Chaos Prince slammed into the earth, unleashing an entire army of javelins that blotted out the sky.
The ground shattered like brittle glass beneath his impact, fissures racing outward in spider-web patterns that devoured the already fractured land whole.
Each javelin he hurled shrieked through the air with the fury of a dying star, their obsidian tips trailing ribbons of crackling void essence that poisoned the very atmosphere they passed through.
Kryos rose to meet them with a cold smile that froze the entire atmosphere around them. The winds howled colder and more violent.
With a gesture more casual than swatting flies, he caught the first wave of javelins in a grip that compressed them into singularities before hurling them back with interest.
The returned projectiles struck Chaos Prince in a symphony of destruction. Each impact rang like the birth-cry of a new universe, sending shockwaves that leveled mountains miles away from this landscape and even caused the great wall of Luinngard to tremble and explode.
Just as his javelins flew back to him in a devastating hail, Chaos Prince materialized black armor using void essence. A black plate mail that seemed to absorb light itself wrapped around his body and cracked under the barrage but held firm.
He rolled with the impacts, using their momentum to launch himself forward like a ballistic missile. His fist, trailing dark essence, connected with Kryos’s jaw in an uppercut that sent the Origin of Chaos rocketing skyward.
But Kryos twisted in mid-air, his frame surprisingly agile, and drove both fists downward in a devastating hammer blow that caught Chaos Prince across the shoulders. The younger halfbreed crashed face-first into the fractured earth, his impact creating a crater that devoured what remained of nearby hills.
Kryos landed with crushing force, his boots grinding stone to powder.
"I will properly devour you this time and make sure to leave no crumbs."
Chaos Prince exploded upward from the crater, tackling Kryos around the waist and driving him backward through the air. They slammed into a cliff face that had somehow survived the earlier devastation. Rock exploded outward as they grappled, each trying to gain advantage.
Kryos seized Chaos Prince by the throat and drove his knee upward, aiming for ribs. The Prince caught the knee on his forearm, the impact reverberating through his bones, then retaliated with a vicious headbutt that split Kryos’s lip and sent silver blood spattering.
They broke apart, circling each other like predators. Kryos wiped blood from his mouth, his cold smile never wavering.
"How weak you have become..."
Chaos Prince scowled darkly.
"And how talkative you have become..."
He shot at his father with tremendous speed, but at the last second feinted left, then pivoted right, his elbow seeking Kryos’s temple. The Origin ducked, swept the Prince’s legs, but his opponent jumped the sweep and brought his heel down toward Kryos’s skull.
Kryos rolled aside, the Prince’s heel smashing stone where his head had been. The Origin came up swinging, a brutal hook that caught Chaos Prince in the ribs. The plates of his armor cracked like ice, and the Prince felt something give way inside his chest. But he didn’t retreat—instead, he grabbed Kryos’s extended arm and twisted, using the Origin’s own momentum to flip him overhead.
Kryos hit the ground hard but immediately swept his leg in a wide arc, catching Chaos Prince behind the ankles and sending him toppling. Both warriors rolled to their feet simultaneously, neither willing to cede even a moment’s advantage.
They clashed again in the center of the devastation. Punch met block, kick met counter. Kryos’s massive fists hammered against Chaos Prince’s guard like sledgehammers against an anvil. The Prince gave ground, his boots carving deep furrows in the stone beneath, but he weathered the storm and struck back with surgical precision—a jab to the solar plexus, an elbow to the jaw, a knee toward the ribs that Kryos barely deflected.
The Origin of Chaos caught one of the Prince’s punches, twisted his wrist, and drove his own fist toward the younger warrior’s exposed ribs. But Chaos Prince turned with the twist, breaking the grip, and slammed his elbow backward into Kryos’s sternum. The Origin’s breath exploded outward, and for just an instant, his guard dropped.
That instant was all Chaos Prince needed. He spun, his fist wreathed in dark energy, and connected with Kryos’s jaw in a blow that echoed across the wasteland like thunder. The Origin’s head snapped sideways as he staggered back, and Chaos Prince pressed his advantage with a combination of strikes that pushed his opponent back step by step.
But the efficiency of each blow began to quickly die down as they failed to affect Kryos like the last one did—until he stood with an indifferent gaze even though Chaos Prince had just landed a thunderous punch.
He caught the Prince’s next strike, absorbed the punishment, and retaliated with a devastating uppercut that lifted Chaos Prince clear off his feet. As the Prince hung in the air for a split second, Kryos grabbed him by the chest plate and hurled him earthward with bone-crushing force.
Chaos Prince hit the ground and bounced, rolling through stone and debris before finally coming to rest in a cloud of dust and shattered rock. For a moment, silence fell over the battlefield.
Then he stood, spitting blood, his armor cracked and battered. He coughed up more blood.
"Damn it, old man, have you been working out in prison? What the hell? I thought you were supposed to be weak."
Kryos chuckled eerily.
"I am weak."
Kryos shot forward. He moved with a fluidity that defied his bulky frame, closing the distance before Chaos Prince could even process the motion. His fist buried itself in the Prince’s solar plexus with such force that the armor didn’t just crack—it liquefied, the void essence boiling away like morning mist.
The Prince doubled over, gasping, but Kryos was already pivoting. His knee came up in a blur, connecting with Chaos Prince’s chin with a sound like a mountain splitting. The Prince’s head snapped back so violently that vertebrae popped, and he was airborne again—but this time, Kryos followed.
The Origin launched himself upward, intercepting Chaos Prince mid-flight. His hands locked around the Prince’s ankle, and he spun like a discus thrower before releasing. Chaos Prince became a living projectile, crashing through three separate cliff faces before finally embedding himself in solid bedrock half a mile away.
Before the dust could even settle, Kryos materialized beside the impact crater. Chaos Prince was struggling to extract himself from the stone when iron fingers seized his throat, hauling him free only to drive him face-first into the cliff wall. Once. Twice. On the third impact, the entire mountain face sheared away.