High above the clouds, Luke blasted forward at extreme speed, blue mana sealing around him like a hardened shell as he drove toward the southern Pacific Ocean. The sky twisted behind him, shockwaves cracking outward as the air failed to keep up.
Behind him an ice-blue blur matched his pace.
Esdeath flew with effortless control, arms loose at her sides, ice energy bleeding off her body in steady waves. Clouds froze as she passed through them, shattered, and scattered into glittering debris. She wasn't accelerating.
She didn't need to.
Luke glanced back.
Bad idea.
She was smiling.
Luke pushed more mana into his legs, the glow around him sharpening. "Figures," he muttered, voice tight. "She's faster."
He wasn't about to fight her over New York. A battle at this level would flatten the city before the Chitauri even arrived, so he was dragging her toward the Pacific Ocean instead.
The Pacific was big. Really big.
Big enough to survive two walking disasters throwing hands.
Behind him, Esdeath's voice cut through the rushing wind—bright, sharp, amused.
"Running already? How disappointing!"
Luke exhaled slowly mid-flight. "This isn't running," he said flatly. "Unlike you, I care about weaklings."
They crossed into open ocean in seconds. No land. No ships. Just endless water stretching to the horizon.
Luke stopped and hovered in midair, mana humming low around him. Below, the sea rolled calmly—for half a second.
Then Esdeath arrived.
She halted opposite him, boots suspended above the surface. The ocean beneath her froze instantly, ice racing outward in a violent spread.
The temperature dropped so fast the air seemed to recoil. Any normal human within range would've been dead before realizing what was happening.
Luke glanced down at the frozen expanse, then back at her.
"…Is there really no option where we talk this out?" he asked. "Because I'd really like to know how you even got into this world."
"No," Esdeath said simply.
"Just fight."
Luke sighed. "Yeah… figured."
Esdeath wasn't the type to talk first. She fought. Questions came later—if she cared at all.
Fire ignited around Luke and surged skyward. Clouds darkened instantly, swelling thick and heavy as lightning coiled within them. Heat rolled outward in crushing waves, the frozen air hissing and cracking as it tried—and failed—to endure.
One eye burned with flame.
The other sparked with violent lightning.
"So be it," Luke said, rolling his neck once. "Let's make sure nothing else survives this area."
Below them, the ocean groaned—one last, deep sound—
Then—
BOOM.
The world detonated.
Esdeath vanished.
Not teleportation—pure acceleration.
The space she'd occupied exploded into ice shards as she reappeared directly in front of Luke, her heel already swinging up in a vicious arc.
BOOOOM—
Luke barely crossed his arms in time.
The impact detonated mid-air, shockwaves ripping outward like a bomb going off in the sky. The frozen ocean below split apart with a thunderous KRRRRAAACK, ice plates the size of cities tearing free and drifting apart.
"Heh," Esdeath grinned, twisting smoothly in mid-air.
Ice surged in her palm—SHHK—!—forming into a spear in an instant.
"Good," she said, hurling it forward. "You didn't break."
The spear screamed through the air.
Luke didn't dodge.
Lightning exploded from his body, a blinding flash vaporizing the spear mid-flight. Fire roared from his back, forming blazing wings that beat once—
WHOOM—!
A tidal wave of heat slammed outward.
The frozen ocean screamed.
Steam erupted skyward as miles of ice flash-melted—FSSSSHHH—!—only to snap back into solid ice an instant later when Esdeath snapped her fingers.
The temperature plunged.
"Interesting power," she said calmly as ice bloomed behind Luke, surging upward like a living thing, trying to swallow him whole. "But you're still reacting."
Luke twisted.
Blue mana flared—
He tore free and reappeared above her in a flash, the air rupturing where he'd been.
"Funny," he shot back, fist blazing like a miniature sun, lightning snapping wildly around it, "I was about to say the same thing."
He punched.
The sky was split open.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
Fire and lightning crashed down like divine judgment, driving Esdeath straight into the ice below. The impact carved a massive crater—KRRRSH—!—so deep the ocean surged inward—
Only to freeze mid-wave.
Silence.
One breath.
Then—
The ice exploded outward as Esdeath rose from the crater, ice spiraling around her like a crown, eyes blazing with exhilaration.
"Yes," she laughed, voice ringing across the battlefield. "This world does have something worth conquering."
Luke hovered above the shattered sea, flames and lightning tightening around him.
"…Great," he muttered.
"She didn't even get a scratch."
Then the world stopped.
Not slowed—stopped.
The ocean froze mid-surge. Steam hung suspended like sculpted glass. Lightning locked itself into jagged veins across the sky. Fire paused halfway through a roar. Even sound vanished, swallowed by absolute stillness.
Esdeath hovered calmly, one hand raised, breath steady.
Mahapadma.
Time itself had been sealed in ice.
Luke was trapped mid-air, body locked in place. Mana crystallized inside his veins, light frozen solid. His flames were statues now—beautiful, motionless, useless.
Esdeath drifted closer. Her boots tapped softly against frozen air, each step deliberate, unhurried, as if the world existed solely for her convenience.
"This," she said, circling him, fingers brushing just past his immobile shoulder, "is the difference between power… and domination."
She leaned in, smiling. "You're impressive. But even you—"
Crack.
Her smile faltered.
A flicker sparked behind Luke's frozen gaze.
Blue.
Then white.
Then—
Gold.
A sound ripped through the stillness, like reality tearing at the seams.
Luke's lips moved. Slow at first. Then firm.
"…Divine. Cataclysm."
BOOOOOOM—!
The frozen world shattered.
Lightning detonated from Luke's body in a blinding eruption—not striking outward, but existing everywhere at once. Mahapadma screamed as time itself fractured, ice splintering into nothing as the air ignited.
The sky turned incandescent.
A storm of divine lightning and raw mana expanded outward, burning through frozen causality, transforming the battlefield into a blazing sphere of thunder and heat. The ocean below evaporated instantly, leaving behind a roaring void of steam and fire.
Esdeath was hurled backward—she twisted mid-air, boots skidding across nothingness—
And then she laughed.
Loud. Wild. Thrilled.
"So you can break it," she said, eyes shining. "You broke my Ultimate."
Luke hovered at the heart of the storm, lightning crawling across his skin, flames roaring behind him like something ancient finally waking up angry.
"But you should watch your back," Esdeath added lightly.
Ice surged behind him.
A massive sword formed in an instant—dense, brutal, spinning once before it launched forward.
The blade punched straight through Luke's back and out his chest, impaling his heart. Blood burst outward, scattering like crimson sparks before evaporating in the heat.
Silence fell—for half a second.
Luke didn't flinch.
He reached back calmly, closed his hand around the hilt protruding from his chest, and pulled.
The sword came free. He tossed it aside like scrap metal. It shattered mid-air into drifting ice shards.
"You can't kill me by stabbing my heart," he said flatly.
The wound sealed itself in seconds—muscle knitting, bone reforming, skin smoothing over as if nothing had happened.
Esdeath watched closely.
Interesting.
"So if I take your head," she asked, genuinely curious, "and shatter your body into particles… will you still come back?"
"Yes," Luke replied, voice steady.
His race—Wraith-Born—didn't exist solely in the physical world. They were anchored in both the spiritual and material planes. Even if his body was incinerated to dust, as long as his soul remained intact in the spiritual realm, regeneration was inevitable.
Infinite.
"I'm hard to kill," he added calmly. "Very hard."
Esdeath's smile widened—not with anger, not with frustration.
With joy.
"How wonderful," she said as ice crowned her arm in layered blades. "Then I don't have to hold back."
Luke exhaled slowly.
"…Yeah," he muttered. "That's exactly what I was afraid you'd say."
***
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