Nara, who managed to rise to one knee a few meters behind Kaito, unshielded her body with her wings. Her red eyes trembled as she took upon the sight of the destruction.
The rusted ground dozens of meters around them shattered, spiderwebbing out from underneath Kaito's feet as if it was glass and he was the catalyst that brought upon the damage. Green waves taller than the guardian crashed along the rocky coast of the nearby lake.
"All this… with a single punch..? But… how?" She aired out, until she finally noticed her CPI scanner in her eye.
The number that she saw made the scales all over her body run cold.
Kaito: 1,240,000… 875,000… 420,000…
"One… million?" She mumbled, nearly choking on her words.
"But how…? He was nowhere near this strong on my world fighting Aqua."
She stared at the back of his head as his blonde and black locs waved in the wind.
"Just what kind of training did you do… Kaito?"
Above the planet on the licensing station, Ari'Va's big eyes nearly bulged out of her head. Her lower jaw hung low and trembled.
"Wh–wha–h–how…?" She stuttered out.
Her eyes drifted over to the smaller display that projected a white silhouette of Kaito next to the main projection of the battlefield. The display listed his vitals, physical stats, and essence. The purple essence surrounding the silhouette flared wildly around him, most of it not even able to fit the screen projected. After a couple seconds, the essence simmered down until it cradled closely to his body once again. She scanned over it until she saw his CPI.
Kaito: 175,000 CPI [PEAK: 1.24 Million CPI]
"1.24 million..?" She gulped.
"That's well over five times his base… almost ten! Was that a botchedresonance transformation?"
"It appears it was an intentional attack." Astra's partially robotic voice echoed calmly sitting next to her.
Ari'Va looked over.
"You believe that was intentional ma'am?" She exclaimed.
Astra didn't look over nor answer her question. She didn't even peep at the silhouette on the smaller display. Instead, her four red eyes stayed locked onto the large primary projection, locked onto Kaito.
Her lower set of eyes scanned his body before landing on his extended right arm he blasted the guardian away with. It was clearly broken in a few places from his shoulder down to his bloodied trembling fist. His knuckles appeared to be grinded down on stone until the bone showed. But his arm's horrific state isn't what intrigued her. It was what her slightly larger upper set of eyes saw.
Kaito… was smiling.
At that moment, his voice echoed in her head when he spoke to Zeek, Valentina, and Rikona beforehand on the ship.
My dream is to travel the stars and make the universe a place where anyone no matter what they look like or where they're from can live freely and chase their dreams. I want to become the King of the Stars.
She couldn't help but let a smirk crawl up her porcelain face.
"The title of king is what you strive for… I see. If that's so… just how much are you willing to sacrifice to achieve those lofty dreams of yours, Kaito?" She thought to herself.
On the battlefield, Rikona unshielded herself and Finn from a metallic cocoon, slowly morphing back into her blue backpack form. As soon as she caught sight of the carnage Kaito's punch caused, her face lit up with excitement. But that excitement didn't last long.
Down the canal of destruction hundreds of meters away, the remains of the collapsed cliffside shifted. A large grey arm broke through the surface, then another, and another, and another. A short moment later, the entire collapsed cliffside exploded outward, sending rocks of all shapes and sizes in every direction.
The guardian stood there, almost half of the left side of its body including its head completely destroyed, but slowly regenerating. Its eyes locked onto Kaito across the vast distance between them before looking down to its destroyed side.
"My regeneration has slowed significantly. Was it due to his attack?"
It looked back up to where Kaito stood, but when it did, its black eyes shot open.
Kaito was gone.
Before it could even conjure a thought, its vision shifted ninety degrees.
It was falling to the ground. That's because Kaito kicked its legs out from underneath it.
As it was falling, the two of them made eye contact for a fleeting moment… but in that moment, the guardian saw something that utterly terrified it.
Kaito's eyes were filled with a sadistic glee and his smile was wide as his face.
He was enjoying every second of what he was doing.
His knee connected clean on the face of the guardian.
He grabbed its arm, and white lighting traveled from his arms to the guardian's body. He turned his hips the opposite direction before flipping the massive creature over his body into the ground.
Still holding its arm, he twisted it before kicking at its elbow joint, snapping it the opposite direction.
With a roar, he turned his body, tossing the giant pile of muscle dozens of meters away.
The guardian tumbled and rolled through rusty dirt, unable to stop its momentum. During its tumble, it caught a glimpse of Kaito sprinting towards it. It tried to stop itself, but it was too late.
THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!
Kaito's foot dug deep into its gut.
"TWO!" He yelled as his purple essence exploded around him like he was soaked in gasoline.
The guardian's body folded like a napkin around his leg before launching it to the sky, breaking through the lower layer of clouds.
It flipped uncontrollably through the air like a football during a kickoff.
"Wha–what's happening right now? I can't even keep up." It thought to itself.
"This... this pain. It hurts... It hurts so much."
But those halted momentarily as it saw Kaito right above it. Its black eyes trembled.
"Get away…"
Kaito grabbed it by both its ankles, beginning to flip with its momentum. His purple essence exploded outwards enveloping the both of them and pushing small clouds around them away.
THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!
"THREE!"
He threw the guardian so hard, it almost appeared as if he shot a beam of light to the planet below.
It crashed into the topless mountain range Sylas cleaved earlier, destroying two of the large mountains before crashing into a third. The impact sent quakes through the land of the nearby area.
Nara watched everything unfold stunned. Her eyes trembled and her words lodged in her throat. This wasn't the Kaito she was familiar with, not even close.
Dozens of meters to the side of her, Rikona's face was the complete opposite. Her eyes lit up with stars as if she was watching her childhood superhero in action right before her.
"He's—He's winning by himself! A–amazing! He probably won't even need our help Finn!" She said, her voice slightly filled with a subtle pride.
The guardian rose from the rubble, its body much frailer than it normally was. Green blood trickled down its body. Its legs trembled underneath it. Kaito landed dozens of meters in front of it moments later.
Rikona's CPI scanner flickered on
Guardian: 600,000… 373,000… 240,000…
"It's CPI, it's tanking! Its almost to his base level! He did it! He actually did it right Finn?... Finn?" She turned to him, her excitement slowly dying down.
Finn didn't share her excitement nor did he focus on the guardian's form. His attention was locked onto Kaito and his battered body.
His right arm and leg were broken. His suit and clothes beneath shredded, revealing his bruised and bloodied torso. Finn's fist bawled tightly and he clenched his teeth.
"He's killing himself…" He thought to himself.
"How much longer?" He asked calmly but urgently.
"Hu–Huhh? But why? Kaito should be able to finish withou—"
"How much time!?" Finn snapped, his eye locking onto hers.
In that moment, she sensed the urgency clearly.
"About three minutes." She replied.
"Three minutes…" He muttered to himself before turning back to the two.
"That's too long."
"Too… long? What do you mean? I don't understand?" She asked anxiously.
Finn's eyes squinted slightly as his gaze drifted over to the guardian.
"Something's off…" He replied softly.
The guardian watched in sheer horror as Kaito stared it down, his eyes sharp like a predator finding delicious prey.
"Get away…" It muttered.
Its frail partially destroyed body trembled. Kaito began to walk towards it slowly, dragging his broken leg through the ground. It took a step back.
"No… stay away from me…" It stated louder
Kaito continued to close the distance one step at a time.
"GET AWAY FROM ME! STAY AWAY!"
It tried to take a step back, but its legs buckled from underneath it. Its knees crashed into the ground, body frozen.
"I can't move… I–I'm scared? No… I–I don't—I don't want to die. Leave me alone…"
Despite its pleas, Kaito's march didn't stop.
Its black eyes trembled and a single tear fell down its grey face.
At that moment Kaito's eyes shot open. His CPI scanner flickered to life in his vision.
Guardian: 240,000… 480,000… 600,000…
"This rise in essence… it can't be!?"
The guardian's essence exploded outward.
"I SAID STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!!"
The surrounding terrain cracked outwards. The wind blew wildly in seemingly every direction.
From a distance, Finn watched in utter shock as his green scarf blew backwards from the shockwave. His eyes trembled trying to believe what he was seeing. He didn't want to nor did he think it was possible, but he couldn't deny reality.
"This… is a resonance transformation."