"Run."
Leo didn't move. His feet were planted. His fists were sparking.
"Hell no."
Wolfen's jaw tightened. "I've fought our evil versions before. I've got this. I know what to do. You don't."
Leo's eyes stayed on the other versions—the wrong Eva, the wrong Derek, the wrong Maya. They were spreading out, circling, hungry. "When did you fight them?"
"Other universe." Wolfen's voice was flat. "You don't wanna know what happened there."
The wrong Eva moved.
She crossed the distance in a blink, her fist connecting with Wolfen's face before he could block, before he could dodge, before he could even breathe. He flew backward, a ragdoll, crashing through a tree, through another, through a third.
She turned to Leo. Smiled.
"Dominance Sphere."
Lightning erupted around them—not the wild, chaotic arcs of before, but controlled, focused, absolute. The air crackled. The ground hummed. Every charge in the domain was a weapon, pressing into the other versions' bodies, disrupting their organs, their nerves, their selves.
Leo stood at the center, the lightning god in his own heaven.
Wrong Eva looked at him with that twisted smile. "New tricks. I love this."
Leo's hands were filled with high-concentration Pulse. He punched her.
She didn't move.
His fist connected with her chest, and she didn't move. The Pulse should have shattered bones. The electricity should have stopped her heart. She just stood there, smiling, as blood dripped from his mouth.
She started laughing.
Leo stared at her. Her nervous system was cracked. Her nerves were destroyed. She shouldn't have been able to feel anything, let alone laugh. But she was laughing.
She punched his jaw.
Bone broke. His vision went white.
Wrong Maya came from below, her fist driving into his gut, sending him flying. He hit the ground, rolled, came up bleeding.
Wrong Eva shoved wrong Maya. "The fuck do you think you're doing? They're mine."
"We agreed to fight our versions." Wrong Leo stepped forward, calm, unhurried. "That one's mine. The other one is Welfric's. Find your own. Kill them if you want. But rules are rules."
Leo stood up. The ground was covered in charges—his charges, his domain, his weapon.
"BOOM."
The explosion took the entire domain. Lightning tore through the clearing, through the trees, through the other versions' bodies. They staggered. They burned. They healed.
Leo jumped back to where Wolfen was picking himself out of a crater.
"So." Leo's voice was tight. "What's the plan?"
Wolfen watched his wrong self across the clearing. The golden eyes were the same. The smile was sharper.
"No matter what," Wolfen said. "Don't fight him."
Leo blinked. "What?"
"Don't. Fight. Him."
The solar lava came.
It erupted around Wolfen—not the red fire of before, not the orange, not the yellow. This was something else. Something that made the air scream. His eyes burned. His hair shifted color.
"Release as much Pulse as you can," Wolfen said.
Leo didn't argue. Lightning surged around him—yellow, but different. Brighter. Hungrier.
They moved together.
Wolfen met wrong Eva face to face. Punched. She dodged. Leo was there, slamming Pulse into her body, filling her with energy that wasn't hers. He clapped his hands.
Wrong Eva's entire body convulsed. Electricity arced through her, lighting her from inside, and she laughed through it all.
Wrong Maya vanished.
Her speed was Wolfen's speed—impossible, wrong. She emerged behind them, fully transformed, her body black and spiked, her eyes burning.
Wolfen turned. His back met Leo's.
A fire blast—concentrated, white-hot—shot from Wolfen's hands. A thunder bolt—blinding, deafening—shot from Leo's.
The other versions scattered.
All of them except wrong Eva and wrong Wolfen.
The chaos duo fought. They bled. They healed. They held.
The other versions jumped back, wounds closing, flesh knitting, smiles widening.
"You think you can take us all on?" Wrong Derek's voice was smug. "We're not even fighting full strength."
"You're right." Wolfen was breathing hard. Blood dripped from his nose. "We can't take you all. One of us maybe. But we were never fighting to win."
He nodded toward the tree line.
"We were stalling."
Eva Rostova walked out of the forest.
Not the wrong one. The real one. Her hair was short, her face was hard, her eyes were burning. Behind her, Maya walked with her scales still visible, her tail lashing, her eyes one white and one black. Lena followed, daggers drawn, her jaw set. Jordan came last, katana in hand, his face calm, his eyes cold.
Wolfen's shoulders dropped. "Tramp card's here."
The two Evas looked at each other across the clearing.
One smiled, twisted, hungry.
One stood, menacing, absolute.
The forest held its breath.