He needed more.
Ignoring pain and strain on his body, mind, he drew the nexus reserves and emptied them without second thoughts. Once he unleashed this attack, he would be paralyzed; no amount of will would let him walk or move afterwards.
But he didn't care
He willied for another blade to form.
Then,
A chill ran down the bodies of the others, which resulted in their fight stopping.
William and the strange woman looked at the man and understood that whatever he was doing was needed to slay the alien.
When they looked at his sword, all they could see was death.
Even the Alien felt doom reaching its neck. From the man he had considered before as a mere fly.
Seeing the man's sword, the alien understood that the dread he was feeling was because of that. With panic consuming him, he lunged at the man to stop him from completing the manifestation of the fifth blade.
But seizing that moment, both William and the woman unleashed their zone's overlapping each other, and wrapped all four of them inside the zones.
For an unknown reason, those zones didn't clash, but instead they empowered each other, becoming a single zone.
Upon the Zone manifestation, the planet, which until now wailed in pain, anger, and despair at the death of its children and ruin of its own body, smiled wholeheartedly.
As a result of the zone manifestation, nature itself danced in celebration.
The entire land which trembled in fear and pain, was now trembling in joy.
The birth of a savior had began. The savior they've all been desperately waiting for finally arrived.
Until now, the Alien had avoided getting into their zone because, from the very beginning, something in its instincts screamed caution whenever the two humans tried to unleash their Zones.
That nagging pulse of danger had been enough to keep from taking risks it didn't have to.
But now, with its body bound inside their zone, the reason became painfully clear.
The Alien expanded its own zone, unleashing every shard of dark energy in its control to counter theirs, yet the result was futile.
Their combined Zone swallowed its own Zone, pressing down like an ocean upon a drowning body.
The humiliation burned. To be forced back, here of all places, against mere humans, but clinging to insult was weakness, and weakness meant death.
The Alien forced the thought away.
Overpowering their zone with its zone didn't work, so it decided to use physical attacks to drain them and to survive until they are out of fuel.
To do that, its gaze snapped to the man who was still in the middle of forming the fifth blade.
Thinking to use him as bait to attack the two humans, it lunged,
But before it could close the gap, the air cracked. The irregular zone surged alive, blue-violet flames erupting in violent arcs while streaks of strange, pulsing blood seeped like rivers through the void.
The Alien reeled back.
The blood froze its dark energy mid-flow. The flames burned the remnants away. Together, the two forces entwined so perfectly that for the first time since entering the battlefield, the Alien was forced on the defensive.
It clawed, shrieked, and roared against them, but every breath of effort went only to survival.
The stalemate is locked. Its once dominant darkness pressed, only to be locked down by blood and fire.
[Fivefold Heaven's destroyer ]
A shout erupted, pulling everyone's attention to a pale corpse of a man still standing in an attack stance, holding a curved long sword up, and his closed eyes opened, containing white horror.
The Alien, looking at the man, felt a sycthe of death around his neck, freezing him in place.
The Curved sword, held up, performed a simple forward slash.
[Reaper of Death]
Five blades condensed into a single blade, carrying the man's rage - descended
It sheared through the Alien's dark shield as if peeling away paper, carving a line of inevitable death straight for its body.
Terror shook it free.
Its instincts flared. It forced its shield back to life at the last instant, spinning away, yet not fast enough.
Pain erupted.
Its arm fell, cleanly severed, the cut so precise it made no sound.
But worse than the loss of limb was the poison within the strike: condensed energy, invasive and burning. It burrowed into its body, tearing through organs, scorching flesh, and leaving nothing to regenerate.
To the attack the man had just created and unleashed,
There were no celebrations for his accomplishment, the planet's will simply didn't care.
The man, after unleashing the most powerful attack this planet 'Zeonth' had ever witnessed, fell with no energy left in him.
The blood in the zone smears him as if welcoming his corpse.
Even though the attack failed to finish it off, the man has seen that the flame and blood were effective against the alien, unlike his own lightning. Without his technique, lighting alone wouldn't have been able to do the job, but Theo believed that William's flames and the woman's blood could do it.
So he wasn't afraid that the Alien might survive.
Instead, he was sure they would finish it off.
William surged. The woman followed. Their assault came swiftly, the blood and flames locking the Alien's body in place as their weapons bore down.
They unleashed a barrage of attacks that even overwhelmed the man who was barely holding onto his life until he could see the alien death.
A longsword engulfed in fire. A scythe sculpted of crimson blood. Both fell together toward the alien's neck.
The dying man forced his eyes wide, desperate to witness the moment, but Darkness enveloped him, and his consciousness slipped away even when he hopelessly tried to hold it firm.
'N...' The man couldn't even finish his curse and left his last breath.
***
The sky burned red.
'Why is the sky red?' Theo's mind whispered. His eyes darted for clarity, but his body would not obey.
Not a finger twitched. Not a sound left his throat.
'What, why can't I move my body?'
'What's happening?'
'I can't even speak?' Panic tore through him as questions piled endlessly in his mind.
'
Was I that Injured from the fight against Marcus?'
'Severe enough to leave me paralyzed?'
Pain crashed into him. His body convulsed, moving without his command. The agony drowned him, stealing thought, ripping voice from mind.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" His scream lived only inside his skull.
It took long, dragging moments before he could think again.
And when he could, he froze.
A red ocean stretched beneath him. An ocean of blood. Mountains, not of stone, but of corpses, rose all around.
Theo gagged. His throat clenched as bile rose.
He wanted to vomit. He needed to. But nothing came, only the sensation of retching while the stench of death choked his lungs
Every heartbeat was torment. Thoughts. Emotions. Smells. The taste of iron. The piercing pain of the body he wore. It all blended, relentless.
'Is this a dream?'
'Why does it feel so real?'
And he realized with horror, it wasn't even his body.
Bare feet pressed into rotting flesh as the figure he inhabited began climbing, scrambling up the mound of corpses.
Theo flinched at every step, grinding his teeth as disgust rippled through him.
But he could do nothing. He wasn't in control.
Theo didn't know if this was solely a dream or if there was someone behind this, but he didn't have enough time or space to entertain such thoughts.
For now, all he wanted to uncover was 'what the heck even happened here?'
'Why? Is there only blood and flesh?'
'Why can't I seem to find any living soul?' as the thought came in, a weird dread formed in his heart.
The body had made it to a safe height, and then they felt a few corpses from the top rolling down to wear he stood.
Theo couldn't help but curse the situation he is in.
Then,
A cruel realization hit. The other consciousness in this body wasn't like him. It wasn't an intruder. This was its body. He was the intruder.
Theo didn't like this at all, being stuck in someone else's body and seeing this damn...
'What?'
'Why...aghh... IS HE JUMPING BACK?' Theo felt puzzled, but he got his answer right away.
'Reuel?' Theo could feel every damn thing that the body was experiencing, even the sadness he was now feeling.
Theo felt bad, but it was not about
Reuel's death because he didn't know who that was, and truthfully, there were millions of lifeless bodies surrounding him.
He just felt sorry for occupying this body, even though not by choice.
'I'm So-'
The body turned.
Theo's apology caught in his throat as the horizon split.
A mass of blue-violet flame rose, swallowing the red mist, striking against an ocean of dark energy.
Then, within seconds, a huge mass of spears made the sky blood-covered and transformed into a spear net clashing against the dark energy.
Theo's chest constricted.
Terror beyond reason poured into him, amplified by the emotions of the man whose body he shared.
"What the hell is that darkness?" His mind raged. If that battle came closer, there would be no survival.
Then he saw it.
The crest in the man's hand.