Eous slammed his fists into the creature as hard and fast as he could, but it met his every punch with his own. It was reading him. It could read.

They understood each other and what they were.

Eous started flailing his claws in attempt to slice it to bits but it raced around him, narrowly dodging every slash as if knowing how much power was behind every strike.

The ground tore and cracked at every single slice he threw, but he was still missing.

So he threw more.

With a scream, Eous turned his tails into claws and beginning throwing out all the stops, lacing each slash with Ether. A whirlwind of cuts began to litter the creature's body despite its evasive maneuvers before it was flung into the air with an uppercut.

Eous appeared above with his claw reeled back, snatching its neck in his claw and bursting back towards the ground to crush it in his grasp.

A wave of Ether flushed out from the massive crater he created that altered the ground and uprooted slabs of concrete.

Grace and Koleda were forced to retreat to the three smart machines from how vicious the fight was becoming.

"What's going on?! What is that thing?!" Koleda screamed.

"I-I don't know! But the Proxy...!" Anton crossed his arms over his face to block the dust and ash flowing their way.

"Is this what the Proxy is really capable of? How he beat the Dead End Butcher...?" Ben looked forward in awe seeing only blurs of light running circles around the mysterious creature.

Eous slung himself forward and clawed through the creature's torso, but it only bubbled up with pixels and regenerated.

He slid to a stop and spun on his heels to fly forward again, but the creature suddenly lunged past him and for the others.

Anton and Ben stood in front of Grace and Koleda and braced for impact, but by the time they looked up, the creature was wailing its arms at them in place.

Eous had caught its foot with ease, crushing it in his hand and slamming his tails into its body so fast it looked to be convulsing in pain.

Eous slung it away with ease before seeing a massive beam of Ether erupting from its helmet.

With a flick of his hand, he deflected the beam upward and into the murky sky above.

"The machines! I've lost their signal!" Grace cried in fear.

Unfortunately, when he looked back down, a mass of Ether crystals were surging around where the three smart machines were.

The crystals burst and converged around a large body of steel that revealed that the creature had merged the three into its own, creating a structure of steel and crystal that towered over them all.

"It absorbed the machines?!" Anton stepped back in shock.

"P-Proxy! What is this thing?!" Koleda asked desperately.

"In my way." He replied swiftly.

With the appendages of all the smart machines and six legs to boot, the Ethereal was feeling a new game begin with the body it created.

"Warning: Ether levels reaching rates akin to [Classified]. Ether output producing 103% more than Ionization." Fairy announced.

A single attack from this would probably destroy him, and there was no Miyabi to give him an opening.

"It's out of my league now. I'll need your help." Eous waved the four forward to assist him.

"Just say the word. We're ready."

"Then let's go—"

He was suddenly shot far away from them by a beam of Ether double the size of the last, leaving the four by themselves.

"There he goes..." Grace murmured.

The Corrupted Monstrosity bellowed into the sky having assumed Eous defeated, seeing Belobog Industries as the last fodder between it and him.

"Let's buy him time to recover!" Koleda rushed forward with her team behind her.

The grappling tail overhead charged up a massive pulse of Ether before releasing it in a zig zag towards them.

Koleda slid under it and Grace hopped over, but Anton tried to take it head on with his drill.

Eous appeared in front of him, slinging him aside with his tail and swatting the beam back towards the monstrosity.

It used the massive chainsaw to swat it away and crash into the surrounding area.

Ben activated the thrusters on his pillar to burst forward and ram into the legs of the monster. It staggered back, clawing at the ground with its pile driver and spinning back around to swing its grappling tail at Kodela and Grace.

Eous needed to play defense for them until they could overwhelm it on all sides. It was far safer this way than trying to corrupt himself further.

He caught the massive tail, letting Koleda jump up and run along it.

"Set it up!" Koleda shouted to Ben.

Ben swung his pillar into the monster's legs, causing it to spin out before Eous yanked it back by the tail, throwing Koleda into the air as Grace littered its vulnerable core with bullets.

Anton sprinted forward and landed a clean slash on the monster's torso before a shock grenade surged through it and locked it in place.

"Knock it down!" Ben shouted back to Koleda and she plummet down with a blurred spin.

With a vicious slam of her hammer against the pillar, a massive explosion set the monstrous creature ablaze. The shockwave sent each of the sliding back as the ash of its charred skin and metal flew through the area.

"Hell yeah! Solid hits, everyone!" Anton cheered.

"Is that enough, Proxy?" Koleda asked nervously.

Before he could reply, the grappling tail swung out of the smoke and snatched him up in its claws. It slung him around before slamming him against the pavement three times.

It suddenly tossed him up and tried to ram the pile driver through his body, but he kicked it away and spun upright.

With a thrust of his fist, a blast of Ether cracked the chainsaw it used to block, but it retaliated with another massive beam from the grappling tail.

Instead, it was aimed at Belobog Industries.

Eous clicked his tongue and rushed down, crossing his arms to block the blow with a groan.

The others jumped behind Ben in case Eous couldn't last, Koleda looking forward to see Eous' hood and jacket tear off from the direct blow once more.

Fairy appeared beside Grace and announced, "Warning: Ether output slowly dwindling. Damage accumulated becoming too much for current scenario. Odds of success are 26%."

"Tw-Twenty Six?! B-but..."

"We're in trouble now... What do we do?" Ben looked around for ideas, but it was Koleda who spot the unscathed prototype behind the Ether crystals.

She suddenly sprinted away from them in a hurry, making Grace and Anton flinch.

"Sweet pea!—"

The monstrosity suddenly hunkered its arms up and unveiled a mass of rockets in the devices on its shoulders. Twenty rockets flew forward despite the continuous surge of Ether striking Eous, making him wince in pain.

"F-Fuck, Fairy, this might be it for us if I don't go overboard."

"Partner, I do not advise increasing your Ether output beyond the record limit as of now. Chances of further mutation are at an all time high in such a dense Hollow."

"Yeah, well, it's that or we die. And I'm not dying to this disgusting thing." Eous used all of his remaining strength to tear the beam of Ether in two with a yell.

The two separate beams flew around Grace, Anton and Ben before exploding against an unfortunate building in the background.

"Make a break for it!" Eous shouted as the rocket honed in.

He leapt back from one and raced away from the next as a second trailed behind.

He used his tails to grab them and sling them into two headed right for Ben, taking the heat off the slowest of the four.

Grace leaned away from one and shot the next, leaping up and throwing down a shock grenade that blew up two trying to ambush her.

Anton slapped away two with his drill and hopped over another with a big leap, but three more were headed his way in midair.

Eous raced by, grabbing Anton under his arm and using his tails to swat them down and send he and Anton higher into the air.

As the rest of the flurry began to barrel his way, Eous tossed Anton down to the others and curled up to brace for impact.

"Proxy, NO!" Anton yelled before being caught by Ben.

Eous took the full force of the five rockets and was sent flying towards the ether crystal sprout the monster emerged from in only his shirt and shorts.

Before he could crash, the Prototype leapt up out of the rubble and caught him in its grappling hook.

"President!" The three exclaimed in awe.

Koleda rammed the excavator into the monster upon her decent, dropping Eous into the cockpit a bit more roughly than she liked.

"Proxy! Come on, wake up! We need you!" Koleda tried to shake him awake, watching as his mask slowly began to deteriorate back into his face.

"Eous has a concussion and several broken bones. Approximate time of recovery is 4 minutes." Fairy appeared beside her in a hurry.

"D-Damnit, we don't have four minutes! This thing doesn't have the fire power!"

Koleda blocked the chainsaw with her excavator, narrowly deflecting its pile driver with its grappling hook before jumping up and kicking the monster back with a grunt.

"Go, President!" Ben and Anton shouted.

"His name is Eous, right?! Is there anyway you can wake him up?!" Koleda shouted as she blocked the pile driver aiming for the cockpit.

"Affirmation: His name is Eous. But I advise against awaking him before recovery—"

"Goddamnit, I need him! He said we can't do this alone and I need him!" Koleda grabbed the grappling tail with her own hook and held up the massive beam of Ether away from her.

"Sweet pea! Push it just like that into the monument!" Grace yelled.

Koleda peeked around the monster and saw the spike of the star-shaped monument glint. Despite the grapple she had on the beast, it tried to stab her again with the pile driver— so she brought its Ether beam down.

The pile driver exploded, cracking under the pressure and making it stutter around in attempt to work.

This gave Koleda the edge to begin pushing it towards the monument at full throttle. "Let's go, you punk!"

Using its malfunctioning pile driver as a stake, it slammed it down into the pavement and stopped its demise just before the monument.

"N-No, almost there!" She pushed the prototype to its limit, causing the HUD to flash red in warning.

"Warning: Prototype is beginning to suffer corruption under intense pressure.

"They're in a stalemate!" Ben shouted.

"But the machine doesn't sound to good— what happened to the Proxy?!" Anton hoped with everything he suffered he was okay.

Despite her efforts, Koleda couldn't get it to budge beyond this point, gritting her teeth in desperation until she spotted the grappling tail swinging her way.

With a nasty hit to the cockpit, Koleda nearly flew out of the seat from the strike. She held firm to the controls and clenched her eyes shut, praying that the miracle of overcoming this monster would come true.

"Come on— get MOVING, GEROY!" She yelled, forcing the machine to overcome its limits.

The Ether crystals building up around the cockpit flushed inside as the thrusters of the Prototype's legs burst forward even hard than before.

Koleda caught the massive chainsaw with the excavator, glaring forward at the corrupted creature with hatred.

"Don't look down on me! We're proud to be Belobog!"

Eous' eyes flickered open as shards of Ether slowly began to surge over his body from the cockpit. His lifeless stare turned into a fierce glare as he took on all the Ether flowing from the Hollow and the Monster.

"Wake up..."

Massive spikes of crystal erupted from the cockpit and made the other three gasp in horror. However, they weren't the normal dull charcoal that was usually produced from Ether.

"EOUS!"

Eous stood behind Koleda and held out his claws with a leer.

"I'll tear a page out of your book, cause this is the end for you." Eous' entire body was shining pink and blue. Koleda's breath hitched, delighted to see him arise and lend a hand.

"HERE WE—" He thrust his fists forward, emboldening the Prototype with purified crystal reinforcements. With the new power of Ether far more potent than the monstrosity, the two pushed forward with determination.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOO!" They yelled.

With a swift lunge, the two rammed the monster straight into the spike. The spike ruptured its body and tore straight through its every layer, causing it to convulse.

The core began to shake and tremble before bursting into pixels that slowly began to fly over to Eous' body with a static hum.

Koleda weakly watched his body of light return back to the boy she found cute, but there was a clear difference than his previous look.

The skin around his arms had begun to darken just like an Ethereals before slowly surging with light just like earlier. It slowly died down and revealed his veins were illuminated, sparking with electricity until he suddenly slumped against the chair of the cockpit in exhaustion.

Koleda held him tightly as Grace, Anton, and Ben rushed up to the prototype with massive grins on their faces.

"Dad... I hope you're proud of what Belobog has become..." She whispered.