The executioner nun descended from the sky, shrouded in a pillar of sacred light. Her eyes locked onto Emily without the slightest hesitation; they held nothing but resentment aged and hardened by dogma.
"The Sinner..."
Blessed chains rained down from above, cracking like divine whips. Emily barely managed to throw herself aside before the first one tore into the ground where she had been standing a moment earlier. They were not trying to capture her.
They were trying to execute her.
Emily recognized that radiance instantly. It was the same light that had once answered her prayers, the same light that had once called her soul "daughter."
Now it wanted nothing more than to reduce her to ashes.
One chain finally pierced her shoulder. Emily clenched her teeth to suppress a scream as thick, blackened blood began dripping down her arm.
"Do you still hold a grudge?" she taunted, her voice strained.
The nun did not bother answering. A second chain tore through the air.
Emily dodged it by a hair and thrust her palm forward. A tide of shadows erupted beneath the executioner's feet, instantly corrupting the ground. The nun lost her footing and staggered.
"Heretic!"
Emily managed a faded smile.
"Looks like the goddess never learned how to forgive."
Elsewhere on the front line, the earth twins raised a gigantic wall of solid rock that threatened to crush everything in its path.
Elizabeth regarded it coldly. She could destroy it in the blink of an eye; she could pulverize the two of them without breaking a sweat.
But she could not allow herself to do so.
Not yet.
If she unleashed the full extent of her power, Lusian would finally discover the true nature of what she carried inside her.
"No..." she muttered, clenching her jaw as she restrained her mana.
The structure gave way and collapsed.
Dayana reacted in time. A grotesque barrier made of desiccated corpses rose before them, absorbing the brutal impact of the falling rocks. The earth erupted in a cloud of debris.
Elizabeth emerged through the dust, brushing off her robe.
"Thank you."
Dayana winked at her arrogantly.
"You owe me one."
A swordsman wrapped in a pure aura charged at Adela.
The woman pulled firmly on the reins, and her white tiger skillfully weaved between the rocks of the canyon. Adela exhaled a freezing breath; the surrounding air plunged below zero in an instant. Ice rapidly climbed the warrior's boots, covered his torso, and imprisoned his throat.
A second later, Adela passed him by, and the frozen body shattered into a thousand pieces at the slightest contact.
"One less," she murmured without slowing down.
From an elevated position, a hail of blessed arrows rained down upon Thunder.
The steed simply vanished from sight.
A blue bolt of lightning tore across the battlefield from end to end, and when Thunder reappeared, he was already behind the archer. The man barely had time to turn his head before a discharge sent him flying dozens of meters away.
The steed returned at a trot beside Kara and shook his crackling coat.
Kara let out a clear laugh and patted him on the back.
"Good boy."
Meanwhile, Lusian crossed the battlefield.
He did not run. He did not shout battle cries.
He simply walked with the weary stride of a man who had long since grown tired of fighting.
A cathedral summoner raised both hands toward the heavens.
"Heavenly creatures, heed my call!"
Several winged beasts made of radiant mana materialized in the air.
Lusian let out a deep sigh.
"What a nuisance."
Dainslein traced a single arc through space.
The creatures vanished instantly, severed at the root.
The summoner stood frozen, staring at the dissipating remnants of his spell, utterly bewildered.
"How...?"
By the time he managed to react, Lusian had already turned his back on him.
Behind him, Eldric roared a desperate command. Melaina unleashed a torrent of scorching flames, while Branor concentrated every ounce of mana he could channel into his weapon.
The three attacked in perfect synchronization.
Lusian stopped walking.
"Again?"
The dark tide answered his call without him having to force it.
The flames were extinguished. The lightning dispersed like smoke in the wind, and the resulting shockwave hurled the three paladins violently into the ground.
Lusian looked down at them.
There was no anger or sadism in his expression.
Only overwhelming exhaustion.
"I told you to leave."
None of them was capable of answering.
Lusian slowly lowered his sword.
"Then keep trying."
In the distance, the executioner nun rose once more, surrounded by divine halos.
Emily was already waiting for her, guard raised.
Sacred light lashed against the mud once again, and Emily smiled bitterly.
"Come on."
The battle continued to rage.
And as the sun sank over the valley, staining the horizon crimson, an uncomfortable truth became impossible for the survivors to ignore:
The heroes had come believing they were hunting the Devil.
But the harder they struck, the clearer their mistake became.
They were not subduing a monster hungry for destruction.
They were forcing an exhausted man to defend himself.