Arden looked at the fallen paladin and his heart began to beat faster. A cold sweat rolled down his face as he felt its domineering aura.

  “It's strong,” he muttered.

  The multicolored haze became solely black. When it did, the armor of the Maverick became more sinister looking. Short spikes emerged from the shins, shoulders, elbows and wrists, and the ones covering its helmet grew longer and more fearsome. The spear’s shaft became thicker and the spear head became longer.

  Vera didn’t know what it was doing, but it didn’t look good. Thinking it was some sort of power up, Vera rushed forward with her sword in hand, not wanting to let it grow any stronger. If they were going to slay the Maverick, it had to be done fast.

  Rocks started flying towards the Maverick, but were batted out of the way by the Maverick’s free hand. It made a cry that sounded like it came from the depths of hell, and thrust its spear forward towards the Sya.

  A beam of darkness flowed out at great speed, and it was only due Sya’s impressive perception that she was able to throw herself out of the way of the attack in time. She looked back at where the beam hit the floor behind her and grimaced. There was a perfectly smooth cut in the stone floor. She smiled nervously.

  ‘We might be in over our heads here.’

  Vera made a vertical slash down on the shaft of the spear, hoping to break it, or at least damage it. The spear seemed particularly powerful, but it would still be able to receive damage from a mundane weapon because it could at most be a red-tier weapon.

  That was why she was shocked when her sword shattered on impact.

  Sensing danger she jumped back before the Maverick could counter attack, and drew a replacement sword out of her inventory. She looked at the Maverick with shock on her face.

  ‘This is a main sequence right?’

  The Maverick, perhaps realizing that Vera was the biggest threat, thrust the spear once again, this time towards Vera. She toiled with her newfound knowledge, and couldn’t react before it was too late.

  Thankfully for her, Arden was next to her and pushed her out of the way of the black energy that fired from the spear tip. Unfortunately for Arden, his left hand made contact with the dark energy when he tried to withdraw it. To his surprise, Arden was completely alright, but he soon realized why. He also realized what the black energy was. Death energy. Obvious in hindsight, but looking back would only get one killed in the middle of a battle. The Bone Talons were already bones, so they wouldn’t be affected by death energy.

  “Don’t get hit with the beams!” Arden called out to Vera and Sya. “Its death energy!”

  Vera shook her head at her mistake. She shouldn't have been so startled when her weapon broke. If it weren’t for Arden’s timely interference and the nature of his claws, she would have likely died, or at the very least begin the process of dying. If Arden was right, she would have seen her body rot away while she was still alive.

  Vera gauged her opponent. The Celestial was red-tier, but it was near the upper limits of main sequence. It seemed like it was just barely before the giant rank. She refocused her attention. It didn't matter how strong it was. The only thing they could do if they wanted to get out of this situation alive was stop it. She continued to assess the Maverick.

  The Maverick was strong. Very strong. It had a melee weapon that could produce ranged attacks. It had thick armor that could only be pierced with Satellites, and the only people with weapon Satellites were Sya and Arden. Sya had the slingshot, and Arden had the claws.

  “Damn it,” she muttered.

  There was one thing she could do, but it was a hail mary attack, one that would prevent her from fighting any longer. She swallowed the idea. They weren't dead in the water just yet

  Arden sprinted forward towards the Maverick. Ironically, despite having no armor, no defensive Satellite, and no skill with claws, he was still the one who had the best chance of defense, so long as his claws held out. He refused to acknowledge how large of an 'if' that was.

  Arden forced his perception to increase to the maximum it could. He would need to pay attention to everything the Maverick did. It was a tier and two ranks stronger than any of them, so a single mistake meant death. He needed Sya’s perception with Vera’s skill.

  He saw the wrist of the Maverick flick, and ducked beneath the horizontal slash. If he could get behind the spear head, the fight would be monumentally easier. Once it passed over him, he sprung forward with his claws.

  He didn’t know how to fight with claws, but he knew how to generate power. Using what he learned from Vera, he raked his claws up the black chest plate of the Maverick, leaving five thin lines where his claws landed.

  Arden saw the Maverick’s free hand incoming and couldn’t dodge in time.

  At that moment, a rock flew past the Maverick’s spear and into its helmet, staggering it for a moment.

  Arden mentally thanked Sya for the save and thrust his claws into the head of the Maverick. Arden grit his teeth as he tried to rip its head open. He felt progress being made and sneered at the corrupted paladin.

  “Get away!” Vera yelled.

  Arden felt danger approach and tried to pull out of the Maverick before the danger could fully manifest. Before he could get his claws out of the Maverick, the armored hand of the maverick wrapped around Arden’s wrists, holding them in place.

  Arden looked up at the helmet of the Maverick and shuddered. The skull beneath the helmet grinned with malevolence down at Arden. The jaw slackened, and the Maverick spoke with a voice that was spiritually upsetting, like nails on a chalkboard for the soul.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Heresy is met with death.”

  Black flames rose from the body of the Maverick. As the column of dark fire rose higher into the chamber, its radius grew, engulfing everything within a few meters of it, including Arden. He struggled to get out of the fire, but the power of a red-tier main sequence was too much for a mundane human to withstand.

  Sya and Vera could only watch the fire rise and hear Arden’s screams as the black flames licked away at him. Reluctant to do nothing, Vera drew her sword and yelled to Sya.

  “I'm about to do something that might work!”

  “Might!?”

  “It's the only shot we have!”

  Sya yelled in frustration.

  “What do you need me to do!?”

  “Take cover!”

  As soon as Vera said it, she summoned the Usurper’s Throne. It would have to do. There was nothing else to use as cover. Without any hesitation, Sya dove behind the couch and continued firing her slingshot at the Maverick. Vera closed her eyes and calmed her heart. She would need the utmost focus.

  Sya fired rock after rock into the flames from behind the throne, each and every one of them were reduced to ashes before they penetrated the field of fire. She was growing extremely anxious of Arden who was being burnt alive. The only reason she wasn’t completely panicking was that she could still hear his screams. Pain meant he was alive. So long as he was alive, he could use his strange ability.

  “Don’t die in there!” she called out.

  Suddenly, the room temperature suddenly dropped by a noticeable degree. It was like the difference between a moderate autumn and the dead of winter. Sya turned her head to the source and saw Vera slowly open her eyes.

  Her eyes had changed colors. They had gone ghostly white with bright blue irises. The light blue streaks in her hair froze solid, while her black hair turned the same icy white that her frozen hair had once been. Vera breathed out, and it was visible in the cold air.

  In a single moment, her sword, now adorned with ice shards, had been swung in a wide horizontal arc. A wide arc of pale blue energy flew from the sword tip towards the raging black flames. Vera noticed the sword had several cracks in it.

  ‘Not yet.’

  She repeated the attack, this time vertically, and the sword shattered.

  “Not yet!” she yelled, immediately summoning another skeleton's sword from her inventory to replace it.

  Generating as much power as she could, she stabbed forward towards the flames. As soon as she approached, she could feel their otherworldly heat, but she ignored them. Arden was suffering more than she was.

  “First Phase! New Moon!”

  Her sword tip reached the fire, and both the fire and the sword disappeared. The fire disappeared as if it had never been there, with only scorch marks to show that it in fact had, while the sword was reduced to ice crystals which fell to the ground.

  A shockwave was released from the epicenter of the strike throwing rubble and dust from the floor into the air and knocked Vera away from the Maverick. It reached all the way to Sya from across the room. When Sya did feel it, she felt her consciousness get ripped away, and she was knocked out.

  Vera stood with blood flowing through her once again black hair. Her hair had reverted to how it was before, mostly black with a few icy white streaks. Her breathing was heavy, and she looked for Arden and the Maverick. When the dust settled, she could see them. The Maverick was slightly worse for wear, with chips in its shadowy armor, and ice crystals frozen to it in places. In the Maverick’s free hand was Arden, or what was left of him. Arden was a blackened husk of a person, to the point where it was hard to distinguish where the Bone Talons began and his arm bones began.

  The Maverick threw the body to the floor, and slowly approached Vera. Vera fell to the ground and watched. There was no energy left in her body, not even enough to feel scared. Even if she had the energy, she wouldn't have been scared. Just disappointed and guilty.

  Disappointed that she couldn’t even become a Starborn or even clear a stargate. She had every advantage in the world, but she had squandered them. Perhaps her family had been right to exile her. Perhaps she was weak, after all.

  The guilt inside of her was powerful enough for her to feel even with no energy. Because of her self-interests and failures, she had gotten two innocent mundane people to die with her. They were her friends, and she would be responsible for their deaths. She thought of them as the Maverick approached.

  Arden, a simple person with a simple motive: Improve the quality of his sister’s life before her passing. He was a strong person, and she knew he would go pretty far if he ever got the chance to become a Starborn. He learned fast, and was mentally strong, both of which were hallmarks of the best Starborn.

  Sya, Arden’s sister who just wanted to enjoy what little life she had left. She was also strong, possessing a deep perception into things. She picked up on the little things, and focused on the big picture. She knew her expiration date was coming soon, so she endeavored to make good memories with her brother before she passed.

  And she would likely pass before she succumbed to the Blight because of Vera.

  “Damn it,” Vera muttered.

  Emotion welled up inside of her. The moments she had spent with the two of them were the best moments of her life. Whether it was training or talking, she loved every moment she spent with them. Tears started flowing from her eyes, so she closed them. She wanted to make more memories with Arden and Sya.

  They were her family.

  The Maverick stood over Vera, looking down at her. For the first time, it gripped its large spear with both of its hands. Like a reverse Excalibur, the Maverick planned to plunge the spear down.

  “Mongrel intruder,” it said. “You've done well. Your Sovereign can be proud to have produced such fine specimens. Unfortunately, your skill is for naught in this domain. I promise you, as a servant of the Great Grave Archwood, that the remains of you and your companions will be well looked after.”

  This was no longer a fight. This was an execution.

  “Those who trespass into the domain of the Great Grave Archwood,” the Maverick said darkly, “shall all meet their deaths.”

  Vera heard the words with her eyes still shut. She knew it was selfish of her after dragging Arden and Sya through this stargate, but she hoped that she would be the first to go. She didn’t want to watch them die.

  “Hey,” a voice called out from behind the Maverick. “You’re making the pretty lady sad.”

  The Maverick whirled around to look at the person it had surely killed. There was no way for a mere human to survive the flames of purgatory.

  Vera opened her eyes, and through the veil of tears, she could see Arden standing, completely fine, without any clothes. She was too relieved to see him alive to feel any embarrassment from seeing his nude form.

  “You’re alive,” both Vera and the Maverick said, with tones on completely opposite sides of the spectrum.

  “Damn right. You almost had me,” Arden admitted. “But when you try to kill someone by stabbing them with a death spear and roasting them inside of the flames of death to the point where only a charred mess remains, you better make sure they're dead.”

  The Maverick stepped towards Arden, ignoring Vera for now. Once it killed the naked human, it would finish off the two girls.

  Arden rubbed the back of his neck and stretched. He had a cocky grin on his face as he held his bone talons in front of him.

  “Time for round two.”