Tharion rose, slowly, deliberately.

  No, he did not hover.

  Reality shattered beneath his feet, splintering like glass struck by an unseen hammer. Jagged fragments of space hung suspended in the air, frozen in defiance of every natural law, and Tharion simply stood upon them as if they were solid ground. Each step he took cracked existence anew, the remnants of broken reality bending to his will.

  From above, he looked down.

  His gaze was cold. Distant. Absolute.

  Below him, the storm reformed.

  Thunder coiled around Tericon once more, lightning snapping and screaming as it caged him in blinding arcs of energy. Spikes of ice and shadow erupted again from the marble floor, hemming him in from every direction, their points trembling with restrained violence.

  Tericon clicked his tongue.

  Annoyance flickered across his face as he glanced at the weapons surrounding him. He rolled his shoulder once, irritated rather than threatened, before turning his attention back to Caesar.

  Caesar stood firm.

  His mechanical arm was fully extended now, metal humming as blue energy pulsed brighter and brighter along its surface. The air around the weapon distorted slightly, charged with enough force to erase Tericon in an instant if unleashed.

  Vale watched with a strange, uneasy calm.

  Fear lingered at the edges of his thoughts, but beneath it was something else. Readiness.

  He blinked.

  When his eyes opened again, one of them had shifted into an icy blue, instinct answering instinct. His perception sharpened violently, the world peeling back its layers.

  Vale inhaled sharply.

  Everywhere.

  Everywhere around Tericon, without exception, stood paragons.

  He could feel them now, Lucas, Cleo, Samuel, Fe, and so many more. Dynasty leaders. Representatives. Monsters wearing human forms. At least twenty of them, their energies overlapping like a web ready to snap shut.

  And then there were the Archons.

  Barbatos and Alexandria.

  Two forces that could end civilizations.

  Vale’s breath hitched.

  On the opposite side?

  Only three men.

  Tericon, and the two figures that followed him, his enforcers. There were thirty one paragons in total. Which meant.

  Only eight paragons were missing.

  Vale stumbled back a step, not from fear, but disbelief. The sheer imbalance of power was staggering.

  Then Tericon spoke again.

  “So,” he drawled, his voice slicing through the tension, dragging every gaze back to him.

  His head tilted unnaturally, his grin widening as madness seeped back into his expression. “You really are prepared to sacrifice all these people just to kill me, aren’t you, brother?”

  Caesar’s expression twisted in disgust.

  “Don’t call me that,” he snapped. “You lost that right a long time ago.”

  His voice trembled, not with fear, but with something old and deeply buried.

  Caesar glanced back at Eskar, his jaw tightening. “I’ll take care of him from now on. You don’t get to concern yourself with him anymore.”

  Tericon’s eyes darkened.

  “Oh?” he asked softly. “Are you saying you’re stealing my property?”

  Caesar didn’t flinch.

  “I am,” he said flatly. “Now leave.”

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  For a brief moment, Tericon stepped forward.

  Ice answered.

  A spike erupted from the ground and impaled his arm clean through, bursting out the other side in a spray of frozen shards. Tericon looked down at it, unimpressed.

  Then he tore it out.

  Ice shattered as flesh twisted and reformed, muscle knitting itself back together with sickening ease. Tericon shook the frost from his hand and scoffed.

  He turned his gaze to Yuki.

  “You ruined my suit,” he said coldly.

  Yuki’s eyes burned.

  “You ruined my date,” she shot back.

  A ripple of reaction passed through the hall, but it was muted, restrained by the overwhelming gravity of the moment.

  Tericon smiled.

  Yuki smiled wider.

  Ice screamed into existence as she summoned a longsword forged of pure frost. The temperature in the hall plummeted instantly, breath frosting in the air as ice crept across the floor and walls.

  “Fuck this,” Yuki muttered as she stepped forward.

  “Come forth, Mors frigus.”

  The hall groaned.

  Her pupils twisted, slitting like a serpent’s as she raised the blade and pointed it directly at Tericon’s throat.

  “This is your final warning,” she said, her voice dripping with lethal intent. “Leave.”

  She meant it.

  Everyone could feel it, Yuki was ready to die if that was the price of killing him.

  Tericon studied her for a moment.

  Then he turned back to Caesar.

  The madness vanished, replaced by a sudden, almost childish grin. He lifted his hand and waved, like a demon wearing the gestures of a boy.

  “Until next time,” he said sweetly. “Dear brother.”

  Vale hadn’t realized he was holding his breath until Tericon turned and began walking toward the exit.

  Only then did Vale finally exhale.

  But Tericon wasn’t finished.

  Without turning, he flicked his wrist.

  Something moved, fast.

  Barbatos reacted instantly, catching the object midair just centimeters from Eskar’s face. It hovered there, trembling, a spear of compressed water, sharp enough to pierce steel.

  Caesar’s eyes widened with fury.

  “So the moment you lose your son,” he growled, “you try to kill him?”

  Tericon paused.

  He turned slowly, covering his mouth with one hand in mock surprise.

  “My son?” he asked, feigning confusion. “Oh, you misunderstand.”

  His gaze slid to Eskar.

  “The moment you took him from me, he stopped being my son.”

  Eskar trembled violently.

  “All he is now,” Tericon continued, voice dripping with venom, “is a filthy abomination, worth less than the spawn we slaughter.”

  Vale’s fists clenched.

  Rage burned through his veins so hot it nearly blinded him. For one terrible second, he wanted nothing more than to launch himself at Tericon, to tear his throat out with his bare hands.

  But he didn’t move.

  Not because he lacked the will.

  But because he knew the truth.

  Tericon could end him in less than an instant.

  As Tericon exchanged his final glances with the gathered guardians of the gala, a new presence stepped forward.

  Rose.

  She moved calmly into the center of the hall, her footsteps measured, deliberate. The fractured air seemed to settle around her as she stopped, standing alone between Tericon and the combined might of the paragons. For a long moment, she said nothing, only stared at him, her expression layered with emotion: restraint, grief, fury, and resolve locked together behind steady eyes.

  Tericon noticed immediately.

  His wicked smile widened as if he had been waiting for her.

  Silence thickened, pressing down on the hall, until Rose finally spoke. Her voice was clear, unwavering, and carried effortlessly through the space.

  “If you ever show yourself here again,” she said, “you will die.”

  No theatrics Nor raised voice.

  A statement of fact.

  Tericon let out a low whistle, tilting his head as his eyes narrowed with amusement. “Is that a promise?” he asked lightly.

  He paused, then smiled wider.

  “Like the ones you made to your dear comrade… Dagon?”

  The name hit like a blade.

  Vale saw Rose’s expression harden instantly. The warmth vanished from her eyes, replaced by something glacial. The air around her shifted violently as sudden bursts of wind tore outward, rattling banners and sending loose debris skittering across the marble floor.

  Tericon chuckled, clearly pleased.

  “I wonder,” he continued mockingly, “if I’ll end up like he did?”

  Before Rose could answer, the world roared.

  A thunderous cry split the hall, followed by three sharp, piercing caws. The doors to a side chamber exploded inward as Ember burst through in a storm of heat and ash. The massive wyvern slammed into the wall in a cascade of embers, white flames igniting along its scales as it reared back, jaws opening, energy gathering for a devastating blast aimed squarely at Tericon.

  At the same time, the air darkened.

  Illu, August, and Hurricane emerged, but not as they had before.

  Where three ravens should have been, there were now dozens.

  No, hundreds.

  Each one glowed differently, shades of violet, silver, emerald, and shadow, their wings beating in perfect, terrifying unison. Violent gusts of wind tore through the hall as they circled, screams and pressure waves crashing down on Tericon in a deliberate show of dominance.

  Intimidation.

  A warning.

  Vale’s chest tightened.

  His hands trembled as he watched the companions he had for so long place themselves directly in harm’s way. They weren’t strong enough, not even close. Against Tericon, they stood no real chance.

  But that didn’t matter to them.

  Vale was in danger.

  And that was reason enough.

  Tericon took it all in.

  Then he laughed.

  The sound was harsh and unrestrained, echoing off the shattered doors and fractured walls like a mockery of the power arrayed against him.

  “Enough,” Rose said.

  Her voice cut through the chaos like a blade.

  “Leave.”

  A vivid green aura erupted around her, spiraling upward as the wind bent and obeyed. The very air seemed to recoil from her presence, folding inward as if afraid to touch her.

  Tericon’s laughter stopped instantly.

  For the first time, something close to caution flickered across his face.

  He studied Rose for a long moment, then smiled.

  Without another word, he turned toward the exit.

  He walked several steps before stopping just short of the threshold. Slowly, deliberately, he turned sideways to face the hall one last time, the paragons, the archons, the beasts, and the warriors all gathered against him.

  “Until next time,” he said softly.

  The two remaining paragons of his dynasty stepped forward, pulling the massive doors shut behind him. With a final echoing boom, the entrance sealed, and Tericon vanished from the gala as he should have been from the very beginning.

  Gone.

  Yet the weight of his presence lingered, heavy and suffocating, long after the doors closed.