The moon shattered beneath Lucian's feet.
Stone screamed as it tore apart, cracks racing outward in violent spiderwebs as he launched himself forward, fists wrapped in writhing black lightning. The force of his takeoff obliterated the surface, sending enormous fragments spinning away into the void like shrapnel from a dying world.
Lucian's face was twisted with pure, unrestrained fury.
"I'LL RIP YOU APART!"
Space howled as he closed the distance in an instant.
Reider stepped aside.
Not hurried. Not alarmed.
Lucian's fist slammed down where Reider had stood a fraction of a second earlier, the impact detonating the moon's crust. Rock vaporized. Dust erupted in a blinding plume that spilled outward into space, fragments tumbling into endless darkness.
Reider's voice cut through the chaos, flat and uninterested.
"You're loud."
Lucian barely had time to snarl before pain exploded through his side.
Reider's counterattack came like a guillotine—sharp, precise, merciless. His fist drove into Lucian's ribs with such force that the moon itself gave way. The impact blasted Lucian clean through the celestial body, rock and dust erupting outward in a colossal explosion as his body tore a tunnel straight through solid stone.
Lucian burst out the other side, tumbling through space.
But he didn't scream.
He twisted mid-flight, grinding himself to a halt as if friction still existed in the vacuum. Dark energy bled from his back, unfurling into massive wings of shadow that crackled with corrupted lightning. His boots dragged invisible lines through space as he steadied himself.
Then he grinned.
Blood ran down his chin, but his eyes burned with manic delight.
"You want to play?" he said, spreading his arms wide. "Let's play, Reider."
Darkness collapsed inward around Lucian's hand, compressing, folding, twisting reality itself. A spear formed—an impossible weapon, dense and radiant like a miniature black hole, its surface devouring light rather than reflecting it.
Lucian hurled himself forward again, spear leading the charge.
Reider didn't flinch.
He raised one hand.
The spear struck his palm.
For a moment, space froze.
Then it detonated.
A starburst explosion erupted behind them, light and force tearing outward in every direction. Shockwaves rippled through the void, smashing into the moon's fractured remains and ripping them apart completely.
The moon cracked in half.
Massive chunks of it were flung toward nearby planets, debris arcing dangerously toward distant orbits—including Earth itself.
Lucian roared and surged through the blast, his fist driving straight into Reider's chest.
The impact should have killed anything that lived.
Reider didn't even stagger.
Lucian's eyes widened as Reider's hand snapped shut around his wrist.
"Done?" Reider asked flatly.
Before Lucian could react, gravity seemed to reverse.
Reider swung him.
Lucian's body became a projectile as Reider hurled him through space, sending him screaming toward a nearby red planet—its surface scarred and dry, its atmosphere thin and hostile.
Lucian hit like a falling god.
The planet's crust ruptured. Molten rock exploded skyward as a massive crater formed, shockwaves rippling across the surface. Fire and smoke boiled upward, the planet itself trembling from the impact.
Reider appeared above it in a flash of distorted space, descending calmly.
Below him, Lucian rose from the crater, his body scorched and torn—but already regenerating. Flesh knit itself back together as dark energy pulsed beneath his skin.
Lucian threw his head back and laughed.
The planet shook beneath them.
"Still think you're better?!" he shouted, blood streaking his face.
Reider's eyes glowed faintly as he descended, his expression unchanged.
"I never said I was better," he replied. "Just stronger."
He vanished.
Lucian barely had time to gasp before Reider appeared directly in front of him and drove a knee into his gut.
The impact cracked the planet.
The ground beneath them fractured like glass, enormous fault lines racing outward as shockwaves punched through the mantle. Lucian coughed blood, but even as he reeled, his grin widened.
Dark energy erupted from him in a violent explosion.
Reider blocked it with one arm.
The blast tore across the planet's surface, ripping continents apart. The planet began to split, magma pouring into the widening fissures as its core screamed under the strain.
Both combatants launched themselves upward as the world beneath them died, rock and fire trailing behind as they burst back into open space.
Lucian roared, summoning power.
Dark matter and lightning twisted together, forming a massive scythe that hummed with corrupted space-time.
"I'LL CARVE YOUR SOUL OUT!"
The blade swung.
Reider caught it.
His hand closed around the scythe mid-swing, the force cracking the weapon down the center. Lucian's eyes went wide as fractures spread across the blade.
Reider crushed it.
The scythe shattered into nothing.
"Weak," Reider said coldly.
His fist followed.
Lucian was launched backward at impossible speed, sent hurtling straight into a nearby star.
Solar flames engulfed him as he crashed into the blazing surface, plasma roaring around his body. For a moment, it seemed even Lucian might not survive that.
Then the flames twisted.
Dark aura wrapped around the fire, absorbing it, warping it. Lucian emerged from the star like a dark phoenix, his body cloaked in flaming black energy.
He laughed, mad and unhinged.
"You can't destroy me!"
Reider watched, unimpressed.
Stars flickered around him as energy gathered in his hand, compressing, folding inward until it glowed like a newborn sun.
"You're mistaken," Reider said calmly. "I haven't even started."
He launched it.
A sphere of compressed cosmic energy tore through space, bending reality around it. Lucian slammed into it, pushing back with everything he had—but his dark aura burned away under the pressure.
Reider vanished.
He reappeared around Lucian again and again, striking from all sides while the sphere pinned him in place. Each blow landed with surgical precision, shattering bone and ripping flesh before regeneration could keep up.
Lucian roared and tore free, summoning chains made of corrupted space-time, flinging them wildly.
Reider weaved through them, moving faster than light itself.
One chain grazed his cheek.
Blood trickled down.
Reider wiped it away, unfazed.
"So you can scratch me," he said. "Not enough."
He tackled Lucian.
They crashed through an asteroid field, massive chunks of rock exploding in their wake. Planets drifted in the distance as debris scattered like the aftermath of divine war.
Far below, on the ground, Vael, Mei, and Eryndra watched the sky.
Flashes of impossible light flickered across the heavens.
"They're out there…" Eryndra whispered. "Fighting like gods."
Mei clasped her hands together, worry tightening her chest—but her eyes held trust.
Vael crossed her arms, smirking slightly as she looked skyward.
"Don't hold back," she muttered. "End him."
Back in space, Reider and Lucian stood on opposite ends of a shattered moon, power surging from both.
"Let's finish this," Reider said.
Lucian grinned, his body now burning with chaotic black flames.
"You're not the only one holding back," he mocked. "Let's see how long you last."
He vanished.
A shockwave fractured space itself as Lucian's fist slammed into Reider's back.
Reider was launched like a meteor, crashing through a small planet in the distance. The surface exploded as he tore straight through it.
Lucian followed, kicking Reider down into the planet's core.
"What happened to all that calm?!" Lucian snarled.
Inside the planet, Reider struggled to rise. His arm shook slightly. Cracks of drained mana glowed across his skin.
Lucian grabbed his throat and hurled him upward.
Reider burst out into space trailing fire.
Lucian gathered gravity into his palm—a forming black hole.
He threw it.
The pull was stronger than Reider expected.
Mana surged—but cracks widened.
"Tch," Reider thought. The mana I took in earlier is almost gone.
Lucian appeared beside the black hole, smirking.
"Look at you… weaker than I thought."
He slammed Reider into the event horizon.
"You'll die knowing you failed to protect them!"
Inside the pull, Reider thought of Mei.
I can't let her cry again.
"No," he said.
He stood.
Step by step, he walked through the black hole's pull.
Lucian screamed in disbelief.
Reider's coreless power reignited.
"You threatened my family," he said.
The black hole collapsed behind him.
"Now," Reider finished, eyes locking onto Lucian, "it's my turn."
Lucian stared in terror.
"What… are you?"