Chapter 27 – Moonlit Inferno

  Ice shattered like glass.

  Jake’s final barrier exploded under the force of Saya’s lunge.

  She blurred forward, now moving with glitch sigils etched beneath her steps—her own twisted variant of Enchanted Combat. A fusion of elegance and anomaly. A predator refined by stolen power.

  Jake barely had time to shout.

  Her claws struck him mid-cast, and his body was hurled across the battlefield, colliding with the cliff wall like a ragdoll. He slumped. Motionless.

  “JAKE!” Chris screamed, stumbling backward, his voice cracking.

  Yuri dashed forward, only for Saya to bat her katana away with a flick of her claws. The weapon spun through the air, clattering into snow—its enchanted runes flickering weakly.

  Yuri froze—unarmed, breath heavy, facing death.

  Seven crawled.

  Every inch of him ached. His shoulder gushed blood, his fingers numb.

  But he dragged himself through the snow—toward the Nameless Wing.

  His last hope.

  His cursed weapon.

  One hand on the stock.

  One hand on the ground.

  He hoisted the massive rifle, planting it into the snow like a crutch. The weapon thrummed with energy. His mana surged—what little remained.

  He aimed.

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  And pulled the trigger.

  BOOM.

  The shot split the heavens—an explosion of mana and steel.

  The projectile ripped through Saya’s barrier, blasting a hole through her ornate kimono and searing across her ribs. Flesh sizzled. Snow melted beneath her feet.

  She took two steps back, stunned.

  Her perfect skin smoked from the hit.

  But then—

  She laughed.

  “Ohhh… that burned,” she purred, licking blood from her lips. “You really are full of surprises.”

  Seven dropped to a knee, body trembling.

  “Damn… thing… drained everything…” he gasped, fingers fumbling for another mana cell. His vision tunneled.

  The Nameless Wing hissed, smoke still curling from the barrel.

  He tried to reload.

  But she was already there.

  Saya reappeared in front of him, towering over his broken frame, her silhouette like a demon cloaked in moonlight and madness.

  She wrapped her claw around his throat.

  Seven choked, boots leaving the ground. Her twin tails coiled around his torso, serpentine and constricting.

  “One arm… one shot… one taste of your power,” she whispered against his ear. “Still not enough.”

  He squirmed, reaching for anything—

  But she inhaled deeply.

  The blood. The fear. His mana leaking from his wounds. It was intoxicating.

  “You’re not just prey,” she murmured. “You’re the main course.”

  She pressed her lips to his—not a kiss of affection, but corruption.

  Her chest pressed against his, and a glowing sigil flared between them—

  Aether magic. Twisted and devouring.

  The Corrupting Mark.

  Seven’s body arched.

  His eyes rolled back.

  And he went limp.

  Chris screamed.

  “SEVEN!”

  Jake groaned from the cliffside, trying to rise. Yuri cried out, fury burning in her voice.

  The world ignited.

  A pulse of corrupted mana exploded from Saya’s form, as if the mark had triggered something deeper.

  Cracks of black lightning split the sky. The ground buckled. Aether twisted and turned unstable.

  Yuri dug her blade into the earth to keep from flying back.

  Chris looked down at his team.

  Jasmine — unconscious, still bleeding.

  Greg — unmoving.

  Jake — crushed.

  Seven — in Saya’s grasp, limp.

  His Aether core pulsed violently, reacting to the stress.

  “No… not like this,” Chris whispered.

  And then his portals bloomed.

  Dozens—spiraling, distorted. A web of escape.

  The battlefield shimmered.

  Yuri, barely able to stand, gripped her second blade—the one forged in her homeland, sharp enough to slice the wind.

  “This ends now,” she whispered.

  She blurred forward and unleashed her final technique:

  Crimson Arc.

  A horizontal slash of mana-infused steel. It carved through the air—

  And into Saya’s back.

  Saya screamed—a sound of agony and rage.

  She dropped Seven.

  Chris opened a portal beneath everyone. His voice was ragged:

  “NOW!”

  The battlefield cracked and twisted.

  Portals swallowed them all.

  But Saya snapped her tail forward, catching Seven’s limp form.

  She smirked.

  With a brutal kick, she hurled him away—separating him from the others at the last moment.

  Chris, Yuri, Jake, Greg, and Jasmine—vanished into light.

  Saya remained—alone on a snow-covered ridge.

  Her back bleeding.

  Her body steaming.

  She panted.

  Looked around.

  No prey.

  No fight.

  Only silence.

  “Hmph.” She pouted, stretching. “That’s not fair. I was just getting warmed up…”

  The battlefield lay quiet.

  Snow drifting through the air.

  Blood soaking the earth.

  And Seven, unconscious and alone, half-buried in crimson-drenched snow. His right arm gone. His strength shattered.

  Beside him, the Nameless Wing still smoked.

  And nearby—

  Yuri’s enchanted blade glowed faintly in the frost.

  Waiting for its master.