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Moon Light shot upward, boots tearing off the ground as cosmic energy erupted from his palms, blasting heat and pressure through the smoke.
Tempestia thrust out her hand and clenched her fist.
Water ripped from the air around Megalodon's head, spinning violently as it compressed into a dense sphere. Pressure screamed as it tightened.
"Drown, you ugly bastard!" she shouted. "Go now, Moon Light!"
Moon Light froze time.
The battlefield locked into stillness. Smoke hung unmoving. Debris stopped mid-fall.
He moved.
Faster than light.
He struck from every angle— fists, elbows, knees— each hit detonating with compressed force.
BAM.
PAW.
CRACK.
SHOCKWAVE.
Then his face changed.
Horror washed over him.
Megalodon's head turned.
Slowly.
Inside the frozen world.
His hand snapped out and caught Moon Light's fist mid-strike.
"You think stopping time is enough to bind me?" Megalodon said calmly. "I exist above such limits."
He grabbed Moon Light's neck with one hand.
The other three arms moved.
CRACK.
CRUNCH.
THUD.
Fists slammed into Moon Light's ribs, spine, and jaw. Bones fractured. Blood sprayed into the frozen air in thick arcs.
Moon Light snarled and forced power forward. Portals snapped open around Megalodon's head. A concentrated energy beam fired through them, striking from multiple angles at once.
Megalodon punched him mid-blast.
Moon Light screamed as Megalodon twisted both his arms backward until joints popped and ligaments tore.
"Moon Light… was it?" Megalodon lifted him by the mouth, fingers crushing his jaw. "For a human, you are intriguing."
His six eyes burned bright as he leaned close and whispered something into his ear.
"You might be useful."
Then he hurled him.
Moon Light tore through several already-destroyed buildings like a skipping stone, concrete exploding outward with each impact before he vanished into the ruins.
Time resumed.
Tempestia's eyes burned.
She spread her arms wide as energy surged through her body. Her voice rose, layered and heavy, vibrating through the air.
"Lux et umbra, una in uno,
Ferus daemonium, obdormiscas!
In lapidem vinculum, obrutus!"
Golden runes ignited around her, spinning and expanding. They wove together like massive chains, snapping and locking as they formed.
Her thoughts tightened.
You will pay for hurting him.
Megalodon roared.
"DIVINE SEALING?!" His aura erupted, black and red energy flooding outward. "Impossible! How does a mere fallen know THAT spell?!"
He lunged forward.
The first wave of chains wrapped around his arms, legs, and torso.
He shattered them.
More replaced them instantly.
"Demonic nullification!" he bellowed.
Black energy exploded outward, tearing chains apart— yet hundreds more snapped into place, tightening, locking joints, forcing his body downward.
Light detonated across the battlefield. Runes spun faster, dragging him down as his limbs trembled and began to stiffen.
"I will be back!" he roared. "I will hunt the people you love and care about, and I will kill them all in front of you!"
His body flared violently.
"And I will curse you with everything I have!"
Two arms fired red-black cursed energy toward Tempestia.
Two fired toward Moon Light's last position.
Tempestia's eyes widened.
"Shit— SHIT— SHIT!" she screamed. "Move, Mooooon Liiiight!"
She threw up dozens of shields in rapid succession.
They shattered one by one.
Moon Light barely stayed protected behind the last layers.
But Megalodon had aimed elsewhere.
The second blast curved sharply mid-air.
It tore straight toward her.
The beam punched through her weakened defenses and slammed into her chest and stomach.
Tempestia screamed as she was thrown backward, skidding across broken ground. She hit hard, coughing blood as glowing curse sigils burned into her skin, twisting and crawling like living brands.
She gasped, clutching her torso.
"W-what… the hell did y-you do to m-me, demon?" she choked.
Megalodon's body continued to harden, stone crawling up his limbs.
His laughter rumbled low.
"I have cursed you," he said. "If you try to use your powers again, your bones will break. This curse cannot be undone in your current state. Only I can lift it."
He flicked his fingers.
Moon Light vanished.
Gone he got teleported out of sight.
Tempestia dragged herself forward, fingers scraping through dirt as blood ran from her forehead into her eye.
"What did you do to Moon…" she coughed hard. "Light… you bastard…"
Megalodon chuckled one last time.
Then the spell completed.
His body fully petrified.
The stone statue of Megalodon slammed into the street like a meteor.
KRAAAAAASH.
The road cracked outward in every direction.
Silence followed.
Tempestia crawled another step—then screamed.
"MEGALODON—!"
Her strength gave out.
She collapsed face-first into the rubble.
The battle was over.
Smoke drifted low across the ruined streets. Buildings lay folded inward, floors pancaked on themselves. Cars burned where they had been thrown, engines still ticking and popping. Bodies littered the area—crushed under debris, torn apart, burned beyond recognition. Civilians. Some are still half-buried. Some are completely gone.
This was the Leviathan's work.
A figure descended from above and landed near Tempestia's last position, boots touching cracked asphalt. His fist clenched tight as he took in the destruction.
Seconds later, the first army trucks rolled in.
Brakes screamed. Doors slammed open.
"Weapons up! Spread out!" someone shouted.
Soldiers poured into the streets, rifles raised, scanning rooftops and rubble. More trucks followed, then armored carriers. Behind them— heroes. All of them staring.
Search teams moved immediately, climbing over debris, lifting slabs, calling out names.
"Tempestia!"
"Moon Light!"
"Respond if you can hear us!"
A senior army officer stepped forward, eyes sweeping the battlefield.
"What the hell happened here?" he asked sharply.
No one answered right away.
They found collapsed towers. Dead civilians. Melted steel. Craters punched deep into the street.
But no sign of Tempestia.
No sign of Moon Light.
A hero jogged back from the search line, helmet under his arm, face pale.
"Sir… we can't find Tempestia or Moon Light." He hesitated. "Did they… did they lose?"
Silence followed.
The search continued. Minutes turned into longer stretches of time. More blood was found—smeared across rubble, pooled near impact zones—but no bodies belonging to either of them.
Another hero knelt near a shattered wall, touching dried blood on the concrete.
"There's blood everywhere," he said quietly. "But they're both ranked two and three. That doesn't make sense. How do two of our strongest just disappear?"
A soldier called out from farther down the street.
"Over here! Everyone— look at this!"
Several people rushed over.
At the center of the devastation stood something untouched.
A statue.
An army man stepped closer instinctively, reaching out.
A hero grabbed his arm hard.
"Don't touch it," he said, voice shaking. "Don't touch stuff without knowing what it is. That doesn't look like a damn regular stone."
He swallowed.
"That has to be Tempestia's work. It has to be one of the demons they fought."
Another hero shouted from the opposite side of the block.
"We found something else! There's a dead demon— trapped in a sphere of water!"
Weapons snapped up immediately. Soldiers formed a perimeter without being told.
At the center of the ruins stood the stone statue of Megalodon.
Unmoving. Untouched. Perfectly intact.
Guards were posted instantly. Heavy weapons repositioned. No one was allowed within reach.
The commanding officer stepped forward slowly, stopping several meters away.
"Secure the perimeter," he ordered. "I want eyes on this thing at all times. I don't want no one and I mean no one touching this thing. No one damages it in any way. We don't want to risk waking it up."
He stared up at the statue.
"…Damn it," he muttered. "Tempestia. Where did you go?"
No answer came.
The statue stood silent.
A warning carved in stone.
Never break it. Never wake what sleeps inside.
In the days that followed, the names Tempestia and Moon Light spread across the city.
Across schools. Across hero academies. Across every channel that covered the aftermath.
They were listed as missing.
Presumed dead.
Heroes lost in the greatest battle Ember had ever seen.
A story of sacrifice.
A reminder— Saving the world always comes with a cost.
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