NOVEL NEXT Chapter 427: Fallen Sun
The battlefield was a storm of destruction.
Fire and light flared against the twisted gloom of chains and warped probability, every clash shaking the very bones of the mountain.
Atreides stood at the center of it all, blazing like a miniature sun, his radiance a constant insult to the shadows that Kant and Maren weaved against him.
Each attack split the air like thunder, and each counter rippled reality itself, but though the two Elders worked seamlessly in tandem, their opponent only laughed.
"You call this a fight?" Atreides bellowed, his voice carrying even above the roar of destruction. His fists blazed, hurling arcs of flame that reduced soldiers and rubble alike to molten slag.
"If I had known the mighty Elders of Carthage were this weak, I would've walked into your city centuries ago. Instead I wasted my time in the shadows, waiting. Hiding! For what? For you?"
Maren darted through the inferno, her sword a glowing thread of certainty. Numbers scrolled down its edge like a living equation, bending chance itself to her will.
She slashed, and probability folded. The strike would land, no matter how Atreides twisted.
He snarled as the blade cut across his flank, searing his flesh. He retaliated with a backhanded flare that engulfed the space around her in fire, but her dampening aura forced the flames to scatter, leaving her standing untouched.
Kant seized the opening, his chains lashing out from every shadow. They snapped around Atreides's arm, shoulder, and waist, dragging him down with a weight of darkness. Each chain radiated an ancient malice, hungry to constrict and consume.
Atreides only grinned wider, his teeth gleaming like polished ivory in the glare of his own light.
"Pathetic tricks! The only thing you two have going for you is numbers. That's it. Two against one. And even then, you're struggling."
His aura blazed, burning hotter. The chains smoldered, shattering one by one until they burst apart in sparks. He spread his arms wide, fire pouring from him like a tidal wave, carving a molten canyon into the battlefield.
The wave scorched Kant's armor and forced Maren back, her dampening struggling to disperse the overwhelming heat.
"Death was right," Atreides sneered, striding forward through his own firestorm. "You Elders had your chance. You had your city, your power, your false dominion. But you screwed it all up."
"You made enemies of everyone who should've been your allies, and now look at you! Desperate, clinging to scraps of power while your world burns."
The ground shook as his next step cracked the ground beneath them.
Kant's chains coiled again, pulling him into the sky. Maren followed, probability skewing the path of her leap until she landed neatly by Kant's side.
The three of them hovered above the battlefield, power crackling between them like colliding storms.
Atreides laughed again, his eyes gleaming with wild joy. "Ah, now this is better. In the air, where everyone can see."
"Watch closely, Carthage!" he roared, raising his arms. "This is the moment your protectors fail you!"
They collided in mid air, the shockwave flattening everything for miles around.
Entire companies of soldiers, both the invaders and defenders, were torn apart in the backlash.
The clash was a storm of light and shadow that turned the skies black and red.
Kant and Maren fought harder, their synergy growing stronger.
Maren's probability dampening bent Atreides's attacks off-course, scattering his beams of flame into harmless angles.
Kant's chains wound tighter, coiling around his limbs, forcing him to expend more energy to break free.
Each clash took more of his strength, each moment dragging him further from the ground he loved to dominate.
Atreides's grin disappeared for the first time when a chain snapped shut around his throat, jerking him back just as Maren's sword thrust forward.
The blade speared into his side, probability ensuring it bypassed his defenses entirely. His roar was deafening, the light of his aura flaring so violently that the battlefield below was blinded.
"You think this is enough?!" He bellowed, tearing free, blood evaporating off his glowing skin. "This… this is nothing!"
He slammed both fists together, and the air cracked. A sunburst detonated outward, incinerating the chains, driving Kant and Maren back. The explosion carved a glowing scar into the heavens, seen across every layer of Carthage.
But Kant and Maren did not relent. They surged back into him, pressing their advantage.
They had studied him now, and seen the pattern of his reckless strength. Each time he pushed forward, Maren redirected chance against him, and Kant bound the weakness that followed.
Their combined rhythm quickly became a noose.
Atreides's laughter grew ragged, tinged with fury. "Two gnats! That's all you are. If I had just one more of me, you wouldn't last a second. But it doesn't matter—"
His words cut off as Maren feinted, her probability folding space itself for a split second. He moved to counter what he thought was her true strike, only for Kant's chains to seize his leg, pulling him downward.
Maren descended with her sword in both hands, slashing probability into inevitability.
The blow struck his chest with the force of a mountain. Atreides roared as the impact drove him down like a meteor.
He crashed into the battlefield, the ground exploding in fire and dust, a crater yawning wide beneath him.
Shockwaves toppled buildings, flung soldiers like ragdolls, and silenced the war for a breath as all eyes turned to the fallen sun.
Atreides groaned, rising from the pit, molten stone dripping from his skin. His light still burned, but his breaths came harsher now. His grin had returned, bloody but defiant. "Is that…all you've got?"
High above, Kant and Maren didn't waste the moment. They hovered side by side, their powers entwining.
Chains laced with probability formed a lattice, a weapon of impossible certainty. Maren's sword became the focal point, glowing with compressed numbers until it resembled a blade forged from pure inevitability.
Together, they raised the weapon high, combining their strength into a single killing blow.
Atreides looked up, his eyes narrowing.
And for the first time since the fight began, true fear flickered in his burning eyes.