The ground shook as the shelves split apart.
From the darkness, Arclight emerged again — but not alone. Prototypes spilled out behind him: patchwork beasts, fractured humanoids, half-written horrors with glowing script crawling across their flesh. Dozens, then hundreds, their shrieks echoing through the hall.
At their center, the earth split. Ink poured like lava.
And from it rose the Prototype Sovereign.
Six meters tall, wings of shredded parchment snapping open, its face half-mask and half skeletal jaw. Its claws shifted constantly — sword, spear, blade, bow. Its golden eyes glared across the hunters with regal hatred.
The air itself bowed under its presence.
> [Prototype Sovereign has entered the field.]
Hunters staggered back, pale.
Seraphine's smile faltered. "Now it feels like a story's climax."
Hale spat blood from his broken ribs, hefting his axe. "Then we end it here."
---
The Horde Descends
The Prototypes charged first, shrieking. Patchwork beasts tore into formations, humanoid drafts lunged with broken blades. Hunters screamed as the floor turned slick with blood.
Spirewatch's chains shattered. Crimson Fangs were ripped apart. Even Elysian Dawn faltered under the onslaught.
Caleb's voice rose above the chaos, frantic but sharp. "Don't fight them all — focus on the joints! Their runes are weakest where drafts overlap!"
Hunters obeyed, striking where he pointed. Dozens survived who otherwise would have fallen.
Lyra fought like fire, violet bolts cutting through beasts, shielding the weak behind her barrier. But her mana bled fast — her knees shook, her hands trembling.
---
The Sovereign Moves
Then the Sovereign moved.
Its wings snapped, and it blurred across the hall, faster than eyes could follow. A Spirewatch captain raised a shield — and was split in two before he could scream. The Sovereign's claws shifted mid-strike, cleaving through armor like parchment.
Its roar echoed like scripture, and half the hunters collapsed, forced to their knees.
> [Royal Mandate Activated.]
Caleb gasped, clutching his head. "It's… rewriting our instincts! Forcing us to bow!"
Elias stepped forward, Codex blazing.
> [Annotation: Royal Mandate + Kinetic Archive → Freedom Draft.]
Runes burst from his pages, anchoring the hunters' wills, breaking the Sovereign's hold.
"Stand," Elias commanded, his voice sharp. "No script controls you."
---
The Sovereign roared, its claws shifting into a massive greatsword. It swung with world-breaking force. Elias's Guardian appeared, blocking the strike — but cracks spread across its runic armor.
Elias coughed blood, his Codex blazing.
Arclight laughed bitterly, his voice carrying above the carnage. "See, reader? This is what true protagonists look like! Power, domination, fear! And you'll be crushed trying to rewrite what was always meant to be!"
Elias adjusted his glasses, blood dripping from his lip. His voice was calm, sharp.
"You mistook domination for authorship."
His Codex flared, every page scattering into the air, orbiting him like a storm of glowing script.
> [Keeper of Legends – Full Manifestation.]
Multiple Guardians erupted at once, towering knights of script, roaring with stolen skills, shields and blades slamming into the Sovereign. The hall shook with their clash.
---
Heavy Injuries, Heavy Stakes
The Sovereign fought like a god. It shredded Guardians, struck down guild elites, and left the ground slick with blood. Hale collapsed, bones shattered, his axe broken. Seraphine's flames sputtered, her arm torn open to the bone.
But Caleb's frantic directions kept squads alive, and Lyra's shields held where nothing else could.
And Elias… Elias bled, his vision fading, but stood unbroken, rewriting strike after strike, his Guardians clashing with the Sovereign in storms of light and ink.
---
At last, the Sovereign shrieked, runes blazing, its form twisting, rewriting itself mid-battle into something even stronger.
Arclight's laughter echoed from the shadows. "This is it, reader! The climax! Let's see if you survive your own story!"
The Codex pulsed violently at Elias's side, as though preparing to force open a new page.
The final battle was only beginning.