Outside, on the slope below the hill, five figures stood close to each other in a tight formation. Their auras overlapped completely, with no distinction left between them. Instead of five separate signatures, it felt like one heavy presence pressing down on the land.

Mana surged upward in a spiraling column above them, thick and violent.

It began as a compressed sphere, glowing deep crimson.

Then something changed.

The color darkened.

Black flames ignited across its surface, slow at first, then spreading rapidly until the entire sphere was coated in a writhing layer of pitch-dark fire. It did not behave like a normal flame. It moved like liquid, clinging, stretching, folding over itself as if alive.

The sphere grew.

Ten meters.

Twenty.

Thirty.

It continued expanding, fed by the combined output of all five attackers. The pressure it released warped the air around it. Even from a distance, the ground beneath their feet began to crack.

Then the shape twisted.

The flames gathered toward the front of the sphere, pulling inward and carving out two hollow voids within the surface.

Eyes.

Not truly eyes, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

They flickered faintly through the black fire, staring downward.

A long tail of burning darkness stretched behind the sphere, spiraling through the air like a comet’s wake, tearing through the ambient mana as it moved.

Inside the house, Rudrean moved first.

He did not rush.

He did not panic.

He simply appeared at the center of the structure, his body already aligned with the direction of impact.

"Let’s defend this house and eliminate their arrogance." Rudrean’s voice rang. He and the others could easily escape now, but that would leave the house defenseless.

Instantly, he poured all of his power into creating condensed gusts of wind to slow down the incoming fireball.

Aelira stepped beside him, her lips curving slightly as she looked upward through the ceiling.

The air above the house condensed in layers, each one tighter than the last, forming a dense vertical barrier that stacked upward like an invisible pillar. It did not expand outward into a dome. It focused directly above them, aligning perfectly with the incoming strike.

Aelira followed without hesitation.

"Pyrus Vale Fort."

Flame erupted, but not wildly. Structured. Controlled.

A blazing construct formed over Rudrean’s wind barrier, interlocking with it seamlessly. The fire did not spread randomly. It flowed into the wind layers, reinforcing them, stabilizing them, creating a hybrid defense that could absorb and redirect force at the same time.

Rivera extended her hand.

Golden light surged forward.

"Starlight Stream, reinforce."

The streams of light threaded through both layers, smoothing out the fluctuations and distributing the strain evenly across the structure. The barrier stopped feeling rigid and became fluid, able to bend without breaking.

Lyra’s hands moved in precise, minimal motions.

"Deploying anchors."

Small geometric constructs shot outward and embedded themselves into the ground around the house. They activated instantly, forming a stabilizing grid that locked the entire structure in place, preventing displacement.

Ryzen stepped forward, planting both feet firmly.

"I’ll hold the base."

Ice surged outward from beneath the house, thick and dense, layered with crackling lightning. It expanded into a reinforced foundation that absorbed shock and redirected it into the ground.

Above them, the fireball descended.

Closer.

Closer.

The pressure became suffocating.

The black flames stretched downward, licking against the upper layers of the barrier before the core even made contact.

Then it hit.

The impact was catastrophic.

The sound alone tore through the hill, a deep, violent detonation that seemed to crush the air itself. Light exploded outward, mixed with streaks of black flame that spread in all directions.

The ground shattered.

A crater formed instantly around the house, cracks racing outward like lightning across the earth.

"Heh. These fools managed to react in time, eh?" A purple-haired pretty boy standing several hundred meters away sneered with disdain.

"Three seconds," a tall man with a bland face and bald head muttered. "Guess we’ll be eliminating a big threat pretty early."

"What big threat? Being able to kill monsters fast doesn’t mean they are unkillable or invincible," a brunette with twin tails spoke with disdain.

"Mhmm, and this is our ultimate attack," a boy with short blue hair nodded. "It can turn a peak Core Genesis stage powerhouse’s body into ashes. Destroy their defense in two seconds."

"Mhmm, but they seem to be holding better than we expected," a crimson-eyed brown beauty with dreadlocks narrowed her eyes. "The defense of Core Genesis we killed in our last mission barely held on for three seconds before being reduced to ashes."

The fireball pressed down.

It did not explode outward immediately.

It pushed.

Relentless.

Heavy.

Like a mountain collapsing from above.

Rudrean’s barrier held, but the strain was immediate.

The black flames crawled across the surface of the wind layers, seeping into the gaps, trying to erode them from within. The pressure forced the compressed air downward, layer by layer.

Rudrean’s arm trembled slightly.

Not from weakness, but from the sheer force he was holding back.

Aelira stepped forward.

"Don’t let it settle."

Her eyes sharpened as her second rune activated.

Vina surged through her, flowing directly into the defensive structure. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The effect was immediate.

The fireball’s pressure lost a fraction of its edge.

Its descent slowed.

Its destructive efficiency dropped.

Rivera reinforced again, her voice steady.

"Keep it balanced. Don’t let one point take all the force."

Golden streams thickened, redistributing the strain across the entire structure.

Lyra’s constructs pulsed rapidly.

"Integrity holding at sixty-two percent. Stabilizing fluctuations."

Ryzen gritted his teeth as the ice beneath them cracked violently.

"I’ve got it," he growled. "It’s not breaking."

The ice shattered.

Reformed.

Shattered again.

Lightning surged through it continuously, forcing it to hold shape under impossible pressure.

Rudrean narrowed his eyes.

Holding it like this would only delay the inevitable.

"Not enough," he said quietly. "Change the strategy. This ball has too much energy. They must have poured everything into it, and more, probably mana stones."

Then he changed the way he defended.

The wind shifted.

Instead of resisting the force directly, the layers tilted.

Subtly.

Precisely.

The pressure of the fireball began to slide.

Aelira understood instantly.

"Got it."

She stepped in and pushed her palm forward.

Phoenix Flame surged into the shifted flow of wind.

The redirected force gained direction.

The fireball tilted.

For a brief moment, it resisted.

Then it moved.

The entire mass of black fire slid off its original path, dragged sideways by the combined manipulation of wind and flame.

The moment it lost its center alignment, its stability broke.

The massive sphere tore across the slope beside the house.

Then it detonated.

The explosion was even more violent than the first impact.

Black flames erupted outward, devouring the ground in a wide radius. The hill was torn apart, chunks of earth lifted and thrown into the air before being consumed by the burning darkness.

For several seconds, nothing existed but fire and sound.

Then it faded.

Smoke drifted slowly across the battlefield.

The night returned.

Inside the house, silence settled.

The structure remained standing.

The walls were cracked.

The ground beneath had shifted.

The air still carried heat.

But they were untouched.

Rudrean lowered his hand slowly, exhaling once.

"They put everything into that."

Aelira rolled her shoulder and smirked.

"And still couldn’t break us."

Lyra was already looking outward, her gaze focused and clear.

"They are recovering. Their output dropped significantly after that attack."

Ryzen let out a breath and laughed under it.

"Good. That means it’s our turn."

Rivera’s lips curved into a calm smile.

"Let’s not keep them waiting."

Rudrean stepped forward, his expression steady and cold.

In the next moment, he and Aelira vanished first with their superior speed.

The enemy team was already shocked that their attack had been rendered useless.

The house was intact, and so were the people inside.

Suddenly, they heard a voice.

"Thanks for the surprise. Now, enjoy one from us."

Then darkness enveloped them as Aelira’s eyes flickered dark purple.

[Slot 3: Night Reign]

—> Expand a 100-meter-radius domain around the user at the cost of 10% mana. Inside the dome, the perception and senses of enemies are disrupted, while allies gain a boost in perception.

The enemy team was shouted, but no one could hear anything! No one could see anything.

Fear and dread instantly filled them as they found themselves in this total darkness.

And then arrived the surprise...a painful surprise.

Rudrean moved like a demonic wind, his fists coated in a blazing spiral flame, striking each enemy in their stomach at an insane speed.

All of their magic executions halted as they grasped for breath, their consciousness blanking out briefly.

Because Rudrean’s punches were not ordinary strikes. Each one landed with precise intent, targeting key energy nodes and disrupting the flow of power through their bodies. At the same time, the impact drove sharp, overwhelming pain deep into their core, knocking the air out of their lungs and forcing them onto their knees, gasping for breath and clutching their stomachs.

"Let’s bind them quickly." Aelira devilishly grinned as she made a move, binding every single one’s limbs and pressuring their necks with heating infernal chains made from Bloodbound Armory. "We should take the resources they’ve collected before sending them back."