Nadya and Sven stood beside Kai, the trio staring up at the glowing figure suspended mid-air like a divine executioner.

The Messiah still hadn't lifted a finger to fight back. He simply watched - head tilted, golden light wreathing his form like a second skin, radiating so much heat the ground beneath him had blackened and cracked. But it seemed as though that was about to change, especially after Kai enraged the man further...

They didn't need to speak. Not a single word passed between them.

They'd fought together and against one another enough times to understand each other's rhythms, strengths, and limits. There was an unspoken synergy, a battlefield instinct that tied them together.

Kai sighed as Nadya and Sven took a step back. He was twitching slightly from the residual pain still lingering in his limbs, but remained calm.

'Of course I'm the tank. I can heal, so I'm going to be the one who gets cooked alive every time I get near him,' he grumbled in his head. 'Guess they forgot healing doesn't mean I don't feel pain.'

Still, he wasn't backing down. At least not yet.

He thrust his arm forward.

The spear of hardened blood he had formed twisted, dense and sharpened like a forged javelin. With a flick of his wrist, Kai hurled it with deadly precision.

The construct screamed through the air, slicing straight through the shimmering veil of heat that surrounded the Messiah. For a split second, it looked like it might evaporate, but it didn't.

It hit.

The spear grazed his cheek, carving a narrow gash just beneath his left eye.

The Messiah's head snapped to the side. He blinked, more in surprise than pain, as a single droplet of blood slid down his glowing cheek.

For the first time, his expression twisted. Gone was the tranquil serenity.

Now… he looked offended.

The wound hissed and sealed shut almost immediately, the intense heat scorching the flesh until it fused back together seamlessly, without so much as a scar.

But the damage had already been done.

A mortal - no, a blasphemer - had drawn his blood.

The Messiah slowly turned his head to face Kai, eyes glowing with searing fury. The surrounding temperature skyrocketed in seconds. The air warped. The ground cracked. It felt like the sun had dropped from the sky and landed right in front of them.

And then he began to murmur under his breath.

"Forgive me, Lord… For these sins that I am about to commit. For the pain I must now unleash in your name…"

As he did, Kai couldn't help but think to himself, 'I guess my blood is heatproof.'

Not that it would help him much...

The Messiah raised his hands, and the world exploded.

Twin beams of golden light surged from his palms, cutting through the dock like divine lasers. Concrete vaporised. Steel melted. The port was lit in gold and fire.

Nadya dived to the side, explosions from her palms propelling her, barely dodging one of the beams. Sven blurred behind Kai, vanishing along with him in a burst of movement that left scorched footprints in his wake.

But that was just the start.

"Move!" Kai shouted as he vaulted to the side, skin blistering from proximity alone.

The Messiah shot across the sky like a comet, a streak of radiant flame. He reappeared above Nadya and sent a blast of heat downward. She raised her arm, detonating one of her explosive orbs just in time to deflect the force, but the shockwave hurled her back like a ragdoll.

Her innate resistance was the only thing that stopped her from being scorched.

Sven appeared next to her mid-air, catching her arm and redirecting their fall with a burst, only to vanish again before they hit the ground.

"Kai-!" Nadya shouted.

"I'm fine," he yelled back, even as half the skin on his left arm had begun to slough off from heat damage.

He turned and launched a wave of blood daggers upward. The crimson blades hissed through the air, each one tipped with lethal precision, but they barely reached the Messiah before disintegrating in the golden aura.

'So much for heatproof,' Kai scoffed internally.

Meanwhile, the man's voice echoed again, warped with fanatic glee.

"I am the chosen light! Your impurity will be burned away!"

He dived downward, crashing into the ground like a meteor. A shockwave of heat erupted outward, knocking all three of them back even from dozens of metres away.

Sven grunted as he rolled across the ground, legs screaming in protest. He pushed himself up, panting. "We're barely scratching the fucker!"

"I noticed," Kai snarled, summoning another spear even as his skin bubbled anew.

Nadya growled, palm glowing with condensed explosive energy. "We've gotta blind him or try to wait it out until he tires."

The Messiah rocketed skyward again, his limbs glowing with radiant power, and then vanished, only to reappear above them with angelic wings of golden flame unfurling behind his back.

This wasn't just a mutant.

This was a one-man apocalypse.

The light from his body burned brighter than any flare. And the heat, Kai could feel it starting to outpace his healing.

'He's not even fighting smart. Just… overwhelming force. And it's working.'

But still, they fought.

Nadya launched orb after orb, detonating them mid-air to create shrapnel and shockwaves to try and knock him off balance. Sven moved like a blur, trying to create distractions and diversions, hurling blades and darting in and out like a ghost.

He also dragged them out of harm's way more times than they could count.

And Kai… Kai kept taking the heat head-on. Throwing blood constructs, shielding his allies with hardened red barriers, and darting in for close-range strikes despite the agonising burns.

They worked together. Moved like a unit.

But it wasn't enough.

Not yet.

Not against this.

Most of their attacks didn't even reach the man, and he dominated them all without breaking a sweat. He left them battered, scorched and at their wits' end.

But he wasn't finished just yet...

His anger was far from being appeased.

The Messiah hovered once more, arms outstretched, and a halo of light spun into being behind him. Each ring of golden light vibrated with power, readying for something even greater.

Kai's breath hitched.

'We need to stop him before that thing goes off… or we're all done for.'

But how could they possibly do that?!

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