The first strike did not look like a strike.
There was no warning. No shout. No dramatic buildup.
Reality simply cracked.
Zane moved first.
He vanished from where he stood and reappeared directly in front of Selena, his fist already mid-swing, space folding inward around the motion like it wanted to escape the impact. The punch never touched her.
Time froze.
Not slowed. Stopped.
Dust hung in the air like stars. Shockwaves froze mid-bloom. Zane's fist hovered inches from Selena's face, muscles locked, eyes still burning with hunger even while motionless.
Selena stood calmly inside the frozen world.
She stepped to the side and gently pressed two fingers against Zane's chest.
Time resumed.
The blast detonated outward.
The basin shattered instantly, stone liquefying into molten waves that rolled outward for kilometers. Mountains on the horizon fractured like brittle glass, their peaks collapsing into avalanches of fire and debris.
Zane was launched backward, skipping across the ground, tearing trenches hundreds of meters long before slamming into a distant mountain and punching straight through it.
The mountain collapsed seconds later.
Xin was thrown off his feet by the shockwave. Rion dug his sword into the ground to keep from being blown away, muscles screaming under the force.
"What the hell is this," Xin shouted.
Rion did not answer.
He could not.
Because this was not a fight.
This was an extinction event arguing with itself.
Zane burst out of the collapsing mountain, laughing as fragments burned against his skin.
"That's more like it," he said.
His eyes ignited.
Twin beams of white-hot energy ripped from his gaze, carving through the land like divine blades. Entire cities far beyond the basin were sliced open in seconds. Skyscrapers vanished mid-structure, split cleanly before collapsing into clouds of fire and ash.
People below did not even have time to scream.
Children playing in open streets were erased in flashes of light. Homes vanished. Roads liquefied. Entire blocks ceased to exist.
Xin's stomach turned.
"Stop," he whispered.
Selena raised her arm.
The beams bent.
Not deflected. Bent.
They curved upward into the sky and tore through the clouds, burning holes straight through the atmosphere. Selena moved again, stepping across space without distance, appearing directly above a collapsing city.
She snapped her fingers.
Time froze again.
She descended slowly, placing her palm against the ground.
Time resumed.
The city lifted.
Not metaphorically.
Physically.
Skyscrapers, streets, rubble, and molten earth rose upward as a single mass, hovering for one impossible moment before Selena flung it sideways into the ocean hundreds of kilometers away.
The impact sent tidal waves racing across continents.
Zane roared with laughter and charged.
He crossed the distance between them instantly, smashing into Selena midair. They slammed into the ground with enough force to crack the planet's crust beneath them.
The sky burned red.
Zane grabbed Selena by the throat and dragged her across the land, plowing through forests, rivers, and cities alike. Every second of contact annihilated everything beneath them.
Selena slammed her knee into his ribs and broke free, flipping backward through the air. She raised both hands.
The world screamed.
Space around Zane compressed violently, crushing inward from all sides. Gravity multiplied until the land beneath him collapsed into a singular point, forming a crater so deep it swallowed light.
Zane growled and pushed back.
The compression shattered.
He erupted outward, shockwaves obliterating everything within reach. His skin glowed faintly, heat bleeding off him like a star shedding radiation.
"You still hesitate," Zane said. "You're still counting lives."
Selena's eyes hardened.
"I always count lives," she replied.
She stopped time again.
This time longer.
She walked across the battlefield, placing barriers around surviving population centers. Slowing collapsing buildings. Pulling people from harm's path. Rewinding small moments just enough to pull someone out of death's reach.
Every action cost her.
She felt it.
The strain. The attention.
Something else was watching now.
Zane felt it too.
"Oh," he said softly as time resumed. "You're really doing it. You're ringing the bell."
Selena did not deny it.
Zane lunged again, faster than before, faster than physics allowed. He struck her with a barrage of blows that shattered continents worth of land beneath them. Each hit carried enough force to flatten cities.
Selena endured.
She bent space around her body, turning impacts into redirected vectors that tore through the sky instead of her form. She sliced through time itself, creating fractures where Zane's attacks landed too late or too early to connect.
Still, he adapted.
He always adapted.
Zane grabbed her arm and twisted, tearing through her defenses with raw force alone. He slammed her down into the earth and unleashed a point-blank blast of heat vision directly into her chest.
The explosion lit the horizon.
Selena screamed.
The sound tore through dimensions.
Xin dropped to his knees, hands over his ears.
Rion's eyes burned as Kurai raged within him.
She is dying.
Selena emerged from the blast, her form flickering, her edges unstable. She looked weaker now. Not broken. But strained.
Zane hovered above her, breathing heavily for the first time.
"See," he said. "You can bleed."
Selena looked up at him.
"I am not fighting to win," she said.
Zane frowned. "Then what are you doing."
Selena's gaze shifted past him.
To Rion.
To Kurai.
She smiled sadly.
"I am fighting to finish something."
The sky darkened further.
The land trembled.
And deep within reality, something ancient began to stir.