"Interesting," Seth murmured, looking at the white energy of Life that was clouding the skies of his dimension.

Life-Energy was not an energy Seth was unfamiliar with and it could sometimes prove toxic for a God of Death like himself.

The keyword being 'sometimes'… and not all the time…

"I thought the Homo-Superiors were extremely knowledgeable but it seems I was mistaken," Seth said, slamming Zeel onto the ground and directing a flurry of punches towards his face.

*bang*

*bang*

*bang*

Zeel redirected a couple of Seth's punches and responded with powerful punches of his own but Seth always regained the upper hand in a couple of swings.

Zeel dodged a punch by tilting his head to the left and just as he was prepared to retaliate, Seth made a pulling gesture with his hands and the nearby Death-Energy became chaotic, including the Death-Energy inside Zeel's body.

Zeel's chest blackened in an instant as the Death-Energy inside his body was attempting to force its way outside by ripping his chest apart.

Seth used the Death-Energy as a distraction to continue his flurry of attacks.

*bang*

*bang*

*bang*

*bang*

Zeel's vision swam in a sea of stars as Seth's attacks beat him into the ground, shook his consciousness, and shattered his bones.

Seth wasn't giving Zeel any time to think, especially since Seth made sure to always impact Zeel's forehead and keep him off-balance.

Each of Seth's blows carried with it Death-Energy that counteracted Zeel's healing factor.

The more Seth attacked, the stronger he became and Zeel began to get a vague idea of where everything went wrong.

"From Death comes Life and from Life comes Death," Seth whispered as he pounded Zeel into the ground some more.

The shockwaves from Seth's increasing strength resonated with the tempo of the Death Dimension, further enhancing Seth's strength.

Seth also made sure to thank Zeel inside his mind for the gift of Life Energy.

The Reverse-Energy Zeel called forth interacted with the Death-Energy of Seth's Dimension and created Life-Energy which Seth further converted into Death-Energy.

Life and Death were opposite sides of the same coin in Human Minds but Seth knew that Life and Death were the same, one leading to the other.

*boom*

*boom*

*boom*

Seth did not relent and pounded Zeel into partial unconsciousness.

Zeel struggled to fight back, throwing his hands in front of his face to block Seth's attacks but it was useless, Seth had grown too strong.

For the first time since the battle started, Zeel felt the true encroaching of death… and not just his death either.

Dying was fine with Zeel but now many things depended on his survival.

With the force of Seth's punches, Zeel's mind blanked out for a bit, allowing him to enter a unique state where he felt the connections of everyone around him.

Zeel could feel Elizabeth ready to take her last breath, he could feel the suicidal thoughts roaming around in Alice's head as she watched Elizabeth struggle to breathe.

Zeel could feel Jenny's consciousness slipping away and Nick descending further into madness. He could feel Ahmanet's Life-Force dwindling and Himiko's heart consumed by fear of the unknown.

Finally, Zeel looked inside himself and noticed that desperation was slowly encompassing his heart.

There was no hint of calculations, strategy, or hope to be found inside his mind… All Zeel found inside his mind was rising desperation that mixed with a strong will to survive.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Zeel yelled, jumping out of the crater using his speed and attempting to run away as fast as he possibly could.

Zeel Crawford, The Last Homo-Superior Son, was running away from a battle in desperation.

However, Zeel only took three steps and Seth was already stomping him into the ground with enough force to paralyze Zeel's enhanced spine.

*BOOOOM*

Ignoring Zeel's cries of pain, Seth aimed at Zeel's head, cranked back his left foot, and kicked Zeel's head as if he was kicking a football.

*BOOOM*

Zeel's body was launched outside the crater, sent spiraling through the air while impacting the ground at intervals for the next half mile.

Zeel resembled a stone being skipped on water, only he was the stone and the water was the ground.

[Speed Manipulation]

Using the vestiges of his Divine-Energy, Zeel manipulated his speed mid-air and managed to disperse his remaining momentum into the ground using a backflip.

Still, Zeel could not think clear since desperation had already overtaken his mind… and desperate people did desperate things and desperate things were often nonsensical.

Zeel materialized all the weapons he could from his Storage Dimension and watched as hundreds of weapons of all shapes and sizes appeared around him.

There were Ionic Cannons, Ionic Blasters, Mogadorian Heavy Blasters, Mogadorian Carbines, Spec Bombs, Infiltrators, Vibrational-Converters…

Zeel had pulled out everything he possibly could and floated the weapons in the air using a combination of his natural Homo-Superior talents and the nanites.

Had Zeel been thinking straight, he would have combined all the weapons together to form a singular, larger, more powerful blaster but Zeel's mind was clouded by desperation.

, only one thought was on Zeel's mind… and that was to…

"[Destroy]!"

With Zeel's words, every weapon in his arsenal was simultaneously activated and started bombarding the incoming Seth without pause, rhythm, or rhyme.

Zeel was desperate and just trying to buy time until he could think of a way to salvage his plan, and luckily, he had a Homo-Superior brain so conceiving a plan took no time at all.

However, what happened next sent Zeel's mind back into a bout of madness and suddenly, all proper planning was pushed into oblivion.

While the weapons fired at Seth, a blaze of flames appeared with a fury and launched countless attacks at Seth without much difference.

Neither the weapons nor the flames did anything to Seth aside from amusing him mildly. Alice's abrupt appearance back on the battlefield meant that Elizabeth had finally passed away.

Just as Zeel thought things couldn't get worse, Seth pointed a figure at Alice and a Death-Beam was launched that tore through all of Alice's defenses.

Before Zeel could even react, Alice's upper half was separated from her lower half.

Zeel's mind went blank as his hands automatically performed a series of complex gestures to access the deepest levels of his Storage Dimension.

A lump of red material appeared in Zeel's hands… a material he vowed never to use again due to its very destructive nature in hate-filled environments – Emospectruminium.

Zeel's plan had deviated so much that all plans were discarded and only the thought of revenge existed in Zeel's mind… revenge using suicide with the most dangerous material in his arsenal.

Emospectruminum grew stronger as it fed on more negative emotions before going BOOM! Where better than to find all the negative emotions in the world than in a Death Dimension?

Just before Zeel could put his plan into motion, he found the Emospectruminium gone from his hands as his body was pressed against the ground by the powerful strength of Seth.

"This should be your final card…" Seth muttered, looking at the chunk of Emospectruminium a bit fearfully.

The moment Zeel removed it from his Storage Dimension, alarms rang in Seth's head like the fourth of July.

That was how Seth knew it was time to bring an end to the farce. Alice was dead, Elizabeth was dead, and everyone else would be dead as soon as he killed Zeel.

"You can go die now!" Seth yelled, his face twisting into one of sadistic glee that could even make The Devil himself disgusted.

Seth raised a foot and pressed it down on Zeel's head without any reaction from the latter. Zeel's logical mind was battling against his emotional mind fiercely.

The only way to snap Zeel out of his conflict would be to get rid of the emotions he had already developed but that would be catastrophic on so many levels.

Zeel's nanites had a conflict of whether survival was best or progress, the cornerstone of all evolution, was best.

"ARRRGHHHH!" Zeel thrashed about as Seth increased the weight on his head slowly.

Zeel could feel his skull slowly fracturing under Seth's foot but the conflict inside his mind was fiercer than ever before.

Zeel was guaranteed to die if his brain was destroyed all at once and Seth knew this since his body was made from a Homo-Superior as well.

Just as Seth was about to put the little pressure into his foot that was required to crush Zeel's head, a powerful energy impacted the barrier of Seth's Dimension.

The energy took a pico-second to break through the barrier like a knife through butter, and then the energy flashed and appeared between Zeel and Seth, shifting their positions slightly.

The energy slowly stabilized to reveal a woman who held Seth by the neck while protecting the severely injured Zeel behind her.

The woman's body appeared as if it was space itself. Zeel looked at the woman and saw inside her body – an expanse of darkness and stars that moved about freely inside her form.

Zeel's had no idea who or what the woman was but his nanites were quickly making the connections in his place.

Since the woman was facing away from Zeel, he could not see the woman's face but judging from her figure, Zeel was able to determine exactly who the woman was without a doubt.

"Linda Cali?" Zeel asked unsure if his head had already been crushed and he was in a twisted part of Hell that showed you nonsensical hope.

The woman glanced back at Zeel and nodded her head with a graceful smile on her face to show Zeel that he was right.

"Linda Cali is my Human Name… Lyrâ'Älï is my true name… I am an Abyssal-Celestialsapien originating from Prime Universe 55…" Linda replied, her hand still clutching Seth by the neck without any problem.

"Wait…!" Zeel muttered and then asked, "Prime Universe 55… isn't that?"

"Yes…" Linda confirmed as if she knew what Zeel would ask next "I am the Daughter of Kar'Zal… and now the eternal servant of Gabriella Macoso… I was sent here to ensure you stay alive but it was difficult locating you and breaking through the 95 Dimensions it took to arrive here…"

Linda stated like breaking through 95 Dimensions was just another Tuesday.

With his mind back intact, Zeel only had one question that required answering.

"Can you win?" Zeel asked.

Linda waved her hand, teleporting Zeel and Alice's bisected body to Elizabeth's side hundreds of miles away.

Then her answer came to Zeel as a whisper carried by the winds.

"I guess we will found out," Linda replied jokingly but Zeel could tell she was serious.

"It took a lot out of me to arrive here… I am not even half my original strength," Linda added honestly, basically telling Zeel that she was unlikely to win.

Zeel connected the two halves of Alice's body aided by the exhausted Ruri and thankfully, Alice was still alive, albeit barely.

He laid Alice next to the dead Elizabeth and placed a hand on each of their bodies respectively.

While he could not save their lives with his current power, Zeel channeled all his remaining Divine-Energy into their bodies in an effort to keep their souls trapped.

As long as the souls were inside the bodies, then there was a chance he could resurrect them with his final trump card that was about to be summoned.

*BOOOOOM*

*BOOOOOM*

*BOOOOOM*

*BOOOOOM*

Zeel could feel the trembling of the Earth below his feet as Linda Cali and Seth fought to determine his fate.

It was a new experience for Zeel – not being able to fight for himself.