The sky burned behind them. Ash floated like snow. The ruins of Manhattan stood as silent witnesses to the clash of titans.
Maxwell staggered forward, blood dripping from his lips. He raised a trembling fist and launched it toward Elijah.
Elijah didn't even flinch.
With fluid precision, he caught Maxwell's punch mid-air.
"Still too slow," he growled.
He drove his fist into Maxwell's jaw with bone-shattering force. The impact echoed like a bomb. Maxwell's head snapped sideways, blood arcing from his mouth as he crumpled to the pavement. The ground cracked beneath his body as he landed.
Elijah stood over him, chest rising and falling with fury.
Maxwell coughed. Every breath tasted like iron. His ears rang. His vision spun.
Minutes passed.
Somehow, he pushed himself up again. His knees buckled, but he stayed standing.
In the corner of his eye, he spotted a 1940s Packard sedan, half-crushed beside a destroyed sidewalk. Fury blinded him. His hands gripped the dented chrome frame.
He heaved it up and spun, hurling the vintage vehicle toward Elijah with every ounce of rage he had left.
The car soared like a missile.
But as it cut through the smoke, a voice screamed.
Children.
Women.
Maxwell's heart stopped.
Too late.
Elijah sidestepped the car effortlessly, and it slammed into the crumbling façade of a bombed-out storefront with a thunderous crash. Shattered glass, twisted steel, and agonized cries followed.
Elijah turned slowly, a cruel smile spreading across his bloodstained face.
"Oh, what's this?" he sneered. "The protector of the innocent, throwing them like grenades now?"
Maxwell fell to his knees.
"No…"
His hands trembled. Guilt stabbed through his chest harder than Elijah's fists ever could. He hadn't seen. He hadn't known.
But ignorance didn't spare the dying.
Elijah laughed—a deep, humorless sound that echoed in the scorched streets.
"You're no better than me, Maxwell. Just another monster in tights pretending to be more."
The people moaned in the wreckage.
Maxwell's breath caught in his throat.
He had to choose: continue the fight or save what he could.
Even broken, he chose.
He ran to the crash site, ignoring Elijah's taunts, hands digging through debris with what little strength remained. Blood mixed with sweat. Screams mixed with sirens.
Behind him, Elijah stood watching.
Expression unreadable.
For the first time, doubt crept into his eyes.