Marek instantly identified the greatest threat on the battlefield.
Kallus.
The assassin's ocular implants rapidly processed every exchange, every fluctuation of Aether, every shift in movement and pressure. The analysis concluded the same thing repeatedly: the bronze-skinned warrior with broad shoulders and braided hair possessed the highest combat threat level among the three Mystiques.
Not because of raw power alone.
But because of versatility.
Kallus wielded two Mysteries simultaneously—one inherited through his bloodline and another bound to his relic. More importantly, the two powers complemented each other with near-perfect harmony.
Water and ice.
Flow and stillness.
Adaptability and suppression.
Combined with his battlefield experience and martial mastery, it made him extraordinarily dangerous.
Marek could tell immediately that Kallus was not some sheltered noble trained in ceremonial combat. The man moved like a veteran forged through countless wars. Every strike carried instinct refined through survival. Every defensive motion transitioned naturally into offense.
A killer.
And killers had to die first.
Marek accelerated forward.
His gladius carved through the air in a lethal arc aimed directly at Kallus's throat—
But Benji intercepted him again.
The larger mercenary planted himself between them like a living fortress. The moment Marek's blade descended, the earth beneath Benji's feet trembled violently in response to his Mystery.
Stone-like patterns spread across his skin.
His muscles expanded and hardened, veins glowing faintly with Aether as his entire body transformed into something closer to living bedrock than flesh. The force of Marek's strike slammed into Benji's raised arm with a metallic shockwave.
The assassin's blade cut deep—
But not deep enough.
Benji grunted from the impact yet refused to move.
Mysteries could be expressed through four distinct forms of art.
Mysterion Arts.
Theosis Arts.
Logoi Arts.
And Eidolon Arts.
Though every Mystique possessed the potential to use all four expressions, most naturally gravitated toward certain forms depending on temperament, affinity, and the nature of their Mystery.
Benji's preferred expression was Mysterion.
Revelation Art.
Yet unlike most Mystiques, whose Revelation Arts altered the surrounding environment—forcing reality itself to conform to the truth of their Mystery—Benji's Revelation turned inward.
His body became the domain. His flesh became the revelation. Rather than reshaping the world around him, Benji transformed himself into the embodiment of his Mystery's truth.
The ground cracked beneath his feet as his instincts sharpened to an animalistic degree. He could feel the vibrations of movement through the earth itself. Every shift in pressure, every motion Marek made, echoed through Benji's body like tremors through stone.
His breathing deepened. His stance lowered. And for the first time since the battle began, Marek's advance was halted completely by sheer physical force.
Marek's eyes rapidly processed the changes occurring within Benji's body.
Streams of data flickered across his vision as the Aethertech implants embedded behind his eyes analyzed the mercenary's Mystery in real time. He observed the immense density of Aether circulating through Benji's muscles, the reinforcement of skeletal structures, the compression of physical force radiating from his body like invisible gravity.
Every calculation reached the same conclusion.
Direct confrontation was inefficient.
Benji's Revelation Art drastically enhanced his durability, physical strength, and instinctive reaction speed. Continuing a frontal assault against him would only waste energy reserves.
So Marek immediately adjusted his strategy.
Retreat. Reposition. Eliminate the weaker variables first.
He shifted backward—
Only to stop abruptly.
A sudden wave of cold surged through his leg.
Marek looked down.
Frost had spread across his right foot and lower leg, freezing it solid against the ground. Thick layers of ice crawled upward around his limb like shackles.
Kallus.
The mercenary stood several meters away with his trident lowered, freezing mist spiraling around him. The remnants of his water-based Mystery had flowed unnoticed beneath the battlefield before crystallizing at the perfect moment.
Marek had been bound in place.
And above him—
Diana descended from the storm itself.
She floated high above the battlefield, her silver hair and cloak whipping violently within spiraling currents of wind. Aether poured into her spear in overwhelming quantities, causing the weapon to glow with blinding radiance.
The atmosphere trembled.
[Mystery of Zeus: Logoi Astḗr — "Truth of the Storm Star."]
A massive cyclone erupted around the spear.
Winds compressed inward at terrifying speed, forming a dense sphere of stormlight at its tip. Lightning crackled violently through the spiraling currents as Diana thrust the spear downward.
The sphere collapsed.
Then fired.
A colossal beam of concentrated stormlight exploded from the spear and slammed directly into Marek.
The forest vanished beneath the blast.
The upper half of Marek's body was consumed instantly as the beam pierced through him with catastrophic force, vaporizing everything in its path. Trees behind him disintegrated into ash while the ground split apart beneath the sheer pressure of the attack.
The explosion illuminated the entirety of Blackwood Forest.
Only after several seconds did the light finally begin to fade.
Diana landed heavily beside Kallus and Benji, breathing hard.
Her arms trembled slightly from exhaustion.
She had poured nearly all of her accumulated Aether into that attack.
Smoke drifted across the ruined battlefield.
Then the haze parted.
Half of Marek's body was gone.
Everything above the lower chest had been obliterated completely.
And yet—
No blood poured from the wound.
No exposed organs.
Instead, threads of luminous white light extended outward from the destroyed flesh like weaving strands. They intertwined rapidly, reconstructing bone, muscle, nerves, and skin in real time.
A ribcage formed first.
Then lungs.
Then flesh.
The regeneration occurred so quickly it bordered on incomprehensible.
Within moments, Marek's upper body had fully reformed.
Diana stared in disbelief.
Kallus and Benji were equally stunned.
They had witnessed healing abilities before. But this was something entirely different. Diana had destroyed his brain. His lungs. Most of his upper body. By all logic, the assassin should have died instantly. Yet he had returned as though nothing had happened. She could sense Aether flowing throughout the process. Which meant only one thing. Aethertech was responsible.
"What kind of monster is this?" Kallus muttered, gripping his trident tightly. "He can recover from that too?"
Marek slowly rolled his shoulders before cracking his neck.
The regeneration had cost him. His internal reserves of Aether had dropped substantially to reconstruct the damage Diana inflicted. Had the blast struck directly through his core, even he might not have survived.
Fortunately, his implants had reacted in time. At the moment of impact, the Aethertech system embedded within his body had shifted the location of his core away from the blast radius, preserving the one vital structure necessary for reconstruction.
Marek exhaled slowly. Then he raised his glowing blade once more.
Marek moved first.
A blur of radiant motion shot through the shattered forest as he focused entirely on eliminating Kallus. The mercenary had become the center of the battlefield's rhythm, coordinating with Diana and Benji too effectively to ignore.
Steel and light collided repeatedly.
Kallus met Marek head-on, his trident moving with veteran precision as the two danced through the ruins of Blackwood Forest. Every strike from Marek carried enough force to split stone, yet Kallus reacted to each attack with frightening composure, redirecting the glowing blade away from vital points with smooth, practiced movements.
Frost exploded outward with every clash.
Benji entered the fray like a living battering ram.
He positioned himself between Marek and the others whenever possible, acting as both shield and weapon. Aether surged violently through his enlarged frame as he threw punch after punch toward the assassin.
Each strike distorted the air.
Pressure gathered around his fists before detonating outward upon release, blasting apart the ground and shattering nearby trees from sheer impact alone. Entire sections of earth erupted beneath the force of his blows.
Yet Marek avoided them all.
His ocular implants continuously calculated trajectories, muscle tension, pressure shifts, and attack timing, allowing him to evade Benji's devastating strikes by impossibly narrow margins.
Diana attacked simultaneously.
Wind spiraled around her spear as she thrust toward Marek from blind spots and shifting angles. Every strike carried compressed currents sharp enough to carve through stone, forcing Marek to constantly divide his focus between the three Mystiques.
But Diana's true concentration lay elsewhere.
She was pushing the Mystery of Moira to its limit.
Invisible threads of fate spread across the battlefield as she searched desperately for a weakness—some flaw hidden within the assassin's unnatural body and impossible regeneration.
Anything.
Each of them was being forced beyond their normal limits.
Kallus pushed his martial skill and dual Mysteries to their utmost capacity.
Benji endured mounting physical strain every second his Revelation Art remained active.
Diana continuously burned through her remaining Aether while forcing Moira's intuition deeper and deeper into dangerous territory.
And slowly—
It began to work.
Marek's movements lost some of their fluidity.
Not much.
But enough.
The battlefield itself had turned against him.
Benji's crushing pressure, Kallus's freezing suppression, and Diana's relentless assaults were gradually slowing his body and overloading the predictive rhythm of his implants. His limbs felt heavier. His reactions became fractionally delayed.
For the first time since the battle began, Kallus's attacks started landing cleanly.
The mercenary seized the opportunity instantly.
Aether erupted from his body as he invoked another expression of his Mystery.
Eidolon Art.
Phantom sea serpents materialized around the battlefield—massive translucent projections formed from flowing Aether and oceanic force. They surged through the forest with monstrous speed, coiling around Marek from multiple directions.
The instant one struck him—
Kallus activated his relic's power.
The sea serpent projection froze solid upon contact.
Ice exploded across Marek's body, rapidly encasing entire portions of him in layers of supernatural frost. The freezing force was so intense that even the surrounding air crystallized.
Marek was forced to respond immediately.
Radiant Aether surged outward from within him, forming a luminous sheath tightly wrapped around his body. Heat intensified beneath the glowing layer, melting away the encroaching frost before it could fully immobilize him.
As the assault against him intensified, Marek realized he could no longer rely on physical reinforcement alone. The three Mystiques were beginning to overwhelm him through sheer pressure and coordination.
So he activated another layer of his Aethertech systems. The mechanisms within his gauntlet unfolded with a sharp metallic hiss as streams of luminous energy surged across its surface. Intricate geometric patterns ignited along the weapon before a pulse of condensed Aether erupted outward from Marek's arm.
The pulse spread across the battlefield like invisible static. Instantly, Benji felt it. The pressure generated by his Revelation Art began to weaken. The connection between his body and the surrounding earth became unstable, as though something was interfering with the natural flow of his Mystery. The vibrations he sensed through the ground distorted violently, his instincts momentarily thrown into disarray.
Marek's anti-Aethertech interference was disrupting the localized manifestation of Benji's Revelation. Not canceling it entirely— But destabilizing it enough to weaken its effect. The crushing presence surrounding Marek lessened immediately.
Yet the reprieve was brief. Kallus attacked again. Projection strikes of freezing Aether burst toward Marek in rapid succession, each thrust of Kallus's trident generating arcs of compressed frost that tore through the forest like glacial spears. Ice spread across the battlefield at alarming speed, freezing the earth, trees, and even moisture in the air itself.
Marek reinforced his body further.
More Aether surged through the implants embedded beneath his skin as his thermal regulation systems accelerated beyond normal limits. Heat flooded through his bloodstream, counteracting the freezing force trying to invade his body.
Steam erupted from his skin.
The layer of radiant light surrounding him intensified into a shimmering sheath as he endured the bombardment head-on.
Even so— The pressure continued to mount. Because Marek was beginning to understand the flaw in his situation. He could interfere with one Mystery at a time effectively.
Not three.
The moment he focused his disruption pulse on Benji, Kallus's freezing projections became more dangerous. When he diverted power toward thermal regulation, Diana's wind attacks grew harder to predict.
And Diana did not waste the opening.
High above the battlefield, spiraling winds gathered around her spear as she manipulated the currents of Blackwood Forest itself. The air screamed violently as blades of compressed wind descended toward Marek from multiple angles.
His ocular implants tracked trajectories instantly. Threat vectors calculated. Evasion paths generated. Marek moved with machine-like precision, narrowly slipping between the invisible wind blades as they shredded the forest around him. Entire trees split apart behind him moments after he passed, the delayed force of Diana's attacks carving through the landscape.
But even with all his enhancements—
Even with his predictive calculations—
He was slowly being cornered. Not by superior power. But by pressure. Relentless. Continuous. Human. For the first time since arriving in Erytheia, Marek was being forced to fight seriously.
As Marek fought, his implants continued analyzing the Mystiques relentlessly. His gaze shifted briefly toward Benji. Data streams unfolded instantly. Marek had already determined the nature of the mercenary's Mystery. Its aspect was not merely earth. That was only the surface expression.
The true nature of Benji's Revelation Art centered on transformation—turning himself into a living fortress. His body generated immense physical pressure, overwhelming endurance, and immovable stability, allowing him to dominate close-range combat through sheer durability and force. An offensive and defensive Revelation merged into one. Effective. Extremely effective. But flawed.
Marek's implants detected the cost immediately.
Even at the Bathos stage, Benji's Mystery exacted a severe physical toll. Microtears spread continuously through his muscles with every empowered movement. Stress fractures were beginning to form along reinforced bone structures. His breathing had become heavier, more strained.
The longer the battle continued—The faster Benji's body would destroy itself.
And yet, despite the strain on all three Mystiques, it was Marek who had suffered the most damage.
Diana's relentless assaults and Kallus's crushing strikes had torn his body apart repeatedly throughout the battle. Benji's monstrous punches had blown his head apart more than once, each impact carrying enough force to instantly kill an ordinary Mystique.
Any normal opponent would have died several times over.
But Marek continued regenerating from every fatal wound.
Flesh rebuilt itself through radiant threads of white light. Bone reformed. Organs regenerated. Torn muscles stitched themselves back together almost instantly.
Yet the process was not without cost.
Pain flooded Marek's nervous system every single time his body reconstructed itself. The constant regeneration was consuming enormous amounts of Aether, while the repeated destruction was gradually destabilizing his internal systems.
For the first time since arriving in Erytheia—
Marek was forced to acknowledge something he had never expected.
The three Mystiques together were becoming too much for him.
Individually, none of them posed a true threat.
Together, however…
They were dangerous enough to kill him.
That realization planted the first seed of genuine concern within him.
Kallus suddenly lunged again.
His trident swept toward Marek's neck in a freezing arc powerful enough to decapitate him outright. Marek barely evaded the strike, twisting his body unnaturally through the air before landing atop one of Blackwood's massive branches.
The branch cracked beneath the force of his landing.
Below him, Diana, Kallus, and Benji repositioned instinctively, their movements growing sharper and more efficient with every exchange. The longer the battle continued, the more synchronized they became.
"There has to be a way to kill him," Kallus muttered, breathing heavily.
He glanced toward Benji.
The larger mercenary's breathing had become rough and uneven. Veins bulged across his body as the strain of maintaining his Revelation Art continued tearing through his muscles.
But Kallus himself was not in much better condition.
Using two Mysteries simultaneously was exacting a brutal price on his body. Numbness spread through his limbs as the cold from his own powers seeped inward. His joints ached. His muscles stiffened. Even his breathing carried traces of frost.
Diana was suffering as well.
Her body trembled faintly from exhaustion. Her lungs burned every time she inhaled, struggling to process enough air after expending so much Aether. Blood trickled from the corners of her eyes due to the constant overuse of the Mystery of Moira.
Yet despite all of it—
Her mind remained focused.
"There is," Diana said suddenly.
Kallus and Benji looked toward her.
"I've figured out how his Aethertech works."
Benji blinked in disbelief. "Seriously?"
Diana nodded, wiping blood from beneath one eye.
"First, he possesses some form of predictive ability. It allows him to analyze and anticipate our movements before we fully commit to them."
Her gaze shifted toward Marek.
"Second, he can generate extreme internal heat throughout his body. That's how he's countering your frost, Kallus."
Kallus narrowed his eyes.
"And third…" Diana continued slowly, "his Aethertech interferes with Mysteries themselves."
"Interferes?" Kallus repeated. "I felt some of my attacks weakening earlier…"
Diana shook her head slightly.
"No… not neutralization." Her eyes sharpened as realization fully settled in. "Disruption."
She tightened her grip on her spear.
"He's disrupting the flow of Aether itself. When we manifest our Mysteries, his Aethertech destabilizes the circulation and expression process. That interference weakens our techniques before they fully form."
Silence followed her explanation.
Then Marek slowly raised his glowing blade toward Diana.
For the first time since the battle began—
He spoke.
"It seems," Marek said coldly, "that I was mistaken to underestimate you, Lady Diana Arkanis."
His voice was calm, mechanical almost, yet there was unmistakable wariness beneath it now.
Until this point, Marek had viewed Kallus as the primary threat because of his dual Mysteries, with Benji as the second due to his monstrous physical pressure.
But now he understood the truth. Diana had been the most dangerous one all along. Because she could see through him.
Having reached that conclusion, Marek stopped holding back.
He began overclocking his Aethertech system.
A violent surge of radiant energy erupted through his body as glowing lines spread beneath his skin like burning circuitry. Steam poured from his pores while his muscles tightened unnaturally, the sheer output of power causing the surrounding air to distort from heat.
Then he shifted into a new stance.
The pressure radiating from him changed completely.
Without warning, Marek hurled his gladius toward them.
The luminous blade spun violently through the air like a wheel of condensed light. Diana, Kallus, and Benji instinctively scattered away from its path—
And that was exactly what Marek wanted.
The instant they moved, he exploded forward.
The branch beneath him shattered apart as he launched himself through the air at terrifying speed. He passed above the group in a blur before landing behind them just as the spinning gladius returned to his grasp.
He caught it seamlessly.
Then immediately attacked Diana from the rear.
A storm of slashes descended upon her.
Diana barely kept up.
Her spear moved frantically, parrying and redirecting the glowing blade as sparks and bursts of wind erupted around them. Even with the assistance of Moira's foresight, Marek's overclocked speed was overwhelming.
Then Kallus entered the exchange.
His trident crashed into Marek's strikes, freezing mist exploding outward as the two weapons collided repeatedly in rapid succession.
The battlefield descended into chaos once more.
Yet amid the violence, Diana's focus remained elsewhere.
The invisible thread of fate she had projected toward Marek continued feeding information back into her senses. Every movement, every fluctuation of Aether, every regeneration cycle became clearer with each passing moment.
And finally—
She saw it.
Whenever Marek regenerated severe damage, a singular anomaly appeared deep within his body for the briefest instant.
A convergence point.
A vulnerable nexus hidden beneath the reconstruction process.
Diana's eyes widened.
"I know how he regenerates!" she shouted.
Kallus and Benji immediately looked toward her.
But the moment the words left her mouth—
Marek's expression changed.
For the first time, genuine desperation surfaced within him.
She has to die.
Immediately.
Marek leapt backward, creating distance between himself and the others. His overclocked systems roared violently as he forced his core to produce even more Aether despite the immense strain already tearing through his body.
He brought both hands together.
Motes of radiant light gathered between his palms.
The atmosphere trembled.
Diana instantly recognized the attack.
The same catastrophic beam that had annihilated the convoy.
Normally, using such an attack pushed Marek to the brink of burnout. He had not yet fully recovered from the previous use, especially after expending massive amounts of Aether regenerating throughout the battle.
But by overclocking his systems—
He was forcing his body to exceed its natural limits.
Diana saw the future unfold before her eyes.
Through Moira, countless branching paths flashed across her mind in rapid succession. Death. Destruction. Failure.
And one narrow thread of survival.
She understood immediately what needed to happen.
Marek fired.
A colossal torrent of concentrated Aether erupted from his hands, tearing through the forest like divine judgment itself. Trees vaporized instantly as the beam consumed everything in its path.
But Benji moved first.
The mercenary planted himself directly in front of the attack.
His Revelation Art surged to its absolute limit as he became a living fortress once more. The ground beneath him collapsed from the sheer pressure radiating from his body.
Then the beam struck him head-on.
The explosion swallowed everything.
When the smoke finally cleared, Benji remained standing—
Barely.
His body was horribly burned, smoke rising from charred flesh and shattered armor. One knee hit the ground as consciousness rapidly faded from him.
But he had stopped most of the blast.
Marek searched through the smoke for the others—
And Diana appeared behind him.
She had already foreseen his attack.
Moira had guided her to the exact position needed for the counterstrike.
Her spear was already aimed directly at his back.
[Mystery of Zeus: Logoi Astḗr — "Truth of the Storm Star."]
Another lance of concentrated stormlight erupted forward.
This time Diana poured everything into the attack.
The beam completely engulfed Marek's body.
But Marek was ready.
Every remaining reserve of Aether within him surged outward into a protective cloak surrounding his body. At the same time, he concentrated additional layers directly around his core.
He could no longer reposition it.
So he defended it instead.
The blast detonated across the forest in blinding radiance.
When the light finally faded, Marek still stood.
Barely.
His entire body was scorched blackened and cracked. Sparks erupted constantly from damaged implants beneath his flesh. His ocular systems flickered erratically, one side completely destroyed.
The gauntlet on his arm had shattered.
His regenerative systems were gone.
His Aether reserves were empty.
Yet somehow—
He was still alive.
"You think…" Marek rasped, staggering forward, "you can kill me?"
Diana collapsed to one knee.
Blood poured from her eyes, nose, and mouth as the price of overusing Moira finally overwhelmed her body. Her lungs burned violently from oversaturation while her breathing became shallow and ragged.
Marek raised his gladius.
The luminous blade flickered unstablely as he prepared the final strike.
"You uncivilized—"
Something pierced through his chest.
Marek froze.
Blood finally spilled from his mouth as he looked downward in disbelief.
A trident protruded cleanly through his torso.
Cold spread rapidly through his body.
Kallus stood behind him, barely conscious, one hand still gripping the relic.
The freezing force invaded Marek's internal systems instantly. Blood crystallized within his veins. His organs stiffened as supernatural frost spread inward toward his core.
But Marek refused to die.
With a roar, he turned and struck Kallus with all the strength he had left.
The mercenary crashed violently into a tree before collapsing unconscious to the ground.
Marek ripped the trident free from his chest and threw it aside.
Most of his internal systems were frozen beyond repair. His core was damaged. He could no longer generate Aether.
But the mission remained incomplete.
So he kept moving.
Step by step.
Toward Diana.
His gladius rose one final time.
Diana stared directly at him despite her exhaustion.
She refused to cower.
The blade descended—
And stopped.
Marek's body suddenly spasmed violently.
Silver liquid poured from his mouth as his limbs locked in place. His eyes widened in confusion before his body collapsed to the forest floor, convulsing uncontrollably.
A silver arrow protruded from his back.
Diana slowly turned toward the forest.
Figures emerged silently from the darkness between the trees.
The original inhabitants of Blackwood Forest.
The Dionian tribes.
At their front stood a tall figure adorned in silver-painted armor and ceremonial markings—the Archon of the Karyai tribe.
The Archon lowered their bow slightly as their gaze met Diana's.
"We meet at last," the Archon said calmly.
"Thread Weaver."