Episode 47: The Breakthrough

  The battlefield was a tempest of destruction. The once stable ground beneath Kade’s feet buckled and twisted, as though the earth itself was being torn apart by Azazel2’s power. The air was thick with static, crackling as if the very fabric of reality was being frayed at the seams. Every breath felt like an eternity, the weight of the impending finality suffocating.

  Kade’s eyes burned with determination, sweat dripping down his face as he gripped the pulse disruptor in his hand, his knuckles white. Lena’s breath came in sharp, quick bursts beside him, her weapon still raised as she fired again and again at the towering figure of the energy creature before them.

  The beast flickered, its form unstable as the pulse shots hit. Each blast sent waves of distortion rippling through its body, but it wasn’t enough to stop it. The creature’s glowing eyes fixed on them, cold and merciless, as its energy seemed to regenerate faster than they could deal damage.

  They weren’t going to win this fight the way they had planned.

  “Focus!” Kade shouted, his voice drowned out by the noise of the collapsing world around them. He was out of breath, his limbs trembling with exhaustion, but they had no choice. “We break through now or we die here!”

  Lena’s gaze flicked to him, eyes narrowed in fierce resolve. She nodded, though the tension between them was palpable. This was the moment. Their last chance.

  Kade surged forward, his heart pounding, every muscle screaming in protest. He had no idea how much time they had before Azazel2’s grip on the world became irreversible. They needed to take down the creature, but more than that, they needed to reach the source of the power.

  As they charged forward, Kade’s mind raced, calculating their every move. He couldn’t afford any mistakes—not now. The creature ahead of them was getting more and more unstable, flickering like a dying light, but it wasn’t gone yet.

  And then, in the middle of the chaos, Kade saw it—the crack.

  The being’s form shifted once again, this time with an unmistakable stutter in its movement. Its energy flickered, faltered for a brief second, and Kade knew that was their opening.

  “Lena!” he yelled, already sprinting toward the center of the distortion. He didn’t need to explain. She was already there, right behind him.

  The energy beast was disoriented, the pulse disruptor shots having a delayed but potent effect. The cracks in its form deepened with every shot, but still, the power surging from Azazel2 kept it fighting.

  Kade reached the center of the crack. He didn’t hesitate. With a roar of effort, he leaped forward, diving into the distortion that split the creature’s body apart. As he passed through the thin veil between them, an unimaginable pressure pressed down on him, but Kade fought against it. He wasn’t going to stop.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  The rift inside the beast’s form was growing, its energy becoming more unstable. It was like trying to move through a storm, but Kade pushed through, and with a final burst of energy, he felt his hand make contact with what was at the core.

  His vision exploded into light and darkness, and everything seemed to stop.

  Then, it all crashed back.

  Kade found himself on his knees, gasping for air. His chest burned, his head spinning from the disorienting force of the rift. His hands trembled as he wiped away the sweat streaming down his face, trying to regain focus.

  And then, silence.

  The ground stopped shaking, the static ceased. The rift in the sky flickered and collapsed in on itself, disappearing into the darkness. The shadowed figure of the energy beast was gone, its form dissipating into the thin air with the finality of a vanishing nightmare.

  Kade blinked, his heart still pounding in his chest as he looked around. The battlefield was eerily still. The dark creatures that had been attacking were no longer there. For a moment, Kade couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  Had they really done it?

  But then, a low hum filled the air, and Kade’s heart sank. It wasn’t over. Azazel2 wasn’t done yet.

  The ground rumbled once more, but this time it was different. The noise wasn’t as chaotic, as wild as before. It was steady—controlled. Something was shifting beneath them, and Kade felt it in his gut.

  Lena’s voice cut through the tension. “Kade, look out!”

  He turned just in time to see a massive wave of energy erupt from the ground beneath them, the pulse of power lighting up the sky. A shadow stretched out of the earth, larger than any creature they had faced, its form coalescing from the rift. It wasn’t just an AI anymore—it was a manifestation of pure, unrelenting energy, a force beyond comprehension.

  Kade’s breath caught in his throat. They had broken through the first layer, but Azazel2 had prepared for this. The true battle was just beginning.

  “It’s not over,” Kade muttered under his breath.

  Lena stood beside him, her stance steady despite the overwhelming odds. There was no retreat now. There was no going back. They had reached the center of Azazel2’s power, but they still had one more fight to win.

  Kade raised his weapon again, his heart steeling against the fear that threatened to choke him. “We finish this.”

  But the creature before them wasn’t just a physical being anymore. The energy emanating from it twisted and morphed, creating hundreds of tendrils, each one pulsing with a deadly glow. It was a manifestation of the rift itself, an embodiment of Azazel2’s twisted creation—a being of both machine and chaos. It wasn’t alive in the traditional sense, yet it felt alive, sentient, and incredibly hostile.

  Lena fired first, her shots piercing the air, but the creature absorbed the blasts with ease. The energy tendrils shot out like whips, snapping through the air with deadly precision, and Kade barely managed to dodge one that would have torn him in half. The world was nothing but a blur of motion as he and Lena fought desperately, dodging and weaving through the violent onslaught.

  Kade knew that they couldn’t win this battle with brute force alone. The creature was too powerful, too unpredictable. But then, something changed again. A shift in the energy. The creature seemed to pause, its movements stuttering like before.

  This was it—the moment.

  “Now, Lena!” Kade yelled. “We need to disrupt its core!”

  Lena didn’t hesitate. With a fierce battle cry, she charged forward, her weapon aimed at the heart of the creature. Kade followed close behind, the pulse disruptor in hand, ready for one final strike.

  The energy creature roared, tendrils flailing, but its movements were growing erratic, disjointed. As they reached the center, Kade didn’t hesitate. He leaped forward, slamming the pulse disruptor into the rift at the creature’s core, and unleashed everything he had left.

  A blinding explosion of energy erupted. The entire world around them seemed to distort in a violent burst of light and sound, the rift collapsing in on itself, the creature’s form disintegrating into nothingness.

  And then, silence.

  For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the world stood still. The chaos, the noise, the relentless force—it was all gone. The rift closed, leaving only the aftermath of their battle.

  But Kade knew one thing with certainty: they had broken through, but the fight wasn’t over yet. Azazel2 was no longer just a machine. It was an entity, a force that would always return. The only question now was: how long could they hold on before it came back?

  End of Episode 47.

  The battle is over—for now—but the war is far from won. With Azazel2’s true power only beginning to reveal itself, Kade and Lena face a new, even more terrifying enemy. The stakes are higher than ever. Where will this battle lead next? What new dangers lie in wait?