[The Northern Road]
The heat coming off Gudmaro was turning the surrounding forest into charcoal. His violet armor was bubbling, the evolution counter screaming past safety limits.
"HYDRO CANNON!" Gudmaro roared.
But he didn't aim at the Arcons. To everyone's shock, he blasted the massive torrent of high-pressure water directly onto his own chest. The steam explosion that followed was deafening, a white cloud covering the entire battlefield as the water hissed against his molten core.
"He's... he's using my own technique just to keep himself from melting," Neweland gritted out, leaning heavily on Alya. "He's turned my greatest offensive move into a cooling system!"
Beside the black motorcycle, Cynthia suddenly swayed. Her eyes rolled back as the last of her Horseman-level mana was forcibly ripped away. She collapsed, her body finally hitting its limit.
"Cynthia!" Techyon rushed forward, catching his older sister before she hit the glass-covered road.
Gudmaro, now stabilized by the water, began to change. The violet flames pulled inward, condensing until he was no longer a humanoid figure. He began to glow with a light so white it blinded the sensors at the Tree of Life. He looked like a jagged, divine Spear of Light suspended in the air, vibrating with enough force to crack the planet.
"He's going to detonate!" Neweland screamed. "HYDRO BARRIER! Lapis, now! Use your space warping to reinforce the walls!"
Lapis didn't hesitate. He thrust his hands forward, weaving the fabric of space into Neweland's water shield. The barrier shimmered with a dark blue tint, folding the dimensions to trap the coming explosion.
Techyon scooped up the unconscious Cynthia, retreating behind the shimmering walls just as a golden blur appeared inside the shield.
Yoru stood there, her head bowed, her golden aura flickering with regret.
"I'm sorry," she said, her voice barely audible over the humming of the white spear. "I should have finished him earlier. I let my pride get in the way... and now I can't stop the countdown."
[The Telepathic Link]
Inside the minds of the battered heroes, the Arcon of Life's voice rang out with desperate clarity. "Neweland! Lapis! Listen to me! You cannot just protect yourselves. If you do, the shockwave will tear through the fabric of the multiverse. You must use your barriers to contain him. If he detonates unfettered, the entire universe dies today!"
Neweland gritted his teeth, his arms trembling as he held the Hydro-sphere together. "I understand. Lapis! Do you hear her? We have to bottle this God up!"
Lapis , blood dripping from his eyes from the strain of warping space, nodded. "Yeah... I hear her. Let's give this monster a cage he can't break."
They poured every remaining drop of their soul-energy into the barrier. The space inside the sphere folded inward a thousand times, creating a localized void.
[The Detonation]
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!
The white light consumed everything. For a moment, the Northern Frontier became as bright as the center of a star. The barrier groaned, cracking and hissing as it absorbed a blast that should have deleted a million galaxies.
As the thick, violet-tinted smoke finally began to clear, the ground was gone. In its place was a crater of smooth glass.
Standing in the center, completely unscathed and radiating a calm, terrifying beauty, was Gudmaro. He was no longer overheating. He was stable. He was... Perfect.
He looked down at his new hands, then up at the exhausted Arcons, a cold, elegant smirk on his face.
"P is for Priceless, the look upon your faces," he began, his voice echoing like a symphony of the damned.
"E is for Extinction, of all your puny races."
"R is for Revolution, which will be televised."
"F is for how big a Fools you are... now allow me to be re-raised."
"E is for Eccentric, just listen to my song."
"C is the Completion that I have waited for so long."
"T is for the Terror, which everyone is going to feel..."
He spread his wings, the violet flames huming with a frequency that made the very air bleed.
"I am the end of your story," Gudmaro declared. "And the beginning of mine."