This was a battle between monsters. Between legends.

Another deafening clash tore through the chamber.

The golden barrier holding them at bay flickered, fractures beginning to spider across its radiant surface.

And then—

A fracture.

A deep, resounding crack echoed outward, like the world itself beginning to split.

Friedrich’s eyes widened. “Something’s wrong.”

The golden shield trembled.

Another crack.

The chamber’s reality began to warp—

And the barrier shattered.

Light erupted outward, divine energy dispersing into fragments of golden dust. The shockwave hurled Star, Siegfried, Klara, Friedrich, Erik, and Seth backward. As the radiance faded, the sight before them sent a chill through their souls.

Alioth stood at the center of the battlefield, celestial energy coursing around his form. His sword burned with divine brilliance, yet his breaths came ragged, uneven—strained beneath the weight of the clash.

Before him loomed the Heroes’ Slayer.

No longer merely a reflection.

No longer a clone.

What had once resembled Alioth was now a grotesque fusion of his power and Beelzebul’s corruption—shadow and divinity twisted into an abhorrent amalgamation.

A chimeric nightmare.

Its form writhed constantly, false flesh shifting like molten tar. Black tendrils laced with abyssal energy coiled outward, hissing against the air. A jagged, crown-like growth had formed upon its head, and within its unstable visage, multiple crimson eyes opened—watching, calculating, devouring.

Alioth’s grip tightened around his sword.

He had kept the others away for this very reason.

He knew what this monstrosity could do.

The Heroes’ Slayer turned its many eyes toward him.

“You still hesitate?” it rasped. “How weak you’ve become. The hero of Atlantia… reduced to doubt.”

Star stepped forward, fury blazing in her gaze.

“Enough!” she shouted. “Stop treating us like children, Alioth! We’re fighting together!”

Alioth turned, ready to protest—but the resolve in her eyes halted him.

He saw himself in her.

The same fire. The same burden. The same refusal to stand aside.

The Heroes’ Slayer smirked, its expression splitting unnaturally across multiple faces.

“Oh? Your little successors are just as stubborn as you were. How poetic.”

The air shifted.

A heavy, unnatural pull gripped the chamber.

The Slayer raised its arms, and darkness bled outward. Space warped around its palms as a swirling void began to form—an abyssal singularity, crackling with volatile energy. Gravitational force distorted the battlefield, dragging debris, shattered mirrors, and fragments of divine light into its spiraling maw.

“It’s summoning a singularity!” Klara shouted, eyes wide.

“If that collapses—”

“Everything here will be consumed,” Siegfried finished grimly.

Alioth clenched his jaw.

He could stop it—

But not alone.

He exhaled sharply and turned to them.

“Listen! We don’t have time. We attack together—synchronize your abilities with mine. I’ll handle the singularity. You push it back.”

His gaze sharpened.

“Erik. Friedrich. Hit it with everything you have. Siegfried—protect the others.”

Then his eyes met Star’s.

“Show me what you’ve got.”

Star nodded. “We won’t let you down.”

The battle reignited in a storm of light and fury.

Friedrich surged forward first, Incidis power erupting around him in a blazing inferno. His greatsword cleaved through shadowed tendrils, each strike trailing embers that scorched the corrupted ground. He advanced relentlessly, carving a burning path through the abomination’s writhing mass.

Erik followed like a living shadow, panther-like agility carrying him between abyssal strikes. Flames roared along his blade as he moved—swift, lethal, precise. Each slash disrupted the creature’s unstable form, forcing it to recalibrate. He growled low, Felinari instincts guiding him as he dodged a barrage of jagged tendrils lashing toward him.

Seth launched skyward, wind surging beneath his feet. He drew his bow mid-flight, arrows gleaming with condensed gales. His volley struck with surgical precision, forcing the Slayer to recoil. He twisted midair, conjuring a second storm—dozens of arrows spiraling within a summoned whirlwind before raining down in a razor-edged cascade that shredded shadowed flesh.

Siegfried and Klara moved as one.

His shield intercepted incoming strikes, radiant barriers absorbing impacts that would have shattered bone. Behind him, Klara wove Storm sigils through the air, lightning erupting in branching arcs. She slammed her palm to the ground, unleashing a vortex of electric fury that surged upward, binding the abomination in a cage of crackling power.

And then—

Star.

She dashed forward, sword blazing with divine radiance, meeting the Heroes’ Slayer head-on.

Their blades collided.

Shockwaves rippled outward as steel clashed in rapid succession. Sparks erupted, fractures spreading across the chamber walls. Star drove forward relentlessly, pouring her will into every strike.

She felt it—

Alioth’s presence.

His lingering power resonating within her.

The abomination snarled, malformed limbs shifting erratically to break her rhythm—but she adapted, faster with each exchange. She severed a reaching tendril, pivoted, and drove her blade deep into its torso.

Corrupted energy exploded outward—

But the light surrounding her held firm.

At the same time, Alioth confronted the singularity.

He raised his hands, channeling the totality of his divine essence. Golden radiance engulfed him, wings of pure light unfurling behind his form. The gravitational pull tore at him, threatening to unravel his very being—but he endured.

Ancient inscriptions ignited in the air around him as he wove a celestial sealing incantation.

The chamber convulsed.

The battle reached its apex.

The Heroes’ Slayer howled as Star’s blade pierced its shifting core. Its grotesque form spasmed violently, limbs unraveling, shadowed flesh disintegrating as it screamed.

In the same instant—

Alioth unleashed his power.

A blinding eruption of divine light consumed the singularity, collapsing the abyssal anomaly in a radiant detonation. The gravitational field shattered, the void dispersing into harmless fragments of fading darkness.

For a brief moment—

There was only silence.

Then, slowly—

The dust began to settle.