The ruins screamed with grinding stone and rattling metal as the golems surged forward. Red eyes flared in the dark, dozens of them blinking awake, one by one, like stars igniting in a dead sky.
Nola's pulse steadied, not with fear, but with focus.
The second wave of golems thundered toward them, bigger, faster, reinforced. Their footsteps cracked ancient tiles and shook moss from the ceilings.
Vera stepped forward first.
She didn't speak. She didn't wait. Her eyes locked onto the largest golem, a colossus twice the size of the others, carved from obsidian and iron, a furnace pulsing in its chest. It raised a hammer the size of a tree trunk and roared like collapsing earth.
Without a word, Vera broke from the group and sprinted into the fray.
She didn't even use her will.
She didn't have to.
A pale shimmer enveloped her form as she leapt skyward, blade drawn, aiming straight for the heart of the monster.
"Let her handle it," Tris said, knocking seven arrows into the string of his glowing bow.
Ari nodded. "She needs the space."
Nola floated.
It wasn't flight exactly. More like her body forgot how to obey gravity. Her boots hovered inches above the ground, katana gleaming with ethereal gold. Her stage two will thrummed through her limbs like liquid lightning.
"Ready?" she asked, voice level.
"Let's go," Felix said, raising his hand.
The battle began.
The first golem charged Nola, a jagged axe fused into its forearm. It swung. She vanished in a blur.
In a blink, she was behind it.
Her katana sang.
One slice, too fast to follow, cut through stone like paper. The golem froze, split from shoulder to hip. It collapsed with a hiss of steam.
Another came for her, but Nola danced backward in the air, deflecting blow after blow, each motion honed and exact. Her speed wasn't just faster, it was supernatural. She moved like a storm with a purpose.
Tris stood atop a fallen pillar, his bow glowing brighter with each breath.
"Ricochet pattern: cyclone," he whispered.
Seven arrows soared.
Each curved midair, bouncing off stone, armor, and even each other, weaving a net of pure kinetic energy.
One golem's arm was severed. Another lost its leg. A third was impaled through both eyes as an arrow arced between them.
Tris grinned. "New favorite trick."
Ari stood behind them, her needle-staff etching runes in the air at speed no normal mage could hope to match. Her fingers moved in a blur, weaving glyphs of shielding, amplification, resistance.
Golden rings spun around Nola and Tris, strengthening their movements. Each rune she placed shimmered with energy five times denser than standard castings.
"Power surge incoming," she called.
A blast of energy pushed Nola forward like a bullet. She slashed through another golem before it even turned.
Felix moved to intercept a flanking trio. His hand swirled through an invisible matrix, glyphs and spells overlaying like puzzle pieces.
"Gravitational lock."
Three golems froze mid-charge, limbs straining as their mass multiplied. Felix launched a concentrated orb of entropy into the air, detonating above them. Stone cracked. Limbs shattered. All three dropped like felled trees.
"Status?" he called.
"Hold line left!" Ari replied. "Nola's pushing center. Tris, take high!"
"Already there!"
At the heart of the chaos, Vera fought alone.
The titan golem swung, its hammer breaking a column as it missed her by inches.
She spun under the blow, planting a foot against its ankle joint and leaping upward. Her blade cut across its shoulder, sparks flying.
The titan slammed its fist down. Vera raised her arm. A shield of pure will shimmered to life and absorbed the hit.
Then she struck.
Not with magic. Not with tricks.
With relentless, precise violence.
Each blow chipped the armor. Each dodge lured the golem into overextending. She was dismantling it, one swing at a time.
But it learned.
It adapted.
The furnace in its chest pulsed. It erupted, blasting her backward with a burst of molten pressure. Vera crashed into a wall and slid to her feet, blood running from her forehead.
Still, she stood.
She roared, lunged back, and drove her blade through its eye.
It shrieked.
She ripped her weapon free, spun, and brought it down in a final, crushing arc across its throat. The titan toppled, crumbling as steam hissed from its broken body.
The others were surrounded.
Golems closing in from every direction.
Nola rose higher now, golden light pouring from her blade.
"Let's end this!"
She shot forward, cutting a path through the line. Tris fired into the gaps she made, ricocheting arrows that turned narrow escapes into lethal finishes.
Felix suspended the battlefield, locking golems into predictable patterns.
Ari amplified every motion, every strike, every defense.
One by one, the golems fell.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Until only dust remained.
The hall fell silent again.
The last of the stone guardians fell with a thunderous crash, dust blooming in the air like ash after a firebomb.
Nola hovered above the broken floor, her golden katana glowing bright and thin as a razor. Her chest rose and fell in steady rhythm, not from exhaustion, but readiness.
Then the ground rumbled.
Not the tremble of battle echoes. Something deeper.
A groan shuddered through the walls, and shards of shattered golems, pieces of armor, broken limbs, glowing eyes began to twitch. Then pull. Then lift.
Tris looked up, lowering his bow. "Oh, come on. We killed them."
"They're not dying," Felix said, stepping back, his glyphbook flipping open again, pages glowing. "They're merging."
Stone scraped against stone. Arms fused to torsos. Heads twisted together, glowing like coal. A dozen fractured cores slammed into one central point, flaring red.
The new monster stood three times as tall as the last, a warped fusion of every guardian before it. Eight arms, each tipped with a different weapon.
A skeletal mask covered its half-formed face, leaking steam and light. Its legs ended in clawed roots that tore into the floor, anchoring it like a siege tower with a heartbeat.
Nola gripped her sword. "Everyone, fall in."
Ari was already moving, casting glowing runes in the air, two for protection, one for strength, another for cohesion. Her staff vibrated with the surge of power.
"Layers up. Now!" she shouted.
Golden shields shimmered around them just as the giant golem raised a colossal arm and slammed it down. The impact blew dust and debris in every direction, but Ari's barrier held.
"Hit it hard, hit it fast," Vera said, eyes locked, still holding position at the far flank. "I'll draw its core out."
Without waiting for agreement, she leapt forward, light forming into a sword at each hand.
Nola shot forward, one foot above the floor, leaving a trail of white heat behind her. Her katana carved across the golem's left leg, slicing through stone like silk. Sparks flew. The limb buckled, but the monster didn't fall.
Tris took a stance, drew back, and seven arrows shimmered into being at once. He released. The arrows curved mid-air, split, ricocheted off pillars, off each other, before slamming into the creature's arms and neck. Cracks bloomed like spiderwebs.
Felix extended both hands, his glyphs binding midair into a chain, wrapping one of the monster's legs. "Pinning it!"
Ari released a final rune, etched midair with a flick of her fingers. "Overcharge!"
A pulse surged through Nola, Tris, Vera, all of them. Time felt slower. Weight, lighter. Their strikes sharper.
Nola surged forward, blade flashing in a dozen arcs. Tris loosed another volley of ricochet shots that slammed directly into the weakened leg.
The giant finally dropped to one knee, and Vera plunged both light-blades into its core.
A blinding explosion ripped through the chamber.
When the dust cleared, only rubble remained.
And silence.
They had won.
But something still waited deeper inside.