As Diana's words landed, a resonant ***DING!*** echoed inside Elias's skull, sharper than steel, colder than starlight. Crimson text blazed across his vision: **MAXIMUM AURA CAPACITY ACHIEVED. EXPANSION PROTOCOL ENGAGED.** The phantom heat beneath his sternum didn't just surge; it *detonated*. Fire and ice ripped through every nerve ending. His vision whited out. For a fractured second, Elias ceased to exist as anything but raw, agonizing potential. He felt the reservoir walls shatter – not crumbling, but *exploding* outward into a vast, echoing void. The cold radiating from his Vergil coat intensified, forming jagged frost patterns on the nearby marble. Mist hissed violently where his boots touched stone. **\\\[RESERVOIR EXPANDED: 100% CAPACITY ACHIEVED. NEW LIMIT: 150%\\\]**. The phantom furnace roared, impossibly silent yet deafening within his expanded senses. Power flooded the new space – not just filling it, but *thrumming* with volatile, hungry promise. Diana flinched back at the sudden, biting cold radiating from him. Clark's eyes narrowed, sensing the seismic shift beneath Elias's stillness.
The expansion wasn't gentle. It was a supernova confined within bone and sinew. Elias gasped, a plume of frigid vapor escaping his lips. His expanded senses screamed. He felt the divine wards of Themyscira like throbbing pressure against his new limits. He felt Clark's solar-fueled heartbeat echoing like a drum, Diana's divine aura blazing gold. He felt Gotham's distant anguish – the pulsing corruption beneath Arkham, the frantic sparks of Lantern willpower holding the line. It was overwhelming, exhilarating, terrifying. He clutched Yamato's hilt like an anchor, the blade humming sympathetically. **\\\[RESERVOIR: 100.0% / 150.0%\\\]**. The Void pulsed, hungry. He forced the sensory overload down, sharpening his focus back onto the cruciform tear hanging in the air. The Devil Fruit timer screamed **\[50:22\]**. He raised Yamato, frostfire coat flaring. "Hang on," he warned, his voice now layered with the resonant harmonics of immense, contained power. He slashed sideways through the Kansas portal. The spatial tear ripped open wider, stabilized violently by sheer expanded reservoir might. He stepped through without hesitation.
***DING!*** The chime resonated differently this time – heavier, deeper, visceral. Like a warhammer striking an anvil forged in celestial fire. Crimson text dissolved Elias's vision, replaced by swirling, molten gold letters: **ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "Tempered Fury."** **REWARD: Blades of Chaos (Divine Flame Variant).** The phantom furnace roared hotter. A phantom weight settled against Elias's hips, opposite Yamato's elegant chill. Before he registered it, another ***DING!*** sliced through his awareness, sharp and sterile – the sound of cosmic bureaucracy. **MAXIMUM EQUIPMENT SLOTS REACHED.** **INVENTORY SYSTEM INITIALIZED: VOID VAULT.** Instantly, an obsidian interface flickered at the edge of his perception – shimmering grids labeled 'WEAPONS', 'ARTIFACTS', 'CONSUMABLES'. The Blades of Chaos materialized in his frost-gauntleted hands. Twin chains fused to gauntlets hissed like angry serpents, the blades themselves shimmering obsidian edged with dancing, white-hot flame. They pulsed with raw, destructive heat, warring against the Yamato's spatial chill and the Vergil coat's frostfire aura. Elias staggered slightly on the porch steps under the sudden, conflicting energies – freezing elegance versus primal inferno. Clark's eyes widened fractionally, tracking the impossible manifestation.
Elias hissed, the conflicting energies warring across his expanded reservoir. The Yamato demanded precision, detachment. The Blades screamed for carnage, for *release*. He couldn't hold both physically and metaphysically – the Blades' chaotic heat clashed violently with Yamato's spatial chill and his coat's frostfire resonance. **\[SYSTEM OVERLOAD DETECTED: CONFLICTING DIVINE/SYSTEM ARTIFACTS\]**. With a grunt of effort amplified by Memetic Catalyst weaving *adaptability*, Elias visualized the obsidian grid flickering at his perception's edge – the newly unlocked Void Vault. He focused on the Blades of Chaos pouring heat into his hands. *Store*. Instantly, the chains retracted with a sound like snapping bones. The obsidian blades edged in white flame dissolved into shimmering motes of crimson light. A soft, vacuum-sealed ***pop*** echoed in the sudden silence as they vanished, leaving only the phantom echo of rage and the faint scent of brimstone lingering on the rain-slicked porch steps. The interface flared: **ITEM STORED: Blades of Chaos (Divine Flame Variant -> VOID VAULT - WEAPONS SLOT 1]**.
Clark's gaze snapped from Elias's suddenly empty hands back to his face, the unspoken question hanging heavy in the humid Kansas air. Diana stepped through the portal moments later, spear gleaming, her expression tight with urgency and lingering suspicion. She scanned the familiar farmhouse porch, Clark's tense posture, and Elias standing unnervingly still amidst the dissipating scent of sulfur and ozone, shaking phantom heat from his gauntleted fingers. "What was that?" Clark asked, his voice low, measured. Elias met Superman's gaze, the frostfire coat settling, its cold reasserting dominance now the Blades' inferno was contained. "Inventory system," he replied tersely, tapping the Yamato's sheath. Memetic Catalyst pulsed, weaving *efficiency* and *untapped depth*. "Had to stow the souvenirs." Diana's eyes narrowed, scanning the air where the Blades vanished. "Souvenirs implying multiplicity?" Elias's lips twitched beneath his silver-white hair. "Occupational hazard."
The Devil Fruit timer pulsed violently: **[49:57]**. Time bled. "Arkham," Elias clipped, turning towards the fields where the spatial tear flickered weakly. He raised Yamato, the expanded reservoir crackling beneath his sternum. Power surged – not just filling the void, but *demanding* application. He poured aura and raw will into the blade, visualizing not Kansas farmland, but Arkham's rain-lashed courtyard, the fractured foundation, the pulsing corruption. The spatial tear pulsed brighter, stabilizing violently, edges crackling with unstable blue-white energy. **\[AURA RESERVOIR: 102.4% / 150.0%\]**. "Hold tight!" he commanded, the layered harmonics in his voice resonating with Yamato's thrum. He slashed downward in a decisive arc. Reality tore like wet silk. The Kansas wheat fields vanished, replaced by the howling storm, crumbling Gothic spires, and the acrid stench of ozone and wet decay – Gotham's heart of darkness, Arkham Asylum. Elias stepped through the widening rift without hesitation.
Superman followed instantly, a streak of blue and red slicing through the dimensional instability. Wonder Woman paused for only a microsecond, her divine senses recoiling from the corrupted portal's touch, before plunging after them with a warrior's cry swallowed by the storm. The portal snapped shut behind her with a thunderclap, leaving only rain-lashed silence on the Kent farm porch, and the faint, lingering scent of frostfire and burnt dimensions. Inside the Void Vault interface, the Blades of Chaos pulsed angrily in their obsidian slot, white flames dancing against the grid's dark borders, waiting. **[AURA RESERVOIR: 101.8% / 150.0%]**. The architects awaited.
They landed not on Arkham's courtyard gravel, but amidst a scene ripped from Apokoliptian nightmares. Rain lashed sideways, driven by winds smelling of sulphur and scorched ozone. Before them, Batman grappled on a rain-slicked parapet with a figure wreathed in crackling black energy – Kalibak, Darksieds brutish son, his axe shattering stone with each missed swing. Below, Green Lantern's emerald constructs buckled under Kalibak's concussive blasts while Aquaman deflected searing energy bolts with his trident, Shazam traded lightning punches that barely staggered the New God, and Cyborg's sonic cannon overloaded, spewing sparks. Kalibak roared, backhanding Batman into a crumbling gargoyle. "Pathetic Earthlings! Your world screams for the Omega!" His voice boomed, shaking Arkham's foundations. Wonder Woman didn't hesitate; she charged, lasso blazing gold, aiming for Kalibak's throat. Superman aimed his heat vision at Kalibak's exposed back. Elias merely stood, Yamato humming. The Devil Fruit timer pulsed: **[48:15]**.
Kalibak sensed Diana's lasso. He spun, impossibly fast for his bulk, black energy flaring. His axe met her lasso in a shower of sparks, trapping the golden rope. Superman's twin beams struck Kalibak's shoulder armor – searing, but not piercing. Kalibak roared, shrugging off the impact, and swung Diana like a wrecking ball towards Superman. They collided mid-air, tumbling into a shattered bell tower. Below, Kalibak stomped, unleashing a shockwave that sent Aquaman sprawling, shattered Hal's shield construct, and knocked Shazam into Cyborg. Kalibak raised his axe high, gathering swirling darkness. "DARKSEID IS!" he bellowed, the axe poised to unleash annihilation upon the stunned heroes. Elias moved. Not with speed, but with *presence*. He planted Yamato's tip into the flooded courtyard stone. The blade sank effortlessly, blue light radiating outward in perfect concentric circles that silenced the rain's drumbeat. Kalibak froze mid-swing, sensing the spatial distortion. His burning red eyes locked onto Elias's frostfire coat, the silver-white hair plastered by rain, the blade anchoring reality itself.
"Too loud," Elias stated, his voice cutting through Kalibak's gathering power like Yamato through space. Memetic Catalyst wove *authority* and *chill disdain*. He twisted the hilt. Instantly, the concentric rings flared blindingly. Space inverted within their circumference. Kalibak's axe blow descended not towards the heroes, but *upwards*, tearing a hole through the storm clouds above. The backlash of misdirected energy flung Kalibak backwards, crashing through three asylum walls in a cascade of brick and mortar. Silence fell, heavy with disbelief. Shazam blinked rainwater from his eyes. Cyborg's systems rebooted with a whine. Hal Jordan stared at Elias, ring hand trembling. Batman hauled himself from the gargoyle debris, cowl lenses fixed on Yamato's still-gleaming tip. Elias pulled the blade free with a soft *shink*. Frostfire mist coiled angrily around his boots. Kalibak's enraged bellow echoed from the ruins. The Devil Fruit timer pulsed **[47:33]**. Time bled faster.
Elias walked forward. Not a charge, but an advance—deliberate, unhurried, each footfall syncing with Vergil's phantom drums hammering in his skull. Conqueror's Haki, honed to a razor's edge by Yamato's spatial resonance, began gathering. It wasn't visible light, but palpable *pressure*. The rain stopped falling horizontally; droplets hung suspended mid-air around him, vibrating. Arkham's shattered stones trembled. Kalibak erupted from the rubble, bleeding viscous ichor, eyes incandescent with fury. He charged, axe trailing corrupted energy. Elias didn't flinch. Haki condensed around Yamato's blade, forming a corona of distorted space—a silent scream of absolute dominion. The blade hummed, hungry. Clark rose from the bell tower, Diana beside him, both poised to intervene. Batman signaled halt—**Wait**. Elias raised Yamato, its tip aimed at Kalibak's thundering approach. The Haki corona intensified, warping reality like heat haze.
"Judgment Cut," Elias declared, his voice layered with frostfire cold and Conqueror's weight. The blade flashed—not a slash, but a *release*. "Divine Departure." Space fractured along a single, perfect line. No sound. No explosion. Just... severance. Kalibak's charge halted mid-stride. A hair-thin fissure appeared vertically from his horned helm down his chest to the cobblestones. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then Kalibak's form *separated*. Not into gore, but into two shimmering, translucent halves drifting apart like smoke, revealing not bone and muscle, but fractured glimpses of Apokolips' fire pits—before winking out of existence entirely. Where he stood, only a lingering tear in reality remained, stitching itself closed with faint blue threads. Rain resumed falling onto empty stone. Silence, absolute this time. Superman froze mid-flight. Diana gripped her lasso, knuckles white. Hal Jordan's ringlight flickered out. Batman stared, unmoving. Elias sheathed Yamato with a soft click. The Haki dissipated. Suspended raindrops fell like shattered glass. His Aura Reservoir surged violently. **[RESERVOIR: 121.7% / 150.0%]**. The Void within him yawned wider, hungrier. Kalibak was gone. Only the pulsing corruption beneath Arkham remained.
***DING.*** A soft, almost dismissive chime echoed inside Elias's skull—no fanfare, no radiant text. Just a flicker of gold, deep within the Void Vault interface. The Violet-tier Harvest Gacha wheel spun silently beside his vision, a ghostly projection only he could perceive. It landed abruptly. No triumphant animation, no shimmering prize description. Just stark white letters against obsidian: **REWARD RECEIVED: THE WORLD STAND (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)**. The information flooded his awareness like cold water: a humanoid manifestation of frozen time, fueled by aura and sheer force of will. Five seconds of absolute temporal dominion per activation. Potential cost: catastrophic aura drain. Elias inhaled sharply. Time itself? Against Darkseid's architects? The implications detonated—his Yamato could sever space; this could shatter *time*. But the Devil Fruit timer pulsed faster, brighter: **[46:18]**. Decision ripped from contemplation. He needed speed. Flight. Reliability. The sky. *One For All*. Elias locked his choice mentally. The Quirk's icon—a stylized "OFA"—flared crimson within the Void Vault inventory grid. The countdown vanished. Power—vast, borrowed, tectonic—surged into his expanded reservoir. Not Vergil's cold precision, nor the Blades' raw fury. This was *legacy*. A crushing weight of accumulated generations, settling into his bones like mountains. He staggered, Yamato's hilt the only anchor against the avalanche. **\[SYNCHRONIZING: ONE FOR ALL QUIRK - INITIALIZING TRANSFER CONDUIT\]**. Pain lanced through every cell. His vision flickered red. Superman landed beside him instantly, a hand on his shoulder. "Finch! Status!"
"Power... shift," Elias gritted out through clenched teeth, Memetic Catalyst weaving *control* and *containment* into his words. The phantom heat beneath his sternum wasn't fire or ice now—it was tectonic plates grinding. He felt the reservoir strain against One For All's raw influx. **[RESERVOIR: 134.9% / 150.0%]**. He visualized the conduit—a mental valve, forged from Vergil's icy focus . He slammed it shut, hard. The pain receded, replaced by a deep, resonant thrumming in his marrow. Power banked, not spent. Contained. For now. Elias straightened, frostfire coat steaming in the rain. He met Superman's concerned gaze, then Batman's analytical stare. "Stable," he rasped, flexing gauntleted fingers. A faint crimson aura crackled briefly around his fist—One For All's signature energy, quickly suppressed. "But our architects won't wait." He nodded towards the gaping hole Kalibak had left in Arkham's foundations—a ragged maw exhaling sulfur and the faint, electronic clicks of Parademons regrouping deeper within. Corruption pulsed like a diseased heart. Diana landed beside Clark, spear ready, her expression hardened. "Then we dig deeper," she declared, golden lasso blazing anew. Batman was already moving towards the breach, vanishing into the shadows without a word. Hal Jordan soared overhead, emerald light piercing the gloom below. Elias drew Yamato, its blue edge humming beside the newly banked storm within him. Time—stolen or shattered—awaited its moment. The descent resumed.