The Cyphlopod moved like a nightmare unfolding, its massive, coiled limbs snapping outward, striking the walls, the floor, the ceiling, dislodging chunks of rusted metal and sending debris raining down. Its single, bulbous eye swiveled, unblinking, locking onto them like a predator who had just found its next meal.

  Ciel didn’t wait. Didn’t think.

  Her revolvers were already in her hands, raised, firing. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The echo of each shot cracked through the chamber, bullets slamming into thick, rubbery flesh. But the beast barely reacted, the slugs embedded into its grotesque body like needles piercing leather.

  And then it struck.

  A massive tentacle whipped toward them, fast, violent, crushing the floor where they had stood seconds before. Ciel barely dodged sideways, rolling as the impact sent a shockwave of force outward, water and debris exploding in all directions.

  “Fucking hell, this thing moves fast!” she snarled, pushing herself to her feet, already reloading.

  Raze was already charging, his greatsword raised, cleaving into the nearest tentacle with enough force to carve through steel. The blade sank deep, blackish ooze spraying outward as the Cyphlopod let out a guttural, reverberating shriek. But even as Raze ripped the blade free, the wound sealed almost instantly, the flesh knitting itself back together.

  “It fucking regenerates!” he shouted.

  “Of course it does!” Veyra called from the back, already snapping her rifle into position. She fired, a precise shot straight toward the thing’s massive eye...

  Only for a thick, armored membrane to snap shut, blocking the bullet entirely.

  “Are you shitting me?!”

  The Cyphlopod moved again, this time two tentacles whipping toward them simultaneously.

  Gorrug, laughing like a madman, braced himself, grabbing one massive limb in each hand, feet sliding against the soaked floor as he fought to keep them from slamming down.

  “HAH! IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE?!” His muscles strained, veins bulging, but he held the beast in place for a second, long enough for Ciel to vault off his back, planting a boot against his shoulder as she kicked off, flipping toward the Cyphlopod’s head.

  She fired mid-air, bullets slamming into its body, knowing they wouldn’t kill it but not giving a damn. She landed hard, rolling through the water, splashing up filth as she pushed herself upright.

  Sylva was already moving, her hands weaving intricate sigils, her breath even and controlled.

  And then, she let go.

  The air around her ignited.

  A storm of fire and shadow exploded outward, consuming one of the Cyphlopod’s tentacles in raw, unrestrained magic. The limb convulsed violently, twisting, shriveling, its surface blackening, burning, turning to ash.

  The Cyphlopod screamed, its eye snapping open, the iris constricting in fury. Searching for the one who dare burn his flesh.

  It lashed out wildly, tentacles whipping through the air, the sheer force shattering metal supports, crushing walls, breaking apart the floor beneath them.

  “FUCK, MOVE!” Raze bellowed as one of the limbs came crashing down.

  The team scattered, barely avoiding the impact.

  “This thing is PURE CHAOS!” Ciel yelled, dodging another whipping strike, her revolvers emptying as she tried to hit anything that mattered.

  “THAT MAKES TWO OF YOU THEN!” Veyra shouted back, firing another shot, this one slamming into the softer flesh where Sylva had burned through, the bullet sinking deeper than before.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Sylva, still casting, didn’t stop.

  Didn’t hold back.

  Didn’t try to contain herself.

  Dark energy rippled outward, raw mana crackling in the air as fire surged through the chamber.

  She was letting go, magic coiling through her veins, her eyes burning with unnatural crimson light.

  Ciel had seen her use magic before... but not like this. Not with this much fury.

  But even as the Cyphlopod reeled, thrashing in pain, it wasn’t slowing down.

  And right now?

  They had no fucking clue how to kill it.

  The tentacles moved faster than they could track, a chaotic blur of coiled muscle and impossible reach. There was no dodging them all. There was no outmaneuvering something this massive, this relentless, this absolute.

  Ciel had just enough time to curse before one of the thick, slimy limbs wrapped around her waist.

  Then she was yanked off her feet.

  The world spun, violently, her stomach lurching as she was swung through the air like a ragdoll. Her spine collided with rusted metal, shattering what remained of an old scaffold, debris crashing down around her as the wind was knocked from her lungs.

  She barely had time to recover before it slammed her again.

  Pain erupted across her back as her body crashed into the floor, then the wall, then the fucking ceiling.

  Slam. Slam. Slam.

  The impact rattled her brain, blood in her mouth, limbs struggling to move. For a split second, she thought… this is it. This is how I go.

  She wasn’t the only one getting tossed like garbage.

  Gorrug, for all his unyielding strength, for all his brute force and towering power, was being battered just the same. A tentacle had whipped him mid-charge, sending him skidding across the floor, metal screeching under his weight.

  Sylva barely managed to dodge one of the strikes, sliding through the sludge and rolling away before she could be caught.

  Veyra hit the ground hard, rifle ripped from her hands as she cursed violently.

  Raze, bleeding from a cut over his temple, was forced to go defensive, slashing at the limbs that lashed toward him, barely holding his footing as the chamber became a battlefield of thrashing destruction.

  And Miri... Miri was the only one untouched.

  She had made damn sure of that.

  She wasn't fighting.

  She wasn't dodging.

  She was watching. Calculating.

  Because she knew if she went down, they were all dead.

  Her hands trembled at her sides, mana reserves dangerously low from healing them too much already. She whispered something under her breath, pressing a palm against her grimoire. Not yet. She had to hold out just a little longer.

  But they were losing.

  And that fact settled over them all like a weight too heavy to lift.

  For a moment, it really looked like this was the end.

  Then, at the same time, Raze and Veyra’s voices cut through the madness.

  “THE EYE!”

  Ciel groaned, vision swimming, still half-pinned under the massive limb that had been tossing her like a toy. She forced herself up, just in time to catch Raze’s meaning.

  The eye was the key.

  It could heal itself endlessly, it could regenerate all it wanted, but that only mattered as long as its eye remained safe.

  And the moment its eye was open?

  That was when it was vulnerable.

  Ciel wiped the blood from her mouth, coughing, groaning as she forced herself to move. "That’s a real nice theory, but it closes its eye every time we try to hit it."

  “Not always.”

  Sylva’s voice cut through the chaos. Sharp. Focused.

  Ciel turned, just barely able to register the sheer power still emanating from her.

  Sylva was trembling, shoulders rising and falling in slow, controlled breaths. The air around her was thick with raw mana, the scent of charred ozone and burning death coiling in the damp air.

  And then, Ciel understood.

  Sylva’s magic.

  The beast had opened its eye for her.

  Her dark magic had forced it to retaliate. It had to look at its target to attack it directly.

  It had no choice.

  “You’re telling me we gotta get it to look at you?” Ciel asked, panting.

  Sylva didn’t answer.

  She didn’t need to.

  The plan formed instantly, and they had seconds to make it work.

  Sylva needed to blast it again. Make it react.

  Make it open its eye.

  Then, before it could close it.

  They would take their shot.

  It had to be perfect.

  It had to be instantaneous.

  Ciel locked eyes with Veyra, who had already scrambled back for her rifle.

  Veyra nodded, adjusting her grip, setting her stance, her hands steady despite the chaos.

  This was it.

  Sylva lifted both hands, and let go.

  A howling surge of black fire erupted, crashing against the Cyphlopod’s massive body like a tidal wave of entropy.

  It screamed.

  And then...

  Its eye snapped open.

  The next second happened all at once.

  Veyra fired.

  The shot rang out, clean, precise, fast.

  A perfect fucking shot.

  But just as the bullet ripped through the air, just as it was about to hit the massive, pulsing pupil—

  The ground beneath them gave out.

  A deep, splintering groan of metal and stone, the sheer force of the fight having weakened the foundation beneath them.

  And in one deafening crash, the entire chamber collapsed.

  The floor fell apart beneath them, sending the entire team plummeting into the abyss below.

  The last thing Ciel saw before the world turned upside down...

  Was the Cyphlopod, roaring, thrashing, and vanishing into the darkness with them.