Moonlit Obliteration!
[Moonlit Obliteration: Aphex channels the entirety of his power to unleash a devastating explosion of lunar energy that annihilates everything within a 1-kilometer radius. The explosion leaves behind a barren wasteland where no skills or abilities can be activated for 20 seconds. This skill halves Aphex's current HP upon use.]
As Aphex unleashed his most devastating ability, a sickening cough tore through his chest.
Dark blood splattered the ground as the backlash of the attack ravaged his body.
He gritted his teeth through the pain, his glowing form flickering like a dying star.
But to him, it was worth it.
BOOM!
-5,668,303!
He received the damage, which was half of his current health.
[Aphex HP: 5,668,303/25,000,000]
Aphex was on the brink of death, but even then he couldn't give up.
[Kill the Chosen One.]
This panel was omnipresent, always following him wherever he looked.
This was the task that the Godless Demon had given them, and he wouldn't let him down.
"NO MATTER WHAT," Aphex shouted.
BOOOOOM!
The devastation he sought to unleash was already forming.
A beam of raw lunar energy descended from the heavens, growing wider and brighter as it neared the Earth.
The sky split with a deafening roar, the ground trembling violently beneath its might as it threatened to consume everything.
"..." Stark looked up, unfazed.
He was going to die, this was a certainty now.
But even then, he didn't care at all.
He was too far from the girls to hope to use the [Teleportation Sphere] on them while inside the radius of the attack.
The best thing he could do now was to save them and hope.
"Time Flow," he whispered, activating one of [Focus]'s perks to slow down time for three seconds.
During these three seconds, he put his plan into action.
The lunar energy was right above him, slowed down, and he couldn't afford to waste a single second.
"Come on, help me for once," He looked down at the [Sculk Necklace] he was carrying.
Stark had realized that for a [Domination] user, equipment never really mattered: they advanced way too fast to even hope of keeping a single equipment or gear.
That is why none of those he met until now had used them, and that could be the same for Stark.
Sculk, though it annoyed him a lot in the second trial, could now easily be broken through by monsters and humans at his level.
But there was one more use for it: he could control the sculk, meaning that he was able to do some things even from a large distance.
And that is what he planned to do now.
Gripping the [Teleportation Sphere] in his hand, he activated it.
[Whisper your location into the sphere, then tap it once more to teleport all people in range instantly.]
He did as told, whispering the words "at the edge of Termina" into the item.
[Coordinates found, please tap again to teleport.]
But he didn't activate it for himself, though he could, instead he immediately threw it at intense speed toward Lilith and Sora.
And that's when the sculk would come into play: he could control it from far.
"COME ON," he repeated, extraction the dark blue liquid from the necklace and sending it forward, creating a hand made out of sculk, one of its fingers pointed as it dashed forward.
The sculk hand followed the teleportation sphere closely, and when it reached the appropriate distance to the two unconscious girls, Stark tapped the sphere with the hand.
Continue your journey on empire
But even then... that kid sacrificed himself.
Did he love Sora that much? Would anyone be this crazy?
If Mike and Elise knew about him before, and if Sora had told them about him, then maybe they would have accepted him as a son-in-law.
But now it was too late.
And finally... Stark's family.
"..."
"..."
"..."
None could say anything, they just looked down.
Wasn't this what they wanted from the start?
The moment they kicked Stark out of their home, they expected him to either come crawling back or just die.
They preferred the latter, simply because it wouldn't tarnish their family name any longer if the weakest link was done for.
And now that it was done.
Somehow, they felt a bit sad.
It probably because of the context, though, and because they knew the entire world was watching Stark's powers.
He probably had no idea he was being watched by millions, yet he still did all of that cool shit regardless.
He still saved those girls because he wanted to, not for validation.
Truly fascinating: he was completely different from them.
They kept watching, though, none of them saying anything or shedding a single tear as what was done was done, they couldn't change it.
Now the world needed to watch for what would happen.
With Chosen dead; and Lilith, Sora and Follower unconscious, though the latter was protected by some black demon, every participant was out.
It was over, and so now they needed to figure out what the "horrible thing that would happen to humanity" was.
In every household, every school, every hotel, every building, every restaurant, everyone watched.
Even those in rifts took the time out of their day to stop their trainings and fights to observe.
[Chosen's Dead?!]
[Nooo, he was my favorite!]
[Fuck Aphex!]
Thousands of discussions on forums and private messages spread, the news hitting everybody in mere seconds, even those that said they "didn't want to watch this useless shit".
The only person that was truly unfazed by all of this was Lana Moonless, who was still patiently waiting in their apartment.
Not a single tear, not a single bat of an eye.
She knew that Stark hadn't truly died after all, so why would she care.
She also was the only one who knew of his "other" ability, so no wonder.
Back in the trial, the massive beam of lunar energy kept coming down for 30 additional seconds, blinding everything in the surroundings.
"Haha..." Aphex laughed, "HAHAHAHHAHAHA!"
His sheer determination in killing Stark and completing his task, as well as his insanity and the blows he received, made him forget of the most crucial thing of all.
But right as the beam stopped, the trial going quite again, he suddenly reminisced Stark's words.
"See you in 30 seconds."
And at that very moment, he finally remembered about the revive, thanking himself for remembering it at such a crucial time.
"IDIOT!" Aphex kept laughing, ready to descend and end it once and for all, as he still had more than enough time to kill Stark the moment he reappeared.
Which meant...
That Aphex and the apostles had won.
It was game over for the boy.