Chương 45: Episode 42: A Strike for Power

I slowly scanned the battlefield, my head spinning from everything Dark Don had hit me with. This wasn't the Castle of Celestia. We were in the Room of Zeniths. The tower beside us stretched high above the city, and everything around me seemed to sway in and out of focus. I couldn't tell if it was the tower moving or just my vision giving up. I was exhausted. Blood covered my suit. My body ached from head to toe. I'd been knocked completely out of KX form.

I lay on my back and stared up at the Celestial Pillars surrounding the room. The Power Gems were scattered across the floor between them. Despite all the damage, the room still looked incredible. Golden light flowed through cracks in the walls and pillars, illuminating chunks of broken architecture that had collapsed during the battle.

"This… isn't the Castle of Celestia," I muttered. I forced myself to take a breath.

"This is the Room of Zeniths…" Dark Don stepped toward me. White and silver lunar flames twisted around his body as he looked down at me.

"I know," he said.

"This tower is connected directly to the Castle of Celestia. It draws energy from the castle and channels it into the sky." I tried to sit up. I barely moved before his rocket boot slammed into my chest. THUD. The impact drove me back into the floor. I coughed and winced as heat rolled off his armor.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Was that the point of all those fake Lunaranites? The birds too? I can still hear them." Dark Don chuckled.

"Why kill you…" he said. He tilted his head.

"…when I can kill the world?" For a moment, I thought I'd heard him wrong.

"What?" He stepped away from me.

"I won't need this place anymore." I stared at him.

"Destroy the world? Are you insane?" Dark Don slowly turned around. His expression never changed.

"I am insane." Lunar energy exploded around him. The room shook.

"First target… the moon. Next target…" His fists clenched. Lunar energy erupted around him in violent spirals, cracking the air itself. The entire room felt like it leaned closer to him.

"First target… the moon. Next target… Avanga—" He never finished. A blur shot through the air. BOOM. Jaylen crashed into Dark Don and launched both of them into the sky. Their collision shook the tower as they tore through the air, trading blows so fast I could barely follow them. Every impact echoed through the room. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The battle moved above the broken ceiling. A shattered window burst apart as Keyler dropped into the room.

Spider threads shot from his hands and anchored themselves across the damaged walls and pillars. A portal opened beside me. The rest of the team rushed through. Archie was the first to reach me. He slid to my side and pulled me upright. Every muscle in my body protested. I looked up. The sky above the tower had become a war zone. Coltz streaked through the air in flashes of green lightning. Guervens cut through the smoke. Prince Lock joined the fight moments later.

One by one, they threw themselves into the battle against Dark Don. Olsen limped over to me. He still looked rough from the earlier fights, but he managed a small smirk.

"You okay?" I nodded weakly.

"Barely." His gaze drifted toward the Power Gems resting between the Celestial Pillars. For a moment, he just stared at them. Something crossed his mind. I could see it on his face. Before I could ask what he was thinking, a sharp pain hit my chest. I froze. Then my legs gave out. Prince caught me before I hit the floor.

"Yo! What happened?" he asked.

"Did Dark Don really mess you up that bad?" I nodded.

"Yeah." My voice barely came out.

"He did worse than that." My knees hit the floor. A second later, I collapsed completely. As I turned my head toward the Power Gems, something flashed through my mind. Memories. Fragments at first. Then all at once. The battles. My friends. The reason I started this journey. Everything came rushing back. For a moment, I felt whole again. Then reality caught up. My body was still wrecked. I couldn't even stand. A shadow stepped behind the group. Power. Blood covered his suit. He walked over and knelt beside me.

The moment he saw the condition I was in, his expression dropped.

"Lonnie. Heal him." Lonnie Mae rushed forward. Vines wrapped gently around my neck as a green aura spread through them. The pain eased slightly. Not enough. Just enough to keep me conscious. Power rested his forehead against mine.

"Don," he said quietly.

"Can you still use KX?" I looked away.

"No." The answer came out broken. Kai hopped onto my head and immediately started licking my face. Then my arms. Then my chest. The little guy was panicking. He nudged me repeatedly, trying to get me back on my feet. I couldn't do it. I was done. Angel stormed over. Portals spun behind him.

"Don!" he shouted.

"Look at what's happening out there!" Ten portals opened behind him. I looked through them. The world was falling apart. Alien birds filled the skies. Fake Lunaranites covered entire regions. Monsters tore through cities. Scarletsville was under attack. Iris Town was burning. Musicia was gone. The Land of Hearts was gone. Mechamio was in chaos. The Rufty Mountains looked even worse. Earthnites hid inside caves while monsters destroyed everything above them. I stared at the destruction.

Then I slammed both fists into the floor.

"What are we even fighting for?" The room went quiet. I punched the wall. Stone cracked.

"No fucking point." Nobody answered.

"We fought for this? We bled for this? Just so Dark Don could tear everything apart?" I looked toward the Power Gems.

"What am I even supposed to do now?" Kai flinched. Starla picked him up and held him close. I slowly pushed myself to my feet. Celestial energy crackled across my skin. I could still feel it. But it felt heavier than ever.

"Don't tell me we came this far just to stand here and watch." I shook my head.

"This isn't destiny." I looked around the ruined room.

"This is nothing." I stomped the ground. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. The floor trembled. Dust drifted from the ceiling.

"I'm done." The words surprised even me. Not because I meant to quit. Because I genuinely didn't know what else to do.

"This feels impossible." Power grabbed my shoulder.

"Don, wait." I didn't answer.

"We can still beat him," he said.

"We've done this before." I turned toward him.

"When I say I'm done…" I paused.

"…I'm done." Power tightened his grip. Then he smiled slightly.

"There's no E in Don." My breath caught. Then he looked me straight in the eye.

"Remember what you said in Scarletsville?" The memory came back immediately.

"We're the Five Chosen Ones," I had said.

"That means we do whatever it takes. If we die, we die. But we're not backing down." The memory faded. I was back in the tower. Back in the present.

"How are we supposed to win?" I asked quietly. Power smiled.

"It isn't about winning." I frowned.

"It's about saving people." He gestured toward the portals.

"As long as everyone makes it out alive, we've done our job." Then he started listing everything happening across Avangard. Monsters. Alien birds. Fake Lunaranites. More monsters. William raised an eyebrow.

"Did you forget fake Lunaranites?" Power laughed.

"Oh yeah. Fake Lunaranites too." A few people chuckled. For the first time in what felt like forever, the room felt a little lighter. Then Power looked back at me.

"You're our last hope, Don." The room fell silent again. I looked down. Kai had curled up against my leg. Slowly, I reached for my daggers. A small smile appeared on my face.

"You're right." I stood up straighter.

"Let's save the world." Olsen pointed toward the Power Gems.

"You know what to do." I immediately pointed at myself.

"Wait. Me?" Everyone nodded. I looked at the Gems. Then back at them.

"Isn't there at least a small chance this destroys my body?"

"Olsen's right," Prince said. Archie grinned.

"You're gonna be the next Celestianite King someday. Might as well start acting like it."

"It's either that or we lose," Demaurion added. One by one, everyone gave their support. Even Sophia. That one caught me off guard. Then Angel bowed. Power followed. A second later, everyone else did too. I stared at them. For a moment, I didn't know what to say. Maybe they really believed in me. Maybe I had to believe in myself too. I looked down at my hands. Celestial energy crackled around my fingers. I thought about every battle. Every friend. Everything we'd survived together.

Then I turned toward the center of the Celestial Pillars.

"Thanks." I smiled.

"Let's get this show on the road." I stepped forward. My wings spread behind me. Wind swept through the room. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then I remembered the instruction from the old textbook. There was only one rule. Scream. So that's what I planned to do. I inhaled, light purple energy glowing from my eyes. The building started to rumble. Wind howled. The sky twisted. I felt it. My tail swayed violently, caught in the storm I was creating. The atmosphere didn't just change—it fractured.

Space around me started to shiver like it couldn't hold its shape anymore. Reality itself groaned under pressure, bending inward toward my body like gravity had a new owner. Celestial energy leaked out of me in violent pulses—violet flames snapping into existence across my skin, flickering, unstable, alive. Not aura anymore. Something worse. Something aware. Every breath I took stacked light on top of light, pressure on top of pressure, until my lungs felt like they were filling with a collapsing star.

Then it snapped.

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!" The scream didn't echo. It erased air. Sound ripped outward in a circular detonation, shredding wind and silence at the same time. My chest heaved as I dragged in another breath—"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" And the world answered like it had been waiting for permission. A hurricane detonated outward from my core. Everything in range got folded into spirals of destruction.

The entire structure around me convulsed, golden pillars screaming as they tore free from the ground like weightless monuments pulled by an invisible god. Stone shattered mid-air. Ornamented ruins lifted, rotated, and dissolved into the storm like they had never been anchored to reality at all. Even the sky started to break formation—clouds twisting inward in spirals that shouldn't exist in nature. Then the Power Gems moved. One. Two. All of them.

They lifted slowly at first, then violently, snapping into orbit around me like they recognized a central law. Their glow stopped being color and started becoming command. And then they fired. Beams of raw spectrum light drilled into my chest—blue, red, white, orange, pink, black, green, cyan, silver—each one hitting like a different version of the universe trying to overwrite me at the same time. My scream turned into something else entirely. Pressure. A distortion event. The battlefield froze. Not paused.

Stunned. Even the air stopped moving like it was afraid to breathe wrong. Dark Don hung mid-motion in the distance, caught in the middle of a strike. His body locked up, muscles rigid as the storm around him stalled. Slowly, his head turned. One eye locked onto me. For the first time— his expression shifted. Not fear. Recognition of escalation. My eyes ignited. Violet didn't describe it anymore. There was no "shade" left to compare it to.

It was deeper—like starlight condensed into something dense enough to bend meaning. The glow didn't surround me. It replaced me. Light across Celestia began to dim as if everything else had agreed to step back. Clouds spiraled inward. The horizon curved. Even distant enemies froze, their silhouettes trembling like their instincts were screaming something they didn't have words for. Then I moved. Foot slammed down. BOOM. The ground didn't shake. It panicked.

Shockwaves erupted in perfect expanding rings, carving destruction outward in geometry too precise to feel natural. Everything within range got launched—Lunaranites, debris, broken stone, fallen remnants of war—spinning into the air like the planet was shaking itself clean. Then my voice came out again. Not loud. Final.

"ULTRA—!" The world cracked in response. Stone split along invisible fault lines. The sky flickered like a broken screen trying to stabilize. My arms shot upward.

"KX!!!!" BOOOOOOOOM. A pillar of violet energy detonated upward, ripping straight through the heavens like the sky had been stitched together just to be torn apart. Clouds didn't move—they disintegrated. A scream of light followed. CRRRRRRRAAAACK—!!! The atmosphere tore open. Five massive shockwaves followed the beam upward—impacting the world in delayed rhythm like consequences refusing to arrive all at once. Forests vanished mid-branch.

Mountains didn't collapse—they folded inward like they were acknowledging defeat. Anything still standing got erased into fading outlines against the light. Then my body rose. Not lifted. Ascended. Violet celestial fire wrapped around me in layers, hardening into armor that looked less like protection and more like a verdict made physical. Smooth, radiant, impossibly precise.

My hair snapped upward—then exploded into five razor spikes: two flaring outward like blades, one stabbing back, one rising like a neck-spine crown, and one towering like a horn made for war. My eyes burned with KX sigils. Not glowing. Etched into existence. Symbols crawled across my body, moving under my skin like living script rewriting what I was allowed to be. I wasn't a person anymore. I was a singular event pretending to have form. A walking collapse point. I raised my hand. And tore the sky open.

A golden rift split reality apart. Light poured down like molten judgment. Celestia reacted instantly. Not slowly. Not gently. Violently. The land came back. Dead zones sparked with life. Craters filled with golden energy. Broken terrain stitched itself into motion again like the world refused to stay defeated. The Enchanted Kingdom reignited. Celestial towers surged upward, breaking through clouds like they had been waiting underground for permission to exist again. Rivers turned into flowing gold.

Grass lit up with living energy, each blade vibrating like it remembered purpose. I snapped my fingers. Armor answered. Every Celestianite across the battlefield was instantly wrapped in golden celestial plating—formed from their own energy, shaped by something higher than design. Light locked into place across their bodies like destiny given structure. And I didn't stop. A second pulse hit. Armor evolved. Gold sharpened into platinum-white brilliance. Plates reconfigured mid-air.

Edges refined into lethal precision. Celestial circuitry ignited across every surface—blue-white constellations crawling over their bodies like the sky had been weaponized. Star-gems embedded themselves into armor frames, syncing in perfect rhythm. The entire army hummed. Alive. Connected. Powered. I turned slowly. Toward the Lunaranites. Still there. Still watching. Broken, cracked, scattered across the battlefield like they had refused to fall properly. Their shadows stretched long under the new light. No panic.

No retreat. Just silence. And refusal. I lifted my hand again. The air rang. And every Celestianite armor system responded at once—upgrading, unfolding, refining in a synchronized cascade of divine engineering. Platinum brightened into near-white brilliance. Energy lines sharpened into living circuits. The entire battlefield felt like it had been plugged into something bigger than war. Something final. They straightened. Spines locked. Chins lifted. Breaths steadied. They weren't just soldiers anymore.

They were inevitable. I lifted off the ground, hovering higher, light pouring off me in violent waves. The sky bent around my ascent as I blazed there—silent, radiant—like the final boss of heaven itself had just entered phase two. Then I looked at him. Dark Don. He didn't move. Didn't speak. Just stared. And then—slowly—a grin split across his face.

"…You really did it," he muttered. Silver sparks crawled over his fingers, snapping, hissing, gathering like the moon charging its verdict. He rolled his shoulders once, then cracked his knuckles—CRACK. CRACK. The air tensed. And then— He exploded.

"ULTRA LUNAR ASCENSION!!!" The sky went white. Not bright—obliterating. Color vanished. Contrast died. A colossal sphere of silver-white energy detonated outward, perfectly round, perfectly violent. The shockwave erased sound. Clouds twisted into a screaming spiral above him, corkscrewing into a vortex of moonlight. Gravity broke. The ground fractured into floating slabs, stone lifting like it forgot how weight worked. Time itself stuttered—a hiccup in causality—frames skipping, reality buffering.

Dark Don hovered at the center. Untouchable. Silver lightning slithered around him like living serpents, snapping and coiling through the air. His wings reformed, stretching and crystallizing into jagged prisms of lunar crystal, edges refracting light into blinding shards. His hair sharpened into spiked silver flames, blasting upward in a wild halo of chaos. His eyes— Gone. In their place: eclipsed orbs. White voids ringed with swirling silver—like black holes running backward, pulling light out instead of in.

A lunar crest carved itself across his chest, burning into existence, pulsing like a second heart synced to the moon's heartbeat. Then the Lunaranites rose. One by one. They lifted from the battlefield as if summoned by gravity's opposite. Their armor reconfigured mid-air—reflective silver plating sliding into place, veins of glowing white energy threading through it like veins of moonlight. They shimmered, half-real, half-echo—ghostly paladins of the moon. Weapons formed in their hands. Curved lunar swords.

Spiral spears humming with orbiting energy. Mirror-shields that reflected infinity. Dark Don raised a hand. Time paused. Just a fraction of a second—but enough to feel eternity press against my skin.

"Lunaranites…" His voice rang out, layered, looping—like a cathedral bell echoing through a broken timeline.

"Stand. Fight. Erase." Time snapped back. They roared. The battlefield ignited in silver fire, lunar energy clashing violently with celestial light. The sky screamed again. I looked at him. This divine glitch. This corrupted reflection. This warped mirror of what I could've been. And I grinned.

"Celestia's alive," I said.

"You're done." He smirked back, rising higher, moonlight blazing off his form.

"Then show me," he said softly,"what a king can really do."

"CHARGE!!" My roar cracked across Celestia like celestial thunder detonating inside the sky itself. The battlefield moved instantly. Celestianites surged forward in a blinding wave—golden-white armor igniting like living suns, wings slicing through the air at hypersonic speed. Opposite them, Lunaranites erupted in savage formation, spears, muskets, claws raised—feral, coordinated, brutal. Two armies colliding at full velocity. No hesitation. No spacing. Just impact. I vanished. Light-speed burst.

A streak of violet-white tore through the battlefield— BOOM. My fist slammed into Dark Don's jaw with enough force to distort the air into a glowing ring of fractured light. He slid half a step—then snapped back instantly, swinging a counterpunch that ripped a trench through the sky. I blinked out. Reappeared above him. He followed. We collided mid-air— BOOOOM. Reality stuttered. Time flickered like corrupted footage. We reappeared again—face-to-face—fists already moving.

Silver and violet detonated on contact, a shockwave so dense it folded the clouds inward like paper. Eyes locked. Killing intent sharpened into silence. Then— He spun. A lunar kick turned into a tornado of force and launched me downward like a meteor. I corrected mid-fall. Flipped. Boosted. LIGHT BURST.

"123 COMBO!!" Right hook—impact. Left hook—snap. Knee—crack. Elbow—backbreaker strike. Dark Don's body spiraled through the air like a broken marionette for half a second— I smirked.

"Let's go." I surged again. He vanished into blur-speed. My strike hit air. His fist hit my ribs. I twisted mid-air—barely—spun and fired a Celestial Orb straight into his face. He caught it. Backhanded it like it was nothing. BOOM— I shot sideways through the sky, stabilizing instantly, flipping back into position. Then I tackled him. Full-speed impact. We tore through clouds. BOOM—BOOM—BOOM. Meteor impacts stacked across the sky as we punched each other through a golden tower.

The structure didn't fall—it split vertically, like reality itself got sliced open. We burst out the other side. Falling. Rising. Fighting. Dark Don slammed me into the ground— CRATER. I rolled out instantly, launched upward, and ignited.

"STRENGTH!!" My aura detonated outward—muscles of light forming over my arms, every fiber glowing like a divine engine hitting maximum output. I rocketed forward. Each punch now carried Power Gem amplification. BOOM—BOOM—BOOM. His guard cracked. Then shattered. He launched into the sky like a burning comet. I chased. Sky split behind us. Lunar beams fired wildly—white-black streaks tearing the atmosphere. I weaved through them at blink-speed.

He froze motion for a fraction— absorbed my Celestial Orb— and snapped it back as a spiraling lunar beam. I twisted out of it. Countered instantly.

"CELESTIAL BARRAGE!!" Purple comet-blasts flooded the sky. He absorbed. Returned fire. FIFTY LUNAR ARROWS dropped like falling stars.

"Infinite Piercing." The air turned into a warzone of streaking light. I flipped through them at insane speed. Grabbed one mid-flight. Spun. IMPAL—BOOM. I drove it into his chest. Explosion bloomed outward like a collapsing star. He backflipped through it— crashing through both armies mid-air, Celestianite and Lunaranite formations scattering like broken constellations. Everything below us was gone. Just ruin, smoke, falling towers. He stopped mid-spin. Eyes ignited.

"RAHHHHH!!" He surged forward again. I matched him instantly.

"SPEED!!" We became two comets. One violet-gold. One white-lunar. The collision hit at full velocity. BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!! The shockwave didn't just break air— it split dimensions. The sky cracked like glass. And suddenly— we weren't in Celestia anymore. We were falling through cosmic space. Purple nebulae. White void currents. Electric-blue fractures in reality. Stars bending around us like spectators to a war they couldn't interrupt. Dark Don paused mid-motion.

"…What—" I hit him in the jaw. He kicked me through a collapsing starfield. We vanished. Reappeared. Vanished again. Each hit rewrote distance. Each impact rewrote physics. I caught him mid-spin.

"ULTIMATE STRIKE!!" Fist into gut— SPACE BENT. Blood splattered in Ultra form. I drove him downward through dimensional layers like falling through stacked universes. Spin kick. Jaw break impact. Then— I surged upward. Momentum maxed. Energy fused. Power Gems ignited inside my fists like reactors syncing.

"VIOLET VIOLENCE!!" BOOOOOOOOM!!! A finishing dropkick shattered a dimensional plane beneath us. We launched back into Celestia— except Celestia was already breaking from our absence. Dark Don recovered mid-air. Opened a WHITE HOLE. It screamed. Space started collapsing toward it. I clenched my fists. Celestial energy overloaded. We collided again— and everything vanished. No sky. No ground. Just— THE CITY OF HEAVEN. Golden-white architecture stretching beyond comprehension.

Marble pillars floating in divine symmetry. Light that felt like judgment. And at its center— a throne. Not a metaphor. A presence. Before either of us could process it— Dark Don moved. I moved. We clashed inside Heaven itself. BOOM—BOOM—BOOM. Pillars shattered in silence. Cloud-marble cracked open like glass. Shockwaves didn't echo—they sanctified the air as they destroyed it. SNAP. Back to Celestia. Mid-air. Breathing hard. Fists raised. Silence so heavy it screamed. Dark Don hovered opposite me. Unscathed.

Annoyed. Alive. I shot forward again.

"NOT DONE!!" Left. Right. Uppercut. Kick. Explosive speed chain.

"CELESTIAL FORCE BREAKER!!" I launched him like a meteor into a distant golden monolith. BOOOOOOMMMM!! The mountain detonated outward in a divine eruption of dust and light. He rose from the crater. Slow. Smiling.

"You still think you can save Avangard?" His voice was poison wrapped in calm.

"This world deserves erasure." I steadied my breath.

"And you think destroying everything fixes anything?" I growled.

"My home. My friends. That's not something you erase." He scoffed.

"Friends? Family? Weakness." A step forward.

"Avangard needs a reset."

"You don't need a reset," I shot back.

"You need a therapist." That got a laugh. Low. Cold.

"Too late for therapy." He vanished. Behind me.

"LUNAR DEATH LAUNCH." WHAM. A single kick. And I was gone. Sky broke. Atmosphere tore. Orbit shattered. Impact— THE MOON. A trench carved across its surface as I slammed in. Silence. Then pain. Then movement. I pushed myself up. Blood floating in low gravity. And above me— Dark Don descended. White-violet aura burning like a collapsing god. Earth hanging behind him. Moon shaking beneath us. He tilted his head.

"Round two?" I wiped my mouth.

"No—final round."