Luke rolled across the bridge, his body scraping against the stone as the cold wind sliced through the air. Behind him, the wyvern crashed down in a deafening impact, its guttural roar echoing through the distance. One of its wings bent at an unnatural angle, bone snapping with a wet crack.

He hit the frozen ground at the edge of the forest, the fall knocking the breath from his lungs. His bow slipped from his grasp and skidded a few feet away. Luke forced himself upright, heart hammering, and looked up, straight into the creature's face. The wyvern's eyes burned with hatred, its breath rolling over him in waves of heat thick as molten iron.

"Hey, human," Franky said from somewhere under his cloak, his tone caught between sarcasm and panic. "Pretty sure you've really pissed him off now."

Luke summoned his kukris into his hands. The wyvern roared again, the wounds along its neck and chest glowing with pulsing light, the unmistakable warning that the next blast was coming. A second later, fire erupted not just from its jaws but from the cracks torn open across its body.

The heat hit like a wall. Luke saw the torrent racing toward him, a living tide of flame. Instead of retreating, he bolted sideways toward the fallen bow, the one thing he couldn't afford to lose. He triggered a dash, skimming the edge of the inferno, snatched the weapon from the snow, and shoved it into his storage item. But before he could move again, the flames were already upon him.

The air trembled with heat. The fire roared closer. He was out of time, and he knew it.

Then,

"Not on my watch!"

The voice cut through the chaos, sharp and commanding. Silver threads whipped through the air, wrapping around the wyvern's throat and yanking it violently aside. The stream of fire veered off course, scorching empty ground.

From above, a figure dropped through the smoke with perfect, lethal grace. Erza Grimhart.

Luke barely had time to process what he saw. The scythe sliced upward in a clean arc, driving deep through the wound in the wyvern's neck. The strike was so precise, so fast, that the beast didn't even have the chance to scream.

A heartbeat later, its head came free, torn off by the tension of the threads. Fire spewed from the ragged stump as the headless body staggered, then collapsed in a heap that shook the earth.

A notification flickered into Luke's vision:

[The Midnight Lord has been defeated! The path to the castle is now open.]

He exhaled hard and dropped to the ground, the weight of exhaustion finally catching up. His chest heaved, every breath thick and uneven, but for the first time since the battle began, he felt it. The raw, unfamiliar weight of victory.

Then another message appeared.

[Doom Explosion Activated]

Charlie had left her auto-trigger skill on.

"It's going to explode!" Luke shouted, leaping to his feet.

Erza reacted instantly, darting back with a swift step. She'd dealt with Charlie's quirks before. A sharp crack split the air, followed by a dull thud. The wyvern's corpse convulsed once, a fissure ripping open across its torso before a small internal explosion burst outward. The fire sputtered briefly, contained to a flicker.

"Guess it's not that effective on something this size," Luke muttered, watching the smoke drift upward.

"Or on something too powerful to care," Erza replied, twirling her scythe before resting it against her shoulder.

Footsteps echoed from the forest. Luke turned back toward the trees and saw Princess Charlie emerging from between them, Jack close beside her. The moment she spotted Luke, she grabbed Jack by the arm and pointed toward him — the gesture sharp and commanding, an unspoken order to heal him immediately.

"I'm fine," Luke said, already trying to push himself back to his feet.

"Barely," Artemis replied, her voice crackling from the pendant, laced with that familiar note of disapproval.

Luke touched the charm, exhaling with a mix of relief and irritation. For a fleeting moment, he thought about how close he'd come to losing his Midnight Bow. Jack raised his wand toward him, and a green aura bloomed around it. The warmth spread through Luke's body, vibrant and pulsing. The pain faded little by little, replaced by a tingling comfort that almost felt like strength returning.

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Looking past the wyvern's broken corpse, he could finally admit it—part of the plan had worked. The creature had been powerful, the fight brutal, and time wasn't on their side. His plan A had been simple: tear one of its wings apart and destroy it while it hovered above the abyss. A clean kill, no drawn-out battle. But that damn double jump had ruined everything.

Footsteps crunched in the snow behind him. Allison and Evangeline emerged from the fog, their expressions tense, the wind howling louder between them.

"He's really dead," Allison said, her voice caught somewhere between disbelief and relief.

Erza stood nearby, resting her scythe on her shoulder, her gaze fixed on the castle at the far end of the bridge. "Then that just leaves the Witch and the damned King."

She took a single step forward—and the air around her ignited. Flames wrapped around her form, spiraling upward in a bright inferno. When the fire faded, a new armor gleamed beneath it: a black draconic cuirass had replaced her battle dress, every plate shaped like polished scales. A faint crown of dark metal now rested on her brow.

"I think I like my new outfit," she said with a quick, satisfied laugh.

The reward for slaying the Midnight Lord.

"How's everyone on mana?" she asked, scanning the group. "Think you can still fight?"

"Running low," Allison said. "Barely enough for a full fight using ice power. I'll have to use spells only when the moment's right."

Luke opened his pocket dimension and pulled out six mana potions. One by one, he uncorked and drank them in quick succession. The blue liquid burned down his throat, spreading warmth through his chest as his reserves surged back to life.

[Mana Points (MP): 4976/5100]

"Almost full," he muttered. "With luck, I'll reach the King without burning through the rest."

Anne, quiet until now, was staring at the wyvern's corpse. Her expression was distant, thoughtful, as if seeing something beyond the fight itself.

"We've got another problem," Evangeline said, her tone tight.

She pointed toward the forest they'd come from. Luke followed her gaze—and froze. Between the trees, the shadows moved. Dozens of figures shambled forward. Undead. Farther out, Mason was already fighting, flanked by armored maids and soldiers. The clash of steel against rotting flesh echoed through the burning forest. The troops were forming makeshift lines, trying to hold back the tide and guard the entrance to the bridge.

Luke pulled up the system timer.

[Estimated Time Until End: 03 hours : 06 minutes : 27 seconds]

Half the time was already gone.

"We need to regroup with the soldiers," Allison said. "They have to start the fortress evacuation before those things break through."

With the Midnight Lord gone, the path ahead was finally clear. The strategy was simple now: shift the battlefield. Their allies would push through the enemy's ranks while the soldiers held the forest line long enough to buy time.

"Five minutes, tops," Erza said, tightening the straps of her new armor. "We pass command, then head straight for the castle. Two bosses left."

As the group moved toward the sound of battle, Allison reached out and brushed Luke's shoulder.

"Two more of these, and we're out of this hell," she said with a tired smile.

Luke looked toward the distant castle. His pulse quickened—not from fear, but from anticipation. The bridge was waiting.

And beyond it, the next fight.

"But there's a problem," Luke said quietly as they walked. Even with the distant roar of battle around them, his words landed heavy. "The Midnight Lord was the pinnacle of Rank E... level ninety-nine."

Allison stopped, meeting his gaze. The silence between them said more than any answer.

"The other two will be even stronger," she finished, her face hardening.

Luke nodded.

"The witch is an issue," Allison continued. "But she's practically the only one left. The king... we just need to distract him long enough for you to fire the arrow."

Luke halted and reached into his necklace. He produced a small dark glass vial, cradling it like something fragile and dangerous. The liquid inside swirled slowly, dense and oddly alive.

"For the witch, I think I've got a solution," he said, holding the vial up. "We need to keep her still for a few seconds."

She raised an eyebrow. "What is that?"

The system would have labeled it:

[Jormungandr's Darkness Mixture (Ultra-Rare)]: The fusion of a potent healing potion, the Corrupted Blood of Mother Freya, demonic blood, and the venom of a Jormungandr has created a highly volatile substance. Its healing essence has been completely corrupted, resulting in a powerful acid capable of corroding flesh, bone, and even slightly metals. A dangerous mistake that can be turned into a weapon.

Luke studied the vial, memories tightening the line of his mouth. It was a potion he had brewed months earlier, before they even activated the second fortress. His most powerful potion, kept for a moment just like this.

"Evangeline still has two Shadow Prison activations left," Allison said, already assembling the pieces in her mind.

"That's enough," Luke replied. "If she can hold the witch for a few seconds, we throw this at her head while everyone charges."

He slipped the mixture back into the necklace; the vial vanished with a faint glint. It was a plan, and even if it didn't work, Luke was certain it would deal serious damage to the Witch. The wyvern was massive and undead; that tiny vial wouldn't make much difference on a body that size. But if they managed to throw it at the Witch, there was a chance they could bring her down.

On the horizon, clouds gathered—thick and dark—like night itself bracing for the final clash.

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