The Beast didn’t hesitate or observe.
It attacked imdiately with speed and precision that made "fast" seem inadequate as a description.
WHOOSH!
The closest warrior—a young specialist nad Kael—died before anyone could react.
The Beast’s claws, constructed from solidified Soul Energy, tore through his Grade 8 defensive artifacts like they were paper, then shredded his physical body with similar ease.
Kael’s scream cut off as his consciousness was consud directly, the Soul Art attack destroying him at fundantal levels that prevented even mystical resurrection.
"Scatter!" Rey commanded, recognizing that maintaining formation against this opponent was suicide. "Mobile combat! Don’t let it pin anyone down!"
The team dispersed imdiately, warriors splitting into smaller groups that presented multiple targets rather than concentrating in easily destroyed clusters.
Lyra launched the first counterattack, her decades of experience translating into aggressive offense despite obvious fear.
"Spirit Art, Inferno Technique, Sequence #5: Pyre Mantle!"
Flas designed to bypass normal resistance erupted toward the Divine Beast, their heat intense enough to warp the air itself.
The Beast moved through the fire without slowing, its Soul Energy construction completely immune to elental damage. The flas washed over its form harmlessly, as effective as throwing water at a hurricane.
’Physical and elental attacks won’t work,’ Rey calculated rapidly. ’It’s constructed from pure Soul Energy—only Soul Art or techniques operating at similar conceptual levels will damage it.’
But most of his team specialized in Spirit Art or physical combat.
Only a handful possessed Soul Art capabilities, and none had mastered techniques at sequences high enough to threaten a Divine-tier construct.
The Beast killed its second victim—another young warrior who’d attempted close-range assault with an enchanted weapon. The blade connected but passed through the Beast’s form without resistance, as though striking empty air. Then the Beast’s counterattack ca, claws tearing through flesh and soul simultaneously.
"Soul Art practitioners, concentrate attacks!" Rey commanded, moving to engage the Beast directly. "Everyone else, create openings and stay mobile!"
He activated one of his Tier 10 Artifacts—a ring designed to amplify Soul Art techniques through crystalline resonance matrices.
Then he committed significant Ether to a High-Sequence attack using his scrolls as a catalyst.
"Soul Art, Dominion Technique, Sequence #3: Consciousness Assault!"
The technique targeted the Beast’s animating intelligence directly, attempting to disrupt the mystical structures that gave it independent operation.
The Beast recoiled for the first ti, its glowing eyes flickering as Rey’s attack damaged sothing essential to its function.
But it recovered within monts, its connection to its summoner providing continuous reinforcent that repaired damage faster than Rey could inflict it.
’It’s being maintained remotely,’ Rey realized. ’As long as the summoner feeds it power, it can regenerate from any injury that doesn’t destroy it completely.’
The Beast resud its assault, now recognizing Rey as the primary threat and targeting him specifically.
Rey dodged with enhanced speed, his three years of Labyrinth combat experience allowing him to predict and avoid strikes that would have killed him instantly. But several attacks got through despite his capabilities, Soul Energy claws scoring wounds that felt like they were burning his consciousness itself.
Elara moved to support him, her own Soul Art creating defensive barriers that bought Rey precious seconds to reposition.
"Soul Art, Fortress Technique, Sequence #6: Impenetrable Will!"
Her consciousness beca a shield protecting Rey’s position, forcing the Beast to divert its attacks toward breaking through her defenses rather than pursuing its primary target.
The Beast’s next assault shattered Elara’s defenses and struck her directly.
She scread as Soul Energy tore into her consciousness, the damage operating at levels that physical healing couldn’t address.
Rey caught her as she collapsed, her purple eyes showing confusion and pain that cut through his emotional detachnt despite his best efforts.
"Stay down," he commanded, positioning himself between her and the Beast. "You’ve done enough."
The creature had killed four warriors now and wounded three others, including Elara. More than half his team was either dead or combat-ineffective, and they’d barely slowed the Divine Beast’s assault.
Rey needed to find its weakness imdiately, or everyone would die.
He analyzed the Beast’s structure with enhanced perception, studying the way its Soul Energy circulated through its form, noting patterns in its movent and attack sequences.
There—a point at the center of its mass where energy is concentrated more densely than elsewhere. Not a physical heart, but the mystical equivalent—the core that coordinated all its distributed consciousness into unified action.
’If I can destroy that core completely, faster than the summoner can repair it, the entire Beast will collapse,’ Rey concluded.
But reaching that core required getting close enough for a concentrated attack while surviving the defensive responses that proximity would trigger.
Rey activated his amplification gauntlet and committed everything to a single devastating strike.
"Chaos Art, Entropy Technique, Sequence #1: Final Decay!"
He rushed directly toward the Beast, accepting that several attacks would connect before he could execute his technique. Soul Energy claws tore into him, creating wounds that would have killed ordinary practitioners instantly.
But Rey pushed through the damage, his enhanced body and determination allowing him to reach striking distance despite catastrophic injuries.
Then he unleashed Sequence #1 entropy directly into the Beast’s core.
The technique operated on principles that transcended normal mystical combat. This wasn’t damage that could be healed or regenerated—this was the concept of inevitable decay imposed on reality itself at the target’s fundantal level.
The Beast’s core began collapsing, its mystical structure unable to maintain coherence against entropy operating at such high sequence. The concentrated Soul Energy that held its consciousness together started dispersing irreversibly.
The Beast thrashed in what might have been pain or simply systemic failure, its attacks becoming wild and uncoordinated as its animating intelligence fragnted.
Lyra and the remaining combat-capable warriors seized the opportunity, launching coordinated assaults that exploited the Beast’s compromised state.
Within several more minutes, the Divine Beast collapsed entirely, its form dispersing into harmless ambient Soul Energy.
Silence fell over the survivors.
Rey stood in the aftermath, breathing heavily from exertion and injury, his body showing wounds that would require extensive treatnt. Around him, the remnants of his team assessed their losses with expressions showing shock and grief.
Four dead. Three critically wounded including Elara. Another two with injuries severe enough to impair combat capability.
More than half the expedition team was casualties, their triumphant return transford into catastrophe by a single encounter.
And the implications were worse than the imdiate casualties.
"That wasn’t a naturally occurring threat," Rey stated, his voice tight with controlled tension. "A Divine Beast of that level requires a High Sequence Soul Art to summon. Soone with Devil-tier capabilities manifested that creature deliberately."
Lyra’s expression showed the sa realization dawning. "You’re saying soone sent that thing specifically to hunt us?"
"Or to investigate the uncharted regions generally," Rey replied.
"Either way, it ans external forces are now aware of activity in the Labyrinth’s depths. And if they can summon Divine Beasts..."
He didn’t need to finish the thought. Everyone understood the implication.
If soone with such capabilities was investigating the Labyrinth, and if they’d sent a Divine Beast toward the Sanctuary’s general direction, then the settlent itself might be in imminent danger.
Rey looked at his injured team, calculating rapidly.
They were in no condition for additional combat, but they also couldn’t afford to rest if the Sanctuary faced threats.
"We need to move," Rey commanded, helping Elara to her feet despite his own injuries. "Now. Even wounded, even exhausted—we have to reach the Sanctuary and warn them about what’s coming."
"What about the dead?" a warrior asked quietly, gesturing to the four bodies they’d normally recover and return for proper funeral rites.
Rey’s expression hardened. "We leave them. The living take priority, and we don’t have ti for recovery operations. Move!"
The team complied despite obvious reluctance, gathering their critically wounded and beginning the forced march back toward the Sanctuary.
Rey moved with them, his mind racing through implications and contingencies.
Soone had summoned a Divine Beast.
Soone was investigating the Labyrinth with capabilities that exceeded anything the Nephilim could counter. And that soone might now be aware of the Sanctuary’s existence and location.
Everything Rey had built over three years—his carefully cultivated reputation, his strategic positioning within the Nephilim society, his plans for systematic exploration and eventual confrontation with the Prince of Darkness—all of it was suddenly threatened by an unexpected variable he hadn’t accounted for.
’Who?’ Rey thought furiously. ’Who has the capabilities and interest in investigating the Labyrinth? What triggered this attention? What did I do that drew this level of scrutiny?’
The Divine-grade armor?
Rey’s blood ran cold as the realization hit him.
He’d displaced a Divine-grade artifact from its millennia-old position. If that artifact had been part of so ancient detection system, moving it could have triggered alarms that reached all the way to the surface.
And if the authorities were now investigating what had caused those alarms—
They would find the Sanctuary.
They would find the Nephilim.
They would find Rey.
And everything would unravel.
"Faster!" Rey commanded, pushing the team to greater speed despite their injuries. "The Sanctuary is in danger! We have to reach them before—"
He didn’t finish the sentence.
But everyone understood the urgency in his voice.
They ran through the Labyrinth’s passages, wounded and exhausted and terrified, racing against threats they couldn’t see but knew were coming.
Behind them, four bodies lay abandoned in the darkness.
Ahead, the Sanctuary waited—unaware that its existence had been discovered and that forces far beyond its capability to resist were now converging on its location.
Rey ran faster, ignoring the pain from his injuries, his mind calculating frantically for any strategy that might salvage the situation.
But for the first ti since entering the Labyrinth three years ago, he felt genuine fear.
Not for himself, but for the carefully constructed plans that were collapsing around him.
’Damnit!!!’
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