The door creaked open with a sound that carried weight—final, heavy, and ominous.
From the shadows stepped a figure unlike any seen before. The Eclipse Purgatorist had arrived.
He was larger now, far more imposing than either Vel'Kareth or Vel'Merath had been on their own.
The fusion of the two had not only merged power but had reshaped his body.
Broad-shouldered and muscle-bound, his chest rose and fell slowly, like a calm before an eternal storm.
His long black hair framed a face that showed no emotion—only quiet intensity.
He wore loose black pants and a unique robe etched with golden suns and silver moons—
flowing with symbolic power, the product of two creations merged into one unstoppable force.
There was no warning.
No words.
He simply raised one hand, and from it, a sphere of black radiance took shape—a sun twisted by darkness, pulsing like a living entity.
It was pure destruction in spherical form.
He hurled it forward with a flick, as effortlessly as a child skipping a stone across a pond.
Annie saw it coming.
She had been bracing herself, but the moment the black sun appeared, she acted.
She summoned her Light Creation—manifesting her bow—and immediately began firing arrows of concentrated light.
They soared through the air, striking the oncoming sphere one after another.
But each arrow that made contact shattered without resistance, breaking into fragments of harmless light.
The black sun remained steady, swallowing the attacks as if they were nothing.
Annie's heart pounded in her chest. She could feel it—this wasn't like anything she had faced before.
This wasn't something she could simply shoot down.
She gritted her teeth and darted back, her figure vanishing in a streak of brilliant light.
The Eclipse Purgatorist calmly raised his hand again, and this time, multiple suns—smaller but seething with the same dark energy—materialized above his shoulders.
He unleashed them like bullets from a divine cannon.
Each sun tore through the sky, glowing black-red, trailing smoke and warped heat.
They struck Vel'Zorath's castle—the magnificent creation of Castle Creation itself.
The impact was apocalyptic. Towering spires collapsed in the blink of an eye.
Its fortified walls, once thought indestructible, crumbled like dry leaves beneath a storm.
The sky lit up with fire and rubble, pieces of the creation thrown into the air like shards of a broken god's dream.
Yet amidst the destruction, light flickered once more.
Annie emerged from the smoke, alive—but different.
Her bow was gone.
In its place, she now held a wand. Not just any wand—this one radiated something far deeper than mere Light Creation.
It was her most powerful weapon, forged through a rare evolution of her own magic.
Slim and elegant, with threads of golden energy spiraling up its ivory shaft, it shimmered with silent power.
At the tip, a small orb of light pulsed like a heartbeat.
She held it in her right hand, breathing heavily. Her shoulders rose and fell in exhaustion.
She had been running, evading, reacting. Her light had burned bright—but not endlessly.
Her legs trembled slightly, the fatigue creeping in. Still, she kept her eyes on him.
"You're strong," she muttered under her breath, almost admitting it to herself. "But I'm not done yet."
With a flick of the wand, a trail of glittering dust shot forward—slow at first, elegant, almost beautiful.
It danced in the air, trailing toward the Eclipse Purgatorist like falling stars caught in reverse motion.
He responded instantly, summoning a massive dark sun before him as a barrier.
A shield. Bigger than any he had used so far.
But the dust didn't meet the shield.
Instead, it curved.
It danced around the defense, moving with uncanny intelligence, bending space, gliding past the mass of burning darkness as though it were meaningless.
Then, in a single breath, the dust condensed. It aligned into a narrow stream—so thin it was barely visible, yet brimming with danger.
It sliced forward at neck-level, nearly severing the Eclipse where he stood.
He jerked his head aside just in time.
The beam missed—but behind him, an entire mountain was cleaved clean in half.
The top slid down slowly, crashing into the valley below with a quake that shook the entire region.
He didn't speak, but his expression changed—just slightly. A flicker of surprise. That had been close.
Too close.
He turned back toward Annie. She looked like she might collapse any second—sweat on her brow, breaths ragged, but still standing.
Still holding that wand like a queen defying a tyrant.
But there was no time to rest. The original black sun he had thrown—forgotten in the chaos—was now hurtling back toward her, its trajectory unchanged.
Annie's body reacted before her mind caught up.
She extended her wand, and from its tip erupted a storm of explosions—light-based detonations that shattered the air.
They collided with the sphere mid-flight, one after another, creating brilliant bursts that cracked the sky open like thunderclaps.
The black sun resisted, but with every blast, its form began to deform—until, finally, it shattered into hundreds of smaller embers, disintegrating into nothing.
But Annie didn't stop there. The chain of explosions didn't just end—it twisted toward the Eclipse Purgatorist, continuing the attack.
He darted sideways, avoiding the brunt of it, while using his own powers to shield himself from the rest.
Flames and light collided around him, smoke rising as the ground burned.
From afar, Vel'Tharion, covered in dust and scratches, stepped out from the edge of the collapsed barrier he had constructed earlier.
His eyes narrowed as he watched the fight unfold.
He looked toward the Eclipse, then toward Annie.
"She's pushing him," Vel'Tharion muttered to himself, stunned. "She's actually pushing him back…"
He knew it wasn't just power.
Annie was exhausted—he could see it in her posture, the way she leaned ever so slightly on her wand to stay upright.
But she was still thinking, still reacting, still fighting with her back against the wall.
And more than anything—she had still a lot to give.
The Eclipse Purgatorist remained silent. His robe fluttered in the breeze, his hair singed slightly from the explosions.
His arms hung loosely at his sides, but tension radiated from his muscles. He hadn't expected this.
Annie stared him down, raising her wand again. Her eyes, despite everything, still burned with defiance.