It was another failed attempt, but he didn't care anymore.

Gabriel held his lance firm, stopping the slick elven sword pushing against his guard. The Elf clearly wanted to bisect him, but, of course, he wouldn't allow it.

Her techniques were not even remotely as crude as Gabriel's, probably even in The Memory. She had been installed with regards to the time's actual techniques. The Memory itself was a gold mine for training.

The girl's eyes wavered but still held his gaze.

Gabriel made her use up all her Skills. Even her stored Energy was completely emptied.

Gabriel instead had discovered something very useful in the previous day as he fought against the officers he wanted to bend. He could strain Burst Attack's effects.

He had discovered it by chance. As long as he remained in the same position and strained his muscles, he could retain the initial Power and Alacrity increase of Burst Attack.

It did wonder for his strength, but it was a nightmare for his muscles. They burned, stretching to the limit, stretched to tearing. He could hear them creak and shift slightly about as he kept sustaining the boost. But it was well worth it.

As she strained her forces, her Energy was entirely spent, he started immediately having the upper hand in a Power contest. Using Meridians, plus Burst Attack, he was gushing out around 87 points of Power, which meant that Meridians applied before the Skill, successfully doubling his Power if flared at their maximum output.

By the time Meridians Energy was about to end, Gabriel overpowered the Elf, bringing her to the ground with a fast spear-butt uppercut to her chin. She flew slightly up, receiving the full brunt of the attack. Ending up on her back, confused.

Gabriel was on top of her in a moment. With the last shred of his Energy, his feet blocked her arms, keeping up the power with another muscle-wrenching abuse of Burst Attack. The blade of the Sk'rayr spear was pointing at her throat.

The nameless elvish girl was immobile; there was no fear in her eyes if not a tremendous, unwavering will to not give in.

Spear in hand, Gabriel locked eyes with her. His brown eyes drilled into her blue globes; it was the moment. With violence instead of the finesse he had grown to use on every officer, besides the first one, when he created his platoon of followers, his bending-tainted, invisible Mana waves barged on her with all the strength he could muster.

He could feel them like never before. They enveloped her shattered Aura, which weakened, had retired inside of her core-soul where it seemed to reside, then they insinuated inside of her conscience, while at the same times, tendrils made of Spirit tried to escape from his own liquid fiery Soul, successfully forming but feigning to leave the confines of his body, they would have drilled into her own Soul if they managed to burst out. Still, he had long since understood that something was barring their passage, once again something related to the Anchor, another Perk for sure. Gabriel had grown very tired of these lackings he was trying to solve on his own, but that kept on piling up because of the stupid systems that governed them, but it was not the right time to think about them. He would have time for it once he left the damn place.

Fueled by his very own toxicity, driven by his stress, his rage at the mayor, fueled by wrath toward his situation, he pushed his will over the iron fortress, which was the old yet young-looking maiden under his feet, until something shattered.

It wasn't her will that broke. It was something from him, something profound, something… restraining.

It was his own self-restraint that shattered.

Like a broken dam, his desire to dominate the being in front of him rushed forth. Then many things flipped consecutively.

His body flipped in the air as his strength failed him, and she threw him on the ground; his Mana output got drastically reduced, from hundreds of points to tens, to sustain his magic, and what started really mattering instead of it became his very will.

Gabriel was currently on the ground. The girl had snatched the spear from his hands and was about to stab down on him.

How he had understood the bending up to that moment, inverted. Now pure willpower started functioning as the fuel, Mana, as the mean.

Gabriel's view fell forward. He could feel himself fall toward the Elf's eyes, digging into them as he descended toward an abyss of incomprehensible images one after the other compressed and ran past all around him as if he was a speeding car crossing highway at two hundred miles per hour. Focusing, he could feel the world around grow immobile to bend to his desires, images grow still, letting his gaze upon them.

Those were memories, but memories of something else. They were not memories of an elvish girl. Those were memories of an adult Feldur, then a tiny Feldur, maybe a child, then then the face of a Feldur woman in what looked like, An orgasm?

An Armored Tyrant looked at his hands, in the void of empty space, sealed by an untold amount of time. His hand gripped tight, so tight that he could see his clawed fingers dig into the armor of his own palm, cracking it.

He was 'devastation' itself. He saw eroded corpses, bodies enveloped in dark flames, someone despairing for grief.

Gabriel felt more than saw, a Tyrant… it cried on the pavement of an empty chamber, the Challenge chamber.

Then he saw something else. He saw a giantess, a beautiful giantess despairing over somebody's death. Still, her features were not entirely recognizable; they were partially hidden from the view in front of him, the torso of a squirming giant as it was about to be torn open like a ragdoll, and finally a flash of flames heading toward him, fast, so fast that it did not have the time to escape not even with his teleport. Gabriel could feel the Tyrant's intent.

It knew he did not have enough Mana to teleport away from that anymore, he cast his shroud, hoping to absorb part of the impact, but he would never act in time. The last thing that he could see was the face of a bob-cut-haired giant with a fragmented sword, aiming himself at it like a shooting star.

Sigmund?

Gabriel left this world of memories as fast as he had gotten inside of it. His body rashed backward, escaping from the Elf's memories and returning back to his body.

The Elf, immobile on top of him, had froth at her mouth, her eyes were rolled back in her head, her muscle and veins seemed about to pop for the extravagant amount of strength she was using to grip Gabriel's spear.

The young man was taken aback. He thought he had spent hours inside of those memories, while probably only a few seconds had passed.

He noticed that he was still emitting his bend- No, it is safe to call it to control now, I guess. Control-tainted Mana thoughts at her, and he was willingly locking her into place.

That last vision shook Gabriel. He remembered them all rather clearly for the moment, but the last one… how could he have seen Sigmund? If those were the mayor's memories, and he was blocked here over the previous thirteen millennia, then… Then how the fuck did he have memories of Sigmund, and… and the Giantess… Dustille!

The beautiful blonde Giantess with grief on her face couldn't else but be Dustille.

First Dustille, then Sigmund, both in the same memory? That could not be a coincidence.

What the hell is going on here? He could leave this place? He could go out there? Why lie? Why train me? Gabriel paced around, evading magic missiles and projectiles here and there.

I have no idea what's his game, I knew it was fishy, but I no longer have any idea. What should I do? Liz?

But his lizard couldn't help him more, though she communicated something far more important than any half-assed answer or theory could give. She made him calm and focused on his training instead.

Gabriel let himself drop on the floor, regularizing his breathing to think more rationally.

As he breathed in and out slowly, he came to notice the changes in his Anchor Page, but most notably in his worldview.

Element alignment: Dark - Complete.

Max synchronization.

Something had fundamentally changed in him. He felt… new, boundless, open, unrestrained.

But there was nothing new about him, whether physically or on his Anchor Page. Nothing had changed, nothing, if not his mental state.

Focusing on his Spirit Sight, which always faded in the background when he didn't need it or and which only appeared when he discovered something new, he had a hunch on what to really look at, something which Analyze failed to check, his Soul.

In the center of his thorax, the goblet of liquid flames did not feel different in the slightest. He tried forming the tendrils, but they failed. Without a target, he couldn't move his spirit as he wanted. It only did so automatically because how his bending worked had been copy-pasted from the Glory of Kings. Since his assault copied that of the monster, he had managed to replicate the process at heart. For that very reason, the tendrils of spirit formed without the need of any directives from him, as if it was an automatic reflex, muscle memory.

Yet, if he wished for them to act, not having a Perk for it, they did not do anything.

But if it wasn't that, what had changed inside of him? After a couple of hours of introspection, nothing came to mind.

Meanwhile, the girl had long since fainted when he let go of his bending, and when he got up to build his platoon, he noticed that he was far too late to have any significant impact on the battle. Gabriel tsked, wishing for The Memory to restart but not wishing to die, he knew it was impossible, yet something at the back of his mind said, 'why not'?

Gabriel looked at Liz for confirmation? Was that gut feeling he had, right?

If I managed to get inside the girl's mind, which in reality was the mayor's mind, who says I cannot govern this construct made of memory?

He knew at that moment what the real objective was. It's just like with the previous phase, isn't it? I just needed to reach the correct mental state; this is the same. I was never meant to beat The Memory. Hell, it probably is made to be unbeatable, precisely like the previous training...

Gabriel smiled. Yet, there was something he wanted to try first.

Fuck, I've got unlimited Mana. I can beat that thing.

Before doing so, though, Gabriel prepared. He selected a target and started recreating the process that worked with the girl, it took a couple of times before he managed to correctly recreate it, but soon, target after target, it became easier to replicate and even more accustomed to it.

The process would require obscene amounts of Mana, but he had unlimited Mana at his disposal. In reality, at least at his level, what he was doing would be impossible to replicate if his Mana didn't reach the four digits. However, he could feel that if he had access to his control of Spirit, the Mana part would require much less Mana. The process had already lessened its original cost in Mana to a tenth, yet he noticed that it was much more mentally straining. He was quickly growing accustomed to that too.

After a few hours, Gabriel had trained as much as possible and improved as much as he thought was possible for the day. The greedy hog inside of him screamed for him to take advantage of the situation, stay and learn as much as possible, and even switch to some other discipline, let himself gaze at the secrets hidden inside The Memory.

Yet, he had taken his decision.

With a small army in tow to cover for him, Gabriel directed at the closest Glory of Kings.

After it had finished with its current enemy, which had driven his own sword inside of its own brain, the Glory eyed Gabriel, and they both came to a standstill.

This is it.

On his right shoulder sat an overgrown Lizard. She barely fit and had to curve like a cat not to lose her balance. Behind them followed his army. All kinds of spells and defensive buffs he did not understand had been placed on him. Because in the end, even mages had easily kneeled to him, the only ones on whom the bending did not work in the slightest had remained the white tunics healers. He didn't even try anymore, they were void itself when he managed to pierce their defenses, and everything he did to them did not take hold.

The Glory emitted a weird, low screech at him, almost a hiss. He had rarely heard it during his time there, but its meaning was clear; it was challenging him.

Turning toward him, the creature, his black eye sockets in contrast with his blood-colored and stretched frame, made for a creature of nightmare. It started the assault the very next moment.

Gabriel was ready, maybe not as prepared as he thought he was, but the assault was something he was used to.

It came with the strength of a meteor crashing down on his skull.

All around him turned into darkness. In barely an instant, the creature had already started drilling into him. There was no wall of Aura protecting him, so the barrage of tainted-Mana got him, since the start, from all directions at once.

A part of him could feel his own fingers digging inside his leather shirt.

I should carve my heart out. It's only right if I did so. Gabriel repeated the phrase a few times before he realized what was going on.

Or maybe not? His clawing started showing restraint, weakness.

Definitely not. What the fuck! I've let him push me to this point already?

Following the realization was a surge of will coming straight from the deepest part of his mind, or maybe his Soul, he was not sure anymore.

It sprouted from inside of him, pushing out the blackness, which was the creature's will. Gabriel's world reclaimed its original colors. The creature, seemingly unfazed, restarted his mental assault with an increased drive.

Gabriel could easily see the monster's tendril of spirit trying to drill a hole inside of his Soul with his Spirit Sight, but he could not even feel it. Until his mind stood, his spirit could not be broken or controlled. So, grinning, Gabriel said, "Is it finally my turn? Fucking cheater." But most of it was bravado; there was a slight tremble in his voice, it was only natural, only to suppress that attack he had used hundreds of points of Mana.

His control-tainted Mana washed over the creature, which thankfully had no Aura protecting him, and Gabriel's first assault on the Glory of King, feller of many, ruin of Champions and ender of Heralds.

There seemed to be no breaking the creature's will.

As the two kept trying to overpower each other, it was clear that it was starting to be a contest of Mana, Gabriel would win, but it would not give him the satisfaction he needed if it went so.

On his side, the creature consumed one-hundredth of Gabriel's Mana, its control and will so perfect and powerful, and probably Skill-aided, that if it had been a real contest, Gabriel would have simply had no real way to face such an enemy. He dreaded the very thought of just encountering such a beast in real life.

I don't want to win, not like this…

But as much as he told himself that, his will was simply not enough to break through the savagery of the monster.

The savagery…

Of course!

I need to change my approach. To face this bastard, I must become like him, carnage itself!

Closing his eyes, Gabriel found what he had to do, what he had to turn into to best it.

I just hope there's turning back from this…

He opened the door he had closed since the previous training.

A desire for murder, for pain, for wickedness, malice, nastiness, revenge, fire, torture, death, it all overflowed.

At that very moment, his required amount of Mana was cut to a tenth once more. Simultaneously, the power pressing on the monster grew at almost the same intensity the Glory could express.

A wicked grin had appeared on Gabriel's mouth. Not enough!? Let's turn you into fucking paste!

The very soulscape started warping as another immensely powerful wave of carnage-tainted Mana washed over the monster, colliding onto it with the metaphorical strength of the mass of the whole of Earth's waters merged together.

The immense surge of will driven Mana-wave hit the creature from the front. The power easily spilled over and at the monster's side.

All around the creature and behind it, monsters and sentients started killing themselves in a gory massacre.

The wave flushed further, dispersing its power on the ground and in the sky. If Gabriel could notice what was happening around him, he would have not only been surprised but probably dropped out of his combat in a startle.

The Memory itself, patches of it, started fizzling out of existence, leaving emptiness behind.

Gabriel could not know. He pushed further, a burst of crazed laughter leaving his mouth as the monster closed back in itself, falling back on his attack.

Gabriel was winning. He knew that keeping that rhythm up would end allow him to access the monster's mind in a matter of seconds; still… he increased the power once more, drilling inside of the creature, barging into him with all his strength.

The world around him brightened up, and innumerable images surrounded him.

***

"What the fuck is going on!?" Nastia shouted, running out of the tent, followed by Jiao Liu.

Nastia and Jiao were two beautiful girls and dressed very much alike, or maybe it was that Nastia wanted to follow on her path, including her armor and battle style, though where Jiao Liu wore a rosy, armored dress, Nastia covered herself in violet.

Nastia couldn't help but frown at the sight of the battle.

There was utter chaos outside, on the battlefield.

People were confused, everyone screamed or laughed, some asked questions which nobody could answer.

Soon at her side, joined an equally puzzled Theor, the old giant scratched his salt and pepper head.

Nadiya had left too, gazing over the scene, her almost always closed eyes couldn't believe what she was looking at...

***

The wolf sat on the peak of the mountain. On top of his back sat Olivia Wanderlust. They had been in hiding ever since their plan had been put into action, or after they let him, Darte, know about their plans.

Looking over the scene with Olivia, the traitor, the boy smiled content.

"It's them," Darte was radiating eagerness.

He crouched by Dustille, it had taken them days of careful search, but they had finally managed to track them down.

Darte had told her about what he heard from them and about what he believed was really going on, but she did not really care about Heralds or such. She needed to fix their Dungeon. Her Seer Disposition told her as much.

Yet, something was really afoot, over the lake. Dustille and Darte had left before the attack commenced, but the Giantess wanted to return. The rest of her Party, those who had not switched out, needed her. The Party was everything. She had left them for two days already to help Darte, but the Tyrant's attack would start at any moment, or so she thought until… Before they left, she felt that the attack they were bound to receive would mean nothing against what would happen soon after that.

She had to follow Darte. As much as she felt she had to stay, she needed to go with him.

While she mused with what-ifs, Darte spoke.

"Listen, Dustille, that girl over there is… unlike anything I've ever seen, she's clearly just a level 27 Magi-Healer, but there's something behind that smug face that doesn't make me comfortable. Do your abilities tell you something else?"

Dustille looked back at her. She focused her Far Sight on the girl, first magnifying her details, the unnaturally green hair waving in the wind, green eyes shining like torches. After she had successfully ingrained herself in her Far Sight, Dustille used True Vision.

At first, nothing much came into play. The Giantess could see the contents of her bag, the skin beyond her clothes…" But it was not enough, she forced her Affinity bound Seer Disposition Magic Skill on her, hoping to gauge at least the directions her thoughts were taking when...Dustille jumped backward.

"What?" A surprised Darte asked.

"That's not possible!"

"What is it!?" He asked, gripping her pinky and ring-finger, slightly shaking her out of her stupor.

"There are two people in there…" she said.

"Two people…" Darte felt silent for a moment, his gaze wandered to the ground, before raising up, then he seemed to have been struck with thunder when he realized something.

"Oh, God…" his hands went to his face, rubbing it in desperation.

"What is it!?" She asked.

Darte shook his head. "That's not good, we need to retreat, because…" he pointed his finger in the distance, toward the girl and the spirit wolf, "She's a fucking vessel…"

Then the earth rumbled, they both turned behind, but only Dustille could correctly guess the direction from which the violent vibrations came from.

What is that?

She could feel continuous thunderous assaults to the ground coming from the Hole, where the Tyrants generated, and it moved in a straight line. The powerful vibrations proceeded from the Hole toward the lake at a fast pace.

I need to see it.

"I'm sorry Darte, but I need to see what is going on."

Without waiting for an answer, Dustille got out of their hiding place in a ravine of one of the many peaks, close to the one on which Olivia and Crystal were standing, and quickly ran atop of a rise.

The view opened up in front of her; of course, Enhanced Senses were not enough to see from there, but Far Sight made it possible once again.

As her gaze ran through the haze over the forest, passing it by, it quickly reached the clear lands of the plains. And there she saw it.

The fifty feet tall Armored Tyrant with a crown on its head, shot like a meteor toward the lake.

The blood froze in her veins at that sight.

It's gonna be a massacre… I need to warn them!

But… something was weird, why wasn't he teleporting?

The traps have triggered already?

Her gaze moved toward the main battlefield. A field littered with Tyrants' remains presented for her, a Paragon Tyrant with his own arm sticking in its brains stood, dead, in front of the raid troops.

Just… what…

It was too late. The space magic disabling effect lasted only for a couple of minutes, when out of the blue, her vision still on the raid location was invaded by the body of the giant monster. There wasn't anything more she could do.

"RUN!" She couldn't help but scream uselessly.