Leo's knees hit the ground.
Blood dripped from his nose, his ears, the corner of his mouth. His body screamed. His pulse was a wildfire in his chest, burning through him, consuming him.
Prime 8 stood over him, untouched, unmarked. His dark grey mask reflected Leo's broken face back at him.
"You will die, hybrid." His voice was calm, almost gentle. "Join me. Join the Architects. Stop this pain. Stop your suffering. You're fighting for something—for someone—you cannot save." He paused. "You look religious. Is that what this is? Faith? You're fighting for the Anomaly?"
Leo's head was down. His shoulders shook.
"I'll join you," he said.
Prime 8 tilted his head.
"When I die."
Leo's head came up. He was smiling.
Prime 8 looked down.
Pulse covered the ground—not Leo's body, not his hands, but the floor. Every inch of it, spreading, waiting. The entire hallway was alive with it, humming with energy that hadn't been there a moment before.
"What are you plotting?" Prime 8's voice sharpened.
"This."
The world turned white.
Electricity erupted from the floor, from the walls, from the very air itself. The hallway, the labs, the rooms beyond—all of it exploded with power, a storm of lightning that filled every space, every corner, every breath.
Prime 8's body seized.
He felt his nervous system fail. His pain receptors died first—a blessing, maybe. Then his motor functions. Then his organs. His liver. His stomach. His intestines. One by one, they stopped working, his body breaking down from the inside.
Leo raised his hand. A beam of electricity—concentrated, blinding, alive—shot from his palm and hit Prime 8 square in the chest.
He flew backward, crashing through a wall, through another, through everything.
"Dominance Sphere."
Electricity arced from Leo's body, forming a sphere of pure, blinding light. Inside it, the world was nothing but lightning and the hum of power.
Prime 8 tried to stand. His legs wouldn't work. He tried to summon his own sphere.
Nothing.
His domain wouldn't form. Couldn't form. Leo's sphere was pressing down on him, and inside it, nothing else could exist.
Ah. He understood now. His domain prevents other domains.
"Troublesome," he breathed.
He forced his body to move. His legs screamed. His lungs burned. He was slower now—so much slower—but he was moving.
He crossed the distance. His fist went through Leo's chest.
Leo's heart was in his hand. Destroyed. Pulverized. Gone.
"Such a shame." Prime 8's voice was almost sad. "You had potential. Talent. You were quite resistant. But you wasted it. Wasted yourself. Such a shame."
Leo's head shot up.
He was smiling.
His body released electricity—not a beam, not a blast, but a pulse of pure, unfiltered power. The volts were beyond anything Prime 8 had ever felt. His heart stopped. For one second. Two. Three.
He forced it to beat again.
He jumped back, landing unsteady, his body screaming, his heart stuttering.
"What in the world are you?"
Leo's chest was whole again. The hole was gone. The heart was beating. His ribs were knitting, his flesh sealing, his blood flowing.
"You fucking idiot." Leo's voice was rough, but he was still smiling. "I'm in my domain. I'm literally immortal here."
Lightning struck Prime 8 from every direction. Blinding. Unstoppable. The pain was beyond anything—beyond nerve damage, beyond organ failure, beyond the body's ability to process.
Prime 8 screamed.
He reached for his sphere, forced it, pushed—and broke through. The lightning faded. The light died. Leo's domain shattered.
Leo bent forward, gasping, his body finally betraying him. The wounds he'd been holding back, the damage he'd been ignoring, all of it hit him at once.
Prime 8 stood across the room, barely standing, his body failing, his heart stuttering. He looked at Leo—at the man who had nearly killed him, who had made him fear—and made a decision.
He retreated.
Leo watched him go, too broken to follow, too tired to care. He stayed on his knees, breathing, waiting for his body to remember how to be whole.
Somewhere in the facility, the war continued. But here, in this broken hallway, there was only the quiet hum of dying electricity and a man who had cheated death one more time.