The towering figure of Abaddon loomed over the two broken bodies on the stone floor, a sickening, deep gargling laughter echoing from his throat. The rotting muscle tissue on his chest quivered as sizzling trails of burnt blood dripped onto the grass. The archdemon raised both of his massive arms, covered in pitch black bone. The bones at his fingers extended into meter long, razor sharp spikes.
He prepared to strike, aiming to reduce Vulkan and Valeria to sheer pulp once and for all.
“To dust…” Abaddon’s raw, doubled voice growled through the valley. “Back to nothing…”
He struck downward with devastating speed. The sheer air pressure pushing off his arms caused the earth beneath the two unconscious fighters to split open.
The killing blow never reached the ground.
In a single fraction of a millisecond, a wall of pure spiritual energy shattered the sound barrier. Silarias, Beat, Apollo, Aurelius, Nyx, and Jane shot forward like an unprecedented storm of light and shadow, heading straight for the executioner entity’s chest.
Beat transformed on the spot into a blood red crimson Oni. The two horns on his forehead blazed like glowing carbon, and his skin pulled tight against his muscles, drenched in a thick red aura that dripped from his elbows like liquid blood. Right beside him ran Aurelius. Their eyes locked for a fleeting moment.
No words were needed. Just a look of pure understanding.
They nodded in unison. The exact millisecond their heads dropped, a crushing, deafening air pressure took hold. Gravity within a fifty meter radius around them seemed to double instantly. The earth cracked open over a length of dozens of meters, and loose stones hovered weightlessly in the air for a second before being crushed into fine dust.
Immediately following, the transformations of the girls ignited into total visual madness.
Nyx manifested the Sovereign Nightmare. Her liquid silver locks hovered weightlessly around her face like an icy, moving flame. Upon her forehead rested a sharply carved tiara of pure, translucent ice that cast a freezing blue glow over her features. Her skin turned into porcelain white, mirror smooth and cold. From her forearms and wrists down, that skin transitioned seamlessly into pitch black void hands. These were no normal gloves; her hands were literally made of liquid shadow where the surrounding light vanished without a trace. The space around her fingers visibly warped and twisted. Her eyes shone like two icy stars in the void of the night. She radiated a regal, sovereign superiority, yet her lips curled into a wild, adrenaline fueled smile.
“You won’t lay another finger on them,” Nyx whispered, her voice reverberating as if a thousand voices spoke as one.
Beside her, Jane exploded into The Neon Lightning Storm. A bright neon blue plasma shield enveloped her entire body. Sparks crackled with deafening snaps around her limbs, leaving vivid trails of neon light with every step she took. Her fingers shifted into razor sharp energy claws of pure lightning. The gigantic lightning panther Boa coiled pulsing and roaring around her torso, acting as a living armor of plasma. Boa’s eyes burned bright yellow. Jane’s own eyes glowed bright blue without pupils, bursting with intensity and paired with a wide, defiant grin across her face.
“Let’s see if those bones of yours can conduct!” Jane yelled.
With a massive combined strike, they rammed Abaddon’s massive arm away. Nyx’s void power ate through the dark aura of the arm while Jane’s lightning shattered the bones beneath. The impact unleashed a shockwave that swept the rising plumes of smoke clean away in an instant. The gigantic demon was forced three heavy steps backward.
Vulkan, lying half conscious on the ground and barely able to see through his swollen eyes, stared in shock at his comrades, who stood as an impenetrable wall between him and the monster.
“What in god’s name… happened to you all…” Vulkan barely managed to utter, his voice shaking from shock.
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed completely. Valeria, who was just scrambling up onto her knees, barely caught his heavy body in her arms. She stared with wide, disbelieving eyes at the line of her friends, rendered speechless by the immense wave of energy radiating off them.
“They’ve… they’ve completely evolved…” Valeria muttered, a lump forming in her throat.
The battle resumed without a single pause.
Abaddon regained his balance, roaring in fury as he struck back ruthlessly with a barrage of piercing bone spikes erupting from the earth. The team moved in a tightly choreographed pattern. Silarias and Apollo ducked under the first wave of attacks. Silarias’ orange flame flashes sliced through the spikes while Nyx locked the rising rocks in a layer of ice and draining darkness. Jane zipped like a lightning bolt in a zigzag across the monster’s chest, her lightning claws leaving deep, smoking grooves, while Aurelius covered the flank with his massive barriers.
Beat stepped forward. Spiritual soundwaves manifested from his forearms, spreading through the air like pulsing, rhythmic music. Every heavy beat blasting from his aura vibrated through the monster’s skeletal frame.
The team unleashed everything they had. Explosions of gold light, purple lightning, ice, and pure kinetic impact hammered into Abaddon. The valley turned into a cauldron of elemental forces. Yet, as the smoke from their heaviest attacks cleared, they witnessed a terrifying sight.
The deep grooves on the monster closed immediately. The rotted tissue grew back within a second, pulsing and sizzling. The pitch black bones clicked back together with a dry sound. Nothing they did seemed to work.
“It’s useless!” Apollo called out, his breath heavy. “His core regenerates faster than we can stack damage!”
Beat stood still. The red glow of his Oni form flickered for a moment. A brief silence fell over his expression, and then he began to laugh softly. First a low chuckle, but it quickly grew louder.
“Haha… Hahaha! So brute force isn’t enough?” Beat laughed.
The laughter spread. The sheer absurdity of the situation and the adrenaline surging through their veins took over. One by one, Silarias, Jane, Nyx, and the rest joined in the laughter. A raw, liberating laugh that drove all fear entirely from the field.
Until the entire group fell dead silent in a single instant.
Beat reached his hand high into the air.
“Come here, Blitz,” he spoke in an icy, calm tone.
Out of absolute nowhere, a spatial tear opened above him. A bright light flashed, and he pulled Blitz out of the air. In a fluid, almost dance like motion, he wrapped the creature around his neck like a heavy, energy packed scarf.
With a dry snap of his fingers, Blitz’s position shifted. The creature wrapped tightly around Beat’s head like a turban, coming down just far enough over his eyes. Only his two brightly glowing, sharp eyes remained visible beneath the dark edge.
The spiritual music radiating from his aura shifted completely at that exact moment. The slow rhythm flipped into a lightning fast, aggressively accelerated beat that physically shook the entire valley. The frequency reached such heights that the air around them began to distort.
The entire dynamic of the fight inverted on the spot. They were no longer fighting as they had before. No traditional formations, no defense. They leapt, ducked, and combined in a completely different, creative, and entirely unpredictable way.
Everyone switched over to their most unique, visual state.
Nicola activated her Ether Anting. Transparent, ghostlike energy streams around her arms and eyes began to dance like floating ribbons of pure light. Ren transitioned to the completed Straw Anting, the twisted golden ropes of the Skullies glowing on his chest and making the earth beneath him vibrate in rhythm with Beat’s music. Miki allowed a fire spirit to course through her veins, causing bright orange and deep red flames to dance like sparks around her shoulders, illuminating her face.
Nyx combined her time manipulation with the moon and ice. With a simple movement of her hand, she slowed down the space directly surrounding Abaddon, causing the executioner entity’s movements to stutter, while icy crescent moon projectiles pierced his joints. Lila summoned massive underground plant roots that shot out of the cracked earth, wrapping around the executioner entity’s legs like massive cables.
Jane transformed into her Lynx beasthuman form, driven by her Electric Anting. Her ears pointed, her movements becoming fully animalistic. She fused directly with the giant spirit panther Boa in a completely new way. The panther’s energy no longer shrouded her as a separate entity, but merged straight into her muscles. Her agility and speed reached an inhuman level, allowing her to circle the demon like a neon yellow streak.
In the center of this visual chaos stood Beat.
Every color present in the color spectrum blasted out from his body with explosive force. A wild, rainbow like fan of pure spiritual energy exploded around his figure. The light burned so bright that the shadows of the mountain range behind them were completely erased.
He felt it. The life force of the earth, the soul of the fallen Skullies, the magic of his friends, and the pulse of the universe shot through his entire being like a raging rapid.
A broad, wild grin spread across his face beneath Blitz’s fabric.
“AURA MODE!!” Beat roared at the top of his lungs, his voice cutting through the noise of the music and the storm.
Everyone behind him fell into line instantly. Their auras merged into one gigantic, indestructible pillar of light. With their eyes locked tightly on the archdemon Abaddon, they shouted in unison with him:
“AURA MODE!!”
Each of them locked tightly onto the monster with their unique, maximum forms. The air pressure imploded, the light blinded the entire valley, and at the exact point where the final discharge was set to burst, time froze.