Ren yanked at the tendrils slithering from his body, frost rushing from his fingertips. Ice raced up the black strands, snapping them brittle as it climbed toward the core.
But Lance was gone.
A ripple of shadow pulsed across the floor. Ren spun, sword in hand, and drove its tip into the earth. A surge of ice exploded outward, encasing the shadows around him before they could leap again.
The sphere above pulsed violently. A beam of darkness fired toward Ren. He dove sideways, the blast tearing past his shoulder. The ice at his feet cracked apart. Lance erupted from the ground like a geyser and snatched Ren mid-air.
He hoisted Ren up with one arm, the other cloaked in black void. A fist collided with Ren's jaw, then twisted his sword free from his grip.
Ren held tight.
So Lance slammed his forehead into Ren's nose. Blood burst forth. Ren went limp. The sword slipped from his grasp.
Lance kicked him aside like trash. Ren hit the rocks hard, rolling into stillness.
Before Lance could vanish again, a sharp whistle cut through the air. Lyra's arrow speared his shoulder.
He staggered back, his shadow flaring with rage.
Lyra exhaled shakily, heart pounding. Her hands were still steady. "Good," she whispered. "You can bleed."
Arthur strained beneath the darkness wrapping his limbs. His breath hitched. His grip weakened. The tendrils tightened. And then—
"Elowen," he gasped.
She was already there.
A sphere of warm light burst from her palm and coiled around Arthur like a ribbon. His eyes snapped open, his strength jolting back to life. He reached toward the sky with one shaking hand.
Lance materialized behind Elowen. His arms slipped around her waist like a vice.
"I've waited so long to catch your healer alone," he murmured into her ear. "And look how easy it was."
Arthur's eyes flared.
"No!"
He wrenched a hand free and pointed skyward. A shaft of moonlight roared down, burning across his own body. The tendrils around him seared and peeled away, but so did part of his arm.
He didn't care.
Arthur bolted toward Lance, blade raised.
A blur flew across the arena. Ren's sword.
It whistled like a comet and impaled Lance straight through the skull.
Lance released Elowen instantly, his grip breaking. She staggered forward, caught by Arthur. She buried her face in his shoulder, trembling.
Lance teetered back, one hand grasping at the blade in his head. His body twitched violently. Black veins pulsed under his skin. His face twisted in disbelief, then horror.
"You… really think this… is enough—"
He collapsed.
His body hit the stone with a wet thud, then dissolved into black ink, seeping back into the shadows.
"A clone," Ren muttered, wiping blood from his mouth. "God damn it."
The giant sphere overhead burst apart, unraveling into a black mist that scattered like ash. Its tendrils vanished mid-air.
Isabelle collapsed.
Sosuke and Rin rushed to her side. Sosuke caught her before she hit the ground. "I've got you," he said. Rin knelt beside them, brushing Isabelle's hair out of her face.
Lyra sprinted across the fractured battlefield and dropped beside Reid, who was struggling to keep pressure on his bleeding side. Her voice cracked.
"You shouldn't have fought, you idiot. You absolute idiot. Elowen!"
"I'm here!" Elowen ran toward them.
The floor darkened.
A swarm of deformed clones burst from the earth beneath her. Their bodies twitched and jerked, limbs distorted. They dragged her down.
"No—!" Arthur's spirits flared around his blade. He raised it, ready to strike, but froze. She was too close. "I can't—!"
Ren didn't hesitate. He swept his blade in a wide arc. Frost erupted across the swarm, freezing the monstrosities in a split-second. Ice coated Elowen too, catching her legs.
Arthur carved through the frozen remains, scattering their limbs. He knelt and smashed the ice around Elowen, pulling her free.
From the shadows, more half-formed clones rose behind Lyra and Reid.
"Get down!" Sosuke shot past them, a thunderclap echoing behind his feet. His sword vanished into its sheath as he flickered past.
The clones dropped in silence, split clean through.
"He's unraveling," Sosuke muttered.
Arthur stepped beside him. "He's stalling now. Bleeding energy."
"We find his real body," Ren said as he caught up. "No one moves alone."
Elowen crouched beside Reid, glowing hands pressed to his wound. "He's stable. Just unconscious. His body's at its limit."
Sosuke stood over them, hand on his sheath. "We get him out of here."
"I'll take him!" Clyde's voice rang from above.
Sosuke glanced up. Clyde peered down from one of the broken ceiling ledges. "Bring him!"
Sosuke looked to Lyra.
"I'm going with him," she said.
"You can't. You have to stay here. We need your arrows."
She opened her mouth, then shut it. Elowen gently took her hand.
"He'll be okay," Elowen said softly. "He just needs time."
Lyra nodded, blinking fast.
Sosuke gathered Reid in his arms.
"I'll meet you ahead. Find the real Lance Sterling. And end him. He's trying to recover, but if you move now, he won't have the strength."
———
Ren and Arthur pushed their shoulders into the thick, rune-marked stone gate. The ancient slab groaned open, scraping along the gritty floor as it revealed a corridor soaked in cold blue light.
Ren stepped in first. The walls were smooth and artificial, a steel-laced contrast to the natural rock they'd just come through. Pipes lined the corners like veins, and strange cables pulsed faintly overhead, carrying mana to places unknown. "This whole place feels wrong. Like it's breathing."
Arthur's steps echoed after him. "It's a mausoleum for his ego. Built to lead us right to the heart."
He flicked a hand behind him in a sharp gesture. The others advanced, following in formation. No one spoke. Only the sound of boots against steel, the hum of unnatural energy, and the quiet tension of something about to rupture.
The hallway funneled them straight to another gate—sleek, black, and humming with dormant power. It opened on its own, groaning apart like a beast unhinging its jaws.
The chamber inside was enormous. The walls were lined with shattered machinery, broken tubes filled with the residue of long-dead experiments. Scorch marks and claw-gouges traced the metal, as if the room had been tested with rage. Wires dangled from the ceiling. Strange glass tanks flickered with remnants of failed clones floating inside.
But in the center stood the real horror: Lance Sterling's main body suspended in a pod of viscous green fluid. Eyes closed. Limbs relaxed. Like he was dreaming of conquest.
A clone leaned against the glass. He stared into his own face as if searching for something. "This is what they'll remember," he whispered. "Not the lies. Not Gabriel's delusions. Just strength. That's what the world answers to."
The clone turned.
Ren didn't wait.
He sprinted forward, sword drawn, and called down a jagged spear of ice from above. It spun midair, point gleaming, and dropped like judgment.
It shattered across Lance's shoulder. He didn't even flinch.
The clone raised his hand, conjuring a rapier of pure shadow. He parried Ren's slash with fluid precision and drove a palm into Ren's gut, blasting him back.
Ren skidded across the floor, stabbing his blade down to halt the momentum. Arthur caught him by the shoulder.
"If it makes you feel better," Arthur muttered, "I was going to do something equally reckless."
The clone lunged again—but Arthur spun, his spirits flaring out from behind him like lunar phantoms. A wall of radiant energy surged upward to block the strike. The clash lit the room in pale fire.
Behind them, Lyra stepped forward. Her mana shimmered around her like falling petals. "We need to separate him from the pod. That's the key." She snapped her fingers, and a rose-colored barrier shot across the floor, slicing the battlefield in half like a blooming wall.
"He won't let us get close," Isabelle said, her voice low. Her right arm stretched, morphing into a tendril of twisting dark matter. She dashed left, using the shifting terrain as cover.
Rin broke off right, her black flames igniting in long, elegant ribbons along her legs and arms. She moved like a shadow between sparks, striking the floor with her heel. A wave of flame rippled beneath the metal tiles, snaking toward Lance with a hiss.
He blocked it with his rapier—but the ground under his feet melted, glowing from the mana drain. He stumbled.
Lyra didn't hesitate. She formed a lattice of floating pink blades in the air and launched them in waves. One slammed into Lance's back, knocking him off balance.
Arthur raised his sword, spirits swirling like a comet around him. "Clear me a shot!"
Ren threw his hand forward. Ice erupted like spears from the floor, chasing Lance's feet. The clone vaulted over them, but that's what Arthur waited for. He slashed the air, releasing a crescent wave of lunar power wrapped in shimmering spirits.
The clone blocked with his rapier, but it cracked on impact. He hit the floor hard, dragging sparks with him as he rolled.
From the ceiling, pipes burst, raining sparks and scalding water. The lab trembled.
"He's tethered to the pod," Lyra called out. "That's how he's keeping the clone so strong!"
"I'll sever it," Rin shouted, flames curling around her fists. "Cover me!"
Isabelle ducked past a burst of shadows, her tendril-arm stretching like a whip and latching onto Lance's leg. She yanked him sideways, straight into Ren's waiting fist.
Crack.
The clone's jaw twisted as he slammed into the wall.
Arthur raised his blade one last time, channeling his spirits for a piercing strike.
Rin reached the pod. Her fire spiraled around her like a hurricane. She threw her hand forward and snapped the mana cables feeding into the chamber. The pod sputtered. Then blinked. Then dimmed.
Lance staggered, twitching, his figure flickering like a hologram.
"Now!" Arthur cried.
He slashed.
And the blade of moonlight passed clean through the clone's chest.
It dissolved. Ink and mana splattered against the floor.
The lab fell silent—except for the drip, drip, drip of broken pipes and the quiet breaths of those still standing.
The shadows coiled like snakes beneath the shattered lab floor, slithering toward the dormant pod.
Two arms emerged from the puddle of black, clawing into the steel as a clone dragged itself up from the depths. Its body twitched unnaturally, movements jerky and wet. It limped toward the pod, steam rising from its fractured legs, and pressed one trembling hand against the glass.
"Damn you all…" the clone muttered, his voice thick with venom. "You ruined it. I was going to become something beautiful. Something divine." His eyes flicked to the group. "I tested the blood of thousands of Blights for compatibility. My body was meant to ascend with the perfect specimen. The fusion would've rewritten what power even means."
"You're a monster," Rin said flatly, black flames dancing faintly across her fingertips.
The clone turned. His lip curled.
"What did you say, woman?"
"You're filth." Her voice was colder than her fire. "And filth doesn't get to dream."
Lance twitched. Then laughed. His head dropped back as maniacal laughter echoed through the lab.
"You're all so painfully stupid. Do you think your morals will matter in what's coming?" His voice twisted into a growl. "A new era is rising. And it won't wait for the weak to catch up."
"You trusted the Imperial Knights," Ren said, stepping beside Rin. "They followed you. Died for you."
"Trusted?" Lance sneered. "They were pawns. Disposable. I needed corpses to keep you all busy. Shame you didn't kill every last one."
Arthur stepped forward, sword in hand. "Enough."
Lance turned toward the pod. "It won't matter soon."
He slammed his fist into the glass.
The pod shattered instantly, an eruption of raw mana bursting outward like a bomb. The wave hit Arthur first, sending him skidding across the floor with a sharp grunt. Lyra threw up a curved barrier of pink light, shielding the team as debris rained from the ceiling and machinery exploded in sparks.
Smoke hissed through the lab, thick and acrid. The tube hissed open. Fluid drained to the floor.
And Lance Sterling stepped out.
Steam rose from his shoulders. The tubes that had once kept him alive tore free from his chest with a sickening crack. He stretched out his limbs, his motions smooth now—calculated. The room seemed to shrink around him.
"Maybe I should've surrendered earlier," he said softly.
He smiled. Then stopped.
His eyes snapped to them.
The room froze.
With no warning, he vanished.
Ren blinked. "Wha—"
Lance appeared behind Isabelle.
His hand drove through her side.
The sound of flesh being torn echoed through the chamber.
Isabelle gasped. Her body seized. Her dark-formed arm spasmed, thrashing blindly behind her. She stumbled forward and collapsed against the floor, blood pooling beneath her.
"Elowen!" Rin shouted.
"I've got her!" Elowen sprinted toward Isabelle, her light magic already forming.
Lance stepped back, no longer smiling. "Now we begin."