"You're right, Aaron. This barrier is impressive, and I don't really know who would last longer between you and my minions if this barrier wasn't there, but here is the point: I'm not trying to kill you. Not yet."

He let the words hang in the air while his summons kept attacking. The barrier flickered but stayed strong.

Then Reidar's gaze shifted from the unbound man to the figure cowering just behind him, Judas Venn.

"To be right, you're not protecting 'morons,' Aaron," Reidar said. "You're protecting an asset."

He waved his free hand over the scared War Hounds. "You and the Church worked on this for months. You found the biggest, meanest bully in the area, let him loose just enough to make him dangerous, and then built this small army of thugs around him. You thought you were making a weapon to use against Creamont."

Aaron's calm outside changed. As he put more mana into the flickering shield, his hands got tighter. Reidar's words were too close to the truth.

"I want to make all the effort you and your Church spent raising these War Hounds idiots go to waste."

The Cinderheart Efreeti's flames intensified above them, its white-hot beam lancing down onto the barrier. The Twin Boulderbacks raised their fists high, poised for a synchronized, crushing strike.

Reidar's gaze shifted to Judas, who stood inside the dome. "I've been wondering what happens if the War Hounds' leader dies right at the moment he's supposed to be strongest. What happens to all those careful plans the Church of Unbinding was making for Creamont? What happens to the Church's entire strategy in this region when I crush your prize pawn and there's nothing you can do to stop me? Do they collapse? Or does your Progenitor have to start from scratch with another thug?"

Judas's smirk vanished, replaced by a flicker of fear. He glanced at Aaron, seeking reassurance.

Aaron's face remained a mask, but a muscle in his jaw twitched. "You assume too much, Reidar. You always have."

"Do I?" Reidar took a step forward.

The Cinderheart Efreeti descended like a falling star, its molten gaze fixed on Judas. The Twin Boulderbacks wheeled with seismic force as they pivoted toward the dome.

Their stone fists shattered the air—once, twice—each strike sending thunderclaps through the barrier's surface.

In the meantime, white fire from the Efreeti's beam screamed against the violet shield, igniting a corona of heat and light along its rim.

The combined assault sent violent ripples through the dome, as if reality itself recoiled from the impact.

Glowing fissures branched outward from the impact zones, pulsing with energy where stone met mana.

The creatures targeted the same stress points again and again before the barrier could mend itself. Each blow carried the full weight of a mountain and the heat of a star. Molten stone pooled where fire met the dome, and the stone fists of the Boulderbacks glowed orange with reflected heat as they readied themselves to strike once more.

"Your barrier will fail, Aaron. Maybe not in the next minute, but it will. And when it does, every single one of my creatures has one order: kill Judas Venn and his people. Nothing else. They will even ignore you. What will you tell your masters then? Are you going to tell them that their investment was lost because you failed to protect one man? That the control you wanted to get on Creamont disappeared because of carelessness?"

Aaron's calm cracked. His eyes narrowed, the violet energy around his hands intensifying. "You are playing a dangerous game, Reidar."

"No," Reidar said. "I'm not playing at all. The present is the bill coming due for Havenwood. For Lysa. For Torren. You sent hunters after me. Now you get the hunt."

Aaron's knuckles whitened as he reinforced the barrier, sweat beading on his brow. The Efreeti's beam sizzled against the shield, the heat seeping through even the thickest layers of arcane protection.

He recognized the truth in the threat. Around them, Reidar's minions were already moving, preparing for a concentrated bombardment meant to overwhelm his defenses.

<If he dies, Silas will have my head.>

Venn was more than a brute. He was a way to control Creamont. The church needed resources and people, and if they lost the only thing that kept them together, the church was going to lose them too.

The Progenitor had invested too much in this project to accept failure. Aaron's mind raced. He could reinforce the shield, but he wouldn't be able to fight back. It was a humiliation he would rather not face anymore. The last time was in Havenwood, when seeing Reidar's overwhelming power made him feel insignificant. He couldn't accept that.

He could attack, but Reidar's army would ignore him and swarm Venn like hungry wolves.

Judas must have realized Aaron was hesitating. "Aaron—"

"Shut up." Aaron's voice was ice. He had one option anyway. "Shit!"

The barrier flared, not outward, but inward, wrapping around them even more, leaving less space but decreasing the surface his mana had to spread to create the barrier and, at the same time, increasing its resistance.

The surface thickened, growing more opaque as the reduced area concentrated his mana into a smaller, denser shell. The attacks hammered against it with renewed fury, but the reinforced barrier absorbed each blow with minimal rippling.

Reidar's gaze flickered from the shrinking barrier to Seraphine and Matthias, who stood ready but exposed. They were powerful, but against Aaron's Level 297, they were vulnerable. A single stray blast from the unbound man would incinerate them. Aaron was right; the War Hounds were expendable assets. Reidar's allies were not.

"Seraphine," Reidar said. "Get everyone out. Now."

He didn't wait for an answer and sent his Feral Pack's crows to them. The massive birds descended, landing in the cleared space behind him.

Seraphine understood that this was no longer their battle; it was a clash between titans, and they were caught in the blast radius. She grabbed Matthias's arm, urging him toward the mounts. "Let's go! We're liabilities here."

She approached the designated crow. "One hit from that man, and we're dead."

As the Spriggans scattered toward the waiting crows, hands grabbed feathers and bodies pulled upward onto broad backs while weapons were secured for flight. The creatures remained calm despite the violence raging meters away, because their discipline reflected their summoner's will.

The crow dipped beneath Matthias's weight, feathers rustling as he hauled himself up, his damaged leg a stiff anchor against the beast's flank. The climb was awkward, a series of painful shifts and grunts, but manageable. Only when he was secure did he look back, his gaze drawn to the stillness at the center of the chaos—Reidar, standing alone amidst an army of thousands that breathed and moved as one extension of his will.

The ground shook first. A moment later, a rush of wind slammed down, scattering grit and ash across the courtyard as the massive crows launched skyward.

Wings, wide as sails, caught the air. As they lifted the Spriggans above the battlefield, the perspective shifted dizzyingly. The ruins fell away, shrinking into a toy-like maze beneath them, while the dome of Aaron's barrier dwindled into a distant, glowing gem as the space between the fighters and the observers grew wider.

Seraphine watched from above as Reidar's army continued its siege, knowing they'd left him alone to face whatever was supposed to happen.

Reidar watched them leave, making sure they were far away before turning his full, cold attention back to the dome.

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