Reinhard's eyes tracked Fenrir's form across the impossible distance. The beast's body trembled not from exhaustion, but from something else.

Something is building inside it.

Rage.

Pure, concentrated fury that transcended emotion and became something akin to a force itself.

Fenrir's form darkened, black fur deepening to the color of pure darkness. With a dark aura spread outward from its body, turning the colors of the Imaginary Sea grey where it touched.

The chains around Fenrir's body began straining.

Golden links trembled while the metal groaned under pressure that could break everything.

They trembled, shook, and threatened to snap.

Fenrir launched forward, turning into a blur that was almost too fast for Reinhard to perceive. Six eyes erupted with murderous intent, claws extended, jaws opening to devour, but then it stopped.

As if striking an invisible wall, Fenrir's body jerked, and it stopped moving. Then Fenrir began roaring in anguish, the sound tore through the Imaginary Sea, making streams shudder and lights dim.

The chains around its body shimmered with golden light!

It was brilliant and began overwhelming the dark aura around Fenrir.

They began moving around Fenrir, not loosening but tightening. New links appeared, wrapping around Fenrir's legs, its torso, and its neck.

The chains rushed out like roots, covering more and more of the beast's form.

Reinhard blinked before he muttered. "What is going on..."

Fenrir's jaws opened and roared out. "Odin, you bastard!" The voice was massive, echoing across infinite space. "Did you know this would happen?!"

Surprise flickered through Reinhard as Fenrir could communicate with language, but then he felt his body freeze.

Not the freeze of Fenrir's attack but something inside, as if his control was slipping. Then crimson-blue light erupted on the left side of his helmet.

The light shone through the shadow that filled the eye opening, the color was bright enough to illuminate the entire area around him.

His mouth opened with words that weren't his own, even though it was his own voice. "Shut up, you mutt."

He instantly felt it was Odin, he was speaking through him.

"It was your fault for trying to escape the chains by descending into Paradise."

Shock exploded through Reinhard's consciousness.

His body moved without his control, and his mouth formed words he didn't choose. He was a passenger in his own form, watching through eyes he couldn't direct.

Not now, push away these feelings and observe. Reinhard thought.

Fenrir's growl vibrated through the Imaginary Sea as its six eyes fixed on Reinhard. "So you bastards plotted against me?! Too scared of my descent?!"

Reinhard's mouth curved upward in a chuckle he didn't make. "Even if I hadn't done anything, your plan would have failed." Odin's voice carried amusement tinged with contempt. "You know the chains would have dragged you back. A hundred thousand souls aren't even close to being enough."

The chains around Fenrir tightened further. More links appeared, wrapping around its tail, its paws, and climbing toward its head.

The beast struggled, but the chains held firm.

"Isn't it because of you bastards that I'm in this state!" Fenrir's voice rose to a roar. "I swear I will-"

Reinhard felt his head shake. "Enough of this. You've done enough, Fenrir." Odin's voice hardened. "Now it's time I destroy that projection of yours."

Fenrir's expression contorted as rage twisted its features beyond recognition. The dark aura spread wider, deeper, turning from grey to absolute black.

The beast's form grew darker still, fur becoming void, eyes becoming pits of shining gold.

But the chains responded immediately.

The golden light intensified as new links erupted from existing ones, multiplying exponentially and covering the beast until more chain showed than fur.

Reinhard felt his left hand extending and his palm open toward empty space. A black-blue radiance condensed in his grip, taking shape and becoming solid.

A jagged spear similar to Zenuken appeared, but in a different design. Black-blue metal covered in streaks and engravings that seemed to shine with blue wisps of energy trailed from the weapon like flames, curling and dancing.

"You dare to take out-" Fenrir's roar cut off.

Reinhard felt his mouth move. "It's time to go back to sleep, little wolf."

His arm cocked back before he threw the spear.

The spear left his hand with force that tore through the Imaginary Sea. Colors parted before it, streams dividing to let it pass, reality itself making way for the weapon's flight.

Fenrir's eyes widened before it swiftly turned and rushed away.

Despite the chains wrapping its body and despite the golden links restricting movement, Fenrir fled.

It tore through the Imaginary Sea at speeds that made their earlier battle seem slow, putting distance between itself and the pursuing spear.

"With just a few seconds of anger, you're already thousands of times stronger than before. This is why you're so irritating to deal with." Reinhard felt his mouth move once more.

But the spear didn't slow as it locked on target, closing the gap. Fenrir growled as its jaws opened, and then a howl that emerged carried command, and the Imaginary Sea responded.

Hundreds of wolves appeared from nothing, manifesting around Fenrir's fleeing form.

Each one massive, each one burning with golden light, each one positioned between their master and the pursuing spear.

The spear struck the first wolf, piercing straight through without slowing before striking the second, third, and fourth.

It continued to tear through the pack like they were paper, leaving dissolving fragments in its wake.

Fenrir veered right, changing direction instantly, but the spear adjusted its trajectory instantly, curving through space to maintain pursuit.

Then the spear vanished before appearing above Fenrir, descending from a tear in space.

As it emerged, the single spear multiplied.

Mugen.

One became ten before ten became a hundred, and a rain of jagged black-blue weapons fell toward Fenrir from above.

Fenrir's body twisted with space around it and began cracking, holes appearing that the beast used to teleport between positions. It moved faster, more desperately, trying to evade the falling weapons.

But the spears adjusted.

They curved mid-flight, following their target through each teleport, maintaining pursuit regardless of Fenrir's evasion.

Reinhard felt his mouth move again in an almost bored tone. "There is no point trying to avoid it. This spear will continue to hunt its target until you confront it or the golden chains drag you back to the throne."

Fenrir snarled, the sound carried frustration and fury in equal measure.

Then the beast stopped running.

Its jaws opened wide before massive orbs began to appear!

The same thousand spheres from before, each one eclipsing both Reinhard and Fenrir in size.

All of them glowed with a terrifying light before they blasted out, the beams rushed out to meet the rain of spears!

Spear and beam collided!

An ear-splitting sound rang out as light and darkness mixed before energy exploded. The streams trembled so violently that some began fragmenting, their infinite lights scattering like disturbed fireflies.

Yet the spears plowed through while the beam burned away some of the hundred copies, but it wasn't enough to stop all of them. As multiple spears broke through the barrage, they continued their pursuit.

They struck Fenrir's head simultaneously, the only place the golden chains hadn't yet covered. Black-blue spear pierced through the skull, through the brain, and through the fundamental concept of Fenrir's existence.

Reinhard felt his mouth moving. "If you weren't being bound by the chains, you could have stopped it."

Fenrir's jaws opened as it tried to form words but failed.

Cracks spread across the beast's form.

Starting from where the spears had struck, racing outward across fur and flesh and bone and golden light leaked from the cracks.

"Don't worry." Odin said calmly. "Your action isn't pointless and will lead to a new possibility."

Reinhard felt his body move. One moment he was far from Fenrir, and then he was in front of the Phantasm Beast. Then his right hand extended and touched Fenrir's dissolving form, leading to a pause in the cracking.

The fragment began swirling, drawn toward Reinhard's hand like water down a drain. They wrapped around his arm, spiraling up toward his shoulder, condensing into streams of golden light that sank into his armor.

But Fenrir's body remained as its six eyes glared at Reinhard.

Reinhard felt his mouth open. "I have the souls that Fenrir devoured. Do you wish to save the people in Phane City?"

Yes! Reinhard's mental scream was immediate. Save them!

Silence fell before Odin's voice rang out, but this was more contemplative. "Still soft. But that might be the way..."

The spear in Reinhard's left hand began glowing as the black-blue metal shifted to pure white light that hurt to perceive.

The weapon pulled free from Fenrir's dissolving head, returning to Odin's grip.

Reinhard turned away from Fenrir. Swept across the Imaginary Sea, past the trembling streams, focusing on one specific light among the infinite others.

Their universe that contains the planet Paradise, which holds Phane City, and everyone Reinhard wanted to save.

The spear was lifted before it was gently hurled.

It shot through the Imaginary Sea faster than before, trailing white light that carved a path through colors. The weapon struck the small light, piercing through the light, and disappeared inside.

Then Reinhard felt his body trembling as the light began wrapping around him. White light, golden light, and black-blue light were all mixing together, binding him, and then he felt something dispersing from him.

Reinhard blinked before he fell.

The sensation was immediate and overwhelming, but he couldn't even describe or put it into words. It was as if the world he once saw as small was becoming bigger now, while he grew smaller and back into the form of an ant before the world.

He felt concepts being reapplied to his body, reality binding him, and things fading from his mind that he didn't know.

He then began falling down towards the multi-color ocean and towards the small light where his home was.

Above him, Fenrir's final words echoed across the fading Sea. "What are you scheming, you terrible trickster..."

But Odin said nothing.

Just allowed the fall to continue as Reinhard felt his consciousness beginning to slip. Darkness crept across Reinhard's vision, but he saw it.

As Odin formed, his faded from his body and regained his original form. He saw on his right arm, on the back of his hand, where his beast symbol was.

It was no longer showing a black-blue horned helmet with a long spear above it and two swords crossed in an X pattern below.

But it now shows the head of the wolf with its mouth wide open and a chain wrapped around it with two paws pointing upwards.

What…

That was all Reinhard could think before he knew nothing else, and darkness came for him.

And somewhere far below, in a city surrounded by crimson-black void, a white spear struck ground with force that shook reality itself.

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