In the heart of Cinder, within the hallowed, marble halls of the Emperor's castle, the air was suddenly thick with the shouts and screams of men being viciously beaten. The cries, echoing throughout the fortress, belonged to Arthur's palace guards, the elite imperial soldiers.
Surprisingly, they were all up against one man. He moved with a speed and ferocity that transformed him into a veritable one-man army.
"What's going on?!" one soldier screamed, ducking behind a pillar only to see it shattered by a fist wrapped in fire.
"How can a single man take on the entire army all by himself?!" another yelled in terror, scrambling backward.
"He's flying, too! How can he fly?" a third wondered, pointing toward the ceiling.
In the distance, a young man could be seen tearing through the ranks of the palace guards, taking them out one after the other. It was Valerus, propelled by a cocktail of grief and absolute fury. He was flying, using his latent control over the Wind Hera to move with impossible speed. He was beating the soldiers mercilessly, unleashing the full spectrum of his abilities, utilizing all five of the Hera elemental types he commanded.
Valerus flew through the halls like a vengeful comet, leaving a trail of unconscious or shattered soldiers behind him. In a mere five minutes, fueled by the image of Caius's death, he had taken out over two hundred soldiers. His eyes glowed a fierce, internal gold, but they were burning with the literal furnace of his uncontrolled rage.
They're going to pay for this! he mused, his voice raw, before crashing through a barricade of guards with an explosive burst of fire and lightning.
Meanwhile, in Wane, the temporary, swirling black hole had sucked in twenty people. But when Rex, the Tetrarch, saw that Sunday wasn't instantly fazed by his initial, sweeping attack, he deactivated his ability. The black hole vanished, and a sudden, disorienting calm fell over the street. When the terrifying hole closed, everyone who had been clinging to something solid fell onto the ground. Several citizens, caught by surprise, hit their heads on the poles or railings they had been grasping.
As the dazed populace came to, they saw two men—Sunday and Rex—standing across from each other, ready to brawl.
"Great Tetrarch Rex! Please avenge us and save us!" one citizen cried out, quickly crawling toward the imperial commander.
"Yes!" the others chorused, their fear of the rebel army outweighing their pain from the Tetrarch's reckless attack.
"Hey, use your head!" Solomon El Vitrifex interjected, stepping out from the Chronohelix ranks. "You saw for yourself, right? That black hole thing sucked more of your people than ours. That says a lot. That Rex guy doesn't care about you guys."
"Shut the hell up! Don't insult Great Tetrarch Rex!" one woman shunned, silencing Solomon with a burst of indignation.
The remaining citizens erupted into a noisy, defensive argument with the Chronohelixians, chaos reigning supreme.
On the battlefield, Rex observed the scene, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "Look at them, running their mouths. Insignificant people shouldn't talk. Wouldn't you agree, my friend?"
"What a way to address your subordinates," Sunday replied, his gaze fixed on the Tetrarch.
Rex chuckled, a dry, mocking sound. "It's too bad I never thought of them as my subordinates. They are just insignificant fools who have forgotten the will of our great ancestor. They don't deserve to live!"
"Again, who are you to decide who deserves to live or die?" Sunday questioned, his voice dangerously low.
At that moment, Sunday felt a searing pain in his back, a shocking, deep wound as if he'd been stabbed from behind.
"Why do you care? They are not your people, are they?" Rex asked, his voice unchanged.
Sunday writhed in pain, staggering as he tried to stand. "What… what did you do?" he stammered, coughing.
"You don't know?" Rex asked, pointing a finger. "Look at your back."
Sunday turned slowly, his eyes wide with shock at the impossible sight: a slender, black blade was protruding from his flesh. He then looked back at Rex standing in front of him, and realized that one of the Tetrarch's hands was inside a small, secondary black hole floating in the air beside him. Rex had used his power to reach through the void and stab Sunday without moving.
"What? Did you honestly think the only thing I could do was create a hole that could suck people and inanimate objects in?" Rex questioned, arrogance oozing from his tone.
At that precise moment, Sunday's full, blazing blue flames enveloped him. The heat was so intense that it instantly scorched Rex's hidden arm, burning the exposed flesh where it entered the black hole. Rex screamed, pulling his hand out of the void, clutching his smoking, injured limb.
He looked up at Sunday and saw not a man, but a walking blue inferno approaching him, with Sunday's hardened silhouette in the middle of the raging fire.
Sunday began to unleash a relentless barrage of Fire Hera attacks at Rex. The potent, bluish blasts struck the Tetrarch repeatedly, each one sending him spiraling and crashing backward through the debris.
Rex struggled back onto his feet, gasping for air, sweat mixing with the burn marks on his face. He extended his hands and bellowed, "Infinite Black Hole!"
A black hole, significantly larger and far more violent than the earlier one, opened suddenly above the street.
"Not again!" Banabas El Zoranda screamed in horror, clinging desperately to an iron railing as everyone else immediately sought purchase for safety.
Instantly, a much stronger wind burst out of the hole. People, debris, and inanimate objects were violently sucked into the vortex. Within a minute, seventy-five people—civilians, rebel soldiers, and loose property—had vanished. The wind was so great and so comprehensive that it put out Sunday's massive blue flames completely, leaving him stunned and exposed.
"Hahahaha!" Rex laughed menacingly, holding his burnt hand but ecstatic at his victory over the flames. "You honestly think you can defeat me? Dreaming is free, kid."
Sunday unleashed another round of blue flames, but it didn't last long; the overwhelming wind extinguished it instantly. He tried repeatedly, perhaps thirteen times in quick succession, but the wind was simply too strong to allow any prolonged combustion.
"Hahahaha! Why don't you just give up!" Rex taunted, his voice rising clearly above the roaring wind. "I'd admit that you're strong, and your blue flame attacks have hurt me pretty bad, but everyone has their match, and I'm clearly out of your league."
"What makes you so confident?" Sunday questioned, forcing his voice to rise above the gale.
"Simple! You have no more cards to play. On the other hand, the wind that my Infinite Black Hole is releasing could get infinitely stronger!" Rex declared.
At that moment, the wind unleashed by Rex's Infinite Black Hole intensified, howling with a violent, impossible force. Sunday was gradually being pulled from the ground.
"And even you could get pulled in!" Rex taunted, his eyes glinting with ruthless triumph.
The vacuum grew exponentially. One hundred more people—both Chronohelixians and trapped citizens—were yanked into the black void. The wind continued to strengthen, tearing at the very earth, and finally, it seized Sunday. He was pulled, helpless and struggling, toward the swirling vortex.
"Spend the rest of your life in the wasteland of the black hole!" Rex sneered.
"Noooo!" Solomon shouted in horror, witnessing his partner succumb to the void while he himself held onto a thick iron pole, his knuckles white.
But the wind was beyond even the pole's endurance. With a grating shriek of metal, the iron support was ripped out of the ground, and Solomon was pulled into the maelstrom, the pole spinning wildly.
The iron pole struck Sunday in the stomach as he spiraled toward the void. That impact—that final push—snapped something inside him.
Black flames erupted from Sunday, completely enveloping his body.
"OVERDRIVE!" he screamed, his voice a guttural, inhuman roar that somehow sliced through the gale.
The iron pole, still clutched in his fire, caught the black flames and instantly burned to ashes. Sunday, now a floating black inferno, unleashed a singular, devastating blast of black fire directly at the Infinite Black Hole. The powerful, condensed flame attack landed on the vortex, and the hole was not just defeated—it was completely blocked by the impenetrable, superheated fire.
The terrifying wind immediately ceased, and every person and object that had been caught in the maelstrom, including Solomon, fell abruptly to the ground.
Rex watched in stunned silence, his eyes wide as he observed everything descend, then fixed on the floating figure before him. Black flames? What is that he mused, observing Sunday, who remained a floating, stable black inferno.
"Hey, Rex," Sunday called out, his voice now calm but hardened by the immense power coursing through him. "You said that I didn't have a card to play anymore. Well, I introduce to you the second stage of Hera. It's called Overdrive."
He hovered closer. "In this phase, the user is literally unstoppable. His attacks can't be stopped, like you saw when your black hole failed. Since I'm a Flame Hera user, my Overdrive form is black flame."
Rex's face was slack with terror. "How?"
"Alright, talking time is over. Let's finish this," Sunday said.
Sunday then formed a stylized gun with his hand. He shot at Rex—not with a blast, but with a tiny, concentrated pinprick of black fire released from his fingertip as if it were a real gun bullet. The small black fire landed on Rex, and instantly, it erupted, spreading throughout the Tetrarch's body, consuming him entirely.
"Aaaaah!" Rex screamed in agony and absolute pain. The cry reduced gradually until it became nothing but silence. Rex burned completely to ashes. The people of Wane were stunned into silence at the scene, murmuring nervously among themselves, but Banabas and Solomon quickly ensured they remained quiet.
Meanwhile, in the perpetually cursed province of Blight, the Chronohelix forces had already taken full control. The people of Blight surrendered without resistance; they were all so desperately hungry they lacked the strength to fight back.
The citizens of Blight, together with their Tetrarch, had always favored making peace with Aethelgard, hoping to put their traumatic past with Thorenzia behind them. However, Emperor Arthur Delacronix and Queen Lysandra had punished them for this sentiment by permanently cursing their soil. As a result, the earth became infertile, ensuring nothing they planted would germinate, grow, or bear fruit. To survive, the men of Blight were forced to seek work in other provinces, but even that was insufficient. Sometimes, they would go a full week without eating or drinking water. Prior to the invasion, the people of Blight hadn't eaten in the last four days—the exact reason Gwen had gone to Flux to plead with Tetrarch Xevez for help.
The Chronohelix forces watched over the defeated citizens, ensuring no one escaped. At that moment, Alexandra walked in with a single, familiar stranger.
"Alexandra!" Maxi called out, her face brightening instantly. She rushed and jumped into the Princess's arms, ignoring the Chronohelix guards watching them.
"Hello, Maxi. How are you?" Alexandra asked, hugging her tightly.
"I'm hungry," Maxi admitted, "but I'm fine now that you're here."
The stranger who came with Alexandra was instantly recognized as a critical figure by the locals. As soon as the people of Blight saw him, they all rushed to his side.
"Great Tetrarch Mexez! We've missed you!" one citizen exclaimed.
"Hahahaha," Mexez laughed happily, embracing them. "I missed you too."
"When we heard you were locked in the dungeon of Emperor Arthur, we thought you were going to die! How did you escape? Were you released?" another citizen asked eagerly.
"Well, it's thanks to that lady over there," Mexez replied, gesturing toward Alexandra. "She came to Cinder and rescued me. Truly, I'm grateful to her."
"Don't worry about it," Princess Alexandra said with a genuine smile. She then turned to the Chronohelix forces maintaining control. "Do you guys have the food supplies we organized?" she asked.
"Yes, Princess. They're secured," one citizen of Chronohelix replied.
"Will it be enough to feed these people?" Alexandra asked.
"Yes, Princess. More than enough," the citizen confirmed.
"Serve it to the people of Blight," Princess Alexandra ordered immediately.
"Right!" The people of Chronohelix chorused, moving quickly to distribute the rations.
The people shed tears of joy, gratefully ate, and drank, overwhelmed with gratitude for Princess Alexandra and the people of Chronohelix for their life-saving help.
The battle for Wane is concluded, a new power level established, and the war for Blight is won through diplomacy and aid.