During the intense fight, Moon’s mana drained incredibly fast. The constant healing, the lightning, the fire, the runes, all of it was eating through his reserves at a rate his regeneration couldn’t match.

’I’m running low. I need to end this phase now before it’s too late to regret it.’

Moon issued a silent command through his connections. One by one, his beasts disengaged, retreating toward the staircase.

Mirage’s doppelganger dissolved, and the real Mirage began backing toward the exit but unlike the others who left, he waited for Moon.

The beast soul faded into his pocket space. The spirit watched them retreat with narrow eyes but didn’t pursue. Her focus was still on Moon, he was the real danger within this fight, the others were mostly annoying at best.

Moon stood alone in the center of the sanctum. He locked eyes with the spirit and took a step toward the collapsed platform.

The spirit tensed, both swords rising in preparation for whatever Moon was planning.

Moon took another step. Then another. His eyes were fixed on the rubble beneath the shattered meditation platform, his body language screaming that he was about to make a move for it.

The spirit place a foot ahead, shifting her weight forward, ready to intercept him.

Moon lunged forward, and the pavilion spirit placed her weight down for more stability. At that very moment, Moon spun on his heel and sprinted for the staircase.

Mirage was already there, waiting at the top step. Moon vaulted onto his back in a single motion and Mirage exploded down the stairs at full gallop.

The spirit realized the deception a heartbeat too late. She abandoned her position and tore after him, ice spreading beneath her feet as she skated down the staircase at terrifying speed. She couldn’t let him escape, everything would go to naught if she did.

Moon burst through the pavilion gates and into the open air. Mirage’s hooves hit the mountain path and they were descending, the wind howling past them.

The spirit emerged seconds later, her twin swords gleaming in the grey light, her aura flaring as she closed the distance.

Moon turned in the saddle, conjuring a bolt of purple lightning.

Clash!

The Ice wielding spirit deflected it with her left blade without slowing.

Moon followed it up with an [Explode] spell aimed at the path beneath her feet. She leapt over the blue detonation although not without garnering some burns on her body. Still, she landed without breaking stride.

He continued to cast out all sorts of spells and runes, each brought him meters of space, crucial seconds that brought him closer to the boundary he was seeking.

Neigh!

The base of the mountain passed beneath Mirage’s hooves. The terrain flattened out. Moon could feel the distance accumulating, the pavilion growing smaller behind them.

’Ninety...ninety fifty...One kilometer!’

Moon pulled Mirage to a halt and turned in the saddle. No longer running away from the spirit.

The pavilion spirit stood fifty meters behind him. Stopping at the edge of her boundary, her twin ice swords still raised, her pale eyes burning in anger.

Despite that, she wasn’t moving forward.

’This is her limit. She won’t cross it. If she dies beyond this range, there’s no revival. She risks real death.’ Moon’s eyes flashed with a glint, a subtle smile crossing his face.

The spirit stared at him from across the invisible line. Her expression contorting grimly, ’How does he know my revival range...? Impossible, this must be a coincidence.’

Moon sat atop Mirage, battered, bloodied, his mana nearly empty, his left arm still trembling from the wound that hadn’t fully healed.

He had managed to reach the destination. Although he could have disengaged and run much earlier, the outcome wouldn’t have been what he needed.

If he had fled at full strength, the spirit would have let him go. She would have remained at the pavilion, fortified her position, and waited.

That wasn’t the plan.

By arriving at the boundary looking like a mess, riddled with injuries, his mana visibly drained, his body trembling from accumulated damage, Moon had forced the spirit into a position she couldn’t walk away from.

She had chased him here because she thought she was winning. Because he looked like prey on the verge of collapse. Because one more exchange might finish the source of all her suffering for good.

Now she stood at the edge of her safe zone, staring at the wounded human across the invisible line, and the reality of her situation was settling in.

If she crossed the line and killed him, she won. But if he killed her beyond the one-kilometer radius, she was dead with no revivals. Everything she had built, everything she had protected for centuries, gone in an instant.

If she turned back and retreated to the pavilion, she survived today. But Moon’s health and mana would restore back to its peak. Then, he would return.

He would bring his beasts, his relentless, cunning plans, and he would do it all over again. Except next time, Moon knew where to look for the spirit core.

She would be alone. And he would keep coming.

Moon had placed her in a mental lock-down. Forced with two choices, neither of which were good to say the least.

Fight him here, beyond her range, where death was permanent and the human across from her had already proven he could kill her once.

Or watch him ride away, knowing with absolute certainty that he would come back stronger, and she would be weaker.

Moon sat atop Mirage, bleeding, exhausted, his mana scraping the bottom of his reserves.

And he smiled. Because the choice was already made. The spirit just hadn’t realized it yet.

After several seconds of waiting under the tense atmosphere between them, the spirit began her attack on Moon.

Sending a cold, ravaging barrage of countless ice projectiles in his direction. Moon defended against it with his defensive runes, whilst simultaneously retreating away from her line of attack.

Until, he eventually reached a hundred meters away from her.

"Why are you not approaching? Huh?" Moon shouted, countering the grim expression on her face with a smug smile of his own.

Whoosh!

Thousands of thoughts ran through her mind, and the spirit decided that her best course of action was...to fight to death.