Almost seven thousand kilometres away, five of the most powerful channellers on the planet were facing off against the entity that had so effortlessly defeated Gaea’s guardians.

“We were fools for not predicting this.” Shin Itami snarled, narrowly dodging a stream of black energy launched his way, as he drew a traditional katana from his waist and charged his energies.

“I didn’t see it coming either old friend.” Zien consoled him, summoning a torrent of water-like energy from above Teros and pummelling him with it. “Throwing the world into chaos to weaken it is—admittedly—a brilliant strategy.”

“I’m jealous I didn’t think of it myself.” Rayad Demar chuckled as he closed in on Teros’ location, just as he dissipated Zien’s attack, only to launch a ball of ball of red plasma into the Destroyer from extremely close range.

Rayad’ attack was easily dispelled, resulting in an explosion that rocked the earth for kilometres, but one that left Teros completely unphased.

“Move!” Shin commanded, causing Rayad to shift to the side just before the Itami patriarch dashed past him and Teros.

Shin slid to a stop just metres past the Destroyer, who watched as a trail of green flames traced their way from Shin’s original location, through him and towards his present one. The result was an eruption of black flames as the energy cleaved his body, scoring damage on the destroyer for the first time in quite a while. Unfortunately, with this small victory, came Teros’ rage.

From a distance, Kyasho summoned vast quantities of Zeta energy, causing reality itself to creak under the weight of such a dense accumulation of mass-energy. Before anyone could react, he unleashed the discharge. The result was a condensed beam of energy that bent space and time as it moved, causing the air itself to shriek as space vibrated wildly in contact with the attack. The blast careened into Teros, connecting with his leaking form and drilling him into the ground while simultaneously pushing him hundreds of metres away.

“That was too close.” Rayad muttered, causing his red energy to flare as faint traces of Teros’ black flames danced on armoured attire, washing the corroding energy away.

“Yes.” Kyasho nodded. “Even when injured he continues to be a threat. Watch yourselves.”

“His energy even affects me.” Maika growled lightly, nursing a wound on his right shoulder from earlier on in their altercation. “It not only breached my Universal Sanctum, but it seems to nullify my regeneration as well—I can’t heal these wounds.”

“Best you stay out of this then old man.” Rayad retorted.

“That’s not possible, Rayad.” Kyasho shook his head. “While Maika’s inability to project energy makes it difficult to safely engage Teros, his Universal Sanctum is the only thing keeping this demon here and preventing him from simply jumping to Merricent to kill your boy and the others.”

“Indeed.” Maika chimed in. “And unfortunately, my sanctum has limits—I need to keep this thing within a certain distance of my body to anchor him here.”

“Well then, best we not let up.” Shin added, vanishing from his location and moving towards Teros as he recovered from Kyasho’s attack.

This time Teros dodged Shin’s slash and countered with an arching strike of his bare hand. Shin barely had the speed to spin and guard the attack, coating his blade in veranos to prevent Teros’ corruption to dissolving it entirely. Like clockwork, another of Rayad’s blasts impacted Teros, this time catching him off-guard as he attacked Shin. The impact rocked him forwards, throwing off his attack and allowing Shin to parry and drive him into the ground before Zien followed up with another torrent of water that drilled him even further downwards.

Once again Teros’ rage erupted, this time as a pillar of black flames from the crater that Zien had created; but once again Kyasho moved worlds to put him down, subduing him with the might of all the zeta for kilometres around.

This time however, the Rogue Commandant fell on one knee. They had been at this for hours, and unlike the young Guardian hosts, each of these fighters—no matter how prodigious—had their limits. Kyasho was fast approaching his, much like Marshack did before him.

“Get a grip old man.” Rayad snarled, taking this opportunity to hurl himself into the air above Teros and launch a flurry of attacks down into the crater.

“Don’t worry about me Rayad.” Kyasho muttered between breaths. “I’ll try to hold this up for as long as I have to.”

“Shit.” Shin cursed under his breath as a beam of black energy erupted from the valley created by Rayad’s continued stream of explosive energy.

He barely had the speed to tackle the Master General of the Demai out of the way of Teros’ attack, which parted the clouds above as it streamed off into space.

“Watch it boy.” Shin scolded, sprouting draconic wings from his armoured suit to stop their momentum, before he changed direction to avoid another follow-up attack from the Destroyer.

Zien wasted no time in providing cover, tapping into the power of the Malaikin royal artefact known colloquially as their totem. His amulet housed a stone that served as a spatial conduit between him and the magical capacitors that powered their kingdom, giving Zien a direct connection to a fraction of that power. With it, he unleashed his power, reaching out into the mind of Teros with a psychic assault that he hoped would slow the deity down.

Back in the fused country of Malaikin and Merricent, power at the Royal Palace dipped, before a rolling blackout spread from the centre of that capital. As it did, that power was hurled through the chaotic channels of magic, all the way to Zien’s location, fuelling his assault on this god of destruction as he violated the entity’s mind. Much like Zielle had done with Roun, Zien now unravelled the very essence of Teros in an attempt to find out what made him tick.

Unfortunately, his assault gave him no access to memories—at least none of the man that Teros claimed to be. Instead, as he probed Teros’ essence, he was bombarded by abstract visions of the cosmos. Zien was confused, but the assault seemed to be working, buying Kyasho and the others time to recharge their energies while Teros was incapacitated.

And so, he proceeded.

As the energy streamed from his kingdom into his body, he pressed through the abstract visions housed within Teros’ memories and began to violently extract the information. Years turned to decades and decades to centuries. Soon he was burning through millennia of data in an instant but even then, it didn’t seem as though he had even scratched the surface of this entity’s recollection.

He could not stop, however.

As Teros writhed in agony, Kyasho made his way to his feet and then fell again, this time clutching his head. It didn’t take long for Shin to move to his side, resting his hands on the man that he had raised from a boy almost a century ago.

“I’ve still got some left in the tank, Shin.” He grimaced. “But this old body is burning out trying to channel it in these massive surges.”

“Then let me take that strain, boy.” Maika volunteered, having also made his way to Kyasho’s side at this point. “Lord knows I’m probably the only one of us left who can really take it.”

With this, the massive, grizzled, legendary-tier channeller rested his hand on Kyasho’s shoulder. Kyasho just sighed heavily.

“If your body burns out, Kyasho, everything is lost.” Maika stated. “Lend me the burden and I’ll hold this thing at bay—buy us all some time while those children lick their wounds.” He smirked.

“Do it old man.” Rayad chimed in, while Shin just nodded in the background.

“Alright Maika.” Kyasho agreed begrudgingly. “But this is going to be… unpleasant.”