Deep within the misty forests of the Aetheris Empire, Imperial arrives alone — wounded but unyielding. The aftermath of a fierce battle clings to him, yet his resolve burns brighter than ever. As he reaches a strange clearing scorched bare by past devastation, he finds four powerful figures waiting.
One, seated calmly on a stone, greets him with chilling composure, calling him the "Red-Marked One." Imperial's reply crackles with defiance and lightning — he refuses to be part of their scheme and names their leader: Gravio, the Living Demon.
The forest grows tense as the four — members of the Elite Five, beings feared for their city-shattering might — prepare to face Imperial.
Imperial slowly unsheathed his twin blades.
Arcane energy spiraled around them — one crackling with fierce, blue lightning, the other shrouded in rippling shadows that bent the air around its edge.
Across the clearing stood Ben, Morgan, and Lucy.
The pressure of their combined magic collided with Imperial's aura, shaking the forest itself. Trees splintered, roots tore from the ground, and the air hummed like the calm before a storm.
Then — from behind them — Gravio leapt from his perch on the stone.
His figure blurred, and in an instant, he was upon Imperial, his fist glowing with violent, red energy.
Imperial crossed his blades, bracing for impact — but the moment their powers clashed, his body grew unbearably heavy. His arms trembled under the crushing force of Gravio's presence.
As the punch came within a breath of striking, Imperial's form flickered — his body turning gaseous in a flash of lightning mist. The attack tore through harmless vapor.
But before he could fully reform, Lucy's sound magic burst through the air like a shockwave. The concussive blast struck Imperial head-on, slamming him backward through the clearing.
Still in motion, Morgan moved — mercury magic coiling from his hands, forming a gleaming trap behind Imperial. The metallic spikes shimmered, ready to impale.
Seeing it too late, Imperial tried to jam one blade into the ground to stop his momentum —
—but the earth beneath him turned suddenly to sand, Ben's magic distorting the terrain. His blade skidded uselessly across the soft ground, sparks flying as Imperial slid toward the deadly trap.
But just as Imperial was about to be skewered by the sharp mercury spikes… he smiled.
In an instant, the entire forest vanished.
The towering trees, the scattered leaves, even the air itself—everything was swallowed by pitch-black.
A suffocating darkness.
Lucy, Ben, Morgan, and Gravio suddenly found themselves standing in what felt like an endless void.
Imperial had dragged them all into his Dark Dimension.
Before anyone could react, Imperial vanished—and reappeared behind Lucy, switching their positions in a blink.
Lucy, crashed straight into the suspended mercury spikes. The spears pierced through her body—but instead of blood, her form crumbled like collapsing sand.
She reformed instantly, unfazed.
Gravio snarled. "Enough tricks!"
Without listening to Ben's warning—
"Gravio! Don't be reckless! We don't know what this place is—!"
—Gravio charged blindly, twin gravity-forged blades crackling in his hands.
Imperial let out a soft cough.
And with that, the darkness shattered.
The group was suddenly back in the forest.
But Imperial's momentary delay cost him—Gravio's fist, coated in crushing gravitational force, slammed into his chest.
BOOOOM!
Imperial was blasted backward, crashing through tree after tree, splinters ripping through the air.
Gravio didn't stop.
He roared like a beast, launching a relentless barrage of gravity-coated strikes, creating craters with every blow. The forest trembled under his fury—trees uprooted, ground split, leaves swirling violently in the shockwaves.
Then—with a wild grin—Gravio raised both arms.
The broken trees, shattered rocks, and fallen debris around them floated into the air, hovering like thousands of weapons waiting to be unleashed.
Imperial steadied himself, coughing, glancing upward.
The sky was blotted out.
Wood. Stone. Steel fragments. All suspended above him like a meteor storm ready to fall.
With a flick of Gravio's hand—
They rained down.
Imperial tightened his grip on his blades.
And then—
He leaped.
Straight toward the falling storm.
With a fierce exhale, Imperial crossed his blades—one sparking with blinding lightning, the other drenched in devouring darkness.
He swung.
No sound followed.
No explosion. No impact.
The massive avalanche of falling debris simply vanished into clean slices—branches, boulders, and splinters hovering weightlessly for a heartbeat before raining down like harmless dust.
Imperial landed softly—
—but Morgan was already ready.
"Mercury Blades!"
Dozens of razor-sharp mercury spears launched toward him mid-air.
They exploded before reaching him.
A thick pillar of lightning shot up from the ground beneath Imperial, spiraling upward and disintegrating every blade in its path.
He touched down—
—only to start sinking.
Lucy had already transformed the ground beneath him into quicksand, dragging his legs deeper the more he struggled. The sand clung to him like iron restraints.
Then the sand swelled.
Two colossal sand giants formed before him, towering with arms reshaping into massive hammers.
They brought them down—
BOOM!!
But before the crushing blow could land, Gravio flashed in like a meteor.
His gravity-forged fist obliterated both sand monsters in a single strike, splitting them apart into harmless dunes.
The same punch kept going—slamming into Imperial's chest and blasting him free of the sand, launching him backwards like a cannonball.
But he didn't get far.
"Sound Burst!"
—Ben's voice thundered.
Invisible shockwaves smashed into Imperial mid-air, sending him spiraling upward like he'd been hit by an artillery shell.
Gravio narrowed his eyes.
He clenched his fist—and twisted.
The air itself warped.
Gravity coiled around Imperial like chains—
SLAM!!!
Imperial was dragged down at blinding speed, crashing into the ground with force that split the earth wide open.
A crater erupted beneath him. Dust exploded outward. Trees rattled from the shockwave.
The crater where Imperial had crashed still smoked. Dust curled into the sky like a dying fire. His fingers twitched, trying to push his body off the shattered ground—
SCHLNK!
A mercury spike stabbed through his forearm, nailing it back to the earth.
Morgan stood above, hand raised, mercury swirling in the air beside him like liquid blades.
"Don't move."
Imperial snarled, lightning crawling across his arm—sparks building, ready to explode—
BWWAAAAAM!!!
Ben's sound bullet slammed into his ribs like a cannonball. There was no flash, no projectile—just impact. His eyes widened as he felt his body lift and crash sideways, rolling through broken gravel.
Before he could even catch his breath—
The ground swallowed him.
Lucy's sand surged like a tidal wave, grabbing his legs, chest, arms—everything—and dragged him down. In seconds, he was buried waist-deep, his entire torso constricted like a python squeezing the breath out of him.
He strained to move—
The sand tightened.
Lucy smirked. "Struggle more. It hardens when you do."
Ben's voice rolled over the battlefield like a cold echo.
"Face it, Imperial. You're are not stronger than us ."
Lightning burst from Imperial's shoulders—
BOOM!!
He broke free—sand exploding outward in all directions—
But he didn't even get a full second of freedom.
Gravity hit him like a mountain.
Gravio's foot crashed down onto his chest with crushing force, smashing him back into the dirt. The pressure was so intense that the ground beneath him cracked again, spiderweb lines spreading outward.
Imperial tried to lift his arm—
It wouldn't move.
His lungs strained.
It felt like a planet was sitting on his chest.
But then—
The earth beneath them exploded with light.
A colossal lightning beam erupted straight from the ground, swallowing both Imperial and Gravio in a blinding pillar. The beam wasn't just light — it was rage given form. The air howled. Nearby trees trembled violently just from the pressure. The ground cracked like shattered glass.
The magic was so dense, so furious, that the forest itself seemed to recoil.
The beam raged for a full second — then finally thinned out, leaving a smoking crater.
Dust swirled.
The world went quiet.
And when the glow faded…
Gravio was still on top of Imperial.
His body crackled with residual lightning burns, steam hissing from his shoulders — but he hadn't moved an inch.
He didn't even flinch.
He stared down at imperial, eyes wild — more beast than man.
Slowly, he leaned closer, his fist pressing down on Imperial's chest like a mountain ready to fall.
In a voice low and primal, he growled:
"Stay. Down."
Then the beating began.
BAM!
A fist to the jaw — blood spatters.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Ribs. Stomach. Face. Over and over. Each strike heavier than the last — gravity amplifying every blow until bones creaked.
Imperial coughed blood as another punch drilled into him. His vision doubled. His grip weakened on his own blades.
Ben folded his arms, his voice dripping with cruel amusement.
"Wanna know the worst part, kid?"
He jerked a thumb at himself, Lucy, and Morgan.
"We three" — he smirked — "We haven't even started fighting for real yet
Morgan stood back, watching coldly. "Make sure he can't move."
Ben flicked his fingers—high-pitched pulses of sound drilling into Imperial's ears, not enough to knock him out—just enough to torture.
Lucy folded her arms as sand crawled back toward Imperial's legs like living chains. "He won't last long. His heartbeat's getting irregular."
Gravio paused—then grabbed Imperial by the collar and lifted him one-handed, his body dangling like a broken doll.
Imperial's head hung low, blood dripping from his mouth.
Ben tilted his head. "Any last moves, lightning boy?"
Imperial didn't respond.
His breaths were shallow.
His eyes were half-lidded.
He looked…
mperial's lungs burned as he struggled against Gravio's iron grip, the gravity-infused hand clenched around his collar like a shackle.
His mind raced.
Something's off inside me… my body feels unstable. Every move is delayed — every strike weaker than it should be. And them…
He glanced past Gravio's shoulder at the other three circling like wolves.
Their timing… their synergy… it's insane. They move like one organism. Even if I were at full strength, taking them head-on would be brutal. Right now…
Right now, I'm at the worst possible disadvantage.
He clenched his fist, lightning sparking weakly along his blade as he prepared to make some move—
But the moment he tried—
The other three pounced.
Morgan charged from the left, mercury coiling around his arm like a drill.
Lucy rushed from the right, sand rising beneath her feet like a tidal wave.
Ben launched forward from behind Gravio, sound thrumming in his clenched fist like a charging railgun.
Gravio didn't move.
He just tightened his grip, forcing Imperial to stay upright—to face it all.
He wasn't restraining Imperial.
He was offering him up.
Just as the three were about to slam into Imperial, a sharp whistle of wind split the chaos.
Erika appeared.
In a flash, her blade traced a perfect arc — one side trailing ice, the other flame. The edges burned and froze the air simultaneously, creating a crescent-shaped wave of magic that surged outward.
Morgan's mercury froze mid-swing, Lucy's sand hardened and cracked, and Ben's soundwave dissipated against the unexpected onslaught.
The three were thrown violently backward, skidding across the ground, coughing and struggling to regain balance.
Before they could recover, another presence moved like a shadow.
Draco.
Steel magic rippled across his arms as he grabbed Imperial, lifting him from Gravio's crushing grip. The force of the pull was precise, careful—Imperial felt himself safely yanked free just as Gravio's hand tensed, sparks of residual lightning sliding across his knuckles.
Imperial landed on his feet, chest heaving, gripping his blades again. Erika's ice-and-flame arc still shimmered in the air, a lingering warning. Draco held him steady, eyes scanning the battlefield.
The four who had dominated him moments ago now paused, reassessing their opponents.
The balance had shifted—just slightly—but enough to buy Imperial a chance to breathe, to regroup, and to strike again.