The roar tore the sky open.
Even weakened, Zane's scream shattered what remained of the district. Concrete slabs lifted and spun like paper. The air itself felt torn, unstable, furious.
But something was different.
His aura no longer flooded the horizon.
It flickered.
Unstable.
Finite.
Xin saw it.
Rion saw it.
Alaric confirmed it over the comms, voice shaking despite himself. "Spinat resonance critical. Regeneration severely compromised. This is it."
Zane stood slowly.
Blood ran freely down his neck where the injection had pierced him. The wound did not close.
He touched it.
Looked at the blood on his fingers.
Then looked at Xin.
"You've made me… smaller," Zane said quietly.
Xin stepped forward.
Raxton sealed fully around him now. Plates locked into place with final metallic snaps, covering his chest, spine, arms, legs. Energy lines glowed steady instead of violent.
Full synchronization.
No screaming alarms.
No instability.
Just control.
Zane laughed once.
"It suits you," he said. "You look less breakable."
Xin did not respond.
He moved.
Faster than before.
Raxton amplified his acceleration, stabilizing every joint and muscle. He crossed the distance instantly and drove his fist into Zane's chest.
The impact detonated like a contained nuclear blast.
The ground beneath them split open for kilometers.
Zane flew backward through the skeleton of a skyscraper and into a mountain ridge behind it.
Xin followed.
No hesitation.
They collided again mid air, fists meeting in a shockwave that tore clouds apart above them. Zane countered with a brutal elbow that cracked Xin's helmet plate but did not break it.
Xin grabbed Zane's arm and twisted.
Bone snapped.
The sound echoed.
Zane stared at his own broken limb in disbelief.
It did not regenerate.
His eyes darkened.
"You did this," Zane said.
Xin slammed him into the mountain.
"I finished it," Xin replied.
Zane roared and retaliated with a headbutt that dented Raxton's frontal plating. Xin staggered back, vision flickering, but Raxton compensated instantly.
He lunged again.
Phenom Force surged through Raxton's systems, multiplying the impact output.
Xin's strike landed squarely on Zane's sternum.
Something inside Zane cracked.
He coughed blood.
Real blood.
They crashed back down into the ruined city, skidding across shattered streets.
Zane rose first this time.
Slower.
Breathing heavier.
"You think killing me fixes your world," Zane said, voice rough now. "Another monster takes my place."
Xin stepped forward, calm.
"Maybe," he said. "But it won't be you."
Zane attacked with everything left.
Not playful.
Not testing.
Every blow carried desperation now. He blitzed forward, striking from multiple angles, trying to overwhelm Raxton's stabilization systems.
Xin absorbed it.
Returned it.
They moved across the landscape like artillery shells colliding, flattening what little remained of structures around them. The coastline fractured from shockwaves. Mountains crumbled in the distance.
But Zane was shrinking.
Not physically.
Energetically.
Each second inside the suppression zone drained him further.
Xin grabbed him mid strike.
Locked both hands around Zane's throat.
Zane tried to break free.
Could not.
Raxton flared brighter.
"Impossible," Zane hissed.
"No," Xin said quietly. "Mortal."
He drove Zane upward again, punching through layers of cloud and into the thinning atmosphere.
Above the planet.
Above the destruction.
Zane struggled, weaker now.
"You were fun," Zane said, faint smile returning even now. "I almost respect you."
Xin looked at him for a long moment.
Then he pulled his fist back.
Raxton gathered energy into a single focused point.
Not explosive.
Not chaotic.
Controlled.
"This is for everyone you burned," Xin said.
He drove his fist forward.
The impact did not explode.
It condensed.
A concentrated rupture that tore through Zane's chest and shattered the weakened Spinat core inside him.
For a second, Zane hung there.
Silent.
His eyes widened slightly.
Then he laughed softly.
"You learned," he said.
His body began to fracture.
Not into mist.
Not into regeneration.
Into dust.
Lightless.
Finite.
Zane's form disintegrated slowly, pieces of him scattering into the void like dying embers.
His smile was the last thing to fade.
Xin hovered there for a long moment after he was gone.
Breathing.
Alive.
Raxton dimmed slowly around him.
Below, the earth stopped shaking.
For the first time in a long time, the sky felt quiet.