It clicked.
That being was not a sacred Guardian.
It was the Invader.
The author of three hundred years of suffering.
Jay felt the anger rise. It wasn't panic. It was cold, focused fury. He looked at Ethan. Ethan nodded, eyes glowing, orange flames dancing at his fingertips.
Marcus tightened his grip on the hilt of the old sword until the leather creaked.
— He thinks we are disorder — he said quietly.
Sienna opened her grimoire to an offensive page. The humor was gone. What remained was a sharp calm.
— Then let's show him our order.
Amun-Rael noticed the change. The group's aura hardened. The hall seemed to shrink.
— What is this? — his voice echoed, almost curious. — Do you believe emotions change the outcome?
Ethan raised his hand. A dense, roaring fireball formed in his palm, compact like a trapped star.
— They change everything. Execution Formation. — Ethan's voice was calm and terrible. — Tanks, hold him. DPS, break him. No one stops until he falls.
— LET'S GO! — fifty voices answered, loaded with disciplined hatred.
Amun-Rael raised his spear. The solar shield shone with it, runes lighting up like eyes.
— Insolence.
— NOW! — Jay shouted.
It was not a disordered attack. It was surgical.
The tanks advanced as a block, shields crashing, pushing against the boss's base. The idea was not to endure. It was to displace. To remove perfection from its place.
Amun-Rael answered with the solar shield. An arcing impact, like a sun striking sideways. Two tanks were nearly thrown back, but Krog held, digging his feet into the floor.
— Hold! — he shouted. — HOLD!
— Sienna! — Marcus yelled.
Sienna flipped through the grimoire.
— Flaris, blind him!
A fire phoenix flew and exploded into a cloud of smoke and ash directly in the boss's face, obscuring his vision.
Amun-Rael roared, and the sound was not divine. It was human. It was rage.
— Cursed insects!
He tried to clear the visor with the shield, but the ash clung for a precious second.
— Elenya, the chest joint! — Marcus commanded.
— I see it! — Elenya replied, cold as ice, drawing the bowstring. — PENETRATION!
The arrow flew and struck the chest articulation with millimetric precision, cracking the golden armor.
CRACK.
Amun-Rael staggered. The solar shield dropped by reflex, trying to protect the chest, but the crack was already there.
Ethan saw the opening.
— Burn.
He unleashed a continuous stream of fire into the gap in the armor. The flames entered like a thermal blade, cooking what was inside.
The boss screamed in fury and pain.
— I WILL IMPALE ALL OF YOU! JUST LIKE I DID WITH HER!
Amun-Rael raised the spear for a final blow, summoning chains of light to bind the group. The chains began to rise from the floor, glowing beneath the surface like living veins.
Jay saw the movement. He knew that spear. He knew that story.
He ran.
— Marcus, prepare the blade! — Jay shouted. — I'll stop this bastard!
Jay threw himself against the divine spear with his old shield, eyes locked on the enemy. He wasn't just defending. He was breaking the cycle.
The impact of the divine spear against Jay's shield produced a shockwave that swept through the entire hall. The shield groaned, metal protesting against the force of a god, but Jay did not yield. His feet carved grooves into the glowing floor, but his knees locked.
Amun-Rael pushed the spear down and, at the same time, drove forward with the solar shield, trying to crush Jay between two orders: the point and the sun. The runes roared. Jay's arm nearly gave out.
— Why do you insist? — Amun-Rael thundered, forcing the spear down. — She died to save a weakling. What will you die to save?
Jay lifted his head and smiled through clenched teeth.
— I'm not saving "weaklings."
He shoved the shield upward with a roar.
— I'm holding you… for them.
Jay looked over his shoulder and shouted:
— NOW! BREAK EVERYTHING!
The raid did not hesitate. Fear was gone, replaced by precision.
Ethan pointed to the crack in the armor.
— Elenya, open the path! Sienna, blind him!
— With pleasure! — Sienna slammed her hand on the grimoire. — Flaris!
More phoenixes exploded around Amun-Rael's helm, ash and smoke flooding everything. For the first time, the boss truly hesitated.
— I can't see… — Amun-Rael stepped back, confused, vision obscured.
— There! — Elenya shouted.
She drew three penetration arrows at once.
— TRIPLE PIERCING SHOT!
The arrows flew in a straight line, whistling through the vapor, and struck the exact same point on the boss's chest: the crack she had created earlier.
CRACK!
The divine metal gave way. A piece of the golden chest plate fell to the floor with a hollow sound, exposing the pulsing core of the "Sun."
Amun-Rael howled, releasing pressure on Jay's shield and trying to cover his chest with the solar shield.
— Insolent creatures! You dare touch the heart of Order?!
Ethan saw the opportunity.
— You like heat? — Ethan's voice was glacial. — Then burn.