Sōn wandered through the sand storm wastelands, his body battered and scorched from his battle against Sorata. Burns covered his arms, his breathing was uneven, and every step felt heavier than the last.
As he walked lifelessly forward, his thoughts echoed inside his mind.
"How long have I been walking now? It's been two hours since I woke up. At the end of it all, i failed. I couldn't beat Saito. The gap between us was just too big. Guess all that training was for nothing."
He looked around slowly, his vision blurred, before realizing something unsettling.
He was in the middle of nowhere, the wastelands were stormy. Sōn knew it was night time, but he didn't know where exactly he was.
Son let out a dry laugh.
"I wonder how the others are doing…Who am I kidding? For all I know, they could already be dead. We'd be lucky if any of us survive this war."
His legs finally gave out, and he collapsed onto the scorched ground. As consciousness began to fade, another thought surfaced.
"I wonder if Dad is alive…Nah. He's probably at death's door. With the kind of hatred Saito had for him… there's no way he survived.".
His eyes slowly closed.
Sōn passed out in the wasteland.
Meanwhile—
Alex and Kazuki continued their devastating battle against Zodia.
Massive explosions rocked the battlefield as flames, lightning, and raw energy tore through the land. Zodia moved through the chaos effortlessly, laughing like a mad man as he fought the two at full power "HAHAHAKAHAHA!"
Alex formed massive spheres of energy and hurled them at Zodia relentlessly. Zodia flew at top speed, dodging and slicing through the attacks with ease. One of the energy spheres veered toward him—
Zodia activated his reflection technique.
The attack was redirected elsewhere, detonating in a catastrophic explosion. Alex and Kazuki flew down to him at tip speed, exchanging blows, clashing with him with the Blade of Death and their lightning sword. Zodia, Alex and Kazuki were using their combat abilities to their fullest potentials on fighting each other.
Zodia smiled.
"Your power is growing," he said mockingly. "But it's still not enough."
Alex shot forward past the speed of light, energy surging through his fists, and landed a powerful punch.
Zodia caught it.
"Oh?" he said with interest. "So you want to go blow for blow once more? Fine by me."
The two vanished in flashes of motion, clashing at incredible speed in close-quarters combat.
A massive amount of demonic energy erupted from Alex's fists as he roared:
"Energy Fist Plus One Hundred—Strength of a Million Men!"
Dark energy flooded his arms, twisting violently as it went berserk.
Alex dashed toward Zodia at insane speed, aiming to crush him.
Zodia's eyes lit up with excitement.
He dodged.
Alex's punch slammed into the ground instead.
The impact triggered a massive earthquake, the earth exploding upward as shockwaves tore through the battlefield.
Alex went wild, launching a furious barrage of punches, but Zodia dodged every single one with ease—smiling the entire time.
Zodia caught one punch.
"Here," he said casually. "Take this."
He punched Alex so hard that he was sent flying across countless mountains.
Before Alex could recover—
A massive ball of energy slammed into him, erupting in another devastating explosion.
Kazuki gathered an enormous amount of purple lightning.
A lightning circle formed beneath his feet, crackling violently. Two towering pillars of lightning erupted beside him, each surrounded by glowing magic circles "NOW FIRE!", he roared.
They fired.
Massive torrents of purple lightning blasted toward Zodia.
The explosion lit up the battlefield.
Zodia stood within it—unharmed.
His smile devilish as he stood in the attack, looking like a silhouette.
Then he teleported "He vanished?!", Kazuki asked himself. He turned around.
In an instant, Zodia appeared behind Kazuki.
The two clashed, trading blows as lightning rained across the battlefield, striking the ground nonstop due to their fight.
Zodia kicked Kazuki away, sending him flying.
While airborne, Kazuki formed massive lightning bow and arrows and hurled the arrows toward Zodia.
Zodia launched himself into the air and punched one arrow head-on.
Lightning discharged violently across the battlefield.
With a wild grin, Zodia punched the attack away "UHAAAAAAAAAAAA!", he roared.
More arrows followed.
Zodia flew straight into them, kicking and punching each one aside.
Another arrow came straight at him.
Zodia caught it.
He smiled.
Kazuki's eyes widened in shock.
"HERE," Zodia shouted excitedly. "YOU CAN HAVE THIS BACK!".
He hurled the lightning arrow at Kazuki.
Kazuki tried to dodge—
Zodia activated Reflect, accelerating the arrow's speed "Oh shit!", Kazuki exclaimed.
It struck Kazuki directly, blasting him with overwhelming force "GHAAA!", he groaned.
Kazuki screamed in pain as he plummeted toward the ground "AAAAAAAH!"
Zodia appeared above him.
The final blow landed.
Kazuki crashed into the earth, utterly defeated.
Zodia walked toward him slowly.
"Is that all you have?" he asked. "I expected more."
Kazuki smirked weakly.
"Got you exactly where we want you, bastard."
Zodia frowned "Again?!"
He looked up.
Alex hovered in the sky, massive balls of lava falling toward him. Above that, Kazuki floated as well—giant purple energy spheres, purple flames, and countless lightning arrows raining down simultaneously "THE ME YOU WERE FIGHTING WAS JUST A CLONE YOU CLOWN!", Kazuki mocked Zodia with excitement.
Zodia smirked wildly.
Time stopped.
Everything froze.
Zodia calmly switched places with Alex and Kazuki. Kazuki and Alex were now on the ground level instead of up, while Zodia was also at ground level walking to a safe distance "Hm. I'd like to see this one.", Zodia scoffed with a grin.
Time resumed.
Alex and Kazuki realized the truth too late "What the?!", Alex exclaimed.
Their own attacks were falling on them.
Their expressions twisted into pure shock.
The explosion of fire and lightning engulfed the battlefield, completely wiping it out.
Zodia stood at a distance, eyes glowing blue, watching the destruction.
When the smoke cleared—
Kazuki was kneeling, shielding both himself and Alex with a forcefield. His arm was burnt up, as well as a part of his air scorched. The arm he used to shield himself and Alex had the purple lightning fading away all the way to the left side of his chest.
Zodia blinked.
Then smiled.
"You're still standing?" he said, impressed. "Nice. Really nice."
He tilted his head.
"But how long do you plan to keep this up? I'm starting to get tired."
Alex and Kazuki were barely standing now.
Kazuki's lightning armor faded away.
Alex's Inferior Demon Form (Second Stage) dissolved.
They were out of options.
END OF CHAPTER