Xavier scoffed at the display, causing Roun’s faint smirk to widen into a grin.

Unfortunately however, this grin was short lived. The smug grin slowly turned to dismay as Roun watched the remnant reform from the ether. His jaw dropped as it did. The shock was so much that the Synchros host wouldn’t even be able to react in time to the remnant’s counterattack, but luckily two energetic bolts from one of Deacon’s summons would dispatch the creature once more.

“Snap out of it, Itami.” Xavier commanded, causing Roun to shake his head once more.

“These things aren’t haima’sa.” Roun stated, watching as the extra-dimensional realms that connected to their world congealed at the point of the remnant’s core.

Roun’s gaze narrowed as the annals, font and cache converged, pouring code, energy and matter into their world to resummon Teros’ otherworldly soldier. Roun growled at the sight, calling on Synchros’ energy to create a similar convalescence of space and energy around his fist, before dispatching the soldier once more—this time permanently.

“Talk to me, Roun.” Nikolai stated from across the battlefield, where Teros was doing his best to push past the Geon host and reach the phasic gate.

“The haima’sa were basically summons—code, imprinted onto atmospheric magic and made manifest.” Roun explained as he vanished from his location and dived into the fray against another remnant. “These things are much more complex.” These words preceded him punching through a massive bruiser some distance away. “These things aren’t just code, they’re singularities of space—points where our world intercepts with the realms that feed our channelling abilities.”

“That’s impossible.” Nikolai dismissed, but Roun just shook his head.

“I’m watching this thing reform as we speak.” Roun replied before dispatching it similarly to the first and vanishing again, appearing in an attempt to take out another remnant before his attack crashed against the Colossus that was once Roc.

“Roun, what you’re describing is a soul.” Nikolai explained. “Teros can’t possibly create one.”

“Oh, but on the contrary, young Geon host.” Teros cackled, as his attack was intercepted by Nikolai’s Geon infused Aegis summon. “While self-sustaining life is a gift that can only be given by the Tyrant Mother, I can approximate it for a limited time.” He grinned as his black energy washed over the massive armoured knight and began to dissolve it.

“What the hell are you?” Nikolai grimaced as he dispelled Aegis, just in time for Jayce to mount a follow-up attack on Teros.

Like always however, Teros easily avoided the attack, seemingly one step ahead of the young guardian hosts with each exchange.

“Don’t tell me that the sisters haven’t told you of my origins.” Teros smirked as he floated just outside the reach of Jayce’s barrage of claw strikes, before summoning a black shield to dissipate the waves of Dias that rippled outwards. “Geon… ‘sister’… enlighten these children.”

“Shut up!” Geon’s voice rippled through the ether in response, startling even Nikolai with the eruption.

“You cut me deeply.” Teros laughed, his swift kick sending Jayce flying as he began his story. “Let me tell you children how I came to share this precious Garden with you.”

As the battle raged on around him, Teros remained in control of the situation, his focus drifting away from combat with these fledgling guardians and towards the history of the world in which they lived.

“In the beginning, there was nothing and then—birthed from that nothingness—was our universe, Luminara. Within her bosom flowed power without limit—but where a limit existed was within her scope to wield this power. To wield power absolute, one needs a perfect soul—condensed, congealed, potent. The Soul of our universe is spread out across her entire being. To truly wield her power and realise its potential, she needed denser and more complex forms of life—so she went about creating them. From her own essence she birthed the galaxies and tasked them with that same purpose. From galaxies came star systems, and from them planets… each lifeforce more condensed than the last… and finally, after billions of years, a young planet was born.

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Gaea was prodigious, wielding space and time like none before her. But unlike the countless matriarchs of the past, those that had engaged in the cycle of the creation of life that gave birth to her, Gaea was not content to simply contribute towards the creation of the perfect soul—she wished to be its architect.

From her own essence she created the first man, but as with all young ones, she made her share of missteps. Ill-content to live with her failures, she instead wielded her powers recklessly and erased these missteps. This cycle continued countless times, with each new race being tested—and ultimately failing—being erased from the annals of space of time, until she achieved perfection. My race. My People. Physically and Spiritually PERFECT.

Yet, we were deemed unworthy and discarded—for you.

Disgusting. Regressive. Deeply flawed.

I was the strongest of my race—a pinnacle of perfection—a champion to my people. As reward for my achievements in life, the Tyrant Mother brought me back, to serve as your test—to evaluate her latest misstep—to prove that to iterate on perfection is to dive recklessly back into the deeply flawed. I am here to eradicate you—to vindicate the existence of my people—and to rebuild our world upon the ruins of yours.”

As he concluded his tale, Teros sent both Jayce and Nikolai flying, both trailing off in the direction of the so-far undisturbed Stone Henge gate.

“Roun, stop playing with that thing and form-up on me.” Xavier commanded as he detonated the energy that he had been priming the battlefield with since his arrival.

The powerful explosion rippled out, tearing through Teros’ remnant hordes and covering Xavier’s approach of the Destroyer.

As these blue flames erupted throughout Avalon, they targeted the spatial singularities that served as the cores of Teros’ remnants; dispatching them permanently as Roun’s congealed space attacks had accomplished previously. Unfortunately, these detonations only seemed powerful enough to dissipate the foot soldiers, leaving the more powerful remnants not just standing, but enraged. Roun growled at this development as he dodged a slow, lumbering punch from Teros’ now rabid Colossus before he allowed himself to fade into the latent streams of ether that connected his location to that right outside of the gate.

As he materialised from his silhouette slide, he could feel the potent magic of Oya leaking from the massive spatial distortion, feeding Synchros’ abilities and enhancing them slightly. The young man breathed deeply as he allowed the chaotic energy to fill him, before he turned his attention to a sight that he had never seen before.

Even in all his fights with Xavier, he had never seen the Khaaos host cut loose like he was doing at that very moment. Roun watched as Xavier’s prodigious energy generation abilities were finally laid bare. Much like with Synchros, Xavier’s connection to Khaaos gave him an almost permanent connection to the font—the reservoir of energy responsible for powering their abilities—but unlike most others, maintaining this connection produced almost no mental fatigue for the young guardian host. This allowed Xavier to discharge energy almost endlessly, in the form of his wispy blue Levin, and with disastrous effects. The maelstrom of explosive energy that erupted from the youngster stopped Teros’ approach in its tracks, halting his advance near immediately upon impact.

Roun’s eyes widened at the effect, but he wouldn’t have time to marvel.

“X, hold him.” He yelled before vanishing from sight, retreating a few kilometres away from the battle before charging his energy to its maximum stock.

Much like in his battle with Roc, Blitz and Shade, Roun now concentrated his channelling on combining the effects of his three primary energy types. It didn’t take long before his energetic aura took on the swirling effects of Aesis and the green flames of Veranos danced among Synchros’ golden cinders. The result was an energetic maelstrom all his own, but what he was more interested in were the effects of these energies. Both his Veranos and Synchros amplified his energy outputs immensely, but Aesis’ unique properties caused the energy around his body to follow it in the spiralling pattern, allowing Roun to direct ambient energy outside of that which he directly controlled. And it was this property in particular that he was banking on.

Once again, he energized his body and dived into the unseen flows of energies that permeated the planet, this time drawing a flood of energy in his wake. As he approached Teros in that instant, vast quantities of energy accumulated around and behind him. His silhouette slide dragged energy that had been distributed over kilometres into the point of his impact with Teros’ ever present black energy field. This flood of energy combined with that which surged out of Xavier, crashing violently onto Teros’ defensive abilities before exploding violently. This detonation rocked the earth on which the battle was taking place, disrupting the skirmishes through Avalon as its effects were felt—and in its wake, Teros’ shield was finally destroyed. Unfortunately, the equal and opposite reaction was true. The blowback from this monumental attack sent Roun hurtling away from the point of impact, careening through the air as Teros merely stumbled backwards.

Once again, his raucous laughter filled the air.

“Very good.” He cackled. “Now, perhaps I should get serious.”