"ROAR!!"
Bezel the Arch-Demon erupted with a surge of violet magic, tearing across the observation deck at a speed that blurred the air. Tyler, however, simply closed his eyes. With his synchronization at 10%, his biological senses had merged with the Carnitrix's threat-detection array. He didn't need to see; he could feel the heat of Bezel's soul.
WHOOSH!
Tyler twisted his spectral form with millimeter precision, letting the titan's charge sail harmlessly past. Before Bezel could even pivot, Tyler unleashed the Sword of Ek Chuah. It was a strike born of pure efficiency—precise, cold, and ruthless.
CRACK!
The blade bit deep into the demon's stony hide. Bezel froze, his rocky face contorted in a look of primitive shock as a massive fracture spider-webbed across his chest, leaking torrents of concentrated mana.
"How... how did he find the anchor point?" Bezel's thoughts were a chaotic roar of disbelief. "And with his eyes closed?!"
Tyler didn't give him time to recover. In his current state, he wasn't just a pilot of the Void-Wraith; he was the apex of its killing potential. He flowed through the air like smoke, delivering a flurry of strikes that countered every magical barrier and physical lunge Bezel attempted.
"Heh, this 'Arch-Demon' isn't even in the same league as the Slaughter God," Ben remarked, watching from below as Techno-Parasite.
"I told you, Ben," Gwen added, her voice filled with a mix of awe and dread. "Tyler's aliens aren't just powerful... they're a different category of existence entirely."
As the solar eclipse reached its end and the first silver sliver of moonlight pierced the sky, Tyler's blade glowed with a brilliance that outshone the stars. With one final, sweeping arc, he severed Bezel's head. The demon disintegrated, his mountain-like body crumbling into a rain of harmless pebbles that clattered against the roof.
Tyler descended to the top of the tower, his eyes still closed. At 10% control, his perception didn't stop at the rooftop—it rippled outward for miles. He scanned every living soul in the city below. He saw the innocence of the crowd, the fear of the guilty, and the utter lack of threat from the broken Hex and Charmcaster.
"Phew." Tyler suppressed the rising tide of the Carnitrix's madness and retracted his senses, allowing the cool night breeze to wash over him as the transformation timed out.
"Ten percent," Tyler whispered, looking at his human hands. "For the first time, I didn't just wear the watch. I was the watch."
A few feet away, a bald, shivering Hex and a defeated Charmcaster—now stripped of her coat and left in a simple vest—were being hauled into a police cruiser by Plumber-affiliated officers.
Tyler turned to Gwen. "Did you secure the artifacts?"
"The magic gear? Right here." Gwen led them back to the Rust Bucket. Hex's legendary robes and amulets were currently being tumbled in the RV's washing machine on a heavy-duty cycle, while his staff was propped up in the bathroom near the towels.
Gwen had even claimed Charmcaster's noble purple coat for herself, putting it on with a satisfied smirk. Tyler looked at her, then back at the memory of the white-haired sorceress. Gwen's a great student, he thought, but Charmcaster definitely had more... temperament.
[Ding! Host has slain Bezel the Arch-Demon and neutralized the Hex/Charmcaster threat. Progress +1%]
[Template Mastery: 41/100. DNA UNLOCKED: THE NUCLEAR SUN (Atomix)!]
Inside a massive, cloaked warship, a cultivation pod hissed open. Vilgax stepped out, his body fully reconstructed and gleaming with cybernetic enhancements.
"Lord Vilgax," a mechanical subordinate bowed. "Shall we re-initiate the hunt for the shapeshifter on Earth?"
Vilgax's hand tightened into a fist until the metal groaned. "No! I am not a fool. That boy didn't just defeat me... he tormented me. He only left me alive because he wanted to see me crawl."
The Galactic Warlord took a shaky breath, the memory of Tyler's berserk rage still haunting his cybernetic mind. If the ship's emergency teleport hadn't snatched him away while Tyler was busy dismembering him, Vilgax knew he would have been erased from existence.
"Then... do we remain in hiding?" the droid asked.
Vilgax's eyes burned with a new, dark resolve. "No. Activate the Forbidden Training Grounds. I am going back to the limits. I will undergo the extreme special training of my ancestors."
"Lord Vilgax! You would risk the breakthrough?"
"Next time Tyler Levison sees me," Vilgax hissed, "he won't be facing a warlord. He will be facing the Ultimate Vilgax."
New Transformation Log
The Nuclear Sun (Atomix Variant)
Traits: A hulking, armored behemoth with glowing green containment fissures along its body. Its head is a glass dome filled with a miniature, roiling star.Ability: Fission Blast. Can generate localized thermonuclear explosions. At 10% synchronization, Tyler can focus the radiation into "surgical" beams that melt targets at the molecular level without causing collateral fallout.Passive: Containment Breach. Anyone standing within fifty yards of this form suffers from "Aura Sickness"—a mix of intense heat and biological interference.
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