The 4-hour countdown until the moving planet would collide with Earth cast a desperate shadow over the cracked stone valley. With Zane sealed away inside the absolute void of the Infinite Seal, the remaining Xenocide strike force split into their designated units instantly. There was no time for hesitation. The air grew thick, pressurized by the massive influx of raw power as the three Children of Malkor advanced to wipe out the xenocides captains".
On the left flank, a massive storm of purple, corrupt energy erupted from DOOMTAG. Her manic, psychotic grin stretched across her pale face as her glowing pink third eye flashed violently, sending a wave of mind-shattering pressure across the stones.
"More toys to break!" she shrieked, her long, clawed fingers dripping with dark residue as she lunged forward.
"Spread out!" Reid Gideon Swallow ordered. He intercepted her path first. As DOOMTAG swung her razor-sharp claws at his throat, Reid altered the directional vectors of her physical momentum. The force of her slash violently redirected ninety degrees to the side, causing her claws to slam into the dirt and shatter the bedrock.
DOOMTAG didn't lose her smile. She used the momentum to pivot, unleashing a high-velocity kick toward Reid's ribs.
Kylo stepped in, executing a perfect replication of Reid's evoliths to shift the trajectory of her leg upward, leaving her chest wide open.
"Now, Drakye!" Kylo shouted.
Drakye Void slammed both palms forward. The atmosphere in front of him condensed instantly as he hardened the air into an invisible, solid ram. The pressurized wall of solid air smashed directly into DOOMTAG's torso, the sheer weight of the impact launching her backward through a massive boulder.
Before she could hit the ground, Shadow manifested from the darkness directly beneath her falling form.
Black tendrils of shadow erupted from the earth, wrapping tightly around her wrists and ankles, pinning her suspended in mid-air. "Hold her down!" Shadow called out.
"With pleasure," Dr. D replied, stepping forward with his arms raised. He manipulated the atomic structures of the surrounding air molecules, destabilizing their bonds to ignite a massive, white-hot firestorm that engulfed DOOMTAG completely. The inferno roared, melting the stone floorboards into liquid slag.
*BOOM!*
A shockwave of purple energy tore through the firestorm. DOOMTAG emerged, her clothing scorched but her psychotic grin wider than before. Her third eye pulsed, unleashing a localized wave of mental trauma that made Shadow and Dr. D stagger backward, clutching their heads. She slipped past the shadow tendrils, appearing instantly in front of Drakye Void. Her clawed hand shot forward, burying into his shoulder. Drakye coughed up blood but immediately hardened the air inside her lungs, forcing her to choke and break her grip.
Reid closed the distance, delivering a brutal right hook that utilized vector inversion to multiply the impact force against her jaw. DOOMTAG spun from the blow, only to be met by Kylo, who copied Drakye's air hardening, slamming a solid blade of compressed air across her back. The five-on-one combat turned into a relentless, high-speed cycle of strikes, redirections, and atomic explosions, locking DOOMTAG into a brutal war of attrition.
Centering the battlefield, Zer0RUIN stood with his long, spectral white hair drifting in the wind. The multiple organic, demonic eyes floating in a circular halo around his shoulders darted back and forth, tracking every movement with absolute, red murderous light.
"Insolent pests," Zer0RUIN muttered coldly, the crimson cross on his obsidian chest plate glowing bright.
Lady Ness moved first. Swarms of microscopic, biological entities sprouted from her skin as her parasite erupted, flooding the air like a localized fog, aiming to invade Zer0RUIN's respiratory system and eat his muscle tissues from the inside out.
Zer0RUIN merely raised a hand, releasing a pulse of absolute destruction power that disintegrated the parasites on contact.
"Behind you," a voice glitched.
Zorin Lyx utilized his glitch ability, his body flickering in and out of the dimensional frame like a corrupted video file. He bypassed Zer0RUIN's floating eyes entirely, reappearing an inch away from his blind spot and driving a plasma-coated dagger toward his neck. Zer0RUIN didn't turn around; one of his floating red eyes fired a linear beam of crimson energy. Zorin glitched again, the beam passing through his translucent afterimage and striking the ground behind him.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Tessa Sol threw her hands forward. Hundreds of invisible, razor-sharp metallic wires from her thread manipulation zipped across the stones, wrapping tightly around Zer0RUIN's arms and throat, anchoring him to the heavy boulders nearby.
"Zarek, now!" Tessa screamed, her fingers bleeding from the strain of holding the god of ruin.
Zarek Solis sprinted forward, his twin swords drawn. He looked at Zer0RUIN's chest, waiting for the precise alignment of battlefield variables. Suddenly, a brilliant, glowing "X" manifested directly over Zer0RUIN's obsidian chest plate. The condition was met—victory was 100% certain.
Zarek unleashed a dual-blade horizontal slash. The cut bypassed the physical density of the armor entirely, cleaving a massive fracture directly through Zer0RUIN's chest.
Blood sprayed from the wound as the god of ruin let out a sharp hiss of pain.
"How dare you," Zer0RUIN growled. The floating eyes around his shoulders grew massive, firing a synchronized, omnidirectional barrage of crimson lasers that shattered Tessa's threads and blew the four captains backward. Lady Ness immediately deployed a secondary wave of protective parasites to absorb the residual heat, while Zorin glitched the squad out of the direct path of the explosions. Zer0RUIN stood wounded, but his dark aura flared to life, his eyes locking onto the four captains with absolute hatred as the real fight began.
On the right flank, SHATTERX stood perfectly still, his petrified white wood-like body anchoring him to the earth like an ancient tree. His single, vertical red eye stared unblinkingly at Lenny D Mic, Torin Kez, JJ, and Alina Icter. His skeletal hand rested on the hilt of his massive katana.
Lenny D Mic clapped his hands together, activating his sound solidification. "Let's turn up the volume!" he yelled. The raw sonic energy of his voice materialized into solid, jagged crystalline sound waves that flew through the air like a volley of giant guillotine blades.
SHATTERX didn't dodge. In a fraction of a millisecond, his hand blurred. He drew his katana, executing a single, perfect spatial slice. The sheer destruction power within the blade didn't just break the solid sound waves—it shattered the space they occupied, causing Lenny's attack to dissolve into nothingness.
"Go, Chimera Titan!" Torin Kez roared. A massive, four-armed reptilian beast that Torin had previously defeated and tamed materialized from a summoning circle. The beast charged, its heavy iron claws slamming down toward SHATTERX's head.
SHATTERX sidestepped with absolute grace, his orange robes flowing. With a casual reverse grip, he sliced upward, cleaving the massive summoned beast entirely in half with a single strike of his katana, killing it in a single slash.
"My turn to roll!" JJ shouted. A massive, floating neon slot machine manifested beside him. The digital dice spun rapidly inside the holographic display, landing on a high number. Instantly, a massive, heavy iron warhammer materialized in JJ's hands, crackling with electricity. JJ leaped into the air, bringing the heavy weapon down with maximum force.
SHATTERX blocked the massive warhammer using only the sheath of his katana, the ground beneath his feet sinking five feet into the dirt from the physical leverage.
"Alina, do it!" JJ yelled, struggling against the shattrex absolute physical strength.
Alina Icter raised her hands to the heavens. Instantly, a beautiful, false night sky blanketed the valley directly above SHATTERX. Sharp, glowing crystalline shards began raining down like a localized meteor shower.
A dozen shards struck SHATTERX's petrified wood shoulders. He didn't bleed, but his single red eye dilated as his emotions and memories were momentarily shattered, leaving him completely frozen and confused in place.
"He's open!" Lenny D Mic screamed, solidifying the air around SHATTERX's limbs into thick, dense blocks of solid sound, while Torin Kez summoned three more flying wyverns to pin the shattrex down. They unleashed everything they had, knowing that the moment his confusion faded, the blade of SHATTERX would cleave the valley in two.
Far away from the chaotic multi-captain skirmishes, isolated in the center of the absolute crater, Tyson and Malkor as they where about to face each other.