The Final Castle (Thanks to arsefewf for the Alliance Leader

The darkness, churning like black ink, seemed endless. Having regained control of the situation, Helios naturally reclaimed the countless Hell Swarms it had nurtured, turning them into a tide capable of utterly overwhelming every opponent.

"They're coming! They're heading this way!"

Raziel cried out and instinctively backed away several steps, returning to Garland's side in hopes that the Grandmaster's presence might give him even the slightest sense of security.

Garland made no move. He merely watched Huai Shi in silence, waiting to see what he would do.

Yet Huai Shi did nothing.

He simply stood where he was.

He let Hedi's legions rapidly close in, as though he did not care about them at all.

He merely nodded.

"Oh," he said. "I know."

Huai Shi said he knew. Was there anything else?

No?

Then could he be quiet for a moment?

Stop screaming.

Yet Raziel continued to scream.

Huai Shi sighed, raised a hand, and covered his ears. Even after Raziel stopped his terrified shrieking, he did not lower it.

Because behind him, at the very peak of the Eternal Frozen Furnace Core—the projection core of Twilight Land—within the eternally burning Alchemy Fire, a cold, indifferent eye slowly opened.

It lowered its gaze toward the land below.

Then, a searing ray burst from its pupil. Accompanied by the thunderous roar of countless trembling steel structures, it became a blazing beam that pierced heaven and earth.

In an instant, it swept through the endless black tide.

The light vanished.

Only then did terrifying flames surge from the earth. The dreadful High Temperature spread outward, becoming a warped wall of fire that carved a gruesome rift through the vast army in the blink of an eye.

Stench and darkness rose into the star-shrouded night sky, swiftly vanishing without a trace.

Then more