The battlefield was a chaotic vertical nightmare. Above, the Forgotten Vanguard collided with the King's bone-knights in a storm of gray and violet fire. Below, the ruins of the Association base groaned as frost began to creep over the jagged concrete, courtesy of Baek In-ho's presence.
"Step aside, kid," In-ho said, his breath misting in the air. "An S-rank is talking. You've had a good run, but that Key is too heavy for a G-rank corpse to carry."
"I'm not a G-rank anymore," Kang-woo replied.
He didn't wait for the S-rank to move. He struck first.
[Skill: 'Grave-Hook' (Overcharged) activated.]
Three chains of blackened ink erupted from Kang-woo's shadow, lashing out at In-ho. But the Ice Emperor didn't even flinch. He swung his mechanical claymore in a casual arc, and a wave of absolute zero frost shattered the chains into frozen shards before they could reach him.
"Speed, power, resonance... you have them all," In-ho noted, his blue eyes cold. "But you lack purity. Your mana is a mess of rot and light. It's unstable."
In-ho blurred.
Kang-woo's Viper's Sense screamed, but the S-rank's movement was beyond physical limits. The claymore slammed into Kang-woo's side. Even with the Abyssal Knight-Commander manifesting a shield at the last microsecond, the impact sent Kang-woo and Seol-ah flying through a brick wall.
[Health: 18%][Bone Fracture detected: Right Ribs.]
"Kang-woo!" Seol-ah gasped, coughing up frost-tinted blood.
"ENOUGH OF THIS BICKERING," the King's voice boomed from above.
The King didn't watch from the sidelines. He descended like a falling star, his mana-regenerated claw outstretched. He wasn't aiming for Kang-woo—he was aiming for In-ho. The King recognized the greatest threat on the field.
"MORTAL ICE CANNOT FREEZE THE HARVEST," the King roared.
The violet claw clashed with In-ho's claymore. The resulting shockwave turned the surrounding rubble into fine powder. The S-rank Hunter finally lost his smirk, his boots grinding into the iron platform as he struggled to hold back the god of death.
"A King of the Abyss..." In-ho gritted his teeth, the gears of his claymore screaming as they pushed against the violet mana. "Fine. More profit in the heart of a god anyway!"
"Seol-ah," Kang-woo whispered, pushing himself up from the debris. His vision was blurring, but the 'Key' in his hand was pulsing in sync with the King's heart. "They're distracted. We need to reach the main Citadel."
"The main one? It's in the center of the swarm!"
"The Key isn't just a weapon," Kang-woo said, his silver eyes glowing with a desperate realization. "It's a homing beacon. If I can plug it back into the Throne, I can overwrite the King's authority over the ten Citadels."
[Hidden Objective: 'The Usurper's Coronation'.][Risk: 99% probability of soul dissolution.]
"If you do that, you'll be the one they all hunt," Seol-ah said, her hand tightening on his.
"They're already hunting me," Kang-woo said. "At least this way, I choose the battlefield."
He looked at his Forgotten Vanguard. They were losing. The King's knights were more numerous and fueled by the ten Citadels' reactors.
"Vanguard! Form the Spear!" Kang-woo commanded.
The spectral soldiers abandoned their individual fights. They gathered into a massive, wedge-shaped formation of gray light, hovering right beneath Kang-woo.
Kang-woo picked up Seol-ah and leaped onto the back of a spectral stallion at the tip of the wedge.
"Break through!"
The Spear of the Dead surged upward.
Back on the platform, In-ho saw the move. "Oh no, you don't! That's my prize!"
In-ho tried to disengage from the King, but the King wouldn't let him. "STAY, ICE-WORM. YOU SHALL WITNESS THE END."
The King unleashed a wave of soul-fire, trapping In-ho in a cage of violet flames.
Kang-woo's legion tore through the sky. They collided with the guard-swarm of the main Citadel. Bone met spirit. Screams met silence. Kang-woo didn't look back. He saw the black gates of the central fortress looming ahead—the throne room of the King.
Suddenly, a sniper round—not from the Association, but from the Serpent Guild's helicopters—pierced through the spectral horse beneath him.
The horse dissolved. Kang-woo and Seol-ah began to plummet toward the gap between Citadels.
"Gotcha," a voice whispered in the wind.
Yeon-hee materialized mid-air, her paper butterflies forming a bridge beneath her feet. She wasn't smiling anymore. She looked desperate. "The S-rank is a fool, and the King is a tyrant. But you, Kang-woo... you're a mistake I need to correct."
She raised her bone hairpin, aimed straight at Kang-woo's throat.
But the hairpin never left her hand.
A silver arrow, made of pure, solidified 'Life-Debt' mana, pierced through Yeon-hee's shoulder.
Kang-woo looked at Seol-ah. She was standing on the edge of a falling piece of rubble, her broken glass bow now glowing with a blinding, gray radiance.
"I'm not the battery anymore," Seol-ah said, her voice echoing with the power of the Priestess. "I'm the archer."
She fired again.