The battlefield burned with crimson light and suffocating darkness. Izzy stood at the center, her fused Shinku and Yami eyes radiating an impossible power. The earth beneath her cracked, and even the sky above seemed to split open.
But she wasn't alone.
"Enough hiding," Kael growled, stepping forward. His twin blades shimmered like suns, and the Bit of Light within him pulsed brighter than ever before. "If we're doing this, we show them everything we've got."
Steph smirked. "Good. I was getting bored holding back."
Renzaki grinned, his cursed aura rising, twisting into monstrous shapes. "Show me, then. Let's see what makes you all think you belong on the same battlefield as me."
Kael moved first.A burst of radiant energy shot from his swords as he unleashed his ultimate technique: Heaven's Cross Severance. Twin arcs of light crossed the battlefield in a blinding instant, slicing through the cursed monsters like paper and forcing Renzaki to sidestep. The blast scorched the earth for miles, splitting the ground clean in half.
"Impressive," Renzaki said, unaffected. "But not enough."
Steph's turn.Void tendrils erupted from his back, fusing into a colossal black serpent made of pure nothingness. He whispered the forbidden command: Abyss Devourer.
The serpent lunged at Renzaki, swallowing half the legion of monsters in one gulp and erasing them from existence. Even Kael's light wavered in the presence of the abyss.
"I wasn't planning to waste this here," Steph muttered, blood trickling from his lips. "But if I'm going down, you're coming with me."
Then Izzy stepped forward.Her fused aura flared, and both her eyes ignited — crimson flame in one, pitch-black void in the other. The ground shook.
"I'll show you what happens when you push me too far," Izzy growled, raising her hand. Infernal Eclipse — a colossal sphere of combined flame and shadow — formed above them, so dense it bent the air around it.
The warriors stopped to stare. Even Steph's eyes widened.
"Okay… that's terrifying."
Kael grinned. "Now we're talking."
Renzaki's face hardened for the first time. "So… the ancient power really exists."
Infernal Eclipse crashed down — vaporizing monsters, melting stone, and shaking the sky itself. Renzaki vanished within the blast.
When the dust cleared… he was still standing.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"Good," he rasped, grinning. "You made me bleed. Now it's my turn."
The ground split open as a monstrous, demonic form began to rise behind him.