For a few impossible seconds, the world stopped breathing.

The ruins glowed with a faint, molten hue — the last light of the fires Albrecht had left behind. Every ember drifted upward, weightless, like sparks drawn toward something divine.

The Third and Fourth Pillars stood opposite him, their synchronized mana still twisting the air into violet and crimson waves. Yet even they hesitated, their combined pressure flickering beneath the weight of his presence.

Selene felt her knees weaken just standing near him. Noir's shadow form trembled against the heat, the black of her fur now reflecting gold.

Noel exhaled slowly, eyes fixed on his father's back. 'I've seen him fight before... but never like this.'

Albrecht didn't speak. His eyes were sharp, steady — the gaze of a man who had carried too many battles and never once bowed.

Then he drove his sword into the ground with a dull clang. The sound rippled through the ruins, and every fragment of light bent toward him.

The Fourth Pillar broke the silence first, his tone sharp but amused. "You again. So you survived the monsters."

Albrecht didn't look impressed. He brushed ash from his shoulder, the faintest smirk tugging at his mouth. "After thirty years, it's starting to feel like routine."

The Third Pillar tilted her head, eyes narrowing. "Still standing, even after cutting through all of them…"

"Still talking when you should be running." Albrecht replied evenly. His voice carried through the heat, deep and steady.

The siblings exchanged a glance — a brief spark of tension before both raised their hands, violet and crimson mana igniting around them once more.

"Then let's end the routine," the Fourth said, his blade flashing to life.

The world ignited.

Golden flame met crimson and violet in an instant — no signal, no warning. The impact was deafening, like thunder trapped inside stone.

Albrecht's first step cracked the floor beneath him; his swing shattered the air. The fire that followed wasn't wild — it was precise, compressed, a blade of sunlight cleaving straight through the battlefield.

The Fourth Pillar moved to meet it, his sword sweeping across in a counter arc. The collision birthed a shockwave that bent the walls outward. Lava veins rippled through the ground, glowing red beneath fractured stone.

The Third Pillar vanished into violet blur, her mana twisting gravity itself. The light around her warped — heat and shadow tangled — and the next moment, she reappeared above Albrecht, her hand carving through the air in a downward strike of condensed force.

Albrecht turned, golden aura bursting from his shoulder in a perfect sphere. The gravitational blade struck it, scattering harmlessly into fragments of red light.

He answered with a backhand slash that sent her crashing into the far wall.

The Fourth Pillar lunged immediately, closing the gap his sister left — their rhythm unbroken. Sparks and light spiraled between them as they exchanged blows, each collision shaking the ruins to their foundation.

Selene and Noir shielded Noel with frost and shadow from the rolling waves of pressure. He could barely make out shapes — flashes of gold, streaks of red and violet, and the outline of his father moving like something beyond human.

Albrecht stepped forward, every motion deliberate, every strike carrying the weight of decades. His blade carved wide arcs of light that swallowed everything in front of him.

The siblings moved like a mirrored storm — one sweeping fire, the other bending space — their twin energies merging, spiraling, breaking apart only to meet again.

Every impact left new craters. Every clash dimmed the torches, drew the air out of the chamber, and filled it again with ash and burning light.

By the time the dust began to settle, the crystal at the center of the ruins was the only thing untouched — still glowing faintly, unyielding amid the destruction.

The fighters paused only for a breath, their silhouettes lit by molten reflection.

Then the ground broke again, and the storm resumed.

The battlefield was chaos.

Flames and red light churned together like a storm, tearing through the ruins. Every few seconds, the walls cracked again under the pressure — pieces of molten rock raining down in a rhythm that felt almost like a heartbeat.

Noel crouched behind a half-collapsed column, Revenant Fang resting on his shoulder. His chest heaved with each breath, sweat and ash mixing across his face. Even from here, the heat from Albrecht's aura burned through the air like the inside of a forge.

Selene stood beside him, wand raised, her ice barely holding its shape against the inferno ahead. "If we rush in now, we'll get vaporized," she said, her voice tense but steady.

Noir growled softly, her form shifting between wolf and shadow. "They're not even focused on us… but one wrong step and we're done."

Noel narrowed his eyes, tracking the pattern of the fight — gold light flaring, then vanishing into violet and red bursts. "He's holding both at once," he muttered. "But even he can't keep it up forever."

Selene's gaze flicked to him. "Then what's the plan?"

He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he watched the moment when Albrecht parried both siblings in a single motion — the explosion that followed, the smoke that hid everything for just a breath.

"That," Noel said finally, his tone low. "That's when we move."

Noir's tail lashed once. "You mean through that?"

"Exactly through that." Noel's mouth curled in a faint grin, a glint of heat behind his eyes. "We wait for the crash, for the instant no one sees anything. That's when we strike."

Selene nodded slowly, gripping her wand tighter. "Then we time it right. I'll lock one down when the smoke clears."

Noir's shadow rippled under them, spreading wider, darker, until it touched the edges of the crater. "And I'll drag the other out of position."

Another blast rocked the ground. The shockwave hurled pebbles across the floor, and the golden light of Albrecht's aura flared once more — brighter, harsher, almost blinding.

Noel's eyes sharpened. "There it is."

He tightened his grip on Revenant Fang. "Get ready. When he pushes them back again—"

The next explosion cut him off, a wall of heat sweeping through the room.

Selene raised a Frost Veil to block the wave, her hair whipping from the force.

Noel squinted through the haze, watching as the shapes of the three figures re-emerged amid the fire.

"—that's our signal."

The roar of the battle deepened until it no longer sounded like combat — it was thunder itself, raw and endless.

Every strike between Albrecht and the Two Pillars shattered the balance of the room, their powers twisting the air and bending the light until even color began to fade.

The Fourth Pillar struck first, blade coated in molten crimson.

Albrecht met him halfway — their swords collided, gold against red, and the shockwave carved a crater beneath them. The walls behind them melted and solidified in the same breath.

The Third Pillar was already in motion, slipping behind her brother, gravity bending around her hand. She raised it high and swung downward — the pull of her spell collapsing everything within its reach.

Albrecht turned just in time, driving his foot into the floor. Golden flame erupted outward in a spiral, cutting the distortion apart before it could crush him.

They moved too fast for the eye to follow.

Each step left molten footprints in the ground, each clash erased the sound for a heartbeat.

Flame and pressure wove together like twin threads — crimson arcs slicing the air, violet spirals pulling them inward, golden trails countering each one.

The three figures vanished and reappeared in flashes — one at the far wall, another in the air, then back again — every collision leaving behind a wave of sparks that turned to ash before touching the floor.

A single misstep would have killed anyone else.

But Albrecht was not anyone else.

He ducked under a combined strike, spun, and slammed the pommel of his sword into the Fourth Pillar's gut. The man stumbled, coughing blood, but his sister caught him instantly, gravity bending space to pull him upright again.

Her aura flared; his sword reignited.

They came at him together.

Two arcs of light crossed the chamber — twin lines of scarlet and violet converging on the golden figure at their center.

For an instant, it looked like even the Patriarch would be overwhelmed.

But then Albrecht raised his left hand — just two fingers glowing faintly — and the flames around him collapsed inward.

All sound vanished.

The air froze.

The world turned white.

And then it burst.

The explosion was silent — the kind that deafened through pressure alone. A pulse of pure golden light erupted from his body, scattering the siblings across the battlefield. The ruins trembled, the floor cracked open, and the crystal at the center flickered violently under the surge.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing but smoke and dust.

Noel, Selene, and Noir watched from the edge, eyes locked on the swirling void of light that filled the room.

Noel's grip on Revenant Fang tightened.

'Now,' he thought, pulse quickening.

Noel moved before the dust settled.

The ground burst under his feet as he dashed forward, his body flickering between shadow and flame — every step a blur of momentum and instinct.

"Shadow Step."

He disappeared into the darkness left by the explosion, reappearing halfway across the chamber. The heat still hung in the air like a living thing, and his vision swam with golden afterimages. But he didn't slow down.

Behind him, Selene's voice echoed faintly through the smoke. "Now, Noir!"

Noir erupted from the ground — a black phantom tearing through the haze, her roar cutting across the battlefield. Her shadow spread wide, twisting into claws that seized the Third Pillar's feet just as she tried to recover from Albrecht's blast.

At the same moment, Selene lifted her wand, voice sharp and steady.

"Zero Point Burst!"

A gravitational pulse detonated outward, pulling everything toward its core — debris, fire, mana — collapsing it into a single, blinding flash.

Noel emerged through that light.

The Fourth Pillar turned too late. His sword came up in reflex, but Revenant Fang was already mid-swing — glowing crimson-black, its edge alive with pure void energy.

"Eclipse Rend!"

Shadow swallowed the light. The slash cut through air and armor alike, leaving a streak of darkness that devoured everything it touched. The force of the blow ripped the floor open and hurled the Pillar backward into the far wall.

The impact echoed like thunder. A web of cracks spread across the stone, and a burst of red blood splattered against the molten surface before evaporating in the heat.

For a moment, the world was still again — the aftershock of his attack humming faintly through the ruins.

Noel landed hard, one knee pressed into the scorched ground, Revenant Fang buried deep into the stone beside him. His chest rose and fell fast, breath burning against his throat.

Across the chamber, the Fourth Pillar pushed himself upright, blood trailing down his face. His eyes glowed with fury — and something that might've been surprise.

Noel met his stare, silent. The faint gleam of black flame coiled around his blade.

Behind him, Selene and Noir regrouped at his side. The golden aura of Albrecht still burned farther ahead, holding the Third Pillar at bay.

The air was thick — tension, heat, blood, and magic all blending into one suffocating haze.

One critical blow had landed.

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