The cathedral erupted into a chaos of grinding stone and whistling steel. The Genesis Sentinel moved with a speed that defied its massive size, its six arms swinging in a rhythmic, deadly overhead pattern that threatened to turn the marble floor into dust.
The Wall of Steel and Flame
"Engage!" Seraphina shouted.
She and Michael moved in perfect synchronization—the Silver Knight and the Ember Warrior. Seraphina became a blur of silver light, her claymore clashing against two of the quartz arms. She didn't try to break them; she used her momentum to redirect their force, keeping them tangled in a web of parries.
Beside her, Michael was a force of nature. He braced himself, catching a massive fist with his bare gauntlets while his greatsword carved into another arm.
"Is that all you’ve got, you overgrown pebble?" Michael roared, his Heart of the Forge aura flaring so hot that the marble beneath his boots began to turn to glass. He was keeping four of the six arms occupied through sheer, brutal aggression, but the strain was visible in the way his armor hissed.
The Vulnerable Point
While the frontline held the storm, Alaric and Clara circled toward the flank. Clara began chanting, her staff drawing moisture from the very air to create a Lens of Absolute Clarity.
"I see the mana flow, Alaric!" Clara cried out. "The Eye pulses every three seconds to refresh the regeneration. If we hit it at the exact moment of the pulse, the shield will drop!"
But the Sentinel was not a mindless beast. Sensing the threat from the casters, it forced one of its arms past Michael’s guard. The limb extended like a telescopic piston, hurtling toward Clara with the force of a falling star.
The Sacrifice
Clara was mid-chant, her mana fully committed to the lens. She couldn't move.
"Clara, get down!" Alaric lunged.
He didn't have time to cast a defensive spell. He threw himself in front of his sister, taking the full weight of the stone fist against his side. There was a sickening crack of ribs as Alaric was sent tumbling across the marble floor.
"Alaric!" Seraphina screamed, her heart stopping for a terrifying second. The "freeze" threatened to take her, but seeing the Prince's blood on the white stone ignited a different kind of fire—fury.
The Resilience of the Trinity
Alaric coughed, tasting copper, but he forced himself back up to one knee, clutching his side. Lightning flickered wildly around him, erratic but powerful.
"I'm fine!" he gasped, his eyes locked on the Sentinel. "Clara, don't stop! The lens is almost ready!"
Clara’s eyes filled with tears, but she channeled her grief into her magic. The lens solidified, focusing the golden light of the ceiling into a single, piercing needle of energy directed straight at the Sentinel's glowing Eye.
"Seras! Michael!" Alaric’s voice was a command that echoed through the entire cathedral. "The shield is dropping! Force the arms down! NOW!"
With a desperate surge of strength, Seraphina and Michael pinned the massive limbs to the floor, leaving the Sentinel’s chest wide open for the final gambit.
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