Lethe moved first.
Golden divinity burst beneath her feet as she shot across the ruined plaza. The cracked stone beneath her exploded into countless fragments, leaving behind a shallow crater where she had been standing only a heartbeat earlier.
She arrived before Knox in an instant.
Her fist, wrapped in dense holy power, drove straight toward his face.
Clang!
Knox calmly drew his tachi just enough to intercept the blow. Rather than meeting the punch head-on, the blade slid smoothly along Lethe's forearm, redirecting the attack by the smallest margin. Her fist skimmed past his cheek as the two crossed each other.
Lethe didn't stop.
She twisted her hips and immediately followed with an elbow aimed at Knox's jaw.
Knox leaned back just enough for it to pass before stepping back into her range. The scabbard in his left hand shot forward instead, striking Lethe's wrist with a sharp thack!
The impact disrupted her rhythm for a split second, and Knox didn't let the opportunity slip away. His tachi swept toward her shoulder.
Clang!
Lethe crossed her forearm just in time, holy power condensing around it as she blocked the slash. Sparks erupted between steel and divinity while both were pushed apart by the recoil.
She barely touched the ground before charging at Knox again. A kick came first, followed immediately by a straight punch and a sharp elbow.
Every attack flowed naturally into the next, forcing Knox to answer every exchange without giving him the slightest room to breathe.
The battlefield echoed continuously with the sound of colliding steel.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Each exchange lasted only an instant before another immediately followed.
Knox never retreated far.
Sometimes he stepped inside Lethe's reach.
Sometimes he pivoted around her shoulder.
Other times he simply turned his blade, allowing her own momentum to carry the attack harmlessly away before responding with a slash that forced her back.
Neither side gained a clear advantage as the exchange continued.
Several meters away, Moses silently watched the fight unfold.
"...As expected."
He raised one hand.
Radiant symbols spread across the battlefield before overlapping one another into a massive divine barrier directly in front of Knox.
At almost the same moment, Lethe jumped backward.
She didn't need instructions.
The instant Moses acted, she already understood what he intended.
High above the battlefield, golden mana converged into a familiar divine spear. The weapon slowly spun once, then a second time, and with each rotation the surrounding air trembled more violently.
A second later, dozens of holy spears appeared around Knox from every direction, sealing every possible path of escape while the gigantic divine drill hanging overhead descended immediately after them.
With a barrier cutting off his path, Holy Spears surrounding him from every direction, and Escrime descending overhead, Knox found himself trapped in a perfect pincer.
For the first time since the battle began, he truly appeared cornered.
Moses narrowed his eyes.
"Now."
The holy spears descended.
Knox's crimson eyes calmly swept across the battlefield as he lowered the tachi slightly.
Eight Leaves One Blade — First Form: Helix.
Knox suddenly spun, the tachi carving a violent spiral around him. The first holy spear shattered the instant it entered the rotating current, followed by the second, third, and fourth.
Within moments, every holy spear surrounding Knox exploded into fragments of golden light before they could even reach him.
The momentum didn't stop.
The rotating slash continued forward like a raging vortex before crashing directly into Moses's divine barrier.
BOOOOOOM!!
The barrier burst apart.
Cracks spread across its surface before the entire construct exploded into countless particles of light that scattered across the ruined plaza.
Moses's pupils shrank.
"...What?!"
The blast wave rolled across the battlefield, throwing dust and broken stone high into the air.
Lethe didn't wait.
The instant the explosion swallowed Knox from view, she kicked off the ground and disappeared into the dust cloud. A loud clash rang out from within, followed by another, then another, as steel sparks burst through the haze.
She was already fighting Knox again.
Far beneath the battlefield, divinity suddenly surged. Without warning, thick holy chains erupted from the ground and shot upward toward Knox from every direction.
The timing couldn't have been better. Lethe's relentless offense kept Knox occupied.
A faint warning flashed through the edge of his consciousness.
His body reacted before the thought could even form.
Knox broke away from the clash and sprang into a backward flip just as thick holy chains burst from the ground beneath his feet.
They missed him by less than a meter.
Seeing Knox suspended upside down in midair, Lethe's eyes flashed.
"Chance!"
The gigantic divine drill that had been waiting overhead roared back to life.
Without wasting another second, she sent Escrime hurtling toward him.
The spinning spear tore through the air, drilling straight toward Knox before gravity could even begin pulling him back down.
For a brief instant, there seemed to be no way to avoid it.
Just as Knox's foot was about to find nothing but empty air, a small platform of ice instantly materialized beneath it. Using it as a foothold, Knox kicked off with explosive force, shooting straight toward Lethe.
Lethe's eyes widened.
Crack!
A pale afterimage lingered behind him for the briefest moment, and Escrime drilled straight through it without slowing down. By then, Knox had already closed the distance, his body twisting naturally with the momentum as he raised his tachi high above his shoulder.
His body completed the rotation naturally as the momentum carried him downward, bringing the tachi high above his shoulder.
The tachi rose high above his shoulder.
Eight Leaves One Blade — Third Form: Karmic Flame.
A blazing crimson arc descended.
BOOOOM!!
The slash collided directly with Lethe, exploding in a storm of fire and divinity that blasted her backward. She crashed through the remains of a weathered stone pillar before skidding across the broken plaza, carving a long trench behind her before finally coming to a stop.
The shockwave had barely faded when Moses raised both hands.
Several layers of divine circles bloomed across the battlefield one after another, overlapping until the entire area around Knox became a maze of glowing magic formations.
Holy chains burst upward from the ground.
Radiant lances rained down from above.
At the same time, translucent barriers appeared one after another, not to imprison Knox, but to cut off his routes and force him into increasingly narrower spaces.
Knox's crimson eyes swept across the battlefield.
"..."
He didn't stop moving.
One moment he was slipping between two descending lances, the next he was already running along the side of a newly formed barrier. Just before reaching its edge, he planted one foot against the glowing surface and pushed himself away, changing direction in midair before another volley of holy chains erupted beneath him.
The chains narrowly missed, their tips colliding with one another before disappearing into particles of light.
Moses frowned.
"...Again."
Another magic circle appeared.
This time, dozens of radiant blades materialized around Knox before launching toward him in staggered succession, each one arriving a fraction of a second after the previous.
They weren't meant to overwhelm him with sheer force. They were meant to keep him occupied.
At the very same moment, Lethe burst out from the collapsing ruins.
Blood still trickled from her shoulder, but the blazing determination in her eyes hadn't faded in the slightest.
She kicked off the broken pillar beneath her feet and shot toward Knox once again.
The timing was perfect. Radiant blades sealed off every direction around Knox while Lethe charged straight at him, forcing him to deal with both at once.
Knox calmly stepped forward, raising his tachi.
Clang!
The first radiant blade shattered on contact. With a slight twist of his wrist, he redirected the second harmlessly into the sky.
A third came from behind.
Without even turning around, Knox lowered his body, letting the blade pass just above his head before driving his scabbard backward into another incoming projectile.
Crack!
Neither gave an inch.
Lethe suddenly shifted her weight and drove her knee toward Knox's abdomen. Knox instantly answered with a knee of his own, the collision halting both strikes in place.
For the briefest instant, the two locked eyes.
Then Lethe smiled.
A dangerous smile.
"...Got you!"
A magic circle beneath Knox suddenly erupted.
Several thick holy chains shot upward, their timing perfectly synchronized with Lethe's attack.
Knox immediately sprang backward.
The chains narrowly missed him again.
Instead of pursuing, Lethe immediately followed with another punch, refusing to let the distance grow.
The battlefield once again dissolved into an endless series of clashes.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Every collision sent shockwaves racing across the plaza.
Broken pillars collapsed one after another.
Fragments of stone flew through the air before being pulverized by stray waves of mana.
Even Moses found himself adjusting his spells repeatedly just to avoid getting caught in the aftermath of their exchanges.
"...Tch."
Moses frowned as another carefully prepared combination failed to trap Knox. Without wasting another second, several new divine circles expanded behind him while another series of spells rapidly took shape overhead.
Several new divine circles expanded behind him.
Warm light flowed toward Lethe, easing the strain on her body while another series of offensive spells rapidly took shape overhead.
Farther behind them...
Hamiel raised her trumpet once more.
"Lethe! Moses! I'll keep supporting you!"
A clear melody drifted across the battlefield as gentle waves of divinity washed over her teammates, mending their injuries while strengthening their bodies little by little.
Knox's sword met Lethe's in another violent clash.
CLANG!!
Another violent clash echoed throughout the plaza before Knox twisted his blade, forcing Lethe to slide several steps backward.
Taking advantage of the brief opening, Knox's crimson eyes shifted away from her for the briefest moment.
They landed on Hamiel.
A faint crimson glint flashed across his eyes, as though silently declaring...
You're next.
It lasted less than a heartbeat.
Yet Lethe caught it.
Her gaze instinctively followed his.
"...!"
Lethe's heart skipped a beat. An overwhelming sense of danger crashed over her.
"Hamiel!"
Lethe lunged forward without a second thought, desperately trying to close the distance before Knox reached Hamiel.
But, she was too late.
Knox's figure suddenly blurred before disappearing from directly in front of her. By the time Lethe instinctively turned around, he was already standing beside Hamiel, his crimson eyes meeting the Hamiel's trembling gaze.
Knox slowly raised his tachi.
"Eight Leaves One Blade..."
The temperature across the battlefield plummeted almost instantly. Thin frost crept across the cracked ground, spreading beneath Hamiel's feet before climbing toward her boots.
Hamiel's breathing hitched.
"...!"
Knox's blade traced a slow circular arc through the freezing air.
"...First Form, Shizuna's Version..."
The frost surged outward, swallowing more and more of the battlefield with every passing second.
Knox's expression remained unchanged as he quietly spoke the final words.
"Raging Blizzard."