By the time the twin suns had shifted further along Khoros' horizon, the family reunion from Hálogi’s initial return had long since thinned and scattered back into their own routines, and Looma herself had been pulled away by the weight of her duties as empress, promising to see him again once his wounds had been properly tended to.

The streets of Khoros stretched wide and warm under the twin suns, packed with people who had already heard the news traveling faster than any official announcement could. Hálogi walked the wide avenue leading toward the Royal Intellects' headquarters, with Gunnr and Áslaug close on either sides and the rest of the Royal Intellects trailing just behind, with a line of Tetramand guards in armor keeping a loose perimeter around them, their laser rifles held low but ready.

It didn't take long for the people to notice him. A Planchaküle vendor was the first to look up from her stall, her mouth falling open before she called out to someone behind her, a pair of Kraaho children pointed before their parents could stop them, and from there word spread like wildfire and soon a swarm of citizens of all kinds of species surrounded them, their voices loud in unison as they cheered.

“The Overlord returned!”

“Long live the Overlord!”

“Glory to Lord Hálogi!”

The noise rolled on ahead of them like a wave, citizens leaning out from balconies, spilling from doorways, some even dropped what they were carrying entirely just to get a better look. Hálogi slowed his pace coming to a stop, he did not seem bothered by their presence, on the contrary, his flames flickered with benevolent pride as he greeted his people, his molten eyes moving from face to face like he was trying to hold every single one of them in his memory at once.

Some distance away, cutting through a market district on the far side of the capital, Tachyawn had been moving at high speeds, frantically searching every street for a sign of Hálogi. Until the loud noise of commotion echoed from the distance, he nearly missed the sound entirely beneath the noise of his own footsteps, but once it registered, he halted immediately in his tracks and recognized exactly what kind of noise it was, the one only a crowd would ever make for one man on all of Khoros.

He changed direction abruptly before he'd even finished the thought, the street blurred behind him in a wash of pearlescent light, awnings snapping taut in his wake, a startled vendor's cart rattled on its wheels from the wind of his passing, the cart tipped over making the fruits splatter on ground.

“Dah! My Amber Ogias!”

Tachyawn crossed half the capital in the time it took most people to cross a single block, and the noise ahead only grew louder and closer with every stride.

One of the Tetramand guards spun toward the sudden blur on instinct, rifle half raised before Hálogi lifted his left hand in an unhurried gesture that stilled him completely. He'd recognized the shape and the trail of light long before it fully resolved into something solid.

Tachyawn now stood right in front of Hálogi, eyes wide as he stared up at him, his body still visibly shaking with nervous energy, his tail swishing rapidly behind him as he attempted to find his voice.

Tachyawn: “Uhh h-hey Hálogi! You… you came back from Ignis!”

His gaze drifted from Hálogi’s face down towards his missing arm, eyes widening slightly.

Tachyawn: “Y-you really lost your arm, huh? I guess it must’ve hurt a lot… b-but you’re okay, right? I mean, you’re here, you’re alive, you’re standing, you…”

His voice trailed off as his eyes flicked back up to Hálogi’s face, his hand hesitantly trembled upwards.

Tachyawn: “It is actually you, right? It isn’t just some… geezer with an ID mask… right?” 

Tachyawn carefully reached up for Hálogi’s face, but before any contact could be made, Hálogi’s head flames gave a flicker as his left hand stopped Tachyawn’s hand from moving.

Hálogi: “Calm yourself, Tachyawn.”

Tachyawn's pupils widened as the warmth of Hálogi's molten fingers registered against the fur of his wrist. He then suddenly lunged forward and hugged Hálogi tightly, pressing his face against the fabric of Hálogi’s jacket, feeling the warmth that radiated naturally from his form, his body having now ceased vibrating. Hálogi didn’t say a word against it, only lowered his arm and gave Tachyawn’s back a small pat.

Tachyawn: “Heh… this is nice…”

He stood there for a moment longer than necessary before Gunnr grumbled slightly jealously under her breath behind the helmet. The faint sound made his ear twitch and he snapped back to reality and pulled back from the embrace suddenly.

Tachyawn: “Oh! I almost forgot, I got something for you!”

Tachyawn reached for something inside his pocket and pulled out an expensive looking crystal of medium size, a mix of elegant gold and red. Hálogi looked down at the crystal on Tachyawn's palm, his eyes narrowed with slight curiosity.

Hálogi: “What is this?”

Tachyawn: “Oh, it’s just something that Marra told me to give you. Said it was for you keeping his planet safe from Nosu.”

Tachyawn said while handing it to him. Hálogi stood silent for a moment before finally taking the crystal from Tachyawn’s hand, only answering with a grunt as he stored it into a pocket of his jacket alongside Nosu’s Ultimatrix.

Somewhere along the western edge of the gathered crowd, voices began to drop away in a slow, spreading hush, a held breath moving outward through the mass of bodies before anyone could say why. People stepped back without appearing to notice they had moved, a couple of the guards glanced toward the disturbance, but the noise stayed too low to justify concern. Then the crowd parted unevenly, and a lone figure pressed through the gap left behind, breathing hard, straightening dark robes that settled around him like something poured rather than worn. 

The figure’s round glasses caught the sunlight in two bright flares as he lifted his head, and beneath them, four mouths curved upward into an identical, careful smile before he folded himself into a deep unhurried bow

"Oh great Overlord Hálogi! What a joy! What an honor to see you standing before us, alive and radiant after your magnificent battle!"

Hálogi quietly stared down at the figure bowed before him, and before a word could leave him, Gunnr intervened, putting herself in between Hálogi and the stranger, her arm shifting into a blaster and aimed at the stranger.

Gunnr: “Identify yourself!”

"Oh, pardon me for my rudeness…"

The figure straightened once more, adjusting his glasses delicately with a single finger, the smiles returning to each of his mouths.

https://preview.redd.it/ijakk6ks04ph1.png?width=2743&format=png&auto=webp&s=7bb7b62582206da5e0f15ae5c05285d8736aa5af

Saklas: "My name is Saklas, nothing but a mere Vocaliditio from Volattore. I humbly wish for a small moment of your sacred time and attention for myself, Lord Hálogi."

Hálogi's molten eyes stayed fixed on him, studying the details of his appearance as if trying to decipher his intentions before a single word passed between them.

Hálogi: "You have me. Speak."

Saklas' expression brightened further. He raised both hands as he began to speak.

Saklas: "Throughout the years of my existence, I have witnessed the effects your greatness has on those who cross your path. And I became… infatuated, studying your ways, old and new, devoting my existence to you."

His eyes briefly ran over the members of Hálogi's group before returning to him.

Saklas: "My belief is that to serve under your light is nothing short of a… a great honor. And in this bold, selfish moment of mine, I am prone to make a request… I wish to become a vessel to your will, a herald to your cause, to build mountains of bodies in your honor, if necessary. To make your name burn brighter than any star in the universe."

Hálogi's flames flickered for a silent moment as the words settled, his expression unreadable.

Hálogi: "You want to become my herald?"

Saklas: "With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my being."

Hálogi: "And why should I accept this?"

Saklas: "For the reason that my devotion will not waver. Not once, not ever. I can be the tool to help build the future you desire."

Hálogi: "Show me."

Saklas' expression shifted, turning eerily serious, his smiles dropped completely.

Saklas: "Kneel."

Saklas' four mouths moved in unison, and the word that left them struck outward in a visible ripple, taking the nearest bodies first before rolling on toward everyone else.

The Tetramand guards closest to him went down first, their laser rifles slipping from hands that had simply stopped answering them, clattering against the stone as their legs folded at once. 

Gunnr's arm stayed locked in its blaster shape even as the rest of her buckled, the nanotech holding its form out of pure stubbornness while her knees hit the ground and refused to lift again no matter how hard she strained against it.

Gunnr: "Argh!"

Beside her, Áslaug and her team dropped together in the same instant, and her voice came out tight and disbelieving.

Áslaug: “I can’t... move...”

Tachyawn's knees buckled, sending him down hard, palms slapping against the stone, his eyes went wide, his chest heaved heavily, his heart lodged somewhere in his throat.

An overwhelming pressure rolled over Hálogi as well, his flames flickering and flaring blue for one sharp instant while he watched everyone but himself and Saklas be driven to the ground. Yet his knees did not buckle, he managed to hold his stance, his molten eyes narrowed.

Behind him, his own shadow rippled strangely against the stone, untouched by whatever had affected everyone else, a single pink eye blinking open within it. Nyx surged free of it half into her true form, her claws bared, already lunging for Saklas’ throat.

Hálogi: "Stop."

Nyx halted at once, looking back at him in visible confusion.

Nyx: "But he’s-"

Hálogi continued to look around at his kneeling people, his flames settling once he'd confirmed nothing was truly wrong.

Hálogi: "This is… a demonstration. No harm is being done here."

At the sight of him still standing, untouched by a command that had folded an entire crowd to the ground, Saklas brightened once more, and his third mouth, lower and quieter than the rest, spoke with something almost fond in its tone, like faith being renewed.

Saklas: "Oh Lord Hálogi, I have never doubted you. Not once. You truly are… extraordinaire…"

Hálogi looked out over the crowd once more and raised his remaining hand.

Hálogi: "Stand up, all of you."

Citizens rose unsteadily, murmuring amongst themselves, some laughing it off with the particular nervous energy of people who didn't fully understand what had just happened to their own bodies. Behind Hálogi, Nyx lingered a moment longer, then sank back quietly becoming the shadow at his feet.

Tachyawn pushed himself upright slower than the rest, one hand lingering at his throat, no words were able to come out, his pupils still blown wide as he stared at Saklas. His tail found its way around Hálogi's leg, wrapping tight for whatever stability it could offer.

Hálogi's flames flickered at the contact, but he made no effort to reprimand him. With his mind still on Saklas, he considered something a moment longer before responding.

Hálogi: "I see the promise you hold... Fine. You may be my Herald, Saklas."

Satisfaction washed visibly over Saklas, and he bowed his head deeper still, something close to worship in the motion.

Saklas: "Lord Hálogi! You have my eternal gratitude!"

But before he could fully rise from the bow, Hálogi closed the short distance between them, his remaining hand settling on Saklas' shoulder and drawing him down close enough that his words carried no further than the two of them. His flames deepened to blue as he spoke, the heat rising with them.

Hálogi: "A word of advice, keep that tone only for those who don’t want to listen."

Saklas' smiles faltered by a fraction as the heat pouring from Hálogi's palm crept through the fabric at his shoulder, his voice losing a bit of its usual composure.

Saklas: "O-of course. Y-your word is my command, my Lord…"

Hálogi: “Hm.”

Hálogi released him and straightened to his full height, his gaze briefly dropped once again to where Tachyawn's tail was still tight around his leg, his breathing not yet fully settled. Hálogi's remaining hand came to rest against the back of his head for just a moment, warm and heavy.

Hálogi: “I'm here."

He didn't wait for a response before lifting his gaze toward the crowd, most of them were still glancing at each other as if checking whether everyone else had felt the same thing. He closed his hand into a fist and raised it high above him, and the motion alone was enough to pull every eye back to him at once.

Hálogi: "Glory to the Red Wind!"

His flames snapped bright at the words, and the crowd answered immediately, their earlier stunned silence breaking apart into a roar loud enough to swallow whatever unease had settled over them only moments before. Hálogi held the stance just long enough to let the sound crest, then turned back toward Gunnr and Saklas.

Hálogi: "Gunnr, accompany Saklas back to the palace, I will deal with him later. And make sure to keep an eye out so that he's properly tended to in my absence."

Gunnr hesitated, reluctant to leave Hálogi’s side, before straightening her back and giving him a firm nod.

Gunnr: "Of course, my Lord Hálogi."

She turned to Saklas and jerked her head back toward the palace.

Gunnr: "You heard the Overlord. Let's go."

Her tone came out flat, almost cold, but Saklas only smiled wider at it, tilting his head slightly to one side before falling into step beside her without a word of protest.

Hálogi watched them go before turning away, and the group reformed around him, Áslaug and the Royal Intellects falling back into their natural positions as the Tetramand guards recovered their rifles from the ground and closed the perimeter again, a few of them exchanging wary glances between each other.

The rest of the walk to the Royal Intellects headquarters was quieter, though not entirely still. The crowd had thinned somewhat after the earlier commotion, but a good number of citizens still trailed at a respectful distance behind them, drawn along by something between curiosity and loyalty, unwilling to simply go home after what they'd witnessed. Tachyawn no longer had his tail around Hálogi's leg, but he stayed close to him, more than necessary, drifting near enough that his shoulder bumped Hálogi's arm more than once along the way, each time apparently incidental, each time a little too deliberate to be accidental. 

Then the headquarters building came into view, its facade marked with the Royal Intellects' sigil above the entrance, and Áslaug moved ahead towards it. The doors to the headquarters slid open, revealing a wide central hall bathed in the pale blue light of active terminals and softly humming machinery. Staff moved briskly between stations, some pausing mid-step at the sight of Hálogi before catching themselves and returning to their work, a few offering quick deferential nods as he passed. 

They barely crossed halfway into the hall when Lerkka broke away from the group and planted himself directly in Hálogi's path.

Lerkka: "Okay master, right this way."

Hálogi opened his mouth, but Lerkka was already turning, waving two of the other Royal Intellects forward to flank him.

Lerkka: "The medbay. Now. Let’s go people."

Hálogi huffed out something close to a laugh, and then reached into the pocket of his jacket. He drew out the Ultimatrix, its surface catching the pale light of the hall, and held it out toward Áslaug.

Hálogi: “Make something useful out of this.”

She took it carefully, her fingers closing around it with the same measured precision she gave everything, her circuit-like red veins pulsed brighter against her green skin as she turned it slowly to examine the housing, the bad memories related to the device resurfacing.

Áslaug: "I'll have a full analysis ready by the time you're finished being examined."

Hálogi: "Good."

Lerkka was already steering him away by then, the small group of Royal Intellects closing in around him as they disappeared down a side corridor, their voices fading into the general hum of the hall.

Áslaug remained where she stood, turning the Ultimatrix over once more in her palm before storing it away. Then her attention shifted, Tachyawn hadn't moved from his spot, he stood a short distance away staring at a point on the floor that held nothing interesting, his tail curled loosely around his own leg now, his mind clearly elsewhere.

She watched him for a moment, her head tilted slightly to the side.

Áslaug: "You're still here."

No response came from Tachyawn.

Áslaug: "Tachyawn."

At her sharper tone, his head snapped up and he blinked hard.

Tachyawn: "Wh- huh? Yeah, sorry, I- did you say something?"

Áslaug: "I said you’re still here. Why?"

Tachyawn blinked again, and something shifted behind his eyes as the fog in his head cleared. He straightened his back sharply as the memory of what he'd actually come here to do finally surfaced.

Tachyawn: "Oh! Yeah, right, yeah, I uh… actually wanted to ask you something."

Áslaug raised a brow ridge in mild interest and rested a hand on her hip.

Áslaug: “Ask what?”

Tachyawn: “I wanted to know if you could uhh… I don’t know… build something for me? Like a power dampener pair of gauntlets or like an inhibitor?”

Áslaug: “You want me to build restraints for yourself? Why is that?”

Tachyawn: “To serve as like a failsafe in case I end up losing control when using Gait in fights and stuff.”

Áslaug pondered upon it for a moment, silently twirling one of her chin tentacles around her finger before suddenly speaking up.

Áslaug: “Come with me.”

She led him down a side hall into a smaller, more secluded room, where a completed model of an enhanced power armor stood mounted against the far wall. She lifted one gauntlet free from its housing and held it out for him to see.

https://preview.redd.it/xbuciz4rz3ph1.png?width=2078&format=png&auto=webp&s=a11b91cf8e185faeac7e8885758fe8570b1b919f

Áslaug: "This is a prototype I’ve been working on for the Tetramand infantry ever since what happened to the colony on Earth. Still refining the output efficiency while I wait on Hálogi's approval. But I believe the framework alone should be more than enough to handle what you're describing… with a few adjustments."

Tachyawn: "Whoa, okay, that's actually really cool!”

Tachyawn's eyes went wide, leaning in for a closer look.

Tachyawn: “But hey, uhm… could you maybe work in some of the same features my Plumber gauntlets have? Or would that be too complicated?"

Áslaug's expression flattened into something almost offended, one brow ridge twitching with the irritation of someone whose skills might’ve been challenged.

Áslaug: "Oh please, of course I can. There is nothing I can’t build.”

End.

All drawings made by u/jonyssaur-Br-7980.
Tachyawn used with the permission of u/SuKiwa26.

I'll try to finish other two stories I have promised to do with Squirtle and Jony, after that I'm not sure if I will be around anymore.

It had been only a day and a half since the battle on Ignis. The orange skies of Khoros and its twin suns came into view as Hálogi's ship broke through the upper atmosphere and began its descent, easing down onto the docking platform with a low hiss of settling thrusters. 

The hatch cracked open, releasing a breath of cooler air into the ship's interior, and the ramp slid down with a metallic groan. Hálogi stepped out first, his flames had returned to their original state, the fire mantle across his shoulders swaying gently in the hot, dust laden current still rolling off the engines as they died down behind him. After the suffocating red haze and volcanic dark of Ignis, the light here felt almost gentle by comparison. He stood there for a moment, taking the familiar scenery in.

The others followed a beat behind him. Starzeek climbed down first among them, glancing around at the skyline before his feet found solid ground. Dr. Lobestomy came next, his mechanical legs clicking softly against the platform, and Greezmob trailed just behind, still rubbing at his singed knuckles. After a long moment of silence, Starzeek finally broke the quiet. 

Starzeek: "So… this is it, huh?"

Dr. Lobestomy: "Indeed it is…"

Greezmob: "Man… wh- what do we even do now? Like, where do we go?"

Hálogi turned to face them, his molten eyes passing over each of them in turn before he spoke.

Hálogi: "Treat your wounds and go wherever your heart tells you. There’s nothing chaining you here anymore."

The three of them stood silent for another moment before Dr. Lobestomy's skull plates gave a small flutter.

Dr. Lobestomy: "That... would be the most sensible thing to do."

Starzeek: "Yeah… well... see you around, your majesty."

Starzeek and Dr. Lobestomy turned on their heel and walked off without much ceremony, the weight of everything that had happened still pressing down visibly in their shoulders, in the slow, worn pace of their steps. Greezmob lingered back a little longer than the other two.

Greezmob: "Thanks for everything, sir."

Hálogi looked down at him, his head flames giving a small flicker before he answered with a silent nod, and he watched the trio grow smaller as they walked off into the distance.

He turned to make his own way as well, but he had barely managed to shift his head before something struck his stomach hard enough to pull a small grunt of pain out of him.

It was Vix, having zipped there faster than lightning before anyone else could reach him, her arms already wrapped tight around his middle. He looked down at her, wide eyed for a moment before his expression softened completely, his flames easing at once, the fierce heat behind them dropping into something gentler.

Vix: "Dad!"

Hálogi: "Careful not to burn yourself."

Vix lifted her head to look up at him, her eyes shimmering and threatening to spill over as she fought to hold herself together.

Vix: "I don't care about that! You're here!"

A small tired smile pulled at his rocky lips, his flames flickering warmly as he lifted his remaining hand to rest it gently atop her head. Nyx drifted in a moment behind, catching up with her sister, her cloak trailing weightlessly as she came to a stop at Vix's side. Her single glowing eye moved over Hálogi slowly, taking in his battered form before her gaze fell on the stump of his right arm. A small startled gasp escaped her.

Nyx: “Father, your arm…”

Then a growing rumble of footsteps rolled in from where Vix had come from, tangled together with overlapping shouts.

"Come on! Come on!"

"Hey, don't push!"

"𝙹⚍ℸ 𝙹⎓ ᒲǁ ∴ᔑǁ!" (“Move out of my way!”)

Behind Nyx, the rest of them arrived in a wave, and one by one the noise of celebration caught in their throats as their eyes found Hálogi. Ember pushed through first, her four eyes widening as they fell upon the empty space where his right arm should have been. The rest of the Ember Stalkers closed in around her, Bexira, Lya, Tekna, Frigg and Rona falling into a loose half circle.

Týr arrived moments later with long, urgent strides, all four arms tense at his sides. His gaze fixed on the severed stump before lifting to his father's face, searching for reassurance that refused to come. Behind him, Yngvi slowed to a halt, his expression hardening as the fingers of his prosthetic hand curled into a tight fist. Gunnr stopped beside him, her own hand twitching uncertainly before falling still. Marco, Ukemochi, Karelia and Iris approached more slowly, the last of the conversation around them faded until only the quiet remained.

Áslaug arrived last among the officials, her circuits pulsing a slow, thoughtful red beneath her skin as her eyes swept over the injury with the same clinical focus she gave everything. Beside her Lerkka, Okeana, Chlorus and Zinnia clustered close, murmuring quietly to one another.

Hálogi looked back at all of them, that same tired smile still settled on his face.

Hálogi: "Hello, my children."

For a moment, none of them moved. Then Týr was the first to step forward, his chest puffed, his back straightened into something almost formal, trying to keep the posture of a general reporting rather than a son.

Týr: "Welcome home, father. We have all been awaiting your return."

Ember's own head flames sputtered unevenly for half a heartbeat at the sight of the stump, the fire catching and stalling before she forced it back into its usual steady burn.

Ember: "You look horrible, old man…"

Bexira shouldered forward, making Frigg's wings give a small flutter before settling back and wrapping around her. Bexira pointed a finger directly at Hálogi while growling.

Bexira: "Lemme tell ya something, Hálogi Igneous Red Wind, father-figure to many! Bexira was-”

Her aggressive demeanor started to die down into something more meek, her hand falling to her side.

Bexira: “So… worried…”

Frigg: “We all were.”

Rona and Lya only nodded behind them without a word, Rona's crystalline frame held rigid with tension, Lya's ears pinned flat against her skull.

Gunnr shifted her weight restlessly, the words spilling out of her faster than she meant them to.

Gunnr: "ǁ𝙹⚍ ᔑꖎᒲ𝙹ᓭℸ ↸╎ᒷ↸. ǁ𝙹⚍ ᓵ𝙹⚍ꖎ↸'⍊ᒷ ᔑᓵℸ⚍ᔑꖎꖎǁ ↸╎ᒷ↸, ᔑリ↸ ╎ ∴ᔑᓭリ'ℸ ᒷ⍊ᒷリ ℸ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ, ╎ ∴ᔑᓭ 𝙹リ ℸ⍑ᒷ 𝙹ℸ⍑ᒷ∷ ᓭ╎↸ᒷ 𝙹⎓ ℸ⍑ᒷ ⊣ᔑꖎᔑ̇/ǁ ↸𝙹╎リ⊣ ᔑʖᓭ𝙹ꖎ⚍ℸᒷꖎǁ リ𝙹ℸ⍑╎リ⊣ ⚍ᓭᒷ⎓⚍ꖎ ∴⍑╎ꖎᒷ ǁ𝙹⚍ ∴ᒷ∷ᒷ 𝙹⚍ℸ ℸ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ ⎓╎⊣⍑ℸ╎リ⊣ ℸ⍑ᔑℸ- ℸ⍑ᔑℸ ꖎ⚍リᔑℸ╎ᓵ, ᔑリ↸ ╎ ꖌᒷᒷ!¡ ℸ⍑╎リꖌ╎リ⊣ ᔑʖ𝙹⚍ℸ ∴⍑ᔑℸ ∴𝙹⚍ꖎ↸'⍊ᒷ ⍑ᔑ!¡!¡ᒷリᒷ↸ ╎⎓-"

("You almost died. You could've actually died, and I wasn't even there, I was on the other side of the galaxy doing absolutely nothing useful while you were out there fighting that- that lunatic, and I keep thinking about what would've happened if-")

Tekna's hand landed firmly on her shoulder before she could keep going.

Gunnr: "ᓭ-ᓭ𝙹∷∷ǁ. ╎ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ… ╎ ᓭ⍑𝙹⚍ꖎ↸'⍊ᒷ ʖᒷᒷリ ℸ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ… ǁ𝙹⚍ ᓭ⍑𝙹⚍ꖎ↸'⍊ᒷ ꖎᒷℸ ⚍ᓭ ᓵ𝙹ᒲᒷ ∴╎ℸ⍑ ǁ𝙹⚍."

("S-sorry. I just… I should've been there… You should've let us come with you.")

Beside her, Ukemochi took a drag from her cigarette, her eye not covered by hair narrowed into a hard unreadable line, too proud to let her worry show as anything other than irritation.

Ukemochi: “Yeah, you scared the hell out of us."

Áslaug's chin tentacles coiled and uncoiled in slow, deliberate loops, and the circulatory system beneath her skin pulsed a shade brighter and faster than her usual measured dark red.

Áslaug: "You are still in critical condition. You need medical attention. Now."

Hálogi slowly waved his remaining hand in dismissal.

Hálogi: "Later. There are still things I need to-"

Marco's feathers bristled sharply along the back of his neck, and the half lidded smirk that seemed permanently fixed to his beak finally slipped, dropping into something flat and serious.

Marco: "Pops, this isn’t a negotiation-yoi."

Yngvi’s good eye narrowed, nodding along with Marco's words.

Yngvi: “Agreed.”

Karelia: "Seconded."

A thin outline of telekinetic energy began to glow around Karelia’s form as she said it, already calculating the distance to the medcenter in case she had to carry him there herself.

Hálogi fell quiet, his molten eyes drifting slowly across the faces gathered before him, every one of them wore the same expression in their own way, worry, frustration, relief, fear. It settled over him all at once, and despite everything his battered body had endured… He laughed. The sound roughened by exhaustion but undeniably genuine.

Vix loosened her arms and stepped back, glancing up at him with quiet confusion as his laughter faded. From the ruined stump of his arm, flames gathered and curled outward, weaving themselves into the familiar shape of a forearm and hand. Hálogi flexed the fiery fingers once and gave the limb an easy roll, making it look far more effortless than it truly was.

Hálogi: "You worry too much. Death will have me when it earns me."

The flames held strong for a moment before giving a single weak flicker that betrayed everything he was trying to project.

Somewhere behind the crowd, footsteps landed heavy and even against the floor, and one by one, those around Hálogi fell silent, as though everyone present understood exactly whose steps those were before they'd even seen her. The crowd parted like water, and Looma emerged through the gap, her four eyes moved over Hálogi slowly, taking in everything the fight had left behind, and for a moment her expression was something between relief and grief.

Looma: "My beloved..." 

Looma’s hands rose to his face, her touch unhurried and careful. Hálogi’s molten eyes lifted to meet hers, and for a brief moment the fire on his head softened under her touch, the restless force that had kept him upright since Ignis finally settling into stillness. The fire arm flickered once and dissolved back into nothing.

Hálogi: "I'm home..."

lero lero lero lero lero lero

^(absolute cinema)

The torrent of electricity continued to pour across the battlefield without mercy, engulfing Nosu's colossal frame in a blinding sea of electricity while the improvised turret screamed beneath the strain of sustaining a current it had never been built to withstand.

Starzeek and Dr. Lobestomy stayed planted on either side of the machine, both trembling as they forced more bioelectric energy through its conduits. Starzeek’s raised arms crackled with static, his white fur standing on end under the strain, while Dr. Lobestomy kept his skull plates open as electricity poured out of him and into the weapon. The metal joints of his body shuddered under the load, and small sparks snapped from the seams. Neither of them spoke anymore, they were already past exhaustion, but they kept pushing anyway.

Greezmob could feel the entire turret had begun to shake beneath his hands, at first it was only a faint vibration traveling through the controls, but with every passing second the machine protested louder. Bolts worked themselves loose one after another, welded seams glowed a dangerous orange before splitting apart with showers of sparks. Improvised cables whipped violently through the air like living things, spraying arcs of electricity in every direction as overloaded capacitors screamed under pressures they had never been designed to withstand.

Nosu's body continued to convulse beneath the beam as if every nerve inside him had been torn open at once. The regeneration that had once made him invincible had become trapped in a losing battle against the current, flesh trying to mend itself only to split apart again before it could finish. Great fissures tore open across the thick muscles of his arms and legs, exposing glimpses of bone before new tissue desperately crawled over it, only to be ripped apart a heartbeat later. The dark veins beneath his armored hide ruptured one after another with sickening pops, spraying thick blood across the scorched earth before fresh vessels forced themselves back into existence. His jaw locked so tightly that several teeth shattered beneath the pressure, only to begin growing back while fragments still tumbled from his mouth.

One of the larger cables suddenly tore free with a sharp crack and lashed across the side of the turret, missing Greezmob's face by mere inches before striking the metal frame and exploding into a shower of blue sparks.

Greezmob: “Wait, no! Shit!”

His fingers raced desperately across the control panel, tightening one connection only for another to burst apart somewhere else, sweat ran down the side of his face as he fought to keep the current stable enough.

Then the turret lurched, a capacitor deep in the machine's chest gave out with a sound like a gunshot that made Greezmob recoil for a heartbeat, and for one terrible instant the current dropped, not entirely gone, but halved, the blinding torrent pulling back into something smaller and inconsistent, electricity still clawing at Nosu's body but without the suffocating pressure that had been keeping him pinned inside himself. His regeneration seized that opening and surged back into place, pouring itself first into the ruin of his brain, forcing torn neural tissue back together until consciousness clawed its way back through the static, instinct and rage sharpening into focus all at once.

Nosu’s red eyes widened before sharpening, his breathing changed and his right hand moved before the rest of him seemed to understand what it was doing. His trembling fingers barely answering, it dragged itself across his ruined torso toward the Ultimatrix embedded in his chest, trailing a smear of dark blood across his shell.

Hálogi saw it the same instant the current faltered, molten eyes narrowing, his flames flared and he launched himself forward, his remaining hand stretched toward the device, fingers already opening to rip it free before another transformation could begin. But Nosu moved too, even as his body tore itself apart under the still lingering current, he slammed the Ultimatrix down with a brutal motion and forced the transformation to break.

Crimson light detonated from his chest, the blast exploded outward in a shockwave of red energy that ripped through the electric field, shattered the lingering charge around him and blew Hálogi back through the air as though he weighed nothing. The force hurled him across the battlefield toward the others, fire ribboning behind him, while the turret shuddered and finally failed beneath the strain, its dying crackle swallowed by the roar of the crimson explosion.

The static along Starzeek’s fur guttered out like a snuffed flame, his knees buckled and he dropped with one hand pressing hard against his side where something inside him had clearly given way under the strain. Breathing in short ragged pulls, his head bowed toward the scorched ground.

Beside him, Dr. Lobestomy's condition was worse. The skull plates that had stayed open through the entire ordeal finally snapped shut with a heavy metallic clack, his four robotic legs lost whatever strength had been keeping them locked and rigid. They folded beneath him all at once, and his bulky frame crashed into the dirt, his mechanical cannon arm twitching uselessly against the ground.

On top of the ruined machine, Greezmob slammed both fists against the control panel, his claws scraping uselessly across dead switches, nothing answered him except a dying spark that fizzled out somewhere deep inside the casing. The frame beneath him groaned, a deep metallic complaint that ran through the entire structure at once, and Greezmob had just enough time to jump out of the turret before it began to buckle and collapse under its own ruined weight. He hit the ground hard and rolled before coming up in a crouch with his chest heaving, and it was only then that his wide eyes finally tore away from the smoking wreck and found his two friends collapsed on either side of him.

Across the cratered field, Hálogi tumbled through the air and managed to twist his body just before the ground came up to meet him, driving his remaining hand down into the scorched rock and gouging a long furrow through it as he slid to a stop. He rose slowly, swaying as he found his footing, his chest heaving against the cracked plates of his rocky form while fire licked weakly along the stump of his right arm.

A vast, growing darkness began bleeding over the shattered land, swallowing the broken stone, the drifting ash, the flicker of the fires, until it seemed as though Ignis itself had entered an eclipse. Then the smog above tore open, ripped apart by something too large to be contained by sky or storm, and the shape beneath it kept growing, rising, unfolding, becoming something so enormous that the air around it seemed to retreat out of instinct. An Ultimate To’kustar.

None of them moved, Greezmob's hands had gone still at his sides, the wrench still loosely gripped in one fist as his head tilted all the way back, his mouth open but empty of sound. Beside him, Dr. Lobestomy's four robotic legs had locked into the ground beneath him, his cannon arm hanging motionless as his skull plates twitched once before going still, the analytical mind behind them unable to process something inconceivable. Starzeek stood with his arms lowered, the static gone from his fur, and for the first time since they had landed on Ignis, there was nothing in his expression that resembled the older brother holding everything together. 

Red and purple clouds gathered in violent spirals around Nosu's enormous frame, lightning crawling through the storm in jagged flashes while bright particles drifted through the churning dark like burning snow. The ground trembled beneath his weight even before his feet fully left it, as though the planet itself had registered the burden and found it too much. Then he rose, slowly, his massive body lifting higher and higher into the charged sky above Ignis.

Hálogi didn’t look away either. His remaining hand drew into a fist at his side, knuckles tightening until the magma between his rock plates deepened to a pressurized glow. The arm of living fire at his right flared without command, its shape flickering and erratic, plasma snapping off it in short violent arcs as if struggling to hold its own form against the weight of what rose above them. The flames along his head and the mantle across his shoulders peeled backward in long ribbons from the displaced air, and behind those blazing eyes, something moved that was not rage and was not fear.

Nosu’s gaze roamed the distant lands until he found the massive crater that exposed part of Ignis’ core. He crossed his arms vertically in front of him, and the cosmic energy around him began to gather in unstable currents, pulling toward him from every direction. The air seemed to bend around the sheer pressure of his size, and far below, hidden between the rubble, Billy Billions’ spybots began to short out one by one as the electromagnetic force of the cosmic charge ripped through their systems and killed the broadcast in a burst of static, all screens fading to black, and with them went the last of the galaxy's eyes on what was happening there.

For a moment, everyone was too stunned to say anything. Then Starzeek found his voice first, and even that sounded small beneath the thing rising overhead.

Starzeek: “Nosu, stop! Firing that will destroy Ignis’ core!”

Nosu’s head tilted only slightly, his enormous silhouette set against the storm as the beam continued to build.

Nosu: “That’s the idea, genius!”

Dr. Lobestomy took a step forward despite the fear in his body, the words coming out harsher now, desperate with urgency.

Dr. Lobestomy: “You fool! If you destroy it, the explosion will take us, every living thing on Ignis, and the neighboring planets along with you!”

For one long second, Nosu said nothing. The storm around him kept growing, the beam kept charging.

Nosu: “HAHA! You think I give a shit about that?”

Then his gaze dropped, traveling all the way down from that impossible height until it found Hálogi standing in the scorched and broken field below. Their eyes met, and Nosu searched that face for what he had always wanted to find there, for the crack, for the shift, for something that finally looked like recognition. But what came back at him was the same expression that had always come back at him, worn and unhurried and utterly unmoved. Disdain so settled in stone it stopped being contempt and had become something closer to exhaustion.

Nosu: "As long as I make Hálogi recognize that I am BETTER than him…”

He let out a heavy breath, and something in his expression shifted against his own will. A single tear broke from the corner of his right eye and traced down his cheek while the grin he tried to rebuild beneath it came out hollow, too thin to hold the shape he wanted.

Nosu: “I don't care what happens..."

The cosmic energy continued to build, and at the last second, a deafening ringing echoed in Nosu's head, that pressure building on the back of his eyes again. Nosu blinked and the battlefield was gone, now he was suddenly standing in a lab with old cracked walls, ceiling lights that flickered without rhythm. A large screen mounted on the far wall displayed Nosu's own point of view back at him in real time, the storm and the charging beam and the tiny figures far below. The whole space had the look of something that had been left to ruin for a very long time.

Nosu: "Wait, wh- what? What's going on?"

His eyes darted side to side frantically with confusion smeared on his face, barely able to process this bizarre change of surroundings. Then Nosu noticed something, his height was… different. He looked at the screen before immediately looking down at his hands, and they were different as well, small now, grey colored and frog shaped, back into his original form, his Galvan form.

Before he could wrap his head around this sudden change, another voice rang out from behind him, a voice similar to his own.

"Oh, you know exactly what's going on, Suark. And I'm putting an end to this."

Suark's head whipped around to face the voice, his eyes widened in recognition. Another Galvan exactly like him, but with green eyes instead of his negative red ones.

Suark: "Noark?! I thought I had rid myself of you!"

Noark slowly shook his head.

Noark: "I never left. The only thing you managed to do was keep me locked up in a… nightmare while you went on a murderous rampage like a… little psycho kid."

Suark: "So you were watching it this whole time? Hmm… Well, what do you think of it? Pretty good show I put on, huh?"

Suark's ego showed, smirking back at Noark while resting a hand on his own hip. Noark could only grimace back in response.

Noark: "Good show? You killed thousands of innocents and you call it a show?"

Suark: "Hell yeah I did! Felt good, didn't it? All this power, had to showcase it somehow, right?"

Noark: "No, it fucking didn't! Don't you think this type of shit of yours is the thing that made us have so many problems all along?!"

Suark’s eyelid gave a sudden twitch and his smirk faltered.

Suark: "OH. MY. GOD! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GONNA BLAME ME FOR SOMETHING THAT EVERYBODY ELSE DOES TOO? DON'T ACT LIKE THAT WASN'T WHAT YOU WANTED! I'M YOU! I KNOW YOU! DON'T PRETEND LIKE YOU DIDN'T ALSO USE TO KILL, STEAL AND USE THOSE 3 IDIOTS FOR YOUR ADVANTAGE! WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE A SAINT NOW!?"

Noark: "Because we had a good thing, you stupid son of a bitch! We had our friends, we had our adventures, we had everything we needed, it all ran like clockwork. It was perfect! But no, you just had to blow it up! You… and your pride and your ego! You just had to be the man! And for what? Because one guy hurt your little, delicate feelings?! You're pathetic, all that power and you still needed someone else to feed your fragile ego. If you had swallowed your pride, known your place, we'd all be fine right now!"

Suark growled, grinding his teeth and lunged at Noark with fury steaming off him in a sudden outburst.

Suark: "SHUT UP!"

He drove Noark down onto the tiles, pinning him there while both of them growled and grappled across the dirty floor. Suark pressed his hands down at Noark's throat while Noark clawed upward at Suark's face, nails tearing thin lines across his cheek, but it did nothing to loosen the grip on him.

Noark: "Get OFF me, you MORON!"

Suark: "I am NOT a MORON!"

The two of them continued to struggle against the floor before Noark stopped clawing at Suark's face, he pulled his hand back, balled it into a fist and punched Suark square in the jaw with all the strength he could gather. The punch being enough to throw Suark off and put some space between them, both left panting as Noark managed to get back on his feet.

Noark: "YES YOU ARE! YOU'RE A MORON THAT MAKES ME LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT! CLINGING TO MY MIND LIKE THE TUMOR YOU ARE!"

The insides of the old lab started trembling as if an earthquake had begun as Noark's rage built up. Before Suark could retort, metallic wires suddenly shot out from inside the ground and curled around his arms and legs. He gasped in surprise.

Suark: "What do you think you're doing?!"

Suark growled out as he struggled, trying to free himself of his restraints while attempting to reach for the screen to regain control. The ground began to shatter open into a hole, slowly dragging Suark inside while Noark only watched.

Noark: "I am done being your prisoner. Now you're MY prisoner, and I'm never letting you GO!"

Suark struggled abruptly, lashing out, ripping some cables before more shot out and wrapped around him.

Suark: "STOP THIS!"

But he ended up dragged into the hole regardless, holding on only by one hand at the edge while grinding his teeth and trying to pull himself back up. Noark walked to stand in front of Suark, looking down at him with the same air of disdain Hálogi had always worn.

Noark: "It's about time I cut the tumor off by the root."

Suark's panic broke fully across his face.

Suark: "YOU'RE NOT THINKING STRAIGHT, TOGETHER WE COU-"

The words died in his throat, turning into a scream as Noark's foot came down and kicked his hand loose from the edge. The hole swallowed Suark whole and sealed shut. Noark then crossed the room without hesitation and pressed his hand against the screen on the wall.

Far above in the sky, Nosu grunted in pain and uncrossed his arms, and all the cosmic energy he had gathered dissipated at once. He gripped his own head as his body convulsed and folded rapidly in on itself, shifting back into human form in midair before he plummeted the entire distance down to the battlefield below.

All four of them became astounded at the unexplainable sudden change. Hálogi’s flaming eyes widened slightly, immediately sensing weakness and another opportunity he wouldn’t let go to waste this time. In the matter of a single second, Hálogi exploded forward, using the dying strength he had left to propulse himself towards Nosu, flames cascading behind him as the air screamed like a death whistle.

Nosu heard it before he could properly see it coming, he flinched hard closing his eyes, his hands shooting up in front of him to shield himself and he shouted from the top of his lungs.

Nosu: “WAIT!”

Hálogi crossed the remaining distance without slowing, his body moving before the thought had fully finished forming, and his remaining hand closed around Nosu's throat with an intense grip. The heat that poured from his palm concentrated into one point, burning through flesh. Nosu's skin blistered and split beneath the contact and began crawling back together just as fast, but the oxygen wasn't coming back the same way skin could, and behind those crimson eyes something registered that fact with rising panic.

Thin curls of smoke rising from where rock met flesh, and Hálogi lifted him clean off the ground in a single motion, Nosu's legs kicked uselessly through the ash beneath him. He could feel Nosu's body tense beneath his grip, could feel the instinctive panic starting to claw its way through muscle and bone, and he didn’t loosen his hand, his molten eyes were twin infernos containing nothing but the promise of an ending.

Hálogi's flames answered the moment with a violence of their own. The mantle across his shoulders surged and thinned in the same breath, his head flames whipping out erratically, and the arm of living fire at his right struggled to keep its form, tiny arcs of plasma shooting out as it flickered. He was running on nothing now.

Then Nosu's hands came up, but not to reach for the Ultimatrix. They rose slowly, trembling, and rested on Hálogi’s forearm without resistance, the body beneath Hálogi's grip went completely still as the panic started to fade.

Nosu: “Há… logi… please… I’m not… your enemy… I’m not… like Suark… please listen…”

Hálogi's grip didn’t loosen, but it stopped tightening, and his molten eyes, narrowed only a moment ago like a blade's edge, dragged slowly across the face in front of him, and something in it was wrong. No sneer pulling at the mouth. No defiance behind the eyes.

And then he saw it, where there had only ever been flat, bottomless crimson before, something dark now sat in the center of each eye, small and trembling and undeniably there. Pupils. Nosu had never had pupils. His analytical part of his mind took over, the same mind that had tracked targets across the stars, that had read body language and microexpressions for decades, was now cataloging inconsistencies.

The pupils. The tone of voice. The absolute lack of resistance, no dodging, no attempt to transform, no counterattack. The sudden reversal from a man who was about to destroy a planet out of spite to someone actively surrendering to suffocation rather than fighting back. Three impossible things, all at once, all contradicting everything he knew about the man he held in his grip.

Hálogi remained silent for a moment longer, his hand kept burning through Nosu’s throat, the flesh failing to knit itself back together from the lack of oxygen. The only sound was the crackling of his dying flames and the ragged, pained breathing of a man being slowly asphyxiated. Then, Hálogi loosened his grip and withdrew his hand entirely.

Nosu collapsed to the ground, gasping and coughing, his body heaving with the effort of drawing air back into lungs that had nearly been starved of it. His hand went to his throat now slowly regenerating, trembling, and he remained there on his knees as Hálogi stood above him, his form still radiating heat.

It was in that moment of stunned silence, with Nosu still recovering and Hálogi still deciding what came next, that the sound of rapid footsteps and flying debris announced the arrival of the trio. Starzeek, Greezmob and Dr. Lobestomy reached his side, battered and exhausted, each of them having pushed through what their bodies had left to close the distance.

Nosu's head lifted at the sound, his eyes finding them through the haze of smoke still curling off his own skin. Starzeek's whole body went rigid the instant Nosu began pulling himself upright, and his arm shot out on reflex, sweeping back to bar Greezmob and Dr. Lobestomy from closing the last few steps between them. Static crawled weakly and inconsistent along the fur of his forearms, and his eyes flicked nervously back and forth between Nosu and Hálogi.

Starzeek: “What the hell is going on here?”

Nosu opened his mouth, closed it, then tried again, his voice coming out rougher and more unsteady than anything any of them had heard from him across the entire fight.

Nosu: “I know what you're thinking, I know what it looks like. I can explain, just… give me a minute."

Greezmob: "A minute. You want a minute?"

His voice cracked somewhere in the middle of it, caught between disbelief and something rawer underneath.

Hálogi's head flames flickered once, sharp and sudden, and his remaining hand rose in a single slow motion before anyone else could get another word out.

Hálogi: “Talk. Fast.”

Noark: “Ok ok. Listen... My name is Noark and I’m not your enemy. I mean, I technically am but not really. There is something in me that can’t let go of what it started. Suark. The mastermind behind everything. The virus. The Albedo Empire. The destruction of that Red Wind Colony. It was all him. He’s gone obsessed with power. And I- I can't control him."

Dr. Lobestomy shouldered forward before Noark could get another word out, his voice pitched sharp with disbelief and something close to anger.

Dr. Lobestomy: "That's insane. You expect us to believe that?"

Noark pressed on anyway, the words spilling out faster now, unpolished, knowing full well how little time he had left to say them.

Noark: "I don't expect anything. I just want to say what I need to say... I managed to free myself when Suark reached his lowest point and lock him away to be able to speak with you, but not for long. There is no getting rid of him, I know because I already tried."

Silence fell between them. The only sound left in the clearing was the low hiss of Hálogi's dying flames and the distant grind of settling rock somewhere behind them. Noark turned toward Hálogi at last, and whatever was written across that molten face gave nothing away.

Noark: "As much as I hate to say it, Suark's stronger than me, that's why I need help. Hálogi, look… I know we don't get along, but I need your help in killing him… by killing me. I can't live like this forever. Trapped in my own body. Watching everything happen, helpless, hopeless while he… ruins every aspect of my life… Hálogi, please, help me end this nightmare."

His hand drifted to his wrist, fingers trembling as they found the edge of the Ultimatrix. He worked it loose slowly, and held it out toward Hálogi in an open, unsteady palm.

Noark: "This Ultimatrix is what keeps our DNA stable enough, we can't go long without it. And... I want you to have it, Hálogi. I know… the things he- I- we did, the harm caused… and I know I can't fix anything that we did… but you can. Surely you can do better with this than I could ever have."

Hálogi remained quietly still for a moment longer when Noark handed him the Ultimatrix. When he finally took it from Noark's hand, his gaze dropped to the device sitting in his molten palm, where the size difference made it look startlingly small. The flames on his head flickered unstably, the blue swallowing the blood-orange before collapsing and returning to a mix between the two hues.

Hálogi: "Yes."

His voice came out gruff under the low crackling of fire, and his fist closed around the device completely. His eyes flicked back up to Noark's face and narrowed at the sight of his throat. The damage had regenerated like it always did, but this time it had left behind a horrifying, imperfect scar across the skin.

Behind Hálogi, Starzeek finally let his arm fall to his side, slowly lowering his guard, as the weak static that ran across his fur vanished. Greezmob's shoulders dropped and a shaky breath escaped him. Dr. Lobestomy said nothing, his eyes still slightly narrowed with skepticism before easing out with a small flutter of the metallic plates of his skull.

For a heartbeat nobody moved. Then Noark turned towards the others, taking a slow and careful step, testing whether Starzeek's arm would rise again. But this time it was Greezmob who took the next uncertain step, before suddenly closing the small distance in a rush, his arms wrapping around Noark's legs as his sobbing broke loose. Starzeek followed a heartbeat later, folding both of them into an embrace, and Dr. Lobestomy, after visibly hesitating, extended one pincer to rest against Noark's back instead of joining the hug.

Noark: "I missed you guys a lot… The adventures… Everything…"

His eyes got watery and his voice cracked somewhere in the middle of the sentence while he tried to hold on to a small smile. Starzeek, still holding on, spoke quietly enough that it barely carried past the three of them.

Starzeek: "Yeah buddy, we did too…"

The reunion didn’t last long, because time was already running short. Noark was the one who pulled out of the embrace first, though none of them let go easily, and when he faced Hálogi again there was no performance left in him to hide behind.

Some distance away, hidden beneath a collapsed tangle of scorched metal, one of Billy Billions' spybots had survived the cosmic pulse that killed the rest of its swarm. Its casing sat scorched black and one lens had shattered completely, but its systems flickered back online within minutes, and it did the only thing it had been built to do. It crawled through the wreckage of its dead siblings, stripping wire and circuitry from broken frames, welding scavenged fragments back over its own ruined housing. By the time it hauled itself upright again, the feed it sent back out across the galaxy simply resumed, offering no explanation for the silence it left behind. Every viewer who had watched the cosmic storm building over Ignis, and then watched the broadcast die into a wall of static, would only ever see what came after. Whatever happened in between stayed on this planet, known only to the five of them present.

Hálogi raised his arm made of living flame. It flickered weakly, still shooting out small arcs of plasma as it struggled to keep its form. Noark moved away from the others and straightened as best he could, his exhausted body swaying with the effort, and looked past Hálogi one last time toward the three of them, before looking back at him and closing his eyes.

Hálogi: "You are different, Noark. I won't forget you for as long as I live."

Then the stillness in Noark's face split directly down the center. The right side stayed exactly as it had been, eyes shut, jaw loose, entirely serene. The left side tore itself awake without warning, the eyelid snapping open onto flat, pupilless crimson, the corner of that mouth wrenching back over grinding teeth, the muscle beneath twitching taut with a rage that had nowhere left to go. He lunged, though it was only half a lunge, one side of his body straining forward with everything Suark had left in him while the other stayed slack, dragged along like dead weight.

Suark: "HÁLOGI YOU BASTA-"

The words died in his throat, Hálogi's fire arm released everything he had left in a single blinding column of flames before the motion could finish, and the figure in front of him disintegrated where he stood, both halves of him gone in the same instant. No scream, no final transformation, nothing left behind but drifting ash already scattering into the wind rising off the crater.

Behind him, the trio didn't move, but they watched what little ash remained drift away and disappear into the wind. Hálogi's flames snuffed out all at once after that. His fire arm disappeared back into a bare stump, his mantle of flames went out, the fire across his head went dark, leaving only his jagged rock horns behind. He locked his knees and forced himself upright as his balance wavered, refusing to let his legs fold. But there was nothing left underneath that refusal to hold him up, and a moment later his knee gave way anyway, driving down into the scorched ground as his body finally failed him. He looked down at the Ultimatrix still resting in his palm one last time.

And so the ultimate nightmare finally came to an end.

Across the ruined battlefield, Nosu remains where he stands. His massive frame rises and falls with heavy, uneven breaths, each inhale dragging wetly through his chest before spilling back out between clenched teeth. All while the exposed flesh around the wounds Hálogi and the others had carved into him slowly stitches itself back together in twitching, uneven pulses. Every regeneration looks painful. Muscles spasming beneath the shell.

But Nosu barely seems to notice anymore, his attention remains fixed on Hálogi. The Pyronite lies motionless against the shattered ground, face lowered, flames still burning but no longer roaring with the same violent intensity as before. They flicker weakly now, shrinking and swelling unevenly around him while molten magma leaks steadily from the ruined stump of his severed arm, pooling beneath his body in glowing streams that spread slowly through the fractured stone.

Nosu watches him carefully like a vulture. Every muscle across his massive frame tightens with anticipation before easing again, his claws flexing slowly at his sides while silence stretches across the battlefield. He waits for movement, for anger, for another eruption of blue flames, for Hálogi to force himself upright again like he always had before.

...

But nothing happens, the battlefield around them has gone strangely still, reduced to the distant bubbling of lava rivers and the crackling hiss of scattered fires feeding on the ruins. Ash drifts lazily through the air between them while the last dying embers around Hálogi spit weakly against the scorched earth.

Then something changes in Nosu’s expression, at first it’s subtle, almost uncertain, his grin twitching faintly at one corner as realization begins to settle into place behind those widened red eyes. The silence no longer feels temporary. It begins to feel real.

Nosu: “Ha…”

The sound escapes Nosu’s throat in disbelief, but the moment it leaves him, something inside finally gives way.

Nosu: “Ha… haha… hehehihihiiii…

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!”

The laughter explodes out of him violently as both massive arms spread wide into the volcanic air, his claws stretching toward the sky while the sound tears across Ignis like another eruption. It echoes through the jagged mountains and burning valleys with such manic force that even the battlefield itself seems to recoil beneath it. The noise bounces endlessly through the volcanic wasteland, loud enough to pull the others back from the edge of unconsciousness.

Starzeek stirs first atop the slab of stone that had carried him away from the lava river. Painfully propping himself upward with one trembling arm, he looks across the battlefield and finally sees Hálogi lying motionless in the molten glow.

Starzeek: “No…”

Nearby, Greezmob remains sprawled across the scorched earth where Nosu had thrown him, his breathing still shallow and uneven as tears gather helplessly in his eyes. He cannot even force himself to speak anymore. The sight before him strips the strength from his chest entirely.

Dr. Lobestomy begins to regain awareness soon after, his mechanical legs twitching weakly against the fractured ground as his exposed brain pulses beneath the opened metal plates of his skull. His vision slowly steadies upon the devastation around him before finally settling on Hálogi’s collapsed body, and despite the natural stiffness of his crustacean features, regret becomes unmistakable across his face as the full consequence of his reckless attack settles over him.

Dr. Lobestomy: “Oh my… what… have I done…”

Nosu, meanwhile, can no longer contain himself, his laughter continues to spiral higher and higher as he clutches at his own head with both hands, claws scraping against the armored helmet while his massive body trembles beneath the sheer intensity of the emotion overtaking him. His eyes have widened so far they almost seem ready to burst from their sockets, every trace of restraint finally collapsing beneath the crushing euphoria flooding through him.

Nosu: “HAHAHA… the moment I dreamed of for so long is finally here! Do you understand?! After everything… after ALL of it! I’ve had great moments before, I infected millions, ruled an empire, crushed entire armies beneath my feet, but THIS… this feeling… HAHA! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would feel this GOOD!”

His claws dig deeper against his own skull until the armored plates screech beneath the pressure and dark blood begins to seep between his fingers, smearing across the sides of his helmet as another violent spasm tears through the monstrous body. Muscles convulse beneath the shell plating in uneven waves while Nosu’s voice only grows louder through the pain.

Nosu: “THIS IS THE GREATEST HIGH I’VE EVER HAD! I DON’T EVEN CARE ABOUT THE PAIN ANYMORE! IT HURTS, IT BURNS, IT FEELS LIKE MY BODY IS EATING ITSELF ALIVE BUT WHO CARES?! WHO CARES?! THIS ABOMINABLE, WRETCHED FORM CAN TEAR ITSELF APART FOR ALL I CARE, BECAUSE I WON! I WON! DO YOU HEAR ME, HÁLOGI?! I FINALLY PUT YOU BENEATH ME! I WON-”

Then, somewhere behind him, the ground shifted subtly, barely more than the scrape of stone against stone beneath the crackling of distant lava rivers, but the sound was enough to interrupt him mid breath. Nosu’s laughter faltered awkwardly in his throat as his massive frame stiffened. Slowly he turned his head back over his shoulder.

Hálogi stirred, the Pyronite’s body trembling as he slowly forces himself upward from the shattered ground, molten magma still pouring steadily from the ruined stump of his severed arm and splashing against the fractured stone beneath him in glowing droplets. One knee digs into the earth first, his remaining hand pressing hard enough to crack the rock further beneath his palm while his flames flicker violently around him, unstable and weak before burning brighter again. 

Hálogi: “Ugh… what a pitiful display, Nosu…”

Nosu’s expression emptied completely, the manic grin vanished from his face as though ripped away by force, leaving behind nothing but disbelief. His widened eyes locked onto Hálogi’s standing form while his breathing suddenly became uneven for an entirely different reason.

Nosu: “Wha…? No… no, no, no, no, nono…“

Hálogi finally straightens fully, though not cleanly. His posture remains uneven, shoulders lowered beneath exhaustion while his flames no longer burn with their usual restrained orange glow, nor with the rageful blue fury from earlier in the battle. Instead the colors bleed into one another unnaturally, deep molten orange at the core while sharp traces of blue flicker restlessly along the edges, never settling, never stabilizing, as though the fire itself cannot decide what state it belongs in anymore.

Nosu: “NO! YOU WERE DYING! YOU WERE DEAD! I SAW IT!”

But Hálogi didn’t even look at him, for the first time since the battle had begun, he ignored Nosu entirely. His gaze lowered instead towards the missing arm, and something quieter crossed his expression, not the expected rage or hatred, but sorrow. Small streams of magma continued to drip from the severed limb while unstable sparks snapped across the molten edges.

Hálogi: “Now this is… unpleasant… I used to hold my sons and daughters with this arm....”

His voice came out tired, roughened by pain, the words struck the battlefield with far greater weight than shouting ever could. Meanwhile, Nosu’s composure continued to fracture by the second. His breathing sharpened, claws twitching erratically at his sides while the muscles beneath his armored shell spasmed harder and harder.

Nosu: “HOW?! WHY?! HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING?! WHAT HAPPENED?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

Hálogi barely seemed to hear him, he slowly lifted his head instead, staring upward through the thick volcanic smog above Ignis where faint stars struggled to shine behind drifting ash clouds. The unstable flames around his body flickered softly in the darkness while another arc of plasma cracked across his ruined side.

Hálogi: “I wonder what my family will say when I return home…”

A faint sound escaped him, almost a tired laugh.

Hálogi: “Hah… They’ll probably spend the next decade lecturing me for not letting them come along.”

Nosu’s eye twitched violently.

Nosu: “ANSWER ME, HÁLOGI IGNEOUS! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!”

This time Hálogi answered, though his gaze still lingered upward toward the obscured heavens above them.

Hálogi: “I went to hell and came back… and in between, I found some time to think… You only continue to prove me right, Nosu…”

At last he looked down again to the stump, where the magma had stopped spilling and flames now began to pour from within instead, gathering into shape, building an arm of living fire that flickered with instability while tiny arcs of plasma snapped and danced along its length. Once fingers finished forming, he clenched his fiery hand into a fist.

Hálogi: “You. Are. Pathetic. Weak. In every sense of the word. Always has been, not because you lack power, but because you cannot see beyond yourself..."

At last, his molten eyes flicked back up towards Nosu, the look in them was no longer entirely furious, It was disappointment.

Hálogi: "What more can I say to you?”

Scattered around in the battlefield, the others begin to get up, Starzeek gets back on his feet, his hand gripping his arm while he pushes through the pain. Dr. Lobestomy gets up as well, placing his left pincer on the side of his head as a skull-cracking headache surges. Both looking back at Hálogi in slight relief from seeing him standing back up.

Hálogi’s words rang inside Nosu’s head, cutting deep, deeper than any blade. His red eyes widening, his sharp teeth clenched so tightly they shatter, then rebuilding again as he barks out

Nosu: "SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH! YOU- YOU DON'T LOOK AT ME THAT WAY! I AM NOT BELOW YOU!"

Hálogi’s tired gaze sweeps the battlefield behind Nosu, lingering over Starzeek before falling back on Nosu, his eyes sharpening

Hálogi: “Then show me.”

Nosu snaps, his body shudders with fury the second Hálogi finishes speaking and he roars. His grey flesh and muscles suddenly expanding and growing beyond their limits, the armored shell straining against it as it tries to accommodate the sudden growth. Nosu’s rageful groans of pain continue until he drops on all fours and charges at Hálogi like blinded beast.

But Hálogi remains in his spot, changing his posture ever so slightly that makes his flames flare in a sharp pulse. Starzeek, already waiting for a signal, lifts one trembling hand and lashes a bolt of electricity straight into Nosu’s path. The charge catches him full force, enough to seize his body for a fraction of a second, enough to make the muscles lock and the regeneration stumble. Nosu snarls in pain, his body paralyzing, his momentum broken.

Flames come out of Hálogi’s molten eyes as a realization happens, and before Nosu can recover, he quickly shifts and drops, placing his left hand on the ground, manipulating both earth and heat and the ground under Nosu rapidly becomes a molten mess before suddenly a geyser explodes under him, sending him flying high up in the clouded air.

The moment the opening existed, Hálogi turned away from the battlefield and crossed the shattered terrain toward Greezmob with an urgent propulsion. His body was beginning to betray him now, every movement visibly strained beneath the mounting damage, yet he forced himself onward anyway.

Greezmob had managed to push himself halfway upright by then, though barely. Blood still stained the corner of his mouth while one shaking hand pressed against his ribs as he struggled to steady his breathing.

Hálogi crouched beside him, quickly checking the worst of the injuries with the efficiency of someone long accustomed to battlefield survival.

Hálogi: “Listen to me carefully. Apparently electricity disrupts his regeneration. Can you still build?”

Greezmob blinked rapidly, still dazed, still shaken by everything that had happened, but the question itself seemed to drag him back toward himself.

Greezmob: “I… I think so… maybe something to amplify it… focus it…”

Hálogi gave a single firm nod.

Hálogi: “Good. Gather the others.”

He rises before Greezmob can say anything else, already turning back toward the battlefield as the air changes again. Nosu is returning from above, a massive shadow crashing back down with his fist raised for another earthquake blow. Hálogi only glances over one shoulder as he speaks again, his voice calm in a way that is almost more frightening than shouting.

Hálogi: “I’m counting on you.”

Then Nosu hits and the ground fractures outward in a violent shockwave, stone ripping apart under the force of the impact as the battlefield lurches beneath them. But Hálogi is already moving, his hands gesturing towards the ground as he reshapes the terrain at the same time it’s broken, redirecting the shockwave to the sides without hitting them, giving Greezmob an opening to scurry away with one hand pressed against his ribs.

Hálogi turned back toward Nosu and found the Ultimate Vaxasaurian already hauling himself free of the ruined ground. The fist that had buried itself in the earth came out with a sharp motion, chunks of scorched stone breaking loose with it as Nosu ripped his arm free and rose snarling from the crater he had made. Hálogi’s flames flared again, and he went in a skidding rush across the battlefield, his damaged body pushing itself forward on spite and instinct more than strength. 

Nosu’s gaze flicked toward the retreating Greezmob, then toward Dr. Lobestomy, and then to Starzeek, who was already forcing himself back into motion. The shift in his attention lasted only a heartbeat, but Hálogi seized it immediately. He raised his arm made of living flames, the air around it crackling with instability, and snapped his fingers creating a streak of lightning burst from the charged air around it, cracking through the smoke and striking Nosu hard enough to drag his focus back where it belonged. 

Nosu: “ARGH!”

Nosu roared and answered with raw, animal violence, throwing his massive fists out in a wild barrage meant to flatten whatever still stood before him. But Hálogi ducked one punch by inches, the force of it blasting hot air across his face as it thundered over him. He twisted under the next, his remaining arm lifting only to redirect the impact just enough to keep it from breaking him outright. Nosu’s mace tail snapped through the air behind him, and Hálogi sprang upward at the last possible instant, the tail whisking beneath his feet as he landed in a stagger rather than a fall. Every movement was strained, every dodge by inches, and yet he kept Nosu’s attention on him, kept him angry and from looking anywhere else.

Greezmob reached Dr. Lobestomy and Starzeek near the ship, all three battered and breathing hard, but standing upright. Starzeek was the first to speak, his voice rough from strain as his gaze moved between them.

Starzeek: “You guys alright?”

Greezmob gave a shaky nod, then Dr. Lobestomy did the same, one hand still pressed to the side of his head as the pain of the earlier shockwave slowly faded into something duller and more humiliating. For a moment none of them spoke, because all three could still see Hálogi in the distance, still standing between them and Nosu, still fighting with what was left of his body while the rest of them had almost been taken off the board.

Dr. Lobestomy looked back towards the others, his expression shifting due to the guilt’s weight.

Dr. Lobestomy: “I… I compromised everything, Starzeek. I lost control. And all I could hear was noise, all I could see was red, and I couldn’t… couldn’t think... I am sorry.”

Starzeek’s expression shifted, a complicated mix of frustration and understanding pulling at his face at once. He wanted to be angry, probably was angry. But looking at Lobestomy now, battered and ashamed and still trying to stand, made it hard to hold onto that disappointment for long.

Starzeek: “It’s… alright man. You just weren’t thinking straight. I know you didn’t mean to-”

But Greezmob cut in before he could soften it any further, a sharp cough shaking through him before he bent forward and spat a little blood into his hand. He wiped it off on his jumpsuit with a grimace, then stared back at the battlefield with a look that had begun to harden into focus.

Greezmob: “It don’t matter if he meant it or not. What matters is what we gotta do now. Mr. Hálogi trusted me to build something for him, something to amplify and focus you guy’s electricity so it can actually hurt Nosu for real. If that thing gets built, maybe it can stop him.”

Dr. Lobestomy went still for a moment, then his posture shifted, the guilt not gone but buried for the time being beneath purpose. He looked toward the ship then back at the others.

Dr. Lobestomy: “Of course…”

His pincer flexed once, sharp and deliberate.

Dr. Lobestomy: “An amplifying system built to channel our bio electric output into a concentrated discharge to disrupt his nervous system and stall his regeneration. Yes. It can work.”

Greezmob blinked at him, then gave a quick nod, already pushing himself back into motion.

Greezmob: “Then let’s do it fast.”

Dr. Lobestomy began sketching a rough framework into the dirt with quick motions of his pincer, marking out the shape and flow of the weapon while Greezmob leaned in beside him, pointing out which pieces from the ship could be used. Starzeek turned without hesitation and headed for the wrecked craft itself, his shoulders set, his expression hardening into something focused and determined as he tore loose heavy pieces of metal and carried them back one by one, the static in his body snapping softly against the frame as he worked.

Greezmob dropped to his knees in the wreckage and began pulling apart the parts they had already gathered and fitting them back together with frantic speed while Lobestomy guided the whole thing with terse corrections and calculations, the three of them putting their emotions aside and getting to work.

At the same time, Hálogi kept Nosu from turning back on them. The Ultimate Vaxasaurian was no longer moving with the same brutal certainty as before. His body was starting to betray him as well. One arm faltered when he tried to raise it, then locked halfway with a sudden convulsion that tore a furious snarl out of him. Out of nowhere, one leg buckled for an instant beneath his own weight before snapping back into place. His head twitched sharply, claws dragging across his own helmet as if some unseen pressure had dug deep behind his eyes.

Nosu: “No... no, no, keep... control...”

He spat the words out between clenched teeth, his breathing turning harsh and irregular as he kept trying to claw forward anyway. Hálogi saw it all from a distance and didn’t waste the moment. He kept moving with what was left of his strength, slipping away from one punch, redirecting another with the palm of his remaining hand, throwing up a smoke screen to momentarily blind him, anything to keep Nosu busy and focused on him.

Nosu swung again, blinded with fury and frustration, but Hálogi had already gotten out of the way before the blow could land. The impact shattered a boulder instead, and Hálogi used the opening to raise his flame arm, snapping his fingers creating a spark and forcing a jagged burst of lightning out through the charged air around him. The strike cracked across the smoke and hit Nosu hard enough to jolt his body down to one knee before quickly getting back up.

Nosu’s eyes widened with rage and confusion at once. He snarled and tried to answer with another swing, Hálogi barely managed to evade, forcing the ground itself to shift beneath Nosu’s feet to break his balance. The monster lunged after him, but every step now looked a little more wrong, a little less certain, as if his own body were no longer fully agreeing with the rage driving it.

Finally, Greezmob slammed the last component into place and climbed onto the turret.

Greezmob: “MR. HÁLOGI, IT’S DONE!”

Greezmob’s voice echoed through the battlefield and Hálogi’s head snapped back toward them instantly, his molten eyes narrowing with silent acknowledgement the moment he saw the turret. He kicked off the ground and created a great distance from Nosu in a single violent burst of flames while Nosu twisted his body to look toward the shout, confusion flashing across his face before realization began to settle in.

Hálogi didn’t allow Nosu another second to process, both of his hands came together in a sharp motion, and from the shattered ground around Nosu, two massive stone hands surged upward, curling inward and locking him in place like a crushing cage. Nosu roared and immediately began to struggle trying to break free.

Hálogi: “Now!”

Starzeek’s fur rose sharply as electricity poured through him, his whole body tensing as he crossed his arms and forced every spark he had into the growing machine. Dr. Lobestomy’s skull plates opened wide, exposing the huge brain beneath as arcs of electricity streamed out of him into the turret’s frame. Greezmob, perched atop the rig, slammed the final controls into place and shoved the firing mechanism forward with both hands and the three of them screamed in union.

"FIIIIIREEE!!!"

A massive current tore out across the battlefield, so big and violent that it seemed to carve a path through the ground as it surged toward Nosu. The beam shattered the stone hands around him in a burst of fragments and then slammed into him directly with a force so overwhelming that it made his mind go blank.

Nosu’s body convulsed violently. His muscles expanded, then collapsed, then tore open again under the current as his regeneration failed to keep pace with the damage. The flesh around his shell spasmed and split in jagged waves, and every time his body tried to repair itself, the electricity ripped through the process and dragged it apart again. His roar of agony tore across Ignis like a wound in the sky, a sound so raw, so unrestrained and far more bloodcurdling than anything he had made before.

And the beam did not let up, Starzeek and Dr. Lobestomy kept powering the machine, giving it their all to keep it up while Nosu thrashed beneath it, his body twisting and tearing itself apart in ways no living thing was ever meant to survive.

To be continued…

I miss when I could go outside without my vision getting bombarded by a million different things and overstimulating me. I miss not fearing I might go blind one day because of this. I Miss when I heard nothing but silence when I peacefully sat in a quiet room. Miss when I didn't fear loud sounds when using headphones and could enjoy music. Miss when I didn't feel alone in a crowd of friends and family. Miss when I had the energy to start and finish a project properly without having to take multiple long breaks for feeling exhausted all the time.

Those who don't suffer from it don't get it. They might say they understand it but they don't fully know what it's really like. This sense of dread, this longing for the past, this burnout. And when you try to explain your heart out, some say it's not that big of a deal, that it's overreacting, all in your head, to toughen up. Or some even just straight up ignore what you said as if you just spoke gibberish.

Sure, some get used to it after having it for some time as I did, becomes the new "normal". But the feelings never truly go away. It's just buried inside until the next symptom worsens out of nowhere.

I miss the old me.

^(Previously on Dexter…)

Nosu: “Fine.”

A low growl rolls up from his chest as both massive hands twist back into bio gatling guns. The mechanisms begin to whirr, the sound rising slowly at first, then deeper, hungrier, more alive.

Nosu: “Hide behind each other, then. It will only make this part easier.”

Hálogi’s molten eyes flare, his mouth opens, and a dense cloud of black smoke pours out in a sudden burst, rolling outward across the battlefield like a living curtain. In an instant, it swallows the space between them, obscuring Nosu’s line of sight and hiding the trio from view.

Nosu lets out a sharp grunt of irritation and both bio gatling guns on his massive arms begin to spin faster, their mechanisms whining louder as they charge. He doesn’t hesitate, he opens fire and a storm of missiles tears through the smoke, one after another after another, hurling ash and heat into the air, but they hit nothing, and for a split second, there is only the sound of explosions muffled inside the smoke.

Then, in a heartbeat, four figures burst out of the smoke in different directions.

On the left, Dr. Lobestomy surges forward, his mechanical legs clanking and whirring as they push beyond their normal limits, each step biting hard into the scorched ground. Perched on top of his head, Greezmob braces himself, gripping his oversized laser rifle, already aiming. Dr. Lobestomy’s cannon arm rises to take aim as well. 

On the right, Hálogi cuts across the battlefield in a low, aggressive glide, molten fire blasting from beneath his feet as he skims over the broken terrain, carving a path through the scorched earth. His mantle of flame trails behind him, flickering violently with the speed. Just behind him, Starzeek pushes forward at full pace, electricity crackling faintly along his fur as he struggles to keep up, but never falling far behind.

Nosu’s eyes widen for the briefest moment at the split approach, then his posture shifts instantly. Both gatling guns swing outward, one tracking left, the other right, and the missiles keep screaming through the air as they fly in rapid fire, filling the air with shrieking impacts and detonations, each shot missing by inches as Hálogi and the trio close in from two angles.

But Nosu’s attention is split now, and it’s showing. Explosions tear into the ground around the advancing pairs, close enough to shake them, close enough to scorch, but not enough to stop them. The missiles missing only by inches, they’re already too close for his taste.

On the left, advantage is taken, Greezmob tightens his grip and pulls the trigger and a concentrated blast of energy rips forward that almost pushes him off Dr. Lobestomy’s head. At the same time, Dr. Lobestomy fires as well, his cannon arm discharging a surge that cuts through the air with a sharp crack. Both shots strike Nosu’s face, melting his eyes right off, blinding him on the spot. His head jerks to the side, his aim breaking for just long enough to disrupt the barrage and a roar of pain rips out of him as his gatling guns transform back into hands.

Blinded by the blast to his face, Nosu reels backward with a furious snarl. The smoke, the ash, the suffocating sulfur, the sudden loss of sight, all of it comes together in a single brutal instant, giving Hálogi and Starzeek the opening they've been waiting for.

Hálogi closes the distance first in a streak of fire. He doesn’t hesitate, his first strike is a left hook that slams into Nosu’s jaw and forces the massive head to twist sideways with a crack of shifting bone, not to break it, but to stagger him, to force him off-balance. And with Nosu staggered, Hálogi’s right hand shifts, molten plasma stretching and sharpening along his arm into a searing blade, and in the same motion, he cuts across the exposed gaps between Nosu’s armored shell, carving into flesh that had already healed once. 

Starzeek moves right behind the opening Hálogi created, his fist slamming into Nosu’s side, electricity bursting on contact, not with the same force as Hálogi, but it’s enough to make Nosu’s massive body tremble differently with a sharper grunt as the current surges through him.

Hálogi strikes again, this time with a propulsed flaming punch to the torso, making his shell crack a bit more just as Starzeek follows with another electrified blow to the ribs. Then the blade returns, carving across another exposed seam, molten light searing into flesh before it can close.

They move without speaking, without too much planning, falling into a rhythm that presses in from both sides, each strike feeding into the next. Nosu is forced back a step, then another, massive feet grinding against the scorched ground as he tries to stabilize against the relentless pressure.

But in his blindness, Nosu’s anguish boils more. His maced tail strikes the ground hard as he attempts to retaliate, his arm lashes out in a wide arc, cutting through the space where Hálogi stood a fraction too late, the force of it tearing through the air with enough strength to shatter stone. Hálogi leans back just enough to avoid it before coming back with another slicing strike across Nosu’s side. Nosu growls, his other arm coming up in a blind attempt to grab, to crush, to create any sort of space for him to breathe, but Starzeek ducks under it and drives another charged punch into his abdomen.

This time, Nosu howls in pain as Starzeek’s electricity lingers for a split second longer, crawling beneath the surface, and it shows. It hurts Nosu, a lot. 

The rhythm tightens further, suffocating, it becomes too much. Every time Nosu tries to push them back, another strike interrupts him. Every time he tries to plant his feet, another blow forces him off balance. He absorbs it with sheer durability, with rage, with brute endurance, but the pressure doesn't let up. It builds, constantly, it traps him, makes him helpless, and for a fleeting stretch of seconds, the giant is being overwhelmed.

From the left, the others finally close in. Greezmob drops from Dr. Lobestomy’s head, landing on the ground with his laser rifle steady in his grip as he approaches slowly. Lobestomy follows, silent, his mechanical legs driving him forward with uneven, aggressive force. There is something off in the way he moves now, less calculated, more reckless, determined to end it. His eyes flicker erratically as his cannon arm already begins to hum as energy gathers at its core.

Hálogi and Starzeek keep Nosu locked in place, their strikes continuing in rapid succession, holding him in that narrow window where he cannot fully retaliate.

And then… Lobestomy fires. A concentrated beam erupts from his cannon arm, cutting through the battlefield with a violent uncontrolled surge of energy far too wide.

Hálogi hears it first, his head snaps toward the incoming blast, molten eyes widening just enough to register the danger, and he moves on instinct.

Hálogi: “Move!”

He pushes Starzeek by the shoulder and both of them break away in opposite directions in the same instant, the rhythm gets shattered, the pressure broken.

Starzeek: “Shit!”

The energy beam slams into Nosu. The impact is explosive, swallowing his upper body in a blinding flash as the energy detonates across him, tearing through what had already been damaged.

And that is when it happens, Nosu’s vision reforms, his red eyes snap open through the ruin, blood dripping from the corners as flesh finishes knitting itself back together, and what returns with his sight is pure rage. His teeth grind together so hard they almost crack, his entire frame tensing as a roar tears itself from the depths of his chest, raw and violent and filled with something unhinged.

Nosu: “ENOUGH! I’M GONNA PUT YOU FREAKS IN YOUR PLACE!”

Nosu moves before the echo of his voice fades between the volcanic mountains. His left arm swings out, fast and brutal, catching Starzeek mid movement and launching him across the battlefield like a ragdoll. His body skips across the ground before hurtling towards a river of molten lava, limp and unresponsive.

Hálogi: “Starzeek!”

Hálogi reacts instantly and rushes to aid, his right arm melting back into a hand as he extends it forward making the ground rise beneath Starzeek in a surge of jagged stone, forming into a massive hand that catches him just before he can fall into the lava, cradling him and carrying him away from the edge.

But that moment costs him. Nosu’s right hand curls into a fist and he slams it into the ground, the impact sends a shockwave ripping outward, cracking the scorched earth open as it races across the battlefield. It hits Dr. Lobestomy head on before he has time to react, the force lifting him off the ground and throwing him back violently, his body going limp as he crashes into the broken terrain.

And then there is Greezmob, watching it all unfold in front of him, Starzeek’s body thrown aside like it weighed nothing, Dr. Lobestomy struck down by the shockwave, and Hálogi forced into motion before he can even recover, moving Starzeek away from the edge of the lava just as Nosu surges in to deny it.

The ground shudders again under the sheer force of Nosu’s advance, a massive swing cutting through the space where Hálogi had stood a heartbeat before, forcing him to twist mid motion, arm still outstretched to guide Starzeek onto solid ground while the rest of his body turns back toward the threat. There is no clean transition, no moment to reset, only a strained adjustment as he splits himself between ensuring Starzeek is clear of the molten river and keeping Nosu from crashing down on them both.

Greezmob’s chest begins to rise and fall rapidly as panic takes hold, his breathing turning sharp and uneven. His bottom lip trembles, his hands clutching the laser rifle far too tightly as the ringing in his ears drowns out everything else. Despair settles in fast, heavy and suffocating, and before a single clear thought can form, his legs start moving on their own.

Nosu catches the movement from the corner of his eye. His head snaps toward it, his red eyes wide, almost bulging out as something wild flickers behind them. His right hand twists and reshapes into a bio gatling gun once more, and without a moment of hesitation, the barrels spin to life, unleashing a torrent of missiles toward Greezmob. Each one screams through the air with murderous intent, detonating just behind him in violent bursts that send heat and shockwaves snapping at his heels.

But that isn’t enough to make Greezmob stop running, using his small size as an advantage to dodge the missiles as he shoots back in retaliation against Nosu with his laser rifle, some shots hitting, some missing, but he continues marching forward grinding his teeth.

Once he closes the distance between them, Nosu’s tail lashes out, the heavy mace end cutting through the air in a sweep meant to crush Greezmob, but he discards his laser without a second thought and leaps, claws digging into Nosu’s body as he latches on and begins to climb. His movements are desperate, frantic, driven more by emotion than technique as he scrambles upward, his vision blurred with tears, his breath uneven and sharp.

Nosu snarls and begins to turn, his massive body twisting as he tries to shake him loose, every movement violent enough to throw off anything smaller, but Greezmob refuses to let go until he manages to reach the face and starts to rake his claws across Nosu’s face in a frenzy, striking again and again without rhythm or restraint.

Greezmob: “I HATE YOU!”

He shouts glaring at Nosu between tears and sobs while his claws lash across Nosu’s features, striking, tearing, hitting whatever he can reach.

Greezmob: “I HATE YOU FOR LEAVING US!”

Nosu snarls in response, the sound deep and feral, his hand shifting back from its weaponized form as he reaches blindly, swiping at the smaller figure clinging to him until his grip finally closes around Greezmob’s body.

Nosu: “Argh! Get OFF ME!”

He tears him free and throws him down into the ground with brutal force, the impact sending a sharp crack through the air as Greezmob’s body slams against the scorched terrain. The blow knocks the air out of his lungs instantly, a broken gasp escaping his throat as blood sprays from his mouth, his small frame collapsing in on itself. He barely moves after that, his tail twitching weakly against the ground, his breaths shallow, uneven, caught somewhere between pain and shock.

Nosu looks down at him. There is no hesitation in his expression now, only a cold, decisive intent as his right hand curls into a fist and begins to rise. The motion is slow, deliberate, almost patient, as if savoring what comes next, the final strike already decided, and all Greezmob can do is close his eyes and brace for impact as Nosu drives his fist down on him.

...

For a brief, suspended instant, everything seems to go quiet. The impact never comes.

Instead, heat washes over him, a sudden, suffocating warmth that cuts through the fear. Greezmob’s eyes flutter open, and the first thing he sees is a molten glow spilling across his vision, flickering, unsteady, but there.

It’s Hálogi, he forced himself between them at the last possible moment, both hands locked around Nosu’s descending fist, his entire damaged body braced under the weight of it. The force of the collision drives through him immediately, his stance breaking as he is pushed down to one knee, the ground beneath him splintering outward in jagged cracks.

His flames surge violently, flaring brighter and wilder than before, not controlled, but in defiance, as every part of him strains against the overwhelming strength bearing down on him. His arms tremble under the pressure, his grip tightening even as it threatens to give, yet he does not let it fall, not an inch more, holding the blow there through sheer will alone.

And that is when Nosu’s expression shifts. The rage doesn’t fade, but it twists, curling into something darker as a slow, sickening grin spreads across his muzzle. He takes in the sight before him, the fallen friends scattered across the battlefield, the Overlord kneeling under his strength, the desperation hanging thick in the air, and an idea forms, something sharp and cruel.

Suddenly, his fist changes and he opens his palm, catching Hálogi off-guard as his hand closes around Hálogi’s torso and left arm, locking him in place, pinning him where he stands, and before Hálogi can react, before he can even pull away, Nosu’s other hand snaps forward and seizes his right arm.

There is a brief moment of tension, a brief moment where realization happens.

In one sharp, merciless motion, Nosu tears Hálogi’s arm apart. The sound of tearing rock and molten matter splitting under force cuts through the battlefield, a sickening rupture that no amount of heat or chaos can drown out. It is followed immediately by Hálogi’s roar.

A raw, unfiltered cry of agony that rips across the battlefield, powerful enough to make even Billy’s spybots recoil behind their cover, the sheer force of it carving through the noise of fire and destruction for one terrible, unforgettable instant.

Then Nosu casts him aside without care, discarding him like a broken toy, and Hálogi's body goes limp against the ground. But Nosu's attention already shifts to what remains in his hand.

Hálogi’s severed arm, still glowing, still dripping magma into his palm. He lifts it slowly, almost curiously, to look at it before bringing it to his mouth and biting down, devouring it in a single motion. The act is sickening, his jaw working as he swallows, savoring it. His tongue sliding across his teeth as the grin returns, wider, more unhinged than before, his red eyes gleaming with something feral and deeply disturbing.

Nosu: “Hm, yummers.~”

To be continued...

After the explosion, the battlefield is swallowed by smoke and ash and it falls into a brief, uneasy silence, broken only by the distant and low rumble of lava, the crackle of Hálogi’s flames and the collapsing of broken stone.

Slowly, the smoke screen begins to thin as it drifts upward. The haze clears and the remains of a jagged rock wall come into view, fractured and riddled with holes where some of the missiles tore through. A small bioelectric field hums around Starzeek, Dr. Lobestomy, and Greezmob, its surface wavering under the strain. Starzeek’s fur is standing on end from the current surging through him, and Dr. Lobestomy’s metallic skull plates are lifted open, exposing the massive brain beneath as arcs of electricity snap and crackle from him into the field. 

Greezmob sits on the ground between them, wide-eyed and frozen, his breath uneven as if he had just seen his life flash before his own eyes. Like something had... shattered.

Not far from them, Hálogi is still on his knee, his flames flickering unsteadily for a brief moment of relief. But only for a moment. His expression hardens again as he forces himself upright, pain still lingering in every movement, but he pushes through it and with a sharp burst from the flames beneath his feet, he propulses himself forward. He does not land cleanly, his momentum carrying him into a rough slide across the broken ground before he catches himself just in front of the trio behind the shattered wall.

Starzeek and Dr. Lobestomy let the field die down the moment Hálogi arrives. For a second, the Overlord says nothing. He stands there, towering over all three of them, his mantle of fire rising around him like a warning. His expression is stern, but it carries something deeper beneath it.

Hálogi: “This is the reason why I came alone! What were you thinking? Do you seek death?!”

Greezmob flinches slightly at the outburst, still trying to pull himself together. Dr. Lobestomy begins to speak, lifting a pincer as if to argue their case.

Dr. Lobestomy: “We are not entirely defenseless, we are capable of-”

Hálogi cuts him off immediately, his flames flaring sharply as his voice drops into something firmer, heavier.

Hálogi: “Then you should be capable of knowing that emotions have no place on the battlefield. They cloud your judgment. They pull you away from the objective.”

The words come out hard, and for a brief moment they sound almost hypocritical, especially coming from him, and he knows it. But then Hálogi exhales, just once, and when he speaks again, his tone has shifted, lower and steadier.

Hálogi: “You can't touch the heart of someone who has already made up their mind about you.”

Greezmob, already on his feet, looks away at that. Dr. Lobestomy still looks irritated at being interrupted, but he says nothing. For a moment, the three of them stand there in silence.

Then Starzeek steps forward. His jaw tightens. His eyes stay locked on Hálogi, but there is no defiance in them, only strain, guilt, and determination.

Starzeek: “Yeah, we... we know that. Deep down, we always knew it. But we still... hoped-"

He hesitates, then presses on, his voice harder now.

Starzeek: “That’s why we’re here. To make things right. To fix our mistake.”

The other two look toward Hálogi as well. There is conflict in all of them, but underneath it, there is conviction. And Hálogi sees it. His flames flicker once, not in anger this time, but in something closer to reluctant respect. He then nods his head slowly.

Hálogi: “Okay…”

Hálogi turns away from them, facing forward again. With a subtle motion of his hand, the broken rock wall collapses back into the ground, clearing the space between them and the battlefield ahead. He steps forward, placing himself firmly between Nosu and the trio. His mantle of flame rises with him, casting a steady, imposing glow.

Hálogi: “Then do as I say.”

Behind him, the three share a glance and move without hesitation.

Starzeek straightens his jacket and clenches his fists, faint currents already beginning to dance along his arms. Dr. Lobestomy clicks his left pincer while the mechanical cannon of his right arm hums to life. Greezmob wipes his eyes quickly, sniffs once, and pulls a cube-like device from his satchel. With the press of a button, it unfolds and shifts into a laser rifle nearly as large as he is, which he grips tightly.

Across the scorched battlefield, Nosu stands still for a moment, his massive frame rising and falling with heavy breaths. Smoke drifts past him in slow currents, briefly veiling his form before thinning again.

When the ruined wall drops back down to the ground, his red eyes snap toward the formation now standing against him. His muzzle twitches once, and then a sharp yellow grin spreads slowly across his face. He lets out a mocking whistle and begins clapping, slow and deliberate.

Nosu: “Pheeeew... now that was something... Oh, the emotional drama, heartbreaking.”

He shakes his head and huffs through his nostrils, his tail dragging through the ash behind him once before going still.

Nosu: “Heh.”

Then his head tilts slightly, red eyes narrowing as they move from one figure to the next.

Nosu: “So, this is how it is now?”

His voice is calm, but only barely. There is a hard edge beneath it, a pressure building under the surface that he is no longer bothering to hide.

Nosu: “You couldn’t beat me on your own, could you Hálogi? So now you all team up. Doesn’t matter. You’re still weak against me.”

The words are spit out like poison, meant to provoke a reaction. But Hálogi does not give him one. His flames remain controlled, no longer blue, no longer wild. That only sharpens Nosu’s irritation.

His gaze shifts again, taking in the way Hálogi stands in front of the trio, the way the others hold their ground behind him. This is no longer a scattered group. It's a formation. A shield, a challenge. And Nosu can feel the change, and he hates it. His grin fades and what remains is colder, sharper, less amused.

His eyes flick to Hálogi’s flames, then to the trio’s weapons, then back to the Overlord’s face.

Nosu: “Tell me something, Hálogi. Do you really think you can protect these shitheads? From me?”

He lets the question hang for a second before pressing in harder.

Nosu: “Even after you failed to protect your own little citizens? Your… friends?”

That earns him exactly what he wanted, a small flicker from Hálogi’s flames, irritated and restrained, but still there. Nosu notices it at once and his grin returns for half a heartbeat.

Nosu: “Alright.”

A low growl rolls up from his chest as both massive hands twist back into bio gatling guns. It begins to whirr, the sound rising slowly at first, then deeper, hungrier, more alive.

Nosu: “Go on, hind behind your new friends, your Highness. It'll only make this easier for me... and more painful to you...”

To be continued…

⚠️ Just a little warning, if you haven't already checked the previous parts for additional context, please do so by clicking here! ⚠️

As the ship tears through the soot filled sky and the dark volcanic clouds split apart above Ignis, and on the side door first, Starzeek stands there, one hand braced against the frame for balance as the ship cuts through the violent wind. His yellow fur is tugged and whipped by the furnace hot currents rising from the planet below, his gaze locked downward on the battlefield.

And then he calls out the name that hangs between them like a wound.

Starzeek: “Nosu!”

The ship lowers itself toward the ruined ground below, descending over a battlefield of cracked earth, jagged stone, deep craters, open wounds in the land, and rivers of molten lava cutting through the destruction. Ignis looks like it has been torn apart by something far larger than a simple duel.

The ship lands with a heavy thud amid the ash and broken rock.

Starzeek is the first one out, stepping onto the scorched ground with his expression already tight with concern. Dr. Lobestomy follows shortly after, his mechanical legs clicking against the ruined terrain, while Greezmob finishes setting the ship down and exits the cockpit to join them.

The moment he steps outside, the smell hits him. Sulfur. Smoke. Hot stone. Burned metal. It is thick enough to make him wrinkle his nose and wave a hand in front of his face.

Greezmob: “Phew, this place stinks worse than back on Aul-Turrhen.”

Dr. Lobestomy looks around slowly, taking in the devastation with a grim, assessing stare.

Dr. Lobestomy: “Remarkable. I knew this world was damaged, but I did not expect it to be this extensively compromised.”

But Starzeek is not looking at the terrain. He is looking at Nosu. His face is caught between anger and something far more painful, something older. Concern. Frustration. The kind of worry that comes from seeing someone you know has already gone too far.

Starzeek: “Nosu, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Nosu’s gaze shifts from the battered Hálogi to the trio standing before him. For a moment, his expression stills. Then his scaly muzzle curls slowly into a sly smile, sharp with mockery.

Nosu: “Well, look who decided to show up. Missed me much, old friends?”

A low chuckle rolls out of him, bitter and amused all at once.

Greezmob looks back at Nosu in indignation, barely even noticing the stench around him anymore, unable to hold his tongue any longer.

Greezmob: “Don’t you ‘old friends’ us, you maniac sonovabitch! You destroyed our house, asshole!”

Dr. Lobestomy pipes in next, analytical as always, but with irritation sharpening every word.

Dr. Lobestomy: “And let us not forget the thousands upon thousands of lives you have taken, nor the sheer destruction you have caused everywhere else.”

Starzeek finally stops his march, and the other two come to a halt beside him, a few good meters away from Nosu and Hálogi. Starzeek clenches his fists, faint electricity crackling from the bolts on his wrists as he takes in the state Nosu is in. His Ultimate Vaxasaurian form is grotesque, and even from here it looks painful just to breathe. His expression tightens before he opens his arms and gestures toward Nosu.

Starzeek: “And look at what you have done to yourself, man… Fuck, I should have known something was wrong when you showed up back at the house after disappearing for so long…”

He drags a hand down his face, trying to keep himself steady, while Greezmob jumps onto Dr. Lobestomy’s head to appear bigger, pointing a finger straight at Nosu and shouting all over again.

Greezmob: “You look like a monster! No, you became a monster! You big old- You-”

His voice cracks as he searches for words. The fury does not vanish, but it falters, and his posture collapses with it. His head drops, and his hand falls to his side, gripping the strap of his satchel tightly as he looks away from Nosu.

Greezmob: “Nosu...”

Dr. Lobestomy keeps his focus on Nosu as well, the plates of his skull shifting slightly with a sharp mechanical snap.

Dr. Lobestomy: “Your greed for power has reached unacceptable limits. You have gone too far. Out of line.”

Hálogi remains where he is on the battlefield, one hand pressed against his chest as he bears through the pain and slowly gathers himself again.

Hálogi: “You're... fools, all of you. Coming here like this. Do you think he will listen to-”

But his words are cut off when Starzeek raises a hand toward the Overlord in a bold request for silence.

Starzeek: “Please. Let us talk.”

The flames on Hálogi’s head and shoulders flicker, then begin to settle. As he listens to the three of them, his anger and rage give way to something heavier, something bitter and remorseful, and the bright blue of his fire slowly starts to dim back into its usual blood-orange.

Starzeek keeps his eyes locked on Nosu as he takes a deep breath before continuing.

Starzeek: “This is my fault. I should’ve been able to stop you back then. I should’ve seen what was going on. I feel like I failed you. I'm sorry.”

Dr. Lobestomy turns his attention back to Nosu, the plates of his skull shifting again as he gestures vaguely with both pincer and cannon, trying to make sense of things.

Dr. Lobestomy: “I can comprehend certain things, Nosu, the virus, or the Albedo Empire, or your long pursuit of absolute power. However, this current situation? Everything you have done since your escape from the Red Wind prison cannot be solely for the sake of power…this… this is not strategy. This is not ambition.

A pause.

Dr. Lobestomy: “This is... obsession. You are behaving like a spoiled child who was denied his favorite toy.”

Greezmob looks back up, his voice trembling now.

Greezmob: “Yeah! What happened, dude? This isn’t you! We were your friends… All that time… all the time we spent together… didn’t we mean anything to you?”

He almost cannot hold back tears now. His eyes search Nosu’s face from a distance, as if he is still looking for an answer he already knows he will not like, yet trying to cling to any lingering hope left.

But Nosu, now with his wounds fully regenerated and his armored shell restored to perfect condition, goes quiet for a single second. His smirk fades. He glances to the side, lifts one hand and stares down at it for a brief, silent heartbeat.

Then his mace tail strikes the ground once, and a low huff leaves his nostrils.

Nosu: “Hmpf... No. Like I said... We were never friends.”

He says it in a near playful voice, before slowly bringing his piercing red eyes back to the group in the distance. But before anyone can react, he shifts his massive hand towards them and twists it into a bio gatling gun. A disturbing, bloodthirsty grin spreads across his distorted snout.

Hálogi’s molten eyes widen as he catches the shift at once, the murderous intent in Nosu becoming unmistakable. For the first time in the entire duel, his shout is not born from anger, but from concern.

Hálogi: “NO!”

But the gatling gun begins to whirr to life despite his warning, and the missiles launch in rapid succession. Hálogi tries to dash forward, to propulse himself toward them, but a sudden spike of pain tears through his battered body. His flames flicker wildly, magma spills from his mouth in a wet cough, and the force of it brings him down to one knee as he watches the barrage closing in on the group.

Still clutching his chest, Hálogi lifts his other hand and tries to bring the ground up beneath them, trying anything, anything at all to shield them at the last possible moment.

Greezmob’s ears twitch as the sound hits him first. Eyes widening as he sees the incoming fire.

Greezmob: “Wait-”

For a split second, the missiles hang in the air like burning stars. Then they detonate. A massive blast erupts across the battlefield, throwing up a towering cloud of ash and smoke that swallows everything in sight.

To be continued…

Nosu keeps Hálogi pinned beneath his massive hand, the pressure of his grip grinding down on him with monstrous force. Hálogi snarls and strains, both hands wrapped around Nosu’s fingers as he tries to force them apart, but the Ultimate Vaxasaurian’s strength holds him in place like infinitum.

His flames flare brighter in the struggle. Blue fire licks violently across his shoulders and crown, growing harsher, hotter, more erratic with every failed attempt to break free. Rage twists in his chest, raw and unfiltered, rage at Nosu for the destruction he had caused, rage at being trapped beneath him like this, rage at the simple fact that, for once, brute force was not enough.

He had fought Vaxasaurians before, he had crushed base ones, torn through them, overpowered them. Yet this was different. This was that impossible one percent. That unnatural apex forced into existence through the Ultimatrix, a grotesque perfection that made no sense and offered no mercy.

And because of that, Hálogi’s mind begins to spiral. The thought of the Red Wind colony burns behind his eyes. The memory of the lives lost there, the ashes, the ruin, the insult of Nosu still walking free after all of it. His flames swell again, more violent now, more unstable, and in that blind fury he nearly forgets the ground itself is still under his command.

Nosu’s mouth curls into a grin as he feels the shift. He leans closer, his tone dripping with smug satisfaction.

Nosu: “Look at you now. All that fire, all that fury, now beneath me.” His red eyes narrow with cruel amusement. “Who is the pathetic parasite now, hm? Your highness.”

Hálogi’s gaze sharpens for a fraction of a second, the rage in him snapping into something colder, something focused. He stops fighting Nosu’s hand directly and instead plants both palms against the cracked ground beneath them.

With a brutal surge of terrakinesis, jagged rock spikes erupt upward in a violent burst, not clean, not elegant, but savage and precise enough. Several spear through the exposed gaps between Nosu’s shell and armor, ripping into the flesh beneath.

Nosu roars. The sound is deep, furious, and full of pain. His grip tightens reflexively, the pressure on Hálogi spiking for a heartbeat as he tries to crush him outright, but the pain forces his arm to tremble. A second later his hand loosens just enough.

That is all Hálogi needs. With a raw shout, he drives his own strength into the break in Nosu’s grip and tears himself free, throwing himself hard to the side and dragging distance between them in a spray of ash and shattered stone.

Nosu stumbles back a step, snarling. He looks down at the spikes embedded in his flesh, then snaps both massive hands around them and yanks them free with a vicious rip. The wounds begin to close almost at once, but not fast enough to hide the damage. His breathing is heavier now, slower, the pain from the transformation and the fresh injuries making even his monstrous form seem strained.

For the first time, both of them stand wounded. Both of them stand heavy with fatigue. Both of them stare across the scorched ground, breathing hard beneath a sky of smoke and blackened clouds.

Silence falls upon the scorched lands of Ignis, aside from the crackles of lava and fire and the breathings of those two.

Then a boom cracks overhead. The sound cuts through the battlefield like thunder from another world. Hálogi and Nosu both look up. Above them, the soot filled sky parts in a sudden rush, volcanic clouds torn open as if something massive has forced its way through.

Through the drifting haze, a ship begins to descend toward Ignis.

To be continued…