The demon reached the center of Fort Vanguard.
For one second, everything seemed to slow.
The small ball of dark, corrupted Kia in its hands didn't look big enough to destroy anything. It was compact. Dense. Almost silent.
Then the demon shoved it into the ground.
A bright wave of light burst outward.
The air warped.
Heat followed.
Then the sound hit.
A massive explosion ripped through the base.
The force tore through the upper airstrip, splitting Fort Vanguard's airbase down the middle. Metal screamed. Concrete cracked. Runways buckled as entire sections of the base began lifting into the air from the blast pressure.
Then gravity took over.
The far end of the airstrip started to collapse.
Soldiers ran in every direction, some dragging wounded, others throwing themselves behind broken walls and equipment. Helicopters dropped dangerously low, hovering just above the shaking structure as crews shouted for soldiers to jump aboard before the base gave out beneath them.
White Flash became a blur.
He zipped through falling debris, burning vehicles, and collapsing platforms, grabbing soldiers one by one and throwing them clear of danger before the airstrip swallowed them. One second he was on the east side pulling a medic from under a fuel cart, the next he was halfway across the base carrying two injured soldiers over his shoulders.
The two broken ends of the airstrip began rising upward, slowly folding inward toward the center like the entire structure was being crushed by invisible hands.
Steel grabbed Stark by the shoulder.
"Hey! We gotta climb!"
Stark looked up at the steepening runway, then down at the growing pit of heat and fire beneath them.
"Yeah, I noticed!"
They locked onto each other and started climbing, boots scraping against cracked concrete as the airstrip tilted higher and higher. Every few seconds, another explosion went off somewhere beneath them, shaking loose chunks of runway and sending them sliding toward the burning gap below.
Voltron and Boomer were fighting their way upward too.
The middle of the base had turned into a furnace, twisted metal, fire, smoke, and molten chunks of support beams crashing into the pit. Soldiers scrambled toward the highest points, while helicopters hovered along both sides, pulling up anyone they could reach.
Voltron grabbed several soldiers at once, holding them against his massive frame, then jumped from the side of the collapsing platform. He fell through smoke and fire before landing hard on the lower ground, absorbing the impact through his mechanical legs.
Boomer reinforced his legs with Kia, the energy flaring around him as he sprinted toward the edge. With one powerful jump, he launched himself off the airstrip and landed below, rolling through the impact before rising again.
Steel and Stark kept climbing.
The incline grew worse.
The runway under them groaned like it was alive and in pain.
A fuel line exploded nearby, flames blasting across their path. Steel drove his shoulder through the heat, forcing a way forward, while Stark pulled himself higher with one hand and helped Steel keep balance with the other.
"Almost there!" Stark shouted.
"Don't say almost!" Steel snapped. "That's when stuff gets worse!"
Right as he said it, the airstrip shifted again.
Both ends began collapsing faster.
Steel and Stark reached the top edge at the same time and jumped.
For a heartbeat, they were falling.
Behind them, the two halves of Fort Vanguard's airbase lifted fully upward, then slammed inward toward the destroyed center.
The collision triggered another violent explosion.
Heat and metal fragments blasted outward like a storm. Burning debris rained across the desert below, scattering across Merchant Valley in glowing streaks.
Steel and Stark crashed to the ground hard, rolling across the dirt before forcing themselves up.
Voltron caught up with them moments later, damaged parts still sparking but his frame steady.
For a while, none of them spoke.
They just looked back.
Fort Vanguard's upper airbase was gone.
The massive structure that had once ruled the desert skyline now lay in ruin, fire crawling across broken metal and smoke rising into the bright capital sky.
Steel's jaw tightened.
"This thing is no joke."
Voltron stared at the wreckage, his mechanical voice low.
"No. It isn't."
He paused, scanning the damage.
"It appears to have been sent here on a death mission."
The explosions finally began to settle.
The screams faded into emergency calls.
The smoke rolled over what was left of the base.
Fort Vanguard, one of the strongest military installations in the Galactic Empire, had been broken open in minutes.
And somewhere in the ruins, the demon still wasn't finished.