Nero's dark dome spread over several square kilometers, shutting out all light. Unfortunately, it did not neutralize the Lizzians; instead, the two simply overlapped. One that devoured all light, another that devoured all sound.
The only sound to be heard was two beautiful songs, which actually came from the same figure. The Lizzian looked around carefully in the darkness, paying attention to the slightest movement.
He stood high in the air, forming a small shield of sound around himself. He clapped his hands, and a sound wave spread out, but hit nothing. Then, out of nowhere, the darkness around him began attacking him from all directions.
Like thousands of long nails, they stabbed at him, not particularly strong, but the Lizzian now had to constantly maintain his shield; he would be impaled. Slowly, he flew down to the ground, clapping his hands again and again. Then finally, he felt him. He spun around as Nero attacked him from the darkness. A massive spear struck the Lizzian and hurled him backward, but then another blow hit him from behind, sending him upward. The Lizzian fired a sound wave into the darkness, but once again, he hit nothing.
He fell toward the ground as Nero appeared beneath him. Like a whip, he wrapped a shadow around the Lizzian's leg. He pulled with full force, and the Lizzian was hurled downward even faster. Nero flew above him, swung wide, and hurled a spear, while with the other hand he threw one dark scythe after another.
The Lizzian hissed as he grabbed his ring finger and broke it violently. Another extreme sound wave shot toward Nero and destroyed every attack. Nero blocked the attack before vanishing again. The Lizzian crashed into the ground with incredible force, but most of the damage was absorbed by the barrier. Even now, he did not stop singing; instead, he actually began a new song that slowly healed his bones. His two broken fingers straightened again.
Nero appeared behind him and continued bombarding the Lizzian with attacks, who desperately tried to defend himself. Once again, he was forced to break his finger to push Nero back temporarily, but not long after Nero appeared above him again.
Finally, the Lizzian was fully healed, so he began a new song that caused a gigantic golden glow to emerge from him, illuminating everything around him, weekening Neros attacks in the process. Nero did not let this distract him and simply continued attacking again and again, with no pause in sight.
Kia watched this spectacle from a distance. She saw the Lizzian, who was like a small sun fighting against a relentless onslaught of shadows that did not seem to end. But in fact, it seemed to Kia that the stranger had the upper hand against the Lizzian. He attacked him from all different angles, with the most varied attacks, without giving him a moment to breathe.
Kia knelt beside Morch, who lay on the ground breathing heavily. He had been hit badly; he had multiple broken bones, cracks were already running up his arm, blood flowed from his facial openings, but his mind had been affected the most. He had taken the full focus of the song, which had even harmed Nero, far up in the air. Kia used her powers to heal her partner's open wounds. Her expression was full of panic and worry. She wanted to call his name, but of course, that was not possible as long as that damn dome was active. Angrily, she stood up.
Since she could not help Morch further, it was time for her to focus on the enemy again. Nero was still bombarding the Lizzian from all sides, who had been forced into a completely passive position. He had to focus his songs on maintaining the light and the shield, while at the same time having to block dozens of Nero's attacks. Only occasionally could he launch an attack of his own, which Nero easily deflected each time. Concerned, he looked down at his arm, where cracks were already slowly spreading up to his shoulder. This could not go on. In Nero's case, only small cracks were visible on his palms, showing that he still possessed an enormous amount of magic.
'Damn it! Who is that?' the Lizzian thought, but he could not use his voice to ask Nero, since he could not interrupt any of his songs. He had never seen this kind of magic before, like Nero's. Nero, however, did not answer; instead, he hurled another spear at the Lizzian while commanding the shadows behind him to stab at him. He traced a large arc with his hand, from which a dark scythe flew, then he flew upward and vanished into the darkness again.
The Lizzian jerked his head upward as a hail of darkness rained down on him. Nero flew around him while continuing to attack again and again, when suddenly a gigantic ice bolt struck the Lizzian. It had hardly any effect, but now the Lizzian finally lost his composure. He had hoped that Kia and Morch were completely out of the fight, but now she was interfering as well.
At least now he had a better target. He raised his hand, grabbed his middle finger, and broke it. Kia's eyes widened as she immediately formed an ice barrier, but it shattered instantly under the pressure of the attack. Kia closed her eyes, ready to face death, but nothing happened. She blinked in confusion. The strange man stood in front of her and had actually blocked the attack for her. He looked at Kia and formed with his mouth, 'Go!' which he only confirmed with a gesture of his hand.
It was only a few seconds during which the attacks stopped, but the Lizzian immediately used this precious moment. Nero jumped into the air when he heard the song change. The barrier was still active, but the light withdrew until it finally disappeared. The song was, like all the others, breathtaking, but this one was heartbreakingly sad. The song spoke of the loneliness of a mute man who could not communicate. Slowly, the song swelled until it reached its chorus,
"…how much he wished for a voice…" the Lizzian sang, then pointed at Nero. The world trembled as a raging storm of sound erupted from his finger in a single instant. One could hear the roar of a man, one could hear an explosion, for a brief moment, Nero could even make out his own voice and that of Eleanor. Apparently, the dome of the Lizzian had not only suppressed the sounds but had captured and stored them all until the Lizzian now released them all at once.
Nero just barely managed to form a cocoon of darkness around himself before the attack hit him.
It was so incredibly powerful that it tore a massive hole into Nero's dark dome and ripped apart the clouds in the sky. All birds, insects, and other creatures that were struck by it were torn into pieces. Kia, who was not even in the direct path of the attack, screamed silently as her eardrums burst. She had pressed both palms against her ears, but it did absolutely nothing.
Nero held both hands out to the sides. Cracks raced up his arm at rapid speed as he maintained the cocoon. Here and there cracks formed in the cocoon, allowing small parts of the attack to pass through. In some places, the skin was practically torn from his flesh, yet Nero held on.
But finally, the attack ended. Slowly, Nero looked up and saw the Lizzian staggering. Nero could see through the torn shirt of the Lizzian that the cracks had almost reached his magical heart.
In the end, however, the Lizzian managed to remain standing. He looked up at Nero's figure, who stood within the slowly regenerating hole of the dome of darkness. Nero raised his hand. His aura surged as he prepared a new attack. The dark dome finally collapsed inward as the darkness flowed toward Nero's fingertip like a vacuum. There, a small point of endless darkness formed. Nero slowly placed the small sphere, no bigger than a pebble, onto his palm.
The Lizzian looked up. He raised both hands as his song swelled again. He did not know whether he would survive another attack, but it did not matter to him, because he would not escape anyway, so as his final act for his species, he would drag an extremely dangerous human down with him. He even let his shield fall and replaced his second song with another. With a burst of speed, he rose from the ground and flew toward his opponent. "…how much…" the refrain began again, while Nero placed his index finger against his thumb.
"…he wished…" the song continued. The aura of the Lizzian swelled one last time to unbelievable proportions as the cracks spread almost to his magical heart. Nero calmly aimed the small sphere of pure darkness at the Lizzian, placing his fingers directly in front of it.
Kia slowly crawled backward as she felt the two auras rising to uncontested heights. She had formed a frozen shield around herself and Morch.
"…for a voice."
The song ended. The Lizzian pointed at Nero. The attack was no weaker than before, as all the accumulated sounds formed a gigantic sound wave that rushed toward Nero with unstoppable force. Nero clicked his tongue as he flicked against the sphere on his palm.
The sphere exploded silently. The explosion spread at unbelievable speed and, like a hungry dragon, rushed toward the Lizzian, sweeping his sound wave aside as if it were nothing.
The Lizzian blinked, and his entire field of vision was filled with nothing but darkness, which destroyed everything in its path. When it struck the Lizzian, he was reduced to his smallest components in less than a heartbeat before they were slammed into the ground together with the darkness. A loud explosion followed as the air rushed back into the vacuum that had formed. With that, the battle finally ended.
Nero stood high above in the air, bleeding from the cracks that had formed up to his shoulder, from literal holes where his Skin was torn away and exposed his flesh and muscles, and from his nose and ears, but he was still standing.