The spectral warriors and the ghosts rushed in with burning eyes and weapons that reeked of blood. Their blades cut through the air with unnatural speed. Their roars shook the courtyard. It looked like an army from the underworld had risen to crush one man.
"Enough of this nonsense."
John raised both arms to the sky. The clouds above twisted into a whirlpool of storm. The air turned electric, hair-raising, filled with the taste of ozone. Then his voice thundered like judgment itself.
"SHAZAM!"
The heavens split as John scattered and redirected the giant bolt of lightning toward those demons.
Bolts of lightning rained down in a catastrophic storm. Each strike exploded like bombs, vaporizing the legion on contact. Ghostly warriors turned to ash. Skeletal samurai were blown apart before they could even lift their swords. The ground itself glowed with the heat of impact, stone melting into rivers of fire and steam.
Screams filled the night, not human screams but echoes from lost souls ripped from whatever pit had spat them out. They vanished under the storm, erased in seconds.
When the last bolt faded, silence returned. Smoke and dust rose from the crater-ridden courtyard. The demonic army was gone, not a single body left behind. Only charred marks on the stone remained.
Before the raw power of the diving power, they were nothing but mere bugs.
Up on the rooftop, Mikey whispered, "Dude… he just deleted hell."
Donnie swallowed hard, his goggles flickering as he tried to measure the energy. "This output… It's beyond any known physics."
Raph's eyes stayed locked on John. "Yeah, but look at him. He ain't even sweating. What kind of monster is he really?"
Down below, John lowered his arms. His aura still crackled, but his face was calm as usual. "Got any more tricks up your ass?"
But Shredder was not done.
The warlord rose from the wreckage, his body trembling with anger. His demonic armor cracked further, and greenish black goo spilled out from his wounds. Then he began to heal again. His eyes glowed bright red as he raised his claws to the sky and roared.
Green fire exploded outward. His body began to twist and grow. Plates of armor split as something larger pushed from within. His wings stretched and fused into a single mass of bone and membrane. His jaw cracked wider, his teeth lengthening into fangs. Claws extended into talons longer than spears.
The Turtles tensed as they watched.
"Uh, guys…" Mikey muttered. "He's… bigger now."
Bigger was an understatement.
Shredder's body reshaped itself until he no longer resembled a man at all. He had become a beast out of a nightmare. A dragon, black and red, his scales glowing like molten rock. His wings stretched wide enough to cover half the compound. Horns curved back from his skull, dripping fire. When he opened his maw, green flame leaked between his teeth like acid steam.
The demonic aura crushed the air. The very earth shook beneath his weight.
The Tengu Shredder's voice came out deeper now, a growl mixed with thunder. "I'll give you one more chance. Surrender and become my slave."
"Wow! A giant lizard?" John mocked with a smirk.
Shredder inhaled. The glow in his throat built until it was blinding. Then he exhaled with a roar that tore through the night. A torrent of fire, black edged with green, surged forward like a tidal wave. Buildings in its path melted. The courtyard turned into lava.
"YOU DARE MOCK ME, KID!!!" Shredder yelled in rage.
John blurred out of the way, lightning trailing behind him. He reappeared above Shredder's head and hurled a bolt downward. It struck the dragon's scales, blasting a crater of sparks but failing to pierce deep.
Shredder's wing swept up like a wall. The gust sent John flying back, smashing him through a pile of shipping containers. Metal bent and exploded, mutagen canisters spilling green glow across the ground.
John flew out of the wreckage instantly, his eyes glowing gold. He clenched his fists and shot forward like a missile. He slammed into Shredder's chest with the force of a cannon. The dragon reeled but swung its claw midair, catching John across the side.
The blow sent John tumbling across the compound, crashing through two burning truck wrecks before he stopped himself with a burst of lightning.
"Alright," he muttered. "Time to stop playing."
He vanished in a streak of speed and appeared right under Shredder's throat. His fist lit up with divine energy. He drove it upward into the dragon's jaw. The shockwave rippled through the beast's skull, snapping its head back.
"DIE!" Shredder roared in fury. His tail whipped around, crashing into the ground where John had stood, splitting asphalt like an earthquake.
John reappeared on the dragon's back. He raised both fists and slammed them down, lightning exploding on impact. Shredder buckled, his wings flaring wide in rage. He twisted and rolled, throwing John off.
The dragon spun in the air and unleashed another firestorm. John raised his arms, forming a barrier of lightning that split the torrent apart. The flames hissed against the divine shield but could not pierce it.
With a roar of his own, John pushed forward. He cut through the stream of fire and closed the gap. His fists moved faster than the eye could follow, hammering the dragon's chest again and again. Each strike exploded in bursts of lightning that rocked the night.
Shredder thrashed, his talons slicing across the courtyard. One claw finally connected, slashing across John's side. Sparks flew as the aura deflected most of the blow, but blood still welled where the corruption burned through. John grimaced but did not slow. He slammed his forehead into the dragon's snout, cracking scales.
The two giants locked in brutal close combat, claw against fist, lightning against flame.
The Turtles could only watch.
"This is beyond anything we've ever seen," Donnie whispered.
"More like a kaiju movie," Mikey muttered, eyes wide. "Only scarier."
Leo's eyes stayed cold. "It's a war between gods. We were foolish to think we could defeat Shredder. If not for him, we would be dead by now."
Down below, Shredder roared again. His wings beat once, launching both of them high into the air. They smashed through clouds, lightning and fire lighting up the sky like a second sun.
John shot forward first, moving faster than the eye could follow. He became a golden streak, his fists glowing with divine charge. He slammed into Shredder's chest, the impact detonating like a cannon. The dragon's massive body lurched backward, wings thrashing as green fire spilled into the sky.
Shredder roared and spun, his claws snapping at John. But John was already gone. He blurred behind the dragon's head and drove another punch into the base of its skull. Lightning exploded outward, and scales cracked like shattered stone.
Shredder swung his tail in rage. It connected with the air where John had been. A split second later John reappeared, higher, and dropped down with both fists. He crashed into Shredder's spine with his enhanced strength. The beast roared in fury, his wings folding to spin him like a blade.
"Fuck!" John was flung clear, tumbling through the air.
The dragon lunged, jaws wide, green fire boiling between his teeth.
"Oh, no. You don't!" John twisted midair, raised a hand, and let lightning burst from his palm. The bolt struck Shredder in the mouth just as he exhaled his firestorm. The collision detonated, an explosion so bright it blinded the night for miles.
The blast hurled both of them apart. Shredder spiraled down, smashing through a wall of clouds. John steadied himself with a flash of speed and dove after him. He caught up in seconds, driving his knee into Shredder's gut. The dragon wheezed but answered with a claw strike that raked across John's chest. Sparks flew, blood beaded, but John didn't fall back. He grabbed the claw in both hands and twisted, snapping two talons off at the root.
Shredder's scream rolled like thunder. He bit down, teeth closing on John's shoulder, but lightning flared. The divine current burned his mouth and forced him back. John broke free and slammed his fist upward into the dragon's jaw. The hit sent Shredder soaring higher.
John followed up with aster and harder attacks.
Every blow he landed cracked scales and shattered armor. Lightning coated his arms, his eyes glowing gold as he let loose the full might of his power. His speed blurred him into streaks that circled the dragon, hitting from every angle in a storm of fists. Shredder thrashed wildly, wings cutting the sky, claws trying to catch him, but nothing slowed the barrage.
The regeneration struggled. Scales burned black, ichor poured from wounds faster than they closed. Every strike carved deeper into the beast, until even his corrupted healing began to lag.
"I told you, didn't I? I'm gonna beat the crap out of you," John said while continuing his attack.
Shredder roared back, his voice layered with demonic echoes. "I am eternal! I am the hand of the Tengu! I can not be defeated by the likes of you!"
He whipped his wings once, creating a shockwave of green fire that hurled John back. The dragon rose higher, his throat glowing bright again. He inhaled and then vomited a stream of corrupted flame so massive it split the clouds apart.
John stopped holding back. He called the storm.
"SHAZAM!"
The heavens obeyed. The sky became a sea of lightning, bolts raining in unbroken streams as John redirected the bolt and scattered it again. They cut through the fire, slicing the torrent into harmless sparks. Then they struck Shredder himself, hundreds in an instant, wrapping him in a cage of divine power.
The dragon shrieked as the storm cooked his flesh, boiling the ichor in his veins. His body twisted, wings thrashing madly as lightning ripped him apart from all sides.
John blurred forward through the storm and drove his fist into Shredder's chest. The blow shattered ribs, the sound echoing like breaking stone. He followed with a second punch to the jaw, a third to the gut, a fourth to the side of the head. Each hit landed with the force of artillery.
Blood and fire sprayed across the clouds. Shredder swung back desperately, his claws cutting across John's arm. The wound burned, but John ignored it. His speed only increased.
However, after beating the shit out of that freak, John paused mid-strike, his eyes narrowing. He felt it—Shredder's aura shifting. The green fire sank inward, turning blood-red, heavy, and crushing. It pressed on the world itself, bending space, warping the sky.
John pulled back, floating still. His chest rose slowly as he steadied himself. "That energy… You gotta be kidding me."
Shredder's dragon body bristled. The cracks in his scales bled light. Red fire surged through the wounds, not closing them but burning outward, spreading across his body like veins of molten stone. The air shook with each beat of his wings. The world itself seemed to resist him, yet he forced it to bend.
Donnie whispered from the rooftop, voice shaking. "I heard Master Splinter talking about this power before… Shredder is trying to reshape reality. If that energy stabilizes, he'll rewrite everything in his image."
Leo's face hardened. "Then John has to stop him now."
Ralf closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "There is no other way. Darn it! If he dies, then the cure..."
John clenched his fists. The lightning crawling over his body shifted, no longer scattered sparks but streams of golden fire wrapping him like a second skin. His eyes glowed pure white. The thunderbolt on his chest flared brightly.
He muttered low, "Eighty percent."
John blurred once. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from his spot in the air.
He reappeared before Shredder's dragon face, so close his reflection burned in the beast's molten eyes. Shredder's jaw opened to unleash fire, but John's fist was already moving.
The punch was simple.
Contact.
The sound was like the sky ripping in half. The shockwave tore the clouds away for miles. Lightning exploded outward in a blinding sphere.
Shredder's dragon skull splattered, bursting into fragments of bone and molten red lava like blood. Red fire sprayed like a geyser.
John didn't stop there.
He raised both arms. With a roar, he unleashed a massive wave of lightning, striking Shredder's lifeless body again and again. The black and red scales slowly began to turn to ashes, glowing armor pieces trying to peel away, but it was useless. Without a host and in a weakened state, the armor alone could only do so much. Each shard of armor shattered, turning into fine dust that floated away like ash in the wind.
Within a few minutes, it was over.
Shredder turned to ashes.
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