Obstacles are meant to be removed."

The shadow man's words echoed in the clearing. They were calm. They were reasonable. And they were the most monstrous thing Riku had ever heard.

His rage, which had been a white-hot explosion, now cooled. It settled into something harder. Something colder. Something far more dangerous.

"I see," Riku said, his voice a low, empty whisper. "So that's all they were to you. Obstacles."

He raised his hands again. This time, he did not gather light. He gathered the shadows themselves.

Shadow Lance. Tier 7. [-5,000 Goodwill Points]

A dozen spears of solidified darkness materialized in the air around him. They hummed with a hungry, vicious energy. With a flick of his wrist, he sent them screaming towards the shadow man.

The man's amused expression faltered for the first time. He raised a hand, and a wall of swirling darkness rose to meet the attack.

The lances slammed into the wall. Explosions of shadow and void energy ripped through the clearing. The ground shook. The trees at the edge of the forest splintered and fell.

When the dust settled, the shadow man was still standing. His own wall of darkness was gone. There were faint, shimmering cracks in the air where it had been. He had been pushed back a single step.

"Impressive," the man admitted, a note of genuine surprise in his voice. "You can wield the dark as well as the light. What a fascinating little anomaly you are."

"I'm not an anomaly," Riku snarled. "I'm the man who's going to make you pay for what you did."

He attacked again.

Void Crush. [-10,000 Goodwill Points]

The very air around the shadow man seemed to solidify. It compressed, trying to crush him into nothingness. The man grunted, his shadowy form flickering violently. He pushed his hands outward, and the space around him shattered like glass, breaking the spell.

He was pushed back another two steps. "Pay?" the shadow man asked, a hint of laughter in his voice. "You think this is about justice? This is a transaction. I am simply collecting what is owed."

Inside Riku's mind, a new voice spoke. It was not Clara's. It was not the System's. It was his own.

A figure stood in a vast, empty space, surrounded by heavy, glowing chains. He looked exactly like Riku. But his eyes were cold, arrogant, and filled with a lust for power. It was the Grand Maximus.

"Yes," the figure whispered, a hungry smile on his face. "Feel that rage. Embrace it. Why are you holding back? Why are you using these pathetic, measured spells? You are a god. And he is an insect."

Riku ignored the voice. He focused on the fight.

Chains of Purgatory! [-15,000 Goodwill Points] Soulfire Barrage! [-20,000 Goodwill Points]

He unleashed a torrent of high-tier spells. He didn't care about the cost. He didn't care about the destruction. He just wanted to erase the smiling, shadowy monster in front of him.

The clearing became a storm of light and shadow. The ground was torn apart. The forest burned. The sheer force of their battle shook the very foundations of the earth.

The shadow man was no longer smiling. He was on the defensive. He was being pushed back, step by step. But he was not being defeated. He met every one of Riku's attacks with a casual, almost bored, mastery.

A red panel flashed urgently in Riku's mind.

[Warning: Goodwill Points have fallen below 100,000. Continued expenditure at this rate is unsustainable.]

Riku ignored it.

"He is mocking you," the Grand Maximus whispered in his mind, his voice a seductive poison. "He is playing with you. Let me out. Let me show him what real power is. I can end this in an instant."

Riku grit his teeth. He poured more power into his attacks.

[Warning: Host's emotional state is critically unstable. The suppression cage is weakening.]

The shadow man deflected another blast of soulfire with a lazy wave of his hand. "Is that all?" he asked, his voice laced with a theatrical disappointment. "I was hoping for more of a challenge."

That was the final straw.

"Fine," Riku snarled, his voice a low, guttural growl. "You want more? You can have it all."

"Yes," the Grand Maximus hissed in his mind. "Let go. Let me free."

Riku raised his hands to the sky. He began to gather energy for his ultimate spell. A spell that could level the entire forest.

[CRITICAL WARNING: SUPPRESSION INTEGRITY AT 5%. IMMINENT BREACH DETECTED.]

Inside his mind, the glowing chains that bound the Grand Maximus began to shake violently. Cracks of purple light spread across their surface. One of the chains snapped. Then another.

The figure of the Grand Maximus looked up. A slow, triumphant, terrifying smile spread across his face.

He was about to be free.

nside Riku's mind, the last chain shattered. The Grand Maximus took a step forward, a triumphant, terrifying smile on his face. He was free.

Outside, Riku's body began to change. His eyes, which had been burning with a cold, human rage, began to glow with a purple, otherworldly light. An immense, suffocating pressure began to radiate from him, a pressure that spoke of absolute, untouchable power.

The shadow man, who had been watching with an amused expression, suddenly froze. The playful smile vanished from his unseen face. He took a single, involuntary step back. He recognized this pressure. It was the pressure of a god.

But before the Grand Maximus could fully awaken, the world changed.

The distant, rumbling thunder that had been a constant companion on their journey suddenly grew louder. It was no longer a gentle murmur. It was a deep, angry growl that seemed to come from the heart of the world itself.

The wind, which had been still, began to whip through the clearing. It tore at their clothes. It howled in their ears.

The caravan master, his face pale with a new kind of terror, looked up at the sky. "No," he whispered, his voice a choked gasp. "It can't be."

A single, brilliant fork of blue lightning split the sky directly above them. It was followed by a deafening crack of thunder that shook the very ground they stood on.

"The Arch-Mage!" one of the teamsters shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at the sky. "Only one person can command the storms like this! It's the Whispering Witch!"

The shadow man let out a long, weary sigh. The amused, playful tone was gone from his voice. It was replaced by a deep, profound annoyance. "Her," he muttered under his breath. "Of all the people..."

A second bolt of lightning struck the ground in the center of the clearing. It was not a wild, chaotic strike. It was a controlled, precise pillar of pure energy.

The light faded, leaving a figure standing in the newly formed crater.

It was a woman. She was tall and slender, dressed in simple, elegant robes of deep indigo. Her silver hair was long and unbound, whipping around her in the wind she commanded. Her face was ageless, beautiful, and as cold and unforgiving as a storm-swept mountain peak.

This was Arch-Mage Lyra.

She looked at the scene. She saw the melting mercenaries. She saw the terrified caravan. Her gaze finally settled on the shadow man. Her expression was one of pure, unadulterated frustration.

"A creature of the Void," she said, her voice a low, dangerous hiss that cut through the howling wind. "Your kind is not welcome in this realm. What are you doing here?"

The shadow man just shrugged. "I was being efficient."

"You were being sloppy," Lyra retorted. She raised a hand. The wind around her intensified, swirling into a miniature tornado. "Your existence is an affront. I will erase you."

The shadow man laughed. "Many have tried. All have failed."

He raised his own hand. The black, corrosive mist swirled around him, forming a shield of pure darkness.

Lyra did not waste any more words. She thrust her hand forward. The tornado of wind shot towards the shadow man. It was filled with shards of razor-sharp ice and crackling lightning.

The tornado slammed into the shadow shield. The two forces met with a deafening roar. The ground buckled under the strain. For a moment, they were evenly matched.

But Lyra was prepared. "You are a creature of formless shadow," she said, her voice cold. "Let us see how you handle a bit of order."

She reached into her robes and pulled out a small, crystalline orb. It pulsed with a steady, blue light. Inside it, a miniature thunderstorm raged. It was a Storm Core.

She held it up. The orb pulsed with a powerful, oppressive energy. The air grew heavy. The very space around the shadow man seemed to solidify.

His shadowy form flickered violently. The black mist that made up his body began to unravel, struggling against the immense pressure.

The shadow man let out a hiss of pain and frustration. "A containment artifact! You came prepared!"

He knew he was at a disadvantage. He could not win against the Storm Core.

He feigned a final, desperate attack. He sent a massive wave of black, corrosive mist directly at Lyra.

She braced herself, the Storm Core glowing brighter, ready to meet the attack head-on.

But it was a feint. At the last moment, the shadow man dissolved. He did not teleport. He simply... vanished.

The black mist, now without a master, surged outwards. It washed over the caravan in a silent, deadly wave.

The remaining mercenaries and teamsters screamed as the corrosive shadow touched them. Their clothes, their skin, their very flesh began to dissolve.

Lyra watched the chaos unfold. She was still maintaining the pressure from the Storm Core, a complex spell that required her full concentration. She could not intervene.

Her gaze snapped to Riku. She saw him standing there, his body radiating a terrifying purple light. He was lost in his own rage, on the verge of being consumed by the very power he was trying to unleash.

"Mage!" Lyra's voice was a sharp, commanding crack that cut through the screams and the howling wind. "Get your head out of your rage and do something useful! Save them!"

Her words, a bucket of ice water on his burning fury, shocked Riku back to his senses. The purple light in his eyes flickered, then receded. He saw the melting men. He saw the terror on Lila's face. He saw his duty.

Mass Purify! [-2,000 Goodwill Points]

A wave of brilliant, white light erupted from his body. It washed over the caravan, instantly neutralizing the black mist. It was a powerful, all-encompassing spell of pure, cleansing energy.

The screams stopped. The mist was gone.

But the damage was done. Half a dozen men lay on the ground, their bodies horribly scarred, moaning in agony. The caravan was in ruins.

And in the center of it all, the most powerful mage in the kingdom stood, staring at Riku with a new, sharp, and intensely curious gaze.

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