Blood poured from the new wounds, soaking Jared’s clothing a deep scarlet. “Jared!” Sylvia’s voice cracked as tears glazed her eyes, yet she locked her arms at her sides and honored his wish to fight alone.
Jared teetered on the cliff edge of exhaustion, but the fire in his spirit only blazed higher. He pictured Maxwell, remembered that this sacred palace was meant to be his own dominion, and that these two before him were traitors defiling it.
From that vision surged a defiant force that drove back the darkness pressing on his mind.
I will not fall… I will break them! Eyes shut, he focused and drew a black-ringed storage ring from his finger, producing the Divine Bow.
The moment the bow appeared, Death Gorge shuddered, as though some ancient deity had opened a hidden eye; even the air turned heavy and unwilling to move.
Jaehaerys and Brennan felt that tide of power and their confidence flickered. Color drained from their cheeks.
“W-What weapon is that? How can it weigh on us like a mountain?” Brennan gasped.
Jared ignored the question. He drew the bowstring back, slow as sunrise, and a single arrow, forged from pure, murderous intent, solidified against the cord, hungry for release.
The moment Jared drew the Divine Bow to full tension, the single arrow resting on the string burned with shifting bands of crimson, jade, and sapphire light. Those colors bled into one another, churning like a living storm, promising devastation.
“Fly!”
The command burst from his throat, thunderous and absolute. He loosed. In the instant the bowstring snapped forward, the arrow became a streak of condensed lightning, so swift the world itself seemed to pause.
It tore across the courtyard toward Jaehaerys and Brennan. Where it passed, the air ruptured in jagged seams that screamed like metal being ripped apart.
Jaehaerys and Brennan felt the murderous wind a heartbeat before impact. Terror widened their eyes, yet they thrust their hands forward, weaving every scrap of holy power they possessed into a radiant shield of beaten gold.
For a breath, it looked unbreakable. Then the Divine Bow collided with it.
The detonation sounded like worlds colliding, a shockwave that rocked the stones beneath their feet. Cracks spider-webbed across the golden barrier in a blink. The next heartbeat, the shield shattered into a million glittering splinters, no louder than rain against the ruined flagstones.
Nothing remained to halt the projectile. It speared straight on, drilling through flesh and bone as though the two hall masters were made of paper.
Blood geysered behind them in a dark, gruesome fountain.
“No! Impossible!”
Their shared scream rattled the broken columns. Bodies staggering, they stared down at the gaping holes bored clean through their chests, life draining like sand through broken glass. Yet even on the precipice of death, they would not yield.
A single, desperate glance passed between them, one final covenant. They summoned the last embers of their immortal strength.
“Sacred Dual Assault!” they bellowed.
Their figures blurred, fusing into a single torrent of luminous gold. The merged radiance coalesced into a towering pillar that howled toward Jared, intent on taking him to the grave with them.
Jared had emptied every reserve he owned. Sweat and blood mingled on his brow, sword trembling in his grip, but his gaze never faltered while that golden pillar roared closer.
If this is the last breath destiny grants me, I will meet it standing…
Just as the radiant column was about to swallow him, Sylvia blurred across the field like moonlight on water. She planted herself before Jared, hands dancing through a flurry of arcane seals.
A translucent dome of pure celestial force blossomed around her.
Boom!
The golden pillar slammed into the shield. The impact shook the heavens, sparks of holy and celestial power cascading in blinding sheets. Hairline fractures etched themselves across Sylvia’s barrier, each one glowing white-hot, threatening to burst.
“Ms. Vale…” Jared tried, voice ragged, yet the word was a tangle of gratitude and protest he could not untie.
She glanced back over her shoulder, smile soft yet unyielding.
“Jared, allow me to end this. I know men cling to pride, but pride is cheap—life is priceless. You don’t have to pretend bravery in front of me.” Her eyes shone with a fierce tenderness. “Even if you chose to stand aside and let me fight alone, I would still find myself hopelessly drawn to you. For someone at Human Immortal Realm Level Three to have come this far, it is more than enough.”
Jared froze for a heartbeat. He had thrown himself into the fight to sharpen his edge, nothing more.
Impressing Sylvia, let alone grandstanding in front of her, had never crossed his mind. Still, the assumption stung like an undeserved slap.
