"Kill! Kill them all!"
Gross's roar tore across the battlefield.
His spiritual pressure surged one final time.
The yellow-green domain contracted violently, compressing into eight massive acid tentacles. Each whip strike scattered droplets of corrosive fluid that ate into the ground, leaving smoking pits.
The next moment, Gross launched into the sky.
One tentacle lashed out.
A sub-class Hollow failed to evade in time—
its body split apart and dissolved at the point of impact, corrosion devouring it almost instantly.
"ATAK! Even if I die today… I will drag you with me!"
Gross dove again, targeting another isolated Adjuchas.
Atak's subordinates had erected layered defenses, but battlefield chaos always left gaps — and Gross hunted those gaps with murderous precision.
Below, harassment fire forced the isolated Hollow into frantic evasions.
Gross, driven by fury and terminal resolve, had become a living execution engine.
Attrition Warfare
"Encircle them! Four against one!"
"Kill them the moment the membrane drops!"
Gross's orders were brutally effective.
Clusters of four overwhelmed exposed defenders.
Within minutes, Atak's forces lost six more subordinates.
Gross's tactics were ruthless and precise despite his madness.
Time, however, continued to tick.
And Atak's recovery cycle approached completion.
Atak Returns
After the eighth casualty…
Atak's reiatsu surged back to life.
"It's over, Gross!"
The anti-membrane barrier faded.
Atak launched skyward.
His hammer descended like a falling fortress.
Gross was smashed from mid-air into the earth.
Before debris settled—
three consecutive Ceros detonated across the impact site.
Atak followed immediately, raising both hammers.
All gathered reiatsu condensed into a single annihilating blow.
Twin Heaven-Shaking Hammers.
Silver spiritual pressure flared at peak intensity.
The impact drove Gross deep into the earth.
Silence followed.
Atak's body sagged.
The burst cycle ended.
Weakness returned.
"Huff… huff… kill the rest…"
He pointed toward the fleeing remnants of Gross's army.
"This territory is ours… though the cost was heavy…"
He exhaled slowly.
"This isn't the time to clash with Yinfeng…"
"If we abandon Paramon's territory… we border him directly…"
"There is no choice but to—"
The Betrayal
WHOOOM
The compressed detonation of a Cero erupted behind him.
Atak's eyes widened.
He looked down.
A bowl-sized hole burned through his chest.
Blood sprayed into the air.
"What… how…"
Gross was dead.
His enemies were routed.
Where had this attack come from?
"Nothing is impossible."
A calm, mocking voice spoke behind him.
"Thank you, Lord Atak."
"I'll handle the aftermath."
Sombravida stepped from the shadows.
Pale gold light shimmered behind his mask.
Zero-Type Domain
His spiritual pressure surged skyward.
The dim sky darkened.
Clouds formed from condensed reishi.
The battlefield fell under oppressive pressure.
Sombravida spoke quietly.
"Zero Type… Storm."
The Storm Descends
Lightning erupted.
Pale-gold arcs spread across the domain.
One.
Ten.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Within seconds, a network of lightning filled the sky.
Trees exploded into splinters.
Stone shattered.
Even Adjuchas could not withstand the storm.
Lightning carved through hierro, detonated limbs, and atomized flesh.
Blood vaporized into crimson mist.
Screams filled the storm.
The battlefield became a hellscape of thunder and annihilation.
Seconds later—
the storm faded.
Fragments of flesh, ash, and debris fell like rain.
Silence swallowed the battlefield.
Aftermath
Nearly 60% of the sub-class Hollows were dead.
Another 20% lay crippled beyond combat.
Gross's forces were annihilated.
A handful of Atak's elites survived only by deploying anti-membrane shields at the final moment.
Atak himself lived—
but Sombravida's sneak attack had left him mortally wounded.
He could not recover.
Sombravida exhaled slowly.
Zero-Type Storm was his ultimate technique.
It had consumed nearly two-thirds of his spiritual power.
If the survivors regrouped now, the outcome might turn.
So he moved immediately.
Battlefield Harvest
Sombravida blurred through the air with Sonído.
He ripped masks free from fallen Hollows, devouring fragments to restore spiritual reserves.
Reiatsu flowed back into him.
He stopped beside the anti-membrane bearer protecting Atak.
"Surrender… or die."
His spiritual pressure crashed down.
The Hollow trembled.
"I… I…"
Its head flew free.
Sombravida's afterimage faded.
He had already moved.
Mask removed.
Reiatsu devoured.
The membrane collapsed.
Sombravida turned toward the next survivor.
Fear filled its eyes.
A concealed Sonído flash—
a Bala pierced its chest.
"Do I need to repeat myself?"
Six Adjuchas remained.
Three were mid-tier.
If they attacked together…
they might still overwhelm him.
But terror held them frozen.
Their leader lay dying.
The storm had shattered their will.
"I surrender!"
One low-tier Hollow collapsed to its knees, withdrawing its membrane.
Sombravida nodded.
"Wise."
He turned to the newly exposed mid-tier Adjuchas.
"Traitor! How dare you—"
A dimensional slash tore through its chest.
Blood sprayed across the ground.
It survived.
Barely.
Desperate, it fired a distorted Cero — a light-warping blast designed to disrupt perception.
Sombravida did not dodge.
He raised his hand and hardened his reiatsu.
The blast burned across his palm.
Nothing more.
"An ability to confuse perception…"
"Useful in war."
"But the attack still comes toward me."
"So why dodge?"
The Hollow tried to rise again.
A Cero formed before Sombravida's hand.
"Your loyalty lies elsewhere."
The beam fired.
The Hollow collapsed.
Sombravida drove his blade through its chest.
"But I will grant you a complete corpse… in respect for that loyalty."
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