*VROOOOOOOOOM* 

“STOOOOOOOP!!!”

The unmistakable sounds of a speeder roared in the air. Amalthea lifted her head just in time to see the rusted metal frame hover over her head. Expertly, Ajax landed the speeder right in front of her barrier, whipping it into a sharp turn. He skidded sideways, sending green mana sparks flying from the anti-gravity repulsors on the bottom and afterburners. He balanced the machine with perfect precision like a seasoned expert.

Or at least, he tried. Ajax fell over, and the speeder wobbled, almost toppling to one side or the other before finally stabilising. 

“Ajax!” Amalthea exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here? How did you get past my barrier?” 

Ajax pushed the speeder above him away to gather himself up.

“The dome flickered, just enough for me to slip right through!” announced Ajax vigorously, describing the scene by slipping the palms over the other. The adrenaline got to his head, though it quickly faded on the sight of Amalthea, who looked more exhausted and dispirited than ever. “I’m here to help.”

“...I don't need help…” she muttered.

“Doesn't seem like it,” Ajax replied.

“What do you know?” she snapped.

“Clearly I… don't know enough,” Ajax admitted, clenching his fist. “I thought I had it all figured out, but I realised that I don’t know anything about being a Star Guardian. Everything just… got into my head, and I… I can't believe my friends are gone.”

Amalthea's head dipped, the weight on her shoulder growing heavier. “He's just a kid… where did we go wrong?” 

“Regardless,” she said, “you shouldn't be here. Leave before the enemy notices you, and don't look back.”

Ajax didn’t move. “Is that what your former comrades said, too?”

Amalthea felt like a jolt ran through her body. “What did you just say?” Her voice boiled with anger.

Ajax composed his trembling and stepped closer to the dome. He pressed his hand against the barrier, his gaze and will unwavering.

“I'm not smart, but I noticed something about you,” Ajax paused to take a breath. “You push people away. After you rejected me as a Guardian, I was angry, but when I lost my friends… something clicked.”

“Stop babbling, and move it,” Amalthea seethed. “I won't warn you a second time.”

Ajax swallowed his panic and stood his ground. “You've lost your friends too,” he pressed on. “But you keep fighting. You don't waver, and I see that.” Ajax drew his club and aimed it at Polyphem. 

“Idiot, what are you doing!? Run before—” 

Ajax dropped the black box before Amalthea's dome. 

“I won't let you fight alone,” Ajax mumbled as a tear rolled down his face, and picked up a scattered lump of wood. With a burst of wind magic, he propelled himself forward with his wind magic and clobbered Polyphem's head. “This is for my friends!”

The black box sparked back to life, projecting the all too familiar image of Valerian. Amalthea’s heart tightened—just seeing him was unbearable.

“Hey, Amalthea. How've you been?” Valerian’s voice crackled. The projection flickered unsteadily. “I don't imagine too well. Miss my morning jokes to lighten up the meetings?”

A small, broken chuckle escaped her. “They were always awful. Everyone died in shame from your awful jokes. I was the only one ever laughing.”

The flickering worsened, but Valerian’s smile stayed.

“Hey,” Amalthea whispered, drowning out the world around her. Rare, golden tears streaked down her face. “I miss you. All of you.”

“...” Valerian's image dimmed, his gaze softening. “We love you, Thea. Don't give up.”

The image vanished. Silence washed over her, dawning on her with the last memories of her friends. Then the black box clicked open, revealing a glowing orb of rare cosmic energy.

‧. .ᯓ★. .‧

“Die, Cyclops!” Ajax bashed Polyphem over the head till only splinters remained stuck on his hands.

Polyphem stirred, groaning absentminded. “Hngn- ungryyyyy.” Then his composure exploded.

“MEEEEEAAAAAAAATTTT!!!” Polyphem's shout cracked the paved floor below. 

Monster Muttons baaed, with some transforming into humanoid forms as they swarmed Ajax. He jumped high, grabbed two Mutton Minions’ by the heads and slammed them together before nimbly dodging his way out. 

“Meaaaaat!” Polyphem roared, shoving his minions and sheep aside as more crept from every corner, overwhelming the battlefield.

With the Cyclops pressing on to him, Ajax stumbled backwards to get away—right upon Lydia’s kukri blades. When Polyphem loomed over him, ready to grab Ajax, he slashed at Polyphem's bloated form, drawing first blood.

“Is his overeating weakening his resistance?” Ajax wondered as he dashed across the charred marketplace. “I can use that.”

“Stoooop, meeeaaaaaaat—” Polyphem's shout was muffled as a tarpaulin wrapped around his face in his pursuit of Ajax. He tore it away, but Ajax charged at him with a supersized, metal fist.

“This is for my friends! Sucker punch!” Ajax, armed with Marius' indomitable gauntlet, slugged Polyphem across his hard jaw. The Cyclops’ single eye spun like a shaken marble as he stumbled.

Ajax raised the kukri and jumped, aiming for Polyphem’s eye as Kane had instructed. “And this is for Lydia— ARGH!”

Ajax felt a surge of pain that overwhelmed his senses like he was struck by a truck. His body slammed into a crumbling building, knocking the air out of his lungs. Crumbling on the ground, he lay prone as Lydia’s blades and Marius’ gauntlet skittered away from his grasp.

“Food shouldn't talk,” Polyphem spoke, this time with unsettling clarity again. He raised his fists together, his pupil turned in eerie circles again. “Meeeeeaaaaat needs to be smacked before it’s eaten!”

“Don't touch my student.” Amalthea warped between them. She blocked Polyphem's strike with her lance held in an upper guard. The ground splintered beneath her, but Amalthea stood firm against the Cyclops’ crushing force. “I’m not letting you take another life.” 

The dome above them shattered. 

Amalthea’s body smoked as a blue haze escaped her suit. It wasn’t from the rain reentering the square but from a blue star raging inside her chest. Amalthea snapped her lance like a bullwhip, whacking Polyphem away with a burst of red energy. 

Undeterred, the Mutton Minions swarmed at them from all sides. Amalthea readied her lance again. 

“Red Gale.” The haze concentrated at the tip of the lance. Striking forward, she unleashed the energy on the monsters, blowing them to smithereens. Exhausted, Amalthea plunged her lance into the ground. “Thanks for the power-up,” she panted. “Bob's doing I assume?”

Ajax nodded, trying to stand. “He said it would give you just enough to push through, but can you still move?”

The trembling stopped, but Amalthea's body was frozen still. “Not an inch,” she confessed. “I have enough power for one final strike, but not enough to move.” She turned to Ajax. “Thank you for staying by my side, but you need to go. I'll hold him off.”

“Wait!” Ajax fell forward. Amalthea tried to help him but forgot she couldn’t. “You said we just need one last strike, right!?” Ajax gasped, lifting his head. “I have an idea to make you move and strike.”

“Boy, what are you up to?” Amalthea huffed, then looked at where he pointed. Realisation dawned on her. “Oh… oh this is just crazy enough that it might work.”

‧. .ᯓ★. .‧

“Roooo… Oooaaar…” Polyphem hollered in agony and stomped the ground. Amalthea's lance had struck true, throwing the nerves of his body into a sea of flames. It was powerful enough to destroy him if she was at full strength. 

“You promised me strength, Antares…. Where is it?!” he bellowed, pulling at the collar he was given.

The Scorpion’s Eye, the mark on his collar, remained silent. A guttural cry tore from Polyphem’s throat and his wounds healed, but his mind faltered. Strength surged through him, and his mind quickened with astute wit before a sharp, harrowing pain pulsed behind his bulbous eye.

Hunger and rage drowned out any clarity the Cyclops possessed. “Where are you, meeeaaaaat? Show yourself!” he howled in a frenzy, thrashing around with his club for his prey.

“No need to shout!” shouted Ajax, his tearing voice blended in with the roaring of the speeder’s engine. Twisting the handlebars, the engine revved, sputtering out more green smoke. “Here we come!” 

Polyphem lumbered over his feet as the speeder shot forward, wearing through the swarming Muttons. Operating the accelerating speeder, Amalthea sat right behind Ajax with a firm hand on his shoulder, and the other gripping her glowing lance, ready. 

“Red Chivalry,” announced Amalthea, surrounding her and Ajax with red energy. “Lançeros.”

Polyphem raised his club overhead as Amalthea raised her lance. They stared each other down. Then, Amalthea noticed the glint of intelligence behind his raging eye and lowered her lance again.

“Not yet!” 

Ajax swerved just in time, narrowly avoiding the beam he shot from his eye. The speeder’s gravity repulsors smouldered Polyphem’s foot when Ajax rode over it. Polyphem jumped on one foot and whacked with his club all around him, losing his mind again. The duo continued their hit-and-run strategy, circling and dodging, searching for the perfect moment to strike. 

Polyphem clobbered with his club wildly, growing sluggish on his thick feet. His sheep and minions chased after Ajax and Amalthea in an effortless attempt to catch the speeder. Meanwhile, Amalthea’s lance twisted and emitted grinding sounds as it charged. 

A quick thought crossed Polyphem’s mind. The club fell from his hand and he dropped to his knees. 

“This is it!” Ajax shouted, steering the speeder straight towards Polyphem and speeding up for the final blow. 

“Fool,” Polyphem smirked inwardly, his sharp wit cut through the haze in his mind. “So young, so impertinent. Your brisk youth shall be your undoing.” 

Polyphem projected his second club behind him and bounced at them. Ajax hit the brakes, but as an amateur, he forgot which was which. The speeder flipped forward into a sudden endo. 

“Huh?” Polyphem thought, confused, as the speeder’s rear end lifted off the ground. The overheated afterburners and repulsors on the bottom scorched his face, blinding him. “GRRAAAUUUUGH! MHWA FHWACE!!!” Polyphem screamed, covering his smouldering face. “Mhy Ehye… my ehye.”

“Gotcha,” Ajax grinned from the debris pile he’d crashed into. He gathered the air around him for one loud cheer, “SHOW THEM WHAT A GUARDIAN IS!!!” 

Polyphem's bloodshot eye barely cracked open through through his sausage fingers. His guttural roars deafened, his eye could barely perceive the blinding light of Amalthea’s lance.

Amalthea descended upon Polyphem like a force of nature. Her left hand stretched forward, radiating an otherworldly strength that the Cyclops had never encountered before.

He had crushed, mangled, and devoured countless beings, delighting in their terror. Yet nothing could compare to the overwhelming presence of Amalthea, looming over him like a meteor poised to strike.

Her cape fluttered in the strong gales. The droplets passed the black visor of her edged, red helmet.

“I am the Titan of Endurance,” she announced, her voice booming with profound authority. The screeching and grinding of metal reverberated, piercing everyone’s ears from Amalthea’s lance. “I carry the burdens of my fallen team and the worlds above us. My name is Atlas; surviving leader of the Titan Force and Star Guardian. Your rampage ends here.”

The searing pain replaced every sensation in Polyphem’s body as Atlas’ lance drove through his body, piercing effortlessly through flesh and bone. His ribs crumbled; blood congealed as it splattered freely into the outside world. 

The cosmic energy of the white-red lance entered his body. Then, there was only the bliss release of all sensations. Polyphem smiled when Atlas released him from the enslavement of endless hunger.

“Kosmos Lance;” Atlas spoke softly. “World’s Fall.” 

A radiant light exploded from the market, flooding the marketplace and expanding outwards across the entire city. The sky cleared, and every Mutton vanished in the brilliance of the blast.

Only one figure emerged from the light. Amalthea raised her lance high in defiance of the greater darkness yet to come. Above her, the sun shone brightly, celebrating the champion. 

“I am not done yet,” declared Amalthea mightly. As her lance and suit faded away, revealing her true form, Amalthea stood tall. “I am the Titan Atlas. And I will never yield.”