring brighter. "How are you gonna fight five of us with one arm?"
Ellie looked at her brother with raw fear in her eyes. She was worried — deeply, viscerally worried. After staring at the place where his arm had been, she asked shakily, "Uh… are you going to be alright, brother?"
Eryndor pressed his right hand over the bleeding stump, slowing the flow. He slowly turned his head toward Ellie, a small smile forming on his bloodied lips. He chuckled softly. "I'm really touched you worried about me, Ellie, but don't worry. I'll be fine."
Ellie hesitated, eyes wide with concern.
Kai burst into mocking laughter. "You'll be fine? You're gonna die! You really think you can beat us? We were blessed by the contractors! They gave us true power! And you're just a nobody trying to get in our lords' and saviors' way! We're gonna eliminate you!"
Eryndor chuckled, low and dangerous. Then, to the shock of all five Emperors, his severed arm began to regenerate. Flesh knitted together rapidly, bones reforming, skin closing over muscle. Thanks to the snake blessing from hell he had received long ago, he could regenerate as long as his head remained intact and his heart wasn't split in two. The process was grotesque yet mesmerizing — dark, serpentine energy flickering along the wound.
"Did ya really think just because there were five of ya you could kill me?" Eryndor said, flexing his newly regrown arm. "Think again. Also, shut the hell up about that power bullshit because ya don't even know what power truly is. You see, my understanding of what power is different from what you new generation think power is."
He took a single step forward. His mana pressure exploded outward with overwhelming force. All five Emperors dropped to their knees instantly, bodies trembling under the crushing weight. The ground fractured in a wide radius around Eryndor.
"Here… let me teach you what those contractors didn't."
The wasteland seemed to hold its breath as Eryndor prepared to demonstrate true power.
Far away,
in the shattered mountain range, the clash between Seraphina and Lucifer continued to rage.
Both had invoked their Divine Arts at the same moment.
Seraphina's voice rang clear and cold,"Divine Art: Eternal Frost Dominion!"
Her blade erupted with primordial ice energy. The temperature plummeted to absolute zero in a vast radius. Mountains froze solid, time itself seemed to slow within her domain as crystalline structures of perfect ice formed barriers, lances, and avatars of ancient frost guardians. The art allowed her to command the very concept of cold, freezing not just bodies but mana flows and even fragments of intent. She moved like a blizzard incarnate, elegant and merciless.
Lucifer countered with equal ferocity: "Divine Art:Death Eclipse!"
Black and red wings expanded into a shroud of pure oblivion. Death mana swallowed light, corroding everything it touched. Souls screamed within the eclipse as he summoned wraiths, decaying fields, and waves of entropic energy that aged and withered matter instantly. His art embodied the end of all things — decay, cessation, the final silence. Wounds he inflicted refused to heal, and every strike carried the weight of inevitable mortality.
Their Divine Arts collided in a cataclysm that reshaped the landscape. Ice guardians shattered against decaying wraiths. Frost lances pierced the eclipse only to be corroded mid-flight. Seraphina and Lucifer traded blows at speeds that blurred the eye, each exchange shaking the mountains. Seraphina's ice slowed Lucifer's movements, while his death energy ate away at her barriers. Neither gained a decisive edge. Blood flowed from both. Their mana reserves burned brightly, pushing them to the brink.
The fight remained locked in a brutal stalemate, both Emperors refusing to yield as their Divine Arts clashed endlessly.