The black screen snapped open with a blinding, purple black flash.
The Secret Arena trembled to its foundations as the fused Hybrid of the Child and the Puppeteer shifted with an inhuman, reckless speed. Arjan Pandava did not even get the chance to force his special armor into a defensive stance. With a brutal, bone crushing blow he was launched, flew meters through the air, and slammed finally with a heavy impact right against the stone arena wall, where cracks pulled deep into the foundation.
The remaining Pandavas immediately snapped into action poses, their weapons pulsating with elemental energy, but the Hybrid merely looked at them with a cold, soulless gaze in which the split mask gleamed. With a simple, slow swipe motion of his liquid fingers, the monster initiated the attack.
A gigantic, razor sharp Void Slash shot out of his hand. The purple black wave of energy cut through the air with the screaming sound of a fighter jet and slammed the complete Pandava family in a single motion with a devastating impact hard against the outer walls. Weapons clattered across the ground; the complete formation was broken in one single hit.
"Silarias, now!" Shrimpy roared, while sparks flew from his boots.
Together with Silarias, he launched a coordinated counter leap, flying through the air to pierce the Hybrid from two sides. But the Hybrid anticipated the movement with psychopathic precision. Instead of dodging, the creature made a lightning fast, downward thrust with the Awakened Blade of the Cursed God.
A chilling, raw scream echoed through the complete inner sector.
Up in the commentary box, the Hype Man fell silent for a split second, as if the microphone slipped from his hands. Then he pounded his fists on the panel and lost his mind completely over the intercom, his voice cracking in pure, hysterical mortal fear:
"NOOO... THIS HAS BECOME A BATTLEFIELD!!! THIS CANNOT BE TRUE!!! THEY HAVE JESHUA!!! THE AWAKENED BLADE HAS BEEN DRIVEN STRAIGHT THROUGH HIS LOVING HEART!!! JESHUA HAS BEEN IMPALED!!!"
Down on the dry arena floor, the Hybrid stood with the pitch black blade rammed deep into Jeshua's chest. Blood dripped down the runes of the sword, and at that exact moment, the complete Secret Arena began to shake terrifyingly under a seismic rage.
GRRRRRRRR!
The stone floor split open with brutal force. Everywhere, massive, sharp rock spikes shot straight up from the ground. Within a fraction of a second, well over 30 of these rocks transformed simultaneously into identical, living forms of Kaelid.
The Kaelid clones stood there with tears rolling down their cheeks out of pure, emotional rage. Without a trace of fear, they unleashed a visual masterpiece of tactical dominance. They began hacking and striking at the Hybrid like madmen with their swords. One Kaelid helped the other; they served as springboards, pushed off each other's shoulders into the air with brutal force, and chopped crisscross through the purple mist at the monster.
The Hybrid swiped around psychopathically. With brutal swipes he split the clones one after another into pieces of rock, but the Kaelids kept coming, blind with rage, while leaving deep cuts in the liquid flesh of the monster. Finally, after a bloody thinning out, only one Kaelid remained.
The Hybrid emitted a dysmorphed laugh from the two fused masks.
Kaelid screamed out with a hoarse voice upset by adrenaline: "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO JESHUA?!!!"
His sword began charging with a heavy, white glowing energy. He leaped right at the monster with a massive jump for the final neck blow, but the Hybrid countered the movement cold blooded. With a flashing upward movement, the creature thrust the Awakened Blade perpendicularly through Kaelid's body.
"KAELID!!!" Silarias and Aurelius screamed in unison from the sidelines, their voices filled with pure panic.
But Kaelid did not back down. He looked the Hybrid right in its split face and showed a grim smile. Instead of bleeding, Kaelid's body fell apart directly into heavy, solid rock with a loud crack. The boulders expanded like wildfire and formed directly around the hands and feet of the Hybrid, anchoring the monster firmly in the stone. It was a trap.
Almost immediately, the arena floor exploded right behind the monster. The real Kaelid broke up through the stone, swung devastatingly with an astronomical arc using his sword, and hit the Hybrid full in the face.
CRACK!
The impact was so hard that a gigantic portion of the fused masks was sliced off with a loud bang, exposing the monstrous void structure beneath. Kaelid raised his sword with two hands for the mercy blow, but the Hybrid brought about a brutal energetic discharge. The stone mass around his limbs shattered into millions of pieces, and with a brutal backhand strike, he knocked Kaelid back meters away.
Kaelid flew backward, but he did not hit the ground.
In mid air he was gently caught by none other than Jeshua. Jeshua stood there, alive, his Halo Anting fully awakened. His complete form was transformed into a divine appearance: he radiated a pure, blinding light that pushed back the shadows of the arena, his hair glowed like a flaming halo, and his eyes were shining with an intense, serene energy. With a calm movement, he set Kaelid down stably on his feet.
In the midst of this visual transformation, the air above them began to shimmer. Beat hovered there, moving like a levitating, electric conductor in the center of the arena.
ZAP!
With a hissing violence, 4 crimson red electric arms shot up out of his back with brutal force. The arms raised in unison and began striking the air with heavy, rhythmic violence. With every blow the air pressure trembled, and a heavy, crimson electric battle beat began pumping through the complete arena at a deafening volume.
Driven by the brutal energy of the beat, the heroes did not hesitate for a second. Aurelius, Jane, Nyx, and Jeshua leaped straight at the Hybrid in one perfectly synchronized formation. What followed was a visually escalated spectacle of the absolute highest order. The Hybrid countered everyone in the most intense way: he parried Jeshua's light blade with the Awakened Blade, dodged Jane's lynx lightning with a shadow shift, shattered Aurelius' photon aura into splinters with his claw, and repelled Nyx' moonlight with a wall of purple void slime.
In the middle of this hectic counter flow, the Hybrid broke through the lines with a brutal acceleration. He suddenly appeared right in front of Silarias. Before Silarias could pull up his barrier, the Hybrid rammed his fist deep into Silarias' stomach with an astronomical impact.
Silarias doubled over, all air forced out of his lungs. While he gasped for breath, the Hybrid bent forward and the dysmorphed, terrifying voice softly whispered in his ear: "...Alec...?"
At the next hit that followed, the complete world flashed black before Silarias' eyes.
The Curse took over his complete body with destructive force. His pupils disappeared; his eyes began emitting thick, pitch black dark smoke that raged like a storm around his head. Black, burning stripes rolled across his cheeks like deep scars, the flesh hissing and scorching under pure corruption.
There he stood: the black flaming lion warrior. Two gigantic, shadowy wings burst from his shoulders, but in a fraction of a second all feathers beneath scorched off with a hissing violence until only bare, demonic protrusions remained. His tail and his coat dissolved into pure, burning darkness.
Silarias fell to his knees with a dull thud, while a deep pool of liquid, pitch black darkness appeared in the arena floor before him. With a jerky movement, he plunged his complete lion head deep into the darkness of the pool. When he pulled his head back out with a brutal jerk, the transformation was complete. Beside his black mane, his lion head had acquired two massive, curved demonic horns, while a psychopathic, deep laugh escaped his throat.
In a split second, the Cursed Silarias flashed past with an inhuman speed, appearing right next to the Hybrid.
KABOOM!!!
The brutal explosion generated by the sudden energy synchronization between the two dark forces caused a gigantic shockwave. The fierce blast wave blew Nyx, Aurelius, Jane, and Jeshua back meters across the ground with a massive impact.
The heroes shook their heads, their vision blurry and unfocused. They did not know what had just happened due to the speed of the impact.
Nyx was the first to scramble up, leaning on her hand while her vision slowly began to focus on the center of the wreckage. She froze in pure shock. Her breath caught in her throat. She barely recognized him anymore in this terrifying, monstrous, and cursed form.
With a trembling, hoarse voice, she uttered: "Silarias...?"
The Cursed Silarias heard her voice. He slowly turned his massive, horned lion head toward her. His eyes radiated nothing but pure, terrifying darkness, but with a heavy, deep, and clearly forced voice, he brought the words over his lips:
"Get out of here... things are going to get out of hand... get yourself to safety."
Immediately after those heavy words, he raised his clawed hand and gave her a short, recognizable, happy thumbs up. It was the sign; despite the all consuming curse, deep inside he was still completely himself.
The familiar gesture cut through Nyx's panic. She recovered instantly, her royal focus returning at once. She turned abruptly to the severely injured heroes and the Pandava family lying against the walls.
"Everyone gather up! NOW!" she screamed across the battlefield, while lifting the first wounded to flee the Secret Arena in a rush, before the two titans of pure darkness would level the complete underworld.
The beastly scheme of the Hybrid changes instantly when a raw, cutting voice sounds across the arena floor: "EYY?! ARE YOU FORGETTING SOMETHING?!"
The Hybrid abruptly halts his movement toward Silarias. The whispered name dies away in the sudden vibration of the air. The monster's attention shifts directly away from the individual and focuses with a psychopathic fixation on the remaining group of young warriors. The form of the Child begins to pulsate in a hideous way. The void structure beneath the broken mask expands, and with a hissing, inhuman sound, tentacles meters long covered in purple void slime break straight up out of his flanks. The slimy protrusions whip wildly around, devouring the oxygen from the air.
Meanwhile, the Cursed Silarias stands there motionless in the burning darkness, his smoldering eyes fixed tightly on the monster. At this moment, only one all overwhelming thought rages through his cursed brain: THIS IS DO OR DIE...
Above them in the air, Beat immediately adjusts his tactics. Thanks to the secret insights and tips he acquired during his previous visit to the Rajin order, he knows exactly what to do. With a brutal acceleration, he brings one of his four extra, crimson red electric arms down with an astronomical strike. The fist does not hit thin air, but hammers onto a manifested, crackling drum of pure energy.
The impact unleashes a specific, sonic vibration that matches the internal frequency of the Secret Arena exactly. The walls and foundations begin to resonate rhythmically with the heavy battle beat. Beat uses this technique not to attack, but to artificially stabilize the collapsing structure, giving the rest of the group those desperately needed precious seconds to drag the wounded Pandavas toward the exits. They are nowhere near out yet, but the path lies open amidst the falling debris and the chaos around them.
Just as Silarias is about to sacrifice himself alone to tackle the Hybrid, he feels a heavy, sudden pressure against his shoulder. He gets bumped full from behind.
The Cursed Silarias turns his massive, horned lion head aside and looks straight into the face of Aurelius. The swordsman has not backed down a single millimeter; he stands there with Aethergard firmly clamped in his fist, while his complete form begins to pulsate photonically. His eyes glow with a bright, unyielding light that bites away the advancing shadows.
Silarias' smoldering gaze shifts directly to his other flank. There Jeshua has positioned himself in his fully awakened Halo state. The serene, divine energy radiates from him in waves. The flaming halo around his head cuts through the purple void mist. Without a trace of doubt, Jeshua fixes his gaze on the slimy tentacles of the monstrosity, his posture speaking volumes: this lost, corrupted soul is going to be purified right here and now, no matter how much the darkness resists.
Above them, Beat's presence mutates at a chilling pace. He lowers himself in a controlled manner and suddenly hovers like a possessed, electric conductor right behind the full group. He has transformed into his Crimson Oni Mode; pure rage crackles off his body in the form of blood red lightning bolts. Blitz, his loyal comrade and brother, does not leave his side for a single second. Despite the mortal fear raging through the arena, Blitz overcomes his terror of the chaos and links himself with Beat purely on the basis of their unbreakable friendship. He begins crackling in sync with the same blood red electricity and forms as a pulsating, crimson red armor piece around his brother's shoulders and chest to storm the front line together.
The four warriors stand side by side in the epicenter of destruction.
The Cursed Silarias looks at the overwhelming backup around him and lets a deep, psychopathic laugh escape his throat. The brutal sound is infectious. Aurelius, Beat, and Jeshua join in with their own laughter at the exact same time. It is a terrifying, harmonious sound of four absolute machines standing eye to eye with death and mocking it. The combined energetic discharge of their laughter is so absurdly heavy that the arena floor begins to shake with seismic force. The shockwaves roll through the stone ground, causing the Hybrid, despite all his void tentacles, to lose his balance for a fraction of a second and slide across the splitting rocks.
And then, at the exact same split moment... they all stop laughing at once. The silence that follows is deadlier than the heaviest strike.