As the viewers lost hope in the Daywalkers’ odds with each passing second, they didn’t expect the worst had yet to come.
"Time for the grand finale!" the Gamemaster’s voice crackled with sinister excitement. "Giants! Clear the stage!"
The moment the timer hit the one-minute mark, the two giants brought the rusted war-horns near their lips.
BWAAAA-RUM!
The sound was so loud it sent goosebumps coursing through every Daywalker on the rope... they knew that Gamemaster Envy was feared because he invested heavily in the trap mechanism, making it as deadly as possible.
As expected, before the echo could even fade, the giants reached to their waists and unsheathed two colossal, twin-headed axes!
The blades were the size of houses, reflecting a dull, murderous red tint... it was like the blades were permanently tainted by the blood of their slain enemies during their glorious days.
But now... their purpose shifted.
With a cold growl that shook the entire map, the giants spun and hurled the axes into the sky, catching everyone by surprise.
"Up! Look up and track ’em!!" Tyrese shouted.
The Daywalkers kept their eyes wide and affixed on the spinning giant axes cutting through the clouds... the moment they reached the peak of their arc, they began their descent, aiming directly at the center of the spinning rope.
"They’re going to cut it!!!" Mira shrieked in horror, immediately clawing at the rope’s fibers.
Evangeline’s and Tyrese’s expressions twisted in dread at the sight of the rapidly descending axes, while their teammates had already been absolutely worn out from the constant chase.
Worse, most of them were spread out in different areas of one side of the rope while Levi’s teammates were on the other side... this meant that the moment the rope was cut, Shia, Arthur, and Jasmine wouldn’t be able to help them.
Evangeline and Tyrese knew that it was a big deal since these three possessed the best powers to keep everyone secured on the rope, even if it was cut!
"Shit, shit, shit!"
Arthur cursed as he summoned the Vermillion Fortress around him and the girls... No words were exchanged; Shia fired dozens of sticky tentacles from her weapon and attached them to the fortress walls... then, she linked the tentacles to Jojo, Jasmine, and Arthur.
As for Nurah? She left them and went to help everyone take down the Chameleon.
It might look selfish to turtle themselves and ignore the rest, but they knew that it was hopeless to attempt to help the others... they were kilometers away, and the axes were about to drop in a couple of seconds or less.
"Captain Levi!! We need your aetheric abilities!"
"Damn it... He is still in the zone..." Evangeline murmured.
She knew that Levi was their last hope at taking down the Hexgaze Lurker... she wasn’t foolish enough to break him out of his concentration to save them from the trap while the Chameleon had already caught up to their score.
With no hesitation, she took matters into her own hands. Evangeline screamed at the top of her lungs, "Huddle on me!!"
With a desperate motion, Evangeline plunged her sword deep into the rope’s fibers with both hands. Then, she lifted her head and shouted, "Prison of the Iron Judge!"
A shockwave of brilliant, golden light exploded from the hilt of her sword and expanded swiftly, forming a giant, gleaming dome of pure energy!
Evangeline’s ultimate ability was absolute... It was a court prison designed to keep its inhabitants rooted until her judgment was complete!
The Daywalkers didn’t need to be told twice... seeing the giant axes whistling through the air, barely a couple of hundred meters away, they scrambled toward the light like insects to a flame!
"Move! Move!"
Tyrese roared, using his strength to throw two slower Daywalkers toward the dome... it was a scene of pure chaos as Daywalkers used whatever abilities or artifacts at their disposal to seek the brilliant shelter.
They were exhausted and felt like they were dragging their feet... and yet, no one dared to succumb to their weakness at such a life-or-death moment.
Mira was the first to dive headfirst through the barrier, followed by two more Daywalkers who were the closest to her.
The moment they were inside, the brilliant dome released chains of white light in their direction and cuffed their wrists tightly, leaving them incapable of moving an inch.
Yet, none of them complained. Their eyes were filled with horror as the giant axes slammed into the middle of the rope, slicing through the massive, reinforced fibers as if they were nothing more than wet paper.
CRACK!!!
The tension snapped instantly... the rope, which had been pulled tight across the abyss, suddenly recoiled with a violent force. Because it was still spinning, the two severed halves whipped through the air like dying snakes.
"Hold on for your lives!"
Arthur roared from inside his stone fortress while holding Jojo tightly in his embrace, using his massive body to shield her.
Still, they had it a million times better than the Daywalkers caught in the middle of their run towards Evangeline’s shelter... Several Daywalkers, including Tyrese, quickly found themselves sliding across the giant rope’s surface as it swung downward in a massive, terrifying arc toward the abyss’s cliff thousands of meters below!!
Even Nurah was no exception, as her powers thrived on shadows... unfortunately, the moment half the rope entered the realm of the abyss, there was nothing but pure darkness.
Ahhhhhhhh!!!! Save meee!!! Noooo!!!...
Yet, she still lunged out and grabbed a sliding Daywalker by the belt before slamming a dagger into the rope to anchor them both!
"Don’t you dare let go!" she shouted, her veins protruding from the strain.
Meanwhile, amid this vertical nightmare, the Hexgaze Lurker was still moving nonstop... It didn’t care that the world was falling. It kept blinking from one horn to another, its spiritual form unaffected by gravity.
The Hexgaze looked back at Levi, its eyes filled with a cold, mocking triumph.
’You were close... dangerously close.’
The Chameleon’s elderly, gruff voice echoed in Levi’s mind as it waited for another Horn to spawn.
’But... in the game of life, being close is closer to infinity than victory...’ The Hexgaze praised, ’You are an unpredictable anomaly, boy... and that’s why you have to die... Our master can’t have you as an enemy, and I will make sure to bring an end to your story.’
Alas, he said so much, and yet Levi wasn’t listening at all... he was standing horizontally on the side of the falling rope, his boots still locked in place by his aetheric powers.
When the Hexgaze picked up no response from Levi, he showed not much of a reaction... he glitched twice, and then he entered his preparations for his final blink, reaching out for one more Horn to be safe. He had done this exact motion a hundred times or more without getting caught once.
He had gotten so good, it became a routine... spawn, glitch, blink, repeat: over, and over, and over again.
He thought nothing of it since no one was even close to catching him... what he didn’t consider was that Levi had been watching, studying, analyzing, and perfecting his timing all for this very, very moment.
’Got you...’
Levi’s fingers twitched and were instantly engulfed in green flames, which spread out across the swiftly emerging Judgement Chainstaff... in one fluid movement, Levi manifested hundreds of Aetheric Combustions on his palm while simultaneously activating the Sun-forged Skeleton.
Levi didn’t throw the weapon... he ignited it!
In a single heartbeat, he triggered every single Aetheric Combustion stored in his palm!
Ka-BOOOOOOOOOM!!
The resulting explosion forced off a concentrated blast of raw kinetic energy that acted like a rocket engine.
The staff vanished from his grip and launched upward across the rope’s surface at supersonic speed!
It pierced through the air with a high-pitched scream, leaving a sonic boom that shattered the debris and deafened any Daywalker in its path.
Even as their ears bled from the sonic boom, Nurah, Tyrese, and the rest of the Daywalkers watched the green flaming comet tear through the sea of darkness. Their eyes followed the streak for a brief moment before they instinctively glanced downward at Levi.
What they saw sent chills down their spines.
The recoil of the launch had been devastating on Levi... so devastating, the sheer force of the explosion had completely imploded his arm to the shoulder, leaving his green, shimmering, bony arm fully exposed. Yet, this wasn’t even the scariest part.
The recoil had forcefully separated him from the rope, hurling him away from the surface and in the direction of the abyss while he was still engulfed in a storm of emerald light.
To the stunned viewers and Daywalkers, he no longer looked like a human being... he looked like a falling star.
The scene was breathtaking, leaving them incapable of making a sound. In one direction, a flaming comet pierced upward through the darkness; in the other, a green star plummeted straight into the abyss.
The only entity that hadn’t found pleasure in this scene was none other than the Hexgaze Lurker... the instant he blinked on top of the spawned Horn near the far end of the cliff, his honed instincts screamed at him to watch out.
Alas, the routine was already established... The Hexgaze’s form glitched him back to his physical form as he calculated, and... as Levi had!
The Hexgaze, who was still in the middle of its physical shift, didn’t even have time to blink.
’Huh...?’
The Hexgaze Lurker was dead before he could even scream; the last thing reflected in his eye was the color of green.
The supersonic impact had liquified his internal organs instantly, pinning the Chameleon to the swinging rope like a hunted trophy under everyone’s eyes.
-...-
-...-
-...-
Then, a heavy, suffocating silence fell over the dimensional sector... Across billions of screens, Gamemaster Envy’s high-speed commentary cut out, and the betting boards froze.
In the VIP chambers, Bishop Na’thir sat in a trance, his knuckles white as he stared at the spot where his final dash of hope had been erased.
Bishop Va’ren had forgotten to breathe, his voice stuck in his throat.
As for the Daywalkers... They didn’t even look at the Hexgaze’s condition... they only stared down into the abyss at the fading spark of emerald light.
A split second later... hell broke loose.
WOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAH!!!!