Echoes of the Forsaken.

As the red woman arrived, the course of the battle started to change. She focused on blocking and twisting some of the beast's attacks instead of striking back, giving Gaius more chances to land his blows. The beast was now taking almost twice as many hits as before, suffering more damage than it could heal. If the fight continued like this, the beast would lose soon

The woman's presence was like a storm, her swordsmanship was a sight to behold. With precise, practiced movements, she countered the beast's distant attacks. She also formed air barriers to shield both herself and Gaius. Her defense wasn't perfect, but it slowed the monster's assault. At the same time, she unleashed a relentless barrage of compressed air strikes. Each attack tore through the battlefield, carving deep trenches into the ground and forcing the beast to focus on her, giving Gaius more chances to strike.

Unlike a typical two-against-one battle, they didn't try to trap the creature between them. She was much weaker than both of them, and keeping their formation loose prevented the beast from targeting her directly. The creature roared in defiance, momentarily thrown off balance.

Gaius let out a booming laugh as he saw the tide of battle turning in their favor. He turned to the red-haired woman, a smirk playing on his lips.

"What took you so long, Lanestra?"

She gave a short nod before answering, her voice steady but tinged with exhaustion. "Beast tide at the eastern front. Bavus requested aid."

Gaius's expression shifted slightly at the mention of Duke Bavus. The man ruled the Dormand region, the easternmost territory bordering the White Sea. Beast tides erupted there once or twice every decade, waves of creatures surging in unnatural aggression. Occasionally, a sage beast, a creature of terrifying intelligence and power would appear among them. If two emerged at once, the region's ruler had no choice but to call for reinforcements.

Gaius gave a curt nod, wasting no more time on pleasantries. "I need to get in close. Those tails"

he gestured toward the beast, its metallic appendages glinting in the battlefield's fractured light "will slice me apart if I charge in alone."

Lanestra's lips curled into a lopsided grin. "You want me to play bait?"

"Think of it as a distraction," he said, his own grin widening. "A rather crucial one."

She sighed, rolling her shoulders as if to shake off the weight of exhaustion.

Then, without hesitation, she abandoned her defensive stance and widened the distance between herself and Gaius, making herself an enticing target.

The beast hesitated for a fraction of a second. Its many limbs tensed, coiling like springs preparing to unleash devastation. But it did not lunge at her.

Instead, it twisted violently, trying to force both nobles farther apart.

But the old emperor did not allow it.

With a flick of his wrist, the battlefield shifted—gravity doubled again. The air thickened, the land pressing down like an invisible hand of judgment.

The creature's movements faltered. It would burn through more mana trying to resist, but now, with Lanestra's arrival, Gaius only needed one chance, just a little closer.

Fire users were known for their devastating close-range combat, and Gaius was among the best. Even with a gravity rune at his disposal, he still preferred fire. Unlike lower-ranked runes, high-level runes weren't just elemental—they embodied far more, making even a so-called "weaker" element just as powerful as the strongest ones.

The beast was forced to defend, struggling against the crushing weight. But even at this rate, the battle could take hours to end. And the other nobles didn't have that much time. They might be able to hold the wolf for a few hours at this rate, but there would be deaths.

Gaius shifted tactics. If he couldn't close the distance, then he would bring destruction from afar.

He lifted both hands, then slammed them together.

The battlefield fell silent, and then, everything burned.

The rocks. The water. The trees. Even the air itself ignited in a violent inferno. Flames didn't just consume the land; they wove through existence itself, turning the world into a searing nightmare.

This wasn't normal fire. It burned even what should not burn.

The time mana surrounding the beast flickered, then began to disintegrate, devoured by the relentless flames.

The beast howled as fire engulfed it completely, It didn't understand: where had this fire come from?

Not just its body, but its very insides felt like they were burning. Even its internal organs rebelled, as if trying to combust from within.

If not for the natural resistance sovereigns had against external forces, it would have....

Viser and Delilah moved quickly. Viser raised more earth walls, reinforcing the shelter, while Delilah flooded the interior with ice mana to keep the temperature down.

Gaius's spell had a radius of nearly 150 miles. It hadn't reached them directly, but its sheer heat had. Everything outside the shelter was melting.

The shelter itself began to break down, its walls liquefying under the heat. But Viser worked relentlessly, replacing each melting layer with fresh stone, while Delilah kept the air inside cool enough to survive.

Nero spun toward Roan, screaming, "What the hell are you waiting for? Help her!"

Roan, pale and shaking, scrambled to his feet and joined Delilah in cooling the air. Like her, he wielded an ice rune, but even with both of them working together, the heat was rising slowly.

The only one here without an awakened Eny was Flavia, and she could do nothing but watch as their efforts barely kept the shelter livable.

The screens displaying the outside world showed only red and orange now, flooded with fire.

Everything between Gaius and the shelter had become a sea of molten rock.

Nemzus swallowed hard. "What!… what the hell is that?"

Viser's tone was heavy. "That… is the spell he's feared for the most."

"The first time he used it was approximately 230 years ago," he continued. "Half a million people died. Most of them were mages and ascendants… yet still…"

A heavy silence settled over them. The weight of those words pressed into their bones, more suffocating than the heat.

"It's a Level 5 spell known as The Burden of Existence, a fusion of fire and gravity, destruction and weight, all woven together through an intricate blend of at least three different high runic languages. It burns anything that has a physical weight."

Viser exhaled sharply. "They say Gaius spent over fifty years perfecting it."

Outside, the battlefield remained engulfed in flames. The beast, trapped under the crushing gravity, could do nothing as the fire consumed it whole.

It was clear now, the panther was running out of time.

With a furious roar, it unleashed its domain. A wave of power erupted outward, stretching across the battlefield and colliding with Gaius's spell. In an instant, the world shifted.

Everything slowed. The raging fire. The melting ground. The searing heat.

But most importantly, Gaius and Lanestra.

Gaius felt it instantly. His movements dulled, his speed stolen. The battlefield around him crawled as if time itself had thickened, dragging everything into a suffocating stillness.

Everything except the beast.

The change was instant. The creature's rear tails shot out, elongating unnaturally as they shimmered with a metallic glow, writhing like living serpents. Its legs blurred, moving so fast they left only flickering afterimages in their wake.

It wasn't just that everything else had slowed, it had also made itself faster.

The old emperor's expression darkened. His face twisted, the deep lines of age carving even deeper as understanding set in.

The battle had shifted. He hadn't expected this, and he did not like it.

The beast moved like a phantom, weaving between them at impossible speeds. Its tails lashed out, striking from every angle, forcing Gaius to totally stop his devastating spell. He could no longer focus on offense. Defense was all that mattered now.

Without hesitation, he reached into the air, and a blade materialized in his grasp, wreathed in golden flames and humming with raw power

The moment it appeared, he was already in motion. Slashes, parries, counters, each strike met writhing darkness, sending sparks flying as metal clashed against the creature's unnatural speed.

The battle collapsed into brutal close quarters. Three tails lashed out, striking from all directions, too fast for the eye to follow. Gaius was trapped, his focus split, not just on himself but on protecting Lanestra as well.

She was struggling. The time distortion weighed on her far more than it did on him. He could feel it, the sluggishness in her movements, the widening gap between them. But Gaius had an advantage. It wasn't just his Sovereign nature, he had countered some of the spell's effects by manipulating gravity. Time and gravity, two forces forever entwined. It was the only reason he could still fight.

Gaius screamed at her, "One to two minutes!" He parried one of the lashing tails, sparks flying as his blade met the writhing appendage. "Just stay close! He can't keep this up for long!"

And he was right.

The beast wasn't just slowing time around them, it was stretching its influence for hundreds of miles behind them. If it let go, they could simply step out of its reach. It had trapped itself in its own spell.

They clashed again. And again. The battlefield was chaos, craters, flames, debris strewn in every direction. The air itself vibrated with raw energy, a storm of destruction contained within their fight.

Nearly a minute passed.

Far from the battlefield, Delilah and Roan finally exhaled. With Gaius's spell no longer warping the world, they could finally breathe. The temperature had stopped rising, the crushing force of his gravity spell fading.

Everyone in the chamber watched, transfixed. The end was near. And they all knew it.

The beast's mana was dropping fast. Gaius grinned as he felt the time distortion weaken around them. It wouldn't last much longer. But just as victory seemed within reach, the creature revealed one last trick.

Flames ignited.

Its mouth opened wide, and between its fangs, a sphere of compressed fire formed, deep red, swirling with chaotic energy. It pulsed once, then shot forward at an insane speed.

Gaius barely had time to react. He shifted, ready to hurl one of his golden swords to intercept it, but the fireball reached them first. With no choice, he moved, distancing himself from Lanestra as he brought his blade down on the attack.

A deafening explosion.

Flames roared, a blinding inferno swallowing the battlefield. Heat surged around him, but strangely… the damage was minimal.

What?

All that buildup, all that power, for something so weak? He barely had time to process it before turning, ready to regroup.

And then he saw her.

Lanestra stood frozen. Her blue eyes, once fierce and full of fire, now wide with disbelief… and denial.

Two of the monster's tails had impaled her.

One through the stomach.

The other through her ribs.

She lifted her head, her gaze meeting Gaius's as blood spilled from her lips. "Save m....

A sickening slice.

She was torn apart.

Three pieces.

Her body fell in slow motion due to the time effects.

Dramatic, Nero thought.

That moment fell into something almost cruel. Blood arced through the air like crimson petals, beautiful in its horror.

The beast loomed behind her, only meters from Gaius.

And it wasn't done.

The same tails that had killed Lanestra were already whipping toward him.

His heart pounded, but there was no time for grief.

Because she had given him exactly what he needed.

A chance.

The chance he had been waiting for from the very beginning.

A wild grin spread across his face.

Gaius burned almost third of his mana in an instant, channeling the raw essence of his fire rune, consumption.

It was a reckless move, a costly one-but it was necessary. And with that sacrifice, even the time started burning.

The effect was immediate.

The beast hesitated, its slitted eyes flickering with confusion. The emperor was suddenly much closer than he should have been. That shouldn't have been possible.

The domain that slowed time was still active, yet somehow, the gap between them had vanished in an instant.

Realizing the danger, the monster lashed out, its black tails slicing through the air even faster than before.

Gaius didn't dodge. He didn't even flinch.

He let one of the beast's tails cut clean through his left forearm, blood spraying in a crimson arc. His white shirt was painted red.

But he didn't care.

That gave him an opening.

The moment the tail pierced him, he used the pain, the force, the proximity. His remaining hand snapped forward, palm open. A spear materialized in his grasp, roaring with heat, its very presence distorting the air around it.

The beast barely had time to react before Gaius wrenched his arm back and threw.

The spear shot forward like a comet.

The panther twisted, trying to dodge, but from that distance, it was impossible.

A deafening explosion.

The spear buried itself deep into the beast's stomach.

The creature convulsed, its screech shaking the ground beneath them. Half of its torso was engulfed in searing flames, spreading mercilessly.

Its organs burned. Its right leg crumbled into charred ash. Its very essence fought against the fire, but this was no ordinary blaze.

The flames refused to stop.

They consumed its flesh. They consumed time, mana—anything that could be fuel.

They sought to destroy whatever was left of it.

It was as if the fire had a will of its own, a hunger that refused to fade.

The monster howled, thrashing wildly. Its tails whipped around, smashing ruins, carving trenches into the earth.

But it didn't matter.

It had only one option left.

Run.