Chapter 518: Guardians
The two demonic colossi roared, and the earth shook. The first—the Magma Titan, its immense body, wings raw, each movement spewing embers—raised its arm like a mountain and slammed it into the ground, spraying waves of liquid fire. The second—the Skeletal Shadow, slender, wreathed in living smoke, eyes of absolute emptiness—glided through the air like a specter, long claws raking the space and leaving trails of darkness that closed in suffocating spirals.
Vergil advanced first.
The katana was raised in a smooth motion, and then the world seemed to shatter with speed. A clean cut sliced through the air, so fast that the titan’s own roar was cut in half. The blade glowed blue, the shock of condensed energy cracking like thunder.
The Magma Titan took a step back, its chest splitting open in a fiery line—but instead of blood, lava flowed from the cut, bubbling.
Vergil didn’t flinch. He smiled. “Beautiful. You bleed lava.”
On the opposite side, Katharina had already conjured her weapon. A huge fiery spear, made of liquid magma solidified at the tip. The heat was so intense that the ground melted beneath her feet. With a violent twist, she hurled the weapon at the Titan, and the spear streaked through space like a comet, burying itself in the creature’s shoulder. The ensuing explosion of fire lit up the entire clearing.
The monster roared in pain, shaking its shattered wings.
“I told you I’d burn to the soul!” Katharina screamed, her hair dripping with magma like fiery rain.
Meanwhile, Roxanne rushed to the side, spreading her arms wide. The stagnant air exploded in currents of sharp wind, invisible blades slicing through the approaching shadows. The Skeletal Shadow responded with a silent howl, its own smoke being cut to ribbons before it reformed.
Roxanne twirled her daggers, channeling her winds. “You can reform as many times as you like… but I will tear you apart again and again.”
The specter slid toward her, its claws slicing through the air at speed. Roxanne launched herself into a spinning leap, compressed winds propelling her body like a bullet. The two clashed in the middle of the clearing in a sequence of blows too fast for mortal eyes to follow: claws against blades, smoke against wind, shadow against lightning.
On the other side, Vanny raised her fists. Her demonic energy took shape, coating her arms in a purple cloak that crackled like black lightning. She launched herself at the Magma Titan, her feet cracking the ground with each thrust.
“FALL, YOU PILE OF ROCK!” she screamed, slamming her energized fist straight into the colossus’s leg.
The impact was devastating. The sound echoed like an explosion, and the creature’s knee caved in, shattering rock and lava. The giant leg wobbled, throwing the monster off balance for a moment. Vergil took advantage.
The katana glowed blue, and in the blink of an eye, he was on top of the creature’s arm, running across the incandescent surface as if it were solid ground. With a surgical movement, he severed three colossal fingers.
The Titan roared, lava gushing out in fountains.
Rize, for her part, didn’t run. She stretched out her hands and let her energy materialize into black threads, thick as chains, that spread out in multiple directions—her demonic webs. They clung to the ground, to the columns of bones, to the twisted branches, and then wrapped around the Skeletal Shadow.
The creature thrashed, screaming in a high-pitched sound that vibrated even the cracks. But each time it tore a web, two new ones appeared, pulling it back.
Rize laughed out loud. “Yeah, shadow… the more you move, the more trapped you become. Like a fly.”
Roxanne seized the opening, swooping down like a bolt of lightning, her daggers glowing with wind energy. The blow pierced the creature’s skeletal skull, splitting it in two, which fell to ash.
But seconds later, the body reformed—smoke stitching the pieces back together.
Roxanne landed, the winds swirling around her, and smiled. “It’s going to be a long dance, then.”
Titania, silent until then, clutched her body with her arms. Her golden eyes trembled, but she didn’t intervene. She knew it wasn’t her time yet. Beside him, Zuri remained in absolute silence, her colossal body curled up, her golden eyes observing every detail of the fight.
Vergil dismounted from the Titan’s arm amidst the chaos, wiping the blade in the air, the lava evaporating into smoke as it touched the katana’s edge. He looked at the two monsters in unison and smiled coldly.
“Two against six. Seems unfair. For them.”
The Magma Titan tried to crush him with its fist like a meteor. Vergil didn’t flinch. He simply raised the katana, and the colossal impact that should have destroyed him was split in half, the giant fist cracking into two pieces that collapsed to the side.
Katharina seized the opening, leaping into the air, her skin glowing with flames. She conjured another spear, larger, denser, made of living fire. “HERE IS THE END!”
She threw the weapon straight at the creature’s head. The explosion was deafening. The colossus’s head erupted in lava, illuminating the entire arena red. The Titan toppled backward, opening a crater in the ground.
Vany laughed breathlessly, her fists still engulfed in demonic energy. “HAH! That was beautiful!”
But the colossus’s body trembled. Lava flowed and began to mold a new skull, more grotesque, more enraged.
Katharina growled. “He doesn’t die easily, huh…”
Meanwhile, on the other side, the Skeletal Shadow screamed, ripping through dozens of Rize’s webs at once. Its form grew, multiplying arms and claws, transforming into something even more monstrous.
Roxanne twirled her daggers and glared at Rize. “Hold on tight. I’ll make room.”
Rize smiled, teeth bared. “Leave it. He’s my plaything now.”
She stretched out her hands, and the webs took on a life of their own, coiling like serpents and re-entangling each emerging arm, pulling, tearing, controlling the entire field.
Vergil wiped his katana once more, oblivious to the destruction around him. He looked at the two guardians simultaneously, and his voice was low, but full of promise:
“You are nothing but flesh and smoke. And I… am death.”
He vanished in a flash.
The next moment was pure symphony. Vergil appeared before the Shadow, cutting it into dozens of pieces in less than a second, each blow accompanied by Roxanne’s wind, preventing the creature from reforming. At the same moment, Katharina leaped at the Titan with another fiery spear, and Vanny struck the colossal body with punches so strong they cracked the magma armor like glass.
Explosions. Ash. Lava. Screams.
Titania clapped her hand to her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. “They’re… winning.”
Zuri replied softly, her forked tongue vibrating. “Not yet. This arena… hasn’t shown everything yet.”
And indeed.
As the two guardians fell together, shattered, the ground shook even more violently. Cracks opened into chasms. Lava gushed. And from the wreckage of the monsters, a single form began to emerge… something larger, more terrible.
Vergil stopped, blood and smoke on his skin, and laughed softly, almost happily.
“Ah… finally.”