There was simply no ti to react. No chance to dodge, counter, or even think. But instead of despair or dread, instead of fear or hesitation, the trio received only one thing from the Scarlet King- eyes burning with raw brutality-and two quiet, rciless words.
"Final Eternity Breaker."
For a heartbeat, those words ant nothing to them. They were confusing, aningless syllables muttered in the face of imminent death. But in the next instant, their aning beca violently clear, for a force field burst outward from Cain's body like a collapsing star. It swallowed the three Champions and even the rod behind him, sealing all of them inside a gray world where motion itself had ceased to exist.
The power of the trio was imnse, however, and their collective might allowed them to tear out of the gray stillness in barely a heartbeat. But in the brief mont they were frozen, everything had already changed. The rod-and the Scarlet King-were gone.
The first now hovered directly in front of Kukulkatz's face.
The second hung inches from Emprik's chest.
Ti resud.
The first sound that tore through the void was a scream of raw agony as the rod drilled straight through Kukulkatz's skull.
The blast of force hurled him like a cot into the distance, and the weapon's montum carried it clean out the back of his head. His roar of pain beca a warped, echoing howl as he felt a force rending through his ego and mind, slicing apart his thoughts, corroding his soul. His very identity was being shredded.
Explosions answered his screams.
Cain descended upon Emprik with a storm of fists-blows layered
with pure Entropy and Nihility that collided over and over inside the Champion's body. Each punch erupted in a chain of detonations, carving massive holes through flesh and bone. The final strike turned Emprik into a streak of burning matter flung helplessly into the void. The new Champion of the Root could scarcely comprehend what she was witnessing. Her attack had been perfect-flawless-tid to strike Cain when he had no possible ans of reacting. He should have died.
Yet sohow, impossibly, the man had turned that certain-death scenario into an advantage. He had used her own rod to take out Kukulkatz, then unleashed a barrage of annihilation upon Emprik. And now his gaze had turned on her.
Cain flashed forward like a scarlet cot wreathed in annihilation.
The new Champion did not hesitate. She charged her weapon again; another rod materialized, infused with even greater power now that she no longer needed to hide her energy. It shot toward the Scarlet King like a spear of condensed decay.
But Cain did not stop. He did not slow. He didn't attempt to dodge.
Just as the rod was about to impale him, his eyes flared with golden energy. His right hand snapped forward, grasping the weapon by its tip. Then-with a skill bordering on incomprehensible-he twisted his body, letting the rod's own montum guide his movent, and hurled it back toward its creator.
The Champion of the Root froze. No one should have been able to catch, redirect, and weaponize her decay-rod in a single flowing motion. It was clear she had never faced a master of The Flow.
She tried to dodge.
But-
"Final Eternity Breaker."
The words echoed again, and the gray world swallowed her.
In a blink she was free-but by then the rod was already in front of her. She felt it pierce through her chest, ripping apart her form and launching her straight into the Heart of the Root itself.
Cain had defeated all three Champions-three Alpha-Oga Overgod entities-entirely alone.
Yet there was no smile on his face.
Eternity Breaker was one of his most devastating abilities, assimilated from the True Depravita of Sloth. But it was also a technique with an unbearable cost. Even using it twice drained him so thoroughly that his vision dimd and consciousness wavered, as though every cell in his body were about to collapse into darkness.
He couldn't afford to waste a second.
Cain extended his palm, pulling in all the energy that had flooded the battlefield during the last exchange. Blue light spiraled and compressed into a sphere in his hand.
"Sovereign Neutron Star Collapse Cannon."
The beam erupted outward.
It tore through space itself, vaporizing matter, energy, and spiritual essence from the Heart of the Root. Hundreds of Root-spawn were annihilated instantly, their bodies disintegrating.
The countless eyes of the Root trembled in agony. Screams bellowed from its cavernous maws as enormous chunks of its mass were incinerated. It was imlsey power, carrying a vitality that defied compression, but that also ant it could endure a massive amount of
pain before it perished.
And the damage was so overwhelming that the golden hands of the Matrix of the Nine Empyrean Suns Universe not only halted its
advance-
They pushed it back.
Cain refused to relent. He waved his hands, unleashing a storm of
invisible blades that shredded more and more of the abomination's flesh. Each slash pulverized vast portions of the Heart of the Root's surface. He held nothing back, pouring every shred of strength he had into damaging the monstrous entity.
But his montum couldn't last forever.
As he carved into the Heart of the Root, the three Champions finally recovered from their wounds. One after another, they erupted toward Cain, their killing intent burning hotter than ever. Cain imdiately retreated, forcing the battlefield into the domain of
the Matrix, where their powers would be suppressed.
What followed was an ocean of destruction.
Scarlet flas, organ-fire, entropy strikes, corroding blows-every
attack collided with such magnitude that the fabric of reality trembled around them. Cain's teeth clenched as the trio pressed him with a relentless lee assault. Their coordination, their ferocity, their raw power-it was suffocating.
He tried to formulate a plan, to find an opening that would allow him
to cripple them and resu his assault on the Heart of the Root-
And then his eyes widened.
A streak of deep blue lightning appeared right in front of him and the Champions, so fast that even Tenth Gear couldn't follow it.
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