The greatsword tore through space. Like a string snapping, the blade shot forward, shearing the neck of the nearest horse. Only moments ago, the steed had charged like a legend reborn. Now, it crumpled, spraying blood across the stones. Its severed head rolled, eyes bulging wide, staring blankly into the void.

The blade didn't stop. It rose, then swung down at Leandro with such speed it seemed to vanish between beats. He caught it with his slender sword. Regardless, Miyu—headless, lifeless—collapsed to the ground.

"..."

Leandro stood there, drenched in his companion's blood. Each droplet that touched him clung as though unwilling to fall. Thirteen years together, not a single day apart.

Was Miyu afraid he'd abandon her? Should he have promised he would never leave? He had torn Miyu from his side countless times, yet still, Miyu followed him even into this hell.

He should have drugged Miyu. He should have forced Miyu to stay behind. He never imagined Miyu would chase him even here. No, he refused to imagine it.

A mistake...

The thought burned through his chest. He wanted to blame himself. He wanted to blame the fiends who had dragged them into this place. In the end, the one who killed Miyu was the enemy before his eyes.

As Miyu's last blood struck the stone, flames of azure rose from Leandro's gaze. It was no metaphor. Visible fire, molten and real, flowed outward. Smoke-like energy surged from his blade, then flooded back into him.

He lunged without a stance, without preparation.

The Ashen Knight stepped back, greatsword raised. Leandro's seemingly weak, careless thrust aimed true for his heart. Steel met steel.

Even though his blow was blocked, Leandro didn't stop. Sword and soul became one, each thrust more final and desperate. Twelve strikes in a single breath, each seeking death. The Ashen Knight faltered. Step by step, he gave ground. On the third, the chain broke.

KWAANG!

Red aura and blue lightning collided in a blinding roar. The Ashen Knight's greatsword smashed the rhythm apart. At that moment, a second blade, born from the void, slashed Leandro's throat.

His protective aura shielded him, but half his neck was gone. Still, he clung to his sword, trying to lift it. Yet, the red circuits carved into the knight's armor surged, pouring weight into the greatsword. Leandro's blade trembled, then stilled. The azure glow bled away, scattering into mist.

CRUNCH!

Another void-born blade swept from the other side, tearing the rest of his throat. Blood soaked his armor down both sides. Leandro seemed to realize the Ashen Knight's fighting technique. He was an unimaginable foe, but Leandro thought he'd win if they fought again.

Thus, he laughed. Not in joy, never in joy. At the edge of the sword, on the brink of death, he had taken a step closer to the true extreme—to the ultimate principle of the blade.

Marquis Leandro died, standing.

***

Naneow clicked her tongue. "Tch... stubborn bastard."

Nevertheless, there was no time for mourning. The Ashen Knight turned his gaze on me, and in that gaze, I saw the future. Slaughter. Not even Lurium would remain, only our corpses thirty paces ahead.

Then, calm and quiet, the crow on my shoulder whispered, "I offer it."

CRACKLE!

Leandro's corpse shriveled. Skin, muscle, bone—all withered into dust before the knight's blade could fall again. As though some unseen mouth chewed his flesh, savoring every drop, sucking even the marrow dry.

FWOOOOOSH!

The sigils of a Demon King flared, lighting the cavern brighter than day. Isaac's "shell" inventory trembled, inscribed anew with burning glyphs as it absorbed the power.

"I sacrificed the healthy one ahead of time. This cursed place eats causality for even a single ritual, so the sacrifice had to be chosen with care."

"You offered him?"

"How much Malphas's power will bleed through, I don't know. But even that picky bastard won't complain. He always preferred a single exquisite dish over an endless buffet."

Symbols writhed across the shell and power surged in. Naneow stared, spellbound.

"Hhn. Causality restored nicely. I knew you would like it. Follow me."

SHHHHH!

The new wards spread, wrapping the Ashen Knight in a lattice of impossible signs.

"It's unbreakable. Treat it like the angels, recognize it properly, and inside this space, you are creation itself."

The Ashen Knight advanced, only to halt as the glyphs held firm. Circuits across his helm glowed red-hot.

BOOM!

The air shook like an earthquake.

"Interference."

Waves rose from the shell, distorting his pulse until every tremor vanished. The Ashen Knight froze, halted mid-strike.

The shield of bone-tentacles, which even shattered the Gith-Za-Rai's defenses in seconds, could not break free of the barrier I had created.

"Good. Now, imagine only one thing."

"Imagine what?"

Did he mean to imagine the enemy as weak? To picture him never escaping this space? But Isaac's words were something else entirely.

"Use every subspace you own. Deny him the right to wield inventory. The right to imagine this domain belongs only to you. The more singular it is, the stronger it becomes..."

SHRRRK!

No chance to finish. The air above tore open. Three blades erupted down toward Naneow, Isaac, and me.

KAKANG!

Naneow dashed forward, her scythe sweeping the blades aside. The impact hurled her backward, feet leaving the ground.

She spat a thread of blood but still grinned. "Haha... this is no joke."

Amid her attempt at a joke, a thread of blood flowed from her mouth.

"If these things keep on coming..."

KANG! KANG! KAKANG!

Blade after blade fell from empty air. She caught every one, each swing denting her weapon. "I can't handle it!"

Her drugged haze burned away under the strain, but she never missed. Not once. Her scythe's teeth shattered.

WUUUUNG!

The rift widened. Beyond it, an illusion of countless more swords, waiting.

"Quickly! Hurry!"

I sealed not just the tear, but the very space itself. I thought of the succubus slain in this dungeon. Her closing eyes. Her ruined lips. Like her lids, like her mouth, I closed the rift.

SKREEEE!

A warped scream. The fissure sealed, erasing the wind and devouring the air around it.

"Good... now fall. Fall..."

Isaac's paper-thin shell slid beneath the knight's feet. And the Ashen Knight, still standing, plunged downward.

It wasn't just falling. It was fall itself. A sun dragged into the earth. A star ripped from heaven.

"Fall. Fall..."

The knight sank faster, pulled as if by some cosmic hunger.

WHOOSH!

Golden fire burst from Isaac, half his wings melting away. He hurled himself after the knight, eyes and beak fixed forward.

"The body breaks... invocation cut short."

And the curse bloomed. Thirteen rings of thorn, splitting, whirling, shredding circuits.

"Curse... Release."

The crimson thicket of thornbushes turned into tens of thousands of spikes that pierced the Ashen Knight. Not a blade, it seemed as though light had pierced through his entire being. The smell stung the nose.

Unlike the marquis' twelve thrusts, the countless attacks completely engulfed the Ashen Knight. Speed. Number. Method. It was an assault that easily surpassed the limits of imagination.

Whatever that thing had become, it was what Isaac accomplished while burning his own wings, as I sealed the subspace. Tens of thousands of overlapping misfortunes, calamities, resentments, ill luck, and curses struck squarely at the powerless enemy as it fell.

It was like striking a falling bird with a net of blades and then firing tens of thousands of arrows into it.

Naneow barely stood up, holding onto her scythe. "D-did it work?"

THUD.

The knight walked. Circuits across his armor flickered, but nothing else. He appeared neither slowed nor injured.

THUD. THUD.

Every thorn, every curse slid from him like rain off steel. His greatsword was still in his hand. The blades across his back, still countless, still sharp.

THUD. THUD. THUD...

The knight climbed Isaac's conjured "fall" as though it were stairs. Each foot pressed into the concepts: fall, distance, space itself.

Isaac's red eyes trembled, not with fear, but wonder. "Hmph... not enough. But I've gained some hints. Don't mind this body. Throw him in too, if you must..."

SWOOSH!

The Ashen Knight swung. Isaac dove into his own subspace, form and flames vanishing like smoke. A fragment compared to mine, less than a hundredth the volume, but in his hands, it danced like infinity. I reached to collapse the space, to draw Naneow in with him...

GURGLE.

From the sigil beneath the Ashen Knight's boots, something spilled out.