The air in the hall hummed with red lightning. It crackled and snaked across the walls like living veins of fire, searing through the columns and scorching black lines into the floor.
Dario stood in the center of it all, his straw hat now back on his head, casting a crooked shadow across his grin.
His hands glowed faintly red, arcs of energy crawling over his fingers like restless serpents.
Ren and Lilith stood side by side, both breathing hard, both refusing to back away.
No matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't slip past.
The next bolt came as it always did, without any warning.
It tore through the air with a sound like ripping metal, slamming into Ren's chest.
His Vine Armor thickened instinctively, layers folding over each other as green energy hardened into blackened plates.
The lightning struck, and the outer layer crumbled, turning into fine ash before another layer rippled outward to take its place.
