The flaming portal boiled behind Zadkiel like the mouth of a volcanic god. A hush fell, broken only by crackling embers and the low, rasping moan of the newly summoned undead that Ghost had conjured: skeletal legionaries in corroded armor, revenants stitched together from battlefield carrion, knights whose broken jaws still mouthed forgotten prayers.
Across a blasted boulevard, Eve stepped forward, moon-silver hair whipping in the toxic wind. She glanced over her shoulder at the mixed ranks of Frontier troopers, Shadow-Empire beastmen, orcs, vampires, dark-elf warlocks, and Xianzhou cultivators bracing side by side. Her eyes hardened.
Eve (voice like cathedral bells)
"WARRIORS… CHARGE!"
The two tides collided with a sound like worlds breaking.
Bladed orc halberds sheared through brittle ribcages, splinters of bone spraying the pavement.
Frontier marksmen loosed tungsten-cored rounds that punched fist-sized craters through revenant torsos, yet the corpses shambled on until vampire scouts vaulted in, ripping vertebrae free with clawed hands.
A dark-elf warlock hurled a black-fire sigil; it burst among Frontier lines, melting flesh from armor before Seraphina's crimson ward flared overhead, dousing the flames in sanctified light.
Cultivator spears crackled with lightning qi—one thrust impaled three skeletons, exploding them into calcium dust.
Bodies slammed, weapons screamed, and the boulevard ran slick with black and crimson gore.
Gun-Dog Alley Dr. Jin's remote turrets locked onto undead centurions. Tracks screeched. Seven hundred rounds per minute shredded chainmail, sending rust-flecked limbs cartwheeling through the smoke.
Steel-Fang Bridge A beastman berserker swung his iron cleaver, bisecting a lich from skull to pelvis—just before an undead war elephant rammed him, its rotting tusk impaling the berserker and pinning him to a crumbling overpass.
Sundered Plaza Xianzhou monk-archers fired jade-tipped arrows; each shaft blossomed into a banyan of light, roots spearing outward to stake packs of snarling ghouls into the concrete.
Mech Row Frontier exo-suits grappled butcher-knight revenants in brutal hand-to-hand. Hydraulic fists punched through breastplates, ripping spines free with sparks and arterial spray.
Dark-elf necromancers raised ossuary pylons that belched phantasmal artillery—spectral bolts exploded inside living chests, flash-boiling organs. Frontier rocket squads answered with micro-nuke shells: mushrooming fireballs vaporized entire undead phalanxes, shockwaves wrapping lampposts around themselves like soft wire.
A vampire duelist pirouetted through tracer fire, blades flashing. A Frontier sergeant met her with a carbon-steel bayonet; the vampire dodged—only to have her head blown apart by an orc's point-blank scatter-cannon.
A skeleton champion locked swords with a Xianzhou cultivator. Qi ignited along the blade, cleaving the skeleton from collar to hip and lighting its marrow like lamp oil.
A revenant knight smashed his flail through a beastman's skull—brains spattered—and was immediately tackled by a mech's servo arm, the mech crushing the knight's ribcage into scrap under ten tons of pressure.
Skyscrapers, already cracked from earlier battles, crumbled under stray artillery. Chunks of glass the size of cars rained down, skewering fighters from both sides. Fuel lines erupted, sending dragon-tongues of flame roaring across the street; silhouettes burned to cinder before hitting the ground.
Thunder rolled overhead—not weather, but Ghost's necrotic energy accumulating like a super-cell. Bolts of violet lightning speared into the melee, animating fresh corpses where they fell.
Ghost, mask glinting, stood with Sky across his shoulders, savoring the slaughter.
Zadkiel planted his sword, black storm swirling in his cloak, eyes locked on Law's distant silhouette.
Law had vanished with Leviathan, Li Wei, and Victoria—yet their absence felt like a hand tightening round every throat.
Vincent, Don, Kai, Xiao Ling, Adam, Seraphina, Dr. Jin, Eve—all waited, reading the field, choosing the perfect moment to descend.
Smoke and muzzle-flashes strobed across the boulevard as Ghost began to stroll down the center line, boots clicking almost politely on shattered asphalt. His porcelain mask gleamed with reflected fires; the legendary blade Sky rested across one shoulder like a shepherd's staff.
Halfway to the melee he simply blinked out of existence.
A heartbeat later he re-coalesced in front of Adam, hand already clamped around the Eden warrior's face.
WH-BOOM!
Ghost hurled Adam like a meteor through three abandoned cars and straight into a tower façade. Brick, steel, and glass blew outward in a concussive ring that rattled the battlefield.
The entire street fell silent for a split-second—then debris rained down like steel hail.
On a rooftop overlook, Eve's crimson eyes flared. Wings of pale radiance spread as she stepped forward, ready to dive.
But Dr. Jin shoved an arm across her chest.
Dr. Jin (urgent, low):
"Negative! Law is the priority. If we don't stop him, this entire fight is meaningless."
She keyed her comms, voice snapping through every allied channel.
Dr. Jin:
"All teams—do not engage Ghost. Form hunter groups and pursue Law's vector! Move!"
Vincent barked confirmations. Don, Kai, Xiao Ling, and Seraphina leapt from vantage points, sprinting south where Leviathan's scorch-trail still glowed across the skyline.
Eve's fists trembled, but she nodded once, eyes never leaving the rising dust cloud around her brother.
From that cloud Adam burst back, Eden-fire wreathing his arms like liquid sunlight.
He launched a searing arc of plasma—
Ghost twirled Sky with one hand, cut the beam in half, and the two crescents carved molten trenches into opposite buildings.
Adam slammed in close, fists like sledgehammers:
crack-crack-CRACK!—each blow could crater a tank, yet Ghost danced between them, coat fluttering as though in a gentle breeze.
A reverse-grip swipe opened Adam's shoulder; silver blood hissed on Sky's edge.
Ghost (voice calm, almost friendly):
"Your flames burn bright, son of Paradise. But light cannot touch what casts no shadow."
He flickered again—appearing above—plunged downward.
Adam crossed his arms, Eden shield blossoming—
BOOM! The ground shattered into a smoking basin ten meters wide.
High on the next roof, Eve lingered one heartbeat too long, torn between duty and blood.
Dr. Jin (through comms, sharper):
"Eve, now! We lose Law, we lose everything!"
Eve exhaled, pain flashing in her eyes, then vaulted away—wings carving twin contrails of white fire as she followed the strike team south.
The camera pulls back:
To the east, Frontier and Shadow-Empire troops keep the undead tide at bay.
To the south, dust trails mark the pursuit of Law, Leviathan, Li Wei, and Victoria.
At the center, two titans—Ghost and Adam—trade blows that shake the skeleton of a dying city, sparks of silver and midnight carving constellations in the dusk.
The air was a vortex of shattered steel and divine sparks. Adam, the last son of Paradise, struck again and again with fists forged from celestial flame and millennia of training. His movements were perfect—each strike honed with Eden precision, capable of crushing boulders and rupturing tanks. But…
Ghost was untouched.
He didn't block. He didn't dodge. He simply stood there—cloak drifting, mask uncracked—and let Adam hit him.
Adam landed a fierce roundhouse kick square across Ghost's mask. For a moment, silence. Then—
CRACK!
Adam's own neck jerked sideways, the force of his own kick snapping back into his face. Blood flew from his mouth as he stumbled backward, dazed.
Adam (growling):
"What the hell…?"
He dove in again—a flurry of martial arts: spinning elbow, dragon-fist, rising knee—
Each hit landed on Ghost.
But—
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!
The impact was turned inward. For every blow Adam dealt, his body suffered it. Bones cracked. Ribs bruised. One punch shattered his own knuckles. He yelped, clutching his arm.
---
Ghost's Revelation
Ghost tilted his head slightly, finally speaking. His voice, muffled behind the mask, was calm. Empty. Like someone explaining a recipe.
Ghost:
"You still don't get it, do you? Your power, your will, your technique—
everything you throw at me…"
He took a single step forward. The ground beneath him froze solid from sheer spiritual pressure.
Ghost:
"…is turned against you. Reflected.
Force for force. Precision for precision. Pain for pain."
He raised Sky slightly—not to attack, but to gesture.
Ghost:
"It is the curse of your kind. You fight with pride, with righteousness.
But tell me…"
He vanished. Reappeared directly behind Adam.
Ghost (whispering):
"What happens when you're fighting yourself?"
Adam turned, fury igniting in his soul. He tried again—faster now, fists glowing.
He struck at pressure points. He went low. He swept. He elbowed, punched, chopped.
He kept hitting himself.
His own strikes whipped his body around like a ragdoll. Teeth flew. His right eye swelled shut. His jaw fractured. His left leg buckled from a reflected shin strike.
He dropped to one knee—bleeding, trembling, in disbelief.
---
Ghost's Judgment
Ghost stood over him, towering and pristine.
Ghost:
"You were never worthy of the name Eden.
You were only ever a mirror…
And now, you break like one."
He raised Sky, ready to strike.
But something flickered in Adam's shattered eye. A glimmer of rage, yes—
but beneath it, something worse:
Hope.
A crater of pulverized concrete smoldered around them. Ash drifted like gray snow. Ghost's blade Sky hovered at his side, hunger humming along its edge. Adam stood within arm's reach—bloody, one eye swollen shut, but spine straight as a spear.
Adam (voice flat, spitting a tooth):
"Are you done?"
Ghost tilted his mask, almost amused.
Adam:
"Hearing you yap so much is getting annoying."
He rolled his shoulders, bones cracking back in place. A low, soft fwoom ignited around his forearms—Eden-fire, white-gold and silent.
Adam:
"Everyone's gone.
I don't have to hold back anymore."
Ghost opened his mouth to retort—
but never finished the sentence.
Adam hit him.
WH-THUD!
Ghost lurched half a step. The reflected backlash slammed into Adam's own ribs—crack!—but he didn't falter. He punched again. And again. Each strike detonated like thunderclaps:
Fist—impact—rebound—bone snaps—blood sprays—fist again.
Ghost's mask stayed blank. But the asphalt beneath his boots began fracturing outward. Adam's tempo climbed—every blow harder than the last; every reverberation split fresh fractures through his own flesh.
Ghost raised Sky to bisect him—
Adam elbow-checked the blade aside, shoulder dislocating, popped it back in mid-motion, and drove a hammer-fist into Ghost's solar plexus. The rebound caved Adam's chest plate—but he kept swinging, breathing only through gritted teeth.
Ghost's voice slid from the mask, tinged with confusion.
Ghost:
"What… are you—?"
Adam (quiet, guttural):
"Testing… the glass."
He clasped both palms together, Eden-fire roaring bright, and hammered Ghost's mask with a downward strike. The return shock blasted Adam straight into the pavement—spine gouging a trench—but a hairline crack spidered across the porcelain.
Ghost froze.
Adam rose from the crater, face expressionless despite the rivulets of silver blood streaking his chin.
Adam:
"Everything breaks.
Even mirrors."
He stepped forward, fists lighting again. Muscles shredded and re-knit under Eden flame; each heartbeat pumped liquid sunlight through fractured veins.
Ghost tightened his grip on Sky—edge trembling for the first time.
Adam surged.
The next barrage was silent lightning:
Open-palm spear into Ghost's sternum—rippling shockwave—rebound rips Adam's own forearm—pivot elbow shatters Ghost's clavicle—counterforce tears Adam's deltoid—tornado kick arcs like a crescent sun—mask fractures along the cheek.
Porcelain shards fluttered in slow motion. Behind the mask, Ghost's eye widened—just a fraction—at the impossible.
Adam landed, one knee down, panting smoke. His entire right arm hung limp, tendons shredded, yet his gaze never left Ghost's.
Adam (monotone, final whisper):
"Your turn."
Wind howled through the hollow streets. Ghost lifted a hand to the cracked mask—felt the fissure—then lowered it, grip on Sky tightening till the hilt creaked.