The dying god had nothing left to lose.

The dragon's body was fracturing, its soul-fire guttering like a candle in a hurricane, but it still had enough power left to take them all to hell with it.

It thrashed wildly, no strategy or calculation remaining, just pure berserker rage against the universe that had dared to kill it after centuries of immortality.

Its tail swept across the island like a wrecking ball made of ancient bone.

CRASH! The entrance to its lair collapsed entirely, tons of bone and stone crashing down in an avalanche of destruction. Its claws tore massive gouges in the ground, shredding the island's surface. Its head whipped back and forth, snapping at nothing, at everything, at the empty air itself.

Team Alpha ran. They had no choice left. No mana, no weapons, no strength. Nothing but legs and the desperate animal instinct to survive.

"Move!" Jin screamed, pulling Masha along. She could barely stand, every step sending lightning bolts of pain through her broken body.

The dragon's foot came down where they'd been standing a heartbeat before. BOOM! The impact cracked the ground like an eggshell, the shockwave sending them sprawling hard.

Team Beta emerged from the side tunnel entrance, Lana and Talia carrying Dante's unconscious body between them. They saw the chaos immediately, the dying dragon destroying everything in its death throes like a child smashing its toys in a final tantrum.

"This way!" Talia shouted over the destruction.

Both teams converged, running for the island's edge, for any chance of escape. Behind them, the dragon's rampage grew more violent, more desperate with each passing second.

Ancient bones were cracking all across its massive body now, soul-fire leaking out through the fissures like luminescent blood.

'If I die...' the mental voice was weak, fractured, barely coherent, but still carried enough venom to poison. 'You die with me... all of you... everything dies...'

The dragon reared back on its hind legs and slammed its full weight down onto the island with apocalyptic force.

The entire structure shuddered. Not a tremor. Not a quake. A catastrophic structural failure. The island was breaking apart under them, the magic holding it together finally giving out.

"Jump!" Dante's voice, weak but conscious. He'd woken up just in time to see their deaths approaching on all sides.

"Where?!" Lana shouted back, genuine fear in her voice for the first time. Below them was the purple void, the same hungry darkness that had consumed failed challengers for centuries.

"Anywhere but here!"

The ground beneath their feet cracked with the sound of the world ending. Started tilting at impossible angles. They had seconds at most.

Masha planted her feet despite the agony, drew on reserves that didn't exist, on willpower and desperation alone. One final act of creation. A bridge of black ice shot out from the crumbling island, extending into the void toward... something. Anything. Another floating rock. Solid ground. She couldn't see the end through her swimming vision, just built it forward on blind faith and the refusal to let anyone else die.

"Go!" She collapsed immediately after, the effort too much for her destroyed body.

They ran. Jin grabbed Masha, threw her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. They sprinted across the ice bridge as it formed ahead of them, Masha unconsciously maintaining the construction even while passed out, some deep survival instinct keeping the magic alive when conscious thought had failed.

Behind them, the dragon's island was disintegrating. Massive chunks breaking off and tumbling into the void, disappearing into purple nothing.

The dragon itself was barely visible through the storm of dust and destruction, but they could still see it. The massive form was crumbling now, not from any attack but from simple existence becoming impossible without its heart. The magic was gone. The power was gone. It had nothing left to sustain itself.

'Clever... little... mortals...'

The voice was fading fast, becoming distant as if speaking from the far end of a long, dark tunnel that stretched toward eternity.

'You won... you won fairly...'

One final, massive crack split the dragon's skull clean in half. The soul-fire went out completely, extinguished like candles in a storm.

And the god of bones, the End of All Things, the unkillable nightmare called Terminus... fell silent.

The massive skeleton collapsed into itself, bones tumbling and breaking apart, the whole structure losing cohesion all at once.

It didn't explode. It didn't shatter. It simply stopped being. Ancient fossilized bone turned to powder, to dust, to ash, to less than memory. The mountain of death became nothing but particles on the wind.

They felt it the moment it truly died. The crushing mental presence that had weighed on their souls since entering the lair... lifted. Gone. Like a massive hand releasing its grip, letting them breathe freely for the first time in what felt like years.

The island's destruction slowed, then stopped. What remained was a fraction of its original size, a small platform of stable bone floating in the void.

Masha's ice bridge had gotten them to a neighboring rock, another piece of the archipelago that had somehow survived.

They collapsed. All of them. Just fell to the ground and didn't move, couldn't move.

THE AFTERMATH

For a long time, nobody spoke. They just lay there, breathing. Existing. Still alive against all probability and logic.

Dante was the first to sit up, moving slowly like an old man three times his age. His body felt like it had been through a meat grinder and then reassembled wrong. Every cell screamed in protest. But he was alive. Somehow, impossibly, still alive.

He looked around, counting. The habit of a strategist, a survivor, a tyrant who needed to know what pieces remained on his board.

Masha. Unconscious but breathing steadily.

Jin. Sitting with his back against a rock, eyes closed, looking like he'd aged a decade.

Erica. Lying flat on her back, staring at the empty sky with an expression of complete emotional exhaustion.

Lana. Sprawled out dramatically, her usual smirk notably absent from her face.

Talia. Curled on her side like a child, finally allowing herself to show vulnerability.

Himself.

Six.

Exactly six survivors.

They'd started with so many more. The memory of the labyrinth, of the initial summons, felt like it had happened years ago in another lifetime. All those faces. All those names. All those people who'd stood beside them once.

Eric. The wall that never broke, the shield that protected everyone. Dead.

Rina. The light in darkness, the healer who kept them alive. Dead.

And now when they realized it too late.

Kael... Dead.

And so many others before even this trial began. An entire class of college students summoned to play in god's games. How many were left alive in the entire realm now? H

"We won," Erica said quietly. Not celebrating. Not rejoicing. Just stating fact.

"We survived," Jin corrected, his voice hollow.

"Is there a difference?" Lana asked. For once, her tone carried no sarcasm.

Nobody answered. Because none of them knew.

Dante looked at his hand, tried to make a fist. His fingers barely responded. The mana burn from his final assault had done permanent damage to his channels, to his very ability to use magic.

He'd burned his life force as fuel, consumed pieces of himself that would never regenerate. He was weaker now than he'd ever been, paradoxically victorious and crippled simultaneously.

But they'd won. Killed the unkillable. Completed the trial that had broken countless heroes before them.

The cost was just higher than any of them had imagined.

"What now?" Talia asked the question they were all thinking.

As if in direct answer, light bloomed in the space where the dragon's island had been.

THE GATE

It formed slowly, manifesting out of nothing. Not appearing all at once but growing, building itself piece by piece from pure magic made visible and tangible.

A gate. Massive. Ornate. Beautiful in a way that hurt to look at.

Made of silver and gold light that swirled and pulsed like liquid metal given consciousness. The frame was carved with intricate designs—scenes of heroes and monsters, victories and sacrifices, the eternal cycle of struggle and triumph that defined this world. At the top, six spaces glowed with particular brightness.

Six Hero Marks.

One for each of them.

The gate called to them. Not with sound or words, just a pull. A certainty deep in their bones that this was the exit. This was the prize. This was what they'd bled for, killed for, died for.

They stood slowly, helping each other up. Nobody could stand alone. Masha leaned heavily on Jin. Dante leaned on Talia. Lana walked alone but her usual swagger was completely gone, replaced by exhaustion so deep it showed in every movement.

They approached the gate together, moving as one group. Not a team. Not quite friends. But something forged in blood and death and shared trauma that didn't have a name in any language.

The gate's light intensified as they got closer, recognizing them. Accepting them. Welcoming them.

"Through there is the wish," Dante said quietly. "Everything we fought for. Everything we killed for. On the other side of that light."

"Worth it?" Masha asked. Not accusatory. Not judging. Genuinely wondering.

Dante looked at his team. Looked at the empty spaces where Eric, Rina, and Kael should have been standing. Felt the phantom weight of all his shadows, all the dead he carried in his soul.

"Ask me after we make it," he said finally.

They stood before the gate in silence for a long moment. Six survivors staring at their prize, at the culmination of everything.

Erica broke the silence, her voice soft. "Eric would have made a joke right now. Something stupid to break the tension. Make us all groan."

"Rina would have said something comforting," Talia added, her voice cracking slightly. "Made us feel better about everything we've done."

"Kael would have been excited," Jin said, a ghost of a smile on his face. "Probably bouncing on his heels, ready to sprint through."

Dante said nothing. Just looked at the gate and the six glowing marks waiting for them, calling to them.

They'd paid the price. In blood and souls and pieces of themselves they'd never get back. They'd become monsters to fight monsters.

Made sacrifices no sane person would ever make. Crossed lines that couldn't be uncrossed.

But they were here. Standing at the finish line.

Exactly six heroes, as the ancient prophecy had demanded.

Behind them, the Bone Dragon's realm was dissolved completely. The islands. The void. The entire trial space. It had served its purpose. The game was complete.

The dragon was dead.

The trial was finished.

Six heroes remained.

And in another place, another realm, a wish waited to be claimed.

The game was over.

But the real cost was still being counted.

And would be for a long, long time.

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