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Because that is all Jake saw outside of the central platform and the many floating pieces of debris: empty space. The environmental mana also changed significantly and appeared far more empty. Hollow. Nearly all of the affinities were gone, leaving them only with pure mana.

His eyes slowly adjusted as he noticed how much darker it had gotten. As they finished adjusting, he finally got a good understanding of what had happened.

Stars all around them provided little light as Jake and company found themselves floating on a large stone platform in the middle of space. The only other physical objects besides the large stone platform they were planting on were the broken parts of the walls and ceiling that had survived the giant orb’s explosion, now floating all around them, suspended in space as gravity had also shifted.

The orb had been entirely made to blow up the room and had done nothing to Jake and the others. It was just a fancy way to introduce this arena where the final phase would take place.

As for Minaga himself, he was floating on a small platform right in front of them, both staves ready.

”Let us have this final fight amongst the stars! Come, challengers, and face me in my most powerful state! Okay, my most powerful state within the C-grade portion of Nevermore, anyway. Wait, also outside of that special lesson with the old swordsman. Ignore those. This is my most powerful state nevertheless!”

They stared up at the Unique Lifeform as Jake had a premonition.

”He is going to use more… complicated forms of magic now. At least space magic, probably also other kinds,” Jake sent through the Golden Mark, warning the others.

None of them seemed surprised, as there had to be something different about this final phase. Jake experienced an odd mix of emotions as he wanted to see what Minaga was now capable of, but on the other hand, he also wanted to win.

Jake smiled as he looked tauntingly at Minaga, getting a grin in response.

”Now, let us begin!”

Minaga’s words became the starting shot as his body began to glow with power. Jake felt his aura heighten, and he instantly understood there was more to this phase than just more complicated magic.

The Unique Lifeform had finally used his own boosting skill.

Jake instantly retreated, as the Sword Saint and Dina did the same while she kept healing him. The Fallen King, despite being damaged, dove forward. Considering his boosting skill was fully active from the get-go, he seemed keen to get into the action. Sylphie followed suit as she circled around their foe, waiting for an opening.

Smiling, Minaga stomped his foot. The platform below him cracked as he kicked off it, all of the stone catching fire and shooting towards the Fallen King. He blocked it with a barrier in front of him, but Minaga had already released another attack before the King had time to react. This one struck from above, completely avoiding the summoned barrier as dozens of ice shards fell upon the Unique Lifeform.

Minaga was about to do more when an Arcane Powershot struck him, forcing him to retreat slightly. Jake did not let up as he kept shooting, fully making use of the wide-open space. He had already found his way to some of the debris, using it as a foothold while shooting.

“You really are the biggest threat. Or maybe just the most annoying,” Minaga praised Jake. At least he saw it as praise. The Unique Lifeform spread out his arms, and suddenly, Jake felt like the stars above shone slightly brighter than a moment prior. He jumped as he felt a sense of danger, and just in time as a beam descended from above, obliterating where he had just been standing.

Using a hand motion, Minaga made the stars above shift. Jake was still staring as what looked like a bull was formed as lines were drawn, and the entire figure began to glow. Sylphie tried to stop Minaga, but he teleported – meaning space magic was now also on the table – and appeared too far away for any of them to interfere.

Up above, the constellation flashed one final time as it began moving. For a brief moment, Jake felt like the constellation connected to a higher concept, one far beyond anything in a C-grade dungeon. It was gone as fast as it came, but Jake had used Identity on the constellation on instinct… and he was not sure if he regretted that decision.

[Eldenstar Bull Monarch – lvl ????]

He saw this Identify result only for a brief second as it suddenly changed – even his system log was no longer the same.

[Sign of the Bull – lvl 260]

The beast broke out of the stars above as it descended upon them. Its body was made up entirely of stars, making it take on an ethereal appearance. The power it radiated was also not to be underestimated, especially if one considered it was some kind of summon.

This beast flew straight down for Sylphie as space seemed to warp around it. Minaga also quickly began moving again as he pointed his staff towards Jake. Stepping down, Jake teleported away just in time as all the debris around him flew toward where he had just stood, forming a solid ball of stone. Gravity magic?

Jake also had to dodge this solid ball as Minaga threw it at him. High above the platform, Sylphie had engaged this Sign of the Bull monster. The beast used some kind of astral magic as space warped and small stars appeared, exploding to dispel Sylphie’s wind. Sylphie did not want to see herself outdone, though, as she began to tear into the creature of stars. It seemed very effective, too, as the winds alone seemed to almost destabilize the constellation’s form.

Why or how it was so effective, Jake didn’t know… but then again, Sylphie’s Sylphian Winds were weird.

Back with Minaga, the Fallen King had shrugged off the ice shards and engaged again. Golden blasts lit up the darkness of space, blocking out the lights of the stars as Minaga summoned a dense barrier to block. The golden waves rolled over it as Minaga lifted his hand.

One of the staves appeared as space shook. The entire staff began shining as reality warped around it, the staff itself warping in turn as it took on the appearance of a spear, and lighting bolts flew from its form. A golden hammer soon descended, but Minaga had already teleported once more, appearing floating above the middle of the platform as he grasped the staff, ready to throw it.

“Dodging this one is heavily recommended.”

He was looking straight at Jake, but he was ready. So was the Fallen King. Problem was… there was no sense of danger. His intuition screamed, and Jake reacted.

“Dina, watch out!”

Minaga twisted his body mid-throw, the spear of lightning flying past Jake and the King – straight for Dina, who had retreated with the Sword Saint to heal him.

Jake’s warning allowed her to respond just in time, and she acted without hesitation. Her entire form exploded in green light as a projection of a grand tree appeared above her, Dina herself standing within its trunk. It shielded both herself and the Sword Saint as the spear hit the translucent projection of the tree, only slightly embedding itself before the lighting was absorbed.

“So you have learned a bit from that old tree!” Minaga grinned. Dina’s body had also changed just as she cast this spell, her small antlers growing, and her clothes changed. She had entered her most powerful form, putting them on even more of a timer.

The Sword Saint stood beside her, looking apologetic. However, he did seem in way better shape now than when they first entered the room, that blast of intense life energy no doubt also doing him good.

Dina seemed less than happy with being forced to activate her form change and pointed her staff at Minaga’s staff, which was stuck in the bark of the projected tree. Roots shot up and coiled around it, dragging it into the ground, effectively sealing it away.

“Now that is just petty,”Minaga shook his head just as he flew to the side to avoid a golden blast and a Splitting Arrow.

At least he thought he had avoided the attacks, as they flew straight past him and hit the Sign of the Bull that Sylphie was fighting, blasting it back and allowing Sylphie to land a solid blow of her own. Minaga saw this and cursed to himself a bit. He began flying upwards to help the beast, but Jake and the Fallen King had resumed their attacks, forcing him to respond.

He dodged all the attacks by flying through the air and deflected a few arrows with his staff. Exactly three seconds after he had thrown the lightning spear, he teleported away when Jake and the Fallen King had managed to pincer him.

“Three seconds between the big spells and more magic,” Jake shared his thoughts with the group. “Or it may be a trick… either way, it could be an opportunity.”

With his magic back, Minaga went on the offensive. The Fallen King and Jake found themselves heavily pressured as Sylphie was slowly winning above, and the Sword Saint and Dina prepared themselves to rejoin the fight. The projected tree was still there, and Dina had briefly shared through the Golden Mark that she could not move or do any long-range magic with the skill active.

A projected tree that didn’t allow you to move? Very thematic. From the looks of it, Minaga knew this was the case, too, as he went hard for the Fallen King. The Unique Lifeform had already been damaged after the second phase, and now he was even worse off. Dina’s quick healing simply wasn’t enough, and with how much stronger Minaga was now, Jake could not help enough.

Ice and rock shards cut into the Fallen King as he retreated and summoned a barrier, only for a burning ray of condensed light to descend from above, burning into his shoulder. A third follow-up attack sent a plane of pure space magic barreling into him, blasting him into the stone platform below, creating a small crater.

Before the Fallen King could get up, the stone around him warped, creating a small mound to temporarily seal him in.

Minaga raised his hands as energy began to gather. Jake instantly recognized the signs of a big spell being cast, and he tried to help with Gaze and a Powershot, but it only delayed Minaga slightly as he simply tanked the arrow, accepting the wound in trade for potentially finishing off one of his opponents.

Jake felt the Fallen King’s intention to try and land his final trump card through the Golden Mark. Yet just as he was about to, another figure rejoined the fight.

Thrown by a massive vine and surrounded by dense life magic, the Sword Saint flew straight for Minaga. Jake saw the light gather far up in the sky as the faint projection of a moon appeared just as overcast skies blocked out its light.

The old man turned younger for a moment as he appeared right in front of the Unique Lifeform and drew his blade.

“Glimpse of Spring: Stormcut.”

Space momentarily shattered as the barrier of spatial magic summoned by Minaga was cut through like butter. A large crescent wave spanned the horizon as blood spewed into the air, and the aura of the moon above faded away.

Minaga was sent stumbling back, a massive wound across his chest from shoulder to hip – the kind that would have had guts spilling out if the Unique Lifeform had any. He swiftly responded as his hand began to burn, and he dragged it across his own chest, cauterizing the wound.

“Man, that one was a lot stronger than against the Demon Lord… why did I agree to give you a lesson again?”Minaga asked rhetorically as he teleported away from Jake’s attempt to follow up. Something Jake was totally fine with, as he knew one of the Sword Saint’s weaknesses with the Glimpse of Spring was that he could not move immediately after using it. At least not very well.

“Good cut, though,”Minaga still grinned. “Does make me wonder… why is it only a glimpse?”

The Sword Saint still looked tired, even if he was healed, as the old man smiled. “Perhaps you will find out.”

“Making me all excited here,”the Unique Lifeform laughed in between dodging attacks from Jake.

Down below on the platform, Dina’s skill that had left her rooted – pun intended – expired, and she rushed over to the Fallen King, who had managed to break out of his tomb of stone. She had instantly gone to work with her healing, and the Unique Lifeform had taken out one of his golden soul pellet-things that he used as better-working potions for him.

In the sky, Sylphie was winning swiftly, her Sylphian Winds seemingly countering the constellation beast quite nicely. Once she was done, she would rejoin the fight against Minaga, and with the Fallen King and Dina also there, Jake saw their chances as good.

The only negative was that time wasn’t on their side. Everyone besides Jake and Sylphie had their boosting skills going at full power now, and while Minaga also had one active, Jake suspected he would outlast them. It was also only a matter of time before Jake and Sylphie had to go all out.

They all knew this, thus why they moved in unison to strike at Minaga while they could. With just the four of them, they pressured the Unique Lifeform, and Jake had to admit the old man surprised him.

If Jake had to say the Sword Saint had one major weakness, it was his defensive profile. He did use that weird painting once, but in most cases, he could only use his sword or weak water barriers to block attacks. That was still the case… but his way of doing it now felt different.

Minaga shot off turbulent waves of unstable space, making reality crack in its wake, but the Sword Saint some-fucking-how managed to slice through it, the magic dispersing. He even cut a blast of wind apart, making it scatter harmlessly around him. Whatever the hell had happened during that “lesson” of his had made the old man come out… sharper? Like the power of every cut had become stronger in some odd way.

Soon enough, the constellation beast was slain by Sylphie as she dove down and joined the assault. Minaga did prove a lot better defensively in this final phase, as he liberally teleported around and used spatial barriers, but he was still just only one being against five. When it was just two or even three of them, Minaga had the upper hand, but by now, they knew not to get separated and always covered each other.

Minaga slowly took on wounds as Jake and company managed to come out mostly okay if one didn’t consider their stamina and mana draining fast. Dina, in her transformed state, was a well-spring of life, healing them passively as she assisted them purely defensively, making sure no one took a bad hit.

The Sword Saint even covered the stars above with a raincloud that made rain fall upon the battlefield at all times. Things weren’t looking good for Minaga as he was repeatedly pushed back.

Things continued until Jake managed to land a well-charged Arcane Powershot after the Sword Saint broke a space barrier, sending the Unique Lifeform barreling back.

Sylphie flew in to follow up as Jake saw Minaga smile.

“Sylphie get ba-“

It was too late as Minaga turned towards Sylphie, as a black cube appeared in his hand. The hawk tried to avoid it, but he threw the cube like a baseball, and despite Sylphie’s wind blade and Green Shield, she was hit. The moment before the cube hit her, it expanded as Sylphie was entirely swallowed, the cube continuing in its thrown trajectory, the hawk nowhere to be seen.

“One down,” Minaga smiled as he pushed his hands together. “And do you know what time it is?”

Jake communicated with Sylphie, who seemed trapped within some odd space as Minaga spoke again.

“It’s labyrinth time!”

With those words, dozens of black cubes of shifting space appeared all around him and flew toward Jake and the others at unprecedented speed. They were all ready… until the cubes suddenly began teleporting. The Fallen King was not fast enough as a cube appeared right in front of him, swallowing him.

The Sword Saint dodged two, but a third one came from an odd angle as it flew out of a portal behind him, and when he turned and tried to cut it apart, he was simply swallowed along with his sword.

Dina blocked nearly a dozen of the cubes with vines and blasts of life energy until one managed to swallow her too.

From Sylphie, they quickly became aware of what these cubes were:

Spatial labyrinths.

Small self-contained labyrinths you would have to break out of to escape. They were small, but… who knew what Minaga could do with even a minute of no interference. Clearly, it would be best for at least one person not to get trapped.

This brings us to how Jake reacted.

More than a hundred cubes came for him – far more than any of the others - teleporting and shifting as portals appeared, spewing them out.

He proceeded to dodge every single cube as they flew past him, continuing into the darkness of space along with the four that contained his party members.

The Unique Lifeform had raised his staff and looked to be casting something as Jake looked his way mid-dodge. Minaga made eye contact and stopped casting.

“Yeah, good point; I won’t ever get it off. Oh well, I guess this is also a valid option.”

Minaga pulled the staff out of the ground below that Dina had tried to seal before, as his other one appeared too.

“Let’s see if you can hold out till the help arrives. Very in character, by the way. Refusing to do my labyrinths even now.”

“Hey, not my fault tha-“

A beam of light shot at Jake, forcing him to dodge as space around him seemed to bend, forcing him to blast himself to the side using mana in order to not have his face blown off.

“Oh no, you won’t get me monologing to buy time!”

I wasn’t trying to… Jake wanted to defend himself as he desperately tried to dodge. He realized there was no space to hesitate anymore as his body exploded with power. Arcane Awakening fully activated as he prepared to face off against Minaga in his most powerful form alone.