Eclipse main chamber - Surface
The throne room had become a war zone.
Marble floor cracked and cratered. Crimson banners lay in tatters, torn from their poles by shockwaves. The domed ceiling above was spiderwebbed with fissures, dust raining down like gray snow. And in the center of it all, two figures circled each other like wolves.
Darwin's transformation had stabilized. His body was larger now, muscles swollen beneath darkening skin. The third eye on his forehead pulsed with each beat of his heart. Crimson liquid flowed around him not as a weapon, but as an extension of his very being, a second skin that rippled and shifted with his mood.
Julian stood opposite him, battered but unbroken. His black blade was raised, its edge still humming with the remnants of Void energy. But his reserves were low. He could feel it, the fatigue creeping into his bones, the weight of hours of combat pressing down on him.
'Not yet,' he told himself.
Darwin's gray eyes locked onto Julian.
