Deep within the collapsed chamber, dust still swirled like restless ghosts. Bulk remained hunched in the far corner, his massive frame trembling as he shifted rubble with painstaking silence. But the battle between Rate and Agatha had grown too loud, too violent. Every shockwave and crashing pillar made his search more desperate.
Rate refused to fall.
Smoke poured off his emaciated, darkness-corrupted body as he pushed himself beyond exhaustion. The dark saber in his right hand hummed with unstable black energy, while two thinner shadow tendrils whipped behind him like living extensions of his will. His breathing came in ragged growls, but his hollow eyes burned with stubborn fury.
He would not let this witch dictate the end.
Shadow Steps activated in rapid succession. Rate melted into darkness, reappearing in a burst ten meters to Agatha's left, then right, then directly above her. The dark saber screamed downward in a vicious overhead arc while both tendrils lashed upward from below in a coordinated pincer.
Agatha's red-pupiled familiar eyes narrowed. She spun mid-air with unnatural grace, her violet robes flaring as she ascended sharply. The golden-white barrier around her shimmered under the dual impact. Cracks spider-webbed across its surface, but it held.
"You're getting slower," she said calmly.
Rate didn't answer. He vanished again, emerging from the shadow of a broken pillar with a spinning slash. The saber carved a wide horizontal arc while his tendrils struck like black whips from two different angles. Agatha flicked her wrist. A Repulsive Graviton Pulse exploded outward, shoving both blade and tendrils away with bone-jarring force. Rate was hurled backward, boots skidding across floating debris before he caught himself with another shadow step.
Pain flared through his blackened limbs, but he charged harder.
He chained three rapid relocations, appearing low, then high, then behind her in a blur. The dark saber thrust toward her spine while the tendrils swept in from the sides. Agatha dropped suddenly, accelerating with her own gravity manipulation, slipping through the attacks like smoke. As she descended, she thrust her palm downward.
Gravity Clamp.
The air around Rate thickened into a crushing vice. His tendrils slammed into the ground and shattered. The saber swing slowed dramatically. Agatha followed with a focused Gravity Well that seized him mid-transition and smashed him sideways into a half-standing wall. Stone exploded on impact.
Rate rolled with the blow, dark essence leaking from fresh wounds. He rose snarling, saber raised.
She's still holding back, he thought bitterly. But I won't.
He melted into shadow once more, pushing his body to the absolute limit. Every step burned. Every relocation sent needles of pain through his nerves. Still, he attacked relentlessly, slashing, thrusting, spinning, feinting, turning the ruined chamber into a deadly ballet of darkness and distorted physics.
Boulders floated momentarily before slamming down with multiplied weight. Pillars groaned and cracked under localized gravity shifts. Rate moved like liquid night, vanishing and reappearing in streaks of black. Agatha flew with elegant dominance, always just out of reach, layering alacrity with precise gravitational control. Her necklace charm pulsed rhythmically, steadily rebuilding her barrier each time Rate managed to crack it.
Twice more he shattered the shield completely through sheer ferocity. Each time, Agatha used those precious seconds with surgical precision levitating higher, dropping like a comet, unleashing wide-area Graviton Domes that slowed his shadow steps to a crawl.
Yet Rate kept coming. Harder, faster, more precise.
He emerged from the floor's shadow directly beneath her, tendrils sweeping upward in a powerful vertical slash while the dark saber followed in a brutal rising cut. The combined attack tore through the air with a vicious hiss.
Agatha dodged via flight, ascending sharply. The tendrils missed her by inches. They withdrew instantly, snapping back into Rate's form as he completely vanished into his own shadow.
He reappeared beneath her in a burst of void energy, already in motion, six feet away and closing fast. His body spun with terrifying speed, dark saber leading a deadly rightward horizontal slash while both regenerated tendrils whipped around him in a spiraling storm of black energy.
Agatha's familiar detected the distortion instantly. She reacted with terrifying precision, executing a sharp 180-degree turn mid-air and diving downward toward the incoming Rate. Her dark hair whipped wildly as she stretched her right arm forward.
"Enough."
A spell ignited in her palm. Gravity intensified one hundred times in an instant.
The concussive force hit Rate like the fist of a god. His spinning momentum betrayed him as his entire body was hammered downward with overwhelming power. He slammed into the ground with catastrophic force, creating a massive crater. Debris and dust exploded outward in a violent cloud. The impact drove the air from his lungs and sent cracks racing across the already ruined floor.
Rate lay at the center of the depression, body twitching under the crushing weight that pinned him down.
Agatha hovered above him, looking down with cold disdain.
"Now that I got a closer look, your form is vague and disgusting to look at."
"E…er…mah….hmph…" Rate's words struggled to form under the immense pressure, his blackened face twisted in pain.
Agatha's gaze remained pitiless. "It is the price you pay for drawing powers from the dark dimension."
"Ye…demu."
"Losing your sanity because of power," she continued, voice laced with contempt, "because of your greed. You didn't think through the predicament with the pact you made with Eldo, the god of darkness. This favors him far more than you know. On the long run, you'll be completely absorbed and become one of his Eldritch pawns."
"Ye…you are…of no different…witch," Rate forced out.
"Oh really?"
In a clearer voice, Rate snarled, "Someone...as diabolic as you will have...a...clouded judgement." Rate said.
"You Eclipse-Walkers are worse than the other factions, and I'm the diabolical one?" Agatha's tone sharpened.
"We...are...the truth!" Rate growled, fighting against the gravity pinning him. "Our path...is the only right way for creation's...stability."
"Stability?" Agatha's laugh was bitter. "You bastards are the counterpart of truth. You do not know what the word 'stability' means. You walk the path of destruction."
"You think...you're righteous?" Rate spat. "You're pure...evil incarnate. You slaughtered...thousands of innocent lives...and you're here giving me... advice!"
"You barbaric bastards killed millions under the night sky, for what?" Agatha shot back. "You scavenge regions and kingdoms searching for what lies beyond you, while hiding beneath the terrestrial like vermin."
"The...strongest decide the rules," Rate hissed. "The prey will...succumb to the predator. This world and creation itself is falling apart. With our intervention, everything will fall under control." he said.
"You'll tip the scale in your favor. That's not visionit's obsession. You do not walk the path of right, but of destruction." she said.
"You know nothing," Rate said, his voice gaining strength even as the gravity pressed down on him. "What you see as selfishness...is the only way. One side...has to take the power. Balance is an illusion of...fear. It is for the weak, and...the weak shall know their place."
Agatha stared down at him, her expression hardening. "I see… You're far too lost. I don't know if it's you talking, or the corrupt power that eats you alive."
"No," Rate replied, a manic edge creeping into his voice. "You have a twisted way...of thinking. Come with me. You were once on the path but... you deviated. If you follow me, I'll put in words for you. The higher-ups will surely accept if you... submit and make an oath. There, I'll show you my path...the ambition I carry toward achieving...our goal."
"Ambition?" Agatha let out a low, mocking chuckle. "Do you take me for a fool? The ones you serve won't think twice to discard you after you've become unproductive, just like you did to those who were once under your wings. And you think that kind of system will favor creation? How despicable."
"Ahhh… it is the only way," Rate rasped. "What do you have to say for yourself after years of living?"
"What do you mean?" she said.
"Agatha the infamous...Grand Witch," Rate said with a widening, bloody grin, "one of the first calamities since the Age of Order. How long has it been? Millennia? Five thousand years? You're very old....so old that even demon lords call you legend. I've heard the mysteries...about you."
Agatha's expression began to drop, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"One could call you the...Mother of Witches," Rate continued, voice growing stronger, "one of the founders of the Witches' Cult. You..do not...get to lecture me after the atrocities you've committed." Rate said.
"Shut…"she said.
"Did you not pursue power...just like the ones you call hypocrites? How many innocents did you kill for longevity? How many destinies...did you steal from children?" Rate said
"I said shut…"
"How many demons...did you mate with for contracted powers? How many sacrifices...did you had...to give the goddess's of witchcraft and the god's of chaos?" he said.
Agatha's frown deepened, mana beginning to stir violently around her.
"Did you sell your soul to the devil for power? How many of your...unborn children did you exchange for favors to the Lilith demon matriarch, mother of demons?" he said.
"Shut UP!"
Rate's grin widened savagely. The dark-embedded skin along his face began stretching and writhing. "Or did you sell your womb to the Outer Gods...the god of the Void...for use of its powers?" he said.
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
From above Agatha, several conjoined shadow tendrils exploded outward in a powerful, sweeping strike. Her familiar detected the attack instantly. Agatha reacted in a fraction of a second, flying backward just in time. The tendrils tore through her barrier with a shattering crack and barely nicked the skin of her cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.
Fury ignited in Agatha's eyes.
She swept her hand horizontally. A crushing wave of gravity slammed into Rate, hurling him across the chamber like a ragdoll. He skipped and tumbled violently across the shattered floor, smashing through debris before crashing hard into the crumbled entrance area.
For a moment, silence fell.
Agatha hovered in place, mana raging violently around her in blood-red waves. Her expression had twisted into pure irritation and wrath. In a low, dangerous tone she declared:
"I've heard enough. This time, I'll end your miserable life."
Before she could fly forward, a flicker of flaring white light sparked from the shadows to her left. Suddenly, with a powerful leap from the dark corners of the ruined chamber, Camilla emerged into view. Her greaves burned with intense white heat as she closed the distance rapidly. At five feet away, she twisted mid-air, cheeky confidence blazing in her eyes.
"Stay clear. For Camilla is about to drop the Bomb!"