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After the Blast

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A few of the heroes sustained injuries after the blast.

Kun had shifted into a giant beast to protect the Gang Stars, exposing him to the blast completely. Xinrei had been exposed to the blast, just barely fatally stabbed by Li, and became trapped under the rubble of the former temple. Sungmin had summoned an Ultima Weapon and passed out from the force she used to create a barrier to protect the other Paramounts.

Taeyong saved Xinya by putting a barrier around her after she chased after Xinrei, and left himself exposed after he put a cloud dome around the other members. And Sungchan suffered the least amount of injuries. His hand had been blasted off, but his Titan body and hardening protected him from the other effects of the blast.

A few seconds after everyone unharmed realized what had happened, they all realized just how much the tables had turned.

The Paramounts all ran to Xinya to make sure she was ok, before they rushed to find Xinrei under the rubble. In the same instance as they ran, Renjun finally emerged from the smoke with Li in his first corrupted form.

"I think it should've been obvious that I'm not one to be taken lightly. I had this planned out from the very start, and none of you noticed or bothered to look through my mind to uncover my tactics. One of you can even see the future and did nothing to stop me. You probably would've been able to prevent this if you did, but now you get to face the consequences of your actions"

Li smirked, seeing how defeated most of the heroes looked.

"Damn it... I could've seen what his motive was, but...I didn't want to go against the laws of time... I just wanted to protect our timeline.... I never expected or wanted this to happen... This is all my fault.. I could've prevented this, just like our big fight we had before we got separated years ago...but I didn't..."

Jaemin fell to his knees, feeling as if Renjun's corruption was all his fault.

"...That doesn't matter. We're going to get hyung back, no matter what"

Jeno insisted, resting his hand on his shoulder.

Jaemin looked up to see Jeno very angry and on the verge of tears, but he still managed to keep himself composed.

"Jeno-hyung..."

"Now then, let's finish this"

Once again, Li snapped his fingers and they reappeared in a new open zone.

As soon as they appeared there, Li summoned an enormous skyscraper structure to drop on the kids, seeing that the rubble Xinrei was trapped under had been left behind.

Surprising the Paramounts, Xinrei suddenly used an Aeroga spell with one of his Keyblades to get all of his comrades out of the way, causing the building to fall on only him. The building broke apart upon impact with him and the ground, trapping him under even more rubble then before.

"No... Rei... "

"Xinrei!!"

Xinya and Nitro wasted no time and ran to the pile of rubble to dig out their brother, feeling his power fade in an instant.

Not giving the others a chance to think, Renjun slowly walked towards the group to initiate their battle. Despite them not wanting to fight the one that they all cherished the most, they had to leave Xinya and Nitro to dig out Xinrei while the rest of them fought to for their survival.

As the others that were able to fight handled Renjun, Tayden protected the injured in a dark barrier to keep them safe as he healed them.

-

A Short While Later

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They all fought for a short while, but something seemed off about Renjun that they all noticed. Tristin eventually realized that Renjun was holding back, even with his corruption.

He applied even more corruption to him, causing his body and power to grow even more as he screamed from the pain. Everyone backed away, and watched as Renjun took his second corrupted form that mixed with his demonic powers completely. 

Even though his bottom half was rooted deep into the ground, his incredibly massive size made up for it.

"H-Hey, Kun. Just how big do you think he's gotten..?"

Taeyong asked the younger.

"I'm guessing here, but I'd say close to about three-hundred and fifty meters at least. If we're counting a bottom half that's most likely under the ground, then he's even bigger than that..."

"Don't falter now. We'll never save Renjun otherwise. You all heard him scream... He's suffering in there... I can only imagine how scared he must be too.... We have to help him, no matter how frightful things may get"

Sicheng encouraged his team, being the first to run off to approach Renjun in his monstrous form.

-

Minutes earlier, Xinya and Nitro had found Xinrei, but they could only toss away some of the rubble to find him deeper within a hole and trapped under more.

The whole time the battle was unfolding, the two informed Xinrei of what was happening after Renjun's corruption since he couldn't see from where he laid. But they only got more uneasy as time went on.

"Xinya.... Nitro... I can't....fight anymore... I'm so tired.... Please... You have to....save dad for me...."

Xinrei begged them.

Just from how quiet his voice sounded and how he was struggling to catch his breath, the two siblings could tell that he was dying from his injuries.

"No...you can't... R-Rei! Just hang on! W-We'll get through this together, j-just like we always have!"

"Xinrei please!! Don't die on us!! We still have so much to do together!! Don't give up so easily!!"

Xinya and Nitro begged their brother to keep fighting, but Xinrei could barely keep his eyes open anymore and could barely hear the two's cries.

"Out of the way!!"

Tayden suddenly ran up the mountain of rubble to get to the siblings, jumping down into the hole Xinrei laid in.

He quickly dug him out of the rubble that crushed him, only to find that he had been impaled in the chest a second time by an iron bar.

"T....ay...."

"Rei... Just hang on a little longer. This isn't the end for you.."

Tayden pulled the bar out with one swift tug and tossed it aside before immediately healing his friend. However, even if he was healed, he was still incredibly weak and Niha wasn't around to lend him his energy.

"I'm sorry Rei.. I can't do anything about your fatigue. You'll have to stay here until you can move again.."

But instead of looking disappointed, Xinrei looked both happy and sad.

His lip quivered and a few tears flowed from his eyes that he tried to hold back. He weakly gripped the latter's arm, and smiled as he continued trying to hold back his tears.

"T-Thank..you..."

Not wanting Xinrei to waste anymore energy, he gently wiped away his tears and rested his hand back down.

"You don't have to thank me Rei. The three of you belong together, and I'll see to it that you stay together. But for now, we have to go help the others save Renjun-hyung. We might lose them otherwise.."

Tayden informed him before taking Xinya and Nitro with him to help.

-

As he continued to listen to what was happening, Xinrei could eventually see Renjun's monstrous form from where he laid on the verge of passing out, and they eventually locked eyes.

During the fight, Renjun was still trying to fight back against the corruption but still ended up fighting his comrades, nearly killing them in an instant multiple times. Even though he was still unable to fight, he still tried to get up to help his father, wanting him to be able to see Suko again after it was all over.

"...Zuho-hyung.... Dad is in trouble... If this keeps up...then we're all gonna die... A-And mom won't be able to see him again... P-Please help me save my dad... Even if it's just a little bit...p-please help me..."

Xinrei begged Zuho as his tears flowed once more, knowing he could only ask for help from the demonic realm.

Xinrei's eyes stayed shut as he cried, but once he eventually opened them and locked eyes with Renjun again, something started happening to him. He suddenly felt a small burst of energy, feeling as if his father's power and corruption was somehow affecting him.

'Don't worry Xinrei. This isn't a result of Renjun's corruption'

"..Z-Zuho-hyung..."

'It's a power up similar to what you're feeling, but it's not a bad thing. It will help you'

Zuho informed the younger.

However, Xinrei still became scared when his body suddenly started to change. His heart started beating quicker, his bones started shifting, and his body began to grow as it began to deform with his changing anatomy.

"H-Hyung..."

'Don't worry Xinrei. Everything is alright. I know that you've never felt anything like this before, but hear me out. Your body is only reacting to the power that we're giving to you. Just let it happen instead of fighting it'

Because his body continued to change, Xinrei couldn't respond with words anymore, but he understood nonetheless.

Feeling calmed by the older's soothing voice, he tried his best not to resist it despite the immense pain he felt. Eventually, his entire body turned black and began to look even more like a demon, and he began to emerge from the rubble as his body size increased in scale even more.

By the time he reached the end of his transformation, he managed to release a powerful outcry that blew all of the rubble away with a powerful explosion that followed, revealing his towering size that was only a few meters smaller than Renjun's.

"What...the hell is that...?"

YangYang was incredibly startled by how a monster close to Renjun's size had just appeared out of nowhere.

"Wait... That monster emerged from the rubble, and it's a demon too.."

Shotaro analyzed.

"That's...Xinrei-hyung.."

Xuefen mumbled, finally realizing that the beast was his cousin.

When Xinrei turned to look at his father again, his frown suddenly turned into a menacing smile as his animosity only increased.