The action is relentless.
Advanced Energy Activation
As the cataclysmic, black smoke finally begins to clear, revealing the true scale of the carnage, the entire Tshabadira Palace is reduced to little more than shredded rubble, flattened stones, and smoldering debris. The majestic ancestral home of the Tshabadira clan is now an enormous, smoking crater of dust and pulverized rock.
Standing in the center of the devastation, breathing heavily but utterly undamaged, is Rorisang, her hair disheveled but her eyes burning with fierce, corrupt Divine power. Her black attire is pristine against the ash.
"Well, that was certainly uncalled for, Rorisang." Hakuna says, dusting off his shoulders, trying to sound nonchalant but feeling the oppressive weight of her new power.
"Hakuna Ntlamele, you will be mine," Rorisang declares, her voice echoing with the unnatural, amplified timbre of Sparta. "It is inevitable, and no amount of resistance will change the destiny ordained by the destruction of a thousand worlds."
Before she can take a step, Nolitha surges forward from the wreckage, still reeling from the explosion, and punches Rorisang with a desperate, low-power strike, throwing her violently toward a newly collapsed wall.
"Delusional much? Did the explosion rattle your brain, or were you always this unhinged?" Nolitha says, her voice laced with fury.
"Look, Nolitha, I'll buy you time," the prince chimes in, his eyes locked on Rorisang. His focus is on the strategy, not the flirtation.
"Time for what? To exchange more insults?" Nolitha asks, dropping her guard slightly in confusion.
Hakuna then continues, his voice urgent and strained. "Come on, Nolitha, concentrate! She's clearly activated a level of Advanced Energy Manipulation; she's pulling on some corrupted Divine power. That last blast was only the initial release. I'll buy you time so you can do the same. You need to push past your mental blocks, now."
"Hakuna…" she mutters, realizing the full scope of his sacrifice. He was asking her to fight, truly fight, for the first time in years.
Hakuna interjects, a hint of desperation in his voice. "Let's win this. I need you on my side. Don't give me a reason to destroy the world and everything in it out of unchecked, primal rage, please." The threat was not idle; it was a plea for her life and the lives of everyone else.
He flies toward Rorisang, activating his Psuedo Divine Energy, the familiar purple hue intensifying until it looks almost white. He charges in a blur of motion, a heroic distraction.
Rorisang catches him mid-flight with a single, contemptuous hand, the difference in their power now staggering, and casts him aside into a massive pile of rubble.
Hakuna runs back to Rorisang, his determination unwavering, and punches her with everything he has left, but the blow has absolutely no effect. It's like punching a mountain draped in silk. She turns slowly to face Hakuna, her black eyes filled with cold pity.
"Uh oh. He's outmatched. Hugely outmatched," Psycha mutters in Hakuna's mind.
Rorisang delivers a devastating, focused punch straight into Hakuna's stomach, a blow so powerful it slams him into the ground like a tent peg. She then proceeds to punch him ferociously, a relentless flurry of dark, crushing blows, each impact trembling the ground and sending shockwaves through the pulverized earth. The assault doesn't seem to stop, fueled by pure malice, but she suddenly pauses. She stares at the trace of blood on her fist, or is it that she senses something else entirely?
"Celestial Distortion…" Nolitha whispers.
This is one of Nolitha's many esoteric abilities, a terrifying power to distort reality, bending space and time in a localized area—a power akin to a god's. Nolitha has finally activated her Advanced Divine Energy. The air around her ripples like heat haze, yet it is freezing cold, confirming her breakthrough.
"Took you long enough, Princess. My ribcage was about to give up the ghost," Hakuna says, pushing himself up, dusting himself off with surprising resilience despite the brutal beating.
"Okay, I was unable to move for what felt like an eternity. You are both going to die for that moment of distraction," Rorisang declares, her focus shifting instantly from Hakuna to Nolitha.
"Shall we, Makhosikazi?" Hakuna beckons, a fierce, primal grin spreading across his face.
"Of course, Pappie. Let's finish this," Nolitha replies, her eyes glowing with pure white light.
They both vanish.
"What the—where did they go?" Rorisang stammers, disoriented by the abrupt cessation of their energy signatures.
Hakuna and Nolitha reappear on either side of Rorisang, their motions perfectly synchronized. They simultaneously strike her with twin punches so powerful they not only shake the ground beneath their feet but feel as if they shake the world on its very axis. The sheer force of the dual impact momentarily stuns Rorisang.
Sparta's Taunt
Rorisang manages to catch her footing, staggering slightly, but the couple's assault is a blistering, unyielding onslaught. They attack not just with raw power but with perfect coordination, anticipating Rorisang's every defensive move.
She dodges some blows, tries to block others, but the sheer momentum and synchronized impact of their strikes mean nothing seems to be working as efficiently as before. The hits seem never-ending, coming from multiple, unpredictable angles. She's suddenly stuck in place, unable to freely move, unable to fight back, defensively paralyzed. She is, for the first time since her possession, truly vulnerable.
Sparta chimes in, his mental voice dripping with cold disappointment and scorn. "Princess, are you truly struggling against these emotionally driven children? The vessel of the ancient Tshabadira line is being rendered immobile by teenage affection?"
"I… I can't make a move, Sparta," she strains, trying desperately to break the cycle.
Sparta then continues, hitting her where he knows it hurts the most. "Your Highness, your beloved is slipping away by the second. The object of your desire is fighting to secure the very woman you despise. Are you willing to let him go, just like that? After all the insidious work you have put into this grand plan, the kidnapping, the power-up, you are merely willing to let him go? How utterly pitiful. Perhaps you did not deserve him, after all. Perhaps he was always meant for the Xhosa girl."
"No…" she says, a single word of agonizing denial, her own persona fighting against Sparta's influence and the truth of the moment.
Rorisang's power begins to violently rise, the black energy swelling, fighting against the forces of physics the couple is inflicting upon her.
"I will not stand by and let you steal him from me!" she declares, the hatred fueling her surge.
Lightning, thick and black, sparks violently around her body, tearing at the edges of the Divine Energy surrounding her.
"No…" she grunts, the effort visible on her face.
She slowly clenches her fists, compressing the dark power into a single, lethal sphere.
"Hakuna will be mine, no matter what it takes. If I have to destroy the world to claim him, then I will," she declares, her energy going higher and higher, the power level reaching astronomical, world-ending levels. Hakuna and Nolitha continue with the punishing onslaught, but their blows now begin to lose their effectiveness.
Rorisang then says, forcing the words through clenched teeth, "So believe me when I say, and believe the power that flows through me…"
She tenses her entire being, pulling the lightning and darkness inward.
"NO ONE DESERVES HIM MORE THAN ME!" She roars, unleashing all the pent-up power in one apocalyptic surge.
Her energy explodes outward, a black nova of compressed power, throwing Hakuna and Nolitha away from her and through the air like discarded toys.
Divide and Conquer
Before they could even manage to get back up, Rorisang is already in front of them, her new level of power giving her unparalleled speed and overwhelming strength.
She intercepts Hakuna first, punching him savagely away into the rubble, forcing him to keep a distance.
She then turns her attention to Nolitha, attacking her with a ferocious series of blinding blows. It seems as though they are at equal footing due to Nolitha's activated Divine Energy, but Rorisang has the raw power advantage, infused by Sparta, and almost wins the exchange. Just as Rorisang is about to land a final, debilitating blow, Hakuna uses his power to disrupt the physical space between them.
"Concentrated Atmospheric Burst,"
The attack only manages to briefly bruise Rorisang, not dealing any substantial damage, but it serves its purpose: managing to briefly keep her focus on Hakuna, who is scrambling to recover.
She punches Nolitha away with disgust and immediately begins her final, focused assault on Hakuna.
This one-sided exchange goes on for some time. Hakuna and Nolitha are both almost knocked out, their energy reserves critically low. Rorisang, recognizing the continuous threat of Nolitha's coordination, decides to toss Nolitha aside into a distant mound of debris and turn her full, terrifying attention back to the Prince. She then binds Hakuna to a massive, remaining segment of the wall with thick, serpentine chains made from the same dark, energy-siphoning material as Nolitha's cage.
Rorisang then voices, a triumphant malice in her tone. "Ahh, finally, the Prince is secured. It's an old and simple strategy, yet unquestionably reliable, isn't it? The ancient military principle of 'Divide and Conquer.' With you out of the picture, Nolitha is nothing."
Hakuna strains against the chains, feeling his energy being instantly and painfully drained. "What the hell are these made of…? Aaaah! Stop it, Rorisang!"
Nolitha, seeing Hakuna's sheer agony, immediately reacts with a fresh surge of furious energy. The sight of Hakuna in pain is the only thing that matters, and she attacks Rorisang relentlessly and without remorse whatsoever.
She throws Rorisang around the massive, fallen building, punching her into the ground, through the rubble, and back into the air.
Rorisang manages to catch Nolitha's fists, her face twisted in annoyance.
"I'm getting truly annoyed. You are a nuisance, Xhosa," she says.
"Correction, you're getting killed!" Nolitha roars, using her full, desperate strength.
She kicks Rorisang on the chin, the Divine energy in the blow sending her flying back through the air.
Nolitha immediately falls to her knees, panting and coughing, attempting to catch her breath. The intense exertion has left her utterly depleted.
Nolitha then thinks to herself, her mind racing in confusion and pain. "It couldn't have taken that much… how could I be this exhausted? That should have been effortless."
This would be the first time Nolitha has truly exerted herself in a life-or-death battle. From her early days as a preteen, she has been seen as an undeniable prodigy. Her ability to adapt to new forms of combat, her battle intelligence, only second to her father's at his peak. Her magical affinity and raw, untamed intelligence were almost terrifying in their scope, and her potential was deemed bottomless. So much so, that by the age of twelve, she had already mastered Advanced Energy Manipulation and was capable of performing feats that baffled her father's royal tutors. She was destined to be the Mehlomanelo Clan's most powerful ruler in history, a Divine Empress. However, by the time she hit puberty, with her womanly features becoming prominent, she was then told by the elders and the Queen Mother to neglect her training in order to be a proper, submissive wife for her future husband. This forced negligence lasted for years, leaving her physically and mentally soft. This is her first true, intense battle since then; this is her first instance of feeling the desperate, agonizing fear of loss.
The Final Vow
"ENOUGH!" Rorisang screeches, rising from the rubble, her power surging instantly to its limit, overriding any injury. She has no time left for games.
Rorisang then shouts, her black eyes locking onto Hakuna, who is struggling against the chains. "Hakuna Ntlamele, if I can't have you, no one can!"
"Huh?" Nolitha mutters, pushing herself up with renewed dread.
"What? What is she planning?" Super stammers from the cage, his voice weak.
Time slows to an agonizing crawl. The dust motes hang suspended in the air. Rorisang flies towards Hakuna, an immense, razor-sharp Energy Saber forming on her right arm, aimed directly at the Prince's heart.
"NOO!" Nolitha yells, the sound trapped in the temporal distortion. She knows, with absolute certainty, that she cannot get to Rorisang in time to block the attack.
Hakuna, trapped and powerless, looks over to Super, offering a brief, knowing smile of acceptance.
He then looks over to Nolitha. But wait, where is she? She was distant seconds ago.
No…
Nolitha, pushing her body past every limitation, had used her Celestial Distortion to instantly collapse the distance between them. She jumps in front of Hakuna, positioning herself directly in the path of the killing blow. She faces him, not Rorisang. She looks into his eyes, he looks into her eyes, their final moment of communication passing between them. After what seems like frozen time—an entire lifetime of memories exchanged in a single, desperate glance—Nolitha ends it all by whispering three words:
"I… love… you…"
The energy saber impales her instead of Hakuna.
Fade out…
End of Episode 36.