CHAPTER 151: EARTH CRUMBLE

"You’re right," Elius said, voice cold as the void between stars. His eyes flickered like dying stars in the twilight haze. "You can’t win."

Then he lowered himself to one knee, placing his palm gently on the earth beneath them.

A low hum trembled through the ruins. At first, it was just a murmur in the dirt, like a whisper crawling through dead leaves. But then it grew. Louder. Deeper. The ground groaned, ancient and resentful, like something older than time had been stirred awake from its slumber.

RUMMMMMBBBBLLLLE.

A pulse of power surged from Elius’s hand into the earth, and suddenly the dungeon ground exploded upward—uneven, jagged platforms thrusting themselves violently into the sky. Great slabs of cracked stone and raw soil tore themselves loose from the ground like broken teeth erupting from a mouth of madness.

The battlefield twisted and rose.

Chunks of rock spiraled upward—some as small as fists, others the size of towers. The four were forced apart, flung onto separate, spiraling cliffs suspended in air. Gravity warped. Orientation shattered. North and south lost meaning.

Zhark stumbled to one side as the floating stone he stood on rotated sideways. He barely caught his balance, lightning crackling around his arms to stabilize himself. Shania cried out as her platform shuddered and spun midair like a demonic carousel. Fraven was launched backward by a sudden jolt and landed hard on a jagged cliff, floating far from the others.

Keith tried to leap after Fraven, but a slab of stone cut him off, rising like a barrier between them. The four were now isolated—separated by a sky of crumbling earth and flickering lightning.

And Elius—

He vanished again.

Ghost Walk.

A shimmer, a ripple—and then nothing.

Zhark spun around, lightning shooting from his fingertips wildly.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

A whisper drifted on the wind.

"You first."

The voice came from nowhere.

CRACK!

Elius appeared in a flicker above Zhark—his blade already slashing downward.

Zhark barely deflected it with a burst of electrical force. The clash caused the rock beneath them to crack violently. Zhark struck back with a surge of thunder that lit the floating plateau like a storm cloud, but Elius had already turned to mist.

Another flicker.

Then—

BAM!

A fist to Zhark’s stomach. He gasped. Electricity flared. He swung his arm out with a blast, but only struck air.

SLASH!

A flying sword sliced across his back.

He screamed.

A second later, Elius appeared behind him, grabbing the back of his neck and slamming him into the ground so hard it shook the entire platform.

"Too slow," Elius whispered.

Before Zhark could rise, sand began to rise unnaturally from the cracks. It twisted around his limbs, pouring from thin air, moving with purpose.

"Sand Tomb."

The grains coiled around his arms, chest, mouth. He screamed into the suffocating flood—but it was no use. It solidified into hardened clay-like restraints, encasing him like a living coffin.

His eyes widened in fear.

Then everything turned to darkness.

Elius was gone again.

Ghost Walk.

Again, again, again.

A flutter of air, a whisper in the dark.

On a platform far to the left, Shania had barely recovered her footing. Her illusions danced weakly, barely shimmering in the air—hazy butterflies and flickering mirages. Her knees trembled.

She turned—

THWACK!

A palm strike caught her across the cheek, spinning her sideways.

Elius appeared before her, eyes colder than death.

"Second time today."

Shania screamed, creating a dome of illusion so thick the real world vanished in all directions. An endless garden of light and dreams surrounded them. The moon tripled in the sky. The air turned into flower petals.

But Elius just sighed.

He closed his eyes.

Raised a hand.

SLAASSSHHH.

A spectral sword cut through the illusion like a cleaver through silk.

The garden shattered.

Shania fell to her knees.

"I—I was only trying to help... my mother...!" she cried out, desperation in her voice.

Elius didn’t answer. He pressed his palm to the ground. Sand erupted beneath her, coiling around her like serpents. She struggled, screamed, but it was too late.

"Sand Tomb."

The sand hardened, swallowing her body from neck to toe. Her screams became muffled sobs.

Another one down.

And then—

Fraven.

His floating platform tilted violently as he hurled chunks of stone toward every flicker of movement. His eyes pulsed with psionic energy, sending invisible waves to scan every dimension.

"I know you’re near!" he shouted.

Silence answered.

Then—

SHHHHH.

A sword, floating silently, stabbed into his leg from behind.

Fraven collapsed, gasping. Another wave of telekinetic force blasted the blade away, but by then Elius had already appeared behind him.

"You always talk too much," Elius whispered, grabbing his forehead with two fingers.

BOOM!

A wave of energy pulsed from Elius’s fingers into Fraven’s skull, disrupting every telekinetic circuit in his brain for a split second—long enough.

Fraven fell.

The sand came for him next, rising from the broken stones, swirling like an angry tide.

"Sand Tomb."

The psychic tried to resist, tried to scream, but the sand closed in—tight, choking, absolute.

And then—silence.

Three down.

Only one remained.

Elius rose from the last ruined platform, floating effortlessly through the shattered battlefield of sky and earth, the dungeon broken beneath his will. His robes fluttered in the updraft. His hair, drenched in sweat, clung to his cheek. He was breathing heavily now. Ghost Walk and Sand Tomb—each use drained Qi. His body was heavy. Muscles throbbed. Cracks had formed in his spiritual threads.

But it didn’t matter.

He landed softly on the final platform, where Keith stood alone.

His younger brother.

Beaten.

Confused.

Bloodied.

And still—standing.

Keith raised his fists weakly.

His face was torn, one eye half-shut from bruising. Blood coated his arms and chest. His breathing was ragged. But he didn’t kneel.

Elius stared at him for a long, silent moment.

Then, softly, almost gently—

"So what now, brother?"

Keith was surprised and panicked, he had never expected that his older brother had a lot of ability. Is he really a superhero with a lot of abilities?