CHAPTER 376: THE END IS HERE

My mind steadied again.

The first arrow had landed. Hard. I felt the aftershocks of the impact still echoing through the strands of Essence around me. That Grandmaster should have felt it as well.

But there were still more.

Three Grandmasters still fought in the sky, blurred shapes flashing across the clouds, locking blades and weaving spells.

My Psynapse sharpened, zoning in on another one. He was keeping one of our Grandmasters pinned, hammering down blow after blow with raw strength and angry fists.

He wasn’t fast but his defense was iron.

I raised my hand again. More Essence gathered.

It was easier this time. My domain had already left its mark on this stretch of sky, threads of violet lines shimmered faintly, helping shape the flow. I pulled both natural and generated Essence again, mixing them into a single stream. They still resisted, but my control was stronger now. I shaped the second arrow and let it hover in front of the bow.

The string pulled back. The arrow clicked into place. My target roared something at our Grandmaster and raised both hands, trying to crush him with a two-handed smash.

"Wrong move." I smirked and released the arrow.

It sliced the air like a silent blade.

The Holt Grandmaster sensed something but not in time.

The arrow smashed into his chest. The moment it touched, the arrow shattered, releasing a massive shockwave that spun the man mid-air.

His crystal armor cracked open. A pained grunt escaped him. The Empire Grandmaster he was fighting wasted no time, he surged forward with a glowing blade and drove it straight through the man’s shoulder.

I continued and pulled the bowstring again.

This time I didn’t even think, I let my Psynapse do the work. It fed me everything: movement patterns, Essence fluctuations, which Grandmaster was struggling, and when they would blink next.

A third arrow formed. Essence wove together quickly now. The inner clash still made the arrow tremble faintly, but I was already used to holding it steady. It clicked into the bow.

I found the next target.

He was quick, one of the fastest Grandmasters I’d seen, dancing through the air with short curved blades. The Empire fighter chasing him looked slower, barely keeping up, always one move behind.

But he was predictable.

He blinked in a pattern, left, up, right, spin, slash. Over and over. My Psynapse tracked it. It waited.

So did I.

I let the string pull halfway. My breath slowed.

He blinked once more, this time vanishing behind the Empire Grandmaster. He raised both daggers for a clean strike at his exposed back.

Right then, I fired.

The arrow was already there by the time he lifted her hand.

It struck his shoulder with a pulse and exploded just off-target but still enough to throw her off course. The blades missed. He flipped once, spinning wildly, and the Empire Grandmaster turned with a surprised face and slashed across his leg.

Another gap opened. Another fight tipped.

The sky was starting to shift.

The Holt Grandmasters who once moved like predators now twitched with hesitation as all of them started looking out for me.

I let the bow tilt downward.

The sky had shifted, our side was gaining ground up here, but below? Well, we were winning there as well.

But there was nothing wrong with winning some more and ending this fast.

I pulled Essence. Hard.

The air around me rippled. Threads of natural and personal Essence churned, forming another arrow. Then another. And another. I didn’t stop. My Psynapse flared wide, locking onto dozens of targets across the city below. Each arrow took shape like muscle memory.

The first arrow was long. Sharp. Pulsing with violet veins from my domain. I let it nock itself and pulled the string halfway.

Then fired.

The arrow fell like judgment.

It slammed into a fortified building where dozens of Holt soldiers had gathered, blasting outward in a blinding pulse of heat and force.

BOOM!!!

The entire section of stone cracked apart, soldiers were flung like dolls, the structure vaporized in an instant.

The second arrow was already ready.

This one found a tower crawling with enemy soldiers. It streaked down with a low hum and smashed into the middle level.

Boom!!!

Wood. Steel. Flesh. Gone.

My third arrow curved mid-air and struck a group of masters hidden between two buildings. It exploded with a deep, echoing flash. A flash of black smoke burst up and the building along with all masters simply vaporised.

I didn’t stop.

Each arrow formed faster now. I created, aimed, and released. Over and over.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Each one was a small death bomb. They didn’t just kill, they ended fights. Whole squads disappeared. Walls collapsed. Screams turned into silence.

The ground was reshaping itself beneath me.

I paused only once, just to look.

The entire Holt base was tearing itself apart.

Skyscrapers burned. Entire floors had been blown out from the middle of glass towers, leaving twisted steel frames and black smoke rising into the sky.

My arrows had left craters where streets used to be, deep holes glowing red from the lingering Essence burns.

And the soldiers?

They were running.

The Holt elites who were defending the place had scattered. Their formation was gone.

Once-proud Masters with power hidden in their bodies were now scrambling across the place like mortals. Fear did that.

I watched from the sky, silent, high above it all.

Another arrow dropped from above and struck another group of Holt masters. The explosion was instant, an orange dome of fire that launched the parts of buildings into the air like it weighed nothing.

I saw a Master try to shield a squad using a barrier technique, light shimmered around them but it cracked the moment the blast touched it. The wave of force lifted the group and hurled them back across the street, where they slammed into a half-toppled building that finished the job.

The battle was nearly over from where I stood. We had more Grandmasters now, more Masters and I was here too.

All that remained were the Contractors, the three Grandmasters Dante was holding back, and finally, the leader of the Holts.