Ed lowered himself towards the ground, adopting his favorite combat style he learned from Ochre. Trails of purple and silver flames were left in his wake as he sprung forward.

"What are you, an animal?" The Warden laughed as she pointed her index finger forward, causing a bolt of red lightning to shoot towards him. Her thumb and other fingers followed, releasing silver, blue, yellow, and green lightning, all of which were encased within a layer of protective purple lightning. Fortunately for Ed, there was a small delay between each lightning bolt being fired.

Ed hurriedly dodged to the left to avoid the red lightning. However, his eyes widened in shock as the red lightning followed behind him, as if it was automatically attracted to him. He hurriedly put distance between himself and the attack, but the other lightning bolts were now being fired towards him as well.

'Damn.' He frowned as his tail slammed into the ground, just barely managing to push himself out of the range of the silver lightning bolt. The silver lightning exploded against the ground, crackling as it created a large crater. 'Looks like only the red lightning follows me.' He sighed in relief. He used the brief reprieve before the next lightning bolt arrived to hurl a ball of purple-silver flames at the red lightning bolt, succeeding in blowing it apart. The remnants of the red lightning turned part of the cave floor into plasma before it was quickly snuffed out by the cavern's purple smoke.

While he was distracted, the blue lightning closed the gap. He hurriedly jumped backwards to avoid it, only for it to slam into the ground in front of him. Shockingly, a bolt of ice snaked over the ground, freezing it solid. Lightning shaped ice arose from the ice-covered ground like trees in a forest. He quickly moved back even further but was just slightly too slow. "AGHH!!!" He screamed in pain. A single branch of ice had penetrated his shoulder, freezing and electrocuting it simultaneously. It felt as if someone was taking a hammer and repeatedly hammering thousands of frozen nails in his shoulder. Even with his high pain threshold, it was hard to withstand.

Unfortunately, Ed had no time to rest as the next lightning bolt came his way. He clenched his teeth and withstood the pain as he dodged away. The yellow lightning shot into the ground and tore it apart. It was as if a miniature earthquake was striking. But that was not the end. As soon as the shaking calmed, hundreds of lightning-covered earth spikes shot into the air. The spikes even seemed to have a slight metallic shine to them as they reflected the surrounding light.

"Fuck!" He cursed aloud as he weaved back-and-forth to dodge the falling earth spikes. 'How did Carlos last for an hour against this bitch?!' He complained to himself. Finally managing to avoid the last of the earth spikes, he was now faced with the remaining green lightning bolt.

The green lightning was perhaps the strangest of them all. At times it was aggressive, surrounding him like a net slowly closing around his neck. At other times it was indifferent, acting as if he didn't even exist as it freely flew circles in the air. The Warden just watched while smiling, acting as if she was playing a game where she was the cat and Ed was the mouse.

Ed hurled one attack after another towards the green lightning, but he continued to miss. Even when he landed a hit, the remnants of the green lightning quickly reformed into a complete bolt. Growing increasingly frustrated, he opted for a wide area attack. His purple and silver flames shot from his body, expanding outwards in a dome shape. Soon the entirety of the green lightning was captured and destroyed, much to his relief.

"Huff! Huff!" Ed's chest rapidly rose and fell as he breathed heavily. His shoulder still ached tremendously, but his chimera flesh was rapidly healing the damage. Thanks to his flames pushing away the purple smoke, he was also able to use his usual powers to speed up the healing process even further. Unfortunately, the damage had dug deep into his flesh, implanting strong foreign mana within it. Even with his powers, it would still take some time to heal it.

"Not bad." The Warden slowly clapped. "If I hadn't read your file, I'd think you had previous experience facing espers of the 49 paths."

Ed wearily eyed her. Barely a minute had passed since the battle had begun and he was already at a huge disadvantage. The gate still had an hour of work to go. Things were not looking good for him at the moment. 'Was Yuki right? Am I going to die here?' He wondered. 'No!' He shook his head in denial. 'I've come too far, and I still have far too much to do. I absolutely refuse to die to some bullshit prediction of fate!' Seeing that Tai and Rubi were still busy clearing the manullium bunkers, he opted to try buying time for now. "Do you have a five-element mana-core?" He questioned.

"Hmm?" The Warden rose an eyebrow while smiling. "Not quite. This is the problem with American espers. So unlearned and uncultured. So ignorant despite their power. Yet ironically, it's this very ignorance that has allowed our nation to have the strongest espers in the world. Well, strongest individuals at the very least. We'd probably lose by a long shot in terms of quantity and overall quality."

Ed continued to focus on healing his shoulder as he delayed. "Are you not American?" He asked. "If you're so knowledgeable, why not spread the knowledge and improve the country as a whole?"

"Of course I'm American." She replied. "But why would I ever do something as stupid as sharing my cultivation technique?" She smirked. "I may have been fortunate enough to obtain a complete cultivation technique at a young age, but I'd never go and share it willingly. If cultivation methods spread amongst the masses, our country would only become average on the world stage. The government has purposefully prevented the spread of cultivation techniques to stop this from happening. It's the only reason America has managed to remain a superpower up until today."

"It's on purpose?!" His eyes widened in shock. 'No, it makes sense when I think about it. How could America fall behind in terms of technology and cultivation when compared to the rest of the world? Before, during, and after the apocalypse, we've remained a top power. This is despite everything suggesting we should have fallen from grace... Captain Fang had mentioned that traditional cultivation allows for awakening without the need for extreme levels of stress or other emotions... Since the US government wishes to prevent this, then it can be theorized that stress awakenings can result in stronger individual espers...'

"Are you ready to get started again?" The Warden interrupted his thoughts as lightning sparked on her hands.

"One last question." He replied. "The nightmare attacks? In hindsight, there's no way the government wouldn't be aware of them ahead of time. They even gathered forces early in Atlanta for the Lightning Nightmare attack. Despite this, the citizens aren't evacuated. At best their shoved into shelters or left to their own devices while espers put up a token resistance."

"Correct." She smiled. "It's exactly as you're thinking. The government wants nightmares to attack cities and cause new stress-based awakenings. Not only that, but we want weaker espers to participate in defending against the attacks in hopes of causing 2nd awakenings. It's all unofficial policy kept off the books."

Ed gulped down his saliva as mixed emotions assaulted him. 'All those deaths in my home city? My father's death. This twisted path full of pain and death that I've chosen to walk... All of it's because some jackass at the top wanted more stress-awakened espers?!' Slowly, anger overtook his reason. His crocodilian eyes turned red with rage. It was the first time he was losing himself to the chimera emotions ever since he obtained purple mana. No, perhaps it wasn't even the chimera emotions this time. It could be that he was truly and utterly enraged from the deepest depths of his soul. Holding on to his last thread of sanity, he managed to growl out another question. "You aren't afraid I'll spread this information?"

"Hah!" She smirked. "As if you'll ever leave here alive, and even if you did, there would be nothing a small fish like you could do about it."

There was more Ed wanted to ask, and he still wanted to buy more time, but he had completely lost his patience. "I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!" He roared as he charged forward.

"You can go and die now, little boy!" Her five-elemental lightning flashed forward again, a small delay between each bolt.

Enraged, he didn't even think of falling back this time. He'd sooner die than retreat. The silver lightning arrived first, and he directly slammed his fist into it. The resulting explosion mangled his left hand to shreds as lightning snaked up his arm and burned his neck. "ARGHH!!!" He shouted as he continued charging.

The red lightning came next. Purple and silver flames shielded his body. Fortunately, the red lightning bolt couldn't break through his defense. The blue lightning shot into the floor beneath him, sending trees of lightning ice snaking upwards everywhere. Rapidly weaving and dodging, he felt several thorns pierce his legs. Cold shocks caused him to groan in agonizing pain. The yellow lightning came next, causing hundreds of lightning-covered metallic spikes to shoot up from the floor. In his haste, two spikes penetrated his legs, causing severe wounds. However, the cold energy from the previous blue lightning froze his blood just as quickly as it came out, and so he continued pushing forward. Last was the green lightning, which quickly encircled him. He completely disregarded it as he broke through it, his flames shielding him from the worst of the damage.

Infuriated, he released a hoarse roar. "DIE!!!" His tail whipped towards her as his flames encircled the ground around them, preventing her from escaping.

"Humph." She snorted as she effortlessly caught the tail in one hand. Her lightning fingers easily tore half his tail off as she overpowered him.

"GRR!" He forcefully embraced the pain as he continued the attack. His right fist came crashing down towards her face, his silver flame burning hotly atop it.

"Honestly, the Mexican was more challenging." She sighed and shook her head as she caught the fist.

"I'M NOT DONE YET!" He roared as he directly gave up his foothold on the ground while the Warden still held onto his right fist. His two legs came crashing towards her, his clawed feet penetrating her stomach as he did so.

"Ugh!" She took a step back as she groaned in pain. Small traces of blood leaked from her impaled stomach. "Haha, not bad!" She cheerfully smiled. "Not bad at all! You can die now!" Five-elemental lightning began covering her entire body, raiding incredible force as she prepared to explode it outwards.

Ed was in a difficult position. His clawed feet were dug into her stomach, and his right hand was still captured by her. The only part of his body touching the ground was his partially torn tail, which was providing just a bit of balance for him. As for his left hand, it was still mangled from the earlier lightning attack. In the moment of his turmoil, he grinned, his sharp teeth giving off a creepy vibe. "And here I thought you researched my combat style."

"Hmm?" She rose her eyebrows in surprise before her expression quickly turned to horror.

Ed's right arm and two legs began glowing an eerie mix of all seven of the elemental colors. 'They never removed the mana-batteries from my three remaining limbs when they imprisoned me. Without the mana-cuffs and purple smoke, nothing can stop me!' His eyes narrowed as he did his best to cover the rest of his body with protective silver and purple flames.

"ARE YOU MAD?!" She screamed. "YOU'LL KILL US BOTH!"

"GAHAHAHA!!!" He laughed in madness as his three limbs radiated mana so strong that the surrounding air distorted outwards in waves.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Three loud explosions rocked the cavern. Large spheres of the seven elemental colors spiraled around the duo, destroying everything in their paths.

'BURNS LIKE FUCKING HELL!!!' Ed wanted to scream in pain, but he couldn't even manage that much. His skin and flesh were literally disintegrating off his body in layers. His purple and white flames were practically of no help. If not for his strong chimera flesh, he'd likely have died a hundred times over already.

Slowly, the mana dissipated and was replaced by the usual purple smoke. A crater over a hundred meters in diameter had formed. The force had been so strong that it had managed to penetrate deep through the cave floor. Ocean water was starting to flood into the crater. It would only be a matter of time before the entirety of the cage was ruined by the flooding waters.

"Ha..." Ed coughed blood as he struggled not to laugh. His scales and chimera tail were completely gone. His only remaining limb was his mangled left arm, forcing him to lay on the ground as a cripple. His entire body was like a skinned animal, covered in blood and gore. Even his nose was missing. Fortunately, he had barely managed to protect his eyes by covering them with his left arm. Only his strong life force as an esper and chimera allowed him to keep living in this horrific state. "HAHAHAHA!" He madly laughed while eyeing his opponent.

The Warden still remained standing, looking just as bloody and horrific as Ed. However, she still had all her limbs. "Kill. You." She struggled to breath as she took a step forward in the flooding waters, her lightning barely managing to cover her fingertips.

"Hahhh." Ed released a long breath as he closed his eyes. The water was slowly enveloping him as it rose. Even if the warden didn't come, it would only be a matter of time before he drowned to death. This was by far the closest he had ever come to dying. He could even vaguely sense the impending gentle embrace of death. His memories flashed by one after another. His ordinary childhood. His parents. School and his bullies. The horrendous things he had done as an esper. The incredible organization he had created with Dupe and the others. Yuki's attempts to help him find his path in life. His dreams of becoming an emperor amongst men and defeating the nightmares. 'Is it really the end this time?' He wondered as he repeatedly faded in and out of consciousness.