While the army focused on the Titan, a shadow moved along the perimeter. Seraphina moved with the silence of a ghost. She located the mana pylons—four obsidian spires generating a protective barrier around Ursula and the altar.

"Planting charges," Seraphina whispered over the comms.

"Three... two... one... BOOM!"

The pylons detonated simultaneously. The barrier flickered and died.

"NOW!" Alvian shouted.

He activated [Genesis Mode]. The world slowed to a crawl. The water droplets suspended in the current froze in time. Ursula, her dagger descending toward Elara's chest, moved in slow motion.

Alvian moved.

He didn't swim; he tore through the space between coordinates.

"[Void Step]."

He appeared directly above the altar. Ursula looked up, her eyes widening in slow-motion horror as she registered the threat. She tried to speed up her strike, to kill the hostage before Alvian could intervene.

"Too slow," Alvian whispered, his voice distorted by the speed force.

"[Chains of the Void Leviathan]: Absolute Bind."

Hundreds of black chains erupted from Alvian's body. They didn't aim for Ursula's body; they aimed for her limbs, her tentacles, her weapons.

The chains struck with the force of cannonballs. They wrapped around Ursula's raised arm, snapping it back with a bone-breaking crack. The dagger fell from her hand, clattering onto the stone altar inches from Elara's face.

More chains lashed out, binding Ursula's tentacles, pinning them to the floor. The Queen shrieked, a sound of pure fury.

"YOU DARE!"

Ursula unleashed a pulse of necrotic ink.

"INK NOVA!"

The blast hit Alvian point-blank. But Alvian didn't budge. His [Vestments of the Void Monarch] drank the ink, the [Void Shell] passive negating the damage.

"I dare," Alvian said, landing on the altar. He kicked the dagger away and grabbed Elara, pulling her free of the bindings. "Go to Valeria! Run!"

Elara nodded, terrified, and swam toward the golden light of the Titan.

Ursula roared. She ripped against the chains holding her. Her strength was immense—she was a Level 50 Calamity-class monster now. The stone floor cracked as she pulled.

"You think chains can hold the Ocean?" Ursula hissed. Her body began to mutate further. The metal plates on her skin split open, revealing glowing red cores.

"Syndicate Overdrive," Alvian noted. "They installed limiters. She's breaking them."

"I WILL CRUSH YOU!"

Ursula grew. Her tentacles elongated, turning into massive flails. She ripped two of the void chains apart with sheer brute force.

"Reinforcements!" Ursula commanded.

The Syndicate bio-mechs turned away from Valeria. They aimed their cannons at the altar.

"Alvian! Incoming fire!" Seraphina warned.

Alvian looked at the incoming barrage. He looked at Ursula, who was breaking free. He needed to lock down the battlefield.

"System. [Lance of the Void Winter]. Area Suppression."

He slammed the lance into the altar.

"[Glacial Void Pierce]: Black Ice Domain."

A wave of black ice exploded from the altar. It didn't freeze the water; it froze the mana in the water. The Syndicate mechs stuttered, their engines failing as the ambient mana turned solid. They fell from the water column, crashing to the ground.

[Status Effect: Mana Freeze. All tech disabled.]

Ursula screamed as the ice coated her tentacles, slowing her down.

"You... annoying... gnat!"

She abandoned the army. She focused entirely on Alvian. She opened her maw, revealing a portal to a pocket dimension of pure water pressure.

"HYDRO CANNON!"

A beam of water, pressurized to cut diamond, shot at Alvian.

Alvian didn't dodge. He spun the lance.

"Deflect."

He caught the beam on the spinning blade of the lance. The water sprayed outward, carving trenches into the walls of the cavern. Alvian gritted his teeth, his feet sliding back on the altar. The force was immense.

"Valeria! Seraphina! Focus fire on the Queen!" Alvian ordered. "I've got her attention!"

Valeria charged, leaping off the back of a disabled mech. She slammed her claymore into Ursula's side. Seraphina appeared on Ursula's back, driving her daggers into the connection ports of the Syndicate tech.

Ursula thrashed, besieged from all sides. But she wasn't done.

"Come to me!" she shrieked. "Guardian of the Gate!"

The massive doors of the Draconic Seal groaned. They weren't opening fully, but something was squeezing through the cracks. Something huge.

A massive tentacle, not biological, but made of spectral energy and ancient bone, reached out.

"She's summoning a construct," Alvian realized. "A guardian beast."

[System Warning: High Energy Signature Detected.]

[Boss Summon: The Spectral Kraken.]

From the gate, a ghost of a Kraken emerged. It was translucent, untouchable by physical means, and radiated a fear aura that made the water turn cold.

"Two bosses?" Valeria groaned. "That's cheating."

"No," Alvian said, his eyes glowing. "That's a target rich environment."

He looked at the spectral beast. He looked at his [Voidpiercer].

"Physical immunity?" Alvian smirked. "I don't believe in ghosts."

The Spectral Kraken loomed over the battlefield, a towering phantom of green light and malice. Its tentacles passed through the stone pillars of the cavern, dissolving them into sand. It let out a silent roar that hit the team like a physical blow—a psychic scream.

[Status Effect: Ancient Fear.]

[Willpower Check... Passed.]

Alvian shook off the dread. Valeria and Seraphina were slower to recover, their movements sluggish.

"Ignore the ghost!" Alvian shouted. "Focus on Ursula! If the summoner dies, the summon fades!"

"Easier said than done!" Valeria yelled, blocking a strike from Ursula's physical tentacle. The impact sent her skidding back ten meters. "She's regenerating faster than we can damage her!"

Ursula laughed, her body pulsing with the red light of the Syndicate overdrive. "I am perfection! Flesh and steel! Magic and science!"

The Spectral Kraken lashed out. A ghostly tentacle swept through the arena. It passed through Valeria's shield as if it wasn't there.

M

"ARGH!" Valeria screamed as the ghost limb passed through her body. It didn't cut flesh; it froze her soul. Her health bar turned grey—[Soul Damage].

"It ignores armor!" Seraphina cried, retreating.

"Alvian!" Valeria gasped, dropping to one knee. "I can't... tank that."

Alvian realized his mistake.

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