Veil tossed the severed head before Miss Sera and Kaelyn.
They froze. Stunned. Unable to move.
He turned back toward the dungeon core, now pulsating with ominous energy.
"Is it time already?" Veil muttered, his voice almost... excited.
Suddenly—
**_BOOM._**
No, it wasn't just a sound—it was a _pulse_. A ripple that cracked through the air, the same kind of ripple that happened when the fog first descended upon the city.
"Again?" Miss Sera whispered, barely standing. Her thoughts scrambled, her legs unsteady.
Above them, the sky shifted.
Mana spiraled into the air, swirling like a storm, condensing rapidly.
Then it began to take shape.
A humanoid form—massive, imposing, not fully solid but real enough to tear through their last hope.
"Finally... he's back," Veil said, grinning wide with wicked anticipation.
The figure solidified more with each passing second. The swirling air became arms, robes, bone. The deathly figure's form came into focus. What stood before them was no monster, no demon, but something worse than both.
"A-An Elder Lich..." Kaelyn mumbled, her voice trembling, laughter escaping her lips in quiet panic.
A being born of pure mana and death. A creature that commands the dead, wielding a scythe that consumes not just life—but _souls_.
Sera moved.
She leapt forward, sword raised high, her body screaming from pain but her spirit refusing to let it end like this.
**_Clang!_**
Her blade met the lich's scythe—an ancient weapon pulsing with death. One swing was enough to knock her back, hurling her across the ground like a ragdoll.
"What a foolish gesture," Veil said calmly, watching her crash with a sick kind of pride.
"Seraphina!" Kaelyn screamed, rushing to her side as the ground shook.
**_SKREECHHH!_**
A deafening screech rang out as the Elder Lich's form was completed.
"Uhhh... _Finally!_" it groaned, its voice jagged and echoing like rusted metal scraping stone.
Kaelyn dropped beside Sera, tears in her eyes. "Seraphina, please... What do we do now? Tell me!"
Sera coughed, blood on her lips. She tried to lift her head but only managed a whisper.
"I'm sorry, Kaelyn... It's over."
Her voice cracked as her gaze met the rising death lord in the sky.
"That thing... can't be killed by us."
She closed her eyes.
"Everything is over for us."