The team surged toward the pyramid, the air vibrating with the hum of the Hyperspace Gate. A wall of demon warriors blocked the entrance, their swords and energy cannons leveled at the approaching heroes.
Forearms didn't break stride. He led the charge, his presence radiating an unstoppable momentum. As the demons opened fire, laser bolts peppered the air, but Forearms simply raised his hands, the energy splashing harmlessly against his dense, reinforced skin.
He didn't need finesse. For Forearms, brute strength was a command over the landscape; he would rip massive slabs of the terrain from the bedrock, hurling them with such seismic intensity that each impact rippled into a localized earthquake. With every thunderous step, he cracked the obsidian surface, sending shockwaves that buckled the ground beneath the demons, tossing them into the air like ragdolls. He tore through their lines, weaving through their blade swings with a heavy, predatory grace. When they got too close, he didn't use weapons; he smashed through their armor with his bare hands, the sound of collapsing bone and steel ringing out across the battlefield.
He was a hurricane of muscle and impact, clearing a path for the team. But in the chaos, he overextended.
A Demon Captain, silent and swift, lunged from the shadows behind him, a jagged, dark-energy blade sinking deep into Forearms' back. The giant stumbled, a grunt of agony escaping his lips. As he felt his strength waver and his feet leave the ground, he roared a sound of pure, unadulterated rage.
Suddenly, the earth erupted.
Massive, glowing emerald vines burst through the obsidian floor, coiling around the Demon Captain with suffocating force. The demon shrieked as the magic tightened, its grip on Forearms faltering as it was hauled backward into the air.
Forearms spun on his heel, his eyes burning. He didn't hesitate. He brought both hands together in a thunderous clap, catching the trapped captain's head between his palms. With a sickening pop, the demon's skull shattered, and the body fell lifeless to the ground.
Mystic Woman landed softly a few feet away, her expression tight with disapproval. "You didn't have to kill him, Forearms. You always go for the lethal blow first."
Forearms wiped blood from his mouth, his breathing ragged. "He had a blade in my spine, Mystic. He was going to kill me. I just paid the favor back. Now, are you going to help me out or not?"
She sighed, though her hands began to glow with a soft, radiant light as she approached him. She placed her palms against his wound, and the flesh began to knit together, though the exertion clearly drained her.
"You know I can only do this a couple of times," she muttered, the light fading. "It takes a massive amount of my energy. I definitely don't want to burn through my Binding Holy Blessings this early in the mission."
"I hope it doesn't get that bad," Forearms grunted, testing his mobility.
Mystic Woman pushed off the ground, starting to hover. She glanced toward the gate, where the rest of the team was already pushing forward. "We're burning daylight," she muttered. "Come on, everyone else is getting ahead of us."
She began to glide forward, the arcane symbols on her suit glowing as she shot bursts of searing magical flames from her palms, incinerating the lesser demons blocking her path.
Suddenly, a shadow engulfed her. A truly massive demon, its bulky, purple-skinned form covered in jagged skeletal armor, descended onto the battlefield with a piercing shriek. It crashed down, swatting aside three standard heroes with brute force before turning its malice toward Mystic Woman. It roared, swinging a fist the size of a boulder.
She didn't panic. With an elegant spiral in mid-air, she used her flight speed to dive around the clumsy strike. As she banked, she countered, unleashing a torrent of magical fire directly at the creature's face. The demon raised a clawed, reinforced forearm to block the flames, and using the moment she couldn't see, it lashed out with its tail, slapping her like a fly.
She landed with a massive thud, the breath driven from her lungs, but rolled and was immediately back to her feet. "Sylvan Arts: Deadly Venus!" she declared, her arms outstretched. Sylvan Arts Magic a lethal form of plant-based magic erupted from her core
A green, pulsating magical ring constricted around the towering monster. In response to her command, the earth cracked, and thick, razor-toothed vines of a gargantuan Venus Flytrap burst from the obsidian floor, enveloping the demon and slamming its maw shut before it could breathe fire. The vines constricted, crushing the life out of it.
"I'm glad the Ninja Clan taught me this type of magic," she said, dusting herself off. "My master would be proud of me I pulled off the spell perfectly."
But the air pressure changed. Mystic Woman barely had time to turn as another hulking demon materialized beside her, slamming down a massive fist. She barely reacted, casting a Magical Flame Shield just before impact. The strike was brutal; she held, but the sheer force drove her several feet into the shaking ground, the impact creating a massive crater.
She braced, the shield beginning to crack under the unrelenting pressure. Then, she felt the vibration stop.
"It looks like you need help once again," a smug voice echoed.
She looked up to see Aquarius hovering above the demon, holding his glowing Trident. With a burst of speed, Aquarius dove, slicing the demon across its broad chest as it tried to fight back. Aquarius didn't let up. Swirling his trident, dense blue water materialized, pressurizing into a razor-sharp, churning tide. He shot the jet of dense water like a cannon, and it sheared cleanly through the demon's left leg.
The monster howled, trying to rise despite the crippling blow. Aquarius sneered and thrust his hand forward, manipulating the water he had just shot, but this time mixing it instantly with the demon's own blood as it spilled onto the sand. With a cruel twist of his wrist, he didn't just manipulate the mixture; he whipped the blood-stained water out of the demon's body, draining its life force in a single, brutal second. The demon fell instantly dead.
Aquarius gave Mystic Woman a knowing grin. "Come on. We're almost there."
They both took flight, pushing toward the pyramid. Aquarius became a blur of combat, using his superior aerial mobility to dodge the attacks of the remaining Demon Warriors, and then countering by shooting pressurized spikes of dense water to slice through their armor. He met the tougher ones head-on, his Trident ringing as he used it like a staff, smashing their armored heads one by one, sending them plummeting to the sand.
As they flew over the thick of the demon hordes, lasers from below zipped past them, tracking their flight, while a massive battleship loomed above, raining down fire. Aquarius dove into the fray, striking down demon soldiers with his trident and summoning torrents of water to drown them.
"Is that all you've got?" Aquarius taunted, growing cocky. As more warriors surged forward, firing lasers, he laughed, easily blocking the bolts with the flat of his trident's blade.
It was his moment of arrogance that proved to be his undoing. High above, the massive Demon Battleship began raining down demonic death beams. Aquarius dodged several, but then, a massive, electrified demon net launched from the battleship's cannons, expanding to engulf the area. It wrapped around Aquarius before he could dodge. The impact forced the trident from his grip, and it tumbled away, falling toward the dunes.
Aquarius plummeted, slamming into the ground as the electrified net surged against his skin. He gasped in pain, his limbs trembling as the current coursed through him, feeling his strength rapidly fading.
"No..." he strained, his vision blurring. "My trident... my power comes from that."
The trident landed in the sand, and almost immediately, a powerful Demon Commander stepped on it, laughing. He raised his dark blade, and then brought it down, intending to execute the helpless hero. Aquarius braced for the final blow.
When he opened his eyes, he was still alive.
Instead of the blade, he saw a bolt of blue-hot plasma tear through the Demon Commander's head, incinerating it instantly.
Rocket Boy landed beside him, firing heavy Cosmic Beams. He was already moving, a masterclass of mobility and marksmanship. He didn't just dodge; he used his jetpack to spin around the demon warriors, returning fire with lethal precision. He kept shooting, using the distraction to assess the threat.
The Demon Battleship, sensing a threat, locked its main cannon onto Rocket Boy and fired its massive Demon Death Beam. Rocket Boy didn't move. Instead, he simply activated a gauntlet tool, and his Cosmic Blue Shield much denser than the common energy shield snapped into place, perfectly deflecting the massive beam. The impact washed the area in light, but he and Aquarius remained safe behind the shield.
Calmly, Rocket Boy reached for his multi-tool utility belt. He grabbed a small, metallic device that looked harmless. With a click, the device underwent a complex, cascading expansion, transforming into a three-barreled Cosmic Rocket Launcher. He shouldered it and aimed directly at the Battleship's bridge.
"Fire," he muttered, pulling the trigger. The cosmic rocket didn't just explode; it opened a localized micro-black hole for a split second, imploding the entire front of the battleship in a catastrophic collapse.
Rocket Boy lowered the weapon. "Come on, let's go," he said to Aquarius, assisting him out of the shorted-out net and retrieving the Trident, returning it to his team member. "We have to move."
Both men took flight, Rocket Boy now providing heavy fire with his Cosmic Pistol. His aim was terrifying, shooting a massive group of demon soldiers into the sand in seconds.
But as he flew, a swarm of flying demons, blades drawn, surrounded him. "Bring it," Rocket Boy challenged.
He was a whirlwind of motion, his jetpack firing in erratic bursts to confuse their aim while he shot his pistols, the beams tearing through their wings. His reflex time was incredible, allowing him to dodge incoming blade strikes by millimeters. But the shear number was too much. As he banked hard, one of the flying demons finally struck, its blade slicing directly into his jetpack's central engine.
The system shut down. Rocket Boy plummeted, hitting the sand hard and tumbling. Before he could fully recover, the swarm descended, surrounding him on the ground.
"Jetpack report, Lucy," Rocket Boy barked, ignoring the pain of the impact. "How long to route emergency reserves for thruster stabilization?"
"Rocket, initiating bypass protocols using secondary suit reserves," Lucy responded, her voice cool and technical. "Reprioritizing auxiliary power. Estimated time to full engine integrity is sixty seconds. Please maintain defensive posture."
He stood his ground, ripping a cosmic sword from his belt a blade of pure, solidified energy that hummed with a lethal frequency. As the demons rushed him from all sides, he swung, the blade cutting through the air like a hot wire.
"You think all I have is guns?" he snarled, parrying a strike and pivoting to cleave through the nearest attacker. "I will slice your heads off! I complete every mission no matter what. I am the ultimate Human."
He fought with ferocious intensity. He dodged many of the blades, but the sheer numbers meant some got through. His heavy armor absorbed most, but several blades found the gaps, slicing through and drawing blood. He staggered, the computer's countdown feeling like an eternity.
One of the demons descended from the swarm with incredible speed, its dark blade aimed directly at Rocket Boy's chest. "You're dead!" it shrieked.
Rocket Boy braced for the impact, preparing to counter-strike, when suddenly, the demon vanished.
"What... what was that?" Rocket Boy wondered, looking at the empty air.
All he saw was the residual streak of red lightning. Dash had appeared out of nowhere, running at impossible speed, and had punched the demon so hard it had been launched completely out of sight.
As Rocket Boy watched, Dash took down the entire swarm one by one, moving so quickly he was a blurring phantom. He finally stopped next to Rocket Boy, dusting his hands off with a cocky grin.
"As our esteemed Team Leader," Dash said, eyeing Rocket Boy's battered armor, "this is not a good look for you."
Rocket Boy let out a weary chuckle, despite his injuries. "Not everyone is blessed with your speed, Dash. Unless, of course, you're volunteering to tackle the mountain of paperwork that comes with this rank?"
"Hard pass," Dash retorted with a grin, already vibrating with kinetic potential. "That's exactly why you're the Team Leader I'm not touching that desk work."
With a crack of static, he surged forward. Rocket Boy ascended to provide aerial reconnaissance, while Dash became a jagged streak of red lightning below. He didn't just run; he obliterated. He tore through the demon ranks, a blur of motion carving up the battlefield. A cluster of soldiers stood in his path, raising their weapons to fire in unison, but before their beams could travel a single meter, Dash was already behind them, leaving only the silence of their defeat in his wake.
He tapped the nearest demon on the shoulder. "Who exactly are you shooting at?"
The demons whipped their heads around, confused how did he get behind us? but they didn't have time to process it. Dash shoved them aside, knocking them out with effortless momentum, and kept running. He circled the giant demons on the battlefield so fast he created localized tornadoes, lifting the monsters off their feet before pummelling them with a barrage of punches that sent them crashing down. He didn't stop, clearing the path for the other heroes before rushing toward the pyramid's base.
He beat back every warrior that dared stand against him, carving an opening to the Hyperspace Gate. He finally reached the summit, standing atop the pyramid. He looked back, seeing his team fighting their way up.
"I could enter the gate right now," he muttered to himself, "but I can't do this alone."
He turned and ran back down the pyramid. He used his incredible speed to run on the very air itself, racing toward his team. "I made a path!" he shouted to them. "Most of the warriors near the pyramid are down and the Hyperspace Gate is open! Let's go!"
While Dash had been clearing the ground, Raphael had taken his own path. When the team had first begun flying toward the gate, he had split off, drawing the heat of the enemy. Battleships rained death beams down upon him, but Raphael simply danced through the explosions.
"We're not in the city," he growled, eyes flashing. "There are no innocent people to protect here. We're in a war zone."
He aimed his hand forward, charging his quantum energy. His Red Force flared, and his battle spirit reached a fever pitch. "Psychic blast!" he screamed, unleashing a concentrated wave of power that obliterated the nearest battleship. He kept flying, shooting down demon warriors from the sky while his telekinetic force acted as a barrier, shielding him as he flew straight through the hulls of other Demon ships.
Finally, he reached the summit, rejoining Team Cosmic just as they arrived at the pyramid's peak.
They entered the Hyperspace Gate together, but the sight that greeted them stopped them cold. Merlin was suspended in the center, chained to a floating dais. She was screaming in agony, blood weeping from her eyes, and upon her forehead, the jagged, double-marking of the Demon King burned dark and deep. Behind her, a portal to the 6th Dimension was tearing reality apart.
She was surrounded by high-level Demon Captains, the leader in front of her chanting from a massive, ancient spellbook.
"Let her go!" Mystic Woman cried, rushing forward. The rest of Team Cosmic rushed forward, all ready to fight.
The Demon Captain sneered, ignoring her. "No. The ritual has begun. We cannot allow them to stop us. We must summon our Father. We must summon the Demon King."
Raphael surged forward, his fists glowing, but he was intercepted instantly. Yellow kinetic lightning cracked across the platform, striking him down with such force that it blasted him off the ledge. He tumbled through the air, trying to catch himself, but a second blast of kinetic energy hammered him, driving him deep into the ground.
He hit with a deafening crash, creating a massive crater at the base of the mountain. Dazed and battered, Raphael pushed himself up, wiping debris from his face. He looked up at the massive mountain peak, where the battle raged on without him.
Before he could gather the strength to fly back up, a figure descended into the crater on the opposite side. It was Zion. He landed with chilling silence, his face hidden beneath a deep, shadowed hood. He reached up and pulled the hood back, revealing a cold, unreadable expression.
Zion locked his piercing gaze on Raphael and asked, "Who are you? I can tell by looking at your eyes, the force around you... you're a Kinetas, just like me. But you have the white hair a higher-class warrior. Why are you wearing those clothes from a low-class warrior? And what are you doing on this planet?"
Raphael's mind raced. This is bad. The last time I met one of my kind, they tried to kill me. He straightened his posture, his jaw set. "I don't have time to argue or answer your questions," Raphael said, casting a desperate look up toward the mountain. "I have to save Merlin. I can't let that demon be released."
As Raphael tried to launch himself into the air, Zion raised a hand. His yellow Force flared, and suddenly, a translucent, crushing weight slammed into Raphael, pinning him against the jagged earth of the crater. The immense pressure intensified, trying to squish his body as if he were an insect, but Raphael gritted his teeth, struggling against the hold.
"Get off of me!"
With a roar, Raphael exploded his own telekinetic force outward. The blast shattered Zion's hold, clearing the space around him as his Battle Spirit began to rise, swirling like a crimson storm.
"I cannot allow you to do that," Zion said, his voice cold and devoid of sympathy. "My King sent me on this mission personally. If you didn't know, the way our people conquer worlds and universes is by allowing evil to corrupt the foundation, and then we step in to harvest the ruins. When I first came to this planet, I found a villainous organization that needed help with this task. As soon as they told me they wanted to release that demon, I accepted the job. The more these people fight each other, the easier it is to conquer the world perfect preparation for my King. This is a prize only powerful warriors are allowed to claim: the right to conquer a world."
Zion stepped closer, his yellow force crackling like a storm. "But look at my luck I think I realized who you are."
"You have to be the son of that traitor, Aurelia, and that peasant, Kael. She was chosen for greatness, picked to be the future Queen, yet she threw it away for a low-class soldier. It's the only thing that makes sense. Our species hasn't had a newborn in decades, and you look like you're barely eighteen. With those silver eyes and that white hair... you come from her bloodline. Where are those worthless thieves who stole the crystal? Where is it? Tell me now."
Raphael's mind flashed to a vision of a glowing red crystal hidden in his mother's room. He knows my mother and my father. What does he mean by 'Royal bloodline'? How important is that crystal?
He forced the confusion aside and squared his shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about," Raphael spat. "If you don't get out of my way, I will defeat you."
Zion laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "The Kingdom has been looking for that crystal and those two traitors for eighteen years. You're not going to fool me. When I'm done killing you, your Battle Spirit will be mine. I will return to the Kingdom, report what I've found, and summon our armies. We will all return, take over this planet, find your mother and father, and retrieve what is rightfully ours: the crystal."
Zion stood perfectly still, his focus sharpening into a razor's edge. A titanic phantom materialized above him his Battle Spirit its translucent form wreathed in violent, jagged arcs of yellow telekinetic lightning. Zion's own eyes flared with the same piercing, electric hue. In an instant, the phantom vanished, its immense power collapsing inward to saturate Zion's body and exponentially amplify his output.
A blinding, pressurized field of ionized energy erupted from his pores. He channeled his telekinesis with pinpoint precision, forcing the raw power bleeding from his body and his Battle Spirit to vibrate at an extreme frequency, manifesting as lethal, crackling telekinetic lightning that arced violently around him.
The air screamed as the yellow force became tangible, vibrating violently against the laws of physics. He pulled the swirling, ionized current toward his palm, shaping and stretching the energy until it solidified into the jagged shape of a longsword that hummed with electric malice.
He dropped into a precise, lethal sword stance, his feet cratering the earth beneath him from the sheer weight of his aura. "As a royal blood member, I'm surprised how weak your battle spirit is. Nothing less than expected from being raised on this weak planet of weaklings. I will show you how true warriors fight," Zion sneered, the blade arcing with unstable, telekinetic electrical power. "I will kill you with ease."
He rushed forward, a blur of motion.
He can do the same thing, Raphael thought, his eyes tracking the movement. My mother, my siblings they use Telekinetic Constants to create constructs, manipulating things without even touching them. Unlike me, they have fully unlocked their Battle Spirit, allowing them to perform atomic manipulation by attuning to their spirit.
Raphael watched the yellow lightning dancing on Zion's blade. It seems like his Battle Spirit allows him to change the properties of his force and energy into lightning... just like how my brother and sister use different elements. He remembered his father's voice, a memory surfacing in the heat of the moment: Eventually, you will awaken your Battle Spirit. You just have to go through a life-or-death struggle.
As Zion swung the blade, Raphael didn't block. He pivoted, dodging the electrified energy force by a fraction of an inch, and drove a fist into Zion's face.
"You're not taking over my planet or attacking my family!" Raphael roared as his Battle Spirit began to rise, glowing brighter with every heartbeat.
Zion pulled back, a sadistic smile curling his lips. "Interesting. You dabble in both Outer Telekinesis and Inner Telekinesis? So, you're a mutant a hybrid? It doesn't matter. I will show you that the sword style of our species is greater. Outer Telekinesis is superior, and it will be your undoing!"
Zion lunged, and the crater was instantly obliterated by a deluge of impossible motion. The moment they collided, the sheer kinetic output shattered the local reality, ejecting them both from the stone basin and launching them deeper into the interstitial void the vast, silent dimension between time and space where they were now confined.
They became a blur of violence, trading blows as they tore through the conceptual expanse. Zion swung his blade in lethal, crackling arcs, while Kael met every strike with a brutal, relentless barrage of punches. They accelerated to velocities that defied logic, vaulting across the void at a rate of tens to hundreds of light-years every few seconds.
They were moving so fast that the light generated by their auras could not keep pace; the brilliance trailing their bodies became a stretched, ghost-like smear that struggled in vain to tether itself to them. It was a race against their own radiance, a blinding wake of energy clawing to catch up to the two titans, who struck and parried with such speed that even the dimension itself couldn't track their course.
Raphael fought with a cold, focused precision. He struck with a brutal punch aimed directly at Zion's heart, his telekinetic force vibrating to disrupt the rhythm of Zion's spirit. He followed up with a flurry of strikes to the pressure points across Zion's chest, finishing with a devastating blow to the liver. The force was so great that the organ ruptured internally, causing Zion to cough up blood, but the master warrior didn't even flinch.
Zion swung his blade in a wide, lethal arc. He sliced through Raphael's cheek and carved a deep, jagged line across his stomach, cutting right through the protective field of Raphael's Tactile Telekinesis. Both warriors were bleeding, but their bodies were already working overtime, their flesh knitting together as fast as it was torn apart.
Raphael landed a heavy, devastating strike to Zion's jaw, sending him flying backward. Zion wiped the blood from his mouth, his expression darkening. He swung his blade again, and a surge of kinetic lightning tore through reality, arcing toward Raphael. Raphael moved back, dodging the strikes, but Zion was relentless. One swing clipped Raphael's leg, slicing through his armor and drawing fresh blood.
Raphael aimed his hand forward, meeting the incoming lightning with his own internal energy. "Psycho Waves!" he shouted, firing a concentrated blast that collided with Zion's assault. The resulting boulder-sized blast sent massive shockwaves rippling through the area, the air filled with debris and blinding dust.
Raphael saw his opening in the smoke. He rushed forward, slipping past the lingering arcs of kinetic lightning. His silver eyes began to glow with intense, focused light. I can see it, he thought, entering his heightened state. I can see the flow of your energy. I see the joints. I see your spiritual form.
He lunged with pinpoint accuracy, landing a precise strike to the pressure points on Zion's arm. The nerves screamed and went numb instantly. Zion hissed as his arm went limp and he dropped his energy blade.
Zion hissed as his arm went limp and he dropped his weapon. He looked up at Raphael, a dark smirk forming on his face despite the pain. "I see that you have mastered pressure points," Zion muttered, his voice cold. Raphael didn't wait; he pivoted and executed a powerful sidekick that sent Zion crashing into the earth.
Zion groaned as he hit the ground, but he didn't look defeated; he looked impressed. He pushed himself up, staring at Raphael with a chilling intensity. "Your father taught you well. Those silver eyes... you can see the flow of existence, can't you? But you're not the only one with those eyes."
Zion's eyes began to glow. His telekinesis flared, his body healing itself, fixing the damaged joints and soothing his soul. He recovered instantly, creating two new swords out of pure energy as he rushed forward. The two warriors collided, the impact shaking the very foundation of the area.
Raphael dodged and retreated, but Zion was too fast. With a brutal lunge, he stabbed both energy swords deep into Raphael's stomach. The strike was horrific; the force of the blades tore through his torso, causing Raphael's organs to spill out as he doubled over in agony. Blood spilled from Raphael's mouth as Zion, unrelenting, swung a third sword toward his head.
Barely able to move, Raphael focused every ounce of his force and Battle Spirit into his hand, grabbing the blade. He coughed blood, his vision blurring as the cold steel cut into his palm.
Zion laughed, a cold, mocking sound. "I'm impressed. Someone with such a weak Battle Spirit and lack of training had enough energy left to grab my blade. It doesn't change anything; everything else about you is mediocre. Your inner telekinesis and martial arts are weak. Your outer telekinesis needs work. It's a shame you never got to train with true warriors from our race to make you better. The martial arts you're using right now is not for our people. Who taught you this? Whatever martial arts your father taught you is trash. I expect nothing less from Kael a weak, low-class warrior."
Zion's eyes began to glow a brighter, piercing silver. "Now, I will absorb your Battle Spirit, take your body back to the home base, and your world will be ours."
As Raphael's Battle Spirit began to be ripped from his body, surging in a violent torrent toward Zion's glowing eyes, Raphael gritted his teeth. "My father taught me everything I know. Don't you ever mock him. Don't you threaten my family! I will show you how strong my Battle Spirit is... and why my father's martial arts are superior to yours!"
Raphael's Battle Spirit flared. With his free hand, he yanked his spirit energy back into his body, condensing it. His aura surged, his Battle Spirit rising until his eyes slowly shifted into a deep, incandescent red. As he awakened the Psycho Gaze, he didn't hesitate.
With a roar, he launched a devastating strike. He hammered his fist directly into Zion's face, the impact shattering his skull and pulverizing the bone as Raphael's hand drove straight through the ruin. Zion was sent hurtling backward, the kinetic force tearing through the space he occupied.
Raphael's Battle Spirit continued to boil as he watched his opponent tumble. In the distance, Zion began to recover; the carnage of his face twisted and snapped back together, his jaw and crushed bone knitting with a sickening, wet crunch of reforming matter.
"Interesting," Zion wheezed, wiping blood from his lips even as his features settled back into place. "You resist. It seems your Battle Spirit has grown. Maybe you are a true warrior."
Zion looked up and saw the truth: a phantom Battle Spirit looming behind Raphael, its red eyes matching Raphael's own.
"You have unlocked the Psycho Eyes," Zion said, a strange mix of dread and admiration in his voice. "How is that possible? Even our Royal Bloodline members have a hard time unlocking that." He rose to his feet, his posture shifting into something more dangerous. "It is an honor to fight you and kill you."
Zion activated his Battle Spirit as his eyes glowed a blinding, piercing silver. A phantom flickered briefly into existence behind him, a specter of pure telekinetic malice, before vanishing into his aura.
"Battle Spirit: Infinite Discharge!"
"Telekinetic, electrical energy crackled violently around his body, warping the air as he prepared his next assault. 'Good luck hitting me now.'"
Zion rose into the air, his yellow aura expanding until it blotted out the sky. "Die!" he commanded. The air tore open, and thousands of massive, serrated swords each the size of a skyscraper materialized, blotting out the light.
Raphael took his fighting stance, his red Psycho Eyes flaring. What's happening? he thought, his vision shifting as his awareness expanded. I can see so much more. I can see the flow of the universe, the lines of causality, and the very pressure points of reality itself.
He began to weave through the storm of force with supernatural grace, dodging the titanic constructs with ease as he rocketed toward Zion. Finally reaching him, Raphael coiled his Battle Spirit and energy around his fist, channeling everything into a single, decisive strike. But as his fist neared Zion's face, it began to slow, as if moving through thick honey. An "infinite distance" manifested between them, a barrier of warped space that defied his momentum.
Zion sneered, laughing. "You will never touch me. My Battle Spirit technique won't allow it! Infinite Discharge!"
He unleashed a bolt of telekinetic lightning, the raw voltage slamming into Raphael and sending him spiraling into the ground. Raphael skidded to a halt and looked down at where the lightning had hit him. There were no bruises or even a mark. He noticed that in this form, his telekinesis was holding his quarks together, making them more dense.
He looked up, his Battle Spirit rising. His voice echoed, "I'm going to kill him."
More massive blades rained down. Raphael turned, dodging them with fluid precision, and fired a barrage of Psycho Waves to shatter the constructs as he rushed forward again. He fired a massive wave directly at Zion, but it hit an invisible wall and detonated in mid-air. The explosion surged outward, yet it never reached Zion.
Raphael looked down, confused. "What's going on? Why is nothing touching him?"
As he focused, his eyes adjusted, cutting through the shimmer. He finally saw it: a shimmering distortion of energy protecting Zion. He looked closer, analyzing the structure of the light. Zion was manipulating his telekinesis to generate powerful electricity while simultaneously warping space, creating a field of infinite, multiplying distance between them. Hovering above him, his Battle Spirit manifested as a warrior wreathed in jagged lightning; with his Battle Spirit activated, Zion was rendered almost untouchable.
An infinite amount of space between us... how could I ever land a punch?
Then, he felt it his Battle Spirit surging. He glanced over his shoulder and saw it for the first time: his own Battle Spirit, a phantom reflection of his own power.
I can see it now. This is what happened to my brother and sister when they unlocked their potential. Is it finally my time?
His father's voice echoed in his mind: "When it happens, relax. Don't fight the tide. Allow the Battle Spirit to take over." The primal urge for combat clawed at his chest, but he forced himself to let go. He relaxed his grip on reality, letting his focus sharpen. Raphael entered a flow state, his breathing slowing as he attuned his consciousness to the rhythm of his spirit. He pushed his Battle Spirit to its absolute limit, his eyes glowing like dying suns. He was no longer just fighting; he was becoming the very flow of battle itself.
The ancient voices of his lineage seemed to rise from his blood, guiding his intent as he declared, "Battle Spirit: Fist Made in Heaven!"
This was his ultimate ability: Fist Made in Heaven a power of total, limitless adaptation that allowed him to rewrite both his physical state and his very soul, evolving them in an instant to perfectly match and overcome any threat by manifesting a terminal antithesis within the flow of combat.
His force and energy began to vibrate, accelerating to a frequency that transcended mere velocity. His physical body every atom, every quark, and the smallest fundamental constituents of his being began to oscillate with such untethered intensity that he no longer occupied a set location in space. His spirit, his very metaphysics, entered a state of rapid, multi-dimensional oscillation, vibrating with the chaotic complexity of string theory. He existed in a state of absolute flux, unmoored from a singular coordinate.
He began to leave after-images not simple trails of motion, but static, physical echoes of his previous positions. Raphael looked at his hand; every time he shifted, a remnant of himself remained, crystallized at his past coordinate.
He stared at the incoming constructs, settling into his fighting stance. First Made in Heaven had activated, and with it, his Battle Spirit began to adapt in real-time. As he surged forward, the giant constructs thundered toward him. He dodged them with fluid grace, leaving a trail of flickering, tangible ghosts behind him.
Zion watched from below, his hands shaking as he fired constructs in a panic. "How is he dodging them? He's like a phantom! He's in multiple spots at once! Are those clones? Did he activate his Battle Spirit? What is this power?!"
Raphael flickered into existence right in front of him, throwing a punch. As the fist neared Zion's face, its velocity plummeted, bleeding away until it hit absolute zero. Simultaneously, the electrical charge warping the space between them spiked to infinity, creating a temporal mire that locked Raphael in place, forcing his movement to a crawl. He hung there, suspended in the air, frozen just inches from Zion's face.
Zion laughed and swung his sword with full force, but it passed straight through Raphael's neck. The figure flickered and dissolved into nothingness. Zion spun around, frantically scanning the air, his eyes widening in disbelief. "Where did he go?" he roared. "Impossible!"
He began hacking at the dozen Raphaels appearing in the air, but none of his strikes landed.
"What is going on?!" Zion roared, spinning in confusion.
Suddenly, a fist punched through his chest from behind.
Zion coughed, blood bubbling from his throat. He looked down at the fist protruding from his torso, then up at Raphael's face. "That's... impossible. There's an infinite distance between us!"
Raphael stared at him with unblinking red eyes. As the Battle Spirit of Combat spoke through him, his voice carried a deep, dual-layered resonance, echoing with the weight of an ancient authority.
"There's nothing that I cannot adapt to," he said quietly. "Your infinite distance was a small obstacle."
Zion sneered, his eyes flashing with desperate malice. "This isn't over yet!" He created a massive construct in his right hand a blade the size of a skyscraper. "You can't dodge this one! You're too close!"
Raphael vaulted upward, dodging the impact, and spun in mid-air. He unleashed an Omni-directional strike. Raphaels appeared all around Zion, a swarm of phantoms attacking in unison, piercing through his armor and body. Zion crumpled, ten holes torn through his form, bleeding profusely on the ground.
Raphael's Battle Spirit surged for the killing blow, but Zion's aura flared with one last, desperate burst of defiance. He pushed his telekinetic barrier to its breaking point, violently tearing the fabric of space between them.
The space between them, previously an arm's length of infinite distance, buckled and surged outward. Zion forced reality to stretch, expanding that gap until it spanned a mile composed of infinite distance. Raphael was shoved backward by the irresistible force of the expanding void. Zion roared as his wounds knit together, his eyes burning with frantic malice as he wove more constructs into the air.
"You want to play with distance? I'll make this gap infinite!" Zion screamed, his voice vibrating with power. "A mile, an eternity it doesn't matter. You will never bridge the void between us again!"
Raphael's Battle Spirit, Fist Made in Heaven, activated and adapted instantly. His red telekinetic force manifested directly around Zion, wrapping tightly and locking his body in place. Raphael seized the skyscraper-sized constructs Zion had summoned and drove their jagged edges through Zion's body.
Raphael rushed forward, his hand shaped like a blade infused with the full weight of his Battle Spirit. He drove the strike home, staring into Zion's eyes, and began channeling his energy into his own gaze. Zion's spirit were being vacuumed out, dissolving into Raphael's crimson eyes.
"It's too late," Zion wheezed, his grip faltering. He pulled a device from his back, his fingers trembling. "I already sent the signal. Our Kingdom knows about this planet. They will know I failed because of this beacon." Zion coughed up more blood, his gaze defiant. "You might have killed me... but the war isn't over. It's an honor to die by the hands of a warrior like you, but my King will come. We will rule all."
With those final words, Zion's soul was violently ripped from his body and pulled into the depths of Raphael's eyes. A cold, predatory smile spread across Raphael's face as he stared down at his prey.
With those final words, Zion's soul was pulled into Raphael's eyes. "They will all die," Raphael whispered, his voice unnatural and hollow. He chopped off Zion's head.
Raphael stood panting, his vision swimming. The incandescent red light in his gaze slowly faded, replaced by his natural silver. He looked at his shaking hands, stained with blood. I didn't mean to do that. I couldn't control it... my Battle Spirit. Is this what my father warned me about?
Raphael looked down at the signal device Zion had dropped. He grabbed it, his heart pounding against his ribs as he stared at the blinking sensor. Even here, in the silent void between time and space, the device was active.
"He wasn't lying," Raphael whispered, his grip tightening on the cold metal as he watched the data pulse. "The signal is being sent. They really are coming."
He shoved the device into his pocket, his expression hardening as he looked toward the distant exit of the interstitial dimension.
"Team Cosmic... I have to get to them before it's too late."
With a desperate burst of speed, Raphael took to the sky, a streak of crimson energy racing to break back into reality.