A violent shockwave tore through the vacuum of space, leaving a streak of crimson plasma in its wake. Moving at a fraction of light speed, a blinding flash of red light bridged the gap between the distant void and the central bridge of the Moving Planet.
In a single heartbeat, Elias materialized directly in front of Malkor.
The conqueror paused mid-step, his cold golden eyes widening by a fraction.
The ashen-skinned youth standing before him was completely transformed; the golden hair and divine aura were gone, replaced entirely by a dynamic crown of crimson flames, an ash-colored body, and a pair of burning, blood-red eyes that radiated absolute, chilling malice.
"I see you're still alive," Malkor said, recovering his composure with a cold smirk as he adjusted his coat. "Guess I'll just have to end you again."
Without a moment of hesitation, Malkor pulled his arm back and drove his fist forward, aiming straight for Elias's chest.
"Zone out."
The same devastating strike that had previously blasted Elias out of the planet landed dead center. But this time, there was no shockwave through the bulkheads.
There was no flight into deep space.
The fist hit Elias's chest and came to an abrupt, jarring halt.
Elias didn't even flinch. His body didn't budge an inch. The concept of the "Zone Out" strike simply dissolved against his skin.
Elias's red eyes narrowed into lethal slits.
"My turn," Elias whispered, his voice a gravelly, demonic rasp. "Zero point."
*BOOOOOOM—!*
The counter-explosion was cataclysmic. A sphere of localized, absolute energy erupted from Elias's fist, detonating directly against Malkor's midsection.
The entire battlefield of the Moving Planet shook violently. The massive shockwave ripped across the metallic floors, picking up the battered bodies of the fallen soldiers and sliding them across the deck.
Malkor's eyes shot wide open. The absolute invincibility he had projected all day shattered in an instant.
The sheer kinetic backlash of the zero-point detonation bypassed his defenses entirely, sending him skidding backward across the shattered alloy floor for dozens of meters.
He slammed hard into a reinforced structural pillar, coughing violently as he dropped heavily onto one knee.
For the first time a human made Malkor gasped for air, his hands gripping his stomach as golden blood dripped from his chin.
Before Malkor could even push himself back up, a blur of red ash materialized directly inches from his face.
Elias stood over him, looking down with a terrifying, emotionless expression.
"Looks like I shouldn't have held back," Elias said, his voice cold enough to freeze blood.
Malkor forced his chin up, his golden eyes burning with sudden, furious pride as he stared into the glowing red abyss of Elias's gaze.
"Don't you dare look down on me, you arrogant brat!" Malkor roared.
With a burst of energy, Malkor vanished, reappearing mid-air above Elias.
He brought both hands together, forming a massive, condensed blade of time-lagged spatial pressure and swung it downward like a guillotine.
*CRASH!*
Elias raised his forearm to block, the impact cratering the floor beneath his boots.
But instead of being crushed, Elias caught the edge of Malkor's conceptual blade with his bare, ash-colored hand.
"Too slow," Elias hissed.
Elias swept his leg in a devastating, high-speed roundhouse kick. Malkor ducked under it by a hair's breadth, but Elias anticipated the evasion, instantly pivoting on his heel to drive a vicious elbow strike straight into Malkor's jaw.
*BANG!*
The force of the elbow sent Malkor stumbling backward.
Malkor retaliated instantly, activating his time lag to freeze the air directly around Elias's throat, turning the atmosphere into a solid, unyielding barrier.
Elias didn't try to dodge. He adapted in real-time, instantly shifting his body's density to vibrate at a frequency that passed right through the solid air barrier like a ghost. He appeared directly inside Malkor's guard.
Elias unleashed a relentless flurry of strikes.
A lightning-fast left jab tore across Malkor's cheek, followed immediately by a devastating right hook that cracked the conqueror's cheekbone.
Malkor gritted his teeth, spinning around to deliver a sweeping back kick, but Elias caught his ankle mid-air, using Malkor's own rotational momentum to slam him violently into the metal floor.
*BOOM!*
Malkor rolled away, his dark leather coat shredded, his breathing heavy and ragged. He raised his hand, attempting to erase the gravity around Elias.
"Gravity... cease," Malkor commanded.
The gravity vanished, but Elias didn't float away. His body instantly evolved to the attack anchoring his feet firmly to the deck as if gravity was still pulling at a thousand pounds per square foot.
Elias sprinted forward across the zero-gravity zone, closing the distance in a fraction of a second.
He drove an open-palm strike straight into Malkor's chest, releasing a condensed wave of energy that scorched the conqueror's chest and sent him crashing through three consecutive steel bulkheads.
A few dozen yards away, amidst the smoking wreckage of the central plaza, a groan broke the silence.
Renji pushed himself up off the floor, his hands trembling as he clutched his ribs. He blinked rapidly, shaking his head to clear the ringing in his ears, and stared across the plaza toward the epicenter of the brutal clash.
"Is that... Elias?" Renji muttered, his voice full of disbelief. "He looks so completely different... His energy feels so weird."
A few feet away, Sloane, was kneeling beside Drakye Void, her hands glowing as she poured every ounce of her energy into trying to stabilize the fallen captain's failing pulse.
Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs, her breath hitching as she looked toward the red glow in the distance.
"Yes, you're right," Sloane breathed out, her voice shaking with unconcealed terror. "It's dark... I can't even explain it. But for some reason, standing this far away... it feels like .... it's pure evil."
Not far from them, NYX pushed herself up, her eyes widening in absolute horror as she stared at the demonic red silhouette tearing through the bulkhead.
"Evil...?" NYX whispered, her voice trembling. "No, that can't be Elias. It's not possible. He's... he's one of us."
"NYX, it's him, I can see his face beneath the fire," Renji said, gritting his teeth as a sharp pain shot through his side. "But the real question is... what the hell happened to him out there in space?"
Zorin Lyx groaned, coughing up a mouthful of dark blood as he tried, unsuccessfully, to push himself up onto his elbows.
"I don't know much about your friend Elias," Zorin wheezed, his eyes tracking the brutal speed of the red-aura combatants. "But look at his eyes... Those eyes don't want to save anyone. Those eyes just want to see one thing, and that one thing is death."
The words of zorin Lyx sent a chill down everyone's spine.
Lying a few feet away, Tyson remained completely unconscious, but he was slowly regaining consciousness.
Meanwhile, the tide of the battle had completely shifted.
The remaining Xenocide forces had successfully overwhelmed Malkor's men and the remaining reinforcement divisions began arriving one by one.
Lyra burst into the central plaza alongside Kross, Kahn, Sora, and remaining members from the 9th Division.
They immediately fanned out, rushing toward the fallen captains and shouting for the surviving medics to deploy field treatments.
Kross jogged over to where Jaxen was sitting against a scorched pillar, clutching his heavily bruised midsection.
"Yo, Jaxen! Look at you, still breathing," Kross said, offering a hand to pull him up.
Jaxen took the hand with a wince, letting out a sharp hiss of pain. "Of course I am... it's just—ouch! My ribs, damn it..." Jaxen cursed, carefully holding his side as he stood upright.
Lyra hurried into the plaza, her eyes scanning the area, before locking onto Mikasa and the others standing near the front lines. She rushed over, her face pale with anxiety.
"Em—guys, where is Elias?" Lyra asked, her voice tight with panic as she noticed his absence from the group of downed fighters.
Mikasa pointed a trembling finger toward the distant, smoking crater where the red and golden energies were violently colliding.
"He's right ther
e," Mikasa whispered, her voice hollow. "He's the one fighting him."