The battlefield had become unrecognizable.
Mountains were reduced to fractured silhouettes.
The sky pulsed between silver and black.
Gravity trembled like a living thing.
Sebastian and Cassiel clashed again.
Every collision tore open the earth.
Zero Core devoured wave after wave of lunar force — but the cracks along Sebastian's veins spread further.
The Mountain — Collapse
High above—
Diana finally noticed him.
Asher.
Her silver eyes shifted.
"So you found me."
Asher stepped forward, wind tearing against his coat.
"Stop feeding him."
Diana's expression remained calm.
"You still don't understand. This is evolution."
She raised both hands.
"Lunar Ascension."
The Moon flared violently.
A pillar of condensed lunar energy slammed into Cassiel.
On the battlefield, his aura multiplied again.
Sebastian staggered under the pressure.
On the mountain, Asher dropped to one knee.
The air itself crushed him.
His lungs burned.
Diana looked down at him without emotion.
"You are not built for this level."
She increased the output.
Asher screamed — but his body began failing under amplified gravity and lunar radiation.
WHU's emergency recall system activated automatically.
A flash of blue light—
Asher vanished from the mountain.
Back inside WHU, he collapsed onto the floor, barely conscious.
Lina rushed to him.
Wang stared at the monitors in disbelief.
"She's amplifying him beyond previous thresholds…"
Battlefield — Total Violence
Cassiel descended like a falling star.
"Eclipse Dominion: Absolute Descent."
The ground inverted.
Space warped.
Sebastian roared and expanded Zero Core further — but the lunar flood would not stop.
Energy tore through him.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
Yet he stood.
"You think… I break here?"
The eastern horizon began to change.
Dark blue shifted to faint gold.
Dawn was approaching.
Cassiel felt it.
For the first time—
He hesitated.
Sunrise — The Shift
The first ray of sunlight cut across the battlefield.
And something changed.
Sebastian's Zero Core reacted.
The black sphere vibrated violently.
His body stopped cracking.
Instead—
The energy stabilized.
Wang's voice echoed through comms:
"Sebastian! Your energy signature is spiking — exponentially!"
Sebastian's eyes opened.
They were no longer black.
They were radiant white.
"Zero Prime."
The Zero Core collapsed inward—
Then exploded outward in pure compressed force.
Not erasure.
Not absorption.
Absolute negation pressure.
Sebastian moved faster than before.
He appeared directly in front of Cassiel.
And delivered a single, devastating strike.
"Prime Impact."
The explosion split the clouds.
Cassiel was launched across the battlefield, carving a canyon through solid rock.
For a moment—
Silence.
The Moon dimmed.
Diana's amplification faltered.
WHU went quiet.
Asher forced himself upright, watching the live feed.
"Did he…?"
The Impossible Evolution
Dust cleared.
Cassiel stood.
Injured.
But smiling.
"You've reached your peak…"
He looked toward the rising Sun.
"…so I shall reach mine."
For centuries, his power had belonged to the Moon.
But he was not merely lunar.
He extended both arms toward the sky.
The rising Sun ignited.
Solar flares bent unnaturally.
"Sunrise Sovereignty."
Golden energy collided with silver.
Cassiel's body transformed.
Half lunar radiance.
Half solar blaze.
The Moon no longer defined him.
He absorbed the Sun's radiation directly.
His aura turned blinding gold-white.
Sebastian's eyes widened slightly.
Cassiel looked at him calmly.
"You believed daylight was my weakness."
He stepped forward.
The ground melted beneath his feet.
"I simply had not claimed it yet."
Solar and lunar energies fused violently around him.
The battlefield illuminated in blinding light.
At WHU, Wang whispered:
"He's no longer phase-dependent…"
Lina stared at the screen.
"This fight won't end at sunrise…"
Cassiel's voice echoed across the horizon.
"Now, Sebastian… we fight without limits."
Sebastian clenched his fists.
Zero Prime pulsed around him.
The Sun climbed higher.
The Moon faded into daylight.
And for the first time—
The war between Zero and Dominion continued beneath the Sun.