At last — in the very instant the cave collapsed — they broke free. One by one, they stumbled out into the open, collapsing onto the ground and gulping in the sweet, unfiltered air. The warm amber glow of the sky stretched above them, and for a fleeting moment, they all realized just how intoxicating it was to simply be alive.
Far off in the distance, a colossal mushroom cloud towered into the heavens, its dazzling form pulsing with bursts of crackling azure light. Each flare was laced with streaks of golden energy, and every time one of these attacks struck Ego's massive body, it tore a deafening roar from the Living Planet.
Gene's magic, amplified through the indestructible Uru alloy, poured directly into Ego's wounds like molten oil splashed across fresh snow — searing, relentless, and impossible to ignore. Inside Ego's vast form, that energy rampaged like a tidal wave, tearing through him from within. His body could heal at incredible speed, yes, but the havoc those alien energies caused inside him… that was a far harder battle to win.
Ego's fury exploded outward in a devastating roar. The sound itself became a concussive shockwave, sweeping across his entire planetary body. In an instant, the distant mushroom cloud was shredded apart, as if the very atmosphere of Ego's world had been compressed to the breaking point beneath his sonic assault.
High above, Gene's black-and-gray figure hovered, shielded by a radiant, milky-white barrier — the Guardian Angel spell, one of the highest forms of defensive magic — holding back the brunt of Ego's rage.
For the first time, Star-Lord heard the black-and-gray figure speak. The voice wasn't loud, yet it carried clearly into the ears of every single person present.
"My god… who is that?" Drax swallowed hard, his eyes locked on Gene's unmoving form in the sky.
Gamora's gaze was equally heavy. Battles of this magnitude… even Thanos himself wouldn't necessarily handle it with such effortless composure. Whoever this man was, she'd never heard a single whisper about someone like him existing in the entire galaxy.
Ego, on the other hand, reacted with seething rage. Never before had anyone dared speak to him like that — and anyone who had, hadn't lived long enough to repeat the mistake. His massive eyes flushed blood-red, his silver-white body now framed by those crimson irises, lending him an otherworldly, almost demonic presence.
"You dare court death!" Ego's voice was ice-cold and absolute, as if reality itself bent to his will. From deep below, countless silver-white tendrils of raw energy erupted skyward, whipping toward Gene like a thousand grasping claws.
"If this is all you've got, Ego… then you've truly disappointed me," Gene replied, his tone calm, almost pitying.
The words made Ego's crimson pupils contract sharply, before his body detonated with an eruption of force so intense it made the very world around him shudder. Every speck of matter quivered under his unleashed aura. Endless silver-white radiance poured out, painting the entire horizon in its cold light.
But Gene answered in kind. From his body surged a fierce azure brilliance, locking horns with Ego's silvery glow. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his arm. Power — pure, unfiltered, and crushing — flooded into his limb, sending tremors of awe and dread through the battlefield. The blue and silver lights writhed in the air, intertwining and clashing, each trying to consume the other entirely.
Then, without warning, Gene unleashed it.
From his palm erupted a sustained beam of blinding blue energy — not a simple repulsor blast, but a continuous torrent of annihilation. It slammed head-on into the silver-white beam Ego had fired in retaliation.
The two energies collided, neither willing to yield. The contact point churned violently, the incompatible forces mixing like oil and water. The result was inevitable — a cataclysmic explosion that hurled a shockwave outward from the epicenter. The wave consumed everything it touched, reducing stone, steel, and even the air itself to drifting ash.
The heat was unbearable. Here, a simple iron plate would have liquefied in seconds.
"Shit!" Star-Lord blurted, slipping into a curse he'd picked up back on Earth, his eyes wide at the sight.
Drax's jaw hung open so wide he could have swallowed the whole of New York without chewing.
This wasn't just beyond the Guardians' understanding of power — it was beyond their understanding of battle. This was not a fight mortals could survive brushing against. Even with the best gear in the galaxy, a single ripple of that energy would erase them in an instant.
Up ahead, the clash raged on, but it was clear now who held the advantage. Gene's blue beam was forcing its way closer and closer to Ego, the gap between the searing light and the Living Planet's body shrinking by the second.
Ego bellowed in desperation, his silver light flaring wildly to push the blue beam back. For a heartbeat, he succeeded — but Gene pressed forward again, relentless. The azure torrent crushed through Ego's resistance, swallowed his silver light whole, and slammed directly into his massive form.
The Living Planet's scream of disbelief was swallowed by the overwhelming blaze. But the attack didn't stop there — the blue beam surged past him, tearing into the sky like a titanic blade, splitting the heavens themselves. Space around it shattered under the strain, revealing ghostly glimpses of other dimensions beyond.
One strike. One devastating blow.
Power, terrifying beyond comprehension.
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