The Midnight King had offered a simple bargain, cruel in its own way: one of them would become his host, and in return there would be no battle. Everyone understood what facing that creature would mean. It would be a monumental fight.

"I accept the terms," Erza said.

Her words dropped into the hall like a stone thrown into still water. For a moment that stretched out, no one moved; even the faintest sound felt like sacrilege. The air seemed to pause before it allowed itself to move again, as if the space between breaths had become an abyss.

Jack reacted first. He took a half step forward, then froze, as if realizing too late that even movement might count as defiance. His eyes widened, the torchlight catching them like two shards of glass. "What?" he asked, incredulity making each syllable sharp.

Erza turned slowly, a deliberate, unhesitating motion. Her posture was steady, not the posture of someone defiantly challenging but of someone who had decided and accepted the cost.

"No, I am not playing games," she said in a flat, controlled voice. "It is a good deal. You want to fight a level 137 monster? Do you think any of us would survive?"

Her words hung there, dry and precise. There was no visible emotion, only calculation, cold recognition of the odds, not fear but acceptance of how slim their chances were.

Luke watched her in silence. The hall's shadows seemed to draw tighter around her. Erza's jaw gave nothing away, but her eyes did not seek approval; they simply stated a fact.

It was not a heroic choice, no glory attached, only survival.

Even Luke felt unsettled. She was telling the truth, and that bothered him more than any lie could have. Perhaps the look she had given the others was meant as a warning: fighting would be pointless. Erza was not surrendering so much as acknowledging an inevitable outcome with the detached clarity of someone who had seen death close up.

He glanced at Evangeline. Whatever Erza said, the plan remained. If Evangeline could immobilize the creature, he would fire the arrow.

But could she? The doubt started to beat in his head like a dry, insistent drum. Holding that monster for ten seconds, maybe twenty, felt beyond any of them. No, it was more than that. Maybe they would need a whole minute, an eternity when faced with a king like that. A chill ran down his spine. The cold didn't fade; it sank deeper, curling inside his chest like a living thing. His breathing grew louder inside the mask, muffled by the oppressive stillness of the hall.

Luke did not know. He had never truly tested his limit. He had trained to pour mana at high speed, but there had never been a way to test it for real; there were no other arrows like this one. He would have to channel mana, release, and hope for the explosion. If he missed, everything would end there. The thought pressed against his skull like a physical weight, threatening to crush every trace of focus he still had.

He cursed himself silently. The odds were small. The plan had been designed to restrain a creature like the Wyvern, a monster at the peak of Rank E, already something incredibly hard to defeat. But the king had surpassed every expectation. He had gone far beyond what they had imagined.

He had outmatched every plan, every calculation, every estimate. Nothing they had prepared held up against the presence of that being. What had once seemed a challenge had become a sentence.

Luke felt foolish. He had assumed monster ranks followed a simple logic, like the jump between Orc Lord and Beast Lord, ten levels, maybe twenty. At worst, he figured the king might be level 105. But he was wrong. The creature before them shattered any pattern. The number on the interface, 137, wasn't just a stat; it was a sentence. A boundary none of them could cross.

"I repeat," Erza said, fixing the Midnight King with a steady gaze. "I accept the terms of the deal."

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The silence that followed cut like a second dagger.

Jack and Mason exchanged quick, mute looks; neither dared speak. Even the distant crackle of the flames seemed to falter, as if the fire itself was holding its breath.

"Are you insane?" Mason asked, trying to sound steady. His voice cracked halfway through, betraying the panic he couldn't hide.

"Insane? No." Erza turned to the group, her glance sharp as a polished blade. "Sane. Are you all that stupid? We just drag one of the idiots outside in and sacrifice them."

The hall seemed to shrink. The air vibrated with a heavy, dense silence, almost tangible. The idea hung there, bitter, mingled with the heat from the torches. Luke locked eyes with Erza, trying to catch any flicker of doubt, any hidden code behind her expression. But as he studied her in that almost endless second, he realized it wasn't an act; she was truly considering it. And, in a corner of his mind, part of him understood why.

"No," Allison said at once.

Her voice cut through the columns like a honed edge. "We will not sacrifice anyone."

The words echoed, clear and irrevocable. Even the archangel inclined his head slightly, curiosity flickering on his stone face, as if the sound of such purity surprised him. Luke stayed frozen, wanting nothing more than to vanish. Even breathing felt dangerous. One wrong look, one misplaced movement, and that fragile truce would shatter.

The archangel still did not perceive him, and that was everything they had.

"Rhiannon," Erza said, "out there there must be some criminal. We haven't killed everyone. I bring a miserable wretch here, a life not worth living, and we offer them as sacrifice. Anyone disagree? Or, of course, if any brave hero among you wants to spare a criminal's life, step forward and sacrifice yourself."

Luke lowered his bow.

Sacrifice a criminal.

The thought pierced him with a cold clarity. He examined it without emotion, like one sizing a blade before grasping it. Could he oppose it? No. Did he have another solution? Also no.

The silence that followed became its own presence, hanging between them with the weight of something unseen. Every breath felt perilous. It was the archangel who broke it.

"Delightful to watch," he said, voice low and slow, savoring their discomfort. "But we have a small problem."

His tone shifted, not from threat to lecture, but to something almost instructional, like a patient teacher speaking to children who could not fathom true danger.

"I am a Rank D creature. At minimum I would need someone at the peak of Rank F, and even then… incompatibility could occur. The flesh body is the vessel for the soul, and if my soul is stronger than the body can contain…" He raised a hand; the light from a nearby torch faltered, drawn into his palm like something being swallowed. "…it will explode."

The final word echoed through the hall, hollow and heavy, then dissolved among the columns. No one answered.

"However," the archangel continued, a smile stretching across his face that never reached his eyes, "what a curious coincidence. Right here, in this room, there are individuals whose souls belong to other species while their bodies remain human."

His gaze traversed them slowly, an invisible blade tracing each of their faces. "I see you for what you truly are on the inside. A phoenix, a doll, and a dragon."

He paused. The silence afterward felt alive, pulsing in the air.

"The three of you are the most compatible options imaginable. The remaining humans, even if they do not explode immediately, might collapse later. Too risky, far too dangerous."

The wings bound to his back shuddered, sending off tiny sparks. "Could I find a new body in time on the other side of the portal? No. Would I have the power for that? Doubtful. Since none of you are angels, I cannot replicate the technique. That makes things… unfavorable for me."

The smile returned, wider now, devoid of any humanity. "So I must choose my definitive receptacle. And you three, your bodies are perfect. Living vessels for the monster souls you carry. I am grateful to your world for this mixture of species. It created strong hosts, ideal for my selection."

Erza watched him without speaking. With every sentence the weight of their situation sharpened; he was not discussing power, he was declaring possession.

The archangel tilted his head slightly. The color in his eyes shifted between white and amber in a rhythm like breathing. "And between the doll, the phoenix, and the dragon…" His voice lengthened, almost taunting, "which one has the greatest potential for growth and destruction?"

He stopped, and a low laugh slipped out, soft and cruel as it reverberated through the columns. It was the laugh of someone who already knew the answer.

"The dragon," Allison murmured, her voice dark with resignation.

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