The battlefield trembled as Arvane pushed himself up from the wreckage, his once-pristine cloak now tattered, his sharp violet eyes burning with something that almost resembled amusement. He rolled his shoulders, dusting off his armor as though Elias's strike had been an inconvenience rather than a serious hit.
Elias wasn't fooled. He saw the way Arvane's hand trembled ever so slightly before steadying. He had felt the full impact of the Vanguard Core's disruptor pulse, a force designed to neutralize magic-based constructs. The Grand Inquisitor might have resisted it, but for the first time since the fight began, he had felt it.
A low chuckle escaped Arvane's lips. "Fascinating." His voice remained smooth, even as he flexed his fingers. "You are not simply controlling the machines. You have bonded with them."
Elias took a step forward, war machines shifting with him like an extension of his own body. The synchronization had become almost second nature now—every movement he made, the constructs responded, adapting in real-time. He wasn't fighting alone.
"I told you," Elias said. "I don't fight by myself."
Lira grinned from where she stood, flipping a dagger between her fingers. "Hate to break it to you, Arvane, but you're kind of outnumbered here."
Arvane exhaled slowly, his violet eyes scanning the battlefield. His forces were in shambles. The Academy war constructs that had accompanied him were reduced to scrap, scattered across the facility floor. His elite war mages lay defeated, unconscious or dead, their enchanted armor failing to protect them from the relentless onslaught of Elias's team.
For the first time, the Grand Inquisitor was alone.
Yet… he smiled.
Reinhardt noticed it first. "Uh… that's not the face of a guy who thinks he's losing."
The air around them shuddered, a pulse of raw energy rippling outward.
Marco's voice blared over comms. "Elias! I'm picking up a massive energy spike! He's—"
Arvane raised both hands, and the facility collapsed into silence.
The entire battlefield stopped moving.
The broken constructs. The fallen mages. The shattered weapons.
Every piece of debris that had littered the ground lifted into the air.
A gravity surge unlike anything before warped the very fabric of the facility. The air thickened, pressing against their lungs like an unseen force trying to crush them from the inside.
Elias's HUD flashed red. Warning: External Force Distortion Reaching Critical Levels.
Ivy gritted her teeth, trying to steady her bow, but her hands shook under the sheer force pressing down on them. "What the hell is this?"
Varian stepped forward, his expression grim. "A forced spatial collapse. He's condensing gravity itself, trying to break the battlefield apart."
Cecilia winced as she tried to move, her limbs heavy as stone. "Okay, I've seen mages pull a lot of tricks before, but this is insane."
Elias could barely move, the weight of Arvane's magic pressing against his armor, testing its structural limits. The war constructs around him shuddered, their servos struggling against the unnatural force.
Arvane tilted his head slightly, his voice calm. "Tell me, Elias. What happens to a machine when the very laws of physics betray it?"
Then, everything shattered.
The gravity surge snapped inward, and suddenly, Elias's war constructs collapsed.
Not from damage. Not from an external attack.
But because their own weight had multiplied tenfold in an instant.
Reinhardt grunted as he tried to move, but his limbs refused to respond. "Oh, this is absolute bull—"
Before he could finish, Arvane closed his fist.
The war constructs imploded.
One by one, the ancient Vanguard machines crushed under their own mass, their cores collapsing in on themselves under the intense gravitational shift. Metal groaned and cracked, joints snapped, entire frames caved inward as the very battlefield itself turned against them.
Elias could only watch as his forces crumbled to dust.
Lira exhaled sharply. "So… that's bad."
Ivy tried to fire another arrow, but it barely made it three feet before veering off course, sucked into the gravitational distortion. "We can't even aim!"
Kierian, still bracing himself against the force, let out a low growl. "This isn't a battle anymore. He's warping reality."
Elias's mind raced. Every movement, every attack—Arvane was controlling the very battlefield. There was no way to fight him with conventional force.
Unless…
Elias let go.
Instead of fighting the gravity shift, he redirected his Core's energy, syncing his body with the distortion. His thrusters flickered, adjusting to the new weight instead of resisting it. The moment Arvane compressed reality again—
Elias moved with it.
He shot forward, thrusters igniting in a controlled burst, using the very force trying to crush him as propulsion.
Arvane's eyes widened just slightly.
Elias's gauntlet glowed, charging an attack. He reached forward—
And Arvane disappeared.
Elias's strike hit nothing but air.
A whisper of wind, and suddenly—
Arvane was behind him.
The Grand Inquisitor's voice was calm, almost impressed. "Clever."
Then—a palm against Elias's back.
An explosion of force sent Elias flying forward, slamming him into a broken column.
Marco yelled into comms, "Elias! Your armor just took a direct hit! Power levels are dropping—"
Elias coughed, his vision flickering. His suit's energy was straining to keep up.
They were losing.
Arvane sighed, shaking his head. "You fought well, but—"
And then, Varian moved.
The former Vanguard Commander was suddenly in front of Arvane, sword drawn in a golden arc of light.
Arvane barely dodged, the edge of Varian's blade slicing across his shoulder, drawing blood.
Elias's eyes widened. That was the first real hit.
Varian's golden eyes gleamed. "Your power is stolen," he said quietly. "It does not belong to you."
Arvane touched his wound, staring at the blood on his fingers.
Then, for the first time—he frowned.
Reinhardt grinned. "Oh, looks like you actually bleed."
Elias pushed himself up, wiping the sweat from his brow. His suit was still operational. His Core was still active. The war constructs were gone, but that didn't mean they were helpless.
He took a deep breath.
Time for a new plan.
"Alright," Elias muttered. "Let's take him down the old-fashioned way."
Varian's sword pulsed with golden energy.
Ivy notched another arrow, adjusting for the gravity shift.
Lira twirled her dagger, smirking. "I was wondering when we'd get serious."
Arvane exhaled, his violet eyes narrowing. "You continue to struggle," he murmured, magic flaring in his hands. "But no matter how much you resist, the Academy will always correct anomalies."
Elias flexed his fingers, feeling the Core thrumming inside him, syncing with his movements. He wasn't fighting alone.
He never had been.
"Let's see about that."
And then—they charged.