The night sky over the TAPOPS headquarters was a blanket of endless stars, scattered like a million silent witnesses. Somewhere among those constellations, battles had been fought, empires had risen and fallen, and a young boy from Rintis Island had once discovered that he carried within him the seeds of greatness. But that boy was long gone.
Standing atop the highest tower, wind tugging at his battle-worn cloak, Boboiboy stared into the horizon as if it could offer him answers. He had grown. The childlike spark that once danced in his eyes had deepened into something older, tempered by time and conflict. At twenty-five years old, he was no longer just the hero of Rintis Island. He was a legend whispered in the corners of the galaxy—a warrior who had fought monsters, warlords, cosmic tyrants, and forces that threatened to erase existence itself. He had saved worlds. He had destroyed nightmares.
But every legend has a cost.
His gloved hand trembled as he reached to touch the insignia on his chest, feeling the faint pulse of energy beneath his skin. Seven different elemental powers coursed through him, each originating from a Power Sphere once belonging to the Seven Elemental Masters. Thunderstorm. Cyclone. Earthquake. Blaze. Ice. Thorn. Solar. Seven elements. Seven living forces. Seven hearts that were never meant to beat within one mortal vessel.
His body was a battlefield of forces in perfect tension. Not perfect harmony—never that. It was balance born from constant struggle. Each element pushed, pulled, clashed, intertwined, trying to coexist in a fragile equilibrium held together only by the sheer strength of his will and the silent cooperation of the elemental characters that dwelled within him.
But he could feel it now.
Cracks forming.
Not visible to the eye, but in his bones, in the ache that no healing light could fix. His every breath burned with Solar heat and froze with Ice's chill. His veins surged like Cyclone's winds and shuddered like Earthquake's tremors. Sometimes he'd wake in the night feeling Blaze's fire trying to consume him from within, only to be smothered by Thorn's vines. And Thunderstorm—always Thunderstorm—was like a restless beast pacing inside his chest, waiting for the day the cage would shatter.
He was nearing his limit.
Only a Power Sphere's full strength could sustain itself indefinitely. A human body, no matter how extraordinary, was not meant to contain seven.
"Boboiboy."
The voice came from behind him. Commander Koko Ci walked forward, his uniform sharp even in the cool night wind. His eyes, always stern yet kind, softened a fraction as he regarded his most trusted agent.
"The council has approved your retirement after the next mission," Koko Ci said. "You've done more than anyone could have asked. It's time to pass the torch."
Boboiboy smiled faintly. "Retirement, huh? Sounds peaceful."
"You've earned it."
For a moment, silence stretched between them, filled only by the hum of the distant city. Koko Ci knew. He didn't need to say it out loud. The doctors, the specialists, the Power Sphere analysts—they had all agreed. His body was deteriorating. He had survived this long through willpower and miracles, but even miracles have a price.
"One last mission," Boboiboy said, turning back to the stars.
"Yes. A Power Sphere has been detected near the outer edges of the Rift Nebula. Aetherbot. An ancient sphere with the ability to transcend time and space itself. We need you to retrieve it before it falls into the wrong hands."
Boboiboy closed his eyes. Aetherbot. He'd heard the legends. A Sphere that could bend reality, bridge eras, rewrite destinies. The kind of power that could reshape the galaxy—or destroy it.
"Understood," he said finally.
The next day, TAPOPS was abuzz with quiet tension. The ship was prepared, and his team—though younger and less experienced—looked at him with awe and reverence. He had trained many of them. To them, he was the unbreakable hero. None of them saw the fractures beneath the surface.
As the ship sped through the stars toward the coordinates of the Rift Nebula, Boboiboy sat alone in the meditation chamber. He crossed his legs, closed his eyes, and retreated inward.
Inside him was a vast landscape, an inner realm where the Elemental Characters resided. Thunderstorm stood tall, arms crossed, electricity crackling along his armor. Cyclone leaned casually against a swirling current of air, sharp-eyed and vigilant. Earthquake sat solid as a mountain, silent but strong. Blaze's fiery mane flickered as he paced. Ice glimmered cold and distant, while Thorn's vines curled lazily, concealing her sharpness. Solar burned like a miniature sun, radiant and fierce.
They looked at him as he appeared before them in this mental space—not as their wielder, but as their equal, their friend.
"You feel it too, don't you?" Boboiboy asked quietly.
Thunderstorm's expression darkened. "You're breaking."
Cyclone smirked bitterly. "Took you long enough to admit it."
Blaze clenched his fists, flames licking at his knuckles. "We should have separated long ago."
Thorn's voice was soft but firm. "But we didn't. Because you held us together."
He smiled at them. These weren't just powers. They were his comrades. His family. Parts of him, and yet beings of their own.
"Whatever happens out there," he said, "thank you."
None of them replied, but their silence was heavy with emotion.
The ship arrived at the Rift Nebula. Before them swirled a tear in space itself, like a wound bleeding light and darkness. In its heart, glimmering faintly, was Aetherbot.
Boboiboy stepped out alone, wings of elemental energy flaring behind him as he approached. He could feel the pull of the rift even before he got close—a gravitational force not of mass, but of destiny.
And then everything went wrong.
The rift pulsed violently, as if recognizing his presence. Aetherbot flared awake, its ancient power reaching out. Space folded, twisted. His elemental energies reacted instinctively, forming shields, counterforces, anchors. But the rift was too strong.
"Hold together!" he roared inside his mind as his body was dragged toward the crack in reality.
The elements rallied. Thunderstorm unleashed bolts that lashed against the pull. Cyclone spun whirlwinds to push back. Earthquake stomped the inner realm, creating shockwaves. Blaze erupted in roaring flames, Ice formed crystalline barriers, Thorn's vines wrapped around him like chains, Solar radiated pure force.
But Aetherbot's power was beyond anything they had faced.
One by one, their defenses crumbled.
Cyclone was the first to falter. A sudden surge ripped through his currents, unraveling him like a storm dispersed by wind. He screamed in frustration as he was pulled from Boboiboy's core, his essence sucked into the rift.
"CYCLONE!"
Then Earthquake. His solid form shattered like stone struck by a god's hammer, fragments scattering into the abyss.
Blaze fought valiantly, his flames raging like a dying star, but the rift consumed fire as if it were nothing but candlelight. He vanished in a flare of light.
Ice followed, silent and cold, shards trailing as she was pulled away.
Thorn lashed out vines that tried to cling to him, but they were cut away like silk threads in a storm.
Solar struggled longest, his brilliance lighting the void, but even suns cannot hold back the infinite.
Finally, Thunderstorm, the oldest, the strongest. His electric fury raged, but Boboiboy knew. Even he could not resist forever.
"Boboiboy!" Thunderstorm's voice thundered through his mind.
Boboiboy's eyes widened as he realized the inevitable. His body was reaching its breaking point. He could keep fighting. He could burn himself out completely, shatter his soul trying to hold them together.
Or he could let go.
The decision came with strange calmness.
"Don't fight anymore," he whispered.
Thunderstorm froze, disbelief in his eyes.
"You all deserve to live," Boboiboy said, tears streaming down his face. "Not trapped inside me. Not chained by my limits. You've given me everything. Now it's time… for you to be free."
Thunderstorm's defiance cracked. He looked at the others being pulled away, then back at Boboiboy. Slowly, he nodded.
Boboiboy spread his arms wide, opening himself to the rift.
"I accept this," he said.
The pull intensified. The fragments of elemental essence inside him began to break apart, glowing shards swirling upward like stars escaping their galaxy. Each shard carried a whisper, a memory, a heartbeat.
As Thunderstorm was finally wrenched away, Boboiboy whispered one last time.
"Live… a life that belongs to you."
And then he let go.
The rift consumed them all, separating seven elemental forces and scattering them across worlds unknown. Boboiboy's body, freed of their conflicting powers for the first time in years, was cast adrift into the void.
The last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was Aetherbot's light fading into the distance, and the stars blinking like solemn witnesses.
The legend had not ended. It had fractured. And the journey was only beginning.