Meriel screamed in agony, bleeding profusely from multiple deep wounds across his chest and arms.

The freezing storm finally faded, leaving the arena completely silent except for the sound of dripping blood.

Kai walked slowly across the cracked floor and stood over the broken man.

He was breathing heavily, and his eyes were still glowing brightly with leftover starlight.

"There’s no need for two heroes in this world."

Meriel pushed himself slowly to his feet, and blood dripped heavily from his ruined mouth.

His expensive armor showed terrible cracks across the chestplate, and his breathing sounded like a broken bellows trying to pull air.

[System Alert: Target life force dropping rapidly]

[Warning: Unknown entity stirring beneath the arena]

’I don’t give a fuck what’s waking up right now,’ Kai thought, locking his eyes onto his bleeding enemy.

’I am ending this hunt tonight.’

He pulled the Starheart energy straight from his chest and wrapped it entirely around his hands.

The bright starlight mixed perfectly with his freezing mana to create a long, deadly spear of black ice.

Kai gripped the frozen shaft tight and charged forward to deliver the final killing blow.

Meriel met him head-on for a desperate final clash.

Their weapons locked together with a deafening ring that echoed through the vast chamber.

Both men pushed forward using every single ounce of strength they had left. The black ice ground against the steel edge, sending bright sparks flying into the cold air.

The remaining glass floor beneath their boots shattered under the heavy strain of their combined power.

For a brief and glorious moment, Kai was completely winning the exchange.

He stepped inside the guard, and the sharp tip of his freezing spear pushed forward until it rested mere inches away from Meriel’s exposed throat. One more push would end it all.

Then the entire temple shook wildly.

Shreik!

A deafening and ancient sound reverberated through the wide chamber.

It sounded exactly like a thousand dying stars screaming in complete agony all at the same time.

The noise forced Kai to grit his teeth, and it completely broke his concentration.

The floor sitting right in the center of the arena exploded upward.

A colossal hand burst through the broken glass and reached for the high ceiling.

The limb was easily thirty meters tall, built entirely out of black stone and crystallized star-flesh.

Pulsing green void energy leaked from its heavy joints, bringing a sudden, unnatural chill to the room.

The Forgotten Titan had finally awakened, as the system interface in the corner of Kai’s vision immediately went into full overdrive.

[Emergency Alert: Ancient Entity Titan of Fallen Constellations has awakened]

[Threat Level: Catastrophic]

[Recommendation: Immediate retreat]

The upper body of the Titan rose slowly from the bottomless abyss below the broken arena.

Its giant head looked like a hollow crown forged from shattered stars, and two glowing white eyes stared blankly into the room.

Its mere presence caused the local gravity to fluctuate wildly.

The broken glass shards started to float upward, and reality itself distorted around the ancient beast like a bad mirage.

Both Kai and Meriel were forced to jump backward quickly to save their own lives.

The colossal hand slammed down exactly where they had been fighting just a second ago, crushing dozens of the remaining corrupted monsters into an unrecognizable paste.

The Titan let out another terrible roar that completely shattered whatever remained of the mirrored floor.

Meriel looked up at the monster and then turned his head back to Kai.

"Looks like fate doesn’t want you to kill me yet," Meriel laughed, spitting a glob of blood onto the ruined tile.

"You missed your chance."

Kai felt his face twist into a mask of rage. He was so terribly close to avenging Sera and ending this living nightmare, but now a literal mountain of angry star-flesh wanted to crush them both.

He looked over to where the burlap sack had fallen earlier, feeling a pang of panic in his chest. He needed to make sure her remains were not lost to the endless void below them.

Before Kai could throw his weapon at the smiling man, the Titan swung its long arm horizontally across the room.

The sweeping attack forced both men to run in entirely different directions to avoid being swept into the bottomless pit.

Huge chunks of the remaining arena began collapsing into the void beneath them. The entire ancient temple was finally coming apart at the seams.

The Titan slowly turned its head, and its hollow white eyes locked onto both of the tiny humans running across the crumbling platforms.

It clearly recognized them as the annoying intruders who had disturbed its very long and peaceful sleep.

"Hey, tall fuck," Kai yelled at the towering beast. "Go back to sleep."

He channeled his mana and created multiple floating ice platforms in the empty air. Using his high agility to jump between the frozen steps, he stayed highly mobile above the falling debris, then launched dozens of sharp ice spears directly at the Titan’s rocky joints, hoping to slow its destructive rampage long enough to grab his revenge.

Taking a completely different approach despite his severe injuries, Meriel leaped onto the Titan’s giant arm when it swept past his platform.

The guy used his broadsword like a climbing pick and started scaling straight up the crystallized star-flesh.

He was desperately trying to reach the monster’s head to find a weak point or simply escape the crumbling floor.

For the very first time since they crossed paths, the two bitter enemies were forced to fight the same boss at the same time.

"Get off my kill," Kai shouted, throwing a volley of freezing blades toward Meriel, climbing the giant arm.

"You have to catch me first," Meriel yelled back over the chaotic noise. He deflected the incoming ice attacks with his free hand while continuing his rapid climb up the moving limb.

The Titan’s continuous roars shook the very foundations of the underground ruins, sending clouds of dust raining down from above.

Kai kept jumping across his floating platforms to avoid the falling ceiling, throwing magic at the Titan and aiming lethal strikes at his human enemy whenever he saw a clear opening.

It was a completely chaotic, three-way bloodbath unfolding while the world literally fell apart around them.