The instant Nero hit the fire, the world vanished.

  Darkness. Silence.

  He was back in the Void—falling face-down into the endless nothing. This time, the fall was slow… deliberate.

  And beside him, falling the same way, was himself.

  Not the cracked, scarred shell he knew—

  but whole. Intact. Angelo Walker.

  Falling face-up, eyes closed, as if sleeping.

  The cold still gnawed at Nero’s body, but he forced himself toward Angelo. He reached out, fingertips brushing, then finally catching Angelo’s right hand.

  Nero pulled him close and checked his pulse. Weak… but there. Angelo was breathing, as if in deep hibernation.

  Nero gripped his shoulders and shook hard.

  “Wake up! Come on—wake up! Tell me who you are! Tell me who I am!”

  A faint twitch. Angelo’s eyes moved under his lids. Nero slapped lightly at his cheeks.

  “Hey! Hey! Wake up, damn it!”

  The lids lifted—slowly—revealing pale silver irises, dull and lifeless.

  The first words out of Angelo’s mouth were hoarse, but tinged with bitter humor:

  “So… I survived using ‘Destruction’. Guess I’m like a cockroach.”

  Nero froze. None of this made sense.

  “What are you talking about? Who are you? Who am I? And these cracks—what the hell are they?”

  Angelo sighed, as if speaking to a stubborn child.

  “You are the part of me that still wants to survive. Those cracks… are the price of using the power never meant for this body.”

  “I don’t understand!” Nero snapped.

  “What power? What are you—”

  Before he could finish, Angelo’s left hand shot up in a blur, gripping Nero’s jaw—not to hurt him, but to lock his head in place.

  Then, with precision, Angelo aligned the fingers of his right hand and drove them into Nero’s forehead.

  “You ask too many questions,” Angelo said, voice cold but steady.

  “I’m giving you a copy of my memories. From this point on, you’ll remember being Angelo Walker… but you will never be Angelo Walker. I’ll stay here.”

  And then—

  The flood.

  Memories tore into Nero’s mind, burning themselves into him.

  The day the Walker family found him.

  Every battle fought.

  Every moment of love, of loss, of rage.

  And finally—erasing the enemy, along with everyone he’d ever cared about.

  Nero jolted awake, ripped from the Void, his body lying on burning coals, flames roaring around him. He pushed himself up, the charred wood beneath him cracking with each movement. Slowly, he rose to his feet.

  Then—

  A scream. Lina.

  He couldn’t see through the wall of fire, but he didn’t need to. He knew. Everyone was in danger. He remembered Dorne lying injured. He remembered his family’s faces—dead. Rage boiled inside him.

  The cold was still there, but now it obeyed him.

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  He gripped his left arm with his right hand. Cold seeped from his touch. Frost spread rapidly over the flesh, sealing it in jagged ice. He braced himself—

  With a brutal snap, he tore the frozen limb free.

  Nero drew his arm back and hurled it toward the sound of pounding footsteps.

  A shriek of agony told him he’d hit his mark.

  His clothes were gone, shattered into nothing by the impossible cold radiating from him. Steam coiled from his bare skin. The fire faltered, guttered, and died.

  Through the fading haze, he locked eyes on the monster. His voice was low, almost a growl.

  “Time to tear you apart.”

  He moved first at a walk, then faster, until he was sprinting, each step leaving frozen ground in his wake.

  The monster tore at the ice-bound limb pinning its leg, snarling in desperation. With a savage rip, it freed itself—at the cost of its own limb—and tried to flee.

  Nero reached to his chest, yanked free the claw still embedded there, and hurled it with monstrous force. It slammed into the creature’s neck, shattering into glittering shards, brittle from the cold. The monster collapsed, dazed.

  It tried to rise—too late. Nero was already there.

  He loomed over it.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  The beast lashed out with a flurry of slashes. Nero slipped past every strike, his right hand flicking out in barely-there grazes. Each touch spread frost across the monster’s scales.

  It leapt back, realizing it couldn’t win. Not like this.

  Nero’s eyes flared, the irises shining silver with fury. His voice dripped with hate.

  “Are you scared?”

  All around, they watched—the scout team, the incoming backup, the base crew, Thom, CH, Lina. But they weren’t seeing a man fight a monster.

  They were watching a monster fight something far worse.

  Kato’s voice crackled over comms.

  “Wait… so who exactly are we supposed to be saving here?”

  No one answered.

  In the base, General Mordane wiped sweat from his brow—yet something like anticipation flickered behind his eyes.

  The monster hissed, its whole body trembling.

  “Are you shaking in fear?” Nero growled. “Good.”

  He stepped forward, each footfall freezing the earth before touching down, the ice cracking sharply under his weight. Blood poured from the beast’s torn leg, but its shuddering wasn’t fear—it was preparation.

  Its skin flushed a dim red, the glow intensifying until it burned bright, heat radiating off it in waves. Vibrations rippled through its muscles at high frequency, heating its body. The vibrations made the air hum and shimmer, its scales rattling as it ramps up the heat. It pressed its claw against the severed leg and seared the wound shut with a sickening hiss, unleashing a scream of agony.

  The monster tilted its head, locking eyes with Nero.

  “So… you stopped the bleeding. Melted the frost,” Nero mocked, voice low and venomous. “And now you’re glowing—radiating heat? So what. I’ll freeze you again. And again. Until your soul freezes… and shatters.”

  They stared each other down.

  The beast lunged, swinging superheated claws. Nero ducked beneath the first slash, but the tail whipped from the side. He saw it coming—but without his left arm, he couldn’t block. The tail slammed into his ribs, steam hissing where scorching heat met killing cold, and Nero was hurled to the ground.

  Lina screamed, her voice cracking with fear. Thom stood frozen in shock.

  Nero groaned, forcing himself upright. His silver irises glinted pale as they cut to Thom, Lina, and CH.

  “Thom! Get Dorne, CH, and the kid inside—it’s not safe out here!”

  Thom snapped back to life. “CH, pull Lina in. I’ll get Dorne.”

  CH bit into Lina’s clothing, dragging her toward the house. Lina, sobbing, let herself be pulled. Thom dropped his rifle, hauled Dorne over his shoulder, and sprinted after them.

  Steam hissed from Nero’s chest where the tail had struck, the wound glowing faintly. He didn’t glance at it—his focus never left the monster.

  “Now…” his voice rumbled, “no more holding back. Time to end this.”

  They charged. Nero lunged, his punch slamming into the beast and knocking it back. It lashed out with claws; he dodged some, but others cut deep. He answered with brutal kicks and crushing blows, every strike freezing its flesh for an instant—only for the heat to burn it away.

  The exchange became a blur of violence, fog billowing thick around them. To the naked eye and normal cameras, the fight vanished into the whiteout. Only the thermal imaging feed showed the duel inside—two opposing forces colliding, blow after blow.

  Each strike rang out like gunfire. The beast’s heat climbed higher. Nero’s cold plunged lower. The temperature drop was so intense, the ground froze solid in a five-meter radius—grass, soil, stone, all locked in killing frost.

  And Nero… was grinning, his eyes locked on the creature.