The fire around Wolfen changed.
It wasn't red anymore. It wasn't orange, or yellow, or anything that belonged to this world. It was solar lava—the same fire he'd shown Prime 10, the fire that came from somewhere deeper than rage. The flames around him burned, the heat so intense that the ground beneath his feet began to melt.
He vanished.
Jenny's smile didn't have time to register. Wolfen's fist connected with her face, the impact sending her flying across the clearing, her body tumbling through corpses and debris. Her jaw shattered on impact, hanging loose, bloody. She hit the ground far away, rolling, stopping.
Her jaw healed.
She smiled.
"Baby's gotten so strong." Her voice was thick with blood and adoration. Her cheeks were flushed. She was blushing.
She rose, her body moving like something that had forgotten how to die.
"Go on, boys! Have fun!"
The Superiors attacked.
Wolfen moved through them like a force of nature. He grabbed Superior 5 by the ankle and swung, the man's body becoming a weapon, crashing into Superior 7 and 8. They crumpled, bones breaking, armor shattering.
Superior 3 came from behind, fist aimed at Wolfen's spine.
Wolfen didn't move.
The punch landed. Nothing. Superior 3's eyes widened behind his mask.
Wolfen turned. His fist moved—just once—and Superior 6's face ceased to exist. The mask shattered. The flesh beneath vaporized. The body, headless, erupted in flames and crumbled to ash.
"Did you like what I did with them, honey?" Jenny's voice floated across the chaos, light and playful. "I'm not as good as you, but I'm a seasoned manipulator. Are you proud of me?"
She waved her hand like a child showing off a drawing.
---
Zoey vs. Jenny
Above the carnage, Zoey watched.
Rage filled her—not the cold fury of calculation, but something hot, something human. Jenny Damber had hurt Wolfen. Had poisoned him. Had been hunting him for longer than Zoey had known him.
She dropped.
Her descent was a blur of psychokinetic force, the air screaming around her. She aimed for Jenny, hands extended, ready to crush, to tear, to end—
Jenny's head tilted. Her smile didn't waver.
She raised one hand.
Zoey's momentum stopped.
Not slowed—stopped, as if she'd hit a wall of solid air. Her body hung suspended for one terrible moment, and then something pierced her.
She looked down.
A blade—white, shimmering, made of the same saliva that coated Jenny's skin—protruded from her stomach. Blood spread across her clothes, warm and wet. Her hands went to it, trying to stop it, trying to hold herself together.
Jenny yanked the blade back.
Zoey fell.
She hit the ground hard, her vision blurring, her hands pressed against the wound. Blood pulsed between her fingers, too fast, too much. She tried to move, to get up, to fight—
Her body wouldn't listen.
She lay in the dirt, bleeding, watching Wolfen fight through a haze of pain.
Get up. Her mind screamed at her limbs. Get UP.
Nothing.
---
The Dominance Sphere
Wolfen had killed two more Superiors.
Their bodies lay in pieces around him, burning. The others—Superior 2, Superior 4, Superior 3—circled, waiting, watching. But Wolfen wasn't looking at them.
"Dominance Sphere."
The world went white.
Heat. Unbearable, impossible heat. The air itself seemed to boil. The ground beneath their feet began to liquefy, molten rock bubbling up through cracks in the earth. The sphere was everywhere—pressing, burning, consuming.
The remaining Superiors tried to attack. One step forward, and they were ash. Another, and they were gone. The sphere didn't just hold them—it erased them.
Superior 2, Superior 4, Superior 3. Three of them, in the space of a breath, reduced to nothing.
Wolfen's attention turned to Jenny.
Black blood dripped from his mouth.
"Wow." Jenny's voice was almost impressed. "You're way stronger than I thought. I heard you killed the Boars, but even you couldn't kill this many Superiors alone. That universe must have had some pretty dangerous stuff for you to get this strong."
Wolfen moved toward her.
Blood dripped. Black veins spread across his face, crawling toward his eye.
No. Zoey's vision was fading, but she saw it. No, no, no—
The Superiors attacked again—the last of them, desperate, dying.
Wolfen raised his hand. A blast of solar lava erupted from his palm, sweeping across them, burning them to ash before they could scream.
"Ah." Jenny's voice was delighted. "So you've surpassed Superior level. That makes you... Prime level? Maybe higher? Who really cares?"
Wolfen was in front of her.
He punched.
His fist hit her cheek—and slid off. The saliva coating her skin was slick, poisonous, eating into his knuckles, burning through his flesh.
"I can control anything," Jenny said happily, "if I can get it inside you."
She giggled.
"So now we can finally be together! I'll show you to my family. I made them myself."
"I'll kill you." Wolfen's voice was a snarl.
Jenny bent over, laughing, then straightened, arms wrapped around her stomach, cheeks flushed, saliva dripping from her lips. "Ah. You're so funny, baby."
Wolfen's body was failing.
The Thantos-39 virus was spreading faster now, the poison in his veins making his vision blur, his limbs heavy. He charged again. Punched. Slid off. Burned her. Nothing.
He stepped back.
Umbralite flowed from his hands, forming a helmet—a seal around his ears, tight, protective.
"Cover your ears," he told Zoey.
She couldn't move. Couldn't reach. But she pressed her hands to her ears, hard, her wound screaming.
Wolfen opened his mouth.
The sound that came out wasn't human. It wasn't anything human. A frequency that made the air itself scream, that cracked the ground, that shattered what was left of the buildings around them.
Jenny's eyes twitched. Blood leaked from her ears. Her hands flew to her head, trying to block the sound, but it was inside her now, drilling, destroying.
She stumbled. Fell. Tried to rise.
Wolfen was on her.
His hands, wrapped in Umbralite for grip, slammed into her neck—not to break the outer bones, but the inner. The cartilage. The trachea. He punched again, and again, and again, each blow driving her deeper into the earth.
Jenny's vision blurred. Her ears were gone, nothing but static. The heat was unbearable now—her skin was blistering, cracking, burning.
When her vision cleared, there was only light.
A beam of solar lava, concentrated, absolute, covered her completely.
The heat—
The heat was unbearable.
Her skin sizzled. Her flesh blackened. She screamed—a sound that had nothing human in it—and threw herself out of the beam, her body already healing, already rebuilding.
"How dare you?" Her voice was Wolfen's snarl now, low and vicious. "How dare you?"
She charged.
Wolfen caught her.
He grabbed her head—one hand, crushing—and slammed her into the earth. The ground broke apart, a crater forming around her, cracks spidering out for meters.
Then he vomited.
Black blood. Black veins covered the left side of his face, spreading, consuming.
He didn't stop.
He grabbed her again, pulled her up, raised his fist—
The sphere collapsed.
Too much. Too much pulse. Too much heat. Too much everything. The fire died, the light faded, and Wolfen stood alone in the ruins, breathing hard, black veins pulsing, his body screaming.
Jenny laughed.
Behind her, a boy appeared. Eleven years old. Same smile. Same hunger.
"Go get him, tiger," she said.
Lightning fell from the sky.
It hit her—a direct strike, blue-white, blinding. She screamed, stumbling, her hair smoking.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Jenny looked up, genuinely surprised. "Who's that? The god of lightning, or something?"
Another strike. She dodged this time, barely.
Leo landed in the crater, his fists crackling, his face hard. Derek was beside him, already moving toward Zoey. Jordan appeared from the trees, his katana drawn, his aim true—Jenny barely dodged the blade that would have taken her head.
"Well." Jenny's voice was light, unbothered. "As much fun as this has been, the odds are no longer in my favor. So I have to go."
She smiled at Wolfen.
"If you survive—which you won't—let's do this again."
The boy grabbed her hand. They vanished.
---
Derek reached Zoey first. His hands were already pulling bandages from the first aid kit, pressing them against her wound, his voice steady despite the tremor in his fingers.
"Stay with me. Zoey. Look at me. Stay with me."
Jordan was beside him, his hands sure, practiced. Lena had taught him well.
Leo stood over Wolfen, watching the black veins pulse under his skin.
Wolfen walked toward Superior 4.
The boy—he was just a boy, fifteen, maskless, his face young and terrified—scrambled backward, hands raised, voice cracking.
"I don't know anything! I was ordered by Superior 2, I swear! Jenny was controlling everyone, I think, I don't know, I was just—"
Wolfen kicked him.
The boy's body folded, ribs cracking. Wolfen kicked again. And again. His boot connected with the boy's face—once, twice, three times. Blood sprayed. Teeth scattered.
Leo grabbed him. "Stop. He's dead, dude. He's dead."
Wolfen's eyes went to Leo, then to the boy's face—or what was left of it.
He turned away.
He walked to Zoey.
She was conscious, barely, her eyes fixed on him as Derek worked. The black veins on his face were fading now, receding, the virus retreating into whatever dark place it had come from. His hair was back to normal. His breathing was steady.
But he didn't speak. Didn't look at her. Just stood there, watching the medics work, his hands covered in blood that wasn't his.
Zoey reached for him. Her fingers brushed his.
He didn't pull away. Didn't hold on. Just let her touch him, a ghost of contact in the ruins.
The fire had died. The bodies were cooling. And somewhere in the darkness, Jenny Damber was laughing.