Following the Red King's merciless command, the orbital weapon began to emit a blinding radiance as massive quantities of energy gather within its core. Even before firing, the ambient temperature was rising so rapidly that the air itself began to shimmer and distort.
"Just to kill two people, you're willing to bury an entire village?" Caiera asked, her voice hollow with despair and dawning realization.
"You've served him for over a decade," Ben replied quietly. "Surely you've seen his true nature before today?"
Caiera shook her head slowly, then knelt to gather the small Shadow People child who had attacked her into her arms. She seemed determined to use her own body as a shield, though they both knew it would be futile.
Her enhanced physiology might allow her to survive the Death-Fire weapon's assault, but everyone else in the underground village would be reduced to ash within seconds. The Old Power flowing through her veins could protect one person—herself—while dozens of innocents perished around her.
For reasons she couldn't fully articulate, Caiera found herself abandoning any thought of using her abilities to resist the orbital bombardment. Perhaps it would be fitting for the flames to consume her along with everyone else—a final atonement for years of complicity in the Red King's atrocities.
She turned to Ben with something that might have been a smile crossing her features. "This probably isn't the best time to mention it, but you're rather attractive for an off-worlder."
"Yeah, I get that a lot," Ben replied with characteristic modesty, though he felt no romantic attraction toward the Shadow People warrior. Cultural differences aside, he was committed to maintaining his human preferences.
"You should flee while you still can," Caiera urged. "Your Old Power isn't strong enough to withstand a Death-Fire blast. If you run now, you might survive."
"What about you?"
Caiera raised her head toward the weapon now radiating lethal energy like a miniature star. "I'll remain here and perish with everyone in this village."
Then her voice took on a pleading quality. "If you truly are the Son of Sakaar—if you're really this world's savior—then leave this place. Defeat the Red King and save our people!"
Ben looked up at the gathering inferno above them and laughed—not with humor, but with absolute confidence.
"If I'm really the Son of Sakaar, then no one dies today."
He had no intention of fleeing.
The Death-Fire weapon had reached full charge, its energy output now visible as waves of distortion that made the air itself appear liquid. In the arena, the Red King watched Ben and Caiera's apparent resignation with savage delight.
"Die, you treacherous bastards!" he roared as the orbital strike was released.
It was as if a fragment of the sun itself had been hurled earthward. The temperature spiked so rapidly that the ground beneath Ben's feet began liquefying into glowing slag, while the air became a shimmering curtain of superheated gas.
"Burn to ash in the flames of annihilation!" the Red King laughed, his voice echoing through the empty arena with maniacal glee.
"Ben won't die," Looma said through gritted teeth, though her clenched fists betrayed her anxiety.
"Ridiculous!" the Red King replied, brandishing his massive blade. "The Death-Fire weapon burns hotter than the surface of a star and can devastate everything within kilometers! He cannot resist it, and he cannot escape it!"
As the lethal energy descended, Caiera's gray skin flushed red in the reflected heat. She watched death approaching and found her mind filled with memories—a lifetime spent as the Red King's weapon, betraying her own people, committing atrocities in the name of a tyrant who viewed her as nothing more than a useful tool.
A life of sin was finally reaching its end.
Her arms tightened around the child she was trying to protect, remembering how her own mother had held her during the Spike attack that had destroyed everything she'd once loved.
"It's all over," she whispered.
"No, it isn't."
Ben's confident voice cut through her despair. Both Caiera and the child looked toward him—but the silver-skinned Shadow People warrior was gone. In his place stood something that seemed drawn from the planet's primordial fury: a being of living stone and flowing magma, whose very presence made the air dance with heat waves.
Heatblast raised his arms toward the descending inferno, and something impossible happened. The Death-Fire weapon's assault—energy hot enough to glass continents—began flowing toward him like water finding its natural course.
In that moment, even solar fire seemed like nothing more than a subject kneeling before its rightful king.
Caiera's eyes widened in disbelief as she watched torrents of flame pass harmlessly around her, drawn into Ben's transformed body like iron filings to a magnet. The child in her arms reached out toward the beautiful streams of energy, completely unafraid.
"This... this is impossible!" the Red King stammered from his distant throne, taking an involuntary step backward. "He's absorbing the Death-Fire blast..."
Anyone witnessing Ben's feat would have thought they were seeing a god made manifest.
In seconds, the scorching orbital weapon's entire output had vanished into Ben's being. The sudden absence of heat created violent air currents as cool atmosphere rushed in to fill the vacuum, generating winds strong enough to flatten nearby vegetation.
Ben could feel his entire essence saturated with stellar energy. The flames above his head blazed higher and hotter than ever before, while his shoulders became like volcanic vents, spewing fire that warped space itself.
"You conquered the monster in the Great Maw's depths, and now you've become the volcano itself," Caiera said in a voice filled with awe. "You're nature's own avatar—undoubtedly the Son of Sakaar!"
"Maybe," Ben replied with studied indifference. Honestly, he was getting tired of that particular title.
"Caiera, if you truly despise the Red King and feel genuine shame for betraying your people, then what you should do now isn't invite death—it's join me in destroying him!"
Caiera seemed momentarily swayed, but she shook her head sadly. "It's useless. He only needs to press a button and neurotoxin will flood my system immediately. I have no way to resist the control implant."
This was the ultimate helplessness of everyone enslaved by the Red King's technology. They couldn't even hope to rebel—one command could kill them instantly.
"We'll discuss that later," Ben said with a grin, looking skyward again. "Something else is coming."
"Something else?"
Caiera followed his gaze just as the massive orbital weapon platform began its uncontrolled descent toward the surface. Like a crashing starship, the black cylinder smashed into the Sakaar with enough force to create a localized earthquake. Then its hatches burst open, disgorging swarms of yellow-brown flying insects that moved like living clouds, followed by countless humanoid figures that shambled forward with the jerky movements of animated corpses.
"Oh, great," Ben muttered, his flame-wreathed form recoiling slightly. "Are we starting a zombie apocalypse now?"
The humanoid creatures looked like the walking dead, their bodies twisted and wrong, advancing with mindless hunger.
"Those are Spikes!" Caiera's voice became shrill with recognition and remembered terror.
"We cannot allow ourselves to be parasitized by them, or we'll become monsters like those!" She pointed at the shambling figures. "Those flying insects burrow into living hosts and take control of their minds!"
Her eyes blazed with newfound fury as Old Power energy crackled around her clenched fists.
"It was these creatures that attacked my village and murdered my parents!"
The truth hit her like a physical blow. She'd always believed the Red King had saved her from a random Spike assault, but now she understood the reality. The Spikes were his weapons—he had orchestrated the attack that destroyed her childhood, sacrificing countless innocent lives just to acquire the perfect slave.
Even without Caiera's explanation, Ben could see the horrifying nature of the insectoid parasites. They sought out the fallen Death's Head soldiers, piercing their armor to burrow into exposed flesh. He watched in disgust as the creatures moved beneath their hosts' skin like living tumors, crawling inexorably toward the brain to seize complete control.
Moments later, the dead rose again as something far worse than they had been in life.
Caiera positioned herself protectively in front of the child, preparing for battle, but Ben stopped her with a gesture.
"Take the child and evacuate the other villagers," he said, his voice carrying the authority of contained stellar fire.
"Don't worry—I happen to have unlimited power at the moment." His grin was sharp and predatory as the flames surrounding his body intensified, shifting from orange to the blood-red of the Death-Fire weapon he'd absorbed.
Caiera made her decision, knowing that even if it meant death, she had to make the Red King pay for his crimes.
"Then I'll see you in the imperial capital!" she declared before turning to lead the evacuation.
The remaining villagers—elderly and children mostly—fled in panic, following Caiera's path to safety. When several flying Spikes attempted to pursue them, Ben raised his hand and created a wall of flame that served as an impenetrable barrier.
"Your fight is with me!" he announced.
Instantly, every parasitic creature and infected host turned toward him with single-minded focus. Ben stood his ground, utterly unintimidated.
First, he surrounded the entire Spike swarm with rings of fire to ensure none could escape. Only after Caiera and the villagers had disappeared from sight did he begin his true assault.
Ben stepped forward and raised both arms high above his head. The flames gathered in his palms, coalescing into a sphere of such intensity that it resembled a miniature red giant star.
"Death-Fire Blast!" he called out.
Having absorbed the orbital weapon's entire output, Ben now possessed complete mastery over its energy. Though he didn't need to unleash his full power against these creatures—a fraction would suffice.
The fireball expanded to hundreds of meters in diameter before detonating with the force of a small nuclear weapon. Brilliant red flames consumed everything within the blast radius, erasing not just the Spike creatures but the very ground they had stood upon.
When the inferno finally subsided, nothing remained except flowing rivers of molten rock that painted the landscape in glowing orange.
The camera drones broadcasting the battle had been vaporized along with everything else, cutting the live feed to static. But no one watching believed Ben had been defeated—his display of power had been nothing short of godly.
In the arena, Looma looked at the Red King with undisguised satisfaction. Everything was proceeding according to plan, and only the final confrontation remained.
Too bad we still haven't found any ice creatures, she thought briefly. But it doesn't matter anymore.
"You've lost, Angmo-Asan," she declared.
The Red King sneered in response. "Winning one trial means nothing. Do you two really think you can stand against an entire planet's worth of military might?"
As the ruler of Sakaar, he possessed far more resources than just the forces already deployed. No matter how powerful Looma and Ben might be, could they truly oppose the entire world?
He didn't even consider Caiera a significant threat—the control implant made her nothing more than an ant he could crush whenever he chose.
"What can two people accomplish without any support?" he asked mockingly.
As he spoke, the Red King hefted his massive double-bladed sword while the royal guards prepared for combat.
Looma's four eyes swept the arena as she shifted into a combat stance, her legs slightly bent in anticipation of the coming battle.
"Royal Guard, attack!" the Red King commanded, swinging his blade in a dramatic arc.
The guards in their golden exoskeletons immediately charged toward Looma, their formation precise and coordinated.
Looma released a battle cry and struck with both right arms simultaneously, sending one guard flying across the arena. But even as he crashed into the wall, three more attackers reached her from behind, their crystalline spears striking sparks from her enhanced skin.
"Pathetic! You can't even pierce my hide!" Looma grabbed all three spears in the crook of her left elbow, then brought her other arm down like an axe, shattering the weapons and sending their wielders tumbling.
But the guards' advanced armor allowed them to absorb tremendous punishment and keep fighting. No matter how many times Looma knocked them down, they kept getting back up and pressing their attack.
Four guards managed to grab her upper arms while others swarmed her like army ants, trying to pin her through sheer numbers.
"You insects are so annoying!" Looma roared.
Her battle cry was so forceful that it knocked several attackers unconscious through sonic trauma alone. Then her four blood-red eyes locked onto the Red King, and she launched herself forward like a living missile.
"I'm going to splatter your brains across the walls!"
Looma leaped into the air, twisting her body to focus all her strength into a single devastating punch that could have triggered earthquakes.
BOOM!!
The entire arena structure shook from the impact.
High in the Totem Tower, Beta Ray Bill smashed another guard into the wall with his massive war hammer, noting with satisfaction that the regular security forces lacked the royal guards' advanced equipment.
"We need to move faster!" Bill called out to his fellow escapees.
As he led the gladiators upward, he glanced through a window and saw dark shapes beginning to appear on the distant horizon. He knew those were their reinforcements—the backbone of their revolution.
Whether they were fellow fighters or the scavenger tribes that had brought them to this hellish world, they were all allies now in the struggle for freedom.
Bill allowed himself a rare moment of humor. "When you meet those scavengers later, try not to punch them! They're on our side now!"
The counterattack had begun in earnest.
Across Sakaar, the flames of revolution were spreading like wildfire, and nothing would ever be the same again.