In the void, black winds tore across the drifting building as Skanda and Kroor clashed again, their movements blurring through the crumbling structure. Each impact twisted the air, sending shockwaves rippling through the dimension.
Kroor lunged with a screech—
SHRRRAAAA!!
Claws sliced forward, cutting through steel like paper.
Skanda slipped past the slash with a tilt of his head.
FWIP!
One step.
Another.
He became a ghost weaving through blades of death.
Kroor's arms blurred—
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
But Skanda danced between every strike, cloak fluttering in rhythmic waves.
Kroor twisted its torso unnaturally and stabbed with a spear-like arm—
Skanda sidestepped and countered.
THAAAAM!!
A devastating punch sank deep into Kroor's abdomen.
Purple-black blood sprayed violently.
SPLAAASH!!
Kroor skidded backward, claws dragging trenches into the floor as it shrieked.
The sound echoed like the scream of a dying world.
"SKREEEEEEE!!"
It leapt again, claws crackling with corrupt Prāṇa.
Skanda raised one hand calmly—
CLACK!
He caught Kroor's arm mid-attack.
Kroor froze, eyes widening with sudden fear.
Skanda's voice dropped into icy fury.
"Tell me…" he said slowly, tightening his grip, "…how did you cut off my junior's hand?"
Kroor hissed.
"You enjoyed his screams, didn't you?"
His aura flared with cold killing intent.
"Then let's see…"
He pulled Kroor closer.
"…how much you enjoy pain."
He gathered Prāṇa into his free hand.
VMMMMMMMM…
Power condensed, humming like a blade.
Then—
SLAAAAAASH!!
Kroor's entire arm tore off in a clean arc.
The limb flew through the air, spinning, splattering black blood across the broken tiles.
Kroor howled.
SKRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!
The scream reverberated through the void, shaking the building apart. Walls split. Glass shattered. Even the darkness itself recoiled.
Skanda stepped back, flicking Kroor's blood from his fingers.
"How does it feel," Skanda asked coldly, "to lose a limb?"
Kroor writhed on the floor in agony, shrieking and clawing at the air.
Skanda took a step forward—
but then… he felt it.
Something unnatural. Something wrong.
A pulse behind him.
He slowly turned.
Lioran… was standing.
Barely.
Staggering.
His body broken, bleeding, trembling—
But his left fist burned with black and white flames spiraling violently around each other.
"What… is this…?" Skanda said.
The flames flickered like two opposing forces devouring each other and merging again—light and darkness dancing in impossible harmony.
"These flames…" Skanda murmured. "They're not Prāṇa. Not pure energy. They're something else entirely."
Before he could approach Lioran—
The space behind him rippled.
Skanda turned sharply—
Kroor was gone.
"What—?!"
He scanned the area.
Broken walls. Floating debris. Cracks in the void.
"Where is it?" Skanda demanded.
KRRRRRACK—
Black Energy erupted beneath him.
BOOOOOM!!
Skanda leapt aside.
Kroor shot out from underground, screeching as it sprinted across the fractured terrain—
heading straight toward Lioran.
Skanda's eyes narrowed.
"I see… Kroor can regenerate if it consumes someone."
Images flashed:
Kroor eating Lioran's severed arm.
Kroor hunting for Aishwarya and Sharin.
"So it wants to eat him—recover strength by devouring him…!"
Skanda dashed forward.
But then—
He stopped.
His eyes widened.
Because Lioran…
opened his left hand.
The flames converged.
Swirling.
Twisting.
Condensing.
VWOOOOOOOOH!!!
A black-and-white sphere formed in his palm.
Light and shadow fused, spinning like a tiny star collapsing into itself.
Skanda felt his skin tingle.
"That power… it's unstable… but overwhelming…"
Kroor leapt, claws stretched out to pierce Lioran's skull—
SKREEE—!!
Lioran thrust his hand forward.
"HRRAAAAHHH—!!"
TSHOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The sphere shot out, a spiraling beam of annihilation.
It struck Kroor midair—
BLAAAM!!
The impact hurled Kroor across the chamber, smashing it into a wall.
Blood splattered in a dark arc.
But the sphere didn't vanish.
Instead… it grew.
Larger.
Larger.
LARGER.
Kroor screamed through pain as that sphere completely consumed it.
The swirling mass expanded like a devouring sun, feeding on the void, consuming every piece of corrupted space around it.
"Whoa—!!" Skanda gasped. "It's consuming everything around it!"
The void began collapsing into the sphere.
Darkness peeled away in spirals.
Walls disintegrated.
Floors crumbled.
Reality trembled.
The black dimension shattered—
KRAAAAAA-THOOOM!!
And suddenly—
Everything snapped back.
The void vanished.
The abandoned building reappeared in the real world.
The sphere, however, remained—still growing, still devouring.
Lioran stood frozen, eyes half-lidded, body giving out.
His legs buckled.
His vision dimmed.
He collapsed forward—
"Lioran!" Skanda lunged.
He caught him just before he struck the ground.
The sphere behind them roared.
VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
It grew so massive that it consumed entire rooms of the building.
Skanda held the unconscious boy against his chest.
"…Good job," Skanda whispered. "At the end… you fulfilled your duty.".
He lifted Lioran onto his back, tying him securely with a strip of torn cloak.
He glanced down.
Aishwarya and Sharin were still unconscious, badly injured, but alive.
Skanda picked them up—one in each arm.
The devouring sphere swallowed another section of the building.
"Alright," Skanda muttered. "Time to get out."
He sprinted across the collapsing structure.
The sphere roared behind him—
WHOOOOOOOM!!
Wood.
Steel.
Concrete.
Everything disintegrated into its swirling core.
Skanda approached a broken window.
The sphere's heat burned his back.
He tightened his grip on the three unconscious youths.
"Hold on," he whispered.
FWOOOOOSH!!
He leapt.
Bursting through the window—
Landing on solid ground outside just as the sphere consumed the entire building behind them.
Skanda looked back.
The sphere hovered for a moment—
Then shrank into a point.
PING—
And vanished along with the entire building.
The dimension stabilized.
Silence settled over the ruins.
Skanda exhaled slowly.
TO BE CONTINUED…