The air inside the Void Shell was no longer breathable; it was a thick slurry of ionized ozone, violet Zethrian blood, and the metallic tang of human sweat. Cipher stumbled into the light of the arena, his uniform shredded and his left arm hanging limp at his side. He had just finished carving through a Zethrian Alpha, but the cost was etched in the deep gashes across his ribs. Beside him, Mikasa stood with her plasma blades stained with zethrians, Violet blood
"Renji!" Cipher coughed, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the cracked stone. "Look into his body. Really look. There has to be a core"
Renji didn't hesitate. He activated he's star eyes "First Edge: X-Ray Vision!"
The world turned into a skeletal blueprint of heat and energy. Renji's eyes pierced through Magals' magenta robes and deep into his dark, muscular frame. He saw the obsidian-like bones and the braided muscle fibers, but then he saw it—pulsing at the center of the Commander's chest.
"A core!" Renji shouted, his voice cracking with the strain. "In his chest! It's not a heart... it's a crystalline core, glowing like a dying star!"
"Just as I thought," Cipher muttered, leaning against a piece of rubble. He has a core , all of them do, if we destroy the core we kill him ".
Elias stepped forward, the jagged demonic scales on his chest glowing with a silver intensity. He looked at his friends—the exhausted, the bleeding, and the brave. "The only way to kill him is to destroy that core completely. No half-measures. No mercy." He slammed his fists together, creating a sonic boom that cleared the dust. "Ok guys... Round 3!"
The strategy shifted from survival to execution. They weren't just fighting a monster anymore; they were a demolition crew aiming for a single point of failure.
Vex was a statue of agony, his fingers still locked onto Magals' golden mantle. Blood was streaming from his ears now, but with Sloane pumping green restorative energy into his back, his Time-Lock held. Magals was a fly in amber, his snarling face frozen in a slow-motion scream of rage.
"Now! While he's stuck!" Elias roared.
The coordination was flawless. Tessa Sol (3rd) didn't waste time with bindings. She spun her threads into a massive, rotating drill, . She launched the drill at Magals' chest, the friction against the Commander's skin creating a screeching sound that echoed like a dying banshee.
Beside her, Temi Nova (5th) and Mira Ice (5th) performed a fusion of their elements. Temi compressed a massive sphere of heavy water, while Mira instantly turned it into solid ice . They didn't aim for the limbs; they aimed for the entry point Tessa was carving.
Rook and Jaxen acted as the hammers. Rook became a blur of silver-steel, delivering "Piston Punches" that hit with the weight of falling buildings. Each strike was reinforced by Jaxen, who channeled his 10-Million Volt Discharge directly through Rook's fists.
The electricity acted as a conduit, trying to fry the core from the inside out.
Nyx flickered in and out of existence. Every time Magals' tail tried to twitch in slow motion to parry, Nyx would teleport a spatial rift in its path, cutting the tip of the tail off inches before it could strike.
But Magals' skin was unlike anything they had ever encountered. It wasn't just hard; it was biologically dense. Tessa's drill snapped. Mira's ice shattered against his chest without leaving a mark. Even Rook's punches, , only managed to bruise the dark surface.
"He's too dense!" Mikasa shouted, her plasma rifle overheating as she poured continuous fire into the same spot on his sternum. "We aren't reaching the core!"
"Then let's add more pressure."
Cryo, the Vice Captain of the 2nd Division, emerged from the shadows of the arena floor. He hadn't been idle; he had been observing the fight. He stepped up next to Vex, his hands glowing with a deep, midnight blue light.
"Shadow and Time belong together," Cryo said, his voice a calm contrast to the chaos. He didn't touch Magals; he touched the space around him. "Shadow tentacles!"
The shadows beneath Magals rose up like liquid tar, wrapping around the Commander's feet and torso. It didn't just bind him; it began to strangle him , and held magals in a single position
Renji yelled, "Elias, now!"
Elias didn't need to be told twice. He launched himself into the air, his human muscles bulging beneath the jagged dragon-like scales. He wasn't just using strength; he was using the Atomic Vibration logic he had used to beat Mira Ice, but scaled to a suicidal level.
He reached Magals and began a barrage of strikes that were so fast they appeared as a solid wall of silver light. One hundred punches. Five hundred. A thousand. CRACK. Violet blood dropped from he's chest.
"GO! FINISH IT!" Vex screamed, his body beginning to smoke as he reached he's absolute breaking point.
Magals' pink eyes, usually bored, were now wide with an alien fury. He was being beaten by "snacks." He was being made to bleed by creatures he considered insects.
Then all of a sudden a power surge erupted.
It sent out a huge shock wave , even the captains outside the void shell felt it.
Vex bones in he's hand began to crack, blood rushing from he's eyes.
"I... I can't..." Vex's eyes rolled back into his head. Sloane tried to pour more energy into him, but the shock wave sent her flying knocking her out..
The world didn't just speed up; it rebounded with the force of a coiled spring. Magals moved so fast that even Renji's eyes couldn't track him.
He didn't punch. He didn't kick. He simply released his Law in its purest form.
"GRAVITY ANCHOR: COLLAPSE."
The sound was like the planet itself cracking in half. A dome of invisible, crushing force expanded from Magals in a split second.
Elias was slammed into the dirt mid-punch, his jagged armor cracking under the sudden 500x gravity.
Nyx and Renji were pinned so hard their ribs began to groan.
Rook fell to his knees, the stone floor beneath him turning to dust as his heavy metal body was used as a weight to crush him.
Tessa, Mira, Temi, and Jaxen were flattened, their faces pressed into the grit, unable to even lift a finger.
Magals stood in the center of the crater, his body healed the small brusies and injury Elias had made. He looked down at the group of xenocides, he was no longer bored, " you managed to scratch me"
Magals whispered, the sound carrying even over the roar of the wind. "For that, I should congratulate you. But you forgot one thing, humans."
He stepped toward Elias, who was struggling to push himself up, his arms shaking as he fought the gravity that felt like a mountain on his back. Magals looked up at the VIP spire, where the Captains were screaming and punching the Void Shell in a futile rage.
"You all have limits ," Magals said, raising a foot over Elias's head. "I am limited only by my will."
The gravity intensified again. The stone floor of the Coliseum gave way, sinking five feet deeper into the earth. The Xenocides, the heroes of the 10th, and the survivors of the other divisions lay in the dirt, paralyzed, watching as the 10th Commander prepared to end the era of humanity.
Elias stared up at the bottom of Magals' boot, his silver eyes refusing to dim even as the pressure threatened to burst his heart.
TO BE CONTINUED...