Neiva launched herself from tree to tree in desperate patterns while Red and Blue's puppets swarmed Ashley like iridescent flies. Ashley carved through them with plasma, obliterated them with wind blasts, batted them aside with casual contempt. Her fury had transcended rage and entered something colder, sharper—grief weaponized into pure destruction.

"ENOUGH!"

She pushed beyond her limits, rocketing forward with explosive speed that closed the distance in a heartbeat. "DIEEEE!"

The plasma beam screamed through the night.

Neiva never saw it coming. The only reason she survived was because Red and Blue did.

Blue's forged energy materialized as a massive hand that grabbed Neiva and yanked her sideways out of certain death. But momentum had its own plans—she wasn't flying, and physics doesn't negotiate. She slammed into a tree hard enough to shatter bark, and the ancient trunk toppled, burying her under a mountain of branches and leaves.

Every instinct screamed at her to move. But which direction? Wrong choice meant death, and she had maybe one second to gamble.

She leaped blindly just as another plasma beam reduced the fallen tree to ash and superheated air. Neiva dove for cover in thick undergrowth, extinguishing her aura completely so the glow wouldn't betray her position. She clamped both hands over her mouth, forcing her breathing silent despite her hammering heart.

Red and Blue's puppets tried leading Ashley away from Neiva's location, zigzagging through the trees in obvious patterns.

Ashley simply stopped moving.

"Why'd she stop following us?" Red's confusion bled through their mental link.

"You think I'd fall for that?" Ashley's voice dropped to something quiet and terrible as she descended into the forest canopy.

Neiva felt her heartbeat in her throat, pulsing against her palms. Ashley's presence radiated menace as she hovered between the trees, palms raised toward each other. Plasma bridged the gap between her hands, building with blinding intensity.

"RED, NOW!" Blue's mental command carried crystal clarity.

Purple forged energy materialized around Neiva a fraction before Ashley moved. The grief-mad evolved Auron swept her arms in a wide arc, and an expanding ring of plasma pulsed outward, cutting through every tree and incinerating every bush in a massive radius.

The sound of shattering crystal—Red and Blue's improvised barrier breaking—snapped Ashley's attention directly toward Neiva's hiding spot. The bush was gone. The girl was exposed, crouched behind the orange puppet wearing Angelo's jacket.

Ashley didn't hesitate. The beam of death launched.

Neiva thought fast. Her yellow Force aura already blazed as she drew both Trinergy swords and raised them in a desperate cross-guard. The plasma beam hit like a freight train made of star-matter. "MMMRRAHHHH!" The scream tore from her throat as she fought to hold position, her hands shaking violently as the beam's intensity climbed higher, hotter—

SNAP.

Both Trinergy swords shattered like glass.

The beam caught her square in the chest, launching her and the puppet backward through three trees in succession. They carved a literal trench in the forest floor before momentum finally died.

Neiva coughed blood. Her Auranium underarmor was completely wrecked—scorched black and cracked—but it had kept her alive. No time to process pain. She frantically tore Angelo's Trinergy jacket off the puppet and pulled it over her own burned chest, then grabbed the puppet's remains and launched herself away in another desperate bound.

"Angelo..." Red's voice had lost all its chaotic edge. "Hurry."

Deep in the cave, Angelo cycled through options, calculations, desperate measures. He slammed his fist against his forehead as if he could physically knock a solution loose.

"Angelo."

Blue's voice cut through the mental chaos like winter wind through summer heat—cold, clear, purposeful.

"To find a solution, you must first identify the problem."

Angelo took a shuddering breath, forcing himself to set panic aside. "Okay. The issue is..." He organized scattered thoughts into something coherent. "I can't rely on one strong attack right now. It would be a last-ditch effort that'll probably fail anyway."

"Yeah, bitch is fast." Red's crude agreement somehow helped. He paused. "What about Trinergy armor? Worked pretty well against Hugo, remember?"

"Pretty well?" Angelo's growl carried disbelief. "Blue couldn't scratch him! We only landed hits through pure sneak attacks!"

"Oh. Right." Red's casual response would've been infuriating if they had time for it.

"We can share my connection, sure. We've got access to some Trinergy, fine. But..." Angelo sighed, the weight of impossible odds settling over him. "Doesn't matter if you've got strong defense or can occasionally throw big attacks. If you don't operate at five hundred percent capacity, you're just outmatched in the long run."

Silence filled their shared consciousness—both verbal and mental. Nothing but the sound of Angelo's ragged breathing in the dark cave.

Then his eyes snapped open.

"Operate... at... Trinergy level?" The words came out barely above a whisper, like he'd just spoken something forbidden.

"What are you driving at?" Blue's scholarly interest sparked.

"I don't know..." Angelo shook his head. "It's probably just crazy."

"You lack the luxury of dismissing potential solutions given current circumstances." Blue's formal precision had returned. "Desperation breeds innovation."

"Hate to say it, but the walking encyclopedia's got a point." Red chimed in.

Angelo took a deep breath, centering himself. "Right. So..." He pressed his palms together in front of his face like a prayer. "You two can use my energy connection, correct?"

"Last I checked, you called me a parasite for that." Red's dry comment carried an edge.

"Not the time, Red." Blue's stress was audible. "Continue, Angelo."

Angelo scratched his head, afraid to even entertain the notion forming in his mind. "With Remote Energy Manipulation, we learned to create instant Trinergy when all three of us draw our energies directly to the same location."

"Where are you going with this?" Blue's suspicion grew.

"Well..." Angelo hesitated. "What if we apply that same principle to you two... borrowing my connection? What if we use my connection to draw Trinergy directly into me? Wouldn't that make me operate at five hundred percent myself?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"That's..." Red started slowly. "THAT'S GENIUS!"

Blue didn't sound nearly as enthusiastic. "I'm not entirely su—" He stopped himself mid-thought. "On second thought. Never mind."

"What? You think it's impossible?" Angelo pressed.

"No, I'm making no claims either way." Blue's careful neutrality spoke volumes.

"So... should we try it?" Angelo sounded even less certain now.

"Okay. How?" Red cut straight to the practical issue. "Drawing energy to somewhere I can see or feel is one thing. What you're suggesting is completely different."

Angelo waited, hoping Blue would provide the solution. But the scholarly aspect remained silent. The burden fell entirely on Angelo—he'd suggested it, he had to solve it. Question was: commit to this untested idea and risk wasting time they didn't have, or settle for a safer, less innovative approach?

"Let's think it through." Angelo finally committed, though halfheartedly. "If we want to actively draw Trinergy through Remote Energy Manipulation using my connection, we need to reach for it and feel it. So... let's start there."

Angelo settled into meditation posture, closed his eyes, and began the process. He squeezed his eyes tight, trying to sense his own energy connection. After several minutes of exactly zero progress, frustration erupted. "Argh!"

"Perhaps it would be best if we moved on to diff—" Blue's thought cut off abruptly as he helped Neiva dodge another attack. "To different solutions." He completed the thought with forced calm.

"What if you looked at it from a different angle?" Red offered what seemed like obvious wisdom.

But sometimes obvious was exactly what desperation needed. "Wait. Hold on. Maybe that's it. If I can't detect it directly, maybe I can reach it from my end?"

"What?" Red had no idea what that meant.

"Think about it. We sync our own energy flow with the connection, right? So if they're synchronized, they're also linked by definition."

"I dunno? Maybe?" Red clearly wasn't following the logic.

Angelo sighed. "Forget I said anything. Here goes nothing."

He sank into meditation again. This time he focused on feeling his own energy flow—easy enough after years of practice. Like breathing for a seasoned Auron, it was second nature.

What came next was the hard part.

Angelo began tracing that flow, visualizing it inside his body but also having an exit point—flowing outside, into the void, into the cosmos itself. His breathing became ragged. Sweat covered him like he'd been running for hours. Heat built inside him to disturbing levels, but he pushed through anyway, refusing to lose sight of the goal, refusing to release his grip on the building sensation.

He kept tracing, kept following that feeling wherever it led. Red and Blue fell completely silent—they could feel whatever he was feeling through their shared consciousness, and it was unlike anything they'd ever experienced.

Then he found it.

Angelo's eyes went wide despite being closed. The sensation was incredible—like discovering a giant vein connected directly to his core. Pulsing. Alive. He could feel energy flowing from somewhere unknowable, somewhere infinite. Always coming. Always there.

"Remarkable!" Blue breathed internally, awe coloring his normally composed tone.

"Well?" Angelo's voice came strained, still breathing hard. "What are you waiting for? Try drawing your energies with me through that thing. Let IT be our anchor point."

What happened next belonged in history books.

The trio didn't witness it from inside the cave, but every person within hundreds of miles could.

It was as if space itself tore apart. An enormous white glowing vein appeared in the sky—like a rainbow that existed everywhere and nowhere, visible but impossible to pinpoint, always just out of reach. It looked like frozen lightning, impossibly thick, and it converged directly at the cliff face where the cave was hidden. Directly at Angelo's location.

Sol and Nova stopped their battle mid-strike, both gawking at the impossible sight suspended above them.

Neiva and Ashley as well—frozen in place, staring upward. Only Ashley realized exactly who was responsible. Without warning she rocketed toward the light's source.

Neiva's blood turned to ice. "ANGELO!"

She gave chase. Desperate to buy her mentor a few precious seconds.

Miles away, Leilani Motel

Aggressive pounding on the door made both Ivan and Milo lurch from their beds. Milo stomped toward the door, flinging it open with violence. "WHAT?!"

Clay stood there—his face white as a sheet, though it always was. But his expression was something else entirely. "You need to see this. Now."

They climbed to the roof where Ritto sat gazing into the distance with intense interest.

"What in the name of hell..." Milo breathed, the words dying on her lips. "What IS this?"

She turned to the biodroids. Both shook their heads, equally baffled. They all turned to Ivan, who had dropped to his knees, trembling.

"This..." His mind raced through impossible calculations. "Could this be an Auron ability?" He began mumbling to himself, mouth twisting into something between terror and ecstasy. "But no, it's too static—not being actively manipulated. Yet something of this magnitude..."

He spread his arms like a prophet receiving revelation. "It defies common sense! No—correction. It defies sense, period!"

"You think it's connected to Angelo?" Milo asked, though she already knew the answer.

"Pattern recognition suggests probability!" Ivan's conclusion came sharp and certain. "We seek an anomaly. Anomalies create further anomalies! The destination is clear."

Just before the beacon appeared, MountShade

Maxwell and his group had found lodging for the night. He and Vera had already retired. Meanwhile, Kirren and Sienna cuddled under moonlight on the roof, acting like teenagers drunk on each other's presence.

"Kirren, stop! That tickles!" Sienna pushed him away playfully.

He kept teasing her, both of them laughing. They kissed under the moonlight—

Something split both their kiss and the sky itself apart.

Their heads snapped upward. Auras ignited on pure reflex, combat-ready, movements sharp as drawn blades. When they realized what they were actually seeing, awe replaced alarm.

Kirren manipulated sand to pry open Maxwell's window directly below them. "BRO, GET YOUR ASS UP HERE!"

Maxwell launched from bed—training had made him capable of going from dead sleep to full alert in seconds. Vera wasn't sleeping anyway.

Within a minute, all four stood on the roof together. "What in the blazes?!" Maxwell was absolutely stunned.

"I think we're being invaded by aliens!" Kirren let out, half-joking. Only half.

"Do you think this has something to do with that Angelo kid?" Sienna asked the group.

"I—" Maxwell struggled for words, actively pulling himself together. "I wasn't told he was capable of anything like that."

They all turned to Vera. She considered it carefully. "Probability exists. Not high, admittedly. But we lack complete intelligence on their capabilities or the true nature of their condition. For all we know, they might be responsible."

"Should we investigate?" Kirren asked.

Maxwell nodded sharply. "This warrants immediate attention. We move now. Get to the Scorpion."

Back in the cave, Angelo, Red, and Blue grappled with the sensation of touching something vastly beyond comprehension. They'd felt the connection. Now came the harder part—using Remote Energy Manipulation to actually draw Trinergy through it.

"Come on...!" Red's frustration bled through gritted mental teeth.

Blue said nothing, but his effort was audible in the strain of their shared consciousness.

Angelo fought to maintain his grip on something that felt like trying to hold lightning.

"THERE!" Red's triumph exploded through their link. "I FUCKING GOT IT!"

He could feel himself drawing his own negative energy alongside Angelo's neutral flow, both streams moving through that infinite vein. "Just mimic what I'm feeling, Blueberry!"

Blue swallowed his embarrassment at Red solving it first. Not the time for ego. He did as instructed, feeling through Red's success, understanding what to reach for.

To the outside world, the energy connection finally moved—not drastically, like watching a sleeping giant's chest rise and fall with breath. Then it began disappearing, fading from the extremities until only the section connected to the cliff remained visible.

Too late. Ashley had already found the cave. Plasma built in her palm as she advanced, grief and fury merged into apocalyptic intent. "THIS IS THE END!"

She launched her strongest beam yet.

"ANGELLLOOOOO!" Neiva's shriek tore through the night air.

The beam crashed into the cave entrance. Dust erupted in massive clouds as plasma ground against stone. "NOOOOOOO!" Neiva's scream filled the forest.

But Ashley kept firing—not to ensure nothing remained, but because she felt something. Resistance. Shock rippled across her face when something emerged from the cave, walking calmly through her attack. As the figure stepped into view, she noticed the beam splitting in two, now carving the cliff walls on either side instead of its intended target.

Neiva went dead silent. "No way..."

Ashley finally stopped her attack—it clearly wasn't working. She had to see this with her own eyes. When the dust began settling, her shock intensified to something approaching horror. "W-what... WHAT IS THIS?!"

Angelo held up one forearm. A Trinergy construct attached to it had split the plasma beam like water around a stone. But that wasn't what made Ashley's voice crack.

"You..." Ashley tried making sense of what she was seeing. "You're a Duoron?! But you're already evolved—that doesn't make sense! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

"Angelo?" Neiva breathed in complete awe. She as well couldn't make sense of what she was witnessing.

Angelo lowered his arm with maddening calm. He studied his own palms like seeing them for the first time. His orange aura was nowhere to be found. Instead, silver light shot through with orange, red, and blue particles danced across his skin, constantly shifting patterns. He opened his eyes—the same effect. Silver with tri-colored energy flowing through them like living veins.

"So this is what real power feels like."

He flexed his hand before closing it into a fist. His silver eyes met Ashley's orange ones, and something absolute settled in his gaze.

"Quite observant of you. You're correct—I'm not a Duoron. All things considered, I think I'll call this..."

His aura intensified, and the very air around him seemed to bend.

"Trinergy Mode."

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.