The ground beneath their boots did not merely crack; it dissolved into glowing, bubbling liquid magma as Malkor unlocked the true, unadulterated apex of his stellar authority.
Every square inch of the landscape shuddered under the immense atmospheric strain.
Golden light surged from the conqueror's exposed body in violent, blinding pulses, casting long, writhing shadows across the fractured landscape.
Elias stood firm amidst the rising tide of blinding golden heat.
His halo spun with frantic, blinding speed, the glowing inscriptions shifting second by second as his body desperately tried to adapt to the cataclysmic energy flooding the zone.
Malkor did not hesitate. With a feral snarl that echoed like rolling thunder , he vanished from sight, shattering the sound barrier instantly.
*BOOM!*
The space where Malkor had stood collapsed inward, imploding from the sheer speed of his departure.
He materialized directly in front of Elias in less than a microsecond, his hand shaped into a razor-sharp blade of dense golden light, aimed straight for Elias's chest with lethal precision.
Elias reacted on pure, burning instinct.
He crossed his forearms, making he's muscle denser just as Malkor's hand-blade struck home.
*SCREEECH—!*
The impact unleashed a shockwave that tore the surrounding landscape apart, sending massive boulders hurtling into the sky like pebbles.
The force of the blow pushed Elias back, his boots trenching deep, smoking furrows into the molten earth as he fought to maintain his ground against the overpowering momentum.
Before Elias could regain his footing, Malkor pressed the advantage with unrelenting savagery.
Malkor threw a blistering left hook laced with searing plasma. Elias ducked under the arc, pivoting sharply on his heel, and drove a vicious, red-hot elbow straight into Malkor's ribs with bone-crushing force.
*CRACK!*
The sound of splintering bone echoed sharply across the battlefield.
Malkor gasped, but unlike before, he didn't stagger back.
The immense stellar power pumping through his body cauterized and healed the fracture in a fraction of a second, sealing flesh and bone back together with a blinding flash of golden light.
"You think you can defeat me?!" Malkor roared, his voice vibrating with absolute supremacy and unbridled arrogance.
Malkor slammed his open palm directly into Elias's chest.
A concussive wave of golden energy erupted point-blank, sending Elias hurtling backward through the air like a fired cannonball.
Elias crashed violently into a massive stone ridge, shattering the rock into a million glowing fragments before tumbling heavily onto the dirt.
As Elias hit the ground, another sharp, frantic chime rang out from above his head.
Blood dripped freely from his chin, staining the ash on his skin.
Malkor did not give him a single second to breathe, recover, or catch his bearings.
He threw his hands forward, unleashing a devastating, continuous stream of concentrated energy beams straight at the fallen boy.
*ZOOOM—!*
The golden energy beams tore through the ground, melting rock and soil in their path and kicking up towering walls of fire, smoke, and debris.
Elias rolled rapidly across the earth, narrowly dodging beam after beam as the ground where he had lain a second ago was completely vaporized into nothingness, leaving smoking craters in its wake.
Teeth gritted, Elias sprang back to his feet, raising his hands to manifest a barrier of crimson flames to shield his front. But Malkor was already closing the distance.
The conqueror moved like a streak of lightning, appearing right inside Elias's guard before the barrier could fully solidify.
Malkor unleashed a brutal, high-intensity flurry of close-quarters combat that left Elias entirely on the defensive.
He delivered a crushing right cross that caught Elias square on the cheek, followed immediately by a devastating uppercut that snapped Elias's head upward, sending a spray of crimson droplets into the heated air.
*BANG! BANG!*
Elias stumbled back, his vision swimming for a fraction of a second under the relentless barrage.
Malkor capitalized instantly on the opening.
He grabbed Elias by the shoulders, pulled him forward with immense strength, and delivered a devastating knee strike straight into Elias's midsection.
The impact was so severe that the shockwave flattened the surrounding grass, shattered the bedrock beneath them, and forced the wind entirely out of Elias's lungs.
Elias coughed up a dark spray of blood, his knees buckling slightly under the crushing weight of the assault.
He was slowing down, his breathing ragged, while Malkor's stellar aura only grew brighter and more intense.
From the sidelines, watching from the safety of a rocky outcrop near the edge of the crater, the group held their collective breath in mounting horror and despair.
"He's... he's pushing Elias back," Renji muttered, his eyes wide as he gripped his wounded arm tightly, his face pale. "Malkor's evo-energy just increased again".
Sloane shook her head, her hands trembling violently as she watched the golden beams tear up the battlefield, destroying everything in their path.
Nearby, NYX clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned stark white, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper filled with dread. "Damn it, why I'm I so useless I should be helping him."
"You're not useless, but there just on another level" Zorin Lyx replied as he frowned he's face
Lyra covered her mouth with both hands, hot tears spilling over her lashes as she watched Elias take another brutal blow to the chest, sending him skidding across the scorched earth. "Get up, Elias... please, just get up..." she whispered, her voice breaking.
Elias wiped the warm blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, his red eyes glaring up through the blinding golden haze at the towering conqueror.
Malkor floated slightly above the ground, his body radiating a blinding, god-like halo of solar fire, a cruel, triumphant smirk forming on his bloodied lips.
"You fought well, boy," Malkor sneered, spreading his arms wide as he gathered an immense, swirling sphere of golden plasma between his hands—a concentrated supernova meant to wipe Elias and the entire surrounding continent out of existence in a single stroke. "But I'm just much better!"
Elias stood up slowly, his boots crunching against the glassified earth. His shoulders heaved with ragged, exhausted breaths.
He wasn't going to back down. He was going to push past his limits, right to the
very edge of destruction, to finish what he started.