The Golem Mage Chapter 1108: Final Battle : Origin 3.

The axe, wreathed in flames, slashed through the air with astonishing velocity. Having just endured the paralyzing shock of Butcher’s lightning, Takeda was determined to eliminate him by any means possible.

But precisely at that critical juncture, the nearby Spider Queen abruptly reeled her hands back. Threads, previously concealed and nearly invisible against the surroundings, suddenly materialized from the air.

Before Takeda could process the unfolding events, his body was entwined. Webs, indistinguishable from the environment, tightened around his limbs from multiple directions, ruthlessly curtailing his mobility.

For a fleeting instant, a look of disbelief crossed Takeda’s visage: ‘How could a mere Tier 6 golem possibly subdue him?’

His gaze swept his surroundings, and he observed the smaller spiders. They were acting as conduits, solidifying the webs into anchors for the Hive Queen. Their collective power flowed through the silken strands; the Hive Queen was not acting in isolation but was consolidating their strength, intensifying her control and rendering the restraint far more potent than it should have been. While others engaged in aerial combat, this was her true strategy.

Comprehending this, Takeda readied himself to rend the bonds and obliterate them. However, Butcher was already closing in, initiating a brutal downward strike. The thunderous axe descended, poised to cleave him vertically in two.

At the precipice of impact, Takeda executed a subtle, precise head tilt. The axe grazed past his shoulder, and instead of bisecting him, it severed his arm clean at the shoulder joint.

An searing wave of pain coursed through him, eliciting a grimace. Yet, his plan was already in motion; the fingers of his severed limb had already formed a ninjutsu hand seal.

Before their astonished eyes, the dismembered arm dissolved into dark, swirling smoke. The katana it had held clattered to the ground.

The smoke coalesced, drifting back towards Takeda’s body and regenerating the lost limb as if no injury had occurred. Even Butcher was momentarily stunned, a microsecond of surprise that Takeda seized to launch his counterattack.

With a single, fluid movement, he thrust his index and middle fingers forward, striking numerous pressure points across Butcher’s form. It was as if the protective tempest of thunder and wind surrounding Butcher posed no obstacle, his fingers passing through unimpeded until they finally contacted the dark, solid stone constituting Butcher’s actual body.

After rapidly jabbing vital points on Butcher’s physique, Takeda pressed his open palm flat against its chest and unleashed a spell.

[> High Tier Ninjutsu — Abyssal Grasp <]

The instant the spell took effect, Takeda’s eyes blazed with a malevolent purple-black hue. His hand, seemingly merging with spectral shadows, plunged into Butcher’s chest, phasing through its stony exterior without encountering resistance.

Witnessing this, the Hive Queen intensified her grip on the webs still tethered to Takeda’s remaining body. However, even as the webs strained and threatened to tear him asunder, Takeda appeared unfazed by the agony.

He persisted until he was certain of his target, then yanked it free from Butcher’s chest. He crumpled to his knees, clutching a large power core in his hand. Its true form was cloaked by dark winds, interspersed with crackling tendrils of lightning.

Without a flicker of hesitation or remorse, Takeda squeezed his hand, crushing the core into fragments.

In the view of the fervent Northern spectators, they witnessed the inaugural demise of Alec’s golems. Butcher’s body disintegrated, its constituent stones tumbling to the ground in a heap of rubble.

“Noooo!”

Oni bellowed, charging forward impulsively, abandoning all tactical formation. He closed the distance, his weapons flailing wildly. In response, Takeda extended his right arm, summoning the katana from the ground back into his grip.

He commenced a rapid offensive, parrying and countering with swift slashes to seize the initiative. Within a mere three exchanges, Oni found himself immobilized.

His initial maneuver was a diagonal upward cut, which deflected Oni’s scythe and severely disrupted his entire right side. It was evident that Takeda’s Tier 8 strength far surpassed anything Oni could directly confront.

Yet, Oni seemed disinclined to accept defeat. He resorted to the next best option, drawing a longer shadow blade from one of his left hands.

Takeda shifted his posture in response, extending his right leg. A small earthen barrier erupted from the ground, intercepting the incoming strike. A resounding clang echoed as the shadow blade collided violently with the reinforced black earth Takeda had conjured before him.

“An amalgamation of shadow and earth only complicates the already difficult earth element, so what do you propose about combining flame and wind?” Takeda queried casually while raising his sword high above, its blade now shimmering with both wind and flame energy. Even from Alec's vantage point, the projected attack was clearly perilous enough to pose a threat even to him.

“Indeed, that’s the gist of it. Hive Queen, provide some assistance,” Alec instructed, partially shifting into his werewolf form while still clutching his blood blade. At his vocal cue, the Hive Queen flicked her fingers in the air as if manipulating an unseen keyboard.

A moment later, she retracted her hands, revealing several of her specialized strings that extended towards Oni’s rear. The instant the strings made contact, she actuated them with a sharp tug, preempting Takeda’s descending right hand.

Sling!

Although she successfully pulled Oni clear, a portion of his being was irrevocably lost. The synthesized flames and wind coalesced into a far more devastating strike. While not a variant ability in itself, the fusion of two elemental forces imbued Takeda’s assault with the characteristics of one – a wind blade, now entirely engulfed in searing flame, sliced through the air.

As the wind's propulsion amplified its velocity, it fed the inferno, causing the entire projectile to blaze with intensified ferocity. In a mere blink, just as Oni was fully extricated, two of his left-side limbs were cleanly severed. The blade had struck on a diagonal trajectory, nearing his central core, leaving no room for doubt. The assembled spectators grasped that Takeda not only possessed the acuity to pinpoint the core within a golem’s structure but also wielded the power to cleave through their fortified forms, thereby presenting a genuine danger.

Nevertheless, he was compelled to observe as Oni’s form was whisked away, affording him a fleeting opportunity to concentrate on his ensnared physical body. With the Hive Queen focusing her strings upon Oni, the imposition upon him diminished somewhat.

Deprived of some measure of their matriarch's support, the surrounding spiders experienced a relaxation in the bindings constricting his person. He raised a hand, propelling his katana into the sky before unleashing a barrage of energy beams towards the spiders strategically positioned across the battlefield.

By the time his barrage concluded, the threads that had once encircled him had all detached, granting him the liberty to extend himself once more without the apprehension of them slicing deeper into his flesh. He then reached out, receiving his sword as it descended back into his waiting grasp.

He cast his gaze downwards towards the crimson fissures etched across his body; they were already undergoing regeneration. Even so, he had to concede that Alec's golems proved considerably more formidable than he had initially surmised. Lifting his head, he observed Alec standing resolute ahead, flanked by his two remaining golems, with a discernible gap separating them.

However, it was not merely this formation that captured his attention. Alec Gordon no longer appeared shorter than him; in fact, it seemed as though he had grown slightly taller. And then there were the claws – sharp and menacing. His eyes, too, had undergone a metamorphosis, adopting an unusual hue, a blend of light blue and blood red, with the latter appearing to ominously shroud the former.

“My apologies for the prolonged wait. Let us conclude this,” Alec declared.

“Well, you’ve articulated precisely what I was contemplating,” Takeda responded, bringing his sword down in a sweeping motion. He extended his left hand sideways, summoning his axe. Upon its return to his grasp, he charged directly towards Alec’s assembled group.

Witnessing this maneuver, Legion and Titan promptly advanced as well, positioning themselves to intercept him midway.