“AVOID ENGAGEMENT AT ALL COSTS!” John screamed at the top of his lungs. His voice overpowered Jevaine’s laughter – which ceased the moment the last word left his mouth.

The green mist oozed out of every tiny gap in her exterior, with the sole exception of her eyes. Those were lights of gold, brimming with blinding radiance and creating rising trails of light that went several metres high. When Jevaine dropped slightly down, the shift of her head rippled up through the rising mist.

John would have loved to make a joke about how much like a Dark Souls boss she looked, had she not charged at him, Eliana and Beatrice at supersonic speed.

Two and a half metres of radiance, necromancy and sheer power were about to slam into John. He bought time with Magus Step and Skitterstep. The initial displacement did barely anything, Jevaine course correcting faster than he could think. Her Agility outclassed even his Wisdom by more than a thousand. That was the smallest gap between them.

The only reason why John was able to dodge the massive fist of the overpowered Ironborn was because he was doing the mental equivalent of input spamming. He had manifested after Magus Step and already decided to teleport again instantly. Even with that, he saw her fist in front of his eyes. Only the invisibility following a Skitterstep allowed him a brief respite.

All of that happened in the same time it took for Eliana to hastily speak a single phrase.

“To achieve what it takes, I will immolate myself – Bloodburn!”

With a screeching akin to synthesized violins, the butterfly wings of crystalized and burning sanguine burst through the back of Eliana’s robe. She dashed forward, her martial arts aura enveloping her. With both aura and Bloodburn active, her speed overcame even that of Jevaine. John wanted to warn the failed goddess that this was the only thing she had on her. The speed at which events unfolded didn’t let him get out a single world.

Jevaine twisted around, creating a gust of wind with her movement that blew John and Beatrice backwards. Nigh untraceable even by his eyes, the fists of the two collided. A second shockwave, even stronger, almost broke his line of sight. Almost, he wished it did. The imperfect union between Eliza and Thana created a waxing and waning of powers, manifested with violent intensity. Like an overripe tomato splattering, the arm of the discordant woman burst open along its length. Crimson burst out in every direction, bones and flesh were crushed into a pulp. The attack had such an intensity that Eliana wasn’t even thrown back. Anyone of a lesser power would just have wondered why her arm suddenly ceased to exist.

The wings of Bloodburn flared up, a clear sign of a shift in dominant consciousness, and Eliana screamed like a wild animal. Pure hatred guided her fist, bone oozed out of arm and shaped into an exoskeleton, then her reinforced knuckles slammed into the golden exterior. Jevaine was shoved to the side about a metre. An imprint of the failed goddess’ knuckles could be seen on the armour.

That was all.

Jevaine raised her hands, creating a sphere of raw arcane energy above her hand and throwing it at Eliana. It was the tiniest of gaps in the fight, just big enough to get one word out. “DODGE!”

Debatably because of his demand, Eliana used a martial art to disappear from the impact site. John was ripped back, her hand suddenly on his collar. She pulled him in a protective embrace, just as the explosion of the spell burst outwards. The arcane lighting danced over them, scorched Eliana’s skin and diminished the Gamer’s mana reserves. Dropping Particle Skin in this environment was not an option.

‘John, this is really fucking bad!’ Momo shouted into his mind. She served as his bird’s eye view and even she felt the shockwave of the casually conjured arcane spell. Violet and green hung in the air, resembling the trails of impurities on the surface of polluted rivers and the aftermath of an Arcana Strike.

‘W-we got this! Run!’ Gnome threw her voice in there.

Eliana landed with John in her arms and asked a simple question. “Possible?”

“No,” he answered swiftly and heard the goddess of genocide growl. With a wolfish grunt, she turned around, carrying John with her. Ripping the golden egg from his belt, the Gamer tossed it in the general direction of the fight. Stirwin manifested in his adult form. He was large, yet not even at the level of power at which he could have made a decisive difference.

As he charged towards the fight, the crocodile crossed Beatrice, hasting after Eliana and her Master. Elsewhere, Rave and Metra were fleeing from the scene as quickly as they could.

Triumphantly, Jevaine roared and created a second sphere of magic. Before she could throw it, a meteorite smashed into the side of her head. It was a perfect shot by Salamander. Exploding on impact, the meteor scattered into fire and fist-sized chunks. Black dust filled the air – to be dispersed with a casual wave by the unharmed Gold Eater. Jevaine turned to Salamander and threw the arcane projectile at the apocalypse elemental. Already on the move, Salamander only had her legs and tail disintegrated by the attack as it sailed through her and exploded much further up in the sky.

Although the price Salamander had paid was high, it had achieved the primary objective. Not even Eliana could stand up to Jevaine as she was at that moment. All that could be done was to throw the members of the party that could be revived into the meatgrinder. This power was borrowed. It had to end at some point. They needed to delay until then.

Drunk on power, Jevaine engaged with the remaining five elementals. It resembled a fight less than a scripted cutscene. The unstoppable villainess stood and laughed while a barrage of well-aimed attacks covered her head to toe. Not even the pendants dangling from the spikes of her armour took any damage. Be it fire, stone, water, light, or shadow attacks, all of them shattered uselessly on the body.

John kept looking around for any kind of cover they could take. ‘Blasted flatlands,’ he thought. The nearest mountain was so far to the east, John couldn’t even see the peak from where he was. There was no way to break line of sight, except for the season elemental that had been and was too far away to help.

Jevaine pointed her finger at Siena and unleashed a spell. A straight beam of purplish white, booming as it set the air around it aflame with arcane energy. It was like the crudest, most rudimentary form of an Arcana Ray. At the Gold Eater’s current power level, skill was fully optional. Finesse was not required for a napalm bomb to hit an anthill. The spell blasted through Siena’s chest, deleting everything from her sternum to her shoulder. Detached, her left arm fell to the ground and dispersed into a cloud of black smoke.

Charging with brutal speed, Jevaine aimed to finish off what she had started. A green and a white Firefae settled on Siena, boosting her Agility, just as her own Unleash activated. Altogether, she still did not reach the speed of this overpowered Ironborn. What she did have was just enough to duck under the sloppily executed straight. Siena’s tail wrapped around the arm, swinging her up onto the massive golden body. She crawled onto the back, avoiding the almost disinterested attempt to stop her, and then started to stab and claw at the back of Jevaine’s helmet.

The Gold Eater planted both feet on the ground and roared. A blast of arcane power exploded outwards, disintegrating Siena. Suddenly, Jevaine’s head turned and she focused on something. It took a moment to confirm with the different perspectives, but she was aiming at Beatrice. Raising a finger, the Gold Eater prepared to unleash another one of those primitive arcane rays.

“NO!” Gnome shouted at the top of her lungs. The ground underneath Jevaine tilted causing the ray to blaringly shoot over the retreating group. John felt the heat on his face.

The retaliation was immediate. Gnome attempted to obstruct the movement by taking the footing away from under the overpowered Ironborn. She cared little, moving faster than the magic could take hold. The punch hit Gnome square in the head, breaking the appearance of the cute Asian woman and revealing the inside of dirt, stone, and leaves.

Jevaine was about to turn around, but the beheaded body of the season elemental still managed to grab onto the nearby leg. A swift kick utterly obliterated the lower body of Gnome, leaving her only as a barely clutching torso.

‘I SAID NO!’ John heard the cry of the season elemental in his head. A number of thin earthen rods appeared all over the golden, animated armour. The armour-breaking Unleash did nothing but momentarily inconvenience Javaine. Willpower fading, the rest of Gnome’s body dissolved moments later.

Stirwin jumped forwards in her stead. The galloping crocodile had finally reached the place of battle – only to be immediately obliterated with an uppercut. That only left Undine and Salamander to distract the Gold Eater.

A new problem arose as he was following those events. A pit opened underneath their retreating party. Eliana and Rave must have felt the tremors ahead of time and leapt before they could fall, but Beatrice and Metra were caught. The latter flew upwards, catapulted by an uppercut.

“The meddling obstacle – in my grasp,” the deep voice of Arkeidos rose from the depths, as he stepped out of the darkness. The armour he possessed was smooth and forged exclusively from a brown metal, likely Terrium, the earthen of the elemental extreme metals. Claws like that of a mole were attached to the back of each of the over-exaggerated hands. The left of which held Beatrice. “You must have known that you would not be the only one to possess multiple bodies simultaneously.”

‘The thought did occur.’ As that bounced around in his head, John got the notification that Salamander was down. That only left Undine, a state of affairs that would not last long.

John wanted to keep running, but earth-attuned Arkeidos raised a massive wall in their way with a simple gesture by his right. “You will not retreat any further, invader,” the Emperor said. “I shall gain what is mine.”

“DEATH!” Eliana screamed and dropped John. Even if he could have stopped her, the Gamer wasn’t certain that he should have. They were almost literally against the wall now.

If he reinforced her, perhaps they could have drawn this out long enough. That hope was swiftly extinguished as Jevaine barrelled down on them, the rest of the Ironborn in tow. The first rays of the new day fell upon them and brought only despair.

‘Shit… shit, shit, shit!’ John thought, knowing that there was only one option now. Not even Eliana could hold both Jevaine and Arkeidos at bay. At best she would get grabbed and Reetha would emerge from wherever she was hiding. At worst, they would all die. Neither were options John could afford. ‘FUCK!’ he cursed inside his mind as he pulled the final lifeline.

Everything around them disappeared. Arkeidos, his approaching horde, Jevaine, the ravaged landscape, all of it snapped away in an instant. The levels of elevation between all of them were equalized. Eliana leapt at nothing, Beatrice dropped down, Aclysia appeared nearby, as did Nia and the entirety of the volunteer squad.

“What happened?” Ted asked, understandably confused.

John sat down, one leg extended, the other angled and serving as the rest of his arm. “I used Escape Rope,” he answered and bit the tip of his thumb. “He got me… FUCK!” He took a deep breath and grimly stared ahead. It took all he had to not break out into an unproductive tantrum. Everyone around was silent.

This was an utter loss.@@novelbin@@

They had prevented all of Arkeidos’ goals. The sacrifice of his armour was in vain, all of the invasion forces had gotten out, the curse was maintained, and the only losses were those that could be recuperated with mana and time. It was entirely John’s choice when he re-engaged with the Kingdom and he certainly would not do it before the Escape Rope cooldown was back up.

All he had lost was Claire.

Which made it an absolute loss.

“Arkeidos laid a plan and he executed it well,” the Gamer finally gave Ted a more satisfying answer. “We tried to find a path to victory, but circumstances wouldn’t allow it.” He rose to his feet, his mind uncharacteristically quiet. “The volunteer operation is on halt for at least three days. Return home.”

“Yes, sir,” Ted spoke and gave a signal with his head to his soldiers. They headed towards the door that separated the inside of the I.D. Gate from the outside. When the door snapped shut behind them, he let go.

It wasn’t anger that bubbled to the surface first. That had been the immediate emotion, the reaction to the defeat, to his injured pride. Now the full realization of what had happened hit him and it made him feel empty inside. He was too tired to even cry. “I promised her that I would show her a good world,” the Gamer’s words sounded hollow. “Then I left her to die alone.”

“Come here, tiger.” Rave walked up to him and embraced him tightly. Aclysia hurried over to embrace him as well. All of the harem congregated around him, except for Eliana. They smelled like dirt, dust and iron. The misery of the Iron Domain had seeped into all of them.

‘At least we can take a proper bath,’ he tried to cheer himself up in the tiniest of ways. It failed totally, to the backdrop of his failure. His mind was busy re-examining the chain of decisions that he had taken. What could he have done to prevent this outcome? Nothing that he could have decided without the benefit of hindsight. Arkeidos had made the necessary sacrifice to secure victory in this instance.

The intellect of the man certainly equalled his cruelty.