Poppy watched in horror, as her body refused to move even against her own will...
"H- D- So- HELP!" Poppy managed, trying to force her body towards Veximus...
The Executioner of King Phillip knelt... His body showing every breath that left his lips... But his eyes... So fixated on Chase of House Phoenix that even Hans' might could not rip The Vex's grip off the back of his head...
"Callahan... *Huff... Huff* Do not let... A single soul... NEAR THE HEIR AND ME!" Vex's enraged voice roared and echoed throughout the crater...
Only visible to Vex... A violent and radiant light was emitting from the son of Blaze... And the knight's hunger had reached an all time breaking point... Snapping the second his gaze broke through whatever tricks were protecting Chase's catalyst from his sight...
Chase and Vex slowly watched each other from the vast gap... Neither threatening to move yet...
'Is he... Waiting until Chase is ready...? But... His wounds... There is no way he can fight any longer...' Poppy's thoughts scrambled for a way out of this...
That's when she turned...
CREAAAAAAKKKKKK!
The sound made Poppy shrivel to the ground, but the sight...
Was horror.
Callahan's figure had ascended back into the sky... Floating above the crater with the guise of a god...
"Was it Unity? I will remember that name... But your extinction... Is eminent... I had been stumped once... But I will not underestimate you all any longer... FOR WITH MY SECOND CHANCE... COMES THE EPOCH OF EXTINCTION!"
Poppy's ears rang as Callahan's voice echoed throughout the crater... A violent crimson energy ripping from his own Catalyst and escaping into the air around him...
Suddenly... Her eyes widened as the crater above began to shift and transform almost mechanically... The metals pulling in on themselves and changing form into what could only be Callahan's Trinity Art...
"I've got it!" Luke yelled, sprinting past Poppy and throwing his chain around a metal spear sticking from the ground... And using it as a slingshot, launching himself straight at Callahan...
"No! It's suicide!" Poppy yelled, pleading with her body to take action.
BO-BOOOOOM!
A shockwave launched Poppy as Vex's figure vanished and reappeared right before a-
Poppy visibly frowned as her body crashed into the crater's wall.
...
Justin sprinted behind Luke, with Brody shortly behind and Jacob already about to interfere with The Head of House Durangor.
"BRING HIM DOWN HERE!" Justin yelled, letting his crimson jacket fall to the ground like a feather...
The wind pulled his hair, forcing his crimson eyes into a struggle against his own vision. But... He couldn't worry about Luke's part when he had his own...
Luke grit his teeth, hurling his chain at Callahan who tilted his head in confusion.
BOOM!
A wave of powerful energy shot outward, recoiling Luke back into the ground below with a following explosion of his own.
Justin cursed, letting his blood fall to the ground in streams of blood...
"Forgive me..." He whispered... Before a pillar of solid blood shot from the ground below him, sending him speeding towards the sky which Callahan claimed to own.
"Ignorant fools... DO YOU NOT YEILD TO MY IMMENSE MIGHT!?" Callahan's voice boomed as countless plates of metal began to fall from the sky... Each and every one of them homing in on Callahan himself...
'Just a little further!' Justin braced himself against the pillar, drawing a sword from his waist and gritting his teeth violently.
Out of thin air... Jacob appeared with a burst of wind in his wake, his daggers spinning and twirling as they honed in on Callahan's face.
CLANG!
Shift.
Shift.
Crack. Shift.
"Get him... Off me!" Jacob gasped, pulling and hitting the bulky metal fist clasped around his neck...
Justin spat, leaping off of the pillar and jabbing his blade at the eye of Durangor's leader...
Thud!
"Grr! I'll- Ki-" Justin thrashed in Callahan's other hand... Both of them subdued only to watch as Callahan's flesh was overtaken by metal itself... Enhanced with a horrifying silver glow...
And before they knew it... Callahan had been stripped of all weak points... Donned in pure metal...
"RAAAHHHHHHH-ERMPH!" Brody roared.
DINK!
Phewwwwwwwww- CRASH!
Callahan caught himself only a foot off of the ground, hovering just above with that same crimson energy radiating off of the palms of his gauntlets.
Brody outstretched his hand, letting a panicked breath escape.
"I didn't mean..."
"Fool!" Callahan boomed with laughter.
However, that was seconds before a spear of blood shot from the ground behind him, soaring into the sky above and ripping straight through the chest of The Paladin.
"Good work!" Justin grinned, blood streaming down from his hairline as he crawled from a smaller crater.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLA-CLANG!
A figure flashed around Callahan's impaled form with the echoes of quick metal meeting metal.
"We... Just... Need to get that armor off..." Jackal nodded, assisting Justin to a stance.
"Better said than done." Luke reminded them, pushing his dislocated shoulder back into place.
"How do you always get so damn beat up? And how are you still alive?" Justin asked with genuine curiosity, eyeing Luke's already sustained injuries with subtle worry.
CRACK!
CRACK!
Callahan's fist drove through the blood spike with ease, turning and landing with a devastating explosion.
CLANG!
"Oh." Jacob froze, looking up at Callahan's freed and nearly invincible figure...
BOOM!
With a terrifying show of power, Callahan had launched Jacob into the opposite wall.
Brody was the first to move, dashing towards Callahan and delivering a brass knuckled right hook directly into The Paladin's chest.
CLANG!
"Ergh..." Brody grimaced, his hand trembling against metal before being swatted away like a bug.
Justin stepped forward, his arm waving horizontally as a grid of thousands of strings made of pure blood appeared, surrounding Callahan in a frenzy of frozen attacks...
"Hmph..." Justin grinned, snapping his finger as a thousand strings of blood collapsed inwards on its center... Where Callahan stood...
SLASH!
Before Callahan could even register the immense damage done to his armor and flesh alike from that singular attack, Luke had already sprinted into action... Grabbing at the collar of Callahan's armor and swinging him to the ground with a roar.
Jackal leaped into the air, spinning and twirling before his climax met his decent...
With a lavish performance... The bottom of his boot drove straight into Callahan's armored chest.
BOOM!
"ENOUGH!"
He roared, grabbing at Jackal's ankle and launching him at a nearby pile of debris.
Outstretching his hand into the air... Callahan boomed with laughter behind the mask... Gazing endlessly at the falling sky above...