CHAPTER 189: TEAMWORK!

The fall of the first construct didn’t so much echo as resonate. The moment the runic light inside its chest flickered out and the obsidian-metal body collapsed into inert fragments, the entire throne chamber vibrated in reply, like the castle itself had acknowledged the kill.

Twenty-seven sets of white-silver eyes rotated toward the trio all at once. No emotion or malice, only sharpening interest, as if recalibrating their threat assessment after the defeat of one of their comrades.

Albedo pivoted back, sliding smoothly into his stance, Havoc and Ruin glinting with shifting mode-lights.

"Positions," he ordered, voice low but carrying. "Elara, midline coverage. Lilian, flanking pressure. Don’t let them surround us."

Lilian wiped the blood from the corner of her lip, a wild grin curling despite the pain throbbing in her ribs. "Finally, something worthy of my excitement."

Elara planted her staff, breath tight but steady. "Already on it."

The constructs moved, any sign of recklessness removed from their movements as they quickly adjusted formations into two rows of rotating pairs. Perfect military alignment, a maneuver that was common for the highest-ranked Demon Commanders in ancient times.

Albedo didn’t wait to find out what they were planning.

"Forward!"

He launched with a burst of immense force, his feet cracking marble as he blurred into the center lane of the construct formation.

Three constructs leapt to intercept him.

Albedo saw every angle, every micro-shift in their stances.

Havoc flared crimson for Infernal Mode while Ruin turned cobalt for Mana-Drain Mode.

He twisted, ducking under a spear thrust by a hair’s breadth, sliding forward on one knee while unleashing a spiral of flame upward. The entire arc of flame carved a crescent that engulfed all three constructs at once.

Elara followed up instantly.

She slammed her palm into the marble, sending vines of shimmering emerald mana bursting outward. They didn’t aim to restrain, the constructs would break free instantly, but rather to trip their footwork, interrupting stance recovery just long enough for,

"NOW!" Albedo barked.

Lilian dropped from above, her blood forming wicked hooked chains that wrapped around the nearest construct’s helmet and yanked downward. She rotated midair, adding torque to her pull, and slammed the construct’s head into the floor.

Albedo finished it, unleashing a burst of concentrated Crimson Apocalypse Flames that punched directly through the exposed throat joint of the construct.

Its runic eyes flickered and then the construct collapsed, making that two down.

"Good! Keep momentum!" Albedo shouted.

But momentum wasn’t easy.

The rest of the constructs surged like a tidal wave.

A glaive sliced horizontally toward Elara’s midsection, a longsword thrust for Lilian’s back and a spear dropped from above toward Albedo’s skull. The constructs moved together with choreographed brutality, perfectly in sync.

Elara twisted her staff sideways, shaping a dome of hardened air.

The spear hit first, and the impact shattered the dome but slowed the attack just enough for Albedo to vault backward and counter with a gravity slug that redirected the spear’s path entirely, sending it spinning away like a meteor.

Lilian vanished in a blur of blood mist just as the longsword cleaved through the space she had been. She rematerialized behind the construct that swung at her, planting two blood sigils onto its back.

"Albedo!"

He recognized the signal instantly using Source Code, and he immediately fired a dual burst without even looking.

Havoc’s infernal flames ignited the sigils Lilian had placed, turning them into explosive catalysts. The construct was engulfed in an implosion of crimson fire, its armor rippling before cracking open like brittle glass.

Three down.

Elara meanwhile swept her staff in a wide arc, summoning a tangle of earthen spikes erupting from the floor in a half-circle.

Three constructs vaulted over them effortlessly.

Elara cursed, until she smirked, the Nature Mana shifting around her.

The spikes weren’t meant to hit. They were roots. The moment the constructs landed, thick wooden tendrils snapped up from below, grabbing their ankles and twisting. Even if only for a second.

That second was enough.

"Lilian, left!"

"Already there!"

Lilian darted in, sliding low like a streak of red lightning. She sliced through the weakened joints behind the constructs’ knees with blood-forged blades. The constructs staggered.

Albedo’s pistols flashed.

Two mana-drain slugs cracked their chest plates. Their movements slowed, just slightly, but it was enough for Albedo to finish all three with a rotating volley that ricocheted between them like deadly pinballs.

Six down, but there was still twenty remained, and they were learning. The constructs repositioned, forming a perfect diamond formation with alternating weapon specialists: spear, glaive, halberd, dual blades, shieldbearer.

Their collective aura surged.

Lilian tensed, "They’re syncing."

Elara’s eyes widened. "They’re copying military synergy protocols, this is bad."

Albedo narrowed his eyes.

"No choice. We break their formation."

He blurred forward again, pushing his body harder, flickering between gravity bursts and flame-enhanced dashes. A spear thrust came straight for his heart. He leaned aside, letting it pass within a hair’s width, and retaliated with a point-blank infernal detonation.

The construct absorbed the blast, then twisted its spear to trap his wrist.

It had predicted the recoil angle.

Albedo tore himself free, flipping backward,

Just as another construct landed behind him with a descending scythe.

"Elara!"

"I’ve got you!"

She thrust her staff upward. A pillar of roots erupted between Albedo and the incoming scythe, blocking the attack half a second before shattering. Albedo used the brief opening to unleash a gravitational mine, the implosion sending the scythe construct tumbling back.

Lilian swooped in from the flank, blood chains ripping out like serpents. She hooked a construct’s leg, yanked it off-balance, and elbowed her fist straight into its visor with a blood-enhanced impact that sent runes flickering inside its skull.

"Albedo, open!" Lilian snapped.

He threw his daggers instantly, the daggers splitting into multiple duplicates that sliced through the head and chest of the construct, shattering it.

Seven down.

Then the constructs adapted again.

This time they moved with unpredictable staggered timing, desynchronizing deliberately to break the trio’s rhythm. One came in low, another high, a third sliding across the floor to sweep their feet.

Elara felt the danger first, "They’re trying to isolate us!"

"Stay together!" Albedo ordered. "Triangle formation!"

Lilian and Elara converged on him immediately. The three of them shifted into a defensive triangle, backs protected and all angles covered.

Three constructs attacked at once.

Albedo intercepted the halberd; Lilian deflected twin blades with blood shields and Elara summoned a swirl of wind that slowed the third enough for Albedo to shoot its weapon arm off at the elbow.

Lilian took the opening to leap forward, transforming her blood into a guillotine-like blade that hacked into the exposed neck joint.

Eight down.

But the constructs were relentless.

A shieldbearer slammed into Lilian, sending her flying back. Elara grabbed her mid-air with vines before she hit the wall.

Albedo found himself surrounded by four at once.

One went for his legs.

Another struck for his heart.

A third rotated its axe at shoulder-level.

The fourth hurled a weighted chain for his wrist.

Albedo’s instincts exploded into overdrive.

He switched Ruin to Graviton, firing into the ground beneath him and launching himself upward with insane force. Midair, he spun, unleashing a 360-degree ring of infernal fire.

The blast carved a corona of flames across the room, forcing the constructs to step back—even if they didn’t take real damage.

"Lilian! Above!"

She flung a blood javelin upward, activating a sigil at its tip that detonated into a hundred needle-sized projectiles. The rain of blood-needles descended, hammering the constructs’ armor from above.

Elara slammed her staff down. Vines burst upward, snaring the constructs’ legs.

Not holding them.

Just slowing them.

"Finish them!" she shouted.

Albedo descended like a meteor, Havoc and Ruin blazing.

A Graviton Slug hit first,

~CRACK!~

Infernal burst followed

~BOOM!~

The weakened construct’s torso erupted into molten shards.

Nine down.

Lilian teleported via blood-step behind another, carving deep sigils in its back. Albedo shot them, detonating the sigils. The construct folded inward.

Ten down.

Elara shaped a storm of razor leaves around their formation and launched it forward. The leaves shredded into the exposed joints of another construct, and Albedo finished it with a mana-drain shot to the core.

Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen...

They kept moving and fighting as a unit.

Albedo shouted commands, predicting enemy movements with impossible clarity. Lilian flowed like lethal red silk, slipping through openings with predatory elegance. Elara controlled the battlefield, raising walls, blocking blind spots, tripping constructs with roots and windbursts.

Fifteen.

Sixteen.

The constructs fought harder, faster, more refined with every kill.

But the trio refined faster, the ingenuity of sentient beings coming out on top as Albedo slammed a construct’s head into the floor and blew its chest apart.

Lilian carved sigils across another’s arms, letting Elara snap them with a quake spell before Albedo finished it.

Seventeen.

Eighteen.

Nineteen.

The room was a storm of flame, blood, nature, and metal.

Twenty.

Twenty-one.

Twenty-two.

Sweat dripped down Albedo’s jaw. Lilian’s breaths were sharp and ragged. Elara’s arms trembled from the mana expenditure.

But they didn’t stop.

A construct lunged for Elara’s back.

Albedo appeared between them, pistols crossed, blocking the strike with gravity fields before blasting the construct’s face point-blank.

Twenty-three.

Lilian skewered the next through the visor.

Twenty-four.

Elara trapped another with a ring of roots; Albedo shattered it.

Twenty-five.

Two remained.

They came in absolute silence, moving with Diamond-rank precision, weapons spinning in blurs of silver.

Albedo planted his feet.

"Together."

Lilian inhaled sharply. "Together!"

Elara nodded, staff glowing, "Let’s finish this!"

The last two constructs charged,

And the trio moved as one.

Albedo unleashed an infernal-graviton spiral.

Lilian detonated a blood nova.

Elara slammed a quake of nature mana beneath their feet.

The combined explosion was cataclysmic.

The two constructs disintegrated mid-charge, runic cores flickering out like dying stars.

Silence.

True silence.

Albedo lowered his pistols.

Lilian braced her hands on her knees, panting. "I... am never fighting those things again."

Elara collapsed backward, staring up at the misty ceiling. "My legs... are jelly. Actual jelly."

Albedo scanned the room and immediately noticed that the throne glowed faintly. A sigil appeared above it, and a deep voice rumbled through the hall:

"YOU HAVE PASSED THE FIRST TRIAL."

The throne room doors began to open, allowing them to leave and continue their search for the Hall!