The sound of Lapis hitting the ground was hollow—a broken sound for a broken body. Techyon didn't think. He didn't calculate. The 0.10ms speed he had trained for vanished, replaced by a raw, jagged output of White-Blue lightning that tore the ground apart beneath his feet.
"You... you monster!" Techyon screamed, his voice cracking.
"Techyon, NO!" Alya reached out, her fingers just missing his cloak.
Techyon charged, a blur of desperate fury, but Barkan didn't even shift his feet. The Demon Monarch simply raised a finger.
"Helllight Demon Blast."
The crimson beam caught Techyon mid-dash. It wasn't a feint this time. The sheer force of the demonic mana shattered Techyon's aura and sent him skidding across the magma, his chest seared and his breathing shallow.
Barkan turned his four eyes toward Alya as she ran toward Techyon's fallen form. "Healing is a waste of energy in a graveyard," Barkan rumbled, raising his hand to erase her too.
"HYDRO CANNON!"
A massive, pressurized pillar of ancient sea-water slammed into Barkan's side with the force of a falling moon. The Demon Monarch was sent tumbling back, his golden armor scraping against the shards of the Energy Sector.
Neweland stepped forward. The calm, teacher-like Arcon was gone. His eyes were no longer just blue; they were glowing with the depth of a thousand trenches, and the air around him began to swirl with a lethal, high-pressure mist.
"I have stood by and watched the children suffer for too long," Neweland said, his voice echoing with the authority of a King. "I am not standing still anymore, Barkan."
Barkan stood up, wiping a trail of steaming water from his shoulder. A dark, twisted grin spread across his face. "Finally... looks like the big fish is coming out of the pot. Show me, Traitor—is your 'Human' heart as strong as the one you threw away?"
The ground didn't just shake; it dissolved. A pillar of White-Blue Aura erupted from Techyon's broken form, reaching so high into the atmosphere that it pierced the clouds of the neighboring continents.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
HP: 6%
STATUS: CRITICAL
PASSIVE ACTIVATED:
Techyon stood up slowly. He no longer looked like a boy. His skin was shimmering, translucent, and his hair flowed like a nebula of static electricity. He had become a silhouette of pure, blinding light.
"Techyon...?" Alya whispered, shielding her eyes from the sheer intensity of his mana. "Is that really you?"
Barkan lowered his guard slightly, his four red eyes widening in genuine surprise. "So... you can still stand up after a direct Helllight Blast? Your bloodline is more stubborn than I imagined."
Techyon didn't respond with words at first. He turned his head, his eyes glowing like twin supernovae. "Neweland. Alya," his voice sounded like a thousand echoes. "Take Lapis and get out of here. Right now."
"Techyon, you're at your limit!" Neweland shouted, sensing the unstable power.
"I said GO," Techyon commanded. "I am going to deal with him alone."
Barkan let out a mocking laugh, raising his hand as dark energy began to swirl into a final erasure sphere. "You think you can defeat me alone? A boy with one foot in the grave? Nice joke, ki—"
CRACK.
Barkan stopped. He didn't even see the movement. One millisecond Techyon was thirty meters away; the next, Techyon was standing directly in front of him, his hand clamped firmly around Barkan's massive fist.
He... he's so fast I couldn't even track him with my Void Perception, Barkan thought, a bead of cold sweat finally rolling down his demonic face. I have four eyes... and I didn't see a single frame of his approach.