Chapter 35 — Aerial Comet Assault
The Revenant stood motionless in the swirling heat, violet cracks pulsing along its molten-black skin. Even after everything they had thrown at it—Lunaris Rift, Heavenrend Impact, Packbreaker Shell—the creature hadn't fallen. It hadn't even hesitated for long.
But this time, the trio wasn't charging blindly.
They had a weapon.
A tactic forged years ago inside a digital battlefield.
A technique designed specifically for monsters above natural limits.
Aerial Comet Assault.
Vaibhav exhaled sharply, shoulders rolling back, molten plates of his armor-type Mutated Transcendent beast spirit locking into place with a deep metallic groan. Shin summoned his boots-type beast spirit, flames coiling around his ankles like coiled serpents waiting to explode. Alicia's hands rose, her Modified Ethereal Divide forming in front of her in a sharp crystalline curve angled perfectly toward the ground.
The Revenant watched.
Chest rising.
Eyes cold.
Instinct recognizing that the next exchange carried lethal intent.
"Ready?" Alicia asked without looking back.
Shin cracked his neck once. "Just don't panic when he goes airborne."
Vaibhav planted his feet. "Let's do it."
Alicia's barrier shimmered—one precise angle, one purpose.
Launcher setup complete.
Shin moved first.
His boots detonated against the ground with a sonic ripple, launching him forward in a blur. In less than a heartbeat he reached Vaibhav, locked a hand around his torso, and continued accelerating without pause. The boots howled—each step a blast of force carving trenches into the cracked battlefield.
The Revenant finally reacted.
It crouched low, claws splaying as it prepared to intercept the charge.
Shin smirked. "You're too slow."
He twisted at the last instant and hurled Vaibhav directly toward Alicia's barrier.
Alicia widened her stance, concentrated—the barrier flexed with elastic tension.
Vaibhav slammed into it.
For one impossibly stretched moment, the barrier bent like a trampoline—distorting, absorbing momentum—
And then it launched him.
The world vanished below as Vaibhav rocketed upward, soaring into the air like an arrow fired from a divine bow. The Revenant snapped its head up, body stiffening as it sensed the threat descending from above.
Vaibhav dismissed his armor spirit instantly—the molten plates evaporating around him in sparks. His body lightened in a single roar of air.
His right arm ignited with a sharp white flare as he summoned his gauntlet-type beast spirit.
Cold metal snapped across his skin like a living creature reattaching its bones.
The Revenant began to move.
Too late.
Vaibhav pulled in one breath—clean, deep, absolute.
Starbreaker Maul.
His muscles tightened until they creaked, energy veins across his arm lighting from elbow to knuckles. The gauntlet locked into a spiral rotation, the air warping around his arm as centrifugal force built rapidly.
A helix of white-hot energy coiled down his forearm, wrapping the gauntlet like the tail of a newborn star.
Shin shielded his eyes.
Alicia braced herself.
The ground vibrated under the pressure alone.
The Revenant roared, feet digging into the shattered earth as it prepared to meet the descending meteor.
Vaibhav dropped.
Falling like a comet.
Rotating.
Burning.
A spiraling streak of white fire ripping the sky open.
The Revenant lunged upward to intercept—
Vaibhav's fist arrived first.
The impact detonated with a blinding shockwave that hurled dust and molten rock outward in a circular blast. The blast rippled through the ground like a ripple across a lake, sending sharp vibrations through the crater.
A ring of white light exploded outward like a shock halo.
The Revenant's skull cratered under the force, its entire upper torso driven downward into the cracked battlefield. Its spine bent at an unnatural angle as the shockwave traveled through its body, hammering it deeper into the fractured stone.
Shin staggered back from the blast, boots scraping for purchase.
Alicia shielded her face from flying debris.
Vaibhav landed on one knee, his right arm trembling violently from wrist to shoulder. The recoil was brutal—blood throbbed in his fingertips, his knuckles burned, and his gauntlet completely shattered.
But he stayed upright.
The Revenant was half-buried in the ground, motionless.
For a moment.
Just a moment—
It looked defeated.
The trio stared at the dust cloud forming where the Revenant had crashed. Shin's sword spirit hovered at his side, humming with anticipation. Alicia kept her Modified Ethereal Divide active, expecting another counterattack.
Vaibhav stood slowly, shaking out his right arm. Pain flickered across his expression before he clenched his fist again, forcing the tremors to lessen.
Alicia stepped beside him, eyes scanning his posture. "Your arm?"
"Fine," he said, even as the tremble continued faintly. "Just recoil."
Shin snorted. "Yeah. Recoil from punching a walking apocalypse."
The crater crackled.
A sound—like bones grinding under pressure—echoed upward.
A burnt-black hand rose from the broken stone.
Then another.
The Revenant pushed itself up slowly, bits of shattered ground sliding off its shoulders. Its skull was partially cracked, violet light leaking from fissures along the bone. Its chest rose and fell in uneven breaths, molten veins pulsing erratically.
But it was alive.
Standing.
Its eyes lifted—no longer merely observing.
Now focused only on Vaibhav.
Alicia tightened her stance.
Shin raised his blade spirit.
Vaibhav exhaled once, feeling the tremble still lingering in his right arm.
The Revenant rolled its shoulders, the cracks along its body beginning to seal again, muscles tightening as if reforging themselves.
And then—
It stepped forward.
The air shifted, heat intensifying.
The Revenant's instincts sharpened again.
The trio braced themselves as the creature lowered its stance.
The Revenant stepped forward.
Slow. Heavy. deliberate.
Each footfall cracked the stone beneath it, pressure radiating outward like invisible shockwaves.
Alicia shifted slightly ahead of Vaibhav, stance widening as molten light coursed along her armor spirit.
Shin flicked his last remaining sword spirit to the side, scattering sparks along the ruined ground.
"Okay—round two. Lovely."
The Revenant inhaled sharply, chest expanding just a fraction.
Then it moved.
The creature disappeared in a blur of black-violet motion, its claw streaking straight toward Vaibhav's throat.
Alicia intercepted instantly.
Her barrier snapped into place—
Modified Ethereal Divide, angled sideways, shimmering like heated glass.
The claw struck the barrier—
Alicia was launched backward.
Her body tore across the ground in a violent arc, crashing into a fractured boulder and shattering it on impact. Dust exploded around her.
"Alicia!" Vaibhav shouted, instinct jerking him forward.
He didn't make it two steps.
The Revenant appeared directly before him—too fast—its body twisting in midair, its palm spearing toward his chest with lethal precision.
Vaibhav wasn't able block it and the attack hit him—
The impact hit like a hammer forged from a dying star.
Something broke.
A sharp crack near his ribs.
A cold shock raced through his chest.
Vaibhav stumbled back, breath catching.
The Revenant's strike had shattered something he carried.
A small metallic clink hit the ground.
Vaibhav looked down—
A fragment of his pendant lay on the stone.
His heart stopped.
A flashback hit.
His birthday.
Prabhat's smile.
"Mom gave it to me when I was four. It means we'll always be with you. Now you take it. Whenever you're in trouble, remember—we're with you. Your Big Brother is with you."
That moment had stayed with him longer than anything.
Now the pendant—his mother's last gift, Prabhat's treasure—lay broken at his feet.
Warmth drained from his chest.
His fingers curled slowly.
The Revenant stepped forward again.
Something inside Vaibhav snapped.
Not fear.
Not pain.
Something older.
Something heavier.
A low growl left his throat, primal and raw.
He lunged.
No technique.
No form.
Just pure, unrestrained instinct.
His fist slammed against the Revenant's jaw in a brutal hook—Heavenrend Impact triggering mid-strike, the shockwave bursting outward in a violent ring.
The Revenant stumbled back, surprised for the first time.
Vaibhav didn't give it time.
He crashed into the creature with another strike—Starbreaker Fist igniting through his muscles.
White-hot flames surged through his veins as he drove the punch into the Revenant's ribs, crushing bone and hurling the creature sideways.
The Revenant twisted midair, recovering unnaturally fast—
But Vaibhav was already closing the distance, blood pounding in his ears.
He grabbed the creature's shoulder—
And bit down.
Flesh tore.
Violet blood splattered across his face.
The Revenant roared in genuine pain, jerking violently to escape.
Vaibhav didn't let go until a chunk of molten muscle ripped free.
He spat it aside and slammed both fists into the Revenant's torso, each strike stronger than the last.
Heavenrend Impact.
Starbreaker Fist.
Celestial Maul.
All thrown together, instinct overriding technique, rage overriding restraint.
Shin watched in shock from the side.
"…Dude went rabid—"
The Revenant finally reacted.
It twisted its entire body, planting both claws into Vaibhav's chest and unleashing a burst of raw force.
The impact blasted Vaibhav backward.
He flew across the battlefield, flipping twice before smashing into the far rock wall with devastating force.
Stone cracked.
Dust rained down.
He slid to the ground, limp.
"VYUK!" Shin's voice cracked as he rushed forward.
But the Revenant blocked his path, still shaking off the damage, violet blood dripping onto the blackened stone.
Alicia rose from the rubble on the opposite side, wiping dust from her eyes, her breathing sharp.
Her gaze locked on Vaibhav—unmoving.
Then on the Revenant.
Something cold sharpened in her expression.
But before either she or Shin could move—
The Revenant's attention shifted again.
It looked at Vaibhav's unconscious body.
Then at the broken pendant lying beside him.
Violet cracks across its skin flickered.
As if reacting to the emotion Vaibhav had poured into the last exchange.
As if learning from it.
Adapting still.
Shin summoned his sword spirit again, the blade elongating with a sharp hum.
Alicia's armor plates tightened and aligned perfectly, molten glow brightening along their edges.
The Revenant crouched—
low, lethal, ready to attack either of them.
But the trio was no longer evenly matched.
One of them was down.
And the Revenant knew it.
Shin whispered under his breath, "If that thing reaches him…"
Alicia didn't answer.
She stepped forward.
The Revenant lifted its head slowly, almost curious.
Shin tightened his grip.
The ground trembled under the tension of the three forces.
Vaibhav remained motionless, blood pooling beneath him, his chest rising shallowly from the blow.
The air thickened.
Heat warped.
Stone cracked.
The Revenant exhaled once—
and stepped toward Vaibhav.
Alicia's voice broke the silence.
"Over my dead body."
Her armor ignited in a bright molten flare.
Shin vanished into motion, dust exploding where he stood.
The Revenant leapt.
And the battlefield erupted into chaos again—
but this clash was different.
Angrier.
Bloodier.
More desperate.
Because for the first time—
they weren't fighting for victory.
They were fighting to protect someone who could no longer fight back.
And as the Revenant met their blades and shields again, its violet eyes flickered—
aware, calculating, adapting even further.
The creature pivots sharply, its claws slicing through the air while Alicia and Shin crash into it simultaneously—
and Vaibhav lies unconscious beneath the shattered wall, the broken pendant resting beside his open hand.
The fight was far from over.
The Revenant was far from finished.