The moment the chains across the island loosened, something answered.

It wasn't immediate violence, not an explosion of movement or sound, but a shift in pressure, like the air itself had grown heavier, more aware. Stone groaned softly beneath unseen weight, metal scraping against broken pavement as shapes began to emerge from the streets ahead. Noel felt them before he fully saw them, a dense presence pressing against his senses, refined and deliberate in a way the lesser constructs had never been.

Five figures stepped into view.

They were larger than the beasts he had faced earlier, broader through the shoulders, their movements slower but far more controlled. Thick chains wrapped around their bodies in layered spirals, embedded deep into their forms, pulsing faintly with restrained mana. Their cores glowed steadily beneath fractured plating, not erratic, not feral, but stable, disciplined. Each step they took left shallow marks in the stone, as if the ground itself needed to yield for them to pass.

Chainbound Overseers.

Ascendant. Elite.

Noel's fingers tightened slightly around Revenant Fang. He could feel it now, the difference in weight between them and everything he had killed so far. This wasn't something he could erase in a blink. Their presence sat close to his own, close enough to matter, close enough that every mistake would cost him.

Behind him, the battlefield fractured.

From the surrounding alleys, lesser constructs poured out in response to the disturbance, their movements frantic and disorganized compared to the Overseers' measured advance. Elyra reacted instantly, runes flaring into existence beneath her feet as she stabilized the ground and cut off flanking paths. Elena moved with her, roots and vines snapping up from the cracked stone to intercept the first wave, her magic sharp and controlled as she carved space for the others. Laziel raised his staff, swallowing hard as he began firing spell after spell into the swarm, more focused on keeping them back than destroying them outright.

Noir turned with a low growl, positioning herself between the group and the encroaching mass, her body tense and ready as she matched their movements.

They were separated now, not by distance, but by necessity.

Noel stepped forward.

He didn't look back. He didn't hesitate. The moment his foot crossed the invisible line between them, the Overseers reacted as one, spreading outward in a loose semicircle, their chains clinking softly as they moved to pressure him from multiple angles. There was no rush in their advance, no wasted motion, only steady intent, like hunters confident their prey had nowhere left to run.

Noel vanished into shadow.

"Shadow Step."

His body dissolved into darkness and reappeared several meters to the side, blade already swinging as he released a sharp arc of flame. "Fire Arc."

The wave of fire tore through the air and slammed into the nearest Overseer, flames washing over its chained torso, heat bending the air around it. The construct staggered half a step, metal glowing briefly from the impact, but it didn't fall. It kept moving, chains rattling as if the attack had barely registered.

Noel followed instantly, frost forming at his fingertips as he launched another spell. "Glacialis."

The shard of ice struck true, freezing over part of the Overseer's arm and shoulder, cracks spiderwebbing through the encased metal. Even then, it continued forward, ice breaking away in chunks as raw force tore through the spell's hold.

The message was clear.

Ascendant elite were not something he could simply carve through.

Noel exhaled slowly, eyes sharpening as the remaining Overseers closed in, their shadows stretching across the ground and overlapping with his own. This was going to take more than raw power.

The Overseers adjusted the moment they realized brute force wouldn't be enough.

Chains lashed outward in coordinated arcs, not wild swings but deliberate attempts to limit space, to box Noel in and dictate where he could move. One snapped toward his legs, another curved high, aiming to drag his balance off-center while a third advanced straight through the middle, its heavy frame forcing him to give ground. Their timing overlapped with unsettling precision, each motion feeding into the next as if they shared the same intent.

Noel reacted, but not fast enough to avoid everything.

A heavy blow clipped his side, the impact ringing through his ribs as he slid back across broken stone. At the same time, a chain grazed his torso, scraping across his coat and burning with cold, restrictive mana before snapping free. He hissed under his breath and planted his foot hard, mana surging outward as he raised his hand.

"Frost Wall."

Ice surged up between him and the advancing Overseer, thick and opaque, buying him a brief but vital moment. The wall cracked almost immediately under the next impact, fractures racing across its surface, but it held long enough for Noel to breathe, to reassess, to stop reacting and start controlling the flow again.

Electricity sparked along his fingers.

"Chain Flash."

Lightning exploded outward in a jagged line, the primary bolt slamming into one Overseer before branching violently into the others. The arcs disrupted their formation, forcing two of them to stagger as their internal mana circuits overloaded for a split second. Noel didn't waste it. He followed the lightning with precision rather than force, his hand snapping forward as he whispered another spell.

"Voltage Needle."

A needle-thin lance of electricity pierced straight through a glowing seam between plates, punching deep into one Overseer's core. The construct lurched, movements stuttering as its internal balance faltered, but even then it didn't fall. It kept coming, slower now, but relentless.

Too slow.

Two Overseers moved at once.

One charged head-on, chains raised like hooked limbs, while another slipped into his blind spot, its shadow stretching behind him as it prepared to strike. Noel felt it before he saw it, the pressure closing in from both sides, his margin shrinking to nothing.

There was no time to block.

No time to think.

Only instinct.

"Shadow Step."

Noel vanished.

The attack passed through empty space, chains crashing into each other where his body had been a heartbeat earlier. He reappeared inside the overlapping shadows beneath one of the Overseers, already mid-swing, Revenant Fang humming as darkness flooded its edge.

"Eclipse Rend."

Shadow swallowed the light.

The blade carved upward in a single, decisive arc, void tearing through metal, chains dissolving into nothing as if they'd never existed. The Overseer collapsed in on itself, its core shattering silently before the rest of its body followed, falling apart into hollow fragments that clattered uselessly to the ground.

The system responded immediately.

[You have slain Chainbound Overseer (Ascendant – Elite). You have received 0.03% Core Progress.]

The shadows receded just enough for Noel to breathe.

[Current Core Progress: 1.58% — Mana Core: Archmage]

He straightened, rolling his shoulder once as the remaining Overseers turned toward him again, slower now, more cautious. Blood didn't drip from his wounds, but the ache was there, real and grounding.

Good.

That meant he was alive.

With one Overseer gone, the rhythm of the battlefield shifted.

Noel felt it immediately. The pressure didn't vanish, but it changed shape, losing its edge, its certainty. The remaining Overseers hesitated just a fraction longer than before, their formation tightening instead of advancing. That was all he needed.

He stepped forward—and vanished.

"Shadow Step."

Noel slipped through the overlapping shadows cast by the towering constructs, reappearing behind one, then another, his movement no longer linear but fluid, chained from darkness to darkness as if the battlefield itself were giving him paths only he could see. The Overseers turned too slowly, their chains snapping through empty air as Noel was already gone again.

Electricity erupted around him.

"Stormpiercer."

A crack of thunder split the street as Noel became a streak of blinding light, tearing straight through their line. The impact punched one Overseer backward while the momentum carried Noel past it, his body wrapped in arcs of lightning that scorched the stone beneath his feet. He didn't stop. He couldn't afford to.

Flames ignited along Revenant Fang.

"Ignition Surge."

The blade roared to life as Noel reappeared inside the shadows of two Overseers at once, the fire-enhanced edge carving through chains and armor in a single, continuous motion. The strike didn't pause between targets. It flowed.

One fell.

Then the other.

Their bodies collapsed almost in unison, cores shattering as the flames burned through what the shadows had already erased.

The system responded without delay.

[You have slain Chainbound Overseer (Ascendant – Elite). You have received 0.03% Core Progress.] x2

The ground trembled as the remaining two Overseers roared, their movements turning harsher, less restrained. One charged immediately, forcing Noel back with sheer mass, while the other circled, chains lashing out in wide, punishing arcs.

Noel's breathing deepened.

He raised his hand.

"Glacialis."

Ice speared forward, freezing one Overseer's leg mid-stride, locking it in place just long enough for Noel to pivot.

"Fire Arc."

A crescent of compressed flame tore through the frozen joint, the sudden heat and cold ripping the structure apart. The Overseer staggered, balance gone, and Noel finished it with a clean strike through the core before it could recover.

The system acknowledged it.

[You have slain Chainbound Overseer (Ascendant – Elite).

You have received 0.03% Core Progress.]

Only one remained.

It didn't retreat.

It surged forward with reckless force, chains hammering down again and again, driving Noel back step by step. Each block sent vibrations up his arms, each dodge cost him more mana than the last. His reserves were thinning. He could feel it now, the weight behind every spell, the growing resistance when he reached inward.

Still, he didn't stop.

Shadows gathered.

He focused everything he had left into a single point, Revenant Fang's edge darkening as light bent away from it.

"Eclipse Rend."

The world dimmed.

The final arc cut through the Overseer from shoulder to core, void tearing chains and armor apart as if they were nothing more than paper. The construct froze mid-motion, then collapsed inward, its form unraveling into silence.

The system's voice echoed one last time.

[You have slain Chainbound Overseer (Ascendant – Elite). You have received 0.03% Core Progress.]

The shadows settled.

[Current Core Progress: 1.70% — Mana Core: Archmage]

Noel stood alone amid the wreckage, chest rising and falling heavier now, mana still crackling faintly around him. His body ached, wounds screaming for attention, but he remained standing.

Around him, the last of the lesser monsters fell as the others finished their own fights. The island grew quiet once more.

Archmage didn't mean invincible.

But it meant this.

And Noel had just proven he could stand against it.

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