The atmosphere at the city center was a suffocating blend of ozone, burning oil, and the sharp, metallic tang of despair.

As James's chains swung Akhil and the unconscious Seth over the final row of shattered residential blocks, the true scale of the catastrophe came into view.

Standing tall amidst the skyscrapers was the Bot—a colossal, multi-limbed mechanical monstrosity.

High on a jagged pile of rebar and concrete debris, Aria stood panting, her chest heaving as she wiped a streak of grime from her forehead.

Her elegant long katana was unsheathed, the blade vibrating with the faint whistle of compressed wind. She looked like a gale caught in a bottle, but her glow was fading.

"Dammit..." she hissed, her voice lost in the roar of battle.

Below her, the scene was a chaotic ballet of violence.

She watched as Nibo, his massive form wreathed in a berserker's aura, leaped into the air. He swung his dual-headed waraxe with enough force to shatter a boulder, slamming it into the Titan's knee joint.

CLANG.

The shockwave rippled through the air, but the bot didn't even buckle.

Instead, the Titan's massive hydraulic arm swept outward in a blur of silver. Nibo barely had time to cross his arms before the punch connected, sending him spiraling through a brick wall like a discarded rag.

Aria's eyes flickered upward to the reinforced glass cockpit in the Titan's chest. Inside, bathed in the eerie glow of the monitors, sat Langdon.

His expression was one of cold, detached calculation.

'That bastard tricked us all,' Aria thought, her grip tightening on her hilt. 'He didn't just play the game; he built the board.'

She drew a deep breath, focusing the last of her energy to conjure a localized cyclone around her blade.

She was preparing for a desperate, final dash when a movement on the horizon caught her eye.

Her heart leaped.

Three silhouettes were racing toward the center—Nyla, James, and a battered Akhil.

For a fleeting second, a spark of hope ignited in her chest. If anyone could turn the tide, it was Akhil!

"Akhil! Over—"

The words died in her throat.

The ground behind the trio didn't just shake; it erupted. Emerging from the dust and smoke like a demon from a fever dream was the Titan of Wrath, its skin glowing like molten iron and its fire-filled eyes locked onto Akhil's back.

Aria's face went pale, her katana dipping slightly.

The hope that had flared a moment ago was extinguished by a cold, numbing wave of dread. One Titan had already brought the elite forces of the city to their knees. Two? Two meant the end of the world.

She looked down at the countless adventurers below, many of them looking up with the same expression of hollowed-out horror. They had thrown relentless attacks at the bot, but so far they were unable to land any solid blows.

"How are we supposed to defeat a monster like that?!" one adventurer screamed, his voice cracking as he collapsed to his knees, his spirit finally broken by the relentless onslaught.

"Stop complaining and move! Get out of there now!"

The warning echoed across the debris, but it arrived a second too late. The Titan's optical sensors locked onto him, pulsing with a lethal, deep-blue glow. With a mechanical hum, the plates on the bot's massive palm slid open to reveal a dark, swirling vacuum that seemed to pull the very air from the surrounding space.

A sphere of condensed azure energy materialized within the vent, flickering with volatile power. Before the man could even scramble away, a concentrated beam of heat erupted. The blast hit with the force of a falling star, vaporizing the adventurer instantly and leaving nothing behind but a scorched crater and a handful of drifting ash.

Silence fell over the remaining hunters, their faces pale and etched with absolute despair.

Aria, watching the execution from her vantage point, felt a cold knot of dread tighten in her chest. "No..." she whispered, her eyes wide as she looked from the colossal mechanical god in front of her to the primal beast charging from the rear. 'This is bad,' she thought, her fingers trembling against the hilt of her blade. 'This is very, very bad.'

Akhil locked eyes with Aria from the distance. He looked half-dead, his face pale and streaked with blood, but his eyes... his eyes were still burning.

"Aria, get everyone back! Clear the area!" Nyla's voice tore through the roar of battle as she surged closer.

"What?" Aria's brow shot up in disbelief. Her mind raced—if they retreated now, the Titans would have a clear path to trample everything in their wake. Their only hope of survival, however slim, lay in a united front. To break formation was to invite total annihilation.

What is she thinking? Aria wondered, her heart hammering against her ribs. But as the words left Nyla's lips, Aria found herself frozen. She could only watch in a trance of horror as the two heralds of the apocalypse closed the distance, her friends caught like a breath of air in the center of a catastrophic collision.

"Aria! Get everyone back!"

Aria's head snapped toward the approaching group. This time, the command didn't come from Nyla—it was Akhil. His voice was a rasping roar, and his eyes burned with a terrifying, absolute resolve.

Yet, he looked broken. He was slumped in James's chains, his body limp and defeated. What could he possibly do in that state? For the first time, Aria felt a flicker of doubt. If they broke the tight formation that had served as their only shield, the results would be catastrophic.

"Do it now!" Akhil bellowed as they drew closer, the desperation in his voice cutting through the din of clashing steel.

Aria's gaze darted between the battered Akhil and the looming mechanical god. Uncertainty flared in her eyes, but she made her choice. "Fall back! Everyone, fall back now!"

"Are you insane?" an adventurer retorted instantly, his face pale with sweat. "We're barely holding this thing at bay! If we give it space, it'll wipe us all out!"

The logic was sound. At close range, the Titan was a clumsy giant, forced to endure their constant, stinging banter from all directions. Langdon was pinned by their proximity, unable to fire his long-range weapons without risking self-damage. But Langdon didn't seem to care. He sat calmly within the cockpit, confident that the legendary durability of his alloys could outlast their waning stamina.

Once they retreated, the distance would turn the Titan from a defensive wall into a mobile artillery battery.

"Fine. Stay if you want to die," Aria dismissed them coldly. She didn't wait for a rebuttal, turning her back on the front line and retreating.

The orcs, sensing the shift in her demeanor, didn't bother to argue; they moved as one, following her lead with disciplined haste. Seeing the orcs and their commander abandon the formation, the humans and other adventurers began to panic. They opened their mouths to protest, but as the word 'death' echoed in their minds, their bravado withered into raw fear.

"That stubborn orc..." they muttered under their breaths, though they didn't hesitate to scramble backward.

As the entire team dissolved into a full retreat, a sudden vacuum of silence fell over the immediate area. Inside the cockpit, Langdon was momentarily taken aback. The persistent swarm that had been grounding his Titan was gone, leaving him with an eerie, unobstructed view of the wreckage.

Langdon recovered instantly, a cold smirk playing on his lips. "So, you finally realized the futility of your struggle? Tactical retreat or not, you've simply given me a clearer line of fire."

The Titan of Discord's massive shoulder plates swiveled, the heavy rail cannons whining as they locked onto the fleeing group. At the same time, the fire-breathing Titan from the rear let out a deafening roar, its massive feet pulverizing the pavement as it ruthlessly chased behind Akhil and the others.

"Nyla! James! Now!" Akhil's command cut through the deafening roar of the battlefield.

James didn't hesitate for a heartbeat. With a guttural roar, he put his entire weight into his chains, launching Akhil forward like a human projectile. In a coordinated blur of motion, both he and Nyla immediately veered off, clearing a straight path between the two looming threats.

Akhil soared through the air, a small, battered silhouette framed against the backdrop of the two converging monsters. Mid-flight, he tapped into his dwindling reserves, using Air Walk to steady himself.

He hung suspended in the sky, a fragile speck of defiance between the mechanical god and the primal beast.

Inside the cockpit, Langdon swiveled the Titan's sensors toward the intruder. When the thermal display resolved into Akhil's face, a flicker of genuine annoyance crossed Langdon's features.

'Still pushing?' Langdon thought, his fingers hovering over the fire control. 'In that state, you're nothing more than a nuisance.'

Akhil, however, wasn't looking at the cannons leveled at his chest.

He closed his eyes, drawing in a jagged breath as he reached for a power he had never dared to test after Samxon's death. He had no idea what the cost would be, or if his body would even survive the strain, but there was no other choice.

A faint, chilling notification flickered in the corner of his mind's eye.

{Ability — Mosquito Bite: Activated}

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.