The Void Nova expanded.

It was a silent sphere of erasure, a black hole born from the chest of a 5th-Order monster. Instantly deleted the surrounding air.

The tables, the blueprints, the very floor tiles simply ceased to exist as the sphere touched them.

Warden Krog laughed, a distorted, mechanical grinding sound.

"Consume," Krog droned. "Everything."

Hephaestus squeezed his eyes shut, crouching behind Damien. "It's too much! The density is infinite!"

Damien didn't move.

He stood with his feet planted wide, his boots cracking the stone beneath him. He held the Pantheon Sword now glowing a pure, translucent white, directly in the path of the oncoming destruction.

"Infinite?" Damien grinned, blood trickling from his nose as the pressure tried to flatten him.

"Good. I was hungry."

CONTACT.

The edge of the Void Nova hit the tip of the Pantheon Sword.

There was no explosion. No shockwave.

SLURP.

A sound like a massive intake of breath echoed through the vault.

The black sphere of void energy didn't swallow Damien. Instead, it warped. The Pantheon Sword acted like a drain in the bottom of an ocean.

The Void energy twisted, spiraling violently into the white blade.

The sword hummed, a low, terrifying vibration that shook Damien's bones. The white glow of the blade turned a swirling, chaotic grey as it drank the essence of the Warden.

[System Alert!] [Energy Absorption at 400%.] [Capacity Warning. Release Imminent.]

"What?!" Krog's laughter cut off. The mechanical spider legs twitching on his back froze.

He watched as his ultimate attack, the energy reserve of his Void Core, was sucked dry by a piece of crystal.

"Impossible," Krog screeched. "That is… 5th Order density! A mere fourth order human cannot hold it!"

"I'm not holding it," Damien gritted out. His arms were shaking. The skin on his hands was cracking, golden light bleeding from the wounds as his Celestial Life Physique fought to keep his body from disintegrating under the strain.

"I'm just aiming it."

Damien looked at the sword. It was vibrating so hard it blurred. It held the power of the Void Nova, plus Damien's own Golden Aura, plus the Royal Blood Seal Hephaestus had just poured into it.

"Hephaestus," Damien whispered. "Cover your ears."

Hephaestus scrambled back, covering his head with his arms.

Damien looked at Krog.

"You took the lives of the Ironclan," Damien said, his voice amplified by the screaming energy in his hands.

"You took their souls. You took their dignity."

He stepped forward.

"Return to sender."

"Pantheon Art: FULL COUNTER!"

Damien swung.

It wasn't a sword slash. It was the opening of a gate.

KABOOOOOM!

A beam of blinding, absolute energy erupted from the blade. It wasn't black like the Void, nor gold like the Aura.

It was White. Pure, erasing White.

It hit Krog instantly.

There was no resistance. The Warden's Void Shield shattered like glass. His Adamantite armor evaporated. His mechanical legs turned to dust.

"REGENT! SAVE M—"

Krog's scream was cut short as his body was atomized.

But the beam didn't stop there.

It tore through Krog. It tore through the blast doors behind him. It tore through the ceiling of the Royal Vault.

It punched upward, through the rock, through the magma vents, through the foundations of the prison.

…....

[Above - The Bridge of Tears]

Brokk was on his knees, his rifle empty.

General Thorgar's shield was glowing cherry-red, bent inward from the barrage of mana fire. The Iron Legion was advancing, pushing the exhausted survivors toward the edge of the abyss.

"It's over," Master Orin wheezed, clutching his side. "We can't hold them."

"We die standing!" Thorgar roared, raising his hammer for one last swing.

RUMBLE.

The floor beneath them shook.

"What is—"

CRASH!

Fifty meters away, right in the center of the Iron Legion's formation, the floor exploded upwards.

A pillar of pure white light, thick as a tower, shot out of the ground. It pierced the cavern ceiling and kept going, boring a hole straight through the crust of the earth toward the surface.

The shockwave knocked everyone flat.

Hundreds of Iron Legionnaires were caught in the beam. They didn't even melt. They just vanished.

The remaining cyborgs froze.

With Warden Krog vaporized, the Hive Mind Signal that controlled the lower-tier undead was severed.

The red lights in their eyes flickered and died. Like marionettes with their strings cut, two hundred Iron Legionnaires collapsed to the ground in a heap of scrap metal.

Silence fell over the bridge.

Brokk slowly lifted his head, dusting debris from his beard. He stared at the massive, glowing hole in the floor where the beam had come from.

He stared at the deactivated army.

"By the Ancestors…" Brokk whispered. "What in the blazes did that boy do?"

…....

[The Royal Vault]

The dust settled.

The Royal Vault was gone. The roof was open to the sky—miles above, a tiny pinprick of starlight was visible through the clean tunnel the sword had carved.

Damien stood amidst the rubble.

The Pantheon Sword had dimmed, returning to its translucent, crystalline state. It felt cool to the touch now, sated.

Damien swayed.

[Mana: 0%. Aura: 0%. Stamina: 0%.]

"Young Master!"

Hephaestus scrambled over the debris. He caught Damien just as he fell backward.

"We… we did it," Hephaestus gasped, looking at the spot where Krog used to be. There was nothing left but a scorch mark.

"You killed him. You actually killed him."

Damien coughed, a weak smile playing on his lips. "We killed him, Prince. Nice welding."

Hephaestus looked at the sword in Damien's hand. He looked at the hole in the ceiling.

Tears welled up in his eyes behind his goggles.

"My father's masterpiece," Hephaestus whispered. "It works."

"Yeah," Damien wheezed. "It works a little too well."

He tried to stand, but his legs were jelly.

"We need to move," Damien said. "The explosion… the whole city felt that. The Regent knows."

"Let him know," a deep voice rumbled from above.

Damien and Hephaestus looked up.

Standing at the edge of the shattered ceiling, peering down into the vault, were Brokk, Thorgar, Leona, and the others.

"You alive down there, boy?" Brokk shouted, his voice echoing.

"Barely!" Damien yelled back.

Leona leaped down, landing with a heavy thud next to Damien. She scooped him up in a bear hug, ignoring his groan of pain.

"You blew a hole in the world!" Leona laughed, her golden eyes shining. "That was amazing!"

Isabelle slid down a rope of vines Lyra had conjured. She rushed to Damien, immediately casting a healing spell.

"Young Master! You're reckless! You're always so reckless!"

"I'm alive," Damien patted her head.

He looked at Hephaestus. The Prince was standing tall, holding his wrench like a scepter.

"Prince," Damien said. "The prison is broken. The Legion is down. What's the order?"

Hephaestus looked at the hole leading to the surface. He looked at the gathered loyalists—Thorgar, Kida, Orin, Brokk.

The fear that had plagued him for months was gone.

"The order," Hephaestus said, his voice cold and hard as iron, "is simple."

He pointed upward.

"We go to the surface. We crash the Coronation. And we get ready to take back my city."

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