The ground trembled as Mydei's aura surged, dark energy radiating in unstable pulses. The sky cracked with thunder, bleeding streaks of violet and black across the clouds as the remnants of the dreamscape bled into the real world. His silhouette flickered, caught between the man he once was and the god-like vessel he had become.
Yuri and Firefly stood side by side, resolute.
"Last chance, Mydei," Yuri said, his voice like tempered steel. "Stand down. We can find a way—"
"There is no way," Mydei spat, eyes glowing with ancient fury. "Only absolution through oblivion!"
He launched forward, a shockwave splitting the earth beneath him. Chasms ripped across the battlefield, the air tearing with the force of his charge. Entire slabs of shattered terrain rose and twisted, caught in the gravitational backlash of his power.
Yuri reacted instantly, conjuring a temporal gate in front of them. Mydei's fist passed through it—only to re-emerge behind him. But Firefly was ready, intercepting the blow with a barrier of light that shattered on impact, throwing her back. She hit the ground hard, skipping across scorched stone before catching herself mid-roll and launching into the air.
Yuri used the moment to strike, blades of time-energy spiraling from his hands in rapid succession. Mydei twisted mid-air, absorbing them into the chaotic aura swirling around him, each hit fueling the unstable storm at his core.
"Your tricks won't work forever, brother," Mydei snarled. "I know them all."
"Maybe," Yuri muttered, "but I've evolved since you left."
He triggered a collapse-point—a distortion field that bent gravity itself. Mydei was yanked downward into a crater of crushing pressure, but before Yuri could follow through, black tendrils of chaos erupted from the pit. They lashed out, striking Yuri across the chest and sending him tumbling.
Firefly returned, wings of energy erupting behind her, radiant and searing.
"Enough!" she cried, blasting the battlefield with a holy nova that burned through the corruption like wildfire. Mydei screamed, staggering, his form crackling under the onslaught.
But he endured.
With a furious roar, Mydei burst free of the blast, driving toward Firefly with godlike speed. The impact created a sonic boom, sending both combatants spiraling through the air. They clashed above the battlefield—light against chaos, hope against despair—every strike carving trails of energy through the sky.
Firefly spun mid-air, wings folding around her in a crescent shield. Mydei's claws scraped sparks off the holy barrier, but she retaliated with lances of divine flame, each one slamming into his armor with the fury of judgment. Mydei absorbed them, but his speed faltered.
He roared and expanded his aura again, forcing Firefly back with a radial burst of corruption. Shadow clones split from him, each wielding tendrils of chaos, flanking from impossible angles. Firefly dodged, dipped, and wove between them, leaving a trail of blinding light that erased the clones one by one.
Below, Yuri coughed, blood on his lips, but he rose again. His eyes glowed as he activated a forbidden technique—one he had vowed never to use again.
A second Yuri stepped from a fractured timeline, a perfect duplicate of himself summoned for only moments. Together, they charged at Mydei mid-air, catching him between past and present.
Slice.
Pulse.
Strike.
Blows landed in perfect synchronicity. For a moment, it seemed the tide had turned—Mydei faltered, falling to one knee, his power flickering erratically.
But then—
A pulse of pure chaos.
Mydei unleashed his true form—his body growing larger, limbs segmented and fractal, his voice layered and unnatural. He rose like a god, cloaked in a shroud of memory and ruin.
"You fight well," he growled, "but you do not understand."
Dark sigils lit up the sky. Reality itself began to unravel at the edges. Time bled backward and forward. Lightning turned to smoke. Mountains inverted. Oceans boiled into the air.
"If this world must survive," Mydei continued, "then it must be reborn in fire."
He raised his hand to the heavens.
The sky opened.
A meteor of pure chaotic essence descended.
"YURI!" Firefly screamed.
But Yuri didn't run. He raised both arms, pouring every ounce of remaining power into a time-freeze. The world stopped.
For just three seconds.
"Firefly," he gasped, "do it now!"
She understood immediately. She summoned her final burst—channeling all of her divine light into a single beam aimed at Mydei's heart. It tore through the stillness like a falling star.
Time resumed.
The meteor struck—but not before the beam hit home.
Mydei howled, stumbling back, his core cracking, energy spilling out like shattered glass. The meteor fragmented mid-fall, raining down like harmless sparks instead of cataclysm.
But Mydei refused to fall.
He stood again, black fire erupting around him. He roared, unleashing a final barrage of chaotic blasts that razed the field. Yuri shielded Firefly, his duplicate flickering out as it absorbed the brunt of the fury.
Yuri staggered. Firefly screamed as she struck the earth. Craters now marred the land, the world quaking under the echo of godhood.
Still, they rose.
Together, Yuri and Firefly unleashed a combined attack—time and light twisting into a spiral lance. It screamed through the battlefield, piercing Mydei's final defense.
Mydei collapsed to one knee, coughing dark ichor. The chaotic godform melted away, revealing the man beneath. Wounded. Mortal.
"Why…" he whispered, voice ragged. "Why couldn't you let it end…"
Yuri stood silent, his breath ragged, blood still trickling from the corner of his mouth. He lowered his arms slowly, the last embers of his power flickering out.
"Because ending it like this… would've meant losing you," Yuri said quietly. "And I couldn't bear that. Not again."
Firefly landed beside him, her radiant wings fading into embers. She stared at Mydei—not with triumph, but sorrow.
"You wanted to unmake the world to erase your pain," she said gently. "But we carry pain so we can grow. So we can remember. That's what makes us human."
Mydei's head bowed. A bitter smile ghosted his lips.
"I wanted to be free," he murmured. "Of guilt. Of memory. Of everything."
Yuri stepped closer, kneeling before his brother.
"You're not alone," he said. "Not anymore."
The battlefield was quiet now. The sky, though cracked and stained, began to clear—light piercing through the remnants of chaos. The world, fragile and wounded, held on.
Firefly extended a hand toward Mydei, not as a warrior, but as a friend.
"You still have a choice," she said.
For a long moment, Mydei stared at her hand...
And then he...