Chase began to tremble...
His body was screaming in agony at the very realization of being "Reborn"...
His mind was unraveling like a thousand threads... Threatening to break apart at the seams.
He moved... A subtle movement... Perhaps all he would ever be able to muster up...
But it was enough.
His violent raged showed, as his eyes met Michael's.
Not only that...
He could see everything...
Soul sense had somehow already activated...
His fear was true... Leo had destroyed his catalyst... And yet... He was mind boggled at the fact that he was still fighting.
Everyone...
Everyone was still fighting.
Gemini swung his hammer, his body donned in ice.
Hextra barely avoided it, using everything she had at her disposal to force retreat from Unity.
Yet Chase... Could not move...
He couldn't dare...
It was like trying to push a mountain.
He couldn't move an inch.
Only watch.
Then it happened.
Leo was being overwhelmed by Rakshaa, slammed and thrown aside.
Hextra's serpents surrounded Luke, burying him in an onslaught of attacks.
Hextra slashed an arch of energy at Neveah, being barely able to deflected it but sending her body flying backwards...
Hans climbed from the void... Looking forward in awe as he put a hand on Gideon's charred shoulder.
He muttered something that Chase could not hear...
Michael was now the entire frontline... With Gabriel providing as much support as he could from behind.
Until Hextra broke through his ice, grabbing him by the throat and launching him towards Chase.
Then Rakshaa lifted his crimson axe... Sending a shiver down Chase's spine... Then the troll hurled the axe towards them.
Michael tried to get up and summon ice, but it was clear that he had gone far beyond his limits.
The axe crashed into the ground, nearly missing Chase's unmovable form.
Michael grit his teeth, looking down at Chase with what could have been any desperate emotion.
He began to speak.
But stopped himself.
He grit his teeth further, looking down at Chase. He was barely able to maintain his balance as he began to speak to his friend.
"Get up..."
It was not only a demand...
But a plea...
It was pure desperation...
But also...
Hope...
Which in a sense was all they could have at this point.
Chase's heart began to speed up, beating against his chest like a war drum...
...
Gemini tried to block, unable to deflect another of Hextra's invisible attacks.
He kept being back further and further into a wall.
His hammer growing heavier and heavier in his hands...
He looked up in fear as one of her serpents began closing in on him with immense speed.
He thought...
His life began to flash before his eyes.
All of the mistakes... The good times...
Every memory...
He remembered standing in the forge alongside Chase...
'Why had he named it Hero's Fang...?' He wondered...
Then... As he began to shut his eyes.
A flash of sparks and flesh splattered across the air...
Chase...
Was standing in front of him...
Wielding... A weapon the size of himself...
Chase swung the axe lazily, placing it over his shoulders...
He was imbalanced... Barely able to stand...
Yet his gaze was dead set on Hextra...
"Do you know..." He huffed... Panting like a rabid dog.
"What it was like... Being your punching bag..." Chase grinned. leaning back as his axe was lifted in the air...
A small crescent moon taking shape on the crown of the axe's handle...
"Impossible!" Hextra yelled, clenching her fists on the other side of the battlefield.
"No... You made a fatal error..." Chase's grin grew wider.
Everyone watched in awe...
Even Rakshaa had ceased his fighting and stared with a sense of disbelief...
He muttered... "Apocalypse..."
Chase; however, was so joyous in that moment... Like all of the euphoria of every fight had stacked upon itself... Building something so unbelievable that even he could not understand what was happening.
His bare chest began to radiate with onyx runes...
Markings of indescribable meaning forming and creeping around his body like living sigils...
He held his axe up... Glaring at the lesser goddess before him.
"Your mistake... Was fighting me with full strength... Showing me every single attack you have... Before the battle even began!" Chase laughed with insanity...
"Now..." Hextra tried to move... But was seemingly paralyzed as Chase continued to speak, his voice raising as if it he were casting a Trinity Art of his own making...
"Luna... Lesser goddess of the moon..." Hextra's eyes widened... In fact...
Everyone looked starstruck...
Olympia began to tremble...
The form of a ghostly woman taking shape... Hovering above and behind Chase with her arms outstretched.
"I offer... A contract!" His face expanded. A grin so wide and mad that no human would ever make the assumption of sanity... Let alone humanity...
"State your offering..." The ghostly figure asked, growing closer to Chase and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I give you... My father's flames..." He growled, his eyes narrowing as the sigil on the backside of his hand began to glow ferociously...
"What...?" Michael asked, taken aback by this as he helped Gemini stand from behind... But even him, having just faced a lesser god of his own... Could not even comprehend the aura escaping from these two inhuman figures.
Slowly...
"I accept..."
The sigil of a Phoenix... Began to fade away on Chase's hand...
The power of his father's lineage began to dissipate within him... And with it... Came the power that was taxing him all this time.
"In return... I not only ask! But DEMAND! YOU GIVE ME YOUR FULL STRENGTH LUNA!" He screamed at the top of his lungs... As slowly...
The marking of a moon began to take shape on the back of his hand...
Ghostly flames began to radiate from his body... Growing hotter and hotter by the second...
He swung the axe at his side... A shockwave of power cracking the floor beneath him from just a single movement.
Then... The ghost began to fade into Chase... And with it... A terrible power began to enter his body...
The ghostly flames grew stronger...
Then...
The black marking took shape on the small of his back...
...
Chase stood in the pond of blood within his mind...
"Go ahead..." The voice of his elder sister said.
"Let it flood..." She continued... Amusement leaking into her tone.
Chase nodded...
Determination covering every emotion in his soul's body...
Then his inner world began to quake.
And a large wall of blood began to arrive from all sides... Crushing and destroying everything in its path.
Chase outstretched his arms... Embracing the flood of energy beginning to consume him.
Before he knew it.
He was submerged in a body of water... His arms lazily outstretched at his sides.
His face was unstrained... Calm as he could breathe within the flood of blood.
It was like... Being surrounded by everything... And nothing at the same time.
Although no one had warned him... No one had told him or notified him.
He knew because it was his power.
That the second seal had broken...