The Ashen Expanse howled beneath a sky split in half.
Black voidfire and molten dragon breath crashed against each other, birthing a cyclone of screaming light that chewed through mountains and sky alike.
Each second stretched until it cracked. Each heartbeat felt like a war.
Raven’s boots scraped forward through the heat, his crimson eyes unreadable.
The black-boned colossus leered back, molten grin wide, convinced the human’s silence ant fear.
Even if Graye had defeated one of them, that didn’t an victory, as the colossus was sure that Graye was gravely injured herself.
As such, it didn’t even consider her joining this fight.
Then, at last, a voice slithered through the mana storm—
—but it wasn’t the beast’s.
It was Raven’s.
His words pressed directly into the colossus’s skull, cold and sharp as a blade of frozen fla.
"Do you know why I stayed quiet this whole ti?"
The voidfire flared, crimson streaks whipping like living serpents.
"Because the words you spoke were the last words you’ll ever get to say."
The colossus’s molten grin twitched.
Its breath thundered louder.
"Empty bravado," it snarled, its mana grinding like boulders. "One victory ans nothing. Even if one kin falls, I will crush you, then tear that laughing insect apart myself!"
Raven tilted his head, a slow, deliberate motion that carried across the battlefield like a challenge.
"You sure," he asked softly, "that I won’t take care of you first?"
The colossus barked a gravelly laugh that shook the air.
"You bluff on borrowed ti, human. I can feel it. Your mana is thinning. My victory is near. No human can outlast ."
Raven’s lips curved—not into a smile, but into a predator’s grin.
It was true that he was out of mana. In a second or two, he would be empty, but that was only if he didn’t have a way to fill his pool up again.
"You finally gonna use your divine tale, boss?" Omni’s voice echoed in his mind, and instead of replying, his grin widened as, in the next second, his divine tale sucked so of his stored divinity, filling his mana pool.
Then, to the colossus’s shock, with their breath attacks still locked, Raven took a single step forward.
The voidfire surged like a tidal wave.
The collision line blazed crimson and black, pressing deeper into the colossus’s stream.
"Whose mana is thinning again?" Raven’s voice cut like thunder.
The colossus’s molten eyes widened.
Its beam faltered for the first ti.
"That impossible!" it roared, disbelief cracking through its tone. "No human can surpass the strongest of the dragon-kin!"
Raven kept walking.
Each step shook the ash-choked earth.
Each step shoved the collision point closer to the beast.
"You keep saying ’impossible,’" he said evenly, "but you keep retreating."
The monster’s wings flared in panic as it felt the voidfire sear against its breath, and it felt angry as it realized that it was retreating as Raven had said.
’I, the strongest of the corrupt, am retreating because of a human?!’
It bellowed in rage, dumping raw mana into its attack.
For a heartbeat, the tide surged back, the air shredding with sonic booms—
—But the burst was short.
Its stream wavered, then began sliding backward again, inch by inch toward its own jaws.
The beast knew that if things went on as they were, then it would be burned no matter what it did.
So, it started roaring.
"No!" the colossus bood, claws gouging trenches in the charred earth. "I’ll stall for ti! Once my kin finish your fragile friends, they will co. They will rip you apart, limb by limb, while you burn!"
Raven shook his head, never breaking stride.
"Yes, they’re strong—your kin. Strong enough to kill my team if they showed even a small opening."
The voidfire flared brighter, swallowing the stars.
"But I’m pretty sure they’ll win."
The beast spat molten hate. "Lies!"
"Think what you want, but do you rember Graye’s laugh earlier?" Raven said, his voice calm but laced with iron. "Everyone must’ve heard it. And they’re all... well, sowhat competitive."
His grin widened as the pressure of his voidfire intensified, sparks dancing like dying suns.
"They’ll be wrapping things up soon. You’ll see."
"BLUFF!" the colossus scread, shoving its wings down to add force to the stream.
Unfortunately for the beast, it was soon going to realize how right Raven was because the next second, the beast and Raven heard more death roars.
................
A few seconds earlier.
Ash and shadow churned like a living storm as the basilisk’s hiss rattled through the cracked plain.
Its sickly green eyes burned with cruel delight as Clara’s legs hardened into dull stone. Grey cracks raced up her thighs, her heartbeat pounding against the cold petrification.
The basilisk tilted its massive head, venom dripping in lazy arcs.
"Beautiful," it rasped, its breath like wet gravel. "Soon, you will be nothing but brittle art. A statue for the crows."
Clara’s fingers trembled, her throat tight with rising frost and panic. The stone reached her ribs, biting into her breath.
Then—
A laugh sliced through the thick haze.
Bright. Wild. Human.
"Haah! Anyone need a hand? I’m free!"
Graye’s voice thundered across the battlefield, carried by fire and excitent.
The basilisk’s eyes narrowed. Its tail coiled tighter around the charred rocks.
"...Is it that armored girl?" It hissed, venom sizzling against the stone. "The drake is down? Impossible. The second strongest—"
It cut itself off, the tip of its tongue flicking in irritation.
"No matter," it growled, lowering its fangs toward Clara. "I will deal with the show-off once I finish you."
A new voice answered—soft, almost playful.
"Deal with ? Try again."
The basilisk froze.
The voice hadn’t co from the petrifying Clara before it.
It ca from beside its head.
Its molten eyes rolled upward.
Perched casually atop its horned skull sat another Clara, eyes glowing silver in the ashen dark.
The Clara below—stone creeping across her form—wavered like mist.
An illusion.
The realization struck too late.
"Bye," the real Clara whispered.
Her palms pressed against the basilisk’s crown.
A violent tremor ripped through the beast’s skull—an invisible shockwave of pure vibration.
Bone liquefied. Brains churned into a wet, shattering mush.
The basilisk convulsed once, hissing a strangled cry—
—And then collapsed like a falling tower, its colossal body thudding into the cracked earth.
Clara hopped lightly off the collapsing corpse, brushing ash from her skirt.
"Tch. Show-off," she muttered, flicking dust from her sleeve. "I could’ve ended this ages ago, but nooo... I was enjoying the warm-up. Then Graye just had to yell and ruin my fun."
The ground rumbled in agreent—or perhaps in death.
................
At the sa ti, far across the quaking plain, the earth itself heaved like a living tide.
The earthworm beast, a mountain of armored flesh and dragon-forged fangs, slithered restlessly beneath the scorched terrain.
Its stomach churned with shadow and bone.
It had swallowed Selena whole—along with the skeletal titan she called her Susano.
Graye’s laughter echoed across the battlefield.
The earthworm’s molten eyes narrowed within the darkness of the soil.
The drake had fallen? Already?
Its body tensed with the urge to surge toward the sound and silence the victor.
But a voice rolled up from inside its gut, low and amused.
"Look at her, celebrating because she was the first," Selena’s voice purred, echoing from the depths. "I got distracted watching the others. Otherwise, I’d have been first."
The beast recoiled, its inner muscles convulsing.
She was alive.
"Thanks, by the way," Selena continued, her tone almost cheerful. "This belly of yours is perfect. So much shadow down here."
Her mana spiked, cold and violet.
"Perfect for summoning as many friends as I want."
The earthworm roared in panic as the darkness inside it began to writhe—
—And then the sound of countless clawed things answered back, rising with Selena’s laughter from within.
The next second, hundreds of bony spikes pierced from the inside of the beast, protruding outside.
Claws made of shadowy energy followed, tearing the beast’s stomach apart, causing it to thrash in pain.
"ROARR!!!!!!"
It roared as it felt its whole body being torn apart, and in less than a few seconds, it was torn apart, falling to the ground with a thud.
The only thing that remained in its place was its shredded at and Selena, who was still covered in her susano, and the only difference was that it was smaller now.
She stretched, muttering to herself, "Was I second then? Or did soone else finish before ?"
What she didn’t know was that everyone had killed their opponents at the sa ti, and since the roars echoed at once, no one could tell who was second.
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