To kill a monster, sometimes you must become one.
They fought across the entire dockyard, two titans in a battle too fast and too brutal for ordinary eyes to follow.
Jerry's body screamed with every motion. His claws were cracked. His left eye blinded by a splash of molten blood.
But the Core within him wouldn't let him fall. Not yet.
Emily Xyros watched from the shadows atop a nearby crane. She had followed him here—against all logic. Against her father's orders.
Her breath caught as she saw Jerry stagger. His monstrous form faltered. He was barely holding together.
And still—he fought.
Jerry ducked under a final flaming punch and leapt.
Time slowed.
All energy focused into one claw—obsidian black and pulsing with Echoes devoured from lesser monsters.
"This is it," he thought.
"This is everything I have."
He drove the claw straight into Infernal Apex's chest—into the core.
The explosion was silent at first. Just a pulse of black light.
Then—
BOOM.
The force of it shattered the dock. Concrete disintegrated. Water exploded into the sky. Jerry was flung back, landing hard on the remains of a cargo crate.
Infernal Apex stumbled once... then collapsed. The molten glow in its eyes extinguished.
Dead.
Finally.
Jerry couldn't move. His muscles were locked. Blood pooled beneath him.
But he was alive.
Barely.
Emily rushed to his side. She pulled off his cracked mask and stared into his bloodied, broken face.
"You idiot," she whispered. "You could've died."
Jerry smiled faintly, eyes closing.
"But I didn't."
Somewhere far away, in the depth of another dark facility, a figure watched a screen flicker with footage of the battle.
"Subject Tenyson has grown faster than predicted," said a voice.
The man turned—tall, with silver hair and a mechanical eye.
"Then we'll send stronger ones," he said.
(To be continued...)