The world had never seen anything like it.
Above the ruins of the Hero Academy, where once students trained and laughed, now floated two gods —
each one carrying the weight of an entire existence on their shoulders.
Kai Arashi, crowned in black flame, shrouded in the howling silence of a thousand stolen powers.
The Catalyst, shining with searing purity and corrupted light, wielding the authority of a world desperate to survive.
They hovered midair, facing each other, while reality itself warped and buckled under their presence.
A single breath passed.
And then the world broke.
The Catalyst moved first —
swinging both blades of searing energy, each stroke slicing open rifts in the sky itself.
From those wounds spilled howling winds filled with ancient screams, the cries of every soul lost to the cycles of light and dark.
Kai answered.
With a roar that shook mountains,
he called forth the Abyss Copy System's final form —
twin void-wings, vast and cracked like dying stars, spread from his back.
Each beat of his wings blasted away the Catalyst's rift-blades, tearing through storms of corrupted light.
The sky blackened.
The stars fled.
The oceans in the distance boiled from the residual energy of their clash.
The two forces collided again and again:
The Catalyst summoned armies of spectral heroes and monsters from across time — avatars of every age's champions.
Kai countered, copying their techniques mid-battle, adapting, twisting, and breaking their legends with his own will.
Every punch Kai threw shattered dimensions.
Every strike the Catalyst unleashed rewrote the laws of nature for a heartbeat.
Arin, watching from below, could barely stand.
Tears streamed from her eyes — not from fear — but from the overwhelming, awe-inspiring tragedy unfolding above her.
"They were never meant to be enemies…"
"They were meant to heal this world together…"
But now…
it was too late.
High above,
Kai dodged a spear of white-gold fire, spun midair, and smashed the Catalyst back with a clawed gauntlet of pure Abyss-energy.
The Catalyst skidded across the sky, coughing golden ichor — injured for the first time.
They glared at Kai, fury and… sorrow… in their expression.
"You could have ruled beside me," the Catalyst growled.
"You could have been eternal!"
Kai floated forward, crown burning brighter than ever, armor cracked but unyielding.
His silver eyes burned.
"I don't want eternity."
"I want freedom."
"For everyone — even if the world has to burn and be reborn to get it."
The Catalyst screamed,
and unleashed their true form:
Their body expanded — wings of searing gold and endless black stretching across the heavens, blotting out the light.
They became a living storm, a god made flesh, determined to erase the mistake Kai represented.
Kai,
standing alone against the full wrath of creation and destruction,
lowered his head…
smiled…
and charged.
The two forces met.
And the heavens shattered.