The wind died.
All over the world, as if on cue, the sky dimmed—not with clouds, not with storm—but with something far more ancient. The sun still hung in the sky… and yet its light no longer reached the ground. A darkness bled through the atmosphere, unnatural and suffocating. The oceans stilled. The animals silenced. Every soul, from mountain peak to subterranean shelter, turned their gaze upward in silent dread.
Then they heard it.
A sound that clawed not at ears, but at spirit.
Laughter.
Low. Echoing. Everywhere. As if the world itself were laughing from its core.
Seraph froze mid-flight, her wings arching in mid-beat. Knox skidded to a halt on a ruined rooftop, his fist still steaming from the last clash with Zareth's soul-bound army. The battlefield had been quiet—too quiet. The summoned souls had vanished in light, their resonance broken by Seraph's purifying judgment. For a moment, they had believed it was over.
They were wrong.
The sky cracked.
Not metaphorically—literally. A jagged wound split the atmosphere like glass beneath pressure. Dark light spilled from the break, cascading in streams of purple-black fire. Stars blinked and twisted as reality above them bent to something unspeakable.
And then, from the heart of the rupture, he stepped forward.
Zareth Xellion.
Changed.
The rags of his previous form were gone. In their place: a coat of shifting shadow-metal, carved with screaming glyphs that moved when no one watched. Horned pauldrons flared from his shoulders like the skeletal wings of a forgotten god. His eyes no longer contained swirling souls—they were black pits filled with the void between stars.
He hovered above Earth, radiating hunger and power.
"Knox," Zareth's voice rang out, spoken through the sky itself. "Did you really think it would be that simple?"
His arms stretched wide.
"I am no parasite to be squashed. No villain of finite ambition. You fought an echo. A hollow war. I let you believe you were winning."
The darkness around him twisted, and thunder growled not in the sky—but in minds. The very thought-space of the world trembled.
"No more puppets. No more armies. I need none of it now."
Knox clenched his jaw, fire beginning to pulse from the cracks in his knuckles.
Kaelina whispered into his mind. ["He's evolved again. No summoning. No constructs. He's entered an apex state—pure essence channeling. Every soul he absorbed is fused into his form now. He is no longer a collector. He is becoming a god."]
Zareth extended one hand toward the ground, and the dirt rippled outward as if liquified. Space warped. The earth groaned.
Then he vanished.
Not with a flash.
Not with speed.
With inevitability.
Knox barely twisted aside as Zareth appeared a millimeter from his flank, driving a fist wreathed in soul-fire through the air. The shockwave from the near-miss obliterated three square miles of wilderness behind them.
Knox answered in kind.
His own body blurred past light, a sonic boom thundering as he tackled Zareth mid-air, the two colliding with a thunderclap that ripped apart the clouds above. They shot upward—past the stratosphere, beyond satellites, streaking like twin comets into the cosmos.
Seraph rose after them, light burning beneath her wings, but her breath faltered. Her chest burned. The last clash had taken more from her than she thought.
["Seraph,"] Luminara said softly. ["Your divine reserves are below critical. I advise—"]
"I can still fight—"
"No," Knox's voice echoed through their private link, fierce but resolute. "No more."
She blinked in surprise.
"You need to rest. You carried us through the last three waves. You need to recover—just this once."
"But—"
"I'm not asking." His voice was steady. "We protect this world together. But if you burn out, I can't hold it alone. Rest. I'll hold him."
Kaelina's voice cut in with surprising softness. ["He's serious. And you know he's right. Let him fight—for both of you."]
Seraph exhaled, slow and trembling.
"…Fine. But you come back."
Knox didn't answer.
He was already gone.
The stars screamed.
In orbit, Knox struck first. Not with a punch—but with heat vision. Twin beams of solar-deep plasma lanced from his eyes, slicing across Zareth's chest. The dark god twisted, smoke trailing from the wound as the seared souls within him screamed.
Zareth retaliated with a wave of nulllight, an entropic burst that swallowed radiation, momentum, and force itself. Knox rocketed backwards—but stabilized mid-flight.
Then vanished.
Super speed—beyond light. Beyond time.
He reappeared behind Zareth and drove his fist into the enemy's back. Zareth bent forward, choking on impact—but did not falter. He turned, caught Knox's follow-up strike, and roared.
Black flames erupted.
Knox screamed as the inferno melted his armor away, skin bubbling—
But then something changed.
It stopped.
He blinked.
The damage… was gone.
Kaelina gasped. ["Knox. Your healing factor. It's activated. You're regenerating. The nanocore isn't doing it. You are."]
Knox didn't smile—but his eyes flared brighter.
Zareth scowled.
"No more games," Knox said.
They clashed again—this time, fists meeting mid-space, energy exploding in all directions. The shockwaves cracked small moons nearby, splintering celestial bodies into dust. They moved so fast the stars appeared as blurred lines behind them.
Each punch broke physics.
Each kick rewrote gravity.
Zareth growled as he summoned the souls within, binding them into darkened shields, but Knox's ice breath froze the barriers before they could form. He slammed through them, unleashing a barrage of hits that sounded like stars dying.
But Zareth wasn't done.
From his chest erupted a halo of screaming souls—no longer warriors, but pain given shape. They wrapped around Knox, draining light, siphoning strength.
["Kaelina—"] he gasped.
["Boost incoming. Don't die. That's an order."]
A pulse of energy surged through him, Kaelina's override bursting into every nerve. Knox roared and tore through the soul-halo, his body glowing with unleashed reserves.
He tackled Zareth again—this time not holding back.
And far below, Seraph watched, hand clutched over her heart.
The battle had left Earth.
But its outcome would decide everything.