CELESTIA - CHAPTER 50: The Last LEGO
The labyrinth held its breath.
Its corridors of black stone stretched endlessly, lit by torches whose flames did not flicker. Zayn and Yojuro walked in silence. Their footsteps echoed against the damp flagstones, returned as distorted echoes. The air was heavy, still, laden with the fatigue of previous battles.
Zayn counted his badges mechanically. Two. Both number four. He slid them between his fingers, thinking. Yojuro had only one. Alexandra's. Number thirteen.
"Thirteen," Zayn murmured. "You're not afraid of numbers, are you?"
"No."
"I am."
"I know."
Silence returned.
The labyrinth narrowed. The torches grew sparser, replaced by a bluish glow that seemed to emanate from the walls. A cold light. A light that did not warm.
Zayn felt the danger before he saw it.
Yojuro did too.
Their eyes met. A fraction of a second.
Then the stone exploded.
A silhouette burst from the wall. No warning. No footsteps. Just a presence. A blow.
The fist struck Yojuro square in the chest.
Yojuro flew.
He shot backward through the air, arms dangling, breath knocked out of him. The impact was charged with blessed energy, dense as a wave of concrete. His back hit a wall. The stone cracked. He embedded himself, shoulders in shadow, feet hanging.
The silhouette landed before him.
Jonathan Holloway.
His brown hair disheveled. His fixed smile. His hands covered in small colored bricks that clicked softly, assembling and disassembling at frantic speed. His Lego armor was thicker than in their first encounter. Stronger. More threatening.
"See you again, Yojuro."
Yojuro spat blood.
"You should have stayed in your hiding place."
"I've been training."
Zayn watched the scene. Yojuro against the wall, Jonathan smiling. And him, standing, helpless for a fraction of a second.
He laughed.
Not fear. Not hesitation. Just that insolent confidence that made him so annoying.
"You've got guts, Holloway. I'll give you that."
He raised his wrist. Borealis began to glow.
"But guts aren't enough."
He closed his eyes. Let the artifact speak.
"Gravoc."
His body changed.
It was not brutal. Not painful. It was a metamorphosis, heavy and solemn as the awakening of a mountain.
His silhouette stretched, grew, crouched. His shoulders widened, forming a wall of living stone. His chest became as wide as a boulder, thick, massive, capable of absorbing blows that would have pulverized a tank. Stone plates appeared on his shoulders, his forearms, his back. They were thick, cracked, and incandescent orange flowed in the crevices, like molten magma burning beneath the surface.
A rocky helmet crowned his head. A massive central horn jutted forward, ready to pierce. Bony spikes grew on his knees, his elbows, his spine. His silhouette evoked a golem, a rhinoceros, an ancestral warrior.
His eyes became incandescent. Orange. Burning. A contained rage, ready to explode.
Gravoc.
The Primal of the Eternal Mountain.
Zayn was no longer Zayn. He was a living fortress.
He struck the ground with his hammer fists. The room trembled. The flagstones cracked all the way to Jonathan.
Jonathan stepped back. His smile widened.
"Nice beast."
Gravoc did not answer. He charged.
His thick legs propelled his mass forward. Each step made the ground tremble. He raised his right fist, a block of stone and magma, ready to crush.
Jonathan raised his hands. The Lego assembled at full speed, forming a thick shield.
The fist came down.
The impact exploded the air. Lego fragments flew. Jonathan stepped back, arms trembling. His shield was cracked, but it held.
"Not bad," he grunted.
Gravoc raised his other fist. Jonathan dodged this time. He spun on himself, narrowly avoiding the second strike, then counterattacked.
His Lego hands extended, forming sharp blades. He struck in a cross, aiming for the cracks in Gravoc's armor.
The impact resonated.
Gravoc did not flinch. The rock had absorbed the shock.
"My flesh is stone, Holloway. You can't cut me."
"Then I'll break you."
Jonathan leaped back. He placed his hands on the ground. The Lego deployed, forming a colorful wave that rolled toward Gravoc.
Zayn raised a foot, brought it down.
The Lego wave exploded under the weight. The small bricks flew in all directions, crashing against the walls.
"Weak," said Gravoc.
Behind him, Yojuro was getting up.
He had taken less than a second. His face was marked with blood, but his gaze was already cold. He drew his sword. The black blade gleamed.
"Zayn."
"What?"
"We attack together."
Gravoc nodded his stone head.
The two charged.
Jonathan raised his Lego hands. The bricks assembled into two shields, one on each arm.
Gravoc struck left. Yojuro sliced right.
Jonathan parried both attacks.
His arms trembled. The Lego crackled. Cracks appeared on the shields, but they held.
He pushed.
A wave of blessed energy exploded from his body. Gravoc stepped back. Yojuro spun on himself, avoiding the worst, but the force threw him against a pillar.
"Alone, you're weak," said Jonathan. "Together, you're slower."
Gravoc struck again. His fist smashed against Jonathan's left shield. The shield exploded into a thousand pieces.
"One on one, then."
He advanced.
Yojuro got up, sword raised. He made a gesture to Zayn. A code. A plan.
Gravoc stepped back deliberately. He let Yojuro take the lead.
Yojuro attacked.
Black blade, precise, deadly.
Jonathan parried with his remaining shield. The Lego crackled. He retaliated with a kick charged with blessed energy.
Yojuro dodged.
Gravoc took the opportunity. He struck Jonathan in the back.
Jonathan stumbled.
He fell to his knees, but his Lego deployed immediately, forming a back plate that cushioned the fall. He got up in a fraction of a second.
"The plan." Zayn thought it.
Gravoc charged from the left. Yojuro from the right.
Jonathan raised both arms, Lego reforming into two shields.
Both attacks struck simultaneously.
The shields exploded.
Jonathan stepped back, hands bare, arms burning.
But he was still smiling.
"Not bad. But not enough."
He struck the ground.
The Lego deployed into a massive wave that engulfed Gravoc up to his knees.
Zayn tried to break free. Too heavy. The bricks had solidified around his legs, forming a block of reinforced plastic.
"Damn..."
Yojuro rushed to help him.
Jonathan was waiting.
He struck him in the chest. A sharp blow, charged with energy.
Yojuro crashed against the wall. His head hit the stone. His sword fell.
"The plan failed," said Jonathan, his voice soft.
Gravoc struck the Lego around his legs. The bricks cracked but did not give way.
"Zayn." Aurora's voice, in his head. "The OMNIHAND is discharging. You must wait a long delay before another transformation."
"Not now…"
"Now."
Zayn felt his body contract. The stone plates retracted. The horn disappeared. The incandescent eyes went dark.
He returned to his human form, legs trapped in Lego, arms dangling.
"No… no!"
"Sorry, Zayn."
Aurora went silent.
Zayn was naked. Without power. Without a Primal. Just a boy stuck in colored bricks.
"Yojuro!"
Yojuro was getting up.
His sword lay three meters away. He didn't have time to reach it. Jonathan was advancing toward him.
Yojuro closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the Kairos Eyes glowed.
The violet iris turned. The symbol appeared. Stardust floated around his face.
"You can't reverse my Lego," said Jonathan. "They're not powers. They're objects."
"I'm not going to reverse your Lego."
Jonathan frowned.
"What, then?"
Yojuro raised his empty hand.
"Your will."
The Kairos Eyes turned faster. A violet circle appeared before Jonathan.
"For every attack you make, you move back. For every blow you land, you lose a Lego. For every victory you think you hold, you move further from your target."
Jonathan tried to strike. His fist shot forward, but his body moved back.
He tried to throw a Lego projectile. The bricks left his hand, but he moved back again.
He tried to run toward Yojuro. He moved back.
"What is…"
"I reversed your logic. Forward → backward. Give → lose. Win → lose."
Jonathan screamed in frustration. He tried to charge. He moved back all the way to the wall.
"You can't win."
Yojuro approached slowly. He picked up his sword. The black blade changed.
It became longer. Thinner. Sharper. A line of pure silver.
The Last Breath Blade.
"I didn't want it to come to this."
Jonathan raised his hands to protect himself. The Lego assembled into a thick shield.
Yojuro struck.
The blade passed through the shield as if it were butter. It passed through Jonathan's hands. It passed through his chest.
Jonathan opened his mouth.
No sound came out.
His eyes widened. His smile disappeared.
He fell.
His Lego disassembled, rolled across the floor, went dark.
Silence returned.
Yojuro lowered his sword.
His hands trembled.
"No…"
He knelt beside the body. Jonathan was still breathing. A breath. Barely.
"Sorry…," Jonathan whispered. "I just wanted… to win…"
His eyes closed.
Yojuro remained motionless.
Zayn was struggling free of the Lego. He saw the scene. The body. The sword. Yojuro's face.
"Yojuro…"
"I killed him."
"It was an accident."
"I killed him."
Yojuro stood up. He didn't look at Zayn. He looked at his hands.
"I'm a monster."
"You're not a monster. He was attacking us."
"He was unarmed. I could have stopped him without killing him."
"He was about to strike you."
"He was moving backward. I controlled the inversion. I could have stopped. I chose to strike."
Zayn tried to place his hand on his shoulder. Yojuro stepped back.
"Don't touch me."
"Yojuro…"
"Leave me."
Yojuro turned on his heel. He picked up his sword. He disappeared into the corridor.
"Yojuro! We're a team!"
"Not anymore."
He vanished into the shadows.
Zayn was left alone. Knees in Lego. Jonathan's body at his feet.
"Damn…"
He tried to revive him. Nothing. He checked for a pulse. Nothing.
He wanted to cry. The tears didn't come.
He took Jonathan's badge. Number seven. He tucked it away mechanically.
Then he stood up.
He looked at the corridor where Yojuro had disappeared.
"You're an idiot."
He headed in the opposite direction.
The two former allies moved away from each other.
The labyrinth, for its part, held its breath.
The blue torches flickered one last time.
Then everything fell silent again.