The ocean's surface churned like a living storm beneath Vrasnia's eternal night, the purple moon's glow casting an eerie violet sheen across the restless waves. Raijin hovered above the turmoil, his body a conduit of crackling green lightning, his coat whipping in the wind as the tide brushed beneath his feet like a treacherous whisper. The Crocosaur's blood still dripped from his dagger, a grim trophy of their hard-won victory, but the beast's defeat felt hollow now. "What even is this whale creature?" Raijin muttered to himself, his voice lost in the roar of the sea. "It's bigger than anything I've seen on Earth—it defeated that Crocosaur and ate it like it was nothing. Am I even capable of beating this thing?"
He gripped his daggers tightly, the blades humming with residual energy, his mind racing through the exhaustion that clawed at his limbs. The Crocosaur fight had drained him—figuring out its weak point had been a grueling puzzle, one he couldn't have solved without Evelyn's ingenuity. Without her, he'd be chum by now. "It took a lot out of me just to expose that eye—and without Evelyn's help, that wouldn't have happened," he thought, his gaze drifting to the shore where she lay unconscious, her form still and fragile from the impact of his final strike. "She used so much of her power, plus taking that shockwave from me… she won't be up for a while. I have to figure something out—we can't lose this quick, not so early in the competition."
The environment shifted suddenly, the water's surface distorting as a massive whirlpool formed, sucking Raijin downward with relentless force. He looked around, his eyes widening as two whales circled beneath him, their colossal forms gliding through the depths like shadows of the abyss. "THERE'S TWO MORE OF THEM!" he shouted, his voice echoing over the waves.
One whale surged upward, its maw gaping wide to swallow him whole. "Nuh uh—NOT ON MY WATCH!!" Raijin flew upward, his body a streak of lightning, evading the jaws by inches. He flung himself from the water, hovering mid-air, but the whale followed, bursting from the surface in a geyser of spray. Raijin's eyes widened as he stared at the beast, its body charging with ice energy from multiple points, glowing like frozen stars. "What's that?" he gasped.
The whale fired off a barrage of ice beams, jagged lances of frozen fury streaking toward him with deadly precision. "OH SHIT, THOSE THINGS ARE FAST!" Raijin dodged with his trademark agility, weaving through the onslaught like a leaf in a gale. "Whoops—looks like I'm faster after all! You're big, but slow as hell!" He fired a blast of lightning from his fist, the bolt crackling through the air toward the whale, but it barely phased the creature, fizzling against its armored hide. "I figured that wouldn't do shit—goddammit, now what do I do? Hold up, the whales are gone—that means they're all fakes. This whale can create clones of itself, and it can fly? And it has multiple types of elemental projection energy? MAN, WHO THE FUCK CREATED THIS THING?! The fact it makes a fully grown blue whale look tiny—but fuck that, it's time to lock in."
He flew toward the Volgaria, crashing head-on into its colossal form, his lightning energy surging like a storm unleashed. "COMMONN!" he roared, his body a blaze of green electricity. But the whale flung him back with a casual swipe, sending him tumbling through the air. "DAMMIT!" Raijin growled, his resolve hardening.
The whale opened its mouth, charging a beam of abyssal energy—a dark, swirling vortex of power that warped the air around it. "Blasting me from point-blank—sending me flying!" Raijin's voice echoed over the waves as the beam erupted, a cataclysmic torrent that split the sea. Everyone watching—crowds in the arena, spectators across Vrasnia—froze, their breaths held in collective horror. In the VIP chamber, Riah, Neve, Jessie, and Kazimir leaned forward, their faces etched with shock, the tension palpable.
Raijin sank into the sea, his clothes torn, his body battered from the whale's assault. The water enveloped him like a cold grave, the pressure mounting as he descended into the depths. If only I had Tojo's IQ—I could've figured out a weakness. Or Xavier's mental control—my head would be cool right now. And especially Kazimir's destructive power—I bet no matter how strong its body is, he could disintegrate this thing. I'm not gifted like them, so what do I have? Back in my league before the Astral Legion, I was at the top, but now I'm the one left behind. Is this how others felt when I was on top? This is what being weak feels like. I'm so weak that Solaris doesn't acknowledge me, or the heavens like they do with Sando… So what's my purpose? Where do I fit in? Even Tyrone, Lihanna, and Felicia are better than me with higher potential. This? Is this the price of being human?
As Raijin sunk deeper, the whale approached, its colossal jaws gaping wide to swallow him. The struggles of being human—the lowest of all races—flashed through his mind, a torrent of despair. I accept my defeat. I'm exhausted—I had enough… He thought back on every event with the group, the bonds forged in fire and shadow. No, what am I saying? This isn't me—I'm not the type to accept defeat. This energy… it's trying to drown me into the abyss, erase my sanity.
Toto's voice trembled through the holographic feeds, the arena frozen in shock. "It looks like Raijin is about to die—" Neve and Jessie stood, their eyes wide with horror, turning to Kazimir. "You have to go out there and save him!" Neve pleaded.
Kazimir remained silent, his galactic eyes fixed on the screen. Jessie's voice rose. "HELLO, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING? If Vanessa is really controlling that thing, it's too far—he's about to die if we don't stop this!"
As the whale's jaws closed in, Raijin's green eyes darkened, his pupils shifting into a white lightning symbol, his electrical and wind power darkened, surging through his body like a reborn storm. He erupted from the depths with a massive discharge, a cataclysmic explosion of green lightning that shook the ocean, sending tidal waves crashing in all directions. The water vaporized around him, a large blast erupting from the sea's bottom into the sky like a geyser of pure energy.
Everyone watching—from holographic screens in the arena to the VIP chamber—gasped in awe. Toto's voice boomed with disbelief. "What happened to Raijin? He looks different—did he undergo an evolution?"
Riah watched from the screen in the VIP chamber, her crimson eyes gleaming. "Vanessa's plan was successful, it seems."
Kazimir responded, his voice steady. "Yeah, it was."
Jessie turned, her eyes wide. "So this was Vanessa's doing—and you two were in on it?"
Neve sat in her chair, her ice-blue eyes focused, listening in silence as Kazimir looked at the screen. "It was successful. He hasn't gone to the critical limit, but Raijin has indeed entered the overload state. This is a new Raijin—this proves how far he's come as a human. He came a long way, fighting through the past to the present. Overload works by unleashing a percentage of a person's true power—we're about to witness that from Raijin."