Steam cleared.
Frost hissed.
Two figures stood, but the land between them was no land anymore. It was a ragged trench of cracked permafrost and shattered ice pillars, stretched wide like reality had been forced to make space for a battle too big to contain.
Ethan's grip tightened around his hammer. Runes flickered along its surface in patterns that hinted at deeper power he could not yet draw out. His red armor glowed faintly, threads of white energy pulsing at each joint. Not flames; just raw vitality, the kind born from strength that had tasted divinity before.
Leon hovered, wings spread, snow twisting around him like a living crown. That mechanical eye zoomed and refocused, analyzing Ethan's stance, his heartbeat, his weaknesses.
"Ethan!" Leon snarled. "Look at how far beneath me you've fallen."
