"LEEEEOOOOO!" Seraphina's scream tore through the air like a banshee's wail, raw and primal.
The sound of pure anguish mixed with disbelief as she dropped to her knees beside the emperor's corpse, her white robes immediately soaking red with his blood.
"LEO!" She pressed her hands against the massive hole where his head used to be, golden light pouring from her palms in a desperate attempt to heal what couldn't be healed. "No, no, NO!"
Yes, she could bring someone away from the door of death, but could she do anything when someone was already dead?
The other heroines stood frozen in shock, their faces painted with expressions Viktor had never seen before. Fear. Real, genuine terror.
For the first time in their lives, their invincible leader - the man who'd conquered nations and was about to rule over it - lay dead at their feet.
But shock only lasted so long.
Marcus moved first.
The diamond-skinned warrior's face contorted with pure rage, veins bulging in his neck as he let out a roar that shook the very ground. "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"
His fist came at Viktor like a cannonball.
There was no dodging it.
No clever strategy or last-minute escape. Just the inevitable collision between diamond-hard knuckles and soft flesh.
BAM!
"Khwk—" The impact lifted Viktor clean off his feet. His chubby body sailed through the air like a rag doll before slamming into a jagged boulder with a sickening crunch.
"Cough... urgh..." Blood exploded from his mouth as his ribs shattered, puncturing his lungs.
The ornate armor he wore crumpled inward, leaving a perfect impression of Marcus's fist deep enough to show just how close to death he really was.
Viktor slumped against the rock, paralyzed from the waist down, each breath sending fresh waves of agony through his chest.
Blood poured from his mouth in steady streams, pooling at his feet.
"Master!" Bella was at his side in an instant, her silver hair whipping around her face as she knelt beside him. "Master, stay with me!"
Viktor looked up at her through pain-glazed eyes and somehow managed a smile. "Hey Bella," he wheezed, blood frothing at his lips. "We're going to die today. Will that be a problem for you?"
Bella's grip tightened on her sword hilt. "No, Master. It doesn't matter. Even if they kill us today, I'll fight till my death."
"Wait," Viktor coughed up more blood. "What are you saying? I said we're ALL going to die today, including those bitches too."
Bella blinked, confusion flickering across her features. "Master?"
But there was no time for explanations. Marcus charged forward again, his face twisted with grief-fueled rage.
Behind him, Lysa and Vera flanked wide, their weapons gleaming with deadly intent.
Bella moved to intercept them, her blade singing as it left its sheath.
For three glorious minutes, she danced between them like liquid mercury.
Her sword work was poetry in motion - parries, ripostes, and counter-attacks flowing together in perfect harmony.
She was everything Viktor had trained her to be and more.
Her ability to read through their attack patterns, dodge, then use their comrades' attacks against them.
It should have been a battle where 1v3 could not have posed a big problem.
But she was one against three legendary heroines.
Cassandra's voice rang out from behind the melee, her oracle powers giving away every move before Bella could make it. "Left shoulder strike in two seconds! Duck now! Feint to the right!"
The predictions turned the tide.
What should have been an even fight became a slow execution.
Naturally through methods, Bella could have dodged and landed hits when finding openings, but now she could just dodge with no attack able to catch them... leading to inevitable exhaustion.
Lysa's dagger found its mark first, sliding between Bella's ribs—a simple attack, but her ability to paralyze another person's ability was an absolute cheat.
Then Vera's shadow clone ability created 1v7 and even more.
Finally, Marcus's massive sword took her arm clean off at the elbow.
"Kurgh—!?" Bella staggered, her remaining hand pressed against the gaping wound where her arm used to be.
Blood poured through her fingers like a crimson waterfall. Her legs gave out, sending her crashing to her knees.
"Forgive me, Master," she whispered, her voice barely audible as her eyes began to close.
Viktor shook his head as best he could with his injuries, not that he was feeling anything since he had seen too many deaths of his own people.
"Sleep well, Bella. I'll join you soon." His voice grew colder, harder. "And make sure to bring those bastards' bodies back in more pieces than they did to yours."
Cassandra stepped forward, her prophetic eyes glowing with ethereal light. "It is you who's going to die today, Viktor. Only you. You'll go to the goddess and repent for your sins."
Viktor actually chuckled at that, the sound wet and painful. "Do you know what the disadvantage of your ability is, Cassandra?"
His smile confirmed it given previous battles; he had concluded this weakness, but after how she was not able to predict the bullet that pierced Leo's head, he became completely sure.
The oracle narrowed her eyes, clearly caught off guard by his casual tone. "What?"
"Your ability can see the future of those who hold hatred, ill intentions, or any form of desire to damage you or the people you care about." Viktor coughed up more blood, his vision starting to blur around the edges.
"So?" Cassandra's voice carried a note of uncertainty.
"I don't hold anything against you idiots. Nothing. I feel... absolutely nothing."
That's when the sword pierced his heart.
SKCLT!
It was none of the blades he had seen before in the hands of those four women.
Viktor looked down at the blade protruding from his chest, then up at the woman holding it.
The fifth heroine.
Blonde hair like spun gold, blue eyes that once looked at him with something approaching obsession. Now they held only hatred and disgust.
"I should have killed you the day I broke off our engagement," Elena snarled, twisting the blade deeper.
Viktor met her gaze and somehow found the strength to smile. "Let me tell you something good, Elena."
Her eyes flickered with something that might have been curiosity despite her rage. "What? Regretting? About to confess to me finally?"
Viktor shook his head slowly. "Just keep dreaming, I was just saying... I lost all my belly fat, by the way. Just for this final battle. Though taking poisonous herbs was a bad idea."
Elena blinked, confusion replacing anger as she looked down at his armor.
The metal plates were cracked and dented beyond recognition, making it impossible to tell what lay beneath.
"I..." She narrowed her blue eyes. "What are you talking about?"
With tremendous effort, Viktor lifted his broken hand. It was a strange gesture, almost casual despite the circumstances.
Then he extended his middle finger right in front of Elena's shocked face.
"Forget a dick," he wheezed, blood running down his chin. "Even a finger would make you all cry today."
Their eyes widened in perfect synchronization—the moment of realization hitting them all at once.
The explosion was magnificent.
BOOOOM!
Viktor had lined his armor with enough black powder to level a small castle.
The blast turned the boulder behind him to dust and sent a mushroom cloud of fire and debris high into the sky.
The shockwave knocked birds from their roosts miles away.
But even as the flames consumed him, even as his body was torn apart by his own trap, Viktor felt a strange satisfaction.
Through the fire and pain, he watched their faces contort in terror.
Cassandra—the oracle who could see everyone's future but her own—finally caught a glimpse of her own death in that split second before oblivion claimed her.
'Two deaths,' Viktor thought as consciousness faded. 'She gets to experience dying twice. Lucky her.'
The flames engulfed everything.
The heroines' screams mixed with the roar of the explosion, creating a symphony of destruction that would have made any composer weep.
'Now I can finally rest,' Viktor thought, letting the darkness take him.
But then, just as everything went black, something impossible happened.
Bam!
A punch on his jaws.