Ercale and Bram both lifted their gazes toward the sky where King Domine hung suspended, his body held in place by his own command over gravity. The Demon Lord clicked his tongue, irritation bleeding through as he rolled his shoulder and shifted his stance, eyes tracking the Demon King's position with sharp focus. "Tch, now we have to fight him in the air, this is going to be a pain," he muttered, bending his knees slightly as lightning began to gather along his legs, clearly preparing to launch himself upward.
"Wait a damn second, cast the spell."
Bram's voice cut in before he could move, firm enough to halt him mid-preparation. Ercale turned his head toward him with visible annoyance, the energy around him flickering as his concentration broke. "What do you mean, 'cast the spell'? What spell?" he asked, impatience already creeping into his tone.
Bram motioned sharply with his hand, as if the answer should have been obvious. "You know the spell, the one that makes me float?"
Ercale just stared at him for a beat, incredulity plain on his face. "If you couldn't tell, Bram, I am tired, I am weak, and I am nowhere close to how strong I used to be," he replied, his voice flattening as the strain he was under became more apparent.
Above them, King Domine moved.
"Dominus Ignis Universalis."
Flames erupted across his body in an instant, not spreading from a single point but manifesting all at once, coating him in a violent blaze that twisted and surged with controlled intensity. His arm lifted, and then the sky itself seemed to answer. Dozens of elongated fire constructs formed around him, each one roughly two meters in length, their shapes sharpened into rod-like projectiles that burned with concentrated heat.
Then they came down.
The barrage fell in a relentless rain, the rods screaming through the air as they descended toward the crater below. Ercale reacted first, shoving Bram hard to the side just as the first of them struck the ground where he had been standing. The impact detonated stone and flame outward, forcing both of them into immediate motion as they began weaving through the incoming storm.
The ground erupted around them in rapid succession, each impact gouging deeper into the already shattered crater.
"So!?" Bram shouted over the noise as he twisted past one strike and brought his sword up to deflect another, the force of it shuddering through his arms.
"What the fuck do you mean, 'so'!?" Ercale snapped back, ducking low as one of the rods tore past overhead before kicking off the ground, lightning snapping from his foot as he redirected his movement. "I can't concentrate on making you fly and deal with this piece of garbage!"
As he spoke, his attention flicked outward, catching the shift in Domine's posture above. The Demon King's arm angled differently, his control adjusting.
The next volley did not come for them.
It angled toward the crater's edge.
Ercale reacted instantly, his hand snapping outward as lightning surged from him and spread wide, forming a barrier that intercepted the incoming rods before they could reach the group. The impacts detonated against the crackling field, bursts of flame and force scattering harmlessly away as the barrier held.
"You can do that but you can't just make me float?" Bram demanded, glancing toward the barrier for a split second before refocusing on the barrage still falling around them.
"That's a fucking stationary barrier!" Ercale shot back, frustration rising as he shifted his footing and twisted through another falling rod, the heat passing close enough to distort the air around him. "Making you fly and be able to fight in the air is a much harder thing to do!"
Bram ground his teeth, knocking another rod aside with his blade before stepping through the opening it created. "Then what the hell am I supposed to do!? Sit down here and twiddle my thumbs!?" he snapped, irritation clear as he continued to evade rather than advance.
"Just jump up into the air you bastard! You can do that! I know you can!" Ercale fired back, splitting his focus between maintaining the barrier over the group and keeping himself clear of the barrage. The lightning around him shifted constantly, reacting to each movement as he adjusted both offense and defense in tandem.
"Well why can't you just do that with me and the flying spell!?" Bram pressed, gesturing sharply toward the woven barrier that continued to intercept the redirected strikes.
"Holy shit! Because I can't weave a flying spell!" Ercale snapped, exasperation breaking through fully now. "If mages could do that we'd all be flying around everywhere wouldn't we!?"
He did not wait for a response after that.
Lightning surged violently around him as he planted his foot and launched upward, his body shooting toward the Demon King in a straight, explosive line. The air cracked behind him from the force of the acceleration, his form stabilizing mid-ascent as he adjusted into controlled movement through electrostatic levitation.
Bram watched him go, irritation flashing across his face before he bent his knees and jumped as well, driving himself upward with sheer physical force. The difference was immediate. Where Ercale stabilized and redirected in the air, Bram's ascent was a single powerful arc, his trajectory fixed as he rose toward Domine.
Above, King Domine turned his attention to the incoming threats.
Ercale reached him first, his fist driving forward with lightning coiled around it. Domine shifted just enough, the strike passing close as he adjusted his position in the air with unnatural control. Ercale corrected immediately, maintaining his position, hovering through controlled electrical output as he prepared to continue the exchange.
Bram came next.
Domine barely had to move.
Without the same aerial control, Bram's approach was predictable. Domine shifted his body slightly, letting the upward momentum carry Bram past the optimal striking angle.
"This is why I needed you to do it!" Bram yelled as he began to lose height, his upward motion stalling before gravity took hold. "I can't do anything like this!"
His body started to drop.
Before he could hit the ground, something shot toward him from the side at speed. Bram reacted on instinct, twisting mid-air and swinging his longsword in a tight arc toward the incoming shape.
The blade stopped just short.
Prince Mark leaned back as far as he could, the edge passing less than a centimeter from his faceplate as he held his position in the air. The motion had been immediate, a reaction to the swing that had nearly taken his head off.
"I was trying to save you!" he said, irritation and urgency mixing in his voice.
Bram landed a moment later, absorbing the impact through his legs before straightening. "I don't need saving! Also who the hell are you?" he shot back, turning toward him with narrowed eyes.
At the crater's edge, Mae leaned forward slightly, her attention snapping to the opposite side. "Hey, look on the other side!" she called out, pointing across the expanse.
Everyone followed her line of sight.
On the far edge stood Prince Mark, Samwell, Amara, Annabel, Clara, and two figures they did not recognize. One was a woman unlike any they had seen before, her presence immediately drawing attention. The other was unmistakable.
A demon.
None of them understood why a demon was standing among them, why he was aligned with the others, but the implication was clear enough. They had survived whatever battle they had been fighting. They had made it here.
Hope surged through the group despite the confusion.
More fighters. More pressure on the Demon King.
More of a chance.
And as the battlefield filled, with forces converging from both sides of the crater, it became clear that what had come before was only the lead-up.
The final battle had truly begun.