Carias finally healed from her absolute limit transformation, but she had other things to worry about. The fight was too fast for her; just when she thought it couldn’t get any faster, it did.

  Suddenly, Meras punched straight into Sharkz’s face. It was a hit that should have blown his entire head to bits. Instead, he slid back a few meters, then assumed a strange pose: head down, back completely slouched, legs apart, and both arms hanging.

  “Sharkz!”

  She tried to move, but oddly she couldn’t. It was as if she was frozen in place. She was worried. She felt all of Sharkz’ energy drain the moment Meras hit him. Carias also noticed his eyes: they were devoid of life, turning from red to a lifeless black.

  Something was off. There was tension in the air. Strands of blue lightning formed a zero on his bare back, then struck, leaving the mark of that number.

  It was strange—Meras, an entity who would never give his opponent a break, was watching, silent, as he always was.

  The air was freezing, so much so that the area around Sharkz was turning to ice.

  Without warning, the entity lunged at him, seemingly jumping out of his paralysis to attack our “hero.” Despite his superluminal speeds, he froze about a meter before him, as if an invisible force was slowing him down the closer he got.

  “Space manipulation!” she gasped.

  “He’s still alive, I know it. That technique takes a massive amount of energy.” Carias searched for Sharkz’s energy point, wanting to know he was still fighting—for them. She tried looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found, or at least nicely hidden.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “That’s weird. I can only sense the technique itself… and not the string of energy behind it.”

  She continued searching for it desperately.

  “I found it!” she yelled happily.

  Her smile sank. Her visible confusion slowly changed into a frown, before finally having her face indoctrinated with the horror of a million people. She dropped to her knees.

  —That’s not… him.

  Scenes of mass genocide flashed through her mind, the suffering of every individual clearly visible. Humans, angels, demons, hybrids—nothing was spared.

  Tears streamed down her face as she murmured, “Why? How?”

  But she didn’t have time to ask any questions. She made a mistake. She stayed connected to his energy point. She yelled in agony while clutching her chest, digging into her own flesh until her fingers wrapped around her heart.

  “Kill… me…”

  She blacked out.

  The previously calm and hidden energy point was now all over the place.

  Steam was coming out of every pore of Sharkz’ skin, then it fell off. No blood, no sound. His skin just melted off. He was pure muscle—nothing else. The heat of the full rage transformation had apparently got to him. Violently, spikes made out of ice surged out of his body—long ones out of his main joints, and a bunch of small ones all over his body acting like armor. His tail was covered with ice, many layers covering it like big individual scales. The hot ice sizzled, visible blood vessels coursing through it. His face lost all of its regular features to be replaced with more ice. His jaw was stretched wider and had massive teeth made of the same material. His eyes were entirely red, including his sclera.

  He had been turned into a killing machine.

  The first sound to come out of his mouth wasn’t words, but a gut-wrenching yell—loud enough for the whole planet to hear. A yell that froze the earth in shock. That’s when reality finally realized its mistake.

  Well, looks like we’ve gone a bit too far.

  Let’s start from… well, the start!