he battlefield was nothing but ruin.
Flames curled through the void, and crimson skies wept with the ashes of gods. The shattered bones of Zephyr's former forms were scattered across a broken, time-bent world.
At the center of it all, Dylan stood, hunched and barely breathing, a demonic echo still faintly pulsing beneath his skin. But even now, his transformation faded—his monstrous wings vanishing, horns cracking into smoke.
He was human again. His body, battered. His sword, shattered.
And still, Zephyr stood.
But something had changed.
Dylan had no weapon. No allies. No edge.
Until...
A voice from the void whispered.
"You are not finished."
It was Aerith.
Her voice trembled in the back of his mind like a dying star flaring for the last time. Her tone was neither angry nor gentle—but final.
"You killed me. But the beast you absorbed was not rage… it was endurance. One last gift. You wanted to survive. I made sure you could."
Dylan's breath steadied.
"Let's finish this."
Dylan smiled beneath the shadow of death.
"Got you, creepy alien."
In a flash, his body erupted into burning white light. Muscle twisted. Bones reshaped. Fur burst from his skin, and claws erupted from every fingertip.
He didn't just transform—he became a giant white wolf, thirty feet tall, muscles carved from moonlight, eyes golden and feral. His roar split the heavens like thunder.
Zephyr, unblinking, took one step back.
"What…?"
Dylan didn't wait. He lunged.
With one strike—a blur of white light—Dylan sliced off Zephyr's right arm. Black ichor sprayed across the burning field.
Zephyr screamed, already regenerating, until—
CRACK.
He looked down.
Edilion Fang—the ancient blade, the core of his power—was split into three glowing fragments, shattered beyond repair.
"You fool!" Zephyr roared. "I can regenerate—!"
Dylan, now stepping out of his beast form, laughed darkly.
"But you can't rebuild what's broken at the soul."
The wolf form behind him exploded—flames and wind turning it to white blood mist. Dylan's true body stood unharmed, now wielding dual fang-blades made of condensed pressure and willpower.
"You're nothing without Edilion Fang," Dylan spat. "You're just a failed science experiment with ego issues."
Zephyr's body warped in rage. Tentacles lashed outward like whips, seeking flesh.
But Dylan was too fast.
He teleported.
Again. Again.
Each shift struck Zephyr in a different place—leaving echoes of lightning and wind to attack from every side.
Zephyr screamed in fury. He opened his mouth, revealing writhing tongues covered in teeth, trying to devour Dylan whole.
"Gross," Dylan grinned.
Then—
A sigil flared behind him.
Out of it soared a giant purple eagle, its wings blotting the skies, a gift of Aerith's broken divinity.
Dylan leapt onto its back. "Let's see you regenerate this."
The eagle vanished—teleporting faster than light—and reappeared above Zephyr's head.
Then dove.
CRACK.
Its razor-kneed talon stamped Zephyr's head into the ground. The air trembled.
Zephyr's alien form began to crack—his skull finally losing its legendary resistance.
Dylan didn't stop.
He descended, twin blades in hand, riding the eagle's wind current.
He struck.
One blade drove through Zephyr's ribcage.
The second pierced just under his heart.
And then—Dylan twisted.
"I'm not the same boy you tortured in that loop, Zephyr."
He pulled the blades out, stood over the broken alien, and whispered:
"Eagle. Eat him."
Zephyr's jaw was broken, his tentacles limp. He tried to speak—but the eagle struck first, crushing his skull with a brutal punch.
Then it devoured him. Piece by piece.
Each crunch echoed across the void like thunderclaps.
Zephyr screamed, flailing, bleeding.
But there was no escape.
Dylan stepped back, arms crossed.
The devouring was slow.
Merciless.
By the end, all that remained were shattered rib bones, half-scorched and twitching.
Dylan cracked his neck.
"Whew." He looked around. "That was a whole damn workout."
He walked over to one of Zephyr's remaining ribs and sat on it.
The eagle burped. A scorched bone flew out of its beak and bounced across the floor.
Dylan raised a brow. "Nice aim."
He stood and raised one hand dramatically.
"Let it be recorded, in whatever cosmic record-keeping you freaks use, that a time-twisting, dimension-warping, god-sword-wielding, worm-faced, ego-bloated tentacle freak just got outplayed by a human who once failed high school physics and now rides space birds."
He pointed at the ribcage.
"You made one mistake, Zephyr."
Pause.
"You let me live long enough to get funny."
The eagle screeched in agreement.
Dylan picked up the cracked fragment of Edilion Fang and stared at it for a second. Then dropped it.
"Next time… don't bring a broken philosophy to a god-fist fight."