Nocturnis tilted his head slightly. "…interesting." Endric appeared before him in a burst of speed, teleporting himself mid-dash with hands emitting a psychic force so powerful that space buckled around him. He thrust both palms toward Nocturnis' chest... only for Nocturnis to raise a single finger. PING. The sound was soft but the effect wasn't. Endric exploded backward, crashing through three floating structures, pulverizing them as he slammed into the transparent surface of the ritual ground and slid across it for tens of feet. His telekinetic field snapped instantly as blood splattered from his mouth. "ENDRIC!" Ria screamed while stumbling toward him. But Nocturnis didn't spare the boy another glance. He had no need to. He reached toward Gustav as shadowy claws forming at his fingertips. "No time to waste. If the Outworldly fully awakens, he will make the same decision he did last time…" The shadows coiled around his hand like hungry serpents. "…and seal me again." Ria shot forward with intensity, "STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" Sersi followed as mist phased from her skin, forming dozens of spear-like shards. Nocturnis didn't turn around. He didn't need to. He simply breathed. The exhale was enough. The ritual ground split open and the sky tore like fabric. Ria and Sersi were flung back violently with blood splattering from their lips. Still, they tried to rise again. "No…" Ria muttered while channeling his bloodline. "I'm not letting you touch him…" However, Ria suddenly vomited out another mouthful of blood, the moment he rose. He felt to his knees as his vision spun... this was when he noticed that his left arm was twisted towards the back. Just that one single casual breathe of Nocturnis had nearly ended his life... at this point, he realized that this was an enemy unlike any they had every encountered. Sersi trembled, barely conscious, but raised her ice once more. "Nocturnis…" she whispered. "You can't… not him…" But Nocturnis had already phased through the defensive runes surrounding Gustav. He raised his hand and a shadows fully extended, leaving his claws inches from Gustav's chest, ready to end the Outworldly once and for all. The instant Nocturnis swung his clawed arm toward Gustav's chest, a hand suddenly caught it. The clash echoed like a star imploding. KRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHMMMM!!! A violent shockwave erupted outward, shredding the ritual ground and blasting apart what a huge chunk of the transparent planetary surface. The shockwave didn't just crack the atmosphere, it tore localized holes in space itself. Floating rocks atomized. Mountainous segments of the terrain shattered into cosmic dust. Endric didn't even have time to scream. The force punched through his defenses, grabbing his entire body with ruthless momentum and throwing him violently backward. "AAAHHH!" He spiraled through broken chunks of the ritual platform with debris slicing his skin as he tumbled in the direction of a cliff's edge— But something brushed against him... They were two bodies. Ria and Sersi were also tumbling helplessly through the air, unconscious from earlier impacts. Endric's instincts took over. Even while spinning, even while bleeding, even while oxygen evaporated from his lungs— He reached outward with telekinesis. FWOOM! A psychic bubble enveloped the three of them, stabilizing their fall and halting their motion just before they would have been flung into the open sky. Endric gasped desperately, drawing in broken breaths. "What… happened?" Ria stirred, clutching his ribs as he regained consciousness. "I—I don't know…" he whispered while wincing from pain. Sersi arms trembled as she tried to sit upright. "What was… that?" Endric didn't answer bcause below them, the ritual ground had transformed into an apocalyptic ruin. Whitish particles spiraled upward in colossal columns. The ground was fractured in ten thousand places. Entire sections of the terrain had collapsed, leaving massive craters and melted plateaus. The surrounding area of the ritual was now split into three rough pieces. Everything was destroyed. Everything except one untouched zone. The ritual core... the exact spot where Gustav's unconscious body floated, remained pristine, like a divine oasis in an annihilated wasteland. And standing in front of it was a humanoid silhouette. As the swirling whitish particles began to settle, the figure became clearer. Endric's eyes widened until they threatened to tear. "No way…" The hand that had stopped Nocturnis' lethal strike… Was attached to another Gustav. A duplicate… but not exactly. Because this Gustav wasn't flesh at first. He flickered at the edges like fragments of condensed cosmic energy, transparent in some areas and solidifying in others. Strands of glowing matter twisted around his limbs, repairing themselves, transforming his projection into flesh and bone. His hair which glowed faint blue-white at the tips, swayed slightly from the leftover shockwave. His eyes were white and bright, emitting unprecedented power and cosmic authority. This was just so happened to be a clone from Gustav's original form which was still undergoing the trial. It seemed as though Gustav was conscious of everything happening around him even though he was currently unconscious, so he had created this form at the last minute to protect his original body. And this form just so happened to have the Outworldly power he had accumulated so far since the ritual began. Nocturnis hovered several meters away, staring at the projection with a mixture of shock and anger. "What trick… is this?" the deity of shadows growled. The newly materialized Gustav tilted his head slightly, cracking his knuckles. "Hello, Nocturnis." His tone was cold, emotionless and challenging. He took one step forward and space trembled beneath his feet. "I may not have regained my full Outworldly power yet…" His eyes flared brighter. "…but fifty percent is enough to destroy you." Nocturnis snarled causing shadows to twist around him. "You arrogant—" He didn't get to finish, because the moment Gustav moved... BOOOOOM!!! A loud blast rang out as his fist blurred from existence and reappeared inches from Nocturnis' abdominal region. Nocturnis tried to block but wasn't quick enough. CRRRRRRRAAAAAAAKKKKKK!!! The punch landed with a volcanic detonation. The deity of shadows was blasted backward at incomprehensible velocity. His body sliced through the clouds, through atmospheric layers, through thunderstorms, and out into space in half a second, leaving a violently ruptured corridor of vacuum pressure behind him. The shockwave curved the stratosphere like a bending glass dome. Endric's bubble rattled violently while Ria clutched his head. Sersi gasped as her ears rang from the cosmic backlash. "Oh my god…" Ria whispered. "He… he sent Nocturnis flying." Endric swallowed. "That wasn't even full force…" Down below, the cloned Gustav breathed out slowly as his body stabilized fully into physical form. He turned toward the unconscious Gustav still suspended in ritual light. He raised both arms and spread his fingers and a perfectly spherical barrier formed around the body, layered in multiple strata of cosmic energy. Each layer rotated in a different direction, creating a gyroscopic shield stronger than anything this universe had seen in millennia. Energy rippled through it. Symbols older than time appeared along its surface. The barrier linked to Gustav's soul, protecting it from all harm. "Recover at your pace," the clone whispered. "I'll hold him back." Then he looked up at the sky. His eyes sharpened. His muscles tensed. His aura swept out as he bent his knees— —and leapt. The leap shattered gravity. Within an instant, he was outside the planet's atmospheric sphere, already closing in on Nocturnis' trajectory. Nocturnis had regained his balance amidst the void, halting his backward flight by anchoring himself against the cosmic fabric. The deity of shadows snarled as his face twisted. "You dare, Outworldly!? Incomplete or not, you—" Gustav's clone appeared in front of him without warning. "Be quiet." He launched another punch. Nocturnis blocked with both arms this time. The collision unleashed a second shockwave far stronger than the first. KAAAAA-THOOOOOOMMM!!!! Galaxies millions of kilometers away noticed the disturbance. Tidal energies tore apart nearby asteroids. Two distant stars flickered. The entire universe seemed to hold its breath. Nocturnis skidded backward again but this time, he steadied mid-air, halting himself by digging shadowed claws into the vacuum, solidifying darkness into a foothold. He bared his teeth. "So you manifest a projection to protect your dormant body… clever…" His eyes narrowed. "But you cannot maintain that form forever." Gustav rotated his wrist. "You won't last long enough for that to matter." Nocturnis' shadow exploded outward, forming thousands of tendrils that lashed toward Gustav. Each tendril carried enough force to pulverize moons. Gustav flicked his fingers and the tendrils snapped like strings. Nocturnis soared forward and Gustav countered. Their fists collided, their auras collided, their wills collided— Each clash ruptured space. Each exchange formed nebula-like blossoms of energy. Endric, from the distant ritual surface, watched with awe and terror. "This isn't a battle," he whispered. "It's… it's like the universe itself is trying to hold together…" Ria's face tightened. "Nocturnis said he was trapped for over a hundred thousand years…" Sersi hugged her knees inside the bubble. "And Gustav… that's only fifty percent? That's not even his full power." A moment of silence passed. A silence filled with dread. "If those two go all out," Endric murmured, "this entire region of space might… collapse."