From a distance, Ash watched the battle unfold. The world around him is being torn apart as the figures clash in massive explosions. Shockwaves rip through the air, but none of them touch him. They pass right through, as if he didn't even exist.
He had heard the stories. He knew about the ones who wielded Gears.
Gears were not something normal people could even dream about. They weren't weapons you could build or powers you could train for. They were alive.
Less than fifteen people in the whole world could wield a Gear. And each one carried a different technique, a different madness, hidden deep inside.
Ash never thought he'd see one with his own eyes.
But now, standing there with the battlefield tearing itself apart in front of him... He was seeing it.
Richie, his older brother, wielded the Elemental Gear.
Ash's hands trembled. He clenched his fists, trying to stop the fear crawling under his skin. His eyes drifted to Valhalla and Dev.
Valhalla didn't wield a Gear. Not yet, at least.
Dev… well, Ash wasn't sure if Dev even needed a Gear.
But even they, even fighting together, couldn't put Richie down.
Ash swallowed hard, heart hammering in his chest. It was one thing to hear stories. It was another thing to feel it. To see a man tear the world apart with his bare hands. To watch the sky burn and the earth bleed.
It was his first time seeing what a real Gear-wielder could do. Yet he knew how this would end. He turned to run, but his feet felt heavy, like something was holding him back. Then, his eyes caught something in the sky, a dark figure watching him. It was the creature, staring down at him with empty, glowing eyes.
Ash froze. Sparks of electricity ran through his body, his rage boiling over. He jumped into the sky, a burst of lightning following him, but as soon as he reached out, the creature vanished.
**
Richie's body was breaking apart. His veins burned like molten metal, glowing through torn skin.
Valhalla blinked forward, intercepting him. His sword, heavy with gravity itself, found a gap, slicing clean through Richie's left arm. The limb spun away into the air, but Richie didn't even flinch. He punched him so hard that the sky itself cracked open.
Before Richie could even breathe, Rin came at him, wind blades sharp enough to cut mountains. Richie caught her by the throat mid-air. He slammed her into the ground with a crash that shook the world. Water and blood exploded outward, carving a brand-new lake into the dirt.
Dev's creatures didn't stop. They poured from the shadows, twisted and howling. Richie didn't care. His body, barely holding together, still pulsed with rage. He raised his hand and let Omni Fusion detonate around him. Over and over. Every blast tore apart the land, turning the battlefield into a storm of fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice.
But the price was high. His skin peeled off in burning strips. His muscles tore open, his blood turning black from the overload. His heartbeat was a distant drum, slower and slower, harder and harder.
Rin lay broken nearby, struggling just to breathe, unable to stand. She could only watch with wide, desperate eyes.
Valhalla returned, pulling himself from the cracks in space, dragging himself back into the fight. Dev was already there, his beasts swarming around him, ready to finish this.
They didn't even need words. The two of them, gravity and shadows, moved as one, perfectly synchronized, rushing in from both sides to crush Richie between them.
But Richie wasn't done.
With a roar that ripped the sky in half, Richie launched forward, dying but unstoppable, catching both attacks in his bare hand. His bones shattered on impact. Blood sprayed from his mouth in thick lumps. But he pushed through it. He grabbed Valhalla and Dev by their necks and smashed their heads together with a sickening crack, the sound echoing like thunder. He dropped them like broken toys at his feet.
Richie stumbled, blood pouring from a thousand cuts, half-blind, half-dead, but still standing.
Slowly, painfully, Dev pushed himself up again. His face was a bloody mess, one eye swollen shut, teeth broken. Valhalla rose beside him, his cold eyes burning with rage.
Dev wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, grinning with cracked lips. Valhalla's fingers twitched, pulling the very gravity around him into tight, trembling knots.
Valhalla twisted gravity into a spear, not to throw at Richie, but to lock him in place. An invisible prison crushed down on Richie's body, pinning him midair like an insect in glass.
At the same time, Dev bit into his own thumb, blood dripping, and slammed his hand against the ground. A circle of black runes erupted under Richie, burning brighter and brighter until they carved themselves into the earth.
Dev... had waited until now. Not because he was saving it, but because this seal could only activate when the enemy had used all his moves was burning their own life force. Only when Richie was killing himself could Dev trap him.
It was a twisted checkmate. Richie roared, thrashing against the invisible chains. His flames flared. Lightning exploded from his skin. Ice daggers shot into the air. The earth cracked under his feet.
But it was too late. The runes drank his rage. Turned his strength into his own prison. And then, like a collapsing star, he crashed onto the ground, coughing blood, gasping for air.
Dev didn't waste a second. He climbed on Richie, his fist clenched tight as he brought down the punches.
Ash could hear the dull thud of knuckles against bone even from where he stood. Could see Richie's head snap back with every blow, blood pouring from his mouth, his nose, his shattered skin.
Dev didn't stop. It wasn't just about winning. It was about punishment. It was about making a statement. He raised his fist high into the air, blood dripping from his knuckles. His chest heaved. His hair was wild. His eyes burned with something bigger than hatred, something almost like righteousness.
And then he roared, voice tearing through the battlefield like a spear:
"THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE TRAITOR!"
And he brought his fist down. Again.
Richie's head rocked with every brutal punch, his face vanishing under blood and dirt. Valhalla stood over them, silent, cold, like a grim statue, watching as Dev unleashed everything they had held back.