"If you keep pushing," The man started, following Jenso's movements perfectly, and reacting with a wall of reddish energy that surrounded his body, "You'll kill yourself before I have a chance." Lark dashed forwards and sliced at the barrier, but his sword only cracked it slightly, and the man within launched a ball of energy towards the Gaian's torso, pushing him back. Mikey circled around opposite to where Jenso attacked from and punched at the red man while he was distracted, but was stopped by a sudden spike that jutted from the ground, into his other leg. He fell down onto both knees, as his legs, despite working fine a moment ago, stopped functioning. Lark dashed at him again, but the man, without moving from his position, rose a hand and encircled Lark in a sudden amalgamation of reddened chain-like energy, which pulled him back and tossed him to the ground. Lark felt his energy leave his torso quickly, after which point, Jenso was the man's primary target.

"Please, just stop," He muttered, raising a hand above his head. Energy began to pool into his palm from all directions, creating a sphere of swirling power, dark, twisted, and perfectly rounded with absolute control keeping its shape from dissipating.

Jenso's eyes widened as his companions were struck, and glared at the sphere. He aimed a kick with his left foot at the man's raised arm, in an attempt to shake up the sphere and get it to lose shape. "We'll never stop! Not until we take you down!" Jenso roared.

Mikey tried to raise himself up to warn Jenso, but was too slow. "Jenso, no!"

But it was too late.

The barrier dropped, and Jenso's foot struck the man's arm, but a second layer of red energy blocked his kick, and the sphere shot forwards, shrinking to the size of a ping-pong ball before penetrating Jenso's chest and exiting the other side. The man stepped back, and lowered his arm.

"Die."

Again, the small sphere shot back towards the man's hand, this time piercing the opposite side of Jenso's chest, through his heart, in a single swift motion. Lark struggled to stand, but before he could manage, Pij was forcefully removed from his being, and the man was left laying with his sword dissipated, and his familiar fainted in her smaller, bird-like form but his side. The man in red stepped towards him and leaned forward, looking over Jenso as he fell back to the ground.

"Maybe you should thank me. Death by Ki exhaustion is far more painful than what I've offered you just now."

Jenso's eyes widened as he felt the sharp pain when the sphere pierced his heart. His surroundings and the man in red began to look blurry, as he began to fall over. "Blegh...!" Jenso blurted out, coughing up blood as he was about to collapse to the ground. He reached his left arm towards the red man as he fell. 'N...No...I..have to..!' Jenso thought, as everything went black. He collapsed into the ground on his back, no longer moving.

"Jenso!!" Mikey called out, reaching out for his friend. His Geyser Gauntlets disappeared, and the man slammed his fists against the ground helplessly. Lark struggled to sit upright, himself.

"No.." Lark said softly. His One with nature fusion had left him exhausted, incapable of helping any further.

"Shame. This might've ended differently if that Gaian hadn't shown up. Ah, well. Ashes to ashes, I suppose," The man in red said, surveying the arena. "Cherish what time you have left, children. I've just about finished with your world, and when the time comes, it will all return to the void, as it was meant to from the very beginning. Just like this fool, you will all return to the darkness, soon enough." He paused and looked down at the dying Jenso, shaking his head.

"Goodbye, golden boy. Perhaps we will meet again, when time ends, and my soul joins you in the endless expanse of our multiverse."

---

Where was he? Where was this?.. When was this? It was unfamiliar. Completely alien. A feeling that Jenso had never felt before in his entire life. Was he alive? Dead? What was this feeling that tugged away at his Ki, but couldn't quite overpower him? Jenso found himself as nothing more than pure energy. He had no body, no voice, and barely enough singularity to rationalize any modicum of thought. Jenso was trapped somewhere hopeless... The infinite void between worlds.

He couldn't see, or hear, or smell. The only way Jenso could perceive anything was through his Ki, a sense that he had not been able to hone to the point where he could match Mikey, or anyone else who specialized in Ki. But here, it felt easy. It was his only option, and in an instant, Jenso could feel everything for miles in every direction. Could he even consider it to be miles though? Was distance even relevant in the void? Nothing felt normal here. It felt like the very air was trying to devour Jenso, and rid him of his freedom.

Jenso looked around him using his Ki, trying to figure out what was going on. 'Am...Am I in hell? Or is this supposed to be heaven?' Jenso thought, moving through the darkness as he attempted to find anything or anyone that could tell him where he was and how he could get out. 'The man in red killed me...I'm pretty sure he did, but..' Jenso thought.

It quickly became clear that Jenso was not moving anytime soon. The darkness around him began to close in, crushing his very soul beneath a never ending torrent of endless energy. For a moment it seemed hopeless, but soon, he heard something familiar. Another bright light in the foggy darkness. It was warm, but weak. It seemed familiar,

"..J...N.."

That voice..! Jonathan?!" The boy that Prisma had slain was here!

"Johnathan?! You're ali-" Jenso muttered in a cheerful tone, but stopped speaking. Was he even alive? And was Jenso even alive himself? "...It's good to see you!" Jenso said after a short pause.

Jonathan didn't respond. It wasn't really him, only his Ki. The boy had not had a single chance to harness it, but something inside of his soul kept him from being consumed by the void. He called out for the last thing he remembered before Prisma finished him off.

"J..Jens.."

It was going to end soon. He couldn't fight anymore. What could Jenso do? Leaving the remnants of his Ki there to die, like he'd let him die in the past, was that really all there was? Was it all hopeless?

Jenso tried to touch the boy's Ki with his own, attempting to use his own Ki to ward off the void that was about to consume Jonathan's Ki. "I'm here...Jenso is here, don't worry.." Jenso muttered.

As Jenso neared the Ki, a sudden surge of energy rushed through him. Moments passed, or was it years? Time lost all meaning for a split second, but before he knew it, his body had returned to him, and he was alone, kneeling on a floating island made of black stone.

He could see the edges from where he knelt, they weren't very far. The island was almost as big as the arena he was in before the man in red had sent him here. Unfortunately, he was without clothing, and something else was in there with him. What was it though? It crept along the underside of the island, waiting for a moment to strike, and feed on Jenso's Ki.

Jenso frowned and clenched his fists, quickly standing up. 'I have my body back...but I still don't know where I am..' Jenso thought. He didn't see anything, but he had a very bad feeling. He could sense something bad below him. He dashed forwards over the island. He was unsure if the bad presence could break through the ground below him, but he had no intention of standing still and finding out the hard way.

There was a skittering noise, and then a hiss, before a purple lizard-like creature crawled over the edge of the small island, opposite to where Jenso was standing. It had no eyes, and where its head should have been, there was a giant gaping circular maw, similar to the mouths of the giant sand worms in Orobo. It had 5 legs, scattered randomly along its slim, purple body, that all had random joints, and were topped with clawed appendages. As it moved, it seemed like the arms were moving across its skin like it had no bones. Almost like its body was liquid. It hissed and neared Jenso, turning the entire atmosphere into a treacherous Ki-draining battlefield.

Jenso glared at the beast as it approached. 'What the hell is that?!...Well, it doesn't matter right now. I need to kill it before it drains my Ki!' Jenso thought, and slammed his left heel into the ground. He hoped a flame wave would erupt from the ground and head straight for the beast's legs. 'I'm not sure if my arcane powers work here...' Jenso thought. A surge of power rushed through him. He dashed further to the right at top speeds in order to avoid the beast's assault, in case the flame wave wouldn't appear or if it would simply fail to stop it.

Jenso's flame wave did not manifest.. Not normally, anyways. rather, a wave of yellow energy rushed forward for a few feet, stopping the creature's sudden steps, and freezing it in place. Was it afraid? It paused for a few moments, before rushing forwards with its teeth bared.

Jenso stared in confusion as the wave struck. 'Why is it yellow...wait, am I using Ki?!' Jenso thought. He had never been able to shoot Ki before, and now he did it suddenly when trying to use arcane? Well, regardless, it seemed the creature was afraid of it. Jenso attempted to launch a flame ball into it's mouth. A surge of power rushed through him and he attempted to jump out of the way of it's teeth at great speeds to it's left, and aimed a low-sweeping kick at a few of it's legs with his left foot in an attempt to knock it off-balance along with it's current forward momentum, to try to get it to fall forward into the fireball with it's mouth open.

Jenso's fire-ball took the form of a yellow ball of shifting energy, and struck the beast head-on, blowing its head to pieces. But it didn't quite fall, until after Jenso snapped its legs off with a sweeping kick. In one fell combo, the beast began to fade away. Suddenly, the reality around him began to fade, and his body lost its shape. Once again, in a split second, he was returned to the darkness.

---

Jenso found himself floating through the darkness once more. Something tugged at his consciousness, though, from somewhere he recognized. What was it? Where was he being pulled towards?

Jenso attempted to move through the darkness, trying to head towards whichever pulled him along while trying to discern what it was. He put all of his focus on it, determined to find out what it was. After all, it was his only lead now.