Douglas unleashed an overwhelming barrage of fire and ice, accompanied by a chaotic flurry of energy orbs, sizzling beams, arrows, and swords, all converging on Yosef in an attempt to overwhelm him. The attack seemed unstoppable, a storm of destruction destined to annihilate anything in its path.

"Special Technique: Ascension" Yosef muttered, his voice barely audible over the incoming onslaught but still carrying an unmistakable authority.

Raising his right arm, the entire onslaught froze mid-flight. The fire, ice, beams, and weapons all suspended in the air, unable to move any closer to him. The battlefield was suddenly silent, the violent clash of elements halted by Yosef's immense power. The once-chaotic energies seemed trapped in time, frozen in place as if reality itself bent to his will.

With a flick of his arm, the barrage was thrown back at Douglas, who managed to dodge it with relative ease.

Douglas snarled as he pushed himself up from the crater his impact had left in the valley floor. The earth around him steamed from the lingering heat of his flames, mixing with the sharp cold of his icy defenses. "You're fast... I'll give you that," he muttered, wiping a streak of blood from his mouth.

A sudden icy breeze swept past him. Instinctively, Douglas turned, only to find Yosef standing there, grinning madly. "Miss me?" Yosef taunted before flickering like a glitch in reality, disappearing again.

Douglas's eyes widened, but before he could react, Yosef materialized in front of him, grabbing his face. In one swift motion, Yosef slammed Douglas into the ground, driving his skull into the rocky surface with enough force to create a deep crater surrounded by a web of cracks.

"Stay down!" Yosef yelled, his voice unhinged as he repeatedly bashed Douglas into the ground.

Douglas unnaturally raised his head, his eyes burning with malice, ignoring the torrent of blows from Yosef. His mind fixated only on his own indulgence, the pain bringing him nothing but twisted joy. Two sizzling beams suddenly shot from his eyes, converging on Yosef's face. "Power isn't to be reined in," he snarled, his voice thick with arrogance as he slammed his head into Yosef's, sending him careening backward. "It's to be indulged, without limits."

Yosef, tumbling across the valley floor, rose with a demented laugh. "Power without purpose is hollow," he hissed, his head twitching as if his sanity were unraveling with each passing second. With a flick of his hand, the earth itself bent to his will, chunks of rock and debris shooting up around him. "You think desire makes you whole? No. It enslaves you." His voice lowered to a near whisper, almost prayer-like. "True strength serves something greater—God, destiny..." He smiled, deranged yet calculating. "Free will."

Douglas charged in, manifesting blades of fire and ice, slashing at Yosef with raw, destructive force. His movements were fueled by pure ego, each strike embodying his belief that pleasure, lust, and selfish desire were the only truths. As the blades tore through Yosef's body—flesh freezing and burning simultaneously—Douglas's grin grew wider, bloodier. "There's no such thing as perfection," he spat, laughing maniacally. "Flaws, imperfections—that's what drives everything. That's what makes us gods among men."

Yosef staggered back, his body mangled but his mind unbroken. His eyes flickered with a mad intensity, his playful demeanor fading as something more serious took hold. He straightened up slowly, clutching his head as if the madness inside was too much to contain. "Imperfection isn't a virtue," he muttered, voice trembling with both clarity and delusion. "It's a test. And you're failing it. You've let yourself become nothing but desire, Douglas. Empty. Meaningless. A hollow shell."

Douglas sneered, unfazed by Yosef's words. He reveled in the carnage, in the flames and ice and the destruction that defined him. "That's where you're wrong, Yosef," he said, lunging again, his blade flashing through the air. "Meaning is a lie. Control is a cage." He laughed as he swung wildly. "I embrace the flaw. I am the flaw."

But just as the blade neared Yosef's throat, he caught it mid-swing with his bare hand, his fingers crackling with raw power as he held it still. His eyes burned with something far more dangerous than power—belief. "And that's why you'll lose. You're nothing but chaos. A beast pretending to be a man." With that, Yosef crushed the sword's hilt with a thought, and smashed Douglas into the ground, his power unhinged and terrifying. "Power only matters when it serves something beyond itself!" he roared, the air distorting around him as his psychokinetic grip bent space and time, dragging Douglas through the valley and slamming him down over and over.

Douglas, despite the beating, simply laughed louder. His body twisted with unnatural grace as he defied the forces pulling at him, redirecting them upwards with a flick of his hand. The two figures shot toward the sky, soaring far from the valley and into the atmosphere.

In the chaos of their clash, Yosef's madness peaked, a wide, deranged grin spreading across his face. "You're no god, Douglas," he whispered as they ascended higher, "just a fool."

As they entered the stratosphere, Douglas suddenly lashed out with a vector of energy, redirecting both of them and the intense gravitational pull of the planet toward a distant city below—a sprawling urban landscape in Brazil. The sky darkened, and the city loomed below them as they descended with unstoppable force.

"Let's see if your 'higher purpose' can save anyone now," Douglas taunted, his descent destroying multiple apartments as the city crumbled under his presence.

Before Douglas could close the distance, Yosef swung the ruins of a collapsed residential complex at Douglas, who sliced through it.

Douglas' sneer deepened as he anticipated Yosef's next move, the thrill of battle evident in his eyes. But in the blink of an eye, Yosef was already in front of him, his arm raised to deliver a powerful strike. The speed was almost inhuman—no, it was far beyond that. The air around them seemed to warp, crackling with energy as Yosef closed the distance with impossible velocity.

Douglas reacted just in time, blocking the incoming punch with a wall of fire and ice. The collision sent shockwaves through the surrounding city, shattering nearby windows and toppling debris in every direction. "Is this it?" Douglas mocked, his grin spreading wider. "Come on, Yosef. You're boring me. Surely the 'hand of God' can hit harder than that!"

Yosef's expression twitched, his eyes narrowing as something in him began to unravel. He could feel his control slipping—the calm, calculated mask he always wore cracking under the weight of Douglas' arrogance. His fingers clenched tighter, veins bulging on his forehead as his breathing grew erratic.

Suddenly, he grabbed his head his left hand, groaning as if trying to hold something back. "Shut up. Shut. Up." His voice wavered, a dangerous edge creeping in. "You think you understand power? You think you understand me? You have no idea!"

Without warning, Yosef lunged forward, his movements erratic yet unnervingly precise. He grabbed Douglas by the face, his fingers digging into the sides of his skull, lifting him off the ground like a ragdoll. "Let me show you!"

With a primal roar, Yosef slammed Douglas into the asphalt, the impact leaving a crater beneath them. He didn't stop. Again. And again, he bashed Douglas into the ground, dragging him across the street like a broken puppet. The very city blocks trembled as Yosef moved with reckless abandon, his sanity slipping with each brutal strike.

But that wasn't enough. "Still think you're power!?" Yosef growled, his voice dripping with unhinged rage as his eyes widened in madness, an unnatural smile forming on his face. 

Before Douglas could respond, Yosef blurred, circumnavigating the Earth with impossible speed, still holding onto Douglas' head. They ripped through landscapes, past oceans, over deserts and mountains, faster than the human eye could comprehend. Hundreds of times, in mere seconds, Yosef dragged Douglas through space and time, the force of their speed warping the world around them.

The air rippled and tore around them as Yosef returned to the city with a final thunderous crack, sending tremors through the buildings. The shockwave flattened anything in its path, while debris was hurled skyward.

Back in the valley, TANT clashed violently with wave after wave of enhanced cartel reinforcements. The battlefield echoed with the sound of gunfire and chaos, but suddenly, all fighting stopped. A thunderous boom split the air, followed by a massive trail of blue and purple energies streaking across the sky, interwoven with crackling white sparks.

Heads snapped upward in disbelief. Yosef was visible, circumnavigating the Earth at blinding speed, dragging Douglas' limp but glowing body in his wake. The sight was surreal—a living comet leaving destruction in its path as they streaked across the sky. Each loop completed in less than a blink of an eye, the distinctive trail left behind by Douglas mingling with Yosef's, creating a chaotic yet mesmerizing streak of energy that distorted the very atmosphere around them.

The soldiers on both sides stared in awe, momentarily forgetting their battle. This was no ordinary fight. It was something far beyond their comprehension—two unimaginably strong forces pushing the limits of what's thought to be possible.

Douglas' body, encased in the swirling energies, seemed to almost vibrate as Yosef swung him violently from side to side, his form crackling with barely contained power. The clash between them could be felt, even from the valley.

Douglas, barely clinging to consciousness, felt his body turn to jello under the strain of Yosef's relentless speed. Yosef's psychokinetic aura warped reality itself, not just the air but Douglas' mind. The energy trail wasn't just visual—it assaulted his consciousness, overloading his brain and scrambling his thoughts. His mind broke under the psychic pressure, plunging him into a vegetative state, his once-dominant will reduced to a hollow, suspended void.

Suddenly, torrents of blood gushed from Yosef's ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, the strain of his overwhelming assault backfiring as his body began to give out. He collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood, the toll of his excessive power use evident.

Douglas, regaining his senses in a flash, felt a blaze of fury ignite within him. His bruised ego couldn't stand Yosef's earlier dominance. With a snarl, he rose into the sky, flames roaring to life around him as he prepared to unleash a devastating attack, intent on ending it all.

Douglas combined a fiery orange orb with its icy counterpart, the forced union creating a ripple of raw energy that sliced through the very air with violent precision. The atmosphere crackled and hissed as the combined force surged forward at impossible speeds. In an instant, it reached Yosef, its path unwavering, and tore clean through his waist. Yosef's upper body separated, dropping to the ground beneath in a hollow thud, while his legs and pelvis remained rooted to the ground, the brutal precision of the attack undeniable.

"Heh, I'll be fine," Yosef muttered with unsettling calmness, his expression unfazed despite his severed form. The TANT members stood frozen, torn between disbelief and terror, unable to process the absurdity of the scene.

With rage fueling every fiber of his being, Douglas gathered every ounce of strength he had left, channeling it into a massive, pulsating vector of raw energy. The ground trembled violently as the colossal force descended upon Yosef. Tonnes of rock and dirt erupted into the atmosphere, propelled skyward by the immense power. Entire trees toppled, and the earth beneath them split apart as a searing orange flash exploded outward, blinding everything in its path. The sheer magnitude of Douglas' attack was cataclysmic, reshaping not just the valley, but the entire forest in an instant.

As the energy dissipated, the TANT members found themselves shielded by the last remnants of Yosef's power, but even that protection wasn't enough to spare them from the crushing force. Their bodies ached, senses overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of Douglas' final strike. The valley where Yosef once stood was now a smoldering crater, atomized by the attack.

Yet, somehow, Yosef's body remained intact. His chest and head were torn open, crackling with lingering energy. His brain and much of his nervous system were gone, obliterated by the strike, leaving his form eerily hollow.

Douglas, bruised and bloodied, hovered above the wreckage, his voice low and steady. "Yosef Abdulhameed," he muttered, eyes narrowing as he surveyed the smoldering crater. "I won't forget you."

Far away, in a dimly lit lab filled with whirring machines and flickering screens, Anthony watched through the eyes of drones and hidden cameras. His mechanical arms trembled violently, the weight of rage coursing through his circuits. The energy crackling around him was nothing compared to the storm of fury building inside.

"Disgusting bastard!" he spat, his synthetic voice vibrating with hatred as it almost caused a shockwave. "I'll crush your head."