On the Northern Continent...

Norah's team had just regrouped with Tai's after they had thoroughly searched their expedition area. They encountered many types of wildlife, thriving without the disturbance of people and unbothered by the incoming chaos, that was about to unfold.

Plumes of fire and screams of dying men, rang across the valley, like a beacon, forcing Norah and Tai to race towards Helio's direction. They tried to reach him on the way, but they quickly found out, that comms were down. Then, they looked up.

As the sky, as they last remembered it, turned from, blue to gray and orange. While ships and aircrafts engaged in an intense one-sided struggle. Leaving carnage, rubble, and corpses falling out of the sky. Their soldiers and their way out.

"I'll be back." Norah said, as she quickly spun around and raced back, while cladding herself in electricity and leaving Tai, to go on ahead.

As he got to Helio's site, Norah made it a few seconds behind him. She didn't want to regret not informing their teams to retreat and leave the Rennayan Solar System, as soon as possible. She knew something wasn't right. Still, with shock, what they witnessed seemed like something out of a nightmare.

Helio and his team were excavating and exploring a destroyed ancient city surrounded by a lush forest. That forest was now on fire and decorated with the blood, corpses, and parts of the androids and human members of his expedition team.

They could tell the fire had been started intentionally, as the path of the fire, raged from blue to purple. It wasn't possible for anyone to still be alive in within the forest, but as if rotating, within the circle of flames, they noticed flashes of ice, bursting out, then turning into mist.

Norah raised her hand, then dropped it in the direction, of the last ice burst. With incredible speed, a large streak of blue lightning struck down, breaking through the domain of fire and striking its target.

Moments later, Helio was thrown flying into them, but they caught him safely, as a figure, appeared with a blur in front of them. "So glad of you to gather here, all at once. I knew, I sensed, strong iko on this continent."

Norah instinctively raised her guard at the sight of her. Switching into second gear.

Tai braced himself, but he was more concerned about Helio. He checked the Nova's pouch, noticing Helio had already used a booster, and his spare was destroyed. He gritted his teeth and gave him his own. Knowing it wouldn't be good for him. However, the burns, Helio was suffering from, were too severe.

Tai, could not help but sweat at the sight of the monster, looking them over. However, he still found the courage to speak. His country was watching him. His people. He could not fall here. "Who are you?!"

The child of Atlas, raised a finger to her lips, biting it. "Oh my. How feisty you are. I'm sure you could have come up, with a better pickup line."

She threw her hand back and gave him a slight bow. "I am Princess Zelha, the 94th child of Atlas. Pleased to meet you... and you must be his friends, from the Nova Division. Let's get to know each other!"

In a moment, the distance between her and Tai closed up faster than he could blink, as she zipped towards him, trailing fire. The only thing, stopping his imminent death, was Norah, reacting with incredible speed and aided by a lightning strike, she called down ahead of time. She and the princess, crashed down a few hundred meters before Zelha threw her back and regained her footing in the air.

Norah glanced back at Tai. "Get Helio, out of here, you guys can still make it to the shuttles!"

Tai shook his head. "There's no way, we're leaving you!"

Zelha was shocked, by how they were just ignoring her. "What do you mean leaving? This place, used to have an important temple, you know. Let's pay homage to it. With a temple, dedicated to me!"

As she raised her hands, high up into the air, walls of fire, rose, all around the city. Burning red, blue, then purple into an intricately sculpted, ridiculously large temple, spanning, across the entire, abandoned city. "Zelha's Temple!" She yelled out, beaming at the Novas and excited about her work. "What do you think?!"

The Novas, who were not too thrilled, were struggling, to breathe from the sudden build-up of smoke and carbon monoxide. Yet, Helio stood up, with Tai's support.

"I can still fight!" He spoke, while raising one hand, to form a transparent swirling dome, filtering the air around them.

Tai looked earnestly at the Novas. "Do you guys trust me?"

They were a bit put off, by the timing of the question. Sure, he'd been a bit distant from them, in the beginning, but over time, they had been treating him, as part of the family.

"Of course!" The two spoke in unison.

He nodded back, then proceeded to switch into first gear. He had a lot of trouble at first, but with Nate's help and the training he received from the Rahmanaka clan, he was able to better maintain it, without draining him. On his command, a flame barrier, manifested and layered itself over Helio's dome, charged with the limits of his own iko. "Helio! Crash us through the walls."

Helio looked at Norah, then at Tai. "Are you sure, you can do this? I can't withstand that much heat."

Tai shook his head. "If I can drop the heat around us just a bit, we can! Norah, we'll need your energy."

Norah, who had supercharged herself with electricity, prior, nodded. She placed her hands on both of their backs, as Zelha watched them attempting suicide through her flames.

She laughed and concentrated the majority of the heat on the area, they were targeting. "If you're trying to leave, burn! Burn along with your stupidity!

The Novas were well adept at using sani iko. As such, part of Tai's plan, involved sensing, where Zelha had spread out her energy. The moment she concentrated it all to stop them, was the moment they needed to escape.

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"Helio! Now!" Tai yelled out.

Their dome, lurched upwards, away from the violet burning spot, then dove diagonally to the right, through another part of the wall, cooler than the rest. They crashed through, with intense turbulence, as Tai and Helio coughed up blood while struggling against the pressure of Zelha's iko. Norah continued sharing as much of her energy, as they could take.

"Ignite: Yándi Zhī Dùn!"

"Frost: Dominio!"

They broke through, while the dome dissipated into mist, leaving them falling out of the sky. Norah gained flight quickly and grabbed hold of both of them before they dipped low, near the fire and got them to safety.

She got up to watch for the princess, after laying them down. They were both unconscious. She couldn't blame them. This was not a monster, they should face.

The flaming temple crumbled down, within itself, birthing a gigantic version of Zelha instead, and towered over several hundreds of meters, into the sky. The princess then appeared above them, furious. "If there are no worshippers, the temple crumbles doesn't it?" The gigantic, flaming clone of her, raised its fist, getting ready to strike down. "Sinners shall be punished!" She yelled, raising her hands to her sides.

On the Eastern continent...

Kayed was worried about the others. He had just figured out that comms were down and his site was a lot further away from the other Novas & their meeting spot. He ordered his expedition team, to return back to their ships, even before he heard drones racing through the sky, feeling something wrong. Then, without wasting a moment, he rushed towards the clashes of energy, he felt, off in the distance.

The Nova stopped, over a field of plains, with Simon, gravely wounded in third gear, with Carina, whose side effects were starting to kick in. She was assisting him by blocking, volleys of magma, thrown by a child of Atlas.

He was around 6 ft tall, with a stocky build, adorning a cape, he had discarded earlier while fighting the Hashin. His skin tone was pale and complimented by grey, serpent-like eyes. He had the same black slits running down from his eyes to his chin, just like the rest of his family.

Further to their left, the remaining disfigured halves of the Hashins sent to guard them, laid smouldering. Slowly being eaten away, by leftover blobs of magma.

Kayed was seething with anger. He began making his way, aiming to join his comrades, when the child of Atlas, threwt their hand into the air. Tremors began below them, followed by a violent earthquake, then an eruption of lava, greater, than they had ever seen before, concentrated into a massive serpent-like wave and dipped down towards them.

Kayed didn't hesitate, although shocked and feeling a bit of despair in the situation they were in, he shifted into second gear, placing all of his might in a quick ball of lava, as Simon and Carina launched attacks of their own, in a last futile attempt. He joined in with them. "Erupt: Burkania!"

Their attacks were completely overwhelmed, as the downpour pressed down, heavier than their force. However, not all of their efforts were wasted. Giving Kayed enough time, to create a platform around their footing with rails and yanked them safely out of there.

"Kayed!" Carina called out, relieved to see him.

He regretted getting there so late. He had still not mastered picking up iko, from long distances, but as he focused, for just a second. He felt all of the chaos unfolding on the majority of the planet.

Simon dropped to his knees at the sight of him. Kayed could tell he was at his limit, with burn marks from his own side effects and some from contact with lava. The fact that, that they had not opted for first aid, made him realize, that they had already used it.

Simon uttered a few words, but Kayed could barely hear them. Not only because of the raging hot winds and the splashing flow of lava below them but because of his anger, clouding his vision. Still, he was able to make out a little of what he had said. "...Don't worry about me, take Carina, and run..."

Kayed raised one hand towards them and reinforced the platform into a diamond dome, complete with see-through windows all around it. Then raised the dome into the sky, as Carina tried breaking the walls and called out to him.

He planned on relinquishing control to her, but he first had to keep them safe. Both of them were precious to him. His first few friends at Beyond. He was grateful for all of the memories he had with them.

Kayed was born weak and sick. It took everything his parents had to keep him alive, as well as his siblings. When the war and famine came, he watched, helplessly, as one by one, they died, because of their circumstance and how powerless he felt to stop it.

His mother had died of sickness, soon after his sister's birth. His little sister was next without enough nutrients, she passed quietly in her sleep.

His father, continued overworking himself day and night, in the high heat, for meager wages. Suffering with their farm, barely producing anything, with his former job holding back his pay. Then one day, his family woke up to airstrikes and explosions, with shots being fired all over his village.

He remembered, his older brother grabbing him and rushing him out of the door, while his father piggybacked his sleepy twin sister. As they ran with the other villagers to safety, a building collapsed, from a nearby explosion. Falling on many villagers, including his father and sister. The tears and screams he let out, were devastating, as his brother continued to drag him away, screaming with and at him. 'Don't look back!'

His older brother never blamed him for anything, not even for being a burden, as he raised him. Nor complained or showed any hints of hunger, when they ate. Even though he knew, his brother always gave him the bigger portions. One day, however, he never came back.

With most of his extended family, killed in the war and famine, he was all alone. Starving to death, in an alley corner. With no one giving him a passing thought.

Until Sarah landed out of the sky, aiding those in need in his neighbourhood and coming across him. She later confirmed to him, that his brother was killed, stealing food, from a shop to keep them fed. With little order, being upheld, his body was almost forgotten.

He owed her everything and wanted to pay her back. His new family, he wanted to protect. However, this monster was standing in the way.

The child of Atlas, floated to his eye level, curious about the newcomer. "And who might you be?"

Kayed dropped his palm, facing the ground. "Erupt: Warrior!"

A warrior made out of lava rose out of the ground and jetted towards the child of Atlas, aiming to bring him down, however, it was roundhouse kicked into oblivion, with little effort. "That's rude. Fine, I'll go first. My name is Demil, the 67th child of Atlas. I'm not sure why you got in my way, you're not even as strong as one of the ones you're trying to protect."

Demil glanced down disappointed, at the dead Hashin. "They weren't even much fun either. This planet isn't as fun as it used to be. Why did father, need to drag me here again."

Kayed shook his head, shaking away any fear he had left. 'I have to use it.'

Since he had excelled in the other aspects of iko faster than the others and had often trained alone, he asked Roku, after the general caught him once, training at night. To teach him more about the flow of earth and magma. How to better access power from their abilities, when they were in a pinch.

That's when the General asked him if he was willing to learn about the forbidden arts. Techniques used only in last resort situations passed down only among the royal family and Hashin.

Sealing his resolve, Kayed made two fists and then punched them into each other, while gathering all of the energy he could muster, for the technique. "Sorry about that, I was a little hot-blooded there. There's no need for anger when God will judge you."

Demil started to laugh."You're kidding, right? You think God will save you from this situation?"

The Nova chuckled lightly, thinking about all of his regrets, then laughed. "No, no, I've already done that myself. You though, should prepare yourself. I'll be sending you to see him soon if you even have a soul."

Demil sneered. "Is that so?"

Kayed smirked, then completed his focus, releasing all of the energy he had been gathering, within his body. "Oh God, please forgive me."

His eyes became fierce, as he locked in his resolve. "Forbidden Art, Self-Volcanization!" He yelled out loud, as he set his heart on fire.