The skies split with fury.
Mark and Thragg collided mid-air once more, the sheer impact producing a cataclysmic shockwave that roared through the battlefield like the wrath of a god. The large group of Mauler Twins were flung in opposite directions, limbs flailing, their screams obliterated by the blast.
"BOOOOOOM!"
The once-advanced laboratory below was reduced to pulverized rubble, intricate machinery and alien tech atomized beneath the pressure of their titanic clash. Dust, debris, and force churned into a rising mushroom cloud as the Viltrumites tore reality apart around them.
"CRACK!"
The earth beneath their feet gave way. Fissures spiderwebbed outwards in every direction, splitting the land asunder. The power struggle raged on, neither warrior giving in, yet Mark, even with his Ki crackling like lightning around his form, began to lose ground, inch by inch. Thragg's relentless strength bore down on him, forcing his boots to grind trenches in the cracking terrain.
Suddenly, the ground collapsed.
Hundreds, no, thousands, of Mauler variants spilled into the sudden gorge, an avalanche of blue flesh and mechanical limbs. Their screams echoed through the chasm, swallowed by a roaring underground river. Some flailed helplessly. Others clambered over their brethren, using the fallen as grotesque rafts, desperate to survive. Most didn't. Bones shattered on jagged stone. Energy ripples from the battle above crushed bodies mid-air.
"BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM!"
Each collision between Mark and Thragg reshaped the landscape. Forests nearby caught fire from the friction in the air. Hills collapsed. Storms gathered, unwilling to form near the center of their godlike clash.
High above, suspended midair like a sovereign of cosmic judgment, William watched.
His golden aura shimmered with red undertones, his Super Saiyan 2 form radiant with barely-contained atomic resonance. His crimson eyes narrowed as he saw a cluster of Viltrumites descend upon Sif from above, their formation tight, coordinated, a brutal decapitation strike meant to overwhelm her on all sides.
His hand extended.
A beam of green, translucent energy burst forth from his palm with blinding speed, pure Willpower forged into light. It slammed into Sif's back mere milliseconds before the assault struck.
"WHOOSH!"
A luminous suit of armor snapped into place, wrapping her body in radiant Asgardian design, forged not in a forge, but in the soul. Crafted from William's will. Emerald plates gleamed with power as the coordinated Viltrumite attack connected.
"BOOOOOOM!"
The blows landed.
And the armor cracked, but did not break.
Cracks glowed, then healed, re-knitting with a shimmer that sent a cold wave of fear through every Viltrumite watching. Their eyes widened, shrinking to pinpricks as they realized what just happened.
It wasn't magic. It wasn't tech. It was sheer, unrelenting will.
Sif's lips curled into a grin, feral, exhilarated, alive. Her husband's power surged through her, electrifying her spirit, and she raised her Uru-forged sword, now glowing the same brilliant green.
"SHING!"
Her blade sliced the air so fast it tore through dimensions. The Viltrumites didn't even see the strike, only felt the moment when several of their comrades' heads detached from their bodies. Time froze.
Then blood sprayed into the sky.
The screams of the dying Viltrumites filled the heavens like a dark chorus. Their bodies collapsed, twitching, and the survivors scattered in panic, their confidence shattered.
General Krieg, seasoned, ruthless, near-unkillable, flinched.
A bead of cold sweat ran down his temple as Sif's blade passed within a breath of his throat, its willpower-charged edge singing with divine fury. He barely dodged, only to feel the air split behind him where her second strike had already landed.
"CRACK!"
In the place where Krieg previously floated the air crackled with energy as the blade passed forming a dark wound in space itself that slowly healed, the sound of the wound in space healing resembling the peel of thunder.
Over the storm-kissed Atlantic, a war between titans reached its climax.
The sky was a canvas of grey and silver, clouds weeping as thunder cracked in every direction. And there, suspended above the churning ocean, two warriors clashed with the force of natural disasters.
"BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM!"
Each impact between Anissa and Conquest detonated across the open sky, the shockwaves ripping the ocean's surface apart. Massive geysers of seawater erupted with every blow, sunlight filtering through them to paint chaotic, trembling rainbows in the air, beauty born from destruction.
"HUFF... HUFF... HUFF..."
Anissa's chest rose and fell in jagged rhythm, her breaths sharp and ragged. Blood flowed down her useless left arm like a crimson ribbon, torn and mangled from the moment she shattered Conquest's mechanical arm in a suicidal counter.
Now they fought as maimed monsters, each with one working arm, fueled only by hatred, pride, and the desperation of survival.
Conquest roared, lunging forward with his remaining strength. His hand reached for her skull, seeking to end it in one brutal slam.
But Anissa was faster.
Her leg snapped upward with the speed of a whip, CRACK!
Her heel collided with Conquest's jaw, lifting the ancient Viltrumite off his feet and launching him like a missile. He hurtled across the sky, trailing blood, and smashed into the Earth like a meteor, carving a fresh crater into the edge of Lake Michigan near Chicago.
Anissa's eyes burned.
"OLD... BASTARD... JUST... DIE!"
Each word was an explosion of venom, her voice raw, animalistic. Without pause, she blasted forward, her flight igniting the air with a thunderclap.
"BOOOOM!"
She descended feet-first onto Conquest just as he staggered to rise from the broken earth. He raised his remaining arm in defense.
It didn't matter.
Her boots shattered his forearm on contact, turning flesh and bone into a spray of red mist and shrapnel. The crater doubled in size as the shockwave expanded outward, flinging water and debris in all directions. The shoreline was swallowed in the blast radius.
And Anissa didn't stop.
"BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM!"
Her foot became a hammer, smashing into Conquest's ribs over and over again, turning his chest cavity into jelly. Bones snapped like twigs. Flesh caved in. His mouth opened in silent agony as each stomp drove the breath from his lungs.
And then she switched.
Her right fist, her only fist, drove downward like a piston, fueled by vengeance, grief, rage, and something deeper: the will to never be dominated again.
"CRACK!"
A final blow tore through what remained of Conquest's skull.
Her fist punched through his head like a spear, shattering bone and sending grey matter flying across the sand. Blood fountained upward, coating her face and chest as the ancient Viltrumite's body spasmed in its death throes.
"KRAHHH—!"
Conquest tried to speak. Tried to curse her. But his words gurgled in blood, and his eye, once full of fury, dimmed.
Anissa stood over his twitching corpse, her arm elbow-deep in his skull.
He was still. Finally.
With a growl, she ripped her hand free. The sound was sickening. Strings of brain matter and gore clung to her knuckles. Her body trembled, not from fear, but from the overwhelming release of holding on for so long.
Her chest heaved. Her one good arm hung at her side, shaking, soaked in blood. Behind her, the waves crashed. The sky wept.
But Anissa remained upright.
Victorious.
While chaos reigned on Earth, across continents, skies, and oceans, a far greater storm was beginning to unfold in the silence of space.
From the edge of the solar system, they came.
A massive armada of Viltrumite warships emerged from the void like steel leviathans breaching the cosmic ocean. Hundreds strong, their jagged black hulls gleamed like obsidian knives under the distant sun, each ship humming with stored violence.
Inside their holds were legions of enslaved alien warriors, entire armies broken under Viltrumite rule, along with chained Rognarrs, beasts bred for war, their eyes burning with rage and madness.
At the head of this apocalyptic fleet, the banner of the Viltrum Empire flared like a blood-red star.
General Krieg's distress signal had been heard.
And the empire had answered.
The first wave began to descend toward Earth, the upper atmosphere glowing as the tips of their ships breached the sky like falling meteors.
But they weren't alone.
From the far side of the solar system, another fleet moved, like phantoms cloaked in the shadows of planets.
Slipping through the gravitational wells of Jupiter and Mars, using their mass to mask the approach, a counterforce came.
The Coalition of Planets.
At the helm of the lead cruiser, Allen the Alien stood tall, his one eye narrowed and locked onto the tactical screen. Beside him, hulking and blood-hungry, Battle Beast leaned forward, mace in hand, vibrating with excitement.
And between them stood a figure shrouded in myth and legend: Thaedus, the rebel founder of the Coalition, his long white beard framing a face carved from stone. His presence alone was enough to shift the air on the bridge.
"We were lucky to intercept that transmission," Thaedus growled, his voice like tectonic plates grinding beneath the surface. "The Viltrumites have never gathered this many warriors in one place. Not since the Purge."
He turned his eyes to the burning blue orb in the distance, Earth.
"This is it. Our best chance to cut the head off the snake."
Allen nodded solemnly, watching the Viltrumite ships break through the clouds on Earth's side of the system. "If they land… they'll destroy everything. Earth, its people, its protectors—"
"SMASH!"
A thunderous quake rocked the bridge. Sparks flew. The crew tensed. But no alarm rang out, it wasn't enemy fire.
It was Battle Beast.
His colossal mace, forged in the fires of unknown stars, had struck the steel floor with such force that the metal itself buckled beneath it. The lights overhead flickered. Gravity surged.
His fangs bared in a beastly grin.
"THIS BATTLE WILL BE LEGENDARY!" he howled, laughter echoing like thunder through the chamber. His mane flared like wildfire, his body practically radiating heat as bloodlust coursed through his veins like magma. "I can taste the carnage already!"
The crew gave him space. The ship seemed to hold its breath.
Thaedus merely turned toward him and gave a single, resolute nod.
"Then let's give them the war they've been begging for."
The Coalition fleet powered forward.
Engines ignited like stars being born. War drums of propulsion roared in unison. The countdown to cataclysm had begun.
And somewhere in the space between two unstoppable forces—
Earth waited.
Back on Earth, as William hovered high above the chaos, the wind around him stilled. A sudden, unnatural pressure filled the air, like the breath before a storm, and his eyes locked onto the flaming descent of warships, their hulls scorched by atmospheric re-entry, each one emblazoned with the unmistakable insignia of the Viltrum Empire.
Across the planet, hidden military installations, some long dormant, sprang to life with a shrill mechanical whine. Their concealed artillery emerged from beneath forests, oceans, and mountains, humming with purpose. Locking onto the descending ships, they opened fire with thunderous force.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"Scarlet beams lanced into the sky, smashing into some of the cages descending with the fleet, tearing through a few with sizzling precision. But most strikes barely scorched the dense, star-forged Viltrumite alloy. The alien war machines pushed through the assault like meteors cutting through clouds.
Above it all, William raised his hand, fingers forming the shape of a gun. A construct of green Willpower surged from his wrist, warping and reshaping itself into an arm cannon, massive and unmistakably inspired by a certain armored video game legend.
"WENGGGG..."A dense sphere of golden-yellow Ki began to pulse and vibrate at the heart of the cannon. Heat shimmered around it. Electricity danced across the edges like caged lightning. The energy was not just radiant, it was volatile.
The ground beneath William's feet buckled. Stones lifted. The soil cracked. The very air seemed to bend away from the raw power amassing in his cannon. His Super Saiyan 2 aura ignited into an inferno of golden lightning, crackling violently as arcs leapt from his body to the floating debris orbiting him like miniature satellites.
The arm cannon began to fracture, its willpower shell straining under the impossible energy building inside. William clenched his jaw, his hair whipping in the turbulent air. And then, planting his feet firmly into the Earth—
He roared.
"FINAL BLASTER!"
The world held its breath.
Then, release.
A blinding pillar of golden death erupted from his cannon and, mid-flight, fractured into a dozen smaller beams, each one a guided harbinger of destruction. They spiraled and arced like divine javelins toward their targets. As they neared, the invading ships shuddered, the very metal trembling as though even they feared their fate.
"BOOM!BOOOM!BOOOOOM!BOOOOOOM!"
The heavens cracked open with cataclysmic fury.
Ships disintegrated in the sky, their corpses raining down as twisted metal, molten slag, and chunks of screaming alien flesh. Bodies and debris plummeted toward the Earth, leaving streaks of fire like meteor trails.
William lowered his smoking cannon, breath heavy, the wind swirling his torn clothes as his aura slowly flickered back into control.
He had destroyed nearly two-thirds of the Viltrumite landing craft in a single, awe-inspiring attack.
But the remainder made landfall.
And from the ruins of their broken cages, the nightmare began, hordes of feral alien beasts, genetically enhanced war slaves, and Viltrumite commanders exploded forth in a tidal wave of rage and vengeance.
Earth was not ready.
But William was.