Rakna shielded his eyes from the light, divinity permeating the air and splintering the walls. The effects of the spell on Roias could not be seen but the werewolf growled when he felt Sonata rattle in his grip. His Soul Weapon had already marked Roias’ blood, and it was still responding heavily.

While the bouquet of divine energy was still dying down, the werewolf heard something from the pedestal connected to the Terminal. He looked down and saw the screens turn on again. The lights even spread to the floor and walls, crawling upward like a circuit board flaring to life.

Together with this phenomenon, a message was sent to Eye of Symphony. [Entering critical phase. Ninety seconds left,] Ceresta’s voice echoed in Rakna’s head and he clicked his tongue. This should normally have been good news, but the obvious signs would be noticed by Roias.

‘That’s too fucking long…’ He cursed as he did his best to control the Sins. At this rate, Sloth would either knock him out or Pride… might just drive him to do something drastic in order to erase the affront he was facing. Who knew what that would do? Both to himself and the girls.

“Hahaha…” A disembodied laugh echoed in the room and a fog of Pandora’s Curse emerged from within the epicenter of the now dissipated Dark-Light spell. Astraea stepped forward to shield Nyx and Rakna switched from a scythe to a bow.

In a flash, he shot a dozen arrows and they all exploded inside the fog. Amazingly, each of them seemed to have been carrying Inferno Star Energy. It burned the curse like it was combusting gas but it eventually reformed into the shape of Roias.

The Téras’ laugh resounded louder, without a single scratch on his body to be seen. The pair of goddesses frowned when they saw that their spell had been ineffective.

“That can’t be,” Astraea scowled. “This spell should have at least weakened him. Elauanca is known as the Alter Ego of Eternal Night. He couldn’t have possibly come out of that unscathed.”

Rakna’s ears twitched curiously at her words, but he knew better than to focus on that now. Roias on the other hand, eyed the bright Terminal below as his laughter died down.

“I see. You sent your AI to restart the decryption,” he said and calmly caught the werewolf’s fist as it appeared before him in a blur. His flowing aura then manifested around his hand and faster than the eye could see, Rakna’s arm had suddenly been torn off its socket.

However, the werewolf didn’t retreat. With his other hand, he swung Sonata transformed into its One-Handed Sword form, clad in the power of both 10 000 Nights of Severance and Crescent of a Falling Star.

At this point, Roias had stopped smiling and with his foot, he kicked away the blade and his flowing internal art redirected the entirety of the perks’ energy above his head. Immediately after, he used his elbow to strike Rakna’s ribs, followed by another knife hand that got rid of his second arm.

Finally, he finished by pointing his palm at his chest, without even touching him. “[Spiral…]” Roias whispered. “[Tide.]” The water-like force whirled around his arm before bursting through Rakna’s torso. The werewolf flew right into the opposite wall with a stream of blood trailing him.

The Téras dropped the torn arm he was still holding in his left hand and impassively cranked his neck to see an entire horde of necromanced fire elementals. They swarmed him from all sides and self-destructed one after the other. And with each of them, he waved his hands to erase the flames.

When the last elemental detonated, he heard the sound of metal slicing the air and a whip sword whizzed past cheek. He leaned back and glanced back at the source with a frown.

Nyx yanked her weapon and the blade returned and reformed. She then took a Iai stance and with her expression visibly struggling, black and red lightning began to spark around her, before being fused with a dose of divinity and flame-like shadows.

Roias’ eyebrow twitched in surprise as the words that followed, “[Aeterna – Ardent Shadows.]”

A flying slash of Aeter was shot, spewing dark-colored fire. The Téras narrowed his eyes, scoffing and pointing a finger at the attack as if he was a child brandishing an imaginary gun.

“[Drown,]” he uttered and his flowing internal force swirled to the tip of his finger. He then ‘shot’ it without delay. A muffled and deep sound boomed, like a roar at the bottom of the sea, and the slash scattered instantly, taking the form of a river. It then caved in on itself and hit Nyx with the full brunt of a tsunami, sending her to crash on the floor below.

Roias lowered his hand and at the same time, vines grew from everywhere around him and locked him inside a thorny prison.

Astraea zoomed past it and spun her staff, a holy light drawing divine runes in the air. She tossed away one of the hairpins that tied her hair and channeled the inscriptions into it. The accessory expanded into a giant golden sunflower which immediately set its sights on the cage.

“[Sunflower,]” the angel intoned and a pillar of scalding radiation swallowed the vines. Her hand trembled as she felt that Rakna was starting to run low on mana reserves. She bit her lip, forcing her spell to remain as long as possible by expending her personal life force.

However, even that was cut short when the sounds of waves reached her ears. She widened her eyes in shock and the next thing she knew; Roias was next to her. His arm made a beeline for her head and in her mind, she already thought she was dead. Nyx and Rakna were too far away to help in time.

But, against all odds, the air rippled right when the hand was about to behead her. Then, she saw a large fist, with blue skin and webbed fingers, strike against Roias’ arm raised in defense.

Shockingly, the Téras grimaced in what seemed to be pain before his arm was suddenly blown off by what appeared to be several simultaneous shockwaves.

“[Gulon – Lone Pharos,]” a new voice echoed and Astraea saw a strange creature with countless sharp teeth stretch itself in her view, opening its maw wide at Roias. A concentration of more types of energies than she could count shot out immediately and carried the Téras away from her. She swung her head around just in time to see the beam of energy collide with the wall and explode.

On cue, Rakna flew out of the hole he had been buried in, and extended his now regenerated arms outward, somehow dragging two objects into his grasp; the two limbs he had lost.

“Cura, protect them,” the werewolf bellowed neither loudly nor quietly and didn’t waste any time to crush his own lost arms with his grip and then compress them with his remaining mana. A very worrying sound began to be emitted from his gradually clasping fists, the mass of Alkahest matter and Eion being dangerously squashed.

Rakna’s eyes flashed with ire and with now one fist holding a glowing rock of blue Eion, he called Sonata to his other hand and threw the stone. He immediately followed up with a Falling Star and the attack struck the Eion object whilst inside the aftermath of the Gulon’s attack.

Astraea only had the time to witness a blinding blue light before the large anthropomorphic shark, whom she now knew as Cura, grabbed her and carried her to the ground where she was dropped next to a kneeling Nyx. He then raised his living weapon and pointed it upward.

Then, it rumbled. The Eion atom was split and the air in the Terminal Room suddenly combusted and was replaced by bright cyan flames. A devastating shockwave came afterward and compelled even Cura to bend his knees as King Gulon siphoned the flames and repercussions into its mouth.

This lasted for several minutes and the trio endured the heat and charred smell. When it was over, Cura lowered Gulon, who let out an audible burp and licked its lips before reverting into its more bladed state.

Closely after, a demonized werewolf fell to the ground next to them. A part of his fur was burnt off and both his feathered and demonic wings were half-ripped.

“Rakna!” Nyx shouted in concern and he groaned in response. He flipped himself over and clawed at the ground to prop himself up, gritting his teeth as his body regrew its missing parts.

However, the Alkahestic Material ‘stocked’ in his body was already depleted, so it was much slower. Not to mention that his devil horns and wings were shrinking, threatening to disappear at any moment.

“Good to see you, Cura…” The werewolf managed to utter through his grunts.

The shark man shouldered Gulon and indifferently looked back at him, “Same for you, ‘Ranka’. But it doesn’t look like you’re doing too well. You’re not about to die on me before you honor your part of the deal, right?”

“Fuck off…” Rakna retorted and Cura raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the different behavior, but his thoughts were interrupted by the noise of running water.

Everyone raised their eyes to see a stream of Pandora’s Curse flow to the platform of the Terminal and rebuild itself into Roias. But this time, the Téras reappeared with visible injuries; glowing blue scars made by the Eion fire.

“This… alien source of energy you are using, it is aggravatingly effective against our Curse,” Roias uttered as he squinted at his injuries. “I was not expecting a makeshift nuclear bomb made out of your torn limbs, I admit. Nor did I anticipate the involvement of the Shark King.”

“For that, I congratulate you,” he added and his smirk returned full force. He began clapping at a slow and condescending pace and Rakna snarled as he pushed himself back to his feet. He pulled every Cardiac Pill he had and swallowed them without a second thought.

He sensed the familiar warmth, recovering his energy until it turned into pain near his heart and he abruptly lost strength in his body, making him stagger.

Cura frowned gloomily and Roias chuckled.

“Well, even you have limits,” the Téras said in amusement and placed his hands on the console of the Terminal behind him. “Incredible,” he muttered. “A System AI with an unusual autonomy. No wonder it was able to do something as complex as override my disturbance,” he said while some of Pandora’s Curse began to encroach his hand.

Rakna’s eyes widened in realization and Ceres’ nervous voice sounded in his head, [Rakna… what do I do? He’s…]

“It seems you’ve miscalculated this stalling game,” Roias uttered and the black curse spread to the screens. “Though, hiding this show of light would have been complicated regardless. In that case, perhaps it is more sensible to say… that you should have not let me touch this console.”

With that declaration, every screen began to glitch and display warning messages.

“Cura! Stop him!” Rakna yelled urgently.

“Too late,” Roias uttered and the loading stopped once again.

[No, no… no…] The distraught voice of Ceres was relayed and the Terminal shut down.

The werewolf felt a chill down his spine, ‘Ceres!’ He shouted internally and only a desperate chant of denial was repeated to him. “Ceresta!” He roared out loud.

[No… I can’t…] She wasn’t answering him and her tone was getting quieter and more distressed by the second. [Rakna…] She called unstably and it began to mix with static. [I don’t want to--]

White noise overtook her voice and nothing could be heard.

Rakna first froze on the spot. His body wasn’t releasing any sort of spiritual energy, and even his demonization had stopped receding as if it was waiting for something.

“Ceresta,” he called out again with a terribly empty tone. “Answer me, Ceresta,” he tried again and once again, nothing but static was heard until even that was completely gone.

A deafening silence filled the room and the first to break it was King Gulon. The living weapon’s scales rattled as if it was shivering.

Then, a geyser of crimson flames erupted, complemented by the crunching sound of a new pair of horns growing on the werewolf as well as a forked demonic tail joining the lupine appendages.

Wrath befell.