They didn't flee—their corruption prevented that—but they were distracted, their attacks becoming unfocused and clumsy as they tried to fight both real enemies and phantom terrors simultaneously.

Kelvin and Grimnir took immediate advantage, cutting down the disoriented warriors with brutal efficiency. Even Urgot, despite his injuries, managed to kill two more serpent soldiers who stumbled too close to him while fighting their own hallucinations.

"Ten seconds!" Freda's voice was strained to breaking point, the purification spell reaching its peak power level. Brilliant white light began radiating from her position, growing brighter with each passing moment.

King Vexor realized his time was up. In a last desperate gambit, he abandoned all defense and threw everything into a single overwhelming attack. Dark energy gathered around him in a massive sphere, corruption-magic so concentrated it was making the air itself scream. The temperature in the tent plummeted further, frost forming on metal surfaces.

"If I fall, I take you WITH ME!" the king roared in those horrible multi-toned voices, his form almost completely obscured by the swirling dark energy.

The energy sphere began expanding outward in all directions—a suicide attack designed to kill everyone in the tent, friend and foe alike. Grimnir grabbed Urgot and dove toward the tent's exit. Kelvin did the same, trying to get clear of the blast radius.

But Satou stood his ground.

He had one option. One skill powerful enough to counter this.

[Absolute Severance].

His blade moved, enhanced by every skill he possessed simultaneously. [Void Fang], [Shadow Blade], [Phantom Strike], all of them stacking and multiplying each other's effects. But it was [Absolute Severance] that made the crucial difference—the ability to cut through not just physical matter or magical energy, but through the very concept of connection itself.

His blade met the expanding sphere of corruption-magic and severed it. Not blocked it, not deflected it—actually severed the magical working at its fundamental level, cutting the connection between the energy and its source, causing the entire attack to collapse harmlessly into dispersing particles that faded into nothing.

And in that same motion, in that same perfect strike, Satou's blade continued its arc and took King Vexor's head from his shoulders.

The corrupted eyes had just enough time to widen in shock before the head separated from the body. Before it even hit the ground, before blood could spray, Freda's spell completed.

"NOW!" Satou roared.

Freda's hands completed the final gesture, and her purification spell detonated like a small sun. Brilliant white light flooded the tent with such intensity that everyone had to shield their eyes. The light wasn't just bright—it was pure, carrying the weight of cleansing magic that burned away corruption at the fundamental level.

The sickly green energy that had been radiating from Vexor's body was consumed instantly. The dark magic maintaining his enhanced state was purified and dispersed. The connection between his physical form and whatever ritual had been sustaining him was severed completely and irrevocably.

The king's headless body convulsed once, twice, then began to crumble. Scales flaked away like ash. Muscle and bone dissolved into nothing. Within seconds, there was nothing left but a pile of dust that was already dispersing in the air currents.

[Devour] activated automatically as Vexor died, Satou absorbing the serpent king's power and skills even as the purification magic cleansed the corruption from his essence before it could contaminate Satou's own being.

<System Notification> New Skills Acquired:

[Serpent King's Authority] - Command ability over reptilian species

[Corruption Resistance](Enhanced) - Greatly increased resistance to dark magic effects

[Royal Bloodline] - Enhanced physical capabilities and natural leadership aura

[Venomous Miasma] - Area-effect poison generation

[Unnatural Vitality] - Significantly enhanced regeneration and endurance

[Scale Manipulation]- Can grow and control protective scales

[Serpentine Grace] - Fluid movement and enhanced flexibility

The moment Vexor died, something fundamental changed in the enhanced serpent warriors. They didn't die or collapse—the corruption was still present in them—but they stopped. Just... froze in place, their empty eyes staring at nothing, their weapons lowering.\

Without their king to provide direction, without the intelligent will that had been coordinating their actions through the dark magic connection, they were just empty shells with no purpose or commands to follow.

"The command tent!" Chief Krrax's voice boomed from outside, right on schedule. "Attack now! For the Emerald Scale!"

The lizard-folk warriors had launched their assault exactly thirty minutes after the infiltration began, and now they poured into the serpent encampment from multiple directions. But instead of facing organized resistance, they found enemies standing motionless and unresponsive.

It was over in minutes. The enhanced serpent warriors, without leadership or coordination, were cut down efficiently by the lizard-folk. Some fled blindly into the wilderness, their corrupted minds unable to process what to do without orders. Others simply stood there and accepted death with the same empty expressions they'd worn in life.

Inside the command tent, Satou's strike team was catching their breath.

Grimnir sat heavily on an overturned chest, pressing a cloth torn from the tent's fabric to the deep wounds on his chest. "That... was closer than I'd like to admit." Blood seeped through his fingers, but his enhanced healing was already working to close the wounds.

Kelvin was already helping Urgot, carefully examining the young orc's injuries. "Broken ribs, deep lacerations on the shoulder, probably some internal bruising. But nothing fatal if we get you treatment soon." He pulled bandages from his pack and began applying emergency first aid. "You did well," he told Urgot, his voice carrying genuine approval despite the pain from his own injuries. "You held your ground against an elite opponent. That's more than most warriors manage their first time."

Urgot's response was a pained but proud smile, blood on his teeth. "I... I didn't let you down?"

"You didn't let us down," Kelvin confirmed firmly. "You killed a Crimson Scale in single combat. That's something to be proud of."

Freda had collapsed to her knees, utterly exhausted from the massive purification spell she'd cast. Her green hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, and her hands trembled from magical exhaustion. But she was smiling, her scholarly mind satisfied that the theory had translated to practice successfully. "Did it work? Is the connection severed?"

"Completely," Satou confirmed. He could feel the absence of that corrupted presence, the way reality itself seemed to relax now that Vexor's unnatural existence had been purified. "Whatever link he had to the ritual is gone."

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