Marionox's head was still alive.
Then came the sound.
Snap.
Wire snapped in the fog, sharp and sudden.
Threads began to move.
They slithered out from his body like silver veins, twitching across the broken ground.
Iris took a step back, her breath caught in her throat, as the headless, armless body of Marionox began to rise.
Strings extended from the stumps of his shoulders, reaching out like fingers.
One found a severed arm. Then another.
The threads yanked tight.
Crack. Clack.
Wood twisted. Splinters slid into place. The arms reattached one by one, bending unnaturally as if time itself was folding backward.
Finally, the string looped around the broken head, lifting it gently through the fog. It settled back onto the body with a sickening click.
The mask was still cracked, one half missing entirely, but the fake smile beneath it had not faded.
And the eyes behind it had not changed.
Marionox stood tall once more.
Whole. Reconstructed.
Iris didn't blink. Her aura flared, but she stayed silent.
The thread between her and Marionox pulsed brighter.
The Duel was still active.
Gabe's voice dropped. "He's a real Boss."
Sly's eyes narrowed. "And she's Stage Three."
"Doesn't mean she can easily beat him," Gabe said. "Not if he can't die."
They both looked forward.
Iris was now fighting an immortal.
Iris didn't hesitate.
She stepped forward and struck.
Clang.
Her twin fog blades clashed against Marionox's rebuilt arm. He blocked, twisted, and countered. She parried and drove forward again.
Her strength now was different. Sharper. Every hit carried more weight. Every movement cleaner. With just a few exchanges, one of Marionox's reattached arms flew off and hit the ground with a hard crack.
But this time, he didn't wait.
Strings snapped forward and reattached the limb mid-combat.
Gabe's eyes narrowed. "He's not letting her take control anymore."
Iris kept attacking. Another hit. Another severed arm.
Snap. Reattach. Reset.
No matter how many times she cut him, he kept coming back.
She moved faster. Hit harder.
But slowly, the rhythm shifted.
Marionox's blades began to push deeper. His counters came quicker. The laugh returned. Not loud. Just a chuckle beneath the mask.
His footwork danced through the mist. Iris struck again, but it landed shallow.
Gabe's voice tightened. "Wait... something's off."
Sly exhaled through his teeth. "She's slowing down."
Iris lunged. Her sword was caught.
Blocked.
Marionox twisted the blade from her path and slashed low. She barely moved in time, the fog shield flickering as it absorbed the impact.
"She's running out," Gabe said. "Juice, stamina, everything."
They watched as the pace tipped.
Iris was still fighting.
But Marionox was gaining ground.
Gabe and Sly still didn't move in.
They could see it in Iris's eyes, the same fire, that refusal to give up.
But they also saw the truth.
She was losing.
"I thought Stage Three would be enough," Gabe muttered, inching forward.
Iris stepped back again. Marionox pushed forward with every attack, his movements faster now, his form tighter. He was adjusting. He was enjoying this.
She tried to keep up, but her feet betrayed her.
One more step, and her back hit the wall of a ruined building.
She had nowhere left to go.
Slash. Slash. Counter.
She parried and retaliated. Two blades lashed out.
Two of Marionox's arms dropped to the ground.
For a brief moment, she believed the situation might change in her favor.
But the strings were already moving.
The limbs snapped back into place like they had never been severed.
She spun and slashed at the threads themselves.
Cut them.
A moment of silence.
Then more threads shot out from his body, reattaching exactly where they had been before. From the shoulder. From the back. From the ribs.
It never stopped.
Why won't you die?
Her mind screamed the words, but she had no voice left to say them.
She braced again. Arms shaking. Breathing hard.
What else can I do? I've hit him. I've cut him. I've broken him.
And it's still not enough.
Is this where it ends?
Block. Block. Block.
Each one heavier than the last.
At the edge of the field, Gabe's stance shifted.
Sly was already one step closer.
"She can't take much more," Gabe said.
Sly nodded, eyes locked on the fight. "If she falls, we move. I don't care what the Duel does."
Iris looked up, sweat mixing with blood across her face.
Her blades trembled.
Her knees threatened to buckle.
And Marionox was still smiling.
She was tired, and now, she was starting to feel it in every breath, in every twitch of her arms as they rose again and again, not to strike, but only to block. She no longer had the strength to counter. Marionox's blades came from all directions, fast and relentless, and all she could do was endure.
"Hah... ha-ha... ha-ha-ha!"
That laugh again.
Was he laughing like this when he killed the people of Minawa? When he slaughtered the children? Their parents? Her father?
Why am I so incompetent?
Didn't I travel with Bob to get stronger? To make sure no one could ever take away the things that mattered to me?
Wasn't that the point of all of this?
I reached Stage Three. I'm supposed to be stronger. Then why can't I protect anything?
Why did my father have to die?
The thoughts stormed through her mind as she tried to defend herself, blade after blade crashing down, her arms shaking from the impact. Each block came slower. Each hit landed closer. Marionox never stopped moving, and neither did his laugh.
Clang. Scrape. Grind.
Sly watched in silence, fists clenched, jaw tight. He could see it now. Iris was slipping from exhaustion and grief. Her body was giving out. Her eyes still burned, but her strength was gone.
He took a breath, stepped forward, and spoke without hesitation.
"I'm done waiting."
But after just a few steps, as he bent his knees to leap forward, Gabe grabbed his arm.
Sly froze. "What are you—"
Gabe didn't look at him. His eyes were locked on the fight.
He said nothing.
Sly didn't understand at first. Iris was still cornered, still blocking, still bleeding.
Wasn't she about to fall?
He turned back to the battlefield, ready to argue.
And then he saw it.
At first, it looked like the same pattern. Marionox unleashed a flurry of attacks, his arms cutting in brutal rhythm. Iris raised her blades to block one, maybe two, but the rest hit. Blood dripped from her arms, her legs, her side.
But something was different.
And her body... It was changing.
Iris's Glint form had always been that of a Valkyrie. An armored amazon with white wings, built for close combat. Her golden armor gleamed with purpose, and the fog-forged twin swords she wielded carried hilts that matched her form.
But this was no longer the same Valkyrie.
Her armor, once polished gold, was turning red. It started at the shoulders and spread downward like heat rolling through metal. The white wings behind her lost their softness. Feathers stiffened, glowed, and reshaped. What once looked like the wings of a swan now resembled a phoenix, burning red and alive with fire.
Her swords changed next.
The fog-made blades pulsed, then ignited. Flames wrapped along their edges, steady and sharp.
Marionox hesitated. He stepped back.
Iris didn't speak. She dropped her swords to her sides and lifted her gaze.
Then she stepped forward.
Fog surged from her feet to her hands. Fire trailed after it, not wild but precise. Her aura grew heavier, not larger. It drew inward, condensed around her frame like a second skin.
This was not her standard form.
This was something new.
She had studied Glint transformation, looked for patterns in others, especially Bob. She remembered his Devil Goliath, born not from control, but emotion.
Now she understood.
Her grief. Her rage. Her helplessness.
All of it had given form to something stronger.
Her Valkyrie form had changed. It evolved.
And now, through fire and fury, her Glint form became the Flare Valkyrie.
A crimson flare sparked beneath her boots.
She stepped once and jumped.
Iris lunged forward. Marionox reacted instantly, all six arms rising, every blade poised to intercept.
She didn't dodge.
She chopped.
Again. And again. And again.
Every cut she delivered left fire in its path. Each strike seared a line into his wooden frame, flames clinging to the edges of her fog-forged swords.
Marionox was made of wood.
And this was his greatest weakness.
Her blades moved faster than his strings could recover. He blocked, but each impact sent a burst of heat through his limbs. The fog weapons grew hotter with every swing, until sparks flared on contact. She burned trails into his joints.
He tried to dislocate. She cut the thread.
He reattached. She sliced faster.
His mask twitched in glitchy spasms.
"Unfair," his voice echoed through a threadling, warping around the fire.
"Your fire doesn't follow the choreography."
"I don't follow your script," she said, and drove a flaming blade straight into his chest.
Point blank.
Wood cracked. Fire bloomed.
His entire body caught fire. Marionox swung his arms again, desperately, but they crumbled mid-motion. The threads reached out but found nothing. The limbs had turned to charcoal.
One by one, his arms fell.
Then his burning legs gave out. His body collapsed, a heap of flame and ash.
Only his burning head remained.
His mask twitched once more.
It tried to speak.
But it no longer controlled anything.
Iris stepped forward.
She stomped down on his head.
The cracked mask shattered. The charcoal head gave way.
And Marionox turned to ash.
Iris exhaled, her sword still glowing faintly in her hand.
She didn't move.
She simply faced upward.
Tears ran freely down her cheeks, unnoticed at first. But as the silence settled, she lowered her sword and tilted her head back, eyes searching the gray sky above the fog.
And she cried.
The Duel was over.
She had avenged her father.