The Alpha stared back.
For a few seconds, neither side moved.
The wind off the ridge carried hot ash across the stone plaza, brushing against Ayomide’s soot-covered face.
The broken sword rested loosely in his hand, its edge chipped and blackened from the battles before.
Behind him, Success adjusted her stance, her knuckles white around her weapon.
Adesewa stood quietly at his side, her feet planted firm on the hot rock.
The Alpha lowered its massive head, its curved horns catching the glow of the slag below.
Its crimson eyes narrowed.
Ayomide finally broke the silence.
“Both of you, listen.” Success looked at him.
Adesewa turned her attention toward him as well.
“I’ll take that one.” He pointed the broken sword toward the Alpha.
“You two deal with the others.
Don’t let the horde interfere with me and the boss.” Success looked down at the countless Ashmaws surrounding the plaza.
Then she looked back at Ayomide, her mouth opening slightly.
“You want to fight that thing alone?” “Yes.” “That thing is bigger than the others.” “I noticed.” Success frowned, her eyes wide.
“Ayomide—” “Success.” His voice wasn’t loud, but it stopped her cold.
“Just keep the others away from me.” She stared at him for another moment, her jaw working before she let out a long sigh.
“Fine.” Adesewa didn’t move.
Ayomide glanced sideways at her.
She was staring at the Alpha, her chest rising in quiet, controlled breaths.
Then she looked at him.
Her eyes briefly moved toward the broken iron sword in his hand before returning to his face.
Ayomide understood immediately.
“You want to help?” Adesewa gave a single, firm nod.
He almost laughed, a dark exhaled breath escaping his nose.
“Do what you want.” Adesewa’s eyes softened slightly.
The next second, the Alpha moved.
*BOOM!* The ground shattered beneath its broad feet.
“Here it comes!” Success yelled, jumping backward.
Adesewa moved at the same time, dropping low.
Ayomide stepped forward.
The three split apart in a fraction of a second as the Alpha’s massive body shot toward them like a falling boulder.
Ayomide’s eyes sharpened.
*Fast.
Much faster than something that large has any right to be.* He twisted his body sideways.
A huge, obsidian-scaled claw swept past his face, missing him by inches—the sheer thermal heat radiating off it scorching his cheek.
Ayomide ducked beneath the follow-through arc.
The Alpha’s other arm came crashing down like a hammer.
He drove his heels into the gravel and jumped backward.
*BOOM!* The basalt shelf cracked where he had been standing half a second before, sending sharp stone shrapnel flying.
Ayomide landed several meters away, his boots skidding through the ash.
His eyes narrowed.
*So you’re not just bigger.* The Alpha raised its head and roared.
The sound vibrated straight through the stone and echoed deep inside Ayomide’s chest.
Then, it disappeared into a red-and-black blur.
Ayomide barely tracked the motion.
“Shit!” He raised his broken sword to block.
The Alpha’s claw slammed straight into the iron.
*CLANG!* The broken blade groaned and bent under the sheer impact.
The brutal kinetic force drove Ayomide backward, his feet gouging deep tracks through the loose rock.
His forearms trembled violently, muscles burning against the strain.
*What the hell is this strength?* He had already fought ordinary Ashmaws.
He knew what their strikes felt like.
This wasn’t simply a stronger version—the sheer density behind its blow was on another level entirely.
Before he could reset his stance, the Alpha opened its wide jaws.
A deep orange-red light flared inside its throat, illuminating its jagged teeth.
Ayomide’s eyes widened.
*Magma Breath.* He threw himself to the side.
A wide torrent of pressurized, molten fire exploded from the Alpha’s mouth.
The stone beneath his previous position instantly liquefied into glowing, bubbling slag.
Ayomide twisted through the air, but the radiant heat struck his body like an open furnace even from meters away.
He landed hard on the rough ground and rolled, pushing himself up immediately as his clothes smoldered.
“Fuck!
Werey!” The Alpha’s heavy head tracked his movement.
Another stream of white-hot magma tore across the stone behind him as Ayomide sprinted sideways, the heat searing his back.
Stone melted, rising into thick, choking clouds of black ash.
Ayomide glanced over his shoulder, his teeth grinding.
*That range is ridiculous.* Then he heard a familiar voice cut through the roaring wind.
“Ayomide!” He turned his head.
Adesewa was coming toward him, her body low to the ground, moving with terrifying speed.
She had completely ignored his instruction and gone straight for the Alpha.
“Adesewa!” She didn’t stop.
She lowered her momentum, then launched herself off a cracked boulder.
Her bare foot slammed directly into the Alpha’s armored chest plate.
*BOOM!* The massive creature staggered backward a step.
Adesewa hit the ground, pivoted instantly, and drove a sweeping kick straight into its lead knee.
Bone cracked.
Before the Alpha could recover, her fist shot forward into its ribs.
Then another.
Her movements were a relentless, rhythmic blur, pushing the massive beast back.
Ayomide watched, his breath holding.
*She’s actually pushing it back.* Adesewa ducked beneath a sweeping claw, stepped inside its reach, and drove her knee squarely into its jaw.
The Alpha’s head snapped sideways with a loud crack.
Ayomide’s eyebrows rose slightly.
*She’s stronger than I thought.* Adesewa landed lightly and glanced back at him.
For one brief moment, their eyes met through the drifting smoke.
Ayomide saw the unyielding determination in her face.
She wasn’t leaving him to face this monster alone.
*Stubborn.* The Alpha’s crimson eyes suddenly snapped toward her.
Ayomide’s expression shifted instantly.
“Adesewa!” She turned, but the monster was already swinging.
The Alpha’s right arm twisted, its heavy claws glowing with a deep, furious crimson heat—*Crimson Claw*.
The strike came like a falling anvil.
Adesewa crossed her arms to guard, bracing her feet.
*BOOM!* The raw impact shattered her balance, sending her entire body flying backward through the ash-filled air.
“Adesewa!” Success screamed from across the plaza.
Adesewa airborne, heading straight toward a cluster of jagged basalt outcrops.
Ayomide moved.
He didn’t calculate or think—his legs reacted, pushing off the ground with everything he had.
He shot forward and caught her mid-air just before her back hit the razor-sharp stone.
The momentum dragged his boots across the ground, forcing him back several steps before he finally stabilized his footing.
He lowered her carefully.
Adesewa’s body rested against his arms.
For a fraction of a second, a flicker of surprise crossed her calm face.
Ayomide looked down at her soot-stained face.
“Are you hurt?” Adesewa blinked, then shook her head.
She tried to stand immediately, but Ayomide caught the micro-flinch in her shoulder as her left arm sagged.
“Don’t lie.” Adesewa looked at him, then tried to flex her arm.
It was shaking slightly, the muscle strained to its limit.
She gave him a small, stubborn nod.
Ayomide turned his gaze back to the Alpha.
His expression hardened into pure steel.
*It’s stronger than the others by too much.* That was the core issue.
He had expected the Alpha to hit harder, but this wasn’t a gap in strength—it was a wall.
Ayomide looked back at Adesewa.
“Go help Success.” Adesewa’s eyes narrowed instantly, her posture stiffening in pushback.
“I said I’ll handle it,” Ayomide added, his voice low and unquestionable.
Adesewa stared at him, then at the Alpha roaring in the center of the plaza, then back at his face.
Ayomide raised an eyebrow.
“What?” She shook her head softly, her breath blowing ash from her lips.
*You’re really stubborn.* Ayomide sighed.
“Go.” After another tense moment, she turned and sprinted toward Success’s side of the plaza.
Ayomide watched her leave, then turned back to face the Alpha alone.
The massive beast was already walking toward him, its crushing weight shaking loose dust from the basalt beneath its feet.
Ayomide tightened his grip on the broken iron sword, rolling his stiff shoulders.
“Alright.” He took a slow, heavy breath.
“Just you and me.” The Alpha raised its head and roared, sparks exploding from its nostrils.
Ayomide’s jaw set, a cold, dark spark settling in his eyes.
“Come.” Across the battlefield, Success was locked in a brutal grind.
Three Ashmaws were pushing hard against her position.
“Get them!” she barked.
Her three bound undead Ashmaws—rotted, crimson-eyed beasts that stayed clamped to her flank—surged forward.
One bit deep into an attacking Ashmaw’s shoulder while another slammed its physical mass into its side, locking the vanguard in place.
Success took a quick step back.
“Move!” Her undead obeyed instantly.
One of them built up heat in its gullet and released a localized burst of superheated air.
The living Ashmaw leaped back, screeching as the heat scorched its snout.
Success raised her hand, feeling the thin, hot threads of the link binding her to the three beasts.
The sensation of directing their energy was becoming natural, instinctual.
Through the connection, she could feel fragments of their capabilities—their physical density, their internal heat, their raw predatory drive.
She didn’t know the exact nature of how this power worked inside her, but she wasn’t about to question it now.
Another Ashmaw broke off from the flank and charged straight at her.
Success stood her ground and raised her open palm, her eyes flaring.
She reached deep into the link, drawing that same jagged, burning heat from her bound beast into her own circulatory system.
She opened her mouth and exhaled hard.
*FSHHH!* A short, concentrated blast of scorching Aether-fire erupted from her hands and breath, driving the Ashmaw back as it twisted to avoid the flames.
Success stared at her smoking palms, her chest heaving.
“Okay…” She looked at the retreating beast, a quick surge of relief hitting her.
“That actually worked.” Adesewa landed lightly beside her, gravel spraying under her bare feet.
Success glanced over.
“Are you okay?” Adesewa nodded once.
Success caught the dark bruising around Adesewa’s arms.
“You sure?” Another firm nod.
Success wiped sweat and ash from her forehead, letting out a short breath.
“Okay.
Then let’s handle these things.” Adesewa cracked her knuckles—a dull, quiet sound—and dropped into a low fighting stance.
That was all the answer Success needed.
They hit the line together.
Adesewa moved first, diving straight into the center of three Ashmaws.
Her fist shot upward, slamming beneath the jaw of the lead beast with a heavy *THUD*.
Its head snapped back.
She spun on her heel, driving her foot into the knee of the second monster, sending it crashing sideways into the third.
“Damn!” Success couldn’t stop the wide grin from breaking across her face.
*She really fights like that?* An Ashmaw lunged at Success from her exposed rear.
One of her bound undead intercepted it mid-air, the two heavy bodies colliding like two iron blocks.
Success stepped in close, placing her raw palm flat against her undead beast’s back.
The connection flared—heat, physical weight, raw leverage.
She borrowed its physical momentum, pivoted, and drove a clean kick straight into the attacking Ashmaw’s chest.
*BOOM!* The force sent the monster flying backward through the dust.
“Nice!” Success yelled, surprised by her own output.
Adesewa glanced at her briefly.
Success laughed nervously, wiping ash from her nose.
“What?
I’m learning!” The fight raged on, but the density of the horde made movement a nightmare.
Ashmaws crowded the narrow basin, their massive bodies crashing into one another, tearing at the bound undead, and spitting arcs of magma.
The air grew violently hot, heavy ash filling Success’s lungs until she choked.
“Too many…” she gasped, her throat dry.
Adesewa grabbed Success’s collar and dragged her back just as a torrent of magma swept across the rock.
The stone where Success had been standing melted into glowing orange slush.
“Thanks,” Success panted.
Adesewa gave a short nod and lunged right back into the fight.
Suddenly, a heavy crunch echoed through the noise.
One of Success’s three bound undead was struck from the side by a massive Ashmaw’s tail.
*CRACK!* The undead crashed onto its side.
Success flinched as a sudden coldness snapped in her mind.
“No!” The undead tried to drag itself up, but another Ashmaw stepped down hard, crushing its chest cavity.
The pale crimson light in its dead eyes flickered once and went out completely.
Success stared at the broken body.
For a second, a strange, hollow sensation settled in her chest.
It wasn’t the grief of watching a human die, but she had grown used to the creature’s presence at her side.
Now the link was cut.
She looked at the corpse, then at the surrounding battlefield littered with fallen beasts.
A slow, steady realization settled over her face.
“I see.” Adesewa glanced back at her mid-strike.
Success raised her hands, her fingers reaching out into the lingering heat of the battlefield.
“That just means I replace it.” She looked around.
Six Ashmaw corpses lay relatively close, their hides cracked and cooling.
Success extended her Aether through the air, her voice clear and firm.
“Manifest.” The air around the bodies distorted.
Thick, dark necrotic energy gathered over the fallen beasts.
One corpse twitched.
Then another.
Six pairs of crimson eyes snapped open simultaneously in the dark ash.
They pushed themselves up, obsidian plates grinding against the stone.
Success stared at them, her breath catching as six new undead Ashmaws formed a solid wall of iron and bone around her.
A fierce smile broke across her face.
“Welcome.” The six creatures lowered their heavy heads in silent obedience.
Success turned back toward the remaining horde.
“Now let’s go.” Ayomide ducked beneath another sweeping *Crimson Claw*, the heat singing the ends of his hair as he hopped backward through the loose gravel.
The Alpha pursued instantly, its massive fist smashing down toward his head.
Ayomide raised his left hand, his thumb resting against his middle finger.
*Collect.* Snap.
The downward kinetic impact vanished into thin air.
The violent recoil slammed back into Ayomide’s left arm, jarring his elbow, but he landed cleanly.
He looked at the creature, his mind calculating every frame of the interaction.
*No light.
No visual surge.
Just the command, the snap, and the physical shift.* The Alpha stared at him, its red eyes narrowed in predatory confusion.
Ayomide stared back.
*It works on active attacks.* He had tested this before—it wasn’t just about weakening an opponent.
He could strip the vector or property of an incoming strike and retain the balance inside his own body.
The Alpha roared, its throat glowing bright orange again.
Ayomide didn’t flinch.
*Collect.* Snap.
The gathering magma in the beast’s gullet dissolved into useless ash and cold air before it could launch.
Ayomide’s mouth tightened into a dark, focused line.
“Again.” The Alpha tried to force another breath attack.
*Collect.* Snap.
Gone.
The creature growled, a deep rumble vibrating in its chest.
It shut its jaws and cut off the fire entirely.
Ayomide’s eyes sharped.
*It understands.
It’s adjusting.* The Alpha charged on physical mass alone.
Ayomide raised his broken blade to parry, but the sheer weight behind the claw strike drove him sliding five meters backward through the stone, his ankles twisting against the uneven ground.
He planted his rear foot hard.
Another claw swept horizontally—he ducked.
A massive knee drove upward—he leaped over it.
But the Alpha turned far faster than its size suggested; its broad tail swept around, catching Ayomide flush in the ribs.
*BOOM!* Ayomide flew through the air, crashing hard onto the basalt shelf and rolling three times before stopping.
“Fuck!” Pain shot through his chest as he forced himself upright, coughing up a mouthful of dark blood.
The Alpha was already barreling down on him.
Ayomide wiped his chin with his forearm, his chest heaving.
*This thing is learning how I fight.* He spat blood into the ash, a wild, cold intensity flaring in his eyes.
“Good.
Now we’re having a proper fight.” The Alpha slammed both broad hands into the ground.
The entire plaza shuddered as a wave of molten stone burst upward directly beneath Ayomide’s feet.
Ayomide leaped into the air, twisting through the erupting slag.
The Alpha burst through the smoke, its massive claw coming down like a falling guillotine.
Ayomide crossed his arms to block.
*BOOM!* The overhead strike drove him straight down into the stone, cracking the shelf beneath his boots.
The Alpha raised its second hand to crush him into paste.
Ayomide looked up from the pit, raising his fingers.
*Collect.* Snap.
The downward force of the second claw vanished mid-air, the sudden loss of momentum causing the Alpha to stumble forward under its own heavy weight.
Ayomide stood up from the cracked stone, breathing heavily.
“You don’t like that, abi?” The Alpha roared in frustration and lashed out again.
Ayomide kept moving—dodging, parrying, snapping his fingers to steal incoming kinetic blows whenever the angle was lethal.
But as the fight dragged, he noticed a clear boundary.
Whenever he tried to use *Collect* directly on the Alpha’s body without an incoming attack, nothing happened.
He snapped his fingers against its chest plate.
The obsidian hide remained completely intact.
*So there’s a limit,* he noted, his mind working rapidly behind his calm posture.
He tried targeting the ambient energy around the monster instead.
*Collect.* Snap.
A fraction of the intense heat radiating off the Alpha’s hide dissolved.
It wasn’t much, but a small surge of warm physical stamina flowed straight into Ayomide’s chest, steadying his ragged breathing.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
*I can take it—just not all at once.
The stronger the target’s physical structure, the higher the resistance.* The Alpha charged again, horns lowered.
Ayomide stood his ground until the last possible second.
*Collect.* Snap.
He snatched a portion of the forward momentum driving the charge.
The Alpha’s footing suddenly became uneven, its massive body stumbling sideways off balance.
Ayomide stepped inside its guard and slammed his broken sword directly into its exposed flank.
*CLANG!* The iron blade bounced off the thick obsidian hide, sending a painful shockwave back into Ayomide’s wrist.
His expression twisted.
*Still too hard.* The Alpha spun, claws slashing.
Ayomide jumped, stepping directly onto the beast’s sweeping forearm, using it as a ramp to sprint up to its shoulder.
He raised his iron sword, reaching deep into the violent heat he had absorbed from the monster’s breath attacks earlier.
*Collect.* Snap.
He released the stored thermal force straight through his fist into the side of the Alpha’s head.
*BOOM!* The explosive impact rocked the Alpha’s massive skull, forcing the giant beast to stagger three steps sideways.
Ayomide flipped back and landed on the stone, staring at his smoking fist.
A cold grin slowly spread across his face.
“So that’s how it works.” The Alpha let out a deep, gut-wrenching roar.
The crimson veins running across its volcanic hide flared with violent, blinding light.
Ayomide’s grin faded.
“What now?” The monster slammed both forearms into the basalt shelf.
A terrifying shockwave of pressurized ash and heat erupted from its core.
*BOOM!* A massive ashstorm swallowed the entire plaza in seconds.
Visibility dropped to zero.
Ayomide couldn’t see his own hand held in front of his face.
The hot wind screamed in his ears, ash burning his skin.
He pulled his collar over his nose and mouth.
*Can’t see.* He went dead still, relying entirely on his hearing.
*Thud.* A heavy footstep echoed through the storm.
Ayomide shifted his stance.
*Thud.* Closer.
*There you are.* A massive claw cut through the dark fog.
Ayomide leaned back—the heat grazed his chest armor as the blow missed by millimeters.
He lunged sideways, ducking another blind follow-up strike.
*It can track me through the smoke.* The Alpha’s growl echoed from his left.
Ayomide pivoted toward the sound, raising his left hand into the hot wind.
*Collect.* Snap.
The kinetic force of the incoming claw vanished into the dark.
Ayomide stepped inside the dead angle and drove a sharp strike into the monster’s ribbing.
Elsewhere in the fog, Success was struggling to maintain her bearings.
“Where are you guys?!” she yelled, covering her eyes.
The ashstorm blocked everything beyond two paces.
She could feel her sixteen bound undead through the link, but the chaotic terrain made directional control difficult.
A shadow burst through the ash.
One of her bound Ashmaws collided violently with an attacking wild Ashmaw right in front of her.
Success stumbled back.
Adesewa suddenly emerged from the gray haze, grabbing Success by the shoulder and dragging her away from a molten strike.
Success gasped.
“Adesewa!” Adesewa pointed into the storm.
Three large Ashmaw silhouettes were advancing through the ash.
Success let out a harsh sigh.
“Three?
Why is it always three?” Adesewa’s jaw twitched—the closest thing to a smile she had shown all day.
Then she moved.
She charged the trio head-on, ducking a heavy claw, snapping a leg knee with a targeted heel kick, and pivoting to drive an elbow into the second monster’s jaw.
Success raised her hand, commanding two of her bound undead to lock the third beast in place.
She stepped in, channeled the heat through the link, and released a stream of Aether-fire point-blank into its face.
The beast shrieked, reeling back.
Adesewa vaulted off the bound undead’s back, grabbed the blinded Ashmaw by its curved horns, and slammed its head directly into the basalt ground.
*BOOM!* Success stared at the crater.
“Remind me never to make you angry.” Adesewa looked up, her soot-stained face impassive.
Success wiped ash from her mouth and laughed nervously.
“I’m joking!” The storm slowly began to thin as the volcanic updrafts cleared the heavy dust.
Ayomide stood in the center of the clearing, blood running down his side where a claw had grazed his ribs.
He stood tall, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
The Alpha approached, its obsidian armor chipped and smoking from the repeated kinetic reversals, but it refused to fall.
Ayomide watched it coming, his breathing heavy and measured.
*This thing hits like a mountain.* He waited until the beast took three heavy strides toward him, then raised his fingers.
*Collect.* Snap.
The Alpha’s forward momentum dropped abruptly.
Ayomide stepped inside its reach, driving three rapid, heavy strikes into the cracked ribs he had damaged earlier.
The Alpha swung its tail—Ayomide ducked, grabbed the base of its armored limb, and focused his mind.
*Collect.* Snap.
A portion of the dense defensive property in the creature’s outer hide gave way.
Ayomide saw the subtle shift in texture.
He drew back his fist, channeling every ounce of stored impact he had collected, and struck the exact same hairline crack.
*CRACK!* The Alpha roared in actual pain as its side armor fractured.
Ayomide landed on his feet, his jaw tight.
“Got you.” As the smoke fully cleared, Success and Adesewa cut their way back toward the center of the plaza.
“Ayomide!” Success called out, her sixteen bound undead forming a thick defensive perimeter behind her.
Ayomide glanced back at them.
Success had a small cut along her cheek, and Adesewa’s clothes were torn at the shoulder, but both were standing firm.
“You two still alive?” Ayomide asked, his voice low.
Success stared at him, panting.
“That’s your first question?” “It’s an important one.” “We’re fine,” Success muttered.
Adesewa gave a quiet nod.
Ayomide turned his attention back to the surrounding plaza.
A dozen wild Ashmaws were still prowling around the fringes, preparing to converge on their position while the Alpha recovered its stance.
Ayomide’s expression turned stern.
“We’re making this harder than it needs to be.” Success frowned.
“What?” Ayomide pointed his broken blade at the surrounding horde.
“They’re still interfering.” Adesewa glanced around the perimeter, catching his tactical point immediately.
Ayomide stepped back into formation with them.
“Let’s clear the trash first.” He raised his left hand toward the wild Ashmaws, his mind focusing on the ambient balance of the battlefield.
*Collect.* Snap.
*Collect.* Snap.
He didn’t take their lives—he systematically stripped the kinetic speed from their legs and the density from their hides, leaving them sluggish and brittle.
“Now,” Ayomide ordered.
Adesewa shot forward like an arrow, her fist shattering the weakened hide of the lead Ashmaw in a single blow.
Success’s sixteen bound undead surged forward like a black wave, overwhelming the compromised horde from all sides.
The plaza erupted into a brief, brutal cleanup.
With their natural armor softened by Ayomide’s extractions, the wild Ashmaws were torn apart in minutes.
Success raised her hand over the fresh corpses scattered across the stone.
“Manifest.” Crimson Aether gathered over the fallen.
More eyes flared crimson in the smoke.
Success counted the total network linked to her consciousness.
*Twenty-four.* A breathless grin spread across her face.
“Much better.” The plaza went dead quiet.
The trash was gone.
The Alpha stood alone near the center of the basin, its heavy chest heaving, molten blood leaking from its fractured ribs.
Ayomide rolled his neck, the joints popping.
“Now.” Adesewa stepped up to his right flank.
Success and her army of twenty-four bound beasts positioned themselves behind them.
Ayomide tightened his grip on his broken iron sword.
“Now we deal with you.” The Alpha lowered its head, its crimson veins flaring with one final, desperate burst of thermal light.
The air temperature spiked violently.
The Alpha charged.
Everything happened in a single, coordinated second.
Adesewa sprinted low, sliding beneath the beast’s lunging claw and striking its uninjured knee to lock its posture.
Success’s bound undead swarmed its heavy tail and rear legs, pinning its physical mass to the stone.
The Alpha roared, releasing a wave of extreme heat, blasting several undead back, but Success gritted her teeth, forcing the link to hold.
“Stay down!” The beast turned toward her, but Ayomide was already in the air above its head.
He raised his hand.
*Collect.* Snap.
The Alpha’s defensive heat dissolved.
*Collect.* Snap.
The structural density of its skull armor buckled.
The Alpha jerked violently as Ayomide landed square on its neck.
He reached deep into the core authority of his power—the raw, absolute law of balance.
*Collect.* Snap.
A massive, overwhelming surge of dense physical force ripped out of the Alpha and flooded straight into Ayomide’s nervous system.
His muscles tightened, his lungs expanded, and his perception of the surrounding air sharpened to a razor edge.
He didn’t need a screen or floating numbers to tell him what happened.
He felt the sheer weight of the stolen authority anchor itself into his bones.
*I’m stronger.* The Alpha let out a weak, strangled growl, its legs buckling under Adesewa’s heel kick and the sheer weight of the undead army.
Ayomide stepped off its shoulder, standing directly in front of its bleeding snout.
He brought his broken sword up over his shoulder, his eyes cold and dark.
The wounded Alpha stared at him, the terror of a predator turned prey reflecting in its dimming crimson eyes.
Ayomide looked down at the monster.
“Everything has a price,” he whispered.
“Pay what you owe.” He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers one last time.
*Collect.* *BOOM!* The Alpha’s remaining life force and momentum completely collapsed.
Its colossal obsidian frame crashed flat onto the volcanic stone, sending a massive shockwave of dust and ash roaring across the plaza.
Then…
total silence.
Ayomide stood over the corpse, his chest rising and falling in deep, heavy breaths, his fists trembling from the massive intake of raw physical density.
Adesewa stepped up beside him, her breathing equally heavy.
Success slowly walked forward, her twenty-four bound undead standing like silent sentinels behind her.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Ayomide clenched his fist, feeling the heavy, altered strength humming beneath his skin.
They had won.
Success wiped ash from her eyes and pointed toward the far end of the plaza.
“Is that…” The monolithic archway wasn’t just glowing anymore—it was radiating a brilliant, blinding white light that cut clean through the remaining smoke.
On Ayomide’s finger, the Cyclebreaker Ring began to pulse with a steady, warm rhythm.
Ayomide stared at the gate.
“So that’s what you wanted.” The three of them slowly approached the light.
With every step, the suffocating heat of the volcanic basin faded away, replaced by a strange, weightless silence.
Success shielded her eyes.
“It’s too bright.” Adesewa reached out first, her hand disappearing into the white veil.
She looked back at Ayomide.
Ayomide gave a short nod.
“Let’s go.” They stepped through together.
The white light swallowed them whole.
For a terrifying beat, Ayomide felt nothing—no heat, no ash, no stone beneath his boots.
Pure emptiness.
Then— Wind.
Ayomide opened his eyes.
Green.
Massive trees, vibrant leaves, and a wide stretch of soft, wild grass beneath his boots.
The air entering his lungs was crisp, cool, and completely free of sulfur.
He stood still, taking it in.
He looked up at the sky.
It was clear and vast, but there was no sun.
He looked around—no moon either, just a soft, ambient light illuminating the vast forest.
Success slowly turned in a full circle, her mouth hanging open in absolute shock.
Adesewa remained silent beside them, her hand lightly brushing the green grass.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, there was no volcanic heat.
No roaring Ashmaws.
No choking ash.
Just the clean sound of wind rustling through the leaves.
Success swallowed hard, her voice dropping into a quiet whisper.
“Where are we?” Neither Ayomide nor Adesewa answered.
Success looked at Ayomide, then back out at the endless green horizon.
“Are we finally out?”