The ancestral beast roared, its voice shaking the night as purple ice flames erupted from its maw in a savage torrent, painting the dark sky with ghostly light. The fire rushed forward like a raging river of frozen death, its glow reflecting across Baldric’s storm-wrapped figure and the shattered rooftops below. Frost and embers scattered through the air together, hissing against the violent currents surrounding the old emperor.

Max did not waste that opening.

His eyes locked onto Baldric’s every movement as he leaped through the freezing night, his void blade burning with thick black mist. Darkness twisted around the weapon like a living thing, stretching and curling off the edge in ragged trails.

The mana around him churned wildly as he poured more and more power into the strike, enough to make the air tremble and warp. Even the moonlight seemed to dim around him, swallowed by the growing density of the void.

Emperor Baldric snorted at the ancestral beast’s attack. To him, the flood of purple ice flames was nothing more than a nuisance. With a simple twist of his wrist, the winds around him shrieked and exploded outward, shredding the flames apart into fragments of violet frostfire that scattered across the sky like shattered stars.

But that single moment of distraction was all Max needed.

Baldric’s ancient eyes narrowed the instant Max burst through the dispersed flames like a demon born from the night itself. The black blade descended toward him with terrifying force, and for the first time, the old emperor realized he had no room left to dodge. His expression hardened. Green winds twisted around him in a roaring circle, compressing into a storm barrier so dense it screamed like metal being torn apart. Then he unleashed it point-blank.

The blast crashed into Max like a mountain of blades. Countless compressed currents tore at his void armor, slicing across his body and clawing into his flesh. Pain burst through him from the inside out, but instead of retreating, he forced himself deeper into it. The void blade shrieked against the storm, devouring the mana within Baldric’s attack and dragging it into Max’s body.

The power was violent, far too violent. It felt like poison and fire surging through his veins at once, as if the wind itself was trying to cut him apart from the inside. Yet Max endured it, his teeth grinding together, his eyes blazing with savage focus. He had long since learned that pain could be endured. Victory mattered more.

The black mist around his sword thickened even further. And then the blade tore through the winds.

It split Baldric’s attack apart like a hot knife carving through butter, ripping through layer after layer of compressed storm. The sound was monstrous, a mixture of screaming wind and cracking darkness. A black wave of terrifying energy surged forward from the sword and slammed into Baldric’s chest, even as the wind frantically bent and twisted around him in a desperate attempt to shield its master.

It wasn’t enough.

The impact folded the old emperor’s body and hurled him across the night sky. Blood burst from his lips in a deep crimson arc, scattering behind him like rain beneath the moonlight. His figure flew over the fields beyond the capital, trailing broken wind currents and fragments of green light in his wake.

A thunderous blast shook the land as Baldric slammed into the earth, bursting it open into a massive crater of dirt and shattered stone. Chunks of rock flew in every direction, and the shockwave tore through the grasslands in a widening ring. For a brief second, the battlefield fell still, the night swallowed by dust, blood, and the fading glow of void and storm colliding in the dark.

The ancestral beast caught Max at the subtle command of his finger, swooping beneath him with perfect timing. Then it dived like an arrow, tearing through the night sky at terrifying speed. Max pushed off its back and dropped down, his entire focus fixed on Baldric below. He wanted to finish the old monster while he was still down.

His blade hissed through the air like hot iron plunged into ice-cold water. Thick black mist coiled around it, and the air around his body warped so violently that his silhouette blurred, swallowed by the darkness for a brief, frightening instant. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

To the eyes of those watching below, it looked like a black meteor crashing straight into the crater.

The pressure alone shook the ground. Stone trembled beneath their feet. Every single member of the Wind Clan swallowed hard, no longer knowing who they were supposed to root for. Their hearts bled at the sight of their old emperor being driven into the earth, yet fear strangled any courage they might have had left.

In the end, they had no choice but to obey. Many turned away from the battle and began collecting the unconscious citizens instead, following Max’s orders while already believing their old emperor had fallen.

But Baldric was not dead.

The moment Max descended into the crater, a terrifying clash erupted from the depths below. Old Emperor Baldric resisted with everything he had left, pouring every last drop of wind energy into one desperate final attack.

Green storms burst from the crater in twisting spirals, cutting through stone, shredding earth, and exploding upward into the night like a wounded dragon’s dying wrath.

Baldric himself could not understand it.

Where had this boy come from? Max was human, a mere young man whose name he had never even heard before today, so how had he awakened such horrifying power? How had a human risen to the point of driving him, Baldric, into the ground like this?

Their clash boomed like a volcano erupting beneath the earth.

Waves of wind, darkness, and shattered stone blasted outward in every direction. The force slammed against the capital walls, cracking them further and sending chunks of rubble raining down into the streets. Warriors were pushed back, some thrown off their feet entirely as the shockwave ripped across the city.

The blast even surged outward toward Rosalia and Agnia, who were guarding the captured people from afar. Both women reacted at once. Purple ice flames and blazing golden fire spread wide before them like great shields, intercepting the storm of debris and wild energy before it could crash into the hostages.

Their flames roared against the violent pressure, painting the dark night in purple and gold as they fought to keep the terrified captives from being torn apart by the aftermath of the battle.