The crimson light erupting from Zer0RUIN's chest cross turned the entire center flank into a blood-red abyss.
The microscopic parasites inside his open chest wound were instantly vaporized as his dark aura superheated, Slowly, the deep, ragged flesh wound across his torso began to knit itself back together. The dense skin fused seamlessly, the fractured bone structure of his chest plate snapping back into alignment.
His floating demonic eyes ceased their erratic spinning, locking entirely forward as their pupils shrank into sharp, absolute pinpricks of pure lethal intent.
"It's time to get serious," Zer0RUIN spoke, his voice no longer a roar, but a calm, terrifying vibration that rattled the loose gravel across the floorboards. "I'm done playing."
*BOOM.*
The ground beneath his feet didn't just crack—it collapsed into fine, gray powder as he vanished.
Zorin Lyx's instincts flared violently.
He didn't wait to see the trajectory; he instantly triggered a frame glitch, his body flickering out of the physical plane.
A microsecond later, Zer0RUIN's massive, fist tore through the exact space Zorin had just occupied. The sheer atmospheric displacement of the punch generated a vacuum pocket that violently sucked the surrounding air inward, shattering a stone spire ten yards away from the sheer localized shockwave.
Zorin materialized five feet to the right, his forehead slick with cold sweat.
Before his feet could fully touch the stones, Zer0RUIN pivoted on his heel, his movement entirely bypassing standard acceleration. He was already in front of Zorin again, his left hand snapping forward in a blinding straight jab.
Zorin glitched a second time, dropping a frame to slip past the side of the punch. He countered instantly, driving a high-frequency vibrating left hook into Zer0RUIN's ribs, followed by a rapid right cross to his cheek. The blows connected with a heavy *BANG-BANG*, but Zer0RUIN didn't even flinch.
His newly regenerated skin absorbed the impact completely.
*That glitcher is really good,* Zer0RUIN thought to himself, his central eye tracking the minute spatial distortions left behind by Zorin's movements. *He's strong. His timing is impeccable. If I don't kill him right now, he's going to cause serious trouble for Lord Malkor later.*
Zer0RUIN didn't allow Zorin to pull away.
Instead of aiming a standard counter-punch, Zer0RUIN forced the halo of floating eyes around his shoulders to fire a continuous, sweeping lattice of crimson lasers in a tight circle around his own body.
Zorin, attempting to glitch backward to reset his stance, found his destination frames completely blanketed by the lethal red beams. Left with no choice, Zorin had to execute three consecutive frame drops in rapid succession, his body flickering violently like a heavily corrupted holographic image as he strained his spatial limits to avoid being sliced into pieces.
"Get away from him!" Lady Ness roared, sprinting into the crimson light.
She threw her hands forward, unleashing her parasite manipulation at absolute capacity.
A dense, dark purple wave of microscopic organisms shot from her palms, forming a solid, twisting drill of living matter that slammed directly into Zer0RUIN's left shoulder blade.
The parasites aggressively clawed at his skin, attempting to inject a fast-acting necrotic toxin directly into his bloodstream.
Zer0RUIN didn't even turn around. He simply flexed his shoulder muscles, releasing a pulse of destruction energy directly from his skin.
The biological drill disintegrated into ash in an instant.
Zer0RUIN snapped his right leg backward in a lightning-fast reverse roundhouse kick. Lady Ness raised her arms in a desperate cross-block, but the sheer physical output of the god slammed into her forearms with the force of a falling meteor.
The impact shattered her defensive stance, launching her across the valley floorboards. She skidded over fifty feet, her boots tearing deep grooves in the dirt before she crashed heavily into a ruined pillar, coughing up a spray of blood.
"Ness!" Tessa Sol screamed.
Tessa threw her hands forward, her fingers moving in a frantic, intricate pattern. Hundreds of metallic wires zipped through the air, wrapping tightly around Zer0RUIN's right wrist and pulling with everything she had to divert his attention.
Zer0RUIN didn't struggle against the metal threads. He simply gripped the wires with his bare left hand and yanked the line violently toward himself.
The immense physical leverage pulled Tessa off her feet, dragging her flying straight toward his position.
As she closed the distance, Zer0RUIN chambered his right fist back, preparing to drive it completely through her torso.
*SHING!*
A massive, heavy shadow cut through the red glare. Zarek Solis dropped from the sky above, his expression dead serious, holding his big blade with a white-knuckled grip.
He brought the massive greatsword down in a horizontal cleaving motion, intercepting Zer0RUIN's line of sight and forcing zer0ruin to drop the threads to block the incoming steel.
Zer0RUIN raised his bare forearm, meeting the edge of Zarek's big blade head-on.
*CLANG!*
The collision sounded like two continental plates grinding together.
The shockwave tore across the center flank, ripping up the stone floorboards and throwing a massive wall of dust into the air. Zarek's muscles bulged under his uniform, his feet sinking two inches into the solid bedrock from the sheer downward force of the block.
Zer0RUIN's arm didn't cut; his regenerated skin was now too dense, the aura radiating from his body actively pushing against the heavy steel.
"Do you really think you can stop me?" Zer0RUIN sneered, his floating eyes rapidly shifting to lock onto Zarek's chest.
"He's not alone," Zorin Lyx's voice glitched directly from the side.
Zorin reappeared in a frame drop right under Zer0RUIN's raised guard. He didn't aim for the face this time; he focused entirely on the zer0ruin balance.
Zorin delivered a brutal, high-speed sequence of low kicks into Zer0RUIN's knee joint, the rapid, vibrating strikes forcing the zer0ruin's leg to buckle slightly.
Simultaneously, Tessa Sol recovered her footing, throwing a secondary wave of metallic wires around Zer0RUIN's neck, anchoring him down toward the earth.
Zarek capitalized on the momentary shift in weight, twisting his torso to maximize his martial leverage and executing a powerful, vertical shield-bash with the flat of his big blade directly against Zer0RUIN's face.
*BOOM!*
The collective effort forced Zer0RUIN back three full steps, the loose gravel flying outward in a perfect circle from the impact zone.
His face was marked with a dark bruise, but his crimson eyes remained terrifyingly clear.
Zer0RUIN let out a cold, dark chuckle. The red cross on his chest began to glow with a higher, unstable frequency, the air around him becoming so hot that the stones beneath his boots began to turn translucent, melting into liquid glass.
"Your teamwork is admirable, humans," Zer0RUIN muttered, his floating demonic eyes beginning to align into a straight, linear line right behind his shoulders, forming a heavy, concentrated cannon battery of crimson energy. "But admiration does not save you from death"
Zorin Lyx glitched directly back into a defensive stance in front of Zarek, his teeth grit as his body continued to flicker unevenly. His breathing was ragged, his evo-energy burning at an alarming rate from the constant frame drops, but
his gaze remained absolutely fixed on the enemy.