Chapter 22: The Impossible Showdown
The chamber was silent for a breath, a tense calm before the storm. Jonathan stood at the center of a three-way standoff, the glowing artifact clutched in his hand. Before him, Lilith's strike team leveled their weapons, their faces a mix of shock and resolve. Behind him, the shattered pieces of God Jura began to grind and reform, its ancient power returning to its core.
The silence broke with a single, sharp command from Lilith. "Open fire! Neutralize the target!"
Plasma bolts and arcane energy surged toward Jonathan. But he was no longer the boy they knew. Aethel's power coursed through him, a searing torrent of instinct and speed. He blurred, a crimson-and-black streak, and the bolts passed through the space he had occupied a moment before. Lilith gritted her teeth, her strategic mind working overtime to keep up with his impossible speed.
The golem re-formed with a deafening groan of stone against stone. It raised a massive fist, preparing to crush the intruders. It saw only two things: the thief who had desecrated its vault and the "pawn" who had defeated it.
But Jonathan didn't fight back. Guided by a flicker of his own consciousness, a desperate remnant of his old self, he turned and threw a small, glowing piece of the golem's broken core back at the Guild's team.
The piece of core, a miniature sun of contained arcane energy, detonated on impact with a deafening roar. Lilith's team was thrown backward by the shockwave, their armor scorched and their weapons disabled. The explosion bought Jonathan a few precious seconds.
He didn't wait. He used his monstrous speed to burst through a section of the vault wall, leaving a gaping hole in his wake. He was out, a phantom in the night, with the artifact secured.
Lilith, recovering from the blast, saw the re-formed golem looming over her. It was a perfect, merciless killing machine. But she also saw the glowing fragment Jonathan had thrown. She understood immediately. He hadn't given them a weapon; he had given them a roadmap. He had revealed the golem's core—its weakness.
"Focus fire on the chest cavity!" she bellowed, her voice cutting through the chaos. "That's its power source!"
The Guild team, now with a clear target, rallied. They had a fighting chance. Jonathan had left them to face the monster, but he had also left them the means to survive.
Jonathan ran through the city's streets, a ghost in the shadows. He was a fugitive, a weapon on the loose, and a public enemy. The artifact hummed with power in his hand. He had won the battle, but he had lost himself in the process.
What will happen when the Guild finds out that Jonathan has turned into a monster and is no longer with them?