The reinforced vault doors didn't swing open.
They exploded.
Chunks of metal spiraled into the corridor like shrapnel, leaving molten grooves gouged into the walls. Heat rolled through the hallway in thick waves as Leon stepped through the scorched threshold, cloak trailing smoke, gun drawn.
This was ARES's war floor.
The walls were lined with siege-class guardian armor, exo-frames used in guild-scale raids and large-zone suppression. Racks of forbidden spell-tech. Arcane weapons sealed behind reinforced glass. Mana cores glowed in recessed tanks like captive stars.
And standing at the center of it all—
Rhazien Calder.
ARES Vice Leader. Pyro-enhancer. Former military-grade hunter.
He didn't look like a bureaucrat. He looked like a living detonation.
His coat was sleeveless, scorched along the seams. Veins of burning red glowed faintly beneath his skin, and flame-enhanced sigils pulsed from his forearms to his chest like molten tattoos. His left fist glowed with chained flame runes; the right one was encased in a gauntlet designed to channel explosive bursts with each punch.
Leon halted just short of the center.
"You've made a mess," Rhazien said, voice steady, body coiled like a spring. "Sixty of ours down. Two floors crippled. And you didn't even use your full force, did you?"
Leon didn't answer.
Rhazien smirked, tapping his boot once on the steel floor. A wave of heat radiated from the metal like a signal.
"You know," he continued, raising his fists. "Tobias thought you'd burn out after the first ten kills. I said twenty. Guess we both underestimated you."
Leon cocked his head. "You're wasting time."
The smirk vanished.
"Then let's not waste any more."
Rhazien struck first.
The entire room lit up in an instant. A wave of flame exploded from his fists—not a fireball, not a spell. Just raw heat, punched directly into the air, combusting everything in its path.
Leon dove sideways, rolling behind a supply crate as the steel wall where he'd been standing liquefied from the impact. One of his undead, a reinforced warrior-class, caught the edge of the blast and staggered back, armor glowing red-hot.
"Scatter," Leon ordered.
His undead moved. Bladewraith blinked behind cover. Sorcerer phased into the shadows. The warrior held the line.
Rhazien didn't let up. He leapt, fists trailing trails of flame, and landed with a shockwave punch that cracked the floor outward like shattered glass. Heat surged in ripples. Firestorm glyphs activated on his back like engine vents—flaring outward with every motion, propelling him forward like a missile.
Leon moved faster.
He fired three shots in rapid succession—angled, bouncing them off reflective wall panels. Rhazien caught two, burned them into ash with his palm. The third glanced his shoulder, leaving a smoldering mark.
It was a test shot.
Leon ducked under a flame burst, slid behind a half-melted war rack, and tapped a signal glyph at his boot.
Flank. Now.
His Bladewraith responded silently, phasing through the outer wall, vanishing from the room.
They danced through the ruins.
Rhazien lit up the room like a living supernova—firestorms crashing into walls, flame jets searing across the floor. His fists shattered steel. Every punch detonated like a grenade. One blow caught Leon square in the chest, launching him across the hall.
He crashed through a weapons crate, gasping as his coat caught fire.
Rhazien approached, slow and steady, fire licking off his arms.
"You had a good run," he said. "But this is where it ends."
Leon groaned, forced himself upright. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. His undead had retreated out of sight, waiting.
He held up his hand. Trembling. Vulnerable.
"I'll make it quick," Rhazien offered.
Leon smiled.
"That's the second time you've underestimated me."
CRACK.
A shadow blurred through the smoke behind Rhazien.
Bladewraith.
It phased through the shattered wall. Blade extended. Its cursed steel—tuned for delayed spiritual impact—pierced clean through Rhazien's back and out the front of his chest.
The flame-user gasped.
His gauntlet fell from his hand.
Smoke hissed out from his ribs as blood soaked his belt.
Leon stepped forward, close enough to catch his last look.
"What… are you?" Rhazien choked.
Leon didn't blink. "Your consequence."
The floor fell silent again.
Except this time, it wasn't from fear.
It was from finality.
Leon reloaded.
The chamber clicked shut with a sharp metallic snap that echoed off the charred stone walls. Smoke hissed from the ruined stairwell behind him, curling through the broken ceiling. The weight of every floor he'd burned through clung to his boots, layered in ash and blood.
His coat was torn, the left sleeve seared from the last explosion. The scorch marks on his armor were still smoking. But his steps—slow, even, measured—didn't falter.
He wasn't tired.
He was focused.
This was the top.
No more enemies in his way. No more pawns. No more chaos flooding through staircases and hallways.
Only one man left.
Tobias Virell.
The elevator shaft had long since collapsed. The emergency stairwell was half-melted and cracked open from the force of earlier detonations. Leon climbed the last few steps alone, boots dragging slightly across the concrete. With each one, he could feel it—the rising hum of mana behind that door. Like something waiting.
Like a final boss.
Leon stopped before the penthouse entrance—a towering double-door of obsidian-tinted mana glass. Cracked. Faintly humming.
He raised his mana gun.
Then kicked the doors open.
They slammed against the walls with a thunderous crash.
Tobias Virell didn't flinch.
He was already waiting.
Behind his desk, the leader of ARES Guild sat like a man who hadn't lost sixty hunters in a day. Lean, silver-haired, dressed in a suit that wasn't even rumpled. One hand rested casually on the armrest. The other cradled a crystal tumbler of dark liquor.
The glass wall behind him showed a panoramic view of the city skyline, dotted with blinking lights and swaying spotlights from the emergency services below. Fires still flickered two floors down.
He didn't stand.
Didn't speak.
Just… smiled.
Leon didn't give him the chance.
He pulled the trigger.
The mana bullet shrieked through the air.
And—
BOOM.