For a brief moment, the battlefield felt distant.
The noise was muffled.
Asher remained on his knees.
Vincent's blood had dried on his hands.
His eyes were empty.
"I failed… again…"
His voice trembled.
"It's my fault… it's always my fault…"
Sebastian approached slowly.
Vincent's body had been covered.
The wind moved quietly through the ruins.
Sebastian stopped in front of Asher.
"Look at me."
Asher didn't respond.
Sebastian grabbed his collar and forced him to raise his head.
"Do you know what it means to be a hero?"
Tears streamed down Asher's face.
"To protect everyone…"
Sebastian shook his head.
"No."
His voice was firm.
"Being a hero means learning how to live with loss."
Asher froze.
"We cannot save everyone."
Sebastian's gaze hardened.
"But if we don't stand back up… then their deaths truly become meaningless."
Asher's breathing trembled.
"Vincent trusted me…"
"And because he trusted you," Sebastian replied quietly, "he fought until his last breath."
Silence.
Sebastian placed a hand on Asher's shoulder.
"You can fall today. But you cannot stay down."
"Asher… stand."
Several long seconds passed.
Then slowly—
Asher rose to his feet.
His eyes had changed.
Still full of pain.
But no longer empty.
On the Other Side
White stood at a distance.
He pressed a hand against his chest.
Vincent's final strike had left a mark.
He refused to acknowledge it.
But for the first time—
He had felt pain.
"Hero…" he muttered.
The United Assault
Suddenly, the enemy lines shifted.
Freya stepped forward.
Jennifer aligned beside her.
White repositioned.
Tracy gathered her remaining forces.
Morton raised the temperature.
Roy blurred into motion.
Li crouched, ready to strike.
They looked at one another.
Then—
Moved as one.
"Now!"
A synchronized assault erupted toward WHU.
Blizzard winds.
Extreme heat waves.
Blood manipulation.
Clone swarms.
High-speed strikes.
WHU was pushed back.
Sebastian moved forward.
Asher stood beside him.
But—
A gap opened.
Freya tore the ground apart from below.
White launched a massive blood wave.
Jennifer destabilized the temperature in a violent fluctuation.
At the center of the combined attack—
Was Ella Wang.
She raised her radiant barrier.
But this was different.
This was unified.
The barrier cracked.
A second impact.
A third.
It shattered.
Ella was thrown to the ground.
Blood spilled across the broken concrete.
Silence.
Sebastian Breaks
Sebastian saw it.
For a single second—
The world stopped.
"Ella…"
His voice changed.
He was no longer just a leader.
He was a husband.
He was a father.
His aura exploded outward.
The ground fractured beneath him.
He charged.
The first strike — Roy.
Down.
Dead.
Second — Morton.
Chest shattered.
Third — Jennifer.
Slammed into a wall. No movement.
Tracy tried to retreat.
Sebastian appeared before her in an instant.
One blow.
Her clones disintegrated.
She fell.
White attempted to counter—
But Sebastian was beyond calculation now.
Each strike carried lethal force.
White was hurled back, heavily wounded.
Freya grabbed Alpha.
"Fall back!"
They retreated.
Sebastian unleashed one final devastating wave.
The battlefield went silent.
Most of the enemy forces were dead.
Only two escaped—
Freya.
And Alpha.
Sebastian stood there, breathing heavily.
His energy still trembling violently.
Asher watched in stunned silence.
That power…
That rage…
This was a different level.
Sebastian rushed to Ella's side.
He lifted her carefully.
Blood covered his hands.
"No… no…"
The war had changed.
This was no longer strategic.
This was personal.