The sky screamed as if the heavens themselves were being torn apart. Thunder coiled into a furious tempest above the ruined battlefield, while a deep, abyssal mist churned beneath, devouring light and swallowing sound. The air was charged with clashing forces — raw, primal essence colliding in a storm of annihilation.
At the center of it all, two figures faced each other across a wasteland of shattered stone and burning earth.
Bolt hovered amidst arcs of living lightning, his presence an overwhelming surge of elemental fury. Flames danced along his gauntlets, winds howled around his body, shards of ice crystallized in his wake, and the ground trembled with every step he took. His eyes blazed with fierce determination, and the sigil of the Elemental Warborn pulsed with radiant power on his chest.
Opposite him, the mist parted to reveal Kairos. His armor, a living extension of darkness, pulsed with malevolent life. Shadows writhed around him, whispering ancient secrets. His crimson eyes glowed like coals in the night, and the Abyssal Warborn's sigil carved itself into the air behind him, an eldritch mark that seemed to warp reality.
The ground between them was littered with the remnants of battle — craters carved by elemental fury, and blackened scars left by abyssal decay. Yet neither spoke. They simply stood there, locked in a silence heavier than any roar.
Then, without a word, the war began.
---
The sky erupted as Bolt vanished from sight, his form breaking into a streak of lightning. He reappeared above Kairos in less than a heartbeat, his fist wreathed in searing flame and compressed wind.
"Elemental Burst!" he roared.
The blow landed like a meteor strike, detonating the ground in a colossal explosion of fire, air, and kinetic force. The battlefield shuddered under the assault, and shockwaves rolled outward in concentric rings.
But Kairos was no longer there.
A tendril of darkness lashed upward from the ground behind Bolt, wrapping around his arm like a serpent and yanking him downward. Before Bolt could react, Kairos stepped out of the swirling mist and slammed his knee into Bolt's gut, the impact cracking the air like thunder.
"Too slow," Kairos hissed.
Bolt was sent hurtling across the battlefield, crashing through a ridge of shattered stone. But he twisted midair, catching himself with a gust of wind and landing on his feet. Blood trickled from his lip, but his grin was feral.
"You've gotten stronger," Bolt said, voice steady despite the storm around them. "But so have I."
---
Elsewhere, chaos raged.
The Celestial Tempest squad was locked in desperate combat against the tide of A-rank abyssal beasts Kairos had summoned. Each creature was a nightmare given form — hulking chimeras of shadow and bone, abyssal serpents whose roars shattered stone, and four-legged horrors cloaked in black flame.
"Keep them away from Bolt!" Rhea shouted, slicing through the neck of a charging beast with her wind-forged blade. "He needs space!"
"I'm trying!" Juno bellowed from above, unleashing a rain of plasma arrows that detonated in brilliant explosions. But for every beast they felled, two more emerged from the abyssal portals Kairos had torn open.
"Damn it! There's no end to them!" shouted Leon as he slammed his hammer into the ground, sending tremors that toppled a swarm of charging beasts. Sweat and blood streaked his face, but he refused to fall. None of them would.
Because Bolt was fighting for all of them — and they would hold the line.
---
Back at the center, Bolt and Kairos clashed again.
Bolt unleashed a torrent of lightning from his palms, bolts arcing wildly toward Kairos. But Kairos raised a single hand, and the shadows surged upward like a living wall, swallowing the lightning whole.
"Do you really think I'm the same as before?" Kairos taunted, his voice layered with something inhuman. The abyss within him pulsed, and suddenly the swallowed lightning burst outward — reversed — and slammed back toward Bolt.
Bolt crossed his arms and roared, summoning a barrier of roaring wind and swirling water that absorbed the blast. Steam hissed around him as lightning and water collided, but Bolt was already moving.
He propelled himself forward with a gust so powerful it left a crater beneath him, appearing in Kairos' blind spot with fire roaring along his fists.
"Elemental Drive – Quadra Impact!"
Each punch came faster than the last — fire, wind, water, earth — a relentless sequence of elemental fury that shattered the air with every blow. The final hit exploded with combined force, sending Kairos skidding backward across the battlefield.
But Kairos barely seemed fazed.
"Impressive," he murmured, his lips curling into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "But still not enough."
The shadows thickened around him until the very light seemed to bend. His aura deepened, becoming suffocating, and the ground beneath his feet withered into black dust.
"Abyssal Dominion: Nihility Field."
The world screamed as Kairos unleashed his power. A dome of absolute darkness spread from him, devouring everything it touched — Bolt's flames flickered and died, the wind slowed, water turned to vapor, and even the lightning dimmed.
Bolt felt the pressure immediately — his elemental affinity was being erased.
Kairos blurred forward, faster than Bolt could track, and slammed his palm into Bolt's chest. The force launched Bolt into the ground, carving a deep crater as he gasped for breath.
"This is the difference between us," Kairos said coldly, stepping toward him. "You fight with nature. I command the void that consumes it."
Bolt coughed, blood staining his lips, but his laughter was defiant.
"You talk too much."
His body exploded with light.
"Elemental Overdrive – Warborn State!"
The seal of the Elemental Warborn flared so brightly it outshone the abyss. The suppression field buckled under the raw surge of energy as Bolt rose, his entire body cloaked in a swirling storm of all four primary elements. Lightning danced with flame, wind screamed alongside water, and the earth itself answered his call.
The world bent to his will — and for the first time, Kairos' eyes widened.
Bolt vanished, faster than before, and appeared behind Kairos, his fist wreathed in every elemental force he could command.
The punch landed.
The explosion shook the heavens.
Kairos was hurled across the field, crashing into the side of a mountain and sending avalanches tumbling down. The Abyssal Warborn rose slowly, his armor cracked, his mouth bleeding — but he was laughing.
"Good," Kairos whispered, voice trembling with exhilaration. "Good! Show me more!"
---
On the periphery, Celestial Tempest was reaching its limits. The A-rank beasts pressed harder, their ferocity rising as if responding to Kairos' will. The ground was slick with black ichor and blood, and their bodies screamed in pain, but none retreated.
"Hold the line!" Rhea shouted again, though her voice was hoarse. "Bolt's still fighting!"
But deep down, they all knew — they couldn't hold forever.
---
Back in the heart of the storm, Bolt and Kairos clashed once more — Warborn against Warborn.
Every strike they exchanged shattered the land. Bolts of lightning the size of trees ripped through the clouds, while abyssal spears that distorted space carved holes in reality. The two of them were no longer fighting as humans — they were walking cataclysms, embodiments of nature and void locked in primal war.
"Why, Kairos?" Bolt yelled between blows. "Why are you doing this?!"
Kairos blocked a flaming kick with a wall of darkness, then countered with a blade of condensed void.
"Because the abyss showed me the truth!" he snarled. "This world is rotten, and only through destruction can it be reborn!"
"You're wrong!" Bolt's voice cracked with emotion as he slammed his fist into Kairos' face, sending him sprawling. "There's still hope — we can change it without destroying everything!"
"Hope is a lie," Kairos spat, rising again. "And I'll prove it — by erasing everything you stand for."
They charged at each other once more, both unleashing everything they had left. The world itself seemed to split in half — one side storm and light, the other void and shadow — as their powers collided.
And then—
A blinding explosion engulfed the battlefield, hurling both Warborn backward and swallowing the land in a storm of chaos.
When the light faded, both Bolt and Kairos were kneeling, breathing heavily, battered but unbroken. The storm raged around them, and the battle between Celestial Tempest and the abyssal beasts still thundered on in the distance.
This wasn't over.
It was only the beginning.
---
Bolt slowly raised his head, blood streaming down his face. Kairos stood opposite him, his armor cracked but his aura stronger than ever.
Their eyes locked — two destinies colliding.
"Next time," Kairos said softly, his voice barely audible over the storm, "I won't hold back."
Bolt gritted his teet
h and rose to his feet. "Neither will I."
The two Warborn surged forward again — and the battlefield screamed as the next phase of their war began.