Jenso's spear evaporated on contact with Yzeira's shield this time around, and the mist began to sink into his skin, restricting his movement slightly. Jeff's nano-bots began to reform a new arm for him, which turned into a slick-looking gauntlet of sorts shortly afterwards.

"I don't want to admit it, but I feel pretty low on energy already."

"I won't last much longer myself."

"Stand back."

Alexis jumped back away from Jenso, fading away and appearing beside Yzeira.

"You shouldn't have to fight any longer."

Yzeira rose his hands slowly and began to focus energy, aiming it towards where Jenso stood. Despite his attempts to move however, the mist from earlier quickly paralyzed him in place. The sheer focus of Alexis' void control was enough to immobilize him despite the power that welled up inside.

"You've done enough."

A stream of energy erupted from Yzeira's hand at top speed. Bruce tried to move in its path to stop it with his blade, but several spikes blocked his path. Jeff did the same, launching a focused sniper shot towards it, but dealt no damage to the attack. It seemed like Jenso was finished.

"I won't let you."

The ground in front of Jenso shattered as a large being that he hadn't seen before emerged with a barrier to intercept Yzeira's attack. The beam broke through and hit him dead center, sending him sliding back to Jenso. He stopped inches in front of him and held his ground until the beam was spent. Zios, Oz's new form, turned to greet Jenso with a blank expression. "You cannot break our resolve." Just then, Jenso would feel his body regain control. Although Alexis' void was powerful, it couldn't restrain him for long.

"The meta-beast that fought Zelriane."

"Who cares?" Alexis cut off Yzeira, "Kill it, don't contemplate the possibilities!"

"..."

"That's the plan! That's the formula! Stop thinking and just do!"

'I'm ready, blup blup!'

Jenso glanced at Zios, and smiled. His friends had given him one final chance to win, and he wasn't about to waste it. He pumped all of his energy towards his right hand, and his form began to flicker. It looked like it was about to run out, but Jenso didn't falter. 'Tell me the plan, blup!' He cried out in his mind.

Yzeira hesitated for only a moment before focusing his gaze on Zios. It took only a moment for Blup to relay his plan to everyone using his relay though.

'Yzeira's power is superior to anything we have other than Bruce's Order Slicer. That is the only way we can harm him now that he's stopped holding back. The goal is simple. Get that sword to strike him! If it even grazes his skin, his abilities will be sealed for long enough for us to finish him off! I don't know if it will work on Shaidra, though. She is capable of teleportation in an instant, but my analysis of her magic is minimal. It's clear that she must be close to whoever she wishes to teleport, so we must pin her down. However, if she can see an attack coming, it will simply phase through her body. With Yzeira covering her, this makes the two of them together a nearly unbeatable force.

We have an ace up our sleeves though, blup. Jenso's attack has annihilated Yzeira's tattoo and its abilities. Once our ace is revealed, we'll have the opportunity to strike.

First Zios...

The information popped into their heads in less than a second like magic, as if they'd known the plan all along. Zios lowered his body and rose one hand.



From his palm came a sphere that grew and began to absorb the red energy that flooded the arena. Suddenly their battlefield was made safe, as all the newly generated energy was nullified by the orb of energy. Yzeira looked up at it and immediately began to focus his efforts on destroying it.

'Just as planned, he will destroy it in seconds. That is all the time we'll have. None of us are fast enough to react. Nobody except for Jeff, blup!'

Jeff nodded and dashed across the battlefield, aiming to strike shaidra from behind while Yzeira focused on the orb.

'Of course, he will prioritize Shaidra's safety. So far, we can assume that Yzeira has the capacity to maintain his shield, this massive aura, a series of attacks to keep Bruce at Bay, and just enough power to launch beams like the one that Zios shot. My analysis of his brainwaves at that times showed his upper limits! He is not omnipotent! Normally he could swat Jeff away easily, but the speed of his thoughts are not faster than Jeff's inherent physical speed...'

Jeff, with Blup's predictions, dodged a series of explosions that blocked him from striking Alexis just in time. Alexis turned around to notice the occurrence, but couldn't react.

'...They're almost equal, but just barely! Alexis cannot react to Jeff at all, so if he continued to bombard her, Yzeira will have to draw focus away from dismantling Zios' black hole! Since it is a complex form of meta energy he is not familiar with, he will have to consciously decipher its physical makeup, rather than simply destroying it! This alone should keep us safe for 10 seconds, at least. If Jeff can keep Alexis occupied, with his attacks, Yzeira will have to dedicate a great deal of his thinking power to keeping her safe! Fortunately for us...'

"Speedy little bastard! Destroy him! Destroy him now!"

'...Alexis does not want to die! She will not tell Yzeira to stop! While all this is happening, Bruce will likely still be under siege, but between him and Jeff's attacks, he won't be able to focus on killing Jenso at all, unless he drops the aura on the battlefield. Fortunately, Zios' black hole will detect that!..'

"He's bringing it down"

Yzeira conjured a series of spike to keep Bruce at bay, while constantly firing off instantaneous explosions to keep Jeff away from Alexis, who herself was keeping at eye on Zios, Jenso and Bruce.

'Phase one of our plan is complete. Yzeira's mental capacity can be suppressed with our combine efforts! Now fighting him will be like fighting a person with normal thought speed! At this point, Alexis is still a danger, but Jeff's attacks have her emotionally unstable. Zios will begin to attack her as well...'

Zios began to launch a series of multi-colored lasers towards Alexis, only for them to phase through her. She immediately focused on him and began to counter-attack with her black smog, and magical bombardments of her own creation.

'Which gives Jenso an opportunity to charge an attack capable of covering the entire battlefield over the next 5 seconds...'

Jenso immediately began to focus the blue energy within his hand, which began to expand and envelop his right arm along with his hand. He pulled his arm back, and the flames began to take form on top of his right fist while his arm began to glow.

'of course, if he brings down his field, we no longer have a time limit to deal with. But Zios' abilities are strong enough to repel Yzeira's attacks that would usually occur without any prompt through the fabric of time-space. Zios' can only take so much punishment though, so our time limit hasn't changed. Fortunately, Jenso should have just enough time to unleash his attack.

My analysis of Jenso's abilities make something vividly clear, something that allows this plan to have even the slightest chance of succeeding...

...His power is almost on par with Yzeira's! Jenso's harnessed an incomplete form of meta energy all on his own! And with it charging for long long while Yzeira has had no time to channel his own energy to counteract it, he'll be forced to spend at least 2 seconds doing absolutely nothing in order to stop it! And that's all the time that Bruce and Jeff need. In that time frame, the two of them will take out Alexis and Yzeira in one final blow!'

Jeff, Bruce and Zios nodded to themselves, waiting for their plan to come to its conclusion. It was going to be close, but they had a chance.

'Our chance of success is 73.5227%! Launch your attack when ready, Jenso!'

Jenso nodded in response to Blup. He thrusted his right arm forwards, unleashing a large blue stream of blue energy across the entire battlefield. He forced the last remaining energy of his to take form as he unleashed his most powerful attack.



As the blue energy advanced, it's sides shaped into giant blue wings that covered the entire length of the battlefield while it's front took the shape of a dragon's head. The entire wave of blue energy took the shape of a giant blue dragon, looking to crash straight into Yzeira and Shaidra.

Yzeira saw it coming long before Jenso fired his attack. Blup accounted for this, of course. He would have had to focus his efforts either way, and dropping his defense of Alexis would have resulted in an even higher chance of victory for the group of heroic fighters. So he waited for the attack to launch. But instead of stopping his counter assaults, he stood his ground and focused on keeping himself and Alexis safe.

"Research note-"

Alexis stopped in place and rose both hands above her head. A spiral of smokey energy whirled up from the ground immediately surrounding her and flew up towards the dragon's head, slowing it significantly on impact like a supporting pillar slowing the fall of debris.

"-Meta energy is neither infinite, nor all powerful. It is merely an agreement with the void born under unique circumstances. The ability to harness void energy by changing it into another form of energy entirely. Direct control over the void would grant a truly infinite supply of energy that could overcome anything. Harnessing the void would be absolutely impossible under normal circumstances. However..." A surge of darkness overtook the giant dragon that crashed down towards the battlefield until it turned from blue to purple. As Alexis spoke, Jeff and Bruce refused to let up on their assaults, but were still stopped at every junction.

"If something is born under unique circumstances, if something is allowed to exist made entirely of void, how would that impede on the calculations? Positively."

The roaring attack born of flames and meta energy collapsed in on itself and disappeared with an echoing puff of smoke. Alexis knelt down to compose herself briefly afterwards and chuckled.

"Results on the body may vary."

"Excellent theory." Yzeira's eyes flashed as he knelt low and swept one hand upwards. A giant spike of energy erupted from the ground at Zios' feet and penetrated his chest with a resounding crash, sending tendrils of crimson energy through his body. "I expected Shaidra to be an astounding leap in my research once her consciousness equalized. Something none of my other test subjects provided, not even Rajaka. I see it as a divine bonus that you returned so vividly, un-intoxicated by the void that overtook you."

"Strong memories."

"Like Nexus, but-"

"Less naive."

The battlefield went silent for a moment.

"And, well, still alive."

Jenso fell on one knee, wheezing as his attack had failed. 'The lack of knowledge on Shaidra made us fail.' He said throughout his mind, glancing at Zios as Yzeira's crimson spike pierced his chest. He glared at the two Order of Chaos members. 'Shit...we can't lose now..!' He told his friends. 'What do we do now? I could charge at them again, but..'

Zios took a step back and the spike in his chest faded. 'My body could only absorb so much of his energy. He waited until my meta barrier was weak enough to fully penetrate.'

'How!? That's just cheating!'

'My Ki reserves are nearing their limit...'

"How I wish I could read the disappointments that plague your simple minds. It is a magic that I was never privy to." Yzeira clapped his hands together and several more spikes erupted around Zios, impaling him several times over. "This one's body is-"

"Easily destroyed! Get it over with! Ka..Uff.." Alexis almost choked on her own shouts, coughing up a bit of black smoke. "Quick!" Yzeira grunted and glared at Zios while still repelling both Jeff and Bruce. Alexis fell to her knees coughing heavily, but he didn't falter.

'We can't give up yet! Blup, any other ideas?'

'Zios' body is losing its tangibility. He will be dead soon. Jeff's Ki is already tapping into crucial reserves, even if he isn't showing it. Bruce has little energy to spare, and Jenso's Meta energy has not yet been perfected - He's out of stamina as well! Not looking good. calculations to account for Shaidra's abilities are worthless without the power to go along with them. We cannot overwhelm Yzeira's mind without power. But Alexis is...'

Just then Jeff's undamaged arm was nicked by a sliver of red energy as he tumbled through the swarm of attacks. He crashed into the ground and rolled towards Jenso, stopping at his feet. "Ack!" Bruce dodged another series of spiked narrowly before retreating back to where Zios, jenso, and Jeff were gathered. Zios breathed heavily as the spikes in his body disappeared from sight.

'i can give us time.'

'Zios? No! Do not waste energy for time! Jeff pushing himself has already slowed down significantly! If you exceed your limits with meta energy, there's no telling would could happen!'

Yzeira, without another word, ceased his attacks for a moment. Then, he rose one hand above his head and began to amass energy at an alarming rate with every last shred of his focus.

'There's no other choice. I'll overload my body. I'm sure that I can at least halt his attacks for a short while if I focus all of my power...' Zios stood tall and sealed his wounds poorly with new layers of rock and flesh.

"I am our shield. Shields are not meant to be hidden away. They are meant to protect."

Jenso turned towards Zios and frowned. 'Oz...no, Zios. I admire your resolve. I will believe in you.' He spoke, standing up slowly and nearly falling over. He glanced over at Alexis. 'Alvios must have damaged her more than we expected. We can't let his sacrifise go to waste.' He thought, clenching his fists firmly.

'Zios, I won't tell you to simply go there and die. But if you really want to go through with this...show that red-coated freak what you're made of!' Jenso stated, blue energy sparkling faintly around his fists. 'Let's come up with a new plan quickly, Blup! With the time Zios is giving us!'

'I'll do what I can, blup.'

"I am not going to walk to my death. I will be the shield that saves this world, and many others. The shield that protects our many blades." Yzeira glared at Zios as he stepped forward, while Alexis slowly walked over to her old friend's side.

"This will finish it."

"Your words are more hollow now than ever before."



Yzeira slammed his hand against the ground with a heave and a grunt. From the impact point, a massive wave of crashing red energy roared out and launched towards the group of heroes. Zios stood his ground and straightened his stance.



Zios' body flashed with strange energies for a moment. Then, it grew. It grew and grew until it was half the size of Oz's Atlas, all in the span of a second. Then it braced itself, projecting a barrier between Yzeira's attack, and his precious friends. A brilliant flash of purple, pink, blue and red splayed out in all directions, away from Zios as his barrier absorbed the impact of the chaotic attack. It lasted for a few seconds, pushed his feet back towards Jenso and the others.

"Whoa," Jeff muttered, "That's one hell of a power-up."

When the attack was over, Zios' form shrank almost immediately, even smaller than he stood before. He breathed heavily as energy seeped from the poorly patched holes in his torso. Yzeira on the other hand, stood with his hand overhead, readying himself for another wave.

"Admirable that you have the capacity to withstand the full breadth of my power..." He narrowed his eyes and flexed his right arm overhead. "...Once..."

"I..."

Yzeira repeated his attack from earlier once again, launching a wave of energy identical to his earlier attack. Zios was spent. He couldn't move at all, let alone summon his bulwark a second time. But within his body, a flash of energy erupted, and pushed him to his feet.

"I will not falter!"

'Zios! If you push yourself any further, your body will come undone!'

"Then with it, I will bid farewell without a single regret!"



It happened too quickly to register. Jeff looked on in awe while everyone else stood silently as the red wave of energy was split down the middle and dispersed by a flash of light.

"I...It's...!"

"Oh man. That took a lot longer than I thought it would."

Yzeira took a step back as a smokey rip in space time slowly sealed itself back up, and a brilliant figure stood in its place. Alexis glared at the newcomer angrily, clenching her fists with a great deal of malice.

Alvios spun around a few times, and then finally smiled at Jenso and the gang with a small wave.

"Sorry I'm late. Took a wrong turn somewhere along the road."

"Looks like I'm here just in the nick of time, though. You guys were really hard to find through the darkness."

Jenso glanced at Alvios, smiling widely at him. "A-Alvios...!" He muttered. He stared at the glowing figure of his friend, not even caring for Alexis or Yzeira in that single moment. The blue energy around his fists expanded to the rest of his body, albeit still feintly. "You're..." He mumbled, a feeling of happyness and calmness soaring within himself. "Alive.." He muttered in relief.

"Easy, Jenso," Alvios urged, "Keep your wits about you."

Suddenly a spike pierced through Alvios' chest from behind, one of pure crimson energy. He looked down slowly and put one hand on it, before it faded away, leaving a hole behind. "Oh," he chuckled, as the hole sealed itself in the blink of an eye, "You actually missed me, ginger-boy." The scion of light spun around and lowered himself to stand in front of Zios.

"I am fully aware."

"How are you here?! I trapped you! You were left there without any way to escape!"

"Perhaps if you'd killed him-"

"Shut up!"

"Real simple, actually. I just needed to step it up a bit, poke a hole in the darkness of your little home. It took a little while, but through all the screams and tears, through every last painful wheeze, I persevered." Alvios rose a hand, forming several daggers of light around his wrist that spun in a circle like some sort of magical floating bracelet. "It was painful, but I broke my limits thanks to you. Because of you, I was able to reach this new form and slice a hole in space-time. Because of the energy that Ada infected me with, I could understand exactly where I needed to aim." Alexis staggered backwards a step. Alvios rose his free hand and summoned a sword of light in his grasp. "You beings of sheer power and torment, you absolute monsters, you all had the capacity to simply end us at every turn. But you just can't stop yourself from making mistakes, can you? Such intelligence, Yzeira, and you waste it on imperfect creatures like this worthless bitch?"

"Imperfection..."

"Of course," Alvios gawked, "Nobody's perfect."

'calculations done!'

Suddenly a surge of light blasted backwards from where Alvios stood, engulfing all of his friends and instantly resorting their Ki in one massive burst.

'Alvios' healing abilities have reached a point of self-sustainability! As long as he stands, our stamina is infinite!'

"You guys ready to end this?"

Jenso got in a combat stance, regaining his balance fully as his stamina returned. He smirked at Alvios and nodded. "I definitely am, and I believe the others feel the same way. Time for all this to be over." Jenso responded. The blue energy around his body got thicker and the glow in his eyes stopped flickering, now a stable bright blue again.

'Second plan completed! Success rate; 68.13%!'

'Can't say I like those numbers, Blup." Jeff readied his newly formed gauntlets as instructions began to pour into his head.

'Jeff! Shaidra's body is showing signs of fatigue from her earlier attack! She should be unable to defend herself from you! Your clones might be useless with Yzeira's eyes as a factor, but she will not be able to tell the difference! If we can somehow convince her that she's capable of blocking an attack on her own, she may lunge towards you! Yzeira will know this, but he may only aid her. His mind is quick, but he words are just words. They will not reach her in time. You may have to take a hit, but with Alvios here in his new form, you will be fine if you do not sustain immediate lethal damage to your brain. Your goal is to hide yourself within the clones, and trick Shaidra's sight. Even with Yzeira's guidance, he will not be able to communicate which clone is the real you to his ally.'

"Got'chya, clones coming right up! With this surge of energy I feel like I could manage dozens!" With that, Jeff exploded into the battlefield, weaving through a series of delayed red energy. "Huh? Did he get slower?"

'Blup! That is Zios' doing! As long as he stands, Yzeira will not be able to conjure weak attacks this far away from his body, as Zios' aura will simply negate them! Instead, he much charge them, granting us time to dodge, and dampening his ability to react at far range! Of course, Yzeira's aura dwarfs Zios'. This will not work at close range. With it though, we can proceed to phase two of the plan! Jenso! You must engage Shaidra directly, and aim to push her closer to Zios! He cannot move quickly, and his aura has a limited range! Once she is inside of it, Jeff will have a much higher chance of success!"

"Stay away from the big one, Alexis!" Yzeira shouted, gathering energy in the pit of his stomach. Orbs began to float around him again, offering him immediate reserves.

'Jenso, you much engage in close range combat while avoiding lethal damage. If you can push Alexis closer to us, we're half way finished!'

Jenso nodded at Blup. 'Got it!' He replied, dashing towards Alexis. Blue electricity began to crackle around the fingertips of his right hand, while his blue aura began to get thicker around his left arm. He kept a close eye on her, waiting to see her response to his approach. Naturally, he doubted that she would just stand there and take it.

'Shaidra may pass through all attacks that she can see, but she cannot do so while attacking. Nor does this affect her vision. We must blind her so that her senses are minimized, and then use that advantage to trick her completely.'

Shaidra stepped away from one of Jeff's attacks, while several of his clones were cut into pieces before reforming by bladed of red energy. Some of the clones were absolutely destroyed by the explosive force of Yzeira's attacks, but Jeff made sure to form even more of them as they were defeated. With Yzeira defending Shaidra, Jenso was not able to get directly to his target without first meeting heavy resistance. Not only did Shaidra turn towards him, but several red spots formed on the ground directly in his path.

'Maybe...if Alvios uses that shining light sphere of his, he could blind Shaidra momentarily even if Yzeira would not be affected, and keep it at a far enough distance so Zios's aura will prevent Yzeira from taking it down. And Jeff could perhaps use the wind while she's blinded, to carry his words to her ear? He's incredibly quick, after all. So it's believable that he could be near her already. It may just cause her to flinch and attack, and give me an opening..' He said to Blup and his allies.

As the red dots formed on the ground, he could only assume what it would be. Spikes or land mines seemed the most likely. He took aim with the palm of his right hand, unleashing a stream of blue electricity forwards at the red dots to try to destabilize and disperse them. He slowed down somewhat as he did, waiting for the result of his technique while maintaining some distance.

'Blup... Recalculation, success rate raised to 72%! Alvios, Jeff!'

In a split second their instructions were psychically downloaded and they nodded to one another. Alvios bombarded the entire battlefield with light spheres and swords, being careful not to strike his allies. Many of the ones that might have hit Yzeira of Shaidra were stopped by red orbs of his own creations, while others hit the ground and remained in place. Yzeira began to disperse them one by one, when Bruce suddenly zoomed in behind him and slashed at his body. But again, his arm was made a target and his body was encompassed in energy. He kissed his teeth in annoyance and pulled his attack back long before it reached the man. Zios launched his orb at him in the same moment, but a bolt of chaotic lightning destroyed it in an explosive flash. Shaidra moved from side to side while energy still kept Jeff at bay, but stayed near Yzeira.

'This will work much better. We will surround Shaidra in light!'

Jeff's clones converged on Shaidra, but a pulse of red energy dispersed them in one swoop. Within each of them hid an intense sphere or sword of light. Yzeira saw it and quickly destroyed them as they exploded, nullifying a great deal of the flash. But within the clones, Jeff also hid within the wind.

'Now Jenso! Get her closer to Zios!

He would have less than a second to figure out some way to re position her while Yzeira's attention was occupied.