Chapter 15.

Chapter 15: The Final Gambit

The ground beneath the team began to rumble ominously, and the sky above them seemed to warp as if reality itself was beginning to unravel. The kaiju, though defeated for now, lay motionless around them, their energy systems deactivated—but something far more dangerous was unfolding.

Frost stood in the distance, his eyes alight with manic fury. "You think you've won, Rick? You think you can stop me? I'm beyond your reach now!"

Rick's hand gripped his portal gun tighter, but he knew they were running out of time. The Nexus, Frost's true weapon, was still active, and the ground beneath them was destabilizing, fracturing as cracks of raw energy snaked through the earth. Something was wrong.

"Everyone, brace yourselves," Rick shouted, his voice sharp with urgency. "We're not out of the woods yet. This is just the beginning of Frost's failsafe!"

Gojo stood tall, ready to jump into action. His eyes flared with energy, his Limitless technique buzzing as he readied himself for the inevitable. "What's the plan, Rick? I'm not exactly a fan of dying today."

Hikari, still calm as ever despite the chaos, gave a light shrug, the golden coin still spinning lazily in his fingers. "I'm feeling lucky, but not that lucky. Let's take this guy down once and for all."

Rick's eyes narrowed as he scanned the environment. His device was flashing rapidly, signaling a rising energy reading at the center of the cracked earth. "Dammit. He's set a self-destruct sequence for the entire dimension! If we don't stop him now, he'll collapse the fabric of space-time. We're looking at an implosion that'll drag everyone with it."

"Why does it always have to be an implosion?" Sans grumbled from the side. "Why not just... take a vacation for once?"

Rick shot him a glare but didn't have time for a retort. "No time, Sans. Focus."

Frost raised his hand, and the ground around the team began to split wide open. A swirling vortex of dark energy emerged, crackling with instability, threatening to consume everything in its path. "You've wasted your time. You'll never stop me. This dimension will collapse into nothingness, and when it does, I'll be the only one left standing, free to rewrite reality."

Rick, his mind already working at a thousand miles per minute, pointed to the rift. "That vortex is where the energy's being concentrated. If we disrupt it, we might be able to reverse the collapse before it reaches critical mass. Gojo, Sans, Hikari—you're on disruption duty. Everyone else, distract Frost."

Gojo smirked. "Sounds like my kind of job."

Hikari tossed his coin into the air, his eyes glowing with cursed energy. "Let's see how lucky we can get."

Sans gave a shrug and cracked his knuckles. "Sure, sure. Let's end this whole thing."

---

The Battle Intensifies

Without another word, Gojo teleported in an instant, landing directly in front of Frost. He immediately activated his Limitless technique, creating a barrier around Frost's position, forcing the villain to stop moving for just a moment. "Let's cut the crap, Frost. You've had your fun. Time to end this."

Frost sneered, tapping his wrist. The ground trembled as the dark vortex spiraled even faster, but Gojo's barrier held steady. "You don't think you're the first one to try and control space? Time? Reality is my domain now. You're all just ants in my path."

In a flash, Gojo's hand shot forward, sending a wave of energy crashing toward Frost, but the villain was quicker than expected. Frost raised his hand, and a powerful wave of energy shot back, striking Gojo's barrier with full force. The impact shattered the barrier for a moment, but Gojo managed to counteract it just in time, a glint of determination in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Sans had already teleported behind Frost, his glowing eyes fixed on the villain's back. With a swift motion, he summoned a massive bone spear, hurling it directly at Frost's heart.

But Frost turned, his visor glowing with malicious energy. He reached out, his hand meeting the bone spear and snapping it in two. "Foolish. You can't beat me. I am beyond your power."

While Frost was distracted, Hikari stepped forward, his cursed energy swirling around him as he prepared to activate his Domain Expansion once again. "I think it's time to gamble."

With a flick of his wrist, Hikari invoked his Domain Expansion: Idle Death Gamble.

The air around him crackled as the energy surged. A golden coin appeared, floating between his hands, radiating a pulse of cursed energy. He flicked it, and in a flash, an enormous burst of power shot toward the vortex, disrupting its energy flow. For a moment, the vortex staggered, flickering and slowing.

Rick took his chance.

"Now, everyone! Converge on the Nexus!" Rick shouted.

---

The Convergence

With the combined force of Gojo's Limitless technique, Hikari's cursed energy, and Sans's teleportation and bone attacks, they all launched a simultaneous assault on the rift. Each strike hit the vortex at a different angle, shattering the rift's fragile stability.

But the vortex pulsed back, stronger than ever.

Frost laughed, standing untouched in the center of the chaos. "You're too late. Everything will be undone in a few moments. There's no escaping—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Rick, using his portal gun, fired a precise shot. The rift in reality was temporarily opened wide enough for Rick to jump through. His mind was racing, and with a burst of energy, he reached the heart of the nexus—a core of raw, unstable power.

Rick's hand hovered over a glowing device, a button that would disable the nexus... but there was a catch. If he pressed it, the energy would collapse inward, obliterating everything around it in an explosion that could tear apart the fabric of the multiverse.

Rick hesitated for only a moment. He was about to end it all—stop Frost's plans for good—but at what cost?

Suddenly, a flash of light. Gojo's voice rang out from the other side of the rift. "Do it, Rick! We're holding them off, but you're the only one who can stop it."

Frost, sensing Rick's hesitation, moved in for the kill. "You'll fail, Rick. It's too late! Your fate is already sealed!"

With no more time to waste, Rick gritted his teeth and slammed his hand onto the device.

---

The Aftermath

The ground shook as the explosion from the nexus's collapse reverberated through the dimension. A shockwave of pure energy washed over them, and for a split second, everything went white. The sound of the vortex collapsing was deafening.

When the dust settled, the team stood together—though weary and battered—alive.

Frost, however, was nowhere to be seen.

The kaiju were now lifeless, their energy systems completely fried. The sky above them was slowly returning to its natural state, no longer tainted by the dark presence of Frost's energy.

Rick exhaled, wiping sweat from his brow. "That was too close."

Gojo stepped forward, his expression serious. "Nice work, Rick. But I'm starting to think you enjoy pushing the limits of reality."

Hikari smiled slightly, still tossing his coin. "Yeah. You never make things easy, do you?"

Sans, ever the pessimist, groaned. "If I never see another kaiju again, I'll be a happy skeleton."

Rick turned to face his team, a sense of accomplishment settling over him. "We're not out of the woods yet. But this… this is a win. We've stopped Frost's plan, and the multiverse is safe—at least for now."

Just as Rick was about to say more, a small, encrypted message blinked on his device. He raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like our work isn't done after all," Rick muttered, as he opened the message. "Guess we've got another adventure on the horizon."

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To Be Continued…