A few minutes prior to the unfortunate deaths of One and Three.

Most of the legends of Boomtown all had some level of ability in causing widespread destruction. Some could do it more directly, such as Boom with his explosive hair and fists. Others were able to achieve similar results with superior weaponry, like with Rudeus and his two hammers.

But there was not a single legend in the whole of Boomtown who was as capable of laying waste to as large of an area as Moon.

The blizzard was nearly a mile wide, following the projection of the moon high in the sky as it slowly drifted its way south.

Moon stood in the sky just a few feet above the projection of the moon he’d summoned.

“Haha! Look at all those idiots, just walking into my blizzard of DOOM!” he cackled.

Indeed, unlike humans who would have gone to great lengths to avoid the clearly-dangerous blizzard, the puppets simply walked through into it and found themselves frozen and sliced up into countless pieces.

“Hmm… agents of doom typically put up more resistance than this,” Moon commented as lightning struck in the distance.

“So Rudeus has started his battle as well… and there’s people approaching Boom and Sweet. Is there no one for me? Am I destined to be alone forever? Or…”

Moon felt a strange heat on the back of his neck and turned around. “Well, the sun does seem awfully bright today. And why is it to the north?

“Wait…” Moon peered closer at the “sun”. It was getting bigger and bigger by the minute, and it looked like…

No, it didn’t just look like it. Someone was standing on the surface of the sun, and it was definitely getting closer. In fact, its warmth was already cutting into his winter storm.

“Well, well, well. Which agent of doom has come to visit me today?”

“I am Sun!” The mysterious figure standing upon the sun announced.

“Son?” Moon’s eyes opened wide. “Is that you?”

“I—what?” The person threw his hands up, bewildered. “What the fuck, I said Sun, not son!”

Moon placed his hands on his hips. “Woah, hey! That’s no language to use with your father, young boy! Your mother and I are going to give you a stern talking to tonight, yes we are!”

“You’re not my damn dad! I don’t have—shut up!” the man shouted at the top of his lungs. “Whatever, just call me Six!”

“Sex? Well, I’ll be! No son of mine is going to be a pervert!” Moon shouted.

Six decided not to respond anymore, as it was clear by now that his chilly opponent was, for lack of a better word, deranged.

Instead he raised his hand, inside of which was a big long staff, just slightly shorter in length than Moon’s. At its tip was a giant ruby which glowed brightly.

A spot formed on the surface of the sun he was standing on, and a spurt of molten plasma shot out from it towards Moon.

“How dare you attack I, your father!” Moon shouted with the fury of a deeply disappointed asian parent. “It is with great sadness that I will have to educate you, young man!”

He waved his staff and his spectral moon grew in size. At the same time, the angry blizzard tormenting the battlefield abated.

With another wave of Moon’s staff, a section of the spectral moon broke off and flew towards the molten plasma like a comet.

“I, your father, shall beat the DOOOOM out of your soul!”

Six’s eyebrow twitched, but his expression was stern as his sun’s plasma met Moon’s comet.

The two fizzled out against each other.

“Oh ho! So my son has some backbone after all! Let me see just how strong you’ve grown!”

Six couldn’t take it anymore. “Dammit, shut up! You’re not my dad, I don’t have a mom, and like I said, I’m older than you!”

“Aish…” Moon shook his head. “The youth these days really don’t get it. You know, back in my day to get to the magic academy I had to walk uphill both ways. You know, one time there was this tiger on the way, and—”

Six screamed at the top of his lungs and grasped his staff with both hands. He raised it over his head and the affixed ruby glowed almost as brightly as the sun he was standing on. As he did, the entire sun beneath him began to move, first slowly, then at high speed towards Moon and his moon.

“Oh ho! A direct confrontation? Very well! A man should be direct!” Moon waved his staff and his ethereal moon began to drift towards.

“I see your tantrum, son, and I raise you a spanking!”

Six’s response was more of a guttural scream of despair than anything else.

***

While Moon and his involuntarily adopted son were having a healthy discussion about their non-existent family, Dekkeron and Milton had combined forces with Tin and Kaukau to fight against four of the Null Empire’s numbered individuals.

“Fall under the weight of knowledge!” Kaukau shouted as he rode on Milton’s shoulders.

A massive golden book appeared high in the air and dropped to the ground, crushing those who’d been unfortunate enough to be under it.

One of the numbered transformed into a giant and braced against the book, protecting himself and his comrades from Kaukau’s attack.

Another numbered individual gathered strength in his fist and punched the book, breaking the spell into a thousand shreds of golden parchment.

Before they had any chance to breathe, however, a space tear opened above them and Dekkeron, in his enormous Kaiju form, fell through it.

He fell atop the giant, but given his size, the giant was able to catch Dekkeron out of the air and threw him down. As the giant was about to stomp on Dekkeron’s chest, a flying Tin shot a laser out of his head’s crystal to blind the giant, who was sent stumbling back.

“Oi! Help me get up!” Dekkeron yelled. “My arms are too short and I’m too fat to roll myself back up!”

Indeed, he was squirming on his back like a turtle without a shell.

Milton groaned and changed course with Kaukau holding onto his fur for dear life. He bumped his nose against Dekkeron’s neck, nudging him back to his feet.

“Thanks for the help!” Dekkeron shouted as he headbutted the giant’s fist.

Even as the two clashed, several mana blasts knocked Dekkeron further back. With each stomp he squished a dozen Null Empire puppets, but that was of little comfort as the giant pushed its advantage.

In an effort to protect Dekkeron, Milton, in his Great Wolf form, rushed forward to bite at the giant’s ankles, but before he could reach his target a flurry of arrows blocked his path.

“Dammit, that archer’s really pissing me off!” Kaukau shouted. “Where in the seven hells is Beth? We need to fight range with range or we won’t be able to get close!”

“Madame Beth is at the defensive line, helping them keep the puppet tide back.” Tin calmly replied.

Indeed, Beth was fulfilling her role as a sentry; she stood next to the defensive line with a giant bow, shooting massive arrows through the mass of puppets.

She’d attached the communication crystal Tin had given her to a pendant—it vibrated as a message arrived.

Kaukau’s voice came through, loud and clear. “Beth! We need you! We’re getting our—woah! We’re getting our butts handed to us out here!”

Beth straightened her back and set down her bow. “Damn, they’re that strong?”

Kau shouted back through the crystal, “Individually they’re just fine, but they work together a lot better than us! Who knew I’d find myself fighting to support Dekkeron while riding Milton? Tin’s no better either, he just keeps firing lasers and opening portals because he can’t get close enough to do anything!”

“Why can’t he get close?”

“They have an archer who’s suppressing all of us! None of us can get close so we have to do crazy stuff just to even have a chance at counterattacking! Just get over here!” Kau shouted.

“Alright, I’m on the way.”

Beth glanced back at the defensive line, then dashed towards the massive creatures fighting in the distance. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too late.