Orcium had almost reached her, but at that moment the spider woman lunged at him desperately, using her limbs to pierce him from every angle. Orcium struck back, trying to push her away, but the spider woman, though wounded, was still a formidable opponent and did not allow Orcium to advance any further.

  Suddenly, the spider woman stopped her assault and swiftly escaped from the area, leaping toward the edges of the cliff.

  “Where are you going?”

  Orcium shouted, but in a moment, he understood what was happening: behind him, a massive amount of Vox energy had gathered, the largest he had ever felt, even greater than the time Alnis lost his voice, straining himself to his very limits. Orcium did not understand what the insect woman was saying; however, even if he did not fully comprehend what she was saying, he could feel her intentions with his body.

  “Disappear.”

  Orcium’s body shattered instantly, leaving nothing behind to regenerate from. The Berserker was finally dead. The insect woman fell to her knees from the enormous effort of having erased someone of legendary rank in such a way. She couldn't stop coughing up blood. At that moment, the spider woman approached her, worried about her friend’s condition.

  Orcium had vanished; nothing remained of him, only traces of fury scattered everywhere.

  Yet aether, the substance from which reality is formed, can carry will, and faint traces of Orcium’s will still remained within it.

  Before dying, had been angry. He felt powerless. In the end, when he saw the determination in her eyes to kill him, he could clearly glimpse his fate. The look in that woman’s eyes did not lie: from the bottom of her heart, she wanted her enemy to disappear from the face of the earth.

  His memories, his mission, his friends… everything slowly faded along with the last remnants of his energy. In the end, this would be the conclusion of all his efforts. After decades of fighting at the edge of the world, this would be the last time he raised his axe against an unbeatable foe. After losing the last warriors of his clan, and having failed to save his friends, who would die in the explosion, Orcium, was furious at his own weakness beyond measure. He had done everything he could, even pushed his body to a new level using the blessing of the god of war, even so, it hadn't been enough. This enemy was too powerful.

  In the end, a legendary, no matter how many blessings he had, could never defeat a Semi-Transcendent.

  “Excuses.”

  The enemy was unbeatable.

  “Coward.”

  There was nothing else he could do.

  “Lies.”

  Orcium’s fury energy was vanishing into nothingness.

  “I don’t accept it.”

  But in a moment, everything changed.

  Orcium suddenly remembered something. Fleeting moments arose, moments from long before ending up defending Last Bastion. A multitude of lives and memories he did not recognize as his own flooded his mind without stopping.

  In one life, he was a young orc boy proud of his first hunt, who rose to become a scout leader. But it all ended when the Void wiped out his entire family, and he lost everything, forcing him to join the surviving orcs.

  In another life, he was a gladiator in the arenas of the god of war, fighting fiercely to win his freedom. He paid the price in blood, killing his fellow gladiators, until finally he was granted freedom. But when he was finally free, the world he lived in ended, dragging him back into endless bloodshed he had desperately tried to escape.

  In another life, he was one of the few survivors of his tribe, escaping with a small group alongside his chieftain, encountering other orcs in the same situation, until the Void hunted him down once again, and he died in Last Bastion, completing a mission with his leader.

  In another life, he saw himself as a proud father, watching his son grow into an excellent candidate to lead their people, the one who would take the reins of the tribe. But he perished like a dog at the hands of the underground creatures. His mutilated body was found along with the other warriors who ventured into one of the supposed dungeons from which those creatures emerged.

  In another life, he was an orc shepherd far from all battlefields, something unusual for his kind. But he was forced to take up arms to defend his family. In the end, his family died because of a moment’s negligence, and he was the only one to survive, swearing vengeance.

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  Then another life, and another, and another, and another, and another…

  The fury energy would not stop gathering, and the aether was shaping all those emotions and memories filled with will, the will to change the fate to which they had been subjected.

  But what could those who had already died change?

  The memories kept coming until finally Orcium could no longer even remember which life was truly his. He could no longer remember who he was. The only thing left was rage against the injustice inflicted upon so many of his kin, the accumulated hatred of all the orcs slaughtered throughout time. And those within this cave gave form to that will of fury into the energy that was about to vanish.

  Within Orcium’s energy, the aspect of war, refusing to disappear, fury became the channel for the will arising from the aether: the will of war.

  And so, a miracle of creation was born.

  A new being, unstable yet real, was born from the energy that had gathered: a being made of pure fury, bearing the form of Orcium.

  Both the spider woman and the insect woman could not believe what they saw. From where their tenacious opponent had died, something far more monstrous emerged: a monster made of pure fury, semi-transcendent rank like them. This new creature would vanish, yet it had the strength to kill either of them in their weakened state.

  The creature looked at them with staggering rage and sauntered toward them, intent on tearing them apart and to release the bitter wrath burning inside it a fire fed by the hatred of generations of orcs hunted like beasts by the underground creatures and the Void. The spider woman stood in front of the insect woman, ready to defend her.

  “What am I? What was my mission? Who are these creatures?”

  The creature made of fury had many questions, but no answers.

  However, it was one thing certain: in its heart beat a murderous rage toward those two women. It wanted to destroy them, dismember them, mutilate them, even if it was the last thing it did in its fleeting existence.

  But amid so much barely contained fury, it remembered something. He had a mission. He had something much more important than satisfying his rage and thirst for blood. He had something he loved even more than battles, even more than himself.

  One last memory arose in the creature’s mind. He remembered himself standing before a fierce warrior the most magnificent, and powerful warrior he had ever known.

  “Do you know why I have chosen you, Orcium?”

  “Because I am the fiercest of my race? The strongest among my brothers?”

  “Ha, ha, ha! Without a doubt, you are the most tenacious and strong.”

  Orcium looked at him seriously.

  “I don’t understand why you always laugh so suddenly and loudly when you speak.”

  Yet Orcium was happy.

  A figure he admired sincerely was naming him the most tenacious and strong of his vast and many race.

  “You have many qualities that make you an excellent warrior, but that is only a fraction of what I have seen in you, Orcium.”

  Orcium did not understand what could be more important in a warrior than being tenacious, strong, and fierce.

  “Orcium, I chose you because, among all the orcs I have known, you are the only one who, more than loving battle, loves with all his heart his people, his clan, his race. Orcium, you take pleasure in fighting, like your brothers. But there is something more in you: you love being the shield between your enemies and your loved ones.”

  Orcium did not understand. Why fight if not to defend the people he loved?

  Why be tenacious, if not to rise again and again so that his family could feel safe, seeing him stand tall to protect them? Why be fierce, if not to intimidate anyone who sought to harm his loved ones?

  The creature made of fury energy stopped a few meters before attacking with the spider woman and looked at the explosive artifact.

  And it ran, knowing that nothing in this world was more important than preventing his friends from dying.

  “Now I remember.”

  The creature spoke.

  “I AM ORCIUM, THE ASPECT OF WAR, AND I HAVE THE MISSION TO STOP THIS DAMNED BOMB AND SAVE MY FRIENDS. EVEN IF I DIE, EVEN IF MY BODY VANISHES, AS LONG AS A SINGLE TRACE OF ME REMAINS IN THIS CRUEL WORLD, I WILL NOT ALLOW THEM TO DIE.”

  Orcium, throughout his life and alongside all the warriors of Last Bastion, had sacrificed themselves to bear the weight of being the last to defend humanity.

  “I SPIT UPON THIS CRUEL FATE! I REFUSE TO VANISH AS A USELESS FAILURE. I HAVE DEDICATED MY LIFE TO DEFENDING MY BROTHERS, AND I AM WILLING TO DEDICATE MY DEATH AS WELL.”

  Orcium poured his fury into the explosive artifact. Orcium had no idea how to disable it, but if he understood anything, it was how to make something explode in fury.

  Thus, Orcium was resolved: before the geomantic mechanism could activate, he would detonate the bomb, reducing the damage it would cause, hoping to harm Last Bastion as little as possible.

  The orc Berserker turned his thoughts one last time, not to rage or his enemies, but to the people who had accompanied him all this time. And he felt happy knowing that he would die protecting those he loved with all his heart.

  The spider woman and the insect woman suddenly vanished through emergency teleportation, foreseeing what was to come.

  “Aaaahhh… It has been a wonderful journey from start to finish, brothers. Finally… let us rest in peace knowing we did everything we could.”

  The fury energy faded, leaving only the orc known as Orcium.

  And then the explosive mechanism detonated without activating the geomantic circuits, unleashing an explosion so strong that it opened a hole in the center of Last Bastion, but which did not destroy the fortress as had been planned.

  Then, Orcium, the orc, finally died.