The cataclysm stood in silence.

  It was humanoid in shape, yet unmistakably alien, its body encased in thick, overlapping carapace plates that reflected no light. Insect-like eyes protruded from its head, dozens of them, each swiveling independently as they scanned every direction at once. Its limbs were long and unnaturally thin, dark and segmented at precise intervals, giving the impression of something engineered rather than born.

  For a brief moment, it merely observed.

  That moment did not last.

  The moon hung high in the sky when space itself seemed to convulse.

  A fist struck the cataclysm with force so overwhelming it felt as though another cataclysm had delivered the blow, not a human.

  Barbatos’s fist buried itself deep into the spawn’s torso, the impact detonating with a thunderous shockwave that rippled through the atmosphere. The air warped, space bending outward in concentric rings as the force launched the cataclysm straight toward the moon.

  The spawn vanished in an instant.

  Barbatos remained where he was, his arm still extended. His expression was grim, strained.

  He already knew.

  Even as the cataclysm slammed into the lunar surface, carving a massive crater across the moon’s pale surface, Barbatos understood the truth, the damage was negligible. The punch had displaced it, nothing more.

  He turned sharply, eyes locking onto Alexandria, who was already moving.

  “Alexandria!” he shouted.

  “I’m on it!” she replied, her voice cutting through the void as her body dissolved into living light.

  In a heartbeat, both Archons crossed the vast distance between Earth and the moon.

  Alexandria reformed beside the enormous crater, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the scene. The cataclysm stood at its center, rising slowly, its armor cracked but intact. It showed no sign of distress, no pain, no hesitation.

  Only curiosity.

  Its eyes twitched as Barbatos appeared before it in a flicker of light.

  Up close, the spawn was slightly shorter than him.

  Humanoid class.

  The lowest classification.

  That fact offered no comfort.

  Class mattered far less than stage, and this creature stood at the seventh stage.

  A true cataclysm.

  Barbatos and Alexandria were both seventh-stage beings as well, Archons in their own right. If this battle had taken place on Earth, the planet would not have survived it. That was why they stood here instead, upon the moon’s fragile surface.

  Better to shatter a lifeless rock than doom an entire world.

  Barbatos raised his hand once more.

  This time, his body ignited with strange, layered light, energies from countless planes overlapping within him. When he struck again, he did not hold back.

  The punch landed.

  The result was immediate.

  Carapace shattered.

  Cracks spiderwebbed across the cataclysm’s torso, fragments exploding outward as the force drove it deep into the lunar surface, punching straight through to the other side.

  Any lesser spawn would have been erased instantly.

  This one merely roared.

  The cataclysm emerged from the moon’s far side, mandibles clicking sharply as its posture shifted. Insectoid wings burst from its back, unfolding with a shrill screech of tearing matter.

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  Energy gathered rapidly around its body.

  Its mouth opened, light condensing within.

  Before it could fire, Alexandria appeared.

  She struck with a kick to the side of its head, the impact snapping its skull sideways and redirecting the attack. The beam of condensed energy screamed across space and collided with one of Saturn’s moons.

  The moon ceased to exist upon impact.

  Alexandria did not stop.

  She seized the cataclysm, her grip unyielding, and in the same motion her teeth elongated, sharp, predatory. She bit down hard on the creature’s armor.

  The cataclysm shrieked.

  Black ichor spilled into the vacuum of space as it retaliated, clawing into her hair and hurling her away with brutal force. Alexandria was launched straight through the moon, pulverizing kilometers of stone as she vanished through it.

  The cataclysm staggered.

  Then Barbatos was there again.

  He moved with near-instantaneous speed, millions of radiant lights forming behind him, each one a focused manifestation of harmonic atum, all aimed at a single target.

  The cataclysm roared as Barbatos slammed into it, wrapping his arms around the creature and locking it in place.

  “Now.”

  The lights fired.

  Beams tore into the spawn from every angle, carving into its armor layer by layer. Damage accumulated rapidly, cracks deepening as the cataclysm howled in genuine pain.

  Then it adapted.

  With a surge of raw force, it tore Barbatos free and hurled him back toward the moon, his body slamming into the surface hard enough to fracture it anew.

  Barbatos pushed himself up.

  Alexandria stood beside him, equally battered, her borrowed clothes torn and barely holding together.

  “It’s strong,” she said, her tone strained but steady.

  Barbatos nodded. “Agreed.”

  They both understood the situation.

  Victory was possible, but not guaranteed, and not without risk. They had never faced a cataclysm at full power before. Such beings appeared only once every thousand years, if that.

  Testing limits had never been an option.

  Barbatos clenched his fist and looked at Alexandria.

  “Let’s see what it can do,” he said calmly, “before we give it everything.”

  Alexandria hesitated, glancing down at her ruined clothes, then sighed.

  She didn’t relish the idea of ending up naked in space, but she knew he was right.

  Cataclysms always carried a unique ability.

  And unleashing everything without understanding it could mean suicide.

  She nodded once.

  “Let’s go.”

  Together, the two Archons turned back toward the waiting monster as the moon cracked beneath their feet.

  Launching itself forward, the cataclysm surged through the fractured lunar surface, its insectoid limbs cutting through the void with terrifying precision. Its eyes glimmered with an unnatural awareness, scanning the battlefield as if calculating every possible threat.

  Suddenly, beams of pure light pierced its carapace. Each strike erupted with a resonance that shook the very surface beneath them, forcing the cataclysm to stagger mid-step. Barbatos’s eyes widened as he tracked the source of the attack.

  “Mars?” he muttered, incredulous.

  From the direction of the red planet, a massive form was approaching at impossible speed. It dwarfed even most colossal structures, a towering machine, easily the size of a Colossal-class spawn, standing over one hundred and thirty meters tall. Six black plates floated in orbit around it, each one immense, radiating a deadly, almost divine energy.

  Barbatos allowed himself a small grin, though a drop of cold sweat traced down his temple.

  “Well, if it isn’t the genius,” he said, voice low but sharp.

  Inside the massive mech, Ceasar’s eyes narrowed as he halted the robot’s forward momentum. The metallic overlay twisted and reformed, folding outward to become a colossal weapon of concentrated destructive energy. A surge of light gathered at its core, and with a deafening crack, it fired another beam directly at the cataclysm.

  The spawn shrieked, black ichor dripping from fractured segments of its carapace. Ceasar’s grin widened.

  “You like that?” he called through the comms, unleashing a volley of devastating energy blasts. “You know, when I said I was taking Hachi to Mars to test its capabilities, I didn’t expect I’d get to try it out on a cataclysm too!”

  The beams themselves were unique, though weaker than those wielded by Barbatos or Callum, they carried a special property, a partial negation of durability. No matter how thick the spawn’s carapace, it was temporarily rendered almost useless, leaving it vulnerable to follow-up strikes.

  The cataclysm dodged a beam, its speed unnervingly precise. It roared, a sound somewhere between a scream and the grind of an ancient machine, before lunging at Ceasar with terrifying velocity.

  Before it could reach him, Alexandria surged through space, her body a living shard of light. She latched onto the cataclysm’s heel with unyielding grip and hurled it violently backward. The force spun the spawn through the void, giving Barbatos the perfect opening.

  His fist ignited with blinding light once more. He launched it like a hammer, slamming into the cataclysm’s midsection with enough force to crush solid stone. Carapace shattered under the impact, sending shards flying in all directions. The spawn’s roar was guttural and immense, resonating across the battlefield.

  But then, something new occurred. A dark sphere of energy erupted from the cataclysm’s core, spinning outward in a shockwave of raw, chaotic light. Barbatos leapt back, narrowly avoiding its destructive pull. When the sphere shattered, the spawn had changed.

  Its insectoid visage had altered, mandibles multiplied, sprouting a second, smaller set. Its arms elongated grotesquely, gaining an additional pair at the elbows. Its torso stretched upward, growing taller and more imposing, while its legs twisted into a more sinewy, angular structure. Its eyes glinted with renewed, horrifying intelligence.

  Barbatos exhaled sharply.

  “So that’s it… a physical transformation,” he muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing as he gauged the new threat. The cataclysm now radiated power far beyond its previous form, its enhancements making it far more dangerous than before.

  Before Barbatos could prepare another strike, the transformed cataclysm moved. Faster than the eye could follow, it appeared before him in an instant, its mandibles snapping, armored limbs flexing with unnatural speed.