The wind howled through the burning wreckage, ash swirling like snow beneath the blood-orange sky. All around them, the bodies of defectives and broken replicas smoldered into ruin. But it wasn't over.
Not yet.
The four stepped forward.
Lurien. Vaelis. Nereziel. Zevien.
Each one moved like they'd been carved from purpose, elegant, inhuman, utterly calm.
The Demonfires, bloodied, bruised, but standing tall, gripped their blades tighter. Their breath came ragged, bodies aching, but none of them stepped back.
Their will didn't falter.
It ignited.
Then they moved.
---
Lurien vanished.
Not ran. Not blinked. Vanished.
Li barely had time to shift when he materialized between her and Diego, twin blades slashing in an X arc meant to kill in a blink. Sparks flew as Li blocked, but the force sent her skidding back. Diego charged in without hesitation, striking low, but Lurien vaulted up, twisting mid-air and crashing down with a kick that sent Diego into a cracked wall.
"Too slow," Lurien murmured. Not gloating. Just stating fact.
---
Across the field, Nereziel's voice rumbled like thunder.
"Vaelis," he called.
She smirked, spun once, and he threw her.
She sailed through the air like a spear aimed straight at Sofie.
But it was a feint.
Mid-air, Vaelis twisted her trajectory at the last second, landing hard, not at Sofie, but behind her, eyes locked on Harry.
The rear guard. The scientist. The key.
But Harry didn't freeze.
He stepped forward.
"Come on, then," he muttered, pulling a small crescent-blade from his coat, hands already flicking a vial of volatile serum into his other palm.
She lunged.
---
At the same time, Nereziel collided with Slacovich, blade to blade. The force of the blow cracked the earth beneath them, sending shockwaves through the ground. Slacovich was shoved back, boots dragging, but he gritted his teeth and pushed forward, regaining footing, eyes glowing faintly with renewed fire.
Nereziel didn't smile. He didn't even blink.
He just moved again, faster, heavier, like gravity favored him.
---
And in the midst of it all---
Zevien.
He moved toward Tyler, slow at first, like a curtain drawing back before a storm.
"You've grown," Zevien said softly. "Good. I'd hate for this to be boring."
Then he struck.
A blur of shadows and coiling energy, Zevien attacked with no restraint, his whip-like weapon slicing through the air in a screaming arc. Tyler blocked, barely, but the recoil blasted him off his feet, skidding across broken concrete.
He flipped mid-roll, landed in a crouch, but Zevien was already there, boot driving toward his throat.
Tyler rolled again, dodging it by a breath, then spun to counter.
Blade met whip.
The shock sang up Tyler's arm like lightning.
Zevien's strikes were faster than before. Sharper. Deadlier.
This wasn't a game anymore.
Zevien was fighting to kill.
"You're clever," Zevien mused mid-combat. "But clever dies just the same."
Tyler's breath was labored, blood trickling down his temple.
But his eyes were focused.
He was watching.
Studying.
Zevien was a storm, but storms had patterns. They spun, they repeated.
And Tyler?
He had nothing to lose.
Not now.
He stepped back, then in, absorbing the impact, letting it glance off, using the angle to parry and slide into Zevien's blind spot.
Just a flicker.
But it was something.
And in the background, with the battlefield fractured, fires burning, and the sky shaking with the roar of clashing titans----
The final battle had truly begun.
----
The clash began with distance.
Lurien didn't strike to kill right away.
He played. Toyed. Disoriented.
One moment he was there, the next, gone. Then back again, striking from a blind angle, vanishing before the blade could return the favor. Every hit was calculated to wound, to frustrate, to wear them down. He wasn't just fighting them. He was isolating them. Dragging them away.
Li and Diego were thrown, again and again, across craters and broken highways, across demolished rooftops and scorched terrain. Debris rained with every impact. Blood painted their path.
The two regrouped, backs pressed against each other, breaths ragged.
"Still breathing?" Diego asked through a pained grin.
"Barely." Li's grip on her blade trembled. Not from fear. From restraint.
And then---
Lurien laughed.
A sharp, gleeful sound that echoed in the ruins like a blade dragging across steel.
"Look at you two," he taunted, stepping forward, face untouched, smug carved into every inch. "Clinging to each other like broken toys. How sad."
Then he struck again.
Fangs bared. Blades faster than thunder.
The beatdown was merciless.
Li and Diego were slammed into concrete, kicked through rusted steel beams, thrown into shrapnel like ragdolls. Cuts opened. Blood soaked. Bones cracked.
But then---
Li stopped dodging.
Her pupils shifted. Fangs extended.
She transformed.
Diego saw her shift, her blood igniting like wildfire.
"Finally," she growled.
And Diego grinned, baring his own fangs. "Let's break him."
---
The tide turned.
Faster than thought, they vanished, matching Lurien's speed.
This time, when Lurien reappeared, Li was already moving, her blade slicing his side.
First blood.
Lurien staggered. Shocked. He vanished again, only to find Diego already behind him, grabbing his leg mid-vanish, slamming him face-first into the ground. Over and over. Crater after crater.
"Not so fast now, huh?!" Diego roared.
He tossed Lurien aside.
Li took to the air, soaring, blade ready.
Lurien snarled, flipping up into the air with her, his full vampire form unleashed.
He gripped her throat mid-flight.
But Diego was already on him again, grabbing his ankle mid-air, twisting, forcing him to drop Li.
Li didn't hesitate.
She caught his throat mid-fall and dragged him down like a meteor, slamming him into the earth.
The shockwave cracked the sky.
Lurien coughed blood, but he flipped, rolling Li over, vanishing again.
Then, a flash of silver.
He reappeared behind Diego, stabbing deep into his side.
"Gotcha---"
But Li reacted instantly, her blade driving into Lurien's back.
Not deep enough to kill, but enough to make him vanish again.
Diego collapsed, gasping. The silver poisoned his blood, muscles twitching, vision dimming.
"Diego---!" Li shouted.
Too late.
Lurien reappeared in front of her and stabbed her straight in the stomach.
She collapsed beside Diego, pain lancing through her body.
Lurien stood over them, laughing again.
"See? I don't even need my final form for this."
He kicked Diego.
Then Li.
Then Diego again.
Each strike louder. Meaner. Mocking.
"Weak. Disappointing. I expected more from Demonfire's so-called elites."
But then---
His next kick was caught.
By Diego.
The grip tightened.
Crack.
Lurien screamed as his ankle snapped under Diego's crushing grasp.
"Surprise, bastard," Diego muttered, rising to his feet.
Next to him, Li stood too, cracking her neck.
She pulled the empty serum vial from her belt, smirked, and tossed it to the ground.
"The serum really is a double-edged sword," she said. "Kills you. Revives us."
In a blink, their wounds closed.
Even the silver.
Lurien stepped back, real fear in his eyes.
Then he roared and unleashed everything.
His Final Form.
Silver exploded from within, spikes, veins, wings made of bladed alloy. Every inch of him glowed, glistened, bled poison.
He was silver incarnate.
He raised his wings, and a rain of silver feathers fell like death.
Li and Diego didn't run.
They lunged into the storm, meeting every blade head-on. They were struck again and again, but every time, the silver melted off. Purged.
They kept grinning.
Their grins broke Lurien's pride.
He screamed. Furious. Desperate.
That's when Diego grabbed his head mid-air, pinning him.
"Mouth open," Diego said.
Li poured four vials of serum down his throat.
Then Diego punched his stomach, forcing the swallow.
Lurien convulsed. Screamed.
Silver cracked from within.
His skin blistered.
His eyes bled.
His body purged.
And then--
He dropped.
Li and Diego didn't wait.
In one synchronized strike, they decapitated him.
Ash exploded.
The wind howled again, this time carrying the scent of victory.
Lurien. Perfect Reaper. Slain.
The Demonfires stood amidst the ruin, bloodied but burning brighter than ever.
One down.
Three to go.