As Gaïus was about to change form, his body beginning to pulse with an unstable black glow, all the fighters, panting and wounded, stared at him in silence, aware that the worst was about to begin…
BAMMMMM!!!
A titanic blow sliced through the air and hurled Gaïus through the ruins, his body crashing through several metal and stone structures before embedding into a collapsed wall.
Everyone's eyes widened.
Yuki (stifling a cry):
— Sa… Salomé?!
Floating above the ground, proud, straight as a divine blade, Salomé appeared, her hair whipped by the wind, her purple aura and incandescent gaze fixed on the rubble.
Salomé:
— Gaïus… I finally find you!
She landed lightly, but the impact raised a cloud of dust.
Bakuran (frowning, wary):
— How…? How could she approach without anyone sensing her coming? Even my eyes caught nothing…
Suddenly, a shadow slid before Bakuran.
He turned his head.
— Lazareth…?!
But it was no longer the cold aura of their former enemy. The energy emanating from the masked man was… transformed.
Salomé (calm, authoritative):
— Don't call him that anymore. He is no longer our enemy. His name is Jacob now.
All (in unison, stunned):
— What?!
Jacob, standing in his black coat, his face still hidden behind his mask, looked around.
Jacob:
— There's much to explain, but not now. The most important thing is that we have a common enemy: Gaïus.
Nairo, arms crossed, eyes narrowed:
— You made a deal… a truce?
Salomé (serious):
— No. It's not a truce. Lazareth is gone. He is with us now. We have gained an ally.
A tense silence settled. The atmosphere was unstable. But in their eyes, understanding began to form.
Jacob, scanning the area with his gaze:
— What a mess… And Shirōgane, where is he?
Grafay, still seated, breathed out:
— Vaporized. By a combined attack from Bakuran and Nairo. Only ashes remain. Does that bother you, "Jacob"?
Jacob (shaking his head, neutral voice):
— No. I had planned to absorb him to multiply my strength, but never mind.
Grafay (sarcastic):
— What a shame. He was almost crispy.
Salomé, looking at the rubble:
— Why are only you here? Where are all the others? Allies and enemies alike?
Sally, setting down her swords, answered:
— Most mutants were killed by Gaïus's shockwave. The rest were transported to another dimension by Saramut. She said… they would continue their war there.
Salomé (softly, thoughtful):
— I see... Saramut is very radical.
A deep roar suddenly erupted from the rubble.
The stones trembled.
Gaïus slowly emerged, his face cracked, purple veins pulsing faster and faster.
Jacob (calmly):
— …We have little time before he reaches his full form.
Everyone rose, gathering their strength. Breaths were short, looks determined. Dust rose, swept by residual energy. The fight against Gaïus was about to resume.
Salomé, upright and silent, fixed the enemy with icy intensity.
(He doesn't yet have the appearance I saw in the world of Velda… but no matter. It's Gaïus. And that's all that counts.)
Then aloud, eyes burning:
— I will do everything to destroy you, Gaïus.
Bakuran, intrigued, raised an eyebrow:
— You speak as if you have an old score to settle with him.
Sally, smirking:
— Well… that's kind of the case, didn't she tell you?
Grafay, still trembling, used a wall to help himself up:
— I'm not fully recovered… but I'm not going to just watch while you have fun!
Yuki, smiling:
— You call that fun?
Sally, mocking:
— Cactus head, you're really crazy.
Grafay, chuckling:
— You, the bramble, just stick to being cute with your samurai swords and leave me alone.
A strange gleam crossed Jacob's eyes. He stepped forward slightly, looking focused:
— Listen to me. I have an idea. A strategy that might eliminate Gaïus in a single coordinated sequence.
Bakuran, eyes wide:
— Are you kidding? You serious, mask?
Jacob, grave, nodded:
— Thought transmission!
A mental impulse burst from him. Everyone felt a flash cross their minds. Images, a plan, movements… Everything became clear. The group smiled in unison.
ErMut, enthusiastic:
— That could work very well!
Jacob raised his hands, his dark aura vibrating intensely.
— Phase one, launch!
With a gesture, hundreds of shadows burst everywhere: in the ruins, on the ground, walls, even into space itself. Dark portals anchored in reality.
Jacob:
— Go!
The others didn't hesitate. They plunged into the shadows, disappearing one after another as if sucked in.
Bakuran, Yuki, Grafay, Sally, Salomé, Nairo… all dispersed. Once inside, the shadows acted like dimensional portals, projecting them at will to other points of appearance.
Grafay, euphoric, shouting as he jumped from one shadow to another:
— This thing is completely crazy!
The assault began.
A shadow opened behind Gaïus. Nairo burst out at full speed, BAM! A sharp blow to the back, propelling Gaïus toward another rift.
Sally then emerged from another shadow above him, her swords ready—
— SCHLACK! She sliced off an arm before leaving as fast as she came.
Gaïus tried to react, but every time he turned, a new attack came from another angle.
Yuki unleashed a barrage of energy projectiles, Grafay shattered the air with a shoulder strike. Salomé crushed his chest with a heel strike as she exited a portal.
It was a methodical, unpredictable, synchronous massacre.
Gaïus, disoriented, finally tried to enter a shadow himself…
But the shadow refused him passage. He stretched out his hand. The shadow closed like a sealed mouth.
He took another swift blow from Salomé, then a spinning combo from Yuki, a lateral impact from Bakuran, and even a double vertical strike from Sally's swords.
The group's cohesion and Jacob's strategy crushed him.
Jacob, still focused at the center of the zone, suddenly opened his eyes.
— Phase three… FINAL PHASE, NOW!!
ErMut immediately burst from a shadow, arms crossed, eyes shining with wild energy.
— Let's go!
He brutally joined his hands, and with a low rumble, titanic plants burst from the shadows. Thick, robust, they whipped the air like tentacles and lunged around Gaïus, violently ensnaring him. The vines tightened, wrapping like an infernal vegetal cocoon, immobilizing him like a caterpillar trapped in its tomb.
— Your turn!! shouted ErMut.
Grafay appeared in turn, his arms instantly swelling to gigantic size. He grabbed the cocoon with colossal grip, squeezing Gaïus with insane strength.
— You look tense, little worm!
With a bone-cracking sound, he detached his arms, leaving them fixed around the cocoon like a living vice. Then, with a breath, he calmly regenerated new arms.
Grafay, laughing and electrified:
— And now… the cherry on the cake!
A mental flash from Jacob:
— READY? FIRE!
All the others surged from the shadows, one by one, shouting their ultimate attack, the most destructive they could concentrate.
Salomé, gaze incandescent, her body radiating blazing violet mana, raised her fist to the sky.
— COSMIC KILLER PUNCH!!!
A titanic dragon silhouette, formed of violet lightning and celestial mana, tore itself from her arm with a roar. It cleaved the skies, broke the clouds, then plunged into a shadow rift opened by Jacob, who closed it instantly.
Yuki and Nairo combined their forces.
Yuki vibrated the atoms of the air, manipulating them at the subatomic level.
Nairo called all elements: fire, ice, gravity, metal, light.
— Alchemical Fusion: Nuclear Annihilation!
Their fused attack tore space and rushed into another rift Jacob locked again.
Bakuran, arms raised, enveloped himself in a pure energy flow of cosmic colors.
— Soul Space Torment!
The energy distorted reality, tearing space like burnt paper.
Sally invoked the apex of her Samurai power:
— Edge of Unintention – Virgin Heart!
Her swords shone with an almost empty, ethereal gleam, emitting no intention, perfectly imperceptible to any conscious barrier. The attack melted into the shadow rift, silent and perfect.
Grafay, shouting:
— COME ON GUYS, MAKE HIM PAY!!!
Jacob, stoic, opened a giant shadow rift, engulfing Gaïus trapped in the vegetal cocoon and Grafay's grasp.
— Now… amplify!!!
ErMut, Grafay, Salomé, Yuki, Sally, Bakuran, Nairo…
All stretched their arms toward the shadow. An explosion of multicolored lights burst from their hearts.
— SOUL MANA!!
Their energies gathered in the air, wrapping around the rift like a divine halo. Unreal colors — gold, violet, silver, emerald, black, and pink — formed a transcendent spiral around the shadow, amplifying all the attacks imprisoned inside.
Jacob, silently, closed his eyes and raised both hands.
He finally unleashed the hell stored inside the rift.
Inside… all the attacks struck Gaïus simultaneously.
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
The space before them fractured like shattered glass, shards of reality floating in the air. A blinding white light flooded everything. The detonation was so powerful that everyone was thrown backward, crashing violently against walls, the ground, debris.
Total silence.
Then… a strange humming.
A spiraling black hole formed where the explosion had occurred, sucking in air, space, and time itself in a silent howl.
Salomé, panting, stretched out her arm:
— Jacob! You have to close that… immediately!!
Jacob, fully focused, joined his palms:
— Devouring Shadow… ABSOLUTE CLOSURE!
A giant shadow unfolded around the vortex. Slowly… painfully… it covered it, gnawed it, and made it disappear from the fabric of reality, as if it had never existed.
Calm returned.
The ground was broken. The air dense. Everyone tried to stand, still shocked.
But something had changed.
Gaïus… was no longer visible.
His energy… had vanished.
And for a brief moment…
peace seemed within reach.
All, panting, began to release the tension.
Silence fell for a few seconds, then Salomé collapsed to her knees, arms trembling, gaze empty.
Salomé (whispering):
We… we have defeated Gaïus?
So… the future… has changed?
She murmured more to herself than to the others, as if trying to convince herself.
Sally jumped up, fists raised:
— Well done, guys!!!
Grafay raised an exhausted arm and laughed heartily:
— That bastard got fucked good! Hahaha!
Sally (throwing him a dark look):
— Watch your language, cactus head!
But the mood was light.
Everyone smiled, even laughed; some reenacted moments of the fight miming blows, dodges, lightning, as if reliving an absurd and epic play.
A shared euphoria, a tangible relief… except for one person.
Jacob.
He remained motionless, standing, silent.
Then slowly, he removed his mask.
A cold breath swept through the assembly.
Blood slowly flowed from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
His features were drawn, pale, almost transparent.
Silence fell again, heavier than ever.
Sally (worried):
— Jacob? What's wrong?
Jacob, a faint smile on his lips, raised a calming hand.
— Don't worry about me… I knew it would end like this.
He paused, his gaze lost in the void.
— Containing your attacks, your soul manas… keeping them in a dimension outside space and time… closing the spiral that devoured reality…
— All that, I did… by drawing on my very last limits.
Crack.
A sharp sound.
His right arm cracked.
Not just his skin: his entire body fragmented, like stone slowly shattering.
Yuki (horrified):
— His body… it's cracking!
Jacob, still smiling despite the pain:
— Yes… I am dying.
A shock.
Everyone's eyes widened.
Salomé jumped again, seized by a shiver of anger mixed with panic.
— What?! But why??
Jacob:
— I gave everything. My mana. My mind. Even all that was left of me.
— Soul Mana transcends the mind. It crushes it, consumes it. I didn't have the capacity to contain it. I tried the impossible… and I broke what I am, in all that I am.
Salomé (voice trembling, tears at the corners of her eyes):
— Then why?!
— Why did you propose this plan to us?!
— Why didn't you tell us it would kill you?!
— You knew exactly what it would cost! Why??
She clenched her fists, her voice breaking.
Jacob stared at her.
His eyes shone with unfathomable sadness, almost tender.
— Because I knew that if I had told you… you would never have accepted.
— You would have refused to carry out this plan. You would have waited. Sought another way. Taken the risk that he survives, that he kills you…
— But that… was the only sure way to bring down Gaïus.
His body slowly dissolved into black smoke, piece by piece.
Salomé (in tears):
— It's stupid…
— We would have found another way, even if it took weeks…
— It's absurd that it ends like this…
Jacob slowly raised a trembling hand toward her, as if to touch her face one last time, but no longer had the strength.
He whispered, in a breath:
— Sometimes… the true sacrifice… is the one no one lets you prevent.
And his hand disappeared into the air, swallowed by the void.