The young elf froze when the sudden splash of blood struck his face.

His green eyes widened, his pupils contracting into tiny points as the warmth slid down his cheek. For a moment, he could not even breathe. He only stood there, staring at the empty space behind him where the others had been standing only a heartbeat ago, unable to understand how so many lives had vanished without even leaving behind a scream.

His lips began to tremble. One name left his mouth.

Then another.

And another.

He muttered the names of those who had been erased just now, each one coming out weaker than the last as blame slowly crushed his face. It did not matter that Max had been the one to kill them. In that moment, Auryndor’s mind had already twisted the blame toward himself. If he had obeyed faster, if he had lowered his head sooner, if he had not tried to be brave, perhaps those elves would still be breathing behind him.

"Will you keep me waiting?" Max asked, his calm voice cutting through the boy’s broken muttering. "Or will you watch more of them die?"

Those words shook even the dragon warriors beneath him.

Some of them had thought it was a little too much, even for war, even after everything the elves had done. But none of them spoke. None of them dared to voice that thought, not when Max stood above the battlefield with black mist surrounding the armies like a cage, and not when the memory was still implanted deep inside their minds of how he had forced two dragon emperors to lower their heads before him.

To them, Max was no longer simply a human wearing the shape of a dragon. He was the beast that made emperors kneel.

This time, the young elf did not even look back.

He fled like a cat with its tail stepped on, his small body stumbling at first before fear took over completely and forced his legs to move faster than pride ever could. The golden warriors around him watched in silence, none of them daring to stop him, none of them daring to speak his name as he ran through the broken ranks with blood still drying on his face.

The dome of black mist opened just slightly to let him out.

A thin gap appeared in the darkness, barely wide enough for Auryndor to pass through, and the moment he escaped beyond it, the black mist closed behind him again, sealing the elven army inside like nothing had ever opened in the first place.

"The same fate awaits those left behind by that single boy," Max said, his voice calm as it spread across the trapped army. "So you better start praying to whoever you believe in that your arrogant emperor shows his face before me. Otherwise... well, I believe I do not need to explain myself again."

Nobody answered him.

-------

Time began to crawl, every second dragging over the battlefield like thick sludge sliding down a mountain. Inside the dome, the silence became eerie and suffocating. A single movement could be heard clearly. Every shift of armor, every trembling breath, every finger tightening around a weapon echoed through the massive crowd as if the black mist itself was carrying the sound back to them.

The elves stood beneath that darkness with their golden armor and perfect faces, but none of them looked untouchable anymore.

Above them, Max floated without moving, his black wings spread behind him while the golden strands inside his mist flowed through the darkness like thin silk. From below, it almost looked like lightning dancing inside dark clouds, beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

Max did not look impatient. He did not look angry either. That was what made it worse. He looked like a man who had already decided the ending.

He was counting the seconds slowly.

Ever since the hands of the creator had split him apart thousands of times and rebuilt him again, his consciousness had changed. His mind could now divide itself willingly, allowing one part of him to keep counting every passing second while another watched the trapped elven army, the black dome, the trembling mist, and the distant horizon without losing focus.

Then, far beyond the dome, a sharp sound cut through the silence.

It was fast and loud, growing closer with terrifying speed, like something had been launched from a giant slingshot and was tearing through the air straight toward them.

The black mist trembled slightly.

At first, it looked like something insignificant had struck the dome and failed to do anything more than disturb its surface. But then another sound followed. Then another. Then dozens more, all rushing toward the same place from beyond the horizon.

The elves lifted their heads.

The dragons turned their eyes.

Even Max’s gaze shifted toward the trembling spot in the black mist, watching as more and more impacts struck from the outside, each one growing louder than the last.

"He came..." one of the elves whispered.

More of them quickly joined in, their eyes lighting up and their lips curling with expectation as they looked toward the dome, believing that the strongest creature alive had finally come to save them.

Max stared at it in silence for a moment before a slow smile rose on his lips.

He closed his eyes, stopping his count at exactly twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes.

Now, he waited calmly for the dome to break.

He could feel that every attack striking from the outside carried terrifying force, strong enough to shake the black mist and force cracks across the defense he had placed over the armies. Soon, thin lines of light began to fill the black dome, spilling inside like golden blades cutting through the darkness. The rays shone down on the elves, illuminating their perfect faces and making hope slowly return to their eyes.

It looked like the dome would burst at any moment under the pressure of those attacks, but just when the cracks spread wide enough for everyone to see them, the black mist began to heal.

Max’s grin widened playfully.

As if noticing his intentions, whoever stood behind the attacks suddenly stopped.

For a breath, the battlefield fell into a strange silence. Then, through the small gaps in the dome, golden light began to shine brighter and brighter, as if a sun had been placed right outside the black mist.

Something terrifying flew toward the dome.

The pressure alone made the trapped elves freeze in place, their faces twisting from hope into confusion, then fear, as they realized the attack was not slowing down.

And just when it was about to strike the dome, Max simply opened it.

The black mist split apart in front of the incoming attack, casting the elven army into deathly panic as the golden destruction they had been waiting for flew straight toward them instead.