The City of Illusions was dying.

The shrill wails of the increasingly demonic Carliah soared through the city, bringing entire buildings toppling down on the Striders that had been working to repair them. The flapping wings of the docile creatures were ripped apart by the wave of pure, raw agony that escaped from the Seeded Greycloak’s mouth.

And through it all, Ethan ran.

He and his hybrids sprinted through the narrow streets of the crumbling City of Illusions, the ground shaking beneath them as buildings continued to collapse. Jun’Ei’s message to Ethan had been clear, echoing in his mind even as he ran: “I can close the portals remotely… but you need to move fast.”

“If we can make it…we can bury him,” he told his team, who seemed close to death themselves. Fauna gulped at the suggestion – the Hopla was out of magic.

But she didn’t complain. None of them did.

Because they’d been through worse.

Each of them knew that reaching the portal meant freedom, but there was one variable that had risen slowly, but surely, with animal rage bubbling beneath its flaring nostrils and eyes.

Artorious.

He was relentless. They had scarcely left the foggy wreck of the Nerve Tower’s remains when they heard his jagged, labored breaths filling the air behind them. The Lightborn’s mangled form trudged forward, his limbs contorted in sickening angles, his head hanging askew. Only sheer rage seemed to bind his broken body together, driving him forward with all the power of a monstrous spirit incapable of dying. His petrification had done nothing to soothe his rage. Now, he was pure fury, untethered.

“Don’t look back!” Ethan yelled, noticing how Fauna stumbled at the sight of Artorious’s horrific form in her peripheral vision.

But Artorious’s ragged roar floated toward them, somehow more terrifying than any lofty speech.

As if on cue, the twilit heavens erupted into red rain that pelted the earth, and thunder crashed overhead, reverberating down the narrow corridors as they sprinted. The hybrids pushed harder, muscles straining, the slashing rain cutting at their faces. The sky had turned a deep, unnatural crimson, casting everything in a sickly blood-tinted light that made the entire cityscape look like the mouth of hell. All around them, Memory Towers groaned and splintered, raining dust and debris onto the streets.

“Just ahead!” Ethan called, catching a faint glow at the end of a distant avenue. The portal shimmered, its exit like a mirage in the chaos.

Fauna gasped as she stumbled, looking back to see Artorious gaining on them, his disjointed body hurtling forward, moving in a twisted, unnatural rhythm that seemed fueled by nothing but sheer vengeance. His bloodshot eyes locked onto Ethan with the single-mindedness of a predator, and he staggered forward, uncaring of the ghostly creatures surrounding him.

A line of Dreamstriders rose up in their path, circling Artorious as if sensing the disruption he brought into their realm. With shrill cries that reverberated through the crimson haze, they launched themselves at him, wrapping around his limbs, diving at his head, trying to hold him back. But Artorious’s sword glowed a dark, furious red as he swung it with brutal efficiency. He severed Dreamstriders by the dozens, their severed wings and spectral forms scattering around him like ghostly confetti, dissolving into mist as they fell.

“Run!” Klax yelled, pushing Fauna forward as they navigated the fractured streets. But each step closer to the portal only seemed to enrage Artorious further. The Lightborn’s scream pierced the air, echoing off the towering, crumbling buildings around them. His voice was raw with a fury that seemed beyond human.

“You think they can stop me?” Artorious snarled, his voice filled with a twisted glee. “I will tear this place apart brick by brick if that’s what it takes!”

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With that, he swung his blade in a brutal arc, cleaving through entire waves of Dreamstriders in one monstrous strike. The ethereal creatures fell, collapsing into spectral dust, their cries swallowed by the rain.

Tara glanced back, her face set in determination as she pulled out her bow, firing off arrows as she ran. “Fauna, more illusions!” she yelled.

Fauna nodded, her hands weaving a quick spell, sending out a wave of phantom images that sprinted alongside them, each one a decoy designed to draw Artorious’s attention. But he only laughed as his blade sliced through them, each illusion dissipating into the rain, barely slowing him down.

Ethan’s heart pounded as they rounded another corner, the portal now in sight. The air around it shimmered, its surface reflecting the distorted reality of the City of Illusions. “We’re almost there!” he yelled, forcing himself to keep his focus.

Ahead, more Dreamstriders and Obscaurus moved like shadows through the crimson rain, drawn to the chaos. Their ghostly forms twisted and writhed as they hovered, watching the hybrids sprint toward the portal. For a brief moment, Ethan feared they would try to stop them. But as he got closer, he saw the creatures turn instead toward Artorious, their gazes sharp with a newfound intensity.

“They’re… they’re defending us,” Fauna whispered, her voice filled with awe.

A wave of Obscaurus launched themselves at Artorious, their claws outstretched, their bodies rippling with dark energy. They clawed and bit at him, each strike seeming to chip away at his unnatural resilience. Yet more of them sent bolts of their death-shots searing through the dying sky of their city towards him, puncturing every muscle right through his armor.

Yet Artorious only snarled, his blade cleaving through them in brutal, unrelenting arcs, sending their fragmented forms scattering into the blood-soaked streets. Those sniping at him from afar - he barely even acknowledged.

“He’s cutting through all of them!” Klax yelled, throwing up his arms as a stray spectral limb dissolved on impact.

The hybrids redoubled their efforts, sprinting for the portal with every ounce of strength they had left. Artorious’s monstrous voice carried over the thunder and rain, each word like a nail driven into their hearts.

“Run all you like,” he taunted. “I’ll find you. There is no escape from Kaedmon’s wrath! There is no sanctuary for you!”

They were just steps from the portal when a shadow loomed over them. Artorious surged forward, his blade raised high, his face twisted in a murderous grin. Ethan’s blood ran cold as he saw the red glow in the Lightborn’s eyes, a twisted fury that defied anything human.

With a final burst of desperation, Ethan activated Twilight Edge, slashing a path toward the portal. “Go!” he yelled, motioning for the others to dive through. Fauna leaped first, followed by Tara and Klax, each one disappearing into the swirling energy.

As Ethan turned to follow, he felt a sharp, searing pain in his leg. He looked down to see Artorious’s blade – the blade that was once Carliah’s - embedded deep in his shin, pinning him to the ground. Valgraiva’s health was depleted. Ethan felt his consciousness fade away.

Host HP: 0/950

He was done.

The Lightborn’s bloodstained face was inches away, his breath hot and foul.

“You’re mine, Archon,” Artorious snarled, his voice a guttural growl. He spat a glob of his blood in the crimson eye of Ethan’s hat-form – the only time the old man had allowed himself to show what damage this fight had done to him. “I won’t let you escape again. No more games. No more skills. I – I’m ready.”

Ethan clenched his teeth against the pain, refusing to give Artorious the satisfaction of seeing him falter. “You… still don’t get it, do you?” he whispered, his voice tight with defiance. “You’re just as trapped as the rest of them.”

Artorious’s face twisted with rage, and he yanked the blade free, preparing for another strike. But in that moment, Ethan made a decision. He took a deep breath, allowing the truth to sink in. If he stayed, they’d all be trapped here. This wasn’t the end, just another battle.

“But I can’t make you see that,” Ethan croaked. “Can I?”

The old warrior twisted his blade, ready to cleave right through Valgraiva’s body and cut apart the hat that glowered down at him with pity that made him sick.

And yet still…there was no fear in the Archon’s eye. There never had been.

“You want your Archon?” Ethan asked his raging foe, “Take him.”

With a final, fierce resolve, Ethan then released his hold on Valgraiva’s body, letting his true form—the simple, unassuming Demon Hat – float away into the exit portal. The pale body he’d inhabited fell limp, crumpling to the ground as Artorious stared in disbelief.

Ethan didn’t wait. In his hat form, he tumbled forward, diving through the portal just as it began to close. He glanced back one last time, meeting Artorious’s furious gaze as the Lightborn let out a scream of pure, unfiltered rage.

Ethan looked back, his single crimson eye focused on the Lightborn. There was something almost sorrowful in the look he gave Artorious—a silent acknowledgment of the futility of their fight, of the endless cycle of hatred that bound them both.

Artorious’s scream of fury echoed through the collapsing city, reverberating in the void as the portal closed, leaving the Lightborn alone in the ruins of his shattered dream.

And the last thing Ethan saw was the old warrior’s face, twisted in rage and frustration, as the world faded to black.