The alien, known as Bruton in his home world and Mike in the Alzard World, had used the spell known as Sacrificial Crusade. It was a spell that turns the body of the caster into a weapon of mass destruction, causing energy to gather inside themselves and releasing it into a mighty explosion, thus killing themselves. However, as a last-ditch effort to complete a task without any regrets, his soul was free to wander for a brief period of time.

Using this spell, Bruton destroyed his body and caused an explosion while releasing his soul from the confinements of the Elemental Coated Armour. From there, he soared away from the planet and soared towards his home planet before reaching the sanctuary where his master, the Overlord, lived at.

“Forgive me, master,” he said telepathically as he greeted him. “I have failed you, however, I have managed to find the person that which possess that power you are seeking. Please go to that planet, but I caution you that there is a powerful foe awaiting you. With this, I bid you farewell, master, and I hope that you are victorious.”

After having transmitted the information he had on their enemy, Bruton bowed and turned into sparkles of light before vanishing from the spot. The shadowy figure had remained motionless while this had happened, but now, he moved forward into the light and appeared to be sad that a really useful soldier had died for his cause.

“I understand,” he said shortly, and rose to his feet before he vanished in a blinding flash of light.

That was how the Overlord arrived in the Alzard World and hovered a few meters away from the Solaris Hero, Lakshman.

“Oh, my goodness!” The fairy inside said telepathically to him in a worried voice. “He’s powerful!”

“I feel it too. What incredible power!” Asura remarked, sounding surprised.

Lakshman did not say anything as he faced this new threat by narrowing his eyes with a serious expression on his face.

“You must be the hero that gave one of my best soldiers so much trouble,” commented the Overlord in a deep voice. “For that, I must return the favour in kind.”

As he finished speaking, he began to radiate deep violet-red aura that surrounded him before a violent surge of power occurred, Lakshman shouted in shock as both he and Raze were sent flying away from the tremendous force of the power released by their enemy. It caused the entire planet to shake, destroying the nearby ground and caused heavy damage to the surrounding area.

The Solaris Hero flew through the air for several meters before he landed on the ground and held Raze easily in his energy arms. Then he faced towards the enemy that had caused this to happen before seeing multiple dark energy blasts flying towards him.

“Dodge!” Asura shouted.

Reacting in an instant, Lakshman leaped away to the side and dodged the blasts, however more were flying towards him. As such, he began running away from them while they flew and smashed behind him before letting off mighty explosions. He continued to run, moving in a large arc to get behind his enemy before beginning to rapid fire at him.

The Overlord, who was firing energy blasts from his hands that were aimed at him, slowly turned to see his attacks coming his way. However, they failed as they smashed into an invisible barrier that was conjured around him, causing him to feel none of it and appear quite unfazed by the attacks.

“Damn!” Lakshman complained, looking annoyed.

His enemy aimed his forefinger at him and fired a powerful laser cannon, which flew through the air and smashed into Lakshman’s Elemental Coated Armour. Lakshman was shocked when the destructive power of the laser cannon began pushing him back, with his feet getting dragged on the ground, before a mighty explosion occurred, sending him and Raze flying back.

Suddenly, Raze stopped in mid-flight and was instead pulled towards the Overlord, who was aiming his hand at her. From the information that he received by Bruton’s transmission, he understood that she was the one that possessed the power that he had been seeking for a long time.

“Finally. The power is within my grasp. I can feel it,” he muttered as Raze drew closer, and a smile formed on his face.

Lakshman landed heavily on the ground and glared at his enemy, before his expression changed to that of shock.

“Erza!” He exclaimed, and he charged towards him while clapping his hands together and shouting, “Thousand Army!”

There was a flash of light, where Ausra said to him inside his head, “Hey. You just shouted the technique out loud.”

“I’m kind of in a tough situation to keep a focused mind, Asura,” thought Lakshman.

When the light dimmed, a thousand of his copies have materialised and were positioned all around their enemy. They roared and charged towards him at high speed with the clear intention of destroying him. However, the Overlord merely glanced at them before saying softly to the unconscious Raze.

“I’ll deal with you in a moment.”

He turned away from her and faced the many copies that flew at him and spread his arms out. Then he brought them forward and clapped them together while activating his powers. Instantly, all the copies of Lakshman felt an incredible force pull them towards the centre, and they flew there and collided with one another with such force that they vanished in a puff of smoke. Soon, all the copies were destroyed and only the original was left facing this overwhelming enemy.

Lakshman coughed blood from his mouth from the collisions he just had with his copies and felt himself unable to move as something strong and powerful gripped him very rightly. It was a sensation he had felt a few times before, and he was shocked to realise what his enemy was utilising to do this.

“Force Control?” He muttered in a shocked voice.

With a wave of the Overlord’s hand, Lakshman flew over towards his enemy and came to a halt only a few meters away. There he hovered, glaring menacingly at his enemy, who was looking back at him with a cool expression on his face.

“From the reports that I received from my soldier, I believed you to be strong,” the man said and eyed him disdainfully. “However, here I am, fighting a human that is just stronger than average. Ridiculous.”

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t be much of a challenge if I was at full power,” commented Lakshman with a smile.

Those words caused the Overlord’s eyes to flash dangerously and made him flip his fingers in a downward gesture. In an instant, Lakshman flipped upside-down and descended towards the ground before smashing him, head first, into the ground with such force that the ground cracked and exploded everywhere. Then he soared back up before the Overlord activated a magic spell by merely saying the words out loud.

“A Hundred Driller.”

In an instant, Lakshman felt himself get lifted a little before he was pummelled into the ground with heavy impact, raised into the air, and then pummelled into the ground. This cycle of him smashing his head into the ground got repeated a hundred times, with each impact causing to dig deeper and deeper downward. Finally, at the end of the hundred smash hits, he got raised back up while blood streamed from the multiple injuries he sustained to his head.

Lakshman groaned from the pain and felt dizzy as blood continued to flow down his face, leaving him feeling quite exhausted. Never in his life had he experienced such brutal injuries, nor was he feeling so close to losing consciousness and his life from the heavy loss of blood.

Just then, he got raised into the air and was faced with the Overlord, whom he was seeing upside-down due to the difference in their perspectives. His enemy snorted and wore a mocking expression on his face, clearly displeased with the results.

“Pathetic,” he said in a cold voice.

He waved his finger in a throwing gesture, which caused Lakshman’s body to get tossed into the air. The badly injured Solaris Hero flew through the air for several seconds at an incredible speed and crossed the border of the city before he smashed, head long, into the ground. There he lay, groaning and moaning from the pain and exhaustion he felt from the brutal injuries he had sustained.

“He’s… too… powerful…” he muttered weakly.

In his Unconscious World, Asura watched how his current-self was bleeding profusely and very weakened. He turned towards the fairy, who was looking as equally worried as him at the displayed screen and asked her something very important.

“How can we summon your weapon?”

“Pardon?” She asked, turning and looking at him in confusion.

“Your weapon! The Hero Weapon!” Asura said firmly.

The fairy blinked in surprise before shaking her head and replying, “I don’t know. I’m sorry, but it’s stuck and cannot be moved.”

This caused Asura to knit his eyebrows and exclaim, “In that case, how come you came to us the first time around? Clearly, when we were summoned outside that summoning room, you came to us, didn’t you?”

She nodded and said, “Yes. I certainly did, but that was because I was called. Now, however, I’m here and the weapon is over there. I’m unsure whether it would come to us or not.”

This made Asura looked frustrated at the problem he was facing. If Lakshman was at his full power, then perhaps they stood a chance, and the chances are even greater once he transforms into his final form. However, due to the lack of

“Does the weapon possess your power? Like, your spiritual presence or something like a signature?” Asura asked to clarify something.

“That’s right,” she said with a nod of her head.

“Will it come if you summon it?” He asked her.

To that, she looked surprised and said, “Maybe? I’m not sure. This is the first time this has happened before.” Then she looked angrily at him and said, “It’s your goddamn fault for wedging it into the ground there instead of taking it with you, you goddamn hotshot! Look at the trouble you’re in now!”

“I realise my mistake,” he replied, looking very angry as he felt the same about himself.

He had realised the main fault lay with him and his stupid decision to leave it behind because he wanted to show off that he and Lakshman were capable of taking care of things without their Hero Weapon. However, as things stood at present, they needed the Hero Weapon to unleash the Phoenix Titan’s full power and finally beat that alien overlord.

“Can you summon the trident now?” He asked her.

“I probably can. It’s worth a shot.”

“Good. Please do that now.”

She looked angrily at him and glanced worriedly at Lakshman’s injured body before holding her hand up and saying, “Come to me!”

There was a moment of silence as they watched and waited for the weapon to come. However, as seconds turned into minutes, nothing seemed to be happening. She was alarmed that her call to her weapon was not working. It was at that moment that Lakshman, who had followed their discussion despite being gravely injured, groaned as he raised his hand into the air.

He felt the urgency of the situation and the need for that weapon which he must have at all costs to survive and save Raze and said, “Come to me.”

As he spoke those words, a magical effect occurred between him and his Hero Weapon that was wedged into the ground. It shook violently, trying to break free from the wedge that it was put into, causing the ground to crack everywhere before it exploded as it broke free and flew off into the sky.

It soared through the air so fast that it appeared like a shooting star. The Overlord saw it flying, but he dismissed it as something irrelevant as it flew through the air and descended towards where Lakshman lay on the ground. As it came down, he opened his hand and caught it with his arm, gripping it very tightly.

In an instant, he felt an overwhelming surge of power, his true power that he had been unable to use for quite some time. The feeling made him become cool, calm, and confident of his chances of winning any battle he encountered after this. So, he surged with power and shouted the one technique out loud that would restore him to full health and power.

“Restoration!”

There was a blinding flash of light that caused a powerful pillar of light to shoot up into the sky. Everyone stopped and turned to watch this brilliant pillar of light in amazement before it gradually dimmed and vanished from sight. Once it was over, Lakshman got to his feet, restored to full health and ready to resume his battle with the Overlord.

“I can’t believe it responded to you when I’m its core!” The fairy girl exclaimed in a shocked voice.

Lakshman chuckled and said, “You are its core, but it wouldn’t respond to you because I’m its master.” Then he looked down at the spear and said, “Thank you.”

The spear gleamed in the sunlight before it vanished from sight as it was a part of him now. Then he surged with power and kicked off the ground to fly towards the Overlord as fast as he possibly could. He arrived to find his enemy looping closer towards Raze, who was still sleeping and had no idea what was happening.

“Get away from her!” He shouted, causing his enemy to pause and turn to look at him in amazement.

“You’re fully healed,” he commented before turning his full attention towards him. “You should’ve stayed put. Now, you’re back, and I won’t be so lenient anymore. This time, I’ll send you straight to hell.”

Lakshman glared at him and said, “Hell will have to wait for me because I’ve got you to defeat first!”

He clenched his fists tightly and began to surge with power as he began powering up for his transformation. As he did, everything shook, which included the ground, the air, and the surroundings, as he powered up to his maximum. The other heroes, who were on their way, stumbled and collapsed on the ground because the shaking was so intense and felt like an earthquake was happening.

“W-What’s happening?!” Martin exclaimed anxiously.

“No idea!” William said in a firm voice.

“Something big’s going down over there!” Vikram exclaimed, indicating to where the enormous amount of power was emanating from.

They all turned towards the light emitting from there; it was actually Lakshman that caused it to happen. He was surging with such immense power that the nearby buildings got destroyed while the ground cracked and split apart. Even the pressure in the air thickened to a dangerous level while the weather slowly changed and became darker.

The Overlord, who had been cool, smug, and confident before, was no longer feeling that way. Instead, he wore an expression of utter disbelief on his face as he watched his opponent’s power level soaring to levels that he had never expected him to reach.

“It’s about time you realise the truth of my words when I said you wouldn’t be a match for me at my full strength!” Lakshman shouted at him, his eyes glaring at him fiercely.

Then he screamed, “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

In that instant, a violent flash of light occurred that blanketed everything and caused everyone to shut their eyes for dear life. It lasted for several seconds before it dimmed and vanished, allowing everyone reopen their eyes again.

The Overlord, who also had briefly closed his eyes, opened them and widened them in shock. Lakshman had gone through a transformation, where his hair changed into golden-red hair that flowed along with the wind, and his eyes became orange circles with red crown shaped irises. This was the second time in his life that Lakshman had transformed into the form that the people in his world dubbed as the True Phoenix.

“Sorry for the wait,” he spoke in a cool strong voice that radiated with power. “It’s been a while since I got to do this, so thank you for your patience and let’s get this battle started.”