The sky split with a flash of blue.
Wrapped in a crackling aura of energy, Mark launched himself forward like a thunderbolt given form. His ki barrier clung to his frame like a second skin, refracting the sunlight into shimmering, electric arcs that danced across his body. Every inch of his form radiated raw power, his muscles taut, his eyes blazing.
With a roar, he closed the distance in a blink, and his fist, glowing with concentrated, radiant blue energy, slammed into Thragg's jaw before the Viltrumite regent could react.
CRACK—BOOM!
The sound didn't echo, it detonated. A thunderclap of force erupted as Thragg's face contorted grotesquely, flesh warping around the impact like rubber under strain. Trenches formed along his cheek and jaw, bone shuddering beneath skin, before his entire body was flung backwards like a missile. He spun violently through the air, arms limply trailing behind, his body corkscrewing with such ferocity that any lesser Viltrumite's spine would have shattered on the spot.
Before the dust had time to settle—
"YES!"
A booming, bestial voice erupted behind Mark. He barely had time to register the bloodlust before Battle Beast dropped from the sky, mace raised high like the wrath of a forgotten god.
WHAMMMM!
The weapon missed Mark's head by inches, inches, and struck the ground with enough force to crater the earth. The impact sent a ring of compressed air and shrapnel exploding outward, toppling nearby debris and hurling boulders into the sky.
Battle Beast's body trembled with anticipation, saliva foaming at the corners of his lips. His orange eyes gleamed like suns about to go nova, and his mouth stretched into a manic grin.
"THIS!! THIS!!" he howled, voice warping into a snarl. "THIS IS THE BLOOD I'VE BEEN PROMISED!!"
Mark pivoted, arms raised, but he was too slow.
FWOOOSH—
Battle Beast vanished, not ran, not leapt, vanished. The space where he once stood quivered with the afterimage of his last position, a heat shimmer from the sheer speed of his movement. Then—
BOOOOOM!!
His clawed foot rammed into Mark's gut. A sickening crunch accompanied the sound of air violently expelled from Mark's lungs. His body folded in on itself like a ragdoll, the force behind the blow catapulting him through the air. A shockwave exploded outward from the point of impact, shattering the ground into jagged slabs of rock, launching dust and broken earth in all directions.
And then, through the chaos, a roar of fury tore through the heavens.
CRAAASSHHH!!
A streak of gray, blurred and trembling with rage, smashed through the fallout cloud. Thragg emerged like a demon forged in battle, eyes glowing, face twisted in unrestrained fury. Blood trickled from his lip, but it only made him look more terrifying.
"YOU DARE—!"
He didn't finish the sentence.
His fist connected squarely with Battle Beast's jaw mid-laugh, silencing him in an instant.
KA-KRAKK!
The punch tore into the beast's skull like a meteor slamming into bedrock. Bone fractured. Fangs shattered. Several bloodied teeth spun through the air like bits of ivory shrapnel.
Battle Beast reeled from the hit, blood streaming from his mouth, but even as his body staggered, he was laughing.
He loved it.
"BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!"
They continued the three-way brawl as William watched from above!
.....
High above the war-torn battlefield, amidst the clouds streaked with fire and smoke, a golden figure stood unmoving.
William hovered effortlessly, hands clasped behind his back, his presence exuding a calm that bordered on divine. His silhouette shimmered with radiant, golden energy, a halo of power that pulsed like a heartbeat. Flares of viridian light flickered from his fingertips in rhythmic pulses, feeding invisible threads of willpower into the vast network of constructs spread across the battlefield below, kinetic barriers, weapon formations, orbital blasts being reloaded in the stratosphere.
Each flicker was a command. Each command was law.
His emerald eyes remained fixed on the battle below, pride gleaming within them as he watched Mark, bruised, battered, but unyielding, clash against two of the most terrifying forces their universe had ever known. Thragg.Battle Beast. Titans of war. And yet, Mark stood tall.
"A student worth every second," William muttered. A hint of amusement curled at the edge of his lips. "Should I leave him a gift before I go?"
Just as he contemplated, space distorted in front of him with a flicker of orange light.
WHOOSH.
Two figures phased into existence with sharp urgency. One was tall and broad-shouldered, with thick orange skin and a determined jawline, Allen the Alien. The other, older but no less commanding, had silver hair and the unmistakable edge of an aged Viltrumite, Thaedus.
Both stared at William with a mix of suspicion and tension. They could feel it, the weight of his presence pressed against their senses like gravity turned hostile.
"Who are you?" Thaedus demanded, his voice edged like steel. His eyes narrowed, and his fists clenched instinctively. "Our scans... you're not human."
Allen's brow furrowed. His gaze flicked to William's face, to his flowing golden hair, then back. "I remember there being a strange man in some of the Coalition logs… but was he always blonde?"
William said nothing at first. He simply turned his head slightly, just enough for the light to catch his eyes, making the green within them burn like twin emerald stars. He looked at them not with hostility, but with quiet authority.
Then, with a simple gesture, he raised one hand and pointed toward the ground.
"To him," he said. "I'm his teacher."
Their eyes followed his finger.
And froze.
Down below, in a crater-etched wasteland that had once been a city, Mark stood ablaze in a storm of blue energy, fists coated in plasma, locked in a savage, three-way melee with Thragg and Battle Beast. The sheer velocity of the exchanges ripped the air apart, creating sonic booms with every movement. Craters bloomed like flowers under their feet. Flames danced in spirals. Blood shimmered on broken rock.
Allen's jaw dropped. Thaedus blinked, momentarily stunned.
"But... but that's impossible," Thaedus muttered, eyes wide. "He's just a boy..."
"And yet," William replied coolly, "he fights."
Below, the battlefield roared.
The surviving Rognarr beasts, monstrous, snarling horrors with flesh like armor and claws like razors, surged forward, mauling Coalition troops by the dozens. Their war cries echoed across the battlefield, mixing with the screams of the dying.
Allen's face hardened. "I'll handle them," he said, and without waiting, rocketed down in a streak of light.
He hit the ground like a meteor and began tearing through the Rognarr with blinding speed, his fists a blur, limbs smashing bones and skulls as he bulldozed through the chaos. Blood sprayed like crimson mist in his wake.
Far across the burning horizon, Lady Sif stood bloodied but defiant.
Her armor, once gleaming green, was now marred by deep slashes and soaked in gore, a grim tapestry of Viltrumite and Asgardian blood. Her breaths were ragged, every movement heavy. Yet her sword remained steady in her hand, its edge still singing from the last kill.
Around her, the corpses of at least a dozen Viltrumites lay strewn across the battlefield, and only four remained. The rest either bled out or fled in defeat, crushed beneath her unrelenting blade.
And then, a signal.
Krieg stiffened, his eyes flashing as a coded message reached his mind directly from Thragg. Without a word, he turned and barked a sharp command to the others.
The four remaining Viltrumites disengaged instantly, launching into the sky like bullets.
They fled.
Their sudden retreat left a void in the battlefield. Sif stood frozen, watching them vanish into the clouds with a mix of triumph and confusion. The Coalition soldiers around her cheered, but there was no joy in her expression, only wariness.
High above, William's eyes narrowed.
Thragg remained.
And down below, in the center of a broken battlefield lit by fire and fury, three monsters still fought.
Mark.Battle Beast.Thragg.
A storm of fists and roars.
Unseen by either Mark or Battle Beast, Thragg's fingers dipped into a hidden fold stitched into the inner lining of his armor. His expression betrayed a flicker of hesitation, an emotion nearly extinct in the heart of the Viltrumite Regent. From the concealed compartment, he retrieved a single, ominous-looking glove. Matte-black with faint crimson veins pulsing beneath its surface, it radiated an unnatural presence, like it didn't belong in this universe.
A relic from an age of tyranny, the glove was a forbidden tool, forged in the darkest reaches of the Viltrumite Empire's blood-soaked past. A biological weapon masquerading as armor, it was once used to eliminate dissidents without mercy. Laced with the Scourge Virus, it wasn't merely meant to kill, it was meant to erase a Viltrumite from existence cell by cell, sparing no dignity.
Thragg slipped it on with one fluid, dreadful motion.
Mark turned toward him, unaware, the blue glow of his Ki-drenched body pulsing faintly. He didn't even register the swing. Thragg's arm blurred, an obsidian comet streaking across the battlefield, and crashed into Mark's face.
"BOOOOOOOM!!!"
The sound split the air like a canon blast. Mark's head snapped back as blood and teeth exploded from his mouth. His body hurtled backward, carving a molten scar across the battlefield, a trail of red smeared through cracked earth and stone. He hit the ground like a meteor, limbs twitching, and didn't get up.
Battle Beast roared, enraged, and lunged.
"CLANG!"
His massive mace whistled through the air, missing Thragg by mere inches. The ground where it struck exploded in a geyser of rock and dust. But Thragg was already countering, his fist crashed into Battle Beast's side, ribs snapping audibly.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
A brutal, animalistic exchange of blows lit up the battlefield like a storm of gods, flesh splitting, bones cracking, air igniting from sheer impact.
Meanwhile, Mark groaned in the pit of his crater, his vision swimming. The sky above was a flickering blur, and the roar of battle sounded muffled, like he was submerged underwater. His body was drenched in sweat and blood, and his muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
He tried to rise. His feet barely left the ground before his legs gave out, and he fell again, this time coughing up a thick, dark stream of blood.
His lungs burned. His cells screamed.
Inside him, the Scourge Virus was doing its work. A masterpiece of cruelty, it disrupted his regenerative capabilities, caused cascading organ failure, and forced his Ki into chaotic overdrive. To Mark, it felt like being boiled alive inside his own skin.
Thragg noticed.
A sadistic grin curled across the regent's face, even as he bled from his lip and brow under Battle Beast's savage onslaught.
He knew the glove worked.
Down below, Lady Sif had just forced her sword through the heart of another Viltrumite, only to turn in shock as the last few enemy soldiers suddenly retreated, Krieg shouting something through their comms before vanishing into the clouds.
The Viltrumites were fleeing.
But Thragg remained.
Mark collapsed completely, his body shuddering. Eyes rolling back. Limbs convulsing.
And then—
"THUD."
Thragg landed behind him like a falling mountain. Dust spiraled around his boots as he walked toward the downed hero with slow, terrifying calm. He reached down, grabbing Mark's broken body, one hand clenched around the back of his head, the other gripping his shoulder.
And he pulled.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"Mark's scream tore through the air, more anguished than anything he'd ever let out in his life. The sound silenced even Battle Beast for a moment.
His body ripped.
Blood sprayed in arcs across the battlefield. It was like time froze.
Two silhouettes flashed toward him, a golden blur and a silver one.
William.Nolan.
Both too late.
In that frozen instant, you could see the agony etched into Nolan's face, the sheer horror of a father watching his son be torn in half.
William's expression was unreadable, but his clenched fists trembled, and his aura began to crackle violently at the edges.
Nolan caught what remained of Mark, tears streaming down his face, trying, hoping, to reattach limbs with trembling fingers. But it was no use. The body was limp, broken beyond healing. No regeneration. No Senzu bean.
Just death.
William stood in the air above, motionless.
The world seemed distant, silent.
Something twisted inside his chest
Grief.
Then—
"RRRRRUUUUMMMMBBBLLLEEEEE!"
The heavens howled.
The sky darkened as if mourning. Massive storm clouds surged into existence overhead, boiling with golden and emerald lightning. The wind shrieked. The earth cracked. Even Thragg paused and looked up.
William's head tilted forward slightly. His aura shimmered, then erupted.
The golden light around him became a burning inferno, a roaring tide of pure, divine fury. Green streaks coiled like serpents through the storm above as his constructs collapsed one by one, his focus no longer on strategy or control.
"HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!"
William's voice didn't merely echo, it reverberated through the upper atmosphere, crackling through the ionosphere, tearing across the vacuum of space like a divine bell tolling the end of days. It wasn't a scream of grief, it was the roar of a cosmic judge about to deliver sentence.
The golden aura around him, once blazing and beautiful, now raged like a sun gone mad. Green lightning forked and cracked across his body, dancing like serpents of wrath over taut muscle and glowing skin. His power was no longer contained, it couldn't be.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream erupted from deep within, primal and ancient, like the howl of a god who had watched too many stars die.
Then it began.
His hair, already wild, started to grow, each lock pulsing with radiant energy as it cascaded down his back, stretching further and further until it brushed the backs of his thighs. The transformation was tearing his body apart and reforging it again in real-time, each second birthing a new version of himself, stronger, louder, more terrifying.
His eyes... they were no longer just gold. They were flames. Twin infernos, electric and eternal, with arcs of gold and green lightning flaring outward from his pupils. Occasionally, golden sparks snapped from his sockets like solar flares.
Space itself was distorting around him.
The battlefield below trembled. Cracks split the Earth's crust as gravity wavered for just a moment. Far above, in the vast black ocean of the cosmos, celestial objects began to respond.
A meteor field near Jupiter detonated into dust, the wave of his energy reaching them seconds after his transformation began. A planetoid in a dead solar system, one light-year out, suddenly cracked down its equator as seismic forces from the ripples of William's raw Ki surged through space-time.
Even the sun dimmed, just a flicker, but enough that satellites caught it and sounded global alerts.
William's roar crescendoed again, and this time the stars seemed to pulse in reply.
Around him, golden spirals of power and green lightning formed a cyclone of destruction. It was not a transformation. It was a supernova happening in human form.