Moments earlier, on the other side of the Sage Empire capital city, Jacek and Nero found themselves embroiled in a grueling fight.

The fight was particularly brutal for Nero who was largely content to take a beating if it meant fulfilling his two highest priorities. His top priority was always to his empress who had ordered him to keep Jacek away from her and Jarek’s fight by any means necessary. His second priority was to his own honor. If he could help it, he preferred not to engage in an unbalanced and dishonorable fight with a worthy opponent such as Jacek.

Although Jacek wielded terribly frightening power from Perfect Warrior training, Nero remained confident he could squash Jacek with a combination of relying on his empress’s BloodStar and wielding Blood Cry, a weapon forged by the empress herself. From Nero’s perspective, those two options were weapons bestowed upon him by the empress. To use them would extend outside of his own power. To use them against a weaponless and otherwise helpless opponent would be dishonorable.

Jacek held back little as he fired barrage after barrage of ki blasts at Nero watching them explode on contact only to find Nero’s ki recharged with the BloodStar ominously hovering above after the dust had settled.

Jacek grit his teeth knowing exactly what Nero was doing, minimally utilizing the BloodStar above to turn this fight into a marathon and keep him occupied from interfering in the real fight.

Unlike the fight on the other side of the city, the fight between Jacek and Nero was devoid of small talk. Each warrior had their own thoughts, yet each warrior kept their thoughts to themselves and continued the battle.

Jacek understood Nero’s strategy and struggle to fight outside the realm of his own honor; however, rather than calling him out verbally, he chose to raise the stakes of his onslaught to force him into fighting with everything he had. Although Jacek understood the reasoning behind Nero’s actions, he also found it offensive and demeaning. He felt that Nero had passed judgment on him and determined him to be unworthy of the true power at Nero’s fingertips.

Jacek concentrated the ki surrounding his body into a dense layer and rushed towards Nero. The two engaged in a sparring match consisting of Jacek throwing punches and kicks and Nero blocking each and every successive attack perfectly.

Because he had elected to only use the BloodStar to heal and recharge, Nero always found himself on the defensive end of physical sparring during this battle, a fact that had not gone unnoticed by Jacek.

Jacek’s power and intensity behind his punches increased steadily to the point that Nero had a hard time keeping up with each attack. The power behind each of Jacek’s punches caused Nero to flinch more and more after each hit.

Jacek continued his onslaught until Nero flinched greatly from the reverberation of power through Jacek’s latest attack. Nero had left himself wide open for an attack, and Jacek focused the majority of his ki to his right fist and performed a rising uppercut.

The uppercut contacted Nero squarely on the chin sending him flying up and backwards into the air before crashing on the ground.

Jacek paced in front of Nero knowing he had made his point clear – fight me with everything you have or risk failing your top priority.

Meanwhile, Nero shook his head as he still laid on the ground in a haze of mental fog slowly realizing that even if Jacek would have an incredibly hard time killing him, he had very nearly knocked him out cold. Nero grunted as he shook off the uppercut and cursed himself for allowing such a risk, a risk that could’ve resulted in an unforgivable failure.

Nero stood and both men silently glared at one another. Not a word was whispered, yet both men knew exactly what had just transpired. A message had been sent, and that message had been heard loud and clear.

Jacek merely smirked at Nero, pleased with his small victory. However, Nero was unphased. If anything, Nero looked disappointed. Disappointed that Jacek was smart enough to realize he was holding back, but too eager to realize why.

Nero held out his right arm with his hand open and from 50 yards away his war hammer, Blood Cry, came hurling through the air. The 500 lbs hammer rushed to Nero at full speed until Nero gracefully met the staff of the hammer in his hand and grabbed it. The graceful contact of a hurling 500 lbs hunk of metal meeting a massive man’s hand was as unnatural a thing Jacek had ever seen and underlied the true power of Nero that he had just provoked.

Nero merely grunted as he held the hammer across hid body with both hands. He then assumed a charging position towards Jacek.

Jacek stood his ground ready for the real fight to commence. Seeing his opponent’s readiness, Nero began his charge.

Another unnatural scene unfolded as the size of a man of Nero began to charge Jacek at the height of human speed. Each footstep rumbled the ground below as if a rhinoceros had been set loose.

Jacek fired a volley of ki blasts at the charging Nero with each exploding on contact. Jacek continued to fire and with each explosion, a cloud of dust and dirt formed. The cloud of floating dust obscured Jacek’s vision as the edge of the dust cloud inched closer and closer eventually encircling him in an opaque haze.

Jacek looked around listening for Nero’s heavy footsteps; however, the ground had quieted, and no footsteps were to be heard.

He looked around as the dust cloud drifted still obscuring his field of vision circumferentially. Knowing this left him at a massive disadvantage, Jacek clapped his hands together and then forced them out to each side with a rush creating a pushing force which pushed the dust cloud apart in two separate halves rushing from the battlefield leaving his vision clear once again.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

However, as the dust cleared, Nero was unveiled right in front of him mid-swing with Blood Cry. With his hands outstretched to both sides, Jacek found himself completely vulnerable, and he concentrated every ounce of ki he had at his disposable to his chest where the war hammer was directly aiming.

Blood Cry made contact with Jacek’s chest armor of ki; however, instead of bouncing off or stopping the attack, Blood Cry crushed through the ki. Instinctively, Jacek grabbed the sides of the war hammer’s head with both hands stopping its force manually with his raw strength aided additionally by ki.

However, although he had attenuated the attack, the shallow spikes of Blood Cry had pierced Jacek’s chest leaving multiple shallow puncture wounds which dripped blood.

The attack had forced Jacek back who now looked up at Nero from a knee with a hand over his chest thinking to himself, “That hammer has void material. It must! How else could he penetrate my ki with such ease?”

Jacek’s respiration rate had increased knowing that had Nero elected to use the single large spike aspect of Blood Cry instead of the shallow multi-spike aspect, he could very well be dead at this moment.

Nero stood in place staring at Jacek. Just as Jacek had sent his message. Nero had now sent his. From this point forward, there would be no holding back.

Nero gripped Blood Cry firmly and swung it before releasing it to fly spinning end over end in a horizonal plane directly at Jacek.

Jacek fired a powerful ki beam at the flying war hammer; however, the hammer continued to fly towards him at breakneck speed. As it approached, Jacek finally halted his ki attacks and braced himself to physically stop it.

He received the hammer with both hands maintaining his upright posture as his feet dug in but slid back several feet in the dirt below.

The hammer then fell to the ground. Jacek looked down to see Erika’s face embedded within the head of the hammer with a tear drop of blood rolling down her cheek. The sudden appearance of his dead bride’s face caused a moment of hesitation which Nero took full advantage of.

Nero raised his hand bloodbending the hammer upwards off the ground slamming directly into Jacek’s chin before commanding the hammer to fly back into his grip.

Jacek fell flat on his back in a slight daze with a split chin oozing blood. Before he could stand, he found multiple chains of ki from the BloodStar above shackling his wrists, ankles, and neck. Nero bloodbent the chains of ki to stand Jacek upright facing him with his limbs outstretched.

Nero said no words as he adjusted the grip of Blood Cry in his hands readying the large spike for an attack.

Jacek struggled mightily against the chains of ki restraining him, yet he struggled against a power that not even his father, Jarek, could match.

Nero slowly walked up to within striking distance of Jacek and gripped the staff of the hammer. He intended to finish this fight quickly with no last words. If fulfilling his top priority meant sacrificing his second priority of an honorable fight, he would at least give Jacek an honorable and quick death – Blood Cry’s spike directly through his chest.

Jacek continued to struggle; however, the chains of ki remained connected to the BloodStar giving them a near infinite well of ki to draw on. Furthermore, Jacek’s puncture wounds along his chest left him weaker and weaker as time passed and the blood loss gradually grew to have a noticeable effect.

Nero assumed a striking stance with Blood Cry in hand; however, just as he prepared to strike, a loud call came from across the city…

“DOOOOO ITTTTTT!!”

Nero and Jacek both looked across the city and frowned as neither knew the significance of Jarek’s loud call. Jacek assumed his father may be pleading for Xenia to finish him. Nero assumed Jarek called to give permission to Jacek to use an otherwise off-limits trump card of destruction. Both assumptions were wrong.

For a split second, both Jacek and Nero detected a third person in their presence hiding in the shadows, and neither knew who it was or how long they had been there. Both men had been entirely focused on the fight at hand.

Nonetheless, Nero held Jacek in place with the BloodStar chains and turned his attention to this new presence. Whether friend or foe, they had made the fatal mistake of interrupting his fight. He raised his hand to bloodbend the mystery assailant out into the open; however, before he could act further, a woman yelled, “Gravity Bind!”

A small dome of vibrant purple ki formed over Nero, and as Jacek looked on, he saw Nero fall to his hands and knees struggling mightily to stand up within the newly formed dome.

Nero was forced to focus all of his energy on countering the massive surge of gravity within the dome, and as a result, he was forced to free Jacek from the chains of the BloodStar.

From the shadows, a tall and slender woman slowly walked forward. She had platinum blonde hair and a regal white silk outfit. She held her hand outstretched to maintain her dome of Gravity Bind.

Nero looked up and yelled with rage as he recognized who had interrupted his fight – Lady Starfallen.

Nero began to stand within the dome; however, Starfallen grit her teeth and raised the gravity even higher forcing him back down.

She then looked to a badly wounded Jacek, “We must go. Now!”

Jacek shook his head, “But my father… he’s fighting Xenia. We- we must-”

Starfallen yelled at Jacek cutting him off, “I am your father’s contingency plan! We must go. NOW!”

Both Jacek and Starfallen looked to Nero who appeared to be slowly turning the tides of Starfallen’s dome and inching his way back up from the ground.

Starfallen looked on with fear at Nero’s strength, “I cannot hold this monster forever. I will be completely depleted of ki very soon at this rate.”

As they continued to look on, they then saw BloodStar ki slowly filtering in and through the dome as Nero patiently collected ki from the BloodStar above.

Starfallen took a deep breath, “That shouldn’t be possible.” She looked to Jacek with fear coloring her face, “We must go now! Your father has his own contingency plan. Trust him!”

Jacek looked off into the distance towards the side of the city where his father and Xenia were fighting. He then looked back to Nero knowing time was limited, and if Nero escaped, they were both likely dead, especially if Starfallen’s attack was truly draining her of ki so voraciously.

He unwillingly nodded to Starfallen, “Very well. I have no choice. I will trust you, and I will trust my father.”

She nodded, “I will leave this beast with one final attack. It won’t be enough to kill him, but it will allow us to escape. Are you ready!?”

Jacek nodded, “Ready.”

“Supernova!!”

The inside of the gravity bind dome lit up with the fire of a sun. Plumes of orange fire filled the dome to the brim increasing in temperature as they morphed to blue and then white flames. The power of a star had been summoned inside the dome.

Starfallen and Jacek whisked themselves away quickly. Starfallen knew that her attack couldn’t kill a BloodStar empress, and she wasn’t keen on betting that her attack could kill a BloodStar Immortal either. However, she didn’t need it to.

As the two rushed from the capital city of the Sage Empire, Nero covered himself in BloodStar ki fending off the immense heat of fusion within the dome. He held himself firm on his hands and knees battling the heat and the gravity using all of his power to wait out the remainder of the attack rather than risk taking lethal damage from smashing the dome to pieces.

He grit his teeth in utmost anger as he stared at the ground below knowing he had shown mercy to his opponent and as a result, he had failed his empress. His anger fueled him as he withstood the extraordinary attack and silently vowed to himself over and over again to never allow this mistake again.