Ominous darkness shrouded the fractured plain—a canyon that looked as though it had been forcibly carved by some merciless natural disaster. Though that "natural disaster" was actually a white-haired kid with brilliant blue eyes.
Scattered figures dotted the distant landscape, making their way toward the canyon’s center where a massive crater sat carved into the earth—as if an entire city had been obliterated and swallowed whole.
In the crater’s depths, a woman in shattered armor lay sprawled on the ground. Two men stood before her. One was tall and smooth-skinned, his short white hair dancing in the gentle breeze. The other was half-naked, with exceptionally long black hair flowing against his back, his eyes dazzling despite their stillness—like beautiful, sweet poison.
Opposing them stood a man with deep blue hair, long with dreadlocked strands adorned with golden ornaments. His face bore wounds that wept silver blood, his eyes lined with black kohl, staring at his opponents with indifferent calm—a gaze that commanded absolute authority.
The air whispered eerily through the tense silence between them.
Northern locked his gaze on Kryos, focused and unblinking, unwilling to miss even the slightest movement from the Origin.
His vision had sharpened—now he felt he could keep pace. All he needed was absolute focus.
The Chaos Prince mirrored his intensity. Usually jovial and lighthearted, he now looked as though he couldn’t afford such luxuries.
Seeing the Prince’s grim expression reminded Northern once again—this was the being who had devoured him, who had torn his way to the heights of heaven through sheer force.
And he... a Sage barely seventeen years old... wanted to fight such a monster. Northern swallowed hard.
’What needs to be done needs to be done. Can’t complain.’
Northern kept his eyes forward, tightening his grip around his blade’s hilt. Though silent, the atmosphere crackled with violent energy—like charged electricity invisible to the naked eye.
Each combatant searched for exploitable openings, all operating at levels far beyond normalcy.
Kryos shifted casually. Instantly, both Northern’s and the Chaos Prince’s eyes flashed in unison.
’There!’
Both exploded forward with breakneck speed—Northern’s body crackling with blue sparks, while the Chaos Prince flowed like black smoke.
They reached Kryos in less than a tenth of a second. The ground liquefied beneath their feet from the vicious friction, leaving four trails of molten earth.
The Origin didn’t even flinch. Northern’s sword arced toward his neck from the right while the Chaos Prince materialized a javelin, hurling it overhead toward his father’s eyes.
Kryos simply stood there as everything seemed to unfold in slow motion—though in reality, it was devastatingly fast. He was simply faster, so fast they never saw him move.
So fast that their bodies didn’t register the detonating blows—five strikes each—until Northern’s sword nearly found its mark. Then the pain exploded through him. Blood erupted from his mouth as his body folded inward in multiple places. A tremendous blast of wind tore from his back, shredding his clothes as he rolled with devastating speed across the landscape.
The Chaos Prince suffered similarly, but before he could roll away, Kryos casually extended his hand and caught him by the face, killing his momentum instantly. The air blast from the strikes exploded in all directions, whipping against Kryos’s face and clothing.
He regarded the Chaos Prince with contempt and crushed him into the ground.
The earth groaned. Massive cubic stone shards erupted upward as though someone had sliced through the ground with ethereal swordsmanship. Meanwhile, the Chaos Prince’s face was driven deep into the earth, forming a crater.
Kryos lifted his head and smashed it down again, exploding another volley of cubic stone chunks.
He raised him once more and hammered him back down. This time, a tremendous shockwave of dust rolled outward.
As he lifted the Prince again, he paused mid-motion and sidestepped at the last second, allowing Northern’s vicious flying kick to slice through empty air. He glanced down at the passing leg with calm indifference, then seized it with casual ease, hurling Northern overhead and slamming him into the ground while maintaining his grip on the Chaos Prince’s face.
The earth exploded violently. Debris shrieked as it shattered into smithereens, rolling outward in waves of terrible force.
Northern’s head rang viciously. His world flashed white, then he was already being hauled upward again.
The Origin, gripping him by the leg while repositioning to grasp the Chaos Prince by the hair, yanked his hands together with devastating force and smashed both fighters against each other. Blood splattered through the air and across his face.
He seemed utterly indifferent, continuously smashing them together with such speed that his hands blurred. Finally, he stopped, and with visible irritation, hurled them away one after the other—like javelins launched into the distance.
Northern rolled across the battlefield, tumbling and pulverizing the ground into stone splinters that exploded in all directions with such force they crashed against other rocks, shattering them on impact.
The Chaos Prince tumbled alongside him, his head smashing against the earth as he bounced and rolled like a rampaging bull, brutalizing the landscape with each impact.
Just as they rolled away, Titan joined the fray. His movements razor-sharp with speed, he channeled a dreadful surge of Colossal Force through his veins until the armor of the Molten Vein cracked under the strain.
He launched himself at the Origin with a deadly 540 kick, but Kryos—with a contemptuous gaze—effortlessly blocked the entire sequence with his elbow and forearm. He regarded Titan with pity, then seized his leg mid-final kick and whipped a vicious backhand across his cheek. The blow exploded with a shockwave, sending most of Titan’s teeth flying from his mouth.
Kryos grabbed the collar of Titan’s armor and hoisted him up, studying him wordlessly—no regard, no acknowledgment, only pure irritation.
Northern and the Chaos Prince were back on their feet. As they charged toward him with tremendous speed, he looked at them with eyes that expressed how pathetic they were—eyes that regarded them like ants desperately trying to matter.
He sighed and opened his palm. A crimson and obsidian orb of light and darkness materialized above it, writhing and shrieking as if the darkness was violently trying to tear free from the red light’s constraints.
They were almost upon Kryos when the Chaos Prince’s eyes widened in alarm. He shouted:
"Avoid that at all costs!"
Northern’s gaze snapped to the Origin’s hand.
’Yeah, coming from an Origin of Madness, that can’t be good. I better dismiss—’
Before he could complete the thought, Kryos drove the writhing orb into Titan’s chest with terrible force, triggering a massive explosion of crimson light and compressed air.
Northern skidded to an abrupt halt, eyes wide with shock. Meanwhile, the Chaos Prince descended upon his father, only to be intercepted by a titanic kick that launched him straight into the clouds, tearing through the air in violent rings of shockwave.