Zein opened his eyes with a start, his heart pounding in his chest and a gasp of cold air burning his lungs. A dull groan escaped his lips as the slightest movement unleashed a sharp pain that ran through his entire body. As he awkwardly sat up, he blinked to clear his sight; he was no longer surrounded by the greenish forest. He was back in the park, outside the Imaginary. His clothes were in charred tatters, and patches of raw skin were covered by hastily improvised bandages.
A sudden weight impacted against his chest before he could react.
—Big brother! —Lyra sobbed, burying herself in his arms amidst tears.
—Ahg! —Zein gritted his teeth, holding his breath from the sting the contact caused in his burns.
—Lyra, don't press him so hard, he's still hurt —Alexander warned. The mage was concentrating on sealing Miguel's superficial burns with faint glints—. It's a miracle you came out of there alive, especially after such a brutal detonation.
—It surprises me too —Miguel grunted, standing up immediately and sharply stretching his shoulders, ignoring the pain as if his own wounds didn't matter to him—. But to the point, what happened to Sora? Did that bastard finally fall?
—No —Alexander responded, letting his hands drop in frustration—. As soon as the smoke began to dissipate, we saw him. He is regenerating; he's going slower, but his tissues keep binding together. —Alexander looked at the veteran with severity—. Be careful and move as little as possible, or the wounds will open up again. My healing magic is at its limit; it's too basic for this level of damage.
—Thanks —Miguel muttered, brushing the warning aside with a gesture—. Where is he now?
—Kiomi and Naoko have been holding the front alone since the dome collapsed —Alexander explained, pointing toward the dense dust cloud rising a few meters away—. Sora hasn't stopped pressing them, and both are on their last legs. I... am dry. Transferring reinforcement energy emptied my reserves; I barely have mana left for a couple of tricks.
—Me too —Lyra added, looking at Zein helplessly—. I think I only have enough energy left to open one single portal.
—This nightmare has no end —Miguel spat, clenching his bloody fists—. We threw our entire arsenal at him and nothing we do seems to leave a permanent mark.
—Unless we find a way to erase him in a single impact —Alexander suggested, frowning analytically—. Something so devastating and definitive that it disintegrates his structure completely, without giving him a single millisecond to activate his regeneration.
An idea crossed Zein's mind. He extended his right hand and, over his open palm, a dark and distorted vortex began to spin, absorbing the light around it.
—This spell... Lucian left it to me before he died —Zein explained, contemplating the cosmic miniature with a somber fixity—. I thought it would just be a distraction trick, but I spent the last few months researching how to unlock its true potential. If I release it, I will end his life definitively. I know what it means, but we have no other choice.
—Will it be enough to erase Sora in a single impact? —Alexander asked, measuring the density of the dark energy.
—It's unstable and unpredictable; I've never been able to test it in real combat. But something inside me tells me it's the only thing capable of pulverizing him —Zein said. His eyes reflected the panic of exhaustion, but his posture denoted an implacable resolution.
—We don't have any more cards to play, so let's do it —Miguel nodded, placing his heavy hand on the boy's shoulder as a sign of backing.
—Let's draw a quick plan to ensure Sora swallows the impact head-on —Alexander regrouped, urging the group to coordinate before it was too late.
Meanwhile, fatigue devoured Naoko and Kiomi's muscles. They had been holding the front for too long on pure strength of will, feeling their arms numb from the punishment.
Sora's sadism grew with every second, fueled by the evident wear and tear of the two women. Naoko moved in a whirlwind of sparks and urgent feints, forcing the general to block the steel with his own fists. By fighting unarmed, Sora yielded a few vital centimeters of reach that the swordswoman capitalized on to the limit to trace swift cuts that ripped his garments.
From the rearguard, Kiomi sustained the assault. The sharp crack of her musket resonated at precise intervals, forcing the general to duck his head to dodge the lead, while her invisible threads tightened in the air to alter the behemoth's trajectory and prevent him from cornering her companion against the debris.
However, Sora's offensive remained relentless. Adapting to the rhythm with mathematical cruelty, the monster neutralized the rebels' tactical advantage in a blink. He planted both feet firmly, making the earth groan, and a perfect cylinder of dense rock sprouted between his hands. The stone reformed at an absurd speed, sculpted by an invisible force until becoming an enormous battle-axe. The weapon was no ordinary stone; its surface flashed with the grayish hue of an unknown, armored mineral with ridiculously sharp edges.
Naoko's advantage evaporated in a second.
Now, the swordswoman was in true trouble. Each impact of the enormous axe against her katana vibrated through her bones and cracked the ground beneath her, forcing her to retreat desperately while Kiomi fired continuous flurries that barely managed to scrape Sora's colossal weapon.
The imperial general smelled victory and accelerated his pace, completely cornering Naoko against the debris. With a devastating, downward slash of his axe, Sora deflected the young woman's katana and, before she could recover, his free hand gripped her by the upper limb.
A sharp, horrible snap resonated in the area.
Sora broke her right arm without a shred of mercy. The katana hit the ground with a metallic clink as Naoko choked back a cry of pure pain, left completely defenseless.
—Ahhhh! —she groaned in agony, falling to her knees while holding her broken arm.
The general raised the axe with both hands, ready to let it fall and eliminate her once and for all.
But the death blow never arrived.
A monstrous fist impacted squarely into the side of Sora's face, sending him flying several meters across the terrain. Miguel interposed himself between the executioner and the young woman, panting heavily and with the bandages on his side still stained with blood, but with a firm stance that made it clear he was already doing better and ready to balance the scales.
Instantly, Miguel launched himself toward Sora to continue the fight, while from behind Zein approached Naoko to quickly assist her.
—Shit, try not to move your arm, Naoko —Zein said, carefully leaning her against his own body.
—No... I'm fine. I can go on —she said, enduring the pain with small tears in her eyes as she tried to look for her weapon with her left hand.
—Don't overexert yourself —Zein stopped her, taking her by her healthy shoulder gently but firmly.
Naoko looked at him for a moment. The cold determination showing on Zein's face, a dark resolution she had never seen in him, made her stop insisting and simply nod, yielding to his grip.
—And what do we do then? —she asked.
—For now we have a plan. Alexander is going to explain the details to you while I go with Kiomi —Zein responded, leaving her safe before leaving in a hurry.
A few meters away, Kiomi fired her musket almost mechanically. Her shoulders sagged from the weight of the weapon and the accumulated fatigue made her arms tremble, but she kept her eyes fixed on Sora's silhouette.
—Kiomi —Zein called her, stopping by her side.
—What?! —she spat without averting her gaze, her voice hoarse from the continuous effort.
—We have a plan to bring Sora down once and for all.
—And do you really think that piece of garbage is going to work? —she questioned, reloading the barrel clumsily as the dust cloud at the front increased.
—We aren't sure, but...
—You don't think it can work?! And why the hell would I risk myself with a plan that offers no damn security?! —Kiomi interrupted, turning abruptly to jam the hot barrel of the musket straight against his chest.
—Because every single one of us here is risking our lives at this damn second —Zein maintained, facing her down without backing up a single centimeter.
—Sure, speak for yourself —she hissed, clenching her teeth in rage—. Do you really think the damn demon you carry inside is going to let you die? You are its vessel, it's going to protect you. Everyone else here has one single chance, but you have that monster in your entrails, and Kio watching from the shadows. The moment you or Lyra are in real danger, they will come to save you. So tell me... why the hell should I trust your stupid plan?!
—Because I want to help —Zein declared. With a sharp movement laden with an authority he had never shown before, he brushed the weapon away from his chest with a strike—. I don't know if you've noticed it from being so disgustingly blinded by your rancor, but I am trying to save you. I know I haven't done enough in this damn battle, not as much as I would like, but I am trying to keep this team alive. If you choose to drag your rage along, that's your problem. You are the one who doesn't want to see. I wasn't the one who massacred everyone in Ilmenor, Kiomi. But if you insist on blaming me, go ahead, because I don't plan on staying stuck in your past. Even if I have to break my own rule and kill Sora with my hands, I am going to do it to end this.
Kiomi froze. The impact of his words hit her harder than any enemy shockwave. For the first time, the hatred in her eyes faltered; she didn't see the frightened boy or the monster she so despised, but rather someone with a dark and mature resolution, willing to carry the weight of death just to protect the group.
—So, if you don't want to help, that's fine. We'll manage without you —Zein concluded, turning around.
The battlefield was a desert of charred debris. The atmosphere vibrated with the desperation of a group that knew perfectly well that this was their last chance.
In the rearguard, Naoko gritted her teeth from the pain of her broken arm, keeping her healthy hand resting on Alexander's shoulder. The mage, in turn, was channeling a translucent current of energy straight toward Lyra with both hands. The young girl was trembling, absorbing every last drop of her companions' mana to force the opening of one final massive portal in the sky.
At the front, Miguel kept Sora at bay with pure strength of will. Each strike from the veteran cost him shreds of his own skin, but he managed to make the imperial general back up.
Meanwhile, a bullet from Kiomi's musket hit Sora's knee, making him stumble, as her super-strong threads tightened around the monster's ankles to halt his advance. Seeing her act surprised Zein for a second; he thought she would refuse to cooperate. The boy focused on his part of the plan.
Zein walked slowly along the periphery of the terrain. He maintained a strangely calm posture, his body in profile and his right hand rigidly hidden behind his back. In his palm, reality itself was beginning to distort; a point of infinite gravity and absolute darkness was devouring the light around it. He was charging the black hole.
Sora, dodging a right hand from Miguel, swept his gaze across the area. His ego made him feel invincible, but the strange behavior of the sword boy didn't take long to catch his attention.
—What are you hiding back there, cockroach? —Sora bellowed, completely ignoring the veteran.
The general delivered a violent stomp that snapped Kiomi's threads and launched himself like a bolide directly toward Zein with his hand extended to shred him.
He didn't make it.
Miguel interposed himself in his trajectory, halting the onslaught with a brutal tackle that made both of their chests crack. They rolled along the ground, but the veteran sat up immediately, seizing Sora by the neck with a suffocating grip.
—Your fight is with me, you damn freak! —Miguel roared, spitting blood directly into the general's face.
—Let go of me, you decrepit old man! —Sora conjured a stone stake from the ground that pierced Miguel's thigh. The veteran didn't even blink; he maintained the grip with an inhuman strength.
Kiomi burned her last cartridge, firing straight at Sora's face to momentarily blind him, but the general's body coated itself once again in that hard and impenetrable mass, making the lead rebound. With a savage fury, Sora shook himself off and broke free from Miguel with a backhand strike that sent the old man crashing against a concrete wall.
However, the time had already been bought.
Zein stopped dead in his tracks. He pulled his hand out from behind his back.
A sphere of absolute vacuum, black as the deepest night, floated above his fingers, distorting the air and cracking the ground beneath his feet from sheer gravitational pressure.
—Now! —Zein shouted with all his strength.
Responding to the signal, Kiomi and Miguel coordinated their remaining strength in a desperate movement, throwing Sora's body toward the epicenter of the trap.
Up high, Lyra let out a cry of pure pain from the overexertion and fractured space. A gigantic portal opened right in the sky, pointing toward the clouds, while its twin materialized on the ground, swallowing the general.
Sora's body was suctioned, falling headfirst through the lower portal to immediately shoot out toward the upper atmosphere, trapped in midair and completely unable to move or support himself on anything.
Zein raised his arm. He placed the black hole right on the tip of his index finger, pointing at the sky, while his hand imitated the shape of a gun.
The black hole began to overload millimeter by millimeter. Everyone watched expectantly, holding their breath before the imminent. From the heights, Sora simply smiled with disdain and let himself fall from the very weight of his gravity, convinced that nothing in that world possessed the strength to shatter him.
Then, the spell imploded.
Space collapsed upon itself, opening a black wound in the air. From the fissure erupted not an ordinary magical attack, but a pressurized torrent of pure energy that flowed with the nature of water, yet struck with the fury of a dying star. The stream, of an incandescent violet wrapped in a white and blinding aura, swept vertically across the firmament. The pressure was so devastating that the air vibrated in a dull, distorted hum, disintegrating particles before the light could even touch them.
Sora, drowned in his own arrogance, extended his arms wide open upon seeing the mystical tide devour the distance toward him.
—Come! —the imperial general challenged with pride—. Throw whatever you want at me! Nothing you try will touch my true flesh!
The torrent impacted him head-on. The mineral armor began to fragment at an alarming rate, splintering under the cosmic punishment, but Sora's regenerative factor reacted with impressive speed, binding tissues and stone almost at the same rate the energy pulverized them. An absurd resistance.
On the ground, Zein sustained the technique with superhuman effort. The price of channeling such magnitude was atrocious: the skin of his right arm began to blacken and split from the tips of his fingers, devoured by the colossal friction of the energy. There was no visible fire, only raw flesh carbonizing from sheer gravitational pressure.
«Dammit», Zein thought, feeling his strength fail. «At this rate it won't be enough to erase him. His regeneration is too fast. I have to force the flow... I have to increase the power to the maximum».
«If you do that, you will kill yourself, stupid brat», the voice of that shadow resonated in his head.
«So what?», Zein replied in his inner self, keeping his teeth gritted while the pain consumed him. «At least this way I take down two monsters with a single strike. Sora and you».
The shadow growled from the deepest part of his soul, the demon's avarice twisting with fury at the mere thought of losing everything.
«No! Our destiny is absolute greatness, total dominion, a power so immense it will bring entire kingdoms to their knees. All of that belongs to us by right! You are not going to waste our glorious future in a landfill like this!», the shadow bellowed.
«It would be a waste, yes», Zein thought, with a coldness and a resolution that froze the shadow's instincts. «But I prefer to lose everything as long as I bury this guy. I am going to release the rest of the power, whether you like it or not».
Zein's pain became unbearable; maintaining the spatial rift tore his flesh, while Sora remained suspended in the sky, recomposing himself time and again beneath the destructive violet flow.
«Help me», Zein demanded with the last strength of his mind. «Give me your power. It's the only way to erase him and make it out of this alive».
«Are you begging? And what do I gain by handing you my strength?», the shadow's voice hissed, amusing itself at the expense of his agony.
«Not dying».
«It's not enough», the demon replied, with a tone laden with an insatiable contempt. «If you want my power, promise me you will stop being a coward. Swear that you will seek the wealth, fame, and dominion that belong to us. Do it for Lyra too; this will elevate us all. Choose ambition».
Zein remained silent for an instant, his face distorted by physical and moral suffering. He did not want to yield to the beast's avarice, but his friends' lives hung by a thread.
«Fine. I'll do it... as long as we don't hurt innocent people», he finally accepted.
In that very millisecond, Zein's right arm, which was already practically carbonized, was enveloped by a violent tide of purple and black energy. The darkness compacted at a dizzying speed over his limb, materializing a coarse black metal gauntlet that covered his hand completely.
With the appearance of the glove, the power of the black hole multiplied all at once. The ground beneath Zein's feet sank into a massive crack, and the torrent of violet light widened in the sky, completely devouring the space around the imperial general.
Sora, trapped in midair, understood too late that his healing factor could no longer compete against the absolute gravity of the vacuum. His expression of superiority shattered completely.
—Shit! —the general bellowed, right before the cosmic ray consumed his voice and his entire body.
The spell ceased abruptly, restoring natural light to the park. Zein collapsed onto the debris, completely exhausted and on the verge of fainting.
From the distance, Kiomi did not take her eyes off him. She saw with total clarity how the black metal gauntlet on the boy's arm began to crumble, turning into a dark dust that the wind carried away in a sigh. A deep and intense feeling of uneasiness churned her stomach.
When the rest of the group looked toward the heights, the sky was clear. Not the slightest trace of Sora remained; no skin, no stone, no ashes. He had been disintegrated from existence.
Shouts of euphoria, tears of relief, and embraces erupted immediately among Alexander, Lyra, Naoko, and Miguel. The accumulated fatigue transformed into a boundless joy as they celebrated a victory that minutes before seemed impossible. Kiomi, however, did not join the celebration. Frowning and with a gaze laden with an unbearable suspicion toward Zein, she turned around in silence, walking away alone through the ruins to find a corner where she could rest in peace.