Vi had done what King told her and stayed back, keeping herself out of Arandiel’s line of attention while the fallen angel worked through Barlan and King in the foreground. The battle gave her exactly what she needed, a clear, unobstructed view of everything Arandiel did, every pattern, every sequence, from a position where she wasn’t always fighting for her life.

And she found it.

The had a condition. While Arandiel casted it, he went completely still. No offensive action during the effect. No repositioning. He committed fully to the cast and then, the moment the effect ended, he moved. Always in that order.

Cast, hold, release, strike.

Vi watched a second time to confirm, and the sequence held.

The Dread lifted.

Arandiel came out of his stationary posture and dove toward King without transition, descending with the longsword raised and bringing it down across King’s chest in a clean, powerful slash. The impact drove King backward several meters, water spraying outward from where he bounced across the surface.

Blood scattered into the shallow water beneath him.

[HP: 580/730]

[BLEED EFFECT ENGAGED]

[BLEED EFFECT COUNTERED — RED IMP TALISMAN]

"KING!"

Vi moved forward before she finished calling his name. Arandiel turned toward her voice, registering her position for the first time, and took one step in her direction.

BASH!.

Barlan hit him from the side, shield first, the Shield of Ruin meeting Arandiel’s body at full sprint. The impact discharged on contact.

Ruin’s Crush activated.

The force threw Arandiel backward, his feet leaving the water completely as he was launched several meters before crashing back down.

[ARANDIEL HP: 800/1200]

Barlan pressed immediately, closing the distance with both the Hammer and Shield of Ruin in hand, pushing the offensive while Arandiel was off balance. Vi stopped tracking him and redirected to King, covering the distance between them at a run.

King was already working to get back up when she reached him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I’m good." He pushed to his feet, one arm braced against his knee for leverage. His chest was bleeding through the tear but the talisman had already begun working against the bleed effect, the damage arrested before it could compound.

"I noticed something about the Dread," Vi said.

"It has a fixed duration, and Arandiel can’t attack while casting." King rose back up, watching Barlan and Arandiel trade blows in the background. "I know about that."

"But the lingering effect after it lifts," King continued. "That’s the real problem. Arandiel recovers first every time. Even if everyone else endures the duration, he’s always the first one moving again. He always gets the first strike coming out of it."

King re-emphasized. "Every time."

"I can change that," Vi said. "I learned a buff spell recently. If I cast it on you during the Dread while you’re resisting it, you’d have the enhancement the moment it lifts. You’d move before he does."

King processed it. The window was narrow, casting during the Dread’s weight while her own body was fighting the effect required timing and will in equal measure. But the payoff was a direct counter to Arandiel’s most reliable advantage.

"That works," King said. "So when the next Dread activates..."

CRASH.

Barlan hit the water beside them, he had held the offensive longer than expected, absorbing and returning punishment through sheer durability, but Arandiel had eventually overpowered the exchange. Barlan landed hard and did not rise immediately, his massive frame motionless for a breath.

Arandiel rose above them, levitating over the water, regarding all three of them from the air.

The sanctum darkened yet again, and they knew what was coming.

[DREAD ACTIVATED]

The weight came down for the third time, King felt it compress his chest, slow his breathing, pull at his legs. Beside him, Barlan was still down, working against the effect to recover.

Vi through sheer will, and the buff from King’s Ultimate warchief skill, moved through it.

King watched her push against the Dread’s weight with visible effort. She could only afford to raise a finger, but that was enough to cast the buff.

The enhancement landed across King’s entire frame.

Rejuvenation rolled through him, closing his wounds, restoring his HP, and beneath the recovery a new current of power threading through every muscle and channel. The buff amplified his current level, compounding into something that cleared the Dread’s weight.

King casted without wasting time.

"Cataclysm."

The sky above the sanctum tinted deep red. Then the meteors came. Molten rocks, each one blazing, materialized at a height and dropped in a concentrated cluster directly onto Arandiel’s position.

The first meteor connected with Arandiel mid cast.

[DREAD CANCELLED]

[CRITICAL HIT]

[CRITICAL HIT]

The notifications stacked in King’s vision as meteor after meteor drove Arandiel downward, the force of each impact increasing the last, the fire from each rock spreading across the water’s surface as Arandiel crashed into it and the Cataclysm continued raining down around him.

[ARANDIEL HP: 420/1200]

[BURN EFFECT TRIGGERED]

Arandiel thrashed in the burning water, the flames persisting across the surface around him, the burn debuff ticking steadily as another wave of meteors followed from the spell’s sustained duration.

[ARANDIEL HP: 300/1200]

Arandiel’s struggle weakened as the flames died down.

Then in a last hope to tilt the battle in his favor, he raised his left arm.

Seven rings materialized across his forearm, stacking from wrist to elbow, each one radiating contained power. King recognized quickly, as every instinct sharpened at once.

The rings. Right now, while Arandiel was weakened.

This was the moment.

King reached into his inventory and equipped the Black Ring Talisman. He activated it the instant it was in hand.

A notification bloomed in his vision.

[YOU HAVE RECEIVED 50% CONTROL OF THE SEVEN RINGS OF POWER]

The effect was immediate and physical. A thread of concentrated energy extended from the rings, crossed the space between them, and latched onto King’s right forearm. The same energy was still anchored to Arandiel’s left forearm, the rings caught between two opposing claims, the system turning ownership into a direct contest of will.

King pulled.

Arandiel pulled back, and despite his depleted HP and the burn out, the resistance was substantial.

"Barlan. Help me." King called.

Barlan was already moving. He unsummoned the Hammer and Shield of Ruin, and crossed to King’s position. He dropped to all fours, and the coffin strapped to his back responded.

The lid shifted, creaking open slightly, and five spirit chains emerged from within. They were translucent, spiritual constructs shaped from the Arc of Ruin itself, and they moved with intent, crossing the water toward Arandiel without hesitation.

The chains wrapped around Arandiel’s arms, torso, and legs in rapid succession, binding him in place. The moment the binding engaged, Arandiel’s resistance in the contest of will weakened the more, the chains draining the focused energy he’d been directing against King’s pull.

Three additional chains extended and wrapped directly around the rings.

They pulled together. King through the talisman’s claim, Barlan through the chains, both of them working against what remained of Arandiel’s grip. The fallen angel struggled against the binding, his weakened body straining.

Slowly, the balance shifted.

The rings moved. Inch by inch, the energy thread reeled inward, the rings sliding off Arandiel’s forearm one after another, traveling the length of the connection and coiling onto King’s right forearm in their place.

The last ring transferred.

King felt the power settle into him like a deep and substantial current running beneath his normal peak.

Arandiel’s arm dropped. He sagged against the spirit chains without the rings sustaining him, the fight draining out of his posture completely.

Then,

Another cutscene activated.

Arandiel looked up at King from where he knelt in the shallow water, the chains still holding him. When he spoke, his voice had lost the resonance it carried at the start of the fight.

"Then it is done," Arandiel said. "My purpose in this sanctum hath come to an ends."

He met King’s eyes.

"Finish it."

Next,

Two prompts appeared in King’s vision, overlaid across the scene.

[FINISH HIM]

[SPARE HIM]

King selected Spare Him.

Arandiel received the choice and broke with the resignation of a fallen warrior accepting the terms of defeat.

He wailed and threw himself forward against the spirit chains, thrashing in the shallow water, grief and rage boiled within him. The chains held, but he thrashed anyway, ignoring King entirely, consumed by whatever the choice had unlocked in him.

King watched for a moment, then turned away.

Vi drew near to King.

Barlan released the chains and rose to his full height.

"Why did you spare him?" Vi asked.

"The quest only requires the rings," King said. " we don’t necessarily have to kill him. And if you don’t, he becomes rather useful in future."

Vi nodded, and glanced back toward the sound of Arandiel still wailing in the dark water behind them.

King dismissed Barlan’s summoning, and produced two Arcbearer Medallions, passing one to Vi.

They both held hands and activated both medallions.

White light engulfed them as they vanished.