Zane’s breathing was getting heavy. He'd been sliced up so badly it seemed a miracle he was still upright—a constellation of gory X’s ripping down his body.

  “He’s got to be under half health,” said Jake.

  “He’s got to turn it around. Now!” growled Mox. “Before she—”

  A dark pulse roiled the room.

  Mariel’s hollow eyes went bloody and started to bleed.

  Mox swore.

  Stone started flaking off Mariel’s skin, revealing black flesh veined with red. The wings shed all their feathers, revealing necrotic veined demon flesh—and its cry, which had been beautiful and terrible, was now just a devil’s howl.

  The Distortion Field flickered.

  That void wind exploded into a hurricane.

  The blast nearly wrecked Zane’s domain then and there—crushed it to a little island of light, nearly snuffed it out entirely.

  The Void Wind raged over the planet’s surface, dimming every last light and snuffing out all signs of life—whitening trees and grasses…

  Zane’s face took up all the screens. They saw him take one look at that monstrosity—saw him set his jaw; saw him refuse to be cowed.

  Zane charged. Leaped. Cranked his hammers back, readying a crushing blow—

  The archangel shrieked.

  Its wings bulged suddenly and rippled with demon fire.

  “No!” roared Jake.

  Then it moved at the speed of dark. So fast all they saw were the afterimages.

  It landed with a sickening CRUNCH.

  It crushed Zane into the ground with such tremendous force it nearly sunk the continent into the mantle.

  Over the sound of the world shattering, they heard Zane’s body shatter.

  And then… silence.

  ***

  Smoke drifted over the ruins.

  And there Zane’s body could be faintly seen—a shadow flattened against the ground, a vague broken shape through all that smoke…

  By now his blood had stained the whole temple red. It was potent stuff—still hot with life, stark against the marble.

  It made all the more vivid just how much damage he’d taken.

  Above, billions of folks—billions across the galaxy—watched on in hope, hoping Zane would have more to give.

  But it was growing brutally clear that even Zane ran out eventually.

  The body in the smoke didn’t move.

  Some were far above; Reina’s breath caught. Evan buried his face in Chomper’s side.

  “Come on, ya big lunk!” cried Avery.

  Princess Dya let out a shrill laugh.

  ***

  The archangel Mariel had shown a blank face or a sorrowful one—nearly pious.

  The demon-formed Mariel’s expression was split in an ear-to-ear grin, baring inhumanly sharp teeth.

  She floated over serene, claws unsheathing, ready to finish the job.

  And then…

  “Hold on,” whispered Jake. He squinted. “What’s that light?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The smoke wasn’t black anymore.

  It was lit from deep within—blood red.

  That light churned faster and faster.

  THUMP… THUMP… THUMP.

  They knew that sound.

  It was the beating of Zane’s heart.

  A heartbeat stronger than ever. Zane’s determination—his will—made manifest.

  A pause.

  Then the vague outlines of chains broke through the smoke. Ghostly chains, all over that fallen body.

  Then a shattering sound as they broke, all at once.

  An aura tore out with such force it blasted the roof off the temple; sent columns tumbling; an earthquake had gripped the final Chamber.

  That aura rose like a great pyre over the land—a pyre of blood and gold, towering—filled with the raw emotion, the raw fury, of one man.

  That golden domain—crushed to near nothing—reigned triumphant. It blew out to the far horizons. The very air trembled in its presence, charged with a ferocious energy.

  Bloody gold lit the world.

  It charged that Void Wind Field head-on.

  That golden domain charged a True God’s Reality Distortion Field—and broke its iron grip over the planet.

  Jake could hardly speak. “What am I seeing?!”

  The golden field blew so wide it ran up against Ragnos’s limits; it was like watching sunrise over the edge of the planet. A declaration felt even in space.

  Mariel shrieked—but not even that True God Field could suppress it.

  “That domain…” said Mox. “It feels like Minor God.”

  The smoke cleared.

  And there stood Zane.

  Fists clenched; a great flame roared through his being, an aura torching deep into the skies. Bloody-red flickered through bright gold, and his eyes blazed with that same light.

  Mariel’s demon wings flared in full defiance. Eager to crush him one final time.

  Zane took out his hammers. He took a single step.

  The marble shuddered beneath his feet.

  He stepped again, and the tremors nearly toppled a column—and then the world began to bend. Gravity welled around each step.

  Another step, another; each step sent fissures rippling down the length of the planet; he was breaking into a charge, a charge whose every step landed with the force of a natural disaster.

  Mariel’s eyes widened.

  Those wings came together, folding over each other, veins bulging. Hardened blood crusted over their surfaces, making a demented shield.

  Then he struck.

  His hammers fell.

  The explosion blew out so far they strained the invisible shields in the stratosphere—for a moment all anyone could see was the color of Zane’s emotion.

  This time Mariel’s screech was all pain and fury. She spiraled, struggling to stay upright; a great hole had been blown clean through one wing. She clawed out a hand.

  Blood-spears rained over Zane’s head. Two slammed him hard—crushed him into the ground. Each was enough to obliterate a half-step True God.

  But they couldn’t even keep Zane down.

  He stumbled up. Wiped the blood from his mouth.

  Then he charged.

  Weaving between pillar-like blood-spears—each step building, and building, until there was so much power built up—raw power, essence power—power in every form he could muster—that just to hold it, even in a body like Zane’s, was excruciating.

  It was that power that he unleashed.

  A second world-shaking explosion lit up Ragnos Penultimate.

  And like that—Zane pounded the archangel out of the sky.

  The Monster skidded across the temple, shattered in every way that mattered.

  It came to rest against a great column.

  Black blood poured out of its open mouth. Its eyes were dimmed, its chest caved in…

  Its Distortion Field flickered.

  Zane landed in a crouch.

  He took a deep breath, chest heaving—and stumbled, coughing black blood.

  And only then could they all see the incredible toll that effort had taken.

  But still, he stayed standing.

  The job wasn’t done.

  Neither Jake nor Mox said a word. They couldn’t.

  They watched in silence as he crossed the distance, step after step echoing down the face of the planet until he stood at last before his fallen foe and raised his hammer.

  Zane crushed.

  ***

  The 4th Planet of Ragnos has been cleared!

  The notification floated over the planet.

  Then the crowd exploded.

  ***

  “Folks…” Jake’s voice came through hoarse. “What we just saw—I’ll say it right now—has never been done in the history of man. Will never be done again.”

  He drew a rattled breath; he could hardly be heard over the crowd.

  “The kinds of power Zane just summoned… I couldn’t explain them to you. You can’t teach that. But that’s not what will make what we just saw echo through eternity. The greatest power he showed—the power that made all that possible—was what he found within as he lay crushed at the bottom of that crater, broken utterly—with an impossible enemy looming overhead, about to strike the final blow… The heart it takes, in that moment, to get back up…”

  Jake shook his head.

  “If you ever wanted a demonstration of the resilience of the human spirit—you can’t do better than that!”

  Folks on the lower stands were trying to mob the planet, but the guards wouldn’t let them through.

  Just one person broke through. They couldn’t stop her if they tried.

  ***

  Skill up! Overlord Annihilation Charge I -> II

  Skill up! Solar Flare Smash IV -> V

  Skill up! Solar Flare Slash II -> III

  Zane stood there, breathing heavily.

  Then he stumbled—nearly blacked out then and there.

  He felt a hand on his chest. He felt a rush of tingling warmth—felt his head clear, just a little. He blinked.

  It was Reina, looking all determined.

  She gave a little wheeze getting him back upright. But she managed it.

  “Zane…” She looked up at him like she hardly knew what to think. Then he coughed some more blood.

  She helped settle him against a pillar. She was all focused again, brow furrowed. She put a hand against his chest, pouring healing in.

  He relaxed, catching his breath—just letting her work on him.

  He let himself smile, just a little.

  That went pretty well, he thought.

  ***

  Princess Dya looked about to faint.

  The Barbarian Sage let out a “LET’S GOOOOO!” before tackling Fluffy in a hug.

  ***

  It was bedlam in the stadium. It was that way in most campfires and hearths across the galaxy. But in a few, there was only awed silence.