The rumble grew heavier, shaking the earth violently.

  Yivern, forced into tunnel vision after Zara’s attack, failed to notice the tremors, mistaking them for the thrashing of its own appendages.

  This was the opportunity Olivia had been waiting for.

  A moment when the Devourer, grounded and consumed by wrath, forgot the most important rule of a battle.

  Awareness.

  A colossal shadow rose behind Yivern.

  Olivia clenched her hand, her gaze sharpening.

  Perfect.

  A faint smile curved her lips as Yivern finally sensed something wrong behind it.

  Before it could turn, a tremendous force slammed into its back, driving its massive body into the ground.

  The impact shattered the earth into spiderweb-like fractures, a shockwave racing outward that snapped everyone upright.

  Reeling, Yivern tilted its head to the side, and a black beast entered its vision.

  In the distance, the maids watched in stunned silence as the creature that had carried them across barren lands trampled a monster three times its size.

  Zara, still requiring immediate care, lay surrounded by Angie, Eden, and Niya. Their focus never left her, though their eyes flicked toward the Devourer for a brief instant.

  The tremors beneath their feet were terrifying, but not in the way fear usually was.

  Because they knew the black creature was one of theirs.

  A member of the team that had waited in ambush for the precise moment Olivia needed him most.

  All eyes turned to the black dragon, Tenebrisis, as he leaned closer to the Devourer’s face, his glare burning with intent.

  Yivern thrashed wildly, trying to shake the dragon from its back, but Tenebrisis was far too heavy to dislodge.

  Appendages lashed out, wrapping around the dragon’s limbs, but they lacked the strength to pull him free. Instead, Tenebrisis' claws sank deeper into Yivern’s flesh.

  Straddling the Devourer with a mocking gaze, Tenebrisis drew his head back, eclipsing the sun now high in the sky.

  His shadow swallowed the monster beneath him, pressing down with suffocating weight.

  Then the dragon moved.

  Without warning, he drove his foreleg down, forcing Yivern to writhe harder. Its wings flared in reflex, and the dragon did not miss the opening.

  Tenebrisis opened his jaws wide and bit into the left wing, fangs meeting feather, bone, and sinew.

  He pulled.

  Resistance became meaningless.

  With a wet, tearing sound, flesh gave way. The wing was ripped free and hurled aside.

  Yivern’s eyes burned red as black blood poured faster from its wounds, wrath flooding its core.

  But there was nothing it could do.

  It was pinned.

  It could phase through reality if it chose to, but instinct screamed against it. With the dragon on its back, if it phased out and Olivia sealed its ability again, only defeat awaited.

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  So it endured.

  Tenebrisis shifted his weight and bit into the remaining wing. This time the resistance was stronger, but only barely.

  Moments later, the second wing was torn free.

  This was no longer a battle.

  It was humiliation.

  The humiliation of a creature that had believed itself untouchable.

  But the black dragon was not finished.

  Black flame gathered in his maw, alive and writhing, fed by both his draconic nature and the dark element.

  For a heartbeat, the fire spilled from the corners of his mouth as magic surged through him.

  Then, locking eyes with Yivern in open provocation, Tenebrisis unleashed the inferno onto the Devourer’s back.

  The black flame tore through exposed flesh and shattered bone, pouring into every wound it found.

  Yivern did not scream.

  Even as the fire consumed it, it did not beg or yield.

  It only stared back, eyes glowing with lethal resolve.

  The beam intensified, its force pushing Tenebrisis upward. Slowly, the dragon’s forelegs lifted from the ground, forcing him onto his hind legs.

  His massive, turtle-like body began to slide backward, driven by the sheer power of his own breath.

  Then, unable to withstand it any longer, Tenebrisis was forced to stop at a distance.

  Wide, deep trenches carved by his claws stretched behind him, proof of how powerful the fire breath had been, capable of pushing back a dragon of his mass.

  As a thick cloud of black smoke spilled from Tenebrisis' maw, Yivern let out a low growl.

  The vibration radiating from it was weak now, diminished, but still menacing. Enough to make everyone draw in a sharp breath.

  They all thought this was the end for Yivern.

  All except three beings.

  Olivia.

  Keleanos.

  And Yivern itself.

  Bracing its arms against the ground, the Devourer forced its shattered body upright.

  In its rage, it ignored Tenebrisis entirely and fixed its gaze on Olivia.

  It knew.

  She was the source of everything that had gone wrong. Without her, this battle would have ended very differently.

  So it returned to the assault.

  Wingless, Yivern was bound to the earth.

  Using its arms and remaining appendages, it began to crawl toward her.

  With her blade in hand, Olivia stepped forward to meet it.

  The maids shook themselves free of their stupor and moved with her.

  This was the last stand.

  The final push before exhaustion claimed them all.

  As Olivia advanced, measured and unwavering, she watched her companions split apart, each group moving in a practiced flow toward their targets.

  Yivern was aware now.

  Fully.

  Its gaze tracked the maids converging on its appendages. A brief glance flicked toward Tenebrisis, who remained still, his first battle having pushed him to his limit.

  With the dragon no longer pressing the attack, the Devourer calculated quickly.

  Deal with the maids.

  Then finish her.

  But the maids had no intention of retreating.

  Helen and Helena moved in with Kate, targeting the furthest appendage.

  Kate’s dark tendrils wrapped around it in an instant, halting its violent thrashing. The twins surged forward, blades flashing.

  Yivern leaned sharply to the side, its massive hand rising above them, ready to crush all three.

  As the twins carved into the appendage, the shadow of the descending hand swallowed them.

  But Noelle appeared in a blink, grabbing all three and warping them away a heartbeat before impact.

  On the opposite flank, Marina had advanced alone, only to be joined mid-charge by Haileen and Lillian.

  Light converged around Marina’s wings as heat rippled through her body. With a single push, she launched forward at terrifying speed.

  Haileen and Lillian followed just behind, watching as Marina drew her arm back.

  Energy spiraled violently around her fist as Yivern’s left hand surged toward her.

  Marina's wings folded in mid-air abruptly.

  Momentum carried her forward, and at the last possible instant, she drove her fist into the massive limb.

  Muscle tore audibly under the strain, pain flashing across her face, but her healing magic surged, knitting flesh as fast as it was destroyed.

  With a blinding burst of light, she forced the hand aside.

  That opening was all the demons needed.

  Black threads lashed out as Haileen and Lillian jumped over the appendage, slicing it cleanly into writhing fragments.

  The pattern repeated across the battlefield.

  Alma and Martha dismantled the third appendage together. Alisa alone destroyed the fourth, retreating just as quickly.

  Yivern halted.

  Its arms were all that remained to drag itself forward.

  Yet its gaze never wavered.

  Olivia’s footsteps echoed through the ruined wasteland.

  They stared at one another, their emotions starkly opposed.

  One was resolute, ready to end what had begun.

  The other burned with fury at being reduced to this.

  Cornered, stripped of options, Yivern finally understood.

  There was no escape.

  No path to victory.

  With every step Olivia took, its chance of survival diminished.

  And then, as it looked into her eyes, it felt it.

  The first true flicker of fear.

  Buried deep within its soul, struggling against the cold rationality of an Elder One.

  But the Devourer refused to accept it, instead fueling its fury furthermore.

  In response to that fear, to her resolve, something shifted.

  The Valkyrie within Olivia and the beastly soul of Yivern resonated.

  The world fell away.

  Olivia's pupils dilated, only darkness remaining in her eyes.

  Vision darkened. Sound vanished.

  Their consciousnesses were drawn into a field of absolute silence.

  There, they faced one another.

  Olivia stood without her blade.

  Yivern stood without its monstrous size.

  Face to face.

  The final confrontation, brief and definitive, awaited them.