Roland landed beside Horun, his face pale and dripping with sweat. He leaned close, voice low but trembling.
"What kind of creatures are these? If you know something, now’s the time to tell us. I don’t think this situation looks good for us."
Horun gritted his teeth so hard I could hear it. His eyes were sharp, but there was fear hidden deep inside them.
"I’ve never seen any creatures like this either," he growled. "But my guess... it looks like some kind of living puppet. Considering who this place belongs to, anything is possible."
Brutus frowned, his jaw tightening. "Who does this place belong to?"
Horun’s answer came with weight. "A very ancient and powerful organization from the Prime Galaxy."
At that, Roland’s eyes widened. For a second, his pride cracked, but then his expression hardened again. He muttered low, more to himself than to the others.
"Then we need to go all out."
I watched Horun nod. His hand moved, pulling something from his storage ring. It was a small black token, dull and unassuming at first glance, like a piece of carved wood. But the faint shimmer of runes etched across its surface made my Psynapse hum with warning.
Horun stared directly at Ragnar and Knight, his voice sharp as he hurled it forward.
"Go to hell!"
My perception locked onto the token immediately. It sliced through the air with unnatural speed. The engravings glowed faintly, twisting with energy that didn’t belong to this graveyard.
It looked ordinary, but I knew better. My instincts screamed at me not to let it touch Ragnar or Knight.
Suddenly, the token released a spatial ripple that spread outward, sealing both Knight and Ragnar inside a locked space bubble.
I didn’t waste a breath. I reached out with my Psynapse and sent a sharp command into Knight’s mind. Dodge, now!
Knight let out a low, guttural growl as shadows burst from his body like a storm. They coiled around Ragnar in thick waves and then both of them blurred, vanishing into the air. They reappeared a few meters away outside the locked space, shadows still clinging to them like smoke.
The token clattered against the ground right in the middle of the locked space where they had been standing. For an instant, silence fell.
Then it began to glow.
A bright green light pulsed outward, searing the edges of the broken graves. My heart skipped a beat. The runes etched into the wood lit up one after another, faster and faster, until the entire thing looked alive.
And then it went off.
BOOM!!!
The explosion ripped through the graveyard like a dying star. A blinding flash swallowed the world, and the ground shook as though a giant had slammed his fist into it. Gravestones shattered into dust, bones flew skyward, and the earth itself cracked, spiderwebs of destruction spreading in all directions.
The blast was so strong it caused a mini earthquake. A storm of dirt and debris swallowed everything. The pressure wave tore across the graveyard, toppling the last standing bones and flattening anything weak enough to stand in its way.
When the blinding green faded, all that remained was a smoking crater where the token had landed.
And in the middle of that crater, nothing. Just scorched earth, glowing faintly with lingering runes that sizzled before disappearing.
I exhaled slowly, narrowing my eyes.
They had used something dangerous, something desperate. Whatever that token was, it hadn’t been made by them. It had been given.
Which meant they were reaching into trump cards far beyond their weight.
Ragnar stood tall through the dust, shadows peeling away from his body. He looked unharmed, almost bored, his massive club still resting against his shoulder. Knight’s tail swayed slowly behind him, his crimson eyes shining through the smoke like those of a predator.
And then Ragnar laughed.
A deep, booming laugh that shook the air more than the explosion had.
"So that was your best shot?" he roared, grinning wide. "Pathetic."
The grandmasters stared at him, their faces twisted in disbelief. Horun’s eyes wavered for a moment, though he tried to keep his front.
Ragnar finally stopped laughing, his grin fading into a cold scoff.
"To get the inheritance of my Master, pathetic worms like you are not enough," he growled. "Bring me someone worthy... or else you’ll meet your death here."
The moment his words ended, Knight vanished from beside him. My perception locked onto him as he reappeared above Shinjo and Sakar, the two still stuck together. His crimson eyes glowed, boring into theirs as he whispered in that eerie, almost playful tone of his.
"Death and I had a race once... but he died trying to keep up."
I almost rolled my eyes. Even now, in the middle of carnage, he still couldn’t resist slipping in one of his jokes.
Then his horn lit up, its tip glowing with a violent red light. Shadows coiled around him like a storm waiting to burst. His voice carried across the silence, steady and merciless.
"Special attack... Embrace of the Darkness."
Shinjo and Sakar’s faces twisted in horror. They screamed, desperate, but nothing answered them. The beam fired. Space itself tore open, cracks splitting in every direction, wild fluctuations spreading like a ripple across the air.
The blast hit both of them dead on. Their bodies jerked violently, pulled apart as if invisible hands were ripping them from every angle. A second later, they burst into a bloody shower, torn into pieces so small the storm of space scattered them like dust.
Silence followed. Knight floated lazily in the air, his tail swaying, head slowly turning until his gaze fell on Horun and Roland.
Brutus froze in place. His legs shook, his shoulders trembled. For all his size, he didn’t look like a grandmaster anymore, he looked like a scared child about to be devoured.
Horun’s reaction was the opposite. He roared, fury burning in his eyes, and bellowed, "I will fucking kill you!" His aura exploded as he charged straight at Knight, his sword raised high.
Roland didn’t roar. He didn’t charge. He spun on his heel and bolted, shooting toward the flame wall. He was running.
Before Horun could reach Knight, Ragnar blurred and appeared in front of him. The crimson mist wrapped around his frame as his bone club rested on his shoulder. He grinned at the charging tiger and tilted his head mockingly.
"Aww... the little cat is angry."
He swung once. The club smashed straight into Horun’s ribcage with a brutal crack, sending him flying back like a broken doll. The impact drove him into the ground with such force the earth itself shook. Dust and bones shot into the air, leaving a crater where his body slammed down.