Reverent: Six - 33. The Heart of the Storm

The battle raged on.

Flames seared steel. Temporal warps cracked the ground. Electric storms spun from fractured hands. The base beneath the frozen plateau trembled with every blow.
Ash ducked under a shockwave, landing beside Rhys. His pulse was hammering. Sweat froze on his brow.

“This doesn’t look good,” Rhys said between shallow breaths. “They’re stronger. Faster. Every time we hit back, they come harder.”

Ash’s eyes darted across the battlefield.

Fractured Leo barreled forward with an explosive pulse—didn’t shield anyone. Just detonated. Fractured Micah slashed through a corridor but ignored his teammate’s bleeding shoulder. Fractured Kai phased through a wall and nearly collided with Leo’s unstable field—barely avoided being shredded.

They weren’t a team. They didn’t coordinate.

They were individuals with devastating powers—but no trust.

Ash’s mind clicked. He turned to look at his lover.

“I know,” Rhys nodded.

“They don’t support each other,” Ash said aloud. “Not once. Fractured Leo never shields anyone. Micah never heals anyone. They don’t protect each other.”

He narrowed his eyes and turned toward the nearest clash. Fractured Kai sprinted through the shadows toward Micah’s flank.

Ash pulled, twisted the field making Kai phased into a space Fractured Leo had just detonated—blasted back with a snarl of pain.

It worked.

Ash opened comms. “Guys. Listen. They’re not working together. Make them trip over each other. Interfere. Like in a broken team—same jersey, no synergy.” He paused, then added, “So pair up. Trust your other half. Remember that your love is your weapon.”

“Oh my god,” Elias muttered. “That line is so corny, I could puke.”

Even in the chaos, Kai chuckled. “Hope it works.”

And it did.

Ash and Rhys moved in tandem—Ash bending gravity to trap their fractured counterparts in collapsed time-pockets while Rhys blinked forward with impossible precision, weaving through temporal distortions.

“You know,” Rhys said, grinning as he dodged a blade of energy, “Strategizing was supposed to be my thing since my brain can process faster than instinct. But damn you’re so sexy when you are being brainy and all.”

“Focus, baby.” Ash smiled, the glint in his eyes undimmed by the carnage. “I love you, you know”

“And I love you, too, you Big Oaf.”

On the other flank, Leo surged forward, bracing against a thunderous pulse from Fractured Leo. Micah was at his back, vines glowing with a steady green light as he touched Leo’s spine.

“You got this, Big Guy,” Micah whispered.

The shield cracked, then roared to life with new strength. Leo growled and sent the shockwave back, toppling a wall and taking two enemies down.

Not far away, Elias radiated raw current, light bleeding from his skin as he disrupted a wave of sonic distortion. The energy pushed back against him, too intense—he stumbled, eyes wide and unfocused.

Kai blurred beside him, catching him just before he hit the floor.

“I got you,” Kai said firmly, grounding Elias with a hand pressed to his shoulder. Their connection surged like a stabilizing force.

Elias blinked, chest heaving. “You always do.”

Kai locked eyes with him, voice quiet but steady. “I love you.”

The words steadied Elias more than any grounding field could.

“Did you just…?” Elias smiled widely. “Wow, that doesn't happen often.”

“Focus,” Kai smirked.

Their unity began to shift the tide.

Ash watched, heart racing. Their bond was more than strategy—it was instinct. All six of them moved like parts of a single body. Where the Fractured were volatile, the Reverent were synchronized.

Fractured Rhys twisted time in brutal spirals, trying to catch his counterpart. But Rhys had Ash.

Ash’s voice cut through the din. “You’re here. You’re now. You’re mine.”

That grounded Rhys—and he struck fast, driving his fractured self back.

On the enemy side, cracks formed.

Fractured Leo snarled. “You’re in my way!”

Fractured Micah barked back. “I don’t need saving!”

They collided. Energy burst uncontrolled.

Fractured Elias overloaded, sparks raking the walls. Fractured Kai phased into the wrong position and stumbled, bleeding.

They had no unity. Only strength. And then came the shift in the air.

Fractured Ash stepped forward, eyes wild with hatred. A black vortex spun from his chest—an unstable singularity, screaming at the edges.

“You think love saves you?” he hissed. “Then I’ll erase everything you love.”

Ash stepped forward, jaw clenched.

“Ash…” Rhys warned. “That’s not stable. It’s not just gravity—it’s a singularity.”

Ash stared into the vortex.

“I’ll collapse it myself.”

The world trembled. And the world was watching.

Satellites shifted in their orbits as screens flickered across continents. Hundreds of thousands of cell phones buzzed with emergency broadcasts interrupting daily life. Soldiers stationed at border posts paused to stare at breaking feeds. Families clutched hands as they watched their cities shake. Animals fled into wilderness. The ground itself quivered—not just in Mongolia, but far beyond: in Beijing, in Moscow, in Berlin. Tremors rippled and signals scrambled as the energy from Fractured Ash’s singularity reached across the curvature of the Earth.

Every soul watching… held its breath.