The battlefield had become a storm of molten ruin.
The Titan was breaking apart—core venting wild pulses of heat, limbs leaking magma from fractured joints. Its hammer strikes no longer followed patterns. It attacked in pure fury, each blow cracking the platform and kicking up stone and fire.
"Phase Three—rage mode," Raven muttered, breath sharp. "It's going to break everything."
Raven barely muttered the words, breath ragged, skin slick with sweat. The heat was no longer background noise—it was alive, clinging to his armor, sinking into his lungs like ash. His chest burned with every inhale.
The Emberforged Titan had torn off its remaining armor plating. Its core was now fully exposed—pulsing like a second sun, spewing lava with each motion. Its movements no longer followed patterns. They were wild, unpredictable, erratic, as if rage had infected the code itself.
Phantom Seer flickered above the chaos, struggling to maintain form. Its illusions shattered the moment they were cast, collapsing under the intense mana feedback from the burning core. Sparks burst along its limbs as residual fire magic corrupted its projections.
Duskrunner was limping.
Not from fatigue—from impact.
He'd taken a glancing hit trying to intercept a lava surge, and though his shadow-fur had absorbed some of the force, one of his legs dragged slightly with each movement. Blood—real blood, not system particle effects—matted his flank.
Still, he moved.
Still, he fought.
But even Alpha's Wrath, fully stacked and burning red with fury, couldn't hide it: One more direct hit and he was finished.
Raven himself wasn't in much better shape.
[Stamina: 22%]
[HP: 14%]
His fingers trembled. He only got one vial of Light Healing Potion left.
The Dominion Chain was slippery in his grip, both from sweat and a split in his palm where the chain had snapped back mid-parry. His shoulder screamed every time he moved it—tendon damage from the last dodge roll that clipped too low.
He couldn't afford to stop. Couldn't even flinch.
This is it. Final window. One mistake and I lose everything.
The Titan roared again—except it wasn't a roar. It was the core itself screaming.
Molten jets erupted from the floor at random. Pillars of lava launched into the air and came down like meteors. One barely missed Raven by half a meter, splashing molten rock across his left side.
The burn lit up his pain sensors like fire ants inside his armor.
He gritted his teeth, chugged the last healing potion in one brutal gulp, and forced his legs to move.
[Light Healing Potion Consumed – HP +45% over 6s]
[Pain Suppression Active – Duration: 10s]
"Seer!" he called hoarsely, "distract him! I need three seconds!"
Phantom Seer pulsed once—flickering like a candle about to go out—then pushed forward, casting a final Haunting Echoes to scatter false whispers around the Titan's head. It worked—for a moment.
The Titan staggered.
And Raven saw it.
[Boss HP: 7% – Abyssal Pact Available]
Still glowing, still lethal, still burning—
But open.
Now or never.
He raised Dominion Chain, his arm numb from recoil and weight.
And threw it with everything he had left.
The chain pierced the burning chest and embedded deep in the forge core.
The entire battlefield reacted. Lava surged straight up from beneath the Titan, wild and screaming, like the forge itself was trying to stop the pact.
Raven held on.
He ground his heels into the cracked stone, blood still dripping from his burned arm.
He shouted—not only at the Titan, but as if at the system, at the world itself.
"YOU'RE MINE!"
The chain held fast.
But the forge did not yield.
The moment the Dominion Chain lodged in the Titan's core, the entire arena reacted like a living creature. The runes beneath the platform ignited all at once, flaring from gold to blinding white. The molten veins below churned violently, surging upward like they were trying to rip the chain out of the core by force.
The Titan twitched.
It wasn't moving to attack anymore—its body had gone rigid, arms outstretched, knees buckled. Its head was thrown back, and the three vertical eye slits flickered wildly, between orange, red, and violet.
The Abyssal Pact was being forced through.
And the forge hated it.
[Abyssal Pact: Engaged]
[Boss Resistance Detected – Legendary Class]
[Pact Stability: 38%, dropping…]
Raven clenched his teeth. The chain pulled back—alive, like a serpent trying to recoil from the pain. His body was already failing. The potion's warmth was gone. The burn on his ribs had returned. His vision pulsed at the edges.
He dropped to one knee.
Then one hand.
Still gripping the chain.
Still refusing to let go.
The system hissed another warning into his ear.
[Warning: Pact Failure Imminent]
[Stamina Critical – Neural Overload Risk]
He growled through gritted teeth. "You will not respawned. You don't get back to full health again! YOU! WILL NOT! RESPAWNED!"
He thought of the long hard work to repeat all this madness if the boss resurrected and went back to full health again.
Not this time.
This one was his.
This one would obey.
The floor beneath him cracked. Lava spilled over the edge. One more second and he'd pass out.
And then—
a pulse.
Not from the Titan.
From the chain.
From the core.
[Boss Will Detected – "Forge Must Survive"]
[Override Executed – Will Rewritten]
[Pact Stability 100% – Binding Complete]
Everything stopped.
The lava storm stopped.
The light turned violet.
And then the Titan dropped to one knee, mirroring Raven's own posture, its form flickering—compressing, shrinking, like a soul being folded into a shell. Its engine hissed out steam.
The Dominion Chain unraveled itself from the core, retracting into chain wrap on Raven's arms like a viper retreating.
[SUBJUGATION SUCCESSFUL – EMBERFORGED TITAN NOW BOUND TO ABYSSAL CHAIN]
[Form Stored – Legendary Class Companion: Siege / Tank]
[New Passive: Lavaborn Core – Grants Fire Resistance + Stagger Immunity Aura (Minor)]
He collapsed back on both hands, chest heaving.
The platform was silent.
Duskrunner limped toward him, his shoulder bleeding.
Phantom Seer drifted above, visibly flickering, its voice a ragged whisper.
"…You… actually did it."
Raven didn't answer at first.
He just stared down at his hands, raw and shaking. The pain hadn't caught up yet. The adrenaline hadn't faded.
He was still in it.
Still high.
Still alive.
Tank's are such a pain.
And now?
He had a tank in his army.