The Lunaranite soldiers closed in.
Boots scraped stone. Spears angled inward. Shields locked. A perfect circle.
Then the air twitched.
Olsen felt it first—cold sliding up his spine. Archie's flames sputtered. Duke's chest core flared neon green, bright enough to burn afterimages into the walls.
"Why," Duke growled, fists curling, electricity crawling up his arms, "won't you leave me alone?"
He slammed both fists down.
The floor exploded.
A shockwave ripped outward, snapping shields apart and hurling Lunaranites into the air like broken dolls. Bodies smashed into pillars. Armor rang like church bells. Neon fire licked up Duke's gauntlets, his heart-core hammering beneath his armor as lightning snapped vein to vein.
"GO ON," Duke roared, stepping through the smoke, "AND FINISH ME!"
They rushed him.
Big mistake.
Duke vanished.
He reappeared mid-stride—gut punch—one soldier folded, launched skyward. Duke pivoted, uppercut—another slammed into the rafters, armor caving. Two charged from the left—
Duke spun.
A tornado kick detonated between them. Both bodies cartwheeled across the chamber, shattering a statue on impact.
Flash.
Kick.
Punch.
Duke streaked through the room like neon lightning, every strike precise, brutal. A heel smashed a face. A knee cracked ribs. A backhand sent a soldier skidding across the floor in a spray of sparks.
He dropped, palms flat—
BOOM.
White neon blasted outward. Walls ruptured. Stone peeled away. Debris rained down like shrapnel.
Silence.
Dust drifted.
Olsen groaned, pushing himself up. The chamber was wrecked—soldiers scattered, broken, impaled against walls. Duke stood alone at the center, neon fire rolling off his arms in waves.
Archie's fists ignited. "He's fast," he muttered. "Like—not fair fast."
Ella narrowed her eyes. "No beast traits. No mutation. That's tech."
Duke blinked.
He was suddenly in front of Archie.
A fist buried itself in Archie's gut—CRACK—and Archie rocketed backward, smashing straight through the throne behind him.
Ella lunged.
Duke sidestepped and hooked her mid-swing. She spun through the air and hit the floor hard.
Olsen charged.
Duke vanished.
Hands seized Prince mid-air—slam—and Prince disappeared through the ceiling in a burst of rubble.
Fireballs screamed toward Duke.
He moved like smoke—twisting, phasing, spinning through flame—then reappeared and drove Archie through a wall with a neon-charged punch.
"I," Duke snarled, forming a spinning green sphere in his palm, "AM—"
The sphere detonated.
Light shredded the room. Stone split. Shards screamed outward.
"DUKE!"
Olsen skidded to a stop, silver Power Gem blazing in his hand. "WAIT!"
Duke turned, unimpressed. "Why waste my time?" He sneered. "I've got bigger things than playing hero tag with kids."
"Not today."
Olsen tackled him mid-air.
They smashed through a wall and kept falling—punches traded, elbows snapping, boots colliding—then Duke's jets ignited. Wings flared. They spiraled skyward, green comets streaking behind them.
They crashed into a tower.
Neon bullets ripped free. Olsen swung—HAMMER IMPACT—Duke countered, his arm reshaping into a glowing blade. Missiles burst from his shoulders, screaming into the forest below.
Explosions rippled. Trees snapped like twigs.
The silver Power Gem skidded across the dirt.
Duke's eyes locked onto it.
"What Earthnite could do this?" He grabbed Olsen by the throat, crushed, then tossed him aside. "This one."
Missiles streaked downward.
The forest erupted.
Prince, Archie, Ella, Eli dove back into the fight—beast forms roaring, elements blazing.
"Company," Duke muttered.
Panels opened along his back.
Twelve missiles armed.
The battlefield ignited—blasts flashing, trees vaporizing, stone cracking as neon arcs stabbed the sky.
Then—
Demaurion hit him.
A massive Leviathan form burst from the smoke, jaws clamping down on Duke's arm cannon. Sparks flew. Metal screamed.
Duke backhanded him mid-air, jets flaring, and rocketed upward.
"FUCKING COWARD!" Demaurion roared after him.
Ella staggered, eyes wide. "He—he took the Power Gem."
Olsen stared up at the darkening clouds, rain starting to fall through smoke and ash.
"…Dang it."
Duke was already gone.
***
Meanwhile, Don stirred in a dark cave, cold droplets echoing around him. Alone, lost, and shrouded in shadow, he shook his head, trying to make sense of where Krane had sent him.
Cobwebs brushed his face; insects skittered in the gloom. No exit was visible—just the silence of night and his own thoughts.
His mind was a storm—memories of what he'd done swirling with a gnawing doubt. The Scourge Don inside him pushed forward, but a voice within whispered of lost free will, of a fractured soul trapped behind the rage.
He clutched the Passion and Incarceration Gems, knowing the path ahead demanded he collect them all to raid Celestia.
Power—he thought—was the prize. But was power worth the cost?
Conflicted and haunted, Don wrestled with his fading self, tears burning behind his eyes. He wanted to come back. To forgive. To be a hero.
But the Scourge had stolen that choice.
His heart shattered quietly as his old self dissolved like dust in a desert storm.
Then, a gentle voice broke through the darkness.
"Do you need help?"