Allen sprinted across the fractured ground, scythe in hand, slashing at the crab-like legs before him.
A single swing severed one of Nick's eight limbs, sending a rain of blood splattering across Allen's face and chest.
Smiling with feral delight, Allen leapt upward and cleaved a deep, gaping wound along Nick's underbelly.
In the next instant, he stood before the massive creature, resting the scythe casually on his shoulder.
"You, Nick… you were always alone. You never cared about anything."
Nick's eyes—cold, steady, resigned—met Allen's.
There was no fear in them. Not anymore.
"Even now you don't care what happens," Allen hissed.
"You disgust me."
He drew from his pocket a grayish stone swirling with yellow liquid—the Topaz of Will, long since corrupted by the Onyx's influence.
Allen tossed it into the air and swung.
The scythe bisected the stone effortlessly; the trapped liquid spilled downward and was absorbed into the blade, turning its black flames a blazing yellow.
Raising the weapon skyward, he twisted his grip, causing the scythe's edge to fracture into seven additional blades.
Another turn reversed their positions, reshaping the weapon into a massive, seven-bladed mace wreathed in yellow fire.
"Greater Star Collision."
Allen's smile widened as he brought the weapon down.
The moment it touched Nick, a violent burst of yellow flames consumed the entire area.
Nick tried to activate his survival ability—the power to swap his body and soul with the farthest living being in range.
But the yellow fire wrapped around him like chains, denying escape.
Slowly, agonizingly, his Gigax Cancer body melted—black shell, crimson flesh, and all—spilling across the ground in steaming gore until consciousness finally left him.
---
Archibald stared at his left hand, horrified.
He tried again and again to trigger Nick's ability—force him to flee, to change bodies, to survive.
But he felt nothing.
Nick was… gone.
"Allen… you've exceeded my expectations again."
Nick's greatest defense—his transcendence of death itself—had been sealed by Allen's yellow flames.
Bound to his physical form, he had been unable to escape.
Archibald exhaled sharply.
"Zack will be the next to face him. While they fight, Elisse—you will go and eliminate the heroes of City F. It will be trivial for someone of your tier."
Elisse shot him a sidelong glare.
"You intend to kill Zack too? You saw what happened to Nick. Sending him is the same as sentencing him."
"And what of it?" Archibald replied coldly.
"Reaching a goal requires sacrifices."
A chill ran down Elisse's spine.
"Then what about what you told me before we entered the Negative World? Was any of that true?"
"Of course it was," Archibald said, as though discussing the weather.
"The Perfection Project—and the Emotional Elemental Weapon Project—are both derived from Umbralux Draco's genes. The difference is that Allen alone adapted to its evolutionary capacity… and in doing so, became far more valuable."
He paused, then smiled as he turned his back to her.
"But… the Perfection Project is merely a branch of the Emotional Weapon Project.
Perfection subjects only awakened one of the Draco's elemental abilities.
Allen, however… Allen wields the Draco's crystallized powers themselves."
Archibald's grin twisted as he stared down at Allen, scythe resting on his shoulder like an executioner awaiting the next head.
"All of you in the Perfection Project exist solely for the sake of the Emotional Weapon Project.
Once Allen becomes the perfect weapon, the benefits we gain will be unimaginable.
Can you imagine the power one could acquire by absorbing that weapon… for hundreds of millennia?"
With a flick of his wrist, he dissipated the faint glow remaining in one palm.
"It's time you get to work."
Elisse tried to resist—but her body obeyed Archibald's command and leapt from the rooftop, against her will.
---
The black suit and scythe burned away as Allen strolled through the streets.
His foot splashed into a puddle of blood.
But instead of looking at the gore on his boot, Allen stared at his reflection.
He touched his own face.
"When did I start looking so serious…?"
His vision was sharp—sharp enough to catch the crease between his brows and the hardness in his eyes.
He muttered without realizing his thoughts had become spoken words:
"If Seira saw me now, she'd say I've grown too strict…"
The gray stones in his pocket shimmered faintly with their original colors—
and even the two halves of the shattered Topaz glowed briefly—
before all light was crushed beneath the Onyx's darkness.
"But I don't care what that liar thinks anymore… pretending the experimentation hurt her every time she used her ability…"
He tore his gaze away from the puddle and walked on.
Inside his pocket, on the Onyx's polished surface, a tiny speck of white light flickered—
—then vanished as quickly as it appeared.
---
In the distance, Archibald halted mid-step.
He felt it.
A shift in Allen's emotional state.
He rushed to the ledge and stared in Allen's direction.
"Not yet! He can't develop the light element yet—he must lose consciousness within the darkness first!"
He felt the swirl of Allen's emotions stabilize—
darkness drowning out everything else—
and exhaled in relief.
"Good… if we weren't in the Negative World, Allen would've awakened the Draco's sixth ability by now. That would've set my plans back significantly…"
What Archibald failed to foresee, however, was that Allen's growth—over the next few hours—
would surpass anything recorded in the Federation's history.
It would break every prediction.
And every one of Archibald's plans.