"Just let it flow..."
Levi repeated the words to himself as he faced Rumbler once again.
Across Nitchtron, billions watched the destruction of Darant City unfold. Every news channel broadcasted the battle live, and with every passing second, the fear that gripped the planet only grew stronger.
Inside the Capitol Counsel, panic had completely taken over.
Operators rushed between stations while others hammered away at their keyboards, cycling through emergency reports, military communications, and satellite feeds.
"CAN SOMEONE PLEASE SEND HELP TO THE CITY?!" one operator shouted, his voice cracking from frustration.
"We can't!" another operator responded, struggling to maintain her composure. "The Demons have already been classified as Leviathan-level threats. One of them is operating at Archangel-level power. There's only one person capable of intervening."
"Then send him!" the operator yelled back.
But Levi heard none of it.
He didn't hear the city burning into flames nor the screams of the wounded, he didn't feel the pain tearing through his body.
"Just let it flow..."
He repeated the words quietly.
Every muscle in his body was screaming. Every instinct he possessed warned him that the giant standing before him could kill him at any moment.
Lying broken among the rubble, Kayo watched in stunned silence.
He wanted to tell Levi to retreat.
He wanted to scream at him to run.
But something about Levi had changed.
The crimson aura surrounding him no longer resembled fire. It twisted and churned violently around his body, expanding and contracting as though it possessed a will of its own.
"It's rising..."
Kayo muttered, his voice barely recognizable.
Rumbler didn't hesitate.
Purple gravity surged around his fist as he launched himself forward, determined to end the battle with a single strike.
"LET IT FLOW!"
Levi screamed inside his own mind.
The giant's fist came crashing toward him.
Swoosh!
And Levi moved.
Not because he thought.
Not because he chose to.
His body simply knew.
Rumbler's punch tore through empty air.
The giant immediately followed with a devastating left hook capable of tearing apart buildings, but Levi's body bent backward before the attack could connect. An uppercut came next, followed by a right hook, a palm strike, and a descending elbow, yet every attack missed by the smallest possible margin.
Levi instincts took over, entering into a trance like state where he wasn't fighting them anymore.
He was flowing.
Kayo's eyes widened in disbelief.
Rumbler noticed the sudden change too then adjusted.
Instead of committing to another strike, he suddenly feinted.
Levi reacted instinctively and jumped backward.
The moment his feet left the ground, he realized his mistake.
"Damn it..."
Purple gravity exploded around him.
Levi's body was violently pulled forward.
Rumbler's leg shot out, a wrecking front kick.
Crushed!
The impact echoed throughout the city.
But Levi crossed his arms at the last possible moment.
The kick still landed with enough force to crack bone and send him flying backward through the streets. His feet tore through concrete as he fought desperately to stop the momentum, carving two trenches behind him before finally coming to a halt.
Blood dripped from his arms.
His entire body screamed in agony.
Yet Levi remained standing.
But the assault didn't stop there.
Above Levi, another sphere of purple gravity descended from the sky at terrifying speed. He twisted backward into a backflip just as it crashed into the street beneath him, pulverizing the pavement and sending debris flying in every direction. Before he could regain his footing, a second sphere came down, followed by a third and a fourth, forcing him to continue retreating through the collapsing streets as the heavens themselves seemed to rain destruction upon him.
Then Rumbler appeared.
Levi felt the giant's presence behind him a fraction of a second before he saw him. Rumbler's enormous arms spread wide, preparing to crush him in a bear hug powerful enough to shatter every bone left in his body. Levi tried to move, but he already knew he wasn't going to make it.
Suddenly, a pillar of stone erupted from the ground between them.
Rumbler's arms closed around the pillar instead, crushing it into fragments, while Levi escaped through the brief opening that Kayo had created. He landed several meters away and immediately looked toward his partner. Kayo stood atop one of his clouds, blood still running from the corner of his mouth. Their eyes met for only a moment, but neither of them needed to say anything.
It was game time.
Levi moved first. Crimson Destruction ignited around his fists as violent pressure waves distorted the air around him, and he launched himself straight toward Rumbler. The giant answered immediately, throwing a devastating punch to intercept him, but before their attacks could collide, a thick fog swallowed the battlefield.
Rumbler's fist tore through empty air.
He turned.
Nothing.
Then a strike hit him from behind.
Another impact crashed into his ribs, followed by a kick to the thigh and a blow to the chest. The attacks came relentlessly from within the fog, each one appearing from a different direction before vanishing just as quickly. Levi moved through the mist like a phantom, never staying visible long enough for Rumbler to retaliate.
The giant finally lost patience.
With a roar, he launched himself into the sky with enough force to shake the district. But Kayo had already anticipated the move. Waiting above on a cloud platform, he materialized a steel staff and brought it down with all his strength.
Clang!
The strike landed.
Rumbler didn't even flinch.
At that exact moment, Levi burst upward through the fog like a missile. Rumbler saw him and reacted instantly, grabbing Kayo by the leg and swinging him downward like a weapon. But Levi had anticipated that response as well. He reached out, Kayo grabbed his arm, and using the momentum of the throw, Kayo spun Levi around and launched him upward with even greater speed.
Levi locked eyes with the giant.
Mega Shear Waves.
Their fists collided with enough force to split the clouds above Darant City.
Levi unleashed wave after wave of crushing pressure through Rumbler's body, attempting to destroy him from the inside out. But the giant didn't move. He didn't stagger. He didn't even blink. Instead, he roared and released a burst of gravitational force powerful enough to send Levi crashing back toward the city.
Before he could impact, the building beneath him softened.
Kayo.
The structure absorbed the force for only an instant before collapsing completely. When the dust finally settled, Levi climbed out of the rubble while Kayo landed beside him. Together, they looked toward the sky.
There, suspended within a sphere of swirling purple gravity, Rumbler stared down at them.
Waiting.
"He's not holding back anymore."
Levi kept his eyes locked on Rumbler.
Kayo looked at him from the side. There was no fear in his expression anymore, no hesitation, and no attempt to convince Levi to run. After everything he had witnessed, Kayo no longer wanted to question what the Seventh Blade would do next. Even if following him meant dying here, he wanted to see it through.
"Yeah," Kayo said, wiping blood from his mouth. "All that twitching earlier... his conscience is still fighting against the program."
He paused, watching Rumbler carefully.
"So what do we do next?"
Levi smirked despite the blood running down his face.
"He ain't letting us off the hook that easily. The plan stays the same. We keep fighting him until that damn Archangel shows up."
His crimson eyes narrowed.
"Just follow my lead, and we might survive."
Kayo nodded.
They lowered their stances.
Across from them, Rumbler grunted as his massive body trembled. His mind and body were still tearing against each other, but the struggle was beginning to exhaust him. If he wanted to end this, if he wanted to stop the Demons before they caused even more destruction, then holding back was no longer an option.
He had to give in.
Not to the program.
To the power.
[SYSTEM — UTILIZING FULL CAPACITY]
[STARDUST: 78%]
Rumbler's gravitational aura erupted.
The city changed instantly.
Wind tore through the streets with enough force to rip loose metal from buildings. The sky darkened as gray clouds twisted above Darant City, lightning flashing inside them as if the weather itself had been dragged into Rumbler's gravity. Everything near him began to lift, bend, and break apart, pulled toward the center of his power before being crushed into dust.
Levi and Kayo stared at him.
For a moment, neither saw a Fighter.
They saw judgment.
A god descending from the heavens to deliver their sentence.
Rumbler raised both arms, and the ruined city obeyed. Cars, bodies, rubble, and entire sections of buildings tore away from the ground, rising into the sky as two massive dark-purple spheres formed above him.
Then they began to fall.
The closer they came, the heavier the world felt.
The reality of their difference was finally closing in.
"No..."
Levi's voice came out as a low growl.
The Crimson Destruction around him suddenly bloomed.
It was no longer a flicker.
No longer a surge.
The caged beast finally showed its fangs.
His aura clawed outward with a violent pressure that made the air around him scream. Levi raised one hand, and an invisible force ripped through the gravitational pressure holding him and Kayo down, tearing apart the pull itself.
Kayo felt it completely this time.
Not potential.
Not instinct.
Power.
The power Levi had always been capable of.
'STARDUST–63%'
"LET'S GO!"
Levi shot forward the moment his feet touched the ground, outrunning the falling pressure spheres as they tore through everything behind him. He dashed through the ruined city, leaping from broken buildings, weaving between overturned vehicles, and cutting through collapsing streets while his instincts guided him along the only path that kept him alive.
Above him, Kayo rode his cloud through the storm, narrowly avoiding the gravitational waves tearing through the sky.
Rumbler clenched both hands together.
Then slowly pulled them apart.
A small dark sphere appeared between his palms.
At first, it was no larger than a stone.
Then it grew.
The clouds bent toward it. Lightning vanished into its surface. Debris, smoke, and flames were dragged upward as the sphere expanded above Rumbler's head, devouring everything that came too close.
The sky darkened around it.
The heavens eclipsed.
Levi and Kayo felt the pull take hold of them, dragging them toward the growing black sphere with terrifying force. Before they crossed into its inescapable gravity, Levi swung his arm and unleashed Destruction, distorting the pull just long enough for Kayo to form a cloud beneath them.
Kayo understood immediately.
He shot upward at full speed, rising higher than Rumbler himself. As he climbed, he materialized a massive staff, long enough to pierce through the clouds, and at the far end of it stood Levi, balanced with his crimson aura raging around him.
Kayo gritted his teeth.
Then he swung down with everything he had left.
The staff split the air.
Levi was launched.
He spun through the sky like a crimson meteor, his aura tearing through wind, gravity, and clouds alike as he descended toward Rumbler.
"Surface Waves..."
His rotation became faster.
Sharper.
The air screamed around him.
Rumbler saw him coming and roared, both arms still raised as the black sphere continued growing above his head.
Levi's eyes burned.
"LOVE WAVES."
THOOOM!!
The kick landed against Rumbler's head.
The impact tore through the sky, blasting the clouds apart and sending a violent gust across Darant City. Windows shattered in distant buildings. Fires bent sideways. The entire battlefield buckled under the force.
But Rumbler did not fall.
He didn't even move.
For a second, everything became quiet.
The city.
The broadcasts.
The people watching across the planet.
All of it held its breath.
Then Rumbler felt it.
A force moved through his body, not like an impact, but like the world itself shifting inside him. It pulled left, then right, then left again, tearing through his frame in opposing directions.
Below them, Darant City answered.
The ground began to shake.
Roads split apart as buildings swayed from side to side. The remaining structures groaned under the pressure, some collapsing as the invisible wave traveled through the city.
Emergency alarms erupted across the country.
On every broadcast, the same alert appeared.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake had struck Darant City.
Even through the pain, Rumbler kept his arms raised.
The black hole above him continued to grow.
It was as if Levi's attack had never happened.
Then, slowly, Rumbler began moving his arms downward.
The final attack.
The attack that would end everything.
Not just Levi and Kayo.
But himself as well.
"LEVI!!"
Kayo screamed as he descended toward him.
Levi looked up at the black sphere hanging above the city.
For the first time since the battle began, he knew.
There was no way out of this one.
[SYSTEM ERROR]
[STARDUST CAPACITY LIMITS EXCEEDED]
Suddenly, Rumbler's body jerked.
Once.
Then again.
His massive frame twisted violently as steam erupted from the mechanical parts embedded throughout his body. The gravitational sphere overhead trembled as the system struggled to maintain a power output beyond its own limits.
Rumbler roared.
Not in rage.
In pain.
The giant collapsed.
The black hole above him immediately began destabilizing.
Before Levi could fall from the sky as well, Kayo rushed in and caught him with his cloud. Both of them stared downward in confusion as Rumbler rolled across the shattered city streets, clutching his head with both hands.
"NO!"
The voice echoed only inside his own mind.
"I HAVE TO STAY AWAKE!"
He slammed his fists against the ground.
The city shook.
"I HAVE TO END THIS!"
His body continued to convulse.
"FOR THEM!"
His vision blurred.
"I AM RUMBLER!"
The thoughts raced through his mind.
Then they became quieter.
And quieter.
Until—
Nothing.
[SYSTEM RESET]
Rumbler suddenly stopped moving.
Silence.
Then he rose.
Slowly.
Mechanically.
He threw his head back and roared.
The reset had completed.
The man called Rumbler was gone once again.
Only the weapon remained.
Levi and Kayo felt their blood run cold.
Rumbler lowered his body.
Preparing to launch.
Preparing to destroy whatever remained of Nitchtron.
Then—
A flash of lightning split the heavens.
The clouds illuminated.
A second flash followed.
But this time, it wasn't white.
It was green.
A brilliant green light descended from the sky with the force of a meteor, surrounded by crackling emerald lightning. The sound reached the city a moment later, roaring like a rocket entering the atmosphere.
Rumbler looked up.
Too late.
BOOOOM!!
The impact shook Darant City.
The green light pinned Rumbler to the ground.
Wind exploded outward.
Clouds parted.
The sky itself seemed to open.
Levi and Kayo stared in silence.
Because standing atop the fallen giant, surrounded by emerald lightning, was Nitchtron's strongest Fighter.
The one and only—
Ragnor.
And since arriving on this planet, both the Wrath Boy and the prodigy of the Red Moon Clan looked upon another being with something neither of them had expected to feel.
Awe.