The Extra's Rise

The cracks in the Infernal Armis had changed everything. What had begun as a test of strength between Arthur and Gideon now carried implications that neither combatant had anticipated. The artifact's divine consciousness recoiled from the Grey like a living thing experiencing pain, and that fear manifested as desperate, escalating aggression.

"If your power threatens the very existence of my weapon," Gideon said, his voice carrying notes of genuine alarm mixed with growing fury, "then I will ensure you cannot use it."

But even as he prepared to escalate their confrontation, new threats materialized from the dimensional distortions surrounding the crater. Three figures emerged from spatial tears that opened like wounds in reality itself.

The Vampire Venerables moved with predatory grace that spoke to centuries of accumulated power, their enhanced capabilities placing them at the absolute peak of Immortal-rank.

"Alyssara's gift," Gideon observed with satisfaction that bordered on ecstasy. "Three Vampire Venerables to ensure that your allies cannot interfere with our personal business."

The implications hit Arthur like a physical blow. Alyssara wasn't just preventing Valen from joining the battle—she was actively ensuring that Arthur would be forced to face the Second Calamity with minimal support, creating exactly the kind of desperate situation that would push him to his absolute limits.

"We have to stop them," Cecilia said, her crimson chaos magic already beginning to flare as she assessed the new threats.

"I'm not leaving Arthur," Rachel interrupted firmly, her Purelight blazing brighter as she stepped closer to him. "He needs my support to maintain the Grey. Without my Purelight countering Gideon's corruption, that technique will kill him in minutes."

"Rachel's right," Arthur said through gritted teeth, blood streaming from his eyes as his broken Unity strained under the impossible load. "I can't sustain this without her Purelight healing my body constantly to mitigate the damage from the Grey."

Cecilia and Reika exchanged a look that carried years of shared combat experience and mutual trust. "Two on three," Reika said with calm assessment, her cursed script already beginning to blaze across her skin as wings of pure energy spread from her shoulders. "Challenging, but manageable."

"We've got this, Arthur," Cecilia said with characteristic confidence, her Witchcraft Gift already beginning to weave spells that would give them every possible advantage against vampiric opponents. "Those bloodsuckers have no idea what they're walking into."

"Focus on Gideon," Reika added, her enhanced blade appearing in her hands while additional script wrote itself along her arms to boost her physical capabilities. "We'll take care of the Venerables. Trust us."

The two women moved toward the Vampire Venerables with coordinated precision and unwavering confidence, Cecilia's crimson chaos magic creating reality distortions that immediately put the vampires on the defensive while Reika's enhanced speed allowed her to strike at optimal angles before they could properly coordinate their response.

Which left Arthur facing a Calamity with only Rachel's crucial support.

"This is what Alyssara orchestrated," Arthur realized, feeling the weight of fighting a being of Gideon's caliber with minimal assistance. "She's ensuring I'm pushed to my absolute limits while giving me just enough support to make it interesting."

"Then we give her what she wants," Rachel said, her divine energy intensifying around them both while her superior Purelight created zones of purified space where Gideon's reality-warping effects were significantly diminished. "But we do it on our terms."

Arthur's response was to push his summoning capabilities beyond their safe limits. The strain of maintaining Grey outside his Domain was already tearing him apart from within, but he needed every advantage he could get.

"Erebus! Luna!"

The response was immediate and overwhelming. Darkness coalesced at Arthur's side, not the absence of light but something far more substantial—shadow given form and purpose, death made beautiful and terrible. The Arch Lich that emerged bore the accumulated power of centuries, his twelve-foot skeletal frame wrapped in robes that seemed to absorb light itself while the crown of midnight metal upon his skull pulsed with ancient authority.

Simultaneously, light that carried the wisdom of millennia materialized, taking the form of a fourteen-year-old girl whose silver hair and ancient eyes spoke to power that operated according to different principles entirely. Luna's manifestation as a qilin in human form brought capabilities that transcended normal classifications, but the effort of maintaining both summons while channeling Grey was pushing Arthur's body toward complete breakdown.

"Master," Erebus intoned, his voice carrying harmonics that made the air tremble with recognition of ancient authority. "I stand ready to serve."

"Arthur," Luna said, her young voice carrying concern that made her ancient nature clear, "you're pushing too hard. Your body can't sustain this level of output much longer."

"It has to," Arthur replied, feeling Valeria pulse through his shadow as the bone symbiote worked frantically to hold his failing form together. Blood was seeping from his eyes, his nose, staining his clothes as his broken Unity demanded more from his body than Rachel's healing could fully compensate for. "Because the alternative is letting a Calamity run free."

Gideon's molten eyes tracked the new arrivals with analytical precision, his enhanced capabilities immediately recognizing the threat they represented. "Impressive summons," he acknowledged with genuine respect. "But even legendary constructs cannot bridge the fundamental gap between mortal and divine."

The Infernal Armis blazed with renewed intensity, reality tears spreading outward from his position like wounds that refused to heal. But this wasn't random destruction—the artifact was creating a pattern, a web of dimensional instability designed to overwhelm Arthur's enhanced but limited support structure.

"Let's see how long you can maintain that impossible technique," Gideon said with predatory satisfaction, raising his molten axe while the artifact's power reached new heights of destructive potential.

Arthur met his gaze with determination that transcended the agony coursing through his system. Around them, the sounds of Cecilia and Reika's confident engagement with the Vampire Venerables provided a backdrop of coordinated violence, while Rachel's Purelight blazed with intensity that made Gideon's corruption recoil like a living thing experiencing pain.

"Long enough," Arthur said, raising Nyxthar while Grey flowed through the blade in patterns that made the very air shimmer with impossible energy.