Isabella's fist continued to fall, hundreds of fist crashing down continuously for the last two minutes. Two minutes that felt like an eternity to the twins. A crater formed underneath the weight and punches of the colossus. Inside the core, Isabella's eyes were locked forward. Deep inside this beast she saw the girl she had loved for years. But at this current time with their very lives at stake it pained her to even have to do this to her. Alas, she knew that it had to be done.
Finally, the barrage had eased. Not because she had been tired but because she felt that was more than enough. Silence had taken over the wasteland that was the battlefield. Lola stepped over near looking down the crater to that the wyvern had been motionless. The rest of the group peaked from the distance noticing the eerie silence.
"Not bad...." Isabella's eyes widened hearing the voice.
The twins eyes burned, jaws clenched, and a small very faint blood trail came from their noses. All that pounding for barely a drop of blood and a bruised cheek. The great wyvern exhaled an annoyed breath as their body temperature began to raise burning the hair at a rapid rate.
Fire swelled in Neveah's throat like a furnace while Heaven crackled with violent arcs of lightning. Isabella noticed this immediately and began releasing to retreat. Lola also noticed this as well beginning to run away towards the group. Scooping them up she stayed running. "That isn't an attack! That's a detonation!" Lola said.
With the final charge from both, the twins raised their heads releasing it in a instance. Fire and lightning erupted in a massive blinding sphere. The sphere of elemental energy expanded across the city. It had been beautiful but the meaning behind its intentions were certain death. The sphere expanded more engulfing all in its way and leaving not so much as a trace.
Lola continued running, but in this giant body that she rarely used she got tired far faster then she wanted.
The attack stretched for nearly two miles and Lola barely managed to escape it as she came to a halt falling to her knees and setting everyone down. Isabella had also caught up, still in her mountain her hair she looked on to the wasteland that the twins had created. There was no trace of buildings left just charred dirt.
"God, they have gotten bigger." Isabella said.
She was right. Now upright, the twins size had increased exponentially. They were at the point of dwarfing Lola and catching up with Isabella in size.
"Do they keep getting bigger?!" Percy asked.
"Yes, the power they possess doesn't know when to stop. Until they reach their goals they will stop at nothing no matter the cost." Isabella said. "They may seem like they are in control but I promise they are not!"
Lola and Isabella faced off with the giant wyvern preparing for the next fight until they heard something in the distance. The sounds of jets filled the skies catching the attention of all four combatants. Heaven and Neveah locked on to the jets watching them split the formation and fly past them. "You send toys against us? Interesting."
Multiple military vehicles would also approach the group. Out of the lead vehicle was Johnson and Frederick.
"Toys? You should know that is quite the understatement." Johnson rebutted. "Those jets are redesigned by Frederick himself. They are far better then the original. Well over 100 times better in fact. The weapons are also more lethal."
"Even with his upgrades I don't think they are bypassing those scales." Jacan commented.
"We have more than those jets to work with. Also just remember that numbers overwhelm even the mightiest opponents." Iron Sledge said. "We'll provide the support for you all if an opportunity arises."
In the distance the twins began to let out a laugh. Lowering their head they growled, "discussing a plan that isn't going to work? Allow me to show you just how significant you lot are!" With a great flap of their wings the twins were in the sky.
The group looked up seeing that they were beginning to channel power. Johnson would command the jets to take fire immediately attempting to disrupt whatever they were trying to do.
It had been no use as they already placed a elemental forcefield around themselves. "Too late!" The twins bostered. Lightning tore through the skies while Neveah's jaws bled fire that dripped down like molten rain.
The elemental barrier around them cracked violently absorbing impact of every enhanced missile launched by the jets. Explosions lit up the sky and not a single one reached the twins. Confidently knowing that there was nothing that could be done by the team. The twins faced one another mouths wide open beginning to channel something.
At first, it started as a small elemental ball barely noticeable. Not even a fraction of their size. A flicker of orange fire wrapped in strands of blue lightning spinning slowly between them.
Below, Isabella eyes widened as she felt the atmosphere change once more.
The small sphere pulsed beginning to grow. Both respective elements of the giant wyvern fed into its growing mass. In the span of a few seconds it had went from being the size of basketball to the size of a two story house and it would only keep expanding. Fire folding into lightning and lightning compressing into fire it was merging into something unimaginable.
Lola stepped forward, her fist tightening as she stared into the sky. "I can stop it..." she muttered to herself.
The sphere continued growing, so big the twins had now had it hovering over their heads. The group could only watch helpless to the fact that there was nothing that could be done. "GET OUT OF THERE GO!" Johnson ordered the jets.
"But Sledge.. what abou-"
"Don't worry about me! I'll be alright! Everyone get into the vehicles! Let's regroup!" Sledge ordered everyone.
The soldiers listened however the group didn't. "What are you guys doing?!"
"This is our mess we have to clean up, it just wouldn't sit right with me if I ran away." Dakota commented.
"He's right. I am not leaving until those two are beaten..." Lola said. "Isabella! I have a plan!"
Running towards Isabella, Lola had whispered something.
"What! That is stupid!" Isabella said.
"It's the only way and you know it."
The sphere had grown beyond comprehension. The twins who were 350 feet looked like insects underneath the condensed mass. Everyone knew if that were to connect with the ground this attack could wipe out the surface of California.
Rearing both their heads back they sent the attack straight down toward the earth.
"CONTINENTAL CONQUEST!"
Lola rushed beneath it taking a huge bound into the sky. Isabella, having no choice but to go along with Lola's plan assisted her. Giant strands forming underneath Lola and pushing her up toward the massive sphere that dwarfed both. "GET OUT!" Lola ordered everyone and they listened. Palms opened as wide as she possibly could. Lola's body hardened even more preparing to take the full brunt of this attack.
Isabella sent out more strands numbering in the millions to provide a scaffold to lift Lola higher in the air. Closing the gap, Lola started to sweat from the intense heat this sphere unleashed. As her hands were about to make contact with it a moment back in time flashed in her mind.
"No one should have to look at something so disgusting." Samantha's girlfriend statement echoed in her mind as she got closer.
"I'm...sorry." Lola said.
Lola's titanic hands pressed into the focused ball of elemental energy stopping it completely. She groaned not from the weight of the attack but from the heat that was beginning to sear into her flesh. Beneath her feet, Isabella's hair burned away at a rapid rate and all she could do is keep replenishing it to keep Lola in the air. Isabella gritted her teeth, forcing more out. Again. Again. Again. An endless cycle of regeneration and destruction played out in the sky, her power pouring into keeping Lola in place.
"Lola!" she shouted, voice echoing from the colossus.
Above, Lola didn't respond as she could no longer hear anything. Her teeth were clenched so tightly her jaw trembled. Her eyes squinted but locked upward, staring directly into the violent core of the blinding sphere. "I'm not…" she forced out, her voice not even audible beneath the chaos.
The sphere pressed harder making her arms dip, her body began to sink. For a moment it looked like she was going to lose.
Below, Percy's voice cracked. "She can't hold that there's no way!" The group simply watched as they knew that this attack wasn't something that could be stopped. If Lola were to fail repelling this attack there was nothing that can be done that would stop it from completely erasing them from existence.
Then Lola moved.
A low, guttural sound rose from her chest not a scream, not a shout, but something deeper as her arms locked out. Her entire body tightened as every ounce of strength she had left surged forward at once and she pushed. For a single heartbeat the sphere stopped completely. Something so big, so incomprehensible stopped in place leaving everyone in disbelief. The descending sun of annihilation hung still in the sky, held in place by nothing but Lola's raw strength on unyielding will.
Below, Isabella's eyes widened. "She's… holding it!"
But Lola wasn't just holding it, she was fighting it. Pushing against something that refused to be stopped. Then, slowly and painfully the sphere had began to rise. First it was an inch, then another The air screamed as the direction of force shifted. Fire lashed outward violently. Lightning snapped in chaotic arcs across the sky.
Lola roared. "I'M NOT LETTING THIS HIT THE GROUND!" Her voice tore through the battlefield.
Hair surged upward again, wrapping tighter around her limbs, reinforcing her, stabilizing her position. The strands burned instantly but Isabella didn't stop. She poured everything into it, forcing regeneration faster than destruction could keep up. The sphere lifted higher and higher by feet now. Each movement was a battle as she knew that at any point this could just explode in her face and even she didn't know if she could survive a point blank explosion even with her durability maxed out. Cracks spread across Lola's arms, glowing with intense heat. Blood seeped through the fractures, instantly vaporizing. Her body shook violently under the strain.
"HOW IS THAT EVEN FATHOMABLE!?" Heaven shouted.
Its surface, once contained, now churned wildly. Fire and lightning lashed outward uncontrollably. The balance that held it together began to fracture. Isabella saw it instantly, "Lola!" she screamed.
"It's going to blow!"
Lola's body trembled her strength was fading, her arms were cracking, and her vision blurred. But still in some twisted way she found herself smiling just barely. With one final, desperate roar, she drove her arms upward again pushing the massive sphere higher into the thinning atmosphere, forcing it past the point of stability.
For a brief moment the entire world went still. Lola closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable. Then it detonated.
The sky exploded.
A blinding bloom of fire and lightning consumed everything above, expanding outward in a massive sphere of destruction. Clouds were obliterated instantly. The storm was torn apart. Light swallowed the sky so completely it looked like a second sun had been born and was dying just as violently.
The shockwave followed. It rolled downward like a collapsing wall of air, slamming into the ground with enough force to flatten debris, overturn vehicles, and shake the earth for miles. But it didn't erase the state, not even so much as the land and that was because of Lola stopping it from completing its sole purpose.
What had once been a second sun tearing through the sky dimmed into scattered embers, drifting like ash across the heavens. The storm unraveled. Thunder softened into distant rumbles. The violent glow that had consumed everything moments ago finally began to die.
Isabella's Hairy Behemoth still stood, five hundred feet of living hair, towering over the ruined battlefield, strands slowly settling as the storm calmed. Smoke curled from its arms where the sphere had burned through layer after layer of regeneration. The air around it shimmered faintly from residual heat. Inside its core, Isabella stared upward. "…Lola?" she whispered.
A blackened shape broke through the fading smoke high above. At first, it was barely recognizable against the scorched sky but then it came closer and Isabella saw exactly what it was.
"No…"
Isabella shot out strands of hair catching Lola and bringing her into the core of the Hairy Behemoth she held Lola close as tears were welling on her face and hands trembling. "…Lola," she said again, softer this time. Isabella reached out, her fingers hovering just above the burned surface of Lola's arm afraid to touch, afraid of what she'd feel. "You did amazing, thank you."
Above them, in the distance remained the Wyvern who now found themselves smirking as they flapped in the air. "YOUR STRONGEST FIGHTER IS GONE! AND JUST LIKE HER THE REST OF YOU WILL CRUMBLE!" Their voices overlapped, carrying nothing but certainty.
On the ground something had changed within the group specifically Jacan as that was his best friend was from many many years ago. He had been the very first to step forward. His hands curled into fists so tight his knuckles cracked. His eyes locked onto the twins, rage burning through, "…You just charred your own to a crisp for someone who doesn't give a damn about you." he muttered. "You really are delusional..."
Dakota didn't speak only body began to glow pink energy that was igniting around him, brighter than before. It pulsed outward in waves, distorting the air around him as he lifted slightly off the ground.
Kyzarian inhaled slowly making green energy seeped from his body like smoke, curling around his arms, his shoulders, his face.
Moving Lola away to a nearby military vehicle using her hair Isabella didn't say a word. She did not need too as she regained herself. Isabella's eyes were no longer conflicted she was cold and focused.
Iron Sledge stepped forward his armored frame shifted as he tightened his grip on the sledgehammer, the weapon humming faintly with Frederick's enhancement. Behind him, the soldiers regrouped, weapons raised, formation tightened. Despite them never even fathoming themselves facing against a monster of such scale there was no sense of retreat in them. They were surely scared but they knew they needed to do everything to protect their home.
Frederick stood just behind them, silent as ever, his gaze fixed on the sky. His hand brushed lightly across nearby equipment reinforcing, strengthening, preparing.
Alexander looked over to his lover of over a century, Charley who showed a slight smile. Lightning snapped violently around his fists, condensing into dense, crackling knuckles that glowed with raw voltage. He didn't hesitate as he launched forward, his body blurring as he redirected upward mid-sprint. He hit the side of a ruined skyscraper and kept going.
Each step detonated with electrical force, propelling him higher as arcs of lightning trailed behind him like streaks of blue fire. Glass burst outward as he scaled the surface of the building.
"Stay with me!" he called over his shoulder. Charley was not far behind him. He followed close behind, leaping from ledge to ledge with sharp precision, using the debris as footholds. The higher they climbed, the stronger the winds became but he pushed through it, eyes locked upward. A low vibration began to build in his throat.
The air around him started to tremble not from movement, but from pressure. Sound coiled inside him like a storm waiting to break. Charley was charging the ultimate scream that he knew the twins would feel no matter how matter they may seem.
Below them, Dakota shot into the sky, his body engulfed in pink energy as he angled toward the wyvern's center mass. Kyzarian's green aura thickened, swirling as his hands moved with purpose.
Iron Sledge stepped forward, hammer resting against his shoulder as he barked orders to the soldiers behind him. "Hold your positions! Wait for the opening!"
"GIVE UP LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS!" Heaven yelled rearing her head back preparing to release a huge blast of lightning.
Alexander reached the top first, skidding into position at the edge. Electricity surged violently around his arms, his entire body lit with blue arcs of lightning. Charley landed beside him moving first with a powerful push off the rooftop, he launched himself into the air, the force beneath his feet cracking what remained of the building. The vibration inside his body had reached a breaking point that he could no longer contain.
Alexander followed a split second behind lightning exploded from his arms as he surged upward. The two rose side by side, cutting through the smoky sky toward the towering wyvern above.
For a brief moment the two lovers aligned with one another perfectly. Alexander pulled his arm back, electricity condensing violently around his fist, the air snapping and splitting from the sheer density of power while Charley inhaled deeply as everything around him seemed to pause as the pressure in his chest peaked.
Then....
"ELECTRIFYING SCREAM!" Alexander and Charley shouted in unison.
Charley's scream exploded across the ruined city in the form of a visible sonic shockwave, tearing through the air with enough force to shatter every remaining window for miles. At the same instant, Alexander thrust his fist forward, unleashing a colossal bolt of lightning that raced alongside the expanding wave of sound. Rather than colliding, the two attacks intertwined, spiraling together into a single devastating beam of crackling electricity and compressed vibration. The fusion carved a path through the sky, ripping apart the clouds overhead before crashing directly into the towering body of the Greater Wyvern.
The impact shook the battlefield.
A deafening explosion echoed for miles as the attack engulfed the twins in a storm of lightning, sound, fire, and smoke. The violent collision distorted the very air around them, creating shockwaves that rolled across the city like an earthquake. Crumbling buildings gave way under the pressure, while streets split apart as debris was hurled into the air. For the first time since the twins had fused, their enormous body actually shifted backward. Their wings faltered for a brief moment as the combined attack forced them to give ground.
Alexander and Charley landed heavily on the broken pavement below, both breathing hard from the tremendous effort. Smoke drifted from Alexander's arm while Charley struggled to catch his breath, his throat burning from the sheer intensity of the scream. Neither of them spoke. They simply stared upward through the cloud of dust and smoke, hoping—if only for a second—that their combined attack had finally managed to injure the monster above them.
The smoke slowly began to clear.
A massive silhouette emerged from the haze, completely unhurried. As more of the twins' fused body came into view, the hope on the heroes' faces disappeared. Heaven and Neveah weren't injured. They weren't struggling. If anything, they looked amused. A grin spread across both of their faces before a booming laugh rolled across the battlefield like distant thunder.
"THAT'S THE BEST YOU CAN DO, RUNTS?! YOU TWO ARE NOWHERE NEAR OUR LEVEL!" Heaven roared.
"LIGHTNING WON'T WORK AGAINST US!" Neveah added with a mocking laugh. "AND THAT SCREAM WAS PATHETIC!"
Their laughter alone made the atmosphere feel heavier, carrying enough force to vibrate the ground beneath everyone's feet. Alexander lowered his fist, frustration burning in his eyes, while Charley's jaw clenched so tightly it hurt. Their strongest combination attack had barely managed to inconvenience the twins.
Dakota refused to accept it.
Without waiting for another opportunity, he exploded forward in a streak of brilliant pink energy, shooting through the sky toward Neveah's head. Compared to the colossal wyvern, he looked like nothing more than a glowing speck. Her eye alone dwarfed his entire body, yet he never slowed. Instead, he accelerated, narrowing the distance between them in seconds.
Neveah's enormous pupil shifted until it locked directly onto him. "It's you..." she growled, recognizing him immediately. Her jaws slowly opened, revealing a growing sphere of condensed fire deep within her throat. The flames intensified almost instantly, gathering enough destructive energy to erase Dakota from existence with a single blast. The moment the inferno erupted, Dakota reacted on instinct, dropping sharply beneath her chin just before the torrent of flames engulfed the space where he had been flying.
"Too slow," Dakota muttered.
Using the opening, he flew upward beneath Neveah's jaw and drove his fist forward with every ounce of strength he possessed. The uppercut connected cleanly. Pink energy detonated across her scales, sending a powerful shockwave racing through her neck. Neveah's enormous head snapped backward, and the force briefly rocked the entire fused body. Even Heaven's side reacted making their balance falter.
Dakota drifted backward through the air, pink energy continuing to radiate around his body as he steadied his breathing. He kept his eyes locked on the twins, refusing to celebrate too early.
Neveah slowly rolled her head back into place, the irritation on her face replacing any sign of surprise. Heaven's eyes shifted downward until they settled on Dakota once again. This time there was no laughter or mockery only recognition.
"It's a shame you never trained with us," Heaven said calmly. "All that power... if it had been refined properly... you would have been the first boy to be aligned with us!" Blue light suddenly ignited within Heaven's eyes.
There was no dramatic charge of energy, no warning, and no hesitation. A massive bolt of lightning erupted from her jaws without notice as it raced toward Dakota faster than the eye could follow.
Dakota barely escaped.
He twisted his body sideways at the last possible instant, disappearing from the bolt's path as it roared past him before detonating somewhere in the distance with an explosion that illuminated the entire horizon. He reappeared several yards away, hovering in place, but this time his breathing was noticeably heavier. He knew he couldn't continue dodging attacks like that forever.
Far below, Kyzarian stood perfectly still amid the chaos. Emerald energy pooled around his feet before slowly climbing up his body like creeping smoke.
Standing beside him, Jacan paced impatiently. His fists tightened as he watched the battle raging overhead, unable to erase the image of Lola's burned and unconscious body from his mind. "Think you can get me up there?" Jacan finally asked.
"Not all the way," Kyzarian replied without looking up. "They're too high."
"If you can get me to the top of one of those buildings assuming they don't crumble," Kyzarian paused, finally glancing toward him, "I can take you the rest of the way."
A grin spread across Jacan's face. "Easy."
Without another word, Jacan grabbed Kyzarian securely. The pavement beneath his feet shattered as he launched forward like a cannonball, crossing an entire city block in a single leap before crashing into the side of a skyscraper. Instead of climbing, he tore his way upward. His hands carved through concrete like claws, ripping away chunks of the building with every pull as cracks spread through the structure from top to bottom.
Debris poured into the streets below while Kyzarian remained remarkably composed despite the violent ascent. Green energy continued swirling around his arms as Jacan leapt again, clearing several more floors before smashing into the building once more. The skyscraper groaned under the punishment, entire sections beginning to collapse as Jacan treated it as nothing more than a staircase. He wasn't climbing the building anymore.
Within seconds, they reached the top of the skyscraper.
Jacan launched himself one final time, clearing the remaining floors before crashing onto the rooftop with enough force to crater the concrete beneath his boots. Thick cracks spread across the roof in every direction as dust and broken chunks of cement rolled toward the edge of the building. He straightened up and carefully set Kyzarian back onto solid ground before taking a step away.
"Your turn," he said, rolling his shoulders as he looked back toward the sky.
Kyzarian nodded and stepped forward. A faint green aura gathered around him before slowly darkening into something far more unsettling. The air surrounding the rooftop became strangely heavy, almost oppressive, as though an invisible presence had settled over the building. Even Jacan, who had witnessed Kyzarian's abilities countless times, felt the change. Kyzarian lifted his eyes toward the distant silhouette of the Greater Wyvern and quietly murmured, "...Now."
The emerald energy pulsed once before swallowing both young men. Their bodies dissolved into swirling green mist, leaving only a brief distortion in the air where they had been standing. Within moments, even that vanished, and the rooftop fell completely silent. It was as if they had never been there at all.
They reappeared a mile above the battlefield.
The difference was almost surreal. At that altitude, the roaring battle below had faded into little more than a distant murmur carried by the wind. The sky stretched endlessly in every direction, the air thin and bitterly cold. For the briefest moment, there was no destruction, no screaming, and no collapsing buildings only silence.
Jacan didn't waste a single second.
The instant his feet materialized in open air, he hurled himself downward. Gravity took him immediately, dragging his massive five-hundred-and-fifty-pound body toward the earth. What began as an ordinary fall quickly transformed into something much more violent as his speed increased with every passing second. Wind screamed around his body while he instinctively tucked his arms and lowered his head, streamlining himself until he resembled a living missile cutting through the atmosphere.
Clouds burst apart as he tore through them, leaving a massive tunnel in his wake. The friction ignited the air surrounding him, creating a faint orange glow that steadily brightened the faster he fell. Beneath him, the battlefield rapidly expanded into view. Shattered streets, ruined buildings, and the colossal body of the Greater Wyvern rushed toward him with incredible speed, yet neither Heaven nor Neveah ever looked up. Their attention remained fixed on Dakota, Isabella, and the others still fighting below, completely unaware of the attack descending from directly above.
Jacan narrowed his eyes as the distance disappeared. There was only one target. Neveah.
As the final seconds ticked away, he shifted his body slightly and drew his right arm back as far as it would go. Every ounce of momentum he had built during the fall, every pound of his weight, and every bit of anger he carried over Lola's sacrifice flowed into that single fist. There would only be one chance to land this blow, and he intended to make it count.
His fist slammed into the back of Neveah's head with catastrophic force.
The impact produced a deafening boom that echoed across the battlefield like thunder splitting the heavens. A violent shockwave erupted from the point of contact, racing through Neveah's skull, down her spine, and across the entire fused body of the Greater Wyvern. Her eyes widened in shock before her vision dissolved into darkness. Fire sputtered uncontrollably from her jaws as dizziness overwhelmed her, and for the first time since the fusion, she completely lost her sense of balance.
That single moment of disorientation proved disastrous.
Neveah was responsible for maintaining her side for the stability of the enormous fusion, and without her control the rhythm of their flight collapsed instantly. One wing faltered while the other struggled to compensate, causing the three-hundred-and-fifty-foot body to tilt sharply to one side. Heaven immediately tried to recover, but the interruption had already thrown their coordination into chaos. The Greater Wyvern flung violently in midair before its tremendous weight finally won out.
Slowly at first, then with terrifying speed, the giant creature began falling toward the battlefield below.
The Greater Wyvern plummeted through the sky, its colossal body no longer moving with the effortless grace it had displayed moments earlier. Gravity seized the enormous fusion, dragging it downward as the wind screamed across its scales. Heaven reacted immediately, she desperately tried to stabilize their descent. The imbalance, however, had come too suddenly. Their wings no longer beat in unison, and every attempt to correct their course only caused the massive body to pitch even farther off balance.
"NEVEAH!" Heaven roared.
There was no response. Neveah's vision remained blurred, her thoughts scattered by the force of Jacan's strike. She could barely distinguish the ground racing toward them, let alone regain control of a body that weighed thousands of tons. Below, the battlefield had gone almost completely still as soldiers and fighters alike looked skyward. Dakota hovered nearby with wide eyes before realizing what everyone else had already begun to understand. "They're falling."
The impact hurled Jacan backward through the sky. With nothing beneath him and no way to control his momentum, he tumbled end over end as the force of his own strike carried him away from the Greater Wyvern. He would simply begin to fall, the wind roaring past him as gravity pulled him back toward the ground.
Before he could drop much farther, emerald mist wrapped around his body.
Kyzarian had been waiting.
In an instant, Jacan vanished from the sky and reappeared safely on the shattered street below. His boots slammed into the pavement hard enough to crack the asphalt beneath them, but he remained on his feet. He bent over for a moment, catching his breath before looking back toward the enormous creature overhead.
A satisfied grin spread across his face.
"...Got you."
The Greater Wyvern continued dropping, its tremendous weight pulling it toward the earth faster with every passing second. The wind roared against its wings as the ground rushed upward to meet it, and for a brief moment it truly appeared as though the enormous creature was about to crash. Every person below instinctively braced themselves. Even if the twins survived the impact, a body of that size striking the city would devastate everything beneath it.
At the last possible moment, Neveah blinked.
The haze clouding her vision vanished just enough for instinct to take over. Fire erupted violently through her throat as awareness returned, and her wings jerked once before snapping outward with tremendous force. A deafening boom echoed across the sky as she forced lift back into the massive body, compressing the air beneath them so violently that a shockwave rippled across the battlefield. Their descent slowed almost instantly before grinding to a complete halt, leaving the Greater Wyvern hovering once more high above the city.
Heaven let out a slow breath as lightning crackled across her scales, equal parts relieved and irritated. "Finally," she muttered.
Below, the mood shifted just as quickly as the twins had recovered. Percy let out a frustrated sigh before clenching his jaw. "...You've got to be kidding me." Dakota hovered in silence for a moment, watching the enormous creature regain its balance. "She couldn't been out a few moments longer?" he asked quietly, realizing that the opening Jacan had created had lasted only seconds.
High above them, Neveah slowly rolled her neck until the stiffness faded, a low growl escaping her throat as she glared down at the fighters beneath her. "That..." she said, shaking her head, "...actually pissed me off."
Neither of them feared crashing into the earth. They were more than durable enough to survive the impact. What worried them was the possibility of being grounded, even briefly. A fall meant vulnerability, and vulnerability gave their enemies an opportunity to attack together. The group of boys had already proven prior they could adapt, coordinate, and exploit.
The twins steadied themselves completely, their massive wings beating in perfect rhythm once again as storm clouds gathered overhead. Their attention shifted through the battlefield before settling squarely on Jacan, the one responsible for disrupting their flight.
"You're just like Lola," Heaven growled.
"And that's a problem," Neveah finished.
Fire erupted from Neveah's jaws at the exact moment Heaven unleashed another torrent of lightning. The two elements intertwined into a single stream of devastating destruction that raced toward Jacan, distorting the air with such overwhelming heat that the space around it seemed ready to melt. Jacan had barely landed from his previous attack before the combined blast threatened to erase him completely.
Dakota exploded into motion, leaving behind a streak of brilliant pink energy as he shot across the battlefield. Instead of intercepting the attack directly, he circled behind the twins at incredible speed, using the chaos and smoke as cover. His eyes remained fixed on the same point he had targeted before the back of Neveah's head. If Jacan's strike had worked once, perhaps another precise blow would work again.
He accelerated.
His fist drew back as pink energy surged violently around his arm, condensing into a brilliant aura that threatened to burst apart from sheer power. Dakota closed the remaining distance in an instant and drove his punch forward with everything he had.
A elemental barrier consisting of fire and lightning appeared around the Greater Wyvern the instant he entered striking range.
His fist slammed into the forcefield instead of Neveah's scales, producing a sharp crack that echoed across the battlefield. Ripples spread through the barrier like waves across a lake, but the shield itself never broke. Dakota recoiled backward, his momentum completely absorbed by the invisible defense. Hovering just outside the barrier, he frowned in frustration.
"...Damn it."
The twins smiled from within the shimmering shield.
"DID YOU REALLY THINK..."
"...WE WOULDN'T ADAPT?"
Iron Sledge's voice thundered across the battlefield before anyone else could react.
"GET IN POSITION!" he bellowed. "WE NEED TO START HURLING EVERYTHING WE HAVE AT THAT!"
Fighter jets screamed overhead in tight formations, banking sharply as they locked onto the newly formed barrier. Soldiers rushed heavier weapon systems into position while Frederick moved from weapon to weapon, enhancing each missile and shell before it was fired. Every cannon, every launcher, and every rifle pointed toward a single objective. Break the shield.
Inside the barrier, however, Heaven and Neveah never flinched.
They watched the bombardment with calm, almost amused expressions, allowing the explosions to wash harmlessly across the shimmering surface surrounding them. Their voices echoed through the battlefield, louder than the weapons themselves.
"PATHETIC!"
"YOU CAN'T GET TO US!"
Heaven's eyes flared with an even brighter shade of blue as lightning crawled wildly across her horns and shoulders. The confidence that had filled her expression moments ago had disappeared, replaced by urgency. She turned her head toward Neveah, never taking her eyes off the battlefield below.
"Sister," she said. "Quickly. We must do another."
Neveah immediately understood what she meant. The brief loss of control had shown them something they hadn't expected: this group was capable of exploiting even the smallest opening. If they wanted to end the battle before anyone else found another weakness, they would need to overwhelm every opponent at once.
"That's the only way," Neveah replied. "There's no one who can stop it this time."
The change began almost immediately. Their fused body stretched taller as thick muscles swelled beneath overlapping scales, and their already enormous wings pushed farther into the clouds. Every second brought another increase in size, another surge of pressure that rolled across the battlefield below. The wind changed direction around them, clouds were shoved aside by their expanding frame, and the sky itself seemed too small to contain what they were becoming.
Inside the Hairy Behemoth, Isabella felt the pressure long before she processed what she was seeing. She slowly lifted her head, her eyes widening as the twins continued to grow. Only moments earlier her five-hundred-foot construct had towered over everything on the battlefield, but now the Greater Wyvern was steadily overtaking it. The realization settled heavily in her chest. For the first time since she had transformed, the Hairy Behemoth no longer looked like the largest creature in the fight. She also remained completely outmatched here, she knew that they were both her counter and there was nothing she could have done.
Percy took an involuntary step backward, never blinking as his gaze followed the twins higher into the sky. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered. "They have to be at least near 1000 feet tall!" His voice wasn't filled with panic so much as disbelief. None of them had ever encountered an enemy that simply became stronger every time it was pressured.
Within the blazing barrier of fire and lightning, Heaven and Neveah lowered their heads toward one another. Flames curled endlessly around the shield while bolts of electricity raced across its surface, creating a living shell that pulsed with the twins' combined power. Protected inside the storm they had created, the sisters began weaving together another sphere of destruction, feeding it with an ever-growing torrent of fire and lightning.
Outside the barrier, Dakota refused to stop attacking. His fists slammed against the blazing shield of intertwined fire and lightning, each impact sending ripples racing across its incandescent surface. The barrier shimmered with every blow, flames folding over arcs of electricity before settling back into place as though repairing themselves in real time. When his punches failed to break through, Dakota formed another barrage of glowing pink projectiles and hurled them forward. They exploded against the barrier one after another, filling the sky with fire, smoke, and crackling lightning, yet the shield remained intact.
"BREAK!" Dakota shouted as he threw another punch with everything he had.
High above him, the sphere continued to swell. Fire folded endlessly into lightning while lightning compressed back into flame, creating an unstable cycle that fed itself faster than before. It had already surpassed the size of the previous attack, yet it showed no signs of slowing. Instead, it continued expanding until its growing shadow stretched across the shattered city below.
For the first time since the battle had begun, hesitation spread across the battlefield.
Within the blazing barrier of fire and lightning, Heaven and Neveah watched the growing sphere with expressions that bordered on obsession. Their earlier frustration had disappeared, replaced by exhilaration as they continued feeding it more and more power. Every pulse of fire, every arc of lightning, disappeared into the massive sphere hanging above them, causing it to swell until even their own colossal bodies seemed insignificant beneath it.
"YES!" Heaven shouted.
"THIS IS IT!" Neveah laughed. "LET IT GROW!"
Its surface churned endlessly as flames folded into lightning and lightning collapsed back into fire. It had grown so immense that the 800 foot tall Greater Wyvern now looked almost insignificant beneath it, as though the twins had become nothing more than servants feeding energy into a weapon far greater than themselves.
Far below, Iron Sledge looked at the sphere, his eyes never leaving the impossible sight overhead.
"...If that thing reaches the ground..."
The others understood. Isabella's Hairy Behemoth remained perfectly still, its enormous frame frozen as Isabella silently calculated every possibility. Lola was the only one able to stop the first attack. There is no one here that can stop it this time and even if they ran away, the size of this attack would be so powerful it would catch them anyway. This could lay waste to multiple states not just one.
Then something changed.
At first, it was almost impossible to notice. A single drop of blood slipped from Neveah's nose before another quickly followed. Within seconds the trickle became a steady stream, spilling over her lips and dripping from her jaw. She instinctively reached toward her face, confusion replacing the triumph that had filled her expression.
"W-What...?" she stammered. "What's happening?"
The blood never reached the ground.
Instead, it stopped in midair.
It twisted unnaturally before flowing back toward her face as though pulled by an invisible hand. Thick crimson strands crawled across her scales and spread over her eyes, sealing them shut in a suffocating layer. Neveah roared and violently shook her head, but the blood refused to release its grip. The more she struggled, the tighter it wrapped around her face.
Heaven felt it moments later.
Warmth spread beneath her nose before blood began flowing freely down her face. Like Neveah's, it turned against its owner, rising through the air before coating her eyes and mouth in a thick crimson veil.
The lightning surrounding her body faltered as panic replaced concentration, and the enormous sphere hanging above them immediately began to flicker in response.
Their massive heads jerked in opposite directions as each sister tried to regain control, but the blood refused to obey them. Instead, it pulled harder, dragging both heads toward one another with unstoppable force. The resistance lasted only a moment before their skulls slammed together with a sickening crack that echoed across the battlefield. The blood held them there, binding them face-to-face while their concentration collapsed completely.
The sphere above them immediately became unstable.
Without the twins directing its flow, the enormous mass of fire and lightning began folding inward on itself. Waves of energy spiraled in every direction as the attack lost its shape, collapsing under the weight of its own power.
Then the sphere fell.
It crashed directly into the Greater Wyvern before either sister could react.
The explosion consumed the sky.
Fire and lightning erupted outward in every direction, swallowing the twins in a blinding sphere of destruction that split the clouds apart with overwhelming force. A heartbeat later, the sound reached the battlefield. The deafening roar shook the earth beneath everyone's feet, sending shattered buildings trembling while hurricane-force winds blasted across the ruined city. Heat rolled over the battlefield in waves, forcing everyone below to brace themselves against the violent shockwave.
The sky above had disappeared behind an ocean of fire, smoke, and crackling lightning.
The explosion continued raging for several seconds before it finally began consuming itself. Flames collapsed inward while scattered bolts of lightning burst away from the center in every direction, gradually revealing the heart of the blast. As the fire cleared, a sharp cracking sound echoed through the air.
The barrier had reached its limit.
The blazing shell of intertwined fire and lightning flickered violently before fractures spread across its surface like cracks through heated glass. One fracture became dozens. Dozens became hundreds. Then, with a thunderous burst of light, the shield shattered into countless fragments of fading fire and electricity that rained harmlessly across the sky. With nothing left supporting them, the Greater Wyvern began falling.
This time there was no attempt to recover.
The colossal body split apart at its core, and the monstrous eight-hundred-foot fusion finally gave way. As the sisters fell through the clouds, the unstable energy bled from their bodies, causing them to shrink rapidly until the towering titan vanished altogether.
By the time Heaven and Neveah emerged beneath the clouds again, they were no longer an eight-hundred-foot monster.
They were simply two exhausted sisters, falling toward the battlefield below.
The deafening roar of the explosion had faded, replaced by the distant crackle of dying lightning and the low rumble of collapsing buildings. Smoke drifted across the shattered landscape, carrying with it the scent of scorched earth and burning stone. For several long seconds, no one spoke. Everyone remained exactly where they were, their attention fixed on the sky as two figures fell helplessly through the sky.
Only moments ago, Heaven and Neveah had seemed unbeatable. Together they had towered over the battlefield as an eight-hundred-foot embodiment of fire and storm, a force so overwhelming they appeared as Gods. Now that same pair fell toward the earth with no control over their descent, stripped of the impossible power that had made them seem invincible.
They struck the battlefield with two thunderous impacts that sent fountains of dirt and fractured stone erupting into the air.
The group exchanged cautious glances before finally beginning to move, each step was cautious. No one mistaken this moment for victory. They had all witnessed firsthand the twins taking a attack that was meant to decimate the surface of third largest state in America.
Dakota reached the nearest crater first, "...They're still breathing."
Jacan stood onto the rim beside him, rolling his shoulders as his gaze shifted between the two sisters. His expression remained hard, and his fists clenched instinctively as though expecting one of them to attack without warning.
"Good," he answered. "I'd rather finish this while they're awake."
Iron Sledge arrived only moments later, planting the head of his hammer against the concrete while he carefully examined both craters. Heaven and Neveah had returned to their normal forms. Neither appeared burned or disfigured despite having been caught in the center of their own attack. Instead, they looked utterly exhausted. Their breathing came in uneven rhythms, their muscles twitched involuntarily, and every rise of their chest suggested bodies that had been pushed far beyond their natural limits rather than torn apart by external injuries.
"That was strange," Iron Sledge said after several moments of silence. His eyes narrowed as he replayed the final moments of the battle in his mind. "Something interrupted them. Whoever it was didn't overpower the twins."
"Me."
The voice was calm enough that it immediately drew everyone's attention.
They turned toward the sound and found Kirk standing several yards away, partially hidden by drifting smoke and the shadow cast by the remains of a collapsed building. His posture was remarkably relaxed, almost casual, as though he had wandered onto the battlefield after the fighting had already ended instead of altering its outcome completely. Thin streams of blood traced their way from his nose down both sides of his face, staining his jaw before dripping onto the ground. More blood clung to his forearms, but instead of running naturally, it shifted and coiled in slow, deliberate movements that made it appear almost alive.
"...About time you showed up Kirk." Kyzarian said.
Kirk offered no acknowledgment. His attention remained fixed on Heaven and Neveah as he wiped another streak of blood from beneath his nose with the back of his hand.
"They were about to release something none of you could have stopped," he said, "If that attack had reached the ground, this battle wouldn't have mattered anymore."
"So you made them blow themselves up? Couldn't have done that a long time ago, you know before Lola sacrificed herself."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Kirk's mouth as he looked down, "Just because Lola is on our side now doesn't mean I am her best friend that will save her," he replied. "I needed to see her resolve.... if she truly regretted what she did after all those years."
Heaven's chest rose sharply as a deep breath forced its way into her lungs, and her eyes snapped open with startling clarity. There was no confusion in her expression, no lingering haze from the explosion that had torn apart the Greater Wyvern. The instant her gaze swept across the battlefield and found Kirk standing in the distance, every trace of exhaustion was replaced by something far more dangerous.
The willingness to complete the mission.
Lightning burst from her body in a violent explosion, blue-white arcs racing across the battlefield as the ground beneath her fractured under the sudden release of energy. The weak sparks that had surrounded her moments earlier vanished beneath a storm powerful enough to force everyone nearby to step back. Before anyone could react, her damaged wings spread behind her with a sharp snap. They trembled from exhaustion, but they still generated enough force to launch her forward in a single explosive burst.
Kirk's eyes widened.
He barely had time to brace himself before Heaven crashed into him, one clawed arm wrapping tightly around his torso as the force of the collision lifted them both off the ground. The earth exploded beneath her takeoff, showering the battlefield with shattered rock and debris while the pair rocketed into the sky. Dakota cursed under his breath and immediately launched after them, only to be grabbed by the ankle and thrown down to the ground by Nevaeh.
"Your not helping him!" She screamed throwing him into the group.
Isabella quickly sent strands of hair binding Neveah quickly only for her to burn the strands with her body then flying towards her. "NOTHING MORE THEN A NUISANCE!"
Over to Heaven she laughed as she looked forward, "I GOT YOU!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the clouds. "IT WAS WORTH IT!" Kirk twisted against her grip, glaring directly into her eyes as blood began leaking from his nose trailing behind them as they flew.
"You've completely lost your mind!" he yelled. "After everything that's happened, you're still trying to fight?"
"Especially after all that!" She yelled back, "That trick of yours is potent!"
While flying Kirk did a subtle smile beginning to relax in her grip. Heaven mistook his stillness for resignation, and her grin widened as she pulled him closer. "What happened?" she taunted.
"Nothing clever to say now?"
Kirk's expression hardened quickly shifting his arm for him to palm the side of her face. It carried almost no force, barely enough to turn her head, but once contact was made, Kirk seized control of the blood moving through the vessels beneath her skull making Heaven's entire body locked.
The manic smile vanished from her face as a violent pressure erupted inside her head. It felt as though something buried deep behind her eyes had been grabbed and twisted, sending a sharp wave of intense pain through her skull and down her spine.
Her fingers loosened around Kirk's torso. "Gh—what did you—"
The rest of the question disappeared beneath a strangled gasp. Kirk slipped free from her weakened grip, but the sudden disruption had robbed Heaven of control as well. Her wings folded unevenly behind her, one failing to catch the air while the other jerked uselessly against the wind.
Gravity would then take both of them.
Kirk dropped first, his body turning sideways as he plunged through the clouds. Heaven fell only a few yards behind him, her limbs still unresponsive while faint lightning flickered weakly along her skin. The wind became a deafening roar around them, drowning out every other sound as they accelerated toward the open field below. Kirk twisted in the air and tried to steady himself, but he had no ability to fly and there was nothing close enough able to slow his fall. Heaven attempted to spread her wings again, yet the internal shock Kirk had inflicted left her muscles lagging behind every command.
Kirk hit the ground first his body slamming into the ground with enough force to blast dirt and broken stone outward in a wide ring. Momentum carried him across the open field, carving a deep trench through the earth as he bounced once, then skidded violently through debris before finally rolling to a stop. Dust engulfed him immediately, leaving only the faint outline of his body visible within the cloud.
Heaven would crash several seconds later she hit at an angle, one shoulder striking before the rest of her body followed. The impact split the ground beneath her and sent cracks spreading outward through the surrounding stone. Her lightning discharged uncontrollably into the earth, flashing through the dust in brief blue bursts before fading into silence.
For several moments, neither of them moved.
The battlefield watched through the settling haze, uncertain whether either fighter was conscious. Then a rough cough came from Kirk's side of the impact zone. He rolled onto one elbow and spat a mixture of blood, dust, and grit onto the ground before forcing himself to sit upright. Every movement carried visible pain, but his breathing remained controlled as he examined his arms and torso for anything broken.
A short distance away, Heaven stirred.
Her fingers dug into the soil as she dragged one knee beneath herself. A violent coughing fit shook her body, forcing dust from her lungs. The internal pressure Kirk had caused still throbbed behind her eyes, making the battlefield tilt whenever she lifted her head, but the pain only seemed to sharpen the excitement returning to her expression.
As the dust gradually cleared, the two came into view on opposite sides of the ruined field. The others remained nearby, but the space between Kirk and Heaven felt strangely separate from the rest.
Kirk placed one foot beneath himself and slowly rose. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth, and one of his arms hung slightly lower than the other, yet his crimson eyes remained steady. Across from him, Heaven pushed herself upright and smiled as thin strands of lightning began gathering around her forearms.
"Well," Kirk said, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, "I guess you'll finally get what you wanted."
Heaven flexed her fingers and allowed the electricity to spread across them. The grin on her face grew slowly, no longer frantic or uncontrolled, but filled with anticipation. She lowered her stance, one foot sliding backward as her wings opened behind her despite their damaged condition.
"Yeah," she replied, her breathing finally beginning to steady. "I've been waiting for this."
Kirk raised one hand, and the blood coating his knuckles lifted from his skin in thin, twisting strands. It circled his wrist before forming several narrow crimson tendrils that moved like living wires, each one responding to the smallest movement of his fingers. Heaven watched the display closely, her eyes narrowing as she finally witnessed the power that had turned her own body against her.
Neither of them charged immediately.
They stood across from one another while smoke drifted between them, each waiting for the smallest mistake. Lightning cracked softly around Heaven's body, illuminating the excitement in her expression, while Kirk's blood began to fill his eyes swallowing up the whites, irises, and the pupils until nothing was left but crimson red looking directly at Heaven. Thin streams overflowed from the corner of his eyes running down his cheeks. More blood poured from his nose, ears, and mouth soaking the collar of his shirt. Kirk's eyes began twitching as a unhinged a smile found its way on his face.
Heaven moved first lightning erupted beneath her feet as she launched herself across the ruined field, accelerating so quickly that the air cracked behind her. Her body became a blue-white streak cutting through drifting smoke, and she aimed both claws directly at Kirk's chest with enough force to tear through him before he could react. Kirk did not flinch or retreat. He waited until she was nearly upon him, then shifted his weight and turned his body by the smallest possible margin. Heaven's claws passed within inches of his ribs, close enough for the electricity surrounding them to crawl across his clothing, but they found nothing solid.
Kirk stepped into the opening before she could react. He drove his elbow upward before bringing it down on the back of her neck sending her violently into the ground. Heaven's body jerked making her breath disappearing before she could cry out, replaced by a choking cough that sprayed blood across dirt. Her eyes widened as the pressure collapsed on her neck making her realize one thing.
She couldn't take too many of those critical strikes.
She planted both hands beneath herself and pushed upward retreating away from Kirk by a couple dozen meters. Anger overcame the pain while blood ran from the corner of her mouth and fell from her chin in steady drops. Each breath sent a sharp ache through her neck, and every small movement caused something deep inside her to throb as though it had been bruised from within.
Despite the damage, her eyes remained fixed on Kirk with the same relentless focus they had held before the blow.
"That hurt," she muttered, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and smearing blood across her cheek.
Lightning gathered around her again, brighter and more violent than before, although the arcs no longer moved with the smooth rhythm they had possessed at the beginning of the battle. They snapped unpredictably across her shoulders and wings, occasionally striking the ground and leaving blackened lines in the soil. Heaven lowered herself into another fighting stance, ignoring the tremors in her neck. "But I'm not stopping!"
Kirk studied her without saying anything. He knew just from that retreat alone the pain she felt in the back of her neck had made her cautious.
The stretch of an empty field surrounding the two fighters remained charged with tension. From collapsed buildings to an empty region of a desert left Kirk and Heaven alone in a wide space to really let loose.
Heaven grunted, flapping her wings aggressive and going toward Kirk. A thunderous crack rolled across the field as she accelerated, but this time she did not repeat the same approach. She rushed low, almost parallel to the ground, using the glare of her lightning to disguise the angle of her attack. Her right arm swept wide, claws positioned to tear through Kirk's side rather than his chest. Kirk pivoted at the final instant, and the tips of her claws passed close enough to slice through his shirt while continuing into the ground behind him. The impact carved several deep grooves through the earth and sent chunks of sand tumbling away.
Before Heaven could pull her arm free, Kirk stepped inside her reach. He struck her directly in the ribs, the blood beneath the contact point immediately responded to him. Heaven's body contracted around a sudden internal pressure, and another violent cough forced blood onto her lips. She recognized the sensation faster this time and refused to let the pain interrupt her attack. Her free hand clamped around Kirk's shoulder, claws digging into his clothing as electricity exploded from her palm.
Lightning flooded Kirk's body at point-blank range.
The discharge tore across his nerves, locking his muscles and forcing his spine rigid. Every arc Heaven released searched for another pathway through him, attempting to overwhelm the signals controlling his limbs and shut down his body completely. Kirk's teeth clenched as his arms jerked involuntarily, but his eyes remained focused on Heaven. Even while electricity surged through him, he forced one knee upward and drove it into her abdomen.
The physical blow alone was enough to lift Heaven slightly from the ground, but the true damage followed beneath the surface. Kirk manipulated the blood around the point of impact, forcing it against muscle and organs with a sudden, concentrated burst. Heaven's grip loosened as pain folded through her midsection. Kirk tore himself free and staggered backward, smoke rising from his clothing while scattered sparks crawled along his arms.
They separated only long enough to regain their footing only to collide again. The two exchanged a flurry of blows towards one another. The two were moving so fast they would be a blur to the human eye. Neither could land a hit on one another because they were aware of their abilities. The next hour became a relentless exchange of speed, precision, and adaptation.
As the minutes passed, Heaven's approach began to change. She stopped allowing frustration to dictate every movement and started watching the way Kirk positioned his feet, how his shoulders shifted before he evaded, and which hand he preferred when targeting different parts of her body. Her attacks became shorter and cleaner, wasting less motion and leaving fewer opportunities for him to reach her blood. Instead of committing everything to a single strike, she began using speed to force him into predictable reactions.
Her next charge began with a claw aimed at his face. Kirk leaned away from it, recognizing the movement from several previous exchanges, but the attack had never been intended to land. Heaven changed direction before the first swing had finished and drove her opposite hand low across his side. Kirk twisted to escape, yet her claws still caught him beneath the ribs and tore several shallow lines through his skin. Blood appeared along the wounds. Heaven landed several yards away and turned toward him, her eyes brightening when she realized she managed to graze him effectively.
"There it is," she whispered.
The blood did not fall naturally. Several droplets remained suspended beside Kirk's body, trembling in the air as Heaven watched with growing anticipation. For a moment, it seemed as though the blood hesitated between obeying gravity and returning to its owner. Kirk clenched his jaw and extended one hand, calling the droplets back. They snapped against his forearm and spread across his skin in narrow crimson bands, reinforcing the muscles beneath rather than weakening him.
"You truly are something Kirk Lakeland. Even knowing and seeing it for myself your ability to lose blood and make it come back to you to make you stronger is fascinating."
Kirk surged forward with greater speed than he had shown before. The distance vanished beneath a single step, and his palm struck Heaven forcefully near the collarbone. Pressure rippled beneath the impact, forcing blood painfully against the surrounding bone and muscle. Heaven was sent back several hundred meters, her clawed feet digging into the ground as she skidded to a halt refusing to fall. Instead, she spread her wings and released a violent beam of lightning toward Kirk forcing him to dodge.
She rose several feet above the ground, her wings beating unevenly as she hovered. Blood stained her teeth when she smiled, and her breathing had become noticeably heavier. "I also know you'll break down eventually!"
Kirk began to twitch his eyes once more, the strain of controlling both his own blood and Heaven's had begun to show. "I should," he admitted. He took another step toward her as the blood around his arm tightened like a living brace. "But I'm not." Heaven dropped from the air and met him halfway.
Their battle continued beyond the hour mark, though only by several minutes. The movement of the sun and the shifting shadows across the broken terrain were subtle, but the damage surrounding them recorded every moment clearly. The once-flat stretch of ground had become an unrecognizable network of craters, trenches, and shattered ridges. Residual lightning crawled across exposed stone, while thin trails of blood marked the places Kirk had stood, fallen, or forced himself upright again.
Heaven's attacks grew sharper as she learned, but the accumulated strain made them increasingly unstable. Some bursts of lightning were stronger than anything she had released earlier, exploding from her body in wild surges that scorched everything nearby. Others flickered out before reaching their full intensity, leaving her exposed for fractions of a second. Kirk's movements remained precise, but his exhaustion had begun to slow him. The change was slight, perhaps no more than a hesitation in his pivot or an extra breath before he countered, yet Heaven had spent more than an hour studying him closely enough to notice.
She seized his arm during the next exchange.
This time, her claws locked around his wrist before he could slip away. Lightning erupted through her hand and traveled directly into his body, stronger and more concentrated than her earlier discharge. Kirk's muscles seized as the current overwhelmed his nerves, holding him still for the first time since the duel had begun.
"You're not getting away from me!" Heaven shouted.
She poured more power into him until the air filled with the smell of burned fabric. The moment Kirk's posture stiffened, Heaven lunged forward and slammed her forehead into his face. The impact snapped his head backward and sent blood spraying from his nose. Kirk stumbled several steps, visibly disoriented, and Heaven attacked before he could regain his balance.
Next she begun to swing, forcing him to block and evade instead of countering. One strike cut across his forearm, another tore through the side of his shirt, and a third struck his shoulder with enough force to spin him halfway around. Heaven stayed close, using her speed to keep him trapped in a defensive rhythm while each impact pushed him farther across the shattered field.
Even while retreating, however, he continued to watch her.
He studied the rhythm of her lightning, the timing between each discharge, and the brief tremor that passed through her shoulders whenever her power weakened. Heaven mistook his silence for desperation and pressed harder, but the increasing strain made the electrical arcs around her less consistent. After another powerful surge, the lightning along her right arm flickered and vanished for less than a second making Kirk take the opening.
He stepped inside her next strike and drove his palm against the center of her chest. This time he did not simply disrupt the blood near the impact. His control reached deeper, forcing a concentrated surge through multiple vessels and sending a violent shockwave across her nervous system. Heaven's body repelled from where she stood. Her muscles locked, her wings stiffened, and the lightning surrounding her broke apart into scattered sparks while as she skidded to a halt.
Her eyes widened as she tried to force her body to move. "You—" Kirk closed the distance, blood running freely from his nose and mouth while exhaustion pulled at every breath. "An hour and a few minutes," he thought to himself. "I don't have much longer left before I lose control myself." He said as his eyes twitched.
Heaven forced one foot beneath herself and rose again. Her legs shook, her breathing scraped through her throat, and blood continued to drip from her chin onto the earth. Still, the smile returned. It was smaller than before and strained by pain, but no less genuine.
The atmosphere around them grew heavier as they faced one another across the ruined ground. Heaven wiped at the blood beneath her mouth, but another stream replaced it almost immediately. Damage had accumulated throughout her body faster than she could recover from it, and every breath revealed the effort required simply to remain standing. Kirk was in no better condition. Blood marked his face and clothes, and his posture had lost some of its earlier ease.
"You're starting to piss me off," Heaven muttered her body shifted before Kirk could answer.
Bones cracked beneath her skin as her muscles expanded and changed shape. Scales spread along her neck, shoulders, and face, replacing more of her human appearance with the armored features of a wyvern. Her jaw elongated, teeth extending into jagged points while the horns above her head curved farther backward. Her wings widened behind her, and the lightning surrounding her deepened in intensity as her transformation settled into its partial state.
Kirk watched the change without blinking. "Good," he said. "Let's see who is gonna lose themselves first!"
Heaven disappeared.
There was no visible crouch or warning flare before she moved. A sonic crack tore across the battlefield, and she reappeared directly in front of Kirk before the sound of her departure had fully reached him. Her speed had increased beyond anything she had shown in her normal form, leaving him no time to evade as her jaws opened. Kirk's eyes widened as he couldn't brace himself for what she was about to do next.
The bite came down with enough force to vaporize bone, and for a moment it appeared that she had ended the fight. Kirk's body stiffened in her grasp while blood immediately spread between her teeth. Heaven clenched harder, attempting to finish the attack before he could manipulate anything inside her.
In quick instinct, Kirk's hands shot upwards one gripping the side of her jaw while the other braced against the opposite. Kirk used every muscle he had to try and pry her jaws off as his blood worked overtime greatly enhancing his strength. He managed to pry her mouth open just enough to shove his left forearm in place of his head.
Heaven growled as she snapped her mouth closed once more catching Kirk's forearm and head in the process. Kirk began to panic until he realized there was one way out. His right arm drew back, fingers straightening as every remaining ounce of strength gathered into a single point. Then, with the precision of a spear thrust, he drove his hand forward beneath her ribs and pierced deep into her abdomen. The moment he made contact, he seized the blood deep within her midsection and redirected it violently against the surrounding muscle and organs.
Heaven's entire body convulsed.
Her jaws opened involuntarily as a guttural sound tore from her throat. Blood spilled across her tongue and down Kirk's face while the pressure inside her abdomen collapsed through layers of muscle that should have protected her. Kirk ripped himself free from her bite and stumbled away as Heaven staggered backward, both arms wrapping instinctively around her stomach.
"Ghh—!"
Her partial transformation trembled around her. Lightning surged once across her scales before flickering unevenly, and her knees nearly gave way beneath her as she fought to remain upright.
Heaven didn't fall.
Instead, a deafening roar tore from her throat, shaking the shattered battlefield as though the earth itself had answered her rage. Lightning erupted from every inch of her body in a violent, uncontrolled explosion, blue-white arcs lashing wildly through the air with enough force to split the ground beneath her feet. Massive cracks raced across the broken terrain dirt burst upward from the pressure. Every swing of her claws, every snap of her tail, and every discharge of electricity ripped apart everything unfortunate enough to remain within reach.
Kirk threw himself backward as the explosion swallowed the space between them. Chunks of rock the size of vehicles hurtled through the air, forcing him to weave around the debris while dragging his boots across the fractured earth to keep his balance. Dust and smoke rolled over him in thick waves, and when the haze finally began to clear, fresh streams of blood had joined those already running down his face. They dripped steadily from his nose and chin before disappearing into the collar of his ruined clothing.
He drew a slow breath, never taking his eyes off Heaven. "...You should be down."
A rough laugh answered him.
It sounded painful almost broken as though every vibration scraped against injuries buried deep within her body. Yet despite that pain, the laugh carried genuine amusement. Heaven wiped another trail of blood from her mouth before grinning through crimson-stained teeth.
"It's been a long time since I seen this much blood leave my body." She rushed.
There was no discipline left in her movements. No measured rhythm or carefully planned combinations. Heaven abandoned precision entirely, throwing herself forward with the savage aggression of a wounded predator. Her claws descended from overhead with enough force to split stone, forcing Kirk to move to one side before her tail whipped toward his ribs in the same instant. He ducked beneath it, but Heaven continued spinning through the attack without hesitation, using the momentum to launch another strike from an angle he hadn't anticipated.
Kirk was thrown sideways, skidding violently across the battlefield as shattered rock and loose earth exploded beneath him. His body carved a deep scar through the ground before he finally twisted his weight, digging one hand into the dirt to slow himself. Blood sprayed from a fresh wound across his side where her claws had finally found their mark, staining the rubble beneath him as he forced himself upright once again.
He rose more slowly this time and she noticed immediately.
She refused to give him even a chance to recover, launching herself forward before he had fully regained his footing. Their bodies collided with another explosive impact that echoed across the ruined landscape, but the nature of the fight had changed completely. The careful exchanges that had defined the opening stages of their duel no longer existed. Neither combatant searched for elegant openings or tested the other's defenses.
They simply fought.
More than an hour had passed since their duel began, and the land reflected every minute of it. The ground had been ripped apart until nothing recognizable remained. Craters overlapped one another, trenches crisscrossed the earth in every direction, and shattered stone stretched to the horizon like the remains of some forgotten apocalypse.
Even Kirk had begun to slow.
The difference was almost imperceptible at first. His footwork remained disciplined, his reactions still frighteningly sharp, yet the pauses between his movements had grown just a fraction longer. Blood poured more heavily from his nose, and his breathing no longer carried the calm rhythm it had maintained throughout most of the battle. Every inhale came deeper than the last.
Heaven saw all of it and a grin spread across her bloodstained face. "Give it up little boy."
Kirk offered no statement.
Whether he lacked the breath or simply didn't care to answer, Heaven couldn't tell she just pressed her advantage immediately.
Her partial Wyvern form granted her greater reach, greater leverage, and a level of relentless physical pressure that became increasingly difficult to escape. Strike after strike drove Kirk backward across the ruined earth, each exchange forcing him to surrender another step until she finally found the opening she had been searching for.
Her claws drove into his side.
This time they held.
Heaven lifted him clear off the ground, pinning him helplessly in the air as blood streamed from the wounds she'd carved into his torso. Lightning gathered around her arm in rapidly growing arcs, building into another devastating discharge while triumph spread across her face.
"Got you."
The lightning reached its peak.
Kirk's crimson eyes flickered with anger. Despite the pain, despite the blood pouring from his body, he kicked Heaven directly in the elbow snapping it inward making her grip weakened instantly.
"...You—!"
Blood streamed down his face in steady crimson lines, disappearing beneath torn clothing soaked through by the countless wounds he'd suffered. One side of his face had been torn apart during the fighting. His left eye was gone entirely, leaving behind only a blood-filled socket surrounded by shredded flesh.
Tiny strands of living tissue crawled across the empty cavity like crimson threads weaving themselves together. Muscle slowly reformed. Flesh knit itself closed in uneven pulses. New veins stretched into place before a fresh eye gradually emerged beneath them. The regeneration was unsettling to watch—not fast enough to seem miraculous, but deliberate enough to make every stage of the process visible.
Heaven watched without looking away intrigued at watching his powers go to work even on a such a horrific injury. "All that blood on your body makes it hard to see your regenerative powers," she said, wiping another streak of blood from her chin. "But seeing your body repair your lost anatomy is surely disgusting yet interesting. But I do know like my power... it comes with a tax!"
Heaven's condition was far worse than Kirk's. From the outside, she still looked terrifying. Lightning crawled across her body in restless waves, and despite the blood covering her scales, she remained standing with the posture of someone ready to throw herself into another attack at any moment.
Anyone witnessing the battle from a distance would have assumed she still possessed the strength to continue indefinitely. But her body told a different story. Every breath scraped painfully through damaged lungs, and each movement sent fresh waves of agony rippling beneath her skin. Muscles had been torn apart from repeated internal shockwaves. Blood vessels had ruptured. Several of her organs struggled to function after enduring strike after strike that ignored the protection of her scales entirely. Even her nervous system had begun to betray her, sending occasional spasms through her limbs as though her own body no longer knew how to respond. The most important injury of all was when Kirk impaled her through her abdomen. She couldn't regenerate herself like Kirk could as hers was far slower. Not to mention she needed the process to go through uninterrupted otherwise it would stop.
But none of it mattered to her.
"I don't need to last forever," she said quietly, her voice rough from blood and exhaustion. "Just long enough to beat you."
Kirk released a slow breath through his nose. Blood dripped steadily from his chin, disappearing into the dirt beneath his boots before another crimson trail immediately replaced it.
"...That's the problem," he replied. "You think this ends when one of us drops."
The wind swept across the battlefield once more, dragging loose ash and shattered stone between them. Dust spiraled through the air while remnants of stray lightning snapped unpredictably across the ruined landscape, lingering evidence of everything they had unleashed during more than an hour of relentless combat.
Kirk's regeneration continued repairing the damage Heaven inflicted, but the process had slowed noticeably. The wounds still closed, flesh still reformed, and broken tissue still struggled back together, yet each recovery demanded more time than the one before it. Maintaining control over his own blood while repeatedly disrupting Heaven's had drained him far more than he wanted to acknowledge. The faint tremor running through his fingers refused to disappear, no matter how tightly he clenched his fists.
Across from him, Heaven's lightning surged with frightening intensity before abruptly weakening again. The power itself hadn't abandoned her, but her control over it had begun to fracture. Brilliant explosions of electricity erupted from her body one moment, only to flicker into scattered sparks the next as exhaustion interfered with her concentration. The inconsistency frustrated her, though she refused to let it show anywhere except in the increasingly violent glare fixed on Kirk.
For several long seconds, neither spoke.
Kirk adjusted his footing almost imperceptibly, testing the vision returning to his newly regenerated eye. It twitched occasionally as fresh nerves struggled to reconnect, forcing him to blink away brief moments of distortion before his focus sharpened again.
Heaven lowered herself into another stance. Her claws flexed slowly as thin strands of lightning wrapped around them, hissing against the air before snapping outward into the ruined ground.
The duel had long since abandoned any resemblance to an ordinary fight. It had become a sustained war of endurance, forcing two impossibly stubborn opponents to push far beyond what either body should have been capable of surviving. Every exchange ended with another crater. Every missed strike carved another trench through the earth.
Jagged scars stretched across the horizon in every direction, each one marking another place where Kirk and Heaven had collided with enough force to reshape the land itself.
Every breath scraped painfully through his lungs now. The calm rhythm that had defined his fighting style since the beginning of the duel had disappeared beneath heavy, uneven breathing. Blood covered nearly every inch of him, soaking through torn clothing and dripping steadily from countless wounds. His regeneration still functioned, but it had become painfully obvious that it could no longer keep pace with the damage Heaven continued to inflict.
The eye she had destroyed had returned.
Only partially.
The newly formed pupil struggled to focus, twitching erratically whenever he turned his head too quickly. Cuts that once disappeared within seconds now lingered stubbornly across his arms and chest, healing so slowly that fresh injuries often appeared before the older ones had fully closed. He wiped another stream of blood from beneath his nose only to accomplish nothing as fresh blood replaced it.
"...You're slowing down," Heaven said, her voice hoarse but unmistakably amused.
Kirk looked at her for a long moment before allowing the corner of his mouth to lift into the faintest hint of a smile.
"...So are you."
For the first time in more than an hour, the battlefield fell completely still.
Neither of them had chosen to stop. Their bodies simply demanded a brief moment to breathe before they continued trying to kill beat one another. The wind drifted through the wasteland they had created, lifting ash, broken stone, and dried blood into slow spirals that crossed the space between them. Around them stretched nothing but destruction. Overlapping craters, and the earth itself had been carved apart by countless impacts until the landscape resembled the aftermath of a natural disaster rather than a battlefield.
Kirk flexed his fingers at his side, forcing sensation back into muscles that had begun to stiffen from exhaustion. .
Kirk slowly rolled his shoulders despite the pain shooting through his body. His regenerated eye twitched as damaged nerves continued reconnecting, forcing his vision to sharpen in uneven bursts before finally settling. Fresh blood slipped beneath his nose and traced another path down his face, but he ignored it completely.
Across the battlefield, Heaven lowered herself into another fighting stance. Her claws opened and closed while weak strands of lightning crawled between them, hissing against the air before snapping into the fractured ground. The electricity no longer obeyed her with perfect precision. It surged violently one moment before fading into weak flickers the next, but there was still more than enough left to kill.
The ground shattered beneath their feet as both fighters launched forward at the exact same instant, collapsing the distance between them before the dust had even begun to rise. Shockwaves burst outward from their acceleration, sending loose stone tumbling across the wasteland while the air cracked sharply behind them. Kirk committed everything to a single decisive strike. Every observation he had made during the duel, every weakness he had uncovered inside Heaven's body, and every remaining ounce of strength he possessed flowed into one perfectly timed attack aimed directly at her center.
At the final possible instant, she shifted her weight just enough to let the strike pass harmlessly beside her body. The adjustment was almost impossibly small, but it was enough. Kirk's momentum carried him farther forward than he intended, leaving him exposed for a fraction of a second as he tried to recover his balance. Heaven seized the opportunity without hesitation.
Her clawed hand wrapped around his throat.
Using every ounce of strength remaining in her battered body, she drove him downward with overwhelming force. The impact detonated beneath them, collapsing the earth into a massive crater as shattered stone and debris erupted high into the air. Cracks raced outward through the already broken landscape while Kirk's body slammed into the exposed bedrock with enough force to split it apart. Dust engulfed the crater almost instantly, hiding both fighters inside a thick gray cloud before slowly drifting away on the wind.
When the haze finally began to clear, Heaven was still standing.
Her arm remained locked around Kirk's throat, pinning him against the bottom of the crater while blood dripped steadily from the corner of her mouth. Every breath she drew was ragged, every muscle in her body trembled from exhaustion, and weak arcs of lightning crawled across her arm before disappearing into the fractured stone beneath her feet. She looked as though her body could collapse at any moment, yet her grip never loosened.
Kirk grabbed her wrist with both hands and pushed with everything he had left.
The muscles in his arms trembled violently as he tried to force her away. His regeneration struggled desperately to repair damaged tissue even as he strained against her grip, but the effort accomplished almost nothing. His strength hadn't disappeared. It simply wasn't enough anymore.
For the first time since the battle had begun, he found himself completely restrained, unable to escape through speed, precision, or sheer determination.
Heaven leaned closer until only inches separated their faces. Blood continued slipping from her lips, falling onto Kirk's chest in slow crimson drops while a tired, almost disbelieving smile spread across her own.
"...Got you."