Itekan shot towards Zain, his shadow tentacles now more defined and trailing like vipers in his wake.
Zain, who had watched Avery, then Keel Kun, and now Itekan rise against him, was sincerely baffled by the strength they kept revealing.
He wasn't going all out—he wanted a decent fight. But he was beginning to realize that if he continued to toy with them, they would keep growing stronger and eventually defeat him.
He smiled at the thought: that two second-stage heroes and a blue-eyed form hero would defeat him.
Truly, it was ludicrous—almost unbelievable.
He raised his arm just as Itekan's shadow tentacles smashed into his prepared gravity field shield.
BOOM!
The impact sent Itekan tumbling back, but even as he skidded across cracked stone, Avery charged forward. His fist glowed with a vibrant purple SE.
He didn't hesitate. He unleashed a flurry of blows against Zain, each impact ringing out like war drums.
Zain smirked, raising a single hand. A gravity field shielded him, each blow from Avery absorbed as if the air itself had turned to steel.
Each punch barely moved Zain, who stood unwavering.
"This isn't going to work," Avery said, withdrawing with a frustrated scowl.
Itekan's feet scraped over fractured rock, his breath ragged, eyes narrowed. Zain's mere presence seemed to bend the very laws of physics. The Apostle hadn't moved in the last twenty seconds—he simply floated, arms crossed, disappointed they were still standing.
Itekan clenched his fists.
"Shadow Hand: Shadow Domain."
A pitch-black ripple surged from his feet, swallowing the light around him. A dome of inky blackness enveloped the battleground, and from its depths, shadow tendrils erupted, snaking through the cracks of reality itself. This wasn't the same move he'd used against the Frost Prince—it was a far stronger manifestation.
Itekan's fingers moved like a puppeteer, and shadow daggers—mechanized illusions of Calogaja—shot through the air.
These daggers weren't as powerful as the original, but they made up for it with speed. They moved at the speed of sound, even surprising Itekan himself.
Zain didn't flinch.
He raised his hand.
"Gravity Monarch: Inverse Gravity."
A silent tremor cracked the sky. The shadow daggers jerked violently, losing their momentum as a downward gravitational pull slammed into the battlefield.
BOOM!
The shadow tendrils buckled. Half of Itekan's domain was crushed into the ground, caving under a pressure that felt like a mountain pressing down from every angle.
But he wasn't alone.
Keel Kun appeared mid-air, five meters behind Zain. One blink, and he vanished again—teleporting in a circle, a blur of strikes and halberd feints. His weapon carved spirals through the air, each blow coming from a different angle.
Zain was fast… but not faster than light.
CLANG!
A clean hit struck his ribs, sending a shockwave outward. Zain reeled slightly, then regained balance almost instantly.
"Puny," he sneered, raising a single finger.
Gravity Bubble.
Keel's chest compressed inward slightly—not from impact, but from sheer pressure. Zain had trapped him inside a sphere of compressed mass the size of a fist. Keel couldn't move. Every cell in his body screamed as his bones groaned under the weight. Even his teleportation faltered under the intense spatial and temporal pull.
Space and time are the fabrics of reality—gravity is the force that bends them both.
Zain's technique did just that, bending space around Keel Kun and locking him in place.
Just before Zain could crush him entirely—
"Hollow Dreams!!"
A fist, glowing orange, collided with the bubble from above.
Avery!
He dropped like a missile, his hammer-blow tripled in strength by his SE. The bubble shattered, and Zain was flung backward for the first time in the fight.
Zain crashed into a floating boulder, snapping it in half.
He rose slowly, his eyes now glowing pure white.
"That… actually hurt."
Avery cracked his knuckles, smirking. "Get used to it. I'm just getting started."
Itekan staggered to his feet, bruised but not broken. He flicked his fingers, and the Shadow Domain reformed, this time tighter, faster, more aggressive.
"Shadow Hand: Inverse Gravity," he declared—his own interpretation of Zain's technique, forged from understanding the Apostle's manipulation.
Zain narrowed his gaze. "You dare…?"
Itekan's shadow tentacles abruptly pulled downward—not to restrain, but to cancel Zain's artificial field. The ground stopped vibrating. The suffocating gravity lifted.
In that brief pause—
Keel Kun vanished again.
This time, his halberd spun like a drill, striking Zain's shoulder and locking into his collarbone.
But Zain was done playing.
"Core Gravity Burst."
Everything froze.
The heroes' organs twisted. Their hearts seized. It felt as if their entire beings were being dragged inward, every blood vessel straining to collapse.
BOOM!
A gravity explosion erupted from Zain's chest, flinging all three heroes away like ragdolls.
Itekan smashed through three boulders, blood spraying from his mouth. His body—unprepared for such overwhelming force—had fractured ribs now. But even then, he stood, his shadow spirit already active and healing him.
Shadow flowed around his limbs, coalescing into claws.
"Shadow Hand: Shadow Grave!"
Beneath Zain, the air fractured. Shadows coalesced into a grave-shaped cage of claws, each digit the size of a war hammer, striking with the intent to bury him.
Zain snarled, visibly irked. "Fine."
Denkei State: Gravity Monarch.
The rings around him expanded into massive sigils. His aura surged, his skin hardening like star-metal.
Keel Kun teleported into a falling boulder, coughing, struggling to breathe. "He just ascended mid-fight… We have to get away from here—"
Avery stood beside him, wiping blood from his mouth. "No. I'm not running! I'm not leaving this bastard alive."
He dropped into a stance.
"Idiot!" Keel Kun groaned.
Zain's armor cracked slightly along his abdomen.
But with a single hand, gravity shifted again.
This time… upward.
The sky collapsed—clouds, air, even light bent upwards. The trio was launched against their will, spiraling toward the heavens.
But Itekan, even mid-air, was smiling.
"Instructor Keel Kun!" he shouted. "Now!"
Keel Kun's eyes flashed with resolve. His form blurred.
He reappeared mid-air beside Avery and Itekan, hands touching both.
They vanished.
Zain's attack hit empty air.
And then—
BOOM!!!
The three reappeared directly beneath him, weapons and techniques ready:
Itekan's Shadow Tentacles coiled like serpents, glowing purple.
Avery's fists pulsed with a dangerous triple-orange hue.
Keel Kun's halberd spun with unstoppable centrifugal might.
They struck simultaneously.
The explosion that followed tore through the sky.
Zain crashed through floating mountains, buried under layers of his own gravity field, his form dented and leaking silver blood.
For a moment… he didn't move.
The silence was deafening.
Then—he rose again.
Laughing.
"Now that… was fun."
Spiritual Energy (SE)
Spiritual Sea (SS)
Spiritual Signature (SST)