The Devourer King laughed, a shockwave that cracked floating continents and set the stone screaming. Fragments rained through a crimson sky as dying constellations blinked into dark.
"You still don't understand," his voice vibrated in Mei's ribs. "Every future ends with me."
Darkness detonated. Cold, violent visions hit her like a physical blow: Joshua crushed beneath stone, Blaze drowning in shadow, Shane broken, Lucien erased. A cold wave accompanied every death, thousands of realities blurring into a blinding torrent until they all snapped to one final image—Mei, bleeding out on the ash-scented dirt.
Silence crashed down, heavy and suffocating, broken only by the low rumble of collapsing worlds. Darkness twisted around the King's teeth as his smile widened. "Truth."
The hot wind whipped silver hair across Mei’s face, but she didn't flinch.
"No fear?" the King growled, golden eyes narrowing. "You witness your extinction."
"I've witnessed worse."
Uncertainty flickered over the monster's face. Mei wasn't cowering; she was hunting. Billions of flashing futures reflected in her irises until—there. One thread, thin as spider silk.
Her gaze locked on it. The King’s smile vanished. "What did you find?"
Mei raised her spear. The silver crystal at its core pulsed, driving a heavy vibration through the bedrock.
"No," the King recoiled.
The crystal erupted. Ancient symbols burned white-hot down the shaft, spilling silver radiance through the cracked sky. The air turned instantly sharp and clean, crisp as ozone and torrential rain. Above them, a dead constellation flared to life, pouring searing heat across the battlefield. Then another star ignited. Then hundreds.
"That power was erased!" The King's roar shook the void.
The spear hummed violent energy against her palms. "You missed one."
"I CONSUMED THEM ALL!"
"Not all."
Silver light tore through the dark. Glowing embers rose from the abyss, drifting around them.
"Those aren't stars," Joshua breathed, his voice raw.
Blaze stared as heat washed over her skin. "They're memories."
The devoured worlds were waking up. The stars reignited, pushing back the dark. In the King's eyes, a sliver of genuine fear showed.
Mei smiled—small, sharp, dangerous.
She dropped into a low stance. Beside her, steel rang as Joshua drew his blade. Silver lightning crackled across Adrian’s weapon, and Blaze’s fire erupted, scorching the air.
Mei leveled her spear directly at the monster's chest. "You were right. Every future used to belong to you."
The spear screamed. Power surged. The ground shattered under her boots—and then she vanished.
A sonic boom shattered the air. Mei reappeared an inch from his chest, her spear thrusting forward like a falling star.
"But this one... is mine."
The spear drove home.
It didn't just pierce flesh; it struck the foundational fabric of the Devourer King's existence. The impact sounded like a dying planet splitting in two—a deafening CRACK that blew the atmosphere outward, creating a momentary vacuum that pulled the surrounding dust and ash straight into the point of collision.
For a heartbeat, time tore at the seams.
The monster’s chest caved inward around the burning silver tip. Black, tar-like blood erupted from the wound, sizzling white-hot as it splashed against Mei’s skin. It burned like liquid iron, but she didn't loosen her grip. She shoved harder, driving her boots into the fracturing stone, muscles burning, bones groaning under the sheer kinetic pushback.
"Impossible..." the King gasped. The sound was thick, choking on the ash and light pouring up from his throat.
"Nothing is," Mei snarled.
Behind her, the storm broke open.
Joshua hit the King’s flank first, his heavy blade descending with a dull, iron clang that shattered the monster's obsidian shoulder armor. Silver lightning leaped from Adrian’s weapon, wrapping around the King’s throat in a crackling lattice that smelled overpoweringly of ozone. Then came Blaze—a roaring wall of thermal violence. Her flames engulfed the monster's head, the heat so blindingly intense that the air around them distorted into a shimmering blur.
The King shrieked—a sound of tearing metal and collapsing void that sent shockwaves rippling through their chests, threatening to shake their organs loose. He thrashed, dark tendrils whipping outward to crush them.
Mei didn't give him the chance.
She twisted the spear.
The embedded crystal resonated, firing a second, massive pulse of starlight directly through his core. The light erupted out of his back in a pillar that tore through the sky, burning away the remaining crimson clouds and exposing the raw, infinite expanse of the newly reborn cosmos above.
The Devourer King exploded into a cascade of shadowy ash and blinding ember fragments. The shockwave threw Mei backward; she skidded across the glassed earth, digging her spear’s butt into the ground to arrest her momentum, stone scorching beneath her boots.
Breathing heavily, her chest heaving against the tight grip of her armor, she looked up through the drifting smoke.
The sky wasn't dying anymore. It was burning bright, alive with a billion fresh, warm stars.
Beside her, Joshua lowered his chipped blade, his breath blooming white in the crisp, cool air. Blaze let her fire die down to a soft, golden hum across her knuckles.
Mei stood tall, wiping the hot, dark stain from her cheek, and looked out over the infinite horizon.
The future was wide open.