The vampiress landed before Thalion with a feral snarl, her claws already mid-swing. The jungle’s flames had long since sputtered out, only a few flickering tongues of fire still clung to life around him, vanishing without fuel or guidance. Until now, Thalion had played defensively, dodging her empowered strikes since she’d activated her fearsome boost. But now, she was weakening and he was done running.

This time, he met her blow head-on.

With a defiant roar, Thalion swung a crimson overhand slash, fingers curled into a claw-like arc. Mid-swing, he shifted forms, becoming the Crippled Eclipsari. His arm warped, transforming into elongated, jet-black claws that shimmered with dark energy. Shadows spiraled around him as he activated Shadow Claw, the corrupted power surging into his strike. Their blows collided with a thunderous crack, shaking the scorched battlefield and blasting both of them backward.

Thalion reacted instantly. Black tendrils burst from the surrounding shadows and anchored him in place, halting his retreat after just a few meters. Across the clearing, the vampiress tumbled over ten meters through the air. Thalion bared his needle-like teeth in a wicked grin. With no time to waste, he conjured several shadow-forged spikes using Umbral Spire, each one drawn directly from his own shadow. He hurled them with vicious speed, hoping to catch her disoriented.

She was just fast enough to evade the skill by an inch. The spires hissed past, carving through air with supernatural force.

“What is this?” she hissed in fury, eyes narrowing at the sight of his monstrous new form.

Thalion gave no reply. He launched forward, his blackened form streaking across the clearing. Despite having only one functioning arm, he was stronger now, his body shrouded in darkness radiating raw, violent power. The vampiress reacted too late. Thalion ducked beneath her clawed swipe and retaliated, slashing at her leg with Shadow Claw once more.

There was a sickening crack as his claws cleaved cleanly through the femur.

Her blood-bound plant surged to respond, vines attempting to bind and stabilize the leg, but Thalion didn’t care. His strike was far heavier than his earlier sword blow to the back, designed not just to wound, but to break her. She screamed, high and piercing, and dozens of vines exploded from her skin in an attempt to tear him apart. But Thalion vanished, consumed in black fire.

He reappeared behind her, biting down hard on the base of her neck. He had aimed for her skull, but the chaos and her desperate movements shifted his aim. No matter. He unleashed Abyssal Bite, and black mist poured from his mouth as his fangs sank deep. Her collarbone shattered beneath the crushing force.

Without hesitation, he seized her right arm and yanked. Flesh tore with a wet rip, and the limb came free in his hand.

The vampiress reeled, either stunned by the pain or simply too slow to react. Before she could recover, Thalion jerked his head like a predator, ripping out a chunk of her shoulder, bone and muscle clinging to his teeth. He backflipped to evade her counter, narrowly avoiding a desperate slash from her remaining claw. Blood spilled into the air, and for a moment, she dropped to one knee, her right arm hanging by mere strands of skin.

But she wasn’t finished, not yet.

A cyclone of blood erupted around her, spiraling outward like a crimson hurricane. Her body began to knit itself back together, vines weaving flesh and bone with eerie precision. If he gave her even a second more, she’d be whole again.

Fortunately, the Crippled Eclipsari had just the spell for this.

While the storm raged around her, her own shadow remained unguarded. Thalion cast Umbral Spire, forcing as much power as he could channel into her silhouette. She didn’t see it coming. With a sudden, sickening crunch, a five-meter-high spire of shadow burst from beneath her, impaling her through the abdomen and lifting her clear off the ground.

For a heartbeat, she resembled a skewered fish over a campfire, motionless and grotesque.

Still, the fight wasn’t over.

Though grievously wounded, she writhed in defiance. Her vines lashed out, clawing at the spire, and already her bloodplant surged with energy to restore her broken body. The dark energy eating away at her flesh helped delay her regeneration, but he needed to press the advantage. Thalion fired several more darkness-infused spikes toward her. She used her vines and a swirl of blood to intercept but that was precisely what he wanted.

While her focus was diverted, he exhaled a thick mist of black shadow, concealing himself from her view. Hidden from sight, he used his bloodline skill once more, vanishing from the battlefield and reappearing directly above and slightly behind her suspended form.

This time, he was ready to end it.

In his hand, a blade of pure black flame took shape, pulsing with unholy energy as it charged with lethal intent.

Over thirty percent of Thalion’s mana surged into the blade, infusing it with an aura of dreadful majesty. The weapon pulsed with power, glowing like a burning brand of death. This was his strongest attack, the same technique he had used to end Nathaniel, though that earlier blade had been but a shadow of the one he wielded now. The vampiress, impaled and distracted by the shadow spikes, was in no condition to dodge. Blocking it? Impossible.

She realized something was wrong but far too late.

With a scream of defiance, she spun toward the heavens, raising her only remaining arm. Vines erupted from her in a violent bloom, writhing like a blood-drenched tree birthing itself from her torn body. But Thalion didn’t care. With a roar, he brought down the greatsword, now over three meters long, in a sweeping arc.

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The chamber shook as a devastating explosion tore through the space. Her defenses crumbled beneath the blow, and her lower body was obliterated. She hung limp on the spire, like a puppet with its strings cut, everything below her chest gone. One arm dangled broken from a shredded shoulder. The other had been severed entirely. Her summoned blood collapsed into a crimson flood, splashing across the chamber floor.

Only her plant familiar still fought to repair the damage, stubbornly weaving flesh and bone with wild, panicked precision. The vampiress gazed down at what little remained of her body beaten, broken, and utterly defeated.

Now would’ve been the time for a dramatic descent. Thalion could have floated down, offered a final monologue...“You never had a chance.” But theatrics were not his style. Besides, the Crippled Eclipsari couldn’t fly.

So instead, he simply dropped.

He landed with a thud before her shattered form, shifting from his black flame form back into the corrupted creature. Without pause, he shredded the newly growing vines that attempted to form a second jungle. He hacked off her last arm, then plunged Shadow Claw into her skull. Her head caved in under the blow, and with it, her life ended—finally and completely.

But it wasn’t over.

The vampiress’s evolved Sanguine Thorn still pulsed beneath her ruined heart waiting, resisting, surviving. Thalion reverted to his human form as the Crimson Virethorn within him sensed its opportunity. It surged toward the weakened remnant of the vampiress’s bloodplant with ravenous hunger.

Even without its host, the plant resisted fiercely, tearing through several of Thalion’s conjured vines in defense. He was forced to activate Crimson Garden, flooding the battlefield with his own blood magic to overpower the stubborn creature. To resist both him and the Crimson Virethorn, after the death of its master? That alone was impressive.

Still, it didn’t take long.

The Virethorn devoured its counterpart with eager glee, and a wave of power exploded through Thalion’s body. The last trace of the vampiress disintegrated. Across the battlefield, the undead forces turned toward him, stunned.

“Enough standing around!” Josh bellowed, charging once more at the undead wyvern. “Finish them! We must destroy the pillar before it’s too late!”

A chorus of war cries echoed through the chamber as Thalion’s allies surged forward, morale blazing with the certainty of victory.

But Thalion had his own crisis to deal with.

The Crimson Virethorn, bloated with absorbed energy, demanded to evolve once again and this time, it was too much. Thalion could feel the transformation brewing inside him, a pressure threatening to knock him unconscious. He couldn’t allow that. not now, not in the middle of the final battle.

The plant wasn’t resisting the upgrade. The problem was the sheer scale of it. The power coursing through him was so immense it would take several minutes to stabilize. He had to act fast. He considered shifting into another form, hoping it might stall the process but the risk was too great.

Instead, Thalion took to the air in Mistform, his body a vapor of blood.

He flew toward the one enemy he wanted alive, the Blood Witch.

She intrigued him. He had seen her summon crimson spikes from above and below, conjure ghostly spires with clawed hands, even teleport. She was also undoubtedly the source of the red mist that clung to every undead beast under her control. Her abilities would be a priceless addition to his arsenal.

The Crippled Eclipsari’s victory over the vampiress had been thanks to shadow manipulation. Imagine having multiple such powers in one form. Evelyn might want the witch dead but Thalion had other plans. A few days in the Fear Pillar would be enough to extract what he needed.

As he descended, the witch was busy commanding the remaining vampires, unaware of her impending fate. The moment Mistform dissolved, Thalion materialized beside her. Before she could react, he gripped her throat and lifted her off the ground.

Compared to the vampiress, she was nothing.

Vines erupted from his arm, piercing her flesh and rooting through her body like feeding serpents, draining blood and resources with merciless efficiency.

“A-Ahhh… no...!” she screeched, before Thalion's grip tightened, cutting her words to a gasp.

Bound in place, her limbs immobilized, the vines absorbed any mana she regenerated. She couldn’t move, couldn’t cast, only struggle in futility. Thalion released her and dropped to one knee as another wave of power surged through him.

The Crimson Virethorn was beginning its evolution.

Three figures rushed toward him. Two undead beasts and one remaining vampire. Thalion reacted instinctively. He unleashed two wide, crimson slashes, slicing the beasts in half, and fired a barrage of blood thorns at the vampire, who fell screaming. The witch landed in a heap before him, still bound, just as he dropped to one knee again. It was coming fast.

Then Evelyn stepped forward.

She stared down at the witch with eyes as cold and unforgiving as a winter storm, killing intent rolling off her like a tide.

“Now,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the chaos around them, “I finally get my revenge.”

Thalion forced himself upright, shouting, “Wait! Don’t kill her yet... I have questions. Once I’m done, she’s yours!”

But the pain overwhelmed him, his vision darkening.

Maybe I should’ve waited, he thought bitterly. Maybe I should’ve contained the vampiress’s bloodplant until the battle was over but how could have known that something like that was about to happen? The Crimson Virethorn gave no sign that it was about to upgrade.

Darkness swallowed his mind. Vines caught his falling body and cradled him as a new jungle of blood began to grow around him.