The demoness had known the price of this fusion.
She hadn’t fused from the beginning, not out of weakness, but pride.
As a true demon, her blood was pure. Fusing with half-formed, corrupted combatants was sacrilege. Her rank, her lineage, her identity would be sullied. She’d be reduced to something primal and Mindless. A beast driven by destruction alone.
But that was the point.
Cornered, with no way out, she embraced the unthinkable. She let go of reason and pride. Let go of form.
Now, there were no thoughts in the monstrosity, only rage.
The spines on the creature’s back rattled as it launched forward, its bulk surprisingly fast for its size. Its roar split the battlefield again as it charged at the Vanguards.
Vanguard Taco’s face hardened. "Supreme Nikko! Do what you have to do. We’ll hold it off."
Nikko nodded once and closed her eyes. Calm in the chaos, she reached deep into her core. Primal energy danced across her skin as her aura surged.
The three Vanguards broke into motion.
Rebecca moved first, vanishing in a blinding flash of electricity. She struck like a bolt of divine judgment, appearing right in front of the monstrosity.
Twelve copies of her formed instantly, each shimmering with lightning. They pulled back their fists in perfect sync.
Before the bodies recombined as she struck.
Twelve thunderous blows mixed in one landed at once, crashing into the monstrosity with the weight of storms. Dust exploded around them. The ground cracked from the force.
But when it cleared...
The monstrosity hadn’t moved.
Its black flesh rippled... and healed. Instantly.
Rebecca’s eyes went wide. "What—?"
She didn’t even see the counterattack coming.
Two of the monstrosity’s arms cocked back and delivered a blow before she could retreat. The impact sent her hurtling across the sky, crashing past Raven and Taco in a blur.
"Rebecca!" Raven shouted, panic flaring in her voice.
She turned sharply, body cutting through the smoke as she flew toward the monstrosity. Her hammer hummed with power.
"No one hits her but me."
She raised her weapon overhead. "Mass Impact!"
The monstrosity swung to block, but a streak of blood-red energy lashed out, catching its arm mid-swing, it was Taco’s ability buying just a second.
Raven’s hammer slammed into the creature’s face with the weight of ten mountains, flattening its head into the earth.
But even that wasn’t enough.
The flesh rippled. As the head regrew in a blink.
Its tongue stretched out and licked the hammer, eyes wild, a gruesome smile stretching across its featureless face.
"Disgusting," Raven muttered, twisting to deliver another strike.
It had vanished before appearing behind her.
Its fist drawn back for a blow.
The punch landed like thunder. Raven screamed as she was sent careening into the dirt, carving a trench with her body.
The monstrosity turned, eyes locking on the last standing figure.
It was already coming.
The soldiers at the rear lines could feel it, the pulse of something terrifying clashing in the distance. It was like the heavens themselves were being torn apart.
The stray demons that Vanguard Taco had left behind were long gone now, cut down by the rallied Federation soldiers. But none of them could rest. Not with that pressure hanging in the air like a guillotine.
A low-ranking soldier, sweat beading down his neck, looked toward the horizon. The ground itself rumbled beneath his feet.
"What kind of creature are they fighting?" he asked aloud, more to himself than anyone else.
Another soldier, older and more scarred, squinted toward the black haze far away. "That clash is so distant... and yet, just feeling it makes me want to kneel."
Then, a third voice broke through, quiet but heavy. "But... do you think the vanguards can win?"
No one answered. A grim silence stretched between them. Until someone, young, but eyes burning with something the others had started to lose, stepped forward and said,
"Who says miracles can’t happen?"
They all turned to him.
"Combatant Leon, his existence alone is a miracle. If he could do the impossible, who’s to say the vanguards can’t try to do the same? And don’t forget, amongst those vanguards is a supreme."
For a moment, that name lit a spark in the hearts of the weary soldiers. The doubt didn’t vanish, but now it had to fight through something stronger.
Meanwhile, on the front lines of the impossible battle,
The battlefield was cracked open. Earth shattered. Air warped. The vanguards stood bloodied, clothes torn, but not broken.
Rebecca, Raven, and Taco fought as one. Three against the monstrous fusion of the demoness and three demonified combatants. A beast made from hate and raw demonic power.
It looked like a hulking, oil-black giant with four pairs of arms, a dripping tongue, and eyes sliced across its face like jagged scars. Demonic pressure rolled off it in waves, making the very air choke.
Raven hovered in the air, as she grit her teeth.
"We’re giving it everything... and we’re still being pushed back!"
Rebecca didn’t reply. Her arm bled from fingertip to elbow, but she stood her ground. Her breathing was ragged but Her stance ready.
Suddenly, Taco moved.
Raven and Rebecca shifted to cover him, forcing the monstrosity’s limbs apart with everything they had. And he dove through.
As his palm slammed into the monster’s blackened chest.
And He whispered, voice nearly inaudible:
For a moment, nothing happened.
Blood erupted from within the creature as jagged red spikes shot through its body. The monstrosity howled, trying to claw at its insides, just in time for a wind blade to sweep through and sever Taco’s head.
But the body didn’t fall, it liquefied.
With the the real Taco standing beside Raven and Rebecca, panting. he had used "Blood substitution,"
"How long’s it been?" Raven asked.
Taco looked at the her, pale.
"I don’t think I can last another one."
Rebecca didn’t argue. Neither did Raven. They all knew it. If they moved in again recklessly, one of them wouldn’t walk away.
And still, the creature rose again.
The blood spikes shattered like glass, and the thing roared. It was coming.
A sudden voice cut through the battlefield like a blade of truth.
She stood before them, alone. Her cloak fluttered in a wind that hadn’t existed a second ago. The three vanguards felt it immediately, something was different.
Nikko’s aura didn’t just radiate power. It contradicted itself. Calm and storm. Stillness and momentum. Tamed and untamed. It was a paradox, wrapped in the form of a single girl.
Her hair shimmered like moonlight over wild rivers. Her eyes burned, not with fury, but purpose.
Rebecca narrowed her gaze.
"You... what did you do?"
Nikko didn’t answer at first. She simply stepped forward.
Then, she raised her hand.
As if the heavens were listening.
And then, the world erupted.
The land responded in kind, primal energy bursting forth like a tidal wave. It was wild. Ancient. Pure. A force that didn’t just radiate power, it sang of life and death and nature unbound.