CHAPTER 198: CHAPTER 198 – ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE

The axe rose again, splitting the air like a comet forced to obey the grip of one hand. Sylvia held her breath for a moment not out of fear, but to reset her rhythm; anchoring her focus, suppressing the small waves of panic trying to slip through the cracks of her mind.

WHUUUUUM! KRAAANG! BOOOOM!!!

The next impact didn’t strike her body, but it was close enough to shatter the stone slabs into shards that rained across her gown. The heat from the friction in the air was like a slap. Sylvia ducked, stepping sideways, then darted to the Titan’s left side with nearly invisible acceleration.

"Deadlock Field."

The air around her thickened. Within a thirty-meter radius, time seemed to turn into a viscous liquid. Dark runes lit up on the floor circles locking atop each other like old keys forced into the wrong door. The pressure of the field bound any movement that didn’t belong to death itself.

The Ancient Titan faltered for half a second only half a second, but enough for an opening.

"Oblivion Roots."

Black roots exploded from cracks in the floor and buried themselves into the Titan’s shins, coiling like thousands of dry tendrils. Between the coils, the yellow-hot light flowing beneath the Titan’s skin flickered, as if the life within was slowly being drained away.

The Titan growled. No words. No taunts. Just the sound of minerals grinding heavy, ancient, grating to the ear. It pulled its right leg, massive muscles tensing, and the roots began snapping one by one.

TRAK-TRAK-TRAK!!

Sylvia was already moving. "Eclipse Piercing." Her palm sharpened, layered with both physical and magical penetration. She aimed for the gap under the armpit coinciding with the armor crack she had spotted when her Unification was forcefully stopped earlier.

KLANG!!!

Not flesh. Not a gap. The armor plate shifted a fraction of a second faster than she predicted. The Titan angled its shoulder, letting the back plate take the thrust at just the right deflecting angle.

Sylvia staggered but didn’t fall. Her nails elongated into thin, poisonous sickles.

"Venom Reaper Claw."

The claws sliced the air, weaving cross-patterns along the Titan’s side, injecting poison that normally turned armies into swamps of disease. The venom sank in she knew it but the yellow light beneath the Titan’s skin remained steady, dimming only by a fraction. The effect was there, but far too small to be considered a threat.

"...Fine," Sylvia murmured, her breath thin. "Then let’s get dirtier."

She slit her own left palm with the tip of her claw. Blackish-blue blood dripped, a strange heat crawling up her arm not pain, but the scream of an undead body ordered to feel again. Blood Instinct

surged.

[Blood Instinct: +1 Stack]

[All Stats +15%]

Seconds grew wider. The outline of the Titan’s movements became clearer every foot stomp, every shoulder sway before an axe swing, every almost-imperceptible pause in the wrist before the next shockwave. Sylvia swept the room with her crimson gaze.

"Shadow Veil."

Dark mist dripped from the walls and ceiling, wrapping the Deadlock field in an artificial night. Within the fog, Sylvia vanished. Her steps became a hiss. Her breath, a thin line hidden between collapsing dust.

The Titan swung an arc of the axe tearing through the mist. WUUUUSH!! BRAAAAK! The pillar behind it cracked apart, the ceiling shedding stones. Sylvia had already shifted, mapping the corners of the room in her mind while gauging distance.

"Gravebind."

Five soul chains burst from the ground, spearing weak points: right ankle, left knee, right elbow, left shoulder, and the nape’s base. The MP drain plunged sharply 3,500 MP gone like a waterfall forced into a widening pit.

[MP: 63% → 54%]

The Titan froze for a fraction then its muscles tensed, its joints screaming. Three bindings snapped together, scattering sparks of light. The other two held, forcing the giant’s body to lean.

Sylvia was already above, her shadow chain latching onto the Titan’s chest plate as a foothold. She spun downward along the plunge line beside its neck.

"Infectious Bite."

Her lips touched the armor gap the bite wasn’t just a tear; it was a precise cut, like a slaughter surgeon seeking an artery. Advanced, aggressive venom seeped into the Titan’s heat-flow, planting seeds of necrosis along the path.

A deep, rolling roar rumbled from the Titan’s chest. The yellow light beneath the skin around the bite flickered. There was a reaction. There was.

But the reaction came at a cost. The Titan’s left hand slapped not to grab her head (Sylvia was too fast for that), but the palm strike slammed into her like a cliff severing a river.

BAAAM!!

She spun through the air, hitting the wall and breaking halfway into it before Form 2: Shield bloomed automatically, layers of interlocked chains absorbing most of the shock. Her bones voiced their protest. Queen Flesh stitched the stripped tissue back together, the pain fading into a cold tingling.

[HP: Stable]

[MP-Regeneration: +10,000/min – active]

Sylvia wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, eyes fixed on the dim glow of the bite wound. Still too little. I need more connected wounds. Its internal channels... like magma rivers sealed under plates. I have to open multiple points at once.

She lunged again.

The Titan raised its axe. The swing came from below upward, a motion meant to split the fog and scoop a victim’s bones from the floor.

"Death Step Mirage."

Ten seconds of invulnerability, ten seconds of bruises without injury. Sylvia let the blade pass through her mortal shell without touching her, while her shadow slipped to the other side, planting Oblivion Roots in the Titan’s abdomen and Nether Branches on its hip. The root tips slid in like needles, locking the energy channels.

Ten seconds passed quickly. Too quickly.

The Titan forcibly tore free, both hands ripping roots and branches as though tearing woven paper. Its knee swung toward Sylvia she dodged by a mere centimeter, enough for the wind of the strike to whip her hair.

"Entropic Grasp."

The hand of death reached again, this time gripping the opposite side of the chest from the bite mark. Not to burn, but to chill to force entropy to drain ordered heat from the Titan’s core. The yellow light in that chest plate dimmed like embers smothered in ash.

The Titan spun with unnatural speed for its size. The back of its hand struck. Sylvia blocked with her Shield, but the push dragged her along the floor, scraping her back over shattered stone. The Shadow Veil mist rolled and tore around the impact, yet still cloaked the room like the curtains of hell.

[MP: 54% → 47%]

[Blood Instinct: +2 Stack (Total 3)] – All Stats +45%

Her breathing grew heavier not from physical fatigue, but from mounting mental load. Pain throbbed rhythmically at her temples like war drums.

In the distance, beneath the mist, Sylvia could hear traces of Soul Resonance: faint whispers of the hundreds of zombies that had been destroyed. They sent tiny waves not in words, but in the rhythm of the Titan’s stomps, its swing patterns, the pauses it favored between steps. Imperfect data, but enough to form a map of habits.

"...Thank you," she whispered to the void.

She marked three points: right knee, left armpit, and right chest forming a triangulation for the poison she had planted. If all three were opened and connected, the Titan’s heat flow would be cut off, like a river forced into a dead drop.

"Form 1: Binding."

Chains burst from the floor not to hold for long, but to disrupt rhythm. Every time the Titan lifted a foot or pulled a shoulder, a chain snagged it for a fraction of a second. In this space, a fraction was enough to save a city.

Sylvia slit her own sleeve, drawing a fresh line on her upper arm. Blood fell.

[Blood Instinct: +4, +5] – All Stats +75%

The world sharpened. She dove.

"Eclipse Piercing!"

The first thrust pierced the armor gap under the left armpit, this time not deflected, because she manipulated the angle and added force at the end, stabbing when the Titan was rotating its shoulder, not locking it. The thrust melted into the Titan’s upper arm a hand’s depth, letting poison seep in.

The Titan growled, pulling its axe to strike back. Sylvia had already shifted via Void Steps, not a far leap, just a two-meter sidestep, enough to avoid the dragging line of the axe through the mist.

She planted Oblivion Roots again into the right knee.

"Gravebind."

Second soul-chain.

[MP: 47% → 38%]

Three bindings triggered together knee pulling the Titan’s breath down, left shoulder stuck, right chest beginning to contract. Black roots fluttered like war banners in a storm.

Sylvia climbed her shadow chain, burst onto the right chest, and slashed with Venom Reaper Claw in a cross-motion.

SRET SRET SRET!

Three cuts formed a strange mark on the armor’s surface, not a rune, just a wound polarization to gather poison in a circular pattern. The venom multiplied, chain effects doubling, then doubling again, spreading in search of pathways.

The Titan was now truly enraged. Its left shoulder rammed through the mist, and the entire room rippled.

DUUUM! DUUUM!! DUUUM!!!

Each step was an earthquake. Deadlock Field groaned, its runes flickering, nearly breaking. The Titan raised its axe, letting ancient energy condense around the blade’s edge, the light no longer yellow, but a golden-white like a star’s core forced to the surface.

Sylvia felt her skin prickle. A field-breaking strike. If it landed, not only the mist would vanish, the room itself would split.

She forced a thin smile.

"...Sorry."

She anchored chains to the ceiling and yanked hard. House-sized stone panels collapsed in succession.

GRAAAAK KROOOH!

The roof avalanche piled atop the Titan, battering its armored frame and forcing it to guard its head with both hands. The stones shattered against it, but the weight was enough to pin the Titan’s knees to the floor for a crucial moment.

"...That moment," Sylvia whispered.

She dropped down like an arrow.