Ian and his team made it to the planet they see the sky above the battlefield burned red, fractured with streaks of energy.
Their ship—the STF strike cruiser—cut through the storm, its hull battered by ash and debris. Below, the ruined surface of the planet stretched for miles, littered with the bones of cities and the shadows of fire.
Inside the ship, tension hung like smoke. Every man aboard could feel it—something ancient, something that was not supposed to exist.
And then it appeared. A figure—The Light—stood on the shattered plain below. Its form shifted and shimmered, radiant and monstrous, like a body made of molten silver wrapped in flame. Its eyes burned pure white, and even from a thousand feet above, they could feel it looking back. The creature tilted its head, lips barely moving. "I smell fear."
The words were barely a whisper—but every voice in the ship went silent. The sound didn't echo; it sank into their bones.
The Light moved, gliding in a slow circle around them, studying the ship like a predator savoring its prey.
"Watch out!" Blade shouted.
A boulder—massive, torn from the earth, shot upward like a missile, faster than lightning. It struck the ship's flank with a deafening roar. Metal screamed. Fire ripped across the interior. The hull spun out of control, trailing smoke.
"Patch it!" Optimus shouted.
Ice King thrust both arms out, his armor flaring blue. A sheet of ice burst across the rupture, sealing it just long enough to slow the fall, but gravity was relentless. The ship plummeted, crashed through the treeline, and slammed into the dirt with enough force to shatter the horizon.
Silence followed. Then the hiss of steam.
Ian was the first to speak. "Everybody all right?"
"Yup," Optimus coughed, unstrapping himself.
"Still breathing." Ice King crawled from the wreckage, frost spreading across the metal where his hands touched.
Before he could fully stand, a blur of light and rage was already charging him. The demon came down like a comet. Ice King met it head-on—pivoted, grabbed, and used the demon's own weight to flip it into the dirt. The ground cracked beneath the impact.
Ian leapt from the ship, blade drawn, lightning dancing across his armor. He dashed toward the demon's neck, but the creature turned mid-fall and backhanded him out of the air. The blow sent Ian crashing through a dune of rock, shattering it like glass.
"Ian!" Optimus roared.
Voltron stepped out of the dust, arm transforming with a hydraulic hiss. The cannon mounted to his forearm began firing a storm of rockets. Each explosion bathed the plain in flame and smoke.
Through the chaos, the demon's voice came again—calm, mocking. "So this is the terror of demons."
The Light rushed Voltron in a blur. Voltron braced himself and swung, landing a solid punch to the creature's chest. The shockwave flattened the ground around them—but The Light barely flinched. It seized Voltron by the torso and hurled him through a crater wall, leaving a trail of smoke and torn earth.
The rest of the squad regrouped near the wreckage. Ian wiped blood from his mouth, lightning flickering at his fingertips. "We need to plan this out," he said sharply.
Optimus cracked his neck. "You're right. Let's bombard him with everything we've got. Hit him hard, hit him fast."
They didn't need more words. They charged. Blade dashed first, cutting low and fast. His strikes blurred together, hundreds of slashes in the span of seconds, each one leaving a streak of blue light.
The demon staggered as Voltron came from behind, grabbing its neck in a crushing grip. Optimus lunged next, driving a fist into The Light's stomach so hard the air itself seemed to fold inward. Ice King extended his arms, freezing the ground beneath the demon's feet until frost climbed up its legs, locking it in place.
Then Boomer dropped in from above, his massive blade drawn. With a roar that shook the plain, he brought it down across the demon's left shoulder. The blade sank deep, carving through armor and molten flesh.
The Light didn't scream, it smiled. "It's time for you to see what true power is."
The ground began to tremble. A shadow darkened the sky. They looked up. A meteor, no, an entire mountain of burning stone, was descending from the heavens.
The demon raised its hands, shattering the massive rock into thousands of blazing fragments and hurling them toward the surface.
"Scatter!" Ian shouted.
The battlefield erupted. Chunks of molten stone fell like raining suns. Ian slashed through one midair, his blade splitting it apart before it hit the ground.
Ice King conjured a surge of glacial energy, an ocean's worth of water and frozen shards,hurling it toward the demon like a tidal spear. The Light answered by summoning a wall of jagged stone, then punched it. The entire structure shattered forward, transforming into a storm of debris that rocketed toward Ice King.
Optimus moved before the impact, vaulting into the sky with thrusters flaring. He came down like thunder, striking the demon from above. Fists met claws in a storm of violence, each blow like an explosion. Ian reappeared behind them, his entire body crackling with energy. He drove a bolt of lightning into The Light's ribs, sending it crashing into the dirt, but it didn't stay down. The creature rose again, one hand pressed to the ground. The earth itself groaned in response. The Light clenched its fist—and the world shattered.
Cracks raced outward in all directions as the ground buckled, a quake ripping through the battlefield.
Blade blurred forward, moving faster than sight, each strike carving sparks into the demon's armor. Boomer followed, shoulder-checking the creature with a thunderous crash. But The Light met the blow with one arm, deflecting the massive warrior as if he were weightless.
The battlefield was a ruin of fire and shattered stone. Smoke rolled across the plain, glowing faintly orange from molten craters. Every breath the STF squad took tasted like ash and iron.
The demon, the being they called The Light, stood at the center of the chaos, cracks of energy running through his body like lightning veins.
Ian moved first. His boots struck the dirt in a flash of electricity. He closed the distance between them in a heartbeat, drawing back his fist. But before he could connect, The Light's arm lashed out like a whip. The blow caught Ian full in the chest, sending him crashing to the ground hard enough to carve a trench in the earth.
The demon loomed over him, radiant and monstrous, its voice like molten metal.
"Pathetic." Ian coughed, blood painting the corner of his lip. Then, his eyes sparked gold. In an instant, he vanished in a blur of speed and reappeared upside down, both legs arcing over his head. His heel slammed into the demon's jaw with a sound like thunder. The Flash Kick connected with such force that The Light was launched skyward, tumbling through clouds of ash.
"Optimus!" Ian shouted.
"On it!" Optimus leapt high, his armor's thrusters flaring behind him.
As The Light rose into the air, Optimus met him mid-flight with a devastating right hook, sending the demon crashing back down to the ground. The impact shook the valley, leaving a smoking crater.
Before The Light could recover, Blade appeared in a streak of silver. His twin katanas crossed, glowing with raw Kia energy. He struck in one clean motion—slicing through the demon's torso from hip to shoulder. The Light screamed, the sound echoing like a thousand voices crying at once. Its glowing form flickered violently, its body breaking apart as energy poured into the sky.
The team closed in cautiously, their armor scorched and weapons trembling in their hands. Smoke curled from the demon's chest as it lay there, the brilliant light within it dimming with every breath.
Ian stepped closer, sword lowered. "What was the point of all this? The rampage, the slaughter, why?" The creature's eyes flickered open, faintly glowing beneath its cracked helm. Its voice came out broken, almost human. "You… killed Varneyx."
Ian froze. "Who?"
"He raised me. Protected me… from my father."
Blade frowned, stepping beside Ian. "Wait—you demons have families?"
The Light turned its fading gaze toward him. "Yes… Back when the old world was still alive. Before it burned. Before your kind fled into the stars."
The wind shifted. The battlefield fell eerily quiet. "Our world was once whole," the demon continued, its tone softening into something mournful. "Lakes, mountains, forests… cities carved from stone and fire. When the underworld opened, when the collapse came, I wasn't strong enough to protect my family. My father killed them. I… killed him. I thought that would make me strong."
Its breathing grew shallower, voice trembling with each word. "I became known as the strongest man of my age. But strength didn't save anyone. When the world fell and the demons rose, I turned into one myself to survive."
The Light's hand trembled as it lifted weakly toward the sky. "Varneyx was my uncle. After the fall, he found me. He saved me. Trained me. We had… millions of years together. Then your armies came. You slaughtered him. You called it victory."
Ian stood still. No one spoke. The flames around them hissed lower.
The Light's eyes dimmed further. "You people think you can escape—that you can build a new, unbroken life beyond our ruin. But you can't. We're coming… to take back what was ours." A long silence followed.
Then the creature exhaled slowly. Its light faded from its body like a dying star, leaving only a gray husk behind. The air grew still. It felt, somehow, like a spirit had finally been freed, like centuries of rage had burned itself to ash.
Blade exhaled, lowering his swords. "Wow. That was… a lot to take in."
Voltron's voice hummed through the static of his mask. "I recorded the entire conversation. Might be useful later."
Optimus gave a short nod. "Smart. Let's get moving."
Ian looked down at the demon's body one last time. The wind swept across the plain, scattering dust and fragments of glowing rock. "Another soul consumed by war," he murmured.