Jayce now found himself locked in battle with both of the hero-tier McLeod twins, in addition to the braver-tier Junior Knights of the Xelot army, Raen and Dana DeSaint.

Under normal circumstances, this was a feat that should have proved impossible for the youngster. Despite his prodigious abilities, besting even Raen on his best days tended to pose quite the challenge for Jayce, so fending off both him and his sister was ordinarily a nigh impossible feat. Yet somehow, he’d so far manage to keep both of these young channelers off balanced, while also fending off attacks from the ex-Rogue Xell McLeod and his genius brother.

“What the hell is going on here?” Xell exclaimed as he dodged the cloven hand of Jayce as it flew by him, stretching to almost ten times its original length.

“This is pretty strange.” Xess replied as he circled their target and began summoning one of his few offensive abilities. “I’ve heard of the Demai’s R.E.D. Program, but results like these are surprising even for me.”

As Xess talked, Raen was also repositioning himself but this time outside of Jayce’s demonstrated attack range. Once there, the young summoner conjured a javelin into being and charged it with his white luminous energy. With Jayce still distracted with his pursuit of Xell, Raen took this opportunity to hurl the projectile at his opponent. Being so focused on Xell, Jayce only caught wind of the attack at the last moment but luckily for him he was able to narrowly dodge the attack, shifting his head out of the way at the last minute, just as it sailed past his face. The close call however served to further enrage him, and as his rage mounted so did his energy levels. Just as abruptly as he had started the battle, Jayce now broke off his pursuit of Xell and instead focussed his efforts on reverting the Xelot summoner taking pot-shots at him.

“Xess, now would be a good time to use that big brain of yours and tell me what’s going on with this kid.” Xell stated over the communication link that he’d maintained with his brother up to this point.

“I honestly can’t say, brother.” Xess replied. “The Demai’s R.E.D program is highly secretive, all I know is that they’ve found away to breed channelers with amplifiable energy outputs.”

“Yeah, that much I already know.” Xell replied as he chased after Jayce, ensuring that the youngster didn’t do irreparable damage to his target. “But I’ve seen R.E.D soldiers in action before. Those kids can amp up themselves to by seventy-five… maybe eighty-five percent. This clearly isn’t that!”

“Well, like you said, Jayce is the prototype for those youngsters. Younger R.E.D. Soldiers are bred for stability, he was bred for power. I’ve read reports that he can amplify his ability by over a hundred and fifty percent.” Xess replied, before his internal energy reached its maximum stock and allowed him to execute his single offensive ability. With a powerful surge of energy, he engulfed the raging Demai operative in a pillar of flames.

As the flames erupted beneath his feet, Jayce let out a feral shriek; his skin burning as even the reinforced garments atop his expansion suit struggling to insulate his body from the intense flames – to no avail. Xell took this opportunity, as the young powerhouse was stunned, to close the distance between himself and the R.E.D. prototype. He arrived at Jayce’s location just as his brother’s attack was ending, sliding to a stop and planting his palm in the ground before sweeping Jayce off his feet with a double leg-sweep. As Jayce was knocked off his feet, Xell snapped back to his and slammed his target into the ground with a stiff forearm strike, leaving the young R.E.D. soldier completely dazed.

“That’s not going to stop him, Xell.” Xess alerted him. “If you want to end this, you’re going to have to put him down now.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Xell responded before charging his most powerful ability and preparing for a final strike.

“You’d better make it quick!” Xess pressed. “This kid’s energy has more than tripled since I arrived and it’s approaching the apex of heroic-tier outputs.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Xell growled as he pulled in as much energy as possible, before delivering the final strike.

With a loud grunt he thrust his hand into the air and coalesced all of the energy that he’d so far gathered into it, causing space itself to warp around the appendage. He hadn’t managed to reach his maximum stockpile of energy, but Jayce was already starting to snap out of his daze so he couldn’t afford to wait any longer. A loud growl accompanied Xell’s hand plunging into the chest of young Demai agent, causing his body to warp violently under the force of the reality distorting attack.

“This kid just crossed the plateau into the legendary-tier Xell, you need to get out of there.” Xess informed his brother, but his advice fell on deaf ears.

“Not gonna happen brother, I’m ending this right here and now.” Xell exclaimed, before dumping all of his remaining energy into the powerful strike.

At first, Jayce’s body seemed completely overwhelmed by the energy, which attempted to tear his already heavily wracked body apart. As Xess had theorised, Jayce’s energy amplification abilities – despite being unusually high – came at the price of a reduced stability in his attacks and even in his powered-up state. This made Xell’s ‘order disruptor’ even more effective against him. But what the genius could not account for was the arcane power of the enigmatic Dias coursing through Jayce’s body—and this would be their downfall.

Normally, Jayce’s braver-form would have been torn apart under the strain of the attack, dissipating harmless into the ether and leaving his unpowered-up state in its stead. Unfortunately however, with his physical form unable to maintain its cohesion; the arcane power held within it became unfettered, erupting from his body into a pillar of red light. This font of power completely vapourised Xell’s heroic-form as it erupted, being jettisoned into the air before piercing the clouds above.

Xess’ jaw dropped at the sight, watching as the energy emanating from the youngster exceeded even that of legendary-tier channelers and approached the outputs of military assault vehicles like the MTs. Thankfully, Jayce seemed no more in control of this energy than could be expected, acting simply as a conduit for the arcane power rather than a proper wielder of it. This however, was only a small consolation as the energy erupting from him seemed to feed the mounting cataclysm effect, intensifying the feeling of unease that had been creeping over the channelers in the area for some time now.

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The massive and sudden surge of energy leaking into the environment soon caused the battlefield to erupt with the arcane energies that fuelled these global disasters. Energies which usually lay dormant, beneath the more accessable flows of zeta now became active, tugging at the weak strings that held their reality together. Before long the ground began to tear itself apart under the force of these otherworldly powers. Next the blackened sky seemed to crack open, shattering as if it was glass to reveal an alien skyscape above Titan Academy.

“What’s going on Raen?” Dana questioned at the sight, prompting her brother to simply shake his head in return.

“I stopped knowing what was going on in this battle sometime ago.” He responded candidly, turning his gaze towards a sight that he could not explain.

The sight was so odd that the two young Junior Knights didn’t even realise that they had managed to effortlessly maintain their powered up states, a task that usually proved rather taxing once these cataclysm events got underway.

“What are you crazy kids still doing here?” Xess admonished them as things began to get out of hand.

Only then did his words pull their curious minds away from the oddities that surrounded them and towards the dangers that lurked within this monumental cataclysm. Even the heavily reinforced buildings of Titan Academy began to collapse under the stress of the event, while the earth beneath them began to falter and swallow some of the smaller facilities whole.

“Come on Dana, we should clear the area.” Raen suggested, but his sister needed no prompting as she prepared to do just that.

“Professor McLeod, you should accompany us.” Dana stated, turning her attention towards the one remaining McLeod brother.

“I’ll catch up.” Xess replied now as he scanned the battlefield. “You two go on without me.”

With this, the two braver-tier Xelots nodded and began their ascent from the crumbling area. At this point in time, many of their fellow classmates had long since evacated the area, leaving just these two to traverse the crumbling buildings of Merricent’s prestigious academy.

While they made their way off campus however, Xess stayed behind to search the immediate area. With his brother’s untimely reversion, just moments before the cataclysm began in earnest, Xess knew that it was only a matter of time before he re-materialised. For this reason, the renowned zeta physicist remained in place to locate his brother’s unpowered-up body when it reappeared, in order to ensure that he would not perish in the collapsing environment. Unfortunately, this proved to be a particularly difficult task. As the effects of this strange cataclysm intensified, the effects on his body that usually accompanied these types of events began to manifest. Though these effects proved to be much weaker than they usually were, Xess slowly began to realise that channeling was becoming increasingly taxing and even maintaining his powered-up state was proving to be quite the chore. He growled heavily at this inconvenient realisation.

“Come on Xell—” he muttered “—where the hell are you?”

It had now been a few minutes since his brother’s heroic-form was completely vapourised in the wake of Jayce’s energetic discharge, so he was certain that Xell’s body would reform at any second. Unfortunately, the longer he stayed in the area, the less likely it seemed that he’d be able to save his brother from certain demise. In fact, each additional second that he dallied the effects of the cataclysm got stronger and his own channeling abilities got weaker. Xess scoffed loudly at these facts and did what he seldom tended to; allowing his instincts to override his more rational thoughts. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, but he simply felt that something was different about this particular cataclysm. Even aside from its unusually high magnitude, he simply knew that this particular event was unlike anything that he’d experienced before. In fact, he was almost certain that it was unlike anything that preceded it. So now he hoped – hoping that its unique properties increased his chances of survival and those of his brother.

“Good God!” He exclaimed as Xell’s familiar signature began to coalesce into a single form.

At first invisible to the naked eye, Xess could only sense the gathering of zeta at a single point. Soon however, this energy congealed into a visible phenomenon before transmuting themselves into Xell’s unpowered-up form. Xess wasted no time rushing towards his brother and hoisting his unconscious body up off of the ground, before taking stock of his surroundings one last time and beginning to plot his path out of the collapsing area.

The exodus of the McLeods left just one channeler in the area. At the focal point of the entire event, the incapacitated Jayce Falco was still spewing incredible quantities of Dias into the environment, further fuelling a phenomenon that had long since spiralled out of control. Unfortunately, in his present state there was little that the young guardian host could do and his one accomplice had long since abandoned him.

Luckily, his silent sentinel remained behind to watch over him. Some distance away, a loud scoff exited the lips of the Geon guardian.

“Let’s go Aegis.” The youngster muttered to himself as he summoned his heavily armoured familiar into reality, before allowing the large summon to take on a corporal form.

As it tended to, his familiar’s assumption of a physical body caused him to forfeit his own solid form, forcing the young man into an aetherial state. This was to his advantage however because unlike Xess, Geon allowed this youngster to not just maintain his powered-up state but to easily execute his channeling abilities amidst the raging effects of the cataclysm. So while his summon, Aegis, navigated the crumbling terrain in search of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the midst of the event, the young Geon host, Nikolai Amon, made his way directly to the location of his fellow host, Jayce.

“You two really are a troublesome pair.” He sighed lightly, before resting his hand over the gaping hole in Jayce’s chest from which Dias’ energy was springing forth.

With some effort, Nikolai now channeled his own arcane energy type, the mysterious Geon, into Jayce’s chest. Slowly a bright green aura began to emanate from his body, before spreading out over his target and bathing his skin. Soon this energy that had been slowly building erupted, engulfing both Nikolai’s aetherial form and Jayce’s entire body. At first, the energy caused Jayce’s wounds to begin healing slowly, with the small cuts and bruises that he’d acquired in battle disappearing. But within seconds, even the gaping chasm left in his chest by Xell’s order disruptor began to close and mend itself. Next, Jayce’s body was fortified and reinforced by the legendary energy type, granting it the stability to once more contain the immence power that was stored within him. Slowly the geyser of Dias that had been erupting from his chest began to narrow, shrinking gradually into a single point until the hole in his body closed completely and the power was once again contained.

With this accomplished, Nikolai channeled another surge of Geon into Jayce’s body, jolting him out of his daze and forcing his body to recover from the shock of the ordeal. Nikolai watched closely as Jayce’s eyes shot open, both Geon and Dias coursing through his body to revitalise his form and pull him out of his R.E.D. induced trance.

“You…” He growled lightly as he set his eyes upon the luminous green form of Nikolai’s aetherial state.

“Me…” Nikolai shook his head and smirked lightly, watching as even in his dazed stupor Jayce tried to figure out who it was that was standing over him. “I’ve repaired your body Dias host, but there’s little I can do about this cataclysm.” He explained. “Clear the area before the Rogues and the Royal Guard cordon it off — hopefully your father can take it from there to ensure they don’t lock you away indefinitely for causing all this.”

Jayce scoffed loudly at the order, but unfortunately he was still much too weak and much too groggy to contest it. He’d be forced to deal with his saviour some other day, but for now he’d accede to the suggestion and leave what remained of Titan Academy. A slight nod preceded Jayce activating his stealth abilities and vanishing from the area, before Nikolai dissipated Aegis and also began his own exfiltration. All he could do as he cleared the area was mutter to Geon.

“Well, this excalated quickly…”