The wasteland was in ruins. Mountains had crumbled. The sky was a swirling vortex of lightning and blades. Toxic winds screamed across the battlefield, carrying the scent of ozone and blood.
Momoi lay sprawled across shattered stone; her pink hair matted with dust and crimson. Her regeneration was slowing; Paulo's Death Slice had cut deeper than she expected. Tetsuya stood over her, his Lightning Armor flickering, his breath ragged.
Across the battlefield, Paulo hovered midair, horn gleaming, black wing spread wide, his Cosmic Eye glowing like a dying star.
Then, Tetsuya struck. He blurred forward, unleashing a full-force Lightning Slash Barrage, each arc of energy slicing through the air with thunderous fury.
Paulo raised his wing to block, but the final strike broke through, cleaving across his chest.
Blood sprayed. Paulo dropped to the ground, his hoodie torn, his body twitching. Momoi gasped. "Did we…?" Tetsuya narrowed his eyes. "No. Not yet."
Then it happened. Paulo's body began to glow, green and black energy swirling around him like a cocoon. His wounds closed instantly.
His torn flesh reknit. His broken bones snapped back into place. Even the gash across his chest vanished without a scar.
He stood. Smiling. "Ultra Regeneration," Paulo said, voice echoing with power. "You cannot kill me. Not with swords. Not with lightning. Not even with time." Momoi staggered to her feet. "That's impossible…"
Paulo's Cosmic Eye flared. "I am beyond limiting now. I have copied everything. Perfected everything. And now, I evolve."
He raised his hand. A storm of copied attacks erupted around him, Sword Barrage, Lightning Bullets, Cosmic Slash, all fused into a chaotic spiral of destruction.
Tetsuya roared, charging with his Lightning Punch Barrage, but Paulo caught his fist mid-air and twisted, snapping Tetsuya's arm with a sickening crack. Momoi screamed, summoning every blade she had left. "You won't take him!"
Paulo turned, his wing shielding him from the blades. "I already have." He launched forward, faster than light, slamming into both siblings with a shockwave that shattered the earth beneath them.
Dust rose. Silence. Then, Momoi coughed, blood dripping from her lips. Tetsuya groaned, his body sparking weakly. Paulo stood above them, untouched, immortal, unstoppable.
"You fought well," he said. "But this wasteland belongs to me now."
Momoi and Tetsuya lay battered among the ruins, their bodies barely holding together through regeneration.
***
The sky above was cracked, bleeding green lightning. The air was thick with ash and regret. But far beyond the mountains, Paulo stood alone.
His black wing folded behind him. His horn pulsed with cosmic energy. And his Cosmic Eye… wept. A memory surged through him, unbidden, unstoppable. Alexis. Her laughter. Her loyalty. Her final scream.
He saw it all again, her body falling, her soul torn apart by blades and lightning. The betrayal. The agony.
The silence that followed. And he remembered. It was them. Momoi's blades. Tetsuya's lightning. The Ghostface Group's cold judgment.
His fists clenched. His Ultra Regeneration flared, healing even the emotional scars. His wing spread wide.
His horn glowed brighter. "I tried to let it go," Paulo whispered. "I tried to be better." The ground beneath him cracked. "But you took him from me." He vanished.
In a flash of cosmic fury, Paulo reappeared in the centre of the wasteland, his aura exploding outward like a supernova.
Momoi gasped. "No… he's back." Tetsuya staggered to his feet. "Impossible. We broke him." Paulo's voice echoed like thunder. "You broke Alexis. And now I will break you." He raised both hands. Lightning Bullets Barrage. Sword Barrage. Cosmic Slash. Death Slice. All at once. The sky turned black.
Momoi screamed, summoning every blade she had. Tetsuya unleashed a full-force Lightning Storm, bending space itself. But Paulo was beyond mortal now.
His Cosmic Eye burned with vengeance. His Ultra Regeneration made him untouchable. And his heart, once human, was now a storm. "For Alexis," he roared.
Paulo hovered above the battlefield, his horn glowing, his black wing stretched wide, his Cosmic Eye burning with vengeance.
His Ultra Regeneration had made him untouchable. His Tengu blood had made him divine.
But below him… something stirred. Momoi Saito rose slowly from the rubble, her pink hair glowing with ethereal light.
Her Ghostface badge pulsed like a heartbeat. Her wounds vanished, not from regeneration, but from something deeper.
Her soul had awakened. Tetsuya, barely conscious, looked up and whispered, "She's… ascending." Momoi's eyes turned pure pink, glowing like twin stars.
Her hoodie flared with energy, the pink stripes now radiant. Her blades hovered around her like a halo, thousands of them, each vibrating with lethal intent.
She spoke, voice calm, divine, terrifying. "I killed Alexis, but you broke my brother. You tried to break me." She raised her hand. Sword Storm. Not a barrage. Not a summon. A storm.
Portals opened across the sky, across dimensions, across reality itself. Blades poured out like rain, twisting, spiralling, singing with fury.
Paulo's Cosmic Eye flared. He summoned his own barrage, his own lightning, his own copied fury.
But Momoi was no longer fighting with technique. She was fighting with wrath. She blurred forward, faster than lightning, her blades forming wings behind her.
She clashed with Paulo midair, her swords slicing through his lightning, her aura burning through his Armor.
Paulo roared, unleashing Death Slice again, but Momoi caught it with a blade forged from her soul, shattering the dimensional arc.
"You're not the only one who evolves," she whispered. Paulo's horn cracked. His wing faltered. His Ultra Regeneration struggled to keep up. Momoi summoned her final move. Celestial Blade fall.
***
The sky turned pink. And then, it fell. A thousand divine swords descended from the heavens; each one aimed at Paulo's soul. He screamed. The wasteland exploded.
And when the dust cleared, Paulo lay broken, his Cosmic Eye flickering, his wing torn, his horn shattered.
Momoi hovered above him, glowing, divine, unstoppable. "You wanted vengeance," she said. "Now you face judgment."
Momoi hovered above the battlefield, radiant and victorious. Her blades shimmered like stars, her pink eyes glowing with divine light. Paulo lay broken below, his horn cracked, his wing torn, his Cosmic Eye flickering weakly.
Tetsuya limped toward her, lightning sparking from his fingertips. "You did it," he whispered. "You beat him." Momoi smiled faintly, her voice soft. "It's over."
But Paulo's eye snapped open. And the world stopped. His body convulsed, trembling with rage and grief.
The Cosmic Eye flared, brighter than ever before. His broken wing reformed in a burst of shadow. His cracked horn pulsed with raw energy.
He rose. "I told you," Paulo said, voice layered with fury and sorrow. "You took Alexis from me. You do not get to walk away." Momoi's eyes widened. "No…"
Paulo raised his hand. A new move. A forbidden move. Cosmic Death Slice. The air shattered. A rift tore through space itself, an arc of pure cosmic destruction, laced with lightning, blades, and vengeance. It was not aimed at her body. It was aimed at her existence.
Momoi tried to summon her blades. Too slow. The slice hit. A flash of light. A scream. And then, silence. Momoi's body split cleanly in half, suspended midair, her pink eyes wide with shock. Her blades scattered like falling stars. Her aura flickered, then vanished.
She fell. Tetsuya screamed. "No, MOMOI!" He ran to her, catching her broken form in his arms, tears streaming down his face. Her blood stained the earth. Her Ghostface badge clinked softly against the stone.
Paulo stood above them, his Cosmic Eye dimming, his voice hollow. "She's gone." Tetsuya trembled, lightning surging uncontrollably around him. "You… you monster…"
Paulo turned away, his wing folding, his horn fading. "She was a warrior. But she was not innocent."
***
The wasteland was soaked in silence, broken only by the crackle of fading energy and the soft whisper of toxic winds. Momoi's broken body lay cradled in Tetsuya's arms, her pink hair stained with blood, her Ghostface badge shattered.
Tetsuya's heart was a storm. His breath trembled. His fists clenched. His lightning flickered erratically around him, unable to contain the fury building inside.
Paulo stood across the battlefield, his Cosmic Eye dimming after the Cosmic Death Slice, his black wing folded, his horn pulsing with residual power. He watched Tetsuya with cold detachment.
"She deserved it," Paulo said. "You both did." Tetsuya lowered Momoi gently to the ground, his blue eyes glowing brighter than ever before. "You killed my sister."
Paulo then scoffed as he said, "She killed Alexis. She killed my world." Lightning surged around him, wild, unstable, divine.
Then the sky cracked. Tetsuya screamed. His aura exploded outward in a dome of pure electric fury. The ground beneath him shattered. Mountains in the distance split. The toxic clouds above were vaporized in a flash of blue light.
His hoodie burned away, revealing a glowing core of lightning beneath his skin. His hair sparked with energy.
His eyes turned white-hot. Full Strength: Lightning Ascension.
Paulo's Cosmic Eye widened. "Impossible…" Tetsuya vanished. In a blink, he reappeared behind Paulo, his fist already mid-swing.
Lightning Punch: Ascended Form.
The impact sent Paulo flying through three mountains, his wing torn, his horn cracked again.
He regenerated instantly but slower than before.
Tetsuya did not wait. He summoned his Lightning Sword, now twice its original size, and launched a Lightning Slash Barrage that tore through space itself.
Paulo dodged, barely, unleashing a Cosmic Slash in retaliation, but Tetsuya caught it with his bare hand, absorbing the energy and converting it into a Lightning Bullet Barrage that rained down like meteors.
"You're not the only one who evolves," Tetsuya roared. "You copied our moves. I became mine." Paulo snarled, his Cosmic Eye flaring. "You think you're stronger than me?"
"I don't think," Tetsuya said, stepping forward, lightning dancing around him like a crown. "I know." The two clashed midair, lightning against cosmos, vengeance against vengeance.
And the wasteland trembled beneath the fury of gods.