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  The third district did not matter.

  Telos hovered above it, his artifact—a glass sphere with a star-filled sky—emitting an impulse into space. Houses were distorted and people screamed as everything below twisted in a strange manner.

  His [Spatial Domain] stretched reality like an old piece of cloth. A curtain of darkness covered the kingdom, muffling the mana of his enemies. Attacks were folded before they could even reach him. It was a perfect and unbreakable defense.

  Telos had a plan to follow. If plans A and B failed, plan C consisted of a more destructive approach to reach the same result. He was aware of this, that he would die if it came to that point.

  The transformation of a human into a monster was certain death. The core would clash with the human heart, both becoming corrupted, spreading a corrosive energy like cancer.

  Thanks to his domain, Telos had a precise awareness of everyone within it. Feeling their mana, he had sensed not long ago that Honda’s mana had vanished completely. The one who had carried him for so long had finally departed.

  But nothing mattered now. He would have to kill the royal family and cause devastation before dying. Still, something lingered in his mind, or rather, someone.

  ‘Viola… you aberration.’

  As a sub-skill, he had acquired [All-Seeing], an evolved skill derived from [Analysis]. This skill allowed him to see everything about a person, even their passive, extra, and unique skills.

  Viola, together with Sentil, had defeated him before. But he felt a deep hatred toward Viola in particular. He could not understand how someone like her could exist.

  The knight in black armor with orange hair was watching him from atop one of the floating structures Telos had created.

  ‘That absurd amount of energy. It’s abnormal.’

  Viola raised her great black sword, an orange nuclear energy slash flying toward Telos. The strike was dispersed immediately before touching him.

  Shaking his artifact, an invisible wave crushed the space where Viola had been standing. But the nuclear adventurer’s reaction time was perfect. She leapt between floating fragments of structures like a blur, even with heavy armor and a massive sword.

  Telos’s strike did not function like a conventional attack. Basically, it did not go from point A to point B, it simply occurred against the target at point zero. Even so, Viola dodged it.

  It was obvious that now, in open space, she could move at her full potential, unlike in their first fight. The fact that both of them were far above the city made it easier for her to fight with movements that would easily kill someone if they were closer to the ground.

  But that was not what frightened Telos.

  Mana could be used for many things, such as enhancing senses, reaction time, information processing, speed of thought, among many others. But one universal rule applied to everyone. Mana ran out.

  Using an enormous amount of mana could enhance someone’s senses to an unbelievable level. But it was not recommended, it was like betting everything on a single thing and zeroing out all the others. An experienced fighter needed to know how to balance and adapt according to the battle.

  Viola did not do that. She was using her mana to push everything about herself to the maximum—at least, the maximum she believed possible. That would be equivalent to giving up a fight for anyone else. But he saw the truth.

  ‘That insane amount of mana is being used in excess, and it barely seems to decrease.’

  Her passive skill [Grace of Mana] not only allowed Viola to manipulate her mana with surgical precision, it significantly reduced energy consumption. Of course, this would not be so remarkable if the person did not have such a vast mana reserve—but Viola already possessed an abnormal amount of mana even among class (S) beings.

  Telos could not allow himself to be intimidated. He wanted to destroy this aberration blessed by God. No matter how.

  Using his mana, he managed to keep up with Viola’s movements. Attacking the space before she even passed through it, Viola was hurled to the ground, carving a trail of destruction.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Adventurers arrived to begin their assault. A mage launched an ice spear; an archer fired shadow arrows in an attempt to nullify Telos’s barrier; a tank raised shields around the adventurers present, while a healer opened a mana field to restore their companions’ energy.

  ‘Cockroaches.’

  The sphere rotated in a lazy motion. The ice spear turned into harmless snow, the arrows exploded in midair, and the shooters suffered internal damage as well. The adventurers’ barrier shattered, and the healing mana field was sucked into the artifact.

  Viola leapt, changing her strategy. She used less mana in her slash this time, trying to make her attack appear harmless to Telos’s defense. But with a simple gesture of his other hand, Viola’s strike vanished and struck one of the adventurers on the ground. He was killed instantly.

  ‘One of her weaknesses is her inability to fight with everything she has. Otherwise, that nuclear energy would give me real trouble.’

  Sentil crouched among the rubble. He had been hidden, observing all this time. He had not expected the situation to spiral out of control like this.

  The thought that he had been too naive would not leave his mind. Bringing Honda and Telos into the city had been a mistake. He would try to make up for it later, if there was a later.

  In the current situation, Sentil was powerless. He had nothing in his arsenal that could be of any help against that creature.

  But he would use what he was good at, his observation. His eyes glowed as he tried to analyze every corner of the battlefield.

  A pattern became clear. Telos ignored the advances of the adventurers and focused entirely on Viola. He obviously wanted revenge. He was not speaking, but he seemed to be thinking clearly.

  This was a good thing for Cirgo. As long as Viola remained there, leaping around him, the rest of the kingdom would be safe. Moreover, Viola was buying time for the complete evacuation of the third district.

  Sentil jumped to Don and Logy’s side as they approached the battlefield.

  “I’ll leave this to you. I’ll do my best to provide support from the back line.”

  Don simply nodded.

  “That’s fine. We’ll try to buy as much time as possible,” Logy said.

  In the air, Telos’s giant ribs opened and closed like deformed wings. Bone fragments spun around him, floating like blades awaiting a command.

  Don advanced first—at the moment Viola touched the ground.

  The giant man in black armor slammed his shield into the ground. Golden energy spread like roots across the earth, and a dome was formed, covering his team.

  In the next instant, the bone fragments came crashing down.

  The impact was brutal.

  The ground trembled. Bones shattered against the barrier, grinding, pressing, trying to break through, but Don did not yield.

  The fact that his barrier did not break even under an attack reinforced by Telos’s domain meant that Don’s unique skill was a defensive one.

  “Now, Logy.” His voice was firm.

  Logy did not respond with words.

  Magic circles appeared, one after another, rotating in opposite directions. Logy was a field mage; his skills were meant to enhance his allies and provide support. Each symbol moved toward Viola.

  The air around her compressed. Strength, speed, mana—everything was enhanced.

  “Go.”

  Viola leapt out of the barrier. She cut through the air like a projectile, and Telos reacted.

  A physical barrier formed in front of him, but it was useless. Viola pierced his defenses with ease, swinging her sword vertically as she collided with the spatial defense.

  She was sent flying back, but her strike tore through the space separating Telos from the world, dealing real damage to him for the first time in the fight.

  Before Viola could hit the ground, Don’s shield appeared beneath her feet.

  He had advanced without anyone noticing.

  Viola used the surface as a springboard and returned to the air.

  Telos then assumed a more restrained combat form, now forced to evade attacks.

  The air changed.

  It was not a sound, nor an immediate explosion, it was weight. The pressure coming from above became erratic, irregular, as if the sky itself were being pulled in opposite directions.

  Telos’s waves now flew in all directions.

  They collided, shattered, violently regrouped, tearing chunks of terrain away each time they fell. Trees were cut in half. Nearby structures collapsed under impacts with no defined target.

  “Fall back!” The order echoed among the adventurers.

  Don drove his shield into the ground once more, but now the barrier trembled, being torn apart and reforged with each impact from the sky.

  The ground exploded.

  The shockwave hurled adventurers away, forcing disordered retreats. Some fell. Others were dragged back by allies.

  Telos was no longer holding back—he was truly attacking with everything he had.

  Before Sentil could see it, he felt something was wrong.

  The air around him contracted, as if space itself were being compressed by invisible hands. A strange chill ran down his spine, too instinctive to ignore.

  Telos raised his right hand.

  Bound by chains, the translucent sphere moved slowly, its stars drifting. Space began to rotate, pulling everything outside toward it.

  Stones, debris, and fragments of buildings were drawn in first, crushed against the surface of the glass before even touching it, as if erased from reality.

  Viola felt the pull in the next instant.

  “This is—” the words died in her throat.

  She was in the air, with no footing. There was no way to stop herself from being dragged in.

  “Don!” Logy shouted, activating a skill to enhance Don’s mana.

  Don charged forward, pointing his shield toward Viola. A barrier rose between her and the sphere.

  The shield cracked and vanished in the next instant. The pressure emitted by the artifact was too strong for it to hold.

  Viola was pulled in.

  She tried to strike the sphere at the last second, the black blade wrapped in nuclear energy cutting through the air with full force.

  The strike vanished before reaching the glass. Absorbed.

  Viola spun in the air, her body dragged forward, her armor groaning under the absurd pressure.

  And then the star-filled sky within the sphere expanded.

  She was swallowed.

  The glass glowed once before returning to absolute stillness.

  The golden chains stretched… and then went still.

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