The world shook.
As if the very Spark in the air froze in reverence.
From above, on the highest point of Highspire, a lone silhouette rose. Each step he took create ice under his feet which how he walk on air.
A man stood on the edge of cliff, hands clasped behind his back, robes lined with silver runes catching the falling snow. Cold eyes, sharp as the cliffs he ruled from, peered down like a divine sword suspended mid-air.
The Archon of Highspire. Neva A.Oxford.
And he look everything except friendly now.
"Criminals," his voice boomed, "You violate sanctity with illusion and trickery. You damage civilians, destroy heritage structures, endanger the balance of power. Do you understand what that means?"
Rune squinted up toward the mountain. "...Uh, no?"
"I hate it when they start speeches with 'Do you understand,'" Gale muttered. "It's never followed by anything good."
The air split.
A platinum lance dropped from the clouds, fast and furious, aiming straight for their heads.
Flicker move. The air around her shimmered—And in the next instant, a dome of false sky twisted into existence, swallowing the lance whole.
The illusion cracked from the force—but barely manage to held
Gale raised a brow. "You holding up, Flick?"
Flicker's ears twitched once. She turned her head.
And bit his hand.
"OW—! Hey! That was a compliment, you little mood-sponge!"
Neva landed in front of them, snowflakes freezing mid-fall around him.
And then he raised one hand toward the heavens.
The sky split and stand still with absolute stillness.
"Cryo Spark Manipulation : Absolute Dominion – Veil of Winter Crown"
From the sky above the mountain spire, a massive snowflake sigil unfurled, as wide as the city itself. Its edges pulsed with cold geometry—fractal, impossibly sharp—and every citizen across Highspire felt it.
The city's spark flow slowed.
Every flame dimmed. Every flow of air slowed. Water turned heavy. The very laws of movement turned sluggish, like a dream of drowning in snow.
Anemo refused to answer.
Rune, who had been balancing on a gust of wind, tumbled mid-air.
"What the hell?! I can't feel wind!"
Gale's brows furrowed. "...He's locking the field. Flicker!"
Flicker flared her spark to counter, but even her illusions began to stick—held mid-animation, like ice caught in a pane of glass.
"All units, engage Artifact Protocol."
A new voice rang from the ground.
In six simultaneous pulses across the city, stone monoliths buried beneath buildings and towers erupted, releasing tendrils of golden spark as they linked into a citywide lattice.
The Artifact Squad had awakened the Guardian Core of Highspire.
Gale saw the sigils form: A tetrahedral lock etched in frost and wind denial. The skies sealed. Space folded inward. Their escape routes—gone.
"OCS, deploy. Formation-3. Surround and contain the anomaly units."
From the rooftops, streets, and even beneath manholes, black-armored soldiers in flowing coats stepped in from every direction. Each bore a unique crest—flame, iron, mist, shadow—and carried highly personalized weapons.
The Order Control Squad had arrived.
Each was A-Rank minimum, trained to work as EX-Rank response teams. With them here to be able to escape was mathematically impossible.
The square was a killbox now.
"Identify yourselves." Neva command the invader.
Even among this kind of tension , Gale struck a pose, finger raised dramatically. "Sun Goku, member of the SpankGodFaction"
Neva feel speechless at the name. "Where these fools come from?" No respect to even god" Just to know , God in this world are real deal and dare to name their faction like this. Whether real or not , are they not afraid of god's wrath?
"Sun Goku. Rune Val Kane. Unregistered Fox-Type Genesis Spark User. You've committed felony-level Spark misuse, tampering with spiritual architecture, and threat of mass intoxication terrorism."
"Wait, that last one wasn't—okay, maybe that one was fair," Rune admitted.
"You will surrender. Or I will strip the life from your body."
"I was promised food and women," Rune muttered. "I didn't sign up to fight a regional boss on day one."
"Welcome to Oracle," Gale said cheerfully, reaching behind his back and pulling out…
…a frying pan. And handed it to Flicker.
Rune blinked. "Seriously?"
"It's reinforced steel with triple-Anemo layering and Geo-tuned edges," Gale said. "This baby can deflect a missile."
Flicker held the frying pan in her teeth. Her tails flared.
Then Gale also pulled out a dildo-shaped spear and handed it to Rune, who stood stunned by the absurd spectacle unfolding before him and he unconsciously took it.
Gale beamed. "I specially made it for you. Thirteen kinds of rare treasure, comparable to a Prime Core, have been wasted just for it. Don't thank me, a generous gift for a new team member is what a great leader should do."
Rune exploded. "You must be fcking with me! Ain't no way I'm going to use this sht! You mot...!@#!@#!@#!@#" Rune continued, greeting ten generations of Gale's ancestors with thousands of insults, which went in one of Gale's ears and out the other.
Neva, the Archon, wore an expression of utter disbelief at the scene before him, utterly unamused. He interrupted their little moment of friendly camaraderie by declaring a third time, "I will give you one chance. Face judgment or die."
The reason Neva hadn't attacked yet, despite all the nonsense, was simple: they were in the city. If possible, he didn't want to use force within his own domain, especially against opponents who seemed tricky, crazy, and powerful, which would yield no benefit and result in huge damage. So, he continued to intimidate them, wanting them to surrender.
"...What's the plan?" Rune stopped his friendly exchange and got serious. He could feel it; the spear in his hand was really powerful, no worse than his own treasure weapon, except for its... well, super weird shape. But he didn't have a choice. If he didn't use it, he'd just be a fish waiting to be slaughtered on the board, especially since his Anemo element was under serious threat. He still didn't want to die, at least not until he drank "One Piece," the strongest and most valuable legendary treasure alcohol. Also, he wasn't totally powerless even if his Anemo element was locked down; his three skills in Spark mystery were no joke.
"Plan?" Gale cracked his neck. "There's no plan. We got caught with our pants down."
Snap.
Gale activated his Spark.
A multi-element ripple exploded around him. Fire swirled into ice. Ice broke into sand. Sand became air.
A moment of beauty.
Then reality returned.
-30% Spark output penalty due to Cryo Suppression.
Spatial Fold Detected. Long-distance warp disabled.
Anemo/Space Element reduced to 18% efficiency.
Great Sage's prompt sounded.
Gale grinned.
"I like hard mode."
The sky split.
A streak of silver light screamed across the dome of HighSpire, trailing sparks like meteor shrapnel. Rune hurled the dildo-spear like a war cry from a drunk god, and it detonated mid-air
BOOM!
The resulting shockwave shattered a nearby spire into flying shrapnel. Rubble smashed into the artifact shield dome and bounced back like angry hail. Half the Artifact Squad were forced into emergency evasive maneuvers, instantly disrupting their precision formation.
Neva move, his body blinked forward, trailing vapor and frost, appearing mid-air with a raised hand.
Snap.
A Cryo fractal detonated beneath Rune's feet. The cobbled street shattered into frost-shards, the stone instantly flash-frozen and exploded outward like ceramic shrapnel. Rune's body blurred backward, leaving behind afterimages, but the shockwave scraped his side, drawing blood.
"Hah! Neat trick," Rune grinned, blood dribbling from his lips.
The moment Neva appeared, three captains of the OCS were already moving—one from the left, two flanking from rooftops. Each moved like a weapon. Their coordination was frightening
"Left flank, behind!" Gale shouted, but a moment too late
Boom!
A captain landed beside him with a thunderclap, gauntleted fist wrapped in a flame-enhanced barrier. Rune managed to block with his new, absolutely cursed dildo-spear, but was flung through a fruit stall.
"Flicker!" Gale barked
Flicker created seven false versions of herself, each darting through the battlefield, tails flashing, distorting light and space. The illusions were so finely wrought that even Neva narrowed his eyes slightly. This immediately disrupted the OCS Captains' further actions, granting Rune a chance to breathe
By them , a massive, floating cube, glowing with lines of ancient runes, pulsed in the sky. It locked down the region—space fluctuated and tightened. Air flowed oddly, sluggish. Anemo element—crippled. Space—folded. Warp—jammed.
"You're boxed, Sun Goku," one of the OCS captains said.
Gale beamed. "Finally, someone recognizes me."
Rune rolled out from rubble, spear in hand, bleeding. "I'm gonna kill you for giving me this cursed thing!"
"Your welcome" Gale winked.
"Alright… I guess it's time to stop playing around," the temperature suddently plummeted—
A low rumble cracked through the stone beneath his feet. Flicker's ears twitched. Rune glanced over, his instincts firing off a primal warning as if prehistoric beast waking up
Gale's voice dropped
"Genesis Spark Resonance: Super Spark Mode."
"BOOM!" The world ignited
A wave of raw Spark energy surged upward like a geyser, blasting apart the cobblestones under Gale. The sky above cracked with white light, splitting the clouds as if heaven itself recoiled. Cryo suppression shattered for a moment.
The shimmering haze of Super Spark Mode swallowed Gale. When it cleared—
He stood tall. His hair had turned a brilliant, unnatural white, drifting in the air like the calm before a cataclysm. His eyes burned with layered rings of glowing azure, white, and gold.
Each breath he took pulsed with spark—the air around him distorted with sheer resonance. The ground vibrated. Flicker's illusion field expanded automatically, creating a distortion field around Gale
Rune's jaw dropped. "Dude… you look like a damn protagonist now."
Gale cracked his neck and grinned."I always was."
Neva's expression broke , his eyes narrowed
"This move... the Guardian Family of Northern Land... the White Hair Guardians," Neva murmured, his gaze sharpening. "You are the long-lost last child of that family. I did not expect you had grown this far."
"Still, I'm sorry," Neva stated, his voice unwavering. "I won't show mercy, regardless, even if you are the last son of my comrade's descendant. Order must be absolute.
"If one can cause chaos and leave without consequence, there will be a second, a third, and more," Neva declared, his voice ringing "Under my protection, Highspire will not tolerate anyone who causes chaos."
The Archon move, his figure blurred—Cryo Spark forming a fractal spear of absolute zero. One swing. The ground Gale stood on froze in a radius of 30 meters, locking time, space, and Spark flow.
Gale vanished. In the state of Super Spark Mode , his control over element reach terrifying degree. Even if the cosmo element got lock , Gale still could use small point teleport spell
His white silhouette zipped past Neva, a halo of combustion and thunder trailing behind
CLANG!
The Cryo spear collided with Gale's stick
The impact shockwave obliterated the air between them, cracking buildings and knocking back OCS soldiers caught in the blast radius. Neva's arm trembled.
"Nice block," Gale said. "Now try again."
He rotated once—then launched a flicker jab. What looked like a playful punch warp with geo infusion slammed Neva's chest like a siege cannon. The Archon flew backward, plowing through two reinforced buildings before catching himself mid-air, blood trailing from the edge of his mouth.
"Fck," muttered an OCS commander"This guy's a monster…"
OCS engaged with rune traps, anti-Anemo bullets, and full Spark blades. Their formation tightened, captains barking out code phrases that activated synchronized arts. They moved seamlessly.
Rune had no time to admire their precision. Five elites charged him, armed with Void-imbued blades and shock gauntlets. The first lunged in—Rune parried with the cursed spear.
It hummed, Spark flashing.
A wave of small invisible wind compressed into a single spike—then exploded, impaling the first attacker from the inside out. Blood sprayed, painting the cobbles.
Rune stepped through the next attacker's guard, twisted the spear like a key in a lock, and detonated his enemy from the spine outward. Wet meat hit the ground.
"Two down," Rune muttered. "Let's fcking go."
The other three didn't flinch. They activated Prime-type support artifacts—and began moving faster.
They tag-teamed him, cutting off his breath and momentum with brutal close-range tactics. Rune barely kept up—his Spark slowed, his lungs burning.
Then Flicker acted.
From behind a broken statue, three fake Runes emerged—each one indistinguishable from the original. The OCS trio reacted—too late. The illusions lured them apart, breaking formation.
Rune took the opening. He spun, stabbed, and ripped one man's arm off, then shattered his ribcage with a Spark-enhanced shoulder bash.
Three left.
"BONK!"
Two.
"BONK!"
One.
"BONK!"
A moment later, only internal organs remained in a five-meter radius around Rune and Flicker. Blood dripped from the pan gripped in Flicker's teeth. There was no doubt; she was the culprit. The pan was so powerful that even with a little swing, it could apply massive force, thanks to its Geo-enhanced gem inlay.
Meanwhile, Gale's dance with Neva escalated
Neva's Cryo domain keep getting stronger the longer the battle and the more injury he got. Now its no longer just freezing—he now suspended particles entirely. Time crystals bloomed in midair, forming deadly mines of snow flake and disruption. Gale didn't care. He blitzed past each trap, bending around space-locks with precise Spark manipulation. Each move was a mini-masterclass in elemental flow.
Neva growled. "Such fine control... what a monster."
Gale raised an eyebrow. "I'm just built different."
Neva clicked his tongue. He closed his eyes, and a moment later, he opened them...
The air screamed.
Neva's eyes now bore the symbol of a snowflake.
"Cryo Archon Mode: Absolute Zero!"
A second domain snapped into place—this one denied all warmth, motion, and hope. A white aurora fell across the battlefield. Several lesser OCS soldiers froze on the spot—dead instantly.
"Buddy, you forgot to turn off friendly fire!" Gale shouted.
Rune's blood turned to sludge. Even Flicker hissed, forced to retreat back to Gale's side.
"Okay," Gale muttered. "Now we're in deep shit."