The swirling sphere of golden plasma detonated with the concussive, catastrophic fury of a dying star.
*BOOOOOM—!*
A blinding wall of pure, unadulterated thermal light swallowed the entire landscape in a single, terrifying heartbeat, obliterating the glassified earth and sending shockwaves rippling across the battle field.
The sheer concussive force flattened the surrounding terrain for miles, kicking up an impenetrable wall of thick, choking smoke, boiling dust, and rising ash that choked out the artificial sunlight overhead.
Malkor hovered amidst the swirling tempest of destruction, his chest heaving slightly from the sheer, staggering output of energy he had just unleashed. He lowered his glowing hands, watching the smoking crater below where Elias had vanished beneath the stellar inferno.
A cruel, arrogant smirk touched the edges of the conqueror's bloodied lips. He looked down into the smoldering abyss and let out a cold, triumphant breath, fully believing the battle was over.
"It's over," Malkor declared, his voice echoing across the silent wasteland like the final judgment of a supreme deity.
The battlefield went deathly still.
From the sidelines, tucked safely behind the shattered ridges of rock and debris, the group stopped breathing. NYX dropped her daggers, her eyes wide with horrified disbelief as she stared at the empty, smoking crater where Elias had fallen. Renji slammed his fist against the cracked earth, cursing under his breath in sheer frustration and dread. Lyra clamped both hands over her mouth, a choked sob breaking free as hot tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
Everyone watching thought he was dead.
They believed Elias was dead.
For three agonizing, breathless heartbeats, nothing moved.
The smoke churned lazily, and the heat began to slowly dissipate into the cold vacuum of the open air.
Then, deep within the center of the smoking crater, a faint crimson pixel flickered.
It wasn't a normal light. It pulsed with a sharp, rhythmic, deafening intensity—like a massive, wounded heartbeat echoing through the void of space.
The dull red of his previous aura was violently stripped away, peeled off like dead skin, and replaced by a blinding, razor-sharp crimson radiance that cut straight through the thickest clouds of smoke and ash.
*CHIME—!*
The halo floating above the crater spun at impossible, dizzying speeds.
The inscriptions flashed and fractured, rewriting themselves into a terrifying new matrix of power. Elias's body underwent a sudden, violent shift, shedding his previous physical limits as he evolved once more in the blistering crucible of absolute agony and bottomless rage.
Out of the smoke, a sound tore through the silence—a voice so filled with raw, unbridled fury, unbearable grief, and cold, calculating bloodlust that it shook the tectonic plates of the world.
"Malkorrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!" Elias screamed.
The shockwave of his roar blew the towering walls of smoke and dust back in an instant, clearing the atmosphere around them.
"I'm gonna kill youuuuuu!"
Before Malkor could even blink, before his brain could process the impossible survival of his target, Elias vanished.
The air didn't just break; it shattered into a million invisible pieces, screaming under the sudden application of infinite speed.
Elias materialized directly in front of the conqueror in less than a microsecond, his velocity defying every known law of physics.
His ash-colored skin was now etched with glowing crimson lines, and his crown of flames burned with the terrifying intensity of a localized supernova.
Malkor raised his arms in a desperate attempt to guard against the incoming assault, but Elias was already moving through him like a phantom, bypassing his defenses entirely.
*BANG!*
Elias launched a devastating left hook that connected squarely with Malkor's jaw, the impact sending a sonic shockwave that cleared the clouds overhead.
Before Malkor's head could even snap back from the force, Elias pivoted sharply on his heel, driving a high-speed, razor-sharp spinning back-kick straight into the conqueror's chest.
*CRACK!*
The sound of shattering ribs echoed like a gunshot across the silent continent. Malkor gasped, his eyes widening in sudden, unadulterated shock as he realized the dynamic had completely shifted.
Elias wasn't just matching him anymore—he was overwhelmingly, terrifyingly faster, hitting with a force that felt like a falling mountain.
Elias pressed the offensive with relentless fury, his movements so fast that afterimages trailed behind his fists, painting the air with streaks of crimson light.
Left jab! A lightning-fast strike that smashed Malkor's already broken nose, sending a fresh spray of blood misting into the heated air.
Right cross! A devastating blow to the temple that knocked the conqueror completely off balance, sending him stumbling sideways.
Elbow smash! Elias dropped his weight instantly, driving a razor-sharp elbow down onto Malkor's shoulder, crushing the joint and sending a jolt of pure agony through the conqueror's nervous system.
Malkor tried to channel his evo-energy to push him away, raising his hands to unleash a point-blank wave of plasma.
But Elias didn't even flinch. His halo chimed again, the glowing inscriptions shifting instantly to render the energy completely inert against his hardened, evolving frame.
Seizing Malkor by the throat before he could recover his footing, Elias unleashed a brutal, rapid-fire succession of knee strikes straight to the midsection.
*THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!*
"You thought you won?" Elias snarled, his burning red eyes locked onto Malkor's terrified golden gaze, holding the conqueror completely helpless in his iron grip. "You haven't seen anything yet!"
With a final, earth-shattering roar that rattled the foundations of the Moving Planet, Elias twisted his body in mid-air and delivered a devastating, full-power roundhouse kick to Malkor's ribs, sending the towering conqueror hurtling across the battlefield like a skipped stone.
Malkor plowed through multiple towering rock formations, shattering them into dust, before crashing violently into the ground and leaving a massive, smoking trench in his wake.
Elias stood suspended in the air above the crater, his chest heaving with deep, steady breaths, his halo spinning furiously, and his fists dripping with raw, unmatched power.