"That will not work on me," Tokigami laughed. "Time for a light attack! Hehehehe." He lifted his left arm, and the beautiful, vacant-eyed woman, 03's mother, mimicked the gesture, her hand glowing with a brilliant, holy light. But before she could unleash her attack, a massive, improvised shield made of ripped-up rooftop stone slammed into the ground in front of her. Gluteus had used his taunt ability.

Tokigami's eyes narrowed in annoyance. He couldn't control the puppet's instincts. It was now completely focused on the giant brawler. "Oops," he said, his voice dripping with a mock innocence. "Time to attack that giant man again."

The beam of pure, incandescent light shot out, slamming into Gluteus's improvised shield. The stone cracked and groaned under the immense pressure, but it held, the giant brawler gritting his teeth as he was pushed backward across the rooftop.

The distraction was all Bombom needed. He landed, his ice sword a blur of motion as he slashed at Tokigami. The self-proclaimed god jumped back, a look of genuine surprise on his face as he looked down at his arm. It was gone, severed cleanly at the shoulder. There was no blood, only a strange, dark, dusty substance where the limb had been. "Ooh, clever," Tokigami said, his voice full of a grudging respect. "The blue boy on your back increased the sword's size, making spikes on its 'blade'." He calmly picked up his severed arm and, with a sickening, squelching sound, pushed it back into place, the flesh instantly knitting itself back together.

Bombom's jaw dropped. "W-what? That's not even possible!"

The blue-haired boy just laughed, a silent, melodic sound, before vanishing back into Bombom's form.

"You fought an immortal man who could do the same thing not two hours ago," Tokigami pointed out, a condescending smirk on his face. "I don't get your point." He pulled a small, sleek analyzer from his pocket and pointed it at Bombom. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your intelligence is so low." He shrugged. "A Lily that increases strength is a weak Lily."

"If I'm so weak," Bombom growled, his face flushing with a familiar, furious rage, "then what's that behind you?"

"Wut?" Tokigami asked, turning to look.

It was SynchroNoice. He had used the chaos of the battle to sneak up behind the villain. He held up his hand, which was now glowing with a shimmering, pink aura, a perfect, spectral copy of Karima's wand held within it. He launched a massive, pulsating pink heart, which slammed directly into Tokigami's back.

The god's pupils immediately dilated into two, perfect pink hearts. "Woah," he said, his voice full of a dopey, lovesick sincerity. "Good job." He looked at Bombom, a dreamy, adoring expression on his face. "But I'm more interested in you." And then, with a visible effort of will, the heart-shaped pupils shattered, replaced by his own mismatched, furious irises. He spun around and, with a single, powerful kick, sent SynchroNoice flying across the rooftop, where he crashed into a heap at Gluteus's feet.

As the charm effect wore off, 03's mother, who had been relentlessly blasting Gluteus's shield, suddenly stopped attacking. The giant brawler, his shield now a crumbling wreck, rushed over to check on the downed SynchroNoice. There was a massive, ugly wound on the small man's chest where the kick had landed. And it was healing at an impossibly slow rate.

"Bombom!" Gluteus yelled, his voice a panicked roar. "Don't get hit by him! I thought he could only use that anti-healing effect by making people bleed, but any hit does it!"

Bombom nodded, his face grim. Tokigami just laughed. "Knowing that won't help you," he said, his expression turning serious, his eyes glowing with a dark, malevolent light. "Now," he said, his voice a low, dangerous whisper, "you look behind you, Bombom."

Bombom turned, and his heart froze. 03's father, the puppet of shadow, was standing directly behind him, his hands cupped together, a massive, swirling ball of pure, concentrated darkness gathering between them. He was charging an enormous shadow blast at point-blank range. Before Bombom could even react, the puppet shot.

"BOMBOM!" Gluteus screamed.

But the blast never connected. Bombom's muscular shadow erupted from his back, catching the massive sphere of dark energy in its bare hands. "BIRL!" it roared, its voice a deep, guttural sound of pure, unadulterated rage. "I WANT MORE! I WANT MORE!" It crushed the shadow blast, the dark energy dissipating harmlessly, and then it charged. It grabbed the shadow puppet, pulling its arm clean off, and then began to pummel it with a relentless barrage of phantom fists, the impacts causing the puppet's body to crack and splinter.

Tokigami let out a sharp "tsk" of annoyance and snapped the fingers of his right hand. The shadow puppet dissolved into a cloud of dark energy and reappeared, fully healed, back at his side, next to the pulsating cube.

Bombom felt it then, a faint, almost imperceptible connection, a tether of magical energy that linked the two puppets to the crystalline artifact. A slow, wicked smirk spread across his face.

"Why are you smirking?" Tokigami sneered. "You've accomplished nothing. You're USELESS!"

"Oh, you know," Bombom said, his voice dripping with a newfound, arrogant confidence. "For someone claiming to be a god, why are you sending hollow corpses to do all the work?"

A thick, purple vein throbbed on Tokigami's forehead. "You know what?!" he shrieked, his voice cracking with pure, unadulterated rage. "I'm tired of you all!" He pointed his right hand to the churning, magical sky and whispered a single, world-altering word: "Eclipser."

03's father's body does the same as small dark energy flies into the sky.

A massive, shadowy moon began to slide in front of the sun, plunging the world into a deep, unnatural twilight. The temperature on the rooftop dropped, and a cold, dead wind began to blow.

Bombom smirked. This was the opening he needed. He focused all of his will, all of his intent, on his muscular shadow. It charged, vanishing in the dark, a feint to draw the god's attention. And while Tokigami was focused on the approaching brute, Gluteus, who had been waiting for the signal, charged in the opposite direction, his massive, unarmored form a whirlwind of motion. He reached the two puppets and, with two powerful, precise strikes, shattered their bodies into a thousand pieces.

The eclipse stopped. The shadowy moon vanished, and the sun returned, its light seeming brighter and warmer than before. Tokigami stood there, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. "YOU GUYS ARE COWARDS!" he screamed.

"How so?" Bombom said with a shrug. "You're a god, right? We're just doing all we can to survive." The livestream chat, which had been silent with tension, exploded with laughter.

"LMAO BOMBOM GOT HIM."

"GET HIM, BOMBOM!"

"Shouldn't we all be cheering for the wounded?"

Bombom looked at his drone and, with a surprising sincerity, nodded. "One minute of silence in chat for Ren," he said, his voice quiet. The chat, for once, obeyed, a wave of respectful silence washing over the stream.

Tokigami just laughed, a strange, broken sound. "Oooh? So this is a battle of gods? While I'm trying to ascend..." He pointed a trembling finger at Bombom. "YOU. You have already become a god to these people. You must want to know my story..."

"No!" a firm, unyielding "no" came from Bombom. But Tokigami ignored him.

"I am the King's son," he began, his voice a low, rambling monologue. "No one wanted to be the necromancer's experiment, but he promised us a new place, a new time, and the destruction of our enemies. I can feel the changes in my DNA. I can see the near future, the past, the creation of everything." A single, fat tear rolled down his cheek, and he began to salivate, a strange, unsettling sight.

Bombom sighed and rushed to attack him, but Tokigami just lifted his hand, and the world around Kenjiro seemed to slow to a crawl. Gluteus began to charge, but the god did the same to him, stopping the giant brawler in his tracks.

"Now I can talk without you guys bothering me," Tokigami continued, his voice full of a tragic, desperate madness. "Do you know how it feels? To watch your mother die when you were young, in the hands of ogres? To watch your friends die the same way? So many sacrifices, for WHAT?" he screamed, his hand shaking. "For nothing! But with this power, I can return to the past and see her again! You helped Ren, but I don't want your help!" His right hand, the one he had used to stop time, began to crumble, turning into a fine, gray dust that was carried away on the wind. "LOOK AT THIS!" he shrieked, holding up the stump of his arm. "MY SACRIFICE WILL NOT BE IN VAIN! YOU HEAR ME?! I'M GOING TO SEE HER!" He took his remaining left hand and waved it in the air, tearing a shimmering, golden portal into the very fabric of reality. "Second Chance," he whispered.

A woman with long, blonde hair and kind, orange eyes stumbled out of the portal, collapsing to the ground, covered in a strange, green water. She pushed herself up. "Where am I?" she asked, her voice full of a gentle confusion.

"M-mom," Tokigami whispered, his voice cracking as he extended his remaining hand to help her up. "Y-you're where you belong." He started to cry, his shoulders shaking as his left arm also turned to dust.

"Yuto?" his mother said, her eyes widening in horror as she looked at him. "W-what happened to you? Y-you're different." And then, from the floor beneath her, a forest of shadowy tendrils erupted, engulfing her, pulling her back into the void from which she had come.

"W-what?" Tokigami whispered, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated shock as his legs also turned to dust. "M-mom... I sacrificed everything... and it was worth it, just to see your face again." He collapsed to the floor, his body now nothing more than a pile of fine, gray dust.

The spell that had been holding Bombom and Gluteus in place vanished. Bombom slowly walked over to the pile of dust that had once been a prince, a god, a king of a ruined universe. "So," he whispered to the empty air. "That's how things will be with you..."

A final, faint voice echoed from the dust, a whisper on the wind. "I did all I could... It doesn't matter my end, or hers..."

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