Jade stood alone in the stairwell, surrounded by vampires and skeletons.
His temporal stasis device hummed in his left hand, freezing two more attackers mid-leap. His right hand blazed with blue fire, keeping the others at bay. But the device was overheating—he could feel it getting hot even through his suit's gloves.
A skeleton lunged from his blind spot. Jade spun, pulling a small chrome sphere from his belt and throwing it. The sphere exploded mid-air into a web of crackling energy that wrapped around the skeleton, pulling it apart bone by bone.
"Kinetic dispersal net," Jade muttered, already reaching for another gadget. "Rick would be proud."
Three vampires coordinated their attack—one high, one low, one straight on. Jade activated his wrist shield, catching the straight attack. Dropped low to avoid the high one. Swept his leg out in a perfect arc enhanced by micro-servos in his suit, taking out the low attacker's legs.
But more were coming. Always more.
His temporal stasis device sparked and died, the frozen vampires breaking free.
"Dammit." Jade dropped the useless device and pulled out what looked like a small vial filled with glowing blue liquid. He threw it at the advancing horde.
The vial shattered, and the liquid expanded instantly into a foam that hardened on contact. Five vampires and three skeletons were trapped in the rapidly solidifying substance, unable to move.
"Adaptive polymer compound," Jade said, backing up the stairs. "Should hold them for—"
A vampire tore through the foam like it was paper.
"—thirty seconds. Of course."
Two Fangs watched from below, still not moving. "You always did rely too much on technology, Jade. When will you learn?"
"When it stops working," Jade replied.
A vampire was on him before he could deploy another gadget. Claws raked across his shield, forcing him back. Another came from the side, then another. They were coordinating, working together with the intelligence they'd retained from their human lives.
Jade's back hit the wall. The vampires closed in.
He sighed. "Fine. You want a show?"
Jade closed his eyes for just a moment.
When they opened, they were glowing. Bright blue. Luminescent.
Purple energy erupted from his body—not the purple of Kínitos's immovability or Monti's smoke. This was different. Sharper. More controlled. It crackled around him like electricity, forming geometric patterns in the air.
*Paradox energy.*
But Jade wasn't using it for physical enhancement.
He was using it for *magic*.
His hands moved in complex patterns, fingers tracing symbols that hung in the air, glowing blue and purple. Ancient gestures. Arcane mathematics made manifest.
"*Fulmen*," Jade said, his voice layered with power.
Lightning erupted from his hands.
Not fire anymore. Not gadgets. Pure electrical energy channeled through paradox power, arcing through the air with devastating precision.
The nearest vampire took the lightning full in the chest. Its body convulsed, skin charring, blood boiling. It collapsed, smoke rising from its corpse.
Jade swept his hands in a wide arc, lightning chaining from one target to the next. Vampires screamed and fell. Skeletons shattered into bone fragments as the electricity overloaded the energy animating them.
"Better," Two Fangs said from below, and now there was genuine interest in his voice. "Much better."
More vampires charged. Jade gestured with both hands, lightning crackling between his fingers. The bolts struck with surgical precision—head shots, heart shots, destroying the undead with ruthless efficiency.
But he was breathing hard now. Using paradox energy for magic was draining him faster than gadgets ever could.
A skeleton got through his lightning barrage, bone fist swinging for his head. Jade caught it with one hand, purple energy flaring around his grip. He squeezed, and the bones crumbled to dust.
Three more vampires came at once. Jade raised both hands, lightning building to a crescendo—
And pressed a button on his boots.
Rocket thrusters activated.
Jade shot upward, propelled by micro-rockets built into his suit's boots. He rose above the attacking vampires, hovering in the stairwell with jets of blue flame keeping him airborne.
"Rocket boots," he said, looking down at the horde below. "Rick *definitely* would be proud."
He hovered there, ten feet above the advancing undead, lightning still crackling around his hands. The combination of technology and magic made him look like some kind of techno-wizard—floating, glowing, deadly.
Two Fangs finally moved. He took one step forward, looking up at Jade with what might have been amusement.
"Impressive display," he said. "But you can't maintain that forever. The paradox energy will burn you out. The rockets will run out of fuel." He gestured to his army. "And I have all night."
Jade's eyes narrowed. Lightning intensified around his hands.
"Then let's make this quick."
He thrust both hands downward.
A massive bolt of lightning—thicker than a person, bright as the sun—crashed down into the center of the vampire horde. The electrical discharge was so intense it turned the stairwell white. Vampires and skeletons disintegrated instantly, their bodies unable to withstand the raw power.
When the light faded, half of Two Fangs's army was gone. Just ash and bone fragments scattered across the stairs.
But the man in white still stood, completely unharmed. His pristine suit didn't even have a wrinkle.
"My turn," Two Fangs said quietly.
He raised both hands.
And every vampire and skeleton that Jade had destroyed—every single one—began to twitch.
Purple energy darker than Jade's, corrupted and wrong, seeped up through the ash and bone fragments.
The dead were rising again.
Jade's eyes widened. "No—"
His rocket boots sputtered. Running out of fuel, just like Two Fangs predicted.
He started to descend, slowly, inevitably, back toward the reforming army of undead.