The leader's voice cut through the chaos. "Enough of this."
He moved.
The speed was absurd—Mach 4900, the air screaming in his wake. Wolfen tried to stop him but the leader's hand closed around his face, dragging him across the planet. Continents blurred beneath them, mountains crumbled, oceans parted. The leader didn't stop. He dragged Wolfen through the earth, through the sky, through everything.
When he finally stopped, they were back where they started. The same area. The same crater. The same shattered ground.
Wolfen was on his knees, his body broken, his blood pooling beneath him. He couldn't fight. Couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
But the anomaly rose.
Solar lava erupted from his body—not the controlled flames of before, but something wild, something hungry. The temperature spiked to over 4,000 degrees Celsius. The air around him shimmered, the ground beneath him melted. The leader flew back, his skin blistering.
Wolfen's transformation sent shockwaves rippling outward, cracking the earth for miles.
Hmm. Derek's voice was tight. "Should we do something?"
"No." Nora's voice was calm. "Let him go all out."
Wolfen moved. Faster than the leader. His fist connected with the leader's gut, sending him flying backward. A fire chain wrapped around the leader's body—Wolfen spun him in the air, faster and faster, before hurling him upward.
Wolfen appeared above him. In the thermosphere. Both hands came down, slamming the leader into the ground from miles above.
The impact cratered the earth.
The leader rose, smiling.
"That's it," he said. "Fight like a destroyer."
Wolfen dove. The leader flew up. They met in the middle—the time span measured in fractions of a nanosecond—their fists colliding.
A small sun formed between them. It exploded, the heat burning the leader's clothes, scorching his skin.
"How is he keeping up with him?" Leo's voice was tight.
"He's not fighting Wolfen." Maya's voice was different—layered, deeper. Helena was speaking. "He's fighting the anomaly."
Wolfen burned hotter. A massive fireball formed above him—larger than anything he'd made before. The leader charged at it, but at the last moment, he changed direction, veering left, punching at seemingly empty air.
Wolfen was there. Invisible.
The copy turned to fire. The fireball exploded.
"So he can turn invisible now?" Jordan's voice was flat.
The battle raged on.
The leader flew at Wolfen again, his fists blazing. Wolfen met him in the center, their punches colliding again and again, each impact creating shockwaves that flattened the land around them. The sky split. The earth groaned.
They were tearing the world apart.