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Gaia’s iron grip tightened around Rex’s throat, a wave of panic surging through Rex’s mind. “Luna wants me to kill a kid?” Gaia mused, the conflict evident in his eyes as Rex’s vision dimmed, his airways closing.

Desperate, Rex choked out the words, “Dark Flame Style, Dark Flame Shockwave!” A surge of dark flames erupted from Rex’s body, forcing Gaia to release his grip involuntarily. Rex collapsed to the ground, gasping and coughing, as Gaia staggered back in surprise. “This kid is no ordinary prodigy,” Gaia thought, a mix of confusion and admiration in his gaze. “They weren’t stupid to add him to their ranks.”

Rex rolled away, his body wracked with pain. He knew he was outmatched but couldn’t afford to give up—not when everything was on the line. Summoning every ounce of his remaining strength, he charged at Gaia, swinging his sword with all his might.

But Gaia was unfazed. With a swift movement, he dodged Rex’s attack and countered with a lightning-fast kick to the stomach. The force of the blow sent Rex sprawling, and darkness consumed him as he lost consciousness.

As Rex lay motionless, Emma and Clara rushed to his side, their faces pale with panic. They had to save him. Erecting a protective barrier around them, they hoped to buy time, but Gaia’s fury was unrelenting. With a ferocious roar, he shattered the barrier and launched a brutal assault on the sisters.

“Clara!” Emma’s scream was filled with horror as she saw Clara’s hands trembling while injecting Rex with a small vial of glowing liquid. Desperation etched on her face, Clara knew she had to protect Rex at all costs.

But Gaia’s rage was unstoppable. He slammed a fist into Clara’s face, sending her flying across the ground. Grabbing her by the hair, he lifted her like a ragdoll before hurling her aside. “Goodbye, demon,” Gaia sneered, turning his attention back to the unconscious Rex.

In that critical moment, Gaia’s arm was abruptly severed, blood spraying across the battlefield. Griffin Locke appeared, his presence commanding and full of menace. “Let go of the kid,” Griffin demanded, his voice cold as steel.

Gaia stumbled back, his arm regenerating almost instantly. The sisters, who had risked everything to protect Rex, now stood frozen in terror. They recognized Griffin, a being more dangerous than even Her Majesty. “This presence… It’s Griffin Locke,” Gaia realized, dread creeping into his heart.

“Stay calm, Clara,” Clara told herself, her breath trembling. “If I breathe too much, he might kill me just out of annoyance.”

Griffin knelt beside Rex, his eyes glowing with vibrant green energy. He peered into Rex’s body and sensed something miraculous—Rex was healing. His gaze shifted to the discarded injector. “Dark Flame Style: Dark Flame Heal,” Griffin whispered, channeling his flux energy into Rex to accelerate the process.

Rex’s body began to recover, his breathing steadying. He opened his eyes and saw the three Yeagers watching him. Griffin broke the tense silence with a smirk. “Aren’t you guys a little too high up?” he teased.

Clara, realizing the danger, swiftly shoved Emma to the ground. A dark flame slash sliced through a nearby pillar, narrowly missing them but severing Gaia’s forehead. Gaia’s wound healed almost instantly, but he knew he was outmatched.

“You should know, monkey,” Griffin said, his voice dripping with disdain, “that the weak should bow to the strong.” His eyes shifted to the sisters. “What do you two want?”

Clara’s voice quivered as she pleaded, “Please help us. Our brother is human, but we were turned into Yeagers. We can’t save him… Luna has him. We need your help.”

Griffin’s smile turned cold. “Look up,” he said cryptically.

Before Clara could react, Emma’s head was severed, her body collapsing lifelessly to the ground, her spine exposed. Clara’s eyes widened in horror as she screamed, “No!”

“Why the hell would I help Yeagers?” Griffin snarled, his demeanor darkening. “Especially to save someone?”

Enraged, Clara tried to summon her Yeager abilities, but before she could even finish the gesture, she was incinerated by Griffin’s flames, her body disintegrating into ash.

Griffin turned his attention back to Gaia, who stood in shock. “You’re the second-ranked Yeager,” Griffin said with contempt. “So, what do you want?”

Gaia hesitated, confusion clouding his thoughts. “Luna knew you’d take back control of your body when that Yeager tried to revive you. She wanted me to ask if you’d help wipe out the human race here. After all, you’re not really human anymore. You’ve stolen the body of a Yeager.”

Griffin paused, considering Gaia’s words. His eyes fell on Emma’s lifeless body, where a small bell lay beside her. He picked it up, infusing it with his flux energy before pressing it against his chest. “If you can destroy or take this bell from me,” Griffin challenged, “I’ll help you. For starters, I’ll wipe out everyone in the U.S. How does that sound?”

Gaia’s eyes narrowed as he weighed his options. “I accept your terms,” he replied.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the city, Iris and Ash wandered the empty streets, searching for Yeagers to fight. “Where the hell are they?” Ash growled in frustration, slamming his hammer into the ground.

“Calm down, Ash,” Iris said, glancing at her map. “Most people were evacuated. We’ve got a new location to check out.”

As they headed toward their destination, two Yeagers—a boy and a girl with fox ears and tails—blocked their path.

“Stop! You will not go any further,” the boy Yeager declared, his voice trembling slightly.

“Please, you can’t stop us by just telling us what to do,” Ash retorted, eyes narrowing. “And from what I can see, you two just became Yeagers—your eyes haven’t fully turned yet.”

“Shut up, old man!” the girl Yeager snapped, but her words were cut short by a massive explosion in the distance, followed by sinister laughter that echoed through the city.

“That laugh… Isn’t that…” Iris’s heart skipped a beat.

Back in the heart of L.A., Gaia was falling from the sky, and Griffin pursued him with ease. “Is that all you’ve got?” Griffin taunted.

“No!” Gaia roared, charging up for an attack. But before he could unleash it, his arms were burned off completely as Griffin seized them and hurled Gaia into a nearby building.

Gaia retaliated with a barrage of stone bullets, hoping to land a hit, but Griffin dodged them effortlessly. Perched atop a building, Griffin’s dark flames burned so intensely that the structure began to catch fire. As magma started to flow through the city, Griffin leaped out of a window, spotting Gaia with his scythe in hand, ready to destroy the bell.

Griffin watched as Gaia opened his mouth wide, unleashing beams of stone that ripped through the city, reducing a quarter of it to rubble. But Griffin evaded the beams with ease, his movements swift and calculated. He grabbed Gaia, slamming him into one building after another until Gaia lay on the roof, battered and beaten.

Gaia struggled to rise as magma seeped from the ground below. But Griffin’s flames were so hot that they turned the molten rock to ash before it could touch him. Gaia circled Griffin, firing a thousand stone bullets, but Griffin dodged them all with ease.

Landing atop another building, Griffin observed the scene, the surrounding structures melting from the intense heat. Gaia, thinking he had caught Griffin off guard, attacked from behind. But Griffin was ready. He grabbed Gaia by the head and slammed him into the ground, shattering the pavement beneath them.

“You have to destroy this bell if you want to win,” Griffin taunted, smirking as Gaia struggled to stand. “Isn’t Luna watching? Don’t stop now.”

Determined, Gaia summoned a new scythe from his back and swung it at Griffin with all his might. But Griffin easily countered with a punch to Gaia’s chest, sending him flying into the sky.

“Yeager Style: Stellar Impact!” Gaia shouted, summoning a massive meteor from the atmosphere, hurtling it toward Los Angeles. Griffin watched with amusement, unfazed by the impending destruction.

“We have to get out of here! A war zone is unfolding in L.A.!” Ash shouted, panic in his voice as he and Iris prepared to flee.

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Iris yelled back, urging the others to follow.

As they ran, Griffin called out to Gaia, “Hey monkey, do you even know what flux energy can do? It can do anything you want.”

Griffin made a series of hand symbols. “Nebula Oracle Palace,” he intoned.

A giant cloud formed, covering all of Los Angeles. Griffin’s palace allowed him to rewrite reality within a 509-mile radius, enveloping the entire city. As the meteor collided with the cloud, Griffin manipulated it as if it were a mere blanket settling on a bed. He leaped onto the meteor, looking down at Gaia, who was now exhausted and defeated.

Gaia’s voice quivered with defiance. “I am stronger than you in every way. Yeagers are superior to humans!”

Griffin’s anger flared. “Know your place, you Yeager scum.” Flames erupted from Griffin’s hands, and with a clap, he conjured an arrow of intense power. Gaia, in a last-ditch effort, created a small stone bullet. “Yeager Style, Stone of Death,” he thought, and their powers collided in a blinding explosion.

In the final moments, as their cataclysmic forces clashed, Luna appeared beside Gaia. In an instant, they were both teleported away, leaving only a smoky aftermath behind.

Griffin descended to where Ash and Iris stood, their eyes wide with shock and tears streaming down their faces. Iris ran to Griffin, wrapping her arms around him tightly. “How are you… here?” she sobbed, her voice trembling with emotion.

Griffin held her close, his expression softening. “It’s good to be back.”

But as they embraced, Griffin’s body began to crack, the form he had taken starting to deteriorate. “Damn it, there’s a time limit on this body,” he muttered. A small smile crept across his face. “Well, it looks like it’s over now. I had a blast fighting the Yeager ranks.”

“I wish you could stay here,” Iris whispered, wiping her tears away.

Before disappearing completely, Griffin looked at Iris with curiosity. “Before I go, did it work? Was Adam’s kid able to use dark flames?”

Iris nodded, a hint of pride in her eyes. “Yes, it worked. Rex Jones can use dark flame.”

Griffin’s eyes widened in surprise and pride, realizing the kid he had saved was now his heir. He smiled with genuine happiness before his form vanished into the ether, leaving behind only the memory of his powerful presence.