5:33 AM:
Moon-light fractures across a white ocean that should not exist.Every wave—now a serrated glacier—catches the starlight like broken glass. The four remaining Nightguard champions stand in the only open clearing of ice for thousands of miles:
Fighter Condition Power Reserve:
Archer Irving (Godrend Aegis): Superficial cuts, one dented pauldron≈ 80 %
Karu Arakizawa (Titan-0 Apex): Reactor strain, micro-fractures in shin plating≈ 20 %
Rylen Minazuka (Soulweaver): Suit integrity 42 %; soul-venom at half potency≈12%
Lucien: Bruised, torn rib cartilage, cosmic stamina nearly gone≈ 10 %
Every breath crystallises, every heartbeat echoes. And in front of them, Frostjaw Reiken—rebuilt again—draws the horizon across his shoulders.
Archer flicks blood from his lip. "Same plan—break him down to the last core."Karu's visor flickers crimson warnings; he still grins. "Twenty percent is more then enough."Rylen runs diagnostic glyphs in mid-air; projections swirl: Core Integrity: 97 %. "We have 1 hour at best. "Lucien cracks his knuckles, skin glowing with the embers of spent Purgeflame. "We will do it in minutes."
Reiken's twelve pupils dilate. The planet moans beneath him.
Cryo-Graviton Domain — again, but wider this time.
A sub-audible thoom rolls outward. Gravity flips.
The glacier field collapses into a crater 1250 feet deep, dragging every fissured berg with it.
Chilean seismographs spike: M 7.9 aftershock.
Frozen cargo ships 100 miles away heel over as the ocean momentarily "slumps" toward the vortex.
Archer free-falls first into the depth of the frozen ocean. Mid-spin he taps a wrist rune—Boosters: Inversion Mode. Twin flares kill his inertia; columns of steam hiss where thruster fire meets −500 °C ice.
Archer (into comm): "Domain focus is fifteen-mile radius—edge is thin. I'll carve us footing."
He flips, crossing swords point-down. Slashes through pure space—
Skill enabled: Nova Cross Severance, Double arc shreds 500 feet worth of inverted gravity, leaving a floating "platform" of neutral-G air.
Karu dives next, aero-jets screaming. Titan-0 hits one knee, punching seismic spikes into the makeshift slab. "Anchored!"
Rylen casts Illusion Veil—ten shimmering duplicates jitter across the crater edge to confuse Reiken's depth-tracking.
Lucien can't fly at anywhere near hisfull speed; instead he leaps from a collapsing ice column, riding its plummet like a surfboard before spring-boarding onto Karu's anchor slab.
Reiken rears into the stratosphere again—six wings unfurl, each the span of a capital city. Solar radiation floods both cores; scales glow sickly ultraviolet.
Rylen (hissing): "Guys there is an incoming kinetic-plasma spike!"
Reiken's head snaps downward; a single spear of minus 15-million-degree, diamond-dense ice erupts—the I.C.R. Blast.
Archer kicks off the slab, ascending to intercept. Time dilates.
0.02 s — He snaps both swords together, hilts locking to form a cruciform guard.
0.04 s — Aetherial Bastion blooms; the spear drills into gold hexagons.
Shockwave radius: 200 miles further, Chilean coastal windows implode; Andes snow fields avalanche.On site, the slab Karu created shatters. Karu tumbles; Rylen's illusions wink out; Lucien skids 100 feet, bleeding out everywhere.
Inside the dome Archer's armour temp spikes to 3000 °C; suit alarms bleed red. He whispers, "Not yet, i am not at my limit yet. And if i am i will surpass them," and channels Bastion's conversion matrix—turning 40 % of the spear's energy into charge for his own core.
The spear finally snaps in half, shards arcing off into low orbit where they glitter like evil comets.
Archer's hair smoulders; his cloak burns away. He exhales steam. "Your best shot still drops short Reiken."
Reiken, enraged and confused, fans all twelve eyes; negative-temperature beams rake the hemisphere.
Santiago sees the sky crackle blue-black; instruments record −300 °C gusts above troposphere.
ISS crew divert cameras as auroras bloom violent violet.
1. Karu
Titan-0's Shield Matrix upshifts to thermal mode. The suit hums like a turbine; beams refract into laser rainbows. His HUD counts each deflection: 17…34…51… until coolant warns red. "Matrix overheating!"
He back-jets, lances one beam back with Plasma Rail-Burst, scoring Reiken's wing-base.
2. Rylen
Uses his soul Prediction Field—anticipates micro-shifts in Reiken's aim. He slip-streams between different sized of beams, each pass shaving paint from his armour. Closing to melee, he slashes a tendon of Reiken his leg, injects Soul Venom; a halo of spectral green creeps up the limb.
Reiken swats; Rylen's reality warp stutters—he ricochets off ice, coughing blood.
3. Lucien
Too slow to dodge the beams; he throws himself flat on the ground, letting one pass an inch overhead. Ice explodes everywhere; shards rip his shoulder open, but he still rises. He leaps, fist smashing an ice node that channels the beams, buying Rylen a breath.
Karu hovers to a 1000 feet, reactors staggered. He calls all four cores:
Pyro Reactor vents 10 000 °F plasma.
Cryo Matrix counter-jets −500 °F frost.
Aero Dampers swirl them into a self-contained hurricane.
Gaia Boots pound seismic ripples that fissure the glacier beneath Reiken's tail.
A spinning pillar of opposite elements slams Reiken's stomach—obsidian plates shatter, exposing warm core-skin.
Lucien, breath ragged and unsteady, dashes the incline. Boom! He drives a bare fist into that wound that Karu created. Crunch—he feels something give.
Reiken growls, pivoting—and backhands Lucien across 500 feet of broken ice. Lucien's world spins; he skips like a stone, finally tumbling into a shallow crevasse. Pain blooms; still alive but he almost got knocked out.
Lucien (weak laugh): "Ten percent feels more like zero now."
He staggers upright again but he was dizzy.
Reiken mutates under pressure—remaining arms fuse into three gargantuan claws, each wreathed in sub-zero plasma. He blitzes:
Swipe at Karu—Titan-0's top armour panels shear. Warning sirens all over; internal nanites scramble.
Second swipe at Rylen—his soul prediction field half-blocks the attack, but one of his blades cracks; Rylen's left gauntlet ruptures.
Third swipe at Archer—Archer flickers invisible, but the claw reads heat differentials; it clips his leg, gashing only his armour.
Archer (gritting teeth): "Enough posturing."
He triggers True Invisibility again—vanishes into the air.
Reappearing above Reiken's remaining wing-root, Archer activates his Stellar Cyclone. A vortex of miniature suns engulfs his swords; he descends like a comet drill ready to drill something out.
First pass bores a tunnel through armour to within centimetres of the last core.
He feels plasma licking his face inside the helmet.
Before he can finish, a ice tail spike stabs up—Archer twists mid air, but it just manages to clip him, sending him spiralling down onto the icy ground. Suit integrity to 63 %. Temporal Rewind is on cooldown; he must ride the pain for a little bit.
Rylen flashes in: Illusion Body Split—three and then five Rylen images dart, confusing targeting. The real one flips behind the tunnel Archer drilled for him, stabbing both venom blades through exposed flesh, chanting Soul-Rend Glyphs. Spectral chains crawl toward the core, siphoning energy.
Reiken emits a gravity pulse, flinging Rylen end-over-end. Chains snap; Rylen's HUD showers red; suit at 4 %.
Lucien forces his shaky flight; he angles down the drill-hole Archer left. His fists ignite a very faint cosmic cinder. He hammers again and again on raw core membrane—
Thud. Thud. CRACK.
A hair-line fracture.
Reiken thrashes; gravity field spikes; Lucien is slammed outward, losing consciousness mid-air. He free-falls—
Karu dives, catches him before he hits the ice, shoving Lucien onto a fragment of floating ice. "Stay awake Lucien, come on!"
Lucien coughs crimson flecks. "If…we keep carving… core's brittle."
NewsNet Global LIVE:
"Chilean coastal cities report ice thickness of 10 feet—temperatures plummeting beyond −70 °C. Argentinian Andes now in whiteout. UN issues Level-Omega extinction advisory."
Split-screen shows:
Families huddling in Valparaíso houses, heat lamps failing.
Tokyo still reeling from earlier quake yet cheering every flash in Pacific night sky.
Paris commentators debating if this is the end of the 'DemonBoy' narrative and if he survives if they will still continue the bounty on his head..
Lucien fully wakes up again.
The four regroup on a floating, throne-sized chunk of ice.
Archer: "Core integrity down maybe to 70 to 65%. Another concerted breach will do the job and we will win."Rylen wipes blood from eyebrow. "Soul Venom nearly depleted but I can still anchor him with the remaining 4% that i got left."Karu's visors flicker. "One Chrono-Breaker pulse left, thats my max after that im done for."Lucien—eyes fever-bright—"And I have…something else." He swallows, remembering.
Flashback — "One Week Ago"
A week ago. An abandoned metal factory on the outskirts of Tokyo. Stinking of oil and blood. After the meetup with Rylen, Jason and Emiluna. Lucien met someone new
He stood face to face with a figure in a long, gray robe. A porcelain mask, crystal clear white. No eyes. Only a mouth, slightly open.
"You are standing on the edge of an abyss Lucien or should i say, God of Vengeance."
The voice sounded male, but distorted, as if he were speaking through ten mouths at once.
Lucien tried to read its mind but he couldn´t. Then Lucien asked. '' Who are you and how do you know my name.''
The figure responded. '' That doens´t matter, but i do have something for you Lucien.''
"What you are given here right here right now… will break you. You will make sacrifices that you hate. But if you do not take this, everyone will die."
The figure opened its hand. A dark core pulsed in the palm. Not divine energy. Something deeper. Something that was not supposed to exist.
"Accept it. But do not activate it yet… until you can no longer save anyone."
Lucien's hand shook. But he took it.
Back to the ice shelf—Lucien flexes that arm; seal glows faint ember. He hasn't used it—yet.
Archer nods. "Whatever that power is your thinking about right now, save it for the final swing. Karu, prep Chrono-Breaker. Rylen, set venom anchor. I'll cut the artery. Lucien—when you see the window, unleash."
All fists meet in centre—steam mixing with frost.
Second Wave — Crack the Shell Karu • Chrono-Breaker
He rockets to 2500 hundred feet altitude. Time in a 40-feet bubble drags to syrup. Reiken moves in slow shutter frames.
Karu dives—Voidbreaker Gauntlets first—every punch lands with relativistic weight. Scales crush, seismic fissures spider outward. Chrono-Breaker ends; time snaps back; eight delayed explosions thunder simultaneously. The wound blossoms.
Rylen • Soul-Anchor Spiral
He teleports via prediction behind Reiken's kidney ridge. Venom blades pierce; spectral chains surge, wrapping core area again. A green aura pulses, locking Reiken's regeneration for six seconds. "Now!"
Archer • Eclipse Divider
He channels; swords polarise white and black. One breath. One heartbeat. A cross-slash detonates, gouging a canyon from shoulder to hip—exposing the last core like a pulsing glacier-heart.
Core now at 38 %.
Lucien stumbles up, blood drenching chest. Eyes flare indigo. "Seal…open."
Lucien's Infernal Surge (NOT the real strike yet)
The mark on his forearm unchains: black-violet flame crawls over his arm to shoulder. Aura spikes by ×1000. He feels lighter, faster—skin cracking with wicked energy.
He blitzes—nothing but flight and fists—and smashes down on the open core. Wham! Core shell dents.
Reiken bellows; violent frost detonates point-blank. Lucien rockets back, armourless skin lacerated—but the dent now blooms cracks.
Core at 21 %.
Lucien screams through broken ribs, "Again!"
Counter-harms
Reiken thrashes; Cryo-Graviton Domain flickers unstable; vacuum pockets open; Karu nearly yanked upward.
Archer's Phase Mirrors fold to block stray beams, but one mirror shatters; shards slice his cheek. Suit at 55% %.
Rylen's left blade snaps; energy conduit overloaded—his HUD screams "Blade Integrity Critical."
Karu's reactors flicker—they're at redline. Lucien's demonic flame dims; the seal demands more blood.
They retreat to 500 feet distance. Reiken steadies, remaining core pulsing faster—like a star-forged heart.
Archer: "Next exchange decides everything—we all hold nothing back in our last and final attack, if we kill him now we win otherwise we and the whole world dies."
Karu nods, stabilisers venting blue plasma. Rylen swaps to phantom blade fragments, jury-rigging edges from suit plating. Lucien presses a palm over the glowing seal—knowing he has maybe fifteen seconds of that infernal empowerment left.
They look up: frost storms curl around a blood-red moon. Valparaíso's emergency sirens echo faintly over the ice.
Reiken crouches—power building for something bigger, but not yet unleashed.
Four heroes draw breath. One last charge awaits.