The bad news was that John was beholding proof of the fact that Glory was doubtlessly the strongest person in the entire Illusion Barrier. The undecorated wraith knight walked and where he walked the stones were ground down by invisible forces. It was more than just accelerated time. Decay on its own did not turn inert stone into grains as fine as desert dunes. In life, Zelos must have been a Latebloomer from millennia back and he had all that time to hone his skills in every dimension, even if the growth of undead was typically slowed to a crawl.

The good news was that this ability was not aimed at John.

Zelos slashed at Xipe-Totec. The stolen Particle Skin flared up in a silver explosion of light more intense than John had ever seen from the Skill. “Wh-?” the Flayer Lord’s voice began to leave his lips.

‘When?’ That was the question he must have meant to ask. That was the question John himself wanted answered. At one moment Zelos had stood there, the next he had been across the field. Charging such a distance was hardly impossible for a person their level, but they would have seen something. There had been no sign of teleportation, which left open three distinct options.

One was that Zelos somehow was capable of teleporting like a pariah, but that could be excluded for obvious reasons.

Two was that Zelos had accelerated his own time to the point that he had moved so rapidly no one could react.

Three was that Zelos had frozen time for one second and moved across in that instant.

Between the two reasonable options, John had no idea which one was worse. “What is that?” Nahua whispered, half-emerged from her cloud of decay.

“More than we can chew right now,” John answered plainly and repressed a curse when he saw Zelos rip open a tear in the world. ‘Time AND space magic in one person, are you fucking with my soul?’

‘Your complaints are rich when he has shown little what Beatrice or Metra couldn’t do,’ Ehtra weighed in.

‘Can I get frustrated with anything without you telling me that I am also bullshit?’

Ehtra sent him a derisive snort. ‘No.’

John clicked his tongue and took quick stock of the situation. Xipe-Totec avoided a series of strikes. For all the bad the Gamer could say about the Flayer Lord, he was evidently observant enough not to mess with the sword made from concentrated decay. Annoyingly, it was Particle Skin that prevented the god-warrior from taking any damage, at least so far. Red portals were opening up all around the Flayer Lord, feeding him fresh mana.

“Did you infect him?” John asked.

Nahua leered at him out of the corner of her eyes. “You are asking if I would aid in his demise.”

“I don’t think you like him a lot.”

“That’s, like, tots true and all of that.” Nahua dusted off her knees and then rose to her feet. “Buuuuuut, he’s still one of my father’s god-warrior’s, so whatever you’re planning, I’m not helping with that, okay?”

Anything else would have been a surprise. He switched to mental communications to keep potential listeners out of the loop. ‘I really don’t want to get involved in that clash. We’ll fill the Blood Fountain as rapidly as possible, then disengage.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Nahua agreed. ‘What do you want me to do?’

John pierced through the purple cloud. It was easy for him to see courtesy of Nahua letting him. Others wouldn’t have that advantage. ‘Cover the Blood Fountain with the mist. Tell me when it's about to reach full capacity. We’ll be the first to make a break for it.’

‘What do they say… Affirmative!’ Nahua responded jovially.

John had no time to dwell on her teasing. He charged out into the battlefield on his own two feet. Behind him, the cloud began to lumber forwards, following the comparatively crawling pace of the woman within. Only Xipe-Totec had done her the favour of entering her noxious cloud so far and that hadn’t been long enough to steal a notable amount of Agility. ‘Not that dangerous in open spaces… still works really well as area control though.’

The Gamer launched a quick barrage of Blast Rays at the nearest enemy, which happened to be Singed. Still in his regular form, the armoured giant moved in erratic patterns. It was harder to surprise people with the angle-changes of the shots when they knew about the ability. All of them missed.

‘Arc Lances it is, then,’ he thought.

“You fighting in person?” Singed asked, pleasantly surprised. “What plan are you going on about now?”

“Maybe I just want to take revenge for all of you ganging up on my Nia?” John retorted.

“Not our fault she’s so fucking – creepy!” Singed side-stepped a punch hurled at him by Gnome. A meteorite slammed into his chest a moment later, sending him onto his back. Then, Siena revealed herself. The crystal-tipped blade of her tail was narrowly blocked by the broad of his blade. “Oh, whatever, if Glory is done playing around, so am I! LET THE ROAR OF BATTLE BE HEARD IN THIS ARCANE DOMINION!”

Blasted back by the shockwave of the Unleash, the three elementals and John himself were forced to grant the arcane knight distance. The light ebbed away, revealing three of the man now standing there, each of them charging at a different target.

John used one Magus Step, then a Skitterstep when Singed followed him with a similar spell. The worst part about fighting an informed opponent was that they had countermeasures formulated. Said countermeasure was for Singed to take another step forwards and then swing his sword in a wide arc, trying to catch John in his temporary invisibility.

Considering the small range of the Skitterstep and the length of the Great Sword, such a slice had a 50/50 chance of working – a coin toss that John lost. The weapon did not just catch John, it nearly bisected him. The mana blade sliced through skin and guts, tickled his spine, and spread a mist of spraying blood where it left him.

In his Unleashed form, Singed’s face was revealed. His one good eye widened in surprise when he actually drew blood from the Gamer. The wound was sealed by the time the swing was concluded. “I see,” Singed growled and grinned, glancing over to Xipe-Totec for one moment. “That’s what his Babel Phrase does, eh?”

“I drop Particle Skin all the time,” John said and Magus Stepped on top of one of the obstacles.

“You ain’t tricking me with this one, buddy!” A slice caused the entire stone pillar to slide off to the side.

‘Permission to reinforce?!’ Aclysia hatefully screeched into John’s mind. Images of tearing the offending swordfighter limb from limb filled their mental connection.

‘Denied,’ John told her. He already had other help on the way.

Singed was about to charge at John again when either his battle instincts or the alternative viewpoints provided by his fighting doubles turned his attention to the streak of grey diving towards him. Ehtra slammed into the muscular figure of the arcane elemental. Like a hawk on prey, the impact pinned Singed to the ground.

A disdainful stomp at the throat of the man was barely caught by his hand. “Not my fetish,” he joked.

“What do I care?” Ehtra hissed, voice distorted by the helmet. Eyes flashed green, proving the designation of her Crusading Target. While they were locked in the struggle, she raised her gun and pulled the trigger. Two rounds slammed into Singed’s forehead, before he managed to throw her off. Sand so fine it could appear like oiled skin flowed over a dented cranium.

The gun was slammed into the holster attached to the heavily armoured thigh of the grey angel. Her sword was the weapon of choice against these opponents. “Let’s dance!”

“Let me guide you to the afterlife,” Ehtra growled.

John got out of dodge of that encounter, launching a couple of Mana Chains while running to even the odds somewhat. Singed was simultaneously fighting Gnome, Salamander, Siena, and Ehtra. Whether he would win that fight was doubtful, but the fact that he could do it was impressive enough for the Gamer.

‘Know what? I think this is your cue,’ John thought and extended his left hand.

Undine loosened from Purgatory as a flood of abyssal black water. Tendrils and teeth further reinforced the struggle between the familiars and Singed’s three bodies. All was chaos, and in that chaos, John had a moment of respite to regenerate some mana.

Up above, Liakan flew on arcane wings. She and Sylph took constant snipes at each other, filling the sky with arcane projectiles and lightning. When they weren’t fighting each other, they were bombarding the stationary target that was Norahnon. The amount of power inside the mecha blew the lid off anything John knew of mana batteries, which meant something else must have been at play.

‘Too much to figure out!’ the Gamer thought with a grin. A grin that died when he saw death heading his way.

Xipe-Totec had spotted John in the corner of his eye and suddenly contorted. The twist of his torso was so violent that legs of the highest of the Mummy Lords followed a second later, ramming a bony heel into Zelos’ exposed ribcage. The wraith knight was launched away. For all the strength of the rider, he was not invincible. No one ever was.

The Flayer Lord stormed towards John on all fours, like some sickening mockery of the human form. One Magus Step, two Magus Steps, three, four, John tried to gain distance. When he was all out of charges, he ripped the golden egg off his belt and threw it at the god-warrior.

Three metres of golden scales, silver teeth, and righteous rage Unleashed before Xipe-Totec. A lesser fighter would have been surprised. Even a regular fighter would have at least flinched. Too bad that the weakest person on this battlefield was… John didn’t even know who that would have gone to.

Xipe-Totec gripped the side of Stirwin’s head and hurled him behind him, sending him on a direct collision course with Glory. The Horseman appeared on the other side of the light spirit before they met.

Uncaring, the god-warrior continued his advance towards John. Out of Magus Steps and alternative defences, John was helpless. ‘It has been a while. What a curious feeling,’ the Gamer thought. ‘I hate it.’

Five claws slammed into his ribcage. John had experienced much in his time. He had his rib cage pulled open like a surprise box, had suffered the itching of Lorylim corruption, had been gnawed apart by rats, had been burned, stabbed, sliced, and all of those things simultaneously but having his heart actually stop was a new one.

One of the fingers of Xipe-Totec, the thumb if John looked at the angles correctly, had ripped right through the Gamer’s blood pump. The muscle was still quivering, it and the rest of his body miraculously kept alive by the power of magic. Blood flooded his lungs. The Flayer Lord laughed maniacally and swerved around, swinging John as a human shield.

John saw the sword of decay in his left periphery. It stopped right above his shoulder, short of connecting. “I knew it. You modern people are so soft,” Xipe-Totec cackled.

Zelos laughed in return. “I was there when Babylon fell, you ugly thing! Not that it matters.”

Any retort Xipe-Totec had was replaced with a derisive snort. The Flayer Lord looked at John gripping his wrist with Purgatory’s claws. “Those are sharp, but really? That’s what you do?”

“You are too tall, can’t grab your head,” John answered with a bloody smile. Silver lights appeared under his palm, stronger than any individual Arc Lance could have been.

Xipe-Totec was fast. Perhaps he would have even been fast enough, had his speed not suddenly been diminished by the presence of the knight of space and time. Zelos laughed triumphantly, as the Arcane Ascension blasted through the stolen Particle Skin and then ripped apart the wrist of the undead.

John fell. Zelos swung. Fresh energy flowed in rapid streams into the Flayer Lord, once more giving the undead god-warrior the mana needed to prevent a strike from the sword of ash and dust. The Gamer landed painfully on his knees. The hand in his ribcage wiggled, still animated in its own way. He ripped it out, then used a regenerated stack of Magus Step to get out of that brawl.

A relieved breath filled his lungs when his heartbeat resumed.

‘It’s almost full!’ Nahua informed him.

‘About time,’ the Gamer hissed and looked at his HP bar. He was in the 55% range, which was not immediately worrying but certainly outside his comfort range. Undine was flowing towards him already and seeped back into Purgatory at the first opportunity. His HP ticked up rapidly at that point.

The Gamer bolted across the battlefield at top speed. No one would raise an eyebrow at him running. Had there been less chaos, the other fighters may have noticed that his familiars were positioning themselves for the retreat.

Nahua had not been motionless either. John was vaguely aware that it had been minutes since he sent her away. Time flowed oddly when this much adrenaline was involved, even for him. In that time, the axolotl demigoddess had spread her plague mucus in a broad line. It dissolved gradually into a curtain of noxious purple, a curtain that would remain even when she, as the source of the densest fog cloud, retreated.

Despite that, everyone was able to see it when the seal in the air shattered into eight pieces. The sky changed, the eight-crossed circle in the sky growing a little stronger in its crimson. Everyone adjusted swiftly, but they were still all slower than John.

All over the surrounding forests, brawls suddenly broke out. All of the forces that had waited outside the arena for the moment they were advancing into the next segment now engaged each other in a violent hit-and-run exchange. Everyone streamed north, everyone but Zelos and Xipe-Totec.

The Flayer Lord and the Horseman of the Apocalypse stared at each other across a divide. John caught their exchange through a lingering Ego Blade. “I’ll sacrifice you before long,” Xipe-Totec threatened. His dismembered hand skittered up his leg like a spider. “Next time, I won’t be bound by any rules.”

“Take your sorry remains of your pride, ugly thing,” Zelos mocked, dismissing his sword of decay. “And take solace in the fact that you made me use nearly all of my power!”

The Flayer Lord just growled, before dropping through one of the portals.

John stormed down the crimson road. The new segment came with new structures. Rather than temples, this segment of the road was framed by massive, rectangular pillars. More of them were placed out in the surrounding forest, reaching far above the trees that had been growing over the past 500 years. It was a sight straight out of a fantasy novel.

One of the pillars began to fall, struck by a meteorite.

‘SALAMANDER!’ Momo screeched into their mental connection.

‘I AM NOT A PRECISION KNIFE, YOU CUNT!’ the apocalypse elemental roared back. ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, NOTHING?!’

‘YES!’ Momo answered. ‘YOU CAN DIE AND COME BACK, THESE RUINS ARE LOST FOREVER!’

John laughed as he ran. He laughed from the bottom of his soul. Everything about this was ridiculous. It only got more amusing when he was flipped up in the air by the snout of a galloping crocodile and landed on his back. Stirwin swerved into the nearby trees, narrowly dodging a swing by Ares, who had rejoined the battle now that his leader had stopped throwing his weight around.

The sounds of battle became muted as they went deeper into the jungle.