Xei: "Amal, why are you sweating?"
Amal's body trembles, her face turning pale blue as if she's losing air. Her heart pounds faster than ever.
Amal: "My body… it just wants to give up."
Sai: "Hold on—just one more push!"
They both scream as their power surges.
Xei steps back, his eyes wide. He turns to Tai.
Xei: "That's… a lot of energy."
Tai: "Xei, stop and feel it. Sense their power."
Xei: "Why?"
Tai: "Just do it."
Xei closes his eyes, focusing. He sees two massive streams of energy twisting through the air — one dark, one golden — wrapping around the mountain like living storms. His body trembles.
Xei: "This… this power—it's shaking the earth."
Tai: "We're winning this."
Bastar, seated on his throne of stone and gold veins, froze mid-sip of his wine. The glass cracked in his hand, spilling crimson across his fingers.
He rose slowly, eyes narrowing toward the distant horizon as the mountain trembled beneath his feet.
Bastar: "That power… it's not possible."
He walked forward, claws dragging along the stone wall. "They've reached that level already?"
The air thickened with molten heat as veins of lava crawled across the floor.
Bastar clenched his jaw, his voice low but shaking with rage.
"So this is what that snake meant by 'a storm in human form'…"
He slammed his fist into the wall, shattering the throne behind him.
"If they think they can bury me under my own mountain—then let the mountain burn with them!"
Sai and Amal, their bodies trembling, shouted together,
"Done!"
Xei turned to them, confusion in his eyes.
"What?" he said, running forward, waiting for direction.
Amal, gasping for breath, said, "Bring your sword."
Xei drew it out, the steel glinting faintly through the ash-filled air.
Sai gritted his teeth, voice breaking, "I can't… hold it any longer."
Amal's eyes glowed faintly silver as she raised her hands. "Then let it go—let me handle the rest."
She released all her ash, wrapping it around Xei's sword like a storm.
Xei and Tai both began trembling, their knees nearly giving way.
"Why… am I shaking?" Xei whispered.
"Because their power is beyond ours," Tai said quietly, watching as the energy pulsed through the sword.
A blinding light burst between them.
Sai and Amal collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Xei turned to Tai, panic rising. "What happened to them?"
Tai, exhausted but calm, said, "Let them rest… they did their part."
Both stared at the sword, now burning gold and black with ash and flame.
Xei took a deep breath, stepped forward, and raised it high.
Xei: "Ready… ohh Mount XSS!"
The mountain itself seemed to rumble in answer.
Tai stood tall—half-serpent, half-man—his scales glowing gold and black.
He raised his head to the storming sky, the mark of Zarathiss blazing across his chest.
Xei, gripping his sword, shouted, "Tai!"
Tai opened his eyes, glowing like molten fire.
He whispered one word—
"Zarathiss."
Then Xei moved.
Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash.
Each strike shattered a piece of the mountain.
The wind howled, the sky split, and the earth bled ash.
Xei rose beside him, his sword humming with nature's power.
Tai hissed, his fangs dripping with venom.
"King Cobra."
A flood of poison, strong enough to drown an elephant, poured across the mountain, melting stone and silence alike.
Nothing could survive that storm.
…Except one.
From the shattered peak, Bastar stood, burned and broken, but still alive.
He roared into the smoke, "Come out then! Let's see if you can live, monsters!"
Far below, in the depths of hell, Greed sat upon a throne of gold.
A coin spun between his fingers.
He smiled faintly and whispered—
"Step one… complete