Loud, deafening horns blared, and the hall was suddenly filled with blinding crimson light that violently flashed and spun.

In a blink, thousands upon thousands of Guardians and Knights appeared, each clad in red robes and armour at the very least.

Following their appearance, the fabric of space shook and was locked down, stopping anyone from entering or leaving.

They stood at attention, their senses spread wide, looking for the intruder and—

"There!"

—it was at that moment that Korynth and Samael appeared.

The duo barely had time to blink before, suddenly, they were surrounded, blades falling onto them from all sides.

But Samael was prepared. His spatial spark roared to life, and his Wolf Will Spirit took shape just as his Demi-God path awoke.

The Wolf fused into him, granting him a spectral armour of golden flames just as a crown of ashes fitted over his head. His core funnelled energy into the fabric of space and then—

BANG!

—he shattered it, a flood of void flames rising around him to destroy everything. The dark flames of pure destruction instantly annihilated all the guardians that had been about to strike.

But then, the flames gathered and fused into his armour.

This was one of Uriel’s theories about his spatial spark. He had bet that with his Wolf Will acting as a bridge to the world and an insulator... he’d be able to wield void flames.

And he had been right.

WHOOOSH!

Korynth followed their plan and instantly rushed toward the swirling blue portal, unbothered by the void flames or the horde of enemies.

It was all harmless to her.

The Knights guarding the portal immediately coordinated and shot at her before she could make her way through.

One appeared in front of her, swinging his glaive down, just as another appeared at her side and slammed the butt of his weapon down, forming a sealing dome around them.

She couldn’t escape even if she wanted to. Korynth didn’t pay it any attention because she didn’t plan to.

Her Will infused through her aether, and it exploded into a blinding sea of radiant purple daggers.

The spiritual law of daggers took shape alongside her runic laws of lust, the two linking and intertwining to form a singular structure.

She faded from sight, and the Knight who had been about to swing down missed, his weapon shattering the ground on impact.

But he didn’t get the chance to swing again, as a dagger pierced through his visor and exited out the back of his head, a pink stream of energy flowing within him to turn his corpse into a puppet.

Blood gushed.

The puppet instantly lunged toward the knight who had launched the sealing dome, and as the knight—shocked that his companion had turned on him—was about to block, his eyes widened.

The puppet blew its core.

BOOOOOOOM!

The ridiculous explosion of energy was concentrated within the sealed dome, and the knight instantly took the brunt of it, dying before the dome shattered from the impact.

Korynth had long since been gone.

With the two guardians effortlessly taken care of, she soared into the portal and vanished into its depths.

Samael followed, rushing across the hall and repeatedly shattering zones of space to turn the place into a haven of dark flame.

Destruction followed his every movement without care. Leaving behind a trail of burning corpses in his wake, he vanished into the portal.

WOOP!

The portal, seemingly unable to remain stable under the weight of so much void fire, collapsed in on itself, shattering the entire hall.

But that had consequences.

The hall shattering opened all the wooden sealed entrances, causing a chain reaction that shattered open all the dimensional prisons on the void floor above.

Chaos was on the horizon.

...

"Stand up!" Korynth roared as she pulled Samael to his feet.

They had appeared in the middle of a gigantic tunnel, everything made of metal and covered in glowing purple runes. The ground was covered by a shallow layer of sparkling blue water that gave off sparks of gold and emerald.

It was such a strange sight that it was maddening.

"We have about ten minutes!" Korynth said as she began to run, pulling him along.

Samael got to his feet, stumbling as her grip threw him off balance. His armour flickered, then vanished, and he rapidly regained his footing.

"The water erodes your core, and the sparks twist your soul, so if you can, avoid breathing—and if you can summon that armour, do it again!"

"The walls are also linked to a sentry that—DUCK!"

Samael didn’t question her and instantly ducked, diving into the shallow waters, weaving beneath a sharp arc of light that had suddenly sped across the air, nearly severing their bodies in half.

"Coat your body in aether, now!" Korynth screamed, but she knew he’d be too slow, so she took matters into her own hands.

Her Will wrapped around his body, and her aether surged to form a ward around him just in time to block the wave of chaotic aether that nearly tore his heart apart.

"Stand up!" She was already back on her feet, and this time Samael instantly reacted.

Fear and panic were evident on his face.

"What the hell is going on?!" he asked, his gaze wide. If that wave of chaotic aether had hit him... he’d be dead. And if that happened, she would have been free.

For some reason, she saved his life.

"Too long to explain. Just listen when I give a command—JUMP!"

He didn’t need to be told twice. He jumped as high as he could, his eyes widening as—

’Holy shit!’

—the ground simply vanished, giving way to a steep fall that led toward a pit of burning spikes of rusted metal.

"Come!" Korynth grabbed his small body and pulled him tight.

She lunged toward one of the walls, and her feet stuck to it like glue. Without stopping or letting go of Samael, she began to run along the wall, parallel to the pit of spikes.

"Your job is to use your spatial affinity to try and..."

The duo pushed forward through series upon series of deadly traps they had to avoid and leap over, unable to stop even once.

They were on a time crunch. Not only because of Uriel, but because of the stronger Guardians and Knights that were surely rushing after them.

Korynth could make a joke out of regular red-robes, but the higher-tier ones were... different.

Spatial traps, blades of light, summoned undead, acidic waves, law attacks, Will-eroding formations, titanic explosions, illusions, sealing spells—they went through everything.

Wounds accumulated across their bodies, and their aether reserves began to run low, but they didn’t stop.

They couldn’t. To stop was to die a horrible death.

"...it’s here!"

And eventually, they made it.