The pressure of 5,000x gravity was no longer just a physical force; it was a cosmic execution. The subway floor had turned into a fine powder, and the air itself hissed as it was squeezed into a superheated state. Under this weight, every bone in Elias's body screamed, and his vision began to tunnel into darkness.
But in the center of that darkness, a memory flickered like a dying ember. He saw his brother, Tyson, standing in the training yard , his silhouette framed by the setting sun.
"Elias," Tyson's voice was calm, drifting through the roar of the gravity. "Stop trying to change in order to fit the world. The world is broken, and its laws are meant to keep you down. Change in order to surpass it."
Elias's fingers twitched in the pulverized concrete. He stopped fighting the gravity and started absorbing the realization of his own existence.
Slowly, impossibly, Elias's hand pressed against the floor. The sound of his muscles tearing was drowned out by the groan of the earth as he pushed upward. His spine straightened, he's silver eye's flickered then Elias stood up.
He stood tall under a weight that should have flattened a skyscraper.
"I'm not going to let anyone die," Elias whispered, his voice cutting through the pressure like a blade. He looked Magals in the eye, his silver pupils vibrating with a terrifying intensity. "I'm going to defeat you, Magals."
Magals' eyes widened for a fraction of a second before settling into a sneer. "Tch. Foolish human.
You are going to regret standing up.
Elias lunged. his fist cutting a path through the 5,000x gravity.
Magals didn't move. "Reverse."
The impact was sickening. Elias's fist hit Magals' face, and the entire force of the strike—was returned into Elias's own shoulder. His arm buckled, the bone cracking under the weight of his own power.
Elias didn't flinch. He used the momentum of the "Reverse" to pivot, swinging a brutal roundhouse kick aimed at Magals' ribs.
"Reverse."
Again, the force surged back. Elias's shin shattered, but as he fell, he dissolved the broken limb into raw energy and reformed it before he hit the ground. He was a whirlwind of strikes—punches, elbows, knees—each one more powerful than the last, and each one redirected back into his own body.
Blood sprayed from Elias's knuckles. His chest was a mess of internal bruising. Yet, he kept moving. He was smiling—a jagged, manic grin. He was testing the "Law," finding the rhythm of the reflection.
Across the crater, Kylo groaned, his hands trembling. He tried to focus his eyes on Julian, attempting to copy the Gravity Control to lift the weight off the team, but the sheer pressure of 5,000x was scrambling his neural pathways. "I... I can't... lock on..." Kylo gasped, his golden eyes flickering as he was pinned to the floor.
Magals raised a hand, his fingers crackling with dark energy as he watched Elias's battered body stumble forward. "You can't touch me, my law is absolute".
Magals moved to deliver a finishing spatial strike, his hand glowing with the intent to erase Elias from existence.
WHOOSH.
A sudden, violent gale of wind erupted in the junction, cold enough to freeze the superheated air.
BOOM!
A blur of white and black dropped from the ceiling, a boot connecting squarely with the side of Magals' head. The Commander was sent skidding across the pulverized floor, his 5,000x gravity field flickering for a split second.
Drakye Void, Captain of the 10th Division, stood in the center of the crater. He adjusted his collar, a cocky, effortless smile on his face.
"Sorry I'm late," Drakye said, glancing back at the 10th and 5th divisions. "Got lost in the tunnels."
Drakye looked at Elias, who was standing on a leg that had just finished knitting itself back together. "Elias, you okay?"
"Yeah... I'm fine," Elias said, exhaling a cloud of crimson steam. His eyes remained locked on Magals.
"Good," Drakye said, his eyes turning a sharp, stormy gray. He raised his hands, and the air around them began to hum, vibrating at a frequency that nullified the crushing pressure. "Now let's kick his ass. Ready, Elias?"
Elias stepped up beside his Captain, the two of them forming a line of silver fire and howling wind. "Yeah, Captain. Ready."
Magals stood up, his face twisted in a mask of pure Zethrian rage. "Why fight when you already know the outcome".
"Outcome?," Drakye said, his feet lifting off the ground as he began to hover. "I'm not really good at answering questions, but one thing is for sure I'm going to win ."
Drakye moved first. He didn't punch; he gestured. The air in the junction suddenly solidified into thousands of invisible needles.
"Vacuum Needle Storm!"
The needles rained down on Magals. The Commander shouted "Reverse!", but the wind simply flowed around the redirection, circling back to strike him from the rear. Since the air was a gas, the "impact" was distributed across the entire room. There was no single vector for Magals to reflect.
While Magals was distracted by the howling gale, Elias appeared in his blind spot.
Elias's hand was open. He didn't punch. He used Tyson's logic—he wasn't trying to "hit" Magals; he was trying to "surpass" the space Magals occupied.
Drakye slammed his hands together, creating a Hard-Air Shell around Elias's fist. "Elias, now!
Elias drove his hand forward. Magals tried to Reverse the strike, but the "Reverse" hit the hardened air shell instead of Elias's flesh. The shell shattered, but the shockwave propelled Elias's hand forward with double the speed.
THRAK.
Elias's palm connected with Magals' chest. The sound was like a cannon firing in a small room. Magals coughed out violet zethrians blood.
"Damn you!" Magals roared. He tried to grab Drakye out of the air, but Drakye was a ghost. He turned into a living cyclone, moving through the junction with a speed that surpassed the Zethrian's Light-Speed movements.
A massive column of solidified oxygen slammed into Magals from above, pinning him to the floor. Simultaneously, Elias arrived from the side, delivering a flurry of hand-to-hand strikes.
Left hook to the jaw.
Right jab to the jaw .
Double-palm strike to the face .
Every time Magals tried to "Reverse," Drakye would shift the air pressure around Elias's limbs, creating a "cushion" that absorbed the reflected damage before it could reach Elias's bones. It was a perfect synergy—the Wind providing the defense, and Elias providing the unstoppable offense.
The two of them were a blur of motion. Drakye flew in circles, creating a vacuum that made it impossible for Magals to breathe, while Elias acted as the hammer, breaking the Commander's physical form bit by bit.
"You... ants!" Magals screamed, his aura exploding in a desperate attempt to push them back.
But Elias and Drakye didn't budge. They
stood in the eye of the storm they had created.