Chapter 61
Below, the Goblin Archpriest reached for the severed dragon claw, unable to contain his excitement.
"Victory belongs to the Goblins!"
His fingers closed around something cold and solid. For one triumphant instant, he pictured his race's future with the relic in hand.
Then he looked down.
Instead of the dark-gold dragon claw, he was holding a rusted gear torn from one of the dungeon's mechanical constructs.
His pupils contracted. "What happened?"
It took the stunned Archpriest another moment to understand. The dragon claw had been swapped out at the exact instant he touched it, leaving behind only the faintest trace of spatial power.
"Who did this?"
He spun around, scanning the plaza in confusion. The other four Elite-ranked leaders were still locked in combat, and none of them had any obvious affinity for spatial magic. More importantly, he had been the only powerful combatant close enough to seize the relic at all.
"It disappeared!" one of the High Priests shouted from nearby. He had been watching the relic throughout the battle and had seen the exchange with his own eyes.
The Archpriest's instincts screamed a warning. Someone else was here. Someone had stayed hidden while the native factions slaughtered one another, then stolen the prize right out from under his nose.
Humiliation twisted his wrinkled face as rage boiled up inside him.
...
At the top of the pit, a heavy dragon claw materialized in Giles's hands the moment the spatial exchange succeeded.
The relic radiated power so immense that the surrounding air trembled. Giles had gone pale from the strain of pushing Foldspace Cube to its maximum range, but excitement blazed in his eyes.
"My Lord, I have it!"
He knew every second counted. Without wasting one, he passed the relic straight to Lilith.
The dragon claw felt cold and unnaturally heavy in her grasp. There was no time to check its System information, but the sheer power sealed inside it was unmistakable.
"We're leaving."
Lilith seized Giles by the arm and shot toward the azure Portal overhead, streaking upward like black lightning, her speed pushed to its absolute limit.
In the same moment, White Hart finally abandoned her hiding place on the far side of the pit.
She had witnessed Lilith's brazen theft and could hardly believe her eyes. "She actually did it?"
There was no point in staying concealed now. Lilith and Giles had exposed the presence of hidden intruders, and once the enraged Elite-ranked leaders below reacted, every weaker Lord near the rim would be hunted down.
"Damn it."
White Hart dropped her concealment Talent and launched herself toward the Portal at full speed, becoming a streak of crimson light.
Lilith had nearly reached the gateway when a red figure shot past her flank and plunged into the rippling surface ahead of her.
That's White Hart. She was hiding here the entire time?
Lilith's expression tightened, but she didn't slow down. This was no time to settle their feud.
She followed White Hart through the Portal with Giles in tow. Azure light flashed, and both of them vanished from the pit.
Their movement caught the Archpriest's attention. The surge of power around the Portal was far too blatant for someone of his strength to miss, and he could sense the auras of those escaping.
Only Veteran-ranked.
That realization made the insult sting even worse.
"Bastards!"
The Archpriest threw back his head and loosed a furious roar thick with killing intent. A handful of Veteran-ranked Lords had dared to steal the relic from him.
He launched himself toward the Portal at terrifying speed.
The other Elite-ranked leaders noticed his sudden movement and the disturbance around the Portal. Fenrir and Lucian exchanged stunned looks. None of them had expected several Veteran-ranked outsiders to interfere at the decisive moment.
The fighting stopped.
"NO!"
The Goblin High Chieftain roared first. The dragon claw had been the entire point of this battle—now that thieves had taken it, he had no reason to stay below. He gathered his strength and leaped toward the Portal, abandoning Rimefang without a second thought.
Lucian had already reacted. He shot after the Archpriest and entered the Portal before the Goblin Chieftain could even reach it.
The sudden exodus left only Fenrir and Rimefang among the Elite-ranked leaders, surrounded by the surviving soldiers of all four factions.
Fenrir was badly wounded. If he stayed, Rimefang would keep fighting until one of them died—and Fenrir knew exactly which of them was more likely to fall. He transformed into a streak of blood-colored light and fled toward the Portal.
Rimefang followed without hesitation.
Unlike the others, Fenrir no longer dreamed of claiming the dragon claw.
Having lost both the relic and most of his forces, he wanted only to escape with his life.
And Rimefang's objective hadn't changed either: he still wanted revenge, and he refused to squander what might be his only chance to kill Fenrir.
The struggle for the dragon claw had narrowed to the Vampires and Goblins.
Or so it appeared.
Neither faction knew that two humans had been waiting outside the dungeon from the very beginning, prepared to claim the relic once everyone else had bled themselves dry.
They were the strongest party in the entire conflict.
...
Outside the Portal, the two Royal Knights sensed the sudden surge of spatial energy and readied themselves at once.
"Nysia, get ready," the male knight said, a smile spreading across his face. "Someone's coming through."
They took up positions on either side of the gateway, prepared to strike the moment the first competitor emerged.
Then Nysia's heightened senses caught something unexpected.
She frowned.
"That's strange. The first aura coming toward us is only Veteran-ranked... and human?"