At the highest peak of the High Jinn mountain, only a desolate silence and the stench of death remained within the stone fortress. The great hall, from which Ross and Naymor had ruled for centuries, had transformed into an open graveyard under a twisted sky. The towering walls, carved from the heart of the mountain, were cracked and crumbling, revealing the dark void outside. The air was heavy, saturated with the smell of ozone from Argus's devastating attack and the pungent scent of blood wafting from charred remains.
In the middle of the giant crater left by the explosion, the stone floor was stained with black burns, centered by a pool of Ross's blood that had not yet dried. It was no ordinary blood; it boiled and bubbled with a hissing sound, as if the earth itself refused to drink it.
Argus stared at Naymor in shock as the air beside Ross's mangled corpse tore open, as if reality itself were opening a gate to hell. Naymor let out one last hysterical laugh, blood coating his teeth. "He is here... the end is here!" His eyes rolled back, and his exhausted body collapsed, leaving Argus alone before the catastrophe.
Argus stared into the dark rift, his body trembling. But this time, it wasn't the tremor of fear—it was the tremor of excitement. He gripped his sword tightly, ready to face the nightmare.
From the heart of the void, a majestic figure emerged, draped in an aura of crushing pressure. Ashura, the "Absolute Power Under the Heavens," appeared with his wind-blown black hair and a gaze that held existence in contempt. Ashura looked at Argus with disgust and said coldly: "We meet again... boy." He scanned the ruined hall and asked with boredom: "Where is that wretch Gilgamesh? I see nothing but insects here."
Argus smiled with confidence, his eyes glowing with energy. "I don't need him... I am enough to bring you down alone."
Ashura burst out laughing, shaking his head mockingly. "You’ve grown bold, boy... what a splendid situation! It seems the time has come for a practical lesson."
Argus braced for an attack, but Ashura surprised him by turning his back toward the dark rift, as if searching for something or calling someone. Argus tightened his grip. What is he doing?
Ashura emerged from the rift again, but this time he wasn't alone. His massive frame shielded a small person walking behind him, hidden from view. Argus tried to catch a glimpse, asking with tense sarcasm: "Who is with you? Did you ask for help, Lord of Destruction?"
Ashura smiled a wide, terrifying smile and slowly stepped aside, revealing the figure behind him: "No, boy... she is my disciple."
The young girl took a step forward, raising her head to meet Argus’s eyes. Argus froze, his heart sinking into his stomach from the sheer shock. "J-Jasmin?!"
Jasmin stood there, but her gaze was not that of the child he knew. It was cold, steady, and her eyes shimmered with a faint purple spark. Argus spoke in a hesitant voice, stepping toward her: "What are you doing here?!"
Ashura interrupted him sternly, pointing toward Argus: "Silence. She is the one who will face you."
Argus shouted frantically, his aura erupting in anger: "Ashura! She has nothing to do with this! This fight is between me and you! Please let her go, she’s a child!"
Ashura didn't respond. Instead, he leaned slowly toward Jasmin’s ear and whispered in the tone of a mentor: "Listen, little one... he underestimates you. He thinks you are weak, unworthy of standing here. Show him... who the disciple of the Lord of Destruction is."
Jasmin didn't wait. She raised her small hand toward Argus, a faint purple halo glowing around her palm. "Gravity... Crush!"
An invisible pressure launched toward Argus, causing the floor beneath him to crack slightly. Argus’s eyes widened in a shock he couldn't hide. The pressure wasn't strong enough to harm him, but it was enough to shake his soul. He shouted in daze, dispelling the attack with a simple gust of wind: "Magic?! Since when have you used magic, Jasmin?! And why are you attacking me—have you lost your mind?!"
She didn't answer. Instead, she knit her brows in anger, annoyed by the ease with which he blocked her "lethal" attack. She rushed at him, attempting to land gravity-enhanced punches, but her movements were slow, telegraphing every strike, and full of openings compared to a warrior like Argus who had just defeated the High Jinn.
Argus dodged her punches with ease, swaying left and right without raising his sword or using his true power. He danced around her with sorrow, refusing to touch her for fear of causing her any harm. He gently caught her wrist when she tried to strike him and shouted in her face with a voice full of despair: "Jasmin! Look at me! It’s me... Argus! Your friend! Your companion on this journey! Don't you recognize me? "
Jasmin looked at him with eyes devoid of any affection and said coldly: "Friends?... Stop using these cheap tricks to distract me! My master told me that only the weak resort to words to avoid defeat!"
Argus was stunned, releasing her hand as if it were a hot coal. "Cheap tricks?... You truly don't remember me?!"
Jasmin exploited his shock, retreating back and gathering all her purple energy into a single sphere, launching it at him while screaming: "Fall, you deceiver!"
Ashura sighed with clear boredom, shaking his head in feigned disappointment. "Jasmin... this is disappointing. Don't play with him... use more power in your attack! I want you to bring him down, not dust off his clothes!"
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Argus didn't look at Ashura. His gaze remained locked on the young girl. He slowly brushed the dust from his chest and looked at her with a mix of deep pity and resolve. "What has that demon done to you, Jasmin...? How could he erase everything you were so quickly?"
Argus didn't give her a chance to execute Ashura's order. He moved with a speed transcending sight, aided by wind currents that turned him into a passing phantom. He vanished from her sight in a flash, reappearing directly behind her.
He placed his hand on her small shoulder, not to harm her, but to steady her. He surrounded her with a precise, controlled air pressure, paralyzing her completely in place without causing a single scratch or significant pain. He leaned in and whispered in her ear: "You don't realize who you are fighting, little one... and I will never raise my sword against you, no matter how much that demon messes with your mind."
Jasmin froze in place, a prisoner of his gentle air cage. Her eyes burned with anger and frustration at her inability to move, completely unable to understand that what this "enemy" was doing was the height of mercy.
Argus could no longer suppress his emotions. He shouted in a raspy voice overflowing with agony: "Yes, you fool! You loudmouthed brat! You are Jasmine... our friend! You are from Babylon! You accompanied Erold, only to cross paths with Luce, then me, and then Gilgamesh! Don't you remember any of this, Jasmine?! Don't you remember who you are?! You are Jasmine, daughter of Ali! Don't you remember your father?!'"
The name of her father struck her locked mind like a thunderbolt. The dam of forgetfulness suddenly cracked, and a torrent of blurred, rapid images flooded her mind: her father's face smiling at her tenderly, Erold’s cold face protecting her, Luce’s laughter, and Gilgamesh’s deep sorrow. Her embrace of Astra. Argus stealing Luce's food.
Her small mind could not handle this sudden flood. She shrieked in sharp pain, clutching her head with both hands, then collapsed toward the ground, losing consciousness from the intensity of the shock.
But... before her body could hit the floor, Ashura vanished from his spot with a speed transcending time, appearing beneath her to catch her in his arms with a gentleness that did not fit his destructive nature. He looked at her pale face and whispered with a genuine worry he couldn't hide: "Jasmin... are you alright, little one?"
Ashura suddenly froze. His eyes widened in daze as he looked at his hands cradling her with fear. He asked himself in internal shock: What is this feeling?... Why did my heart tremble in fear for her? I am the Lord of Destruction... since when do I care for a human?
Argus watched the scene from a distance, a similar daze squeezing his heart. He whispered to himself in disbelief: "Does this demon... truly care for her? That wasn't the look of a master for a slave... that was the look of fear."
Suddenly, Ashura’s confusion turned into absolute rage. He placed Jasmin gently on the ground, then rushed toward Argus like a hurricane. He delivered a savage punch to Argus's chest, throwing him far away until he slammed into the rocks, shattering the wall behind him.
Ashura stood tall, his eyes burning with a terrifying red flame, and roared in a voice that shook the mountain: "You... do you truly know this girl?"
Despite the pain tearing through his body, and the blood flowing from his mouth, Argus rose slowly, leaning on his wind sword. He looked at Ashura with an unbreakable look of defiance: "Yes, you... I know her more than you know your own miserable life!"
Amidst the burnt ruins of Malakarsh, Erold was staggering under the weight of the unconscious Luce, his raspy voice cutting through the silence of death as he called out: "Gilgamesh! Where are you?"
He stopped suddenly before the terrifying pillar of corpses in the middle of the square. There, atop the peak, he glimpsed a pale phantom... the soul of the limbless girl, standing and pointing her trembling, ghostly finger directly at him. Erold looked at her with eyes full of pity and whispered in a choked voice: "I’m sorry, poor soul... I won't leave you here alone in this hell."
He opened his arms and absorbed her soul into his body, thinking he was freeing her and comforting her loneliness. But... what Erold did not realize, and what was completely lost to his perception, was that this soul was Princess Luna. And her trembling finger was not pointing at him for rescue; it was pointing with terrifying accusation at the Luce carried on his back... she was pointing at her executioner.
Erold continued his shout: "Gilgamesh!" But suddenly, he felt a familiar coldness behind him. He turned slowly to find Astra standing there, her beautiful face masked by heavy sorrow.
"I’m sorry, Erold... but I must tell you this," she said quietly.
Erold interrupted her frantically: "I know, Astra! No time for explanations, we must find Gilgamesh to help Argus!"
Astra fixed him with a deadly look of seriousness and sorrow, speaking words that fell like a hammer: "Gilgamesh is gone."
Erold froze. "What are you saying, Astra?"
Astra answered, lowering her eyes: "The entity of Death appeared to him... and offered him a choice: either leave now to age and die in peace and find his wife, or stay with you and remain immortal in his agony forever."
"Did he... truly leave?" Erold whispered in shock.
"I am sorry, Erold... he chose himself."
Astra expected Erold to erupt in anger or collapse in despair at the abandonment of his strongest ally in this dire time. But she was shocked when she saw his features suddenly relax. A genuine, warm smile formed on his lips, and his eyes filled with tears—not of sadness, but of relief.
Erold spoke from the depths of his heart: "How happy I am... that he will finally get what he wanted.... Goodbye, my friend."
Astra stared at Erold in daze, unable to grasp the nobility of his soul. Amidst betrayal and danger, he didn't think of himself; he thought of his friend’s salvation from eternal torment. She whispered with a new appreciation: "You... are truly different, Erold."
Erold took a deep breath, adjusted the unconscious Luce on his back, and looked firmly toward the source of powerful energy. "No time to stand... Argus is facing Ashura alone, and I don't know if Jasmin is with them. Gilgamesh chose his path, and we must continue ours."
Erold walked with heavy but steady steps toward the gate of the burnt kingdom, Astra walking silently beside him, watching him as if he were the only riddle the stars failed to solve.
They crossed the shattered gate, swallowed by the shadows of destroyed buildings and the suffocating smell of ash. Suddenly, Astra stopped. She looked toward the distant horizon where the echoes of battle explosions rumbled.
"Walking through this destruction will take too long... and Argus may not have that time," she said seriously.
She raised her delicate hand toward the dark void before them, her eyes glowing with the bright shimmer of stars. The air tore with a faint sound, and a circular portal manifested before them, sparkling with silver and blue light. She pointed toward the gate and said: "This will take you directly to him... be ready."
Erold looked at her with deep gratitude, tightened his grip on the unconscious Luce, and said with a warm smile: "Thank you... Astra."
She nodded to him, and Erold stepped firmly into the star gate, vanishing in a flash of light, moving from the hell of silence into the heart of the storm.