The Gamer’s POV

As Evelyn flew through the air towards Yami in a blur of red and black, a large scythe made of blood solidified in her arms. She let out a piercing battle cry, then swung the crimson blade with all her might, and her weapon clashed violently with Yami's staff.

"I'm going to rip you apart, you soul-sucking piece of shit!"

She gritted her teeth, flapped her wings back and disengaged, only to pivot in mid-air and launch a relentless flurry of slashes. Her scythe whistled through the wind as she tried to find a gap in his defense.

Unsurprisingly, Yami seemed to also be very good in close combat. He parried each of her strikes with fluid, precise movements, his staff moving like an extension of his own limbs. No matter how much weight Evelyn put into her swings, he met her aggression with a cold, calculated efficiency that made it clear he was no mere necromancer hiding behind his puppets.

As I watched the ongoing battle with blurry eyes that had begun to clear, I noticed that Evelyn's speed was starting to falter.

It was no surprise; after all, she was the one who had taken on most of the hollow dominants.

Not only was she low on mana, but in order to at least recover her stamina and health, she would need to drink a significant amount of blood.

A few more tense seconds of violent exchanges passed, and then Evelyn cursed loudly as the large bat-like wings on her back made of blood began to dissolve, pooling on the ground.

She had no choice but to drop to the ground, onto the bubbling pool of darkness surrounding Yami.

But then, the moment her feet touched the viscous surface, a dozen green hands erupted from the gloom, snaring her ankles and pulling her down into the depths.

"Fuck!" Evelyn cursed as she tried to hack through the limbs with her scythe. "Let go of me."

In that brief moment of vulnerability, Yami seized the opportunity and swung his staff with a sickening crack into her temple. Blood sprayed from the impact, painting the side of her face a deep crimson, and Evelyn's eyes immediately rolled back into her head as she went limp.

Since she had used up the last of the energy from the blood I gave her, along with the lingering strength harvested from her previous brawls, she collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, sinking helplessly into the grasping green hands below.

…However, just before her form completely vanished under the surface, Celeste finally reached out with a sudden burst of speed. She leapt onto the pool of darkness and extended her large claws, catching Evelyn by the collar of her dress. Then, in one fluid motion, she pivoted and leapt a fair distance away, putting some much-needed space between them and the grasping hands of the pool.

She had barely landed, though, when she was forced to leap once more to avoid the massive phantom hand that had erupted from the mouth of the soul eater behind Yami.

The hand snatched at the empty air, missing Celeste by mere inches before violently retracting back into the gaping mouth of the soul eater.

Celeste landed heavily on her feet, dropped Evelyn's unconscious body at her side, and then pointed her arm toward Yami.

In the next instant, all her whips of flame shot through the air toward him, trailing streaks of orange and red.

But just before they could reach him, a loud, heavy bell echoed through the clearing.

Gong!

The whips of flame suddenly vanished, snuffed out as if the fire had never existed.

Soon after, Celeste's big frame wobbled, her knees buckling slightly as she struggled to maintain her balance.

It looked like at this point, even she was low on mana.

With her mana now running really low, it also looked like the ability her attribute gave her to jump levels every minute she was enraged was no longer active.

She shook her head slightly, then looked to Yami, who was nonchalantly pointing his staff at her signaling her to come to him.

However, rather than lunge at him, she turned her gaze away toward the patch of torn earth a few meters away where Dion was engaging with Kaizen.

Then, she redirected her remaining strength and lunged across the clearing, intent on joining Dion to finally bring the monk down.

Yami didn't attempt to stop her; instead, a sly smile grew on his lips.

…At the same time, Dion's clash with Kaizen grew even more ferocious. It appeared as if Dion was in a fit of primal bloodlust, as his movements were frenzied and erratic.

He wasn't fighting like someone who needed to survive, but rather like someone who was ready to give up everything if it meant taking down the enemy with him.

I wasn't sure why he was like this, but ever since meeting Dion, I had never seen him this enraged before. Right now, he kept yelling with tears in his eyes as he brought his spear down, again and again at the monk. There was no grace in his form anymore, only a desperate, crushing weight that seemed intent on grinding Kaizen into the very earth.

'What had happened after he suddenly disappeared with that dominant?' I thought, looking away from the chaotic battlefield for a brief moment. Although, I was curious, now was not the time to ponder it.

I shifted my gaze to a small screen by my side which displayed the countdown timer for my exclusive skill. When I saw that it had long since run its course, I turned my gaze to Aika's timer instead:

[00:03]

[00:02]

[00:01]

[00:00]

By now, I had managed to get myself up to my feet with Aika's help. As I finally steadied myself, I reached into my inventory, took out a mana elixir and began chugging it down in a few heavy gulps.

When I was finished, I threw the empty vial away, then muttered weakly under my breath, "You know we have to be the ones to kill Yami, right?"

Aika sighed, and her worried expression grew even more pronounced as she ran a hand through her hair.

She took a quick look towards the battlefield to see the monk struggling on the verge of death against both Celeste and Dion.

Then she quickly looked back to me and her sad blue eyes locked onto mine. "What's your plan?"

I quickly spoke. "They're going to try and finish Kaizen first. After that, they'll likely try to take Yami out with long-range magic since that pool of darkness makes it impossible for them to get close enough for a physical strike."

I paused, raising a hand that now held a shimmering, ink-black feather. Instantly, the air around my palm thickened with wisps of dark smoke, and the feather transformed into a living raven that beat its wings and took flight.

I already had another raven circling the battlefield, and so, while this new one flew to hover directly above Yami, the other climbed as high as it could into the dark expanse of the night sky.

"We'll both use 'One with the Ravens' at the same time," I continued. "While you'll swap with the lower raven to deliver the killing blow to him, I'll swap with the higher one to kill myself."

Aika looked at me for a moment, then closed her eyes and exhaled a long, shaky breath.

To be honest, even though neither of us had said a word about it, from the moment we had all begun fighting Yami, we both knew that I would have to die at the end. It was the only way we could truly beat Yami and survive.

Still, me dying was something that neither of us was used to, regardless of how necessary it felt.

"Will you be okay?" she asked, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her katana tightly.

I reached out and touched the side of her head, offering a small, reassuring gesture before I gave her a firm nod.

At that moment, while Dion's spear ran through Kaizen's chest in a spray of crimson, Celeste's fist crashed into the other side of the monk's ribcage.

A sickening, wet crack echoed through the air as the monk's body crumpled under the dual impact, his eyes rolling back into his head while the light of his life flickered and went out.

Then, without lingering over the fallen foe, both Dion and Celeste quickly turned their attention to Yami, who stood waiting for them with his staff held low. A sly grin was still widening across his face.

At that moment, I whispered to my bond, "Now!"

Instantly, both our forms burst into a flurry of dark feathers. As planned, Aika took the place of the raven hovering above Yami, descending through the air with her katana raised high and ready to strike.

As for me, I took the place of the raven that was high up in the sky, and with the ground miles below me, I simply began falling toward my death.